Chapter 188: Benevolent One! Tyrannical?
On the Yongshui, as the Hao Army marched, wooden stakes were driven one by one into the riverbed, and the Jade Brave crossbowmen crossed the river via temporary pontoon bridges.
He Chen watched this winding column. He was the Haotian commander in this Battle of Yongshui. On the 12th of the 4th month of the 4th year of the Tian You Calendar, he led his supposedly twenty-thousand-strong troops in a rapid assault toward Chang County.
Meanwhile, the commander of the other Haotian army column was named “Xu Xi.” He was attempting to attack the farm station from the west. Because the area north of Yongshui was too barren, it could only support one army column in a siege, while the other troops could only hope to “live off the enemy.” Thus, Xu Xi’s marching route for this other column was to conduct a “feint attack” on the farm points to the west. Of course, they also bore the task of “burn, kill, and plunder.”
On the Wu Family Army side, the new generation of non-commissioned officers, upon learning of the Hao Army’s pre-battle grain reserves, couldn’t fathom how these poor bastards dared to do it, given their limited experience.
He Chen had no idea how far Xu Xi’s column had advanced. His own column was fighting very hard. After Chang County learned of his arrival, instead of shrinking back into the city for a defensive battle as he had imagined, about eight thousand laborer troops came out to fight. Moreover, they set up camp on his left and right flanks.
He Chen arrived at his left wing with the scouts. Upon seeing the situation where one of the Wu Family’s militia columns (two thousand men) was stationed, he was horrified!
One word: “Too affluent.” Over a hundred vehicles formed a barrier! So many vehicles required at least eight hundred-plus mules and horses! And so many packhorses in the Hao Army could only be equipped by the core main force of iron-armored soldiers under their command.
Moreover, the “vehicles” were very expensive. In a large commercial market that the Hao Army had occupied in the north, there were only just over fifty large carts.
And now this was a laborer troop column! Such laborer corps—Chang County now had four of them pulled out, surrounding He Chen’s corps from four directions. Where were the Wu Family Army’s true main force troops?
He Chen couldn’t help but sigh deeply at the abundance of resources and prosperity in the southern region.
The Hao State had waged war year after year, indeed raising tens of thousands of battle-hardened soldiers. Such a force was unrivaled under heaven. No faction under heaven could assemble such a large-scale battle soldier corps.
Even the current Wu Family Army couldn’t. Xuan Chong’s battle soldiers numbered just over ten thousand! Xuan Chong: Whether ten thousand can defeat them, I don’t know, but according to the standards of the battle soldiers I trained, if I had ten thousand, my finances would collapse.
However, the cost behind so many blood-bathed warriors in the Hao State was that yearly levies caused massive population flight and land abandonment. Without output from farmland, it was naturally impossible to raise livestock. The local economy was already extremely depressed, with output even on par with nomadic grasslands. Many places couldn’t even muster horses of a single color to form a ceremonial carriage team.
On the other hand, Xuan Chong, called “Grasping Sparrow,” was earnestly investing in the localities, building his own governance system. This governance system, though still an agricultural economy in places like Yongzhou, was truly a great peace if compared! The fields were not abandoned; they were even being massively reclaimed. Water channels were constantly being dug, livestock constantly raised, and roads built one by one.
The Yongzhou main force troops had not yet appeared, and He Chen already had a bad premonition in his heart, but as commander, he remained very optimistic on the surface.
He Chen said to the generals: As long as we take this place, it will all be ours. The wealth here can get us all promoted one rank in the Hao State. Success and fame are within reach today!
However, among the Hao Army, the newly conscripted laborers had their eyes fixed on the roadside.
Because millet seedlings were always left in the roadside grass, these northern laborers stuffed these millet ears into their bosoms! And whispered among themselves.
Laborer Soldier 1: My dear mother, don’t these guys in the south pick up the ears? (Only if ears are left on the roadside would there be these seedlings.)
Laborer Soldier 2: Exactly, last year during the lean period in my village, we went south to work to survive.
Laborer Soldier 3: Damn it, if we take this place, we can eat our fill, right?
Laborer Soldier 4: Who knows, even if we can’t beat them, we can still eat our fill. They say the porridge there is really fragrant, thick and hearty, and they even give pickles.
