Sweep Yuan

Chapter 198 Returning to the Great Battle of Chulan

Temporary surrender point.

Zeng Bocheng stood respectfully with his hands at his sides, his tone tinged with nervousness, and reported in detail what he knew about the strength and weaknesses of the Yuan army besieging Xuzhou: the main force besieging the city was led by Daermashili and Wuluo, and the main force consisted of approximately…, along with the names and temperaments of the various generals…

Shi Shan remained calm, his sharp gaze capturing every detail in Zeng Bocheng's words. When he heard that "Right Chancellor Tuotuo has not yet arrived at the front line," a ripple finally appeared in his eyes.

This was indeed somewhat unexpected for him. Toqto'a had requested permission to lead the expedition last month, and the Yuan court had made a great show of it. He had thought that this last pillar of the Yuan court was already stationed at the city of Xuzhou, personally overseeing the battle, but he never expected that his opponent was merely his vanguard and henchmen.

Why was Toqto'a delayed in arriving at the front lines? Was it due to internal strife within the Yuan court, or was there another reason?
A hint of doubt quietly arose, but he quickly suppressed it. Regardless of whether Tuotuo came or not, the army of Daermashili in front of him was still a threat that had to be eliminated.

Although the enemy situation was roughly clear, Shishan did not rush to advance.

The Wuyao camp became the temporary base for the allied forces. Tens of thousands of troops set up camps around the camp and began a tense but orderly period of rest and preparation for war.

During this period, Shishan mainly promoted three things:
First, scouts were widely deployed to ascertain the truth. The goal was not to gather all intelligence, but simply to verify the authenticity of the information provided by Zeng Bocheng.

Meanwhile, generals like Li Xixi, who had fought against various Yuan army units, were frequently summoned to discuss the enemy's tactical characteristics, equipment superiority or inferiority, and morale based on their personal experiences. They then compared these discussions with Zeng Bocheng's confession to see if there was any concealment or distortion.

Secondly, reward the troops to boost morale. With a major battle imminent, morale is of paramount importance.

Large quantities of wine and meat were distributed, and smoke rose from the cooking fires in each camp, filling the air with the aroma of meat. Shi Shan personally visited each camp, leaving behind his steady figure and resounding instructions, from the Red Flag Battalion headquarters to the newly recruited soldiers of Zeng Bocheng.

Third, assimilate the surrendered soldiers and consolidate the foundation. This is the most difficult and demanding step. The sudden influx of nearly ten thousand surrendered soldiers is like an undigested lump in the body; if not handled properly, it will become a hidden danger.

The core of the reorganization was the original Wu Kiln camp's garrison troops, who were killed on the spot by Li Wu because their commander "intended to frame" the valiant cavalry guards who came to take over.

It is said that some soldiers in the camp, grateful for the Red Flag Battalion's "taking charge of their own lives," took the initiative to participate in the suppression of the rebellion. On that day, nearly four hundred officers and soldiers, including stubborn ones, were killed, and their heads were displayed at the camp gate.

Those soldiers who stepped forward at critical moments were promoted on the spot by Li Wu to fill some of the vacant officer positions, and were rewarded with money and silk.

Following this swift and decisive purge, the old Wu Yao camp was completely dismantled and could no longer function as an independent army. Shi Shan then dispersed them all, replacing them with the troops of Xue Xian and Li Xixi, who had suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Suishui.

Afterwards, Li Wu was summoned to the commander's tent by Shi Shan alone. The tent door was closed for a long time. Some of the guards heard that Li Wu was scolded by the marshal, but no one knew the specific content. However, when Li Wu came out of the tent, he acted as if nothing had happened and even joked with Guo Ying, who was on duty that day.

Secondly, Shishan adopted a more lenient and divisive strategy towards the four thousand surrendered militia members.

He first used swift and decisive measures to publicly try and execute four notorious local militia leaders who had aroused great public resentment, thus quelling some of the public grievances and deterring other leaders, big and small.

Subsequently, he selected 1,300 strong and healthy local militiamen without any obvious vices, and then dispersed them to join Xue Xian and Li Xixi's forces as fresh blood.

The remaining 2,700-plus elderly and infirm individuals are weak in combat and loosely organized, posing little real threat.

Shi Shan ordered these men to dismantle the defensive fortifications of their camps on the north bank of the Sui River, then settle them on the spot, provide them with a small amount of rations, and instruct them not to cause trouble, awaiting their disposal after the war. This relieved their worries about the rear and avoided the chaos that might have been caused by a large-scale dispersal.

The most troublesome were the four thousand Yuan soldiers under Zeng Bocheng's command. These men were different from the loosely organized local militia; they had a tight military organization.

Ishiyama knew that if he could not thoroughly purge its upper-level officer system and completely dismantle its organization, no matter which unit he incorporated it into, it would be like planting a bomb that could explode at any time. The risks of forced reorganization far outweighed the benefits.

