Raising an Army (4)
Torches that encircled them on all sides flickered with dizzying intensity.
At the same moment, orange fire-arrows rained down upon the panicking troops.
"The supply depot and tents are on fire! Put it out, now!"
"An ambush! The rebels are ambushing us!"
In the early dawn hours, Liu Chong's army—which had been besieging Shouchun City—launched a surprise attack on Dongcheng County. The encampment, lacking proper defensive preparations for a night raid, instantly became an inferno.
There wasn't enough water to quench the Fire Stratagem.
Even the wooden palisades meant to block the enemy's entry were flimsy.
Worst of all, the scouts patrolling the outskirts of Dongcheng County had utterly failed to respond.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The alarm bells rang out, signaling the urgency of the crisis.
The exhausted soldiers of Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen, worn out from the long forced march, stumbled out of their tents. What greeted them were the blazing camp and a baptism of arrows raining from all directions.
"Wha—An attack?!"
"Those bastards from Tao Qian's army! Where the hell are those Tao Qian sentries?!"
What...
what the hell had Tao Qian's men been doing?
The private troops of Cao Bao, the three thousand men assigned to perimeter duty, collapsed in an instant.
Hand-to-hand fighting erupted across Dongcheng County, but it was little more than a one-sided slaughter. The soldiers from Yang Province, barely shaken from their sleep, were met by the kiss of cold steel.
"Gurk!"
"Gwaaagh!!"
The tents were drenched in blood.
Then the fierce flames spread to cover every trace of the massacre.
"I am Sun Jian! You wretched curs who follow Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen and Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian—come face the Tiger of Jiangdong!!"
Elite troops charged in through the swirling dust.
It was Sun Jian's army, their crimson banners held high.
The Tiger of Jiangdong.
The mightiest warrior in all the Central Plains.
The forces of Tao Qian and Chen Wen collapsed, unable to fight back amidst the flames. Sun Jian's troops repeatedly broke through the inferno, shattering the enemy's defensive lines again and again.
"Hurl the oil jars into the flames! Burn them all!"
"This fire is scorching! I'm worried I'll piss myself in my sleep tonight!"
Fire, devouring everything in its path and spreading without distinction between friend and foe, naturally didn't spare Sun Jian's troops as they broke through the encampment.
Flames flickered like greedy tongues.
But the men of Jiangdong burst into hearty laughter as they advanced.
They were men absolutely out of their minds—the kind who had a death wish. Sun Jian's soldiers ran roughshod in every direction, leaping without hesitation through the fiery demons blocking their path.
"The enemy commander! He's fleeing!"
"After him! Do not let those Yang Province bastards escape alive!"
It was Yan Song, the Governor of Pengze.
Sun Jian's men had spotted the subordinate of Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen who had been commanding the reinforcements.
He had been fleeing south, hiding in the smoke as thick as storm clouds, when Sun Jian's men discovered him. Yan Song, relying on barely a few dozen cavalry to escape, let out a sharp scream the moment he spotted them and swung his horse around.
"G-God dammit...! Why does it have to be Sun Jian?!"
He had run straight into the Tiger of Jiangdong in the middle of this inferno.
Could there be a more horrifying situation?
Yan Song chose to turn tail and run, spitting out harsh curses. Going toe-to-toe against the Tiger of Jiangdong, a man hailed as the fiercest warrior of this age, was nothing but suicide.
"Protect the Governor!"
"We must not let them catch us! We have to get word back to Yang Province!"
To think the rebels who had been besieging Shouchun City would invade Xu Province...
The bastards.
Were they trying to make an enemy of Inspector of Xu Province Tao Qian too?
Even if Liu Chong's army took Shouchun City and occupied Jiujiang Prefecture, they would be caught in a two-front war, forced to simultaneously fight Chen Wen in Yang Province and Tao Qian in Xu Province. Knowing this, they could only reel in shock at Liu Seong-hwi's reckless all-out assault to invade Xu Province.
"Run! Run for your lives!!"
Yan Song and his men escaped the inferno.
Right as they reached the forest around Dongcheng County,
the southern archers and crossbowmen lying in ambush poured concentrated fire on them, just as they thought they'd barely escaped with their lives.
"An am-bush...! Aaargh!!"
Struck directly by the volley of arrows, Yan Song collapsed, his body shredded to pieces.
His men met the same fate.
Eventually, the severed heads of Yan Song and his subordinates were retrieved by Sun Jian's pursuing forces. Having seized the head of the overall commander who led the reinforcements, Sun Jian's soldiers celebrated the victory with great jubilation.
"My lord! We've taken the enemy commander's head!"
Shwiiiiiiik──!!!
A Whistling Arrow pierced the night sky.
It was Liu Seong-hwi's signal to shift the offensive.
The sound it made was entirely different from the Whistling Arrow that had signaled the general assault. This one soaring into the sky was an Eight-Holed Whistling Arrow.
"My lord! The Whistling Arrow has fallen to the east!"
"So the enemies who escaped the flames are preparing to counterattack! We'll crush them at once! Cheng Pu and Huang Gai, charge the enemy lines from the front!!"
An arrow never hesitates.
Move like an arrow loosed from the string.
