Raising an Army (3)
Thirty thousand.
Thirty thousand troops mobilized for the assault on Shouchun City.
The forces that had participated in the Coalition Army were redeployed straight into Jiujiang Prefecture. Drums and horns blared as the massive host pressed in on Shouchun, underlining the scale of the suppression campaign against the rebellion.
"Urgent report! Seditionists in Jiujiang Prefecture have dispatched riders to Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen! The couriers appear to be requesting reinforcements!"
"...Chen Wen, is it."
In the original history, Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen was the man who would be crushed by the army of Yuan Shu when it invaded Yang Province and die a battlefield death. His exit without any notable achievement left him largely unknown to readers of the Three Kingdoms.
—Defeated and killed by Yuan Shu.
From that much I could already guess the man was sorely lacking in military acumen.
Had he been crushed by Sun Jian when Sun Jian still served under Yuan Shu, there might have been some room for consideration. But the Yuan Shu army at that time had lost Sun Jian on the Jing Province front while also suffering devastating defeats at the hands of Cao Cao's and Yuan Shao's armies in Yan Province. Its strength was severely depleted.
"What do you make of the current situation?"
I put the question to Zhou Yu, whom I had appointed as an Attendant Clerk.
Zhou Yu answered.
"A direct frontal assault would be the worst of the worst schemes. Taking Shouchun City, an impregnable fortress, by conventional siege would consume enormous manpower and matériel. Moreover, wasting time reducing Shouchun carries the risk that Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian will join forces with the remnants in Jiujiang Prefecture."
"True. We need to finish this as quickly as possible."
Shouchun City was an impregnable stronghold armed with a sprawling moat and sheer walls. Befitting the final capital of Chu, it boasted the majesty of a strategic point.
The reason the remnants under the Governor of Jiujiang had staked their rebellion on the ramparts of Shouchun City was simple. They must have been confident they could hold out comfortably until a relief force arrived from Yang Province.
"Hey. Hey!"
"Hm?"
Standing right beside me, the girl who'd been listening in on the conversation gave my sleeve a rough tug. The daughter of the Wu Prefecture Sun Clan fixed me with an earnest stare, and perhaps too embarrassed to deliver her opinion directly, she used our childhood friend as her mouthpiece.
Whisper-whisper—
She murmured something into his ear.
Zhou Yu nodded at once, plainly in agreement.
"Block the routes leading to Shouchun City, and crush Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen's relief force in the environs of Shouchun. Then the Jiujiang Prefecture remnants will lose heart and have no choice but to surrender... is the excellent plan that Sun Ce has just this moment submitted to the Crown Prince."
"Not a bad approach."
Strike the enemy's weakness instead of aiming at their strength.
Move before the enemy and seize the initiative on the battlefield.
Sound tactics grounded in the Art of War.
She was a novice joining a large-scale siege battle for the first time, yet her judgment was sharp. Truly the stuff of the Little Conqueror who would one day unite Jiangdong.
"To add a bit of explanation, Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen's relief force will certainly pass through Xu Province. It enables them to reach Shouchun City in a short time, and they can count on support from Tao Qian's army to guarantee their security. They might even receive supplies and a secure line of communication from Tao Qian's army as well. Sun Ce, it was a fine suggestion."
"Uh...! I-it was... no, nothing... sir. You flatter... me."
I matched gazes with the girl whose red hair hung loose and gave her a faint smile.
Like dye dropped into clear water, her youthful face flushed a brilliant crimson.
"Preparations are complete. We can march for the battlefield at once."
While I had been holding this exchange with the young talents,
Sun Jian strode into the command tent with weighty footsteps.
From the moment we arrived at Shouchun City, I had ordered Sun Jian to prepare for a forced march and a surprise attack. Sun Jian immediately mustered his troops and reduced their baggage to the absolute minimum.
"March... sir? You, Father?"
"..."
March?
Where exactly does he intend to march?
It couldn't be Shouchun City...
Some stronghold of the rebel forces still holding out across Jiujiang Prefecture, then?
Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, their bafflement plain, turned their gazes toward Sun Jian, a fine sword already at his hip.
"We strike Dongcheng County in the Xiapi Kingdom of Xu Province. Chen Wen's relief force will pass through Dongcheng County. And the logistics depot supporting that relief force—Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian's depot—will be sitting in Dongcheng County."
"What...?! You mean we are to advance into Xu Province?"
Dongcheng County.
A district in the Xiapi Kingdom of Xu Province.
Naturally, Dongcheng County was the territory of Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian. The decision to invade Dongcheng County in order to destroy Chen Wen's relief force was a stroke of daring so audacious it startled even Sun Ce, who was herself fond of aggressive tactics.
"Ah, forgive my impertinence...! Attacking Dongcheng County would turn Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian into a full-fledged enemy! Antagonizing Tao Qian's army while we are in the middle of suppressing the Jiujiang Prefecture rebellion—is that not a case of the tail wagging the dog, multiplying our losses far beyond any practical gain?"
Zhou Yu's objection was sound logic.
Tao Qian's army possessed tens of thousands of regular troops. If it mobilized every last reservist stationed across the prefectures and counties, its strength would easily approach one hundred thousand.
Launch a preemptive strike against Tao Qian's army without a declaration of war, all for the purpose of sweeping away the rebellion in Jiujiang Prefecture? Just as Zhou Yu argued, it was the tail wagging the dog, with no practical benefit to be found anywhere.
