Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 197 The Unquenchable Flame (Part 1)

Zhao Yun gave the order.

The war drums of the Han army thundered.

The Han soldiers advanced upon hearing the drums.

Because the battlefield was surrounded by mountains on the left and rivers on the right, the space was less than a mile wide, which was not spacious to begin with. In order to avoid the arrows of the Wu army's navy, it was further compressed to a little over two hundred paces, making it extremely narrow and cramped.

On the Han River.

More than a hundred warships were deployed to cover the flank of Wu's northern camp.

They all anchored and moored, more than ten steps from the shore.

Four or five thousand Wu infantrymen, fully armored and armed, stood ready on the shore to protect the naval forces.

General Liu Zan, also known as Liu Zhengming, who was in charge of commanding these four or five thousand infantrymen, was disheveled and looked up at the sky.

After a short while, the local people of Kuaiji began to sing loudly, using the language of calling upon Heaven and invoking the gods.

Since he became a general, he has always fought in this manner.

The guards on both sides responded in unison.

After the song, the battle began, and the morale of the soldiers was high.

After that, they broke through enemy lines and captured their flags, achieving victory in every battle.

Whether it was the psychological suggestion of winning every battle through the ritual of inviting the gods, after Liu Zan sang a song, all the Wu soldiers, whether on the shore or on the ship, were invigorated upon hearing the divine melody.

Not long after, Liu Zan, whose legs were injured in a battle with the Yellow Turbans when he was young, limped back to the Dragon Head ship where Bu Zhi was.

By this time, the vanguard of both Han and Wu forces had clashed.

The sounds of war drums and battle cries rose up all at once.

Although the Wu army camp had some rather rudimentary defensive fortifications such as deer antlers, trenches, and earthen walls, the morale of the Han soldiers was extremely high, and they did not retreat in the slightest because of these fortifications.

During their rest in the early morning, the craftsmen accompanying the army had already erected six well curbs.

Dozens of trench-filling vehicles and sidecars were also pushed to the front lines at this time.

As the hundred-foot-tall siege tower, which was more than ten feet higher than the watchtowers and arrow towers, rose from the ground, the Wu army, which had never conquered even a single city, finally felt an unprecedented sense of oppression.

As the hundred-foot-high well ballast approached, rockets rained down from it.

The Wu army, which had not been psychologically prepared for the war between Han and Wu, finally had a real sense of just how strong the Han army was, which had just captured Guanzhong and sent back tens of thousands of coins, silk, and grain to their homes.

Six well curbs are clustered together in one place.

A few flickering lights shone on the well railing.

However, in a short while, the previously scattered and ethereal flames suddenly lit up in a continuous, dense expanse, like countless stars.

Before Wu Jun could react, the raindrops had already fallen.

Before long, the fire on the well railing lit up again, and it was thrown down again.

The Wu soldiers defending the line could not understand why the Han army's fire arrows seemed to be raining down relentlessly, without stopping for even a moment.

The wooden watchtowers, arrow towers, antler-shaped defensive structures were quickly set ablaze by the fire arrows.

About a hundred paces behind Wu's defensive line, General Sun Gong, who was in the center of the command, saw the fire ahead. After staring at it for more than ten breaths, he finally burst into a tirade of curses:

"What are those people upstairs doing? Why aren't they putting out the fire!"

After uttering those words, the man kicked the messenger's thigh high in the air: "What are you standing there for! Get them to put out the fire!"

The messenger stumbled and then ran forward.

Seeing the unsteady gait of the personal guard who was relaying the order, Sun Gong became even more furious. He spat on the ground and muttered curses.

"What a bunch of freaks and scoundrels they brought this time!"

He was not stupid as a pig. Although the Han army's undeclared war caught him completely off guard, he did not slacken his defenses in the slightest and was also prepared for fire attacks.

The watchtowers and arrow towers were equipped with pulleys, with hemp ropes used to hang buckets at the foot of the towers. Water was kept at the foot of the towers so that they could be used to extinguish fires.

