Chapter 275: Contending for Advantage over Fifty Li

"Contending for advantage brings gain; contending for advantage brings peril."

Meng Wu vaguely remembered what his father had told him many years ago, when he was young and, holding the military texts, had asked his father Meng Ao to explain this passage.

"Wu'er, the Way of using troops lies in seizing the initiative. A general receives his sovereign's command — from mustering the army, setting camp and raising stockades, to marching to the battlefield and facing the enemy — there is nothing harder than being the first to seize the decisive opportunity for victory."

He gave the example of the Jinyang rebellion in the first year of King Zheng of Qin. At that time, Jinyang had first surrendered, then rebelled again and returned to Zhao. But before Li Mu could arrive to take it over, the local Zhao people reckoned that Hedong and Taiyuan were two hundred li apart, a round trip requiring at least ten days. By then, Jinyang's walls would already be repaired and all the troops prepared.

Yet Meng Ao took only three days to lead his troops from Hedong and strike Jinyang, catching the local Zhao people completely off guard. He put down the rebellion before Li Mu could send troops from Yunzhong and Yanmen to take over, thereby establishing his standing in the army.

But this kind of forced march to seize the initiative — rolling up armor and dashing, traveling day and night without rest, doubling the pace and covering two days' journey in one — brings both gain and danger.

Just as the military texts say: if you contend for advantage over a hundred li, the three commanders will be captured; the strong push ahead, the weary fall behind, and only one in ten will arrive. Soldiers who can only march thirty li a day, if forced to travel over three times that distance day and night without rest, will already be utterly exhausted in body and mind — let alone entering the battlefield. If even one in ten makes it, the rest will have collapsed along the road. Such an army will most likely be crushed by a well-rested enemy waiting in ease, and annihilated to the last man.

Keeping this in mind, after crossing the Ying River, Meng Wu — no matter how urgently Wang Jian pressed him — advanced at only fifty li a day. On the fifteenth day of the third month, he reached a point forty li south of Qi City, then set camp and waited for the follow-up troops. Because when contending for advantage over fifty li, only half the army will arrive in time. The thirty thousand Nanyang troops were still trailing far behind!

The only ones who never fell behind from start to finish, always marching at the very front as the army's vanguard, were the Nanjun troops. This made Meng Wu look at them with new eyes, because in the last war, his son Meng Tian had treated the Nanjun troops as a motley force, using them only for decoy missions and city defense. Barely a year had passed — how had they become so crack?

Li You's effective training over the past year was one reason. The Nanjun troops all being equipped with "puttees" was the other. While the Nanyang troops, unaccustomed to puttees, were groaning and pounding their aching legs, the Nanjun troops would lance the blisters on the soles of their feet, rest a moment, and then be able to continue the march.

It was at this temporary encampment that Meng Wu also learned of the battle situation ahead: General Wang Jian had sent word that the Chu army had been harassing the Qin camp all night and was certain to seek a decisive battle today. He wanted Meng Wu to reach the battlefield ten li southwest of Qi City by today!

A forced march of thirty li to launch a raid was no great difficulty, but they had barely finished packing when scouts came reporting again: a Chu force of twenty thousand men had also detached from Xiang Yan's army, advanced to within ten li, formed their battle lines, and blocked the Qin army's necessary route…

"Xiang Yan really does mean to decide this today."

Meng Wu laughed heartily. Half a year of bitter waiting, half a month of pursuit — at last, victory and defeat would be decided here and now!

As far as he knew, the Qin central army led by Wang Jian and the Chu army that Xiang Yan had kept evading battle with were roughly equal in numbers. And with the Chu troops fighting as desperate men mourning their endangered state, the Qin army might not gain much of an advantage.

So the outcome of this battle would be decided by when the Qin army's northern and southern flanking forces reached the battlefield!

If that Chu force flying the "Jing" banner blocked Meng Wu, and the northern army was still days away, then even if Wang Jian won, it would be a pyrrhic victory. But if Meng Wu swiftly crushed this Chu force before him and reached the battlefield, then together with Wang Jian they could strike the Chu army from front and rear — and that battle might well be the final battle between Qin and Chu!

At this thought, Meng Wu's spirits soared. He was about to order the thirty-thousand-plus men already at hand to advance and strike the enemy, when one of his advisors stopped him, saying: "General, this is the perfect chance to put yourself a cut above Wang Jian!"

"What do you mean by that?"

Meng Wu narrowed his eyes and looked at this advisor from Qi, who had been serving the Meng clan since his father's time.

The advisor said: "The general marched fifty li yesterday. Only thirty thousand men are in camp now; the thirty thousand Nanyang troops will take another half-shichen to arrive. Why not use that as an excuse to slowly face off against the Chu force? Once the Nanyang troops arrive, then annihilate the Chu force completely — that way you gain more heads. At the same time, observe the situation at Qi City. Wait until both the Qin and Chu armies are exhausted before joining the battle. That way, Wang Jian will suffer heavy losses, and it will all depend on the general to turn the tide in one stroke. Wang Jian demanded six hundred thousand troops before the campaign, achieved nothing in half a year, and now suffers heavy casualties — he will surely lose the king's favor…"

"This is your brilliant plan?"

