Chapter 610: A Difficult Choice

At the stockade fort at the valley mouth, Li Rong personally came to the very front line.

In truth, though, for him there was no longer any distinction between a first line and a second line.

Because these several stockade forts had been almost completely demolished by the retreating Hedong army, the only thing Li Rong could rely on was perhaps a stretch of slope in front of the forts, and he had no way to set up a defense in depth.

Moreover, even this one slope was steeper on the outer side and much gentler on the inner side. That was inevitable, for if both sides were steep, transporting grain and fodder would have been far too inconvenient.

More importantly, the fifteen hundred men under Li Rong were not true personal troops or imperial guards. They could not even be counted as sworn followers; they were the yabing guards of the Yicheng Military Governor of Weizhou.

The Later Jin's Military Governor of the Yicheng Army had originally been Liang Hanzhang. He had died in battle in the northern campaign against the Khitan and had already been posthumously enfeoffed as Duke of Ying. Along with Liang Hanzhang, five hundred elite cavalry of the Yicheng Army had also died in that battle.

With their deaths, the finest troops of the Yicheng Army were gone. By the time Zhang Zhao entered the eastern capital of Kaifeng, the entire territory of the Yicheng Army had been occupied by the Khitan, and most of its yabing guards had scattered.

Zhang Zhao therefore appointed Li Rong, who had distinguished himself in the great battle of Yanshi against the Zhou and Liao, as Troop Commander of the horse and foot soldiers of the Yicheng Army, and sent him to stabilize the situation in Weizhou. These fifteen hundred men were the ones Li Rong had recruited after arriving in Weizhou.

Thus, whether in fighting strength or in spirit, they could not compare with the direct-line personal troops and imperial guards.

Although Shi Hongzhao was a man people found hard to stomach, his personal martial prowess and his ability to command troops were still quite good, and so the Hedong army's first assault had already put tremendous pressure on Li Rong.

Hedong soldiers holding huge wooden shields charged at the front, and behind them were large numbers of elite troops wearing iron lamellar armor.

At the very rear were elite crossbowmen wearing two layers of rawhide armor. Their rawhide armor served only as a breastplate, and both arms were left unarmored, so as to make shooting easier.

The stones, rolling logs, and the like on the stockade forts had long since been carried off by the Hedong army, so Li Rong could only put up a brief resistance before abandoning the other two forts, which could be attacked from three sides, and withdrawing to the last fort, which faced the enemy on only one side.

And after Shi Hongzhao easily took the two forts, he too halted his troops.

Because his purpose was not to devour these fifteen hundred men, but to coordinate with the five thousand men outside, force Zhang Zhaojun's men to come up and fight on their own initiative, and make the Zhou army at Yecheng send reinforcements.

Below the hill, Li Rong directed his men to build barricades with the little remaining material, while he himself, strong bow in hand, personally and ceaselessly shot downward.

Whenever any Hedong soldier carelessly came too close, he would be shot to the ground by one of Li Rong's arrows.

Of course, if Li Rong was the slightest bit careless, he too would be shot at by the good marksmen of the Hedong army below. Once, an incoming arrow even nearly broke through the armor plates on his chest. But Li Rong had no choice but to do this, because it was the best way to raise morale.

Sure enough, as Li Rong hit with every shot, the morale of the Yicheng Army's yabing guards immediately surged.

The yabing guards cheered and leaped on the hill, loudly cursing the Hedong officers and men below. Even Zhang Quan and his hundred Hexi soldiers came to admire Li Rong.

On the battlefield, especially in a clash of several thousand men like this, the valor of the commander could often play an enormous role.

"What fine shooting! Even at the great Hexi archery ceremony, he would be a hero worthy of the title Guiyi Lang!" Zhang Quan exclaimed in admiration.

For a man like him, who was always proud of his Hexi origins, to say that someone from outside Hexi could earn the title Guiyi Lang was the highest expression of recognition for that person.

"Commander, the Hedong bandits below the mountain have not come up to attack. They are only making a din. Their intent is still to make us raise the red flag asking for aid, so that the Duke of the Imperial Surname's elite cavalry will come and attack fiercely.

