Chapter 485: Schemes

A battle only happens the instant opportunity strikes; a war is a long, tedious wait.

Centered on Camel City, Mo Yujing, relying on Mongol soldiers to hold the position, was waiting; Lin Chengdong, trapped to the west, was waiting; Yang Jiamo at the Gaotai Battalion Headquarters in the east was waiting; and Liu Chengzong, encamped once more in the western desert gobi, was also waiting.

Inside the command tent, Liu Chengzong looked somewhat haggard — and truthfully, it wasn't just him; no one in the entire Tiger Guard Battalion was faring any better.

The place where he had stationed his troops was called Xu Sanwan, barely a dozen li from Camel City. It was also an ancient city, though long abandoned. Sokang, a Langtou of the Three Tribulations Society serving as the army's guide, said the city had been built in the fifth year of the Hongwu reign, when it was called Gaotai Station, and later served as the seat of the Gaotai Battalion Headquarters from the twelfth year of Hongwu to the seventh year of Jingtai.

The reason for its abandonment was simple: desertification made farming impossible, and there was a severe water shortage — so severe that the Gaotai Battalion Headquarters relocated eastward to the banks of the Black River.

This revealed just how well Lin Chengdong, the Ming commander leading the wagon fort, knew the terrain around Ganzhou. His wagon fort's encampment was brilliantly positioned, outside an abandoned village between Camel City and Xu Sanwan, where there was well water they could draw from.

Feng Rang and Wei Qian'er, who were building walls outside, were not so fortunate — they dug several wells deep into the ground, but none produced water.

Fortunately, Xu Sanwan had an ancient city. For two hundred years, people had intermittently farmed the land. Though no fields were visible now, only indistinguishable barren mounds, the labor of those before them could still guide Liu Chengzong to the flow of groundwater.

In truth, the matter wasn't complicated. Determining whether a place had groundwater was hard to do in the desert, but on these abandoned mounds it wasn't difficult. It was spring, and sparse wild grass had grown on the wasteland — wherever the vegetation was denser than elsewhere, or wherever grass had sprouted, there was an eighty-percent chance of water below.

And in winter, wherever falling snowflakes settled on the ground slightly larger than elsewhere, there was water; conversely, if the snowflakes were very small while the surroundings were normal, there were stones, ore, tombs, or ancient city walls underneath.

The Tiger Guard Battalion easily dug several wells at Xu Sanwan, but the wells were shallow and the water bitter. Moreover, the flow was low everywhere, barely enough to meet the battalion's own needs, and utterly incapable of providing water support to Feng Rang and Wei Qian'er's two battalions.

All the water for those two battalions had to be transported from Camel City, over a dozen li away.

They were fortunate in the season they were fighting — a meltwater channel from the Qilian Mountains passed through Camel City, a river that only had water in spring.

Inside the command tent, several Tiger Guard Battalion officers had already mapped the situation based on three rounds of patrol reports. The map lay on the table, and as Liu Chengzong studied it, the situation was crystal clear.

The Ming commander-in-chief and he were both taking risks to varying degrees, but judging purely by the situation, the Marshal's Manor was at a greater disadvantage.

Because the Ming army had already massed heavy troops to pursue Gao Yingdeng. Even with Zhang Tianlin's division behind them, their strength on the eastern battlefield was still inferior; and the wagon fort he had surrounded was nothing more than a piece of chicken rib.

Keeping troops around it was a waste of manpower, with negligible impact on the overall battle; but not surrounding it was impossible — the wagon fort's firepower was immense, and leaving them unchecked could become the seed of defeat.

Liu Chengzong looked at the map and frowned to himself. The key to turning the game around lay in finding Yang Jiamo.

The battle had indeed unfolded differently from Liu Chengzong's original plan. When he marched out from Suzhou, he had intended to lure the Ming army out of their defensive positions and annihilate them in the desert, severing one arm of the Gansu border army first.