Laborer Soldier 5: Brother, have you gone there to eat grain too?
Laborer Soldier 4: Of course, those lords always say Wu Xiao Que will come and grasp everything, but as I say, we’ve been levied so much grain we’re almost eating dirt—what more is there to grasp! (Resentment began to rise.)
All sorts of idle chatter spread endlessly in the Hao Army. It started with the soldiers conscripted from north of Yongshui muttering, but it soon affected the battle soldiers! Because everyone in the Hao State was generally poor.
The Hao Army’s senior officers soon noticed the morale instability, so they made a promise: three days of no quarter after taking Chang County! This temporarily stabilized morale.
…Prosperity means they can’t fight?…
On the fifteenth of the fourth month, the first clash began. A Hao Army camp team of two thousand laborers charged against the vehicle formation. This looked like the Hao Army striking first, but in fact, this Hao Army laborer troop was rushing from the rear line to set up camp.
As a result, the Wu Family Army militia troops directly cut in. Three hundred cavalry riding mules charged up with rifles, firing chaotically, driving away the twenty Hao Army cavalry claiming territory. Then the vehicle formation was set up here, and they directly camped!
This forced the Hao Army, exhausted after a day of marching, to fight.
Under the governor’s lead, the Hao Army launched a charge against the vehicle formation.
From within the Wu Family Army vehicle formation, ten ballistae were pushed out. The ballistae continuously fired long-pole projectiles loaded with explosive gunpowder from within the formation, unleashing a volley from four to five hundred paces away.
Moreover, these ballistae had high mobility; they could dash out from the vehicle formation to chase and shoot at the Hao Army. The Hao Army couldn’t stop, nor could they retreat! —Because they already had insufficient food and grass; retreating and getting shot at again would cause collapse. Thus, the Hao Army had no choice but to attack the vehicle formation.
When the dense crowd surged forward like a tide, the ballistae immediately withdrew into the vehicle formation, and groups of soldiers strung something between the vehicles like “pulling curtains.”
When the Hao Army reached one hundred eighty paces from the formation, the Wu Family Army’s foot-tread heavy crossbowmen began volleying. Arrows whistled through the air, sweeping the Hao Army’s densest formations.
The Hao Army’s iron-armored soldiers at the forefront were specially targeted by the Yao Army militia’s firepower. The Hao Army charge slowed, shield-bearers inching forward with difficulty. Hao Army officers whipped the laborers behind to make them keep up.
The Hao Army finally reached one hundred paces, where crossbow bolts began to thin. After all, crossbows had limited ammunition; each crossbowman carried no more than twenty arrows.
At that moment, crisp volleys of gunfire rang out. Within one hundred paces in front of the vehicle formation, the Hao Army fell in droves like harvested wheat.
Crossbow bolts were expensive, few in number, and troublesome. But every firearm infantryman’s ammunition was over a hundred rounds.
According to war needs, Wu Family Army crossbowmen used heavy arrows! The arrows were wrapped with wind riding patterns to compensate for the current wrought-iron smoothbore firearms’ effective killing range shortfall under one hundred twenty paces. They targeted high-value enemy charge clusters.
In the drill manual, for large-scale positional battles and reaping, firearms were still key.
On the Hao Army side, they arduously charged to within three or four meters of the grand vehicle formation barrier. The vehicles were not tightly connected; each was spaced ten paces apart. Such large gaps made the Hao Army think they could easily pour in, and once inside, slaughter the crossbowmen and firearm soldiers.
However, upon reaching the front, the Hao Army laborers were wrong. Seeing a battle soldier struggle like he was trapped in a spiderweb, they noticed the inconspicuous “threads” between the seemingly loose vehicle bodies.
Recalling earlier, after the ballista carriages returned to the formation, amid whistle signals, groups of Wu Family Army soldiers performed the curtain-pulling action between vehicles.
The Wu Family Army was a highly professionalized force; every tactical system, even the laborers’ combat system, was developed by non-commissioned officers through tactical simulations.
Xuan Chong: How can firearm tactics lack barbed wire? Each carriage carries a bundle; when forming up, insert into wooden fences and string four or five barrier lines—that’s a perfect firing window.
