Chapter 86: While They’re Off Guard
On the 3rd of October in the 32nd year of the Shu Tian Calendar, in the Guotai camp. Yan Tu, in Xinwei City, among the buildings with flying eaves, groups of crows landed between the roof ridge beasts, blending in among them.
Zhao Cheng, who had been living in the open enduring wind and dew, returned to his own mansion. However, even when resting, he still carried rolls of maps. Hao State had already built a General’s Mansion for him and granted him the right to recruit a hundred retainers and advisors, which could be called boundless glory. But this general had no mind for banquets and was currently refusing visitors behind closed doors.
After the eternal sperm whale oil candles were lit, they emitted a fragrance that calmed the mind. Under the lamplight, Zhao Cheng carefully overlooked the map of the North.
On the map, he divided the regions of Da Yao into colored blocks like a butcher dismembering pigs and dogs.
This year was the year Da Yao gradually fell into disarray. The various generals followed the king’s orders to resist enemies from outside. But Da Yao’s center could not mobilize enough food and money to sustain the large army, so in Zhao Cheng’s calculations, Emperor Shu’s operation must have been to delegate financial and tax authority to the armies in various places, letting the military generals solve it themselves.
As a peak military strategist, Zhao Cheng knew almost better than anyone else the limits of troops that Guotai and Da Yao could each sustain, and once exceeding that limit, military affairs would drag down a country.
Therefore, after gradually retreating the first wave of fifteen armies that Da Yao launched in a full offensive, he, who intimidated the North, did not lead his troops to swiftly head south, but instead supported Prince Bo, who had fled to the northwest, to establish Wei Guan in the west.
Although Wei Guan’s strength was weak, it could step on Emperor Shu’s sore spot, forcing him to prioritize handling it, which would make the aggressive Da Yao have to divert attention elsewhere.
Of course, his strategy was not 100% foolproof, for example, when supporting Wei Guan, the Chong Shui side suddenly went mad, so much so that he had to divert some troops from the frontal battlefield to protect Wei Guan!
It could only be said that Zhao Cheng could predict the mediocre talents, ordinary people, and geniuses who occupied 90% of the world, but could not predict Prince Lelang, this brainless fool.
And it was this small setback that became a flaw that many mediocrities in Guotai stubbornly clung to! Being too capable led to jealousy from the mediocrities.
Some Dragon Descendant generals in Guotai thought highly of themselves, believing that they should now seize the momentum to head south. They tightly gripped their own seals, firmly keeping their troops in the cities of Bo Prefecture, unwilling to obey unified mobilization.
Now as the Great General, Zhao Cheng instead “stubbornly” believed: “For now, bide our time to preserve strength, carefully observe the situation in the northern prefectures of Da Yao, find points of intervention, and gradually nibble away!”
The reason the strategy became like this was because Pu E had previously rejected Zhao Cheng’s believed best timing for heading south.
Half a year ago, Pu E had argued with him: “With the Evil Moon in the sky, raising a large army would cause excessive destruction, and the impact on the mountains and rivers would be uncontrollable.”
And now with the Evil Moons pairing and merging, the ground’s mountains and rivers stabilized, Pu E felt it was time to fight, but in Zhao Cheng’s view, the timing had already passed.
As the only one in the Guotai camp now with “command talent,” Zhao Cheng’s sensitivity to the general trend was unique. This year, it seemed Guotai had broken Da Yao’s military blockade, but wasn’t it also giving Da Yao a chance to catch its breath? The best timing missed, the opportunity to sweep under heaven would have to wait several more years.
Now Guotai could only covet the cracks within Da Yao to widen further. Through piecemeal attacks, wait for Da Yao’s contradictions to erupt, when military strategists and various vassal lords collude, listening to calls but not obeying proclamations, Guotai could then gradually nibble away.
The way Zhao Cheng fed Guotai, even if eating, must be small bites, cautiously, what could be bitten into was not the tripe, but the gold horn, silver edge!
Da Yao’s tripe now looked prosperous, with rivers full of goods and merchandise in dazzling array, mules and horses coming and going with overlapping hoofprints.
