Chapter 280: On the Eight-Gong Mountain

In mid-April, in the wilderness outside West Quyang in Huainan, several hundred Chu soldiers crouched wretchedly on the ground. Their weapons and armor had long since been confiscated, and they were now captives without a blade in hand.

Chen Ying crouched among the crowd as well, groaning inwardly at his misfortune.

About half a month earlier, Lord Changping, the Prime Minister of Chu, had sent men to Dongyang County, demanding that the county magistrate organize the county's remaining men and lead them to the capital, Shouchun, to "come to the king's aid."

Chen Ying, a minor clerk of Dongyang County who had just turned thirty-five this year, was among those conscripted. Although his mother could not read, she was a woman of wisdom. As he was leaving, she leaned against the door and admonished him, saying:

"My son, you once told me that the Supreme Pillar of State was leading troops into battle against the Qin army. Yet now, instead of going to Huaibei to reinforce them, you are to go to Shouchun to aid the king. It seems the Supreme Pillar of State must have been defeated. With the Supreme Pillar of State's talent and so many soldiers, he still could not withstand Qin — how much less can you and the others? On this journey, if things take a turn for the worse, remember that preserving your life is what matters most. I have heard that the King of Chu even killed his own younger brother and slandered the late king, saying he was not his father's trueborn son. A king like that is not worth dying for…"

Chen Ying was very obedient to his mother's words and agreed wholeheartedly.

The county magistrate led a thousand Dongyang soldiers westward, constantly merging along the way with forces from all over Huainan coming to aid the king, gathering four to five thousand men. Chen Ying noticed that among them were many old, weak, and young boys, because most of the able-bodied men had gone to Huaibei, their fates now unknown.

Along the journey, Chen Ying heard no shortage of people discussing the war in Huaibei. Some said Xiang Yan had been defeated and committed suicide; others said he had escaped, and that this present army coming to the king's aid was organized by him.

But everyone was somewhat panicked and uneasy. If the elite troops led by Xiang Yan had been defeated, what use could commoners like them, untrained and out of practice, possibly be?

When they reached West Quyang, over a hundred li from Shouchun, they came under a sudden attack!

Chen Ying watched, stupefied, as that Qin army charged out from the woods beside the road and cut the advancing column in two. According to the county magistrate, wasn't the main Qin force watering its horses at the Huai River, preparing to attack Shouchun? How could they have encountered them deep in the heart of Huainan…

The battle was utterly without suspense. The scraped-together army coming to the king's aid was quickly routed. The Dongyang county magistrate and several military officers died in battle at the very start. The thousand Dongyang men scattered and fled in all directions, pursued and slaughtered by Qin chariots and cavalry.

It was then that Chen Ying remembered his mother's admonition. He shouted, "We surrender!" and led several hundred fellow townsmen in throwing down their weapons. Only then did the Qin soldiers, at the shouted command of a dark-faced officer, cease their attack.

The crowd was penned in by a fence made of sharpened wooden stakes, with over a hundred crossbowmen surrounding them.

Now, the Qin soldiers who had gone to hunt down the fleeing Chu men were returning one after another. Nearly every man had a bloody, dripping severed head hanging from his waist, and they were in high spirits. As they drew near, their eyes kept darting toward the necks of the Chu captives. Their expressions looked as if they were seeing purse after purse of money!

Chen Ying felt a chill run down his spine under their stares. He had often heard that the Qin placed the highest value on taking heads. It was entirely possible that with a single order from that officer, he and these fellow Dongyang townsmen and kinsmen would meet their deaths on the spot. For a moment, the Chu men all began whispering anxiously among themselves.

Just then, a Qin soldier with a sharp mouth and gaunt cheeks walked over and shouted in a Nanjun dialect they could barely understand: "Who is your leader? Step forward! The company commander has questions!"

The Dongyang men looked at each other in dismay. The county magistrate was dead, and the military officers had either fled or died. Among those left were only a dozen or so squad leaders and fireteam leaders.

"Among us, Chen Ying is the eldest and has always been trustworthy and prudent. Let Chen Ying go!" someone shouted out. The squad leaders and fireteam leaders all agreed and thus pushed Chen Ying forward…

The Qin soldier sized him up. "You are called Chen Ying?"

