Chapter 607: Feint

West of Baoji City erupted in chaos, and Zuo Liangyu was the first to react.

Because he had waited half the night on the city's east side, had iron caltrops scattered all over the ground outside his camp's west-facing gate, and had even prepared twelve dogs for the night sentries patrolling the camp — all just waiting for a furious Luo Rucai to come out of the city for a night raid.

Listening to the shouts of slaughter from the chaos west of the city, even Zuo Liangyu could not help but sigh in admiration within his camp: "What a cunning Cao Cao!"

In just a few short days, Luo Rucai inside Baoji City had made Zuo Liangyu remember his name deeply.

Before this, Zuo Liangyu had not really been familiar with Luo Rucai, thinking him merely an ordinary bandit chieftain.

After all, though the Marshal's Manor had many officers, they were all hidden beneath the halo of Liu Chengzong's steady command; even those holding the rank of brigade commander rarely got the chance to display their talents, let alone a staff officer like Luo Rucai.

By comparison, it was the four generals sent to the Southern Desert — Yang Qi, He Huchen, Wang Cheng'en, and the Shaktu Taiji — who had greater renown in the Ming court.

Among the Marshal's Manor staff officers, only Guo Tianxing, Zhang Tianlin, had a reputation great enough to make Ming officers feel fear.

And even that was only enough to awe Gansu and parts of Shaanxi.

Luo Rucai was an unknown name; even the nickname Cao Cao had only spread by word of mouth among the Shaanxi bandits incorporated into Zuo Liangyu's army, and their knowledge of him was stuck before Liu Chengzong entered Qinghai.

But in just these few days besieging the city, Zuo Liangyu had been driven to a state of fury; now, having calmed down, Zuo Liangyu realized he had underestimated Luo Cao Cao.

Although he was attacking and Luo was defending, tactically, he had been led by the nose by Luo Rucai the entire time.

Luo Rucai wanted him to attack the city, so he attacked; wanted him furious, so he became furious.

In the end, he still could not take the city and could only fret helplessly beneath its walls.

Even now, he was still being outmaneuvered — the enemy did launch a night raid, but the target was not him!

The moment he heard the chaos west of the city, Zuo Liangyu guessed that Luo Rucai had sent a cavalry unit to trample the camp, so he dispatched his capable officer Luo Dai to select elite riders and go reinforce them, aiming to cut off Luo Rucai's troops as they returned to the city after the raid.

But before Luo Dai could return from that side, someone came from the east — a Yunnan soldier under Long Zaitian, riding a shaggy, short-legged Yunnan pony, ambling over to report urgently: "Commander Zuo, firelight has been spotted to the east, it seems enemy troops are moving at night with torches!"

"The east?"

Zuo Liangyu glared. "What do you mean, the east?"

He was not asking the Yunnan messenger rider this question, but asking himself.

The moment he spoke those words, Zuo Liangyu's mind had already entered a combat state; he was thinking.

The west was already under attack, and from the commotion there, Zuo Liangyu was confident in judging that it was merely a spontaneous night raid launched by Luo Rucai's garrison inside Baoji City.

But if, at this very moment, an army was rapidly approaching the Yunnan troops under cover of darkness from the east, Zuo Liangyu had to consider the possibility that Liu Chengzong was launching a night battle.

And launching a night battle?

That in itself was a crazy idea.

Night raids had their advantages.

Zuo Liangyu had also judged, based on common sense, that Luo Rucai would definitely launch a night raid.

After all, if it were daytime, the moment the defenders left the city gate, the besieging camp would already be arrayed and waiting; without equal numbers, it was very difficult for defenders to gain an advantage in field combat.

But at night, the defenders could send out only a small elite force and use the darkness to delay the besieging army's defensive organization, achieving disruption or even routing effects.

However, technically, Zuo Liangyu could find no reason for Liu Chengzong to launch a night battle.

In terms of troop strength, Liu Chengzong had no fewer men than they did; in terms of timing, at this moment they had already been alerted by Luo Rucai's night raid and were in a state of full readiness.

Most importantly, the direction — even if it were a night raid, Liu Chengzong should be coming from the north.

