Chapter 344: The Wind Comes from the West

The eastern gate of Yingdu stood wide open.

Guards from the Prince of Cheng’s Residence cleared the road first. Behind them came the very young Prince of Cheng, Situ Yu, standing atop the same war chariot his father Situ Lei had once ridden as it passed out through the gate.

The guards still protected their little prince with painstaking care.

In truth, they were also protecting the last tiny fragment of pride this state still possessed—and the part of that pride that still belonged to them.

Under the Marquis of Jingnan’s military orders, every remaining Dacheng force had already been incorporated into the Yan army.

The Prince of Cheng’s Residence had not been consulted beforehand.

No notice.

No hint.

No groundwork.

Your army simply changed surnames overnight.

The Prince of Cheng’s Residence had not dared object.

Nor had the former civil officials of Dacheng.

The Emperor of Yan had indeed declared in his imperial edict that Situ Lei’s line would inherit the title Prince of Cheng in perpetuity and guard the lands of the Three Jin.

But everyone understood perfectly well that official words belonged to the official record.

How things were actually handled below was another matter entirely.

Even so, the Marquis of Jingnan’s methods were so forceful that the old Dacheng officials had lost nearly all face.

Yet they could only lower their heads.

Because when the surviving Dacheng commanders received the Marquis of Jingnan’s military orders, most had barely hesitated before leading their troops directly into Yan formations.

The Situ Clan and the civil officials had already knelt.

Why should the military men still be stupid enough to cling to some notion of loyalty?

Besides loyalty?

Yan was now their suzerain state.

Obeying the Yan was only natural.

When Situ Lei had made his final effort before death, leading Dacheng’s remaining strength east against the savages and rebels, he had told these commanders directly: fight this battle well. Only then would you have a place of your own beneath the Yan in the future.

They were simply carrying out the late Emperor’s final instruction.

There was nothing wrong with that.

What else were they supposed to do?

Keep circling around the Prince of Cheng’s Residence?

Stay there forever as heads of the household guards?

So there was no grand spectacle left to speak of.

After Situ Yu led the hundred officials out of the city, the people of Yingdu poured out behind them in a great tide.

Messengers from the Yan army had already returned earlier with word of victory.

Hooves had struck the streets of Yingdu in crisp, ringing beats while voices shouted again and again:

“Great victory!”

“Great victory!”

“Great victory!”

“Great victory!”

And now, after Situ Yu led the officials and common people beyond the gate, the newest messenger sent to the rear arrived—a Yan Lieutenant Commander with several dozen cavalrymen behind him.

He did not dismount or kneel.

Following the military custom that a man in armor remained mounted, he merely cupped his hands toward Situ Yu atop the war chariot and shouted:

“The Yan army has won a great victory! The main savage force has collapsed, with countless dead and wounded!”

Then the Lieutenant Commander continued:

“The Marquis of Jingnan has ordered that Prince of Cheng personally go to the Wang River and erect the memorial stone for the victory mound of heads!”

For a moment, Situ Yu simply stared blankly.

Behind him, however, the gathered officials erupted.

Some wept with joy.

Some clenched both fists.

Others began shouting at the top of their lungs.

Then the common people joined them in wave after wave—cheering, kneeling, crying openly upon the ground.

The savage calamity had lasted an entire year.

It had begun beyond Snow Sea Pass, swept through the pass, and continued all the way to the Wang River.

At one point, the rebels and savages had nearly reached Yingdu itself.

Dacheng had even lost an emperor still in the prime of his life.

Layer after layer of pressure had piled upon the hearts of Yingdu’s people like enormous stones.

But now, a victory mound of enemy heads was about to be built.

That meant the savages had truly been defeated.

Defeated so badly that they could no longer become a force.

The dark cloud hanging over everyone’s heads had finally split apart.

People released everything they had kept buried inside.

“We congratulate the Marquis of Jingnan! We congratulate Your Highness!”

The officials shouted together.

Many were already streaming tears.

Those who could still remain inside Yingdu at a time like this—those who had not been purged away—were genuine diehards.

Many had family homes east of the Wang River.

They had already heard something of the devastation the savages had inflicted upon those lands.

