Autumn colors had deepened. The night wind on the northern plains howled fiercely, and the great banner with the character “Cao” of the Yan army’s Guangning Guard camp fluttered loudly in the cold wind. This was the garrison of the famous, fierce general Cao Yan.
This was already the third year of the Jingnan Campaign. In last year’s battle at Jinan, the southern army recaptured Dezhou, an important town on the Grand Canal. With Dezhou’s convenient north-south transportation, whenever the Yan army moved south from Hebei, they remained under Dezhou’s surveillance. When the Yan army attacked southward, the southern army would either strike horizontally from Dezhou to cut off their retreat, harass their supply lines, or attack northward when the opportunity arose. The Yan Prince’s strategists were greatly troubled by this – without taking Dezhou, the Yan forces could never break out of Shandong.
In the Battle of Dongchang, Jinan Commander Sheng Yong killed the Yan army’s great general Zhang Yu. Had Zhu Neng not risked his life to rescue him, Prince Yan would nearly have been captured alive. This was also Prince Yan’s first major defeat since raising his army. Afterward, Prince Yan had lamented that in the Battle of Dongchang, they had retreated immediately upon engagement, abandoning all previous achievements. This February, Prince Yan again led his army to attack, consecutively defeating the southern army at Hutuo River, Jiahe, Zhending, and other places, and capturing Shunde, Guangping, Daming, and other locations. However, though the Yan army won battle after battle, the southern army had numerous troops and strong momentum. Unable to completely conquer them, the Yan army’s captured cities were gained and lost in turn, unable to be consolidated. Those they could permanently hold were merely the three prefectures of Beiping, Baoding, and Yongping.
How long would such a tug-of-war continue?
In the night wind, the rear camp’s grain depot suddenly gave off a faint sulfur smell. The four soldiers on night watch had no time to sound the alarm before someone covered their mouths from behind. Short knives immediately slit their throats, and the four corpses were gently laid on the ground.
When the shouts about the grain depot fire reached the main tent, Cao Yan was dozing on his couch. He suddenly awoke, and after understanding what the shouting outside meant, he cursed and jumped up. This was already the third time his grain supplies had problems. The previous two times they had been robbed on the road, but this time he had finally transported the grain safely back to the main camp, yet problems still arose!
Cao Yan secretly congratulated himself on his recent high vigilance – sleeping in armor and keeping weapons at hand. He immediately put on his helmet, grabbed his sword, and strode out of the main tent. His vice generals had also heard the news and risen, with a group of guards surrounding them as they rushed toward the grain depot.
Vice General Zhao Pu, who guarded the grain depot, was leading his men in firefighting, his face streaked with black and white from the smoke, his voice nearly hoarse from shouting. No wonder he was so tense – the grain supplies he had been responsible for escorting had just been robbed by the southern army last time, and he was still in a period of atoning for his crimes through merit.
Seeing his commanding officer, Zhao Pu hurriedly left his men and came forward to plead for forgiveness. Cao Yan bent down to help him up, saying: “Fighting the fire is urgent—”
Before he could finish speaking, Cao Yan’s body suddenly stiffened.
A short sword thrust upward from below, penetrating through the unprotected left side of Cao Yan’s armor and straight into his heart.
The surrounding officers and soldiers were stunned by this sudden turn of events. Zhao Pu had already drawn Cao Yan’s sword, and fearing that his previous strike had not been fatal, delivered another thrust to Cao Yan’s throat, then turned the blade across his own throat.
Blood splattered everywhere as both men fell to the ground simultaneously.
In the chaos, the same thought flashed through several vice generals’ minds: “So burning the grain depot was meant to assassinate Cao Yan!”
The Yan army, having fought the Mongols for years and experienced three years of the Jingnan Campaign, was naturally well-trained. Though Cao Yan had been assassinated, several vice generals immediately divided responsibilities to restore order to the camp, extinguish the grain depot fire, and most importantly, guard against the southern army taking advantage of the chaos. They also sent someone to report to the main army commander, Zhu Neng’s camp, twenty li away.
