Chapter 668: Winds from Eight Directions: The Battle for Hanzhong

In Baocheng County stood Wuxiu Pass, also called Hutou Pass — the great city of Tang times that Zhe Deyi had spoken of.

Wuxiu Pass sat at the most perilous point below Mount Wuguan, ringed by water on its west, north, and south sides.

The surging Bao River swept around those three sides and then raced southward. Though the channel was not wide, the current was too swift to ford, and building a pontoon bridge there was extremely difficult.

And even if the water had flowed more slowly, in truth no pontoon bridge could have been built.

For Wuxiu Pass was not merely ringed by water on three sides — those three water-ringed sides were sheer cliffs. Even if a bridge were laid, what lay beyond it was still a hundred-zhang precipice, offering no way up to the pass at all.

Thus the only place from which Wuxiu Pass could be assaulted was its eastern face, the side that locked down the Cloud Bridge plank road of the Baoxie Road. When Li Cunhui arrived with three thousand elite troops, he could not help drawing a sharp breath.

The Cloud Bridge plank road was cut into the mountainside halfway up, wide enough for only four men abreast, and because the road was built by driving wooden posts into the mountain, its load-bearing capacity was limited — no great number of men could come up at once.

Wuxiu Pass, built against the mountain and overlooking the water, loomed over the Cloud Bridge plank road like a mountain god, completely choking off the passage.

Li Cunhui did not attack at once, nor did he even make a probing assault. If his three thousand men advanced, only a hundred or so could go up at a time — it would be sending them to their deaths.

Word quickly reached Luo Yu'er at the main army. Luo Yu'er reported up to the commander-in-chief, Duke of Cai, Yin Zhengqi, while summoning the generals to council.

After looking at the sketch Li Cunhui had drawn, Zhe Deyi said with the air of a man with a toothache, "Of the two pass-fortresses on the Baoxie Road, Wuxiu Pass is even more formidable than Baogu Pass.

In the twelfth year of Jian'an of the Later Han, the Great Wei Martial Emperor marched out of Xie Valley to threaten Hanzhong. He attacked Wuxiu Pass and could not take it, and so had no choice but to withdraw his troops."

In any other dynasty, calling Cao Cao "Cao Mengde" would have sufficed — one might even have gotten away with shouting "Cao Aman" twice. But not in Zhang Zhou's realm.

For the Empress Cao Yanxi's Shazhou Cao clan claimed descent from the Qiao Commandery Cao lineage, the descendants of Cao Cao himself.

Historically, Wuxiu Pass, as the natural stronghold of the Baoxie Road, had seen dozens of wars great and small, most frequently during the Southern Song, when Song–Jin and Song–Mongol forces fought several savage contests over it.

The most famous was surely the Song–Jin Battle of Hanzhong in the third year of Shaoxing of the Southern Song (1133), when the Jin army first took Wuxiu Pass by surprise, then stormed Xingyuan Prefecture (Hanzhong).

But Liu Ziyu, Prefect of Hanzhong, had gotten there first, burning Xingyuan Prefecture and the other cities great and small, and moving the inhabitants away entirely.

After the Jin army took Xingyuan Prefecture, with no grain or forage to sustain them, they attacked Xianren Pass westward to enter Shu, only to be blocked by Wu Jie. They could only choose to return the way they had come, through Wuxiu Pass.

But by then Liu Ziyu, Prefect of Xingyuan, who knew the terrain well, led more than a thousand elite troops over the mountains to seize Wuxiu Pass, bottling up the Jin army of sixty thousand.

To return north, the Jin army stormed Wuxiu Pass, and only after losing more than half their number did they escape back to Guanzhong. The Bao River was choked with Jin corpses and abandoned baggage, forming a blockage.

From this one can see how fearsome the terrain of Wuxiu Pass was. It is said one should not obstruct a returning army, yet Liu Ziyu dared to use Wuxiu Pass to lock down the plank road and block the Jin army's route home.

And he had only a thousand-odd soldiers, while the Jin army hurled sixty thousand men at him in a frenzy — and still could not take it.