"When the enemy is strong, avoid them. Strike when the enemy has grown careless. Chen Wen's relief force arriving at Dongcheng County in Xu Province will undoubtedly act complacently, secure in the strength of Tao Qian's army. In their wildest dreams they would never imagine the force besieging Shouchun City would invade all the way into Xu Province."
"...That is true, however."
"This also serves as a measure to forestall any rash activity by Tao Qian's army. Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian possesses a fierce and fiery temperament, but when suddenly confronted by an unexpected development he becomes excessively cautious. Once we have struck his forces in Dongcheng County, he will show a cramped, defensive posture until he can determine our true intentions."
"..."
Once a decision is made, there must be no hesitation.
Just as when we crushed Hua Xiong at Yangren.
Leaving five thousand of the thirty thousand troops encircling Shouchun City, I committed the rest to a forced march.
* * *
Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen's relief force numbered twenty thousand. The commanders leading this army were men transferred to the inspector's command: Danyang Commandant Gu Ze and Governor of Pengze Yan Song.
They marched out from Danyang and crossed the Yangtze River.
Not long after, they reached Dongcheng County in Tao Qian's territory.
"You must be weary from the long journey. The Inspector of Xu Province charged me to provide you every support."
"We shall convey our thanks on behalf of the venerable Inspector of Yang Province."
The man who greeted the Yang Province relief force in Dongcheng County was Cao Bao, a retainer officer of Tao Qian's army. Cao Bao welcomed the commanders of Chen Wen's army hospitably and extended them every convenience.
He lent them supplies and informed them of a shortcut.
He also added that Liu Seong-hwi's main army remained locked in a standoff besieging Shouchun City.
"Ha ha ha! As you gentlemen well know, Shouchun City is an impregnable fortress, is it not? Liu Seong-hwi must be frozen solid, staring at its perilous moat and ramparts!"
"It would be a fine thing if we could sweep away Liu Seong-hwi and his traitorous band in a single stroke, worn down and bloodied as they must be from a reckless siege against Shouchun... but I suspect Liu Seong-hwi—the man they call the Hero of the South—would not be foolish enough to commit such a blunder."
Having executed repeated forced marches, the troops' stamina was severely depleted.
Gu Ze and Yan Song ordered the soldiers to rest.
Cao Bao then took it upon himself to have his own officers and soldiers stand watch over the encampment.
* * *
Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen's relief force: twenty thousand.
Tao Qian's troops stationed in Dongcheng County numbered three thousand.
Liu Seong-hwi and his rebels remained locked in a sluggish standoff around Shouchun City. Cao Bao, having received the intelligence from the scouts dispatched to the Shouchun City front, drained his wine cup in deep relief.
"Greatest Archer Under Heaven. Hero of the South. Nothing more than empty titles puffed up by a pack of idiotic busybodies who love to run their mouths. They routed Dong Zhuo's army in Luoyang, got their hands on the Imperial Jade Seal, and now the bastard fancies himself Emperor Guangwu, does he? Just what you'd expect from a cadet imperial clansman—stuffed to bursting with greed and vanity."
The vassal king of the south had proclaimed his Raising of an Army.
In a flash, he had fallen from a vassal king to a rebel.
For that very reason, Tao Qian's army—which had long been eyeing the rich and prosperous Chen Kingdom with open avarice—instantly denounced Liu Chong and Liu Seong-hwi as national traitors and branded all of Chen Kingdom's forces as rebels.
'To think that cadet imperial clan members, once revered as heroes for a troubled age, would fall into the abyss of rebellion in a single moment...! They are traitors to Han who deserve to die!'
The bastards had turned rebel.
Now they had a solid Just Cause to invade Chen Kingdom.
Tao Qian's scheme was to incite the remnants under the Governor of Jiujiang and the Inspector of Yang Province, Chen Wen, weaken Liu Chong's forces to the utmost, and then—once every faction committed to the battlefield had been bled white—swallow the broad territories of Yu Province and Yang Province in one gulp.
"The old man does love the fisherman's profit, doesn't he. No wonder his hair has abandoned him in clumps."
Weaken the factions on the stage, then reap the practical gains.
That was precisely why Tao Qian had ultimately refused to join the Anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army.
"Respected officer! Respected Officer—!!"
He had just emptied one wine bottle after another until his gut was warm, when
a military officer who had been standing watch burst in.
Whether he had seen a phantom,
or else nodded off during his rounds,
the Tao Qian army officer's face was drained deathly white, like a corpse dragged out of the river.
"Lights...! The area is filled with lights in every direction!"
"What sophistry is this? I gave orders to evacuate the civilians living in Dongcheng County. Perhaps some of them stole back in during the dead of night."
"No! Judging by the scale of the lights alone, it's a host numbering tens of thousands of troops!"
"Tens of thousands...? That cannot be! It cannot be!!"
He found himself facing a sharp terror that seemed to pierce his lungs.
Like a man who had come face-to-face with a ghost, Cao Bao kept repeating "It cannot be! It cannot be...!" in a frantic mutter, following the officer outside.
"Enemy raid! The rebels are raiding us!"
"Enemies on all sides! Sound the alarm, quickly! We must fight back at once!"
A festival of torchlight spread across Dongcheng County, illuminating it as if it were broad daylight.
So many.
The force easily numbered in the tens of thousands.
The clangor of the alarm bell, shrill and sharp.
The desperate screams of soldiers signaling an emergency.
And the roar of rebels, torches raised high, flaunting their superiority in numbers.
Piiiiiiiiiing——!!!
Just as terror,
agitation, and chaos had filled the crowd,
a whistling arrow signaling the all-out offensive tore through the cold dawn with a shriek that split the air.