Great Battle of Jiangxia (1)
Governor of Yi Province Liu Yan had no intention of taking heavy losses for Dong Zhuo's forces. He was only scheming for the fisherman's benefit, waiting for Dong Zhuo's army and Liu Chong's army to destroy each other.
Dong Zhuo's forces and Liu Chong's forces were locked in a grinding struggle at the front.
A skirmish on the first day.
And a full-scale battle that erupted on the second day.
Ma Teng's troops and Han Sui's troops, who had directed the skirmish, took six thousand casualties, and Dong Zhuo's forces, who had fought the full-scale battle, suffered ten thousand—a complete defeat.
"Those dull, incompetent western barbarian scum—! They're no match at all for the southern rebels! Are you telling me we can't push the enemy back even after massing an army of two hundred thousand?!"
Crash—!
Liu Yan's face twisted and he hurled his wine cup.
One complete defeat after another.
The defeat of Dong Zhuo's army was becoming unmistakable.
He couldn't hide his anxiety that Dong Zhuo's forces might simply be annihilated at this rate.
That must not happen.
Dong Zhuo's army had to fight Liu Chong's army to a standstill.
If Dong Zhuo's forces, who styled themselves masters of the realm, were crushed, who would oppose Liu Chong's army? Liu Yan knew all too well that he, having spent half his life studying the classics, was no match for Liu Seong-hwi.
Bite them.
Bite into the nape of Liu Chong's army's neck with all your strength.
Turn into a vengeful water ghost and drag Liu Chong's army down into the dark abyss.
"What if we retreat and strike Chang'an itself?"
"That is right. I am concerned for the safety of the young lords held captive in Chang'an City. Surely the young lords are anxiously awaiting a rescuing hand."
Liu Fan. Liu Dan. Liu Mao. Liu Zhang.
All of Liu Yan's sons who had been staying in Luoyang had been taken hostage by Dong Zhuo's forces. Hearing of Dong Zhuo's crushing defeat, Liu Yan's officers proposed withdrawing.
It was a golden chance to rescue the young lords.
And also a chance to seize custody of the young emperor and the court ministers.
Dong Zhuo's main force could not retreat easily while confronting Liu Chong's army. If they broke off the general engagement and withdrew from the field, Liu Chong's army would pursue them relentlessly.
"A dim-witted judgment! Even if you secured the young emperor and the court ministers, what use would that be when the realm ends up handed to the southern rebels anyway!"
He rebuked his lackluster officers in a ringing voice.
The officers shrank back.
"Your Highness the King of Shu, I will lead a force and reinforce Dong Zhuo's army. One way or another, I will ensure Dong Zhuo's forces and Liu Chong's forces batter each other to exhaustion."
"Zhang Ren! I entrust it to you!"
A young officer proposed joining the fray in a bold voice.
It was the Protector General Zhang Ren, a famous commander from Yi Province.
Liu Yan placed ten thousand troops under Zhang Ren and ordered him to reinforce Dong Zhuo's army. Elite soldiers forged in the rugged Bashu region would not be pushed back by Liu Chong's army.
"And what is Liu Jingsheng of Jing Province doing?"
"He has not budged from his camp. He has only strengthened his perimeter."
"Holed up like the faint-hearted bumpkin he is. He only knows how to strut about as the so-called King of Chu."
"Indeed, Your Highness the King of Shu is the one suited to be master of the realm."
As part of his appeasement policy, Dong Zhuo had enfeoffed Liu Yan and Liu Biao, with whom he had concluded an alliance, as King of Shu and King of Chu respectively. That was why Liu Yan's officers addressed him with the noble honorific "Your Highness."
He would never be content as a mere king.
He would topple every rival in the realm and ascend as Son of Heaven.
How fine it would have been if every plan had proceeded smoothly according to design. Liu Yan felt deep fury at Dong Zhuo's forces, who had marched out with an army of two hundred thousand yet showed only incoherence.
Boooooooo—!!!
In contrast to the battlefield choked with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, Jiangxia City at the rear held only a calm stillness. A harsh horn blast tore that stillness apart.
Enemy raid.
Enemies were surging toward Jiangxia City.
Sun Ce's army.
The foe threatening the Yi Province troops was Sun Ce's army from Yang Province.
"Elder Governor of Yi Province! Ah, no—! Your Highness the King of Shu! The enemy is pressing in!"
"Dong Zhuo! The man must look so laughable to them that Liu Chong's detached force is aiming for Jiangxia City! How hopelessly useless!"
He ordered a counterattack.
All the officers of Liu Yan's army obeyed.
* * *
Sultry heat beat down and drove the troops on the battlefield mercilessly. And the damp mud plastered onto the Bladed War Wagons had dried rock-hard.
