Chapter 228: A Trap Within a Trap Within a Trap

The Tianduan Mountains stretched for an immense distance, running along nearly seventy to eighty percent of the State of Jin’s northern frontier. They were vast as well. Layer upon layer of mountains overlapped, yet there was little sense of sheer, jagged peaks. Instead, they possessed a breadth almost reminiscent of the Eastern Sea.

After a full day’s march, with Xiong Lie serving as guide, the army made camp on a flat stretch inside a mountain hollow.

Of the three settlements targeted for this punitive expedition, the nearest was only a little over twenty li away by mountain road. It was a fortified settlement with several thousand inhabitants and probably close to two thousand able-bodied men capable of fighting.

Inside the command tent, Zheng Fan gnawed on a roasted pheasant leg.

When an army entered the mountains, anyone with the skill would naturally hunt along the way. Even with ample military provisions, there was nothing wrong with adding a little fresh meat to the menu.

Both the barbarian soldiers and the soldiers from Jin were skilled hunters. Once camp had been established, they scattered into the surrounding mountains. Heaven knew how much game they ruined, and when they returned, everyone competed to offer their catches to Zheng Fan.

The Blind Man sat opposite Zheng Fan, chewing on a chicken wing.

“Master, these savages are actually divided into ‘tamed savages’ and ‘wild savages.’”

“You mean civilized and uncivilized?” Zheng Fan asked.

“Master is wise. That is precisely what it means. Any settlement that has already been influenced by the civilization of Jin, trades with the people of Jin, and has some inhabitants who can speak the Xia tongue is considered a settlement of tamed savages.

“The three settlements Xiong Lie previously colluded with—the same three we’re here to suppress—are all settlements of tamed savages.

“They’re generally located along the outer reaches of the Tianduan Mountains, close to the Three Jin lands. Because they understand the rules, both the Helian Clan and the Situ Clan have historically given these tamed savages some leeway. Even when Jin armies entered the mountains on punitive expeditions, they would often spare them, essentially treating them as settlements of Jin subjects under their authority.

“Thanks to trade, these settlements live far better in terms of grain, iron implements, and other necessities than their wild-savage relatives deeper in the mountains and farther north beyond the Tianduan Mountains.

“They often use that advantage to annex or capture wild savages. Some captives replenish their own population, while others are sold. The Three Jin lands have always had a trade in savage slaves, and the tamed savages have contributed more to it than the Jin people themselves.”

“Selling people too? How extravagant.” Zheng Fan smiled and picked up a handkerchief to wipe his hands.

“It’s because this side of the Tianduan Mountains, and the nearby region in general, isn’t suitable for agriculture because of the climate. There’s little use in keeping too many agricultural serfs.”

“Mm. Then we’ll keep them. Our workshops happen to need manpower.”

The Blind Man nodded. “This subordinate thinks the same. In many situations, gold, silver, and valuables are actually less useful.”

At that moment, a guard entered from outside.

“My lord, Clan Head Tufa requests an audience.”

“Let him in.”

Tufa Chengji soon entered the tent and immediately knelt.

“Tufa Chengji pays his respects to Your Excellency and Mr. Bei.”

“Rise, Clan Head Tufa. Have you eaten?”

“I have eaten my evening meal, Your Excellency.”

“Then you have business?”

“My lord, I saw General Liang quietly leave the camp with more than three thousand soldiers.”

“Hmm?”

Zheng Fan made a faint sound of surprise.

Tufa Chengji immediately lowered his head and said sincerely, “My lord, please forgive me. This general did not deliberately spy on the army’s movements, but…”

“What is there to forgive? You are already a Lieutenant Commander in my army. If you truly wandered around the camp blind and deaf, that would be the offense.

“Besides, three thousand men left camp. Anyone inside would have trouble not noticing.”

“Yes, my lord. This general dares ask: where has General Liang taken those troops?”

“That isn’t convenient to tell you,” Zheng Fan replied.

Tufa Chengji gritted his teeth.

“My lord, Xiong Lie is also missing. Did Xiong Lie tell you that he knows a small path that can secretly circle around and launch a surprise attack on the savage stronghold on the opposite mountain?”

