Chapter 20: All’s Fair In War
At dusk, in the tavern at the entrance to Shanbei Village at the foot of Mount Lu, a large group of soldiers suddenly arrived, noisily buying wine. Naturally, under the tavern shopkeeper’s questioning, some careless soldiers accidentally leaked the secret.
Their thousand army was to go up the mountain early tomorrow morning to suppress bandits.
The speaker meant no harm, but the listener took note. After dozens of soldiers carried wine away on poles, a tavern waiter quickly left through the back door and hurriedly ran toward the mountain.
Scouts immediately spotted this waiter, and then Ding Feng and Wang Ping’s army followed closely behind.
This was the ploy Gan Ning had personally taught them: if there was a tavern in the village at the foot of the mountain, it must be run by mountain bandit Zhang Li’s scouts, and they could use them to find the location of the lair.
The reasoning was also simple: how could a legitimate tavern dare to open under the mountain bandits’ noses? It would have been robbed bankrupt long ago.
In the night, the waiter lit a torch and hurried ahead, while several scouts quietly followed a hundred paces behind. Five hundred paces further back, a thousand soldiers marched in the dark on the narrow mountain path.
After walking the entire night, as the sky began to brighten, everyone suddenly saw that at the mountainside there was a valley. The valley was flat and spacious, densely packed with over a hundred wooden houses inside, like a small village. At the valley entrance ahead, soldiers stood guard holding spears.
The waiter greeted the guarding soldiers and then entered the valley.
Everyone crouched down one after another, not letting the sentries discover them.
This valley was later known as Guling. The cunning rabbit has three burrows; this was Zhang Li’s most convenient lair closest to the foot of the mountain. If officers and soldiers came to surround and suppress him, he would immediately lead hundreds of subordinates to hide in the deep lair inside Mount Lu, and then he couldn’t be found.
So although everyone had walked all night and was very fatigued, they all knew that if they didn’t immediately launch a thunderous strike, the mountain bandits would run.
Ding Feng took a military crossbow from his back, cocked it and loaded a bolt, then raised the crossbow and aimed at the sentry.
“Ka!” The crossbow mechanism sounded, and the bolt shot out like lightning. “Pfft!” It hit the sentry’s throat squarely.
The sentry couldn’t shout, clutched his throat, and fell down.
“Good crossbow skill!”
Wang Ping gave a thumbs up in praise, then immediately took the lead rushing forward holding his steel spear. This was the same steel spear Gan Ning had used in Haihun County. Gan Ning still thought the spearhead was too short and lacked armor-piercing power, but Wang Ping liked it very much, so Gan Ning rewarded the steel spear to him.
Behind him was Ding Feng, holding a great iron spear similar to Wang Ping’s steel spear. The two were followed by a thousand soldiers, charging toward the hundreds of mountain bandits who were not yet awake.
…..
In Poyang County, Ze Rong had already packed his luggage. Grain and property were all loaded onto ships, and he was preparing to set off to attack Chaisang County and move his lair to Chaisang.
At that moment, soldiers came to report that they had captured a Jiangdong Army scout.
Ze Rong immediately ordered his subordinates to torture the scout severely with cruel punishments. The scout was beaten until he was on the verge of death and, to save his life, had no choice but to confess: Han Dang was leading a thousand men in ambush at Changsheng Ridge, and Sun Ben was personally leading a large army to kill them via the water route.
Ze Rong immediately sent several scouts to investigate the military situation. Soon, the scouts hurried back to report, “Reporting to my lord, Sun Ben has led the navy to attack. At Changsheng Ridge ten li south of our city, there is indeed a thousand soldiers led by Han Dang in ambush.”
Ze Rong stroked his beard and sneered, “Sun Ben thought quite cleverly. After I lead the army out to fight, Han Dang would take advantage to raid my empty city. There’s no such cheap thing in the world.”
He immediately said to his great general Chen Mu, “You lead two thousand rear army first onto the ships and await my news. I will lead the vanguard army to take Han Dang’s head!”
Ze Rong’s army was divided into two parts: one was locally recruited soldiers, also called the Poyang Army, organized as the rear army; while his three thousand vanguard army were believers who had followed him for many years. The army was battle-hardened and good at fighting, also called the Buddha Army, Ze Rong’s elite army.
