Chapter 159: Overturned

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Liu Chengzong did not enter Huo Prefecture.

He had merely received two Hongyi cannons sent by the court when he discovered he was surrounded.

Government troops were garrisoned at Kulong Pass to the northeast, Liulang Fort to the east, Pu County to the southeast, and Daning to the south.

After assessment, he judged the government troops stationed at Liulang Fort to be the weakest and worth attempting a strike.

But that fort was hard to attack — the terrain was easy to defend and hard to assault, blocking the main route into Huo Prefecture. Even if he set up cannons, as long as the defenders kept their heads down, he had no good solution.

And if the main army slipped past, the baggage train couldn't get through; if the baggage got through, they could easily be harried from behind.

So he tried to bait them. When his troops abandoned the baggage, ignored Liulang Fort, and pressed straight east, after marching two li they found the Liulang Fort defenders wouldn't take the bait.

If they wouldn't take the bait, there was nothing to be done. He had no choice but to lead his troops back, though he played a little trick — since they were all light troops anyway, he simply climbed the mountains from the south and slipped back west in secret.

But no matter what Liu Chengzong did, the Liulang Fort defenders stayed motionless inside the fort.

You attack with five hundred men — my one thousand men do not move.

You march five hundred men east — my one thousand men still do not move.

You leave your warhorses and wagons on the west side — my one thousand men remain as placid as still water.

Liu Chengzong darted back and forth, but the Liulang Fort defenders simply would not take the hook, committing fully to their turtle tactics.

It made him look as if he were locked in a battle of wits with thin air — the scene was, for a time, deeply awkward.

It drove a man to claw at his ears and cheeks in frustration.

Liulang Fort lay in the mountains north of the official road from Lüliang Mountains to Huo Prefecture. Without rooting out this fort, any troops passing through would have their retreat cut off, and even if they seized supplies, there would be no way to transport them west.

Yet assaulting the fort head-on — the surrounding terrain was all mountain, so troops could not spread out and could barely maneuver.

The only options were cutting off water and food, but a siege could easily end with government troops blocking the mountain paths from both the east and west sides of the Lüliang Mountains.

As for artillery, his small cannons were utterly useless against the stone fort, and his large cannons lacked sufficient numbers and ammunition.

Truth be told, facing this kind of stone turtle, Liu Chengzong truly had no good solution.

If all four government troop strongholds in the area were like this, Lion Camp would be bottled up west of the Lüliang Mountains for good.

But the saving grace was that not every stronghold was like this.

On the twentieth day of the third month, mounted scouts returning at speed from the direction of Pu County reported that the government troops there, after sorting their equipment, had moved southwest along the official road, then turned north toward Xi County.

Immediately after, the government troops stationed outside Daning County also moved. This force was advancing toward Yonghe County, apparently aiming to circle north of Xi County so that the two units could form a north-south pincer.

Upon receiving this news, the commanders of every sentry gathered on the steep slopes of the western foothills of the Lüliang Mountains to discuss strategy.

Chengyun spread the map on the ground and marked the positions of the four enemy columns. Liu Chengzong instinctively turned his head toward Cao Yao.

Not to ask for a plan, but because in such a situation, Cao Yao was likely the most familiar with it among those present.

Cao Yao gave a bitter smile. "The lesson of Sarhū — do these people not know it at all?"

The same: the enemy hidden, ourselves exposed.

The same: dividing forces to advance in concert through mountain terrain.

The same: several columns of iron turtles refusing to budge from their nests.

The same: every column inferior to the enemy in troop strength and combat power.

This was clearly a grand spirit-channeling array, summoning the spirit of Nurhaci to manifest!

Cao Yao began analyzing the pros and cons. "If we fight, it must be fast. First break one column, then break another before word reaches them. The remaining ones that won't budge will be dead without reinforcements."

"If we want to leave, then mass our full strength, break through the Pu County column, and enter Linfen via Black Dragon Pass."

At this moment, Liu Chengzong raised a hand to signal Cao Yao to hold his tongue. Frowning, he walked aside and stood at the cliff's steep edge, gazing out at the undulating mountain ridges.

He was not thinking of a plan to defeat the enemy — he was thinking of the larger strategic picture.

