“General!”
A scout came to report: “General Gao Zhen sent word — the enemy attempted a forced crossing upstream but has been repelled.”
Tang Pidi nodded. That stretch of the great river was the most suitable place to cross. Further upstream, the waterway narrowed considerably, but the current was too swift, and both banks lacked gentle slopes, making crossing extremely difficult.
Gao Zhen’s message reported that the Tianming Army had sent men with crossbow carts to the opposite bank, firing heavy bolts aimed at the trees on this side of the riverbank. The heavy bolts had ropes tied to them; once they struck the large trees, the men on the far bank pulled the ropes taut, then sent men crawling across hand over hand.
This maneuver was naturally perilous, with little guarantee anyone could make it across — seven or eight out of ten would fall and drown.
After their men crossed over, they used thinner ropes to pull the thick ropes prepared on the far bank across to this side, then secured them and laid wooden planks over the ropes, walking across suspended in the air.
Gao Zhen discovered this and slaughtered the Tianming Army scouts who had already crossed, then severed the ropes.
The Tianming Army had overwhelming numbers, and they clearly intended to try every possible method of crossing.
Tang Pidi still harbored some concern about the upstream area, which was why he had dispatched Gao Zhen to patrol there. Yet he seemed completely unconcerned about the downstream.
However, roughly several dozen li downstream from the Ning Army’s position, there was another location that was relatively suitable for crossing.
Here the river was even wider, with numerous hidden currents, making crossing extremely difficult — yet the Tianming Army had clearly not given up.
They shuttled their boats back and forth, ferrying troops to the northern bank.
Commanding the forces here was one of Yang Xuanji’s great generals — Pei Fanglun, formerly a Third-Rank General of Great Chu.
This man had originally served as the General of the Right Garrison Guard. After being bought over by Yang Xuanji, he had initially planned to bring the entire Right Garrison Guard over with him.
However, Prince Wu Yang Jiju had discovered the plot, and the Prince moved with thunderous swiftness, immediately preparing to strike.
Pei Fanglun received word and fled in the dead of night, taking only a few dozen personal guards — he hadn’t even been able to look after his wife and children.
His entire family, young and old, were put to death by Prince Wu. The Right Garrison Guard was transferred into Prince Wu’s command.
This left Pei Fanglun even more resolute. After defecting to Yang Xuanji, he threw himself enthusiastically into the cause of raising arms.
In the campaign to attack Jingzhou, this man had rendered distinguished service — leading the forces he had personally trained, he captured dozens of cities large and small in one fell swoop.
In every city he took, anyone with even the slightest connection to Prince Wu was killed without exception.
Pei Fanglun was barely forty years old. He knew full well that with his abilities, it was not impossible to fight his way into Daxing and have his revenge. Moreover, Yang Xuanji had the bearing of a wise ruler — if a new empire could be established, the title of founding duke would certainly be his.
And so, just before the battle began, he had strongly urged Yang Xuanji to allow him to lead troops on a flanking route downstream.
Traveling fifty or sixty li downstream before finding a suitable crossing, fording there, circling back around, and then rushing to the battlefield — this would clearly cut it close for time.
But Yang Xuanji was not short of men or commanders. If Pei Fanglun successfully crossed downstream, it would allow them to envelop the Ning Army from two sides.
So Yang Xuanji granted his request, letting Pei Fanglun take roughly forty thousand elite garrison troops on the flanking route.
To avoid detection by the Ning Army, a shorter detour would be useless — they would certainly be spotted. The route of over fifty li was roughly the outer limit of the Ning Army’s scouting range.
They hadn’t even sent boats down the river in advance to wait — to keep their movements covert, all the vessels they needed were transported overland to this location.
By now, three to five thousand of Pei Fanglun’s troops had already crossed to the northern bank, rapidly establishing a defensive position.
With forty thousand men, ferrying back and forth on those fishing boats — how could the pace possibly be fast? So Pei Fanglun was particularly anxious, constantly urging his men to cross faster.
