Taiheiki

Chapter 339 Arson
When Yu Wen led his small army to the high ground, a considerable amount of time had passed since the dawn of the battle. The subtropical sun had swept away the morning mist, and the corpses on the ground began to emit a nauseating stench. The remaining few hundred Ju-chō people gathered in a corner of the high ground, raising their rattan shields and extending their spears, watching the new enemy warily.

Yu Wen ordered the Funan officer to launch a probing attack, which the Funan officer reluctantly agreed to. Driven by whips and clubs, more than a hundred Funan men charged forward with bamboo spears. They inflicted almost no damage on the Ju-ting people and were quickly defeated, leaving behind seven or eight corpses.

"Rattan shields and long spears? These Funan people can't even handle these?" Yu Wen shook his head disdainfully. He immediately ordered the Funan officers to prepare as many spears as possible. He tied the heads and tails of some spears together to form spears over five meters long, and used others as javelins, distributing them to his soldiers. Once everything was ready, he ordered the horns to be sounded and the attack to begin.

The first to engage in battle were the Han army's crossbowmen. However, instead of using crossbows as usual, they walked to within about twenty paces of the enemy and threw short spears. After throwing three spears, they retreated and disappeared into the dense ranks of spearmen behind them. Most of their thrown spears embedded deeply in the rattan shields of the Ju-ting people, resembling giant hedgehogs.

As soon as the crossbowmen retreated, the Han spearmen moved forward to the beat of the drums, shoulder to shoulder, forming a square. The square resembled a giant, slowly moving porcupine. The soldiers in the front rank laid their heavy, two-in-one spears flat, tips pointing forward, while the soldiers behind extended their spears over the shoulders of those in front. When the spear tips of the first rank of Han soldiers touched the rattan shields of the Ju-ting people, the second, third, fourth, and even fifth ranks followed, layer upon layer, densely packed. With the Han army's advance, these spear shafts swayed slightly up and down, clashing together with a soft clanging sound. The Ju-ting people couldn't even see the faces of the Han soldiers opposite them; they could only see a despairing, ever-approaching sea of ​​spear tips.

The Ju-chō people tried to raise their rattan shields to protect themselves, but these shields, already adorned with the javelins from earlier, were cumbersome and difficult to lift. Soon, the spear tips struck the shields. The Ju-chō tried to retaliate, but their spears were considerably shorter, and more importantly, each of them faced the thrusts of four or five long spears, leaving them overwhelmed. They no longer seemed to be facing flesh-and-blood people, but rather a colossal machine—cold, stable, ruthless, and impossible to resist.

The battle didn't last long. The shield wall of the Gochō people quickly crumbled under the onslaught of the spear phalanx. They abandoned their corpses and weapons and fled. But they were soon overtaken by war elephants. Many people had a misconception about these behemoths, assuming that their massive size would make them slow. In reality, war elephants were quite fast on flat ground, only slightly slower than the best horses and far faster than foot soldiers. Only a very few Gochō people who tumbled down the steep slopes with their heads in their hands escaped with their lives; the vast majority of the rest became prisoners of the Funan people.

"Alright, the battle is over. The rest is up to your men!" Yu Wen nodded reservedly to the Funan officer and walked down the slope, his mind already back on his gold.

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When Ying Feng entered the tent, he heard General Ju Ding's angry roar. He frowned; it seemed the situation on the battlefield was not so favorable.

"My men told me that Han troops have appeared over the Funan people! What's going on?" General Gou-cho stared fiercely at Ying-feng, his eyes flashing with malice.

"I don't know!" Ying Feng replied lightly. "Are you asking me this because you just lost?"

"No!" General Gou-cho instinctively denied, "No matter who the enemy is, I can win. But since the Emperor of Han has already issued an edict appointing my king as the General Who Pacifies the Barbarians, why are there traces of Han troops among the Funan people?"

"I already answered you, I don't know," Ying Feng said with a smile. "If you doubt what I said, you can retreat and find out the truth first, or you can defeat the enemy in front of you first!"

