Jinting Han people

Chapter 401 People are like grass, arrows are like locusts

After their frontal assault on the imperial road was thwarted, as Liu Xian had predicted, Dong Ai began to attempt a detour, leading his army to attack from both the north and south.

However, the result was still unsatisfactory. After all, the palace guards had already occupied the high platforms and pavilions on both the north and south sides of the imperial road, making it difficult for them to advance an inch.

Initially, the emperors of the Wei and Jin dynasties built these pavilions with the intention of gaining a high vantage point for panoramic views: firstly, to rest and enjoy the scenery; and secondly, to observe the lives of people outside the palace, examine the security of the city, and identify and address any shortcomings in their governance. However, they could not have foreseen that when the imperial palace became a battlefield, these pavilions would also become excellent strongholds for offense and defense.

When the Qi army advanced to Lingyun Terrace, which was guarded by Liu Qiao, Liu Qiao sent infantry to protect the first floor, while archers were stationed on the second and third floors to engage the Qi army directly in a firefight. The palace guards had a commanding view, while the Qi army was forced to attack uphill. The casualty ratio on both sides was predictable. Bian Cui, who was in charge of leading the troops, only conducted a trial attack for half an hour before leading his army to retreat.

The same logic applied to Gao Guang's troops in the south. He led his troops to attack Wanshi Temple south of Shenhu Gate, while he faced Sima Rui's troops led by Wang Dao. By this time, it was already dark. Wang Dao ordered the archers on the upper floor to extinguish their torches and hide in the darkness to fire arrows. The attacking Qi soldiers, however, could not discard their torches for illumination, and had to face the wind and snow, thus becoming easy targets.

Knowing he couldn't win by force, Gao Guang retreated and suggested to Dong Ai that they wait until dawn to attack. Upon hearing this, Dong Ai burst into a tirade: "Useless! Do you think you can't get married without the lights?! At a time like this, are you still afraid of dying? If we don't take the palace, we'll all die!"

No matter how harsh his words, the soldiers' fear and timidity remained, and Dong Ai could not command them to do anything with such a slim chance of victory. Just as he was about to boost morale with a generous reward, good news finally arrived from the Grand Marshal's residence: Lu Xiu had recaptured the armory!
While the two armies were locked in a bloody battle on the imperial road, Wang Hu, following his pre-arranged plan, successfully scaled the wall of the North Palace and entered the palace. Although he was still somewhat flustered, as he had said before, as a genuine eunuch, with a pale, beardless face and a pointed, monkey-like appearance, no one would suspect his presence even without him speaking. Even with palace guards constantly moving back and forth along the palace path, no one paid him any attention.

The only thing to worry about were the eunuchs like him. If they were to encounter him and report him as a member of the Prince of Qi's faction, then all would be lost. Fortunately, during the chaos of war, most of the eunuchs and palace maids scattered and fled, and the few who remained hid in the palace, too afraid to come out.

This allowed Wang Hu to successfully infiltrate the Ministry of Personnel, which was also completely empty at the time, allowing him to search freely.

As the Imperial Attendant, Wang Hu knew the location of the treasury well. He went straight to the inner storehouse and searched for a quarter of an hour before finally finding the Zouyu banner among a pile of banners in a corner. Having not seen the light of day for many years, the banner was somewhat worn, but it still had all the necessary elements: nine tassels, an ox tail, and white feathers. After brushing off the dust, the benevolent appearance of the Zouyu with its white eyebrows and white claws could still be clearly seen.

Then he tied the banner around his waist and put on a large robe over it. Since it was winter and everyone was wearing heavy winter clothes, no one noticed anything unusual about him. Wang Hu was able to return the way he came without any fuss.

After he slipped out of the palace, he presented the banner to Sima Jiong. Sima Jiong was overjoyed and immediately sent the banner to Lu Xiu, ordering him to use it to attack the armory.

Liu Tun seized the armory and had over a thousand men under his command, but most of them were wandering knights recruited from the West Market, with only about a hundred being his own loyal followers. When Lu Xiu unfurled the Zouyu banner, claiming that the King of Changsha had forged an imperial edict and that the Emperor had returned to the Grand Marshal's residence, these wandering knights, unaware of the situation in the palace, were terrified upon seeing the Zouyu banner. Despite still being able to hold their ground and even holding the advantage, their fighting spirit plummeted.

At this moment, Lu Xiu opened the back door of the armory, deliberately creating an escape route for them. The wandering knights, as expected, were unwilling to fight any longer, abandoning their armor and weapons and fleeing out the door. This forced Liu Tun's loyal followers to retreat, leaving them unable to hold out. Thus, Lu Xiu successfully recaptured the armory without bloodshed.

