Chapter 731: Each Makes His Mark

From high in the sky, the river basin below could be seen clearly.

Aboard the same large flying mount, "Su Zhao" looked down and confirmed that the river beneath them was the Dongyu River. She could also confirm that the people holding her had already carried her back into Yan territory.

"Has the war between Song and Yan ended?" she asked Yuan Gang beside her.

Yuan Gang studied her. "You care a great deal about this war."

"Su Zhao" asked in return, "Don't you? Who won?"

Yuan Gang looked ahead and did not answer.

"Su Zhao" bit her lip. She understood his meaning. Unless she revealed her true identity and origins, she should not expect to learn anything from him. Yet she had her own concerns. However worried she was about the war, she still did not dare disclose who she was.

...

The moment the withdrawing Song forces crossed the Dongyu River, they began moving en masse deeper into Song.

With Yan and Song negotiating an alliance, there was no longer any need to keep troops defending the Dongyu River line. The area had already been cleared by Meng Shanming, the army was on the verge of exhausting its grain, and Song no longer had the strength to hold the river anyway. That was precisely what Yan wanted. Once Song had been beaten into compromise and alliance, Yan likewise had no reason to leave a great army stalled around the Dongyu River, consuming vast resources.

Meng Shanming's strategy had been skillful enough that he had kept a fallback in reserve from beginning to end. Xin Mao's force, still lingering in the rear and not yet withdrawn, not only reinforced the effect of the earlier clearing operations, but could also respond to developments at any time. If necessary, it could remain by the Dongyu River and defend the line.

With that, Meng Shanming no longer had worries behind him and could lead the bulk of his forces to deal with crises that might arise elsewhere. The most important thing now was to wait for Wei's grain support to arrive.

After crossing the river, Meng Shanming successfully joined forces with Shang Chaozong. The scene when the two men met was naturally charged with emotion. The troops returning from the eastern campaign cheered like mountains roaring and seas surging. To them, they had eliminated the threat from Song and returned in victory.

The two men who had poured everything they had into saving Great Yan spoke at length after meeting.

Niu Youdao, as before, was nowhere to be seen.

...

The Song army that had retreated across the Dongyu River presented an entirely different sight. Morale had sunk to the bottom. The men could barely even eat their fill.

After setback upon setback and repeated depletion, their grain was almost gone. Dry rice had become thin congee; three meals of congee had become two. One could easily imagine that two would soon become one. They were eating only enough to keep from starving to death.

The entire army spent every day hungry, weak and listless, its marching speed painfully slow.

When news came that Wu Gongling had crossed the river behind them, Luo Zhao became intensely vigilant. He immediately summoned people and asked, "Are we certain there will be no problem with Wu Gongling?"

Swaying slightly in the saddle, Wen You said, "There shouldn't be. According to the court's message, the very reason Meng Shanming allowed all of us to withdraw was that he hoped Wu Gongling would strike us down. What Meng Shanming does not know is that the Song court secretly bought Wu Gongling off long ago."

Su Yuanbai nodded. "The price was the territory of two provinces!"

Luo Zhao sneered. "Taking advantage of disaster to extort us. That thief's ambition knows no bounds. He was even willing to murder his own elder brother. Leaving him alive will sooner or later become a hidden danger!"

Wen You sighed. "Grand Commander-in-Chief, the court had no choice but to compromise. Under the present circumstances, we can only placate him first. Once we've recovered, there will still be time to settle accounts with him."

Several powers were now circling around a single man.

Jin Jue intended to use Wu Gongling to enter Song and create chaos, breaking the balance created by the Song-Yan alliance, subverting and weakening one side so Han could take Song at the smallest possible cost. Yet Wu Gongling sold him out.

Meng Shanming learned of Jin Jue's intentions. To keep Jin Jue steady and prevent him from turning his schemes against Yan, especially while Zhao was watching like a tiger from the side, Meng Shanming did not break the game. Instead, he continued redirecting the disaster eastward and went along with the situation, using Wu Gongling to attack Luo Zhao's forces.

