Chapter 233: Who Determines Under Heaven
On the 27th day of the 6th month in the 5th year of the Orthodox Calendar, the reckless Wang Yushan encountered the Zhen State Vanguard Legion rapidly advancing to within ten li of his position.
He immediately ordered his corps to advance rapidly. Having lost the opportunity to rendezvous with the Ji Prefecture troops, he showed no reflection whatsoever; instead, he felt he could still seize the next “opportunity.” Sure enough, he decided to take the Chong Army before they could finish setting up camp.
Approximately two shichen later, Wang Yushan arrived at the battlefield.
This Chong Army force of four thousand soldiers, though not having completed their trench positions, had already deployed firearms and cannons in the decisive battle formation.
This vanguard corps of the Chong Army was clearly operating according to the formal drill manual, with each troop deployed in line formation to meet the enemy.
The Hao Army had arrived just in time; the Chong Army had controlled the battlefield for only one day and could not make more preparations. Although the Chong Army had not constructed fences, barriers, or other defensive works, they had dug some pits the size of bowl mouths directly in front of the position and installed horse-tripping devices.
The hopeful Wang Yushan ordered his six thousand elite troops to launch an immediate offensive.
The twelve stone lions he brought were grouped into three diamond-shaped assault clusters of four each. As for the six hundred cavalry, they were divided into four groups to repeatedly intervene on the battlefield, attempting to disrupt the Chong Army.
On the battlefield, the thickest sounds from both formations were footsteps, as well as the distinctive local accents and drawn-out commands of the messengers from both sides.
As Wang Yushan’s corps launched the charge, flocks of flapping-wing units took off from within the Chong Army formation. They were manned Mu Luan.
These flapping-wing troops had some air combat capability because the Mu Luan bird heads concealed a batch of crossbow bolts that could be fired simply by the operator stepping on the controls; of course, the primary task of this air unit was still scouting.
As the flapping-wing troops changed flags, the flag signals conveying “information” prompted the Chong Army’s cannons to initiate precise bombardment.
Wang Yushan’s side was still in full assault; the stone lion clusters were originally positioned behind the Hao Army, planned to suddenly accelerate from the rear and strike when the Hao Army approached within two hundred paces of the Chong Army formation, using one wave of impact to disrupt the Chong Army formation, after which the Hao Army’s elite infantry would follow up.
But now, the Chong Army artillery’s cannonballs immediately cracked the heads of these stone lions one by one; as a result, the stone lions became disoriented and began to walk in S-shaped paths.
Thus, during the Hao Army’s full assault, three routes did not receive the stone lions’ assault support and had to advance directly against the Chong Army firearms’ impact.
“Pa, pa,” gunpowder smoke filled the area in front of the formation.
As ranks of firearms fired in flowing volleys, the Hao Army continuously fell dead during the uphill advance; the hundred-pace distance was like a rake pulling up turf—originally dense at the foot of the mountain during the charge, but as the charging Hao Army advanced, they found the space around them increasingly empty.
During the close approach, a hundred men fell, two hundred crouched, three hundred had their armor shattered like sacks.
Finally, the Hao Army closed to thirty paces. As they charged, they suddenly discovered bamboo sticks arranged in triangles on the ground ahead—these bamboo sticks were three men tall, deeply inserted into the earth, with segments of barbed wire strung between them.
The Hao Army had to stop immediately to destroy the barbed wire, with some shield bearers advancing under cover with shields; bullets striking the shields produced showers of sparks. Although the shields could resist bullet penetration, cracks spread across them. About twenty bullets could cause the cracks to spread until the shield shattered completely.
These lines of barbed wire were breached with fewer than five gaps after twenty breaths.
And at these few gaps, thirty to forty corpses had piled up. But just as the gaps were about to be opened, before the Hao Army could swarm through, war chariots from the rear of the Chong Army position arrived.
These war chariots began spraying massive globs of sticky fluid. After a glob of rubber material was sprayed out, it immediately unfurled stickily into a net like bubblegum covering them.
This rubber material quickly toughened upon contact with air. This forced many Hao Army soldiers to stop and tear at the rubber strands sticking to themselves and other troops.
