A Coalition Without Motivation
Even in the face of Xinlingjun's immediate reply, Xin Yuanyan remained unshaken. She asked calmly, "Why is that? It's commonly said that capturing a walled city requires three times the number of troops. For the Grand Coalition, already at a numerical disadvantage, I believe a defensive battle from within the walls would be the surest path to victory."
Xin Yuanyan's words seemed correct at first glance. I'm not particularly well-versed in military strategy, but I've picked up enough from Geuksin on the journey here to know that a siege is one of the worst kinds of battles an attacker would ever want to face. The Qin army was the strongest force among all the states. While Zhao's armored cavalry might claim to be the finest in the world, no other army surpassed Qin's overall combat strength. We already faced inferior numbers. If we were also outmatched in quality, then surely defending from behind the walls was the best option the Grand Coalition could choose.
But this was Xinlingjun, a master of warfare. She had drawn on her own knowledge and the counsel of her retainers to compile an entirely new treatise—the Wei Gongnu's Art of War. There was no chance she would overlook something as basic as this. She had to have a reason.
Just as I suspected, Xinlingjun revealed exactly why she had so firmly rejected Xin Yuanyan's proposal.
"It's because we are not the Wei army. We are the Grand Coalition."
At her answer, everyone except me and Xin Yuanyan nodded with low murmurs of understanding.
"Xin Yuanyan, you suggested a prolonged defensive war because you judged that, with the enemy already deep in our territory, a war of attrition would exhaust them more than us. Is that correct?"
"It is."
"Yet every action has its reaction. The burden does not fall on Qin alone."
Overextended supply lines. The daunting prospect of a siege. The crushing pressure of failing to achieve any military merit. All of these would combine to gnaw away at the Qin army's morale and fighting spirit. But was that only true for Qin?
The Grand Coalition certainly held the advantage of city walls for protection, yet they carried a different but equally powerful source of anxiety.
"The grain stored in the city and supply depots is not enough to sustain two hundred thousand coalition troops."
The constant fear that food might run out at any moment.
"That is why I intend to send the armored cavalry outside the walls to harass their supply convoys. And while an army of two hundred thousand is indeed massive, our state has worked alongside Zhao for years to reinforce the defensive lines in Henei. We have also stockpiled provisions accordingly."
"Provisions are not the problem."
Xinlingjun looked past Xin Yuanyan and addressed the generals of the various states directly.
"The Grand Coalition has no motivation."
"Motivation...?"
"This is a fight in harsh conditions. Everyone harbors a grudge against the Qin army, but everyone also fears them. How many men will truly be willing to lay down their lives fighting in a land that is not their own?"
If this had been the Wei army, they would have chosen a siege defense. But because it was the Grand Coalition, it was impossible. The Wei troops had motivation. They possessed the sense of duty and responsibility to protect their homeland from the tyrannical Qin forces. That allowed them to fight. To endure.
The coalition had no such reason. At best, their drive was simple revenge against the Qin army that had invaded their countries. For now, watching warriors gather from every direction, they burned with enthusiasm. Bolstered by the crowd mentality of not standing alone and fueled by rejection and vengeance toward Qin, the coalition's morale stood high.
Yet heat that flares up quickly also dies quickly.
"Furthermore, if our entire force barricades itself inside the city, the enemy could cut off our routes and strike Daliang instead. Our logistics would collapse, but they could simply sustain themselves through plunder."
Entering the city granted defensive power at the cost of mobility. A siege defense offered irreplaceable advantages, but its drawbacks were equally heavy.
"Therefore, time favors neither side. It would be more accurate to call it an enemy to both."
Qin would suffer from its stretched supply lines. The coalition would suffer from its soldiers' rapidly fading morale.
"Thus, what we must choose is a swift, decisive engagement through open battle."
Xinlingjun swept all the pieces Xin Yuanyan had placed on the map into the center.
"We will fight a field battle."
After the first military conference ended, I felt strangely drained even though I had barely spoken or offered any proposals. Perhaps the realization that war was now truly upon us had tightened my nerves.
In the end, the Grand Coalition's policy was set: not a siege defense, but a field battle. After hearing Xinlingjun's explanation, even Xin Yuanyan could find no grounds to object and simply nodded. The other generals, who had agreed with her from the start, needed no further persuasion.
When I returned to my assigned quarters after parting with Geuksin, Yeo Hong-seong and Sima Shang—who had come along as my adjutants—approached me at once.
