Chapter 644: The Battle of Luonan

Translator: Foxs' Wuxia

Twenty carts, which could block the enemy’s arrows and darts, while providing cover for their own archers, which were nicknamed the wooden donkey cart by the soldiers, were lining up the public square inside the south Changxia [summer forever] Gate, waiting for the coming of the night.

This kind of war vehicle was shaped like a trailer with wheels, the top was like a ‘人’ [man] character, covered with pre-treated raw cowhide to make it hard and fire-resistant, so that stone-throwing machines could not do anything to it.

Additionally, there were over a hundred ‘toad carts’, which, actually were ordinary hand-operated wheelbarrows to transport goods. What made them special was that these carts were fitted with boards to protect the soldiers pushing the carts against arrows. The carts were loaded with mud and stones, which they could directly push into the trenches, and thus substantially increasing the speed in filling the trench.

The organized civilians continuously delivered sand, rocks, and dirt bags to the Changxia Gate and piled them up on both sides to make several small hills, waiting for the time of the operation where the warriors would use the wooden donkey carts as cover, to transport the bags outside the city to fill the trenches.

The machines with the most destructive power were still the ten eight-crossbow machines and the five heavy stone throwers, which were brought over from the top of the city walls. This batch of super combat gears, as long as they could cross over the trenches, would have huge destructive power against the enemy’s wooden forts.

Nine thousand fighters were lined up in the public square, divided into three teams. Each team had one thousand lance-and-shield-wielders, fifteen hundred archers, and five hundred cavalrymen. Everybody was full of hope in this attack, hence the morale was high, they were waiting with stored-up momentum.

In their hearts, Xu Ziling was like a substitute for Kou Zhong, an unequalled symbol.

Wang Shichong, Yang Gongqing, Wang Xuanying, Wang Xuanshu, Ma Chang, Duan Da, Shan Xiongxin, Bing Yuancheng, Ba Yegang, Song Mengqiu and Xu Ziling were congregating on the Changxia city gate tower, watching for the movement of the enemy forces outside the city from the distance.

Other than the army camp directly facing the south gate about a li away, which was built on high elevation on the small hill, there were two army camps on its left and right, built on the flat ground, relying only on deep trenches and wooden fence for defense. However, if they could not capture the highland camp first, the highland camp might send the enemy troops in surprise attack, then there would easily be a danger of being defeated and dispersed.

Wang Xuanying sighed and said, “If we had known earlier, these hills could be shoveled to the ground first, then tonight’s battle would be much easier.”

Perhaps because he was still discontented over the loss of Hulao to this day, Wang Shichong frowned and scolded him, “What’s the use of that comment? Think of ways to capture these three camps, that is a proactive attitude.”

Wang Xuanying had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.

This moment Lang Feng came to report that on the north side, the Anxi [peace and happiness] Gate, on the east side, the Shangdong [upper east] Gate, and the Jianchun [building springtime] Gate, the assault teams were ready. These three units had three thousand men each, their equipment was identical to the troops stationed at the Changxia Gate, the main assault force. Only their scale was about a third of the main force; Their objective was containment in nature.

Yang Gongqing said, “We are not in a hurry to seize the camp and kill the enemy, our tactic is to weary the troops, to put their troop disposition in chaos.”

None of the generals did not accept the order and agreed. Filling the trenches was the first step. They would crush the enemy fighting back if necessary, and guard the filled trenches.

Spanning across two thousand paces outside the Changxia Gate were two layers of deep trenches, reaching up to two li long, separated by approximately a hundred zhang distance, each one was two zhang wide, one zhang deep. The second layer of trench was not continuous at all, but there were gaps about a zhang or so wide, which would enable the enemy to cross to the other side of the trench.

On the outside perimeter behind the trenches, there were twelve three-zhang high wooden arrow towers, around each tower were sand and dirt bags piled as high as a man, the Tang soldiers took turns to guard behind the sand and dirt bags day and night. With the deployment of stone-throwing machines and heavy arrow machines, it became a solid point of defense, combined with the three camps’ ability to be each other’s reinforcements, in term of defense, it was indeed impossible to fault.

Four of the arrow towers were located at both ends of the long trench, two at each end, surrounded by ring-shaped short trenches to protect them from all sides, the exit is located due south, corresponding inseparably close with the left and right, two camps.

The three gates on Luoyang’s south side, the Changxia, Dingding and Houzai’s external access roads were heavily sealed off by the trenches and the battle towers.

