Chapter 523: Desperate Soldier Ping An Ruins the Plan

In truth, Yongchang Guard did not have the conditions to be taken by direct assault.

Wang Ziyong was indeed the Marshal's Office's ever-defeated general, but many of those defeats were a matter of active choice, not being outmatched in the clash of arms.

After fighting so many losing battles, he had the richest breadth of experience and firsthand knowledge. In truth, Wang Ziyong's military ability was not much inferior to other commanders; he basically understood everything he ought to understand. It was simply that sometimes he could not apply it flexibly, had grown habituated to losing in the field, and lacked the will to strike fiercely and charge fiercely.

People teaching people never gets the lesson across; events teaching people — once is enough to understand everything.

People are shaped by experience. An outstanding young man, by a twist of fate, takes up a blade and goes into battle, scared all over in cold sweat, legs weak. He withdraws from the battlefield and finds he has taken several heads. When the reward comes down, his family builds a house, he takes a wife, and he even gets an officer's post as a squad leader.

With that positive reinforcement, this experience feeds back into his confidence, shaping an aura of divine courage and invincibility. Next time he goes into battle, he will throw away all thought of life and death, hacking his way to centurion, hacking his way to garrison commander... he will keep on hacking away with his life on the line.

It is just that some people get hacked down before they make centurion, and some people hack their way all the way to Regional Commander before they get hacked down — Du Song, for example.

The way a man dies means nothing to the man himself; it only affects those who survive. But the way a man lives matters a great deal to the man himself. An ever-victorious general has the way of life of an ever-victorious general, and an ever-defeated general has the way of life of an ever-defeated general.

From northern Shaanxi to Gansu, Wang Ziyong lost again and again, yet remained alive and kicking. Among the various rebel kings of northern Shaanxi, Wang Ziyong was the most unique. The others all rose in revolt from the frontier troops; he alone was a true peasant-army leader, everything he had gained coming from the useless people of mainstream society.

On familiar land, he could conscript a peasant army so vast in numbers it left a deep impression. People came in response to the kalpa; they needed only a little superstitious ritual, required no consideration of supply, and would possess extremely high morale and loyalty.

But they were very hard put to use arquebuses and cannons, nor had they received much formal military education. Most importantly, a single "long expedition" that crossed a county border, or a single sudden heaven-sent rain, could make many of the soldiers under his command vanish.

This in itself determined that Wang Ziyong was very prone to losing battles. The family assets he painstakingly scraped together could be frittered away in utter confusion in a single defeat.

At Zhenjing Horse Relay Station east of Yongchang County, ever since receiving Cao Yao's order to garrison there, Wang Ziyong had led the banner troops of the Three Kalpas Guard and conscripted large numbers of military auxiliaries. While digging trenches and pit traps and building low walls and earthen mounds, he also presided over initiation rites, forging Yongchang Guard into a fortress of resolute hearts.

Thousands of military auxiliaries — men and women, old and young — all pitched in under the rallying call of the Eternal Venerable Mother, the Wisdom King Maitreya, and the Grand Marshal of Qinghai. The earthworks progressed at extreme speed, and in the blink of an eye three lines of deep trenches were dug across the flat ground between two mountains, directly cutting off the road leading east from Yongchang Guard.

Only after completing all this at a feverish pace did Wang Ziyong finally set his mind at ease and begin consolidating and training the Three Kalpas Battalion and the Yongchang military auxiliaries.

In the final analysis, his defensive line was not meant for holding and fighting; it was only meant to make this place look hard to attack, to give the enemy the sense that assaulting it would cost more than it was worth. The goal was to make the enemy daunted by the sight and abandon the offensive.

At present, Cao Yao had a large army at Ganzhou, and Liu Chengzong had a large army at Gulang Gorge, with Li Hongsi's Liangzhou City caught in between. According to Wang Ziyong's conception, so long as the Yongchang Guard front line did not give the enemy the impression it would collapse at the first attack, it would be very hard for Li Hongsi to resolve to attack him.