However, he was by no means inactive. Using the pretext that the surrendered cavalry general Hasir had been killed in battle and that his troops were leaderless and unable to function effectively, he ordered that all of his remaining nearly one thousand warhorses (some cavalrymen were equipped with two horses) be transferred to the Xiaoqiwei.

Although Zeng Bocheng and the surrendered soldiers were heartbroken, they had just surrendered and it was impossible not to cut off their own flesh.

The fighting power of the elite cavalry was thus significantly enhanced, while the surrendered soldiers were completely deprived of their most crucial mobility, much like a tiger having its claws and teeth removed, greatly reducing their threat.

As for the remaining infantry, Shishan temporarily maintained its original structure, still under the management of Zeng Bocheng, but placed under close surveillance.

The ruins of the Marshal's Mansion in Xuzhou City.

While Shishan was preparing for battle, the city of Xuzhou, about seventy miles from the Wuyao camp, was already riddled with holes and on the verge of collapse under the relentless bombardment of the Yuan army's Xiangyang cannons day and night.

A suffocating atmosphere of despair permeated the city. Food supplies were running low, the wounded were wailing, and the soldiers and civilians were filled with anxiety.

Sesame Li, once a hero, now has a withered face, sunken eyes, and an unyielding sorrow between his brows.

He even ordered his personal guards to pile up firewood taller than a person in the main hall of the marshal's mansion, prepare kerosene, and be ready to light the ignition materials and "burn themselves" if the city were to be breached, to show his determination to perish with the city and die rather than be dishonored.

On August 17th, the sound of stones being thrown, which had lasted for more than a month, stopped without warning!

The sudden silence was more terrifying than the deafening roar.

The soldiers and civilians of Xuzhou, who had suffered greatly, were at a loss. Many huddled under the ruins, fearing that the city walls had finally collapsed and the Yuan army was about to massacre the city. Their desperate cries were all the more shrill in the deathly silence.

"Report! Marshal! The Yuan dogs... the Yuan dogs have withdrawn their troops!"

A scout junior officer responsible for keeping watch on the city wall rushed into the marshal's mansion, which was filled with the smell of firewood and kerosene. His voice was hoarse and distorted from extreme excitement and running.

"What?!" Sesame Li suddenly stood up from behind the table covered with a simple map, knocking over the chair behind him with a screeching sound.

He almost suspected he was hallucinating from excessive anxiety. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the junior officer, and his voice trembled as he pressed on:

"Withdraw? Which way are they withdrawing to? Look carefully!!"

The junior officer then realized he had been too excited and had overlooked crucial information, and quickly added, panting heavily:
"South...south! It's south! Yuan Gou's main force has headed south!"

"South? Suzhou?" Sesame Li was stunned, an expression of disbelief appearing on his face. To the south was Suzhou, the territory of Peng Erlang and Zhao Junyong. Could it be that these two guys, who were only concerned with fighting for power and watching him besieged for over a month, had suddenly changed their minds and sent troops to his rescue?

The idea was as absurd as the funniest joke in the world, yet Sesame Li couldn't laugh at all. Instead, a deeper chill and suspicion welled up inside him. Was it true or false? A trap or an opportunity?
"Quickly! Prepare the horses! Personal guards, follow me to the city walls!" Sesame Li suppressed his turbulent thoughts and gave the order in a stern voice.

Whether it's true or not, he has to verify it with his own eyes.

Before long, surrounded by dozens of personal guards and generals who had rushed to the scene, Sesame Li climbed the south city wall.

The city wall was badly damaged, with many gaps that were shocking to behold.

Outside the city, the sixteen Xiangyang cannons, which resembled ferocious beasts, still stood tall. Four of them were clearly damaged due to component fatigue, with twisted wooden parts and broken ropes scattered on the ground.

The other twelve bodies were intact, with many stone projectiles and spare ropes piled up next to them. However, the gunners and laborers who used to shout slogans and work hard had disappeared without a trace.

Looking further into the distance, the Yuan army's continuous camps still displayed their banners, and some soldiers could be vaguely seen moving about within them, seemingly a rearguard left to monitor the city's defenses. However, the camps were noticeably more spacious, with far fewer tents than before.

Further ahead, at the horizon, a large cloud of dust was slowly creeping southward, as if a large army was advancing southward.

"Really...really they've left?" Even with the facts right in front of him, Sesame Li still felt a strong sense of unreality.

After a siege of more than a month, with the Xiangyang Cannons bombarding the city day and night, and the city seemingly about to fall, the Yuan army unexpectedly withdrew its main force to the south at this critical moment.

This is so unreasonable!
"We've retreated! Heaven has blessed us, Marshal, you are truly blessed!" a subordinate general shouted excitedly.