I really didn't expect that despite my repeated warnings, these bastards would still lose their composure at the last minute!
As the garrison commander, Sun Gong, having already given his orders, no longer focused his attention on the fortifications that had been set ablaze.

Instead, he turned and climbed the watchtower beside him, looking down over the entire battlefield.

Because the battlefield was too cramped and narrow, the Han soldiers could be seen from head to toe.

But he had already seen the Han army general's banner at the forefront yesterday.

General Gao Xiang, who led the Han army to conquer the east.

There were several general's flags in front, behind, left, and right.

The inscription contains the characters Yang, Ma, Yan, and Deng.

These were generals with titles, or rather, generals with miscellaneous titles, such as Yang Qun, Ma Yu, Yan Zhi, and Deng Tong.

Since the war had just begun, Wu's army was able to maintain its front line relatively well.

If it weren't for those hundred-foot-high siege towers that suddenly rose from the ground, and the Wu army's defensive fortifications that had been set ablaze, Sun Gong thought that the Han army might not have fared so well.

The fortress took more than half a month to build. Although it wasn't built with much care and effort, it should have been able to hold out for several days without any problem.

After all, the land here is narrow, and with mountains on the left and water on the right, it means that both flanks can be positioned to provide a commanding view and suppress the Han army with firepower.

Seeing that the Han army had made no progress, Sun Gong summoned a messenger and issued several inconsequential military orders regarding the stalemate at the front.

He then turned to look at the Han River, stared at the banner with the character "步" (bu) for a while, and saw that Bu Zhi and Liu Zan were not making any moves, his expression became slightly displeased.

When he looked away again, he was suddenly stunned by the towering flames.

Just as he was filled with shock, doubt, and anger, the messenger who had rushed to the front line to order the soldiers guarding the arrow tower to put out the fire returned breathlessly to the foot of Sun Gongwang Tower.

"What's going on? Why is the fire getting bigger and bigger?!" Sun Gong asked the messenger angrily and in bewilderedly.

"General Fenwei!"

"The Shu bandits on the well ledge threw oil and grease onto the arrow towers and deer antlers. Water not only failed to extinguish the fire, but instead made it burn even brighter!"

"Ointment?!" Sun Gong frowned deeply.

“The Shu bandits were indeed well-prepared,” said Zhou Tiaoyan, a member of Zhou Fang’s clan.

"But it doesn't matter. Oil is so precious. The Shu bandits didn't use it to burn our warships on the water, but instead used it to burn a few arrow towers. It's not very useful... I suppose it's because the Shu bandits don't have any warships."

These days, the materials used in fire attacks are mostly plants and wood, supplemented with fuels such as fish oil, tung oil, and sulfur.

However, fish fat requires catching fat fish and boiling it, and tung oil requires collecting mature tung seeds, drying them, peeling them, and pressing them. These are extremely difficult to obtain in large quantities and are extremely precious.

Using it to deal with simple fortifications like watchtowers and antler towers would indeed be considered a waste.

“No wonder the Shu bandits used so many fire arrows,” Sun Gong snorted.

In less than a quarter of an hour, under the fire arrows of hundreds of archers from the six watchtowers, the six watchtowers and arrow towers in the middle of the Wu army's battle line, as well as the deer antlers in front of the arrow towers, were all set ablaze by the fire arrows.

The fire was so intense that its light could illuminate the sky.

The Wu army behind the deer antlers all retreated.

When the Wu soldiers on the watchtowers and arrow towers saw that the fire could not be extinguished, they were all terrified and in chaos. Some were shot to death by fire arrows on the high ground, while others jumped and fell, getting seriously injured or killed.

Seeing this, Sun Gong, Zhou Tiao, and other Wu generals quickly dispatched elite armored soldiers to reinforce the front line before the Han soldiers broke through the defenses.

General Gao Xiang, who was stationed at the front line of the Han army, climbed to a high place to look out, summoned his personal guards and gave them a few instructions, and then quietly examined the battlefield.

Before long, sidecar trucks and trench-filling trucks rushed to the front lines of the battlefield.