Now, at last, they could offer sacrifice to the spirits of their dead kin.

Situ Yu was still somewhat dazed.

The savages... had lost.

They had finally lost.

He had been entrusted with power in a crisis. After his father’s death, he had first inherited the throne of Dacheng, then been enfeoffed by the Emperor of Yan as Prince of Cheng.

But Situ Yu was still only a child.

Throughout all of it, he had lived in a haze.

He had always felt as though a rope were tied around his neck, tightening little by little.

Now that rope had finally loosened.

He could breathe deeply again.

And the sudden rush of air seemed almost to make his head spin.

At that moment, the little prince began crying.

He truly cried.

Loudly.

He knew it was not proper to cry like this now, but he simply could not stop.

The Yan Lieutenant Commander who had delivered the message said nothing.

After all, when the little prince later went to help transport heads and erect the memorial stone, he would probably be frightened into crying a second time anyway.

Several officials soothed Situ Yu until he gradually recovered.

His eyes still red, he looked toward the Yan Lieutenant Commander and asked:

“May I ask where the Marquis of Jingnan... where His Lordship is now?”

...

“Ah, for fuck’s sake. Marquis of Jingnan—where the hell are you?”

Atop Snow Sea Pass’s gate tower, General Zheng lay sprawled on the floor playing xiangqi with A’Ming while complaining aloud.

The situation at Snow Sea Pass could not exactly be described as dangerous.

It was more... boring.

Yes.

Boring.

After Gelimu’s death, the tens of thousands of savages outside began performing one absurd maneuver after another.

As Liang Cheng put it, if he had to play against opponents this bad for too long, he was afraid his own chess might eventually become terrible as well.

At first, the savages continued sending the surrendered Jin soldiers who had once served under Gelimu to attack the fortress.

After suffering catastrophic losses for several days, that force finally mutinied one night before Snow Sea Pass had even bothered launching another raid.

That night, flames lit the savage camp red.

The surrendered Jin soldiers erupted completely, proving that even collaborators possessed a collaborator’s dignity.

Naturally, Snow Sea Pass had no intention of wasting such a magnificent opportunity.

Once Liang Cheng confirmed the chaos was not some savage performance staged to lure them out, the gates opened immediately.

Liang Cheng personally led two thousand Shengle cavalrymen out to lend their Jin collaborator brothers a hand.

They poured oil straight onto the fire.

Then, once they had killed to their satisfaction, they ignored the question of burial and returned immediately.

There was no way to calculate precisely how many men the savages lost that night.

But for the next three days, they failed to launch a single assault.

On the fourth day, the savages finally attacked again.

This time, the savages themselves went forward.

Men who had spent most of their lives riding horses and herding livestock now carried ladders and tried to assault fortress walls they had barely even seen before.

The result was naturally miserable.

They attacked for four consecutive days without managing to hold even one corner of the wall.

Normally, in this sort of assault, the most important thing was for the vanguard to secure a foothold atop the wall so the men behind could keep climbing and expand that single point into a breach.

The savages battered themselves against the defenses for days and somehow failed even to accomplish that.

Then, Heaven knew which “great talent” in the savage camp came up with the idea of piling earth against the wall.

Build a hill of dirt beneath Snow Sea Pass, and then no one would need ladders anymore.

They could simply walk up.

Strictly speaking, the method was not completely useless.

Against a city with low enough walls, it could indeed have some effect.

But Snow Sea Pass was a mighty strategic fortress built by the ancestors of Jin.

The savages spent two full days behaving like idiots, carrying earth toward the walls while Yan archers constantly shot them down.

Eventually, they finally realized that yes their brains really had stopped working.

They abandoned the idea.

Then they tried digging tunnels.

Unfortunately, it was deep winter.

And Snow Sea Pass stood right beside the snowfields.

The cold was vicious.

In Xue San’s words, the ground was frozen just as hard as the thing between his legs.

The savages could not even find slaves to dig for them.

The surrounding region had already been stripped clean long ago.

So savage warriors themselves had to come over and start digging.

To their credit, they possessed patience.

And determination.

They understood perfectly well what failing to retake Snow Sea Pass meant.

