After much deliberation, Wu Wei concluded that Chunwu City was fortified and difficult to breach, and as long as they weren't careless, Li Jun wouldn't be able to take it down even if he attacked for three to five days. The key now lay in capturing Liuzhou. Once they captured Liuzhou and obtained supplies from the Su Kingdom's treasury, the problem of provisions would no longer be an issue.
Chunwu City is about 150 li from Lujiabao. The messenger rode there and arrived in a day and a night. Upon learning this news, Zong Yu, a cautious and meticulous general known in Wu Wei's army, ordered increased vigilance and dispatched more scouts. He also asked the messenger to return and request reinforcements from Wu Wei.
The reinforcements arrived two days later. The scouts had already relayed the news back to the city. Zong Yu dared not delay and went up to the city wall himself. Looking around, he saw that the more than 10,000 soldiers were indeed in the armor and banners of the Lan Kingdom. He asked, "Which general is leading the troops?"
"Open the city gates! Open the city gates!" came shouts from the reinforcements, but the general in charge turned around to signal for quiet, then looked up and said, "General Zong, don't you recognize me? I am Zhang Yuanrui, the deputy general under the former General Hu."
“The late General Hu? Which late General Hu?” Zong Yu asked again.
"Mad Dragon Hu Hailong!" Zhang Yuanrui's voice was somewhat hoarse, clearly saddened by the mention of his fallen commander. Zong Yu had also learned of the extremely fierce battle at Luye, in which Hu Hailong and other beloved generals of Wu Wei had perished, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of shared sorrow. He turned to his men and asked, "Among Hu Hailong's subordinates, is there this Zhang Yuanrui?"
“There is indeed a Zhang Yuanrui, one of the few composed men under General Hu,” someone nearby said.
"Does anyone recognize him?" Zong Yu asked again.
"I don't know them. General Hu's subordinates, relying on the Grand Marshal's favor, don't even respect us. How could we possibly get to know them?"
two,
Zong Yu's heart sank. In his mind, if Wu Wei were to send reinforcements, the commander should be one of the Twin Dragons and Five Tigers. But then he thought, if one of the Twin Dragons and Five Tigers came, given their status, he probably wouldn't be in charge of Chunwu City anymore. Although he still had doubts, he couldn't let this army stay outside the city. He had to find out whether they were real or not first.
"What evidence do you have to prove that you are reinforcements?" Zong Yu's tone was gentle, but his question was sharp. A chorus of curses erupted from below the city. Clearly, this army had been used to being arrogant under Hu Hailong's command and no one had ever suspected them.
Zhang Yuanrui stopped the soldiers' commotion, took out a token, and said, "This is the Grand Marshal's order. I have long heard of General Zong's prudence, and seeing it today, I can confirm that his reputation is well-deserved. With General Zong here, I believe the enemy soldiers will not be able to break through the city. My presence here is truly unnecessary."
Zong Yu pretended not to notice the sarcasm in Zhang Yuanrui's words, and lowered a rope basket down from the city wall, instructing Zhang Yuanrui to place the token inside. Zhang Yuanrui roared, "When General Hu was alive, no one dared treat my troops like this! Now that General Hu has sacrificed himself for the country, you dare to humiliate me like this? I will not enter the city today! I will return to Lujiabao immediately! If the Grand Marshal asks, I will simply say that you, Zong Yu, refused to let us enter the city!"
Zong Yu, standing on the city wall, said with a forced smile, "General Zhang, please calm down. We had no choice but to do this to be on the safe side. After the tokens are verified, I will treat you to a drink to apologize. I hope that you will consider the importance of this matter and ask for your forgiveness for a moment."
Zhang Yuanrui whispered a few words to the generals beside him, then placed the token into the hanging basket. Zong Yu verified that it was indeed a token issued by Wu Wei, and his doubts were largely dispelled. Zhang Yuanrui then sneered from below the city wall, "Even if the bandits are impersonating, where did they get the armor of over ten thousand men? I think General Zong is being overly cautious. If the token is genuine, please open the gate, General Zong."