Under the illumination of the red sinking sun, they could see frequent activities in the vicinity of the enemy’s camp, cavalry and infantry took turns patrolling the perimeter. The Yi River, flowing out of Luoyang, was locked up by the enemy using sharp wooden stakes. Behind the blockade line, on the high places along the river bank were arrow towers and stone throwers. Inside and outside the city, the air was thick with war-could-happen-any-moment atmosphere.

Wang Shichong asked, “Ziling, what is your thought this moment?”

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Xu Ziling, who was standing by Wang Shichong’s side, was watching the enemy’s high camp, which was the largest in scale – with rapt attention, he calmly replied, “The banner flying at the camp’s gate has a ‘Lu’ character on it, which opponent’s general does it represent?”

Shan Xiongxin answered, “That should be Li Yuanji’s trusted aide, Great General Lu Jun’e. This man is a famous valiant general in the Tang Army, most adept in charging and breaking through the enemy lines, during the attack of Guanzhong, he established great merit. This time he is coming to the east with Li Yuanji, he is the Zongguan [manager] of the marching Yuanji’s army. Li Yuanji dispatched him to stand guard on the south side, from this, we can see that he attaches importance to this battlefront.”

Xu Ziling smiled and said, “Tonight we will fill only the first layer of trench, and then copy them by using sand and dirt bags formation to hold fast to the second layer of trench to resist the enemy’s army. As long as we could firmly defend the passage between the two trenches, the enemy will be helpless against it. I wonder if Ma Jiangjun has any wise opinion?”

Ma Chang made some modest remarks first before saying, “On our left we have the natural barrier of the Yi River, hence we only need to deal with the enemy coming to attack from the front. The enemy might come to attack along the trenches on the right, we could then deploy a thousand-man cavalry from each of the Houzai and Dingding Gates, using the cavalry from Houzai Gate to cut the attacking troops, and the cavalry from Dingding Gate to slice across the middle. The filling-the-trench army’s fifteen hundred men can launch frontal counterattack. This way, the strategy is absolutely safe.”

Everybody nodded and gave their approval. Wang Shichong also thought that there should be no problem. He said, “Just according to gentlemen’s proposal, after nightfall we will start the offensive to give Li Yuanji a bit of color.”

Everybody agreed. The morale was high. Since the Tang Army besieged the city, it was only this moment that the various generals under Wang Shichong’s command began to come back to life.

Xu Ziling felt even more that his decision to stay in Luoyang was the right thing to do, otherwise, if Luoyang fell, everything would be finished.

The banquet was attended by Xu Xingzhi, Chen Changlin, Xuan Yong, Luo Qifei, Bu Tianzhi, Chen Laomou, and Ren Meimei, who has just rushed over from Liangdu.

After three rounds of wine, Luo Qifei was the first to give report to him about Liu Zhicheng, saying, “That kid, because he could not resist the lure of a popular pleasure house prostitute – was bewitched by her. This woman is extravagant, plus she loves to hang around the casino, implicating him that he racked up a mountain of debt. One of Xiang Yushan’s man entered in by exploiting a weak spot, by using a large sum of money to buy him. Furthermore, he stated that our army’s last days are coming, if he served Xiang Yushan, riches and honor in the future will be endless, thereupon he is made a ghost by the crafty scoundrel.” [Note: dictionary says the ‘ghost’ was ‘ghost of someone devoured by a tiger who helps the tiger devour others’.]

Letting out his weird laughter, Chen Laomou said, “Clearly it was the trap setup by Xiang Yushan himself. Beautiful women plus money and valuables, really not many people can resist the temptation.”

Luo Qifei said, “That kid confessed that upon seeing how we seized total victory in the Battle of Liangdu Gorge, he felt deep regret, but he was under threat, hence he had no choice but to harden his scalp to continue. This matter was due to my improper way of employing people. Shaoshuai, please punish me, otherwise Qifei will find it difficult to feel peace in my heart.”

Kou Zhong calmly said, “It’s not that you are employing people improperly, rather, there are not many people available, so you have no choice but to shuffle the previous ordinary members of Pengliang Bang to respond to an emergency. This means we have to carry out innovation, but this matter is urgent, and if there is any doubt in the future, we can consult with Xu Junshi and listen to his views.”

Ren Meimei spoke with serious expression, “Xiang kid knows us too well, plus in Pengliang, the remnants of his defeated clique are still many, fortunately, I also know him like the back of my hand. Leave this matter to me, I guarantee that we can get rid of Xiang kid’s people, and shut down all pleasure houses and gambling establishments that have relationship with Xiang kid.”

