Chapter 267: The Force of a Thousand Jun

North of the Huai River, in Yangcheng, at the main camp of the Qin Central Army, Deputy General Qiang Kui arrived at Wang Jian's command tent holding a military report sent from the Northern Army, his face showing delight.

"General, this strategy of yours is truly brilliant! Fengpei has already been taken by a detachment of the Northern Army, which has made a show of force as if to attack Pengcheng. The garrison in Dong Commandery has also been ordered to raid the Lu region. I imagine Xiang Yan is already receiving urgent calls for help from every quarter."

Wang Jian was very satisfied and said with a laugh: "Chu is hard to attack because its territory is vast. If you enter its borders with only tens of thousands of troops, it is like a fish entering the sea — easy to fall into an ambush. But Chu is also easy to attack precisely because its state is so large. If we pin its main force here, then along this thousand-li border, weak points will appear everywhere."

In the second month, after determining that "the troops are ready for use," Wang Jian issued his operational orders. The Southern Army and the Central Army, totaling over two hundred thousand combat troops, remained in place, while he instead had the Northern Army under Deputy General Feng Wuze launch attacks on weakly defended areas like Fengpei in Chu. As expected, they were taken with ease.

His aim in doing this was not to seize cities and territory, but to make Xiang Yan hesitate and throw the Chu army into confusion.

This is what the art of war says: When I do not wish to fight, I mark out a position and defend it, and the enemy cannot force me to fight — because I divert him from his objective. And when I wish to fight, even if the enemy has high ramparts and deep moats, he cannot avoid battle with me — because I attack what he must rescue!

"What do you think the Chu army's response will be?"

Qiang Kui was also a veteran general. After pondering for a moment, he pointed at the map and said: "The best strategy for the Chu army is for Xiang Yan to see through the General's intent and instead send his troops to attack us, gambling on a slim chance of survival!"

Wang Jian nodded. "If it were last year at the onset of winter, when the Chu army had just mustered and morale was high, Xiang Yan might have dared to do so. But now the Chu army has been waiting here in vain for several months. Lice infest their armor, swallows and sparrows nest in the tent curtains, the soldiers cannot return home, and provisions are growing short by the day. The Chu soldiers are all thinking of the spring plowing back home and likely have no heart for a fight to the death. Xiang Yan would not dare."

Qiang Kui continued: "The middle strategy would be to abandon the eastern territories, shorten the defensive line, and pull back slightly eastward to hold. The worst strategy would be to split their forces to defend everywhere, trying to cover every front."

"Since the Chu army has already lost the morale to fight a decisive battle with us here, I suspect Xiang Yan will adopt a mix of the middle and worst strategies. The Lu region is dispensable to Chu — the Chu king might even order Xiang Yan to abandon it to defend the area north of the Huai. But Pengcheng and the Si River, he will not dare to abandon..."

Pengcheng was originally the state of Great Peng in ancient times. After the Spring and Autumn period, it became the eastern capital of Song. After Song was destroyed, Chu seized it. The place is ringed by hills and ridges, where the Bian and Si rivers converge. It leads north to Qi and Lu, west to Liang and Song, and south to the Yangtze and Huai — a vital strategic point. In the time of King Yan of Song, he used the advantageous terrain of Pengcheng to seize three hundred li of Chu territory north of the Huai. Thus the gain or loss of Pengcheng directly affects the rise and fall of the north and south. To lose Pengcheng is to lose the region north of the Huai. If that happened, even if Xiang Yan held Wang Jian here, the Qin army would drive straight into the Huai north behind him, leaving utter devastation.

With certainty, Wang Jian picked up the red chess piece representing the Chu army on the map and moved it eastward from the front line to east of the Flood Canal.

"Xiang Yan is now in a dilemma. Weighing the pros and cons, he can only retreat eastward to shorten his line, and then send tens of thousands of troops over to try to hold Pengcheng as well..."

When the enemy is at ease, you can tire him; when he is well-fed, you can starve him; when he is at rest, you can make him move. Why? Because you attack what he must rescue! Through several months of standoff, Wang Jian made the Chu army's situation difficult and its morale low, and then through a simple feint south and strike north, he forced the Chu army into a strategic redeployment.

At this thought, the old general picked up the black chess piece representing the Qin army and slammed it down heavily onto the red commander piece!

"The moment the Chu army retreats east and its formations are unsteady — that is the time for our great army to strike!"

"If so, then the Chu army is doomed!" Qiang Kui was extremely excited. After months of waiting in vain, this battle was finally about to be fought in earnest.

Wang Jian looked at Qiang Kui. "Have the vanguard troops been selected from the Central Army — two men out of every ten?"