General Gou-cho stared into Ying Feng's eyes, unable to find the answer in the man's gaze. After a few minutes, he sneered, "Envoy Ying, don't forget, we're in the same boat now. If the boat sinks, we'll both drown!"

"Of course I remember! That's why I have good news for you!"

"Good news? What good news?" General Gou asked in confusion, "The Funan people have just captured that high ground, and they can see everything we do!"

"Come, let's go out of the tent and take a look!" Ying Feng walked out of the tent with a grin: "I've been paying attention these past few days. Every day after dark, the wind direction changes, blowing towards the Funan people! And the wind is quite strong."

"What's wrong with this?"

“The Funan camp is surrounded by many trees and weeds, and their dwellings are mostly huts made of thatch and wood. Moreover, it hasn’t rained for quite some time.” Ying Feng paused slightly. “What do you think would happen if the soldiers set fire to the Funan camp after dark and when the wind picks up?”

"This—" General Ju-ting's mouth gaped open like an egg, and his face gradually revealed wild joy: "I understand, Mr. Ying, your wisdom is truly worth a thousand troops!"

"General, do you no longer doubt the sincerity of the Han Dynasty towards your Gou-ting Kingdom?"

"No more doubts, no more doubts!" ​​General Ju Ting laughed heartily. "Rest assured, we Ju Ting people have been loyal subjects of the Han Dynasty for generations!"

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The wine of victory may be sweet, but it is nothing compared to counting gold.

Yu Wen's fingertips traced the smooth surface of the gold ingot, his heart burning with excitement. He had already cast aside the day's victory. To him, who knew the entire plan, the Funan and Gou-ting people were merely pawns in the general's hands. So what did it matter whether he won or lost? In the end, it was the Han Dynasty that would win, and it could only be the Han Dynasty. The gold before him was the only real prize; it could take him to heaven.

Just as Yu Wen was happily admiring his spoils, his deputy's voice came from outside: "My lord, I have something to report!"

"Oh?" Yu Wen quickly placed the gold ingot under the table and said in a deep voice, "It's Xu Wen! Come in!"

"My lord!" The deputy entered the tent and bowed to Yu Wen. "I was patrolling the camp just now and noticed that the wind picked up considerably after dark, and it was blowing this way. There's a lot of vegetation around the Funan camp. I asked the locals, and they said it hasn't rained for over ten days, so the vegetation is very dry—"

"Are you worried that the Ju-ting people will use fire?" Yu Wen asked. "Yes, that's what I mean!" the deputy said. "You know the situation in the Funan camp. Although there are no tents, the soldiers live in bamboo and reed huts. Those things catch fire easily. If the enemy sets them on fire, we're doomed!"

Yu Wen frowned. He knew his deputy was right; according to his military training, the Funan people's encampment was a major taboo in the army. But after all, he wasn't the commander-in-chief, just an envoy with a guard. The King of Funan didn't look like a ruler at all, and trying to advise him might only result in a few nasty remarks. Only the prime minister seemed somewhat human; he really had no desire to speak to him.

Seeing this, the deputy could easily guess Yu Wen's thoughts and said with a smile, "My lord, we are not allies with the Funan people, so whether or not to warn them is up to us. However, if the enemy sets fires, we cannot afford to be caught in the crossfire. In my opinion, we should have our soldiers move to another place to set up camp first. If, unfortunately, our warning comes true, at least we should be able to protect ourselves!"

“You’re right!” Yu Wen nodded. “We don’t need to say anything more, and we can’t risk getting ourselves involved. I presume you already have a new location for the camp? Let’s move the camp immediately, just as you’ve decided!”

"Here!"

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As the sun dipped below the horizon, a northwest wind blew in from the inland, gradually carrying away the heat from the ground and bringing a pleasant coolness. The Funan people gathered in small groups around the campfire, chatting about the day's victories after dinner. Those fortunate enough to have participated firsthand described the events with great enthusiasm, sipping slightly sour homemade rice wine and exaggerating the wisdom of the Han envoys and the fighting prowess of the army.

