Chapter 708: Wretched

Zuo Liangyu didn't even draw his blade — he just turned and vaulted onto his horse, charging straight north.

It wasn't just that Liu Tichun recognized him; he recognized Liu Tichun too. The two had met on the battlefield, and more than once.

Just as the Later Jin's mid-ranking officers were thick with ferocious close-combat experts, so too were the Ming army's Guanning troops.

The reason lay in the nature of war as a long, drawn-out wait — and during that wait, nearly every commander who came out of the Guanning Army shared the same experience.

They had been the chosen vanguards of their respective units, threading through the lines in small squads to patrol during lulls in the fighting, clashing with Later Jin scouts, and earning military merit from those engagements.

Promoted to junior officer, they survived the great annual battle after the Liao River froze over, continued taking prisoners and capturing scouts in skirmishes, kept piling up merit, and became mid-ranking officers.

That was exactly how Zuo Liangyu rose — by twenty-nine, he held the post of Wagon-Camp Commandant.

Liu Tichun, on the other hand, because of his steady temperament, had long served as the rearguard in Zhang Xianzhong's Western Camp — which meant Zuo Liangyu had often chased him down and hacked at his heels.

This time, he could finally hold his head high.

Zuo Liangyu fled in such panic that he lost all sense of direction, pinning his hopes on his soldiers being able to block the enemy for him.

But that was, in truth, impossible.

Everywhere in the formation, soldiers were scrambling to dodge the explosions; in that short span, the army had lost all cohesion.

When infantry have cavalry charging into their ranks and can even see the enemy's top commander face to face, no matter how many men you have, it's nearly impossible to steady the line in such a dire moment.

The Ming troops on the periphery, just recovering from the rocket bombardment, had only to glance toward the center to see the column of horsemen flooding past the commander's position like a tide — how could morale possibly hold?

Wave after wave of Ming soldiers scattered and fled into the darkness. The few who still held their ground and stubbornly resisted were too isolated to stand — either clubbed down by the charging cavalry as they swept past, or shot dead by eagle-feather great-arrows arcing in from farther away.

Before long, Zuo Liangyu's entire battalion was shattered, and his troops were fleeing in a mass rout.

And amid that tide of deserters, Zuo Liangyu himself, having swung onto his horse, was chased the hardest and most urgently of all.

It wasn't that he didn't try to shake off the pursuit — he simply couldn't get away. Their horses were better than his.

Running Zuo Liangyu down was a major prize, but Liu Tichun didn't claim that credit for himself; he handed the job to the squad of Feathered Forest Cavalry that Liu Chengzong had sent.

The horses those men rode all belonged to Liu Chengzong.

The Grand Marshal always seemed to acquire fine horses through strange and curious channels. Some, fit for breeding, were sent to Dragon Colt Temple, but most were gelded warhorses.

Those warhorses met their fate when Liu Chengzong picked out a few to bestow on his capable commanders during festivals, while the ones he didn't give away were kept by the Feathered Forest Cavalry and ridden into battle.

They rode either Hequ horses or Ili horses — fine stock specially chosen as tribute, tall and powerfully built. Carrying a fully armored rider for a short burst of combat cost them no effort at all.

So much so that even after Zuo Liangyu fled his camp, he was still hemmed in and cut off by Marshal's Army troops charging from the front. He couldn't fight them off, couldn't outrun them — all he could do was keep desperately breaking through one path after another.

After who knows how long in that frantic, life-or-death flight, the cavalry blocking his way grew thinner and thinner, and at last, not far ahead, he could see a forest of banners and a small detachment of horsemen riding out from the formation to meet him.

The heart Zuo Liangyu had been holding in his throat finally settled back into his chest.

Only then, belatedly, did he realize with a jolt that his clothes had long been soaked through with cold sweat. The spring night breeze blew, and it set him shivering like a man sifting chaff.

But the instant he saw those riders coming to meet him, Zuo Liangyu's heart went thud.

Those two squads of cavalry looked the part from a distance, but up close, you could see it plainly — every man's cloth-faced armor was padded with thick fur lining, and as they rode, their bearing carried an indefinable arrogance. Damn it, these were definitely not Ming troops!