Then we simply will not raise the red flag, and let them risk their lives attacking these stockade forts they themselves built!"

Sure enough, Zhang Quan at once grew respectful toward Li Rong, and "the Imperial Surname" referred to Ma Shacai, Zhang Zhaojun, outside.

After the five of them were granted the surname Zhang and further allowed to use the character Zhao, the whole state of Zhou had come to call them the Five Dukes of the Imperial Surname.

A satisfied smile appeared on Li Rong's face. He had finally touched the gate leading into the upper ranks of the warriors.

That was to display one's own formidable martial prowess, to make the Hexi warriors feel you were worthy of their respect. Then these Hexi warriors would accept him, and commanding them would become far more effortless.

"Captain Zhang sees the same as I do. Our fifteen hundred brave men here hold the advantage of terrain, still have two days' grain, and drinking water enough for three days. Until the water is gone and the grain is exhausted, we will absolutely not raise the red flag."

Since Li Rong did not raise the red flag, Ma Shacai, Zhang Zhaojun, naturally would not go forward to rescue him. Instead, he ordered the cavalry under his command to begin making camp and setting up a stockade at a distance of a little over one li.

With Zhang Zhaojun's two thousand elite cavalry not moving, Li Chongjin and Bai Zairong's five thousand men dared move even less.

Their five thousand men were mostly infantry. If they made camp and defended tightly, Zhang Zhaojun would not have many opportunities, but if they came out on their own seeking battle, the openings would be enormous.

Listening to the unceasing abuse outside, Zhang Zhaojun merely gave a cold smile. Trying to goad him into coming out by such means was greatly underestimating his Left Jinwu Guard.

One had to know that back in the days when they roamed Anxi and other places, he, Zhang Zhaojun, and Ma Zhaoyuan, Ma Yaozi, had been the champion cursers under Zhang Zhao, and several times they had cursed Persians into flying into a rage and charging over to fight to the death.

The abuse from the Hedong army outside, still stuck on various organs and eighteen generations of ancestors, was far too childish by comparison.

Not only did Zhang Zhaojun feel not the slightest ripple in his heart, even the officers and men of the Left Jinwu Guard below did not take it seriously.

Brush in hand, Zhang Zhaojun was writing stroke by stroke on a piece of silk. He felt that for the Hedong army to act so abnormally, there were only two possibilities.

The first was that Liu Zhiyuan's main army had already slipped into the Fushan area, and Guo Wei was putting on all sorts of maneuvers to draw them out from Yecheng, preparing to ambush them in this place.

The second possibility, Zhang Zhaojun glanced toward the valley mouth, was that Guo Wei really had built a dam to block the Zhang River, and, fearing they would discover the secret, could only block them once again.

After writing out clearly the actual situation and his own conjectures, Zhang Zhaojun summoned the relay courier from the central army and issued a death order.

"Within today, this letter must be delivered into the hands of the Chief Deployment Officer."

According to the regulations of the Zhang-Zhou army, Zhang Zhaojun knew that the surrounded unit of Li Rong had at most two days' rations and could hold out at most three more days, after which they would have to be rescued.

As for watching them die without saving them, the Zhou army, ever since the Fengtian Army days, had no such habit.

A qualified commander-in-chief, besides being skilled at discovering clues amid vast and chaotic information, must also excel at making decisions.

Compared with Zhang Zhaojun, Yan Jin's judgment was undoubtedly superior. The entire terrain from Hezhang to Yecheng, and the movements of every army, were almost imprinted in Yan Jin's mind.

This most comprehensive commander under Zhang Zhao quickly reached a judgment. First, Guo Wei was no fool; on the contrary, his level was very high.

Then it was very unlikely he would make such an obviously flawed move. There must be something he, Yan Jin, had not figured out.

As for Liu Zhiyuan's movements, this was precisely what Yan Jin understood most clearly, because the Hedong army had only a few thousand elite cavalry and lacked the roving scout cavalry for screening, searching, and probing.

Therefore, in fact, ever since Liu Zhiyuan's main force left Hengzhou, although the Zhou state's light cavalry could not get close to reconnoiter, its general position was known.