However, during this tearing process, they horror-struck discovered torches appearing on the Chong Army crossbowman positions. The Chong Army’s crossbow bolts, carrying glowing carbon strips, shot over. Fireballs appeared on the battlefield.
In the flames, the rubber strands softened, allowing everyone to break free, but they ran chaotically like little figures ignited by oil drums in Red Alert.
The small hillside position produced an effect comparable to a siege where crowds gathered under the walls and were burned by golden juice.
On another frontline—that is, the Chong Army line that missed and failed to intercept the stone lions—the war chariots and stone lions collided directly here, with cracks appearing in both structures.
The Chong Army spear soldiers then arrived with special great spears to join the battle; these five-meter-long great spears were reinforced with high-tensile sea whale tendons, and the wood was special material imported from Thorn Ridge, allowing the spear shafts to extend from five meters to ten meters when necessary.
In the Chong Army, those still equipped with long spears in this era of firearms were elites among elites; they hung red tassels on the spearheads and called themselves Vermilion Bird Guards.
Spearheads stabbed toward the stone lions’ eyes and leg joints one by one, sparks and stone chips constantly falling from the stone lions. Soon, these four stone lions were beaten into steady retreat under the coordination of war chariots and spearmen.
Seeing this stalemated battlefield, Wang Yushan grew anxious. Thus, he prepared to commit his reserves, but just as he was about to act, a scout reported intelligence: another Chong Army force had appeared five li from their main camp.
Wang Yushan had to abandon his plan to commit reserves. Because if he committed reserves now, and the current Chong Army held firm without being overwhelmed by his forces, while the external Chong Army rapidly closed in, then Wang Yushan’s entire army would be trapped here.
It was a pincer: the Chong Army position ahead could not be taken at all without committing reserves.
Half a shichen later, Wang Yushan sounded the gong to retreat. Meanwhile, the Chong Army firearm troops had fixed bayonets and formed a square formation, blocking the oncoming shield-and-spear troops in the front line; by this point, both sides had reached a one-to-one exchange ratio.
Notably, the lowest exchange ratio phase between both sides occurred in the three quarters of an hour before close combat; in this phase, both sides had strength to parry, formations were stable, and casualty rates were lowest.
That is, as the defending side standing energetically on the hillside, the Chong Army had only forty-two killed in the three quarters before close combat.
The truly high casualty rate would come only when one side’s energy was exhausted—that is, if Wang Yushan committed reserves, the Chong Army would face the pressure of a bloody battle.
The Hao Army’s quality was higher than the Chong Army’s, because the Chong Army had deployed militia; Wang Yushan’s troops were all elite soldiers, many of whom were enhanced by Acquired Fourth Layer or higher martial qi.
However, just as Wang Yushan’s forces waded through the high-casualty firepower net ahead, entered close combat, and had just drained one wave of Chong Army energy, poised to gain the upper hand in a few more quarters with numerical advantage.
At that moment, the crisp gong to retreat sounded.
Amid a field of corpses, the Hao Army withdrew; in this battle, the Hao Army suffered fully sixteen hundred casualties, while the Chong Army had three hundred eighty-seven.
On the Chong Army position, exhausted and panting soldiers took candy from their pockets, shakily put it in their mouths, then gulped water from their water canteens.
They watched the retreating Hao Army without the frenzy of victory, but with lingering fear; because if the Hao Army had pushed a bit harder, their own casualties would have been enormous.
At this time above the Chong Army, a squadron of dragon horses from the rear circled in the air. These military police from the communications battalion recorded the number of corpses on the ground, assessed their own battle loss ratio, and inquired about the Hao Army’s status. Then they took an order from one of the “six bamboo tubes” hanging on them and handed it to the local commander before immediately returning. (The order was prepared by the Staff Department, which had contingency plans for multiple situations; this was one matching the current circumstances.)
The order was very simple: order this unit to select four hundred from the combat battalion to rendezvous with the brother troops arriving from behind, after which they could return to rest.
Three quarters of an hour later, this four-thousand-strong force formed a combat column, carried the wounded on stretchers, and withdrew.
