Taiheiki

Chapter 183 Confrontation
Bafa was taken aback by Qu An's blunt confession and didn't know what to say for a moment. After a long while, he smiled wryly and said, "His Majesty's health seems to be quite good. Isn't it a bit too early for you to be thinking about these things?"

"Who can say for sure about life and death? You know, my grandfather was always in good health. The day before he died, he rode a horse for almost two hundred miles, and he even had two women with him that night. As a result, he suddenly fell ill and died in the middle of the night! Then my father ascended the throne, and within two months, his four brothers also died suddenly!" Qu An laughed and said, "Do you still think I'm thinking too early?"

Even with his extensive knowledge, Bafa was speechless after hearing Qu An's explosive royal secrets. He hadn't expected that he, who had only been sent by Wei Cong to Lin Yi as an inside man for two days, would be dragged into the struggle for the throne. He didn't believe that Qu An was just telling him these things out of boredom.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Baffa asked.

“It’s very simple! You’re an outsider, you haven’t had a chance to take sides yet, and you have the strength!” Qu An laughed. “Among the few who are qualified to compete for the throne, I am the weakest. If I don’t find a way to increase my strength, I will only face death.”

"As far as I know, even if your Cham princes cannot inherit the throne, they can lead their people to establish a new country elsewhere. How can you say that death is the only outcome?"

“You’re right, but I can’t do it!” Qu An said with a bitter smile. “My mother is just a minor noblewoman, and her family’s power is very small. If I fail to win the throne, my maternal family will not have the power to support me in establishing my own country. Besides, my reputation is too great. My brothers who ascend the throne will not feel at ease letting me leave. They will definitely find a way to make me ‘die of illness’.”

"Then why do you want to go to Panyu?" Baffa asked.

“It’s very simple. It’s far enough from Linyi that my other brothers probably wouldn’t want to go!” Qu An laughed. “Most importantly, it’s already completely Han territory. My maternal clan’s weakness is no longer a weakness. A weak maternal clan means I don’t need to give them too many benefits, so I don’t need to touch the interests of the Han people. It’s actually easier to rule them!”

Looking at the ambitious face of the young man before him, Bafa suddenly felt an urge to tell him everything: as long as he sided with Wei Cong, all his problems could be solved. However, his merchant's caution stopped him. Bafa lowered his head and said humbly, "You're right, Panyu is a very good choice!"

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Jiaozhi Commandery, Longbian City.

Wei Cong received the news nine days after the Lin-yi people launched their attack. A shrewd merchant, upon learning of this, boarded a fast boat with sixteen oars, and the oarsmen took turns eating and resting, crossing the sea as quickly as possible to deliver the message to Longbian. Wei Cong immediately rewarded the merchant with thirty catties of gold, and then gave the same amount of gold to the oarsmen. He then summoned all the officials, announced this astonishing news, and declared a state of war in the three prefectures of Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen, and Rinan. He declared that until he defeated the Lin-yi Kingdom, everyone must obey his military orders, or face execution and confiscation of their property.

"These are my orders!" Wei Cong said sternly, "Men, copy my first order: collect grain for the army at a rate of five he (half a dou) per mu, conscript one laborer out of every five able-bodied men, distribute weapons to the county soldiers, take a headcount, and prepare for the expedition!"

"Yes, sir!" Shi Wu bowed his head, quickly transcribed Wei Cong's order into written form, handed it to Wei Cong for confirmation and stamping, then copied it several times and distributed it to various counties for implementation. As the new head of the Guangxin gentry, he had led his entire family to fully submit to Wei Cong's command—besides himself, more than 170 members of his clan had also joined Wei Cong's army. He knew very well that the future of the Shi family was now tied to Wei Cong; they would either soar to great heights and become one of the top local families under Wei Cong, or be completely destroyed and cast into the dust, never to rise again.

"Okay, that's settled then!" After confirming everything was correct, Wei Cong took out the seal from the leather pouch at his waist and said, "Go do your own things, I don't need you here anymore!"

Everyone had left. Wei Cong found a bottle of wine, poured himself a glass, and sat down to drink. Due to Vietnam's unique terrain, there is only a narrow corridor between the Red River Delta in the north and the Mekong River Delta in the south. This corridor is bordered by the sea on one side and the towering, steep Truong Son Mountains on the other, and its narrowest point is only seven or eight kilometers wide. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, whether it was the ancient Champa Kingdom and Vietnam, or the internal civil wars within Vietnam, the main battleground has always been along this narrow land corridor. In such narrow terrain, maneuvering and flanking maneuvers are naturally impossible; it's either a stalemate with fortifications or a decisive battle in open field. Wei Cong had already made all the necessary preparations, and now he felt relaxed.

