Chapter 967: National War (V)

The rain showed no sign of stopping. It was as though Heaven itself intended to hibernate, emptying everything out early so it would not need to rise in the night. For all living things below, however, it was another kind of torment. More tormenting still was the realization that this had only been the prelude.

A flock of crows flew over the walls of Guyue City, found a high perch inside, and settled there. Along the battlements, rows of Chu soldiers still stood in dense, orderly formation, firmly proclaiming the dignity of this important military stronghold. Yet inside the military camps within the city, there were scarcely any people to be seen.

The greater a city’s military importance, the fewer ordinary civilians it usually contained. Guyue City was a rear defensive barrier. In truth, almost no idle civilians lived inside it in the first place; soldiers were the ones who normally filled its streets. But now the entire city was frighteningly quiet. Even counting the troops still standing watch atop the walls, this great military stronghold was, beyond dispute, an empty city.

Xie Yuque walked along the battlements on patrol. His hand gripped the hilt of his saber, and layer after layer of sweat had already soaked into the wrapping.

Ten days had passed beyond the date the Clan Head had promised. By rights, ten days earlier an imperial-clan Imperial Guard force should have arrived to take over Guyue City’s defense. Yet now... where were they?

When the deadline first passed, Xie Yuque could still console himself. Military deployments sometimes suffered mistakes or delays. That was understandable. But how could any mistake last ten whole days?

Xie Yuque turned and looked north.

The Clan Head had led the Xie Clan Army north long ago to pursue the Savage army. According to what the Clan Head had told everyone, besides the Xie Clan Army there would also be one hundred and fifty thousand imperial-clan Imperial Guards and another fifty thousand noble private troops led primarily by the Zhao Clan attacking the Savage army from both wings. The aim was to use this opportunity to eliminate the threat of Fan City once and for all and retake the Mount Meng defensive line.

Messengers from the front had already reported that the Chu army had completed a massive encirclement of the Yan force. What remained would be an annihilation battle.

Xie Yuque did not believe it.

Even though the messenger had been one of his adoptive father’s personal guards, he still did not believe it. There was no reason hundreds of thousands of troops could be gathering in the north for an annihilation battle while no one spared the slightest thought for this nearly empty Guyue City.

Pulling back ten thousand men... no, even five thousand elite troops to help defend this place should have been obvious. Yet why, after waiting here for so many days, had he not seen a single reinforcement?

Following that logic, what about the great encirclement in the north? The imperial-clan Imperial Guards? The Zhao Clan troops?

Had they actually come at all?

...

“There are no reinforcements.”

Xie Zhuyang said this to the assembled clan generals and adopted sons kneeling before him.

Everyone stared in shock. The blunt, honest types—fierce generals by temperament—showed more surprise. Those who possessed more strategic sense and were better at observing details found the revelation somewhat easier to accept.

In truth, sign after sign had already pointed toward it.

If nearly two hundred thousand troops truly existed on the eastern and western wings, why had they still not launched the final assault against the Savage army? Were they genuinely planning to wait until the Savages laid down their weapons and surrendered voluntarily?

Any veteran commander understood the danger of delay. How could Xie Zhuyang, Clan Head of the Xie Clan and a Pillar of State of Great Chu, make such an obvious mistake?

“Gentlemen... this old man has wronged you.”

Xie Zhuyang stood, placed one hand against his chest, and bowed deeply.

For a moment, the generals below did not know how to react. Some immediately kowtowed. Others rose and tried to stop him.

The private armies of great clans were an extremely primitive military structure. They possessed all kinds of weaknesses and defects, but anything that survived for so long had its reason. And the greatest reason for their existence was cohesion.

At present, the main Yan army had already arrived on the outer perimeter and completed a full encirclement of the Chu force. Under those circumstances, if reinforcements truly existed, they would still possess the strength to fight. Even in the worst possible outcome, the army could retreat while fighting and try to make its way back toward Guyue City.

But that possibility depended entirely upon those nearly two hundred thousand troops existing on their flanks.

If those two hundred thousand men did not exist, then the Xie Clan Army would be swallowed so completely by a Yan force several times its size that not even scraps remained.

More absurd still, the Xie Clan Army itself had already been divided into northern and southern sections. The Savage army they had previously surrounded had instead become the barrier cutting the Xie Clan Army cleanly in two.

The situation could hardly have been worse. One could even say that almost every person present had already been sentenced to death.

In any other army, what commander would dare deceive his subordinate generals this way? Who would dare lead everyone knowingly toward death? Who would dare personally deliver all their lives onto the road to the Yellow Springs?

If a superior dared do something like that, the men below would dare rebel on the spot.

But he was Xie Zhuyang.

And the army beneath him was the Xie Clan Army.

The generals present were either members of the Xie bloodline or adopted sons. Ask them to rebel against the Clan Head? How could that possibly happen?

If the main branch had declined for generations, its authority weakened while collateral branches had grown powerful, then under circumstances like these perhaps someone might seize the opportunity and replace it. But reality was nothing like that.

Even so, one question lay heavily in everyone’s heart.

Why?

Xie Zhuyang stepped back several paces and sat again in his commander’s seat.

