Chapter 575: Pingyuan Ford

"I just can't understand it. We should have stayed in Linzi and fought the Qin to the death. Why withdraw to Jibei, and why are we pulling back to Zhao territory now?"

In mid-May, at Pingyuan Ford in Jibei Commandery, acting on the orders of "His Majesty" and the "Chancellor of State," "Grand General" Tian Du stood at the ford, gazing out at the broad river before him, his eyes still filled with deep bewilderment.

Tian Heng, like Tian Du, had hoped to stay and fight to the death, but Tian Rong believed that against the converging Qin forces from several commanderies they stood no chance whatsoever, and he strongly advocated fleeing. Tian Dan also agreed to shift to Julu, where Qin forces were weak and the knight-errant Lu Goujian had risen in response. Their "Qi Kingdom" could rely on the rivers, marshes, mountains, and forests there to maneuver against the Qin army and await changes in the realm…

"King of Qi" Tian Jia was a coward at heart and thoroughly approved of this plan. Even Tian Ji and Tian Jie, who had raised troops at Gaotang in Jibei, thought withdrawal was the wiser course.

Tian Heng and Tian Du could only agree. Tian Du was also tasked with leading the rear guard to Pingyuan Ford to prepare the crossing for the more than twenty thousand people from Linzi and Jibei.

Pingyuan Ford was the most important crossing between Qi and Zhao, and also Qi's western border — extremely strategic. After Qin destroyed Qi, the First Emperor built imperial highways everywhere. One of them was the Eastern Road, which left Hangu Pass and led to Qi and Zhao. The Eastern Road crossed Pingyuan Ford, passed by Pingyuan County, and ran straight through to Linzi; heading south, it reached Lixia in Jibei. It was a vital crossroads in all four directions.

The month before, when the Tian clans of Gaotang rose in response to Di County, they had also sent two thousand men to attack Pingyuan County. The county magistrate and the commandant were both absent; only the assistant magistrate fought the Tian forces at the city gate, but he was outmatched and died. Shortly after, Pingyuan Ford likewise fell to the Tian clans, and now several dozen boats were moored there.

But Tian Du still felt there were too few boats. They would do for ferrying the three thousand men he had brought, but getting twenty thousand across the river would likely take days. It was a pity that the boats the sea raiders had brought had all been burned. Even if they hadn't, it would have been impossible to sail them upstream from the river mouth to here. So he had ordered men to scour the river up and down for more craft. After several days' march, the main force had already reached Pingyuan County and joined up with the Gaotang contingent; they were still over half a day's journey from this spot.

Of the three thousand men Tian Du had brought, only a little over a hundred were household retainers of their Yeyi Tian lineage. When his father had been deceived by Heifu, these men had fled overseas with Tian Du — fiercely loyal, with a certain degree of order, discipline, sharp blades, and armor. The rest were all urban gallants and commoners, grouped by place of origin and led by locally renowned knights-errant. These men had no order whatsoever, and their weapons and clothing were a motley assortment.

At this moment, Tian Du had dispatched some men to search for more boats. The gallants and commoners, having marched for days, were already utterly exhausted. Now, given a chance to catch their breath, they sat or stood scattered in clumps all along the riverbank at the ford. They were so tired they could have collapsed and fallen asleep on the spot, and in their dreams they saw the homeland they had abandoned. Many were already beginning to regret joining this rebellion, but out of fear of Qin army reprisals and massacres, they could only follow this path to its bitter end.

Tian Du, at least, was the son of a military family and could not bear the sight of them in such a state. He was just about to frown and bark at them when, unexpectedly, one of his retainers whom he had sent to keep watch to the east came galloping back on a light horse, his expression panicked, and reported: "Grand General, several li to the east — Qin troops!"

"Qin troops!"

Tian Du was greatly alarmed. When they had withdrawn to Zhao County, the Qin army had only just crossed the Ji River. Even with good training and a rapid marching pace, they could at most have reached the vicinity of Zhao County by now. There was no reason for them to suddenly appear at Pingyuan Ford!

But his own retainer could not be speaking nonsense. Tian Du immediately went on alert and ordered his retainers to force the gallants and commoners, who were sprawled every which way resting, to get up and prepare to resist the enemy.

