“Shang Hu, you have such audacity! Think of all the grain you’ve eaten from my family over the years. Even dogs know to guard and protect their masters, yet you, this traitorous dog, joined the rebel army—you’re worse than a base beast!”
Shang Xi wore an ill-fitting set of heavy armor, gripping a horse-cleaving broadsword. Seeing Shang Hu, who had fled that night, now wearing heavy armor and exposing most of his upper body from outside the crenel, he cursed furiously. Together with three soldiers beside him, he raised his blade and spears to hack and thrust at Shang Hu.
Everyone said Shang Hu possessed tremendous strength. Shang Xi had only known to order him about to do work in the past, thinking nothing of it. Only at this moment did he realize how immense this dog traitor’s strength was. He saw Shang Hu’s body shrink down slightly, then with an iron shield he forcefully blocked three long spears and one straight-spined horse-cleaving broadsword’s thrusts and slashes. Half his body remained motionless before the crenel as if cast in iron.
Immediately after, Shang Hu held the iron shield and swept it leftward. A heavy-tipped spear quickly thrust from the right side. Shang Xi couldn’t dodge in time and was stabbed hard in the chest.
Although his heart-guard mirror blocked the thrust—the half-finger-thick armor plate only showed a deep impression without being penetrated—Shang Xi still felt as if his chest had been hammered heavily.
Though he also enjoyed practicing with staff and spear, it remained only a hobby. Only in life-and-death struggles did he realize how great the gap was before naturally martial people.
Shang Xi’s startled spirit barely settled. He still wanted to stabilize his footing and first beat Shang Hu off the wall, but at this moment over a dozen Chishan Army recruits charged up through the crenels on both sides. Especially the officer wearing greenish-brown heavy armor on the left—the heavy-tipped spear in his hand was both fast and heavy, with unimaginably great power. The two defenders facing him head-on had no defense. One had a bloody hole punched through his chest, his leather armor like torn cloth providing not half a point of extra defense. The other had half his skull split open, white matter flowing out—utterly heart-rending.
That officer jumped through the crenel, back against the battlements, one hand holding a shield, the other hand swinging, knocking back four or five defenders trying to close in. Shang Hu and three other Chishan Army soldiers took the opportunity to jump through the crenel, standing beside the green-armored officer, backs to the wall forming a small defensive formation, trying to open up more space atop the fort wall.
Shang Xi gritted his teeth and charged forward. The heavy-tipped spear in the green-armored officer’s hand drilled toward his chest like a venomous dragon.
Seeing he couldn’t block or parry in time, Shang Xi squatted slightly, still thinking to use the heart-guard mirror to block the thrust, then take the opportunity to raise his blade and slash back.
The jarring sensation of a heavy hammer strike didn’t come. Shang Xi felt a chill at his chest. Looking down, he saw the heart-guard mirror had actually been pierced through by this spear thrust. Half of the chi-long heavy-tipped spear blade had deeply penetrated.
A stronger hand exists beyond the strong. Shang Xi thought Shang Hu was already naturally martial, but didn’t expect that before his eyes, the same heavy-tipped spear in this officer’s hands had even greater power, directly piercing through the heart-guard mirror’s half-finger-thick armor plate.
“Pass spear!” Kong Xirong kicked away Shang Xi who hadn’t completely died yet, opening up a small space on the fort wall before him. While raising his shield to block several arrows shot from afar, he shouted behind him.
Using extreme speed and force to thrust a heavy-tipped spear, breaking through a copper heart-guard mirror thicker than lamellar or scale armor plates wasn’t difficult, but trying to backhand extract the stuck spear was hard. Rather than waste that time, better to directly switch weapons and fight again.
A heavy-tipped spear was passed from behind. Kong Xirong had just received it when wind from the left front swept over. He raised his shield to block, his arm going numb. Looking at the defender who charged up from the side wearing tattered leather armor, his strength was surprisingly great. It was just a pity that besides great strength, this person’s coordination of hands and feet was quite crude, clearly having not undergone long-term refinement in martial skills.
This person possessed only martial courage and strength. After his horse-cleaving broadsword slash achieved nothing, he didn’t know to first guard his own chest and abdomen vital points. Kong Xirong saw over a dozen more defenders charging over from left and right. To conserve strength guarding this battlement entrance, he raised his spear and thrust diagonally at that person’s neck.
“Leopard Head stop! General Kong, show mercy!”
Kong Xirong heard someone behind him shouting in panic. The heavy-tipped spear shifted slightly. When withdrawing, the spear tip dipped down, scraping past this defender’s right arm, tearing a half-finger-deep bloody gash, forcing him to release the horse-cleaving broadsword.
“Whoosh!”
Another sound of wind breaking came. Kong Xirong raised his shield to block, but this time it was a heavy crossbow bolt shot from the watchtower at the left front.