Thinking of how they had stumbled, by sheer chance, into making the government troops adopt this formation.

He was inclined to call this formation... the Nurhaci Sarhū Spirit-Channeling Array.

After a brief moment of reflection, Liu Chengzong found the crux of the matter.

The court's arrangement for southern Shanxi was a horizontal defense facing north. Thus, Xuanfu and Datong formed one line; Kelan and Daizhou formed one line; Taiyuan formed one line; Fenzhou and Lu'an formed one line.

Relatively speaking, Kelan Prefecture and Pianguan might have had some role in defending the west, but in Fenzhou Prefecture and Pingyang Prefecture, there was no vertical defense arrangement along the Yellow River.

Therefore, Fenzhou Prefecture and Pingyang Prefecture found it hard to coordinate. They only knew there were reinforcements to the north, but when the southern troops moved, the northern troops did not.

Provincial borders, prefectural borders, county borders — even the jurisdictional borders between two military defense circuits.

This kind of situation could be created. He had grasped it!

In that moment, Liu Chengzong looked toward the shadows of the distant rolling mountains, and a subtle feeling stirred in his heart.

How to put it — the court was teaching him how to fight the court.

He turned his head to face the expectant or doubtful eyes of his sentry commanders and, brimming with excitement, clenched his fist. "We fight. First, strike the thousand-man government column moving north from Pu County, then strike the thousand-man government column from Daning. If the two northern government columns stay put, fine. If they move, we'll strike them together."

"The battlefield — south of Xi Prefecture city!"

In truth, the terrain offered no other place to serve as a battlefield. Mountains were everywhere, the narrow paths between them could not accommodate deployed troops, and there were only two or three official roads. Finding flat ground was no easy task.

With the broad strategy decided, the commanders of the six combat sentries all waited for him to issue their battle assignments.

Liu Chengzong did not hesitate. He spoke directly to Yang Yao: "Commander Yang was wounded earlier. This time, you'll take a supporting role and stay behind. I'm leaving both the baggage sentry and the engineering sentry with you. Set up a defensive line south of Xi Prefecture city — dig trenches and establish a camp."

Though Yang Yao felt his wound was not serious and he could still command troops, he nodded and accepted.

When it came to battle orders, he always listened to whatever was given.

He did, however, have his own doubt. He asked, "If I set up camp south of the city, when the northern enemy arrives, they'll just slip into Xi Prefecture city and stalemate with me. I won't be able to beat them."

No matter how sturdy a constructed camp, it could never match a walled city.

Liu Chengzong nodded and smiled. "Camping south of the city doesn't mean camping on the official road. Pick a concealed spot in the mountains where you have a retreat route — that's enough. Don't block the government troops when they head south. Wait until they've passed, then cut them off and hold them there."

If they ran, they'd be hard to find.

"Go to Weijiayu."

Chengyun took up the conversation: "That mountain valley — you can't find it from the outside, and it's not far from the official road. The year before last, drought drove many of the common folk away. Now only seven or eight households remain, tucked deep in the ravine. If we put up some coin and grain, we'll have common folk to work for us, and we can help them through their hardship too. The best of both worlds."

He pointed out the location on the map, raised a hand, and said to the group with a grin: "Three posts, nearly two thousand men — as long as we pick good latrine sites, we'll fertilize their fields for them. A bumper harvest will be waving at the common folk."

"Now that's more like it."

Liu Chengzong smiled. "We're outsiders here. Even if we wanted to do something for the common folk the way we did in Shaanxi, we wouldn't know where to start. But if we can manage not to harm the vast majority of them, over time they'll treat us better than the local troops."

In truth, "not harming a single hair" was not some lofty demand.

Put simply, it meant not troubling the people — making it as if you had never come at all.

But actually carrying it out was no easy thing, especially in this age. Liu Chengzong had been a soldier himself; no one knew that better than he did.

Never mind regular frontier troops — back when he left camp to hunt outside Fish River Fort, his heart had raced everywhere he went. The barren hills and bare ridges all around him played tricks on his eyes; every kind of thing he'd ever eaten flickered in and out of sight on the mountaintops.

The moment he spotted a commoner's sheep, his eyes would blaze.

