Chapter 538: - Advancement

“Huh?”

Count Pingye coughed twice, then said, “It was only a minor trick. Hardly worth mentioning.”

The truth was, just moments earlier, Count Pingye had been cursing Fan Li in his heart for being such a goddamn blockhead.

The entire point of carrying the funeral procession beneath the enemy walls had been to strike at Chu morale, to create the classic effect of “Chu songs on all sides,” breaking their will through despair.

Instead, Fan Li had turned a Pillar of State’s corpse into a prop and led a whole crowd in a yangge dance. The spectacle was so outrageous, so provocative, that instead of depressing Chu morale it could very well inflame their anger and make them even more eager to fight.

It was basically giving the Chu a shot of adrenaline for free.

Why the hell do that?

Yet who could have expected the gates of West Mountain Fort to actually open, with a body of cavalry genuinely charging out?

It was an enormous risk.

The Chu still did it.

Li Fusheng did not hesitate. He immediately ordered the cavalry on both wings forward, one force to meet the enemy head-on and the other to sweep around and cut off their retreat.

After issuing the order, Li Fusheng glanced at Count Pingye again.

Then he gritted his teeth.

Some people simply carried an aura around them.

Li Fusheng had said he did not care about what had happened during yesterday’s military council. He knew Zheng Fan. He also knew the Prince of Jingnan. He understood that in private, Zheng Fan was actually very good at dealing with people.

But there was no helping it.

Zheng Fan had taken East Mountain Fort far too quickly. That had placed enormous pressure on Li Fusheng’s side.

And right now, with Zheng Fan standing beside him, that presence became one more shove against Li Fusheng while he was still hesitating.

“Pass another order! Have the central army press forward immediately. Don’t wait for the siege engines!”

That aggressive?

Count Pingye instinctively turned toward Li Fusheng.

Their eyes met.

Li Fusheng said, “Brother Zheng, I know what you mean, but this is as far as I dare go. If I send the entire army forward right now and we fail to force the gate open in one stroke, our lads will have to grind against the Chu on the walls without the cover of arrow towers or trebuchets. The casualties will be enormous. For now, I’ll only commit today’s central army and gamble once.”

Then Li Fusheng gave a self-mocking laugh.

“In the end, I still don’t have your nerve, Brother Zheng.”

Zheng Fan very much wanted to say:

I didn’t say a goddamn thing. Where exactly did you imagine all this from?

But at that moment, Fan Li saw the Chu cavalry charge out from the fort.

Instead of retreating, he threw Shi Yuantang’s corpse directly onto the ground, gripped his giant axe with both hands, and charged forward.

The members of the yangge troupe behind him immediately dropped everything they were holding, vaulted onto their horses, drew their sabers, and followed him into the attack.

The Chu cavalry had not paused to form up after leaving the fort.

They had probably seized precisely this moment, while the Yan army was still deploying and had not yet begun its siege, hoping to make one quick sortie and recover Shi Yuantang’s body.

Their cavalry outnumbered Fan Li’s group several times over, but the men in front had not waited for those behind. They had not formed any proper formation either.

They had charged out in what looked for all the world like one long snake.

The two sides collided and immediately became tangled together.

Fan Li chopped down the Chu warhorse directly in front of him. As he stepped over the fallen animal, he brought his axe down in passing and took the rider’s head off.

The cavalry around him crashed into the Chu and traded casualties.

The Chu riders in the rear found their own comrades blocking their momentum and had no choice but to wheel around and try to bypass the jam.

Before they could complete the maneuver, however, the Yan cavalry sweeping in from both flanks had already arrived and slammed straight into them.

The Chu on the walls seemed to realize that recovering the Pillar of State’s body had become impossible.

The gates that had been opened began slowly closing again.

They had completely abandoned the cavalry they had sent outside.

Seeing this, Li Fusheng punched the railing in frustration.

Count Pingye, meanwhile, remembered something Liang Cheng had explained to him during the previous siege.

“When the Chu opened the gates earlier, they should have moved away the obstacles they used to block the passage from inside. Even if they close the gates now, it should still be difficult for them to fully barricade the entrance again immediately.”

“Yes. You’re right, Brother Zheng. But... it’s too late.”

Even without considering the arrows and crossbow bolts from the walls, pushing a battering ram into position still took time.

And that would give the Chu enough time to rebuild the defenses around the most important and most vulnerable point in the entire fort: the gate.

“ROAR!”

From the melee ahead, Fan Li unleashed a thunderous roar.