We are the forces of the Greatest Archer Under Heaven.
Sun Jian's army quickly reformed their ranks and charged in the direction the Whistling Arrow had fallen.
* * *
The encampment that had housed tens of thousands of troops was now engulfed in a sea of fire.
The sound of horrific screams.
An inferno lighting the area as bright as broad daylight.
And soldiers rolling around on the dirt, engulfed in flames.
War.
This was war.
The foul stench of burning flesh and piercing screams were all that filled the air. An overwhelming brutality with nothing to spare—not a single shred of the romance and ideals found in tales of heroic exploits.
"Look over there! Father and the uncles are breaking through the flames again!"
"Truly incredible...! To leap into the inferno without the slightest hesitation!"
A hill overlooking Dongcheng County.
On it stood a girl with flowing red hair and a noble youth with an androgynously beautiful face.
"Watch the battlefield. There could be enemy ambushes."
Liu Seong-hwi had ordered Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, still novices, to serve as scouts. He intended for them to witness today's battle and learn the harsh lesson of war's brutality and horror firsthand.
"Ha-ha! Father routed the enemy commander!"
Sun Jian's troops crossed the inferno and ambushed the enemy lines. Gu Ze, the Danyang Commandant who had been rallying the scattered survivors, was thrown from his horse in an instant.
The edge of the Ancient Ingot Saber flashed.
Then, along with a spray of hot blood, Gu Ze's head went flying.
He had defeated the enemy general leading the army.
Sun Ce, witnessing her father in action, clenched her fist and cheered in triumph.
Shreeeeek──!!
Even as Sun Jian's troops continued their rampage,
a bizarre, thunderous roar echoed from the dawn sky.
A Whistling Arrow.
A new signal from the Greatest Archer Under Heaven.
All cavalry and infantry committed to the battlefield veered towards the direction from which the Whistling Arrow had been shot. Although the spreading sea of fire had turned the battle into a chaotic melee, Liu Chong's army moved in perfect unison under the Whistling Arrow's direction.
"How can His Highness the Crown Prince issue commands in such a chaotic battle? I know the messengers report the situation to the main force, but... you can't fully grasp the battlefield state from that alone."
"It's an innate instinct. Judgment born from accumulated experience, combined with his extraordinary military strategy and Leadership. Most likely, His Highness the Crown Prince is calculating the entire battlefield using only the fragmentary reports from the messengers."
It was a kind of command impossible for anyone lacking either genius or seasoned experience.
If I had heard about it secondhand, I would never have believed it.
A Whistling Arrow.
Each time he launched an arrow that tore its lament into the sky, the great army moved.
This was the hero who boldly proclaimed his treacherous intent to destroy the Imperial House and the Imperial Court, and to establish a new dynasty. Truly befitting a hero chosen by the Imperial Jade Seal, he boasted a capability that far transcended ordinary men.
"As expected of His Highness! Just how much cooler can he get?! Kyaah!!"
"What on earth was that unfitting shriek..."
The girl with flowing red hair stamped her feet in place and let out an admiring cry. She looked as if she wanted to run to the object of her admiration and throw herself into his arms at that very moment.
And this was the same person who could beat a ferocious beast to death with her bare hands.
She'd actually pummeled bandits with her fists before.
Seeing his childhood friend shrieking like this, Zhou Yu felt his stomach churn.
* * *
With the entire encampment in Dongcheng County reduced to scorched earth, Chen Wen and Tao Qian's forces sustained devastating losses. After crushing Yang Province's reinforcements, who had been moving to intervene in the Shouchun City front, Liu Chong's army instantly pulled back toward Jiujiang Prefecture.
They had wiped out tens of thousands in one fell swoop.
Barely a few thousand scattered survivors managed to flee safely.
Chen Wen and Tao Qian's defeated forces would need time to reorganize their armies and recover. Seizing the momentum of this great victory, Liu Seong-hwi immediately returned to the Shouchun City front to press the remnants of the Governor of Jiujiang's army.
"Remnant forces of Jiujiang, surrender now! You have no chance of victory!"
"Do you see the banners of the Inspectors of Xu Province and Yang Province? The reinforcements that were supposed to aid you are not coming!!"
You are nothing but sewer rats.
Trapped in your Iron Fortress, you will eventually die a slow death.
Liu Chong's soldiers took out the captured banners of Chen Wen and Tao Qian, salvaged from the Battle of Dongcheng County. They waved them at the sentries on the walls, announcing the complete annihilation of Yang and Xu Province's reinforcements.
"Send a messenger. Tell them that if they surrender even now, their lives will be spared."
"Understood!"
We will not take the lives of those within the city.
Everyone's safety is guaranteed.
Watching the terror-stricken state of Shouchun City, Liu Seong-hwi recommended their surrender. The remnants of the Governor of Jiujiang's forces, who had fiercely resisted from behind the formidable walls of Shouchun City until now, were completely demoralized.
It wasn't long before Shouchun City, the stronghold of the Jiujiang rebels, sent word of their intention to surrender.
They had achieved a bloodless entry into the sturdy Iron Fortress that connected the Central Plains with the south. As the white flag of surrender rose over the ramparts of Shouchun City, Liu Chong's army declared its final victory.