Chapter 709: To Manipulate the Enemy, Not Be Manipulated by Him

The wilderness at night was far from peaceful.

Hong Chengchou was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan.

The army was gripped by panic. The Regional Commander Ge Rulin, who had originally belonged to the Left Column and fled back, had gathered just over a thousand routed soldiers. During the night, a Squad Commander tried to persuade him to surrender, and Ge had the man executed — only for over two hundred more men to scatter as a result.

Over on Ding Qirui's side, they were also guarding against mutiny in the camp through the night. A curfew was imposed, and they could not even dig trenches.

This was only possible because Generals Ge and Ding were both men of sterling reputation, with strong influence capable of steadying the troops.

The office of Military Defense Circuit was positioned as the deputy to the Supreme Commander, and especially during the Chongzhen reign, it was a post of real local authority — a minor version of "commanding armies abroad and serving as chancellor at home."

This was because one of its responsibilities was the hardest task of the era: supervising provisions and pay.

Thus, without ability, one could not hold the post; without connections, one could not do it well.

Ding Qirui's uncle was Ding Kuichu, currently Vice Minister of War and Supreme Commander of Ji-Liao-Baoding.

Ge Rulin came from an even more distinguished bureaucratic lineage. His great-grandfather was Ge Shouli, Minister of Justice, and his father, Ge Xin, had been the Supervising Official for the construction of the Wanli Emperor's Ding Mausoleum and Chief Minister of the Seals Office.

However, because Ge Xin had overseen the Ding Mausoleum's construction too well — not only was the quality high, but the cost was only two-thirds that of the Yong Mausoleum — it prompted the Wanli Emperor to investigate the officials who had supervised the Yong Mausoleum, offending many people.

Ding and Ge were very close. Five years earlier, Ge Rulin had spent four months in the Imperial Prison and was later banished to Maoshan Garrison in Baoding Prefecture, where he had been looked after by Ding Qirui's uncle, Ding Kuichu.

The other four battalions, however, faced no risk of mutiny and could dig trenches as normal — except that over two hundred men had deserted.

This was not because military officers were better at leading troops than civil officials.

In fact, in Shanxi or Henan, the troops under a Military Defense Circuit were far more stable than a Regional Commander's personal forces.

It was simply that a civil official's influence in the army came from above, and Hong Chengchou had severed that part, leading to the Military Defense Circuit's current weakness.

A military officer's authority, to a large extent, came from the support of his subordinates. Veteran generals like Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, and Feng Ju naturally had far stronger control over the soldiers than civil officials who had lost the court's backing.

Overall, the four and a half battalions Hong Chengchou still had retained high fighting spirit.

Yet this, in fact, made Hong Chengchou groan inwardly.

He wanted to flee, because he felt that continuing the fight offered little chance of victory, and surrendering would be pointless.

It was not that he still clung to any moral standards at this stage of the battle, but that surrendering to the Marshal's Office held no benefit for him.

The Marshal's Office's sphere of influence and its appeal to the civil and military officials of the Great Ming were directly correlated.

The greater Liu Chengzong's power, the greater his appeal to Ming civil and military officials at every level.

Right now was precisely the moment when his appeal to high-ranking generals like Regional Commanders was at its peak.

It was perfectly natural for Regional Commanders and Mobile Corps Commanders to want to surrender to Liu Chengzong. His territory was expanding, making promotion and meritorious service easy; he had secured a stable base; and in the short term, there was no sign that the Great Ming could push back.

Hong Chengchou was different. If he surrendered to Liu Chengzong, could Liu Chengzong possibly give him a higher office than the Great Ming had?

But truly die a martyr's death?

All through the night, Hong Chengchou's mind was a tangled mess. One moment he would reach for his sword to cut his own throat, the next he always felt the urge to simply turn and run.

He had just barely steeled his resolve and was about to summon Ge Rulin and Ding Qirui to discuss how to flee, when a Herald from within the camp came running over, beaming with joy.

"Lord Commander, a Squad Commander under General Ge tried to urge surrender. General Ge had him dragged to the camp gate and executed!"