But if, by any chance, they did come, Wang Ziyong would have to flee with the military auxiliaries here, so consolidation and training were very necessary.

Yongchang Guard was, after all, still a border region. Although to the Marshal's Office's many commanders the Yongchang banner troops were old, weak, sick, and disabled soldiers not worth a second glance, to Wang Ziyong, even the military auxiliaries were good soldier material.

He had thought it through quite well. The trenches coiled between Yongchang Guard and Liangzhou Guard were indeed a position that, for Liangzhou City's Gansu Vice Regional Commander Li Hongsi, would cost more to assault than it was worth.

But before Li Hongsi in Liangzhou City had even come out, an old acquaintance of Wang Ziyong's emerged from the mountains — Cao Wenzhao.

Cao Wenzhao had already been extremely careful. First, scouting riders and probing horsemen reconnoitered the perimeter of Wang Ziyong's position for several days, drawing up a complete map of the entire defensive layout and confirming there were no ambush troops between Yongchang and Liangzhou. Only then did he lead the main body of troops out of the mountains.

The first thing he did upon leaving the mountains was to dispatch soldiers to contact Li Hongsi in Liangzhou City, inviting him to jointly send troops to recover Yongchang Guard and attack Liu Chengzong's supply-line defensive line.

Li Hongsi in Liangzhou City grew frantic the moment he received the message and hastily wrote a letter inviting him into Liangzhou City... He did not at all mind sending troops. The Great Ming had lost more than half of Gansu, and every last military officer in Gansu would have to answer for it. If there was any chance at all to wheel around and fight to the death, they all ought to give it a try.

But as for the situation outside Liangzhou City — if you, Cao Wenzhao, don't know it, do you think I, Li Hongsi, don't?

Liu Chengzong's Marshal's Office had already disintegrated. Central Gansu counted as one part, He-Huang counted as one part, Gulang Gorge counted as one part. There were no supply lines between the three parts. For the Marshal's Army at Yongchang Guard, what they were building was not a supply-line defensive line, but a front line.

Your three thousand troops have physical substance; how could you swing a blade and cut into nothingness?

Was there any difficulty in attacking Yongchang? Some, but Li Hongsi believed the difficulty was limited. As long as Liangzhou sent troops, they could most likely take Yongchang Guard back.

But was there any meaning in attacking Yongchang? Li Hongsi believed there was not.

The gain or loss of Yongchang meant absolutely nothing to the overall Gansu situation. The land from Yongchang to Liangzhou was a barren waste. Even if they took Yongchang, they would not have the military grain to see soldiers and civilians through the entire winter. Apart from adding several thousand more mouths to feed, it would be no help at all to the larger picture.

It would be far better for this force of his to enter Liangzhou for temporary rest and refit, and then two months later fight the Marshal's Army under the walls of Liangzhou City when they came to collect grain. That would be a battle that could increase their bargaining chips for victory.

But Cao Wenzhao quickly sent a reply, saying he had no intention of entering Liangzhou City to take shelter and would advance westward with his troops.

Li Hongsi's feelings were complicated. On one hand, he admired Cao Wenzhao's spirit of wheeling around to fight to the death, but on the other... he felt Cao Wenzhao was a bit stubborn, as if he was acting on pure emotion.

For this reason, he risked leaving the city and made a special trip to the Yongchang front line, reasoning with Cao Wenzhao and appealing to his emotions to persuade him to enter Liangzhou City.

Warfare inevitably brings death; no tactic, weapon, or strategy can avoid this. Yet human life is precious. Men can die, but they must die meaningfully.

When you entered the mountains, the outside situation was that Liu Chengzong had a supply line. You raided his supply line, throwing his entire army into chaos. Even if it cost the lives of three thousand soldiers, that would not have been unacceptable. That is called risking your life.

"Risking your life" is only an adverb; it is not the goal. It means risking your life for a goal, or risking your life to achieve that goal.

"Throwing your life away" is different — that is a verb, merely describing an action.

