The Battle of Jieting
“Attack! Cut a path through!”
It was the will of men who meant to take the enemy’s heads even if the edges of their blades were ruined in the doing.
Zhang He split his forces in two, hurling one half against Guo Jun’s main camp and the other in a furious assault upon the walls of Jieting itself.
He meant to smash through in a single stroke, but Guo Jun’s defense proved harder than anything he had imagined. This was the same man who, in years past, had held Gaimeng Pass and Yangping Pass with only a handful of troops, and held them to the last.
Zheng Qi, for his part, clung stubbornly to the ramparts of Jieting and refused to yield an inch. Zhang He’s ferocious assault gained him little of substance.
And then it came.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
“Waaaaaah!”
Once again, from the mountains flanking the road, Bu Rong’s detached force raised a clamor.
“Damn them! Those cursed flies!”
Enraged, Zhang He sent the reserve troops he had held at the center storming up the mountainside to crush Bu Rong’s detachment. As a great mass of Zhang He’s men came climbing with heat rolling off them in waves, Bu Rong never so much as crossed blades with them. With infuriating swiftness, he simply fled.
Before he ran, Bu Rong had already dug pits all across the mountain. Zhang He’s soldiers put their strength into their legs and gave chase—only to fail to notice the hollows cut into the ground and tumble straight into the traps.
While Zhang He’s men floundered in the pits, Bu Rong whisked his troops cleanly away to the rear.
After that, every time Zhang He poured on an attack, Bu Rong shifted from ridge to ridge, needling at Zhang He’s temper without mercy.
Whenever noise erupted on a flank or in the rear, Zhang He’s army grew restless and could not throw its full weight into the frontal assault.
Zhang He did not halt his attacks until the sun went down, and still he won no meaningful result.
“There’s nothing for it. That is enough for today—withdraw!”
Unable to break the enemy’s defense and only adding to his own losses, Zhang He had no choice but to order the retreat.
Then something he had not expected stirred on the enemy’s side.
The gates of Jieting swung wide, and a body of horsemen came pouring out. At the same time, a detachment sortied from Guo Jun’s camp and struck the rear of Zhang He’s withdrawing army.
“Damn it! About-face! Teach those reckless fools a lesson!”
Turning a whole force around mid-retreat was no easy thing. Just as Zhang He’s men finally wheeled about, dressed their ranks, and prepared to meet Guo Jun’s troops in earnest, Guo Jun gave the equally galling order to fall back.
He had held a highly mobile unit in readiness; they smashed once across the back of Zhang He’s withdrawing column and then returned straight to their own camp.
Zhang He ground his teeth as he watched the enemy show him their backs and run.
The damage was not severe, but for Zhang He it was enough to set his insides burning.
The next day, Zhang He laid a different plan.
“We will pretend to withdraw completely. The moment they come out in pursuit—that is when we strike!”
He even packed up the equipment and supplies from his main camp and pulled the army back as though he meant a full retreat.
Guo Jun, however, did not take the bait. He sent out only a small force of light cavalry to shadow Zhang He’s line of march and nothing more.
So he will not come out beyond a certain point even if it kills him…!
Seeing that Guo Jun had no intention of leaving his defenses, Zhang He had no choice but to turn his army around again and re-establish his camp before Jieting.
Having wasted the day for nothing, Zhang He felt a tangle of emotions thrashing about inside him.
This may be my last chance…. I have to win merit here somehow. If I achieve nothing and only suffer defeat, my fate will be…. No. No. Worrying alone will not solve anything.
Setting his hesitation aside, Zhang He made his decision.
“In that case, we break them head-on. Crush Guo Jun as soon as possible and push on into Yongzhou!”
Zhang He’s full-scale assault began, and Jieting was swept in an instant into a whirlpool of violence.
Breaking through the carefully laid formations cost Zhang He’s army dearly as well, but under the relentless pressure of a renowned general like Zhang He, Guo Jun’s losses mounted just as fiercely.
“We’re through! Drive straight in!”
Whether it was Zhang He’s dogged assault finally bearing fruit, his men succeeded in smashing through the wooden palisades Guo Jun’s forces had raised.
It did not take them long to learn the truth. The palisade Guo Jun had prepared was not the only one.
“They’ve set up another palisade behind it!”
Guo Jun had already layered his defenses several deep and was waiting for Zhang He. The moment one line was breached, his men fell back to the palisade behind it and built a fresh defensive front. The way Guo Jun’s army abandoned a line without hesitation and re-formed on the next was clean, spare, and utterly without waste.
