Raid on the Camp
Marshal Xun Tianzhang's son paused for a moment of thought before adding, "The Longmu River is swelling by the hour. If this rain keeps falling all day, Longyang City will surely drown beneath the flood — and we will be able to wipe out the Jin army in one swift stroke."
Xun Tianzhang coughed into his handkerchief, then quickly wiped his mouth, afraid his son might glimpse the blood staining the cloth. He forced his spiraling mind back under control.
"Speed is the only answer! If I can only retake Yushan Pass, this old father can die without a single regret!"
With so little time left to live, impatience gnawed at him.
"Do not worry, Father!" His son gently smoothed a hand down his father's back and murmured, "Just take your medicine and rest. The elite troops under your command will surely reclaim Yushan Pass!"
"Report!"
A scout came sprinting through the camp, his cry cutting through the pouring rain. The soldier dismounted and delivered his report outside the Marshal's tent.
"Marshal! The Zhenguo Commandery Princess and Fu Yahei of Jin have led the main army out of the city!"
At the mention of Bai Jingyan, strength surged into Xun Tianzhang's grip. He clenched the handkerchief tightly and gave his order.
"Confirm it! Are they truly headed toward Pingming Road?"
"Yes, Marshal!"
Soon after, the Liang general returned in haste. Xun Tianzhang deliberated once more, then commanded his son to lead troops to Pingming Road — with strict orders to protect the grain convoys and annihilate every last Jin soldier.
The Liang generals already carried themselves like men with victory in hand. They were already thinking of how soon they could pour into Longyang City and dig out its riches.
As they emerged from the Marshal's tent, the generals fell to debating what rare treasures must be hidden inside the estate of Xiao Rongyan, the wealthiest merchant under heaven. It was said the house of the Shaofu held an auspicious beast carved entirely of gold, as large as a full-grown man, its body studded with every kind of precious gem — a single jewel pried from it would fetch an astronomical price. But the beast was far too heavy, too enormous, too conspicuous to move, so Xiao Rongyan had been forced to hide it away in a secret chamber. All they had to do was find it.
Rain fell in sheets as though the heavens had upended a river, and howling gales whipped through it; beneath the churning black clouds, the sky seemed ready to split open at any moment.
Liu Hong stood atop the city wall in the downpour, watching as Bai Jingyan and her company led the main army out through the gates. The wind-driven rain lashed his face until he could scarcely keep his eyes open, and again and again he wiped the water away with his hand.
All he could do was pray — pray that Bai Jingyan and General Fu would slip safely around the western bank of the Longmu River and evade the great Liang host. On that alone hinged the fate of this entire war.
Gritting his teeth atop the wall, Liu Hong waited for the scout to return with word of the Liang army's movements.
One shichen later, the Liang camp finally began to stir.
Liu Hong gripped the sword at his waist and turned to Lin Gangluo. "Did the Gaoyi County Princess and her party make it out of the city safely?"
Lin Gangluo nodded. "The Bai family guards escorted them out. Lady Yue's physician went along as well, so they'll be fine. Don't worry."
Half a shichen later, Liu Hong descended from the tower and issued his orders.
"Wang Xiping! Take three thousand elite soldiers to the Longmu River at once. Slaughter every last Liang soldier guarding the trenches — leave not a single man alive!"
"By your command, Marshal!"
Wang Xiping raised a cupped fist in salute and accepted the order.
The Jin army made its final preparations inside the city, then stood at rigid attention in the rain, awaiting the signal. Generals from each battalion mounted their horses and took the lead, ready to charge into the Liang camp the instant the Marshal's command fell.
The generals at the heart of the operation knew the plan by heart: they were to retreat as though defeated, luring the Liang army toward Longyang City.
Then, once the Liang soldiers stood drowning in the flood, the Jin army would exterminate them to the last hair on their heads. It would teach Liang a lesson so thorough they would never dare trespass on Jin soil again.
