Chapter 269: The Ying River Was Blocked from Flowing

Wang Gua was from Anlu County town, short in stature, while Dong Kui, who came from the same village and hamlet, was lean and tall. Ever since they set out from the main camp, although the leg-wraps their Platoon Leader had introduced in the army helped ease the soreness in their calves, the two had still suffered the whole way from those terribly made cloth shoes, their feet covered in blisters; the thick winter clothes on their backs also left them drenched in sweat under the blazing sun, sapping much of their strength.

Fortunately, their Platoon Leader loved his soldiers like his own sons. Not only did he give his own summer clothes for the two to wear, he also had a new pair of cloth shoes gifted to them. Though the summer clothes were a bit loose and the shoes didn't quite fit, with a scrap of cloth stuffed in they could manage. Lowly foot soldiers on campaign away from home — as long as they weren't barefoot, it was good enough. How could they afford to be picky?

After the Southern Commandery troops left Tongyang, they first reached Qin Qiu. The lord of Qin Qiu had already fled, and Platoon Leader Hei Fu ordered the local Chu people to hand over three hundred summer garments and three hundred pairs of shoes in various sizes. The two finally found shoes that fit. The local Chu people secretly nursed their resentment, but the soldiers were deeply grateful to Platoon Leader Hei Fu.

As the vanguard's supply-securing force, they never lingered long at any one stop. The next day they hurried on again, and after a forced march of over a hundred li in two days, they reached Hu City and Ru Yin (Fuyang, Anhui)...

These were two walled towns, yet only two li apart, somewhat similar to Jiangling and Ying County. Hu City had high walls and deep moats, used for garrisoning troops and resisting enemies, while Ru Yin was where the markets, shops, and civilian households were concentrated. The two towns formed a pincer position.

However, the Dou clan, the lords of Hu City, had been captured in the last war. The family head was young, and the city's troops were few. When the Qin army arrived, they simply handed over Hu City without a fight, instead concentrating their forces and populace in Ru Yin.

The Qin army was happy to take the easy gain and swiftly occupied Hu City. The Army Director of Works, Zhang Han, directed everyone to use the city as a rampart and sent men to fetch water, preparing to cook and eat before dark in readiness for attacking Ru Yin the next day.

Wang Gua and Dong Kui, led by their Platoon Commander and Squad Leader Yuan Bai, escorted two hundred civilian laborers to the river to draw water. The Ying River was a large river, nearly a hundred paces wide. Buckets were tossed in one after another, shattering the calm of the shimmering, rippling surface. The two also crouched by the river to wash their faces. The icy river water jolted their spirits. Just as they were about to scoop up the clear water for a deep drink, someone beside them flew in with a kick and knocked it over!

Wang Gua was kicked to the ground, water splashing all over him. He flew into a rage, but when he looked up, he saw it was Ji Ying, the Orderly Clerk from beside the Platoon Leader...

"Lord Ji!"

Wang Gua scrambled to his feet and bowed his head. Yuan Bai also came forward, his face wreathed in smiles. Although Ji Ying was only a minor Squad Leader with the rank of Zanniao, he was the man the Platoon Leader trusted most. The ten men under him rode horses, relaying military intelligence and orders between the various platoons.

"This water cannot be drunk!"

Ji Ying loudly conveyed the Platoon Leader's order, while pointing upstream on the Ying River and cursing, "Are you all blind? Can't you see what's floating there?"

Wang Gua and Dong Kui fixed their eyes on it and couldn't help sucking in a breath of cold air. It turned out that in the middle of the river, some things were bobbing up and down. From a distance they had thought it was driftwood, but when they looked closer, they discovered it was several corpses, bloated and bleached white from soaking!

Looking further up, the densely packed floating corpses outnumbered the fish! Among them were Qin soldiers in black armor, but the majority were Chu soldiers in red armor!

Seeing this, Wang Gua and the others were gripped by belated fear. The civilian laborers who had been about to drink in their haste also frantically stuck fingers down their throats and vomited the water back out. The whole river now seemed to reek of blood and rot — where was the clarity of before?

Yuan Bai had the buckets emptied one by one, then put on a smile again and said to Ji Ying, "Lord Ji, why are there so many floating corpses?"

"Do you know where the Ying River flows through?"