Xu Xingzhi said, “Xiang Family has entrenched themselves in Pengliang for many years, their influence is deep-rooted, moreover, it is closely related to people’s livelihood. Therefore, although this matter is imperative, we must follow the prescribed order to keep the working routine [idiom], our action cannot be too drastic.”

After agreeing, Kou Zhong asked Luo Qifei, “Who is the person who coerce Liu Zhicheng?”

Luo Qifei replied, “He is a businessman by the name of Wei Qing. His wine business supplies Pengcheng, Liangdu and Lanling, three cities. He does not belong to any gang or society, but has always maintained good relationship with Baling and Pengliang, two gangs. He supplied the carrier pigeons to Liu Zhicheng at regular interval, after the carrier pigeons were released, none ever return, even Zhicheng, that kid did not know where the carrier pigeons were flying.”

“Will Liu Zhicheng be willing to cooperate with us?” Bu Tianzhi asked.

Luo Qifei nodded and said, “He just made a poisonous oath [this is literal translation, I can’t think of any English equivalent, but I think you know what it means] in my presence, pledging his sincere cooperation. He only asked us to spare his dog life.”

Kou Zhong cheerfully said, “One day his life is still in our hands, this greedy-for-life-afraid-of-death fellow has no choice but to listen to us obediently. We need to figure out clearly how to proceed, and then we’ll use him to release fake information.”

Xuan Yong said, “But I am afraid only fake information won’t be enough to fool Li Shiji, it must be accompanied by a series of activities, so that the intelligence that Li Shiji’s spy gathers will corroborate the information, only then will Li Shiji be convinced without any doubt.”

Kou Zhong said, “Supposing Li Shiji is convinced that we are going to send our troops upstream to attack Kaifeng, how will he react?”

Chen Changlin said, “If I were him, I would choose leisure over hard work, only when our troops are at the city walls will I use my superior military strength to cut off our retreat part, to destroy our navy ships, and then confront us head-on. With Li Zitong as the example, Tang people must already have ample preparation against our flywheel boats.”

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Kou Zhong nodded and said, “That is certainly the most brilliant tactics that we can come up with. Under such circumstances, we definitely won’t get any convenience. His granny’s bear, what could be the better strategy to deal with him?”

Ren Meimei laughed tenderly and said, “Didn’t Shaoshuai say something like the Military Book has a saying, certain place being attacked must be rescued; what could be the place that Li Shiji cannot but to rescue?”

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Kou Zhong slapped his thigh and said with a sigh, “Ren Dajie’s brief remark awakened someone from his dream. We can execute the-mantis-stalks-the-cicada, unaware-of-the-oriole-behind move; I guarantee Li Shiji will not forget even after his teeth fall out.”

After nightfall, the city defender troops in the city south were the first to rise in revolt. They put down the Changxia Gate’s big suspension bridge, two thousand lance and shield wielders were the first to rush out, and formed disposition of troops on the left and right of the city gate. This military unit was mainly for defensive purpose; the tall shield could block the arrows, darts, sabers and swords, the long lance was not afraid of enemy’s cavalry’s attack. Their greatest usefulness was to provide cover to the archers, on the battlefield they displayed their formidable destructive power; advancing, they could attack and break the enemy’s formation, retreating, they could steadily defend their troop formation.

And then the archers went out the city walls. Amidst the sound of the bugle horn, the two units of one thousand lance-and-shield-wielders on the left and right shouted together, and then under the leadership of their captain they moved forward a hundred steps in a neat and uniform manner, to let the three thousand archers to rush out and gathered behind the lance-and-shield-wielders’ formation, so that the lance-and-shield-wielders were at the front, with the archers behind them. The latter further divided themselves into three rows, the front row was using crossbows, which had a comparatively longer range, and the two back rows were using strong bows.

Another round of drumbeats, the last assault unit rushed out of the city gate, so that now the lance-and-shield-wielders at the front, the archers in the middle, and the assault unit bringing up the rear. Rapidly they advanced two hundred paces outside the city gate to form troop disposition in complete formation style, with the middle army at the front and the left and right, two armies guarding the flanks.

This moment the alarm bells in the enemy’s three camps were sounded, team after team of the Tang Army went out of the three camps and arranged themselves outside the camp in formation to wait for changes, their movement quick but not disorderly, a full display of the Tang Army’s efficient mobility and how well their training was.

Xu Ziling, Ma Chang and Yang Gongqing, each leading the cavalry, went out of the city and took formation behind the three disposition of troops, using the fifteen hundred cavalry formation to block the enemy’s line of sight, to prevent the enemy from seeing the ten eight-crossbow machines and the five heavy stone throwers, plus the twenty wooden donkey carts and over a hundred toad carts moving out of the city.