The side of the wagon facing the enemy had firing ports, and three crossbowmen hid inside the wagon and fired at the Wu army through the firing ports.

Sun Gong had never seen such a thing before, and because his view was obstructed, he couldn't see how many Han soldiers were hidden in the side carriage. Seeing that Wu soldiers were constantly being shot down by crossbows but were helpless against the Han soldiers in the side carriage, Sun Gong got angry and came down from the watchtower, leading more than a hundred of his personal guards to the front line.

"Don't hide in the back, charge!" Sun Gong waved his hand, and two hundred elite armored soldiers rushed out from the gap in the line and headed straight for the side carriage.

Along the way, Wu's elite soldiers were constantly shot down and killed by arrows fired from the arrow holes of the side wagons, their cries of agony echoing throughout the battlefield.

When the Wu soldiers finally rushed to the side carriage and fought with the Han soldiers guarding the side carriage with swords and spears.

The Han soldiers, armed with heavy weapons such as maces and golden gourds, suddenly rose up from behind the side carriages, shouting and swung their weapons, catching the Wu army off guard and causing their brains and blood to splatter out.

This group of Wu soldiers was not bad either. Even though the Han soldiers on the side wagons had the advantage of being on higher ground, they still fought to the death and did not retreat.

But in less than a quarter of an hour, this group of Wu soldiers, who still had some courage, had suffered more than half of their casualties and began to retreat.

Sima, a trusted confidant of Sun Gong, also died in battle.

The battle had lasted only a quarter of an hour, and Wu generals such as Sun Gong and Zhou Tiao were already somewhat bewildered by the Han army's endless tricks, unsure of how to deal with them.

Just then, a messenger rushed to Sun Gong's side with Bu Zhi's military order:

"General Fenwei, the Right General has ordered that we immediately use fire to burn his war chariots!"

Upon hearing Bu Zhi's order, Sun Gong finally realized that he had been stuck in a rut.

So he hurriedly ordered his men to return to camp and bring back fuel such as oil and dry grass.

They recruited over a hundred more daredevils, each carrying some ointment, oil, and dried grass.

Finally, under the cover of four or five hundred miscellaneous soldiers, they charged towards the Han army's side wagons and the hundred-foot-high well siege tower.

However, to Sun Gong's surprise once again, these five or six hundred people did not even manage to start a single fire, let alone set it on fire.

Seeing this situation, Sun Gong was utterly astonished.

This is understandable; he was still too far away from the Han army's side wagons to see their structure clearly.

The side carriage had double-layered decks on three sides, with sand filling the space between the two layers. A layer of wet cowhide felt was then laid over the outside of the decks, providing all-around protection against swords, spears, arrows, oil, and fire attacks. Not to mention, the side carriage was guarded by armored soldiers on all sides, making it practically a mobile fortress.

Wu Jun's elite troops suffered another defeat.

After generals like Sun Gong and Zhou Tiao were no longer able to mount any decent response against the Han army, the morale of the Wu soldiers holding up the siege towers and chariots collapsed completely.

Even the rudimentary trench-filling carts became formidable beasts in the eyes of the Wu soldiers, who had little experience in positional warfare.

Wu Jun continued to retreat.

"Brothers, charge with me!" General Yang Qun spotted a weakness in the Wu army from afar and decisively led over a hundred elite soldiers of his personal guard into the Wu army, breaking through their formation with lightning speed.

This shout of "Charge with me!" immediately ignited the bloodlust and killing intent of the Han army.

"—Kill Wu the dog!"

"—Avenge Guan Yu!"

"—Avenge Governor Feng!"

"—To avenge the late emperor and the Han Dynasty!"

Shouts of war and killing came like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing down.

The Han soldiers in the rear charged into the Wu formation through the gap torn open by Yang Qun.

There seemed to be a million male bears.

He would rather die than risk his life like a tiger crossing a river.

Upon seeing this, Sun Gong was terrified and withdrew.