"It must be our reinforcements! The Yuan dogs must be afraid of being attacked from both sides, so they must first go south to defeat the reinforcements before daring to continue the siege!" another general excitedly speculated.

Upon hearing this, the excitement on the faces of the people on the city wall quickly faded, replaced by deeper worry and silence.

Reinforcements? If they come, which kind of reinforcements? If we lose...wouldn't Xuzhou become a completely isolated and hopeless place?

Soon, someone tentatively suggested:

"Marshal, this is an opportunity not to be missed! The main force of the Yuan army has retreated south, leaving their garrison vulnerable. Why don't we seize this chance to launch a counterattack? With our combined forces inside and outside, we might be able to break the siege!" Sesame Li longed to counterattack as well. More than anyone else, he yearned to break the Yuan army's encirclement. He abruptly turned his head, his gaze sweeping over his generals behind him, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of weariness.

"Excellent! This is a great idea! Who among you is willing to lead the troops out of the city to defeat the enemy?"

Upon hearing this, the generals who had been discussing amongst themselves suddenly seemed to have been choked, lowering their heads and shrinking back, their eyes darting away, and no one dared to respond.

The siege, which lasted for more than a month, and the continuous bombardment with stones not only damaged the city's defenses, but also crushed the morale of the defending troops and the courage of the generals.

Venturing out of the city for open battle? Facing the possible elite rearguard of the Yuan army? No one had the courage or confidence.

An awkward silence hung over the dilapidated city walls. Finally, a pale-faced middle-aged scholar stepped forward to break the awkward silence:

"Marshal, generals, please calm down. The Yuan dogs are cunning; how can we know this isn't just a feint? The matter of reinforcements is currently only speculation. The enemy's situation is unclear, and our army is exhausted from being bogged down for so long. A hasty attack would be too risky. In my opinion, it is best to... observe the situation and carefully defend the city."

Sesame Li took in everyone's cowardice, and a feeling of indescribable dejection and sorrow welled up in his heart.

It's one thing to be unable to defeat Yuan Gou, but he can't even control his subordinates, a group of civil and military officials with their own agendas. How did he end up being pushed into the position of marshal in the first place? This marshal position is so frustrating!
"Heh..." Sesame Li let out a soft, ambiguous laugh, filled with endless weariness and self-mockery.

He looked away from the crowd, turned and left, leaving only a helpless command echoing in the wind:
"As you say, sir, issue orders to all departments to defend the city strictly! You,"

After walking a few steps, he still didn't want to give up and pointed to the junior officer who had brought the message.

"Keep a close watch! Report back immediately if there are any confirmed movements of reinforcements, or if the Yuan dogs make any further unusual moves!"

Chulan Station.

A year later, Shishan set foot on this land again, but everything had changed.

Last year, when Li Wu led the station's remaining residents south to Hong County, he set fire to the station, burning the once bustling station, a hub of commerce and trade, to the ground.

Today, the broken walls and ruins are half-buried in the weeds, adding to the desolation and bleakness.

Shi Shan rode his horse to a slightly higher mound, his gaze slowly sweeping over the ruins. He had returned here, not to mourn the past.

This place was the turning point in his fate at Shishan.

A year ago, he led a group of several hundred villagers, pieced together from various sources, to achieve a victory against overwhelming odds in this place, capturing the postmaster Wang Baiyin alive and winning his first battle in this chaotic world.

That battle marked the beginning of the Red Flag Battalion and the spark that ignited a prairie fire.

Today, he returns to this place, now commanding tens of thousands of soldiers. He will once again face the Yuan army, which has the advantage in numbers, on this land that witnessed his rise to power.

He wanted the world to see clearly: in this chaotic world, it wasn't just bandits and rebel kings who wreaked havoc for personal wealth and power; there was also a Red Flag Battalion that could cleanse the world!
The battle had actually begun three days earlier.

In the struggle for battlefield intelligence, the two armies' most elite scouts, like the fiercest wolf packs on the grasslands, launched a brutal outpost battle across this vast land.

The Red Flag Battalion scouts paid a heavy price, losing 173 men, but managed to reduce the Yuan army's scouts' range of activity to the limit, eliminating nearly 300 elite enemy scouts and completing a crucial battlefield cover operation.

This was not only for intelligence purposes, but also to psychologically demoralize the Yuan army, making them enter the pre-arranged battlefield like blind men.

Therefore, in today's decisive battle, the allied forces under Ishiyama's command were able to enter the designated battlefield with composure ahead of schedule.

He chose a relatively open area with the western mountains as his back to deploy his troops. This avoided being attacked from both sides and limited the Yuan cavalry's ability to maneuver widely.

After each battalion deployed according to the pre-determined plan, they rested and recuperated on the spot, conserving their strength and awaiting the arrival of the great battle.

