Chapter 573: Locked In

The night wind in the mountains was bitterly cold. The campfire flickered, and Tang Jiuzhou's shadow on the tent wall stretched long and thin.

He had not gone missing. His command of three thousand troops remained intact — he had even set up six camps and four stockades deep in Jingfu Mountain, well hidden in the hills.

Just as Liu Chengzong had predicted, Tang Jiuzhou was a veteran general who had campaigned across the realm. The officers he relied on in battle — Zhao Zhu, Zhou Erjing, Ling Yuanji, Hu Lianghan — were all ferocious, valiant commanders. To them, marching to war was as simple as eating and drinking. How could they possibly lose their way on land under Great Ming rule?

As early as when his troops were stationed at Huating, he had sent men into Jingfu Mountain. This mountain was a sacred Daoist site of the Complete Perfection Sect. Daoists of the Dragon Gate branch had built suspended cliff-side temples and lived there, so the first thing Tang Jiuzhou did upon arriving was seek out these Daoists to serve as local guides.

On one hand, this ensured the army would not lose its way when crossing the mountains if necessary; on the other, it prevented these Daoists from being used by Liu Chengzong.

After all, there were only a handful of these Daoist masters who spent their days in deep-mountain suspended temples pondering immortality. They were self-sufficient in daily life and might not even know about the roaring rebellion outside. Tang Jiuzhou had never met Liu Chengzong, but he had seen plenty of bandit chieftains. If someone sweet-talked the old Daoists into thinking the imperial army was passing through, the Daoists might very well end up guiding them of their own accord.

His preparations were thorough. The reason he had not advanced further was purely a command problem — he was deadlocked in the mountains.

Deng Qi's death caught everyone off guard. Chen Qiyu received word of Deng Qi's death earlier than Liu Chengzong — back when Liu the Lion was still in Gongchang Prefecture.

Chen Qiyu analyzed the message travel time and judged that the stalemate would soon be broken by the gap at Longzhou on the defensive line. He estimated that Liu Chengzong would receive the news of Deng Qi's fatal fall within three days at the latest, and would then certainly launch a major advance.

At the time, his options were few. The first was to transfer Zuo Liangyu north from Qinzhou to garrison Longzhou, but taking the eastern foothills of Liupan Mountain might not get him into Longzhou ahead of Liu Chengzong; and taking the western foothills meant Zuo's lone force might collide with Liu Chengzong's main army.

Besides, either way, Qinzhou would be lost.

The second option was to leave the front line as it was and directly transfer Ai Wannian from the rear to plug the Longzhou gap, but time was just as tight. By the time Ai Wannian arrived, it might already be a siege battle.

Sending a single battalion alone to run into the Marshal's main force — in Chen Qiyu's eyes, that was throwing a meat bun at Liu Chengzong.

The third option was to transfer Ai Wannian to garrison Huating and move Huating's defender Tang Jiuzhou directly south, seizing a time window to enter Longzhou. That way, Qinzhou would not be lost, and the probability of Huating being taken was also very small — unless Liu Chengzong's target had been Huating from the start.

Moreover, if they could exploit the time gap in both sides receiving the news, they could turn the bad news of Deng Qi's death and the defensive breach into a good thing.

The Marshal's army was stuck on Liupan Mountain. Using the mountain range, it was as if Liu Chengzong's forces were forcibly split, creating an opportunity to strike mid-crossing. Then Tang's division would hold the city, Zuo's division would move north, and Ai's division would move south — they could use superior numbers west of Liupan Mountain to destroy a portion of the Marshal's army first.

Chen Qiyu's calculations were quite clever. He only miscalculated that band of Sichuan deserters wanting to go home, which let Liu Chengzong learn of Deng Qi's fatal fall one day earlier than expected.

That single day changed everything.

When Chen Qiyu's transfer order reached Tang Jiuzhou, Tang's division broke camp that very day. Guided by Daoists through the mountain region, their hemp sandals practically smoked from the friction — they raced eighty li in a single day, and over three days pushed two hundred and fifty li at a forced march. Eight pack horses alone fell off cliffs, and only then did they arrive fifty li north of Longzhou within the projected time.