Now, the other side has thrown away their own supply line. If you raid the supply line again, you cannot achieve the goal of disrupting the enemy's entire defensive layout. You break through Yongchang, even charge into Ganzhou — even if you are a peerless hero, fighting your way across Gansu like a god of war, circling back around from outside Suzhou Pass, as long as you lose one or two hundred men on the road, it is not worth it.

Li Hongsi said, if you truly are willing to risk your life, I will give you three thousand troops, supply you with grain and cannons, and you can advance toward Gulang Gorge to raid Liu Chengzong's rear.

Cao Wenzhao was very nearly persuaded.

The reason he was stuck here was not entirely because he was irascible or overly superstitious about his own martial prowess. It was just that all along the way he had constantly been rousing the soldiers, telling them the importance of this mission. Having said it so many times, he had grown a bit superstitious of it himself.

Coming out and suddenly discovering the situation had changed, deep down he both could not quite accept it and felt he could not back down without losing face.

But with Li Hongsi persuading him like this, Cao Wenzhao was instead able to accept it. Going to stab Liu Chengzong in the rear was not a bad thing either.

Yet precisely at this moment, a commander under Cao Wenzhao, Ping An, came and ruined everything.

Cao Wenzhao and Li Hongsi were in the midst of a secret discussion in the command tent when his subordinate, Battalion Commander Ping An, came in to report from outside. He entered and first saluted Li Hongsi, then saluted Cao Wenzhao. After that, he said through gritted teeth: "General, your humble subordinate saw Wang Ziyong in front of the enemy trenches at Yongchang!"

Ping An was a subordinate officer Cao Wenzhao had brought inside the Pass. He had already been a Commandant back when they first entered the Pass. After following him through so many years of warfare, his rank had instead grown lower the more he fought, all because he had lost his commission in the Battle of Pingliang years ago and had to start over again from a common soldier.

And the most critical reason for the Battle of Pingliang was that those two, Wang Ziyong and Yang Yanchang, one in the vanguard and one in the rear, had left Cao Wenzhao stranded outside and made off with all their military equipment.

Ping An had later tried to bring a formal complaint against Yang Yanchang and Wang Ziyong, but it was useless; no one would listen at all.

They were guest commanders. In the eyes of the local supreme commander and grand coordinator, Yang Yanchang's unit was a model army that Shaanxi could put forward — and the only one it could put forward. No one could compare.

They absolutely abided by the Great Ming Code. Everything they did was what the Ming army had done thirty years ago. Even when friendly forces did not abide by the Great Ming Code, Yang's troops would proactively move to stop them... Any man serving as supreme commander or inspecting grand coordinator had to have such a showpiece under his command.

Because the existence of Yang Yanchang's unit could prove to the supreme commander and grand coordinator that the situation in Shaanxi was not yet beyond saving.

This emotional value was something no guest army or guest commander could match. And crucially, they held the moral high ground. If you plundered the common people and the supreme commander and grand coordinator did not know, or no one brought a complaint — the world's affairs being so difficult — they would simply turn a blind eye.

But if you plundered the common people and got beaten up by Yang Yanchang's soldiers, and then you went to complain, could the supreme commander and grand coordinator side with you? If you set up an illegal checkpoint and got beaten up, could the supreme commander and grand coordinator side with you?

Even if they wanted to help, they could not.

But Wang Ziyong did not have that kind of backing. He was originally just a military grain transporter. If the military grain failed to arrive, that was your problem. As a result, Wang Ziyong was dismissed from office. Even so, the anger in the hearts of men like Ping An had not subsided.

They knew better than anyone that the Battle of Pingliang had been the doing of those two. They were traitors who hid in the shadows and shot cold arrows.

Cao Wenzhao could not endure it either. Hearing this, he paid no more heed to Li Hongsi. He went straight out of the tent, mounted his horse, and galloped all the way to the front line. Under Ping An's guidance, through the small glass lens of a telescope, from beyond a thousand paces at the edge of the trenches, he saw that familiar figure.

In an instant, past events appeared vividly before his eyes. The images of comrades who had fallen one after another at the Battle of Pingliang flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, making Cao Wenzhao's blood pressure surge higher than a horse's head.