Zong Yu, seeing that there were indeed no problems, immediately ordered the city gates to be opened and went down to welcome them. After Zhang Yuanrui entered the city, he discussed with Zong Yu how to settle the more than 10,000 reinforcements while waiting for the main army to enter. After most of the reinforcements had entered the city, Zhang Yuanrui suddenly changed his expression and shouted, "The Grand Marshal ordered me to come to the rescue, but General Zong is making things difficult at every turn. I wonder what General Zong's intentions are?"
Zong Yu was taken aback and retorted, "I'm doing this for the public good, not for personal gain. Being careful is always better than being careless."
"Bullshit! It's obvious you intentionally handed Chunwu City over to the rebels. The Grand Marshal knew you harbored treacherous intentions and granted me special permission to act as I saw fit. Now what do you have to say for yourself!" Zhang Yuanrui roared, and his men swarmed forward. Zong Yu and he were discussing matters at the city gate, and to make way for reinforcements, their guards numbered only a few dozen. How could they withstand the simultaneous attack of hundreds or thousands? In moments, they were all dead on the ground, and Zong Yu surrendered. He cried out "Injustice!" but "Zhang Yuanrui" held a sword to his neck, grinning maliciously, "Indeed, injustice. Let me tell you the truth, I'm not Zhang Yuanrui, I'm the Peace Army!"
"How could the rebels have so many of our uniforms? How could they have our tokens?" Zong Yu was still baffled when the main force of the Peace Army appeared outside the city and began pouring into it from the south gate. He hadn't considered that after Wu Wei's crushing defeat at the Battle of Luye, the discarded armor, flags, and equipment stripped from the captured Lan soldiers were enough to impersonate the entire Peace Army, let alone over ten thousand men. He had written back to Wu Wei requesting reinforcements, unaware that Wu Wei's forces were insufficient and he hadn't sent any. The messenger hadn't even reached Chunwu before falling into the hands of the Peace Army. Wu Wei, arrogant and proud, while not denying his defeat, hadn't informed his troops of the details. He himself had nearly been captured by Ji Su in the chaos, losing some tokens in the process; how could he possibly have noticed? Moreover, he had always believed Li Jun's claim of attacking Chunwu was a ruse, so falling for it was understandable.
Losing their commander and the strategic advantage of the city, the Lan army was in chaos. They didn't know how many Peace Army soldiers had poured into the city, nor how to defend themselves. As a result, the Peace Army captured Chunwu, a crucial city, almost without bloodshed.
That night, Wu Wei was resting in his room when a scout urgently reported that flames were shooting into the sky from the northwest direction of Chunwu. Wu Wei's sleepiness vanished instantly. He went up to the city wall to take a look and saw that the northwest direction was a fiery red, like the setting sun reflecting off the sky. He stamped his foot and sighed, "Damn it! Li Jun is indeed cunning. He actually went to attack Chunwu. Men, hurry to Chunwu to rescue it!"
"Wait a minute," Xie Kun said, who had arrived upon hearing the news. "Without knowing the truth, if we hastily send reinforcements, I fear that sending too many might lead to the loss of Lujia Fort, while sending too few might be of no use. Grand Marshal, please reconsider!"
Wu Wei suddenly realized this and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Thanks to you, otherwise I would have made even more mistakes. Look at those fires, it's clear that Li Jun was luring me to his aid. If Li Chuanjin can successfully capture Liuzhou, whether or not we have Chunwu's grain supplies won't matter."
Though he said this, he knew in his heart that with Li Jun's wisdom and strategy, whether Li Chuanjin could capture Liuzhou was truly unpredictable. More importantly, the flames from the northwest were visible throughout the city, and the soldiers' morale would be severely damaged if they saw that their supplies were lost.
"Oh, Wu Wei isn't falling for that."
Li Jun leaned back in his chair, listening to Lan Qiao recount how he had led his troops, disguised as defeated soldiers from Chunwu, to ambush Wu Wei's reinforcements on the road, but after waiting a day and a night without seeing anything. Li Jun spoke calmly. In fact, Li Jun also believed that given Wu Wei's abilities, the possibility of him falling for this trick again was extremely small; even if he had made a wrong decision in a moment of haste, he would quickly correct it. He smiled and gestured for Lan Qiao to go and rest, then turned to Wei Zhan: "It's all thanks to your strategy, sir. Otherwise, our army would have had to camp in the wilderness, in this freezing weather; I'm afraid the soldiers would have found it unbearable."
