The Battle of Nanjun (2)
With Yiling fallen and Jiangling left isolated without hope of aid, our forces and the army of Eastern Wu joined in a fierce combined assault on the fortress.
Guan Yu and I had cut off the northern road, so Jiangling—unable to receive either reinforcements or supplies from the homeland—grew ever more forlorn.
Yet Cao Ren was still Cao Ren. Relying on Jiangling's high and treacherous walls, he fought a desperate defense so stubborn that the word impregnable fortress sprang unbidden to the lips. Jiangling stood firm, weathering the storm of countless spears and arrows.
More than half a year had already passed since the siege began. Guan Yu and I stood gazing at the fortress walls as we spoke.
"The enemy general Cao Ren is a tenacious man indeed. To endure such a barrage of attacks…"
"Yes. But their supplies should be nearly exhausted by now. Then they will have no choice but to abandon the city and flee."
"Indeed. Cao Cao's defeat at Red Cliffs must have cut far deeper than expected. For him still to send no relief force even with so vital a stronghold in peril…"
Guan Yu stroked the long beard that was his pride. He spoke with calm composure, yet it seemed he still bitterly regretted failing to capture Cao Cao at Huarong Path.
"Even so, a relief force will come eventually."
I pushed aside the brief reflection in my mind and returned to the present. Cao Cao would not simply abandon Jiangling.
"Most likely. His national strength is not yet exhausted, after all. When that will be, though, is anyone's guess."
I found that frustrating as well. I knew the rough outline of what was coming, but not when or how.
"That is why we raised those wooden stockades."
Along the roads, dense rows of timber barricades stood ready—erected in abundance at my suggestion. If a relief force arrived, we risked being caught in a pincer from front and rear. How long those stockades would hold was another question entirely.
"General! The enemy's relief force is marching south!"
"So. What was bound to come has come. Who commands them?"
"A general named Li Tong, sir."
"Very well. Strengthen the watch."
"Yes, sir!"
At a single report from the messenger, our camp sprang into frantic activity.
"Loose! Hold them!"
The cloud of dust descending from the north soon resolved into enemy troops that crashed against our camp.
Weapons flew savagely back and forth across the wooden stockades. The blood spattering the timber of the barricades steadily increased.
Though Cao Cao's army had suffered a crushing defeat at Red Cliffs, the residual strength remaining was still considerable. We had fortified our defenses thoroughly, but the enemy's will to break through to Jiangling at all costs was equally plain.
The enemy general Li Tong. Not a particularly famous commander, yet in the original history he had broken through the siege of Jiangling and rescued Cao Ren, and the official records even noted that among the many generals in that battle, his martial prowess was the finest.
Guan Yu commanded the entire force while I shot arrows from inside the stockades, holding the enemy at bay.
Whoosh!
A sound of cutting wind, and one enemy soldier thrusting his spear from outside the stockade collapsed. But the enemy numbers were not few. Li Tong's men clinging to the barricades called to mind a swarm of ants rushing toward a sugar candy dropped on the ground.
Occasionally an enemy soldier who tried to climb over the stockade was struck by multiple spears and fell.
"Damn it! What are you doing?! Shield-bearers, form a dense formation and advance!"
A mounted general from the enemy side came charging with a roar. His face was so fierce it suited a bandit more than a military officer, and his voice was extremely rough and gravelly. Judging by the look of him, this was surely the general Li Tong.
Soon soldiers bearing great shields larger than a man's body formed ranks and stamped the earth as they advanced.
Thud-thud-thud!
Their movements were heavier than before, but they displayed correspondingly disciplined precision.
Our forces shot arrows and threw spears to stop them, but the shield formation did not easily break.
I aimed for the gaps between shields and loosed an arrow that struck a shield-bearer in the shoulder. As he clutched his shoulder and fell back, a crack opened in the shield wall like a missing tooth—but another shield-bearer immediately stepped in with his shield and filled the gap. These were men of no ordinary training.
The long horizontal line of shields, bristling with countless arrows stuck in their faces, slammed into the stockade. With a boom, the stakes driven into the ground shuddered.
"Dismantle the stockades! Archers, loose!"
Swords and axes emerged between the shields and began hacking at the bindings that held the stockades together. The enemy archer corps that followed right behind drew their bows. Allied soldiers began falling one by one to arrows that flew over the tops of the shields.
"Raise your shields!"
Of course our side did not simply take it. We struck away the enemy hands trying to tear down the stockades and thrust spears through the gaps at the enemy's brows or shoulders.
"Aaaargh! Out of the way! I, Li Tong, will handle this myself!"
When the work of breaching the stockades still proved unsatisfactory, Li Tong leaped down from his horse. Then, gripping a great sword that looked fully twice the size of an ordinary one in one hand, he began personally battering the stockade.
True to his reputation as a fierce general, the heat and fighting spirit he radiated were considerable. Each time his great sword swept around, the stockade shook heavily with booming sounds.
"Waaaah!"
The bindings connecting the stockades snapped one by one.
As the saying goes, there are no weak soldiers under a valiant general—his subordinates also roared and moved more violently.
When the enemies shoved with shields and bodies, the separated stockade sections began toppling inward one by one like stalks of sorghum.
I can't leave this alone.
I nocked an arrow and took aim at the rampaging Li Tong. His torso was hard to target, obscured by shields, weapons, and stockades, so I aimed for his leg instead.
Whoosh!
"Ugh!"
Struck in the leg by the arrow, he staggered with a scream. But he snapped off the shaft stuck in his leg with his hand, rose again, and swung his weapon.
"Uwaaaah!"
With a roar he slammed his shoulder into it, and the stockades came crashing down. The more stockades toppled inward, the larger the breach in the camp grew.