Lashed by whips, the men rose in a daze and assembled on the flat ground beyond the ford, but they kept whispering among themselves. The sudden arrival of Qin troops had thrown everyone into panic.

Half a ke later, on the plain in the distance, a cloud of dust seemed to rise, and faintly, the beat of war drums thundered…

The rebel gallants craned their necks, turned their faces, or stood on tiptoe, looking toward the source of the drumbeats. They saw a force of chariots and cavalry charging straight at them from the west. At the forefront was a four-horse war chariot; the Qin officer aboard it was armored and gripping a spear. A jet-black banner streamed behind him, and behind the banner were dozens of chariots and three hundred horsemen!

"It's Qin chariots and cavalry!"

Tian Du ground his teeth. Coming from the east — these had to be elite troops from Linzi and Jiaodong. Although the main Qin force could not catch up with the Qi people, their chariots and cavalry could.

But how did they know that his side intended to go from Pingyuan Ford to Julu?

There was no time to ponder causes and consequences. Pingyuan County was thirty li away, while the Qin vanguard was right at their doorstep. Tian Du could only rely on himself, on the three thousand men under his command…

Seeing the Qin chariots and cavalry already within half a li and the gallants and commoners still standing there stupefied, Tian Du bellowed urgently: "The Qin are few and we are many! Raise every long weapon in your hands! We shall prevail!"

Half of them jolted alert and did as ordered, but the other half remained dazed. Some men's legs were trembling so badly they seemed ready to throw down their weapons and flee at any moment.

When it came to brawling and dueling with blades in city lanes and wards, the gallants had experience. But on a battlefield, facing enemy chariots and cavalry charging to break their lines, they were raw novices.

Facing those war chariots rumbling forward, there was not a man who did not tremble.

Fortunately, the opposing side did not simply charge headlong. They halted half a li away — not out of hesitation, but to reorder their formation and make preparations before smashing into the enemy line!

These several hundred chariots and cavalry were men Heifu had handpicked from the Linzi and Jiaodong commandery troops, plus some of his Southern Commandery hometown comrades and retainers who had thrown in their lot with him. He had placed them under the command of Gong Ao, who loved nothing more than a reckless charge into battle.

They had a single objective: to launch a surprise attack on Pingyuan Ford, burn the boats at the crossing, and prevent the rebel horde from crossing the river quickly!

At this moment, Gong Ao stood on his war chariot. Although several thousand enemy troops faced him, a dense dark mass, he was utterly fearless. Flourishing his whip, he laughed and declared:

"My lads, this rebel mob is noisy and disorderly, their weapons crude. Many though they are, they are nothing but a rabble! I have heard it said that for a stout warrior in the army, to be first up the wall in a siege, to break the enemy line and drive back the foe, to slay the general and seize the banner — these are the three great merits. Now, by the Commandant's order, we have ridden two hundred li to strike the rebels. The battle shall be won! The merits shall be ours! Strive hard, all of you!"

"Aye!"

"Yes!"

The chariots and cavalry were, after all, the elite of the commandery troops, mostly manned by Qin men from Guanzhong. They all shouted their assent. The three thousand rebels before their eyes were, in their view, living, breathing military merit…

Gong Ao had spent several years in Beidi. Though he could not compare to a true chariot-and-cavalry commander, he still knew the essentials.

After having his words relayed to everyone, Gong Ao raised his blade again and shouted: "The war chariots in front must break the enemy line! The cavalry behind shall strike their disordered troops. My chariot is in the vanguard — I shall not retreat. Whoever dares retreat dies! These rebel rats have capered long enough. Let them see, let them witness, what a tiger-and-wolf army truly is!"

The charioteer gripped the reins and gave them a sharp shake. Gong Ao's chariot began to move, and the dozens of chariots and several hundred cavalry behind him moved with it. They started at a canter, and once within a hundred paces they accelerated to a full charge!

Though they had no infantry to protect them, they were utterly undaunted and pressed forward irresistibly!

Under the pounding of more than a thousand hooves, the sandy ground before Pingyuan Ford trembled faintly.

The rebels had very few ranged weapons, and the bows and crossbows they did shoot were so ragged and uncoordinated that they posed no obstacle whatsoever to the Qin chariots and cavalry.