“For a hundred years, my Xie Clan has held one of the four Pillar of State seats, yet we have never been admitted among Great Chu’s Four Great Noble Clans. Why? Because the Xie Clan dominates southern Chu and intermarries with the Shanyue. What Prince Ding has done in Wutong Commandery, the Xie Clan has been doing for a hundred years! They say my Xie Clan harbors disloyal ambitions, and so they guard against us at every turn. Yes. Yes. Yes! Your father here has a son that clever. My son... why shouldn’t he get a chance to sit on Great Chu’s Dragon Throne? I am his father. A father naturally wants to leave his son the very best he possibly can.”

“But the problem is... when the nest is overturned, how can any egg remain whole? The realm of Great Chu is already on the verge of being trampled into pieces beneath Yan hooves. What use would that Dragon Throne be then? Should I make my son, make my Yu’an, a puppet emperor under the Yan? Of the Four Pillars of State, three are gone. The Four Great Noble Clans have all declined. Only our Xie Clan has preserved most of its strength. Eight hundred years ago, the ancestors of the Xie Clan followed the Marquis of Chu and opened the lands of Chu. What magnificence that was! And now, the mountains and rivers of Great Chu are on the verge of shattering. Do we still possess any sense of our ancestors’ honor and shame?”

“What did Yan rely upon to rise? Their Prince Zhenbei personally dismantled the century-old foundation his ancestors had built. Their Prince Jingnan exterminated his own household and exiled himself alone. They were willing to give something up first. That is why Yan possesses what it has today. If those Yan barbarians could do it, then why can’t we Chu people? Why can’t the Xie Clan? Why can’t I, Xie Zhuyang?”

“Right now, the main Yan army has already been drawn here. That means Yu’an’s side has become much easier. It means he has an opportunity. The key to this Yan-Chu national war is not here. Not at Guyue City. It lies at the Wei River, on the three-commandery front, in Shanggu Commandery, at Zhennan Pass! As long as we win there, we can drive the Yan all the way back into Jin in one stroke. Great Chu will stand again! In this contest for All Xia, Great Chu will still have a seat at the table!”

“Whether you agree or not, I am sitting right here. And I am telling you plainly: every last one of you has been sold by me. No. I sold myself too. Hahahahahahaha! Live or die... it no longer matters. You have eaten the Xie Clan’s rice, drunk the Xie Clan’s water, worn the Xie Clan’s clothes. So for the Xie Clan... die!”

By the end, Xie Zhuyang’s eyes were already red.

He pointed around the command tent, then finally pointed toward himself.

“I will sit right here. Anyone who wants to kill me for revenge may come forward. No one else is permitted to stop him. Those willing to follow me to death, go wipe your blades. Feed your horses. This old man will fight one final battle against the Yan together with all of you!”

Silence lasted for a time.

Then the generals rose one after another and walked out of the command tent.

“Gather the troops!”

“Form ranks!”

“Prepare for battle!”

Outside, military orders began sounding one after another.

“I am surprised, Clan Head Xie. You have made me look at you in an entirely new light.”

The little girl stepped out from behind Xie Zhuyang again.

“You flatter me.”

“No. To speak frankly, we ourselves are nothing more than a pack of stinking rats hiding in corners, indulging in fantasies of taking a share of soup that may never have belonged to us. A hero like you... perhaps you cannot defeat me in a fight, but you will always stand taller than I do.”

“Thank you.”

“No. We should be thanking you. You allowed us to see hope in the greater momentum again. Truthfully, we have done nothing from the beginning. We have not helped in any real way. But now the two of us can at least make you one promise. For your son’s sake, and for the magnificent spirit you just showed, when the Yan army comes, the two of us will do everything we can to protect you and help you escape.”

“That is why you do not understand us,” Xie Zhuyang said. “You truly do not understand.”

“Oh?”

“Sansuo Commandery once had a Governor named Xu Weichang. When the Yan invaded, he had the chance to leave early. He refused. Before dying, he submitted one final memorial accusing His Majesty of error. He said His Majesty looked too far ahead and behind, that he cared too much about little calculations. He won the court, yet nearly lost the realm. But Xu Weichang was never cursing His Majesty alone. What he cursed was all of Great Chu. Why can the Yan do what Chu cannot? Why can the Emperor of Yan share the realm with his Regent Prince in pursuit of one great undertaking, while we Chu people cannot? Ai...”

“But you are important. If you can avoid dying, then you should.”

“Of course I understand that principle.”

Xie Zhuyang reached up and patted his own forehead, then laughed.

“But that speech just now got your father here so worked up that I almost frightened myself along with everyone else. Damn it. I truly never expected that I could have a moment this righteous and impassioned, thinking only of the country. You two should flee. And while you are fleeing, kill as many Yan soldiers as you can for us. Take every advantage you can. As for me... I am staying. I won’t shamelessly spout bullshit about sacrificing myself for righteousness. The truth is simply that I never studied much when I was young. I can read, but I never read many books. So I have to die. If I don’t die, wouldn’t all the time and effort I spent these past few days piecing together that magnificent speech have been completely wasted? Oh. There is one sentence I haven’t had a chance to shout yet. That one is the true essence. Want to hear it?”

“I am all ears.”

“When the Yan army surrounds me layer upon layer, I am going to stand up and roar: Zheng Fan, you little bastard! Haven’t you always bragged that you were one head short of completing the set? Come! Come! I’ll personally deliver this head of mine to you... and complete the damned set!”

[End of Chapter 967]