This was also why those Dragon Descendant generals in Guotai urgently wanted to head south to rebuild the heavenly dynasty; the Dragon Descendant generals wished to send troops overnight to take it down, but Zhao Cheng knew very well that hitting the tripe would be continuing to carry the troops of under heaven with the strength of one prefecture! Guotai’s current stage strategy must be to eat the gold horn.
The reason to maintain Wei Guan for Guotai was to hook Da Yao, consume more material and manpower, lose control over regional governors, warlords, and vassal lords.
Zhao Cheng rubbed his eyes. Though already very fatigued, he forced his spirit to look toward the Five Prefectures of Chong Shui in the west, continuing to flip through relevant intelligence, checking one by one. There was no one else beside him.
“Lack of manpower” was also Zhao Cheng’s current dilemma. In Guotai, he had made too many enemies, few trustworthy people; he had thought of going back to his old home to seek folk talents in the name of repaying kindness, though he netted some people, most were butcher-dog types, righteous without question, but incapable of serving effectively.
To classify by heroes, he was actually talented but not heroic. Capable but must find an angel investor, otherwise his great talent could not be displayed.
After staying up two hours busy, Zhao Cheng began reading military intelligence. Under the illumination of dozens of eternal sperm whale oil lamps, he picked up the bamboo slips sent three days ago, glanced at them and was about to put them down, but felt something wrong, picked them up again. The bamboo slips recorded a string of information: “The court in Da Yao is moving in the southern Chong Shui camp, one army advancing rapidly, crossing a hundred li in ten days.” Zhao Cheng suddenly walked to the map and looked, keenly sensing something.
The frontline on Wei Guan’s side was a dish he had been waiting for, prepared to chopsticks once served, but now it seemed a quick hand was directly reaching over.
All along, he had been using his chopstick skills to pick food from others’ bowls, now seeing a fellow practitioner, feeling quite complex.
After taking a deep breath, Zhao Cheng wrote two memorials. One prepared to submit to the palace today, the other to narrate on the imperial court tomorrow. Of course Zhao Cheng knew that among those arrogant Dragon Descendants, some would inevitably oppose.
After finishing the memorial, Zhao Cheng took a deep breath: Fine, hope they seize merit and all goes well.
…Golden rooster announcing dawn dividing line…
As expected, the next day on the imperial court, Zhao Cheng’s proposal had just appeared and was refuted by Dragon Descendants and those advisors from Bo Prefecture who defected to Guotai.
These noble families from Bo Prefecture had been defecting to Guotai one after another starting a year ago. Guotai needed these local collaborators, but these clans that chose to cooperate with Guotai were too lacking in integrity; and people without integrity showed a petty triumphant air in their speech.
Zhao Cheng knew their family interests lay in connections with the southern prefectures. These noble family representatives were now urgently instigating Guotai army corps to advance south, with no intent to advance into the barren western areas. But Zhao Cheng could not imagine what they would say to achieve their goal.
A sixth-rank official, during the debate, directly stood up and pointed at Zhao Cheng, saying something shocking: “General Zhao is arrogant with his achievements, now wanting to move the large army to the west, could it be he wants to rebel?”
The Guotai court hall fell silent, ministers on left and right looked at Zhao Cheng, while this petty man was smug, thinking his “divine words” had shocked the entire hall.
However, he did not notice the killing intent overflowing from Zhao Cheng like water. On the ground bricks and tiles, like thin ice on rivers in winter, centered on the person’s feet, spiderweb-like cracks appeared.
…This scene is the prelude before the crime…
On the other side, Pu E, drifting in the south trying to find Yu Li, suddenly felt a system warning: “The general you recruited has obsession out of control, control measures have been taken, note that each loss of control will cause loyalty to decline.”
Pu E looked at the system, hurriedly spent points, and opened the screen on Zhao Cheng’s side.
After seeing the whole story, Pu E’s hand flashed with dragon claw form, crunch, crushing the bricks and tiles.
…Bloody scene about to commence…
Zhao Cheng had encountered petty insults before, most he could endure, but now in this setting, the petty man’s sudden vicious words hit Zhao Cheng’s mad nerve.