Fortunately, Kong Xirong held a refined iron shield. The fist-sized heavy crossbow bolt forcefully dented the over-one-finger-thick refined iron shield inward but fortunately didn’t pierce through. Kong Xirong was also nearly knocked over by the transmitted immense force.
It was a pity Shang Family Fort defenders only had five bed crossbows. Three had already been destroyed. The remaining two still couldn’t form a lethal threat to the Chishan Army attacking the walls.
Kong Xirong saw that the Shang Family Fort defender whose right arm he had injured and whose weapon he had knocked away surprisingly didn’t retreat but still wanted to pick up the blade to fight. He shook the white ash wood shaft of the heavy-tipped spear and swept it back, knocking that defender back two steps.
At this time, the recruit beside him named Shang Hu who had shouted for him to show mercy charged forward. Bowl-sized fists hammered that defender’s face twice in succession:
“Leopard Head, are you blind? It’s me, Hu’zi! Where are Mother and Little Sister?”
In the chaos of fierce battle, half a point of error couldn’t be tolerated. While that defender was dazed, Kong Xirong again swept over with the spear shaft, striking hard at that defender’s neck, knocking him unconscious.
More and more fierce soldiers from the rear climbed up the city wall using siege ladders. Seven or eight large iron shields weighing dozens of jin were also carried up. Seeing their side had initially gained a foothold atop the fort wall, with the next task being to open up space on both flanks, Kong Xirong no longer fought at the front line but remained at the battlement entrance to supervise the battle.
Only then could he spare time to point at that recruit knocked unconscious on the wall, asking Shang Hu standing nearby: “This is your brother?”
“Thank you General Kong for your mercy in not killing.”
“Your two brothers have good strength, but your hand skills are too crude.” Kong Xirong said dismissively.
The heavy-tipped spears used by the Guards Battalion all had blade edges made from refined iron tempered by secret methods—extremely hard and sharp. With Shang Hu’s great strength, using force appropriately with sufficient speed, he could break through a heart-guard mirror half a finger thick.
Of course, Shang Hu was of servant origin. Unless raised as a household soldier from childhood, even roughly learning fists and feet would be a luxury.
And he had only enlisted twenty days ago, his body still quite emaciated, possessing only strength and martial courage. But given his two brothers one or two years to grow more robust, bitterly practicing martial skills and tempering their bodies, they had the opportunity to become two brave generals!
Kong Xirong himself was the same.
Though from childhood he practiced martial arts under his father Kong Zhou’s strict supervision, after all he hadn’t been tempered on life-and-death battlefields.
In the first several battles at Xuzhou, he too possessed only martial courage, with crude hand and foot skills, not grasping the essence of battlefield combat, his body not tempered to the limit of being cast in iron and poured in bronze.
Back then on the battlefield facing the Xi family brothers from Chenzhou, he was even knocked to the ground. If not for the brave soldiers beside him fighting to protect him, he might have long since died on the battlefield.
Switching to his current self, even if still somewhat inferior to Xi Shehu from back then, he wouldn’t be as wretched as before.
“Hurrah!”
Soon even louder cheers came from below the wall, like surging wild waves, like stirring spring tide. The fort gate had been opened by soldiers who charged down the wall-climbing path.
Shang Family Fort’s terrain was built sixty to seventy meters higher than the surrounding plains. The defenders could naturally clearly see that the Chuzhou Army elite offensive on the flank that they had placed thick hopes in had been mercilessly crushed by the Chishan Army.
This further devastated their already low morale.
No matter what generous reward promises the Shang clan and several other aristocratic families who retreated to defend Shang Family Fort made, at this step it was already impossible to salvage the defeat.
Seeing the north fort gate conquered and opened, with hundreds and thousands of Chishan Army elite charging in, Shang Zhongjie and descendants of several other aristocratic families who had fled to Shang Family Fort to avoid calamity, under protection of a small number of elite retainers, couldn’t wait to flee from the small south gate toward the forest depths of Donglu Mountain. This made the defenders abandoned in the fort even less willing to fight, surrendering their weapons in succession.
Shang Hu’s heart still worried about his mother and little sister in the fort. He also feared his just-awakened brother Leopard Head’s mind wasn’t clear yet and might act rashly again. He wanted to find two familiar comrades to help watch Leopard Head so he could enter the fort to find his mother and little sister.
“Tie a white sweat cloth around his neck!” Kong Xirong pulled a white sweat cloth from his waist and threw it to Shang Hu.
The Chishan Army and Chuzhou Army wore similar military garments and armor. Most recruits didn’t even have military garments, wearing their original tattered robes. In chaotic battle, they mainly distinguished friend from foe by tying white sweat cloths around their necks.