The Hedong army's main force was moving toward Beizhou. At most it could detach three to five thousand elite troops to evade the surveillance of the Zhou state's light cavalry; the main force could not suddenly vanish.

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Without sudden reinforcements from Liu Zhiyuan, and with Guo Wei not the sort to issue wild orders in a fit of madness, there was only one possibility: Guo Wei really was blocking the Zhang River.

Moreover, Yan Jin saw another possibility in Zhang Zhaojun's analysis, and he said to Murong Xinzhang beside him.

"It seems Liu Zhiyuan really does intend to strike Fu Yanqing at Beizhou first. Guo Wei wants to pin our entire army down along the banks of the Zhang River."

Murong Xinzhang raised an eyebrow. "Does the Chief Deployment Officer believe Guo Wei really is building a dam to block the Zhang River? And that it is not to wash away Yecheng, but only to turn everything west of Yecheng into a vast marsh?"

A look of surprise appeared on Yan Jin's face. That Murong Xinzhang could become the Sage's most beloved adopted son, and that even his wife's title, Princess Yongle of the Latter Dynasty, had been retained into the Great Zhou, truly had its reasons.

This military acumen surpassed all ties of kinship; it was simply ability reaching this level.

"Correct! I personally asked the old fishermen of Yecheng. Even if the Zhang River's summer mountain floods surge fiercely, it could not wash away Yecheng.

Rather, after leaving Hezhang, in this stretch near Yecheng, the river channel is shallow and broad, and it often floods in summer."

The area around Yecheng differs from Hezhang and Fuyang — it is a great plain. If the Zhang River were to pour down from Hezhang right now, it would easily flood the surrounding land and turn it into a vast marsh, which certainly would not do. But the soil is soft and unfavorable for cavalry movement — that much is true."

Yan Jin and Murong Xinzhang had essentially guessed Guo Wei's plan: to let the Zhang River pour eastward, soaking the land from Hezhang to Yecheng, making it difficult for cavalry to move and stripping the Zhou army's Hexi light cavalry of its speed advantage.

Murong Xinzhang nodded. "Chief Commander, let us submit a joint memorial and ask the Sage to decide!"

Judging by the current situation, Liu Zhiyuan intended to first take Beizhou, crush or even capture Fu Yanqing and the others, then turn back to fight a bloody battle with the Zhou army.

For at this time, marching north from Henan, if one sought convenience, there were only two routes to take.

One was to follow the Zhang River north from Yecheng — roughly the route that in later times ran from Anyang in Henan through Handan, Xingtai, and Ji County in Hebei.

The other was to take the Yongji Canal north from Weizhou — roughly the later route of Daming, Guantao, Qinghe, Dezhou, and Nanpi.

Yecheng commanded the advantage of the Zhang River, while Beizhou, at the later Qinghe, blocked the Yongji Canal's passage north. With Liu Zhiyuan holding these two places, he could arrange his forces at leisure and wait at ease for the enemy.

If the Zhou army wished to fight, they would either have to first break Guo Wei at Yecheng — but that would place enormous pressure on Fu Yanqing at Beizhou —

or abandon the thousand-odd men of Li Rong surrounded at the Hezhang valley mouth and march the entire army north to lift the siege of Beizhou.

Whether to put the pressure on Fu Yanqing or abandon Li Rong's thousand-odd men — had Zhang Zhao not arrived, Yan Jin could naturally have made the choice himself. But Zhang Zhao had already reached Xiangzhou, so this decision now had to be made by the Emperor.

Just as the two were preparing to submit their joint memorial, word suddenly came that He Fujin, Grand General of the Left Divine Martial Guard, had arrived from Xiangzhou. Yan Jin at once sent a junior officer at his side to receive He Fujin.

He Fujin hurried in, and upon seeing Yan Jin, said only two things.

"The Sage has ordered Huang Yingda to lead fifteen hundred Uyghur sworn followers to reinforce Zhang Zhaojun.

The Sage has already set out from Xiangzhou, accompanied by only a thousand-odd Hanyue Mountain armored guards. He will reach Yecheng later today."

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