Mo Sang – CH 170

Chapter 170. Besieging The City

After resting for two days, Li Sangrou and Da Chang, along with others, set off from the main camp towards Pingjing Pass. They carefully inspected the route, checking several relay stations chosen by Da Chang and his men, and also selecting several backup hidden stations.

With everything arranged, they returned to the main camp from Pingjing Pass. The agreed-upon attack date was only a few days away.

In the command tent, Gu Xi, Wen Cheng, Wen Shunzhi, Huang Yanming, Chu Xing, and others gathered around the sand table, finalizing the battle strategy and each person’s responsibilities.

Li Sangrou stood behind a group of people, sipping her tea with a hint of boredom.

Her task for this battle was simple and clear: first, follow Huang Yanming to fire arrows from the north gate; then, go to Gu Xi’s side and follow his commands to kill with crossbows. She did not need to listen to their discussions.

The sun set. The final confirmation was completed, the time and orders were clarified, and Huang Yanming, Chu Xing, and the others returned to their respective preparations. Tonight, around midnight, the soldiers lying in ambush outside the east and north gates of Ezhou would quietly leave their camp, lie in wait under the cover of darkness, and remain motionless throughout the day. After nightfall tomorrow, they would listen for any movement inside the city gates, waiting to coordinate with their inside accomplices to open the gates and keep them open until the main army charges in.

“Let’s eat together,” Gu Xi said to Li Sangrou with a smile.

Li Sangrou nodded.

The meal was somewhat somber. Afterwards, Ru-Yi and his men cleaned up and brought tea.

At the Ganyun Pavilion. Wen Cheng, holding the tea, stood again beside the sand table.

“Stop looking at it. We’ve done our best. The rest is up to fate,” Gu Xi said, sitting in a chair and looking at Wen Cheng.

“For over twenty years, Jiangnan and Jiangbei have been peaceful. There’s been little wariness between them.

That little market outside the camp is so lively,” Li Sangrou said casually.

The Northern Qi camp had been stationed here for about two months. Initially, they attempted to attack the city two or three times, but each time they stopped short.

Ezhou City was not large. During these twenty years of peace, houses and markets spread outwards from the southern docks and the western Han Shui docks. Before the war, the area outside the city was even more bustling than the city itself.

After the war broke out, Ezhou City, like other cities facing Northern Qi, adopted a scorched-earth policy. Those with money moved into the city, while the poor sought refuge with relatives and friends, mostly settling in nearby villages.

Most of these people made a living from small businesses. Within days of the Northern Qi camp’s arrival, some bolder individuals came looking for business, carrying eggs and vegetables.

More and more people arrived carrying goods each day, so Wen Cheng simply fenced off a large open area about two li from the main camp, stationed guards around it, and created a market. Surprisingly, it became more and more bustling and prosperous each day.

The market opened at a set time. At the stroke of midnight, a gong sounded, and the soldiers guarding the market immediately withdrew, driving away all those who had come to buy and sell.

If these rules had not been so strictly enforced, with no room for leniency, a night market might have even opened up.

“It’s certainly lively,” Gu Xi smiled. “It’s good that they were not on guard. Zhong Liang and his men should be able to enter Ezhou City smoothly.”

“I hope everything goes smoothly,” Wen Cheng said, sitting back in his chair.

“If this does not work out, are there any other options? Spring, summer, autumn, winter—when is the best time to attack the city?” Li Sangrou asked, looking at Gu Xi.

“Although it freezes here in winter, the ice is extremely thin. Winter is not a good time; spring, summer, and autumn are not ideal either.

If this trip fails, I cannot think of any other solutions for now. Perhaps we could dam the Han Shui and flood the city?” Gu Xi remarked casually.

“How could Wu Huaiguo allow us to dam the river and flood the city? Ezhou is not an isolated city; to the south and west, it’s all under the jurisdiction of Southern Liang,” Wen Cheng said slowly.

“I think this time it will work,” Li Sangrou said with a smile after a moment of silence.

“Thank you for your kind words.” Gu Xi raised his teacup to Li Sangrou.

……………………

In the tenth month, even the midday sun was slanting, yet it still felt warm to the point of being scorching on the ground.

Chu Xing lay motionless beneath the thin layer of soil, glancing sideways at the shadow cast by the nearby stone.

He chose this place because of this stone; the length of its shadow allowed him to roughly judge the time.

Four hours had passed since he hid himself in the latter half of the night. Another four or five hours, maybe five, six, or even seven—well, less than a day, almost there.

This ambush outside the North Gate was something he pleaded with repeatedly, even signing a military pledge, before finally obtaining it from the Commander-in-Chief.