Zhang He clenched his jaw and ordered the next line broken.
That day he punched through defensive lines again and again—and each time, Guo Jun had still another waiting beyond.
On top of that, Bu Rong’s detached force appeared in the rear whenever Zhang He had almost forgotten them, raising havoc and scattering his attention.
At last, when the sun set and the soldiers were exhausted, Zhang He ordered the withdrawal and resolved to attack again the next day.
The following morning, as the sun rose, Zhang He could only give a hollow laugh at the sight of Guo Jun’s army, which had spent the entire night repairing the palisades and restoring every defensive line.
“Those men are worn out from rebuilding their defenses through the night. We will break them with a rotating assault.”
Even in a difficult position, Zhang He calmly assembled a method of attack in his mind, then launched it.
A rotating assault—feeding fresh troops in by turns—demanded precise command, but the veteran Zhang He directed it almost flawlessly, and his elite soldiers carried it out with equal fidelity.
An assault even fiercer than the day before crashed down upon Guo Jun’s army, and the layered shields of defense began to buckle one by one.
The rebuilt lines had given him a moment’s surprise, but Zhang He’s judgment had not been wrong. Guo Jun’s men, having spent the night raising their defenses again, were short of rest. Their movements were duller than the day before.
“That’s it! We’ve broken the last palisade. Advance!”
“Waaaaah!”
At last Zhang He’s army succeeded in smashing through Guo Jun’s final defensive line. Or so they believed.
“Now! Pull!”
The order rang out from the very heart of Guo Jun’s formation.
The instant it fell, the soldiers at Guo Jun’s front began hauling on ropes that held something buried in the earth.
Crrrack!
At once, sharp objects that had been buried in the ground snapped upright on the diagonal and drove into the bellies of Zhang He’s charging men.
“Aaagh!”
“Palisades!”
Guo Jun had buried sharpened stakes in the earth. As the enemy closed in, his men yanked the ropes that held them down and raised them to bar the way.
Even sharpened stakes could not deal fatal wounds to men in armor. But they were more than enough to check the full-speed charge of Zhang He’s troops. Those who had been racing forward on a rising tide of momentum suddenly found the path blocked and slammed into the comrades who had stopped ahead of them.
“Halt! I said halt!”
Unable to master their own momentum, Zhang He’s ranks tangled into a snarl of feet—and Guo Jun did not miss the opening.
“Now! Loose!”
At the same moment, two detached forces appeared on the mountains to either side of the road: the unit led by Bu Rong, and a smaller detachment Zheng Qi had sent out from Jieting itself.
From both flanks the detached forces poured a concentrated volley into Zhang He’s army, which stood jammed against the raised stakes.
Their numbers were few, but they were more than enough to deal a telling blow to the compressed head of Zhang He’s column.
In an instant the van of Zhang He’s army collapsed, and Guo Jun ordered the counterattack. The troops that had advanced so far were driven back once more.
Having failed yet again to break through, Zhang He had no choice but to withdraw.
In this battle as well, both sides took no small losses—and still neither could force a decision.
Zhang He did not stop his offensives after that. He tried other methods alongside the direct assaults.
He sent detached forces climbing the mountains on either side of the road in an attempt at a flanking maneuver. He even launched night raids.
No matter what he tried, nothing worked.
The flanking detachments were destroyed piecemeal by ambushes Guo Jun had planted in advance, and the night raids were turned aside by calm, steady responses.
Suppressing his growing impatience, Zhang He launched attack after attack—yet he could never fully shatter Guo Jun’s wall of defense.
It was, in every sense, a contest of spear against shield.
Guo Jun and Zhang He. Both generals fought a grinding battle against a difficult foe.
But as time wore on, Zhang He’s face grew blacker and more haggard, while color returned to Guo Jun’s. For Guo Jun, whose mission from the start had been to hold the enemy in place, he was fulfilling his strategic purpose to the letter.
That did not mean Zhang He’s judgment was dead yet.
I am not the only Wei general in the field. Guo Huai will not simply sit still either. If I keep the enemy’s eyes fixed here, another chance will surely come. If only Guo Huai will strike them from behind.
Around that same time, Guo Huai, Inspector of Yongzhou, was at Shanggui. Just as Zhang He expected, he too was watching the enemy’s movements and searching for a chance to break the crisis.
When word reached him that the Shu army had advanced as far as Jieting, he began to form a plan to answer it. Shanggui lay in a position from which one could move geographically into the rear of Jieting.
The place that caught his eye was Lieyou Fortress, standing in the rear of Jieting.