More crucially, that endless sea of banners stretching beyond sight — it was all moving north.

If this army was advancing north, then he had just been fleeing south.

Zuo Liangyu's face turned ashen. His heart sank — this was bad.

He'd been herded.

Only then did Zuo Liangyu realize that during the encirclement and driving by the cavalry, he had lost all sense of direction — the Marshal's Army horsemen had deliberately driven him south.

The cavalry greeting him parted into two columns beneath their banners, and through the open path rode a group of men. The young commander at their center, surrounded by attendants, wore an easy smile and was saying something to those beside him as a rider was dispatched to relay orders.

Then the young commander walked his horse to a spot not far in front of Zuo Liangyu, swept his gaze over him from head to toe, and only then let his smile fade. "Brother Zuo, now that you see me, why do you not dismount and pay your respects?"

Not far to either side, column after column of troops was bypassing them, pressing north without slowing.

Zuo Liangyu had already guessed that the man across from him was Liu Chengzong. He sat on his horse in silence for a long moment, glaring helplessly, his mind racing through every possibility.

What he was pondering wasn't some desperate lunge at Liu Chengzong with a shield — he was brooding over why he always ended up in such a wretched state.

Herded like a lamb by a sheepdog all the way to the front of an army formation — if he surrendered to the Marshal's Mansion after a humiliating experience like that, he'd probably never be able to hold his head up in front of these people for the rest of his life.

For a man of fiercer, prouder temperament, that would likely be a hurdle he couldn't get past in his heart — he'd just slit his own throat.

Zuo Liangyu was different. He'd been wretched too many times in this life; his ability to withstand pressure was formidable.

In the end, he just sighed, dismounted — and as he got off, his foot caught in the stirrup, making him stumble.

Once he'd steadied himself, Zuo Liangyu finally prostrated himself in salute. "Defeated general Zuo Liangyu pays his respects to the Grand Marshal."

Truth be told, this time hardly counted as the most wretched moment of his life.

His most wretched moment was probably when he went from being a fugitive suspect to, overnight — waking up as a Vice Commander-in-Chief.

Back during the Ningyuan Mutiny, Zuo Liangyu, already a mid-ranking officer, had joined his good brother Qiu Lei and others in looting the Jinzhou military stores. He didn't even dare stay in the army after that — his accomplice Qiu Lei took the blame, while he drifted to the capital and took refuge in the household of Hou Xun, working as a hanger-on.

The job Hou Xun arranged for him in the mansion was overseeing hospitality.

Putting him in charge of hospitality was no slight; on the contrary, it was an assignment of the utmost intimacy and regard.

Because it suited Zuo Liangyu. He hadn't come up through the formal military examination track — his starting point was low, his circle was small, and his level of education was poor.

The hospitality work at Hou Xun's mansion was precisely the opportunity he needed to learn the complexities of dealing with people and to expand his network.

But it was also during that time, after he'd been handling hospitality for a while, that Zuo Liangyu encountered the most wretched moment of his life.

The Jin army invaded, and You Shiwei recommended him to lead troops. After discussing it with Hou Xun, Hou Xun sent You Shiwei to Zuo Liangyu's home at the fourth watch to inform him.

Zuo Liangyu first heard that Hou Xun was coming, then heard that You Shiwei had already arrived, and then heard You Shiwei shouting in the courtyard: "General Zuo, your fortune has come! Hurry and order wine to entertain me!"

This was exactly the sort of thing he did at Hou Xun's mansion, and You Shiwei was an old acquaintance.

But Zuo Liangyu's first reaction wasn't to think of the prospects and the pleasant surprise — it was to assume that his part in the affair with Qiu Lei had been exposed. Terrified, he scrambled under the bed.

You Shiwei dragged him out and told him the good news — that he was to become a Vice Commander-in-Chief — only to find him weak-kneed and drained of all color.

Zuo Liangyu dropped to his knees before You Shiwei on the spot. The startled You Shiwei, having no idea what was going on, knelt down facing him in return, then hooked his hands under Zuo Liangyu's armpits and hauled him to his feet.