"You're quite carefree! With a great battle looming, you still have the mood to drink?" Yuan Shao, who had just entered the hall, looked at Wei Cong, who was leaning against a pillar and drinking, with surprise.

"Would you like a drink, Yuan Shao?" Wei Cong beckoned to Yuan Shao. "Everything that needed to be arranged has already been arranged, why should I be nervous? If I don't relax with a drink now, there won't be any left after we set off!"

"I don't know whether to admire your composure or be afraid that you don't know your own limitations!" Yuan Shao took a wine cup, sat cross-legged next to Wei Cong, and poured himself a cup.

"Both!" Wei Cong took a sip of his drink. "If you win, you're calm and collected; if you lose, you're arrogant and ignorant! The winner takes all, the loser is condemned—isn't that how the world works?"

"Both, hehehe!" Yuan Shao laughed: "That's quite true. Putting aside everything else, you certainly have a lot of guts!"

“I’m afraid I’m not even as calm as you!” Wei Cong laughed. “I’ve always wanted to ask you a question: before you led your guests to kill the eunuchs and set fire to their residences in Luoyang, were you as calm as I am now?”

Yuan Shao was stumped by the question. After a long silence, he shook his head: "No, the night before the incident, I tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. I finally managed to fall asleep for a while before dawn. When I woke up, the maid said that my eyes were bloodshot and I looked very frightening!"

"Hahahaha!" Wei Cong burst into laughter upon hearing this: "Scared, huh?"

"I wouldn't say I'm scared, but I'm definitely worried. How could I not be worried? Countless scholar-officials in this dynasty have had their entire families exterminated because of eunuchs. How could I not be worried?" Yuan Shao shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"Then why did you still go? Because you were stuck there and couldn't get down?"

Yuan Shao said resolutely, "Where righteousness lies, I will not retreat even if I die ten thousand times. Even if I am afraid, how can I not go?"

"What a fine line, 'Though my heart is timid!'" Wei Cong sighed. "That's well said. Fear is one thing, but one must still go. That's true courage. Everyone says that Yuan Shao's success is due to his lineage from the Yuan family of Runan, but they don't know that among the many sons of the Yuan family of Runan, how many are as devoted to righteousness as Yuan Shao, willing to risk their lives? Come, let's drink a cup together!" "Good!" Yuan Shao raised his cup and drank. "So, Governor Wei, are you doing the same thing as I did that night?"

“How can that be the same!” Wei Cong laughed. “Benchu ​​risked his life that day, but I didn’t. I won’t lie to you, King Linyi has brought his entire kingdom this time. No, not just his entire kingdom, his army probably has a lot of mercenaries borrowed from other countries. At least those hundred war elephants are something Linyi alone couldn’t have put together!”

Yuan Shao was confused by Wei Cong: "How many troops does the King of Linyi have this time?"

"There are probably 30,000 men, 100 war elephants, and not many horses, maybe only a few hundred riders!"

"So many!" Yuan Shao was startled upon hearing this. "I remember you only brought around six thousand men from Panyu, right? How many troops does Zhang Pan have?"

"There are probably more than 10,000 people, but the soldiers are not yet trusted and respected. Only about 3,000 or 4,000 can actually be used in battle, so the total is around 10,000!"

"Thirty thousand against ten thousand, and war elephants too?" Yuan Shao asked anxiously, "You still have the mood to drink?"

"Why can't he drink?" Wei Cong laughed. "If he had only brought ten thousand or so men, I might have thought more highly of him. But he brought thirty thousand men. He's just throwing his life away. What do I have to worry about?"

"You value him with ten thousand men, but send thirty thousand to their deaths?" Yuan Shao laughed in anger: "Fine, I'd like to hear your explanation. If you're being unreasonable, then go and die yourself. I'm not going to play along!"