Seeing Kong Xirong tell him to directly tie a white sweat cloth around his brother’s neck—that is, directly agreeing to his brother enlisting—Shang Hu kowtowed, then dragged the still somewhat dazed Leopard Head down the wall-climbing path to search inside for his mother and little sister…
……
……
Han Qian climbed atop Shang Family Fort’s dilapidated north wall, gazing at the steep mountain ravine over a dozen zhang deep to the north. Quite a few soldier corpses had rolled to the ravine bottom, not yet having time to be carried out for burial. He hadn’t expected small Shang Family Fort would still cost the Chishan Army casualties exceeding six hundred men.
Adding the cumulative casualties of fifteen to sixteen hundred over several days on the flanks, the Chishan Army in winning this battle, though not injured to the bone, still suffered casualties exceeding two thousand.
Treating so many wounded would nearly exhaust the medical supplies brought from Xuzhou.
Initially Anning Palace’s blockade of their side wasn’t severe. After all, Han Qian’s first step in Jinling was raiding and destroying Danyang city. Some scarce supplies could still be forcibly rushed through by fast boats. But going forward, Anning Palace would inevitably urge Jiangzhou and Chizhou forces to strengthen their blockade of the Yangtze water routes—before the Five-Fang Army naval forces dared to sail down the river for decisive battle with the Tower Ship Army, trying to transport scarce supplies from Xuzhou via water routes would become extremely difficult.
Shang Family Fort’s north wall section was over a zhang wide at the top, no different from ordinary city walls. But the rammed earth wall core was wrapped in stone strips, built with glutinous rice boiled thin then mixed with lime and clay—even more solid than brick-faced city walls.
Even building ten or twenty whirlwind catapults, without half a month one couldn’t hope to bombard out large breaches.
No wonder several aristocratic families on both sides had confidence fleeing to Shang Family Fort rather than escaping to Lishui city.
But the danger of fortifications lies in people’s hearts.
This was a simple truth that most people could understand upon hearing but couldn’t truly comprehend.
Li Pu, accompanied by Yao Xishui and Zhang Ping whose left arm disability made riding fast horses inconvenient and who fell behind, arrived at Shang Family Fort. The general situation here was already settled.
They climbed the fort walls, walking to Han Qian’s side. Seeing the Chishan Army had already organized the transfer of women and children from Maoshan’s southern foothills toward Shang Family Fort, then hearing Han Qian standing atop the wall instructing Guards Battalion Deputy Commander Wei Chang—he was to lead four hundred crossbow cavalry to penetrate south deep into northern Xuanzhou near Jilong Mountain for operations.
This battle would greatly intimidate aristocratic families in surrounding counties. Probably not one aristocratic family would dare independently defend their fort. For them, withdrawing with descendants and a small number of elite household troop retainers into prefectural and county cities before the Chishan Army’s military front arrived was the inevitable choice.
Han Qian ordering Wei Chang to lead crossbow cavalry to penetrate to the Jilong Mountain northern foothills line was to intimidate those aristocratic families wanting to flee south into Xuanzhou city, preventing them from taking away too much grain and other bulk supplies.
Grain was always one eternal theme of war.
Li Pu looked at the wooden arrow towers on both corners—both collapsed halfway—but the wall-protecting shed above the north fort gate, with stone-piled walls on four sides, suffered almost no damage in the battle. It appeared the fighting here wasn’t as intense as imagined.
This young upstart still successfully captured Shang Family Fort!
In Li Pu’s heart, it felt as if many ant-insects were crawling and gnawing—not painful, but inexpressibly uncomfortable and displeasing.
Shang Family Fort alone gathered over ten thousand servants from various families, from which over two thousand more able-bodied young men could be obtained. Plus this battle’s momentum was much greater than previous small skirmishes, forcing surrounding large and small aristocratic clans to flee to prefectural and county cities with large troop garrisons. More servants, without master family supervision, would even more unrestrained gather toward the Maoshan and Donglu Mountain line. Hard to imagine that in another month, to what degree would the Chishan Army’s military strength continue expanding?
At that step, Han Qian would truly have the strength to nail himself in Maoshan and contend with the Chuzhou Army and Anning Palace, wouldn’t he?
“My Lord!”
At this time a soldier wearing scale armor, body stained with blood not yet having time to wash up, passed below the wall and happily called up to the fort wall.
“You found your mother and younger siblings?” Han Qian asked.
“Found them! This is my brother Leopard Head. General Kong permitted him to enlist atop the wall, and moreover to directly serve at your side, my Lord.” Shang Hu answered from below the wall, very happy and excited that Han Qian still remembered his family matters.