A living, bleating little lamb would, right before his eyes, complete the whole process — sheared, bled, skinned, sliced — and the moment the blazing sun hit it, the aroma would rise.

Just thinking about how that had felt back then made Liu Chengzong pull a piece of salt-smoked horse meat from his waist pouch. He put it in his mouth and chewed as he said: "To the north, cut off the Daning force and guard against government troops coming out of Kulong Pass and Liulang Stronghold. The rest will head south with me. Chengyun, assign half the medics to follow me."

"We'll clean up the government troops advancing north from Pu County. Post Chief Feng's unit will be the vanguard."

Cao Yao gave a light cough and said, "General, attach the battalion artillery post to the vanguard as well. Last time we fought, it made me want to test this kind of tactic."

In truth, it was far more than just last time. This was an insight Cao Yao had gained entirely from the concentrated use of small cannons to break Li Bei's battle line.

But Cao Yao had never explained his thinking to Liu Chengzong in detail.

Liu Chengzong thought for a moment, then asked with a smile: "How do you plan to organize them — push the Red Barbarian Cannon forward?"

Their Red Barbarian Cannon had no matching ammunition.

That cannon could fire a tight-fitting solid iron ball weighing eight catties at most, and its matching ammunition was a two-catty solid shot and two catties four taels of grapeshot.

But without the matching ammunition, and with no time to cast cannonballs on the spot, they could only have the craftsmen make wooden sabots — that is, cannonball cradles — and fire the cannonballs they already had.

Earlier, when they had set up the cannon to bombard Liulang Stronghold, they had fired three-catty iron balls — those were cannonballs for Li Bei's general-purpose cannons. They also had one-catty solid shot and grapeshot of various sizes, quite a lot of which they had cast back in winter on the Apricot River.

Cao Yao was brimming with confidence. "If we can push it, we push it. If we can't, no matter — we won't rely on the big gun."

Fortunately, the enemy was a guard-battalion force lacking heavy firepower. Liu Chengzong did not quibble further, only saying: "Then I'll watch how you fight. Just don't lose the cannon."

"Give me a break — if I lose the cannon, what am I supposed to hug at night?"

The commanders burst out laughing. Cao Yao really had slept a whole night hugging that bronze cannon.

Just one night. Later he said it was too cold — he'd have to wait until summer to hug it again.

With the army's marching directions settled, Lion Camp sorted their equipment and promptly split into posts and set off.

Yang Yao, along with Liu Chengyun and Shi Chengwo, encamped at Weijia Valley, while the main force accompanied Liu Chengzong all the way south.

They had not gone far — barely fifteen li — when Wei Qian'er, scouting ahead, sent back word: the enemy force had split into two camps in the fields beside the southern official road and were setting up cook-fires.

The enemy scouts had spotted them as well. The two sides' outpost riders clashed first, then each pulled back after taking casualties.

By the time Wei Qian'er's second wave of outpost riders pressed forward, Feng Rang and Cao Yao's vanguard had already reached a point five li from the government camp. The two sides could see each other across the valley and field ridges.

The government outpost riders contracted close to their camp. The thousand-man force, split between two camps, was now rallying together, and in the distance, the banner troops who had been out gathering firewood were sprinting back toward camp.

Although the local situation across the two prefectures of Fenzhou and Pingyang had been arrayed into a "Nurhaci Manifestation Formation," this government force clearly lacked Du Song's fierce courage.

They did not even want their camp anymore. Rallying their troops, they began a steady retreat.

At that moment, the three-post force Liu Chengzong led — Gao Xian, Zhong Hu, and Wang Wenxiu — was still hurrying along from behind. The official road here was narrow, hemmed in by hills on both sides, making it hard to deploy a large force on the march.

The foremost units had already reached a point six li from the enemy camp, while the rearmost units were still marching ten li away.

The moment he heard the government troops ahead were about to flee, Liu Chengzong urgently ordered every post to assemble their mounted contingents and race forward along the right side of the official road, to reach the battlefield as fast as possible and pin the enemy down.

But because of this, the main force's marching speed slowed even further.

Fortunately, after retreating about one li, the government troops stopped pulling back.

