Dealt With Under Military Law
When word arrived that the Jin army had been defeated and fled toward Youhua City, Xun Tianzhang's son could not hide his disappointment. If Longyang City had been drowned beneath the flood, half of the Jin forces would have been wiped out then and there.
And if Longyang could not be sunk, then the great army would have to march on Youhua City, and the Jin army—whose morale would soon recover—would inevitably fight them tooth and nail yet again.
"Xiao Baishiu of the Bai Family Army……"
Zhao Sheng, who had ridden slowly into the city behind Xun Tianzhang's son, curled his lip in a sneer and wiped the rainwater from his face.
"What a worthless fool he turned out to be! Look at him—tucking his tail between his legs and running for his life!"
"Have you found Zhao Tong?"
Xun Tianzhang's son asked him.
"The Zhao Family Army is searching for him now. They'll turn him up soon enough! The wretch fled so pitifully, there's no way he managed to take Zhao Tong with him!"
The moment Zhao Sheng finished speaking, a Squad Leader of Ten from the Zhao Family Army came sprinting up, dropped to one knee, and delivered his report in a rush.
"General, we've found General Zhao Tong. But…… General……"
Xun Tianzhang's son dismounted.
"Speak slowly. Tell me everything."
"General Zhao Tong…… he was subjected, exactly as it was devised, to the interrogation method that old General Zhao himself created! His descendants, I'm afraid……"
Before the report could end, Zhao Sheng kicked the squad leader square in the chest. The man clutched his ribs, scrambled to his feet in a panic, and dropped back to his knee at once.
"The fault lies with my own incompetence!"
Zhao Sheng ground his teeth and clenched his fists until they ached. He wanted nothing more than to tear Bai Jingyan apart on the spot.
His descendants. Zhao Sheng was a man; there was no mistaking what that meant.
He took a step forward, trampling through the puddles, and demanded through chattering, trembling teeth, "Who else knows of this?"
"Only the six of us who went to rescue General Zhao Tong, sir."
"Go and tell the remaining five. If a single word of this spreads, I will kill every one of you!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Squad Leader of Ten bowed his head hastily and answered.
"Where is he?"
Zhao Sheng asked, rising to his feet.
Xun Tianzhang's son watched Zhao Sheng rush off to save his younger brother, pressed his lips inward, and climbed the battlements to stand in the rain. Gazing down at the Liang soldiers swarming through the city like madmen, rooting out treasure at every corner, he thought to himself that this habit of theirs needed to be beaten out of them.
He ran his hand slowly along the wall of Longyang City. Perhaps, he mused, failing to sink the city had been a blessing in disguise. After all, this had never been meant as a raid—strike and withdraw. Longyang was soon to be a city of Liang, and drowning it would have meant pouring vast manpower and funds into rebuilding it from the ruins.
He tapped the bricks of the battlement, washed clean by the rain, then turned and gave his order.
"Go and report to His Excellency! Our army has already taken Longyang City—bid him enter!"
"Yes, sir!"
Tianlan Mountain lay between Longyang City and Youhua City.
The terrain rose steadily the farther one climbed from Longyang toward Tianlan. Since ancient times there had been a saying that "Tianlan calms the fury of the Longmu"—meaning that once you ascended Tianlan Mountain, you need never fear drowning again.
Bai Jingyan and Liu Hong had withdrawn a portion of their troops to Tianlan Mountain, then gathered up every boat they could find nearby and waited in silence between the mountain and Longyang City.
Even that evening, the torrential rain showed no sign of relenting.
Xun Tianzhang, already in frail health after the brutal campaign, had grown only weaker. Though he had taken shelter inside the government offices of Longyang City, he fretted endlessly that the Longmu River might burst its banks and flood.
"Father, do not trouble yourself. And with rain coming down this hard, no army could possibly encamp outside the walls!"
Xun Tianzhang's son entered carrying his medicine and coaxed him in a low voice.
"We depart for Youhua City first thing tomorrow morning! Even if the flooding comes, we will see this one night through safely. Father, you must look after yourself for the sake of the Liang soldiers. Just listen to them out there hunting for treasure! If you ordered a withdrawal right now, the whole camp would sink into desolation."
Xun Tianzhang took the medicine his son handed him and nodded.
"Send men to the ditch embankments. If they so much as tremble, we evacuate ahead of time."
The downpour could not dampen the Liang army's fervor for treasure-hunting. Outside, the noise was deafening—every man boasting of his own finds or asking whether anything had turned up at the Xiao household.
Someone laughed out loud, saying that General Zheng was busy tearing down the wall of Xiao Rongyan's residence in search of a hidden chamber.
Another hurled out a jeer.
"Don't set your heart too much on that household's treasure, lads. If His Excellency orders it confiscated, all your digging will be for nothing."
"Nonsense. Our Excellency is no man to covet gold and silver."
Xun Tianzhang's personal guards stood watch outside the government offices, but there was no shutting out the riotous clamor that drifted in.
Inside, Xun Tianzhang sat with an uneasiness he could not name.
The Jin army had certainly cast off their armor and helmets and fled. So why did his heart refuse to settle?
"It isn't that I feel no regret at all."
Xun Tianzhang's son let out a sigh.
"One forgets how unlike the Bai Family Army the Jin army is. The Bai army would have held Longyang to the last man standing—but the Jin army will abandon a city and run. Had we boxed them in here, not one of them would have escaped."
"Something about this sits wrong with me. Bai Jingyan would never have surrendered a city so easily. She is Bai Weiting's granddaughter—the very man who never tired of praising her inborn talent for command, a gift he said even he could not match."
Xun Tianzhang clenched his fist.
"However great her talent, there was nothing she could do while serving the Jin army. She is not the Bai Family Army anymore! And besides, the one commanding this campaign is Liu Hong. What reason would Liu Hong have to listen to a woman's counsel?"