The Hao Army rushed frantically to the front, collapsing under these seemingly thin lines that knives couldn’t cut; in desperation, they bit them with teeth, breaking teeth before confirming the threads between carriages were “barbed wire,” cursing the southern Wu Family Army for wasting resources.
On the Hao State side, for this southward campaign, even farm ironware had been melted into weapons, yet the Wu Family Army could afford to draw barbed wire from fine iron.
The Hao Army circled the barbed wire vehicle formation, just like Native Americans circling American westward wagons.
The Hao Army probed every angle, hoping to find spots between vehicles without barbed wire. The result? The Wu Family Army’s vehicle formation left them no loopholes.
In the drill manual, every killing step was handled by specialized non-commissioned officer teams. Expecting one person to manage everything could lead to errors. Expecting a group of competing non-commissioned officers to suddenly do nothing? Impossible.
The Hao Army threw one wave at the vehicle formation, losing three or four hundred bodies, then the whole force routed.
As the routed troops carried terrified rumors back to other Hao Army columns, this became the prelude to He Chen’s corps’ defeat. Such a force sustained by “plunder” immediately feared the enemy like a tiger once they found the opponent tough.
As the routed soldiers fled rearward, it was too late to seal them off.
Ten kilometers back, the unengaged Hao Army laborer columns stood in the road’s center. Seeing their own helmetless, weaponless troops, they too wavered!
…Disparity!…
He Chen had no time to rally the defeated soldiers, because Chang County’s main force bit onto him, and on his rear flank, he saw Guiche, plus strange iron oxen belching steam on the horizon.
“Toot toot toot, woo woo woo” — the sound of this powered miniature train’s steam vents terrified the Hao Army, who had never seen such a thing.
General Cai’s personal retainers and Su Ming’s five hundred armored battle soldiers sortied from the city, coordinated with one thousand elite militia. This force cut off and encircled He Chen’s main body’s retreat.
War Kui charged into He Chen’s orderly formation. The five-hundred-man Hao Army column was scattered like tofu.
War Kui’s thunderous “roar”—that is, steam-explosion high-temperature steel bead spray—wounded and killed a swath of Hao Army. As for the jade lions? Smashed by War Kui’s fivefold mass. Wu Family Army armored soldiers immediately formed five-man sub-arrays, coordinating with War Kui to reap the enemy. The collapsed Hao Army, finished off with wolf-tooth clubs and spears, never rose again.
He Chen’s main force was thus pierced through, including two Tai Yue Luan in the sky suppressed by two Guiche.
General Cai seized the moment, mobilizing the eight available camps around to surround them. He Chen’s troops were defeated. And during the flight, when He Chen’s main military strategist teams appeared on the road, the subsequent Hao Army truly collapsed.
…Phoenix cries on Western Mountain…
The other Hao Army column fared no better. General Heng relied on the fortified village to pin down the Hao Army’s one-thousand-man troop, annihilating them completely; then the western column’s Hao Army chain-reactioned into rout.
Note that this Hao Army feint attack corps bore the fatal condition of “live off the enemy” from the start. Living off the enemy requires destroying the enemy main force first, so you can send ten-man teams to villages to “borrow grain.”
Without destroying the enemy main force, dispersing to borrow grain from villages is scattering your troops for local forces to slaughter.
The Wu Family Army upstream of Yongshui used military farms. Grain was stored in farm fortresses; taking them required over a thousand men, and detaching that thousand allowed General Heng to concentrate forces to “sever one finger,” making the whole corps howl.
So after annihilating He Chen’s three detached columns, Xu Xi’s column didn’t want to fight anymore.
Yet at that moment, during the Wu Family Army pursuit, a dramatic scene occurred: large numbers of Yongzhou laborers directly defected, coming over intact to surrender, and even cut off the heads of Hao Army enforcement battle soldiers as loyalty offerings.
For this, Yongzhou had to gather the rebel army, having them relocate their families.
While Su Ming led troops in pursuit, he encountered on the road laborer columns dragging Hao Army flags. These laborers didn’t flee but approached, immediately asking upon meeting. The intact Hao Army laborer surrender column: “Marshal, do you still need men? I know the False Hao city defense maps.”