When Cao Yao sent word back to Liu Chengzong from the front, he put it like this: "They can't retreat. The road behind them is too narrow — only here can they deploy their troops."

By the time Liu Chengzong reached the government camp with his household cavalry, the thousand government troops from Pu County had already formed up in battle order to the south.

It was a stretch of sloping ground, high in the south and low in the north.

Cao Yao and Feng Rang had already pressed to within one li of the enemy. They deployed their main force across a small stream, made a slight adjustment to their formation, and arranged themselves into a hollow square. Then, at a very slow pace, they waded across the stream and bore down on the government formation.

Liu Chengzong could see it with perfect clarity. At the very front of this formation were Feng Rang's infantry and the artillery post's musketeers. In the center were all of Cao Yao's artillerymen.

At least thirty small cannons, none weighing over a hundred catties, were being carried forward by the artillery crews.

There were also six breech-loading falconets and general-purpose cannons mounted on three-wheeled gun carriages, being pushed forward by the artillerymen.

The Red Barbarian Cannon was a bit unlucky. Its new carriage had not yet been finished when the government troops moved. Its four small wheels seemed to have gotten stuck crossing the stream.

Through the telescope, Liu Chengzong could see that Cao Yao was absolutely infuriated by this four-wheeled gun carriage. He raged helplessly beside the cannon, then finally ordered his men to prop up the breech, extract the ammunition, and load a three-catty solid shot. Right there in the middle of the stream, he fired a round at the government troops on the slope.

It terrified the government soldiers who were hit.

The moment the cannonball struck the formation, the men around it scattered, giving Liu Chengzong a clear view.

That cannonball struck at least four soldiers. The result: one dead, three wounded.

It first hit the tip of a bow that had already been drawn, driving the arrow into the body of a soldier beside him. The snapped bowstring lashed the archer across the face.

Then it sheared through a helmet plume; the helmeted soldier was yanked and more or less injured. Finally, it slammed into some unlucky fellow's chest.

The government artillery opened fire as well. They were using crouching-tiger cannons, planted in front of their battle line, and they fired all at once.

The noise was tremendous, but the range was long, and only a few lead pellets and iron balls landed in front of the formation.

After that, the government troops began loosing arrows in volleys, rank by rank. Because of the sloping ground, more of their archers were able to shoot at them.

Thanks to the armor and shields gifted by the Fenzhou Guard banner troops, Feng Rang's soldiers were well protected. The arcing arrow volleys struggled to do damage. The musketeers, however, suffered quite a few hits — from arrows and shot alike — and were dragged to the rear by the artillerymen.

Feng Rang's archers began to return fire, but they kept advancing all the while.

Feng Rang's battle soldiers and auxiliaries coordinated well. The battle soldiers would loose an arrow and take two steps; the auxiliaries, serving as sword-and-shield men, rose and fell in rhythm with them.

When they closed to a hundred paces, Liu Chengzong furrowed his brow. At this range, they could already open fire with the cannons.

The two sides' arquebusiers and matchlock men began exchanging fire at this distance. Every few steps, a rank would fire, kicking up puffs of blood-mist before the two armies' lines.

But Cao Yao still didn't open fire, holding firm all the way until they had advanced to forty or fifty paces.

Liu Chengzong could already see that the crouching-tiger cannon crews at the very front of the government army's formation had been withdrawn back into the ranks, and the front-row archers had put away their bows and drawn their waist sabers, standing together with the pikemen behind them.

Cao Yao's formation finally moved. Feng Rang's troops began pulling back, clearing a field of fire for the cannons. A row of crouching-tiger cannons and surging-bead cannons were planted down in front of the formation.

The government troops nearly went berserk. Two officers in the front row drew their blades and led the charge downhill.

The cannons roared.

Puffs of gunpowder smoke erupted irregularly before the formation in a brief span, blanketing the front edge of the battlefield where the two armies met in a haze of smoke.

Liu Chengzong could no longer see the two armies clash. All he could make out was the enemy's battle flags toppling within their ranks, swathes of government soldiers collapsing to the ground, and the Lion Battalion troops, weapons in hand, charging row by row into the gunpowder smoke — after which the government soldiers scattered and fled in all directions.