Five thousand city residents were organized to continuously send sand and mud bags out of the city.

Xu Ziling watched the enemy soldiers’ maneuver from the distance, they were continuously reinforcing the front of the arrow tower at the edge of the empty space by the second layer of trenches. From the enemy’s three armies, the unit under personal command of Lu Jun’e had the most powerful military strength, which reached up to 12,000 men. The other two armies from the left and right camps, their military strength was around six thousand men each. On top of that, there were the Tang soldiers guarding the twelve arrow towers formation. Therefore, the total number of Tang troops before their eyes was close to 30,000 men, which was four times their military strength.

Yang Gongqing said, “The commander of the Tang soldiers of the left camp is Feng Liben, the commander of the right camp is Qin Wutong, both are high-ranking military officers, Li Yuanji’s trusted aides.”

The opponent was Li Yuanji rather than Li Shimin, Xu Ziling immediately felt better. He asked, “Lu Jun’e’s troops are divided into front and rear, two troops disposition instead of the usual two formations or six formations; I wonder if it can be considered unconventional?”

Ma Chang explained, “That is the disposition of troops method, dividing the army into front and rear, two formations, and each formation is further divided into forward, middle, and rear, three units. The long-spear-wielders at the front, bow-wielders take the second position, and the crossbow-wielders bring up the rear. When we attack them, the spear-wielders at the front row crouch to meet the enemy head-on, because if they stand up, they will be chopped, hence they must not retreat. The second unit of bow-wielders kneel on the ground to meet the enemy head-on, the crossbow-wielders at the back stand up to shoot. When the front formation’s arrows and darts are exhausted or perhaps the casualties are too heavy, the front formation retreats, to be replaced by the rear formation, hence the name array formation. The disposition of troops is favorable in defense, but unfavorable in offense; it’s not easy to break through them.”

Xu Ziling nodded and said, “So that’s how it is. Evidently Li Yuanji has given his men strict order that their main job is to stop, intercept, and besiege, not to let us break the encirclement to link up with the Xia Army. Is there a way to make Lu Jun’e really believe that we are going to break out of the siege?”

Yang Gongqing said, “Under present circumstances where the enemy is heavily besieging us, only light cavalry will be able to break the siege, albeit with difficulty. If we use a bit of effort in maneuvering the cavalry, we could deceive the enemy.”

Xu Ziling said, “Let’s leave that method for future use. Tonight, our strategic goal is to fill a section of the first layer of trenches. If we could use the big flying stone to destroy the arrow towers of the second layer of trenches, and to install a firm dirt and mud bag formation that can stand opposite with the enemy across the trenches, then it could be considered a great success.”

Shouting his order, the bugler blew the bugle horn, the middle army, under Ba Yegang’s command, began to advance toward the first layer of trenches, subsequently the left and right, two armies also moved.

Commanded by Shan Xiongxin, the left army advanced along the west bank of the Yi River; the right army leader was Duan Da. Although the west side was absolutely empty without any natural barrier they could use in defense, but there was a team of hidden troops inside the Dingding and Houzai, two gates, ready to respond.

Behind the Dingding and Houzai gates, the strict formation in wait were approximately two teams of a thousand cavalrymen each, respectively under Wang Xuanshu and Meng Xiaowen’s leadership.

Xu Ziling’s cavalry unit was also slowly moving forward, twenty wooden donkey carts followed, hiding inside each wooden donkey cart were fifty construction battalion soldiers, in charge of carrying the dirt to fill the trenches.

Mixed among the cavalry, the ten eight-crossbow machines and the five heavy stone throwers were also moving slowly; outside the city, the air was covered densely with the cloud of war.

The enemy’s battle drums were beaten, shaking the Yi-Luo plains south of the city. A team of nearly twenty cavalrymen rushed out from the enemy’s high camp toward the back of Lu Jun’e’s formation.

Lu Jun’e’s main force began to move, advancing toward the second layer of trenches, to provide support to the two arrow towers formation along the trenches directly facing the Changxia Gate. As long as they could withstand the city defender army’s counterattack, the Tang Army could penetrate deeply into the enemy’s line from the second layer of trenches, to slice across the city defender army crossing the first layer of trench.

The great battle could happen at any moment.

When Kou Zhong was deep in thought inside the inner hall, Xu Xingzhi and Chen Laomou asked for an audience. The three sat around the table. Chen Laomou said, “Just now Xu Junshi and I discussed our tactics. Xu Xiansheng raised a few concerns, I thought he ought to speak directly to Shaoshuai, hence I dragged him along to see you.”