Zhu Neng sent Zhang Fan, a clan nephew of Zhang Yu, to handle the matter.
Zhang Fan first needed to understand why Zhao Pu, who had followed Cao Yan for many years and had even saved Cao Yan’s life on the battlefield last year, would suddenly assassinate Cao Yan. By all logic, he could never be a Southern army spy. If even someone like Zhao Pu would rebel, who in the Guangning Guard camp could be trusted?
Their doubts were soon answered. The next afternoon, over ten Yan army soldiers who had been captured when the southern army robbed the grain supplies last time were released and returned, and with them came Zhao Pu.
The Zhao Pu who had assassinated Cao Yan was Zhao Xiang, Zhao Pu’s blood brother, who had been serving in the southern army.
Zhao Pu knelt before the corpses of Cao Yan and Zhao Xiang, weeping bitterly. One of his soldiers reported that after capturing Zhao Pu, a southern army general had used Zhao Xiang’s wife and children as hostages, forcing him to replace Zhao Pu and assassinate General Cao. Before departing, Zhao Xiang had requested that if his mission succeeded, his family would no longer be harmed, and Zhao Pu would also be released.
After finishing his weeping, Zhao Pu’s eyes turned red as he requested to go into battle. Seeing Zhang Fan pondering silently, Zhao Pu’s expression immediately changed, and he said angrily: “Fine! If General Zhang won’t deploy troops, even if I must go alone, I will behead that traitorous general on the battlefield!”
Two vice generals who were close to him desperately held him back, but Zhao Pu still refused to give up and struggled with all his might. Zhang Fan glared at him and shouted sternly: “Brainless fool! Is this how you wage war? First, find out who your opponent is!”
Cao Yan was not the first general to be assassinated. In the past three months, six Yan army generals had already been assassinated, with truly varied assassination methods: one was poisoned by an army physician, one was stabbed by a personal guard, one was killed while inspecting the battlefield after a battle by a southern army suicide warrior disguised as a corpse, one was shot by a southern army marksman who had hidden in his own camp’s watchtower during the night while he stood on the command platform, one was killed while escorting grain supplies by an assassin who had hidden in a grain cart for a day and night, and another had his head cut off in the middle of the night by someone who had infiltrated his heavily guarded tent. Those assassins immediately committed suicide when surrounded. Though it was known they were sent by the southern army, their detailed origins could not be traced.
Cao Yan was the seventh.
And Cao Yan’s grain depot was also the fifth grain depot to be burned.
When Zhang Fan reported back to Zhu Neng, he said with considerable worry that all signs indicated the southern army had an elite small unit skilled in concealment and night operations, specifically responsible for assassinations and grain burning.
This force lurking in the darkness posed too great a threat to them. As the saying goes, “Open attacks are easy to dodge, hidden arrows hard to guard against.” If not resolved soon, if one day even Prince Yan were assassinated, it would be too late for regrets.
Zhu Neng frowned.
Such ruthless and skillful killing methods were very much like the Imperial Guard’s style. However, after completing the Lan Yu case, the Imperial Guard had outlived its usefulness and had been disbanded. Former Commander Shen Guangli had even fled to the snowy mountains of Usang to become a monk. Emperor Jianwen had always detested the Imperial Guard’s way of treating human life like grass, so he shouldn’t have rebuilt a similar office.
However, one couldn’t be completely certain. After all, the great purge that the Hongwu Emperor had launched using the Lan Yu treason case after the Crown Prince’s death had resulted in the death and injury of all brave and strong warriors in the court’s directly controlled armies. When the Jingnan Campaign began, the southern army could only retreat step by step when facing the Yan army. Though the situation had improved after the Battle of Dongchang, the southern army still lost more than they won. In such circumstances, Emperor Jianwen might helplessly resort to using former Imperial Guard personnel to break the deadlock.
Zhang Fan suggested they should specifically assign a group of men to deal with this unit.
Zhu Neng understood the crux of the matter and immediately ordered Zhang Fan to take charge, selecting personnel from the entire army to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.