“Oh? You know quite a lot. A guess?”

“To answer my lord, it wasn’t a guess. Xiong Lie hinted at something to this general last night.”

“Hinted at what?”

“He said the Yan people were far more overbearing than he had imagined. Once every household is registered and entered into the rolls, what meaning will there be in remaining clan head?”

“He isn’t wrong.”

“…”

Tufa Chengji fell silent.

The State of Yan itself was currently carrying out a massive campaign of household registration. Previously, more than half the population of the entire country had effectively “not existed.”

Local great clans had hidden those people from the registers. As a result, whenever local officials wanted to undertake some project or conscript corvée labor, they often had to sit down and negotiate with the local aristocratic clans first.

A policy of thoroughly surveying the land and registering the population was, in effect, digging out the very roots of local magnates.

“Tufa Chengji.”

“This general is here.”

“Stop calling yourself a humble nobody from now on. Call yourself ‘this general.’”

“Yes. This general is here.”

“You’re a clever man. The cleverness of clever men lies in knowing what is sesame and what is watermelon—what is trivial and what truly matters. The fact that you came to report this to me of your own accord pleases me.”

“Tufa Chengji swears to serve Your Excellency and the Great Yan Dynasty unto death!”

“Mm.”

“But, my lord, there is something wrong with Xiong Lie. He absolutely did not volunteer to guide the army out of genuine loyalty. Even his claim that the savage settlements humiliated him—this general believes that was an act.

“So this general begs Your Excellency to order General Liang back. Otherwise, he may fall into a savage ambush. Xiong Lie has probably already colluded with them.”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“Too late.”

“Then…”

Tufa Chengji no longer knew what to say.

He had expected his advice to be taken seriously and rewarded, yet the attitude of the City Defender and his strategist was strangely ambiguous, as though neither of them cared at all.

Could it be that they truly believed the Yan army was invincible?

Just then, cries suddenly rose outside, sounding like the howls of beasts and birds.

Zheng Fan and the Blind Man exchanged glances.

Both smiled.

They rose and walked out of the command tent, with Tufa Chengji following behind.

The camp had been established on level ground inside a mountain hollow. From here, they could see dense stretches of torches covering the surrounding slopes. Combined with the endless cries, there was no telling how many savages lay in ambush around them.

The savages intended to exploit the Yan army’s departure and the camp’s apparent weakness to attack it directly.

At present, only the Tufa Clan soldiers and some barbarian troops remained inside—barely more than a thousand men altogether.

Tufa Chengji swallowed hard.

He had never expected the savages to attack the camp directly.

“My lord, judging from this scale, the adult savages of all three settlements must have come. There may be no fewer than five thousand!”

That was still a conservative estimate.

Savages were fierce. Their combat ability and military discipline could not compare with the barbarians, but in places where nature and survival were harsh, women truly could hold up half the sky. Even the youths and women of a tribe could wield blades and draw bows.

If all three settlements had truly emptied their households and mobilized everyone, there might be seven thousand savages or more.

Zheng Fan remained perfectly calm.

He waved a hand.

Zuo Jiqian and Ding Hao, both clad in armor, came over.

“Greetings, my lord!”

“Greetings, Master!”

“Clan Head Tufa, your clan soldiers will be placed under these two men’s command. This camp was built fairly well. The savages won’t break in anytime soon.”

“Yes. This general obeys!”

Tufa Chengji hesitated briefly, then gritted his teeth and accepted the order. He followed Zuo Jiqian and Ding Hao away to organize the troops.

He was still somewhat lost in the fog, but he understood one principle clearly enough: once you had boarded a ship, you shouldn’t casually jump back into the sea.

Zheng Fan looked toward the Blind Man.

“Tell me, should I have someone bring over a chair so I can lie down?”

The Blind Man added, “You would also need a feather fan.”

“Mm. And a pot of good tea. You can play the erhu beside me while I hum a tune.”

“When it’s over, you’ll also need to add: ‘The young lads have defeated the enemy.’”