Xun Tianzhang's son moved to reassure his father.
"Father, did our own spies not tell us? The Emperor of Jin despises the Zhenguo Commandery Princess Bai Jingyan. A man who cannot even tolerate a loyal subject like Bai Weiting—how would he ever let the insolent Bai Jingyan pile up military glory?"
Xun Tianzhang nodded.
"And the Jin army fought this battle with the desperation of cornered men. They only fled once they had confirmed that the tide had turned against them! So think no more of it and rest. If the rain hasn't lifted by tomorrow, we'll be evacuating in a downpour."
"Then give the order! The torrential rains have lasted days, and Longyang risks flood damage—say that the army will withdraw tomorrow! Let them not wear themselves out digging for treasure tonight, but prepare for the march. Anyone who disobeys will be punished under military law!"
"Yes, sir!"
Listening to the roar of the rain, Xun Tianzhang forced down the restlessness that would not die, and let his son help him to bed.
Night deepened.
Bai Jingyan and Fu Yahei stood with the Jin army on the high ground. The downpour blurred their sight, but from here the bright lights of Longyang City glowed clearly below.
By now, the Liang army would be utterly absorbed in their treasure hunt.
Not a trace remained anywhere of the Jin soldiers who had torn off their helmets and armor and fled through the streets. Every one of them now stood rigid and upright in the rain, waiting—and their eyes brimmed with killing intent.
Bai Jingyan had sent a thousand soldiers to the Longmu River with orders to slaughter every Liang soldier guarding the embankments and siege trenches, then breach the dikes and release the water held in the trenches.
By her rough reckoning, the hour had come.
Once Longyang City drowned, the Jin army would row in by boat and butcher the Liang soldiers in their weakened, drowning state.
Bai Jingyan turned her head, glanced once over the boats of every size gathered at the water's edge, then fixed her gaze back on Longyang and said nothing.
Because the boats were limited, she had once proposed to Liu Hong that she and General Fu split the task between them.
The plan had been this: General Fu would lead troops into the city by boat and cut down the Liang soldiers already half-drowned and gasping, while she would lead her men around Longyang and wait on the road between Fuwen City and Longyang for the Liang stragglers to come fleeing out—then annihilate them there. Only by doing both could the war be ended cleanly, and only then would the soldiers of Liang be so terrified that they could not so much as approach a Jin banner again.
But Liu Hong had called it too great a gamble. With the torrential rain blinding every eye, he feared for Bai Jingyan's safety.
Liu Hong saw no need to drive the Liang army out in one stroke. His strategy was the safer one: guard Bai Jingyan's safety, slowly reclaim the lost Fuwen City and Chunmo City, and push the Liang army back step by step.
Because Liu Hong was such a cautious man by nature, Bai Jingyan had not pressed him. He was her superior, after all.
Yet if they granted the Liang army an opening in this battle and let them fall back to Fuwen City, Liang might well send fresh reinforcements. Then Jin would have no choice but to bleed its own strength.
In the Southern Border campaign alone, Jin had lost hundreds of thousands of men. The sea lay to Liang's north, and with only Jin and the lands of the Rong and Di bordering it, Liang now stood before the golden opportunity of a generation to expand its territory. The Rong and Di were swallowed by civil strife, and Liang's army had grown mighty. If she were the Emperor of Liang, she would never let slip a chance heaven itself had delivered.
Such chances never come twice.
So Bai Jingyan had laid out the stakes for Liu Hong beyond any room for doubt. Now all she could do was hope that he would change his mind, and send troops around Longyang to the ground between Fuwen City and Longyang. That way, they could stop Xun Tianzhang from returning to Fuwen City to call for reinforcements.
The Liang army had turned the Xiao Rongyan residence inside out. They smashed the walls and dug up the ground again and again, but nothing emerged.
They had to be exhausted, bone-weary—and yet not one of the soldiers there showed the slightest sign of it, and not one went off to rest. They could only fidget anxiously at the thought of losing their chance at the fortune hidden away by Xiao Rongyan, the richest merchant under heaven.
Perhaps because the relentless downpour had choked the city's drainage channels, the water within Longyang City had climbed past ankle height and was still rising.
Xun Tianzhang and his son, resting inside the government offices, had noticed nothing amiss. But Zhao Sheng, who had rescued his brother from the prison and was tending to him, sensed that something was wrong and immediately summoned the Zhao Family Army.
Zhao Sheng had moved Zhao Tong up to the second floor, and now knelt beneath a lamp. A general of the Zhao Family Army, soaked through to the skin, climbed the stairs, dropped to one knee, and saluted.
"General!"
"Since we entered the city…… not a single civilian have we seen, and not one Jin soldier either. Is that so?"
Zhao Sheng asked.
"Of course, General. Our Liang army charged straight through to the heart of the city—how could any Jin soldiers have been left behind?"
The broad-shouldered general replied with a proud, triumphant face.
At that, a calm-faced general standing to one side answered with the truth.
"Not entirely so, sir. Any Jin soldiers who failed to escape, we cut down to the last man—but once we were inside the city, everyone was so hell-bent on hunting treasure that a good number of Jin troops slipped away in the chaos."
Zhao Sheng frowned, thinking it over carefully.
"And the civilians…… you saw none of them either?"
The generals kneeling around the room exchanged uneasy glances. No one had spared a thought for the civilians. Even if any had been in the city, they would not have been Liang's people—they would have been cut down without question—so not a single man had bothered to keep count of them.
Studying the generals' faces, Zhao Sheng shot to his feet.
"Something is wrong."
Zhao Sheng hurried down the stairs and raced like a madman toward the place where Xun Tianzhang was staying.