Zhao Cheng’s eyes bloodshot looking at this petty man. Such baseless slander brought countless memories surging to his mind. Finally, before anyone could react, Zhao Cheng drew his sharp blade and stabbed through with one sword, immediately piercing the chest of this petty man. —The court hall fell silent, and after regaining clarity, the out-of-control Zhao Cheng realized something, knelt down to plead guilty.
King Hao on the throne in the court stood up, he did not look at Zhao Cheng kneeling on the ground, but at the pool of blood on the floor, very disdainful.
King Hao seemed to feel that continuing like this, the indoor filth could not disturb, indifferently said to Zhao Cheng: “General Zhao has been laboring day and night on military affairs, mentally and physically exhausted, hard to restrain himself, rest at home for a few days.”
After saying this, he stretched out his hand.
In a daze, Zhao Cheng followed the king’s gaze to his waist, reacted, and handed over the tiger tally.
King Hao took the tiger tally, weighed it, and perfunctorily said to Zhao Cheng: “Great General return to the mansion to rest.”
King Hao casually tossed the tiger tally onto his golden throne. With one word seizing the military camp’s tiger tally, obviously turning the previous “rebellion” talk into baseless rumor.
The unlucky corpse had been dragged out, the blood on the ground wiped clean, then squeezed into the dirty bucket with the rag. Due to Zhao Cheng’s killing intent scaring everyone, at this time on the court hall no one without eyes said this was loyal minister’s loyal blood.
King Hao had no reaction, but after Zhao Cheng left the hall, immediately picked up the tiger tally to play with in his hand. He had already planned, during the National Preceptor (Pu E) being out and Zhao Cheng being fought down by him, rearrange military personnel matters in these months.
…Heaven does not disappoint…
Back at the mansion, Zhao Cheng took off his court robes. Although required to recuperate at home, after today’s court meeting ended, military decision bamboo slips were still sent to his mansion, meaning his Great General position continued.
However, after today’s military affairs transmission, Zhao Cheng grabbed it and read impatiently, revealing a stunned expression, because that Da Yao troop’s movement signs in Chong Shui were multiple routes advancing together, and the points passed by front and rear marching were mostly commercial port gathering areas, able to scavenge food and grass.
Zhao Cheng did not need to open the map, in his mind already emerged the entire process of Wu Hanluan’s troop hurrying north, then his gaze sharpened, hand pointing at Wo Niu Pass between Zhenzhou and Yongzhou.
This “repairing the plank road openly, crossing Chen Cang secretly” move, Zhao Cheng was all too familiar with. He immediately wanted to raise the command tent to issue orders, but sensed his waist empty, so sat down. He could still obtain military intelligence now, but lost the right to mobilize the army.
…Perspective switch back to Wu Family Army side…
Wu Fei did not know that his first battle debuting north was very luckily slotted in the gap period when another great military strategist could not act. Thus, fortune as well.
Here Wu Fei confirmed Wu Hanluan was about to arrive soon, and the new camp stable with no major issues, entrusted affairs to trusted non-commissioned officers, then set out ahead of time.
Wu Fei led six thousand troops divided into four routes, advancing into the “Great Passage,” this important passage bordering the northern Wei Guan.
There was an important checkpoint in the Great Passage called Wo Niu Pass. The city pass not big, but like a gate knife sitting in the very center of the Great Passage. The city pass not large, but troops could not deploy in the passage, able to attack at once only five hundred men! (Like fighting in an alley, as long as steadily holding a knife standing in the center, no need to worry about flanks being killed.)
This city pass was just like that. Wu Fei chose to hit here because intelligence confirmed this checkpoint’s defense lax, so came over.
On the night of October 5th in the 32nd year of the Shu Tian Calendar. Wu Fei dispatched two light armor elite troops, mouths holding bite blocks, sabers wrapped in cotton, taking advantage of night separately circled from both side mountain streams and ridges, then one route arrayed from the ridge, the other route wearing black clothes quietly approached the front gate of the city pass.
These troops approaching the front gate, confirming not discovered, notified the rear gate area people via night owl messaging.