And it was this very wine-serving hanger-on who had crawled under a bed — one day later, he became a Vice Commander-in-Chief, resisted the Later Jin at Songshan and Xingshan, outshone Cao Wenzhao, and achieved the highest battle merit of all.

After that, he rose to Commander-in-Chief, the pinnacle of military rank. That year, he was only thirty-two.

This time he just got his leg caught in the stirrup while dismounting — not much of an embarrassing display at all.

Liu Chengzong was extremely excited that Zuo Liangyu had been herded over.

In this world, nothing is more exhilarating than taking out the enemy commander before the battle even begins.

He had already sent orders for Gao Yingdeng to dispatch another battalion to coordinate with the scout cavalry in hunting down the routed troops of Zuo Liangyu's battalion, further expanding the victory.

Although it was getting dark and they certainly couldn't achieve much more tonight, they should at least chase in the direction of their rout, driving them all the way to Hong Chengchou's main camp, and thoroughly scout out all enemy movements in the vicinity.

Only once the enemy's positions were fully scouted and their movements kept under surveillance, with his scout cavalry controlling the entire battlefield, could his forces maneuver freely and his orders flow without obstruction.

The moment Liu Shizi reached the battlefield, he knew that even if neither side made a move tonight, he could forget about sleeping.

Over a dozen camps within a hundred-li radius had to be linked together tonight and a unified deployment arranged, to ensure that within the next two or three days, Hong Chengchou's Ningxia force could be completely encircled, crushed, and routed.

But he underestimated Zuo Liangyu's influence.

Li Hongsi, the Deputy Commander of Gao Yingdeng's First Brigade, had not been advancing long before he sent word back: Zuo Liangyu's subordinate, Staff Officer Xu Yong, had sent someone to negotiate, asking whether Marshal Zuo had fallen in battle or been captured. If Zuo Liangyu was unharmed, his entire battalion would surrender immediately.

By now, Liu Chengzong had already brought Zuo Liangyu back to the estate they had seized earlier. Listening to the Marshal's Army report, Zuo Liangyu, sitting to the side now reduced to a prisoner, could barely keep the corners of his mouth from lifting.

In truth, if not for all the trouble Hong Chengchou had stirred up in Ningxia, Zuo Liangyu would have found it very hard psychologically to turn directly to Liu Chengzong.

But it was precisely because of Hong Chengchou's meddling in Ningxia that the last shred of legitimacy the Great Ming had in the northwest was squandered.

This was an inevitable price.

If they could have held on for half a year or so, the new Ningxia Three Garrisons troops, with money, grain, and land, could have kept the system running smoothly, and naturally no problems would have arisen.

But since they couldn't hold on, the price was that the new framework failed, and the old legitimacy was gone too.

Zuo Liangyu had seen this clearly long ago, which was why he proposed not fighting Liu Chengzong, selling out Zhang Yingchang, and fleeing all the way to Yan'an Prefecture and Xi'an Prefecture to become a roving bandit — and if that failed, crossing the Yellow River into Shanxi.

It was just that Hong Chengchou couldn't set aside his pride for the moment and still wanted to fight with all he had.

So the moment Zuo Liangyu was herded before Liu Chengzong, he gave no thought to stubborn resistance. There was no point — the Great Ming was finished in Shaanxi, no question.

Besides, Liu Chengzong did not humiliate him as a defeated general. He simply said he had no time to attend to him for now, and they would have a proper talk after the battle, then had guards watch him and take him wherever they went.

At this moment, having Xu Yong send someone, using a whole battalion as a bargaining chip to demand Liu Chengzong guarantee his safety, undoubtedly filled Zuo Liangyu with particular delight.

Troops — that was capital!

Zuo Liangyu glanced at the messenger cavalryman, then at the pondering Liu Chengzong, and cupped his fists. "Great Marshal, Xu Yong is an old subordinate of mine. He followed me since our days in Liaodong and later served as an officer in Chang Garrison. His coming to surrender is trustworthy."

Liu Shizi shot Zuo Liangyu a very surprised look.