Wang Yushan watched wide-eyed as this exhausted force that had just fought him left. But he had no way to pursue, because another Chong Army watching from the side was closing in.
This Chong Army did not directly assault Wang Yushan’s troops, but maneuvered around to block their rear roads five kilometers away, forcing Wang Yushan’s troops to continue fighting.
As for the front? Left for the third Chong Army to arrive and watch.
Wang Yushan seemed to understand: this was to use one force after another to fight him in rotation.
The Zhen State was too rich, with abundant war chariots and sturdy horses; this money-burning high mobility was something the Zhen State could afford, using “money” to exchange for Hao Army battle losses.
On June 28th, the second Chong Army proactively launched an offensive; after Wang Yushan’s corps suffered cannon fire bombardment, it had no choice but to engage this clinging Chong Army.
To force Wang Yushan into decisive battle, Chong Army firearm cavalry had tangled with his troops for a full four shichen, nearly depleting their firearm ammunition.
After discovering they could not shake off the cowhide-candy-like vehicle-mounted cannons and firearm cavalry, the Hao Army finally turned and counterattacked.
Thus, Wang Yushan’s troops endured another volley from a firearm formation during the charge, sent another wave of heads under the barbed wire; finally reaching melee phase, just three quarters of an hour into the Chong Army’s fighting, the third Chong Army appeared.
Mentally exploded, Wang Yushan had no choice but to divert forces to defend against the flank attack, while this second Chong Army, which could have pressed the advantage, took the opportunity of Wang Yushan adjusting formation to fully disengage from the frontline, form up at five hundred paces distance, and immediately rest.
The Hao Army top to bottom was dumbfounded: were they “playing”?
For Wang Yushan, his army absolutely could not fight a third round, and this fighting style was far too disadvantageous for them (the Hao Army).
Each engagement limited to four or five shichen: one round of ranged output, followed by one round of melee, withdrawing from the battlefield before energy depletion.
On the Hao Army side, the number of martial qi cultivators exceeded that of every Chong Army route. In other words, if this were a war game, the Hao Army units’ “elite level” was two tiers higher than the Chong Army’s.
Martial qi is not something ordinary people can cultivate; even in the West, they would be reserve knights. According to Xuan Chong’s theory, these people were high stratum in Zhao Cheng’s system.
Incidentally, “blood reward” incentivizes soldiers to achieve “blood labor” with “level promotion” as remuneration.
The higher the stratum, the fewer the positions; for army lords, the blood rewards to incentivize high-stratum bloody battles are even higher.
Thus, using “farmers” to fight “knight reserves,” even if the knights suffer lower losses, is still more cost-effective for the farmer army. Unless the knights can rout and crush the farmer army to achieve campaign objectives faster and better. Otherwise, attrition is the stupidest behavior.
Now Xuan Chong was using “basic troops” to continuously exchange battle losses with the elite troops Wang Yushan brought, gaining advantage in exchanges through rational battle tactics, round after round.
On Xuan Chong’s side, for each soldier killed, Xuan Chong could easily reward and incentivize with official slots; but on Wang Yushan’s side? How could he appease his troops, offer blood rewards that would make his retainers willingly fight to the blood after battle? —Once the blood reward exchange system collapsed, its effects would far exceed that of annihilating an entire army.
After three days of continuous fierce fighting, Wang Yushan’s troops showed hollowed cheeks.
Wang Yushan led his troops in cautious withdrawal, marching west to a place called Bao City to halt for the main army to rest.
…On Xuan Chong’s map, the Bao City area had long been circled…
This place called Bao City was now jointly controlled by several great clans locally.
During the Zhen-Hao clash, these great families had sent people to monitor the battlefield and prepared to have servants pass intelligence to the Hao Army. Unfortunately, Chong Army cavalry sealed off the combat zone, stripping unrelated personnel of pants and shoes before releasing them (unable to run in the wild, unable to crouch in bushes), so the servants could not return home in time to report.