Wei Zhan smiled slightly: "This plan was originally conceived by the commander, and I only made slight modifications. Now that Wu Wei's provisions have been seized, as long as Liu Ning does not lose them easily, he will have no choice but to retreat temporarily."
“Once his fighting spirit is gone, Wu Wei will be unable to fight again in two or three months.” Li Jun smiled contemptuously. “Wu Wei is indeed a formidable opponent, but he is still slightly inferior to Liu Guang in seizing opportunities.”
As Li Jun had predicted, the battle unfolded as the two armies clashed. Li Chuanjin's swift attack on Liuning failed, and Wu Wei, running out of supplies, was forced to retreat. Li Jun did not pursue, withdrawing from Chunwu back to Liuning. The two sides remained locked in a stalemate in the area between Lujiabao and Liuning, engaging in occasional skirmishes, but both were essentially conserving their strength for a larger war. Wu Wei had to admit that his strategic plan had failed, and the war dragged on into the spring.
While the two sides were engaged in fierce fighting in this area, in the vast Gobi Desert in northwestern Su, a long, continuous army of twenty to thirty thousand people and nearly one hundred thousand horses was marching. This boundless Gobi, except for some meadows near water sources, was almost entirely barren wasteland. A thousand years ago, when the Rong people were active in this area, they called it the "Gobi of Sheep's Cry," implying that grazing sheep here would only lead to a miserable end. North of the Gobi lies the Heavenly Gift Grassland, the place where the Four Seas Khan rose to power. Vast plains, comparable in size to the Qionglu Grassland, were where the ancestors of the Rong people lived and thrived. It is said that after the Four Seas Khan's death, he was buried somewhere on the Heavenly Gift Grassland. The Rong people of the Qionglu Grassland are descendants of the Four Seas Khan who remained in the south during his reign. Therefore, every Rong person from the Qionglu Grassland longs to return to this legendary, sacred place of lush pastures and abundant water.
The Rong people on the Tianci Grassland held a similar status to those on the Qionglu Grassland. Although nominally within the territory of the Lan Kingdom, located in its southern part, they were practically an independent state. Aside from paying annual tribute of cattle and sheep to the Lan King, they largely ignored Lan's orders and occasionally clashed with them. However, due to their dwindling population over the past few decades, they rarely raided. The Lan Kingdom, in its long-standing conflict with the Su Kingdom, also tried to avoid these fierce Rong people. Fighting nomadic tribes on the grasslands was a nightmare for any general.
But Li Jun didn't see it that way. These nearly 30,000 men were Rong warriors he had sent Lu Yuan to the Qionglu Grassland during his northward advance. Each of them carried three or four horses, almost wiping out the warhorses on the grassland. Led by Fang Fengyi, Wugula, and Lu Yuan, they quietly traveled over 5,000 li north, entering the Yangku Gobi Desert. Because they were all Rong people, and claimed to be a tribal warrior returning to the Tianci Grassland, and because the areas along the way in the Su Kingdom were either already under the control of the Peace Army or in chaos, almost no one dared to provoke these Rong people. When they requested to buy food and medicine, they dared not refuse.
Therefore, after a long journey, the group arrived at Yangku Gobi. Lu Yuan and several Rong envoys had already received permission from Antana, the Khan of the Tianci Grassland Rong people, and Antana Khan even sent guides.
The saying "Sheep Weep in the Gobi" is well-deserved. If the Rong people hadn't been an extremely hardworking people, their army would have collapsed long ago. In the Gobi, they relied on mare's milk to supplement their food shortages until they left the Gobi and, thanks to the hospitality of Anta Khan, they finally received sufficient supplies.