"Those Kocho people only number four or five hundred, but they linked their rattan shields together like a wall. They hid behind the wall, and anyone who dared to approach would be stabbed with a spear. We lost many people, but we still couldn't take down those guys!"

"Don't we have war elephants? Let them charge up and trample them all to death!"

"It's not that simple!" the narrator scoffed. "Elephants aren't stupid either. They don't just walk around a gleaming spearhead; they charge straight at it!"

"Really?! Elephants are that smart?" someone asked skeptically.

"This is really true!" someone testified. "Elephants are very intelligent, smarter than cows and dogs. If you scold them, hit them, or treat them well, they will remember it and repay or retaliate against you in the future. But if you send them to their deaths, they definitely won't do it!"

"If even war elephants were useless, how did you ultimately win?"

"It wasn't us who won; it was the Han envoy and his men who won!" the narrator laughed.

"What? The Han Chinese envoy won? What are you so proud of?"

"You don't know anything! The Han envoy is helping us fight, which means the Han emperor is on our side. The Gou-ting people are so arrogant, isn't it just because they rely on that so-called 'envoy'? Now it's clear that it was all just their boasting, so aren't we bound to win?"

"Alright, alright, stop interrupting our story! Since you love to talk, you tell the story!" The person who was getting impatient with the constant interruptions stepped forward, and the others quickly shut up. The storyteller coughed: "Alright, the Han envoy went up to the high ground and observed the enemy's formation, then gave two orders: one was to collect as many spears as possible, and the other was to tie the ends of two spears together to make one longer spear. Can you guess why?"

"Collect more spears? The Han soldiers all have their own weapons, better than ours. Why do we need so many spears? Do they have that many men to use them?"

"Yeah, why did he tie the spear up? It makes the spear longer, but you can't swing a spear that long at all!"

Just as everyone was speculating, many figures emerged from the Ju-ting camp, carrying hastily made torches and other implements. They silently slipped into the bushes near the Funan camp and then lay in ambush. The entire operation was as quiet as a ghost, with only the increasingly fierce night wind rustling through the bushes and covering the sound of their footsteps.

In the camp of the Gochō people, the storyteller continued recounting the daytime victory, and more and more people gathered around to listen intently. Even some officers stood in the crowd, listening with great interest. After all, military camps were inherently dull and monotonous, and not everyone had participated in the daytime battles. The storyteller's eloquence and vivid descriptions were a good way to pass the time.

"At the command of the Han envoy, the Han soldiers rushed to the front of the enemy lines and threw short spears. The Ju-ting people hurriedly raised their shields to block, unaware that they had fallen into the Han envoy's trap. What do you think? The Ju-ting people's rattan shields were originally sturdy and light, but after being pierced by several short spears, they became heavy and inconvenient, and it was impossible for them to wave them to block as before!"

"What kind of strategy is this? The people of Gocho aren't stupid. If they find the rattan shield inconvenient, they can just pull out the spears from it!" someone in the crowd shouted.

"Hahaha!" the storyteller laughed. "If you could think of that, how could the Han envoy not? First of all, the spears had hooks, so once they were in, they couldn't be pulled out immediately. Secondly, after the Han soldiers threw the spears, they attacked from behind. How could they give you time to pull them out?"

A chorus of jeers and laughter erupted from the crowd, urging the storyteller to continue. The man smiled: "The Han envoys positioned their soldiers shoulder to shoulder in five or six ranks, each wielding a modified spear. The spear of the soldier in the back extended from behind the shoulder of the soldier in front. Because the Han spears were long, even the spears of the fourth or fifth rank could extend beyond the first rank. As a result, the Ju-ting soldiers could only see a dense mass of spear tips, unable to even see the person opposite them. How could they possibly withstand it—"

"Fire!" someone shouted.

"Huh? What fire? The Han people didn't set the fire!" The storyteller was stunned.

(End of this chapter)