After capturing Huilu Arsenal, Lu Xiu immediately requisitioned oxcarts from the surrounding area and transported the obtained crossbow bolts and arrows in heaps and bundles to Dong Ai. Dong Ai was overjoyed to see reinforcements arrive and immediately ordered his men to collect the arrows, instructing them:

"You might lack the courage to fight on the front lines, but surely you're not without the strength to exchange arrows from a distance! Now that the Grand Marshal has taken back the armory, you can shoot with all your might! If one arrow doesn't pierce through, then shoot ten! I refuse to believe they can fight back now!"

The daytime defeat filled Dong Ai with rage. He recalled the previous setback at Yangdi. Two years prior, he had led an army of 400,000 to defend the emperor against the rebellion, yet suffered a crushing defeat, a disgrace to all the former members of the Eastern Expeditionary Army. Another defeat this time would be utterly humiliating. Therefore, Dong Ai erected dozens of large drums before the Qianqiu Gate and personally beat them to boost morale, shouting to the crowd, "Kill! Kill!"

It was now the hour of Hai (9-11 PM). After a day of blizzard, the night sky had cleared slightly, and a half-moon could be faintly seen through the intermittent thick and thin clouds. The soldiers holding the fort in the palace, seeing that the Qi army had been quiet for half an hour, assumed that the enemy would not attack again that night, and their hearts slackened. Unexpectedly, the silence was suddenly broken by the thunderous sound of drums, which instantly resounded throughout the entire sky above Luoyang.

The Qi soldiers surged into the palace once more like a tidal wave. This time, facing the palace guards on the imperial road, they no longer engaged in close combat. Instead, once they reached arrow range, they began to unleash a hail of arrows without restraint. The rain of arrows was truly overwhelming, like an unexpected downpour that came without warning.

The palace guards present were all clad in fine armor and iron helmets. Battlefield experience had shown that even if two arrows struck the same spot, they might not be able to penetrate the armor. However, the rain of arrows coming from the opposite side was simply too numerous, too fierce, and too dense, almost defying common sense. Many men had just raised their heads, trying to find space to take cover amidst the arrows, when they were immediately struck in the eyes by the barrage of arrows, and then lay on the ground groaning in pain, clutching their wounds and weeping blood.

With such a plentiful supply of arrows, the attacking Qi army hardly cared about tactics or discipline anymore. They would simply nock their bows, shoot directly at the enemy, regardless of whether they hit their target, then bend down to take more arrows from their heavy quivers before rising again to fire forward.

In this situation, there was no difference between the first and second volleys of arrows. The arrows in the air seemed to never stop, and many even collided with each other in mid-air before falling to the ground. It was as if, in the blink of an eye, the road was suddenly covered with waist-high weeds.

The palace guards were like withered branches and fallen leaves in a downpour, being struck down one by one with a crackling sound. The dense arrows converged, piercing through the armor of the soldiers, knocking away the arms that were blocking the arrows, breaking the limbs of those who fell, and those in front, unable to withstand the pressure and trying to retreat, would be pierced through their bodies by armor-piercing arrows, pinning them to their comrades behind them.

Even though Liu Xian wasn't on the front lines, he was still under heavy fire from the Qi army's arrows while positioned at the rear of Song Hong's troops. Within a quarter of an hour, seven or eight arrows had struck his armor. His bodyguard, Guo Mo, was much larger and was hit even more arrows; pulling them out of his thick armor revealed over twenty arrowheads—enough to fill both hands. Faced with this onslaught, Liu Xian immediately sensed something was amiss. He initially wondered: Was Dong Ai going to make a desperate gamble? He immediately ordered his men to prepare for a possible enemy charge.

Seeing that the enemy's offensive showed no signs of abating, he finally realized: "No, the armory has fallen!"

Since the armory was not connected to the palace, but rather closer to the Grand Marshal's residence, Liu Xian never expected to be able to access its resources from the beginning. After all, even if Sima Yi controlled the palace guards, he couldn't lead troops there to provide reinforcements. However, the reason Liu Xian still decided to seize the armory was because its resources were far too important, enough to influence the entire war situation. Even if he couldn't use them himself, he couldn't allow the Qi King's faction to use them.

But it now appears that this plan has failed. This has caused the situation, which had initially leaned towards Sima Yi, to now turn back in favor of Sima Jiong.

Liu Xian knew that if things continued this way, his soldiers would be easily defeated and unable to retaliate. Their morale would not last, making victory difficult. He needed to change his tactics. Therefore, Liu Xian summoned a soldier and said to him:
"Go and tell His Highness that the armory has probably fallen. Instruct him to move His Majesty and the officials to the Eastern Palace according to the pre-arranged plan. Reorganize the defenses there. I will engage the enemy here until they have withdrawn, and then I will lead my troops to join them!"

Having said this, Liu Xian immediately ordered Song Hong's troops to fire all the arrows they had, just like the Qi army, and then retreat. At the same time, he ordered the other units in the army to gather their remaining arrows and pass them to Linghu Sheng's troops, so that Linghu Sheng's troops could serve as reinforcements. These two rounds of blocking the enemy bought him some time to redeploy his defenses.