This was a tactic Wang Jian had used over a decade ago in his famous victory at Yuyu: from every ten men, pick two, and use this elite as the spearhead. Over the past few months, Qiang Kui had been in charge of selecting soldiers and having these elite troops play "soldier's ball" to stretch their muscles and train in assault and formation-breaking skills.

"From the Central Army's one hundred fifty thousand soldiers, thirty thousand elite troops have been chosen!"

"What about the Southern Army?" Wang Jian asked again. Although the Central Army from Guanzhong and Sanchuan was the main force in this battle, the strategic mission the Southern Army had to carry out was no light matter.

"General Meng Wu sent word that he has decided to use ten thousand men from the Nan Commandery troops, who have the highest morale, as the rear vanguard!"

"The Nan Commandery troops..."

Wang Jian could not help but recall those soldiers who competed so fiercely during the games, and who, when he mounted his chariot, shouted loudly, "We want to fight!" — and also officers like Li You, Heifu, and the others...

"I only hope the Nan Commandery troops prove even braver and sharper on the battlefield than they were on the ball field!"

In the early morning of the xinsi day of the second month, just as a sliver of fish-belly white appeared in the east, at a military camp in the fortifications east of Shangcai, over a thousand Anlu soldiers rose early. Some wiped their blades, others helped each other don armor. Unlike the fear and dread before an ordinary battle, they seemed somewhat excited.

They had been stuck in this place for nearly five months. Though they had no worries about food or clothing, had games like cuju to play, and the Commandant and Heifu had even organized everyone to write letters home once, in the end they were thoroughly ill at ease from staying put. Many soldiers had even begun to think that anywhere would be better — even being dragged onto a battlefield to lick blood off a blade was better than waiting here in vain!

At last, they finally received the general's order: on the xinsi day of the second month, the Southern Army would strike!

At this time, Company Commander Heifu had also finally returned to the camp tent. He had barely slept a wink the night before. The Nan Commandery troops had been given the mission of forward rear vanguard, and Heifu felt both joy and worry.

The joy was that the vanguard earned greater merit than ordinary units. The worry was that if the battle went poorly, the vanguard also suffered the heaviest casualties. Of the thousand men under his command, after this battle, how many would survive to earn ranks of nobility?

So Heifu simply climbed up onto the corner tower of the fortifications and, together with Zhang Han, gazed out at the Chu army fortifications about twenty li away, running almost parallel to the Qin fortifications. A few scattered fires flickered over there, but under the stars and moon, most places were pitch black...

According to scout reports, the Chu army had been restless these past few days; morale was somewhat agitated. In one camp tent, there had even been a night panic triggered by an accidental weapons discharge — men shouting, horses neighing — but it was quickly quelled, giving the Qin army no opening to exploit. And in recent days, though there were still plenty of banners and soldiers on the ramparts, no one had come to issue challenges anymore.

"The General has concluded that the Jing people are already preparing to withdraw, shortening their defensive line east of the Flood Canal. That is why he ordered the great army to strike."

During the war council the day before, Li You had also told them the real situation, instructing all the company commanders to go back and rouse the troops, to prepare for battle!

And so, the relaxed atmosphere throughout the Nan Commandery camp was swept away. By the time the sky began to lighten, everyone had assembled outside their tents, gathered together, and formed up into neat square formations!

"So, so many..."

Xiao Tao, the close-guard centurion beside Heifu, could not help but exclaim, because whether he looked left or right, all he could see was a dense mass of people.

Though the Nan Commandery troops numbered only ten thousand combat soldiers, standing among them already felt overwhelmingly numerous. And the entire Southern Army under Meng Wu, with seventy to eighty thousand men, filled the inside of the boundless fortifications to the brim.

"A hundred li away, the Central Army has twice this number."

Heifu said this. Such an immense number, while giving their own side a measure of psychological comfort, should also exert enormous pressure on the enemy, shouldn't it? Launching an offensive with over two hundred thousand men — what a grand spectacle that would be!

At the third drum, they rushed their meal; at the fourth drum, they inspected gear; at the fifth drum, they marched. As the drumbeats reached the fifth round, the great army, having eaten, began to file out through the wall gates of the fortifications in order. Zhang Han, still standing on the corner tower, clasped his hands in farewell to Heifu.

"May the Company Commander return victorious!"

Although Zhang Han had repeatedly said he quite liked his post as Army Superintendent, now, watching the great army march out, there was still a trace of envy in his eyes. After all, real combat and beheading the enemy were still the easiest way to earn merit and noble rank.

"I'll borrow Shaorong's auspicious words!" Heifu stood on his war chariot and clasped his hands to Zhang Han.