Upon hearing Su Ming state his rank and accept the surrender, the whole column cheered joyfully, then per requirements, wrapped cloth strips around their heads and were enlisted.
To accommodate these over thirty thousand mouths delivered, the Wu Family Army had to mobilize food and grass.
The routed Hao Army gathered remnants and retreated north of Yongzhou. Thus, three counties in central Yongzhou fell into Wu Family Army hands. Without Xuan Chong’s “small-step expansion with governance first” strategy, all of Yongzhou could have been taken.
…”Being diminished”…
Because Xu Xi retreated early, sending rear guard troops and conscripting militia, his core one thousand old camp remained; but He Chen lost six ink jade lions and fifteen teams of Jade Brave, slinking back under escort.
The Hao State’s remaining loyalist faction’s idea of propping up another Yao Person force to balance Zhao Cheng’s dominance was shattered.
In Yuhuazhou, Zhao Cheng also received news of the Yongzhou battle’s end. After confirming the details, he summoned his minister in charge of “intelligence.”
Upon learning the Yongzhou battle’s chief officers were not Wu Fei’s direct line but two Wei Guan surrender generals, and the northern relief army generals were also outside Wu Fei’s original system, Zhao Cheng frowned.
The advisor said: “General, why worry? Though our army suffered a small setback in the Yongzhou battle, it was not debilitating. Yongzhou is barren; even Chong Army’s minor victories pose no major issue.”
Zhao Cheng tapped the map, murmuring inwardly: “Though northern Yongzhou is barren, long years of war have hardened the folk; in ten years, if a hero emerges and our dynasty slacks even slightly, it will ignite like fire on dry grass, irredeemable.”
The late Battle of Yongshui troops’ defection shook Zhao Cheng! His deepest impression of “Wu Fei” was operational ability.
Xuan Chong dared not slack against Zhao Cheng, believing he was steadily superior in leading armies, but Zhao Cheng equally dreaded facing Xuan Chong!
Fight, and Xuan Chong outlasts time; don’t fight, and this behind-the-scenes farming momentum is terrifying! That quarter of Yongzhou, governed by Xuan Chong for four or five years, had food and supplies so ample the other three-quarters couldn’t catch up, with commoners all trending south of Yongshui.
Zhao Cheng had always monitored commerce in Zhenzhou and elsewhere. Xuan Chong’s clear laws and issued policies, Zhao Cheng reviewed monthly.
After assessing the new field reclamation in various Zhenzhou areas, he concluded Xuan Chong had the ability to wrestle a corner of the world against half the realm, especially as that half grew ever more battered.
Zhao Cheng had a premonition! Once he took more territory and his forces reached an awkward strength, Xuan Chong would definitely “declare war” on him.
Back in the Bo Prefecture standoff, Xuan Chong patiently accumulated every advantage, posturing “not sparing years to stockpile food and grass, preparing to smash victory with materiel”—this left a deep impression on Zhao Cheng.
Zhao Cheng looked in the mirror; he was nearly forty, and years of campaigning had dulled his mental acuity, some teeth fallen and replaced with elephant tusks. “Wu Fei” was a few years younger. Per reports, “Wu Fei”‘s energy remained vigorous, showing no signs of decline.
Zhao Cheng gritted his teeth: Energy! Fierce generals emerge from the ranks; if one side keeps feeding the other newbies experience, they quickly pass the growth stage.
Zhao Cheng best appreciated Xuan Chong’s growth; six years ago in the first failed attempt on Xuan Chong, he had been constantly learning!
Last year, many noble family scions defected to him, abandoning Xuan Chong. Learning of the Wu Family new lord’s “tyranny,” Zhao Cheng once mistakenly thought Xuan Chong had slacked, indulging in wine and women.
After all, Da Yao’s current Son of Heaven was wise before ascending, turning inept without restraint. Zhao Cheng breathed a sigh then, as indulgence meant no more learning or progress—the opponent’s ceiling was capped. (Xuan Chong: How dare I stop grinding if you don’t die?)
But later he found “Wu Fei”‘s “tyranny” wasn’t indulgence, but clashing with subordinates over power.
“That bastard is reforming, hence the ‘tyranny’ name!”
Zhao Cheng opened the box, took out the Swimming Dragon jade tablet—this time, he initiated contact with Pu E.