"When the Marquis of Huaiyin discussed military matters with Emperor Gao, the emperor asked him how many troops he could command. Huaiyin replied no more than 100,000. The emperor then asked Huaiyin again, and Huaiyin said the more the better. Although this statement was somewhat humorous, it is true that there is a limit to the number of troops a general can command; more is not necessarily better. If this limit is exceeded, the general will inevitably lose his command, his advance and retreat will be uncertain, his food and water will be insufficient, and his troops will fight for the right path without knowing where to go, inevitably leading to a great defeat. I have observed that the King of Linyi has commanded at least three or four thousand troops in the past, at most seven or eight thousand, and at most ten thousand. This time, he has led thirty thousand troops and a hundred war elephants. There is only one narrow road, making it impossible to divide his troops into several groups to advance simultaneously to clear the way. We only need to dig deep trenches, fortify walls, and hold out with strong crossbows for more than ten days. He will surely cause trouble on his own, and then we can take advantage of the opportunity to defeat him with a surprise attack, and we will surely capture his leader!"

Upon hearing Wei Cong's words, Yuan Shao couldn't help but laugh: "Since you say that, Brother Wei, I'd like to ask you, how many soldiers can you command?"

"Me?" Wei Cong laughed upon hearing this: "I dare not compare myself to Huaiyin or Emperor Gao. If it were my own troops and officers, I should be able to manage thirty or forty thousand men!"

"Thirty or forty thousand!" Yuan Shao laughed. "Alright, this time I'll go all out and accompany Brother Wei on this trip. I just hope you won't boast and end up harming yourself and others!"

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The turbulent Red River, flowing through winding canyons, suddenly slows its rapids. The countless silts carried by the muddy water are deposited, and over millions of years, this has formed a landmass extending towards the Gulf of Tonkin—the Red River Delta. This landmass is located at the mouth of the Jingtai River in the northeast, bordering Guangxi, my country; in the southwest, it narrows rapidly, eventually becoming a promontory nestled between the Changshan Mountains and the sea, leading all the way to the Mekong Delta. Wei Cong positioned his army at this promontory, the southern gateway to the Red River Delta.

The seat of Jiuzhen County was Xupu County (now Duong She Village, Dong Son District, Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam).

The battle had just ended when Wei Cong rode his horse across the fields strewn with corpses, followed closely by his entourage and guards, like the wings of a bird.

The earth was torn apart by horses' hooves; unharvested rice and newly planted beans were trampled into the mud, replaced by ring-pommel swords, spears, and arrows embedded in the ground. These thriving new plants, irrigated with blood, looked particularly gruesome. As Yuan Shao passed through the battlefield, dying horses looked up and neighed at him, while the wounded groaned and prayed to the gods.

Following behind were the soldiers of Jiaozhi County tasked with cleaning up the battlefield. They carried away the wounded who could still be saved and sent them to the rear camp doctors for treatment, giving relief to those who had no hope. They took various usable items from the dead, cleaned and repaired them for reuse. The woods around the battlefield were already full of crows, these ominous birds patiently waiting to enjoy their sumptuous dinner.

On the nearby riverbank, corpses lay everywhere, and arrows stung the bodies and the surrounding earth. The white fletching of the arrows almost dyed the riverbank white. Yuan Shao knew this was the final battlefield.

Those unfortunate souls were ambushed from behind by Wei Cong's cavalry while besieging Xupu County. Caught off guard, the attackers were thrown into chaos. The infantry, attacked from behind by lance-wielding cavalry, quickly lost their organization. People threw off their helmets and weapons, pushing and shoving each other as they fled. Driven like sheep by enemy cavalry behind and on both sides, when their strength was exhausted, they found themselves facing a river, followed by a hail of arrows from archers—Yuan Shao almost felt sorry for these enemies.

In the distance, plumes of black smoke rose, billowing and swirling into the azure sky. Those were the fires set by the Zhan people during their siege of Xupu County. On the vast, flat rice paddies, groups of prisoners, bound together with ropes, were driven backward by spearmen. Many were expressionless, lifeless, and staggering, like walking logs.

"You won easily!" Yuan Shao rushed to Wei Cong's side and whispered.

Wei Cong remained silent, intently staring towards the southwest, the direction from which the Zhan people had come. After a while, he turned back and asked, "Benchu, if you were the Zhan people's general, what would you do?"

"Am I the general who conquers men?" Yuan Shao stroked his beard. "Of course, I should first build fortifications to give the soldiers a break, and then find a way to win a battle to demoralize you, preferably by defeating your cavalry!"

"Hehe!" Wei Cong laughed: "That's right, I would have done the same! Although building fortifications would waste precious time and food, it's still better than just charging in and fighting a battle without knowing what's going on! Zhan Ren's mistake was concentrating all his war elephants in the central army. If there had been ten or so in the vanguard, I wouldn't have won so easily!"

(End of this chapter)