CW:
gore/violence
Yuan Mao recruited more than 7000 strong-built women over the age
of 13. At this point, all those who could carry swords and move stones in
Guangning City should participate in the war. Of course, they would not go
directly to the city wall to resist the enemy, but to do all the logistical
preparations.
Among the troops, Yuan Mao saw Yuan Weiling who was shrinking her
head. He frowned and pointed to Yuan Weiling: "You come out."
Yuan Weiling stood out unwillingly.
Yuan Mao said solemnly, "What are you doing here?"
"Joining the war."
"Nonsense, who will take care of your mother?"
"It's mother who asked me to come." Yuan Weiling said
boldly, "Mother said she doesn’t need to be taken care of and let me give
father a helping hand."
"You..."
Yuan Weiling straightened her chest: "Father, I am much more
sturdy than ordinary women. Even if you let me go to the frontline to fight the
enemy, I will not be afraid."
Yuan Sikong pulled Yuan Mao's sleeve on one side: "Father,
this is exactly the time to make use of people. Big sister is smart and nimble.
Surely, she can help. Besides, they are just transporting goods and materials.
There won’t be any danger."
Yuan Mao said with a straight face: "Ling'er, you are not
allowed to mess around. You must obey the deployment."
"Rest assured, Father." Yuan Weiling stuck out her
tongue, "Lord Qianhu."
Yuan Mao led Yuan Shaoxu and Yuan Sikong into the house:
"Kong'er, just now you said you have a strategy to repulse the enemy?"
Yuan Sikong nodded his head.
The three walked to the huge map lying on the table. Yuan Mao
supported his hands on the table: "Say it."
"Zhuo Letai made a big mistake." Yuan Sikong said
straightforwardly.
"Oh, what mistake?"
"He didn’t besiege the city." Yuan Sikong said, "Of
course, this mistake was not intentionally made by him, but was considered as a
helpless move."
Yuan Mao stared at the map: "That’s right. The terrain of
Guangning, the current climate, and many other reasons made him not besiege the
city. Of course, there is still one more reason. He probably underestimated us."
Before entering Guangning, Zhuo Letai had already taken 4000 Sheng
soldiers as prisoners. Naturally, he knew that there was no shortage of food
and clothing in Guangning City. When besieging a city, it's most taboo for the
defenders not to worry about rations while the attackers come from afar,
because the defenders were not afraid of being surrounded while the attackers
couldn’t waste time at all.
In addition, there was a mountain canal around Guangning City,
which did not have enough open space for the horses, cattle and sheep brought
by Zhuo Letai to graze. Now, the weather was freezing cold and there was no
pasture. Whether it was food for humans or food for animals, they must have
been transported by him. Therefore, Zhuo Letai would not dare to divide his
forces and besiege the city for fear that his food would be raided.
In fact, choosing this time to fight was a big taboo for military
strategists. However, Zhuo Letai had no choice. If Huangshui was not frozen,
they would not be able to come over. It was also extremely difficult to take
this action.
Of course, as Yuan Mao said, Zhuo Letai was suspected of
underestimating his enemy. He probably would not have thought that a mere small
city with only two or three thousand defenders would be able to stubbornly
resist until this state.
So, he didn't besiege the city, which allowed Li Boyun to be able
to go to the capital and ask for help. Even if he wanted to besiege the city
now, it couldn’t be besieged anymore.
Yuan Sikong said: "The scouts said that although Zhuo Letai
did not besiege the city, he had already set up sentry posts, monitoring
Guangning’s every move at any time, but there are definitely loopholes in the
sentry posts, especially when the night is dark, and the wind is strong."
"What you mean is..." Yuan Mao pondered and said,
"We should get out of the city?"
Yuan Sikong nodded his head.
Yuan Shaoxu frowned and said: "If the Jin people caught us
when we go out of the city at this time, wouldn’t we die?"
"We will also die by being shut inside the city by the Jin
people." Yuan Sikong's eyes had calmness and concentration beyond his age.
"My plan is to send a group of sacrificial men*, avoid the
sentry posts by taking advantage of the snowy night, go around to the rear of
the Jin army’s camp, wait until the time when Zhuo Letai attacks the city, and
sneak attack his camp and rations!"
Yuan Mao gasped and said slowly, "This is a very dangerous
plan."
"Yeah, it's too risky." Yuan Shaoxu said, "Who do
we send? How many people do we send? We don’t have enough to defend the city.
How would we divide the troops? If these people are found out carelessly, there
will be no return."