"You're back. How was it?"
"Must've been rough. Military thinking is pretty different, right?"
Yeo Hong-seong spoke with open curiosity, having never experienced a war council before, while Sima Shang carried the relaxed confidence of a veteran, looking rather pleased with herself. I shook my head and sighed.
"It wasn't easy. The generals' sheer presence alone was on another level."
"Really? That's surprising. You've dealt with General Jing Kai and Xinpingjun. I figured you'd be used to it by now."
"There was one more who nearly matched them."
"Someone on Xinpingjun's level?"
Sima Shang's eyes widened in genuine shock. If there was another commander comparable to Lian Po—the greatest general under heaven—and Jin Kai, Yan's finest, why had the states been so helplessly overrun by Qin? Her expression made her disbelief plain.
"Not quite to the point of equaling those two completely. But who knows what the future holds."
"Who is it? That Xin Yuanyan fellow already got demolished by the Thousand-Li Colt."
"Thousand-Li Colt?"
The literal meaning was a colt that could run a thousand li. It sounded potentially insulting, yet the respectful tone Sima Shang used suggested otherwise.
She gave a small sound of realization. "Ah, you wouldn't know. I heard it from Lord Mao Sui. It's the recluse Lu Zhonglian."
"I've heard the name. So Thousand-Li Colt is Master Lu's nickname?"
"Exactly. 'For the great cause of the world, one does not consider a thousand li too far.' He travels the realm without shying from any distance, so he's called the Thousand-Li Colt."
Some time ago I had visited Mao Sui while he observed the three-year mourning for Lord Pingyuan. I had asked him to introduce me to a wise man who could help us navigate this chaotic age, and he had recommended the scholar Lu Zhonglian. But Lu Zhonglian was a man who never settled in one place or held office, making him impossible to find. Mao Sui had told me that if I walked the proper path, Lu Zhonglian would seek me out himself. Yet there had been no word until now.
Did he have some connection to Sima Shang? When I asked with clear anticipation, she simply shrugged.
"I use honorifics because he is a man worthy of respect. And from Zhao's perspective, the old master is a benefactor."
When Handan was besieged by the Qin army, the King of Wei—before Xinlingjun killed Jin Bi and seized military command—had been reluctant to send reinforcements. He feared that aiding Zhao might earn Qin's lasting enmity. At the time, Xinlingjun's brilliance as a commander had not yet been proven, so his hesitation was somewhat understandable. Only after she crushed the Qin forces and rescued Handan did her reputation as a military leader become firmly established.
In any case, Xin Yuanyan, sensing the King of Wei's true feelings, had argued that what Qin truly wanted was recognition of their imperial title. He suggested they simply compromise by treating Qin as the superior state. After the unprecedented disasters of the total annihilation at Changping and the subsequent siege of Handan, even Lord Pingyuan had begun to lean toward accepting the proposal. That was when Lu Zhonglian appeared.
"He engaged in a war of words and completely dismantled how absurd Xin Yuanyan's suggestion was. After hearing him, Lord Pingyuan resolved to fight to the end and departed for Chu to form the coalition."
The more I learned, the clearer it became just how close Zhao had come to total destruction.
The young man who persuaded Fan Sui to remove Bai Qi. Lu Zhonglian, who refuted Xin Yuanyan and upheld the coalition's purpose. I Dam, who awakened Lord Pingyuan and organized a suicide squad. Mao Sui, who obtained reinforcements by pressuring even the King of Chu. Xinlingjun, who joined after killing her own state's general. Countless other talents had spared no effort to save Zhao.
Had even one of them been absent, Zhao would not exist today.
This is what a nation is.
Something countless people give their lives to protect. The accumulated value built layer by layer from the lives of such people across past, present, and future. That is a country.
And I had been asked to carry that value forward.
"You're lost in thought again. So who was it? A Chu general?"
"Ah, yes. A general named Xiang Yan of Chu."
"Xiang Yan..."
"Yeo Hong-seong might know of her."
Though she firmly held to her identity as a Yue woman, she had lived on Chu soil.
"I've never met her, but I've heard the stories. They say an outstanding warrior has emerged from the Xiang clan. It would be good to meet her this time."
"It shouldn't be difficult."
Perhaps I might even witness Xiang Yan fighting in person.
"Since we'll be waging a field battle."