Once Cui Shaoting made his move, he firmly grasped Suzhou City in his hands.
It took him only six days to capture Suzhou City—the Commander-in-Chief of Suzhou had no preparation whatsoever. No one had expected that the Governor-General of the Three Borders, who had previously seemed so dispirited as if he could be wiped out by Han Zhengqing at any moment, would suddenly strike with explosive force. And on New Year’s Eve night no less, when every household was still celebrating the New Year! Though there was fighting, Suzhou City wasn’t any kind of strategic location, and with Han Zhengqing backing them from behind, no one had imagined that Cui Shaoting, who had been suppressed without any ability to fight back, would choose this moment to attack.
The first thing Cui Shaoting did upon breaking in was to kill the Commander-in-Chief of Suzhou and the Prefect of Suzhou. Not only did he kill those two, he also wiped out their entire families in one go and hung them all on the city gates for public display.
Liu Yongtong had tried to advise him: “What if they surrender…”
The Commander-in-Chief of Guyuan understood Cui Shaoting’s meaning. As soon as Liu Yongtong began to speak, he said: “We’ve been suppressed and beaten for nearly half a year. This is our first victorious battle. The momentum can only be the greater the better… Moreover, war involves more than just killing. By doing this, the Governor-General is震慑 those traitors who submitted to Han Zhengqing—it’s extremely necessary.”
Besides, Cui Shaoting had not committed any acts of violence against the common people of Suzhou. On the contrary, he strictly disciplined his subordinates, absolutely forbidding them from harassing the civilians. Now, after several days of chaos, Suzhou City had settled down again and become quiet once more.
After all, the people would live the same regardless of who governed them, and with Cui Shaoting holding authority as someone from the imperial court, it was always better than becoming two-legged sheep in the eyes of those Tartars. The common people spread the word joyfully, celebrating. After several days of warfare, Suzhou City instead brimmed with strong festivity, even livelier than New Year’s Eve.
Liu Yongtong was so excited his face bore a smile. Han Zhengqing was an extremely sinister and vicious person. His rebellion had been calculated in advance—how to lure foreign enemies to invade, how he had preemptively placed his own people in many locations. Where he hadn’t placed people, he used every trick imaginable: those who could be bribed were bribed, and those who couldn’t be bribed he targeted through themselves or their children and relatives. On top of this, he had colluded with Prince Gong and had Prince Gong’s manpower. Almost all of the northwestern prefectures and towns had already fallen into his grasp. Cui Shaoting, as Governor-General of the Three Borders, had been holding on with great difficulty. Now winning big in the very first battle was truly inspiring and uplifting.
“We must send a victory report!” He rolled up his sleeves, eager to try: “I’ll go write the memorial!”
The Commander-in-Chief of Guyuan sighed: “But it may not get through. Right now we’ve only captured one Suzhou—we’re still in their pocket.”
Cui Shaoting was not discouraged. He laughed and slapped the table: “If there’s a first, there’ll be a second. Even if we’re in their pocket, we can still tear open that pocket! Alright, it’s the New Year. The common people are happy, so let’s celebrate too. Let’s make dumplings! Extra rations today!”
Guyuan’s grain supplies had been stretched nearly to their limit over the past half year. Fortunately, Suzhou was a small granary. Having taken Suzhou this time, they could at least hold out for another period. Governor-General Cui was right—when the cart reaches the mountain, there will be a way through. Everyone voiced their agreement.
Yecha, blocked in Qingzhou City, was dumbfounded. Looking at Suzhou City with its changed banners and altered allegiance, his face turned iron-blue. Since breaking into Datong, he had been unstoppable all the way. Up until now he had barely encountered any resistance. He had been completely convinced this would be an excellent beginning for him to lead the grassland warriors in attacking the Great Zhou, and had even begun to fantasize about reviving the glory of his ancestors, trampling the Great Zhou under his feet and making the Great Zhou Emperor pay tribute year after year—in fact, this wasn’t his wild fantasy; these were his conditions for helping Prince Gong seize the throne. Everything had been going smoothly, but unexpectedly, Cui Shaoting, who had previously been suppressed as if he had no power to fight back, had suddenly erupted. Yecha viciously kicked the messenger, but his reaction was quite quick: “Go back quickly, go back quickly!”
This Cui Shaoting, though he’d been in a slump recently, had always been Yecha’s greatest worry—before Cui Shaoting came to the northwest, Yecha had picked up quite a few advantages. During border markets, he’d use inferior horses to trade for silks, satins, iron implements and such. Along the way he’d employed countless small tricks, and when he sold good horses to the court, he also had ways to have them properly fattened and sent back to him intact… But after Cui Shaoting arrived, the border markets closed, Yang Xuan and others who had been transporting war horses back for him died, and the city walls in these northwestern areas were built higher and higher, stronger and stronger… This was someone who couldn’t be offended, so Yecha had been quite well-behaved for several years. If not for Han Zhengqing actively opening the gates at Datong where he was stationed, and with them having internal strife of their own, Yecha truly wouldn’t have dared to attack.
As soon as he puzzled over why Cui Shaoting’s attack so coincidentally targeted Suzhou, his face went white—this was to cut off his retreat and trap them all here.
Once he was trapped here, his remaining forces would be leaderless, like headless flies bumping around everywhere. How cunning! He hastily ordered his troops to assemble, wanting to run back.
But halfway through the retreat, he regretted it. Why was he running? Suzhou City was only so big—how many men could Cui Shaoting have? He had twenty thousand cavalry—he might not necessarily lose to them!
Having regretted it, naturally he had to get serious. He guessed he had perhaps fallen into Cui Shaoting’s trap, but so what? Hard power was right here. He wasn’t afraid of Cui Shaoting’s schemes—he could still breach Suzhou and swagger off to meet up with Han Zhengqing, then advance northward together.
Full of aggression, on the night of the ninth day of the New Year, he launched a surprise attack, determined to give Cui Shaoting a taste of his own medicine.
But this time, for the first time, he suffered a setback before the Great Zhou soldiers—that fellow Cui Shaoting had long ago buried explosives ten li outside the city gates. They had already lost a group of men ten li from Suzhou’s city gates.
Regroup and try again. He planned to leave a group of men to deceive the city-defending soldiers while circling around Suzhou City to attack from the north, but was beaten to a pulp by the Commander-in-Chief of Guyuan who had long been lying in ambush with his men.
Cui Shaoting! Disheveled and covered in dust, having eaten a mouthful of sand, Yecha spat out his saliva and cursed through gritted teeth: “Shameless!”
After cursing, he discovered his teeth ached sharply from the windblown sand that had been blown into his mouth. He hastily covered his mouth and looked toward Suzhou City from afar.
He couldn’t attack by force—this was his current thinking. Cui Shaoting had attacked Suzhou first, clearly well-prepared, and had accurately anticipated his own reactions step by step…
Cui Shaoting, who had received word, was also on the city wall looking from afar at where Yecha’s troops were stationed, his face bearing a smile, though that smile didn’t reach his eyes at all.
This was only just the beginning.
Han Zhengqing in Jingzhou also received the news. He waved his hand to dismiss two beautiful maidservants who looked extremely similar to the elder and younger Madams Fan. His gaze lowered heavily, his expression revealing neither joy nor anger.