Ji Ying, who had seen the map in Hei Fu's command tent, began to show off his geographical knowledge, saying proudly:

"Xiang City! I hear that the central army of the old general Wang Jian caught up with the Chu army at Xiang City the day before yesterday. The two sides fought a great battle. The Chu army, unable to hold, retreated. Over ten thousand Chu corpses fell dead into the Ying River and were carried by the current to this spot. The water in this river probably cannot be drunk for a month! The Platoon Leader orders you all to go to the hamlets around the city and search for existing wells! And while you're at it, see if you can find any grain!"

The men acknowledged the order and dispersed, each following their Platoon Commander or Squad Leader.

Wang Gua's platoon, weapons in hand, walked cautiously along the road by the river. In the fields beside the road, the green shoots had just begun to sprout, but the land was already somewhat parched, and no one was tending it.

Along the way, they passed two hamlets, but both were completely empty, not a single chicken or dog left behind. When they finally managed to catch someone, it was an old man too weak to walk, waiting at home to die.

The Qin army killed captives, but not the old, weak, sick, or crippled, because killing them was useless. So the men silently closed the door. The kind-hearted Wang Gua even left behind a small packet of parched rice from his bosom. The old man thanked him in a feeble voice — his accent was almost identical to that of Southern Commandery. Yuan Bai then fiercely mocked Wang Gua for his foolish act of caring about a man doomed to die when he could barely look after himself.

Afterwards, at the next hamlet, they caught three ruffian youxia wandering around the village entrance, rummaging for valuables. After seizing them, the men answered that as early as the day before, hearing the Qin army was coming, a gentleman in Ru Yin city had organized the commoners outside the city to enter the city.

"Everyone said the Qin men are violent and cruel. If they stayed behind, they would certainly become captives, and that Qin soldiers cut off the heads of any man they see..."

These bold youxia bared their yellow teeth and grinned, "Surely it's not that bad?"

Yuan Bai, Wang Gua, Dong Kui, and the others looked at each other, revealing meaningful smiles.

By the time they left that hamlet, three bloody heads with eyes wide open were hanging from their waists...

"As long as it's not the head of a woman, child, or old person, it's fine to take it. Especially since these ruffians might be spies left outside the city by the Chu people! Killing them counts as merit too!" Yuan Bai declared confidently, and the others all nodded in agreement.

Although they had harvested a few heads, they found no grain or water source whatsoever, because the wells were either blocked with stones, or when they lifted the well cover, they found a dead dog inside, flies buzzing everywhere — the well had been contaminated...

At nightfall, after the men who had dispersed to the surrounding hamlets to search for water and grain reported back, Hei Fu also reported the matter to Li You.

"Commandant, although the Ying River and the surrounding hamlets have no water sources, the Army Director of Works can organize civilian laborers to dig wells on the spot outside the city. The Ci River, Liu River, and Run River, which are between twenty and fifty li from here, can all provide water. Tomorrow morning we can send the wagon teams, and they can make the round trip in half a day..."

And if pushed to the limit, the water from the Ying River could be drunk as long as it was boiled — it just depended on whether the soldiers could stomach it.

But Commandant Li furrowed his brow, feeling the matter was not so simple.

"The Chu people only discovered our advance army's arrival the day before yesterday. They entered the city in a hurry yesterday, yet they could still organize everyone to strengthen the defenses and clear the countryside, taking all the grain with them, and blocking and contaminating all the well water..."

"Correct."

Cheng Shang of the Qin Mohists, who was at Zhang Han's side, also said: "In addition, from my observations, outside Ru Yin city, all walls within bowshot range have been pushed over. All trees, large and small, within one li have been cut down and destroyed. This is to prevent our army from using them as cover for advancing or as convenient material for building siege equipment nearby. Some timber and wooden houses that couldn't be moved into the city in time were all burned, so they wouldn't fall into our army's hands. Even the livestock was either driven away or slaughtered completely; what couldn't be eaten was thrown into the wells..."

After saying this, Cheng Shang added, "There is someone inside the city who is well-versed in the methods of defending a city!"

Hei Fu also said, "Lord Cheng is right, but General Meng Wu's military order says this Ru Yin must be taken within three days!"

Ever since leaving the rampart main camp, the ten thousand men of the Southern Commandery troops, serving as the supply-securing vanguard of the Southern Army, had been attacking cities and seizing territory in the Yingnan region, following the route Li Xin took in his last campaign against Chu. But the journey had been relatively smooth, without encountering any tough battles.

