Conquest of Jiangdong (2)
After suffering a crushing defeat at Qu'a Port, Governor of Kuaiji Prefecture Wang Lang and Governor of Wu Prefecture Xu Gong rallied their remaining troops and prepared for a decisive battle. The chosen ground where tens of thousands of soldiers gathered was Mount Kuaiji, whose slopes commanded an unobstructed view of the surrounding terrain.
Mount Kuaiji.
This was the very region where King Fuchai of Wu once accepted the surrender of King Goujian of Yue.
Was the intent to declare victory through the resolve of sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall?
Or were they simply hoping to offset the disparity in strength by relying on the mountain's rugged terrain?
A wind swept across the chosen battlefield.
Zhao Yun, the Colonel of the Picked Cavalry who had been conducting reconnaissance with the elite guard cavalry, spotted the foreign tribal army that had answered Wang Lang and Xu Gong's summons and joined the field. It was the Shanyue People, who had begun projecting their influence from Jian'an Prefecture as soon as chaos engulfed the realm.
"Captain, the barbarian forces are considerable."
"I did anticipate the Shanyue joining... but I didn't expect them to mobilize in such a swarm."
Twenty thousand.
Their numbers easily exceeded twenty thousand.
The armies of Wang Lang and Xu Gong, which had barely managed to regroup the routed survivors from the previous battle, were a mere rabble. The core of the forces arrayed on Mount Kuaiji was the Shanyue host.
"To summon frontier savages. Their honor and pride have truly scraped bottom."
A female warrior with disheveled gray hair glared at the Shanyue ranks with undisguised contempt. Zhao Yun, a native of the north where Xiongnu and Wuhuan incursions were constant and brutal, felt a deep revulsion toward these barbarian peoples.
The terms of the summons were transparently clear.
They had promised to cede territory,
pledged grain and treasure,
and no doubt intended to sell off helpless frontier commoners as personal servants.
"Pan Lin, Huang Lan, Wu Tu, Chen Bi. All of them are Shanyue chieftains who've built vicious reputations in the south. Until now, the southern barbarians always acted independently and never formed coalitions... To think the Shanyue chieftains would actually unite."
A cavalryman newly assigned to the scout detachment spoke up.
He was an officer formerly under Liu Yao's command.
The Shanyue had moved on a massive scale.
They must have perceived Liu Chong's forces, advancing to conquer Jiangdong, as a threat that warranted an unprecedented response.
The Shanyue chieftains who accepted Wang Lang and Xu Gong's request had assessed the situation with precision. The moment Jiangdong was conquered, Liu Seong-hwi fully intended to launch a large-scale punitive campaign against the Shanyue in Jian'an Prefecture.
"Leave the scouts in position and return to the main camp."
"Yes!"
Tens of thousands of barbarians had joined the battle.
The decisive engagement would be fought at Mount Kuaiji.
The elite guard cavalry deployed for reconnaissance left a scout detachment behind and wheeled their mounts.
* * *
Jiangdong was a region riven by the constant hostility and fracturing of its local gentry. And so they had been unable to mount any proper response against the frontier Shanyue, leaving themselves vulnerable to ruthless devastation.
Wu Prefecture. Danyang Prefecture. Kuaiji Prefecture.
Moving like phantoms, the Shanyue had burned villages across the whole of Yang Province.
They had killed every old man and every able-bodied male.
They had dragged off the women and children as personal slaves.
And after finishing their plunder, they had deliberately swept through the villages with such cruelty that their infamy spread far and wide.
They could not sit by and watch Liu Chong's forces unify Jiangdong. To the Shanyue, for whom raiding was the tribe's sole means of production, Liu Chong's army represented a grave catastrophe and terror that threatened their very survival.
"All forces, encircle Mount Kuaiji!"
"The foolish barbarians have obligingly walked right into their own grave!"
The Shanyue favored tactics that relied on rugged mountain terrain and guerrilla warfare. Raised in the unforgiving environment of Jian'an Prefecture, cut by sheer cliffs and ravines, the Shanyue warriors were excellent mountain infantry.
There was no way we could lose in the mountains.
The treacherous terrain itself was their impregnable fortress.
Ignoring the objections of Wang Lang and Xu Gong, Pan Lin and the other Shanyue chieftains deployed on Mount Kuaiji. Liu Chong's army responded by sealing every access route on the mountain, countering the Shanyue's signature way of war.
"We can't deploy cavalry in this rugged terrain."
Horsemen stripped of mobility were nothing but large targets.
If we committed cavalry recklessly, the Shanyue's bows would turn them into pincushions.
"I'll give you my best troops."
"Yes! Five thousand will be enough!"
Five thousand.
I entrusted five thousand elite soldiers to Sun Ce.
Seize the summit of Mount Kuaiji.
It was a supremely dangerous mission that required breaking through an army tens of thousands strong.
Once the Little Conqueror's shock assault collapsed their battle lines, the tens of thousands of troops stationed on Mount Kuaiji would flee down the ridges in panic. At that moment, if Liu Chong's army, already sealing every path down the mountain, launched a counterattack, we could wipe them all out in a single stroke.
'If I could've pulled off a tactic like Zhang He's—cutting off the water supply that routed that romance-of-the-heavens mountaineer—the efficiency would've been exquisite... Unfortunately, we don't know the geography of Kuaiji Prefecture. And as for simply pressing them until their food ran out, our own supplies aren't exactly overflowing either.'