And so Tian Du could only bellow at his men to raise their dagger-axes, spears, clubs, and halberds while watching helplessly as the Qin chariots and cavalry, like a sharp arrow loosed from the bowstring, plunged straight into the three thousand gallants and rebels before Pingyuan Ford!

A violent crash resounded, followed by immense shouts of slaughter and wails of agony — a din that shook the heavens!

At the Pingyuan Ford crossing, long-legged gulls and herons had been walking through the shallows around the docks, searching for fish and shrimp. Frightened by this terrible noise, they shrieked in alarm and beat their wings, soaring into the sky.

What they saw was the three thousand rebels, caught unprepared and in haste, smashed apart by the Qin chariots and cavalry…

…

Several shichen later, when Tian Rong and Tian Heng got word and rushed to Pingyuan Ford with several thousand men, they encountered a great mass of routed, defeated soldiers ten li out.

Seeing Tian Heng and the others arrive, the routed men shuffled out with their heads hanging and described the fearsome battle that had taken place at the ford.

Though the Qin chariots and cavalry were few, they came with overwhelming momentum. The three thousand men, caught off guard and unprepared, and mostly city gallants and commoners, were no match at all. In the blink of an eye, the charging war chariots tore a huge gap right through them!

The Qin commander on the war chariot wore heavy armor and paid no heed to the gallants' crude weapons. In his hands he held a long barbed spear, shouting as he stabbed men, leaving bloody holes in the gallants' bodies. The chariot-left assisted him with bow and arrows, shooting left and right, and everyone he hit fell.

The several hundred chariots and cavalry behind him charged in at the same time. The horsemen either slashed left and cut right from horseback, or pulled back a distance to shoot. For a time, the Qin swept all before them, quickly scattering and slaughtering the thousand or so gallants in the front ranks.

"The Grand General led his retainers to kill that Qin commander, but to his misfortune he was outmatched. Though he managed to hack the Qin commander's spear in two, the commander threw it aside, drew his blade, and ran him through with a single sword-thrust…"

Soon, the Tian brothers saw with their own eyes the scene the routed soldiers had described:

A great blaze roared at the ford. The bodies of gallants and commoners lay scattered in every corner, most of them struck in the back by dagger-axes and spears — they had been killed while fleeing. And without exception, their heads had been taken. The Qin had been utterly unhurried, even finding time to cut off heads for merit.

The headless corpse of "Grand General" Tian Du hung from the flagpole at the ford — exactly the same sight as the Qin officials — the magistrate, the commandant, and the assistant magistrate — hanging from the gate of Di County!

Tian Heng's eyes nearly split with fury, while Tian Rong, staring at the burning docks and the several dozen boats, showed utter despair on his face…

The Great River was no ordinary waterway. It was just the season, the fifth and sixth months, when the waters rose. The river surface was nearly ten li wide. Unless you were one of the very few, like Tian Heng, who were superb swimmers, don't even think about swimming across.

Even if they tried to force a crossing by swimming, those mobile, agile Qin chariots and cavalry would be watching them like tigers. And if the main Qin force caught up and struck while they were mid-river, they wouldn't even have a chance to resist.

"The Qin commander Heifu guessed we were heading to Julu and sent chariots and cavalry to raid us. Our retreat route is cut off."

Tian Rong knew they could no longer reach Julu. They had only one choice left!

…

A day later, at the main Qin force still on the march, Heifu received word from Gong Ao's messenger that they had burned the docks and ferry boats at Pingyuan Ford and had also cut down the rebel "Grand General" in battle — Tian Du, another fish that had slipped the net of the Yeyi Tian lineage. Heifu's mood immediately soared. Thank heaven and earth — he wouldn't have to fight a "Battle of Julu" after all.

"Right now, the combined forces of Linzi, Jiaodong, Jibei, and Dong Commandery have launched a joint assault, casting a vast inescapable net. Since the rebel horde cannot reach Julu, they are left with only one choice."

Heifu unfolded the map and fixed his gaze on a large dot marked upon it — the symbol of a great city of ten thousand households.

"Fall back to Gaotang! Fight to the death!"

PS: Chapter 2 before 12 o'clock.

(End of chapter)