Chapter 125: Cannon Outpost

Even after the main commander of the government troops was captured, the chaos on the battlefield continued for a long time.

Liu Chengzong gathered his four subordinate commanders — Wang Wenxiu, Yang Yao, Gao Xian, and Feng Rang — and led them around everywhere to accept the surrender of the government soldiers.

He knew perfectly well that it was very difficult for anyone else to get these soldiers who had followed Li Bei to surrender.

Even if he went to accept their surrender himself, it would be fairly difficult — harder than it had ever been before.

Wang Wenxiu said, "What's so hard about it? They've lost. Aside from the ones who ran, the rest are captives. Give them something to eat. A soldier eats grain wherever he goes — following us, they'd even get more to eat."

Liu Chengzong shook his head and repeatedly warned the four commanders that whether these men were willing to be captives or willing to surrender and join them, they had to be watched closely.

These men were not the same as those under Liu Guozhen.

That battle had truly been a case of the strong bullying the weak. Liu Chengzong's own main force was no smaller than theirs, and with the addition of Sky Monkey's three thousand troops, the government forces were unquestionably the weaker side.

Moreover, from start to finish, Sky Monkey's thirty hundred-man squads fell back again and again, yet never once showed signs of being about to collapse and scatter.

Accepting surrender is also an art. Only when you are strong will others be willing to follow you to scrape a meal and beg for their lives.

It was never easy for bandits to get government troops to surrender in the first place, and on top of that, they had been defeated.

It was truly a rout like a mountain crumbling. Over a thousand of Wang Ziyong's men were chased for several li by just eight soldiers.

With just those eight men, who could possibly get them to surrender?

Even Liu Chengzong couldn't manage it. Feng Rang's cavalry squad went over, killed one, captured four, and the remaining three fled into the mountains — they won't be coming out.

Those three must have realized that even just three men could accomplish great things.

If you can accomplish great things yourself, why would you follow someone else?

Even if their positions were swapped — if someone had defeated Liu Chengzong like this and then tried to get him to surrender, he wouldn't be willing either. He would rather fight you to the death.

And indeed that was how it turned out. Very few of the government soldiers fighting on their own were willing to surrender. They either fled into the mountains to the east and west, or fought to the death.

In the end, counting those who were too exhausted to move and could not be captured, there were only a little over two hundred men.

On the other hand, the price they themselves paid was far too great.

Inside Li Bei's command tent, Liu Chengzong set down the letter in his hand and turned his head to look toward the tent entrance.

Liu Chengzu entered with his head lowered, his expression complex — carrying both the relief of a burden lifted and the deep grief of heavy casualties. He looked around the tent, sat down cross-legged, and let out a sigh.

Liu Chengzong asked, "Brother, how is it? What are the casualties?"

Liu Chengzu gritted his teeth and slammed his fist hard against the ground, his eyes reddening. He shook his head slightly. "Killed, wounded — light and serious — plus those who fled. All units combined, nearly two thousand."

"How many? Nearly two thousand?"

Liu Chengzong was also stunned by this number.

He and Liu Jiusi had joined forces in the mountains to attack Liu Guozhen.

Liu Jiusi's troops were weak enough. Out of thirty hundred-man squads, the worst-hit pulled back after five casualties, and the least-hit retreated after just two wounded. It was practically just a touch before they withdrew.

Even so, with just over three hundred casualties, they had killed Liu Guozhen and over a hundred government soldiers, winning that battle with a three-to-one casualty ratio.

Liu Chengzong had roughly calculated the losses in his mind earlier. To fight this battle, they had deployed six infantry formations and three cavalry formations — nine formations, over six thousand men.

The enemy had only a little over eight hundred. Losing two hundred should have been about right. Even if they traded three for one, wouldn't losing six hundred men be acceptable?

With the battle turning out like this, it was no wonder Liu Chengzu's eyes were red.

Liu Chengzu sighed, sinking into deep self-reproach. "If your unit hadn't delivered the final decisive blow, this battle would have been a crushing defeat for us."