Zuo Liangyu was unclear about the disposition of Cao Wenzhao's forces west of Baoji City, but he knew his own side's deployment of nearly twenty thousand troops very well.

From his own Left Army siege camp at the far west, to Ai Wannian's Yansui Camp, and then to the Yunnan Army stretched along the southern bank of the Wei River defending the riverbank, they formed a long snake from west to east.

Of course, their weak point was not the north either.

On one hand, the Wei River's presence meant that as long as the Ming army held the banks, the Marshal's Army would find it hard to break through even if they crossed the river.

On the other hand, there was the terrain: the land south of the Wei River at Baoji was a narrow, elongated river flat, long east to west and short north to south, at its narrowest only three or four li from north to south — a single camp deployed could block it.

So even if the north was not a weak point, the Marshal's Army should not be coming from the east!

Zuo Liangyu's brain was burning; he figured that if Liu Chengzong came from the east, it would be almost impossible to rout them head-on — he would have to fight through their entire army from east to west.

Not concentrating forces to break through a horizontal line, but insisting on a frontal breakthrough against a vertical line.

And launching a night battle on top of that, both sides groping blindly in the dark like blind men feeling an elephant, hacking at each other... Zuo Liangyu could not fathom it, truly could not fathom it.

This damn thing made no sense!

Since this matter was unreasonable, Zuo Liangyu turned around: "Report to General Long, the east is a feint."

Like a corpse that had been dead half a day suddenly reanimating, he slowly narrowed his eyelids, returning his wide-staring eyes to normal, and his speech grew faster and faster: "If there is a major enemy tonight, they must be crossing the river from the north."

The most important factor supporting this judgment was still the terrain.

Liu Chengzong's army could not deploy on the narrow terrain and could not leverage their numerical advantage; if they really came, they would definitely spread out their battle line to cross the river, seeking an opportunity for a focused breakthrough to tear open the Yunnan Army's defense line.

But even so, deep down Zuo Liangyu still did not believe that Liu Chengzong would launch a night battle.

Luo Rucai could launch a night raid because he had previously garrisoned Baoji and was very familiar with the terrain, topography, ditches, and field ridges outside Baoji County — he had practically conducted multiple on-the-ground surveys.

But Liu Chengzong's main force simply had no such opportunity, no such conditions; they knew neither the attack routes nor the retreat routes.

Without surveying the terrain and topography, if a night battle failed, the army would not know where to retreat, and the entire force would collapse in an instant; even if they won, the result would be the same — not knowing where to continue the attack, they would sooner or later disintegrate during pursuit.

On this point, Zuo Liangyu's thinking was especially correct — so correct it almost matched Liu Chengzong's own thinking.

Five li north of the Wei River bank, Liu Chengzong's forward scout riders had dug several earthen pits in the dark on abandoned farmland, crooked and askew, which when connected could only form a large checkmark.

Men set up cloth screens to the south of each pit for concealment, lit bonfires inside the pits, to serve as guiding markers for the army behind.

Then the various battalions advanced slowly, each large company leading warhorses, donkeys, and mules forward, halting at the staff officer's command to rest on the spot.

Liu Chengzong arrived afterward together with Wang Wenxiu — Liu Chengzong's Tiger Guard, Zhang Tianlin's cavalry, Gao Yingdeng's mounted infantry, and the one battalion Wang Wenxiu had garrisoned at Fengxiang Prefecture.

The four battalions deployed across the wilderness, setting up twelve camps unprotected by wooden palisades or trenches.

The main purpose of encamping this way was to guard against night raids.

The formation was not the least bit sophisticated — simply one large camp inside with two small camps outside, four large camps in the center with eight small camps encircling them — yet it was extremely effective against night raids.

The principle was: if you hit him, then you can't hit me.

By throwing the small camps, each holding four or five hundred troops, to the outside, any night-raiding army would have to hit the small camps first, giving the resting large camps time to don armor and organize a defense, so they would not be cut down by the enemy in their sleep.

Organize an effective defense, then think about beating the opponent down.

In this world, there has never been a rule that only he can hit others and others cannot hit him.

He could launch a night raid against the Ming army, so naturally the Ming army could also launch a night raid against him.