"Soldiers of Jin, hear me!"
Liu Hong drew his sword and roared. His voice boomed like a great temple bell, yet even it seemed half-drowned beneath the waterfall of rain.
"YES!"
The Jin soldiers thundered back, a roar that shook the ground and set the mountains trembling.
"The cowardly dogs of Liang trampled our Jin borderlands! They stole our Jin cities! They slaughtered our Jin people! They seized Chunmao and Fumen and left not so much as a single head of cattle behind! Today is the day the strong men of Jin take our revenge! Drive the swine of Liang from our soil — every last one of them!"
Liu Hong's voice tore itself raw with the cry.
"Drive them out!"
"Drive them out!"
"Drive them out!"
The fighting spirit of the Jin army blazed upward as the soldiers roared their triple cry against the enemy.
Liu Hong mounted his horse and issued his final command.
"Open the gates!"
The gates swung wide, and Grand General Liu Hong of Jin rode at the very front, leading his soldiers in majestic columns toward the Liang camp.
Bai Jingyan and Fu Yahei led the Jin main army in a march that made a great show of targeting the Liang grain convoys, conspicuously heading as if to lie in ambush at Pingming Road. In truth, when they neared the pass, they would cut onto a shortcut and swing around the western bank of the Longmu River.
The storm made visibility treacherous. Five zhang away, one could not tell beast from man; beyond ten zhang, nothing at all could be seen.
But to an army bent on hiding and falling upon the enemy camp, the deluge was a blessing rather than a hindrance.
Bai Jingyan and Fu Yahei split their forces in two less than two li from the Liang camp. One column followed Bai Jingyan toward the camp's eastern flank; the other followed Fu Yahei toward the western side.
The Jin soldiers crouched in the rain beneath the bellies of horses standing on the steep slope, weapons in hand, wound tight with tension as they awaited their general's command.
Though it was late in the sixth month, the rain kept hammering down on their armor, and as the hours stretched on, the cold set their bodies shivering. The soldiers clenched their teeth and endured.
Bai Jingyan, clad in silver armor, stood beside her horse with her silver spear in hand, eyes fixed on the Liang camp, waiting only for the blast of the enemy's horns.
Rainwater streamed down her helmet and spilled across her gaze in an unbroken string like a strand of pearls. Her ramrod-straight back never so much as swayed in the deluge, and though her clothes were soaked through, they showed not the slightest hint of weight.
Perhaps because she trained day after day with sandbags strapped to her whole body, this felt lighter by comparison.
Before leaving the city, Bai Jingyan had settled the plan with Liu Hong: once the Liang army departed, Liu Hong would lead his soldiers in a surprise assault on the Liang camp half a shichen later. At that moment, Bai Jingyan and Fu Yahei would move in swiftly behind him, riding the momentum to throw the Liang army into utter confusion.
The rain was so loud that the hoofbeats were nearly impossible to hear. By the time the Liang outriders spotted them, Liu Hong and Lin Gangluo had already led their troops to within less than a single li of the camp.
Horn blasts rang out across the Liang camp.
"The Jin army is attacking! They're attacking!"
"Report to the Marshal — quickly!"
"Archers! To your positions!"
The Liang army had made no preparations whatsoever. With the main force gone to Pingming Road, no one had imagined for a moment that this place would come under attack.
As the horns sounded one after another, Bai Jingyan's eyes turned to ice. She mounted her horse.
"Attack!"
The Jin soldiers leapt into their saddles and surged after her as she charged at the very front, shrieking her war cry as she hurled herself at the Liang camp.
Inside the Marshal's tent, Xun Tianzhang lurched to his feet and staggered. The soldier beside him caught him by the arm.
"Marshal!"
Xun Tianzhang stared out of the tent. Watching Liang soldiers scrambling in a panic toward the camp entrance with bows in hand, he demanded in a great voice, "How large is the Jin force?"