But now, annihilation had failed, and instead a portion of the enemy had been diverted in the opposite direction — something he had never anticipated at the war's outset.

The upside was that both sides' battle lines had stretched four hundred li. All the troops that could be committed were already on the table. Liu Chengzong had no reserve battalions left — only the central army's Tiger Guard Battalion remained concealed.

But by his count, the Gansu border army's losses from being routed, annihilated, and surrounded in the engagements had already exceeded ten thousand. At least ten thousand troops had been sent east to reinforce the Zhuanglang River. Excluding Li Hongsi's division, which was pursuing Gao Yingdeng, it would be very hard for any more intact, full-strength Ming battalions to appear on the battlefield.

Liu Chengzong calculated: Yang Jiamo should still have a relatively strong Supreme Commander's Guard Battalion, plus at most a Vice Supreme Commander's Guard Battalion — say eight thousand troops, absolute maximum.

All the Gansu forces, mobile and immobile, inside and out, added up to just that.

Calculated this way, the present moment was a race against time. West of the battlefield, the Marshal's Manor could mass a superiority in forces; east of the battlefield, the Ming army could mass a superiority in forces.

Liu Chengzong sent men to summon Brigade Commander Yang Yao and Staff Officer Wei Qian'er, who were besieging the wagon fort.

As soon as Wei Qian'er arrived, he launched into a full report on the siege operations.

Liu Chengzong only listened to half before he couldn't bear to hear any more.

In battles like the great He-Huang campaign and the siege of Camel City, the Marshal's army had already developed a routine set of siege tactics for dealing with entrenched enemies.

Charge while their camp is still unsteady; if the charge fails, surround them; if surrounding fails, that's perfect for field battle; if the enemy dares not fight in the field, then besiege them. When the siege reaches its limit, they'll have to break out — and breaking out returns to field battle, or they surrender.

This was a well-honed procedure for dealing with wagon forts or castle garrisons, and it was the combat habit Liu Chengzong had cultivated over many years.

Those with cannons, those with walls, those with wagons — all are formidable enemies. "Formidable enemy" means an enemy whose attack and defense have been strengthened. Clashing head-on against such things is the act of a great fool who treats his subordinates' lives as worthless. The ancients made this clear long ago.

Sun Tzu's Art of War says: await the disordered with order, await the clamorous with calm, await the distant with the near, await the weary with the rested, await the hungry with the full — do not challenge banners in perfect formation, do not strike at imposing battle arrays.

He waved his hand, cutting off Wei Qian'er's report, and said, "I didn't call you here for that. Tonight, your battalion will switch posts with the Tiger Guard Battalion. Tomorrow morning, raise my command banners and great standard and march toward Camel City. Draw Mo Yujing out, and head for Gaotai."

Wei Qian'er blinked. He knew Liu Chengzong was about to put on another show for the Ming army.

Liu Chengzong said, "If you encounter no enemy, pass Gaotai and press toward Ganzhou. Fortify the countryside and prepare to assault the city. If you do encounter the enemy, be extremely cautious — it will certainly be Gansu Supreme Commander Yang Jiamo."

Hearing the name Yang Jiamo, Wei Qian'er was so stirred that the hairs all over his body stood on end. He asked, "Does the Grand Marshal believe Yang Jiamo is in Ganzhou?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "Not certain. I merely hope he is in Ganzhou."

In his mind, he had exhaustively considered every possibility. The worst was that Yang Jiamo, who had earlier been sitting in Ganzhou city with two guard battalions, was at this very moment trampling Gao Yingdeng under his horse's hooves.

It was precisely for this reason that he planned to have Wei Qian'er and the Tiger Guard Battalion switch posts under cover of night, and then send Wei Qian'er forward.

This was neither to lure the enemy nor to seize a city, but to besiege Wei to rescue Zhao. If Yang Jiamo had led his troops to deal with Gao Yingdeng, then threatening Ganzhou before Gao Yingdeng and Zhang Tianlin's division were annihilated could, to the greatest extent possible, force Yang Jiamo to abandon annihilating the enemy and turn back to relieve Ganzhou.