For the first time, the feeling Liu Chengzong sensed from his elder brother was helplessness.

He could only offer words of comfort — the battle turning out this way was not his elder brother's fault.

His elder brother was the best cavalry squad leader. He had brought twenty brothers home, and these men obeyed his every word, letting him command them as easily as using his own arm and fingers.

Later, to help him, his brother had sent over his right-hand man, Squad Leader Gao Xian, along with half of his subordinates.

His independence had come at the cost of his elder brother's diminished control over his troops.

To control five hundred men, you need at least thirty junior officers.

The officers under Liu Chengzu numbered less than forty percent of that figure.

To say nothing of controlling the other units.

Liu Chengzong sighed inwardly. His elder brother was still that same officer from Fish River Fort.

For an officer, the greatest defeat and sense of helplessness does not come from facing an invincible foe, but from that single moment when the soldiers under his command lose their organization.

"Brother, we learn from every setback." Liu Chengzong looked around beside him and handed over a letter. "This may not be a bad thing."

Liu Chengzu sighed and shifted his attention to the letter. It was a missive sent from the Supreme Commander's Office of the Three Borders at Guyuan, mentioning that Wu Weifan was currently in Qingyang Prefecture campaigning against the Liu brothers over there.

Over there were two brothers, also surnamed Liu — named Liu Daojiang and Liu Daohai, nicknamed Liu the Sixth and Liu the Seventh, likely borrowing the names of the leaders of the Bazhou Uprising during the Zhengde reign.

But those names were truly not a good omen. Zhao Sui, who rose up together with Liu the Sixth and Liu the Seventh, was later flayed by the Zhengde Emperor and his skin made into a saddle.

If those two brothers could not hold off Wu Weifan, they had another seven or eight days.

Just as the two Liu brothers were discussing countermeasures, Cao Yao arrived.

This old scoundrel was someone who had seen so much life and death that he took things in stride. Wiping his hands on his clothes as he entered the command tent, he said cheerfully, "What's this, all long faces? The wounded have all been taken care of. Sky Monkey's over there setting up a medic camp with Chengzuo — they're on their way over with medicine right now."

Li Bei's command tent was full of novelties to him. He looked here and touched there, his expression both relaxed and delighted.

After waiting a long while with no one paying him any attention, he finally sat down beside Liu Chengzong, rubbed his hands together and chuckled, saying, "Lion, General Liu — seven infantry battalions, three cavalry battalions... and not a single one knows how to work the cannons."

As he spoke, Cao Yao leaned back in a tactical recline and nudged Liu Chengzong with his elbow. "Give them to me?"

This kind of attitude was probably Liu Chengzong's greatest source of joy. He laughed and said, "How many cannons are there?"

"Whoa, I'll have to give you a proper accounting of this."

Cao Yao clapped his hands together, sat up straight, cleared his throat, and said, "Four five-hundred-catty Frankish breech-loading cannons — the government army's artillery elite, all with water-cooling. Fought several battles in a row and not a single one damaged."

"And there are also three Great General Cannons — not the old kind from before, but the new Great General Cannons made by Marshal Ye. Each weighs a full thousand catties, forged entirely from pure iron, all hammered out. The quality is far superior to other cast-iron or bronze cannons."

Hearing Cao Yao's description, Liu Chengzong couldn't help but wonder — forged cannons?

And he said the quality was better than cast-iron cannons. Being better than cast-iron cannons was normal, but if the performance was even better than bronze cannons — so they were three steel cannons?

Cao Yao spoke with animated delight, gesturing with his hands. "That one, the cannon carriage of the Lord Ye Divine Arquebus — that's the small version of the Lord Ye Cannon. This is the large version, excellent stuff. There are also thirty small cannons. Give all these cannons to me, and your battalion's attached cannon outpost will expand on the spot."

