Chapter 526: Into the Forest

Night hung low. The despairing Ding Shaoyin stood atop Camp Ridge, expressionless, gazing up into the pitch-black sky.

The entire ridge was trapped in a dangerous night, restless and uneasy. Though the fighting had long ceased, muffled thuds of light bird guns still sounded from time to time in the dense forest, echoing far and lingering through the mountain valleys.

In his hand he held a letter, written by Liu Chengzong. The letter mainly praised Bai Guang'en's clever adaptability and courage, not a single word of urging Ding Shaoyin to surrender — yet every crack between the lines was filled with persuasion to surrender.

Liu Chengzong wrote: Brother Ding, a very brilliant battle was fought by the Gulang River. Lest you be unaware, I'm writing you a letter.

This Bai Guang'en has great courage. First routed at Huangyangchuan, he retreated in disorder to the Gulang River fork, regrouped his troops, and relying on quick wits set an ambush — he actually managed to catch my subordinate, Staff Officer Zhang Tianlin, completely off guard.

I had always thought Bai Guang'en would come join forces with you. Who could have imagined he would dare feign a rout and counterattack alone?

And then there's my fierce general Zhang Tianlin — you're not familiar with him, but I know him well. He is strong-willed. An ordinary man, relaxed and suddenly ambushed, even if not routed, would have been forced to retreat.

But not him — he fought while retreating, struck back with four successive rearguard charges, and in the end, right at Bai Guang'en's ambush position, he shattered Bai Guang'en completely. Truly a formidable figure.

Yet the most formidable was still Bai Guang'en. After being defeated, he did not choose to flee south in disorder. Instead, from the north, he led over three hundred men and slipped away right under my nose. By now he's already passed Shimen Gorge and is heading for Ningxia.

This is a clever man, a cut above the rest — he knew he was surrounded.

At the letter's end, Liu Chengzong told Ding Shaoyin: This battle has also taught me a lesson. When the lion hunts the rabbit, even with victory assured, one must exert full strength and not relax. Now, the only one left blocking my return to Hehuang is you, elder brother. Tell me, isn't that the truth of it?

Ding Shaoyin had already been cursed at for three days. Now, reading this letter, his breath caught and wouldn't come smooth — he nearly choked to death.

He thought to himself: I'm just an Assistant Commander of Liangzhou Guard, not even a Commander. Who the hell did I offend? How did fate place me in such a critical position, facing such a terrifying opponent?

My superior — either fell in battle at the very start of the war, or is squatting in Liangzhou City like a turtle. My colleagues — first died in battle, then fled, and when all else failed, surrendered.

By now the situation was utterly clear. Bai Guang'en's escape route and Liu Chengzong's letter corroborated each other: the Marshal's army had already set an ambush to the south, surrounding them so tightly not a drop of water could seep through. The chance of breaking out was slim, and even the chance of dying in battle was remote.

Because this was a ridge easy to defend and hard to attack. Easy to defend and hard to attack is advantageous terrain, but advantageous terrain is always mutual — I can't get up, and you can't get down either.

Ding Shaoyin realized that with no provisions inside and no relief troops outside, even dashing down the mountain to a clean death in battle was a luxury... He could already see the ending at a glance: either burned to death when they set the mountain ablaze, or starved to death when the siege cut off their food.

At this moment, at his wits' end alone, Ding Shaoyin thought of Chai Shihua, whom he had placed under house arrest.

Although Chai Shihua was under house arrest, he took to his confinement like a fish to water. The year this man was born, his father Chai Guozhu was already a Regional Commander bearing two general's seals. He had seen much, heard much, and knew much — he feared nothing in heaven or on earth.

Ding Shaoyin could place him under house arrest, but he faced no further danger in the camp. Conversely, because Ding Shaoyin had confined him, he bore no culpability whatsoever in this war — there was nothing to fear.

So these past few days on the ridge, he ate his fill and slept soundly. Others on campaign would shed a dozen jin of flesh, but not him — his originally gaunt, long face had actually filled out a little, showing a hint of prosperous plumpness.

That night, he had just lain down not long before when he heard his personal soldiers report that Ding Shaoyin had come. Only then did Chai Shihua rise from the couch and throw on his clothes.

He knew perfectly well why Ding Shaoyin had come. Before Ding Shaoyin could open his mouth, Chai Shihua poured a bowl of water, drank it down at his own pace, and shook his head: "General Ding, why come to me at this hour? Right now, we can't win a fight, and we can't slip away either. There is only one option — hold and defend."