Wu Gongling sold him out too.

Song learned Meng Shanming's intentions. Weak and overstretched at such a time, the court could only offer every possible benefit to placate Wu Gongling. It directly carved out two territories and promised that once he entered Song, he could simply occupy them.

Wu Gongling sold Jin Jue's intentions to Meng Shanming, then sold Meng Shanming's intentions to Song.

Three powers contacted one man. He sold one out to another as proof of sincerity while always keeping something hidden from someone else. Beneath all the cunning lay helplessness as well. Wu Gongling's own situation was difficult. For self-preservation, he first had to steady all three sides and guarantee his own safety, then watch the situation and decide where to stand.

Even so, Luo Zhao looked around at the men trudging weakly along and still felt uneasy. "Three Elders, please send men to Wu Gongling's side immediately and confirm that there is no danger. If Wu Gongling changes his mind, our force cannot withstand a blow in its present state. The consequences would be disastrous. Also, do not relax the watch on Xin Mao's troops!"

His concern was not unreasonable. At present, the only forces capable of threatening them were Wu Gongling and Xin Mao.

Su Yuanbai and the others immediately sent people to carry out the orders.

What came afterward, however, was deeply unsettling.

More precisely, nothing came back at all.

The men sent to Wu Gongling vanished without a trace, like stones sinking into the sea. Two groups were dispatched in succession, and neither returned any word.

Meanwhile, scouts observed Wu Gongling's army force-marching in their direction.

The Song court was still wavering in uncertainty when Luo Zhao, at the front and keenly aware of the danger, made a decisive choice. He immediately ordered the officers transporting Song's grain to break the supply convoy into many smaller shipments and disperse them.

At the same time, he broke the more than two million troops in his hands into smaller units as well. They would withdraw in groups of one thousand, each heading toward different routes where the scattered grain shipments were being sent, to rendezvous with them separately.

His main purpose was simple. If something unexpected happened, he wanted to preserve as much of Song's military strength as possible and avoid having the entire force gathered in one place and wiped out in a single blow.

Dispersing both grain and troops would inevitably increase the distance between them and lengthen the time before the soldiers could reach food. In their present predicament, Luo Zhao could no longer afford to worry about how many men would actually live long enough to reach those supplies.

At least once the troops scattered, they might still find grass, tree bark, or anything else remotely edible along the way. If more than two million men remained concentrated together, even the balance between supply and demand for grass and bark would collapse. Where could they possibly find enough edible weeds and bark in one place to feed that many mouths?

It was an agonizing decision for Luo Zhao, but he had no alternative.

For Wu Gongling, meanwhile, Han had been dealt with for the moment, and he had successfully crossed Meng Shanming, the greatest threat of all. At last he had room to breathe.

He could not keep circling among the powers forever. A choice had to be made.

At last, the friendly facade tore away and the fangs came out. He went for the softest target, racing after Luo Zhao's forces to kill them.

Luo Zhao's decision to break his army into small groups truly did create enormous trouble for Wu Gongling. Wu Gongling's own troop strength was limited, after all.

But Wu Gongling was no novice. He sent men to keep a close watch on the routes taken by the dispersed grain, split his army to seize those supplies, and split it again to hunt down Luo Zhao's scattered troops. Those pursuit operations also served as feints to conceal his true movements against the grain.

With both sides dispersed on a large scale, exact intentions became difficult to detect. Wu Gongling possessed considerable practical battlefield experience.

His efforts were no empty show.

Jin Jue watched what he was doing from Han and felt greatly relieved. He assumed he truly had misjudged Wu Gongling before.

Meng Shanming watched as well, but what he saw was exactly what he had expected. Wu Gongling's life was already in the hands of Han's three major sects. Meng Shanming knew that, between their pressure and his own threat, Wu Gongling had no choice but to comply.

Why had Meng Shanming allowed all of Luo Zhao's troops to return?

It was an adaptation forced by the circumstances.