During the attack on Pingjing Pass, he had contributed nothing, and the humiliation outside Jiangdu City still weighed heavily on his mind. This time, even if the city gate was only slightly ajar, he would fight to the death to push it open—or die trying!

Ideally, there would be movement at the North Gate before the East Gate; he desperately wanted to be the first to storm into Ezhou City.

A string of ants crawled across Chu Xing’s forehead. He strained to raise his eyebrows, but the ants continued crawling forward, stepping on the lines on his forehead. Chu Xing cursed inwardly but gritted his teeth and endured the itching.

At night, it was alright, but now, the sun was shining so brightly that all those insects, water snakes, and ants were taking turns coming out and crawling on his face!

Damn it!

Chu Xing closed his eyes, regulated his breathing, and silently recited, “Form is emptiness, emptiness of mind is nothingness.” He did not see or think, so nothingness existed!

……………………

In Ezhou City, the sun was setting.

Manager Zhong, who had spent the whole day at the oil shop, observing the oil market, greeted the brokers who were busy packing up and closing the shop. He left the shop and leisurely headed back to the inn where he was staying.

The inn was not far from the oil shop and was full of traveling oil merchants.

Manager Zhong, Zhong Liang, his employees, and his dozens of barrels of oil rented a small courtyard facing the street.

After ordering a sumptuous meal from the innkeeper and having it delivered to the courtyard, Zhong Liang entered the small courtyard.

Behind Zhong Liang, the caravan members who had gone out for a stroll gradually returned. The innkeeper’s assistant brought in a box containing mutton hot pot, braised fish, and seven or eight other meat and vegetable dishes, as well as a large bowl of dumplings.

Zhong Liang’s caravan consisted of ten people, including the accountant, assistant, porters, and himself.

The ten men sat around a round table. Zhong Liang took a bowl, filled it with ten bowls of dumplings, and handed them to each person. He picked up the bowl, lowered his voice, and smiled at everyone, saying, “Our group is all here, and everything is going smoothly for everyone else. Have a bowl of dumplings; we will get to work tonight.”

“When I went to check the city gate, I saw Old Zhang and the others. They saw me too, but did not say anything,” Zhou Shan, dressed as the accountant, said in a similarly low voice next to Zhong Liang.

“After you’ve eaten, start preparing. Once you are ready, rest a bit, and it will be curfew soon. After curfew, we will leave.” Zhong Liang looked at everyone, paused, and raised the bowl of dumplings in his hand. “Although we have not known each other for long, it’s an honor for me to have met you all. If there’s an afterlife, let’s be partners again!”

“Let’s be brothers in the next life!” Zhou Shan, next to him, clinked his bowl with Zhong Liang’s, and the others followed suit, gently clinking their bowls together.

This trip was a death mission for them; there was no return. Before setting off, they had all left wills.

After eating, they took their knives from the half-person-high oil drum, washed them, rewrapped the handles, prepared tinder, changed their clothes, and got ready. Soon, the curfew drum sounded in the distance, growing louder as it approached, then fading away again.

The inn’s doors were tightly shut, and the streets and alleys were quiet and deserted.

A group of ten pushed open the side gate of the courtyard. Zhong Liang slipped out first, warily watching his flanks, then waved to the nine men carrying oil drums. One by one, they exited through the side gate. Zhou Shan, who had already scouted and memorized the route, led the way, rushing along the dark alley towards the East Gate.

Of the four gates of Ezhou City, only the East Gate had a barbican.

Because of the barbican, the Liang soldiers guarding the East Gate had a relatively easy time.

The Qi Army outside the city was separated from them by a barbican. To attack the city, they had to attack the barbican first. The barbican was sturdy; even if the outside attacked for half an hour or an hour, they would have enough time to begin preparations.

Zhong Liang, sword in hand, was the first to rush into the city gate.

Inside the city gate, the soldiers on duty were huddled in two small gatehouses on either side, chatting and laughing to keep warm.

It was mid-tenth month, and the nights were already quite cold.

Zhong Liang and Zhou Shan, one on each side, blocked the two small gatehouses, stabbing them one by one.

The soldiers’ screams were muffled in the gatehouses, their echoes reverberating through the heavy city gate, seeping into the city but unable to penetrate the thick gate and reach the barbican.

Zhong Liang waved his hand, calling for the others to come in. Three or four men worked together to lift the two heavy bolts, push aside the gateposts, and open the massive, heavy city gate a crack.

Tonight, Su Qing was on duty at the east gate. He was currently leaning against the barbican wall, frowning as he watched the distant Northern Qi Army camp.