Chai Shihua bore no real hatred toward Ding Shaoyin. Though this man had seized his authority on the battlefield and made him lose face, in his heart Chai Shihua did not blame him much.

Because from the moment the war began, Chai Shihua's entire being had been in the same state as the spirit of the Gansu Ming army — utterly lost and bewildered.

Before Liu Chengzong breached Jiayu Pass, Chai Shihua had led Yang Jiamo's Regional Commander's Guard Battalion to the Zhuanglang River to hold the line. A battle without a chance of victory was one he could not fight — his official position dictated his actions. And from his own perspective, his clansmen were all in Xining, so even a battle with a chance of victory could not be fought.

Truth be told, for an ordinary person, at this point you'd just start thinking about surrendering and be done with it. But Chai Shihua simply could not accept surrender. He was not of commoner stock — he was the descendant of Ming dynasty martyrs, and he commanded Yang Jiamo's elite troops. Surrender was not a matter of one man's honor or disgrace alone.

These three awkward and thorny problems all vanished like smoke with Ding Shaoyin's seizure of power.

So on the surface, Ding Shaoyin had placed Chai Shihua under house arrest. In reality, Chai Shihua had cooperated with Ding Shaoyin to place himself under house arrest.

Ding Shaoyin had not even spoken upon entering before swallowing this soft rejection. He opened his mouth, then fell silent. Only after a moment did he say awkwardly: "Bai Guang'en is defeated. There is still no word from General Cao. There are enemy troops to the north, east, and south. We are surrounded."

Chai Shihua too sighed with regret at the state of the battle. He very much wanted to say something — some hindsight nonsense about how the battle shouldn't have been fought this way, how the various battalions shouldn't have been split up — but he reined in his urge to opine and said nothing.

At this point, anything said was useless. Chai Shihua offered a breezy consolation: "The General has done all he could. Camp Ridge has fair hills and clear waters — dying in a place like this isn't so bad."

Ding Shaoyin nodded, rose, and clasped his fists: "I must trouble you, General, to join me in arranging the defenses."

Chai Shihua had been calm and at peace, but these words suddenly made him frantic. He slammed the low table and raged: "When I had troops, you confined me and seized my command, scattering the old Regional Commander's sons and brothers — and now you want me to join you in arranging the defenses? Arrange my ass!"

"I tell you, the various columns should never have been split apart. A combined force of over ten thousand, charging across the Yellow River — would that not be better than the situation we're in now? At this hour, anything said is too late. You'd do better to announce to the whole army: those willing to surrender, surrender; those willing to leave, leave; those willing to stay, stay!"

Ding Shaoyin said no more. He rose, bowed with clasped hands, and took his leave.

Chai Shihua's counsel, he truly took to heart. That very night he summoned the army's officers and had them ask the soldiers their wishes — those willing to leave could leave, those willing to stay could stay.

The next morning, first two Ming soldiers without armor came down the mountain to request surrender. Liu Chengzong readily granted the request, agreeing that as long as the Ming troops on the mountain surrendered voluntarily, he would give them a Liangzhou Battalion designation, all officers to serve in their original ranks and accompany the campaign, and he would promote Ding Shaoyin one grade, officially making him Commander of Liangzhou Guard.

However, Liu Chengzong kept a cautious eye. He had Han Shiyou, the Thousand-Commander of the Tiger Guard Battalion, accept the surrender east of Camp Ridge by the Gulang River, to confirm the surrendering troops were without issue before moving them north of Camp Ridge.

Shortly thereafter, troops from Camp Ridge began descending the mountain in formed units. Han Shiyou accepted their surrender by the Gulang River, and after busying himself for a double-hour, a messenger arrived north of the mountain.

He reported back to Liu Chengzong: "Grand Marshal, one thousand four hundred and forty-two men have surrendered. Here is the roster. Ding Shaoyin is not among them — he is still on the mountain and refuses to surrender."

Liu Chengzong frowned slightly at this, leafing through the roster. Perplexed, he said: "Even Yang Jiamo's clansmen have surrendered. He, Ding Shaoyin, is merely a Guard Assistant Commander, yet he wants to fight me to the death? Have Han Shiyou send someone up the mountain to negotiate. If he is dissatisfied with the official post, we'll give him a different place. If he is unwilling to serve me, let him disband his troops — I'll give him a plot of land and let him settle in Ganzhou."

