The Battle of Gaimeng Pass
Gaimeng Pass. The rearmost strategic stronghold of Liu Bei's army, held by Huo Jun and a thousand soldiers.
Before Liu Bei left Gaimeng Pass to strike at Liu Zhang, he had appointed Huo Jun as its garrison commander. And on Jin Cheong's counsel, he had assigned as Huo Jun's deputy the man who had surrendered from Jingzhou — Wang Wei.
Though he had not taken part in the conquest of Yizhou itself, Huo Jun understood perfectly well how vital Gaimeng Pass was. When Yang Bo of Hanzhong came to lure him over, Huo Jun cut him off with a single stroke:
With that, he sent Yang Bo packing. Aside from that episode, Gaimeng Pass had faced no serious threat — until now. For the first time since he had entered Yizhou, Huo Jun was about to confront the greatest danger of his career.
"General Huo Jun! Shang Zun of Yizhou has arrived with ten thousand men!"
"So. What was bound to come has come."
It was exactly as he had expected. The two of them hurried up onto the ramparts.
Sure enough, a black tide of ten thousand soldiers was boiling up dust all the way to the far horizon.
One thousand against ten thousand. A tenfold disparity. On paper, the odds were crushing — but with these sheer walls at their backs, holding the pass was not impossible.
"General Wang Wei. Do you remember what I said when Yang Bo last cast his eyes on this fortress?"
"How could I forget? I will follow you, General — I will give this head of mine before I ever give this wall!"
Wang Wei answered Huo Jun's quiet question with iron resolve. This was the same man who, when Cao Cao invaded Jingzhou, had urged a surprise attack; his courage was not in doubt.
"Good! Then let us share this fortress's fate together!"
The two generals steeled themselves. As warriors, they would live or die with Gaimeng Pass.
Huo Jun went out with Wang Wei and raised the soldiers' spirits.
"The enemy general Shang Zun has set his sights on Gaimeng Pass. If we fall here, every comrade who has entered Yizhou will be in peril. We are the shield that guards their lives! Hold this place as if each of you were ten men!"
"Waaah!"
The soldiers' roar and the heat of their resolve rolled over Gaimeng Pass. Officers and men alike bound themselves together with a single vow: they would give their lives if they must, but this place would not fall.
And that vow, as the days wore on, began to thin — in a direction no one had expected.
"General. The enemy is falling back."
"Again?"
Just when it seemed a full siege was about to begin, the enemy withdrew like a receding tide.
"At first I thought it was only a probe. What is that enemy commander thinking?"
The enemy's assaults were… somehow, somehow weak. Of course it was a siege fought with lives on both sides, and the defenders' casualties mounted day by day. Still, they were far fewer than expected.
Where they had first taken their posts ready to die, the feeling now was more like, This is more manageable than we thought.
Huo Jun's skill at defense, paired with Wang Wei's sure-handed support, had made Gaimeng Pass's fortifications rock-solid — that much was beyond question. And yet:
"With that many troops, they should still have the strength to press harder."
The first time Huo Jun had looked down from the walls at those ten thousand, he had bitten his lip. Now he only tilted his head.
Below the walls lay the corpses of fallen enemies and the blackened wrecks of siege engines.
"In any case, I will go encourage the men."
A commander could not simply stand there brooding forever while his soldiers fought so hard.
"Look at the enemy scurrying away! That is your victory! They will never take Gaimeng Pass!"
"Waaah!"
As Wang Wei lifted the men's spirits, Huo Jun remained sunk in thought.
Is the enemy commander after something? Feigning defeat to draw us out beyond the walls?
His suspicions had shifted from their original course. What neither of them yet knew was that Shang Zun was far more incompetent than they could have imagined.
"General! Are we retreating again? The enemy is few — if we use a rotating assault, cycling fresh troops in to wear them down, we can break them easily!"
"No. Enough. That is all for today's attack. I am tired. Let us go back and rest."
Shang Zun, the man assaulting Gaimeng Pass, was indecisive to the bone. His deputy kept urging aggressive action, but Shang Zun had no desire to expend that much effort. He simply wanted to shrug off his cumbersome armor and rest.
To be fair, he had not begun without any thought of taking Gaimeng Pass in a single stroke once he knew the garrison was small.
But the enemy commander's skill — Huo Jun's — had proven far greater than expected.
Every siege engine was burned or smashed. Soldiers were drenched in arrows or scalding water before they could even cling to the walls. Gaps in the defense were filled at once, and the ability to strike the right place at the right moment was exceptional.
Faced with such uncommon defensive prowess, Shang Zun decided to play it safe.
"How long do you mean to keep talking like this? There is no need to drag this out — no, we must not drag this out! We have no idea when Liu Bei's army will march on Chengdu!"
"H-hiiik. Wh-where do you get off shouting…! I-I have my own plans. Never mind that — bring me some wine. Let me wet my throat and rest a little. A man has to rest if he is going to attack again, doesn't he?"
The deputy felt as though his chest would burst with frustration, but with his commander like this, there was nothing to be done.
