Just entering the eleventh month, the first snow after winter’s arrival fell on the Jianghuai plains north of Chao’s bank.
The two opposing hostile forces confronting each other across Huaixi’s land both had no natural defenses to rely on, which also destined both sides to be doubly on edge after entering winter.
After several setbacks, Shouzhou Army still organized over ten thousand cavalry. With streams and rivers frozen and the Huaixi plains vast and flat without towering mountain ridges to obstruct, conditions were most favorable for cavalry to rapidly maneuver and penetrate. How could Tangyi’s northern flank defense lines dare relax even half a measure?
And last year Han Qian had used ice and snow as cover to lead surprise attack forces penetrating deep into the Huaiyang Mountains. This year Shouzhou Army’s wounds had not yet healed—how could they dare be even slightly negligent?
Almost after entering winter, both sides assembled garrison troops and supply troops that ordinarily bore heavy production duties. Various counties also assembled militia forces on an even larger scale. In the frozen snow and ice they took up bows, crossbows, sabers, and halberds to drill, preparing troops and horses for battle that could erupt at any moment.
Beyond the tense situation on the eastern flank of the Huaiyang Mountains, across a thousand li of the Huaiyang Mountains’ northern slopes, peaks and ravines crisscrossed beneath heavy snow. North Lateral Gorge was named after a north-south running stream valley on the northern slope of the Huaiyang Mountains.
Apart from briefly gathering mountain floods with rather turbulent water势 during summer and autumn when rainfall was abundant, North Lateral Gorge was a dry ravine for the vast majority of the year.
The stream valley extended down from mountain ridges four or five li away—the ravine deep and valley treacherous with jagged strange rocks. Only at the mountain’s base did the terrain flatten out.
Although mountain floods exposed annually, with the gorge base in danger of being breached by mountain floods, the land where mountain floods passed was also exceptionally fertile. At the base of North Lateral Gorge, in earlier years there had been distributed a relatively large-scale village and fort. But after the battle of Wujin Ridge, civilian households on both sides of the South Fei River valley adjacent to the Huaiyang Mountains were all forcibly relocated northward.
This village at the mountain’s base was also abandoned there, occasionally transmitting several barks of abandoned household dogs that had not yet been hunted in the wind and snow.
At the top of the western stream bed of North Lateral Gorge stood a Martial Emperor Temple.
The Martial Emperor Temple was enclosed by a chest-high rammed earth wall, about one mu in size. The top of the rammed earth wall grew withered weeds. Inside were built three earth halls. Some mottled red paint still remained on the courtyard gate—one panel lay on the ground, one panel creaked in the northern wind.
A gray wild rabbit burreled through a mud hole in the rammed earth wall into the courtyard, vigilantly watching the creaking swaying courtyard gate. Only after quite a while did it confirm safety. As it was about to hop toward the front of the hall, unexpectedly with a “whoosh,” a sharp arrow shot from the latticed window of the left side chamber, cleanly piercing diagonally through the gray rabbit’s front chest and fiercely embedding in the hard frozen earth.
A man wearing a gray cloak walked out from the earth hall, pulled out the wild rabbit still struggling with all four legs along with the arrow from the frozen earth. Seeing the rabbit still struggling, he reached out and squeezed forcefully from behind the neck ridge, directly snapping the rabbit’s neck. Only then did he walk back into the earth hall, saying happily, “Never thought in this miserable weather we could still catch such a fat rabbit for a feast. Look how fat this rabbit is—after skinning, it must weigh four or five jin, right? This rabbit pelt is also large. If we don’t go out this trip, I could tan a small jacket for my little daughter…”
Inside the unremarkable earth hall, seven or eight sturdy men were napping against the wall, with dry warm hay piled beneath them. None paid attention to his startled exclamations.
The hempen cloth cloaks all had several patched sections, barely able to ward off wind and snow. Apart from short-handled waist sabers easily hidden in the cloaks, these men had only four-chi-long hunting bows at hand. Yet it was hard to imagine ordinary hunting bows could shoot arrows so swift and powerful.
Seeing no one acknowledge him, the man anxiously shook the fat rabbit in his hand again and said, “If none of you speak up, then I’ll just have to throw this rabbit out to feed wild dogs?”
