Stratagem
With the fates of the men at Noksan's First Outpost still uncertain, the Second Outpost annihilated to the last man, and the Third and Fourth locked in desperate, life-or-death combat, one might have imagined the invading host of the Chagatai Khanate enjoying a far more leisurely campaign than the gritted-teeth defenders of Noksan. That was not the case at all.
Beyond Harakchi, who had perished at the First Outpost, five noyans and a single noyon had already lost their lives. As for the rank and file, losses had long since passed seven thousand and were climbing steadily toward eight, yet the Chagatai forces had barely pushed past Baoshan and still could not bring Yeogang down.
"Damn those fire imps! Damn that barbed wire!"
By now even they understood that the coiled barbed wire was no mere tangle of thorns.
When they tried to breach the Third Outpost, they had crept up in the dead of night intending to cut the wire and slip through unseen. Yet the steel strands, forged with superior techniques, proved tougher and more flexible than expected; even axe blows failed to sever them cleanly. Worse still, bells hung at intervals along the wire, and their clumsy efforts were discovered at once.
The garrison commander holding Yeogang did not waste the precious Dabal-shinginjeon rockets of Noksan. Instead he simply poured arrows into every place the bells rang.
"Aaaagh!"
The soldiers who had been cutting the wire without torches so as to preserve the advantage of night were left fully exposed to the arrows that rained out of the dark. A few still managed to tear open a gap, and enraged cavalrymen charged through—only to discover, too late, the deep trenches cut into the earth.
"Urgh!"
Men and horses tumbled into the unseen ditches, casualties mounting by the second. Those who scrambled across trampled the harvested ground of the trench zone and pressed forward, only to find another line of barbed wire waiting. The moment they hesitated to cut it, the arrow storm resumed.
"Shields up!"
While they raised great shields against the iron rain, the Noksan outposts moved with equal haste. From the high hills flanking Yeogang Fortress a meteor shower of fire streaked across the night sky.
—Piyuuuuuu… KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!!
The concentrated firepower of the Dabal-shinginjeon, pride of the Sacheondang Family, could not be stopped by any shield. Shattered wooden fragments from the pulverized shields became secondary shrapnel that scythed through the ranks. In the end the force that had risked everything to breach the first trench line was wiped out almost to a man in the killing ground between the first and second trenches.
Adiya Khan ground his teeth until they creaked.
"Catapults! Hurl stones!"
"Great Khan! The walls are still too far!"
For the catapults to land effective hits they would have to advance at least as far as the second trench.
"…Very well. They cannot rain those fire imps down forever. Keep weaving in and out of the wire and force them to waste their shots!"
The shaman who had babbled about fire spirits had long since had his head struck from his shoulders. Adiya Khan's host began the slow, methodical dismantling of the first trench's barbed wire. When arrows fell they raised shields with calm discipline; when the telltale whoosh of rockets was heard they simply fell back. The defenders could only watch, hands tied, as their lines crumbled one by one.
It was around that time that Huiyeom's Dokwadae and Sakpungdae, together with Wang Yangming, arrived at Yeogang.
"Time is short, so I must forgo the usual courtesies. From this moment the garrison commander will obey my orders without question."
Huiyeom produced the imperial command plaque and assumed operational control. He then gathered the garrison commander, his subordinate officers, and the commanders of the ten outposts covering Yeogang and the Dali approaches for a council of war.
At that table Wang Yangming, temporarily appointed staff officer, spoke first.
"We must yield Yeogang."
"What?!"
The garrison commander, charged with Yeogang's defense, flushed with anger—until Wang Yangming's cold stare silenced him. At present Wang Yangming wielded the authority of the command plaque delegated by Huiyeom; he also possessed the experience of high office and, though a defeated general in the past, the hard-won knowledge of multiple campaigns. In rank, experience, and personal ability he was a man no mere garrison commander who had never tasted true war could hope to overawe.
Huiyeom asked quietly,
"Explain."
"Yes, Young Master. On the surface we appear to be holding the enemy well with Yeogang's walls and the Third and Fourth Outposts. In truth the damage we inflict is far less than it seems. Though they have already lost nearly ten thousand men and mounts… that is still only ten thousand. At this rate our Dabal-shinginjeon rockets will run dry long before we deal them a decisive blow."
"Mm…"
"Moreover our eyes and strength are fixed here. The enemy could easily feint against Yeogang while swinging the bulk of their host around us by another route."