Even if we try a rotating assault, the losses will only mount, and we still might not take the place. Better to slowly starve them out.
That was what he told himself — but the truth was that Shang Zun had no confidence he could execute a rotating assault at all. Feeding troops into the right place at the right moment demanded quick judgment and real command ability.
So the method Shang Zun settled on was this:
Bottle the enemy up and wait until their supplies and morale ran dry. With luck, internal strife might even break out.
It was, in fairness, a common approach to sieges. But it only worked when backed by relentless pressure and firm control.
Shang Zun, for his part, was not even properly assessing the enemy's morale or stores. He was simply moving according to whatever half-formed theory floated into his head.
I have this brilliant scheme, and all that fellow does is shout. Tch.
Shang Zun congratulated himself in private, but the looks his subordinates cast his way were far from kind. He did not realize that his own army's morale was sinking far faster than the enemy's.
"The riddle is solved."
"Yes, General."
"That man is simply an idiot."
"Exactly."
Three full months into the defense of Gaimeng Pass, Huo Jun and Wang Wei — drawing on experience, intelligence, and scouting reports — had arrived at the correct conclusion.
Wang Wei spoke softly.
"I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"We feign surrender, lull them into complacency, then strike."
It was the very plan he had once meant to use against Cao Cao while still in Jingzhou. Liu Cong had refused it, and so Wang Wei had ultimately surrendered to Liu Bei instead.
"We cannot know when enemy reinforcements might arrive, and Zhang Lu of Hanzhong may well cast his eyes on Gaimeng Pass again. Better to smash them quickly."
Deep into the night the two men kept refining the plan, and at last they resolved to try it.
A few days later, a secret envoy arrived at Shang Zun's camp.
"Gaimeng Pass has been cut off from supply, and morale has collapsed. We can hold no longer and wish to surrender. Attack the fortress three days from now, and we will set fires and rise in answer."
Shang Zun crowed inwardly.
Yes! At last!
The deputy who had always clamored for a full assault had gone out to the walls not long before and taken an arrow — dead. Had Shang Zun sent a few more supporting troops, the man might have lived, but Shang Zun considered that no fault of his own; it was the deputy's rashness that had gotten him killed.
Because of it, the army's spirit had sunk still lower and the will to fight had thinned to almost nothing — but Shang Zun never noticed.
"Very well. If you answer properly when the time comes, I will treat you generously."
The envoy withdrew, and Shang Zun stretched.
"Nnngh. He said attack in three days, so I may as well rest until then and then go out."
The following night, Huo Jun and Wang Wei laid their plans for a night raid. The scheme was this:
Wang Wei would take three hundred men, slip out of the fortress in secret, and strike the enemy camp from the flank. Huo Jun would wait for the right moment, then lead another three hundred in a frontal charge.
Scouts had already confirmed that Shang Zun and his men had grown so slack they were practically lounging about. With a commander like that, the subordinates could hardly help growing lazy themselves.
"Then — fortune favor you."
"I will see it done."
Wang Wei steeled himself and led his three hundred picked men out beyond the walls.
"Enemy! Enemy raid!"
Chaos erupted through Shang Zun's hitherto peaceful camp.
"Wh-what? An enemy raid? Impossible. You must have misseen!"
Shang Zun stumbled out of his tent without even properly donning his armor, still clutching a head swimming with undissipated wine.
"The enemy has struck from the rear! It is certain!"
"Wh-what?"
It could not be. The enemy had never once come out beyond the walls — and only recently there had been that envoy offering surrender.
His spinning head simply could not accept the situation. And yet the fact remained: the enemy had infiltrated from the rear, set the camp ablaze, and was butchering his men.
But the enemy's blade had a second edge.
The gates of Gaimeng Pass swung open, and Huo Jun himself led his soldiers straight into Shang Zun's lines.
"Where is the enemy general Shang Zun?! Come out and face me like a warrior!"
Huo Jun, who had spent so long cooped up on the defensive, now drove his horse like a crouching lion springing free, his blade whirling.
Struck from both sides, Shang Zun's ten thousand soldiers flailed about in helpless confusion.
"General, what should we do?"
When the unexpected strikes, when no direction is clear and a decision is needed, people look to their commander — competent or not, he is the one who holds the authority. And that authority, at this moment…
"H-hiiik…! Th-the enemy. B-bring me a horse. Where is my horse?"
He was practically crawling on the ground in search of one.
"The commander is running!"
Not a single man in Shang Zun's army retained the will to fight. Ten thousand soldiers scattered in utter panic, and Shang Zun himself managed at last to mount and try to flee. But he did not get far.
"Take this — the blade of Huo Jun!"
Huo Jun's sword took his head.
The Battle of Gaimeng Pass ended in a great victory after three months.
Huo Jun did not know it, but in the original history the year-long siege of this place had been brought to a close in a mere three months.
Gaimeng Pass was secure once more, and Huo Jun and Wang Wei could finally rest with easy hearts for the first time in a long while.