"General Ding's side has also imposed a camp-wide curfew. Rest assured, Lord Commander, no one will desert tonight!"

Lord Commander Hong wrung his hands, his face a mask of feigned delight: "Good, good, good."

The Herald had barely finished delivering the message when Hong Chengchou said, "Summon Marshal Cao for a council."

There was no helping it. When Hong Chengchou wanted to flee, his own Guard Battalion Commander, Ding Zizhen, became unreliable.

That man was a hothead brimming with hatred, who had sat in his tent beside a brazier, sharpening his blade in silence for half the night.

Ding Zizhen's father, Ding Shaoyin, had died in the battle when Liu Chengzong attacked the Zhuanglang River. At the time, Ding Zizhen had been ordered by his father to help Cao Wenzhao deliver an urgent letter to Ningxia. He had never imagined that the letter was written by his father to Hong Chengchou, stating that he would die in battle at Gulang Gorge and entrusting his only son to Lord Commander Hong's care.

Not long after, Cao Wenzhao, who had been at the front supervising the troops digging defensive trenches, hurried over.

His expression had been fairly relaxed at first, but the moment he heard Hong Chengchou intended to retreat and relocate, he tensed and solemnly urged, "Lord Commander, this must absolutely not be done!"

Hong Chengchou was displeased the moment he heard this.

Right now, all six commanding officers of the government troops held the same position as Cao Wenzhao. The problem was, Hong Chengchou believed this battle could not be won!

How to put it? When Zuo Liangyu had been at his side, Hong Chengchou had not liked him, but now that Zuo Liangyu was gone, Hong Chengchou missed him terribly.

If Zuo Liangyu were here, he would have swept Hong Chengchou up and fled without a second word.

But Cao Wenzhao had his own judgment. He bowed respectfully, then explained with complete candor, "What you may not know, Lord Commander, is that retreating is easy, but in the current situation, of this host of ten thousand, I fear not even a single battalion would make it to Yansui Garrison."

Hong Chengchou was shocked. "How can that be?"

Cao Wenzhao sighed inwardly at this. He thought: You, Lord Commander Hong, believe fleeing is an easy matter because the officers under your command have a certain level of ability.

Though you think each one is more useless than the last, that has given you the misconception that you can flee whenever you wish.

In truth, men like Bai Guang'en and Zuo Liangyu, if they were not in Shaanxi and took a battalion elsewhere, would be ruthless characters capable of running rampant across the realm.

Besides, withdrawing from a battlefield as an intact formation is nowhere near that easy.

The generals must unify their thinking with the officers to prevent discord between superiors and subordinates, while also fully understanding the situation and the enemy's positions, so that at the very least they do not blunder straight into the enemy's arms.

The soldiers must also obey orders, march in good order, run fast, and be ready at all times to fend off interceptions and raids, all while moving faster than the enemy's pursuit.

It tests not only the talent and ability of the generals, but also the training level of the soldiers.

The Liu Chengzong they now faced commanded troops who excelled at marching to begin with. In the past, any army escaping his clutches had done so purely by luck.

Now, with Hong Chengchou in the formation, Cao Wenzhao dared not even think about fleeing.

Because it was possible for Hong Chengchou to escape, and it was possible for the army to escape, but it was very difficult for both to happen at the same time.

Cao Wenzhao's suggestion was to keep fighting. "In my humble opinion, rather than let the great army collapse in a rout, letting the fleeing soldiers disrupt the fighting spirit of the Yansui Garrison troops, it is better to stake everything on one desperate battle."

His words were highly unusual.

In the past, Cao Wenzhao would never have been so blunt as to call a retreat a "rout" when speaking to a superior.

Now that he spoke this way, Hong Chengchou dared not object. He only urged, "If we fight here, both you and I will die as martyrs."

Cao Wenzhao merely grunted an "Mm" in response, clasped his fists in salute, and said nothing more.

Nor did he need to say anything further, because very soon, someone outside the camp shouted a fierce cry and the war drums began to pound.