At the same time, Liu Chengzong was preparing for both possibilities. Yang Jiamo might not have joined the pursuit of Gao Yingdeng — perhaps he was scheming, waiting for Liu Chengzong to lead troops to relieve the wagon fort, or, like Liu Chengzong himself, having his patrol cavalry scour the desert to find him.

At present, the patrol riders had no intelligence whatsoever on Yang Jiamo. All these scenarios were uncertain. Liu Chengzong believed a pitched battle must be avoided at all costs, but if the blade's thrust reached Ganzhou smoothly, then it would truly be an assault on the city.

Because even without knowing Yang Jiamo's location or the strength of his command, Liu Chengzong's time could not be wasted.

The battlefield shifts moment by moment. Right now, the worst scenario was Gansu Supreme Commander Yang Jiamo intercepting Gao Yingdeng. But if things dragged on for three to five days, the worst scenario would no longer be that.

It would be either Hong Chengchou or Yang Jiamo executing a six-hundred-li forced march. Whether it was Liu Chengzong or Liu Chengyun, either would face a sudden increase of over twenty thousand enemy troops — a crushing pressure neither of them could withstand alone.

Therefore, speed is the essence of warfare. For an operation like assaulting a city, Liu the Lion would absolutely never let Wang Ziyong sit idle in Suzhou. Controlling the villages and farmland, coordinating from within to open the gates — all of it required the help of the Three Tribulations Society members.

That afternoon, Liu Chengzong's dispatch guards carried letters rushing toward Suzhou, conveying the summons to Wang Ziyong.

As night fell, Liu Chengzong immediately dispersed the Tiger Guard Battalion. Squad by squad, they slipped into the siege camp under cover of darkness. Then Wei Qian'er's troops withdrew in equally orderly fashion. The two battalions completed the post switch in the silent black night.

The next morning, Wei Qian'er's battalion troops spread their patrol cavalry across the gobi and advanced cautiously toward Camel City. After linking up with Mo Yujing's division, they continued onward, trailing dust toward the Gaotai Battalion Headquarters.

Yang Jiamo, stationed at Gaotai, had no need for patrol cavalry at all. The distance was no more than forty or fifty li, and the residents near the Gaotai Battalion Headquarters had long been on tenterhooks. The moment the approaching force drew near, the village commoners beat gongs and drums, mustering to defend themselves. One by one, the fortified villages and stockades swiftly reported the news to Gaotai.

Correspondingly, Wei Qian'er had also learned from the commoners' mouths, right at the start of his advance, that Yang Jiamo was at Gaotai.

The news quickly reached Liu Chengzong's ears as he surrounded the wagon fort. For him, this was undoubtedly a dream come true. He no longer hesitated, immediately ordering the camp struck before meeting with Feng Rang. "Elder Brother, the siege of the wagon fort falls to you. Yang Jiamo is at Gaotai — I must go find him."

Feng Rang nodded heavily and clasped his fist. "Rest easy, Grand Marshal. If they dare break out, I'll have a bout with them."

Truth be told, the Marshal's Manor's battalion troops were a relatively mild-mannered Liu Chengzong leading an army of reckless men. It was only because decision-making power rested in Liu Chengzong's hands that they chose siege tactics — methods that used more troops, took longer, and yielded slower results, but incurred fewer losses.

Left to the true inclinations of the various battalion staff officers, chiliarchs, and company commanders, the men actually preferred a direct charge.

Feng Rang especially.

Feng Rang was a veteran who had followed Cao Yao back from Sarhū. His temperament and experience satisfied two conditions: first, he knew how the Later Jin army charged wagon forts head-on; second, he was one of the few men in the entire Marshal's army most terrified of hunger.

When hunger came, others merely feared not filling their bellies, but what Feng Rang feared was the memory of fleeing from the Liao River to the Yellow River sustained by a single human leg.