On the main front.
Yang Xuanji himself had approached the riverbank in person. Though he had not disembarked, the Tianming Army troops already ashore could see exactly where he was.
He had ordered many war drums brought and arranged on the boats in the waterway. As the signal sounded, the drums on each vessel began beating in unison.
At least several hundred drums thundering at once — the momentum was truly tremendous.
The drumbeats served as military orders. Columns of spearmen began advancing forward; their task was to shield the heavily armored Black Cord Army behind them from the Ning Army’s cavalry.
Xun Youjiu had predicted that Tang Pidi might sacrifice some of his warhorses.
The Ning Army might try to drive warhorses into the Tianming Army formations, or tie firecrackers to the horses’ tails, or use some other means — in any case, their goal was to press the heavy armor into the river channel.
Spearmen were the most formidable weapon against cavalry charges. No matter how many horsemen came, crashing into a spear formation was suicide.
Yet the area where their spearmen could form up was impossibly narrow — five rows at most. Yang Xuanji, fearing excessive spearmen casualties, had suggested adding two rows of shield bearers.
Thus the five-row formation became: one row of shield bearers, two rows of spearmen, one row of shields, and one final row of spearmen.
Because of the narrow terrain, their formation hadn’t fully taken shape when the Ning Army’s crossbow carts began their assault.
Urged on by the Tianming Army officers, the lightly armed infantry started pushing forward.
At first, heavy bolts swept across in a volley — even great shields couldn’t block them. Bolts as thick as a man’s calf struck the shields and smashed straight through, piercing the men behind.
Fortunately the number of crossbow carts was limited, so the advance wasn’t slowed by much.
Pushing further forward, the Ning Army’s archers began loosing arrows — a sky-blotting storm of white-feathered shafts that was devastatingly lethal to unarmored spearmen.
The Tianming Army had vast numbers. For every man who fell, another stepped up to fill the gap, striving to keep the spear formation intact.
After the spearmen had advanced roughly thirty zhang, the heavily armored Black Cord Army began forming up.
They wore extraordinarily heavy armor and carried razor-sharp, imposing *modao* blades. Having never known defeat, each of them wore an expression of faint arrogance.
Meanwhile, roughly seventy or eighty li from the battlefield.
Li Chi and the grain-transport convoy had reached that location. Li Chi sat up and looked around, his expression somewhat puzzled.
He turned to Cao Lie: “Do you remember this place?”
Cao Lie followed his gaze, and after a moment, found himself equally puzzled.
He furrowed his brow: “How strange — I remember when we passed through here before, this was a vast bamboo grove. Now it’s bare, with barely any bamboo left.”
Li Chi said: “It seems I wasn’t mistaken. This was indeed a bamboo grove.”
He jumped down from the wagon and ran to the side of the road to examine things closely, discovering that the bamboo had been cut down not long ago.
This bamboo was tall and straight; the smallest stalks at the base were as thick as a thigh, the largest as thick as a waist. When they had passed through before, Li Chi had even remarked that such an enormous bamboo grove could give one the illusion of being in the Jiangnan region.
“Your spendthrift man cut it all down, didn’t he?”
Cao Lie looked at Li Chi and asked.
Li Chi nodded, thinking — who else could it have been? But why had old Tang cut down such a vast bamboo grove?
“Move faster.”
Li Chi returned to the convoy and called out loudly.
On the battlefield.
The Tianming Army had advanced some fifty zhang — a distance purchased with the lives of countless soldiers.
Behind them, the heavily armored Black Cord Army began moving forward in a disciplined column; seen from the side, they were like one iron wall after another sliding forward as one.
A sight of overwhelming, awe-inspiring power.
To become a heavily armored soldier, the requirements were exceptionally strict — sufficient height and sufficient strength were essential.
To forge this heavy armored force, Yang Xuanji had expended resources nearly equivalent to his entire five-year income from Shuzhou.
Aboard the great ship, watching the heavy armor push forward, a glint of satisfaction appeared in Yang Xuanji’s eyes.