“In such cold weather, the ground frozen solid, who has the energy to dig a smokeless stove just to eat one meal of rabbit? Shi Ruhai, if you have the energy, you might as well sleep well like us to have strength for traveling at night.” A man muttered.
“This journey has to pass through Liang territory to reach Jin—no matter what it will take over a month. If we don’t find something to do, won’t we be bored to death? Da Huoya, help your brother out. They won’t work, so let’s make them die of envy.” The man called Shi Ruhai immediately moved closer to speak when someone acknowledged him.
When scouts marched in the field, they most avoided lighting fires during the day. Once a smoke column rose, it extremely easily exposed their tracks.
Therefore, no matter how arduous, scouts infiltrating enemy territory generally subsisted on dried meat jerky, wheat cakes, and cold water.
If they must light a fire, digging the stove required extreme care. At minimum they had to dig a six or seven chi long smoke channel to disperse smoke, to avoid obvious smoke rising.
In such cold weather, to dig a smokeless stove in frozen earth in a corner of the courtyard with tools carried on one’s person extremely exhausted physical strength. But in the end everyone could not resist that man’s instigation, or perhaps could not resist the temptation of a fat rabbit’s meat. Everyone scrambled up with many hands and feet.
Apart from sentries hidden in forests on both sides not moving, others gathered firewood, dug the stove, skinned the rabbit, picked wild vegetables and fragrant leaves in division of labor and cooperation. Soon they had roasted the wild rabbit until it sizzled with dripping oil, also using melted snow water with wheat cakes and meat jerky to boil a pot of steaming, fragrant-smelling flour paste soup.
“Master Bao is back!” One person felt his way back. Seeing fire lit in the courtyard, he said, “Just wait for Master Bao to curse you all out. Haven’t even left the Huaiyang Mountains yet and one after another can’t endure without having a feast?”
“You son of a gun, don’t reach out.” Shi Ruhai raised his foot to kick away the hand that person extended.
“Will be implicated and scolded by you all anyway. Before getting scolded, shouldn’t I get some meat?” That person grinned obsequiously.
Moments later, another small contingent of troops walked through wind and snow into Martial Pass Temple. The imposing man in the lead sniffed his nose, tiger eyes sweeping once across the courtyard.
“Master Bao, this portion was saved for you.” Shi Ruhai immediately smiled obsequiously, passing over a large fat rabbit leg wrapped in oiled paper cloth still warm.
Han Bao took the rabbit leg, sat on a stone stool gnawing while cursing, “You sons of guns, if I hadn’t seen no smoke rising on my way back, otherwise I’d work you to death. Just walked this far and one after another feel your bellies lack oil?”
“Mainly wanted to test whether what the Academy taught works or not. When we lit the fire, we had sentries on both sides watching closely.” Shi Ruhai said with a laugh.
“Only you Shi Ruhai meddle in so many things. Where’s our portion?” Those behind crowded forward asking, with many hands and feet reaching to pat Shi Ruhai’s body, searching out the other half rabbit. Each person ladled a bowl of flour paste meat soup, squatting in front of the main hall gallery eating warmly.
Only then did Shi Ruhai notice that Han Bao and his men had captured two men bound hand and foot. Seeing their mouths stuffed with cloth bundles, currently struggling fiercely and howling, he kicked them once to make them behave, curiously asking, “These two are spies caught from the fort below?”
“Are you blind? Didn’t you see the jackets they’re wearing inside?” Han Bao glared at Shi Ruhai irritably and said.
Shi Ruhai pulled open the tattered robes of the two men and saw the jackets inside had torn openings revealing snow-white stuffing. “Deserters? You sons of guns, eating well and drinking richly, you fucking grew legs and dared to run away?” Recognizing these two men’s identities, Shi Ruhai became even less merciful with his hands, gripping the saber hilt backwards and jabbing their chests, striking until their faces contorted even more fiercely.
Although the inner cotton jackets had no special markings, among Huaiyang Mountains’ households in the past, wealthy people’s winter clothes were either fur robes or filled with extremely expensive silk floss. Where were there several households wearing cotton jackets?
For this northern journey, they had specially changed their inner garments to dog fur jackets.
“Stop,” Han Bao halted Shi Ruhai and ordered, “Untie them. Don’t know how many days they’ve been escaped. Looking at them, they should be quite starved. Give them two bowls of meat soup.”