Upon receiving the military order, Song Hong felt as if he had been granted a pardon and immediately ordered his soldiers to return fire. Within a short time, the density of the palace guards' arrows matched that of the Qi army. Arrows flew from both sides like locusts colliding in the air, clashing like hailstones, many breaking in mid-air before even hitting their targets. Such a spectacular scene was extremely rare, even during the decades of war that followed.

Faced with the fierce counterattack from the palace guards, the Qi army was somewhat at a loss. In the previous battle, they had already gained the upper hand and thought they could continue in this way until victory. Unexpectedly, the enemy would retaliate in kind. Therefore, they paused briefly to carefully observe the changes in the enemy's situation. They soon discovered that Song Hong had caught his breath and quickly led the palace guards to retreat, clearing part of the road for them.

The Qi army then realized what was happening and shouted, "The enemy is defeated! Defeated!" They pressed forward, but after advancing only a hundred paces, they encountered a counterattack from Linghu Sheng's troops. However, the Qi army's morale was high by this time, and they were no longer discouraged by a slight setback. They engaged in a firefight with Linghu Sheng's troops, and after about half an hour, Linghu Sheng's troops ran out of arrows and could not hold out any longer, so they had to continue retreating eastward.

Unlike their previous retreats, this time the palace guards seemed to be fleeing in disarray. They retreated extremely quickly, running hundreds of steps eastward in one breath, and their formation was extremely chaotic, almost leaving most of the road open.

Wen Chan, who was overjoyed while supervising the battle at the front, led his infantry in a frantic run, shouting to boost morale: "Chase! Chase quickly! The Grand Marshal has ordered that whoever can rescue His Majesty will be granted the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households!"

The Qi soldiers believed it without a doubt. They pressed their advantage and advanced through two intersections in one go, almost heading straight for the Wansui Gate, which was only one gate away from the Yunlong Gate.

However, eager for merit, they rushed too fast during the pursuit. In addition, it was dark at night, and they did not notice that dozens of elite soldiers were lying in ambush on both the north and south sides of these intersections.

When Wen Chan reached the front of the Wansui Gate, hundreds of palace guards in the tower shouted in unison, suddenly turned around, and launched a fierce attack on the pursuing Qi soldiers. The soldiers who were lying in ambush around the intersection heard the order and rushed back into the intersection from the north and south, cutting the Qi soldiers who had pursued too far in half like a whirlwind.

To ensure victory, Liu Xian ordered Mao Bao, Guo Mo, Meng Tao, and Li Sheng to lead the ambush squads, while he personally led the palace guards of Wansui Gate in a counterattack.

This threw the Qi army into chaos. They had thought they had won a great victory, but instead found themselves trapped in a snare and in extremely unfavorable hand-to-hand combat. The stark contrast in reality caused them to immediately lose their will to fight, abandon the battle, and consider fleeing back to Qianqiu Gate.

This reversed the situation once again. Seeing this, Wen Chan shouted loudly in the crowd, trying to rally the soldiers and boost morale. But even though he personally wielded his sword to cover the retreat and kill deserters, it was all in vain; instead, he exposed himself in the crowd.

Seeing his distinguished status, Guo Mo strode forward, spear in hand, and charged. The other Qi soldiers, sensing danger, scattered, leaving Wen Chan alone to face him. Wen Chan, being of noble birth, though skilled in martial arts, was primarily a scholar. Seeing the spear thrust at him, he instinctively raised his sword to block. However, in the clash, a sharp pain shot through his hand, causing him to lose his grip on the sword, which slipped from his grasp, the spear tip piercing his shoulder. He screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground.

Without hesitation, Guo Mo picked up the ring-pommel sword Wen Chan had thrown to the ground, stepped on his chest, and chopped off Wen Chan's head with a single stroke. At this point, the vanguard of the Qi army completely collapsed, unable to reorganize effectively.

This was a golden opportunity, and Liu Xian keenly sensed it. He seized the chance and led the remaining armored soldiers in a counter-attack. The Qi army soldiers who were about to surge in didn't even know what was happening when they saw the fleeing soldiers from the east, their faces filled with despair, constantly pushing and shoving towards them. The panic quickly spread, forming a sizable rout. People were jostling and trampling each other; many didn't die on the battlefield, but were trampled to death by their comrades.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Liu Xian pushed the battle line back to Qianqiu Gate in one fell swoop, which greatly damaged the morale of the Qi army soldiers. Even though the palace guards retreated again, they dared not advance rashly. They sent troops to scout every intersection and palace they saw along the way, feeling their way forward step by step to avoid falling into similar traps again.

The night passed without further major battles, and the Qi army successfully recaptured the palace. However, before this, the palace guards had all been evacuated intact and moved to the East Palace to join Sima Yi's troops. At this point in the coup, the fighting between the two sides had lasted a day and a night, with no sign of a decisive victory.

(End of this chapter)