Chapter 603: Fengxiang Plain

Northwest of Baoji, on the northern hills west of the Qian River.

Cao Wenzhao gripped his telescope and gazed at the Marshal's Army positions on Fengxiang Plain, searching among the layer upon layer of encampments for a weak point easy to breach.

Days of forced marching had left his face weathered and worn, and now the scene in the telescope cast an iron-gray pall over his haggard features.

His eyes fixed on the Marshal's Army fortifications, he said, "A surprise assault will be very difficult."

Beside him, Ping'an, helmet cradled in his arms, nodded in agreement, deeply convinced: "Our forces are stronger than before, but Liu Chengzong... is also much harder to deal with."

All the worst setbacks of Ping'an's life had come at Liu Chengzong's hands.

He had followed Cao Wenzhao into battle, cheated death time and again, and earned the rank of Mobile Corps General — originally, after that achievement, he'd had a chance to advance further, and with a bit of luck might even have become a Regional Commander like Zu Kuan.

He never imagined that at Pingliang, not only would he be wounded, but he'd also be stripped of all rank and reduced to a common soldier — it was like having the backbone of his career snapped in two. The years since had been nothing but wasted toil and struggle; now he served as a Battalion Commander on the Governor's staff, no longer even considered an independent officer.

Bai Guang'en shared a similar state of mind, though a tier lower — he couldn't muster hatred for Liu Chengzong; the one Bai Guang'en hated most was Zhang Tianlin.

They were not the only two observing the situation. Soon, the three generals Bai Guang'en, Bu Yingdi, and Shen Guangxian each came seeking Cao Wenzhao to voice their concerns.

Bai Guang'en was too embarrassed to speak up, but Bu Yingdi was a plainspoken man. He came straight over and opened with: "I must ask Marshal Cao to send word to Left Marshal — this is no time to give battle on the plain."

With that, Bu Yingdi pointed to the map and laid out his view: "Fengxiang Plain is barely a hundred li across. Both armies have too many men and horses crammed onto these hills and this tableland."

"The urgent task is to dispatch a detached battalion to Longxi to gather provisions. We hold the narrow passes, trap the enemy in Guanzhong, and when they try to break out north or west, we seek another chance to fight among the hills and tablelands of Longxi."

To put it bluntly, Bu Yingdi had been awed into caution.

He was a Ningxia general born and bred. Earlier, at the Second Side Wall, he had fought Zhao Guangrui of the newly surrendered Jinglu Guard under Cao Yao, then joined Cao Wenzhao in harrying Cao Yao and driving him out of Guyuan — a grueling pursuit.

Back then, he knew Cao Yao was no match for him.

Cao Yao's troops were weak — nothing but Gansu Guard banner troops or newly surrendered banner troops from places like Jinglu — relying entirely on Huang Shengxiao's single cannon battalion to hold the line.

But Cao Yao was exceedingly cunning, utterly unconcerned with reputation. He'd flee the moment it suited him, a complete rogue, not the least bit encumbered.

It was this process that made Bu Yingdi recognize their own shortcomings. Four battalions of Gansu border troops — their coordination on the battlefield was passable, but they were not suited for large-scale maneuvers.

Cao Yao could pose no threat to them, yet they had courted danger several times, each crisis entirely of their own making.

With several battalions' worth of men to feed and horses to fodder, even the simple task of lighting a cookfire became a vexing problem.

Marching, encamping, chopping firewood, patrolling the camp... difficulties everywhere. When the column reached camp, the men in front had already stripped all the firewood bare; the men behind had to beg fodder from those ahead. Split the troops and they lost contact; combine them and they'd drink a stream dry.

Most critically, their own Regional Commander, Cao Wenzhao, had no experience either!

In the old days, He Huchen at least conducted autumn border defense at Huamachi every year. The mobile troops of the Three Frontiers would mass there — with the Supreme Commander planning strategy above and the Three Frontiers generals coordinating below, the methods of large-corps maneuver were at least clearly understood.

The current Regional Commander, Cao Wenzhao, was a genuine born killer. In the matter of leading from the front, Bu Yingdi was thoroughly convinced and full of respect.

But when it came to commanding troops in battle, Bu Yingdi's thoughts and feelings were rather more complicated. On one hand, he truly and especially admired Cao Wenzhao; on the other, he felt Cao Wenzhao was a bit unhinged.