The commander's flag, which had only been moved to the front lines less than a quarter of an hour ago, is now fluttering backwards?!
With Sun Gong's withdrawal, the situation for the Wu army deteriorated rapidly.

When Wu's soldiers saw this, they were all terrified and in uproar.

Those who flee in terror are too terrified to even think about it.

The situation instantly descended into chaos, with countless people pushing and shoving each other and trampling each other.

Yang Qun led his elite personal guard into the Wu army's ranks, his eyes scanning the battlefield, and quickly spotted a Wu army general's flag.

"Follow me!" Yang Qun shouted, raising his arm.

After shouting, he strode forward, chasing after the fleeing Wu soldiers. As he approached, he grabbed a Wu man who was fleeing in panic.

Regardless of whether the person was terrified or begging for mercy, he suddenly exerted force, slashed the neck of the person with the ring-pommel sword, and slaughtered them like a chicken, discarding them and chasing after them.

His personal guards and elite daredevils followed closely behind, shouting loudly.

The combined effects of the Han army's ferocity, their endless methods of breaking through enemy lines, and the fact that the banners of the generals led by Sun Gong were rolled up, meant that even though a few Wu generals were still shouting and directing their soldiers to charge forward, few soldiers were still obeying their orders.

In this situation, it all comes down to who can run faster. As long as I run faster than others, I won't be the one who dies. Nobody wants to be someone else's scapegoat.

Yang Qun's troops swiftly penetrated the heart of the Wu army, cutting through melons and vegetables, and soon caught up with the Wu army's banner.

"You dog, where do you think you're going!" Yang Qun roared at the location of the general's flag, his eyes bloodshot, before charging forward like an arrow.

Zhou Tiao, the son of Zhou Fang, who was at the forefront of Yang Qun, was no match for the fierce offensive of the Han army and was defeated in a short time.

He tried to escape, but there was nowhere to run. In the end, he knelt down and begged for mercy in terror. But Yang Qun was unmoved and personally beheaded him, leaving him with eyes that could not be closed in peace.

Yang Qun's personal guards captured Zhou Tiao's banner.

Wu Jun was increasingly alarmed.

Yan Zhi, Deng Tong, Ma Yu, and other Han generals were filled with resentment when they saw that Yang Qun had taken all the credit for slaying generals and capturing flags. They cursed Yang Qun for taking such good positions.

The Yang group continued to delve deeper.

After penetrating more than a hundred paces, the Han army's left and right flanks were filled with Wu troops fleeing for their lives.

The so-called "fighting for a way out" means turning one's sword against one's own people who are slow to escape.

The Wu people didn't have the guts to attack the Han soldiers, but they still had some fighting power when attacking their own people.

Seeing this, Yang Qun realized that if he continued to advance, his retreat might be cut off by the chaotic soldiers.

Only after giving the order did they stop their advance and split up to the left and right to expand their advantage.

Before long, Yan Zhi, Deng Tong, Ma Yu and other Han generals also led their troops across the fortifications such as deer antlers, trenches and earthen walls, breaking through the first line of defense of the Wu army and engaging in battle with the Wu army.

The Han army advanced triumphantly.

Wu's army suffered repeated defeats.

On the Han River.

General Bu Zhi of Wu watched this scene with a complex expression.

Even now, he still finds it hard to believe.

In his imagination, the Han army might use the pretext of attacking Xicheng to force a crossing of the Han River, and then attack after the Wu army made the first move. However, he did not expect that the Han army would launch an attack without declaring war.

Even more unexpectedly, Sun Gong, Zhou Tiao, and their troops were so easily defeated.

Liu Zan stepped forward: "Right General, I will go to the central army to hold off the Shu army!"

Bu Zhi shook his head: "Now is not the time."

"When will it be the right time? Do we have to wait until Sun Gong and his army are completely defeated before it's the right time?!" Liu Zan shouted in confusion.

Bu Zhi glanced at the Han and Wu armies for a moment, then looked again at the disheveled, fierce, and heroic General Pingxi, and said:

"Zhengming, do not worry, I have a plan."

(End of this chapter)