This was Li Jun's long-planned scheme: to lure Wu Wei to the Su Kingdom, while the Rong people, starting from the Tianci Grassland, would use their cavalry's speed advantage to launch a surprise attack on Jinlun, the capital of the Lan Kingdom. On the map, the army's advance route resembled a dragon rising from the sea, hence Li Jun called this expedition "Dragon Soaring." He chose Fang Fengyi and Lu Yuan as the main generals for this expedition, and also enlisted the assistance of the brave Rong general Wugula. The policy of "Rong and ordinary people becoming one family," which he had implemented on the Qionglu Grassland years ago, had indeed proven effective. Although the Lan Kingdom had many spies within the Su Kingdom, the Rong people's disappearance in the Yangku Gobi Desert reassured them, assuming that the Rong people had returned to the Tianci Grassland. They never imagined that the Rong people, who were always arrogant and looked down on ordinary people, would be so readily used by Li Jun, nor did they expect that Li Jun would make such a bold decision.
three,
Winter fades and spring arrives, year after year, the march of time never stops for any change. Less than a month after the Spring Festival, early-blooming flowers have already opened their smiles across the land of Jiangsu, doing their utmost to display their beauty to the world. All kinds of plants are striving to sprout, and vibrant life flows across the entire land.
Wu Wei's mood was far less relaxed than that of spring's arrival. Although they had captured Lujia Fort and forced Li Jun back to Liuzhou City, the war had stalled for two months, with the Lan Army, despite its formidable strength, making no progress. He repeatedly urged reinforcements to the rear, and finally another 200,000 troops were dispatched. However, since the attack on Chunwu City, the Lan Army's food supplies had been extremely tight. Now that spring had arrived, most soldiers were still wearing winter clothes, and the grain supply officers at the rear reported that provisions were running low. It seemed that this southward campaign, aside from acquiring some territory, had not achieved its ultimate goal.
"Clouds rise from the mountains, reflecting their verdant hues; flowers fall, water conceals spring. A traveler dreams of home in his secluded chamber; a soul is broken in a foreign land." Wu Wei gazed at the surging Liu River before him and couldn't help but recite these lines. This poem, "Wandering Thoughts," was written by an ancient poet. At that time, the rules of poetry were not strict, and many naturally unadorned lines became popular.
"Ah?" Xie Kun uttered a soft "ah," waking Wu Wei from his reverie. Wu Wei looked at him and asked, "Why are you surprised?"
Xie Kun hesitated for a moment, wanting to speak but holding back. Wu Wei, somewhat impatient, said, "Speak, what can't you tell me?"
"Does the Grand Marshal intend to withdraw his troops?" Xie Kun asked.
"Oh?" Wu Wei paced back and forth along the riverbank and asked, "How do you know?"
"The two armies have been locked in a stalemate for a long time. Our troops are in a state of low morale, unable to fight or advance, and are only wasting food and equipment."
Xie Kun pondered for a moment, then continued, "The poem 'Wandering Thoughts' that the Grand Marshal just recited was originally a work about a traveler longing for home. It is a reflection of one's heart. If the Grand Marshal did not have a desire to return home, how could he have recited these lines?"
Wu Wei stared silently at the swirling river. Xie Kun seized the opportunity to advise, "It seems that retreating is the best course of action. First, even the Grand Marshal longs to return home; the soldiers below must be equally eager. Second, spring brings many epidemics to the south; if we don't retreat soon, and these hundreds of thousands of troops fall ill, we may find ourselves unable to control our own destiny. Third, the Grand Marshal commands a large army and wields considerable power; it's hard to guarantee that no one in the court will be jealous. Retreating early is crucial to prevent any unforeseen events. Fourth, spring rains have made the roads muddy and difficult to traverse, making supplies increasingly scarce; the army is already experiencing frequent food shortages..."
“I understand.” Wu Wei interrupted Xie Kun, stood with his hands behind his back for a while, and said, “I am really unwilling to accept that this expedition of hundreds of thousands of troops has been so fruitless.”
"Grand Marshal, you are mistaken. Your army marched south, conquering cities and seizing territories, even forcing a cunning opponent like Li Jun to retreat. How can you say that your efforts were in vain?" Xie Kun paused again. "Although we did not save the Su Kingdom this time, at least we prevented Li Jun from annexing the entire Su territory as he wished, and we have expanded the territory of our Lan Kingdom by more than a thousand miles."
Wu Wei chuckled twice and said, "According to you, I have won a great victory this time." Seeing Xie Kun fall silent in embarrassment, he pondered for a while and said, "I know your good intentions. Alright, order the whole army to prepare to retreat. I expect Li Jun will definitely attack when he sees me turn back. I will personally cover the rear!"