Around 4:45 AM, the Yuan army arrived at the outer perimeter of the battlefield and began to form ranks.

Shi Shan stood on a high platform in the Moon-Holding Guard formation, holding a homemade monocular telescope, observing the Yuan army's formation.

Combining intelligence gathered over these days, and considering the significant differences in the flags, uniforms, and equipment of the various enemy units, it can be identified that:

The Yuan army's left wing consisted of 30,000 river workers led by Wang Xuan, the marshal of the Huainan rebel army; the right wing consisted of 20,000 salt workers from Huaidong led by Tian Feng, an "old acquaintance"; and the central army consisted of 22,000 government troops, totaling approximately 72,000 men.

Another 9,000 militiamen were not seen, presumably remaining to guard the city of Xuzhou to prevent the escape of the "Sesame Seed Li".

Of course, this is just a general distribution; no one would be foolish enough to form a large formation with 20,000 to 30,000 people.

For example, the Yuan army's central army was further divided into several units, with only 7,000 men. These were elite troops brought from Dadu by Darmashiri and Wuluo, while the other units ranged from several hundred to over a thousand men. This difference could be seen from the spacing between them when they were arrayed.

In addition to these, the Yuan army's left, right, and central divisions also had their own cavalry.

The "volunteer soldiers" who came to the aid of the battle were also divided into many units. Whether they were river workers or salt workers, they all set up dozens of military formations of varying sizes. There were gaps between the formations to facilitate actions such as flanking maneuvers, reinforcements, and retreats.

In this way, even if elite troops break through several enemy formations in succession during battle, it will be difficult to cause them to collapse, and they may even be surrounded.

The Yuan army's formation, though seemingly large and well-organized, actually harbored considerable hidden dangers.

In particular, placing a large number of "miscellaneous" troops on the flanks and arranging them in loosely combined formations certainly increases the flexibility and fault tolerance of the formation, but it also greatly weakens the overall defensive resilience and command efficiency.

Faced with a truly devastating blow, these very cracks could become the starting point of defeat.

The formation of the allied forces under Shishan's command was completely different from that of the Yuan army.

The allied forces, from left to right, are as follows:

Chang Yuchun's Qingri Guard had 6,000 men, Zuo Junbi's Zhongyi Guard had 3,000 men, Li Xixi's Guard had 3,000 men, Gong Wu's Pengyue Guard had 7,000 men (where the Shishan Great Banner was located), Hu Dahai's Bashan Guard had 5,000 men, Xue Xian's Guard had 3,000 men, Peng Erlang's Guard had 6,400 men, Zhao Junyong's Guard had 6,800 men, and Zeng Bocheng's Guard had 4,000 men.

In addition, Li Wu led 3,100 elite cavalry (some of whom were killed in battle), who were positioned behind the Moon-Holding Guard, ready to move at any time.

The total strength of the Allied forces was 47,500. The disparity in troop strength between 47,000 and 72,000 seemed significant, but Shi Shan was well aware that he had never regarded the right wing (Peng, Zhao, and Zeng's forces), whose combat effectiveness and loyalty were questionable, as the main force in this battle.

The real key to victory lies with the Red Flag Battalion headquarters; that's where his confidence in defeating the enemy lies.

The Yuan army was already numerous and located some distance from the battlefield. It took more than an hour for the 72,000 troops to complete their formation from the moment they entered the field. By the time they finished, the sun had already begun to set.

Many Yuan soldiers were already starving after breaking camp at dawn, marching a long distance, and finally forming ranks. Their hunger intensified when they saw the allied soldiers sitting leisurely on the ground, eating and drinking from their rations and water pouches.

For soldiers from the lower classes who were used to not eating after noon or eating only two meals a day, skipping lunch didn't have much of an impact. At most, it would make their hands a little weaker when drawing their bows, their legs a little slower when charging, and their strength a little less during close combat…

"Stand up! Stretch your bodies! Check your weapons and armor!"

Seeing that the Yuan army was about to complete their formation, Shishan decided not to wait any longer.

The sound of armor plates rubbing together and weapons clashing suddenly filled the allied ranks. Soldiers stood up, marched in place, waved their arms, and twisted their waists to warm up their bodies, which had become stiff and cold from sitting for so long.

The officers moved among them, inspecting the soldiers' equipment and giving them a final pep talk in hushed tones.

Not even three moments later.

The autumn sun carried a lazy warmth, but it could not dispel the increasingly thick atmosphere of death permeating the battlefield. The two armies stood silently facing each other like two torrents of steel about to collide.

The air seemed to freeze, with only the snorting of warhorses and the fluttering of banners remaining.

Shi Shan took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over his soldiers poised for battle, finally settling on the massive, somewhat disorganized Yuan army's formation opposite him. He abruptly raised his right hand, then swung it down heavily!
"Beat the drums! March forward—!"
(End of this chapter)