Chapter 683: Victory Is Allowed, Defeat Is Not

“Yes!” The communications officer accepted the order and left.

“My lord, you should decide quickly,” one of the waiting generals urged.

Wu Qunlie raised a hand to stop him. Without speaking, he paced back and forth.

The situation had simply become too complicated for him to decide at once. Meng Shanming had actually launched an attack at a time like this, and large numbers of Yan troops had somehow appeared inside Song’s defensive line. Logically, that should have been impossible. If a large force had crossed the river, Song’s side could not have failed to notice it. They had been watching Yan’s main forces across the river continuously, and all of them were still there.

For a time, the situation left him deeply uncertain.

The main force in the Hukou sector numbered only three hundred thousand. Zhang Hu’s troops together with the Yan court forces amounted to roughly six hundred thousand, so on paper Hukou was at a numerical disadvantage. But this was not a battle on open ground. It was land against troops on the water, and the Hukou defenders held the favorable position.

Nor was that their only advantage. For Zhang Hu to break through a line held by three hundred thousand defenders in the middle of the night using crude wooden rafts should, by all reason, have been impossible. To begin with, rafts were far less maneuverable on the river than proper boats.

What truly worried Wu Qunlie was the large Yan force that had somehow appeared behind the Hukou defenses.

Right now he urgently needed to know what Xu Jingyue’s and the other forces across the river were doing. He did not want the disturbance at Hukou to turn out to be some “lure the tiger away from the mountain” ploy.

...

After receiving Meng Shanming’s military order, Xu Jingyue’s troops were making an enormous commotion along the riverbank, moving men in great numbers and handling their wooden rafts.

The rain had weakened, but a fine drizzle still fell amid the wind. Firelight glowed along the riverbank, and torches moved everywhere.

Xu Jingyue stood in the rain atop the embankment, one hand resting on the sword at his waist as he gazed toward the distant lights on the opposite bank.

A general hurried over. “My lord, everything is ready. We can attack at any time.”

Xu Jingyue wiped rain from his face with one hand. “Did I say we were attacking? Don’t stop. Keep up the appearance of an assault. Make the commotion bigger! Send some rafts out and row them around, then bring them back. Repeat it several times.”

The general stared. “A feint?”

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know what is going on either. Since Marshal Meng issued the order, he must have his reasons. It costs us nothing. Treat it as practice for everyone handling rafts on the river.”

Xu Jingyue truly did not know what was happening. Zhang Hu’s operation had been top secret from the beginning. Aside from those directly involved, only the decision-makers knew. Everyone else had been kept in the dark, and it was impossible to let too many people know.

At that moment, it was not only Xu Jingyue’s force. An Xianzhao’s, Su Qitong’s, and Xin Mao’s forces were all creating great disturbances along their sections of the river.

Yan’s army had assumed the posture of a full-scale offensive.

...

Meng Shanming was also at the riverbank, having left his tent to observe the army’s river-crossing battle in person.

In the firelit darkness, a cultivator held a large umbrella over the man in the wheelchair. Gong Lince stood beside him as well, watching. The sight of hundreds of thousands of men attempting to cross the river was magnificent.

Wooden rafts of every size covered the water in numbers beyond counting. The largest were broad enough to hold more than a hundred soldiers at once.

“Report! Scouts have sent word. Three hundred thousand troops from Qingqu are moving toward Hukou at full speed!” A general hurried to Meng Shanming’s side with the report.

Meng Shanming nodded to show he understood.

After the general withdrew, Gong Lince tried asking, “Reinforcements are coming. Marshal Meng, are you not worried at all?”

“Even at their fastest, the Qingqu troops will need half a day to arrive. If we still cannot break through the Hukou sector before dawn, there will be no point continuing the battle. Whether their reinforcements come or not will no longer matter.”

Gong Lince asked, “Once Song’s later reinforcements arrive, can the forces we have sent across the river handle them?”

“The other Song river-defense forces have already been pinned in place. They do not dare move recklessly. How could they send large numbers of reinforcements here?” Meng Shanming replied.

“Song’s river-defense troops hold the advantage, but defense itself carries a disadvantage. The attacker may strike any point at any time and can search for a weak place to launch an assault. We need only break through at one point and the entire defensive line will collapse without further attack.”

“So pure defense is never the best defense. The best defense combines attack and defense.”

As Meng Shanming said this, he turned toward Luo Da’an. Rather than explaining it to Gong Lince, he seemed to be speaking for Luo Da’an’s benefit.

Everyone looked toward Luo Da’an.

Luo Da’an gave a slight, thoughtful nod.

...

“That is enough. Their reinforcements should be close. Withdraw!”

At an order from Sun Gaotian, Right Commander of the five thousand men conducting the night raid on the grain depot, the raiders immediately broke off the attack and retreated at speed.

Their sudden withdrawal caught the grain-depot defenders off guard.

“Do not pursue a desperate enemy!”

When the garrison commander saw his men preparing to give chase, he immediately shouted them back.

He had his own concerns. How were they supposed to pursue anyone through a night this black? What if they ran straight into an ambush?

His primary duty was not killing enemies. It was protecting the grain that fed the army.

As the defenders reorganized their positions, a long dragon of fire appeared in the distance. The one hundred thousand reinforcements sent by Xu Laiping, Grand Commander of the Hukou sector, had arrived.

Only after the two forces met did the reinforcements learn that the raiders had already withdrawn.

The raiding force counted its losses during the retreat and found that more than five hundred men were gone. Sun Gaotian’s heart remained heavy, but he still breathed a little easier. Fortunately, the defenders had not known the raiders’ true strength and had not dared come out to attack. Otherwise five hundred lives might not have been enough to fill the hole.