But Liu Chengzong's troops had broken camp a day earlier than him, and to the west they traveled on broad official roads, climbing Liupan Mountain in three days.

By the time Tang Jiuzhou led his Changping troops charging out of the old-growth forest of Jingfu Mountain, what he looked up and saw were Qinghai vultures that had flown over Liupan Mountain circling high above, and what he ran headlong into were Marshal's headquarters scout cavalry on a small peak beneath five-colored horn banners, holding iron cups and drinking tea.

In truth, at that moment Liu the Lion was still crouched on Liupan Mountain, utterly unable to descend. But those last fifty li — Tang Jiuzhou dared not, and could not, march them.

Did he have a death wish?

He had no objection to fighting Liu Chengzong, but to lead over three thousand men blindly out of the great mountains and plunge into the heavy encirclement of tens of thousands of enemy troops — that would be like a fool carrying his own head as a gift.

He was stuck right there in the mountains, frozen.

He could not go back — Ai Wannian's troops were nearly at Huating by then. He could not advance either — he had no idea of the real situation on Liupan Mountain and could only imagine Liu Chengzong crouched on the summit, eyeing him like a tiger.

After a slight hesitation and a day's delay, the night scouts Tang Jiuzhou had sent out brought back intelligence: they had spotted two battalions of troops setting up camp outside the mountain pass from a distance.

"Commander, I went to look at that camp. The camp layout is irregular — two battalions are crammed together, only one large encampment built, and over two thousand men are sleeping out in the open."

The speaker was Zhou Erjing, Tang Jiuzhou's capable subordinate, a Shanxi man in his early thirties with a deep, low voice. He said, "Many mules, horses, and carts — they should be elite western bandits."

"Many carts?"

"Yes. Just what I saw numbered three or four hundred. I estimate these two battalions must have seven or eight hundred large carts."

Tang Jiuzhou's eyes widened at this, his face brimming with murderous intent about to spill over, his brow knotted tight. He clenched his teeth, paused a moment, then drew a deep breath and silently shook his head.

Zhou Erjing did not understand, and then heard Tang Jiuzhou remain silent a moment before speaking: "On Liupan Mountain, the Longzhou road is not easy for carts."

His tone was full of unwillingness.

He realized he had originally had a chance.

But by this point, realizing it was useless.

Tang Jiuzhou shook his head and said no more on the matter. Instead, he issued another order: "Longzhou city sits on treacherous terrain. The western bandits are likely about to assault it. Pick some good men, bypass those two battalions, and keep eyes on their siege."

Zhou Erjing immediately clasped his fists and accepted the order.

The task carried risk, but just watching from a distance was not difficult. In any case, those two battalions blocking them needed watching; adding one more city to watch was no problem.

Zhou Erjing was about to leave when Tang Jiuzhou called him back and asked, "Erjing, you are thirty this year... thirty-three?"

"Commander, your subordinate is thirty-three."

Tang Jiuzhou slowly nodded, thinking how fast this man's official rank had risen.

Zhou Erjing was a hereditary centurion of the Left Battalion of Huai'an Prefecture in Xuan Garrison — he had bound up his hair and joined the army, spending his life like a hound or horse on the battlefield.

In the third year, third month, he attacked Da'an; in the fifth month, he recovered Zunhua. In the fifth year, he trained troops at Chang Garrison; in the ninth month, he commanded reinforcements to Ningyuan and Jinzhou. In the sixth year, by imperial decree he followed Tang Jiuzhou on campaign to suppress bandits in the capital region and Henan — south when the bandits went south, north when they went north, pacifying the east and looking to the west, his body never out of armor, his horse never unsaddled.

At General Ridge he slew the great bandit He Qianzong; at Fire Burn Mountain he killed the bandit chief Zhang Panzi.

Tang Jiuzhou asked further, "How many battles have you fought? How many heads taken?"