When it became too difficult to hold with the stockades alone—
"Leave the stockades! Fall back into the camp and reform the defensive wall!"
At Guan Yu's command, the soldiers clinging to the stockades withdrew in perfect order.
"Now! Get in there and wipe them out!"
Li Tong swept his sword through the air. Like water pouring through a crack in a dike, Li Tong's men surged in.
"Aah?!"
"Ugh? What is this?!"
But a considerable number of those who charged in first screamed and tumbled. The ground had caved in and swallowed them.
Not long after they entered, the earth began collapsing here and there, and many soldiers rolled into the pits.
It was thanks to the pits we had dug in advance, anticipating the enemy's entry.
"Loose!"
"Aaaargh!"
A rain of arrows rained down on those who had fallen into the pits.
"Damn it all! Bloody hell!"
Li Tong twisted his already rugged face even further, turned back, and mounted his horse. Then he charged into the camp, avoiding the traps.
He rammed one soldier with his horse, swung his sword, and shouted:
"Clear the path!"
Thud!
Slash!
One of our soldiers struck by Li Tong's horse went tumbling across the ground and flew far away, and the neck of another beside him was severed by the sword he swung.
"It's nothing! Don't lose heart—keep pushing!"
Li Tong's forces, which had briefly faltered, twisted their faces, exhaled heat in snorts, and charged in again as their commander led the way.
"Follow the commander!"
"Avenge our fallen!"
Li Tong, who had stormed into our camp, rampaged in all directions, swinging his sword madly. Blood flowing from the arrow-struck leg had dyed one leg bright red, but there was not the slightest hesitation in his movements.
What a vicious bastard.
Just as I was about to draw another arrow—
"The enemy has sortied from Jiangling!"
A commotion rose behind me, and I turned. Indeed, a body of enemies was racing this way. Without question, it was Cao Ren's army that had come out of Jiangling.
"Liao Hua and Jin Cheong, meet the enemy to the rear!"
At Guan Yu's command, Liao Hua and I led a portion of our forces toward the rear of the camp. With Cao Ren's army joining the battle, the situation grew even more urgent.
Jiangling Fortress.
"General Cao Ren. Word is that battle has broken out to the north. General Li Tong has arrived leading a relief force."
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Yes. However, the relief force is not particularly large, and most are infantry. Moreover, with Guan Yu blocking the northern road, breaking through seems difficult."
Yue Jin had brought good news, but they no longer had the strength to hold Jiangling. The long fighting had produced far too many casualties, and plague had also broken out.
"I am thinking we might use this opportunity to break through the siege and head north."
"You mean abandon Jiangling, sir?"
This time Xu Huang spoke. He had entered Jiangling after his defeat at Yiling and had been defending the city alongside them.
If Li Tong was fighting now, they could join forces with him and break through the northern encirclement.
Not long ago they had managed to wound Zhou Yu with an arrow to the side, but Zhou Yu had not yielded—he rallied his troops and continued the battle. The offensive of the Wu army, whose morale had actually risen from Zhou Yu's fighting spirit, was becoming impossible to withstand.
In the end, Cao Ren resolved to abandon Jiangling and flee to Xiangyang. Yue Jin, Xu Huang, Cao Hong, and the others, with no better plan, eventually nodded in agreement.
"We march out. Break free like an arrow and join Li Tong, then make for Xiangyang."
The northern gate of Jiangling opened, and Cao Ren and his officers and men followed.
They would soon reach Guan Yu's camp, which was fighting Li Tong's forces.
Guan Yu's army had not failed to prepare for an attack from Jiangling either. They had erected plenty of stockades facing the fortress as well, but Cao Ren had already thought of a way to break through them.
"Commence fire!"
Liao Hua ordered the archers to loose,
"Javelins!"
Cao Ren's cavalry threw spears while galloping. They carried multiple javelins on their backs.
"Guh!"
Even as he was struck by an arrow, one cavalryman threw his spear, and an archer fell to it. Soon on both sides, men began dying or being wounded by arrows or spears in rapid succession.
"Throw!"
At Cao Ren's command, his cavalry spun something around and hurled it. Ropes with hooks attached to the ends.
The flying hooks clattered onto the stockades, and the cavalrymen pulled them the other way. When the stockades toppled, Cao Ren drove through the gap.
"Wedge formation! Break through!"
"Spearmen! Form a square! Stop the enemy!"
Liao Hua, facing him, formed a defensive square. Spears set at diagonals stretched out in ranks.
Cao Ren's charging cavalry unit drove straight into the forest of spears.
"Cao Ren has left the fortress! Occupy Jiangling and pursue him!"
The Wu army had not been idle either. Once they realized Jiangling was empty, they began fully occupying the city and, as previously arranged with Guan Yu's forces, sent a portion of their troops to pursue Cao Ren.
With fire at his heels, Cao Ren desperately tried to break through the encirclement.
"We will join Li Tong any moment! Just a little more strength!"
As Yue Jin tried to break free with his allies, a familiar voice rang out.
"Halt! Where do you think you're running with your tail between your legs?! Come at me!"
That voice is unmistakably—
Though he needed to hurry, that voice seized him by the nape of the neck and stopped his steps.
"You—you wench!"
The owner of that voice was Jin Cheong. For the past few months he had not forgotten the humiliation she had dealt him. The experience of being stabbed by a spear and collapsing before so many of his subordinates would not leave his mind.
That he had suffered it at the hands of a woman far younger than himself had dealt a tremendous wound to his pride, and made him momentarily forget that he needed to escape.
"Well met! Today I will most certainly take your head, you bitch!"
"Anytime."
Jin Cheong answered as calmly as ever, and that only enraged Yue Jin further. He raised his crescent blade and charged straight at her. His mind was filled with nothing but the determination to avenge himself this time.