Chapter 192: Like Driving a Flock of Sheep

In his youth, Dou Ran had once visited the King of Chu's Huainan Beast Park, where there were not only rare flowers and trees, but also all kinds of exotic birds and fierce beasts — rhinoceroses, wild oxen, elk, and deer beyond counting.

At the time, the King of Chu, Fuchu — then still a prince and royal younger brother — had taken Dou Ran and the others to watch a "game."

A tiger that had been starved for many days, looking utterly weak and feeble, was released into a sheep pen. In a single instant, the moment it caught the scent of fresh flesh and blood, the two slanted eyes of the starving tiger — which had been lying prostrate, at death's door, gaunt to the bone — suddenly blazed with light. It sprang to its feet, charged at the flock, pounced on one and tore madly at its neck, drinking its fill of fresh blood, then let out a long-suppressed roar…

That day, the frenzied starving tiger slaughtered every last one of the twenty-odd sheep in the pen. Though the flock was many, they could only bleat in panic and flee in all directions, letting the starving tiger butcher them at will.

At this very moment, the scene from that day seemed to replay itself.

Up ahead, the Qin troops who had feigned surrender — with their vanguard shock troops and armored spearmen — smashed into the Chu forces at breakneck speed, scattering the front ranks into utter disarray. Even at the rear, the Qin captives who had been taken prisoner by the Chu troops, held in pits with their morale crushed, suddenly erupted with the roars of starving tigers.

Before accepting the surrender, the Chu troops had thought themselves the tigers and the enemy the sheep. Only in this moment did they realize their roles had been reversed.

Ji Ying and the others struck in a sudden uprising, using hidden blades to cut away the bonds on Zhou Hua and the rest. The Qin officers began calling the captives to revolt. Barehanded, the men threw themselves at the Chu soldiers guarding them, tackling them to the ground, throttling them by the throat, seizing their weapons, and fiercely attacking the Chu army's rear formation in coordination with their comrades…

In an instant, the Chu army was trapped in a pincer attack from front and rear. Ahead of them, the Qin armored soldiers were closing in. Of the thousand-strong formation, half had already collapsed; only five or six hundred remained to resist a Qin force of comparable size. The five hundred men in the rear formation, thrown into chaos by the prisoner uprising, could not be redeployed to provide support at all.

And the archers and cavalry that Dou Ran had placed such high hopes on were simply ignored by the enemy commander. Paying no heed to the arrows raining from their flanks and overhead, the Qin soldiers charged forward in a single-minded boar's rush, their objective aimed squarely at Dou Ran's war chariot!

Thirty paces, twenty paces, ten paces! Dou Ran could even see the ferocious faces of the Qin front line, their bodies drenched in blood. A brawny giant of a man with a red birthmark on his face had already leaped high into the air, raised his arm, and hurled a short halberd with tremendous force, sending it tearing across the ten-odd paces straight toward Dou Ran.

Dou Ran, caught completely off guard, could only duck down on instinct. The hand halberd struck his bronze helmet and sent it flying; the helmet tumbled beneath the war chariot. Dou Ran, terrified, threw himself flat onto the floor of the carriage, breaking out in a cold sweat!

The drumbeat he had been laboring to pound out came to an abrupt halt!

Left with no choice, Dou Ran's charioteer began driving the chariot away. Under the protection of his personal guard, the chariot rolled over several routed soldiers blocking the path and headed toward the south, where the formation was still relatively intact.

Sun Feng's war chariot and five hundred soldiers were over there. From the start of the battle until now, Sun Feng had been in a daze. Only after Dou Ran had sent men several times to urge him did he dispatch a few hundred men to advance and outflank the Qin flank. Who could have expected that the Qin troops would pay no attention whatsoever, merely using a hundred armored soldiers to barely hold off the attack while the rest continued their fierce assault on the center…

Dou Ran planned to withdraw there and use Sun Feng's men to regroup and counterattack. Yet this played right into the Qin army's hands.

"The Chu army is defeated! The Chu general is fleeing!"

At Hei Fu's signal, the Southern Commandery troops within the Qin army suddenly raised a thunderous shout. The Chu soldiers still resisting at the front heard it in shock and turned their heads to look. Sure enough, they saw that Dou Ran's chariot and banner, which had been steadily positioned behind them to oversee the battle, had already fled more than ten paces to the south.

In that moment of distraction, they were shoved and driven back several more paces, and their last will to resist collapsed completely.

The two thousand men Dou Ran and Sun Feng had brought were not the elite troops of Chu, but merely their own clan soldiers. Among these men were large numbers of undisciplined Chu wandering swordsmen, peasants wielding sickles and rusted swords and blades passed down from their grandfathers' generation, and youths conscripted from the left-side alleys of the village lanes who had not yet completed their training.