It had become as though a buttress had been piled up.
Meaning it was an excellent barricade to block cavalry charges.
Liu Seong-hwi mobilized the troops and ordered a fresh layer of mud heaped on. His intent was to check Dong Zhuo's forces with wet mud so they could not employ a fire attack.
"Your Highness! The enemy's siege engines have arrived!"
"We're facing the situation I feared after all."
Rrrrrumble-.
A heavy, ponderous sound resounded.
A great many siege engines had been mobilized onto the battlefield.
Battering-Ram Carts.
Thunderclap Catapults and Siege Towers.
And Leather-Covered Siege Carts to protect infantry from arrow volleys had also appeared.
The general assault was imminent.
Anticipation tightened his body with a thrill of tension.
'Jia Xu... As expected of an S-rank advisor from the Three Kingdoms. She's pierced through the Bladed War Wagons' many weaknesses one after another. I knew she would eventually deploy siege engines, but even so, this is far faster than I anticipated. Massive damage will inevitably follow, and Dong Zhuo's response is also far quicker.'
A Bladed War Wagon is not a flawless weapon with only strengths. On the contrary, many commanders avoided it because so many constraints existed.
Uneven terrain.
Fire attacks using fire and oil.
And the siege engines mobilized to reduce an iron fortress.
Dong Zhuo's forces, who had been flinging mud and threatening the Bladed War Wagons, had regrouped and concentrated their siege engines. At the sight, Liu Chong's troops showed great tension as they prepared for battle.
"Your Highness...! We will give our lives to the utmost in this fight!"
"It is a fight to the death indeed."
Fight to the Death.
Whether you live or die is settled by the battle's outcome.
This was nothing new.
Every battle I had faced so far had stood at the crossroads of life and death.
"Ma Teng's troops and Han Sui's troops are massing on the left flank, and the cavalry under Left General Li Jue and Right General Guo Si are all assembling on the right!"
"Xu Rong...! Xu Rong's force has joined the fight leading the siege engines!"
If we withdrew the troops to evade the siege engines' rampage, Dong Zhuo's forces, having us surrounded on three sides, would order a merciless wave assault. The cavalry corps of Guanxi and Guanzhong, famed for their speed, would hound Liu Chong's fleeing army like wild beasts, hunting down anyone who showed his back.
From the moment the Bladed War Wagons were deployed to the battlefield, the option of retreat had not existed.
Win and live, or lose and die.
A merciless choice was placed before every soldier.
"...Xu Rong."
Front General Xu Rong.
The famous Xiliang commander who had not shown himself once had arrived.
Xu Rong.
Dong Zhuo's true elite commander.
In the original history, he had defeated the lords of Guandong repeatedly and even routed Sun Jian and Cao Cao.
He had been garrisoned in Nanyang Prefecture all along and had only now joined up late.
I realized that Dong Zhuo had intended to use Xiliang's finest commander as a hidden trump card.
Boom-! Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!
Fierce drumming resounded.
Dong Zhuo's forces had commenced the general assault.
On the first day, he had committed Ma Teng and Han Sui's troops. On the second, he had mobilized Li Jue's, Guo Si's, Niu Fu's, and Zhang Ji's troops.
And,
on the third day, he committed every force he had.
"...A grand army of unprecedented scale."
A forest of hundreds of thousands of trees had begun to move.
No—
a towering mountain was moving.
Even seeing it with my own eyes, it felt unreal.
The soldiers clutching their weapons and leaning against the mud-smeared Bladed War Wagons had to face the brutal reality before them, their whole bodies trembling. The sight of siege engines drawing near with majestic menace, escorted by an immense cavalry corps, was a scene out of a nightmare.
"Do not be afraid! Stand to arms!"
"Long Spearmen and shieldbearers, hold your positions! Archers and Crossbowmen, prepare for volley fire!!"
Mounted field officers shouted their orders in rough voices.
The soldiers clutched their weapons with pathetic hands.
Crrrrrrrrrumble-.
A ponderous roar.
A despairing tremor that shook the very earth.
And countless hoofbeats pressing in from three sides at once.
The final decisive battle.
It would decide victory or defeat in this colossal war.
Grip—
I took hold of my bow.
It was an Iron-Reinforced Bow, far larger than normal bows.
Liu Seong-hwi slowly drew the bowstring and raised the Iron-Reinforced Bow.
"When the siege engines close in, hurl the oil jars! I will set them alight!"
I wrapped a tattered strip of cloth around the arrow.
Then I smeared the cloth thickly with black, stinking pitch.
Fwoosh—
I set the arrow on fire.
And a blazing fire arrow, fierce flames rippling, was complete.