In over twenty years as a soldier in Ningxia, he had never seen a Regional Commander who stole glory from common soldiers.

When Cao Wenzhao led five battalions — nearly twenty thousand men — in pursuit of Cao Yao, his order to the other four battalions was always the same: divide into five columns, envelop and encircle. His own personal battalion was invariably tasked with the frontal assault.

The entire battalion's ethos was like that of heavenly troops and generals. The common soldier stood behind his squad leader, the squad leader behind the company commander, the company commander behind the battalion major, the battalion major behind the brigade commanders like Feng Ju and Liu Chenggong, and the brigade commanders behind Ping'an.

Ping'an stood behind Cao Wenzhao.

Cao Wenzhao could even, in the midst of a pursuit, blast a rearguard scout of Cao Yao's force to death with a three-eyed gun.

Put it this way: when Cao Wenzhao led five battalions into battle, it was the same as leading one. When Tu Shixian took his troops off toward Lanzhou, their army corps didn't seem to miss that battalion at all.

As for the other four battalions, whether they were there or not... made no tactical difference whatsoever. Bu Yingdi even felt that his own presence hampered Cao Wenzhao's performance.

This was precisely why Bu Yingdi believed the decapitation plan proposed by Supreme Commander Hong Chengchou — he felt it was a plan Hong the Supreme Commander had tailor-made for Regional Commander Cao.

In other words, he believed Supreme Commander Hong truly knew how to employ men. Cao Wenzhao was a top-tier shock general, but his ability to command ten thousand troops was a touch lacking.

It was the same with this campaign. At the moment, Cao Wenzhao was still a bit smug — at least now, commanding four battalions, he had some semblance of method.

But before that smugness had even faded, Liu Chengzong, having crossed the breadth of Guanzhong, had just flaunted a masterclass in large-corps maneuver right in his face.

And how could Cao Wenzhao himself not have been awed by Liu Chengzong's large-scale movement?

The day before, the plain had been empty. Even the scouts who rode through reported back that they had only occasionally spotted Mongol cavalry in twos and threes, with leather balls tied to their horses' tails, chasing each other and shooting arrows for sport.

The next day, twenty thousand troops split into four columns and descended like divine soldiers from the heavens, arriving at Fengxiang one after another within a single two-hour period. Felling trees, drawing water, erecting fortifications, digging trenches — all done with methodical precision. In the blink of an eye, several great encampments had sprouted from the wasteland.

What... the hell kind of nonsense was this?

Fengxiang Prefecture was the Marshal's Army's critical stronghold and main supply depot in Guanzhong.

Cao Wenzhao had long anticipated that Liu Chengzong would send troops to relieve it, and that he would come swiftly.

But what he had not anticipated... was Liu Chengzong's decisiveness and resolve.

In Cao Wenzhao's subconscious, this campaign should have begun with the siege of Baoji. The Marshal's Army's main force to the east would receive the news, but, worried about Ming attacks from the east, would awkwardly scrape together reinforcements — one battalion, then two arriving on the battlefield first, the fighting gradually escalating, until it finally formed a pitched battle.

Liu Chengzong, were you really once a Ming officer? Where was the process of calling for help, one gourd-brother after another, like the gourd babies rescuing grandpa?

So the moment word of Baoji being surrounded reached you, the entire eastern main force just turned around without a second thought, is that it?

Cao Wenzhao's thinking now was identical to Bu Yingdi's: the plan was completely ruined. They could not fight this battle against Liu Chengzong on Fengxiang Plain.

Before this, what he had been weighing was the combat strength of Liu Chengzong's individual battalions.

But after seeing the deeper pattern, the matter occupying Cao Wenzhao's mind had nothing to do with combat strength anymore... they were simply not fighting on the same level of warfare.

With Liu Chengzong's resolve and marching capability to concentrate superior force on a local battlefield, what kind of troops could he not lead to victory?

It was like a chess player, no matter how superb his skill, could never beat Emperor Jing of Han, Liu Qi, at chess.

After all, the chess player studies the board; Liu Qi studies how to smash the board into your forehead.

A surprise decapitation strike, indeed.