The reason half of them ultimately escaped was probably that the Song troops on the pass were nearly dead of exhaustion, simply too spent to keep killing, and only then could the Jin army get away.

Of course, the men here could not know of that battle, but the difficulty of taking Wuxiu Pass had somewhat exceeded their expectations.

After Zhe Deyi had spoken of Cao Cao's attack on Wuxiu Pass, He Fujin brought up Zhong Hui's campaign against Shu in those years.

And the reason he raised Zhong Hui's campaign against Shu was that it closely resembled the present situation.

Back then, Wei had likewise attacked Shu before the southlands were pacified, and had likewise divided its forces into two routes: Zhong Hui's main force took the Baoxie Road to strike Hanzhong, while Deng Ai led a flanking force by the Yinping Road.

It was exactly the same as the present main army marching on Hanzhong while Gao Huaide led a small elite force by the Qishan Road.

He Fujin pointed at the sketch and said, "Zhong Hui was able to break Wuxiu Pass in his campaign against Shu because the Baoxie Road was then badly damaged and the Shu army did not hold Wuxiu Pass firmly. It is not the same as today.

Therefore, to force an assault would be extremely difficult. Better to send a picked force eastward, around by the Wenchuan Road, and strike from front and rear."

The so-called Wenchuan Road was a route built east of Wuxiu Pass along the Wenchuan River, a tributary of the Han River.

It was constructed in the third year of Dazhong of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (849), and it too could lead to Hanzhong, running roughly southward along the Wenchuan River in what would later be Chenggu County, Shaanxi.

Luo Yu'er's expression was equally grave. "The Wenchuan Road exists, but after the fourth year of Dazhong it essentially fell out of use. It was used for less than a year in all. The riverbed is said to be all loose stones — impossible for men to travel."

The Wenchuan Road was not a plank road — or rather, plank road made up only a very small part of it. Most of the route was a gravel road built along the Wenchuan River.

Its advantage was that it was two hundred li shorter than the Wuxiu Pass route, and by following the river, one could make some use of water transport.

But it was later found that the Wenchuan River changed enormously between wet and dry seasons. In the wet season the water was abundant and often washed out the post road along the bank.

In the dry season the water shrank, and on many stretches a man had only to roll up his trouser legs to cross — no boats could pass at all. So after just one year it was essentially abandoned.

Luo Yu'er was still hesitating, but Jiao Jixun beside him had already made up his mind. The Right Shenwei Guard had caused such a disaster; if they did not do something that risked death nine times out of ten, how could they still hold their heads up among the imperial guards?

So Jiao Jixun cupped his hands. "Marshal, according to the traveling merchants of the Hexi Trading Company, although the Wenchuan Road cannot take a large army, quite a few merchants use it, because the route is shorter than going by Wuxiu Pass.

I beg permission to pick eight hundred elite soldiers and go south by the Wenchuan Road to take the enemy by surprise. It will surely throw the Shu army at Xingyuan Prefecture into chaos, and perhaps we can even link up with Li Rong of Zhaoyi, who is coming by the Tangluo Road."

Luo Yu'er stared at Jiao Jixun in astonishment. "You mean not to cross the mountains to strike Wuxiu Pass from both sides, but to go directly south by the Wenchuan Road to Xingyuan Prefecture?

If so, the main road of the Wenchuan Route is ruined and strewn with boulders; baggage cannot pass. Eight hundred men could carry very little. Even if they reached Xingyuan Prefecture, what use would they be?"

The Wenchuan Road was built along the Wenchuan River and had now lain abandoned for nearly a hundred years. Only traveling merchants still used it, and they traveled with three mules for provisions and one for goods.

That is to say, two merchants would generally bring four mules: three loaded with food and other essential supplies, and only one carrying goods — only so could they get through.

And that was for merchants. If an army wanted to get through the Wenchuan Road, they would have to carry large quantities of weapons, armor, grain, and the like — a far heavier burden than a merchant's. Each man would probably need four mules.