This was because the main force of the Chu army was mostly concentrated in the area north of the Ying River, being harried by Wang Jian's main force. The two sides had fought several major battles over the past few days at Chen Ying and Xiang City. Due to the Qin army's superiority in numbers and morale, the Chu army could not hold. The dead covered the fields, and the Ying River was nearly blocked from flowing...

Now, Xiang Yan's main force of a hundred thousand men had all retreated east of the Hong Canal, organizing a second defensive line between Ku County and Xin Yang, leaving only ten thousand men to defend Huai Yang (Chen Ying).

And Wang Jian's great army had also left only ten thousand Qin soldiers and tens of thousands of civilian laborers to besiege Huai Yang. The main force of over a hundred thousand was pressing eastward day by day. The Huaibei plain had no natural defenses to hold, and the Chu army, long exhausted, probably couldn't hold out for long either.

Wang Jian did not intend to let the Chu army keep retreating. He wanted to fight a clean war of annihilation and wipe out the Chu main force in one stroke. Thus, the Southern Army of eighty thousand men led by Meng Wu took on the task of strategic envelopment. They were to punch through Yingnan, then force a crossing of the Ying River, appearing behind the Chu army to complete the encirclement!

The Southern Commandery troops, as the supply-securing force, had the mission of cooperating with the advance army to take Ru Yin city, which guarded the Ying River crossing.

"If we can take this city, by advancing north we can coordinate with the central army to encircle the Chu army; by advancing south we can seize Yingkou and water our horses in the Huai River, directly threatening the Chu capital..." Li You's eyes shone. This was a golden opportunity for him to achieve merit and establish his career.

Chu seemed to understand this point as well. Scraping together forces from all over, they had still managed to prepare several thousand troops inside Ru Yin city, quietly awaiting the Qin army's arrival.

More talk was useless. The blade of the military order hung over their heads. Even if there was someone skilled in defense inside the city, Li You had to grit his teeth and fight this battle well. So he had the Army Director of Works Zhang Han organize civilian laborers to fell timber, and had the Qin Mohist Cheng Shang assist in making siege equipment. The attack on the city would begin tomorrow!

After dusk, deep in the quiet of night, most of the Qin army was asleep. Only the patrolling soldiers circled around Hu City and the encampment.

Suddenly, from Ru Yin city two li away, a fierce drumbeat was heard! Immediately after, the soldiers and civilians throughout the city let out a thunderous war cry!

The shout of ten thousand people shook the very tiles. The Qin troops inside and outside Hu City were all startled and rose from their tents. Hei Fu initially thought the enemy was attempting a night raid. Sword in hand, he looked towards Ru Yin and, after questioning Li Xian, who was on patrol duty, learned that it was only shouting inside the city, and not a single soldier had come out.

"Is this deliberately meant to exhaust us?"

"No, it's to suppress the Qin army's arrogance and unite the hearts of the soldiers and civilians inside the city."

Beside him, Cheng Shang of the Qin Mohists, draped in a single layer of clothing, murmured: "This is also a common Mohist method for defending a city, recorded in the Mo Jing. If my guess is correct, there may be a Mohist inside the city assisting the Chu army!"

Sure enough, the next morning, as Li You was gathering the Army Director of Works, Army Courier, Platoon Leaders, and others for a pre-battle meeting, a Company Commander came from outside to report that a man had been lowered from the top of Ru Yin's wall in a bamboo basket, claiming to be an envoy from the city and demanding to see Li You!

"Bring him in!"

The Company Commander hesitated, saying, "But this man is dressed in coarse clothing, not looking like an envoy of a grandee. We suspect he is an assassin sent from the city!"

Li You frowned slightly, but still had his personal guards search the newcomer several times before bringing him into the tent.

After that man was led into the command tent, Heifu, seated at the lower end below Li You, saw that it was a young man dressed in a coarse fur-lined hemp jacket, his face tanned as dark as Heifu's own, with a pair of straw sandals still on his feet.

This is the city's envoy? He must be a craftsman or a farmer...

The squad leaders all thought he had come to mock them and showed angry expressions. Meng Jia, who had once argued with Heifu about Wang Jian's use of troops, even slammed the table and stood up, wanting the soldiers to seize this man and throw him out.

At that moment, Cheng Shang of the Qin Mohists grew somewhat agitated, rose and spoke: "A fur-lined hemp jacket for clothing, raised-foot sandals for footwear... Could you be of the Southern Mohists?"

"Indeed."

The young man, about the same age as Heifu, clasped his hands toward everyone seated: "Xiangli Ge of the Southern Mohists, greetings to you all!"

(End of chapter)