With seventy to eighty thousand troops from both sides crammed onto the cramped Fengxiang Plain, once battle lines were truly drawn and fighting began, even a single battalion would struggle to turn around in formation — whose head were they supposed to take?

When Guan Yu slew Yan Liang, he still needed Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and the others to draw away the main force. With the current formation, there wasn't even room to maneuver the main force away.

What Bu Yingdi proposed, sending men back to Longxi to gather provisions, was at least a viable plan.

After all, no matter how fine Guanzhong was, Liu Chengzong was still surrounded. They had many men and horses, their fodder consumption was enormous, and it was naturally the Marshal's Army that should be feeling the urgency.

Cao Wenzhao exchanged a glance with Ping'an, then his eyes drifted uncontrollably toward Bai Guang'en.

When it came to gathering provisions, the Ming army was skilled at it, but among former rogues turned government troops, Bai Guang'en was the most skilled of all!

But Bai Guang'en didn't take the bait. He'd been sitting perfectly upright, but at those words his body slumped sideways in the armchair. Hugging his helmet, he took the neck guard off and put it back on, off and on again, like a man with a hyperactivity disorder.

Cao Wenzhao asked, "What does General Bai say?"

Bai Guang'en, as if roused from sleep paralysis, froze mid-motion with the helmet in his hands. He looked up groggily and said, "I'll follow Marshal Cao's lead."

He wasn't stupid. Inwardly he thought, who here didn't come from Longxi? These past two or three years, drought, locust plagues, and armies marching back and forth had plowed Longxi over how many times? Right now, what the hell kind of grain could Longxi produce by normal means? To put it bluntly, they just wanted him to go seize grain.

Seizing grain was easy enough, but the order had to come from them.

The moment Cao Wenzhao heard this, he understood Bai Guang'en's meaning. He nodded, but as the words reached his lips, he turned instead to Shen Guangxian and asked, "And General Shen? Any insightful advice?"

Unlike Cao Wenzhao, Ping'an, Bai Guang'en, and the others, Shen Guangxian had never suffered at Liu Chengzong's hands.

Back when the Ningxia Battalion faced the Lion Battalion at Yellow Dragon Mountain and suffered a crushing defeat, He Huchen had borne all the punishment. Shen Guangxian came out unscathed.

Later, after the great Hehuang battle and yet another major defeat, the pool of experienced Ningxia officers was heavily diluted. Shen Guangxian, on sheer seniority, became a Regional Commander — just a hair short. If not for Zhang Dechang, a military-house scion with connections, he could have at least landed a Vice Commander post.

So not only did he not feel he had a grudge against Liu Chengzong, he actually felt he'd gained a tiny advantage from him.

Back then, Shen Guangxian's only concern had been making He Huchen go back and take the blame for the defeat. He was still the same now. A man didn't need to be so fiercely loyal to sovereign and state — doing his own job well was enough.

Stay alive, and live better and better.

Still, Shen Guangxian had a clear sense of this matter. Zhang Dechang had become Vice Commander and would soon move up to full Commander. He and Zhang Dechang simply weren't on the same track.

His competitors weren't Zhang Dechang — they were men like Bu Yingdi and Tu Shixian.

If this time Liu Chengzong could pick out a lucky man from among them and send him off, Shen Guangxian was seventy percent sure he could step into Zhang Dechang's shoes and become Ningxia's Vice Commander.

A future without limits!

"I think Marshal Cao is right. We gather provisions, march west, and catch them off guard in Longxi. Each battalion's vanguard seizes the moment and cuts Liu Chengzong down in the fray."

Bai Guang'en had remained silent the whole time, but at this sentence alone, he raised his eyes to look at the several men brimming with confidence and asked, "Gentlemen, who among you has seen Liu Chengzong fight hand-to-hand?"

Everyone looked at Shen Guangxian. Shen Guangxian shook his head. "At the Yellow Dragon Mountain battle, I only glimpsed him once from afar. We never fought."

They looked at Cao Wenzhao. Cao Wenzhao also shook his head. "At Pingliang, he didn't fight either."

Finally, the commanders looked hopefully at Bai Guang'en, but Bai Guang'en said, "I've seen his back. Like a bear crouched on horseback."

Bu Yingdi wiped his face at those words. If he was built like that... this bandit was probably not going to be easy to kill.