Subjectively even, Liu Shizi believed the Ming army's willingness to initiate a night raid was higher than his own.

So he truly had no intention of starting a battle at night; moving the army's camp was merely a precaution.

After all, Luo Rucai had stirred up a huge commotion west of the city, and Zhang Xianzhong's army advanced from the east at the sound — the atmosphere on the battlefield had been built up to this point.

However, Wang Wenxiu had actually been urging Liu Chengzong to call off the attack the whole way, for the same reason as what Zuo Liangyu was thinking.

He said: "Great Commander, the Lintao Brigade under Commander Zhang consists entirely of guest troops. None of them have ever been to Fengxiang. If chaos erupts again during night operations, they won't know which direction to pursue in victory or which direction to retreat in defeat. I think it's better to harass them for the night and attack the enemy at dawn."

Liu Shizi let out a long breath: "Do you think I don't understand this reasoning? But matters cannot be viewed from only one side."

"Who this Long Zaitian they're facing is, I don't know. But the two commanders Zuo and Ai are clear enough. Ai Wannian, dragging his sick body, pursued and suppressed rebels across Shaanxi's mountains, never loosening his grip once he bit into a peasant army. Zuo Liangyu led two thousand elite troops from Changping and swept across both banks of the Yellow River."

"And my Lintao Brigade is merely of military household origin. Do you truly believe that if I gave the order now, I could withdraw them intact?"

Wang Wenxiu fell silent.

In truth, Liu Chengzong had already envisioned this scene when he sent orders to Zhang Xianzhong during the day.

The reason he had Shi Xiang follow Zhang Xianzhong's commands in battle was precisely because he had no confidence he could still command the army like his own arm at night.

Command has distance, orders take time, banners and flags are useless at night, and with the Wei River in between, military orders would have a lag once transmitted.

Not to mention that the concealed Lintao Brigade in the dark had only a few men raising torches to guide the way. Even standing on a dirt hill, he could not see where exactly the army had marched to.

It was entirely possible that if he ordered Zhang Xianzhong to withdraw now, by the time the order arrived, Zhang Xianzhong would already be fighting the Ming army. Then, retreating mid-battle, if Zuo Liangyu, Ai Wannian, or even Long Zaitian seized the chance, a single counter-charge could easily shatter the Lintao Brigade's command structure.

A night raid is not easy, and a night withdrawal is not easy either. Both require pre-battle preparation. At minimum, officers above the rank of Centurion need to scout the terrain and roads in person during the day to maintain orderly advance and retreat for each unit after losing command and contact at night.

They did not have such conditions.

Liu Chengzong saw Wang Wenxiu's face full of worry and silence, so he smiled and said: "Still, there's no need to be overly anxious. Commander Zhang's force is already exposed. Withdrawing now would mean returning with nothing accomplished, or even suffering losses for no reason."

"During the day I looked at the terrain south of the river. The river flat hemmed in by mountains and river is only three or four li wide from north to south. Neither side can easily break through the other head-on. Let him fight freely first, and we will watch for our moment to move."

In reality, however, Liu Chengzong thought he was well hidden, but his movements had already been detected by Long Zaitian.

Long Zaitian was extremely aggressive in tactics. Although Zuo Liangyu's order was to defend south of the river, his Yunnan scouts had crossed the Wei River stealthily as soon as night fell and set up hidden posts on the north bank.

For one, he had once led troops in Sichuan to force back Feng Shuangli, who had advanced south from Western Sichuan. His Yunnan troops not only had no fear of the Marshal's Army, but also thought the so-called northern Ming troops were all weaklings, tall idiots grown for nothing.

Secondly, the native soldiers under his command did not understand, nor did they want to understand, so many things. Ten thousand troops had marched four thousand li on expedition from Yunnan, pent-up with a bellyful of rage and fighting spirit, precisely to help Long Zaitian prove their loyalty to the Emperor and earn merit by suppressing the rebels.

Under the cover of night, the Yunnan soldiers moving cautiously swam across the Wei River and reported to Long Zaitian the large-scale enemy troop movements appearing five to ten li from the north bank. At the same time, he also received Zuo Liangyu's assessment of the military situation to the east.