By the Gulang River, Han Shiyou listened as the bodyguard relayed the commander's order and couldn't help but show a wry smile.

The brothers Han Shipan and Han Shiyou had followed Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu's batch of Guyuan soldiers in defecting to Liu Chengzong. Only, while the others became external commanders leading troops, the two brothers became Liu Chengzong's personal guards.

From the moment they joined the Lion Battalion, the brothers had basically never left Liu Chengzong's side. Han Shiyou was all too familiar with Liu Chengzong's habits. Hearing these words, he knew their Grand Marshal's peculiar temperament had flared up again — never mind that they themselves were rebels, he just happened to have a fondness for loyal and righteous men.

But this time Liu Chengzong was to be disappointed. Not long after, Han Shiyou handed the troops over to his subordinate Squad Commander, personally galloped to the northern camp, and sought an audience with Liu Chengzong to urge him: "Grand Marshal, this Ding Shaoyin cannot be persuaded to surrender. He seeks death — let him have his wish."

Liu Chengzong asked: "What do you mean by that?"

"The surrendered soldiers have already said: Ding Shaoyin is a hereditary Assistant Commander. His only son is named Ding Zizhen. Before the battle began, Ding Shaoyin had already resolved to seek death and sent Ding Zizhen to Ningxia to find Hong Chengchou."

At this, Han Shiyou shook his head: "In this world, there are many sons who disregard their fathers, but very few fathers who disregard their sons. I imagine Ding Shaoyin has his own scale in his heart."

Liu Chengzong did not reply. He only gazed wordlessly toward Camp Ridge. After a long while, he skipped past the topic and asked: "There are still fifteen or sixteen hundred men on the ridge?"

"Routed survivors from the front lines, Ding Shaoyin's own troops." Han Shiyou nodded. "About that."

Liu Chengzong slowly nodded. He could understand Ding Shaoyin's mindset of using his own life to pave the way for his son, and he could likewise accept that the Ming troops on the mountain would ultimately refuse to surrender: "Send orders to the two Gansu battalions and Zhang Tianlin's main camp — have these three battalions dig trenches and build ramparts below Camp Ridge."

"The Grand Marshal means to starve them out?" Han Shiyou clasped his fists and volunteered for battle: "Better to let the Tiger Guard Battalion storm the mountain. They have only a thousand or so — we should be able to take it in one charge."

Liu Chengzong gave Han Shiyou a helpless look: "Their numbers have dwindled, but their guns and cannons are all on the mountain, their will is resolute, and their combat strength has not diminished. Conversely, the road to advance into the Zhuanglang River Valley is now wide open — why should we keep wasting time with them?"

Surround the mountain, dig trenches and build ramparts, ensure the enemy cannot escape with heavy firepower. Even if a thousand-odd light troops broke out, they could not sway the course of the war.

Just then, from the west of Camp Ridge came the sound of several cannon blasts, followed by dense gunfire.

Liu Chengzong immediately frowned, looking west with a puzzled expression... At this point in time, it coincided with the Ming troops on the mountain who wanted to surrender doing so, so for those who wanted to break out to attempt a breakout was also the best moment. Gunfire on the battlefield was not strange.

But seeing the direction, Liu the Lion was dumbfounded. He murmured to himself: "Camp Ridge is a mountain. West of Camp Ridge is still mountains, right?"

His cavalry scouts had long since probed that area roughly. Beyond the mountains were more mountains, and within that ring of peaks there was an old-growth forest — the kind of old-growth forest so ancient that when the Chongzhen Emperor eventually passed away, you could even go in there to find massive timber for his coffin.

Precisely for this reason, even when planning a siege, Liu Chengzong had not intended to encircle the west. Troops simply couldn't enter there. The enemy on the mountain might possibly get out, but heading west there was no road at all — you wouldn't see a road until you reached the western end of the Willow Branch River.

Further west from that place lies a small basin enclosed and wrapped by mountain ranges, called Zhangyi.

In fact, this Zhangyi was the seat of Zhangye County during the Han dynasty. Throughout the Five Liang period, it remained a strategic military stronghold in the Hexi region, easy to defend and hard to attack. Only, after weathering a thousand years, the area has long been densely dotted with names linked to the remnants of war — places like Fire-Burning Gully, Soldier Gully, and Burned-House Terrace.

As for the people, they too were largely wiped out over the course of those names taking shape, so that now, rounding up, the place amounts to an uninhabited zone.