"A total of eighty-six battles fought, one thousand one hundred bandit heads taken by my blade..." Zhou Erjing paused here — that was the record from his last merit review. He did some mental addition, then said, "Commander, it is ninety-seven battles fought, one thousand three hundred and fifty-five bandit heads taken by my blade."

Tang Jiuzhou nodded again. His subordinate officers were all like this — their kill counts were relatively low, mainly because their merits and promotions came too fast and they had no troops under them.

Ling Yuanji, Hu Lianghan, Zhao Zhu, and Zhou Erjing — all four had been low-ranking officers during the relief of the capital. By chance they had stayed at Changping. If not for this unlucky assignment to enter Longzhou, once this campaign ended, they would have been four regional commanders.

Tang Jiuzhou gave Zhou Erjing a few words of encouragement, then told him to go arrange the order. In his heart, he made a decision: he would personally go see the camp the Marshal's army had set up at the mountain pass.

If there was a chance, he would do his utmost to punch through those two battalions.

Of course, he also prepared for the other outcome. If there was truly no way to engage them, he would have to write letters of recommendation for his four old subordinates.

Halting troops in the mountains and missing a battle opportunity was a crime. If the court punished him, his officers were still young and needed a place to go, so as not to delay their careers.

But Tang Jiuzhou was not overly worried about himself. The realm was still in chaos — the court could not bear to kill him... At this point, even if he wanted to resign, he could not. At most, they would strip his rank and make him serve in the ranks to redeem himself.

Besides, he was not entirely without options.

For now, his objective was to lure the enemy into the mountains. Inside Jingfu Mountain, troops could not be deployed in force, which would neutralize the Marshal army's numerical advantage... After all, after years of suppressing rebels, Tang Jiuzhou knew the bandits' tactics better than the bandits themselves. Every single one of those colonels under Liu Chengzong — whoever entered the mountains would get hammered.

If those two battalions outside the mountain did not enter, then he would wait and see — wait for the Ningxia army to the north to free up and come south, or for Liu Chengzong to enter Guanzhong on his own initiative.

The old Daoist Kunyangzi of the Dragon Gate branch, who was with Tang Jiuzhou, put it this way: Military Commissioner Chen's order was to enter and garrison Longzhou. Since they could no longer get into Longzhou ahead of the western bandits, they might as well enter Longzhou after the western bandits had left.

Getting lost before Liu Chengzong left Longzhou — that was not out of the question.

Tang Jiuzhou indeed placed great hope in the Ningxia border troops coming south, because just before he led his troops out of Huating, he had heard that Ningxia had won a very splendid victory over Liu Chengzong, taking over six thousand heads alone.

Actually, this was a misunderstanding. The Ningxia border army really did fight someone, but the opponent was neither Liu Chengzong as Tang Jiuzhou believed, nor Yang Qi as Hong Chengchou believed — it was the Three Khans of Mobei, leading their troops back north.

The three of them wanted to pull off one big score before heading home, so they decided to sack Ningxia before leaving.

Yang Qi talked himself hoarse but couldn't dissuade them, because the three khans had all done reconnaissance beforehand and claimed the Ningxia border army was in a tough period — short on troops, armor, and horses — and that seizing the chance to knock out this military town would make life a bit easier for the Mobei nobles staying behind in Monan.

The moment Yang Qi heard this, he simply stopped trying to persuade them.

He thought to himself: Oh, wonderful. You really think I kept you here to guard the house so you could carve out new territory for your Mobei Mongols? You can't even tell who's boss around here anymore. Fine, go attack then — I'll watch how you get yourselves killed!

The Ningxia garrison really was short on everything — short on grain, short on horses, short on money — but they were not short on blades, nor on soldiers who knew how to use them.

He Huchen was right there beside Yang Qi. How could Yang Qi not know the true state of the Ningxia garrison?

Never mind that the immensely powerful Three Borders Supreme Commander Hong Chengchou was stationed in Ningxia — his subordinate guest generals like Cao Wenzhao and Bai Guang'en, along with local commanders Shen Guangxian, Tu Shixian, Bu Yingdi, and others, were all battle-hardened veterans.