"Yes…" Chen Ying braced himself and answered.

The Qin soldier laughed. "Same name as me. I'm called Ji Ying."

Though Ji Ying was polite in speech, his hands showed no mercy. With a wave, he had two men tie Chen Ying up. After searching him, they led him toward the temporary camp the Qin had set up.

The Qin army that had attacked them numbered around ten thousand. Most of them were now advancing on the city of West Quyang, leaving only a thousand or so to guard the camp. Chen Ying carefully made his way past Qin soldiers who were lighting fires to cook, walking to the tent at the center of the camp. The dark-faced officer who had led them was speaking with another pale-faced military official.

With his hands bound and a kick to the leg from Ji Ying, Chen Ying fell to his knees with a thud before the two men. His knees landed squarely on a hard rock, and the pain made him gasp sharply…

…

Heifu stopped his conversation with Zhang Han and raised his head to glance at the Chu man who had been brought before him. He saw that his beard was very long; he was probably over thirty. Upon further questioning, he turned out to be only a minor squad leader…

"This humble one worked as a minor clerk in Dongyang County, just scraping by for food and clothing. This time, I followed the county magistrate out. Because all the military officers died in battle, and among those left, I am somewhat older, they pushed me forward to answer the general's questions," Chen Ying answered honestly.

"Where is Dongyang?"

Heifu had Ji Ying spread out a map and located the position. It was west of the Hangou Canal, in the area that later generations would call the border of Anhui and Jiangsu.

"Dongyang is a small county, five hundred and twenty li from Shouchun in total. It takes half a month to travel," Chen Ying added at once, afraid the Qin officer might grow suspicious.

Heifu raised his eyes. "You have been to Shouchun?"

"In my youth, I traveled there twice."

Being able to go out traveling showed that this man's family circumstances were fairly decent.

Heifu nodded and asked again, "Apart from you and your men, do you know where any other Chu forces heading for Shouchun set out from?"

Chen Ying reported the names of the several units he had encountered on the road. When pressed for more details, he knew nothing.

Heifu knew this man's status was lowly and that nothing more could be gotten out of him. He waved a hand, about to have Ji Ying take him away. Unexpectedly, Chen Ying's will to survive was extremely strong. He suddenly kowtowed and said, "We are merely ordinary commoners of the Chu lands, acting on the county magistrate's orders. We are not wholeheartedly opposing Qin. I beseech the general to spare our lives!"

Zhang Han, standing to the side, said, "If we let them go, who knows whether you people will rise up again!"

"Absolutely not. We will return to Dongyang and tell the elders of Dongyang everything we have seen and heard."

Chen Ying continued, "Right now, Chu is defeated and Qin is victorious. The altars of Chu are destroyed, and its lands will become Qin commanderies and counties. If you release us, the King of Qin will gain several hundred registered households. If you kill us, then every family in Dongyang will have lost fathers, brothers, sons, and grandsons, and they will surely fight Qin to the death without surrendering. Therefore, killing us brings no benefit, but releasing us is harmful to the enemy!"

"In the Qin army, severed heads count as merit," Heifu said, looking at Chen Ying's head with a beaming smile.

Suppressing his fear, Chen Ying lowered his head and said, "I have heard that Xiang Yan's hundreds of thousands of men were completely wiped out. Has the general not taken enough heads in Huaibei? Or do you think that the heads of us men are worth more than those of the kings, dukes, and enfeoffed lords inside Shouchun city?"

Heifu laughed in spite of himself. "Though you are only a minor county clerk, a minor squad leader, you see the situation quite clearly. To save your own life and the lives of your fellow townsmen, you dare to say anything."

After thinking for a moment, he said, "We are not bloodthirsty people either. How about this: since you have been to Shouchun, you will stay in my army for now and serve as a guide. I will release your fellow townsmen to leave. But if they oppose Qin again in the future, or stubbornly resist and refuse to surrender…"

Heifu smiled amiably. "I will kill you!"

…

After Chen Ying had left, Zhang Han praised him, saying, "I never imagined a minor county clerk could have such insight and courage."