Zheng Fan’s eyes lit up.

“Now that’s proper.”

“However, Master, arrows have no eyes.”

“Oh. Good point.”

“Master is wise.”

It was pitch-black, and they were on the front line.

This was not the time for posturing.

“YOOO—YOOO—YOOO!”

A long howl rang out.

Immediately afterward, answering cries came from every surrounding slope.

It was probably a signal.

The torches on the slopes began rapidly moving and bouncing downward.

“This is interesting. There are plenty of savages, and living in this kind of extreme environment means they should have some strength. So why have they spent the last century serving as a head-farming machine for Jin soldiers?”

The Blind Man smiled and explained, “Master, originally, the savages were actually the masters of the Three Jin lands.

“The Yu Clan received orders from the Son of Heaven of Great Xia to open up the Three Jin lands, forcibly driving the savages out. They could only retreat into the Tianduan Mountains and onto the snowfields farther north.

“Although they are called savages now, they once created a civilization of their own. The Jin people forcibly severed its development.

“To ordinary people, it might seem that a successful man who falls should find it easier to rise again. Often, the opposite is true.

“His state of mind has changed. He can no longer keep his feet planted on the ground the way he did when he had nothing.

“The savages are much the same. Every settlement, every chief—trace their ancestry upward and each claims descent from some noble line. None submits to another, so they have remained a plate of loose sand.

“Furthermore, although they are collectively called savages, they are actually divided internally into dozens of distinct peoples. For the Jin people, dealing with them has always been easy.”

“So there was that much behind it. I thought they simply lacked armor and equipment.”

“They aren’t too badly off in that respect. They have some armor and weapons. They’re tamed savages, after all. They obviously don’t literally live by eating raw flesh and drinking blood.

“Still, for all three settlements to send out their fighting-age population and create a force of this size is already impressive.

“These three tamed-savage settlements have gradually shed much of their primitive tribal character as trade developed over the years. They’re more like three city lords now, and they understand the need to support one another.”

“Xiong Lie’s lobbying probably contributed quite a bit?”

“Naturally. Xiong Lie can be considered something of a figure. He has some brains.

“However, Master, in this subordinate’s view, the savages don’t truly dare kill the Yan people. They know Yan is not easy to provoke.

“But the three demands Master gave them were acceptable to Tufa Chengji because he had nowhere else to go. The savage chiefs, however, don’t want to accept them.

“They probably intend to hurt us badly this time. Even if Master were captured, they would most likely treat you with great courtesy, send gifts afterward, repair relations, and continue trading as before.”

“You’re being too rational. I prefer something more emotional.”

“Master is correct. How can one permit another to sleep beside one’s bed? The State of Dacheng and the Great Yan Dynasty are sleeping too deeply for us to push them around, but these savages shouldn’t expect to keep sleeping peacefully.”

Most importantly, the best method of primitive accumulation wasn’t burying your head and farming.

It was plunder.

You needed someone nearby whom you could beat—and whom you were actually capable of beating.

The savages had already charged down.

They converged on the camp from every direction.

Fortunately, Zheng Fan had developed one excellent habit in warfare, born precisely from his lack of confidence in his own military command ability.

He didn’t understand fantastical flashes of military genius.

But at least he understood one principle: at all times, making fewer mistakes was better.

He had accumulated some experience in constructing camps.

It wasn’t difficult work.

What mattered was taking it seriously.

How deep should the palisade posts be driven? How many zhang of trenches should be dug before the camp? How many trenches? How many sharpened bamboo stakes should be buried inside? What spacing should be maintained between the trenches, the gate, and the cheval-de-frise obstacles behind it?

As long as the commander took the work seriously, inspected it repeatedly, and prevented the soldiers from slacking, the defenses could always be arranged properly.

At present, the camp’s outer defenses made the savages suffer badly.

Screams rose one after another.

At the same time, the defenders inside fired arrows and obstructed the attackers, greatly slowing their momentum.

The savages’ lack of organization quickly became apparent.

Often, one section had already achieved a breakthrough, yet attackers elsewhere received no word and continued gnawing on hard defenses.