An army like this could manage well enough in a winning battle alongside the forces of the Zhao, Jing, Qu, and Xiang clans, but when suddenly hit by such a ferocious assault, they were somewhat stunned. Now, hearing the sounds of slaughter erupting from the rear and seeing that their own commander had also "fled," they panicked even more. It was not just the five hundred-man companies already routed by the Qin army — the remaining five or six hundred men also began retreating step by step.

"Stop! Stop at once!"

Seeing this, Dou Ran was horrified. Snapping out of his earlier terror, he hurriedly helped the charioteer rein in the horses and ordered his personal guards to shout: "The great banner of Lord Hu remains here!"

But mending the pen after the sheep were lost was already too late. The routed soldiers seemed not to hear the shouts of Dou Ran's personal guards and continued fleeing like headless flies. Beside Dou Ran's chariot were over a dozen tall and sturdy household soldiers and personal guards, all clad in armor. Now every one of them was stained with blood — yet this blood was not the enemy's, but their own men's.

In the past, whenever a battle turned and troops began to retreat, chopping off the heads of a few cowards was enough to force the main body to stand their ground. But this time it was useless. Even after cutting down more than ten heads, there was still no way to stop the rout. In an instant, the thousand-odd men of the Chu center had all collapsed in utter defeat!

Dou Ran stared blankly at this scene, and a line from the art of war flashed through his mind.

"Burn the boats, smash the cauldrons — like driving a flock of sheep, drive them forward, drive them back, and none knows where they are going!"

…

"Is this driving sheep?"

Over a hundred paces to the south, Sun Feng watched the scene before him and murmured to himself.

From his vantage point, the Qin troops had no regard whatsoever for the rules of war. At the very start, there had been some semblance of order. But now, they had completely abandoned their formation, charging forward in a relentless boar's rush, ramming and crashing through, and had thus gouged a huge hole in the Chu formation, forcing Dou Ran to relocate as well.

This in turn led to an even larger-scale collapse of the Chu soldiers, who fled noisily in every direction. With battle also erupting in the rear formation, the several hundred Chu troops there were now locked in a bitter struggle with the Qin captives and unable to provide support.

For the moment, on the entire battlefield, the only unit with its formation still intact was the five hundred men under Sun Feng. The Qin troops had ignored them the whole time.

By all reason, Sun Feng's force was comparable in number to the Qin army. If he had attacked from the rear or gone to Dou Ran's aid, he might have been able to salvage the defeat. But in that flash of a moment, Sun Feng — the sort of man who calculated meticulously over even a single grain of provisions — made his choice.

"Lost."

Sun Feng said dejectedly, "We have lost."

It seemed as if he recalled the day Qinqiu was breached by Li Xin's forces, and he suddenly lost all his fighting spirit. Before the Qin troops could turn to attack him, he ordered his charioteer to turn the carriage around, took his five hundred-odd men and the hundred-odd riders subordinate to him, left Dou Ran behind, and fled east toward Qinqiu…

…

"County Duke, that brat Sun Feng has fled! We should withdraw as well!"

Amid the chaos of battle, the charioteer turned his head, his face full of anxiety, and urged Dou Ran to leave. Though the front formation had collapsed and the rear was in total chaos, they at least had a war chariot. If they simply drove away, they would surely outrun the Qin soldiers on their two legs!

Though Dou Ran's expression was despondent, he had no intention of following in Sun Feng's footsteps and fleeing in panic. Instead, he clasped his sword and sighed: "Indeed, I am defeated. But looking across the thirty generations since the Ruo'ao clan was founded, there has never been a clan head who lived on after losing a battle!"

Since the Spring and Autumn period, Chu had held a tradition: an army destroyed, its general put to death. A general who lost a battle, without waiting for the King of Chu or the state law to hold him accountable, would mostly take his own life first!

In the time of King Wu of Chu, the Mo'ao Qu Xia led an army against the State of Luo. Defeated due to underestimating the enemy and rashly advancing, he hanged himself afterward.

In the time of King Cheng of Chu, the head of the Cheng clan — another branch of the Ruo'ao clan — the Lingyin Ziyu, fought a great battle against the Jin army at Chengpu. After this battle ended in defeat, Ziyu was overwhelmed with shame and cut his own throat at Liangu.

In the time of King Gong of Chu, the Sima Zifan fought the Jin forces at Yanling. The Chu army was defeated once more, losing its hegemony over the Central Plains. Though the King of Chu did not blame Zifan afterward, Zifan stubbornly took his own life in death.