Zhang He's tactic of rooting out and severing every water source required the help of locals with an intimate knowledge of the terrain. A half-baked water-denial operation would only expose our own vulnerabilities.
If the optimal course was impossible, you simply deployed the next best option.
The red-haired female warrior checked her gear one last time and readied herself to sally. Zhou Yu, who had joined to assist Sun Ce, was present beside her.
"It will be fine. The forces arrayed on Mount Kuaiji are nothing but untamed wild dogs. An army with clumsy coordination and cohesion is bound to collapse easily."
"No doubt, but..."
Wang Lang's and Xu Gong's forces, scraped together from survivors and stragglers.
The Shanyue chieftains, bound by nothing more than a momentary alliance.
Eggs.
They were just eggs gathered in a single basket.
Zhou Yu had offered a scathing analogy for the coalition of Jiangdong's remnants and the Shanyue.
"Sun Ce. Zhou Yu. I'll be awaiting your victory dispatches."
I gave my orders to the next-generation talents who would command Jiangdong.
Sun Ce and Zhou Yu nodded firmly, their voices brimming with confidence.
* * *
The Shanyue soldiers deployed across the steep mountain were elite troops, each a match for a hundred men. Even when Liu Chong's main army sealed every passage to Mount Kuaiji, they did not waver in the slightest.
Come if you dare.
We'll show you bastards the terror of these mountains.
They had proven their one-man-army prowess in mountain warfare time and time again. The Shanyue of Jian'an Prefecture had a long record of repeatedly defeating the Han Imperial Court's armies dispatched from the Central Plains.
"The central plains bastards are moving! The front...! They're coming straight up the front!!"
"Ignorant fools, like wild boars. Rain arrows on them from three sides."
To think they'd shove their fists without a moment's hesitation into a pit crawling with vipers.
Pan Lin, the chieftain of the Shanyue, immediately ordered his archers to return fire.
"I expected it, but... this is one hell of an enthusiastic welcome! I can hardly stand still!"
"Shields up! We push forward!"
Thud-. Thud-.
The shield-bearers in their heavy armor trundled forward.
The vicious storm of arrows raining from three sides could not penetrate the heavy plate and clattered harmlessly away. Driven onward by the constant, brutal shriek of metal striking metal, the soldiers forced their steps forward.
"General Who Attacks Rebels! The enemy archers' position is straight ahead."
"Right, well done!"
When they had climbed halfway up the ridge,
they reached the archer positions that had been pouring down the relentless volleys.
This was as far as the shield-bearers' escort could go.
The soldiers who had climbed the slope burdened by massive shields and heavy armor were now utterly spent.
"Now! Charge courageously into their ranks, brothers of Jiangdong! Our feet carry us only toward the enemy!!"
Having broken through the arrow storm under the protection of the shield wall, Sun Ce pushed past the exhausted shield-bearers and plunged into the enemy formation. In the same moment, Zhou Yu and the rest of Sun Ce's troops, weapons clutched tight, surged forward behind her.
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack──!!
A fresh volley of arrows hammered into them.
But still, the warriors of Jiangdong did not stop.
"Urgh!"
"Don't you dare falter! Cover the young lady!!"
The sight of Sun Ce's forces charging headlong into the volley was enough to make the Shanyue archers turn pale with shock. They advanced straight for the bowmen like beasts that knew no fear of death.
The moment the distance closed,
the beautiful war princess, red hair streaming behind her, swung her greatsword.
"Sun Ce! That wench is Sun Jian's daughter!"
Each time that heavy greatsword swung, Shanyue archers crumpled amid dying screams. And so the arrow storm that had been lashing down like torrential rain began to slacken. With the pressure easing, the rear ranks of Sun Ce's force, who had been waiting under the shield wall's cover, rushed forward to join the front line.
They were surging in like a violent current.
Not a trace of hesitation before the notoriously fierce Shanyue.
Witnessing Sun Ce, drenched in blood as she swung her greatsword, Xu Gong cried out in alarm like a man who had seen a ghost in broad daylight. Whether the memory of his crushing defeat at Qu'a Port had replayed in his mind, his first instinct was to seize his horse's reins and think only of where he might flee.
"You insolent bitch!"
The chieftain Wu Tu charged at her, gripping his halberd.
Sun Ce simply brought the greatsword, which she had lifted one-handed, cleaving downward.
"Chieftain Wu Tu!"
"A monster...! That woman's a monster!"
The massive chieftain, a man who had boasted a fearsomely brawny frame, collapsed while spewing blood in gouts, as if he had been mauled by the talons of some bird of prey. Wu Tu's Shanyue subordinates who had followed him met the same fate.
Shing-.
A cold metallic ring sliced the air.
It was the sound of Sun Ce drawing the second blade she wore at her waist.
In one hand, a greatsword.
In the other, the coldly glittering ring-pommel saber.
Butchery.
The merciless way she carved through the enemies before her resembled the dismemberment of livestock.
"You barbarian whelps, I am Sun Ce, General Who Attacks Rebels! Let whichever of you mongrels wants to die first come at me! I'll tear every last one of you apart—!!"
Truly a foe of ten thousand.
A monster starving for slaughter.
Wherever that monster rampaged, a gruesome spectacle of mountains of corpses and seas of blood unfolded.