"So you propose we open the road and lure them in."
"Precisely."
He unrolled a map for the assembled officers.
"Yeogang is a curiously shaped city. The long ridges of Okjeong Mountain and Hangok Mountain cradle it on either side, so the only approaches run north and south. Hold the heights and the place becomes an impregnable natural fortress that can be taken only by a frontal assault. Conversely, once those heights are yours, you can rain arrows and cannon fire down into the city from both flanks—an equally unique vulnerability."
Yeogang stretched long and narrow north to south between the two mountain ranges. By planting the Third and Fourth Outposts on those heights, anchoring the defense on Yeogang's walls, and digging five successive trench lines across the valley floor, the garrison had been able to slaughter nearly four thousand cavalry with relatively light losses of their own.
Wang Yangming's plan was this:
—First evacuate the civilian population to Dali in the rear.
—Once the evacuation is complete, gradually reduce rocket fire as though the ammunition is exhausted, drawing the enemy deeper inside.
—Meanwhile the garrison troops under the Yeogang commander and the Dokwadae under its captain will move onto Okjeong Mountain on the left; Huiyeom will lead the Noksan forces onto Hangok Mountain on the right and set ambushes.
—Wang Yangming and the Sakpungdae will remain inside the emptied city, offering token resistance until the last moment before fleeing.
—The leading enemy elements will sense something amiss and halt, while the rear, still ignorant, continues to push forward, throwing their command structure into temporary chaos.
—At that instant both mountains will pour every cannon and rocket they possess into the city, inflicting catastrophic losses.
—Before the enemy can recover, the entire force will withdraw cleanly to Dali.
"Uuuugh…"
The plan would certainly deal the invaders a grievous blow, yet it amounted to ordering the garrison to raze their own city with their own hands. The garrison commander's face twisted with torment. Though the imperial command plaque left him no room for open defiance, his expression and the low groan that escaped him spoke volumes.
At last, after the officers had exchanged uneasy glances, the garrison commander spoke for them all.
"Is it truly necessary to go so far?"
"From of old Yeogang has been famed as the land of jade, 'Jade Millet and Kunshan Song.' The people's livelihood rests entirely in the jade mines of the two mountains, not within the city itself. Even if we reduce the entire town to ash, rebuilding will present no great difficulty. This method alone allows us to strike the enemy a heavy blow with the least loss of life. Material wealth cannot be weighed against human lives; so long as the people survive, a city can always be raised again."
In short, Yeogang possessed little farmland and depended neither on the soil nor on workshops inside its walls; bombing it would cause no lasting economic ruin.
"Your words are not without reason, yet it is not merely a question of livelihood but of home. Who will return to a burned-out ruin? Who will rebuild a house with bare hands? Many will abandon their birthplace, and Yeogang itself may become a deserted shell."
Fine words to say that goods are nothing beside people—yet this was an age when the possession or loss of family property decided whether one lived or starved. In a world where even the industrious sometimes died of hunger, how wretched would be the lot of those who lost house and fortune in a single night?
The faces of the officers born in Yeogang, or bound to it by blood and marriage, were especially dark.
Huiyeom looked from Wang Yangming to the officers and back. He sighed softly, then spoke.
"There is another way. A method that can annihilate the enemy without destroying the city."
"What? Such a thing exists?"
"Our family has recently developed something called the poison-mist shell. It leaves buildings untouched and spreads a lethal toxic fog that kills only living enemies. Once the invaders are driven off and the residual poison properly purged, we can reclaim Yeogang with minimal damage."
"Indeed…!"
"Truly the House of Dang, Kings of Poison!"
The officers' expressions brightened at once. Releasing poison over Yeogang was not entirely comforting, yet it was infinitely preferable to reducing the city to ash—especially if the Dang Family itself would handle the subsequent decontamination. There was nothing left to hesitate over.
When the officers nodded, Huiyeom decided without delay.
"All officers present and every soldier under their command will withdraw. The Sakpungdae alone will remain inside Yeogang to execute the operation."
"That cannot be! This is the city we are sworn to defend. We will stay and offer our lives!"
"He is right! That the Dang Family of Sichuan has come all the way to Yunnan to aid us is already a debt we can never repay. Let us bear this duty ourselves!"
They imagined that anyone remaining to release a poison thick enough to blanket an entire city would certainly die. One after another the officers volunteered to be the ones who stayed behind and perished.