The ten thousand Nan Commandery troops set out as the "rear vanguard" of the entire Southern Army. Ahead of them were two thousand "advance troops," almost entirely mobile chariots and cavalry, dressed exactly like the "cavalry figurines" among the terracotta warriors: short armor on the upper body, tight trousers below, long riding boots on their feet, round caps on their heads with straps buckled under the chin, and bows and arrows slung on their backs — the typical attire of Hu-style mounted archery.

Once the advance troops detected enemy activity and relayed word to the rear, the rear vanguard was to rapidly move forward, coordinate with the advance troops to smash the enemy, and open a clear path for the main army.

By the time Heifu and the others could see the fortifications, the advance troops had already finished scouting a radius of several dozen li around the Chu ramparts. The advance troop's company commander personally galloped back to report to Li You: "Commandant Li, something seems amiss in the Chu camp!"

"What is amiss?"

Li You's heart tightened. This was his first time receiving the mission of forward rear vanguard, and he had already steeled himself for a desperate fight to break the ramparts. He did not want any surprises.

"When we approached, the Chu scouts did not come to intercept us but instead withdrew rapidly. When we got closer and the Chu ramparts spotted us, although they beat gongs and drums and lit smoke and fire as warnings, the activity inside was strangely muted. Sharp-eyed men even saw crows on top of the Chu camp tents!"

The cavalry officer of the advance troops said gravely: "This entire area seems to be an empty fortification already!"

Li You, however, grew even more cautious. He had the advance troops scout again. By noon, the rear vanguard had reached the Chu ramparts. As they set up their wall-breaching equipment, the counterfire from the Chu troops on the ramparts and corner towers was sparse, and after a while, it ceased entirely.

Li You hesitated for a long moment, and only after sending word back for Meng Wu to dispatch twenty thousand men to cover the flanks did he give the order to attack!

A rampart with no one defending it is no different from an ordinary courtyard wall. Heifu's company quickly breached the fortifications and charged into the Chu army camp.

Inside, there was no Chu army formation waiting in tight array to lure them deep, as they had imagined. Nor was there the scene of a drumbeat sounding and thousands upon thousands of troops surging forth.

There were only the empty camp paths, and crows cawing on the tent curtains...

The entire Chu army encampment was almost completely empty!

Heifu had his men check the encampment for several li in every direction. Looking at the dense tracks of chariot ruts, horse hooves, and footprints heading east on the ground, along with the ashes left from burnt-out torches and campfires, he already understood what had happened.

He didn't know whether to feel relieved at avoiding a hard fight, or regretful that the Chu army had withdrawn at the very last moment.

"Go back and report to the Commandant."

Heifu said to the orderly Ji Ying: "The Chu army has fled under cover of night!"

The southern army is bound to find nothing here — I just wonder how things stand with the central army. After all, it's several hundred thousand men; you can't just pull them out at a moment's notice!

……

At the same time, east of Ruyang, a brutal slaughter had only just drawn to a close.

"Pursuing with thirty thousand crack troops, yet we only pinned down ten thousand Chu soldiers and captured thirty thousand civilian laborers?"

Listening to the battle report sent back by Qiang Hui, Wang Jian's brow furrowed — but then smoothed out again, and he laughed:

"At the Battle of Yanling, the feudal lords sounded their drums in unison and pressed the Chu army by night; the Chu forces scattered before dawn. Later, when the lords relieved Zheng, the Chu army fled under cover of night. At the Battle of Raojiao, the Chu army fled again... The Chu army truly are masters of the night escape — even I was fooled."

Laugh though he did, Wang Jian could not help but feel a grudging respect. Xiang Yan had done something even he had not anticipated — not only retreating east, but retreating with such extreme speed that the Qin army only managed to catch their rear guard, thus avoiding the calamity of being wiped out in one stroke.

Indeed, if the Qin army had attacked suddenly, the Chu camp, cluttered with poorly disciplined civilian laborers, would likely have fallen into chaos, leading to total annihilation. But as it was, Xiang Yan had withdrawn in good order, even splitting the laborers and the army onto two separate routes, luring the Qin army into chasing the laborers, so that Xiang Yan could repeat the tactic he used to defeat Li Xin — circling around to strike from the rear...

But that trick was useless against Wang Jian!

Because he was not a mere trickle of troops penetrating deep in isolation — he was the weight of a mountain bearing down with irresistible force!

"Order the central army to stay north of the Ying River, pressing hard on the Chu army's heels. And have the southern army thrust forward south of the Ying River, racing ahead of the Chu army. If the Chu army tries to cross the river, strike them when they are halfway across! I want to see just how far Xiang Yan can retreat while trying to pull my great army's forces apart!"

(End of Chapter)