Before lunch that afternoon, he and the general had stood here, watching the increasingly bustling market outside the Northern Qi camp.

Back then, the Qi Army camp and the market seemed normal, but now, the camp before him, the lanterns, gave him a growing sense of unease.

The feeling grew stronger. Su Qing frowned and ordered his personal guard, “Go to the General’s residence and find the concubine. Ask if the General has rested. If not, ask him to come and check on things.”

The guard obeyed and left.

Another guard stood beside Su Qing, idly looking around. His gaze fell on the city gate. After a moment, he exclaimed, “Master Su, look over there. Our city gate… it looks like…”

Before the guard could finish speaking, the city gate opened a crack.

“There’s a traitor! Sound the alarm!” Su Qing reacted swiftly.

Inside the city gate, Zhong Liang and his men pushed the gate open forcefully, placing two buckets of vegetable and soybean oil they had carried near the gate, kicking the rest to the ground. Following Zhong Liang, they charged towards the barbican, swords drawn. Two men carrying tinderboxes blew on them and threw them into the oil buckets.

Flames rose, the flowing oil carrying fire and smoke.

Outside the barbican, the Northern Qi soldiers who had been lying in ambush for half the night and a day leaped up, jumped into the moat, and swam forward with all their might.

“Do not use water! Use sand! Archers, line up! Zhaocai! Lead your men to close the city gates! Liu Meng, form a spear formation and stab them to death!” Su Qing on the barbican gave clear orders.

Outside the city, directly opposite the barbican, a torch was lit, illuminating the fluttering Gu-character banner and Gu Xi, whose armor gleamed beneath it.

Torch after torch, like a gust of wind, swept across the river, spreading rapidly from the Gu-character banner in all directions.

Inside the Qi Army camp, the drums beat rapidly.

Where the firelight spread, arrows rained down, striking the walls of Ezhou. Squads of Qi soldiers, shields in hand and ladders on their backs, charged towards Ezhou with shouts.

Su Qing felt a chill run down his spine. In all his life, this was the first time he had stood on a battlefield with thousands of troops, the first time he had witnessed such a siege formation.

Inside the barbican, Zhong Liang’s hundred-man squad was blocked by a dense array of spears before the city gate. Behind them, oil flames exploded. Zhong Liang took a step back, his body engulfed in flames, and charged towards the spear formation. The remaining survivors followed Zhong Liang’s example, retreating and advancing, grabbing spears and Liang soldiers, burning together.

On the barbican, arrows rained down, landing both inside and outside the moat. Outside the barbican, arrows flew like rain, landing on the city walls.

Ladders were erected across the moat, and soldiers rushed across, some falling into the river, others collapsing on the way.

Gu Xi, under the banner, watched the flames and smoke within the barbican for a moment, then turned to look at the north gate.

The east gate was a distraction; the hope of breaching the city lay in the north gate.

……………………

Almost simultaneously, as Zhong Liang charged into the east gate’s archway, in the deep alley opposite the north gate, Wang Meng, the captain of another hundred-man squad, listened intently to the distant watchman’s clapper, then waved his hand forward.

The assassins following Wang Meng pressed themselves against the wall, using the shadows to surge into the north gate’s archway.

The north city had no barbican; both massive gates were newly reinforced with copper plates and strips, completely encasing them, making them incredibly heavy.

The two massive bolts inside the gates were also entirely covered in copper plates. Beneath the gates were a row of doorstops and a row of copper-clad wooden pillars, one end resting in a stone socket in the ground and the other secured to the copper bolts on the gate.

In the small houses flanking the gate, lights shone brightly. Two soldiers on duty at the doorways, weapons in hand, leaned against the wall, talking intently to the people inside.

Wang Meng and his men charged swiftly, cutting down the soldiers on duty. They rushed forward, four men at a time, to dismantle a row of over a dozen copper-clad gateposts. The rest worked together to remove the gate’s supporting stones and lower the bolts.

The screams emanating from the gate opening startled the soldiers on the city wall. The commander on duty, leading his men, was about to go down to investigate when suddenly a whooshing sound rang out. A lantern hanging high on the watchtower went out instantly. The commander turned and lunged towards the crenellations, but before he could see clearly, a dark crossbow bolt pierced his eye.

The surrounding soldiers fell silent for a moment, then erupted in screams and cries of terror: “Enemy attack! Arrow! Quickly!”

Soldiers on the city wall rushed to their captains, grabbed swords and spears, and ran to their posts.

……………………

Outside the north gate, Li Sangrou, mounted on horseback, held a steel crossbow in her hand. After killing the shrewd commander with a single arrow, she then fired at the lanterns.