Huiyeom shook his head.
"There is no need. The poison-mist shell does not simply scatter toxin nearby; it is a new weapon that disperses the fog from a considerable distance. And the Sakpungdae of our house are wind-swift warriors who pride themselves on intelligence work and guerrilla tactics. No one is better suited to deliver a 'parting gift' to the enemy and then slip away unscathed."
At that moment Wang Yangming stepped forward.
"Young Master, then entrust the Sakpungdae and the poison-mist shells to me."
"Researcher Wang? Are you certain?"
"Haha—my field of study as chief researcher has always been ballistics and the employment of artillery. What better chance could there be to put my research into practice? How could I possibly let it slip away?"
Huiyeom nodded. From the beginning the plan had been to leave the execution to Wang Yangming. His military talent was beyond doubt.
"Very well. Researcher Wang will take personal command of the Sakpungdae and carry out the operation."
Once the decision was sealed, the garrison commander asked Huiyeom in a low voice,
"Young Master… should we not still form an encirclement to intercept any enemies who might break through the poison mist?"
"That will not be necessary."
Arrows or spears loosed by the enemy might fly free of the fog. Whether any man could walk out of it whole was another matter entirely.
Huiyeom found himself smiling bitterly as he answered.
"…Soon the whole world will raise its voice to condemn the cruelty of the Dang Family. Spare yourself that lesser worry."
And so the course of the operation was set.
"Girl! What are you standing there gawking at?"
Jinhwa, daughter of a Caffa-plantation owner from Baoshan, snapped out of her daze at her mother's scolding.
"Ah—Mother."
"The evacuation order's come. We're to flee to Dali. The trains start running in one shichen, so let's go early and get in line."
Having already packed and fled Baoshan once, they could move faster than the native folk of Yeogang. And the railway—Baoshan's people had been able to escape so swiftly precisely because of the rails and the steam locomotives.
Jinhwa asked,
"Mother… that person… he's still alive, right? Isn't he?"
"Aigoo, you little fool! Is that what matters right now?!"
With their own lives hanging by a thread, the sight of her daughter fretting over a sweetheart made the mother beat her breast in frustration.
"He's alive, I'm sure of it! If he comes back in one piece I'll even approve the marriage to that rascal! So first we run, understand?!"
"Okay, okay, Mother. Stop pulling me."
The refugees murmured anxiously among themselves.
"We keep falling back… will it be all right?"
"Reinforcements keep arriving, they say. Yunnan and Sichuan are responding quickly. Even the train we're about to board is one the relief troops rode in on."
"If we stay behind they'll never be able to fight properly. Let's just go."
Trembling yet still clinging to hope, the refugees boarded the trains. Those too nervous to wait, or wealthy enough to travel privately, tried to leave the city in ox-carts and horse-drawn wagons, but the garrison commander—acting under the provincial commander's order—requisitioned every cart. The vehicles were needed to haul cannon and rockets up onto the mountains.
Meanwhile, at the front:
"We have breached the fourth wire, Great Khan!"
"Their response?"
"Arrows fall thicker than ever, yet those thunderbolts of fire have dwindled sharply. Your strategy is working, Great Khan!"
"As expected of the Great Khan!"
The flattery of the noyons smoothed Adiya Khan's expression.
"Such a dreadful weapon cannot be endless—that is only natural. They will surely flee again. Pursue hard and strike them while they run."
Harassing a routed enemy and multiplying the damage was child's play. The noyons immediately began quarreling over who would claim the glory.
And at last—
—KWAANG!
"The gate is open!!!"
Yeogang's city gate burst inward. Enraged cavalry, still gripping their battering ram, thundered straight down the main avenue.
"Kill them! Kill every last one!"
Bloodshot eyes blazing, the horsemen poured through the gate like a swarm of locusts—only to realize something was terribly wrong. The government troops who had been loosing arrows in a frenzy mere moments earlier were nowhere to be seen. The city lay as silent as if time itself had stopped.
"…Wait. Something's wrong."
The noyon at the head of the column ordered a halt, yet the rear ranks, still ignorant of the situation, kept flooding in. In an instant Yeogang was packed solid with Mongol warriors.
Then—
"Now. Begin."
The Sakpungdae, who had remained inside the walls until the very end to complete the deception, pulled gas masks over their faces at Wang Yangming's command.