An officer from Changping Garrison meant that most of the troops he led were likely the original Changping soldiers — the core force with which Zuo Liangyu had built his career.

He thought to himself, Damn, that's trustworthy to you. My problem is, you yourself aren't even a trustworthy figure to me — how the hell is he trustworthy?

From his perspective, the easiest and simplest approach over the next few days was to smash and rout every opponent on the battlefield.

Surrender? What surrender? If you surrender, I still have to assign men to watch you.

But in practical execution, things couldn't be that crude.

Because while it was easy for him to fart out an order, those enemy troops denied the chance to surrender would really drive their blades into the soldiers who followed him.

However, since Zuo Liangyu had spoken up, Liu Chengzong smiled and said, "In that case, I'll trouble General Zuo to write a letter, instructing General Xu's unit to lay down their weapons on the spot and await reorganization."

Zuo Liangyu, though his face showed some difficulty at this proposal, agreed quite readily.

Because his difficulty soon became apparent to Liu Chengzong.

Zuo Liangyu couldn't write!

It wasn't that he was completely incapable of writing — it was just that it was an exceedingly difficult task for him.

The man was scratching his head and cheeks; the characters were crooked and twisted, like a child's writing.

Liu Shizi took one look and laughed. Very high-level anti-counterfeiting.

Not long after this letter was sent out, Staff Officer Wang Yuncheng, a subordinate of Zuo, also sent someone to contact Gao Yingdeng. But Wang Yuncheng was even more direct — no demands at all, didn't even mention Zuo Liangyu, just surrendered outright.

Wang Yuncheng was an old subordinate of Deng Qi, a Liaodong officer by origin, and hadn't been under Zuo Liangyu's command for long. Seeing his commander's main camp overrun and facing Gao Yingdeng's army bearing down, he retreated with his troops for a bit, probably felt that retreating back and forth was pointless, and very smoothly surrendered.

Of the remaining two staff officers, Ge Rulin, a civil official from the Hedong Military Defense Circuit, ran faster than a rabbit. The moment he saw Zuo Liangyu herded away, he immediately led his troops fleeing toward Hong Chengchou's main camp.

Gao Yingdeng couldn't even catch up.

The other staff officer, Zhou Shifeng, was even more interesting. Gao Yingdeng only sent word back in the latter half of the night, saying Hong Chengchou's main camp had been located.

There were four battalions over there, plus half of Ge Rulin's battalion — roughly equal in strength to the First Brigade. The place was now brightly lit, and they were digging trenches. An assault would likely be needed tomorrow.

Still, Gao Yingdeng suggested that to prevent Hong Chengchou from pulling a sly move and sneaking away under cover, they had to keep a close watch tonight, lest they dig trenches for half the night and then just bolt.

Even by this point, Gao Yingdeng still hadn't found Zhou Shifeng's battalion.

This one battalion had Liu Chengzong's side feeling a bit uneasy, afraid he might also attempt a decapitation strike. They scattered scout cavalry like it cost nothing, and even managed to contact the people from Ren Quan'er's Second Brigade — yet still couldn't find this Zhou Shifeng.

A whole battalion that large just vanished into the night on the battlefield.

Until the next morning.

Hong Chengchou's force of over ten thousand hadn't run; their field fortifications were already taking decent shape.

Liu Chengzong's side, now nearly four brigades strong counting the surrendered officers and troops, had almost completed the encirclement when word of Zhou Shifeng finally came from the east.

The news came from Ding Guodong, who said that one of his battalions of newly recruited Qingyang troops had been scattered during the night march by a Ming army unit rushing from west to east. His men were now in pursuit from behind, while Yanqing Commander Zhang Zhen was blocking them from the front.

He told Liu Chengzong not to worry — he would definitely pin this force down.

This news was a great reassurance to Liu Shizi. So that unit had seen the tide turning yesterday, made a very decisive withdrawal from the battlefield, and headed east.

The last unit that had vanished on the battlefield was found, which also meant the encirclement deployment had been a complete success.

All that remained was to destroy Hong Chengchou's last forces, and Ningxia could be easily recovered and held in their grasp.