But one man could not look after four mules. Even if he could, such a commotion would surely alert the Shu army's scouts.

Then the Shu army would only need to hold the strongpoints, set ambushes, and wait at ease for the exhausted enemy. Jiao Jixun and his men would have no choice but to die.

Jiao Jixun looked at Luo Yu'er, and for the first time a ruthless expression showed on his face.

He was forty-six this year. Although he had risen to General of the Household among the imperial guards, he still had no title of nobility, and the Right Shenwei Guard had now suffered such a disaster.

If he did not stake everything on one desperate gamble, when would he ever win military honors? When would he ever qualify to have his portrait placed in the Hall of Meritorious Ministers?

"The Wenchuan River has fish, shrimp, and crabs of its own, and no lack of water. Each man need only carry two jin of dried rice cooked in mutton fat.

For two hundred li, mules are actually slower than a man's legs. I will lead eight hundred brave men at forced march, traveling day and night without rest, and within two days we will certainly reach the borders of Xingyuan Prefecture. The Shu army will have no time to react."

Mules may carry heavy loads and be fast, but that is over short distances. Within fifty li they can leave a man ten streets behind, but over two hundred li of mountains and rivers, a hardened, well-trained man will absolutely outlast any mule.

The title of endurance champion of the terrifying upright ape was not earned for nothing.

A ruthless man indeed! Luo Yu'er was filled with respect. Jiao Jixun meant to carry no grain, only weapons and armor, and cover the Wenchuan Road at maximum speed.

It was pure desperation. The slightest misstep — even if the Shu army set no defenses at all — and if Jiao Jixun's men could not find food and supplies, they would simply starve to death.

Seeing Luo Yu'er still hesitating, Jiao Jixun dropped directly to one knee and cried out, "I beg the Marshal to grant this!"

Seeing that Jiao Jixun was utterly resolved, Luo Yu'er no longer wavered. He looked at Jiao Jixun and said, "Select five hundred brave men from the Right Shenwei Guard, and three hundred brave men from the other imperial guard units and the palace army garrisons. Have the army's judge-advocates measure them by the rule: any man whose waist is less than three chi around is forbidden to go!"

Jiao Jixun was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly. Luo Yu'er himself did not know whether his decision was right or wrong.

And the army's judge-advocates immediately began measuring the waists of the soldiers.

The reason for doing it this way was that Jiao Jixun's method was to pass through the Wenchuan Road quickly by keeping the men only half-fed or even less than half-fed, carrying as little grain as possible and as many weapons and armor as possible.

On a march like this, if a man didn't have three catties of fat on his belly, even if he made it out of the Wenchuan Road he wouldn't be able to fight.

Only those pot-bellied, well-stocked brawny men could rely on the fat stored up in ordinary times to walk two hundred li of bad road in a half-starved state and still fight.

Jiao Jixun set out at once, and Luo Yu'er also steeled himself. Jiao Jixun chose to take the Wenchuan Road straight into Xingyuan Prefecture, so someone also had to take the small paths of the Wenchuan Road over Wuguan Mountain to strike from front and rear.

He looked at Wucheng Marquis Wang Tongxin behind him. In the old days, when he had followed Zhang Zhao west with the Hanshan Unit and fought battles of a few hundred or a few thousand men, Wang Tongxin had outranked him.

In fact, he still didn't rank lower than him now. Manxiong, Dunzhu, Qiong Reduojin, and Wang Tongxin had always been the Four Hounds at Zhang Zhao's side, and in battle they all fought shoulder to shoulder with Zhang Zhao.

But Wang Tongxin was unwilling to learn to read, and he could only lead three to five hundred men at most, so Luo Yu'er had later overtaken him and become a commander of one side, while Wang Tongxin still served as Zhang Zhao's personal officer in the Hanshan Unit.

"Elder Brother, how about I entrust this business of crossing Wuguan Mountain to you?" Luo Yu'er pondered for a moment, then spoke in a rather careful tone.