Meng Wu looked coldly at the advisor and said: "Do you take Meng Wu for a man who puts private interest before public duty? If my delay of one shichen causes the Qin army to be defeated, or lets Xiang Yan escape again, and we miss the chance to annihilate the Chu army and destroy Chu in one blow — then what? If I delay military operations like that, and the king learns of it, how will he view the Meng clan?"

His eldest son Meng Tian, because of the last war, had already been banished by the King of Qin to the borderlands of Shangjun to lead troops. Meng Wu endured the pain of his old wounds and returned to the battlefield precisely to win another chance for the Meng clan.

But absolutely not by this kind of method.

"At the Battle of Yique, Lord Wu'an faced the Han-Wei allied army of two hundred forty thousand with only one hundred thousand. The Han general Bao Yuan and the Wei general Gongsun Xi both thought victory was certain and both wanted to preserve their own strength, letting the other side wear down the Qin army. So they watched each other, neither willing to attack first. In the end, Lord Wu'an defeated them one by one, and they were utterly annihilated."

"Are you now trying to make me into Bao Yuan or Gongsun Xi?"

After rebuking and dismissing the shortsighted advisor, a clear counter-strategy formed in Meng Wu's mind.

"Pass on my command!"

He swiftly wrote the order on a wooden slip, stamped it with his seal, and commanded: "Order the thirty thousand Nanyang troops to speed up and rendezvous with me. Together we will defeat this Chu force before us."

"And the Nanjun troops under Li You: while I personally lead the soldiers and lock the Chu force in tangled combat, they are to pack and set out, skirt the Jing clan's defense line from the west, and head straight for the battlefield! Rush to reinforce General Wang!"

He assigned the Nanjun troops to the relief mission not only because they were all equipped with puttees and marched fast, but also because there was a score Meng Wu wanted to settle.

"In the last battle, my son Meng Tian made Li You cover the rear, which drew considerable criticism from Li Si and his son. To appease Li Si, the king banished my son to Shangjun and will not employ him again. Now, if I give Li You a share of merit, it may allow the Meng and Li families to set aside past grievances…"

…

In the northwest corner of the Qin southern army's camp, upon receiving Meng Wu's order, Li You was overjoyed. But like Meng Wu, he too had to choose his own vanguard officer. Because of the continuous rain and the many streams in this area, the Nanjun troops' hundred war chariots probably could not move quickly either. To handle this kind of difficult terrain, they would have to rely on infantry.

"Meng Jia!"

Meng Jia, the County Commandant of Ruo County and a company commander, stepped forward. He heard Li You ask: "It's thirty li to the battlefield. How long will the Ruo County troops take?"

Meng Jia hesitated. "Two… two shichen…" That was already twice the speed of a normal march.

But Li You was far from satisfied. "The hour of Mo is nearly over. You need two shichen — you'd arrive only by the lower market hour?"

Dissatisfied, Li You called another name. "Hei Fu!"

"Your subordinate is here!"

Hei Fu snapped to attention and stepped forward to receive orders.

"And you? How long will the Anlu troops take?"

Hei Fu bowed. "However quickly the Commandant wants us there — that's how quickly we'll be there!"

"Reach the battlefield in one shichen and plant my command banner behind the Chu army's flank — can you do it?"

One Qin li was three hundred paces, one pace 1.38 meters, one li a bit over four hundred meters; thirty li was about twelve kilometers… In later ages, an ordinary person's walking speed was about five kilometers per hour. On the rough, muddy roads before them, covering seven or eight kilometers in one shichen would already be quite good.

But Hei Fu still gritted his teeth. "I can!"

"Good!"

Li You was very pleased. His choice was made.

"Hei Fu will be my vanguard, clearing the way for our army, hacking through brambles and thorns, and driving off Chu patrol cavalry and scouts. If you reach the battlefield on time, this Commandant promises that after this battle, the Anlu thousand will be given priority in merit evaluation!"

Soon after, Meng Wu had already ordered the other twenty thousand troops to advance and was locked in fierce combat with the blocking Chu force of the Jing clan's tribal soldiers. For the moment, neither side could gain the upper hand, but it bought Hei Fu and his men time to march west at speed.

When Hei Fu took his leave to go ahead, Li You called him back, gave him his own war chariot and horses, and encouraged him:

"Hei Fu, whether you can enter Xianyang as an official after this war and catch the king's eye — it all rests on this one battle!"

…

Fine as the chariot and horses Li You gave Hei Fu were, they proved utterly useless. After just a few li, they bogged down in the muddy road and could go no further.

"This damned weather. This damned transport."

The road before them was already a main thoroughfare of Huaibei, yet it was no better than an unpaved village road in later ages — a quagmire whenever it rained.

"Abandon the carriage."

Hei Fu simply dismounted, planted a foot into the still-wet mud, and ordered: "Abandon everything superfluous. Carry only armor and weapons. Travel light!"

In Hei Fu's eyes, this march was really nothing much. After all, in the police academies of later ages, there was also a "ten-kilometer cross-country" event — usually scored as a unit, carrying individual kit, with the last man finishing within one hour counting as qualified…

For them, covering twelve kilometers in two hours was already quite effortless — any unit in later ages could manage it easily.