The rear gate side immediately began beating gongs and drums to bluff, ranks of crossbow bolts shot out, carrying flames bringing huge commotion to the city pass. The garrison on the city pass originally had no strict duty, hurriedly sounded horns. The pass general’s personal soldiers surged to the rear gate in chaos, not knowing enemy numbers, rear gate garrison before officers arrived were all sly as foxes, unwilling to be first up the walls to take crossbow bolts.
As the city pass rear gate poked with burning crossbow bolts into holes, garrison soldiers pushed each other, hoping others first up the tower.
Then at this critical juncture, the Wu Family Army that had quietly approached climbed the front wall and entered, began raising large flags. And outside the front gate, rolling dust raised up, shocking the garrison inside that large siege army already surged in from the broken pass mouth.
Thus the pass defenders panicked, routed at a touch by the light armor battle soldiers bursting into the pass.
This north exit controlling the Five Prefectures of Chong Shui was taken. Inside the city pass, surrendering generals upon confirming it was southern court army that came, stunned said: “How are you here, shouldn’t you be in the south?”
In the feudal era, siege battles are hard, but defending requires constant nerve tautness, also hard. Without modernized duty management system, most times cities are in lax state.
The military strategist theory Wu Fei learned earliest in this world: to attack and break passes, easiest when unprepared.
Putting great effort into training long-distance forced marches, wasn’t it just to catch unprepared? And what Wu Fei wanted to catch unprepared was absolutely not just this one city pass.
…Old flags on the city pass taken down, Da Yao Soldier flags and Wu character large flags hung up…
Inside the city pass, captive soldiers upon learning Da Yao Soldiers came, began clamoring, narrating to Wu Family Army: themselves not defected, hearts with Da Yao, only due to rebel king’s suppression endured humiliation.
Wu Fei thus carefully interrogated, confirmed Wo Niu Pass’s troops belonged to edge of Chong Shui system, currently knew Prince Lelang very rampant, telling everyone only listen to him, not the court. Thus making these Wo Niu Pass garrison have second thoughts.
Wu Fei: Oh, in a place like this, how exactly do you plan to have second thoughts?
But soon in interrogation Wu Fei discovered a small surprise.
The city pass surrendering general, narrating his restore order intentions, was caught by Wu Fei with a pigtail.
At that time, this Wo Niu Pass surrendering general heard the news: southern Prince Lelang and court troops about to clash.
This surrendering general had an even more flexible choice, that was to defect to the northern Wei Guan! —After all Prince Lelang too brutal, and simultaneously feared Da Yao liquidation.
Wu Fei patted this surrendering general supplied out by subordinates indicating: Da Yao’s heavenly might sees all, let them rest assured.
Thus, this Wo Niu Pass surrendering general sold out another person.
In the city pass, in a temporary interrogation room, a batch of people pressed over.
Wu Fei first said to a leader: “Speak, who are you?”
This leader: “This petty person came north to do business.”
Wu Fei nodded teasingly: “Business very good.”
However without asking the second sentence, in another city defense passage, among Yongzhou merchants separately detained, one person clamored up, this person shouted: “Lord, I confess first.”
Wu Fei originally preparing to use some brains, stunned, realized this bunch of Yongzhou people under Wei Guan rule not wholeheartedly loyal either. Thus nodded, called interrogation officers, let them interrogate separately.
…No torture dividing line…
Wu Fei soon got northern information, namely after Wei Guan side confirmed Da Yao to suppress Prince Lelang, thus dispatched lobbyists to persuade Wo Niu Pass to restore order.
However dramatically, Wei Guan due to itself not resembling a true sovereign, actually just a small court propped up by Guotai from turmoil, thus its subordinates also had little loyalty. After Wu Fei attacked, these lobbyists all began deciding to redeem merits with service.
Wu Fei nodded looking at the intelligence: Speed is of the essence in warfare.
On the silk book map, Wu Fei confirmed the cities in southern Yongzhou now also very empty in defense. Originally preparing to go levy grain Wu Fei: Yongzhou’s garrison still do not know I came. Very good, very good.