Unexpectedly, Wang Tongxin didn't mind at all that Luo Yu'er had assigned him this hard task. The fellow grinned.

"What's so impossible about it? Just watch, Marshal. I'll surely descend like divine soldiers from heaven and smash the rebel army.

I have big expenses, and the stipend grain of this Wucheng Marquis title is still a bit little. It's high time I became a commandery duke!"

On the other side, Li Rong, who was taking the Tangluo Road, had an even worse headache, because the Baoxie Road had once been repaired by Meng Shu to transport grain, and the Bao River was still barely navigable in some stretches.

But the Tangluo Road was different. As the main route from Guanzhong into Shu during the Tang, it had been extensively destroyed by the two regimes of Wang Shu and Meng Shu in succession, so now the Tangluo Road existed in name only, and the plank roads were almost entirely ruined.

Li Rong could only fell trees and build plank roads as he advanced. Although there was no one defending it, the hardship of the whole journey could truly be called harder than climbing to the blue sky.

In Xingyuan Prefecture, at the headquarters of the Military Governor of Shannan West Circuit, Sun Hanshao had been actively making all kinds of preparations ever since word came that the Zhou army was about to attack Shu.

As the foremost general of Meng Shu, Sun Hanshao had exchanged military provinces with Zhang Qianzhao after withdrawing from Guanzhong.

Although he had only been garrisoning Xingyuan Prefecture for three or four years, he had governed the whole of Xingyuan Prefecture quite well. Most of the soldiers under his command were from the Meng Shu imperial guard Wuyi Army who had come with him, and he could command both officers and men as easily as using his own arm and fingers.

Nor had Sun Hanshao adopted passive defense like the old Shu Han. Instead, several years earlier he had sent troops to occupy and hurriedly repair the Wuxiu Pass and other passes.

But just when he thought he was about to face a punitive expedition by the Zhou army from Guanzhong, the first alarm actually came from the Wuding Army of Yuanzhou, east of Xingyuan Prefecture.

Yuanzhou was the later Yang County in Shaanxi. A military province had been established there in the Tang, and Sun Hanshao himself had originally been the Military Governor of the Wuding Army of Yuanzhou under the Later Tang.

After surrendering to Meng Zhixiang, he had mostly remained garrisoned in Yuanzhou, and only in recent years had he been transferred to serve as Military Governor of Shannan West Circuit.

The current Military Governor of the Wuding Army of Yuanzhou was Wang Huan, a native of Zhengding in Hebei, considered half a fellow-townsman of Meng Zhixiang. He came from Meng Zhixiang's personal guard and was skilled at managing troops. If he had not truly encountered a major problem, he would not have asked Sun Hanshao for help.

Only when the messenger from the Wuding Army arrived did Sun Hanshao learn that as early as the first day of the third month, Erzhu Jing, Deputy Commander of the Zhang Zhou Shu-Pacification Field Headquarters, Prefect of Xiangyang, Supervisor of Xiangyang Troops and Horses, and Commander of Feng'an Garrison, had led two hundred warships and thirty thousand infantry and cavalry upriver from Jinzhou (Ankang, Shaanxi) and begun a fierce assault on the territory of the Wuding Army of Yuanzhou.

Erzhu Jing of course did not have thirty thousand troops. In reality he had only eight thousand infantry and cavalry, plus sailors, laborers, and others, totaling a little over ten thousand men.

But the fighting strength of the Feng'an Garrison and the Xiangyang Guard Army, composed of yabing guards from Shannan East Circuit and yabing guards from the Weisheng Army of Dengzhou, was not low.

Xiangyang Prefecture had completely carried out land equalization. Every household had gained great benefits under the new dynasty, and there was a visible path of advancement.

The key was that the new dynasty had a new spirit, and everyone felt there was something to strive for, so every man gave his all. Although they were going against the current, their movement was not slow.

They had set out from Xiangyang Prefecture on the first day of the third month, and by the seventh day of the third month they had already stormed Shiquan County, which was controlled by the Shu army.