Even now, Tang Pidi had not sent out cavalry — clearly he feared the spear formation.
After all, light cavalry charging into a spear formation was simply throwing oneself onto the spearheads.
The mere thought of Tang Pidi being utterly helpless filled Yang Xuanji’s heart with a certain pleasure.
But just then, black dots began appearing in the sky one by one. When Yang Xuanji saw them, his heart leapt straight to his throat.
*What the hell — again?!*
Xun Youjiu’s eyes also snapped wide open. He had estimated that the Ning Army’s boulder-launching weapons were exhausted, yet here they were again — his heart gave a sharp lurch.
Yet this time, what fell was not boulders — it was wooden barrels.
A barrel plummeted from height, striking a heavily armored soldier with a crash, knocking the man flat on the ground. The barrel immediately shattered.
Seeing this, Xun Youjiu’s heart lurched again.
He knew the Ning Army excelled at fire attacks and possessed a type of burning oil capable of rapidly creating seas of flame. If the Ning Army were attacking in this manner, there was indeed a chance of driving back the heavy armor.
Yet in a place like this, fire attacks seemed somewhat impractical.
The great river lay behind them, the ground underfoot wasn’t dry, and the riverbank was mostly moist, soft earth — fire oil would be largely useless.
“It’s water!”
A soldier in heavy armor shouted.
“Water barrels?”
Xun Youjiu grew even more puzzled.
What use were water barrels?
A single water barrel weighed several dozen jin. Striking one armored soldier could injure only one person at most — might not even kill him.
In an instant Xun Youjiu understood: the Ning Army’s stone-throwing weapons were limited in number and certainly wore out quickly. If they continued launching boulders weighing several hundred jin, those machines might not hold out much longer.
So Tang Pidi had ordered his men to replace the stones with water barrels — yet this level of attack was genuinely meaningless.
The barrels continued flying over one by one — about twenty at a time. After landing amid the heavy armor formation, very few were still striking anyone.
“Ha ha ha ha!”
Yang Xuanji burst out laughing aboard his ship: “Tang Pidi truly has nothing left! Sound the horns — order the advance to accelerate!”
The horn call immediately rang out. The five rows of lightly armed infantry in front broke into a run, charging forward through the rain of arrows.
Meanwhile on the Ning Army’s side, they continued doing what appeared to be a completely meaningless task — launching water barrels one by one into the Tianming Army’s formation.
“General!”
A scout came galloping with a report, clasping his fist at Zhuang Wudi: “The enemy’s heavy armor has advanced to fifty zhang before the center command — the Grand General still has not given the order to attack.”
Zhuang Wudi’s face was taut with anxiety. Without the Grand General’s signal, neither he nor Cheng Wujie could act rashly.
“Report!”
Another scout came galloping in: “General — the enemy’s heavy armor is beginning to spread outward to both flanks!”
Zhuang Wudi turned to glance at his men, his admiration for Tang Pidi beyond all words.
When Grand General Tang Pidi had arranged for him and Cheng Wujie to take defensive positions on the left and right flanks, Tang Pidi had told them both: when the Tianming Army’s heavy armor launched its assault, they would be forced — due to the terrain — to extend outward to the flanks. It was the only way to make room for more heavy armor behind them.
So the signal wasn’t some flare or firework from the Grand General’s side — it was simply waiting for the enemy’s heavy armor to deploy left and right.
“The victory or defeat of this battle rests entirely with us!”
Zhuang Wudi dismounted from his horse, bent down, and grabbed a bamboo pole at least three zhang long, let out a roar, and charged toward the enemy.
The reason they had formed up at a hundred zhang’s distance was not only to force the Tianming Army into a narrow strip of terrain — it was also to conceal their weapons.
No *hengdao*, no bows, no spears or lances. Only bamboo poles several zhang long.
One man couldn’t run while carrying one alone — so two men carried a pole between them.
Their objective: smash into the heavy armor.
—