Comparing the two, Long Zaitian clutched Zuo Liangyu's letter and slowly nodded in the torchlight: "Commander Zuo's judgment is correct. The east is a diversionary feint. The rebel main force remains north of the river. Pass the word to all battalions: deployment unchanged, still fourteen battalions deployed south of the river."

Long Zaitian had originally been a native chieftain. Even now, most of the soldiers under his command were Yunnan native troops, and their organization differed from the regular Ming army.

He formed a battalion with five hundred men, commanded by a Native Battalion Commander, which was effectively equivalent to a regular Ming army's Battalion Commander's command, but with higher independent command authority in combat.

This was because when he previously served the court, leading troops on campaigns across Yunnan and Guizhou, smaller units and officers with greater independent combat capability could achieve a greater advantage in complex terrain against scattered and numerous enemies.

Of course, another very important reason was dialects.

The number of languages used by Long Zaitian's ten thousand troops alone exceeded those of Liu Chengzong's Duntawulus.

Therefore, Long Zaitian did not fear a night raid. In a chaotic night melee, smaller units were harder to throw into disorder.

On this point, he held the winning hand.

The two Native Battalion Commanders garrisoning the east received their orders and felt even more assured, each leading a battalion of five hundred soldiers in tight formation, awaiting the enemy.

Soon, on the eastern river flat south of the Wei River, the Lintao Brigade marching in the dark night and the Yunnan troops waiting in tight formation drew closer and closer.

The Yunnan Native Battalion Commander suddenly sensed something unusual about the situation and muttered to himself: "Those torches to the east... their spacing seems far too wide."

The gap between one torch and the next was a full hundred paces. A few dozen torches spread across the river valley on the south bank of the Wei River, looking like only two or three hundred men. Even if they were bluffing, there was no need to stand so spread out.

As the torchlight drew nearer, the men finally saw clearly: what was slowly approaching was not two or three hundred night-raiding ghost soldiers clustered around torches, but... several dozen artillery teams carrying large-caliber short cannons.

And in the shadows near these artillery teams, they could faintly make out ranks upon ranks of massed troops.

"Quick, quick, quick! Report to the general!"

The Native Battalion Commander's face turned pale. Staring at the monsters in the shadows, his lips quivered: "The east cannot hold."

Hidden in the darkness, Zhang Xianzhong, riding behind the battle formation, watched the sixty squads before the lines carrying terror-camp cannons and raising torches high, and revealed a cruel smile.

The next moment, one by one, the soldiers carrying the terror-camp cannons pressed the wrought-iron bowl-mouth cannons, forged during the Jiajing era, against the ground. In an extremely short time, sixty hollow cast-iron shells packed with gunpowder were blasted toward the enemy formation.

This thing was called a mother-child cannon, also known as a flying cannon, but its most common name was the terror-camp cannon. It was first used by Zeng Xian during the Jiajing period to blast the Mongols.

Its usage was very simple. A short cannon firing a large-caliber explosive shell was hard to aim accurately, and even if it hit, it could easily damage the fuse, making a secondary explosion unlikely.

Therefore, the simplest method was concentrated use at night, with five to ten cannons carried by soldiers approaching the enemy formation, each cannon paired with corresponding caltrops.

The soldiers would stealthily spiral in and lie in ambush near the resting enemy camp. First, they would lay out the caltrops in front of them, then set up the terror-camp cannons behind.

Afterward, they would fire the shells into various spots inside the camp, then simply wait for the panicked enemy troops to charge out and step on the caltrops, piercing their feet.

However, for Zhang Xianzhong, sending soldiers carrying these old relics scavenged from Qianzhou and other places onto the battlefield had a purpose far beyond merely terrorizing the camp.

Sixty shells arced from the short cannons and dropped into the formation. Moments later, twenty or thirty explosions rang out. The cast-iron shells burst into fragments, large as pellets and small as beans. In an instant, the vicinity erupted in puffs of bloody mist with muffled thuds, and smoke rose everywhere.

Seizing this moment, at the very front of Zhang Xianzhong's battle line, the banner troops of the Lintao Brigade struck their waist drums, and the soldiers surged toward the enemy formation in a torrent.