Chapter 144: Battle Of Xiling
The Yuzhang Army had two thousand cavalry pursuing and killing, Su Fei’s soldiers couldn’t escape at all. If not for Gan Ning’s order that surrenderers would not be killed, who knows how many would have been killed by now.
Over one thousand of the ten thousand soldiers were killed, the remaining eight thousand seven hundred plus all became prisoners of war, not a single one could escape.
The Yuzhang Army began landing, Gan Ning also went ashore, the soldiers pushed Su Fei up, Su Fei shouted loudly: “General Gan, I am willing to surrender, please spare my life, General!”
Gan Ning nodded his head. Historically, this Su Fei had an extremely good relationship with his predecessor. Even if not for the monk’s sake, he had to consider the Buddha’s face, so Gan Ning nodded, “Untie him!”
Su Fei was untied, overjoyed in his heart, he stepped forward and clasped his fists: “This subordinate has long not wanted to work for Huang Zu, thank you General for taking me in!”
“Huang Zu treated you well, why don’t you want to work anymore?”
“Huang Zu is old and muddled, doesn’t listen to his generals, believes slanderous words and randomly increases taxes, cruelly exploiting the citizens, many generals are dissatisfied. We are all locals, seeing our fellow townspeople and clansmen suffer, no one feels good about it.”
Gan Ning also knew that Huang Zu increasing taxes was out of necessity, but when the wall topples, everyone pushes it—very normal.
Gan Ning smiled and said: “I will let you go back. If you can render merit and take Xiling County for me, I will appoint you as Colonel.”
Su Fei was overjoyed, immediately tidied his armor, changed to a horse, and led a dozen personal guards to flee back to Xiling County.
Su Fei fled all the way back to Xiling County. Huang Zu had also heard the news of the Yuzhang Army making their move, making him extremely nervous. His son had gone to Xiangyang less than ten days ago with no news at all, and now Gan Ning had led the army to kill their way here—what should he do?
Hearing that Su Fei had returned, Huang Zu repeatedly said: “Quickly bring him to see me!”
Not long after, Su Fei was brought to the main hall. Seeing Huang Zu, Su Fei prostrated on the ground and wept loudly.
“Stop crying!”
Huang Zu felt a burst of irritation in his heart, harshly thumping the ground with his dragon-head cane, “Quickly tell me what happened?”
Su Fei wiped away his tears and said: “You also know Zhu County is not a military city, very hard to defend. This subordinate decided to lead the army to strike the Yuzhang Army while half-crossed.”
“This idea is good, and then?” Huang Zu also approved of striking while half-crossed.
“We wanted to sneak attack them, but they anticipated we would strike while half-crossed, so they set up troops in ambush ahead of time. When we prepared to act, they suddenly charged out, catching us off guard. We couldn’t hold on for long and collapsed in defeat. This subordinate had a warhorse and fled fast; I don’t know the situation of the other officers and soldiers.”
Huang Zu was silent for a long time, unable to speak a word. The enemy had a master strategist! They had anticipated their intentions first and turned the tables on them.
After a good while, Huang Zu waved his hand: “You go down first! I happen to be short on generals; later I will assign you an army.”
Su Fei was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly before leaving.
At this time, Huang Zu’s strategist Chen Jiu said: “Su Fei’s entire army was wiped out, yet he managed to escape back—it’s a bit suspicious. Suggest the Lord not use him for now.”
Huang Zu shook his head: “Su Fei is my left and right arm, always loyal to me. Strategist, you are overthinking it.”
Chen Jiu advised Huang Zu repeatedly, but Huang Zu just wouldn’t listen. Chen Jiu had no choice but to secretly send people to surveil Su Fei.
Three days later, Gan Ning’s army arrived at Xiling County. Zhu County is actually not far from Xiling County; they could kill their way there in two days. The reason for the one-day delay was mainly that the citizens along the way warmly welcomed Gan Ning’s army. At every place they arrived, the citizens offered food and wine to reward the royal army, and many young and strong men vied to enlist. Originally thirty thousand army, but upon arriving at Xiling Commandery, there were over fifteen thousand more.