As Chong Army Mu Luan flew over to “kindly remind” them: absolutely do not let rogue soldiers into the city. —Xuan Chong’s Staff Department had considered the internal Da Yao rejection of their side, so the “barbarian” crow people did not appear in the Central Plains campaign.
But the great households in Bao City still refused the kindness; the able-bodied men they gathered for defense used firearms and bow and arrow from the city wall to drive away the Chong Army flapping-wing troops.
Moreover, these great households made a big show each time they drove off the Chong Army; they also sent the estate laborers usually responsible for delivering supplies to the prefecture to report the situation—as a pledge of allegiance to Zhao Cheng’s forces.
And every evening, the local scholars here embellished the day’s battles slightly as after-dinner talk for others in Bao City.
Because these scholars always framed it with the narrative of “Chong Army tyrannical and losing the Way, thus isolated,” everyone felt the Hao Army was not so fearsome.
Thus, on the 29th; as the Hao Army arrived, the cattle herder at the city gate led them in, proclaiming along the way with gongs and drums: “Government soldiers are here, behave well!”
However, the scholars who could always rationally analyze “righteousness ultimately triumphs over tyranny” never imagined: after these Hao Army soldiers entered the city, they were utterly impolite, demanding two thousand shi of grain and sufficient firewood.
Village elder: “Sirs, the entire city’s grain is less than a thousand shi!”
Women on the streets cried: “You can’t take my family’s donkey!”
Voices came from elsewhere in the city: “My beams, my pillars, you can’t dismantle my house!”
At this moment, the official Hao State history records: due to Zhen State invasion, our great Hao had no choice but to implement the scorched earth policy, but the foolish villagers did not understand and clashed with our army.
…Crow flock flies…
No wall under heaven is airtight; news of the Hao Army’s great plunder of Bao City turned into tabloid leaflets, spreading with the wind throughout the Heluo Region.
Great clans of the Heluo Region were greatly alarmed.
At this time, Heluo areas ideologically opposed the Zhen State.
Xuan Chong’s reform was tyrannical; the Hao State was the one co-governing under heaven with scholar-officials! But scholar-officials’ morals could never solve a reality problem: their “moral disciplinary violence machine” could only control the operators of the violence machine (generals).
But in reality, as the operators’ authority was shackled by morals, when the violence machine lost control, the prior “moral shackles” forced operators to blind themselves, letting subordinates act freely to absolve themselves of responsibility.
Upon learning the Chong Army had advanced north, conquered all of Yongzhou, and was “infiltrating Xia Prefecture areas, abusing people and plundering wealth,” places across Heluo broke defense one by one, shouting “Punish the traitor king!”
These “fabricated” and “smeared” articles against the Chong Army were all compiled by the Security Bureau. Authors’ names, families, origins, and other information entered Sparrow’s small mind.
…War is perilous…
Zhao Cheng, integrating the southern front main army, received frontline battle reports and gnashed his teeth. If Wang Yushan had not brought his own loyal retainers, he would even want to send men to capture Wang Yushan directly.
Now Chong Army batches of troops rotated to brush against the Hao Army, forcing Wang Yushan to maneuver and scour grain to replenish themselves. This greatly damaged the overall interests of Zhao Cheng’s southward main army.
This was not out of Zhao Cheng’s kindness, but because after Wang Yushan plundered everything, how could he plunder?
“No repeated corvee from the same register, grain not drawn three times.” is a military strategy iron rule; a defeated army continuously scouring the area had already exhausted the local redundancies for Zhao Cheng’s southward main army.
On the 30th, Zhao Cheng marched to Jianlong Ridge. As the main army moved along the roads, Zhao Cheng saw the entire sky over Xiang Prefecture to the west filled with killing intent, dust forming an iron curtain in the sky, falling between the mountains and rivers of the two realms.
Zhao Cheng’s heart shook violently. Having broken over ten prefectures under heaven, this was the first time he saw such a landscape welcoming his main army. Vaguely sensing that Wu Yuanchang was already waiting for him ahead.
As the large pottery figurines behind him unfolded wings and leaped a hundred zhang into the sky, they activated the “Shu Wang” skill.