This time, never mind Li Hongsi — even if Yang Jiamo crawled out of his grave, he could not dissuade Cao Wenzhao.

Three thousand soldiers suddenly struck camp and mounted up at Junyue Village. In moments, dust and smoke churned across the gobi as the troops split into five columns, surging forth in a vast, sweeping advance straight toward Wang Ziyong's defensive line southeast of Yongchang Garrison.

Wang Ziyong had no idea that his spur-of-the-moment decision to inspect the defensive line would bring unprovoked calamity down upon his army.

He had come out from Zhenjing Post Station specifically because his subordinates reported that the eastern army was encamped several li away. He went to the trench line to burn incense with the soldiers, conduct a ritual, and boost their morale.

Wang Ziyong was actually a very scientific man. Though he could burn incense, perform rituals, deliver souls, and chant incantations better than anyone, he used these things because others believed in them — he himself did not believe a word of it.

If people truly possessed dharma power, then the master who raised him had far greater dharma power than he did, yet he could not conjure food and starved to death.

But superstition could not be called useless. Wang Ziyong's research showed that as long as a person truly believed, it would produce a corresponding effect — just not the kind of effect others imagined.

Wang Ziyong had never spoken of his research to anyone. For him, many superstitious elements reinforced one another.

Others believing in him and believing in the Three Kalpas Society, or others believing in the Three Kalpas Society and thereby believing in him, or others losing faith in the world and believing in him and the Three Kalpas Society — it was all the same. One belief would reinforce another.

And the faith of the congregation — that was his power.

Invocation Arts could bring a person back from the dead because that person truly believed in Invocation Arts and the invocation physician, believed the ritual and the spell would restore life.

When a person is wounded or ill, one who truly believes they will not die may not necessarily live, but one who truly believes they will die most certainly will not.

The function of Invocation Arts was to make a person's conviction firm. Wang Ziyong's rituals and ceremonies served the same purpose.

As long as a person truly believed, he could make them impervious to blade and bullet. That person would truly believe they were impervious, would truly know no fear — and knowing no fear often brought victory.

It was a terrifying kind of spiritual power.

Making soldiers believe their side enjoyed divine favor could steady the battle line, heighten morale, and make the soldiers more resolute.

Wang Ziyong had even considered forming a corps of death warriors, telling them every day that burning incense would make them impervious to blade and bullet, then throwing them into the fray when the battle reached a stalemate, charging forward relentlessly to turn the tide.

But the investment required was too great, and one misstep could easily backfire. He had not yet figured out how to implement it.

Yet the feasibility was certainly there... after all, if a true believer was not killed by a musket, it was the Eternal Venerable Mother making him impervious, reinforcing that belief. If he was killed by a musket, it was because his faith was not firm — and there was nothing to explain to a dead man anyway.

Once the ritual was complete, Wang Ziyong saw that the soldiers at the front had grown more spirited, which refreshed his own mood considerably. But just as he was about to mount up and return to Zhenjing Post Station, the Three Kalpas Society's White Lotus Northern Dipper banner atop the trench rampart began thrashing wildly. In the distance, cavalry columns racing in from five directions trailed streamers of dust.

Five columns, split into five routes. Three cavalry units formed a triangle formation charging straight ahead, while the left and right wings spread out toward the unprotected ridges — a textbook envelopment formation.

In a single instant, two options flashed through Wang Ziyong's mind. The first was to occupy the trench and hold to the death. But in that same instant, he had already thought up the posthumous title Liu Chengzong would bestow upon him after his death in battle: "White Lotus Mystic Dharma True Lord Who Fights On Despite Repeated Defeats."

Wang Ziyong immediately decided to lead his troops in retreat. Those dharma-warrior death troops who believed in blade-and-bullet immunity existed only in his mind and were not yet trained. He would have to make do first with Liu Chengzong's mortal death troops, who believed themselves invincible.

He promptly summoned a messenger and said, "Ride quickly and tell Gao Yingdeng in the rear that the enemy is attacking the front line. Have him prepare to meet the enemy!"