These past two days, Cao Yao had been utterly stifled by Li Bei's cannon fire — now he could finally hold his head high: "Ten heavy cannons, forty-five light pieces — if those Qingyang troops dare come over, we'll blast them to pieces with a single volley!"

Liu Chengzong laughed when he heard this and said, "You're still dreaming of such a fine opportunity? Where are you going to find another chance as good as this battle?"

This battle really did come down to opportunity.

They had discovered Liu Guozhen's unit entering the mountains as a flanking force — on a side battlefield with no heavy firepower, the situation was actually most favorable to them.

That was the greatest chance for victory.

Liu Chengzong already had plans for these cannons in mind. He said to Cao Yao, "The heavy cannons will all go to you, but the light pieces — no. I intend to distribute the light pieces among the various outposts. Look at Li Bei's troops: once they formed ranks, they had a main artillery force for the assault, but every side was protected by light pieces. If they hadn't been surrounded, cavalry would have had a hard time charging in."

As for Li Bei's formation being broken through by Zhang Tianlin, Liu Chengzong had seen it very clearly from behind the lines. Zhang Tianlin had used a completely standard cavalry assault against an infantry formation.

When cavalry charges a formation, it all comes down to whether they can break through. Victory or defeat is decided in the final twenty paces.

In those twenty paces, the cavalry's oppressive pressure on the infantry is at its strongest. If the formation wavers, the cavalry can drive straight through. If the formation holds, they have to try again.

On the other hand, the way Gao Yingxiang did it — using cavalry to smash directly and brutally into the ground formation — that's the rare approach.

But it worked too.

The only thing that shouldn't have happened was both units charging into the enemy formation at the same time. They collided with each other inside the enemy lines, and neither could fight their way out.

Liu Chengzu said, "I believe this battle's greatest flaw was the lack of a central command. The various units were too hard to coordinate. Even though no one begrudged risking their lives, victory was still hard to achieve."

Liu Chengzong and Cao Yao deeply agreed, but then they looked at each other — there was no other solution.

The biggest point in their favor in this battle was Liu Chengzong dealing with Liu Guozhen on the outer line. The biggest point against them was the lack of unified command.

If only there had been a signal flag on the cannon ridge — order Zhang Tianlin to break the formation, and Zhang Tianlin breaks it on the left wing; order Gao Yingxiang to hold, and Gao Yingxiang holds on the right wing.

Once Zhang Tianlin had cut through and out from the right wing, Gao Yingxiang could then sweep in from the left wing in pursuit. That would have been a brilliant, decisive victory — none of what came after would have happened.

Cao Yao sighed. "There's no one who can unify the command!"

This old bandit knew it best. Unified command wasn't easy even among government troops, let alone among allied bandit forces like theirs.

It sounds simple enough — have one person in the middle giving orders, as long as they can command respect.

"But when it comes time to order men into a death struggle — can High Chuang King make Chengzu and Wanqing fight the government troops to the death? Or can Lion make Middle Dipper Star push his battle line into the face of government cannon fire?"

Cao Yao finished speaking, sat cross-legged, and said, "Might as well leave things as they are."

Besides, even setting aside ten thousand steps, both Gao Yingxiang and Liu Chengzong had to lead their own troops in person.

Without those two units, the fighting strength of this allied rebel king force would be cut straight down to the level of being able to handle a single government hundred-man company.

"Allied camp."

Liu Chengzong pondered for a long while, then spoke these two words. He said to Cao Yao, "I'm planning to merge camps — merge with Heaven-Reaching Monkey, make him my deputy commander, let him appoint the middle outpost officers as he wishes, bring all his men in as auxiliary troops, and expand to a full-strength camp of four thousand."

Cao Yao had not taken part in the battle to annihilate Liu Guozhen's unit. His impression of Heaven-Reaching Monkey was stuck at filthy, and his impression of that unit was still stuck in the past.

He took off his helmet and scratched his head, baffled. "Heaven-Reaching Monkey is a decent man, but his troops... Lion, think it over some more. I'd say Gauze Cao Cao, Crossing Heaven Star, or Shooting-Down-the-Sky — any of them would make a better outpost commander than him. And the best choice of all is your brother!"