And the group that broke through didn’t think to assist their allies. They simply plunged deeper inside, only to be beaten back almost immediately.

As a result, the camp’s defenses performed even better than expected and delayed the savages for more than enough time.

“Fall back!”

“Withdraw!”

Once the savages began clearing the outer obstacles and palisades, Zuo Jiqian and Ding Hao issued withdrawal orders almost simultaneously.

The soldiers abandoned the outer perimeter and fell back to the true defensive line centered on Zheng Fan’s command tent.

Crossbowmen and archers stood within.

Heavy-armored troops stood outside.

Tufa Chengji personally fought as an ordinary soldier under command. Leading his clansmen, he launched a countercharge against several dozen savages who had just rushed toward their position, hacking them back before immediately returning to formation.

“Tufa Chengji is actually pretty good,” Zheng Fan commented.

“He has the makings of a formidable man. Since ancient times, heroes have always hidden among the common folk. The only question is whether they ever encounter the favorable wind that lets them rise with the tide,” the Blind Man replied.

Zheng Fan nodded.

He weighed the long saber in his hand several times and swept his gaze around.

Savages charging from several directions had already been repelled.

At last, they seemed to recover their senses. They stopped blindly charging in a fever and instead began forming a complete encirclement before launching attacks from every direction.

Their clothing was peculiar.

Some dressed no differently from the Jin people.

Others wore nothing but animal hides.

It gave them the strange appearance of civilization and barbarism mixed together.

Beneath the night sky, the shouts of numerous chiefs could be heard as they tried to restrain and direct their followers.

Truthfully, this hardly looked like an army.

It looked more like a crowd of people trying to manage a disorderly flock of sheep.

At that moment, Zheng Fan finally understood why the Jin people had been able to maintain such an overwhelming advantage over the savages.

The two sides were practically separated by an entire era in military organization and doctrine.

“Master is getting impatient?” the Blind Man asked.

“I only just advanced. I want to see what I can do.”

Like someone who had just received a new toy and couldn’t resist showing it off to his friends.

“Master, forgive this subordinate for saying too much, but it still isn’t time for Master to enter the fighting. Wait a little longer.”

“If I wait any longer, it’ll become a battle with the wind entirely at our backs. If I’m always stealing kills in easy victories, eventually even that stops being interesting.”

“Master, now you’re starting to have that flavor.”

Zheng Fan smiled and sheathed his saber.

“Am I?”

…

“Third Master, why have we stopped for so long?” Xiong Lie asked curiously.

He turned around and discovered that only Xue San remained behind him.

Everyone else was gone.

Ahead lay a gorge.

Once they passed through it, they would reach the high ground above the savage settlement and could launch a surprise attack downhill from the rear.

“Aren’t we about to start fighting? We need to rest our feet,” Xue San replied. “The soldiers marched all day, then crawled through these mountain holes for so long. They need to catch their breath before they have the strength to fight, don’t they?”

Xiong Lie nodded.

“That makes sense.”

He sat down and began chewing dry rations and drinking water.

Xue San likewise sat down to eat and drink.

About half an hour later, Xiong Lie looked at the little dwarf and smiled.

“I know what you’re capable of.”

“Oh? Not calling me Third Master anymore?”

“What’s the point? I know you. You’re good at tracking people.”

Xue San nodded.

“I know that you know I’m good at tracking.”

Xiong Lie froze for a moment before continuing.

“I know you followed me into the mountains the day before yesterday.”

Xue San nodded again.

“I know that you know I followed you into the mountains the day before yesterday.”

“I deliberately let you follow me!”

“I also deliberately let you know that I was deliberately following you.”

Xiong Lie’s head began to spin.

But he immediately continued, “I know you people don’t trust me!”

“We let you know that you know we don’t trust you.”

“Cough… cough…”

Xiong Lie coughed twice and gulped down two mouthfuls of water.

Then he sneered.

“Don’t think I don’t know where the several thousand troops who came up here with us went. They split up and moved toward the high ground on both sides of the gorge to counter-ambush the men waiting there, didn’t they?”