"The rain is too heavy — we can't see clearly!"
answered the soldier kneeling outside the Marshal's tent.
"Marshal, withdraw at once — please, get yourself to safety!"
Xun Tianzhang pressed his lips inward. Something itched at the edge of his mind — he felt on the verge of recalling it, yet it kept slipping away, dissolving before it could take shape.
He had no time to calm himself and think it through before a soldier's voice rang out from beyond the tent.
"The east! Enemies on the east side! Quickly! Archers — east!"
"The west! Enemies on the west too! Send reinforcements!"
In an instant, the Liang camp dissolved into chaos.
"It's the Black-Cloth White-Guan Standard! The black banner with the white python! Get to the east — now!"
A Liang soldier screamed as though he had seen a ghost.
"Report!"
A soldier came running to the Marshal's tent, rain blinding his eyes, and shouted with a raised fist.
"Marshal! The Jin army is attacking from three directions at once! Grand General Liu Hong and Lin Gangluo have led their troops here in person — each bearing the Black-Cloth White-Guan Standard and the Fu banner!"
The soldier kneeling outside delivering the report turned his head to glance back over his shoulder.
"Marshal! Withdraw from the camp immediately, just in case!"
Any later, and there would be no escape at all.
Grand General Liu Hong, Lin Gangluo, Fu Yahei — and Bai Jingyan, whom Xun Tianzhang feared above all. The finest generals of the entire Jin army had all converged upon this one place.
At that moment, the something that had been flickering at the back of Xun Tianzhang's mind finally resolved — and his face drained white.
"It's a trap! It was a trap! Quickly! Send word to General Xun on the road to Pingming Road — tell him to turn around at once and come to our aid! The Jin main army is attacking the camp! Hurry!"
The instant he heard the words Black-Cloth White-Guan Standard, everything that had nagged at him fell into place. His failure to prepare for every contingency had landed him, at the last, in the jaws of a snare.
He had believed he had the whole battlefield in his grasp. He had sent men along the grain-transport roads to bait the Jin into dividing their forces — and he had assumed Bai Jingyan had seen through that design. He had reasoned that she would seal every road but one, that her chief aim was to sever the Liang army's grain supply, and that her scheme was to win without spilling blood.
Above all, when word came that Bai Jingyan and Fu Yahei were marching on Pingming Road with their soldiers, Xun Tianzhang had taken it as proof his judgment was sound — and so he had ordered his son to lead the main army there and crush the Jin force in a single blow. Instead, the Jin army had played the stratagem of luring the tiger down from the mountain, and was now falling upon the Liang camp itself.
He had thought himself a step ahead — and never seen the viper coiled behind him.
A chill shot down Xun Tianzhang's spine, and his bloodshot eyes trembled violently. If his son did not hurry, half of Liang's fighting strength would be lost in this war.
But there was something worse. For decades, the Liang army had been too terrified of the Bai Family Army to move so much as an inch. Bai Weiting's granddaughter — the Little White Marshal of the Bai army — had, upon arriving at this battlefield, subdued the Liang fierce general Zhao Tong alive in barely three moves. The memory had left every Liang soldier cold to the marrow.
If they lost this war, the Liang army's morale would shatter — the mere sight of the Black-Cloth White-Guan Standard would set them trembling with fear. Victory would be beyond all hope.
"Marshal! Withdraw from the camp now and rendezvous with General Xun!"
The Liang general outside the tent was all but begging.
Yet once he grasped the full shape of the situation, Xun Tianzhang grew calmer. Gritting his teeth, he settled his helmet on his head and strode steadily toward where his sword hung. Then, blade in hand, he marched out of the tent with long, deliberate steps.
He was the Marshal of Liang. How could he flee while the enemy stormed his camp?
To run was to admit defeat. If he took shelter, the morale of every Liang soldier would collapse to nothing — and that would be the same as snuffing out their last ember of hope.