Liu Chengzong's army had only left a hundred or so reconnaissance riders at Fire-Burning Gully, and even those were scattered among the various mountain passes, mainly to occupy the high ground and observe enemy movements over at Camp Ridge. No one had even considered that anyone would flee in that direction.

Not long after, a reconnaissance soldier from the west came to report: "Grand Commander, over eight hundred men have fled west, plunging into the forest. Right now, the advance party of a dozen or so has already begun climbing the mountain. Should we haul the artillery over and blast them down?"

"Traveling light?"

"Traveling light."

Liu Chengzong waved his hand. "Why go to the trouble? Let them go into the mountains and become bandits... This Ding Shaoyin would rather burrow into the woods than surrender, and he still has over eight hundred men following him. Strange indeed. I reckon we'll meet again at Liangzhou Guard."

Ding Shaoyin was, after all, the Assistant Commander of Liangzhou Guard. If he burrowed into the mountains and still managed to come out alive, he would surely make for the not-yet-fallen Liangzhou Guard.

He never would have expected that, not long after, the squad commander from Han Shiyou's side also came running over to report that an interrogation of surrendered soldiers had yielded vital intelligence: the Ming army up on Camp Ridge was split into two factions.

One faction consisted mainly of Yang Jiamo's elite personal troops. These men were determined to follow Ding Shaoyin and resist to the bitter end, absolutely refusing to surrender.

The other faction was primarily the wagon corps formed by the banner troops of Liangzhou Guard. These were all soldiers Ding Shaoyin had brought out from Liangzhou Guard. Many of them had already come down the mountain and surrendered, and those still up there had other plans.

Their plan was to follow Chai Shihua and head west. This so-called "west" far exceeded anything Liu Chengzong had imagined. He thought these people might flee to Zhangyi; who knew they were thinking like madmen — Turpan.

Chai Shihua said that with Gansu fallen into rebel hands, he had the heart to serve his country, but with this paltry force he could not accomplish anything great, and surrender was not what he wished. Better to take the risk, venture far from home, and start anew elsewhere.

Liu the Lion mulled over what kind of bizarre two-way pursuit this was. The troops of the Regional Commander's personal battalion were not following their own battalion's Vice General, but instead chasing after an Assistant Commander; while the banner troops of Liangzhou Guard were not following their Assistant Commander, but instead being sweet-talked by the personal battalion's Vice General into a two-thousand-li expedition.

And crucially, what did those two thousand li of road even consist of? To leave the enemy behind, they would have to skirt enemy-occupied territory and travel along the Qilian Mountain road that stretched for a thousand li. At this season, the Qilian Mountains were admittedly not especially cold, so the march would not exactly be hellish in difficulty.

The problem, however, was that the endpoint of this long expedition was Hami, two thousand li away.

Liu the Lion shook his head. He felt that this fellow Chai Shihua had not been honest with the Ming soldiers.

He mused to himself: perhaps one could bypass Gansu and Jiayu Pass by traveling through the Qilian Mountains, but going from south to north — Dunhuang, Hami, Barkol — if you wanted to reach Turpan, these three places could not be bypassed.

And Dunhuang, Hami, Barkol — weren't those still my territory?

"No need to bother with Chai Shihua." Liu Chengzong chuckled inwardly at this long-distance running prodigy. He waved his hand and issued the order: "Send word to Zhang Tianlin's main camp. Once the three lines of trenches and ramparts are completed, Guliang Gorge will be his garrison post. He is to defend Stone Gorge Pass and, incidentally, hem in those seven or eight hundred men of Ding Shaoyin's up on the mountain."

"Surround them until their grain runs out, then try persuading them to withdraw. In any case, it's the same old spiel about appreciating their loyal determination to serve the country. If they're willing to leave, have them leave behind their firearms and equipment, issue them a small amount of grain and travel expenses, and permit them to withdraw through Stone Gorge Pass into Ningxia, reuniting father and son. If they still refuse to leave, then let them starve to death on that mountain."

Liu Chengzong thought to himself: these men would not fight, but simply squat on the mountain, and in the end could still withdraw to Ningxia without surrendering. Once word of this spread through the Ningxia army, it ought to be of tremendous benefit to his military campaigns the following year.

As for the remaining troops, a smile spread across Liu Chengzong's face. "We return to Hehuang, and advance on Lanzhou!"

Good evening!