The walking lump of iron suddenly lifted A’Ming’s coffin overhead.

He tucked his upper body beneath it for protection and began sprinting with all his strength toward the gates that were still closing.

Behind him, whether they were Snow Sea Cavalry or ordinary Yan riders, everyone not already trapped in the melee immediately understood what he intended.

They spurred their horses and followed Fan Li toward the gate.

As they charged, they deliberately split to either side of him.

Chu arrows began raining down.

One rider after another was struck and fell from the saddle.

The rest kept charging without hesitation.

Fan Li was simply too large and too obvious.

Even with cavalry on both sides drawing some of the fire away from him, he still became the primary target.

But at that moment, the refined taste of A’Ming, aristocrat among vampires, finally revealed its practical value.

What was refinement?

What was elegance?

By definition, it meant using better materials and paying more money for things that were not strictly necessary.

A’Ming’s coffin had been made from top-grade lightning-struck wood from the Tianduan Mountains.

Before it could even be carved, the timber had been soaked for half a month in a corrosive solution just to soften it enough for the craftsmen to work.

So this coffin... was fucking solid.

Arrows soon covered it so densely that it looked like a porcupine, yet it continued protecting Fan Li.

Because of the angle from the walls, the Chu archers had difficulty targeting his lower body.

And so Fan Li continued charging madly forward.

Thrum!

At last, the Chu on the walls deployed a giant crossbow.

One massive bolt screamed through the air and punched into the coffin.

It penetrated nearly halfway before lodging inside.

Thrum!

Another giant bolt followed immediately.

It too pierced the coffin and stuck there.

Fortunately, Fan Li’s luck held.

The two bolts had punched a pair of ventilation holes through the coffin, but the tips passing inside had only grazed past his head.

So

Fan Li kept running.

In fact, after sprinting this far, he actually accelerated.

...

“A true... a true warrior! Brother Zheng, I told you long ago! I told you! One day that man would become a fierce general!”

Years earlier, during the southern campaign into Qian, the troops had held wrestling matches while camped.

Li Fusheng had once entered the ring against Fan Li.

Everyone had agreed beforehand not to use qi and blood.

Without qi and blood, relying purely on brute strength, Fan Li’s combat instincts, experience, and monstrous physical gifts had stood out even more clearly.

He had left an extremely deep impression on Li Fusheng back then.

Zheng Fan, meanwhile, was thinking:

What the hell is this blockhead trying to do?

Has he lost his mind?

If this were our own siege, throwing your life away like this would at least make sense.

But today you were only supposed to come help with the atmosphere, stroll around a little, then move on to the next appearance.

Why the hell are you suddenly working yourself to death for somebody else?

Unless...

Count Pingye thought of one possibility.

He immediately lowered his gaze.

Below the platform, the trebuchets were being pushed forward.

He searched for one particular short figure.

Unfortunately, the platform was too high, there were too many people below, and that particular fellow was very short.

There was one possibility.

Last night, Zheng Fan had met Xue San.

Xue San might have sent word to Fan Li that Master had temporarily been assigned here to direct the assault.

Now that San’er had returned, Dai Li and the Snow Sea Pass intelligence network had naturally come back under Xue San’s control.

They possessed far too many methods for transmitting news quickly among themselves.

So... was this blockhead working this hard because he knew Master was standing here today?

Strangely enough, the first emotion rising inside Count Pingye was not gratitude.

It was suspicion.

Could it be... had I somehow advanced again without noticing?

Did this idiot sense that I advanced, so now he’s working like a madman to show off?

But... no.

I didn’t.

Standing in front of Count Pingye, Li Fusheng had already entered a state of complete absorption as he stared at the battlefield.

His lips moved continuously.

“No way... Can’t be... Impossible...”

This veteran of countless battlefields, this butcher who had spent half his life sweeping across the desert, was actually losing his composure.

Because he had noticed one possibility.

A possibility he found absurd.

A possibility that, in a war between states of this scale, should almost never happen.

...

Fan Li was still running.

Ahead of him, the Chu gates had not fully closed.

West Mountain Fort, like East Mountain Fort, had been constructed as a pure military fortress.

It had no civilian function and no residential districts.

That meant its gates were exceptionally thick and heavy, precisely to strengthen their defensive value.

Opening and closing them therefore required more effort.

The key point was that Fan Li was running far too fast.

He was not on horseback.

He was carrying a coffin.

Yet somehow, he was still outrunning cavalry beside him.

Crack!

Fan Li’s right leg suddenly plunged into the ground.