But in this era, reaching such a speed was remarkable indeed; after all, the armies of these days took thirty li as one meal-and-rest stage.

The road conditions alternated between dry and muddy. Where it was muddy, although Li Xian led a party ahead laying planks, they still had to pick their way through, one foot deep, one foot shallow, at a turtle's crawl.

Looking up at the sun, Heifu realized that half the time had already passed, yet they had covered less than fifteen li…

At this rate, they would never reach the battlefield on time!

"Walking alone won't do — we have to run, a jog!"

Heifu set the example: shouldering his own equipment, he advanced at a jog from the middle of the column toward the front, Mu bearing the great banner behind him.

And so the thousand soldiers from Anlu watched in astonishment as their company commander, sword and shield strapped to his back and the heavy helmet on his head, ran right past their flank!

As he ran, Heifu also had Ji Ying and several orderlies relay his words to the troops.

"Gentlemen, this battle is commanded by the old general Wang, and we are engaging the Chu army's repeatedly defeated divisions — victory is certain!"

"Commandant Li has promised that after the battle, the vanguard shall have priority in merit assessment. Thus I went through countless hardships to win this vanguard banner for us. So long as we reach the battlefield in time and become the first unit to reinforce old general Wang, what is a single rank of nobility for every man worth mentioning?"

Ji Ying, in a very down-to-earth manner, shouted: "Right! Ahead of us is no battlefield — it is one fine plot of fertile land and house after another!"

"This road beneath our feet is no road either — it is a ladder climbing toward merit and rank!"

"Rank! Land!" Five-Hundred-Leader Dongmen Bao also bellowed at just the right moment.

In the ranks, Private Wang Gua stretched his stubby legs and forged ahead, teeth clenched; the commoner Dongkui also felt an inexhaustible strength surge up underfoot!

At the thought of rank, at the thought of land, everyone erupted with boundless energy and roared in unison. Following Heifu's example, they too began to jog one after another.

Over the past half year, aside from playing ball games, the men had been constantly urged by Heifu to run laps around the camp, so stamina was no worry. In a short time, the unit's speed picked up considerably.

At this very moment, Heifu had already sprinted from the middle of the column to the very front! Xiao Tao, leading a hundred close-guard skirmishers armed with either bows and crossbows or swords and shields, clung tightly to Heifu's left and right. The scouts, the only ones still with horses, also struggled past the infantry and fanned out to search for the enemy, eliminating any possibility that the Chu army had left men along the road to set an ambush.

Yet at this very moment, the Chu army, already locked in bitter combat with the Qin forces for two full shichen, could only trust that the Jing brothers could block all incoming foes — where would they find spare troops to send and intercept?

The Anlu thousand left strings of footprints on the muddy road. They crossed gullies, trampled spring flowers and grasses, startled away deer and wild foxes, and at last, beside a small hill a few li from the battlefield, heard the distant shouts of slaughter!

Amid the faint, indistinct clash of blades and cries of battle, they also heard a faint, indistinct song…

"Company commander, there's singing!"

Li Xian, who had just led his men in laying planks over yet another gully, raised his head and looked at Heifu, somewhat dazed.

Heifu's expression also changed.

The people of Nan Commandery, the people of Anlu, could understand this song. It was a sound both familiar and strange to them.

Familiar, because it was the Chu tongue, the Jing-Chu dialect that they themselves spoke.

Strange, because ever since Anlu had submitted to Qin, the commoners had almost never had the chance to hear this song from birth to death.

It was a roar bellowed by tens of thousands together! So much so that they could even make out the words clearly.

"We grasp Wu halberds, we don rhinoceros armor — chariot hubs clash, close-quarters blades meet!"

A jolt ran through Heifu. He ordered the men to keep advancing while he climbed this bramble-covered hillock and gazed into the distance.

The sky was overcast and cloudy; the ground was muddy and green. A few li ahead, a vast battlefield stretching over ten li unfolded before him, suddenly emerging like a magnificent oil painting stained with red and black!

The red was fresh blood, was the red earth, and was also the color of the Chu army's ranks.

The black was stone, was mud, and was also the hue of the Qin army's battle formations.

Too far away, Heifu could see neither Wang Jian's nor Xiang Yan's command banners, nor any specific details of the fighting. He could only see the two colors, red and black, locked in a desperate, indecisive struggle at the center of the battlefield…

And the resonant song they heard was rising from the rear of the Chu formation, cheering on the charging Chu men, its sound shaking the fields in all directions!

"Banners blot the sun, the foe like clouds — arrows fall in exchange, the warriors vie to be first!"

Heifu recognized it now: this was "Guo Shang," the battle hymn of the Chu people!

As the Chu song played out, Heifu saw wave after wave of a crimson tide surge up once more, from east to west, crashing violently against the black reef!

PS: A big 4,000-character chapter — begging for monthly tickets… Also, thanks to Lushan zhi Song for becoming an Alliance Master of this book. Currently still owe 7 chapters.

(End of chapter)