Ze Rong personally led three thousand elite army to charge toward the location ten li away.
Changsheng Ridge was a low ridge about ten li long, only a dozen zhang high, with dense trees on the ridge, making it a good place for an ambush.
As soon as Ze Rong’s army charged to the front of the ridge, before he could react, arrows rained down from both sides. Ze Rong’s subordinates were hit by arrows and screamed miserably one after another. Ze Rong also couldn’t dodge and was shot in the shoulder by an arrow.
Ze Rong cried out in pain, fell from his horse, and more than a dozen personal guards hurriedly rescued him. At that moment, shouts of killing arose from both sides, with countless ambush soldiers charging out.
Where was it a thousand men? Clearly more than six thousand. The leading great general was precisely Sun Ben.
Sun Ben had used a feigned injury ploy, letting a scout be captured by Ze Rong. After severe torture, the scout was forced to confess intelligence that naturally made Ze Rong believe it without doubt.
Sun Ben had set up a dragnet, just waiting for Ze Rong to come deliver himself to death.
Ze Rong’s greatest feature was running fast. That year when Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou, he saw the situation was bad and ran to Guangling Commandery. When Yuan Shu rose, he crossed the river to Moling and allied with Xue Li and Liu Yao. Seeing Sun Ce greatly defeat Liu Yao, Ze Rong immediately fled, running in one breath to Yuzhang Commandery.
At this time, the three thousand Buddha Army was trapped in a heavy encirclement, but Ze Rong disguised himself as a common soldier, decisively abandoned the army, and led more than a dozen personal guards to desperately break out of the Jiangdong Army’s encirclement before it closed, heading straight for the riverbank more than ten li away.
Ze Rong fled onto a large ship and collapsed exhausted on the deck. His thin, long horse face turned abnormally pale from blood loss, and his cunning triangular eyes also became somewhat dazed.
Chen Mu anxiously asked, “My lord, what happened?”
“Don’t mention it!”
Ze Rong gritted his teeth in hatred, “I fell for Sun Ben’s trick. I thought he would come by water route, but unexpectedly he came by land route. The large army was ambushed at Changsheng Ridge. If I hadn’t run fast, my little life would be gone too.”
Chen Mu fell silent, meaning their three thousand vanguard army had been completely wiped out.
Ze Rong waved his hand, “Quickly set sail for Chaisang. I will rise again from the eastern hills of Chaisang. One day I will capture Yuzhang Commandery and cut Sun Ben into a thousand pieces!”
The fleet of two hundred thousand-stone large ships set off, fully loaded with grain, property, and two thousand soldiers, heading toward Chaisang.
…….
Ding Feng and Wang Ping disposed of more than three hundred corpses, then set the lair’s hundred wooden houses ablaze until they were burned clean.
Only then did the two bring Zhang Li’s head and the looted property, leading a thousand soldiers and dozens of captured women down the mountain.
They caught Zhang Li off guard. More than three hundred mountain bandits were still deep asleep and were all killed by the soldiers. Zhang Li fled in panic but ran head-on into Wang Ping, who pierced his neck with one spear thrust, killing him on the spot.
Zhang Li had occupied Mount Lu for over a decade, harming all directions with countless evil deeds. Gan Ning did not want surrendered soldiers and ordered the two to kill all the mountain bandits, eliminating evil completely.
Down the mountain, Wang Ping distributed grain and cloth to the abducted women, letting them return home on their own.
The dozens of women expressed endless gratitude and each went their own way.
Ding Feng then led more than a dozen subordinates to raid Shanbei Village’s tavern, killing the shopkeeper and two waiters. They were all Zhang Li’s subordinates, so naturally they weren’t spared.
At this time, a messenger soldier ran up and said, “General Wang, General Ding, my lord orders you two to immediately return to Chaisang!”
Wang Ping was startled, “What happened?”
“It seems the situation has changed!”
According to the original plan, Ding Feng and Wang Ping were to camp at the foot of Mount Lu. Since the plan had changed, the two didn’t dare delay and immediately led the army back to Chaisang.
At the same time, Shen Mi and Lou Fa also led their armies back.
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