“Good. First take him to familiarize himself with the situation. When I came over I heard Diao the One-Eyed say he wanted to pass on his ancestral Tongyang Diao family spear to you. I also heard General Kong say your brother has extreme strength—one blade slash made his arm numb for a good while. When you get a chance, lead your brother together to find Diao the One-Eyed and learn his family’s Diao spear technique. See if he’s boasting.” Han Qian said.
Li Pu looked with considerable envy toward the two brave general prospects below the fort wall, especially that armored soldier who called out the greeting, bouncing around energetically. His body covered in fresh blood demonstrated his distinguished battle merit in this fight.
Whether the former Wuling Army or the current Xuzhou provincial battalion or Chishan Army, those who could truly be called brave generals were extremely few.
After all, household troop descendants and Left Bureau descendants were all of refugee origin with poor physical foundations. The probability of producing brave generals was naturally low. Zhao Wuji, Lin Haizheng, Lin Zongjing, Wei Chang—three to five people were all extremely rare brave generals. Others were more familiar with military affairs and formations. It was impossible for all fifty-plus Han family household troop descendants and five hundred-plus Left Bureau descendants to individually be brave generals of one against ten, one in a hundred.
Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and others had foundations from before. Including Zhou Chu, they were over forty years old—their bodies began declining. They served as vice commanders with their rich and experienced military administration experience.
Feng Xuan and Yang Qin had martial courage, but only of the sort that dominated the countryside.
Kong Xirong was called the Chishan Army’s foremost brave general, yet wasn’t regarded by the Li Xiu and Li Qi cousins.
However, among the servants who came to surrender at Maoshan these days, especially those who dared be runaway households in the early period, there were indeed several brave general prospects capable of lifting three to four hundred jin stone weights.
Of course, more embarrassing for Li Pu than this was that Han Qian’s insistence on capturing Shang Family Fort would make his reputation increasingly illustrious. Even the drawbacks of conscripting servants into the army and making enemies of aristocratic families were temporarily covered up considerably. What was more embarrassing was that they on the western flank remained completely without achievement—the garrison troops of Lishui city simply lacked the courage to emerge from the city for battle.
“This moment may be an excellent opportunity to forcibly seize Lishui city. Can we give Li Xiu and them a chance to perform?” After hesitating for a long time, Li Pu finally resolved to ask.
Yao Xishui also stared intently at Han Qian.
This world was full of unfairness, but sometimes it was also very fair.
Li Xiu and Li Qi were born into military aristocracy and could normally not regard generals of peasant origins. But without battle merit, speaking ultimately lacked firmness.
Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and the Divine Tomb Office faction behind them could be considered to have deep enough roots in Yueyang. But in this chaotic era of rampaging military commanders, unable to establish illustrious battle merit on the battlefield, their foundations could never be considered solid.
For Li Pu to compete with him for say in Yueyang, he couldn’t possibly not fight a single hard battle.
In this chaotic era of rampaging military commanders, people always bullied the weak and feared the strong. Say also belonged to the stronger party.
Han Qian glanced sideways at Li Pu. After pondering for a moment, he seemed to nod very casually and say: “Alright!”
“Wanhong Tower has some deployments inside Lishui city, but still needs to borrow some troops from you to attract the garrison’s attention.” Li Pu said shamelessly.
Besides one battalion of Southern Court Imperial Guards, Lishui city also had county troops and clan soldiers gathered by local aristocratic families, totaling two thousand defenders.
Normally speaking, apart from reserve forces, the four gates—east, west, south, north—usually had about three hundred troops guarding them.
Even if Li Pu and his men had already infiltrated over a hundred elite troops into Lishui city through Wanhong Tower, capable of suddenly launching assault from inside when the garrison was unprepared, the gate-seizing battle would still be extremely intense—not necessarily successful in seizing the gate.
To ensure absolute certainty, Li Pu still needed Han Qian to lend him some troops to deploy for a feint attack on one side of Lishui city, attracting the defenders’ attention.
“Then please Director Zhang and Commander Gao lead two battalions of troops under Marquis Li’s command.” Han Qian said. Right now the Chuzhou Army hadn’t reacted yet. Their eastern flank temporarily had no pressure. To attack Lishui city, sooner was better than later. He also didn’t haggle with Li Pu over anything, directly ordering Gao Shao to lead two battalions to coordinate with their operations.
Though guessing that Han Qian was happy to see them capture and defend Lishui city, sharing pressure on the right flank for the Chishan Army’s foothold in Maoshan, Han Qian being so cooperative without half a point of obstruction—Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and Yao Xishui were still quite surprised. After standing stunned for a moment, they clasped hands toward Gao Shao saying: “We trouble Commander Gao.”
“It’s nothing…” Gao Shao clasped hands back with a laugh. Anyway he was going to be a bystander. If the Prince’sMansion elite could drive the chaotic troops out of the city, the green recruits could still get opportunities for field combat practice. There was nothing worth declining.