No one feared these two fellows starved until their bellies touched their backs could stir up any trouble. Immediately they untied them and each ladled a bowl of meat soup for them to drink.
The two gaunt men were also truly starved. After hesitating briefly, they still drank down the bowl of meat soup like wolves and tigers. Seeing the rabbit leg Han Bao held not yet finished gnawing, they swallowed saliva directly.
“These two sons of guns, still thinking about a bite to eat at this time. Hearts are quite big.” Shi Ruhai cursed.
Han Bao called them forward and asked, “Which battalion were you in before, what are your names, what are the Battalion Commander and Squad Leaders called, when did you join Tangyi Commissioner Army, and when did you escape? You answer honestly, we won’t make things difficult for you…”
The two gaunt men were both not old, both appearing in their early twenties. Although gaunt, their bones and joints were thick and their strength great. At this time having recovered their spirit, they answered the questions:
“We are garrison troops from Rusong Fort. Battalion Commander is Huo Li, Squad Leader is Zhou Cheng—everyone calls him Zhou Pockface. We brothers originally were villagers from below North Lateral Gorge. We were captured in mid-third month, escaped six days ago when escorting grain from the fort—we only wanted to reunite with family, absolutely no other thoughts.”
Han Bao stared at these two brothers called Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin.
Rusong Fort was located at the mountain pass on the northeastern foothills of Wujin Ridge, forming with Meitang Mountain and other forts a knife edge threatening the Huaixi southern plains to the north. Battalion Commander Huo Li and several Squad Leaders below him were familiar to Han Bao. Knowing the Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin brothers had not lied, he said, “Some things, you haven’t lied about, but how did you brothers get assigned to one battalion? You could deceive the interrogation before enlistment—your cunning is not small…”
The great victory at Wujin Ridge—Tangyi before and after captured altogether over twenty-five thousand enemy troops and laborers. The vast majority were drafted into the Left and Right Armies or supply garrison troops during expansion.
However, to prevent these officers and troops from causing trouble, fathers and sons, brothers were ordinarily separated when assigned to battalions.
That the Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin brothers could simultaneously serve as troops at Rusong Fort indicated they had played tricks from the start, deceiving the initially rather superficial investigation.
“What do we do with them? Can’t possibly run three or four extra days to escort them back, can we?” Shi Ruhai moved closer, asking quietly.
From when the Commissioner Army began drafting large numbers of captured enemy troops and laborers, troops trying every means to escape and return home became hard to avoid. But Han Qian abolished cruel corporal punishment for deserters—the Military Supervision Bureau would judge detention ranging from several months to several years based on severity of circumstances.
For their departure this time, infiltrating central Huozhou from North Lateral Gorge, they had important scouting duties and could not reveal their tracks, nor could they delay three or four days escorting them back to the nearest garrison at Hetang Gorge Fort for trial. The only choice was already obviously placed before them.
The Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin brothers also realized what their fate would be. Faces deathly pale, wanting to beg for mercy, yet their legs trembled so much they could not speak coherently.
“Look, you’re also clever people. How did you not think that after you escaped back, when Shouzhou Army learned of it they would still capture you as spies and kill you? In the end wouldn’t you still implicate your families together? You—if you really wanted to reunite with family that much, you might as well eagerly await our lord Marquis to quickly attack Shouzhou!” Although Shi Ruhai reminded Han Bao to be decisive, in the end he could not bear it and could not help lecturing them.
“Kill me instead, spare Shimin’s life, all you gentlemen! He didn’t want to escape back. It was me thinking my wife is pregnant, mother and father are old with failing eyesight—not knowing how they would get through this winter, really couldn’t bear it, so I dragged Shimin to escape back—Shimin truly didn’t want to escape back, he was dragged back by me. Never thought that coming back, even the fort would long be empty!” Zhang Shigui collapsed kneeling on the ground begging for mercy.
“You two get up and come with us. But if you cause us any trouble on the road, don’t blame me for being merciless.” Han Bao had the Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin brothers stand up and instructed Shi Ruhai, “This whole way, you’re specifically responsible for watching them—don’t let them make mistakes…”
Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin could deceive the initial investigation and escape from the border defense—they were not clumsy people. After escaping for six or seven days, enduring hunger and cold, they could still struggle vigorously—their strength truly not weak. Taking these two along would not be a burden. Others also had no objections…