First, on the larger surface, he had to preserve the appearance of the alliance and keep Song as steady as possible. At the same time, he needed to keep Jin Jue committed to his own strategy so Han would not turn its main offensive toward Yan. And he also wanted to make matters difficult for Wu Gongling.

If Meng Shanming had followed his original plan and directly destroyed half of Luo Zhao's army, dealing with the remaining half would have been far too easy for Wu Gongling. Now, even weakened as they were, more than two million men were not something Wu Gongling could possibly annihilate completely.

Meng Shanming wanted to reduce Song's strength while still preserving enough of it to contend with the enemy. He also wanted Wu Gongling left inside Song as a source of trouble, coordinating with Han's offensive. The purpose was to make Han even more firmly believe that attacking Song was easier than attacking Yan and carry the strategy of redirecting the calamity eastward through to the end.

The so-called alliance with Song against Han was merely a pretext for steadying every side.

Yet it was also, in truth, a grand strategy Meng Shanming had to carry out. Otherwise, with Shang Chaozong holding military power in his hands, the right to negotiate would never have fallen into the Yan court's hands in the first place.

But the premise of that alliance strategy was that Yan's safety had to be secured first.

Han still had a heavy army pressing down on Yan's northern border, while Zhao watched from the side like a tiger. The situation was too dangerous. Meng Shanming first had to remove the threat posed by Han's massed troops. The only way to draw Han's army away was to use Song as bait.

This was not Meng Shanming's first contest with Jin Jue. He knew Jin Jue's style well. The man pursued stability. Unless Zhao could be tied down, Jin Jue would not make a move lightly.

Meng Shanming could already foresee that Han must have secretly linked up with Zhao. Zhao's attack on Yan was imminent. His only choice was to let Wu Gongling enter Song and use Song, his own ally, as bait to relieve the pressure on Yan's northern front. Only then could Yan concentrate its strength against Zhao.

He would not ignore an ally's safety, nor could he casually allow Han to grow too strong. But under the present circumstances, Song had to suffer first and hold Han back. Meng Shanming needed to win strategic initiative for Yan, rather than let the state be driven into passive responses once disaster struck.

If matters truly became impossible, then he could only let Han annex Song.

At the very least, that would buy Yan a period of strategic breathing room. Yan could deal with the threat from Han afterward.

Wu Gongling's actions enraged Song, which denounced him for treachery and betrayal.

Wu Gongling did not care in the slightest. Let them curse. He would do what he wanted. With support from Han's cultivation forces, he was not afraid, and Song could do nothing to him.

Once Song exposed what had happened, Jin Jue became furious too. His earlier suspicions had been correct after all. That bastard had indeed colluded with Meng Shanming behind his back, and at the same time had even struck a bargain with Song.

Two feet trying to stand on three boats. Could he even manage that?

Wu Gongling did not need some elaborate explanation. His answer was simple enough: all of you are using me, so am I not allowed to protect myself? Judge me by what I do afterward.

By this point, every conspiracy had become an open scheme. Everything had followed the momentum until there was no longer any way to hide it. Jin Jue could only swallow his anger and tolerate Wu Gongling for the time being.

Meng Shanming, for his part, did not care that Wu Gongling had sold him out. At present, he could do nothing about the man anyway.

In the end, Jin Jue achieved his objective. Meng Shanming achieved his objective. Wu Gongling, too, seized for himself a pivotal voice capable of influencing the situation.

From beginning to end, Jin Jue had withstood the pressure and secured for Han a position from which it could advance or withdraw at will, a steady no-lose position that kept the state standing on undefeated ground.

Meng Shanming had turned the tide against overwhelming odds and reversed Yan's position, stabilizing the state for the time being.

Wu Gongling had first ridden the current, then fallen into a desperate trap, only to slip free of danger once again.

The great powers crossed schemes and counter-schemes. The small power clawed out a path to survival.

Great figures and small alike each made their mark.

Those who understood the full picture could only marvel.

[End of Chapter 731]