Taiheiki

Chapter 145 Singing
"Then let them repair it! They'll soon learn about their defeat in the flanking attack on Panyu!" Wei Cong glanced in the direction of the enemy camp. "How are the trebuchets being prepared?"

"We are working on it. Two have been built. The rest will probably take two or three days!" Liu Jiu replied.

"Kill ten cows and send them over, provide them with enough corn, rice and vegetable soup, and let them work overnight!" Wei Cong said.

"Yes!" Liu Jiu responded, "I will pass the order immediately!"

"Well, I'm a little tired. I'm going to rest first. Don't disturb me if there's nothing else!"

Wei Cong returned to the tent and lay down on the couch. Almost the moment his head touched the pillow, he began snoring loudly. Five consecutive days of high nervous tension had put his body in a very dangerous state. He slept for a full day and a half, waking up only briefly to eat a little. When Wei Cong woke up again on the morning of the third day, he suddenly thought of A Jing, the fragrance of her hair, the warmth of her body, the soft skin... and the child. As a father, he had not yet hugged him with his own hands. When the army in front of him was defeated, the war was over, and Panyu was able to stabilize, he should move them both here. Here, the woman could be with her husband, and the child could be with his father.

He yawned, hesitating whether to get up or sleep a little longer. The hunger in his stomach made Wei Cong make a decision. He rolled over on the bed, put on his coat, and shouted, "Bring me something to eat, and tell Liu Jiu and the others that I'm awake!"

A moment later, the cook arrived with a tray containing a ceramic bowl and a wooden plate. The ceramic bowl contained warm mutton soup, and the wooden plate held two hot flatbreads. Wei Cong broke up the flatbreads and dropped them into the mutton soup. After the broken flatbreads had soaked up the broth, he began to eat. Then he heard footsteps outside.

"Come in!" Wei Cong called out as he ate. Diwu Deng was the first to enter the tent. He looked at Wei Cong with a grin, "Captain, in that battle, we beheaded over 400 people and captured over 1,700 alive. Also, do you remember? Prefect Kong had a disciple named Shi Wu, the one who was shot in the arm on the way into the city. The leader of the enemy this time was his brother, Shi Xie. I bet that guy is definitely involved in this attack. He must be the insider hiding in Panyu City! Look—" At this point, Diwu Deng pulled out an exquisite copper box, which he had found in Shi Xie's bag. Inside were confidential correspondence. With this thing, you can kill anyone you want and no one will be able to complain!"

"Oh!" Wei Cong took the copper box, threw it aside, and asked, "What about Shi Xie?"

"I sent it to Governor Kong as you requested. I scared that bastard Shi Wu to death!"

"If my guess is correct, Governor Kong should let all the brothers go!"

"Huh?" Diwu Deng was shocked. "That guy is so bold! Quickly send someone back to Panyu and bring those two thieves back!"

"No need, it's too late. Prefect Kong has probably released the person by now!" Wei Cong smiled and said, "It's really nothing. I asked you to hand the person over to Prefect Kong so that he can deal with it himself. It's better to let him go so that I don't have to kill anyone again!"

"Captain!" Liu Jiu asked from the side, "Don't you want to kill Brother Shi Xie?"

"At least I don't want to kill them now!" Wei Cong picked up the copper box beside him. "Not only the two brothers, but I also don't want to kill the people in this letter box. At least I can't kill them on the pretext of secretly colluding with Shi Xie. In the end, if I win, I will throw this new box into the fire in front of everyone and say that I haven't read a single word of the letter inside!"

"Then why are you doing this?" Liu Jiu asked.

"We can't help it. There are too many people involved in this box. If we punish them one by one, I'm afraid the scholars and officials in Jiaozhou will be in danger and it will inevitably cause a lot of chaos!" Wei Cong sighed: "Our time window to take Jiaozhou is very narrow. Once the imperial court suppresses the moth thieves and opens up the north-south passage, they will come to deal with us. The sooner we take Jiaozhou, the sooner we can govern Jiaozhou according to our wishes and make it a fait accompli. For this reason, we must turn a blind eye to many things and put the overall situation first!"