This section had once been part of the moat and defensive ditch outside the walls.

During the Yan assaults over the past several days, those works had long since been filled with earth and corpses.

But this particular patch had not been packed tightly enough.

Fan Li’s foot punched straight through.

His whole body pitched forward.

At that instant, he forced power through his waist.

Even with his right leg trapped below, he twisted half around.

Then Fan Li raised the coffin and hurled it toward the gate.

BANG!

No matter how expensive a coffin might be, it was still long and rectangular.

Nobles and commoners alike lay lengthwise when they died.

Vampires were no exception.

The coffin crashed directly into the center of the closing gates.

Creak...

Creak...

The gates jammed.

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Fan Li ripped his leg free and resumed his charge.

The riders around him, despite having raced through a rain of arrows, had not reduced their speed in the slightest.

They rushed straight toward the gap.

They were Li Fusheng’s men.

They were cavalry who had once swept across the desert.

Since entering Jin, leaving the desert behind had caused some softness and decline among them.

But the blood in their bones had not vanished.

And it would not vanish so easily.

One rider hauled back on his reins.

Horse and man leapt together through the partially closed gate.

Beyond that gap waited a dense mass of Chu soldiers.

He still threw himself and his warhorse through like a stone fired from a trebuchet.

Almost immediately, screams and the wet sounds of weapons entering flesh erupted behind the gate.

Then Fan Li arrived.

He was the real stone projectile.

He charged, leapt, and smashed one shoulder directly into the gate.

The cavalry behind him immediately dismounted and rushed forward as well.

...

It actually worked.

It fucking worked.

Li Fusheng felt as though he had just bitten into an entire mouthful of star anise.

He had battered at West Mountain Fort for so many days without taking it.

And now there was actually a chance to capture the place through something as direct and ridiculous as seizing the gate?

Fortunately, Li Fusheng did not hesitate for even an instant.

He roared the order:

“Pass the word! Press forward! Press forward! PRESS FORWARD!”

As long as the gate could not close, as long as they could force it open, the fort would fall.

There was no need to continue advancing step by step.

Even if more Yan soldiers were shot down from the walls while crossing the exposed ground, that price was acceptable.

Put more ruthlessly, it was a profitable exchange.

Heaven alone knew how many more men would die if they continued grinding away at this fort day after day.

Count Pingye remained standing where he was.

He watched Fan Li’s savage strength.

He watched Fan Li’s heroic courage.

And deep down, the whole thing still felt faintly unreal.

How had that normally simple, goofy bastard suddenly exploded into this kind of terrifying performance?

Whether it was the attack on enemy morale or the decisiveness with which he had seized the opportunity, everything Fan Li had done earlier could almost be called perfect.

But still... why had the Chu lost their composure so easily?

...

In truth, the Chu had not simply lost their composure.

West Mountain Fort contained three separate forces: slightly fewer than ten thousand Imperial Clan Guards of Chu, and the private armies of two noble houses.

The commander of the Imperial Clan Guards bore the surname Shi.

He was Shi Yuantang’s third son.

Of the two noble private armies, one belonged to the Feng Clan of Pingzhang in Great Chu.

The other belonged to the Zhou Clan of Lishui.

The Feng force was commanded by Feng Yuanyang.

He was Shi Yuantang’s son-in-law.

The Zhou force was commanded by Zhou Huaizong.

Years earlier, Zhou Huaizong had lost a struggle with his elder brother for standing within the family.

Shi Yuantang had taken him in.

Only with the Shi Clan’s help had Zhou Huaizong managed to establish himself.

Later, when the Zhou Clan fell into disgrace, Zhou Huaizong returned to the family and helped hold it together.

In the eyes of outsiders, Zhou Huaizong was effectively Shi Yuantang’s adopted son.

What a coincidence.

Inside the fort stood one son of the Pillar of State, one son-in-law of the Pillar of State, and one adopted son of the Pillar of State.

If Shi Yuantang had been a poor patriarch, nothing more than an old ancestral signboard for the family, then all three men could have placed the greater situation first.

But Shi Yuantang had ruled his household strictly while caring deeply for the younger generation.

He had been a genuine loving father.

So when they saw Fan Li using Shi Yuantang’s corpse for shadow puppetry and a yangge dance, how could they possibly endure it?

The fact that they had not sent out the entire army, instead dispatching only one body of cavalry to attempt to recover the corpse, already represented extreme restraint.

If that cavalry recovered the body, good.

If not, then so be it.

They had no intention of doing anything more extreme.

After all, defending the fort mattered most.