"Father, big brother, just listen to Kong'er’s details."
Yuan Sikong twisted a chess piece with two fingers and gently placed it in
between Guangning City and the Jin army’s camp. "Choose 300 sacrificial
men, bring along seven days of rations, hand cannons and kerosene. Take
advantage of the snowy night and leave Guangning. Avoiding the sentry posts, go
around the rear of Jin army’s camp and lie in ambush." He was pushing the
chess piece with his finger, slipping it behind the Jin’s camp. "When Zhuo
Letai attacks the city, the garrison of the camp will be weak. The sacrificial
men will take advantage of the situation to strike the camp, agitate the cattle
and sheep with hand cannons, and burn their rations with kerosene. If they
succeed, that’s it. If they fail, when Zhuo Letai gets the report, he will
definitely go back to save the rations. In this way, the crisis of Guangning
will be solved temporarily." He finally pushed that chess piece into the
Jin’s camp with force.
Yuan Shaoxu said: "This plan is quite difficult, I'm afraid
it won't work. As you said, even if it is successful, it will only be a
temporary solution. What should we do when Zhuo Letai settles the camp down and
comes back?"
"When Zhuo Letai retreats, we must observe. If the soldiers
retreat in an orderly way and the banners are not disordered, it proves that he
has a good command of the troops. He will send his cavalry first and return to
the camp as soon as possible. If he takes his elite troops to cover a retreat,
then we will ride out of the city with hand cannons and catch up with them. In
the absence of his cavalry, we will take advantage and attack the infantry or
siege troops’ interior. It doesn't matter how many enemies we kill, but we need
to disrupt their formation. If he's in a state of panic and confusion when he withdrew,
it would be even better. We can directly attack the tail of his army. The Jin
army has not been able to attack the city twice. They are severely injured, and
their morale is already low. Now that their camp has been attacked beforehand
and followed by pursuers, the morale of the army is bound to collapse."
Yuan Mao nodded: “Continue."
Yuan Sikong squinted his eyes and a glimmer of cold light flashed:
"Next, is the last plan to drive Zhuo Letai back to the barbarian’s land."
-----
Li Boyun sacrificed his life for justice and fought for 12 days
for Guangning Wei.
Within twelve days, they intensified their military training, wall
building and hoarding wartime supplies. The whole city was mobilized.
When Zhuo Letai’s army was approaching the border, the people who
still had a way to retreat had already fled. Most of the people who were left
were poor people whose total assets were tied firmly to the land. They could
not leave the land they depended on, so they had nowhere to go. Their fate was
closely related to the city.
The soldiers Yuan Mao sent went door to door, encouraging them to
donate all iron tools, beddings, clothing, and kerosene, and enlisting all
young and strong men and women into the army. Li Boyun used his life to inspire
the soldiers to live and die together with the city. Yuan Mao used the two
tragic victories, in which he vowed not to retreat even when facing 70,000
troops, to tell the people of Guangning that as long as the people are united,
their wills will unite like a fortress.
The whole of Guangning was putting all its eggs in one basket*. Within the 40,000 people in the city, those who had money
contributed money, and those who had strength contributed strength, just to
protect their common hometown.
When Zhuo Letai brought his army to attack the city for the third
time, everyone was determined to die and did something to survive.
The army was approaching. A gust of wind blew the snow fog away,
and their field of vision became clear only to see on top of the long guns,
which were standing like a forest one by one, there was one bloody head after
another sticking onto them!
The commanding general on top of the city was horrified. That was
clearly the 4000 prisoners of the Sheng army!
What made them extremely sad and angered was that at the top of
Zhuo Letai’s big army banner was Liaodong governor Li Boyun’s head!
That pale snowy hair was dancing wildly in the north wind. They didn’t
know if he heard the sad mourning of the people in Liaodong.
Yuan Sikong stood beside Yuan Mao and could hear the sound of Yuan Mao’s clenching fist.
He felt extremely sad. The scene of Li Boyun riding a horse and leaving peacefully, his thin figure gradually blurring in the snow appeared in his mind. That day, the sky and the earth were the same color. The snow and fog messed up the heaven and the earth, and he seemed to disappear into a fairyland.
Sacrificial men*[死士]--- person
willing to sacrifice his life (for a good cause)
putting all its eggs in one basket*[孤注一掷]--- throw
the helve after the hatchet; bet all on
a single throw; bet one's bottom dollar
on; go for the gloves;
Edited on 20 June 21 (Emzie)
Edited on 5 Jul 21 (Ari)
Oh my T_T
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