Xue San looked at the smug Xiong Lie.

He shook his head.

“We know there’s no ambush on the high ground beside the gorge.”

“Then… then where are they?”

“Oh, them? They all went back.

“It was just a nighttime field exercise. They turned around and returned to camp ages ago. They should be almost back at the military camp by now.

“There are only two people left here.

“You and me.”

“…”

Xiong Lie.

It was a trap within a trap within a trap.

Xue San yawned.

“Kid, if you want to play mind games, you picked the wrong people.”

Why had the Demon Kings been pushed around before?

Because they themselves had been too weak.

Their faction was weak. Their personal strength was insufficient. And the opponents they faced were all on an extremely high level.

Now that their own side possessed the advantage in strength, their talent for schemes and calculations could finally be put to proper use.

Suddenly, Xiong Lie raised his left arm.

A concealed crossbow appeared.

“Whoosh!”

In the same instant, Xue San threw himself backward, landing flat on his back as both legs kicked forward.

Xiong Lie drew his saber and prepared to rush up and cut Xue San down while he was prone.

Then his body suddenly jerked.

Two short bolts were embedded in his abdomen.

Xue San raised his legs.

He waved them arrogantly at Xiong Lie like an aerobics performer.

“If you want to play with hidden weapons, you picked the wrong person for that too.”

…

On the mountain ridge, Liang Cheng stroked his chin as he looked down at the torchlit camp below and listened to the sounds of fighting rising continuously through the night.

Xu Youcheng stood beside him.

“Lieutenant Commander Xu.”

“This general is here.”

Xu Youcheng saluted Liang Cheng.

“I’ve heard that for the past century, you Jin people have always been experts at fighting savages. I’ve never seen it myself, so I don’t know whether that’s actually true.”

“General, we can’t beat the Yan people.

“But savages?

“They’re nothing!”

Liang Cheng smiled.

He knew how much humiliation this veteran soldier had to swallow to say such words.

He reached out and patted Xu Youcheng on the shoulder.

“One day, you’ll be able to beat Yan soldiers too.”

“What…?”

Xu Youcheng looked confused.

He couldn’t understand why a Yan general would say something like that.

“But for now, Lieutenant Commander Xu, show me what you can do.

“If you’ve even lost your old specialty of fighting savages, then don’t expect your meals to remain the same as those of your Yan brothers.”

“General, just watch us!”

Liang Cheng reached out and patted Fan Li’s stomach.

Fan Li was already armored from head to toe in iron, so the impact produced a metallic clang.

“Blow it.”

Fan Li had been dozing while standing.

He woke and looked around blankly.

After yawning, he lifted the rhinoceros horn he had carried all day and puffed out his cheeks.

Just before he blew, Liang Cheng added, “If you dare blow the charge signal again, you don’t eat tomorrow.”

“Uh…”

Fan Li smacked his lips.

Then blew into the rhinoceros horn.

“WOOOOOOOOOO—!”

The moment the horn sounded, the Yan army, which had already returned and completed the counter-encirclement, stopped hiding.

They charged.

Among them, the Jin contingent, whose morale had remained somewhat low, suddenly displayed extraordinary ferocity.

Every man howled as he rushed downhill.

They truly resembled a pack of wolves descending from the mountains.

The soldiers who had originally come from Cuiliu Fort were much more orderly. They maintained formations in small groups of three to five as they charged downward.

A’Ming, who had remained beside Liang Cheng, smiled and joked, “Does this count as cowering in front of the Yan people, then throwing heavy punches once they meet savages?”

“They need to recover some confidence and killing spirit somehow. Otherwise, they’ll all turn into jaded old soldiers.

“These savages really aren’t anything impressive. They all rushed in together and then all rushed down together, without even arranging themselves a retreat.”

“All right. You keep commanding from here. I’m going down too.”

A’Ming prepared to follow the main force downhill.

“What are you going down there for?” Liang Cheng asked. “The outcome is already decided.”

A’Ming raised the empty waterskin in his hand.

“To get some wine.”

[End of Chapter 228]