Cao Wenzhao was deeply puzzled.

He had seen Liu Chengzong, and he had seen bears.

Yet no matter how he searched his memories of that battle back then, he could not connect Liu Chengzong to a bear.

In truth, because Cao Wenzhao was somewhat older, he had long held the title "Match for Ten Thousand" in the army. In his youth he'd been broad-shouldered and barrel-chested; now, after years of campaigning and heavy drinking and eating, it was he whose build more closely resembled a bear.

In his memory, Liu Chengzong's build was nothing that special — just a normal soldier. In fact, because he was a bit taller, he seemed less stocky, roughly like his nephew Cao Bianjiao, both looking lean, agile, and fierce.

He wondered: Bai Guang'en had known Liu Chengzong earlier — what, had Liu the Lion gone and slimmed down after rebelling?

Then he heard Bai Guang'en say, "Your subordinate believes we should still fight him in formation. Don't pin victory or defeat on cutting him down in the fray. I spent a long time in Yan'an Prefecture and often heard people talk about Liu Chengzong's Yan'an uprising — wielding blade and axe, he slaughtered his way down the long street, entering and leaving the government offices as if no one were there, fighting battles inside and outside the city, killing over a hundred men."

"People all say he's a living Lü Bu — with a mere weapon in hand, a hundred men cannot stop him; with a single piece of armor on his body, a thousand men struggle to match him. He has the valor of Xiang Ji."

Cao Wenzhao had been listening very intently, but at the end, he simply laughed.

He had heard this kind of talk far too many times.

Since entering the pass to suppress the rebels: dragons, he'd slaughtered three; tigers, he'd butchered five; a wolf, he'd killed one; he'd trampled two Golden Cicadas to death; and he'd defeated Guan Suo, Xue Rengui, and countless other ancient famous generals.

He'd originally thought Liu Chengzong was quite hard to deal with, but now, hearing he was a fusion of Lü Bu and Xiang Yu, Cao Wenzhao instantly felt... the difficulty seemed to have dropped.

But right at that moment, a household soldier from the camp came to report: "Marshal, Marshal Zuo has sent a man to ask — the army provisions will only last seven more days. Is this battle still on or not?"

Cao Wenzhao shook his head. "Liu's bandits shift troops too fast. We can't fight. Go back and tell Marshal Zuo he must hold steady. When two armies face off, the fight is all about steadiness. We're short on grain, but the enemy may not have much more. I, Cao, will find a way to handle the army provisions — the soldiers won't go hungry."

With that, he waved the household soldier away, then clasped his fist to Bai Guang'en. "In that case, I must trouble General Bai to make a trip to Longxi. Five days as the limit — bring back some army provisions."

Then he said to Shen Guangxian and Bu Yingdi, "The remaining battalions, first fortify your camps and guard against a bandit raid. As long as we hold steady, Liu Chengzong will be the one getting anxious."

Cao Wenzhao had done the math in his head. Given the current state of Guanzhong, Liu Chengzong couldn't get much grain. He estimated that even if the Marshal's Army had grain, it was now extremely limited.

Moreover, when it came to army provisions, the pressure Liu Chengzong's forces could bear was certainly less than theirs.

After all, to the Marshal's Manor, Guanzhong was now barely different from foreign territory.

Precisely at this moment, cannon fire sounded from the south.

The booming thunder of cannons rolled in like distant, rumbling thunder from the horizon. Cao Wenzhao frowned. "Is it going to rain? The sky doesn't look like it should..."

Then hurried footsteps came running outside the command tent. It was Cao Wenzhao's other nephew, Cao Dingjiao, who clasped his fist. "Marshal, cannon fire from the south — it seems Marshal Zuo is attacking Baoji!"

The commanders rushed out of the central army tent and swiftly climbed the earthen mound within the camp. From this position, they couldn't clearly see the scene outside Baoji to the south, but they could see the Fengxiang Plateau, where one Marshal's Army camp gate after another swung open. Signal cannons boomed one after another, and a vast, mighty cavalry column streamed out in file. Every banner pointed to the same place — Baoji.

Cao Wenzhao thought to himself: damn. It looked like they would have to fight Liu Chengzong right here on the Fengxiang Plateau, whether they wanted to or not!