Yang Qi was baffled. I spent all that effort setting up the Circle Trade to keep you fed, and hey! You just had to go looking for death.

When we Ming military system people fight among ourselves, whoever wins or loses, it just proves how formidable we are. You can't watch the Ming army lose a fight against the Marshal's Office and then think they're pushovers — crushing you would still be child's play.

The Three Khans wouldn't listen. Their seventy-thousand-strong army surged into Ningxia in grand force.

Half a month — just half a month — and fewer than fifty thousand came back out. Günbü Khan was even struck by a stray shot and had to be hauled out on a cart.

Sholui and Subadi came out without even greeting Yang Qi, and headed straight back to Mobei, utterly crestfallen.

It was rather rude of them. Yang Qi could only wave at the sky and swallow the words on his lips: "Come visit again sometime."

Most critically, Tang Jiuzhou had no idea that Cao Yao was already sharpening his blade and eyeing Ningxia, and had already swept up the surrendered troops of Jinglu Garrison and was advancing on Ningxia's Zhongwei.

Zhou Erjing moved quickly. That very night he sent two squads of scouts groping through the mountains in the dark, skirting the Marshal's Army camp at the mountain pass and heading for Longzhou. But by morning, two men came scrambling back in a panic, gasping for breath: "Gen… General, Longzhou… the cannons are thundering over there — they've already begun storming the city!"

The news was reported to the central command. Tang Jiuzhou and his four subordinate officers assessed the situation to the south.

Their minds raced, deducing and judging the enemy's next moves. The conclusion they reached was not good.

Liu Chengzong would not use tens of thousands of troops to attack a single small town like this — otherwise he wouldn't have left just two battalions stationed at the mountain pass to block them. Therefore, Tang Jiuzhou judged that the force currently bombarding Longzhou was a detached unit, and that the Marshal's Office main force should be advancing south at this moment.

This was not good news for them, because Liu Chengzong heading south did not necessarily mean he intended to break into Guanzhong. At least before entering Guanzhong, he would certainly strike down Zuo Liangyu, who was stationed at Qinzhou — otherwise they wouldn't be going to the trouble of attacking Longzhou right now.

After all, whether Qinzhou or Longzhou, both were strategic points controlling Longnan. Either take neither, or take both.

Once Zuo Liangyu was defeated, they would likely be next.

But this was also an opportunity.

The siege would definitely tie up the enemy's attention. This was also their chance to break out from the front.

Tang Jiuzhou made up his mind and gave the order: "Pass the word — the entire army is to strike camp and close in on them. While Longzhou can still pin down the enemy, smash through the blockade!"

They moved quickly. They had only been on the march for two hours when they ran headlong into the scouts fleeing back, pursued by Marshal's Army post riders brandishing blades on galloping horses. Only upon spotting Tang Jiuzhou's main force did the riders wheel their horses and retreat.

The scout who had narrowly escaped with his life ignored the arrow still lodged in his back, tumbled from the saddle, and cried: "Commander, Longzhou has fallen!"

"Longzhou is a place of strategic defiles — how could it be breached in a single day?"

"The bandit army used cannon fire to smash the battlements, filled the moat with earth sacks, and piled up earthen ramps beneath the walls. This morning they rode horses up onto the walls and seized all four sides — Longzhou fell right after."

Tang Jiuzhou clenched his fist on horseback, thinking to himself: No wonder Deng Qi fell to his death from that wall — they actually let the Marshal's Army storm the city on horseback!

"Damn it. Those post riders who were chasing us just now will go back and report — I fear the situation is turning against us. Move, move, move! Forced march!"

Tang Jiuzhou recalled the post riders who had wheeled back, and immediately ordered a forced march. Only this time, his objective was no longer the army blocking the mountain pass, but Liupan Mountain north of Longzhou — the very pass Liu Chengzong had just descended from.

He intended to seize that position and, coordinating with Zuo Liangyu and other friendly forces, lock Liu Chengzong back inside Guanzhong.