Outside the formation came a flurry of chaos; after a moment of clamor, it fell silent. Someone sprinted to the central command, saw Hong Chengchou and Cao Wenzhao together, froze for an instant, then prostrated himself and said, "Lord Commander, Marshal Cao, bandit riders approached the trench and loosed arrows, shooting a letter over."

With that, he clasped his fists and presented the letter.

Hong Chengchou thought it was meant to persuade him to surrender. He strode forward quickly, took the letter, unfolded it, and couldn't help but stare in astonishment — a breath caught in his throat and he nearly choked to death from rage.

After steadying his breathing, he irritably handed the letter to Cao Wenzhao. "It's for you."

It wasn't meant to persuade him.

To be precise, it couldn't even be called a surrender demand — it was a persuasion to flee.

Liu Chengzong wrote in the letter that he had already assembled the First and Second Field Brigades, over twenty thousand troops, near their position, and within three days, three garrison brigades from Yanqing, Longxi, and Linliang would also arrive. By then, over fifty thousand troops would be massed in the vicinity.

If Cao Wenzhao dared not fight, Liu Chengzong could spare him once more before the battle — this was his best chance to flee, to preserve his useful self for now and escape to Northern Zhili to continue serving His Majesty.

But if he insisted on battle, old grudges and new grievances would be settled together.

The letter bore no signature, yet Cao Wenzhao knew at a glance that it was written by Liu Chengzong.

At the very end of the letter, he had written: I will surely kill you.

Cao Wenzhao read the letter, his eyes blazing and teeth grinding, and tore the letter into a crumpled ball.

The hatred between him and Liu Chengzong had long been irreconcilable. Liu Chengzong's fellow townsmen, his subordinates, and his general Bu Chi had all been killed by him; his own subordinates, his brother, and his nephew had also died at Liu Chengzong's hands. This blood feud had long been beyond resolution.

Cao Wenzhao glared, gnashing his teeth as he looked at the soldier who had delivered the letter, and demanded, "Which direction did the messenger come from?"

The messenger soldier thought back briefly, then clasped his fists. "Reporting to Marshal Cao: the southwest. It was the southwest."

Cao Wenzhao waved the man away, then turned to Hong Chengchou. "Lord Commander, Liu Chengzong must be in the southwest. His letter says tens of thousands more reinforcements will arrive within three days. In this humble officer's humble opinion, we had better strike first!"

At this, Hong Chengchou showed hesitation. "Marshal Cao, that Liu Chengzong has always been cunning — his words cannot be fully trusted."

He had truly fallen for Liu Chengzong's tricks before. Originally, he too had nearly forty thousand troops, and at the start of the campaign, in terms of the battle's disposition, he had even held a slight numerical advantage.

It was entirely because he believed Liu Chengzong's damned lies — that his forces had only just set out from Xi'an Prefecture — that the Marshal's army descended like divine soldiers from the heavens, burying Bai Guang'en and Zhang Yingchang's five battalions before the battle lines.

As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, one fears the well rope for ten years. Right now, Hong Chengchou felt that whatever Liu Chengzong said in that letter was nothing but a tortoise chanting sutras — dog farts.

But Cao Wenzhao didn't think Liu Chengzong was any kind of pious soul either.

It was just that, given the situation, it wasn't a matter of believing or not — there was simply no room left for choice.

He looked helplessly at Hong Chengchou and said, "Lord Commander, cunning or not, we have barely over ten thousand soldiers. Apart from fighting with all our might, there is no other plan we can execute."

Hong Chengchou thought to himself: it's precisely because we have so few troops that I dare not let them follow you out on some reckless field battle!

We dug the trenches, we set up the camp fortifications, and you insist on going out to fight to the death.

Then what use are these trenches and fortifications?

Hong Chengchou would rather squat inside the fortifications, letting the enemy surround him and bombard him to death with cannons, than watch his troops scatter into thin air the moment they step outside.

However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the letter still clenched in Cao Wenzhao's hand. His brow suddenly twitched, and a moment later, he shook his head.

He realized it was already too late.

From what he knew of Liu Chengzong, that man sent letters for only two purposes.