And inside that wagon fort were four thousand men with forty days of provisions.

The way he saw it, if he spotted that wagon fort, he'd be itching to charge it no matter what.

Now that Liu Chengzong said he wanted to leave him one battalion here, all Feng Rang could think about was that he had to reinforce the wooden carts and get ready to take the cannon fire and storm the wagon fort head-on.

Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that Liu the Lion, even when leaving, would still micromanage one last move before he went.

Liu Chengzong said, "Here's what we'll do. Send a chiliarch with me."

"Huh?"

Feng Rang thought to himself, we already had two battalions surrounding the wagon fort, and now you're pulling one out — fine. But we've got three chiliarchs and you're taking one of them too?

Liu Chengzong saw his confusion and casually pointed east. "The moment I leave, the wagon fort will try to break out right after. They won't know I'm going to hit Yang Jiamo, but they'll definitely know a force has marched off."

"One chiliarch's cavalry will follow me and halt where the wagon fort is out of sight. Now and then, show yourselves just within view of their lookouts. They'll think I withdrew to set an ambush. That'll keep them quiet for a few days."

After all, people are like that — you're about to go sweep the floor, but before you do, someone comes and nags you to sweep it, and suddenly you don't want to anymore.

The art of war is a branch of psychology. Its core essence is suspicion. What the enemy doesn't want you to do isn't necessarily the right choice for you, but what the enemy does want you to do is definitely the wrong one.

Originally the wagon fort wanted to break out. Liu Chengzong wanted to make the wagon fort mistakenly believe that the Marshal's army was also hoping they'd break out. Once that misunderstanding took hold, the chance of the wagon fort actively breaking out would drop very low.

Feng Rang listened and felt it really did make sense, so he agreed for now, then asked, "But Marshal, if they still break out, I'll just fight them, right?"

Liu Chengzong paused, thinking there was no such possibility.

With trenches and earthworks everywhere, the government troops couldn't take their wagons even if they broke out. Right now the wagon fort still had plenty of provisions, cannon, and equipment — without their war wagons, they simply couldn't leave.

What's more, the besieging force showing signs of luring and ambushing would very precisely convey one message to the wagon fort: the besiegers are impatient, desperate for a quick victory.

Therefore, unless a massive shift in the battlefield situation became known to the wagon fort, they would not actively break out.

But Liu Chengzong didn't state it as an absolute. He said, "If they still break out, then brother, act as circumstances dictate. Troops have no constant formation, just as water has no constant shape. Fight if you can win; leave if you cannot."

"Leave?"

Facing Feng Rang's puzzlement, Liu Chengzong nodded quite naturally. "One battalion can't completely encircle another. They have more men. Even if they strike scattered troops with concentrated force, they'd only manage a rout. So if the enemy breaks out, whether to fight or leave depends on how great brother's odds of victory are. If the odds aren't great, letting them go is no problem."

Liu Chengzong didn't expect Feng Rang to pin down the entire wagon fort with just one battalion, so he wasn't demanding the impossible. Winning would of course be best, but if it meant a pyrrhic victory or even a defeat, given the current situation, there was no need to fight that battle.

This wagon fort was a chicken rib — if swallowing it still scratched your throat, you might as well just toss it.

"I have only one requirement, though. The war wagons, the cannon, the provisions — don't let them take those away." Liu Chengzong spoke with full confidence. "As long as we don't let them take those, the next time we meet will be the day we annihilate the remnant enemy in full."

With such orders, Feng Rang's heart was naturally ten thousand times lighter. He clasped his fists. "Marshal, rest assured. I will do my utmost to keep them here. Even if I can't, with their baggage train, don't expect them to run!"

"I am assured."

Liu Chengzong drew a deep breath. Though the battle lines were now stretched very long, every battalion had found its own opponent.

The horn to strike camp sounded from the besieging encampment. Liu Chengzong turned his gaze eastward — that was the direction of the Gaotai Battalion Fortress. Now only he and Yang Jiamo remained.