"In a hamlet of ten households, there are sure to be those who are loyal and trustworthy; in a village of a hundred homes, there are sure to be those who are wise."

Heifu said, "However, after the decisive battle at Qinan, the old general Wang also issued a prohibition to all the armies, forbidding the killing of captives. Perhaps this is also in preparation for sending officials to govern after seizing the Chu lands…"

Nearly a month had passed since that great battle. Wang Jian had first spent several days capturing Qi City, which was defended by Zhao Hua, the Left Marshal of Chu. He then had each division pursue and mop up the remaining enemy. The severed heads taken were enough for the officers to reach the standard for "full merit rating," and so the organized killing of captives by the officers ceased. At most, soldiers who had not been allotted any merit, craving heads, would secretly kill captives and civilians.

After this, Wang Jian once again divided the reassembled three-route Qin grand army.

The northern army led by Feng Wuze was split into two parts. The main force attacked Xiapi, Xiaxiang, and the eastern coastal regions where the remnants of the Xiang clan were entrenched. A flanking force turned direction and advanced toward the former territory of Lu. The Confucian scholars of the Zou-Lu region were finally about to welcome the rule of "Tyrannical Qin."

Wang Jian personally led the central army to attack Xiacai and gathered boats and timber everywhere, preparing to build a pontoon bridge across the Huai River to cross the water and attack the Chu capital, Shouchun, on the opposite bank.

As for Meng Wu's southern army, it was ordered to advance southeast. While Wang Jian had drawn all the remaining troops of the Huainan Chu army's attention at Shangcai, he had already forcefully crossed the Huai River from Zhongli and sent men to attack cities and seize territory on a large scale.

Heifu and his Nanjun troops were Meng Wu's vanguard. They had now occupied West Quyang, cutting off the road the King of Chu would have to take to flee Shouchun. In addition, they had intercepted the Chu forces coming from Huainan and Jiangdong to aid the king, completely turning Shouchun into an isolated city.

Shouchun bordered the Huai River to the north and had the bounty of the Quebei Reservoir to the south. Since the twenty-second year of King Kaolie of Chu (241 BC), when the capital was moved here, the comfortable lives of the King of Chu and the nobles had lasted just over ten years, yet now they were about to face utter catastrophe…

In the days that followed, Heifu and his men successively smashed several more Chu armies organized by Lord Changping that were coming from Jiangdong and Huainan to rescue Shouchun.

By the end of April, Meng Wu had already reached the Quebei Reservoir with his troops. The Chu army could no longer hold their ground along the Huai and could only retreat into the city.

Meng Wu led tens of thousands of men to press close to the city walls, coordinating with Qiang Hui's division, which had come from Yingkou, to besiege one corner of the city.

The Nanjun Corps was ordered to receive Wang Jian's river crossing at a place east of the city near the Huai. The spot where Heifu and his men set up camp happened to be situated between a mountain and a river.

"The river is called the Fei River."

Though Chen Ying was unwilling, he could only honestly serve as Hei Fu's guide. Pointing at the Huai River tributary rushing past before them, then at the several pine-and-cypress-clad hills behind, he said: "The hills are called the Fei Hills, also known as the Northern Mountains. Since there are eight hillocks, the rustics also call them the Eight Mountains!"

"Eight Mountains? Could it be that very 'Bagong Mountain'?"

Hearing this name, Hei Fu was immediately delighted. He led his men up the hill for a distant view. Looking north, they could see Wang Jian's main force continuously crossing the pontoon bridge from the Gorge Stone Mouth, known as the "Key Ford of the Huai," the result of several days of busy labor by Zhang Han and other army superintendents along with the civilian laborers.

Looking southwest again, they could take in an unobstructed view of the glittering golden palaces, towers, and terraces of Shouchun City.

At this very moment, within Shouchun City, the King of Chu was perhaps also gazing into the distance this way, seeing the Qin army's formation orderly and its officers and soldiers elite…

Hei Fu could not help but sigh with deep emotion: "In the eyes of King Fuchu of Chu, on this mountain, every tree and bush must look like an enemy soldier!"

PS: Chapter 2 in the evening

(End of chapter)