As he spoke, he raised a hand toward Liu Chengzu and stared at Liu Chengzong with his scarred eyelid. "If you want elite troops, have Commander Liu reorganize them — he can put together a hundred combat soldiers. If you want a full complement, that's a full five-hundred-man middle outpost right there. Heaven-Reaching Monkey's bunch of beggars — bring them in, and he'll just be digging graves in a different spot."

Liu Chengzu said nothing. Cao Yao curled his lip. "Our brothers all want to live well. No one cares whether there's a commander to dig their grave after they're dead. Making a grave-digger your deputy commander — what's the point?"

Seeing that Liu Chengzong remained unmoved, he lowered his voice. "And besides — nine thousand men were gathered to fight this battle. Once it's over, let them all disperse. Can you afford to keep them?"

That was the most critical issue.

This force was encamped in the Yan River valley. Three days of fighting had consumed a month's worth of provisions.

Whether Heaven-Reaching Monkey was willing to merge camps was one thing. Even if he was, Liu Chengzong couldn't produce the provisions to get this force through the winter.

"Brother Cao, you weren't in that battle in the western mountains. Heaven-Reaching Monkey's men are poorly equipped and unskilled, but they obey orders."

Liu Chengzong looked at Cao Yao and nodded emphatically. "That suits me very well."

"As for my brother's side — my thinking is Shooting-Down-the-Sky, Cao Cao, Breaching Heaven, Crossing Heaven Star, and Monk Wang should also merge their camps. My elder brother and father have experience governing territory. I'll do the mobile campaigning."

After saying this, he turned to the two men. "It's a bit early to be talking about all this. I haven't thought it through yet. In any case, first we deal with Wu Weifan, then we'll consider what to do this winter."

"Speaking of what to do," Cao Yao grinned, "what about Li Bei? He won't take bribes, won't listen to reason — nothing works on him. What do you plan to do with him?"

A troubled look also appeared on Liu Chengzong's face. He shook his head. "I don't know. This is the one thing I really can't figure out."

It was laughable, really. Back with Lu Cheng, Liu Chengzong's greatest regret had been that Lu Cheng was killed by that wood splinter.

Precisely because of that regret, his mind had been filled with countless beautiful fantasies — fantasies that if Lu Cheng hadn't died, kept tied up at his side, maybe at some point he could have won the man over and made him useful.

That was a very traditional military officer — not some minor squad leader or platoon commander like them.

That was a general.

Back in the beginning, that camp model-training unit the old master had commandeered — wasn't it specifically prepared for winning over captured officers?

But now that he had actually captured Li Bei, it put Liu Chengzong in a very difficult position.

Keep him? He himself couldn't find a single reason for Li Bei to surrender. The man could never be made to serve him.

Release him? Impossible. Let him go, and next month General Li would be back with a vengeance — and this time he'd be on full alert against him.

Killing him was even less appropriate. Today Li Bei couldn't win and, with no other options left, surrendered himself into captivity. If a man who surrendered himself into captivity was killed, then in the future, when they faced government troops again, even low-ranking officers would never surrender.

Keep him — keeping him was just a bit of a headache.

Marching with the force — this was an imperial Assistant Regional Commander. He could incite mutiny in his troops at any moment.

One simple sentence: Release me, help me get out, and I'll recommend you for an officer's commission.

And the man would be gone. Maybe if he incited a few more, he could even pull off a decapitation strike.

Seeing his dilemma, Liu Chengzu said, "Send him to Zuantianmao. Have Mister Yang keep him company in conversation. Pick a few good hands from among the clansmen to watch him — that's a bit better than outsiders."

It was only a bit better, really. Blood kin are more reliable than others, but without shared interests, the destructive potential is also greater.

Liu Chengzong tapped his fingers on the table a few times. Suddenly a person came to mind. He asked his brother, "Brother, where's Ren Quan'er?"