This special pottery figurine’s face emitted a beam of light. Just like the gourd boy’s far-sight scanning the earth special effect in cartoons, after this hovering hundred-zhang-high pottery figurine swept the ground; on the ground, a silk book strategic map manifested before Zhao Cheng, showing Xuan Chong’s series of main armies deployed like an iron wall waiting for him.
Of course, the Sitian Cheng Zhao Cheng brought could see the high-hanging departing fire celestial phenomenon to the west.
Zhao Cheng: “It’s him for sure. I should have realized: masterful in other directions, but lukewarm here (Xiang Prefecture)—it had to be him.”
Zhao Cheng contemplated the possibilities of this large-scale clash, thus sending men to levy supplies from various places.
These years, he had also imitated the “commoner household registration” system. The Hao State had also promoted some “Baojia” in the villages.
The Hao Army learned from the Chong Army: during wartime, issue military vouchers to great household forces where Baojia gathered; then afterward, grant local power based on military vouchers. —But Zhao Cheng did not understand reform principles. The systems he copied were like a beginner programming: half-understood additions and deletions causing the program to crash directly.
For example, the military voucher system ended with levied households ruined and vouchers falling into great household hands to exchange for power with him.
Now with war on this scale, Zhao Cheng’s seventy thousand troops consumed enormously; locally, plundering more households yielded nothing.
Moreover, with Wang Yushan having spread fear. Thus households converged in great cities. Fortresses near cities were all abandoned, family wealth buried in the earth; grain that could not be carried was hidden in root cellars.
Of course, these local great households still underestimated the desperation of Zhao Cheng’s subordinates for supplies; unable to find grain, to meet quotas, they dismantled all house beams, even hollowed out door panels.
In southern Chenzhou bordering Xiang Prefecture, the thirty-five hundred thousand households here had no homes after this battle.
After Wang Yushan’s defeated flight, facing the area he had ravaged, Zhao Cheng felt like spitting blood. —Originally a twenty percent win rate was operationally ruined by Wang Yushan to less than ten percent.
At this moment, Zhao Cheng had already conceived retreat.
Though knowing it unlikely, Zhao Cheng still dispatched an envoy to the Zhen State side to persuade both to cease fighting and make peace.
This envoy Zhao Cheng sent was a water scholar; during Xuan Chong’s southern expedition, he defected to Zhao Cheng, and as a local great scholar, he claimed some connections in the Zhen State.
Xuan Chong had no interest in dealing with this “Jiang Gan”-style figure. He let Wu Lu handle it.
After Wu Lu consulted Wu Rui and confirmed their main army could sustain, he smirked and strung the great scholar along for three days, treating him to good food and drink daily, having him send messages to Zhao Cheng each day to keep him dangling, letting hopes linger in his forces.
On the third day, Zhao Cheng realized and flew into a rage, spitting blood. He ordered the corps to advance and begin decisive battle.
Wu Lu dropped the pretense, pushing that famous scholar out to be sacrificed to heaven.
Meanwhile, Wu Rui entered the command post, centering the twelve battalions around the eighth and third battalions, correcting all officers’ mechanical clocks to precisely synchronize time.
Wu Rui followed textbook points on “pincer attack”: rapid assault, completing unit time synchronization (ensuring coordinated army movement positions), then splitting into left and right routes to envelop Zhao Cheng’s main army.
…Xuan Chong: pitting command against Zhao Cheng…
Hundreds of kilometers from Ji Prefecture, the cultivation world was also watching this great war.
As early as the Chong Army northward assembly to “disrupt the common people,” these immortal sects had already mobilized; Zhao Cheng leading troops southward, in this clash of forces, temporarily shrouded the upper thousand li of central Da Yao in killing intent that severed spiritual energy.
Many immortals far-observed this killing intent soaring to the heavens and involuntarily retreated hundreds of li.
On battlefields of military strategists’ contention, the erupted killing intent prevented any immortal spell from condensing, and related heavenly secrets calculations were even more impossible.
The Wu Yun Immortal Sect sect leader watched the gunpowder smoke and cannons roaring on the battlefield: “Under heaven has fallen into the departing fire calamity!”