At this time, Huang Zhong’s army also arrived. After taking Qichun County, he killed his way westward, just in time to meet Gan Ning’s army.
The two armies joined forces and set up barracks outside South City. Attacking Xiling County would not be easy. Gan Ning had long arranged intelligence personnel to infiltrate. Xiling County Town’s walls were three zhang high and two zhang wide, built of green bricks, with a moat over twenty zhang wide, but quite far from the city walls, unable to be attacked by ships.
It was precisely considering this point that Gan Ning released Su Fei to go back as an inside man.
At this time, Huang Zu also donned armor and helmet and stood on the city wall, coldly gazing at the enemy army under the city. He gnashed his teeth: “Gan Ning is bullying us too much. I already ceded half of Jiangxia Commandery to him, yet he won’t let it go and is determined to finish me off. Then come on! Even if I die in battle, I will make him pay a heavy price.”
Strategist Chen Jiu said: “Lord, we still have a chance. As long as we defend the city to the death and wait for Liu Biao’s relief army to arrive, we will have hope.”
Huang Zu sighed, “Will Liu Biao’s relief army come?”
“Lord, Liu Biao also does not wish to lose Jiangxia. This subordinate believes he will definitely send the army to rescue us.”
Huang Zu gazed toward the northwest direction and nodded, “I hope they can make it in time!”
Jingling County is an important large city on the west bank of the Han River, a key ferry crossing to cross the Han River. The official road from Xiangyang to Jingling County is wide and flat; after crossing the Han River, one can again follow the wide official road to Xiling County.
Crossing the Han River is not something that can be done anywhere; the key is to have a road, especially for the army—without an official road, grain and supplies cannot follow.
The fifty thousand relief army had now arrived at Jingling Commandery. There was originally a pontoon bridge here, destroyed by Wei Yan’s fleet. The fifty thousand army assembled in Jingling County, with thousands of artisans and laborers busy building a pontoon bridge.
Just as it was half-built, the fleet led by Wei Yan charged in, arrows flying in chaos. Artisans and laborers were hit by arrows and fell into the water one after another; the remaining artisans and laborers turned and fled madly toward the shore.
Wei Yan’s army did not pursue and kill; they threw jars of fire oil onto the pontoon bridge. In moments, the pontoon bridge burst into raging flames, and soon the entire pontoon bridge was engulfed in fierce fire.
The interception on the Han River prevented the relief army from crossing the Han River, forcing them to halt in Jingling County and await further orders.
Huang She with the army had no choice but to take a small boat and secretly cross the Han River to hurry back to Xiling County.
In the Xiling County barracks, inside a large tent, Su Fei was secretly discussing surrendering the city with three generals. The three generals were all commandants, each leading two thousand troops, and had been friends with Su Fei for over ten years, with close relations.
But friendship is friendship; crucially, Huang Zu’s military was in decline, popular support lost, the great momentum gone. The generals all saw it clearly; at this time, everyone was thinking of their own future, no one willing to go down with Huang Zu’s sinking large ship.
“Tonight I will find a way to send out the message; tomorrow at noon exactly, we act together.”
Great General Zhang Lou worriedly said: “Tonight none of us are on duty; it will be hard to leave the city to send the letter.”
Su Fei waved his hand with a smile: “Don’t worry, I have a way!”
In fact, the people Su Fei had contacted these two days were not just these three; he also had several old subordinates. Though they led few troops, each had a few hundred men.
One of these old subordinates was on duty tonight at a corner of West City; he would send the letter out for him tonight.
At nightfall, at a corner of West City, a black shadow was slowly descending while pulling on a spear. The spear had two spearheads firmly bound together with leather straps. The black shadow was still eight feet from the ground, released his hand and jumped down—below was soft soil, no problem.
The black shadow then slipped into the moat and swam toward the opposite shore.