On the eighteenth of the third month they reached Raofeng Pass, northwest of Shiquan County, and then surrounded it completely and attacked fiercely. Wang Huan sent three thousand men of the Wuding Army downstream to relieve it, but they were defeated in all three battles.

On the twentieth of the third month, the garrison of Raofeng Pass saw that the relief army had been badly defeated, and simply opened the gates and surrendered.

Now Yuanzhou was in danger, because beyond Raofeng Pass lay Zuxi Pass, and from Zuxi Pass to Zhanlongya it was only a little over twenty li, and then came Wukou Pass, the exit of the Ziwu Road.

If Wukou Pass were captured by the Zhou army, then the Zhou army could calmly march south down the Ziwu Road.

Even if the road was hard to travel, as long as they controlled the pass, there would certainly be no danger, and it would be much easier for the main army to enter Xingyuan Prefecture.

Sun Hanshao was extremely familiar with Yuanzhou. When he learned that Wang Huan had already gone to defend Wukou Pass, he knew the situation was very bad.

Because if Zuxi Pass and Zhanlongya could still be held, then Wang Huan could not possibly have lost Wukou Pass.

Although Wukou Pass was called a pass, it could in fact only control the Wukou of the Ziwu Valley and could not block an enemy coming from the east.

Just at that moment, an urgent report arrived from the commander guarding Wuxiu Pass, saying that Luo Yu'er, Marching Marshal of the Zhou army's Shu-Pacification Field Headquarters and General of the Central Army, was leading a great army in a fierce assault on Wuxiu Pass. Looking out from the pass, the Zhou army's banners were spread wide, and soldiers filled the mountain ridges and river valleys, so many that no one could count them.

Sun Hanshao's face was calm, but inwardly he was somewhat panicked. He came from a military family of Hedong in Daibei, so of course he knew how formidable the great armies of the Central Plains were. Although Wuxiu Pass was imposing and perilous, it was not impossible to take.

It seemed the Zhou army's main force was advancing south by the Baoxie Road, while a detached force went upriver from Jinzhou. The one on the Qishan Road must be a feint.

"Is there any news from the Tangluo Road?" Sun Hanshao asked hurriedly.

A military officer beside him spread out a map and replied, "There is news. According to the general holding the pass, mountain folk and hunters have seen Zhou army banners and traces of tree-felling."

Natural barriers are very fair; they do not favor one side alone. For the Zhou army, the Tangluo Road was indeed harder than climbing to the blue sky, but the Shu army also could not easily enter the Tangluo Road and could only use mountain folk to carry out rough reconnaissance.

Sun Hanshao nodded. He had long known the Zhou army would not overlook the Tangluo Road. While ordering the garrison to keep strict watch, he turned his thoughts to the matter of Yuanzhou.

The Wuding Army did not have many men, because Yuanzhou was narrow and could not support too many troops. He would have to draw some troops to aid them.

But if he transferred troops from Xingyuan Prefecture to go, then Xingyuan Prefecture's own forces would not be enough.

"Order Li Jin, Commander of the Young Lord's Cavalry and Infantry, to lead four thousand men at once to aid Military Governor Wang of the Wuding Army. Send an express messenger to the court to request reinforcements. Also have Sun Shunchao lead a thousand men to support Wuxiu Pass."

Sun Hanshao quickly made his arrangements. Li Jin was a fierce general of Xingyuan Prefecture and could handle the relief of the Wuding Army.

Sun Shunchao was his clan nephew. Although somewhat greedy for money, he had a reputation for valor, and holding Wuxiu Pass suited him perfectly.

Since the Zhou army had chosen to attack Xingyuan Prefecture fiercely, it was only right to transfer some troops from other places.

Suddenly, Sun Hanshao's gaze swept over the Wenchuan Road on the map. After a few breaths of silence, he shook his head.

The Wenchuan Road could absolutely not be traversed by a large army. Even if it could be crossed, one could only choose either to go without armor or to go without grain.

Besides, he had arranged three hundred men to guard the end of the valley mouth, so there should not be any problem.

(End of Chapter)

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