In the time of King Ping of Chu, the Sima Wei Yue, ignoring his subordinates' exhortations to raise troops and fight again, committed suicide after his defeat in battle against the Wu army.

In the time of King Zhao of Chu, the Left Sima Shen Yin Rong fought alone against powerful foes like Sun Wu and Wu Zixu. After fighting with all his might and suffering a regrettable defeat, he too bade his men cut off his own head…

These are only the more well-known cases. Across the generations of the Ruo'ao clan, a total of nine men have departed this world by such a gruesome death!

"My grandfather and my father both told me: for a general of Jing-Chu, the day the army sets forth, there is the glory of death, and no disgrace of living on!"

"Defeat and ruin are not to be feared. What is to be feared is losing so badly that you cast aside eight hundred years of heritage, that you forget the pride of illustrious Jing-Chu!"

A true noble of Jing-Chu, a true descendant of the High God Gaoyang, even in defeat, must lose with dignity!

"I was arrogant and conceited, and took no precautions. Now that I have lost the army and brought ruin to the troops, dare I forget my death?"

With these words, as the Qin soldiers drew closer and closer, Dou Ran drew his own sword and bowed with clasped hands to his household retainers and personal guards, saying:

"Dou Ran is incompetent, and has dragged you, my good men, into suffering this great disgrace alongside me. Dou Ran is ashamed beyond measure. Yet I still hope that you, my good men, mindful of your generations of service to the Ruo'ao clan, will hold off the enemy for me a moment longer!"

"Your servants bid farewell to our lord! May our lord's soul return, to wander forever across Jing-Chu!"

The dozen or so personal guards did not remonstrate further. Dropping to one knee, tears in their eyes, they shouted at the top of their lungs, then drew their blades and charged at the Qin soldiers who were now close at hand! They were determined to stop them for a moment, to let their lord set off on his journey with peace of mind.

The suicide of a Chu noble was also a lofty ritual. With the help of his charioteer, Dou Ran gently wiped his longsword with white silk, ensuring it was utterly spotless. Then he straightened his body and stood tall, raised the blade with both hands, and laid the sword's edge across his neck…

When cutting, it must also be from right to left — never the reverse! His father's words still rang in his ears. He, too, had died in that final Five-State Campaign against Qin.

"I only hope that after I die, my soul can truly return! To my old home once more!" Dou Ran thought in his heart at that final moment.

Yet, just as Dou Ran was about to cut his own throat, from a dozen paces away, an arrow came whistling through the air and struck him in the wrist!

His sword flew from his hand; he suddenly clutched his bleeding wrist, writhing in agony.

By now, his clan soldiers had either fled or died, his personal guards had been cut down by the Qin blades, and even his charioteer, who had tried to block the enemy with a great halberd, had been shot dead by arrows. A swarm of Qin soldiers surged forward and surrounded the now solitary war chariot. Then a Qin clerk leaped onto the chariot and kicked away the sword that Douran was trying to pick up again!

Douran looked up in despair, only to see the little Village Head Zhong, who had come to "surrender" that morning, smiling down at him.

"Lord Dou, we meet again."

"Zhong, it was a false surrender after all…"

Douran laughed bitterly. "Victory and defeat are now decided. I have nothing to say, and only seek death! I hope you will tell Commander Cheng that he should grant this to a defeated general!"

At these words, Dongmen Bao, who had hurled a hand-axe at Douran, and Xiao Tao, whose arrow had stopped him from taking his own life, both burst out laughing. In an instant, the dozens of Qin soldiers around the war chariot roared with laughter.

Shamed and enraged, Douran felt deeply humiliated. Heifu silenced the crowd and said to him, "I deceived you, Lord Dou. There is no Commander Cheng Wuyou in the city."

"Then who commanded this battle?"

Douran had felt his defeat was not unjust, but now he realized it was a battle fought in utter confusion—he had not even known who his opponent was.

"I did."

"You?" Douran's face was filled with disbelief. This man, the commander-in-chief, had personally gone to the enemy camp to fake a surrender? This...

Heifu said, "I am not a Village Head, but a Centurion. I was appointed Acting Commander of Five Hundred by Commandant Li You to temporarily lead these men."

"Nor is my name Zhong. My real name is Heifu! That's right, the very same little Bailiff of Anlu that Lord Dou was looking for."

Douran's eyes widened, as if the man before him were some terrifying monster.

"And so, Lord Dou, you cannot simply die like this."

Heifu also burst into loud laughter. "You still owe me seven hundred mu of good land!"

(End of Chapter)