Hearing the singing to a string accompaniment [idiom: education, a reference to teaching the people Confucian values by means of song in ancient times] Kou Zhong knew he was offered a valued advice; inwardly he knew that Xu Xingzhi must have a thought that contradicted his, hence he did not dare to raise it in front of everybody else, hence he talked privately with Chen Laomou, hoping that Chen Laomou would remind Kou Zhong.

Laughing cheerfully, he said, “Junshi has any opinion, you can speak up frankly. How could I, Kou Zhong, be like Wang Shichong with his narrow mind that he cannot accept other people’s idea?”

Embarrassed, Xu Xingzhi responded that it was indeed so.

Chen Laomou said, “According to the information we have, that businessman Wei Qing who bought Liu Zhicheng, after handing over two carrier pigeons to Liu Zhicheng, he left Chenliu that very night, and disappeared without any trace. Xu Xiansheng thought that this matter is greatly not simple.”

Astonished, Kou Zhong looked at Xu Xingzhi.

Xu Xingzhi said, “Not only Li Shiji’s ability and wisdom outstanding, he also has ample experience. Last time Shaoshuai delivering the grain to Luoyang, you were intercepted by the Tang Army. Based on Shaoshuai’s astuteness, how could you not be suspicious? You would certainly investigate the undiscovered traitor thoroughly. I am afraid Li Shiji already guessed that Shaoshuai would be able to uncover Liu Zhicheng’s shady business, and would try to beat them at their own game by using him back to deal with them.”

Frowning, Kou Zhong said, “This time we were able to uncover Zhicheng this quickly, there was a bit of lucky factor; how could Li Shiji know about it?”

Xu Xingzhi said, “Our opponent is the cunning and famous Xiang Yushan; it’s unthinkable that he would not have a backup plan in this matter. Since he could buy Zhicheng, naturally he could also buy other people. In the end, our Shao Shuai Army still cannot be of one heart from top to bottom; it would be very easy for Xiang Yushan to enter by exploiting a weak spot via those without firm willpower. If among Zhicheng’s men there is indeed someone like this, Zhicheng is suddenly being detained, then someone else would have taken his position. Therefore, Zhicheng’s identity as the mole being uncovered is no longer a secret to the enemy.”

Shaken, Kou Zhong said, “Junshi’s consideration is indeed more thorough than mine. Ay! What do we do now? Won’t it mean that our ‘the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind’ grand plan will not work?”

Chen Laomou said, “This matter can be considered in detail. Let’s assume first that Xu Jushi’s conjecture is correct, we could carry out another scheme within a scheme, perhaps we can still make Li Shiji to suffer a big loss.”

Even with Kou Zhong’s ability and wisdom, he still felt a little bit at a loss; his head spinning, he muttered to himself, “A scheme within a scheme? What scheme within a scheme?”

Xu Xingzhi said, “Wenyuan is leading a five-thousand strong army coming from Donghai; if deployed appropriately, perhaps they could be the wonder troops. Leave this matter to Shuxia [subordinate], not only I am going to deceive the possible undiscovered traitor, I am also going to deceive the spy that Xiang Yushan deployed inside our territory.”

For the first time, Kou Zhong felt the serious threat that Xiang Yushan posed to the Shao Shuai Army. He nodded and said, “I give Xiansheng the full authority to handle this matter.”

Chen Laomou said, “Junshi also have two other proposals, both are to deal with the possibility of the Dou Army being defeated, how are we, the Shao Shuai Army – going to respond.”

Greatly delighted, Kou Zhong said, “I am precisely losing sleep over this. What good proposal does Xiansheng have?”

Xu Xingzhi wanted to say something, but then hesitated. It was quite half a day later that he finally said, “Before Ba Ye left, he pulled me aside to talk to me a little bit.”

Staring blankly, Kou Zhong asked, “What did he say?”

Xu Xingzhi said, “He said that if Shaoshuai won’t give up your idea of joining forces with the Dou Army at Hulao, without waiting for the City of Luoyang to fall, our Shao Shuai Army must move one step ahead by continuously defend our own position.”

Kou Zhong’s entire spinal column turned cold, because he has indeed been secretly holding this thought, thinking that no matter how Dou Jiande treated him, on the basis of Jianghu’s yiqi, he simply could not stare blankly watching him being destroyed by Li Shimin.

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He also recalled Ba Fenghan’s remark, “Only those who are ruthless enough will be able to survive.”

That is exactly war is all about.

Chapter Title: Luonan – lit. South Luo(yang).

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