And at that moment, the Yan siege had not yet begun.

Fan Li happened to be standing in that sensitive stretch between the walls and the Yan army.

That was why they had decided to try once.

Success or failure did not matter as much as giving themselves peace of mind.

Having a flaw was not necessarily fatal.

The Prince of Jingnan had once told Zheng Fan that flawless calculation was impossible.

And even if you exposed an opening, the opponent might not be able to seize it.

But this time, Fan Li, performing far above his usual level, seized it.

The Yan army began launching a full assault almost like madmen.

In previous siege attacks, they might strike three or four faces of the fort at once, with one real main attack and the rest as feints.

This time, every other direction became a feint.

Everything rested on whether the gate could be bitten open.

If it could, West Mountain Fort would fall in a single battle.

Li Fusheng’s face had turned red with excitement.

Had the Prince of Jingnan not specifically warned him earlier that he was no longer permitted to lead charges from the front, Li Fusheng would probably already have drawn his saber, jumped off the platform, and run screaming into the fight himself.

After all, Brother Zheng was here.

Brother Zheng could command for him.

And then, Li Fusheng turned his head and looked at Zheng Fan again.

He had looked at Zheng Fan many times today.

Even though Zheng Fan was standing right beside him, Li Fusheng still could not stop making obvious, deliberate turns to look at him.

Long ago, when the Marquis of Zhenbei first mentioned Zheng Fan, Li Fusheng had assumed this young man must at least be clever.

Otherwise, his own Marquis would never have valued him.

Their first meeting in the military camp outside Yin City had made Li Fusheng think Zheng Fan was an interesting fellow.

During the southern campaign into Qian, he had decided Zheng Fan truly was a talent worth recruiting.

Later, the brat climbed higher and higher.

Now the two men were both Chief Commanders, yet Zheng Fan’s noble title alone already placed him half a head above Li Fusheng.

But this time, right before Li Fusheng’s own eyes, solidly and unmistakably, an almost unbelievable opening in the deadlock had actually appeared.

When Li Fusheng looked at Zheng Fan now, for one fleeting instant, he truly felt as though he were looking at Tian Wujing.

Yes.

The Prince of Jingnan had been right.

Why would a man like this need to flatter others?

Why should he have to smile and make nice with everyone?

He should be arrogant.

He should be proud.

He should be able to look down on everyone, and still make everyone else feel that such arrogance was only natural.

Below them, unit after unit of Yan troops pressed forward under their commanders.

As they passed the high platform, they could not help glancing upward toward the golden-armored figure gleaming in the morning sunlight.

The dissatisfaction from before, the resentment, the bad feeling, all vanished.

Only one thought kept repeating inside the generals’ minds:

Motherfucker.

This is goddamn miraculous!

Count Pingye, already halfway to being deified in their eyes, continued standing there quietly, allowing the sunlight to strike him at just the right angle and create the effect of a halo.

...

Below, Xue San was directing laborers and auxiliaries as they pushed trebuchets forward and adjusted them.

He jumped atop one trebuchet and peered toward the front.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Mother of mine. Has that blockhead been pretending all these years?”

Yes.

The night before, Xue San had sent word back to East Mountain Fort.

One message had been:

Master has been assigned here by the Prince of Jingnan to oversee the attack on West Mountain Fort.

There had also been a second message.

Xue San had added that one himself.

He had simply thought it would be funny to fool someone.

The second message said:

During the battle at East Mountain Fort, Master gained enlightenment amid the slaughter. Then, with the Prince of Jingnan personally instructing and guarding his breakthrough over the past two days, Master advanced!

And now, as the Yan army’s full-scale assault unfolded, the struggle around the gate entered an even bloodier phase.

From above, Chu soldiers kept firing arrows, dropping rocks, and pouring boiling oil.

Through the gap in the gate, spears stabbed out again and again while crossbow bolts continued shooting through.

But with Fan Li at the front, the Yan soldiers kept throwing themselves into the breach.

They locked themselves there.

Held themselves there.

Some men leapt straight through the opening to fight.

The others remained outside and pushed against the gate.

At first, the soldiers pushing together had shouted:

“One, two!”

“One, two!”

“One, two!”

They used the chant to coordinate their strength.

But Fan Li’s voice was simply too loud.

And after the almost peerless display of ferocity he had just given them, the soldiers’ chant gradually shifted toward his rhythm.

Soon everyone around him was roaring together:

“LEVEL! UP!”

“LEVEL! UP!”

“LEVEL! UP!”

[End of Chapter 538]