As Li Sangrou fired her first bolt, extinguishing the massive lantern whose light shone downwards, thousands of soldiers, shields raised, charged forward with shouts from beside and behind her.

Chu Xing, who had been lying in wait along the moat for half the night and a day, had been watching the brightest lantern on the watchtower. When the lantern suddenly went out, Chu Xing leaped up and shouted sharply, “Kill!”

The ambushers, buried in the shallow soil, followed Chu Xing, leaping into the moat. Their eyes fixed on the city gate, they swam and ran desperately, charging forward.

The archers reached within a hundred paces of Li Sangrou, drew their bows, and fired at the city walls. Moments later, arrows rained down from the walls.

An arrow pierced Chu Xing’s arm, but he was oblivious, his eyes fixed on the city gate, one hand wielding his sword as he raced forward.

When he was still two or three zhang from the gate, the heavy gate slid open a crack.

Chu Xing roared, leaping onto the gate and pushing with all his might.

One after another, the ambushers who had survived the hail of arrows rushed onto the gate, onto Chu Xing, and used all their strength to push the gate open.

Inside the gate, the assassins stood with their backs to the gate, their short swords facing the swarming Liang soldiers’ spears.

The short swords wielded by the suicide soldiers were no match for the dense rows of spears thrusting towards them. The swords and flesh only delayed the attack for a moment; the ranks of Liang soldiers quickly pierced through the human shield of the suicide soldiers, shaking off the corpses on their spear tips. Treading over pools of blood and carcasses, the dense spear barrage thrust towards the Northern Qi ambush troops, who had just pushed the city gate open about a foot. One by one, the Liang soldiers rushed towards the gate, using all their strength to close it again.

Chu Xing roared, snatched a spear, pressed his back against the city gate, wielding the spear in one hand and a sword in the other, thrusting at the Liang soldiers hacking at the gate from behind, and protecting his comrades struggling to push the gate open and the small crack in the gate that had just been opened.

Behind Chu Xing, the few remaining Northern Qi ambush troops, their backs pressed against the city gate, roared, veins bulging on their heads and necks, using all their strength to resist the slowly pushing gate open.

Inside the city gates, more and more Liang soldiers swarmed in, pushing and shoving, trying to close the gates outward. The gates slowly but surely closed, and Chu Xing roared anxiously. Just as the gates were closing to a crack, Qi soldiers with shields charged in, like arrows released from a bow, aiming for the two gates that had not yet closed.

Outside the city gates, more and more Qi soldiers arrived. After a brief pause, the gates, barely open, burst open with a roar. Chu Xing charged ahead, sword drawn, and plunged in.

Li Sangrou, seeing the open gates, turned her horse and headed towards the east gate.

The bright red lanterns, the high-flying banners, and Gu Xi in full armor made him easy to spot.

Li Sangrou rushed to Gu Xi’s side and reined in her horse. “The North Gate is open.”

Gu Xi slowly exhaled, a smile appearing on his face. He glanced back at Li Sangrou and pointed to the “Wu” banner on the barbican wall. “Wu Huaiguo is here. He just arrived. Can you shoot that banner down?”

Li Sangrou squinted, grunted, handed her crossbow to Hei Ma, took another crossbow from Da Chang, aimed at the banner’s pole, and pulled the trigger.

The banner fell to the ground.

……………………

Under the “Wu” banner, Su Qing screamed and shoved Wu Huaiguo aside. “It’s that crossbowman! Commander, step back!”

“Quickly raise the banner! I am safe and sound!” Wu Huaiguo shouted, retreating to the outside of the crenellations.

“Commander! The North Gate has fallen! The North Gate has fallen!” A soldier rushed from the city wall, screaming in agony.

Wu Huaiguo was startled, then abruptly turned to look at Gu Xi, clad in gleaming armor, beneath a cluster of lanterns below the city walls.

This was a feint! How many spies had infiltrated the city?

“Open the gates! Fight them out!” Wu Huaiguo decided swiftly.

With the north gate fallen, staying inside was tantamount to waiting for death. His army was no less powerful; going out to fight, even if Ezhou fell, they would still take a significant chunk of its territory!

The east gate’s barbican sprang open, and squads of infantry, spears raised, charged towards the attacking Qi Army.

On the walls of Ezhou, the fighting spread from the north gate to both sides.

Li Sangrou, mounted on horseback, stood behind Gu Xi, watching the carnage unfold across the hillsides.

The clouds dispersed; the full moon hung high, its soft light enveloping the fighting soldiers and their weapons, splashing across the blood and corpses.