Xue San showed enormous respect for their hard work.

He even found several water vats inside the fortress and placed them against the inner base of the wall, then assigned men specifically to listen for underground movement.

Truthfully, they could simply have allowed the savages to keep digging.

By the time the tunnels actually reached the fortress, spring would probably have arrived and the daylilies would already be cold.

But even then, the savages managed to dig so badly that one of their own tunnels collapsed and buried a considerable number of men alive.

After that the cycle simply repeated.

Attack the walls.

Attack again.

Attack with everything they had.

They seemed to have abandoned every other thought and reduced themselves to one thing: storm Snow Sea Pass until death.

Unfortunately, dreams were full and beautiful.

Reality was all bone.

One could see that the savage commanders did possess some sense of the larger situation.

They understood exactly what had to be done.

But the ordinary savage warriors could not sustain it.

Siege warfare imposed a kind of torment ordinary men could hardly endure.

And worse, the savage camp was now suffering a serious food crisis.

Slowly, the daily assault became little more than clocking in at a yamen.

The savages came to attack.

The Shengle Army defended.

At the proper hour, the savages withdrew.

Then the Shengle Army ate dinner.

Liang Cheng was obviously dissatisfied with such a passive attitude toward warfare.

So, under his arrangements, on one particular day the savages were midway through another assault.

They had assumed it would simply become another day in which they achieved absolutely nothing.

Then, without warning the city gate was smashed open.

Heavens.

Even the savages carrying the battering ram were stunned.

They had not even been putting their backs into it.

After all, they still had to worry about boiling oil and stones coming down from above.

Yet the gate had actually opened.

It was real.

The Ten-Thousand Household Commander directing that day’s assault was named Age.

The moment he saw the gate break open, tears streamed down his face.

He believed the stars themselves were protecting them.

Without hesitation, he personally led more than two thousand of his most elite and loyal tribal warriors into the fighting and charged through the gate alongside the assault troops.

What they entered was, in truth, only the upper portion of the fortress’s protruding barbican.

The savages charged inside in mighty, heroic fashion then abruptly discovered an iron gate still standing in front of them.

And another wall.

And on all four surrounding wall faces, Shengle archers who had long since prepared themselves began carrying out the most ruthless slaughter imaginable.

Ten-Thousand Household Commander Age died in that battle.

Nearly two thousand savage corpses were later counted inside the trap.

And after the savages withdrew, Shengle soldiers could even stroll down at leisure and recover their arrows.

After that battle, the savages truly lost their spirit.

They were helpless.

They were miserable.

And inside Snow Sea Pass, General Zheng was so bored he felt mold might begin growing on him.

Between the savages’ endless ridiculous ideas and Liang Cheng’s excessive steadiness, there were days when General Zheng did not even need to climb the wall.

With nothing else to do, he simply practiced the saber to burn off his energy.

And well.

After Xue San’s medicinal bath had tormented him back in Shengle, followed by all this recent accumulation and settling, General Zheng could actually feel himself brushing against the threshold of peak Seventh Grade as a Martial Artist.

The savages outside were simply too useless.

They had forced General Zheng to use cultivation as entertainment.

Eventually well—

Zheng Fan had become too lazy even to count how many days he had spent defending Snow Sea Pass.

Then one day, Xue San came sprinting over with urgent news.

Zheng Fan hurried onto the wall.

A savage force was approaching from the west.

After climbing up and watching for a while, Zheng Fan could not stop himself from smiling.

Yes.

A savage force really was coming.

But they had discarded armor and helmets.

Their heads hung low.

Their ranks were a mess.

No matter how he looked at them, they did not resemble troops deliberately dispatched from the front to reinforce the siege.

Instead, they looked like... a routed army.

General Zheng raised one hand, intending to slap the battlement and vent his excitement.

After hesitating, however, he slapped Fan Li instead.

“Good!

“The savages lost at the front. The Marquis of Jingnan’s pursuing troops probably aren’t far behind.

“Hahahaha!

“I really want to see Tian Wujing’s expression when he comes chasing the rout all the way here— and discovers I’ve already taken Snow Sea Pass for him.

“Heh heh heh.”

[End of Chapter 344]