Either to confuse the enemy and gain an advantage, or because he believed he had already won.

Hong Chengchou pondered silently: if things were as he suspected, then they were surely already surrounded by Liu Chengzong and could not escape.

If things were not as he suspected, then following Cao Wenzhao's thinking might still offer a turn for the better.

So he quickly adjusted his mindset and asked Cao Wenzhao, "If we are to sally forth, does Marshal Cao have a plan to defeat the enemy?"

To his disappointment, however, Cao Wenzhao also shook his head. "I dare not claim I can defeat the enemy. We can only advance by night and strike directly at Liu Chengzong's main camp. If he has surrounded our army on all sides, then this battle still holds a chance of victory."

Hong Chengchou nodded slowly.

Surrounding on all sides required dispersing one's forces, making it difficult to maneuver the various units at night. Cao Wenzhao, concentrating his forces to attack the direction the letter came from, could instead achieve local numerical superiority in that sector for a short time.

As for the battle's ultimate objective, it went without saying: it was still to raid and kill Liu Chengzong.

Cao Wenzhao dreamed of charging straight at Liu Chengzong and skewering him dead with a single spear thrust.

Just as Hong Chengchou and Cao Wenzhao were preparing to fight with all their might, on the other side of the battlefield, Liu Chengzong was likewise sleepless through the night.

He had just finished addressing the deputy commanders of each battalion, issuing orders for defensive sectors and responses to sudden changes to the twenty battalions positioned near the battlefield.

After seeing off the battalion deputy commanders, his spirits remained high. Liu the Lion could only drag a folding chair over and sit idly at the entrance of the command tent, weighing a few pebbles in his hand and tossing them for amusement in the flickering firelight swaying in the night breeze.

"Sally forth, don't sally forth; sally forth, don't sally forth..."

He hadn't lied to Cao Wenzhao. The many reinforcements would indeed arrive within three days — he had even told Cao Wenzhao in the letter the unit assignments and designations of each battalion.

To be precise, most of the reinforcements had arrived the previous night. Before Liu the Lion wrote to Cao Wenzhao, they had already reached their designated battle positions.

And the purpose of writing that letter was also very simple.

The vast majority of enemies who fled before battle would earn Liu the Lion's contempt; should they meet again, he would bestow upon them the epithet "masters of bending and shrinking."

But Cao Wenzhao was the exception.

If that reckless fool actually fled all the way to Beijing because of a single letter, Liu the Lion would instead be astonished at his ability to bend and stretch, and would mentally raise his threat level by another notch.

From what Liu Chengzong knew of Cao Wenzhao, even if that fellow didn't fly into a towering rage upon seeing the letter, he would certainly be seething, itching to charge before Liu Chengzong and skewer him dead with one spear.

That was precisely Liu the Lion's aim. What he sought was to make the enemy within the trenches and fortifications come leaping out on their own.

This had nothing to do with whether he had more or fewer troops, stronger or weaker soldiers.

Rather, the thousands of chapters and verses of military strategy all boil down to nothing more than maneuvering the enemy and not being maneuvered by the enemy.

Striving with all one's might to seize the initiative, shifting the favorably positioned enemy into an unfavorable position, and then exploiting one's advantage to defeat them — that is the core thought of all military strategy.

Suddenly, a signal arrow shot up into the distant night sky. Liu Chengzong abruptly raised his head, an incredulous smile spreading across his face.

The signal came from their north — which was also the enemy's west — the direction defended by Yang Yanchang and Yang Chengzu.

A single signal arrow meant an enemy attack, a force of fewer than five hundred men.

Soon, Liu Tichun came running swiftly into the central command, clasping his fists. "Grand Marshal, the enemy is attempting a breakthrough on the western side."

"Don't be fooled. There will be a few more probing attacks like this, but their ultimate target will definitely be the First Brigade. They think I'm there."

Liu Chengzong rose to his feet, tossed the few pebbles in his hand to the ground, and let out a laugh. "Seems Hong Hengjiu isn't much use either. Cao Wenzhao is just as I thought — same as ever. He's got some skill, but not much."

"They're dead for sure!"