After the force had withdrawn some distance, another order from Zhang Hu reached them. They were to set an ambush along the route the grain-depot reinforcements would use to return. If those one hundred thousand troops attempted to go back, Sun Gaotian was to block them on the spot and buy time for the main army to break through Song’s river defenses.

Sun Gaotian immediately led his remaining men on a forced march to the position Zhang Hu had designated: a narrow stretch of mountain terrain where the road formed the only route the reinforcements could use to return.

There was no time to rest. Sun Gaotian ordered the men to construct obstacles at once, cutting down trees and pushing boulders into the road to block any returning reinforcements.

No one knew whether the troops at the grain depot would actually come back, but they had to prepare for the worst. Those were one hundred thousand men. Sun Gaotian had only a few thousand. There was no possibility of stopping them in open battle. They needed enough obstacles and favorable terrain to delay the enemy for as long as possible.

Fortunately, quite a few cultivators were still with them. The cultivators volunteered to help and, under Sun Gaotian’s direction, rapidly built obstacles favorable to the defense.

As for the several thousand soldiers, Sun Gaotian ordered them to eat and rest immediately.

So in the black rainy night, on muddy ground, several thousand men simply sat down where they were. Filthy hands covered in mud and water pulled out dry rations that had been soaked into mush, and the soldiers wolfed them down. None of them looked human anymore. Who cared whether the food or their hands were clean? Having something to eat was already good enough.

Zhang Hu was a veteran of countless battles. His precautions had not been unnecessary.

Xu Laiping, Grand Commander of the Hukou sector, quickly realized something was wrong. Suspecting he had fallen into a trap, he immediately distinguished which threat mattered more once the forces across the river began their attack.

If the river-defense line fell, the gateway into Song would be thrown open. Xu Laiping would become a sinner against Great Song for all ages.

He decisively abandoned the grain depot. Or rather, by this point whether the grain depot was lost no longer mattered. The defensive line was the true priority. Grain could be replaced somehow. If the river defenses were broken, the consequences would be unimaginable.

He issued an urgent order recalling the one hundred thousand troops sent to reinforce the grain depot.

Soon afterward, he received a message from River Defense Governor-General Wu Qunlie confirming that his judgment was correct. Wu Qunlie’s order was likewise to recall the grain-depot reinforcements immediately and concentrate all strength on holding the Hukou defensive line. Three hundred thousand troops from Qingqu were already being sent as reinforcements. No matter what happened, Hukou had to hold until they arrived.

In short, the Hukou defensive line had to be held at any cost.

The grain depot no longer mattered.

Xu Laiping had moved first. The one hundred thousand reinforcements he had sent out began rushing back at full speed.

...

The battle across the river erupted.

Killing cries shook the night as dense masses of wooden rafts used the current to drive diagonally toward the opposite bank.

From the shore, burning projectiles arced through the fine rain.

Those that landed in the river floated like flaming lanterns, cage-like frames continuing to burn on the water.

Those that struck the rafts shattered the oil jars and clay pots within them. Flames burst outward instantly. Men splashed with burning oil screamed horribly and threw themselves into the river whether they could swim or not.

Some beat frantically at the flames on their bodies. Others used planks to splash water over the burning men.

In moments, the eastern side of the black river was covered in points of fire. Without the killing cries and agonized screams, it might almost have been a beautiful sight.

Stones hurled from catapults screamed out from the riverbank and crashed among the dense rafts. Cries of pain, the splintering of timber, and the thunderous impacts echoed through the night.

“Loose!”

A defending general on the bank roared and swung his sword.

Ranks of archers released together. Dark clouds of arrows hissed through the night, and no one knew how many men on the river screamed and toppled from the rafts.

Here and there in mid-river, several rafts remained almost stationary, held against the current by groups of cultivators using spiritual power. The commanding generals of the various forces stood upon them.

Zhang Hu himself had come to the foremost line of the assault. Standing on one raft, he drew his sword and roared, “Advance! Anyone who retreats without orders dies!”

He was forcing the imperial court’s troops to lead the assault.

Men who knew how to swim and jumped into the river to make for Yan’s bank were immediately riddled with arrows until their blood stained the water. Elsewhere cultivators enforcing military law cut deserters down with sword qi.

One way or another, Zhang Hu was forcing the army to risk death and press forward.

Meng Shanming had said it clearly: this battle concerned the life or death of Great Yan.

Victory was allowed.

Defeat was not.

So they were piling human lives into the attack.

Song’s river defenses were simply too fierce. Yan’s men found it extremely difficult to reach the shore, and the scattered few who did manage to land could not withstand the large numbers of enemy soldiers cutting them down.

The two sides fell into a brutal stalemate.

Elsewhere, the one hundred thousand returning reinforcements finally encountered the obstruction at the narrow pass they had to cross.

A little over four thousand soldiers faced the assault of one hundred thousand men. Among layer after layer of prepared obstacles, they fought in blood.

The tragic ferocity of the struggle was difficult to put into words.

Even the cultivators accompanying them threw themselves entirely into the fight against the enemy.

...

Back at the riverbank, after the defenders’ arrow volleys had weakened from prolonged expenditure, Zhang Hu gave another order.

Large numbers of Yan cultivators rushed toward the Song bank.

Song’s cultivators immediately swept out in groups to meet them.

The two sides fought desperately over the great river, from the air into the water and back again. The battle was tremendous, and many rafts below were inevitably caught in the violence.

Seeing that large numbers of Song cultivators had been successfully drawn out and tied down, Zhang Hu’s face turned savage in the firelight.

He spun around and shouted, “Send the order to Left Commander Guo Xianfu. The ambush force attacks now!”

[End of Chapter 683]