"I understand the Captain's good intentions!" Liu Jiu sighed. "So when should we begin attacking the enemy?"

"By the way, how's the trebuchet going?"

"According to your instructions, Captain, the craftsmen have been working overnight, and it should be almost ready by tomorrow!"

"Okay, then wait one more day, and then I'll be able to give Zhang Xu a little surprise!"

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At first, Zhang Xu seemed not to hear. He remained expressionless at the news. He stared at the map on the table and clenched his teeth, "Are you sure?"

"That's right!" the messenger replied. "Our men have heard the news of the defeat from six people who have escaped. You know, one person may lie or make a mistake, but the possibility of six people making the same mistake is extremely small!"

"What about Shi Weiyan?"

"Some of those who escaped said he died in the chaos, but we haven't received any confirmed news yet!"

Zhang Xu dropped the short wooden stick, his aged face etched with fatigue. He waved his hand, signaling the officers to withdraw from the tent. He was more concerned with Shi Xie's safety than the failure of the surprise attack. As the prefect of Cangwu Commandery, he knew his power depended heavily on the support of local powerful figures. As a descendant of a prominent Guangxin family and the most determined advocate of war, his demise would be a far greater blow to his own morale than the loss of 3,000 soldiers.

boom!
The loud noise made Zhang Xu look up. What was going on? Was it thunder? Or something else? Just as Zhang Xu was startled, the chief clerk rushed in from outside the tent: "Master, this is bad!"

"What happened?" Zhang Xu forced himself to appear calm. "Did the outer camp collapse?"

"No, no!" The chief clerk swallowed his saliva and said, "You'd better come out and take a look!"

Zhang Xu walked out of the tent and saw two balls of fire rising from the outer side of the camp. The soldiers were running around in panic, like headless flies. He was about to reprimand his men for not keeping a close watch on them when the chief clerk pointed to the sky and said, "Lord, look, they're coming again!"

Zhang Xu subconsciously looked in the direction of the chief clerk's finger. Something seemed to be flying towards him. Just as he was wondering if it was his presbyopia, a loud bang confirmed his mistake. A ball of fire rose about fifty steps away from him. It was originally a place where wood was stored. The frightened soldiers scattered in all directions, shouting in fear. "What, what's going on?"

"It should be a clay jar filled with fish oil, thrown by the bandits with a catapult!" The chief clerk answered in a less certain tone.

"A catapult? How is that possible?" Zhang Xu asked in surprise. "If it was thrown from outside the camp, it would have been two or three hundred steps away. How is that possible?"

The Chief Clerk's words proved true. Zhang Xu ascended the watchtower and was surprised to discover, missing all night, seven or eight unprecedented machines, about 150 paces from his own camp. The enemy was manipulating them to hurl oil bombs at him. Behind the trebuchets lay a massive enemy formation. He watched as giant arms rose and swung, sending clay jars filled with fish oil soaring high above his head before smashing into the camp behind him. Flames erupted, setting off cries of surprise and wailing.

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Under the flag of the Wei army, Wei Cong sat on his horse with his back straight, staring at the enemy camp not far away.

"Captain, we're almost out of fuel and ammunition!" Diwu Deng reported in a low voice.

"Then use anti-personnel shotgun shells!" Wei Cong said.

"Here!"

The wind blew past my ears, the catapults creaked and banged loudly, and the leather bags filled with apple-sized stones cut through the air, and the sharp sounds echoed in the air like birds singing.

"Who can sing?" Wei Cong suddenly asked, "Come sing a few songs!"

"Ah?" The subordinates behind him looked at each other, they all thought they had heard it wrong.

"Come on, sing a few times, I'll start!" Wei Cong said loudly: "The green sunflowers in the garden, waiting for the morning dew to dry in the sun. The spring breeze spreads its grace, and all things are shining.————————"

Wei Cong was reciting the famous "Long Song" from the Han Dynasty Yuefu, a poem that everyone knew at the time. As soon as he began, someone responded, "I always dread the approach of autumn, when the flowers and leaves turn yellow. Rivers flow east to the sea, but when will they return west? If you don't work hard in your youth, you'll regret it when you're old."

One man sang, and ten thousand people responded, their voices resonating deeply, reaching the sky. With the sound of long arms turning and ropes tightening, stone bullets flew into the sky again and again, landing in the enemy camp in the distance. Wei Cong could see more and more columns of smoke rising from the enemy camp. Soldiers were running around like headless flies. Officers waved their whips, trying to restore order, but the situation was getting worse and worse.

"Arden!"

"The general is here!"

"Let the crossbowmen advance eighty steps, and then drive the prisoners to fill the trench!"

"Here!"

As the horns sounded, the crossbowmen surged forward like waves, forming several small squares of eight by eight, leaving enough gaps between the squares to allow the spearmen to move forward and form a new battle line. At this time, groups of captives carrying bundles of firewood and bags filled with soil were driven forward and rushed towards the trench about seventy or eighty steps away. They were told that they only needed to do this three times, but if they dared to be lazy or run back, they would only be shot in the back.

They staggered to the side of the trench, threw the objects on their shoulders into the trench, and then turned and ran backwards. The camp guards also hurriedly drew their bows and shot, and rain of arrows and stone bullets flew in the sky. People kept falling down, but driven by the spear tips, more and more bundles of firewood and straw bags were thrown into the trench, filling a section of the trench about twenty steps long.

At this time, the Wei army rushed forward, they used ropes to tie the fence behind the trench, and then used manpower or horses to pull it back, while the defenders desperately cut the ropes pulling the fence, or pulled it in the opposite direction to resist the attackers. This repeated pulling lasted for a long time, but finally the attackers gained the upper hand, and a long section of the wooden fence collapsed. The Wei army crowd cheered, and then the armored soldiers rushed through the gap and rushed into the camp.

"Win!" Wei Cong let out a long breath as he watched the enemy's fence crumble. In the era of cold weapons, combat was largely a psychological battle: whichever side believed it could hold out while the other couldn't win. The Wei army was able to penetrate the fortress, but even though the defenders were largely intact and outnumbered, they were already at a psychological disadvantage. If the enemy had a significant number of veterans or a general with extensive experience who could react quickly, they might have been able to turn the tide. Clearly, the enemy had neither of these.

"Light the beacon fires, get the fleet moving, and put more pressure on the enemy!"

"Here!"

The rising columns of smoke from the Wei army's formations were quickly echoed by columns of smoke on the water. The few remaining Wei ships also began moving toward the enemy fleet. Under normal circumstances, such a provocation, posed by a disparity in power, would have drawn only derision. However, the current situation on land, clearly unfavorable to the defenders, undoubtedly affected the Jiaozhou naval commander's judgment. More and more Jiaozhou naval vessels hoisted their sails, rowed their oars, and fled upstream.

The navy's retreat was undoubtedly the final straw that broke the Jiaozhou army's will to resist. Failure and despair spread like a plague throughout the camp, and every commander was eager to gather his men and flee aboard—not necessarily outrunning Wei Cong, but simply outrunning the others. The result was a battle line that collapsed like a house with its beams removed. Many Wei soldiers were surprised to find that the enemy, who had been fiercely fighting them just minutes earlier, suddenly dropped their weapons and fled, as if on a pretext. They effortlessly killed them from behind, and those kneeling on the ground, begging for surrender, sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

"Don't rest, don't relax, ignore the things on the ground, and chase them!" The Wei army officers shouted to the soldiers. These officers, who had been personally trained by Wei Cong, remembered his words: fighting is like plowing, sowing, weeding, and fertilizing, and pursuit is like harvesting. Giving up pursuit because of fatigue and letting the enemy escape is as foolish as being lazy at harvest time and then encountering strong winds and heavy rain, letting the crops rot in the fields.

Only by capturing the enemy's camp, baggage, and flags, and capturing their officers and most of their soldiers, can you truly achieve victory. Don't stop pursuing for the sake of spoils; spoils don't have legs. As long as the captives kill the enemy, the spoils remain yours. But if you pick up the spoils before destroying the enemy, the enemy, having reorganized their formation, will turn around and kill you, a burden, and then you will lose even your life.

(End of this chapter)