Schemes, Gathering Clouds, and the First Defeat

In truth, the uproar caused by Ji Wan's command was greater than anyone had imagined.

In this era, fighting men capable of bearing armor were no ordinary men. Even junior officers commanding a small squad were minor nobles with fiefs of their own.

The rank-and-file soldiers were also full-time elites. These nobles had trained from childhood to serve the Son of Heaven and possessed considerable military expertise.

When Ji Wan's order reached the lower ranks, it caused an enormous uproar.

The Son of Heaven's Six Armies, the elite of the elite, could not understand why such an order had been issued. They were already exhausted after days of marching. How could they cross a river and attack in this condition?

Yet faced with the Son of Heaven's authority, built up over decades, his vassals could only obey.

The generals commanding the armies were ministers of the Son of Heaven, equal in rank to feudal lords, but none dared contradict him in his fury.

The Marquis of Han soon met the most important man on the list-Yu Boxiu, who was also a descendant of the Sage King.

His ancestor had been the Sage King's Eldest Concubine-Born Son, enfeoffed in Yu Land. Yu Boxiu also commanded two armies on this royal expedition.

"Count Yu, this is a reckless order from His Majesty. We absolutely must not obey it, or we may end up losing the entire army."

The Marquis of Han sounded anxious. Count Yu reassured him, "There is no need to be so anxious, Marquis of Han. Before the Grand Preceptor left Luoyi, he gave me instructions.

"If a reckless order came, I was to pretend to obey and look for an opportunity to preserve our strength. His Majesty is beside himself with anger now, so naturally I will not carry out his command. Do you have any suggestions, Marquis of Han?"

Hearing that Luo Su had already advised Count Yu, the Marquis of Han felt somewhat reassured. After a moment's thought, he said, "The army certainly cannot cross the river. It needs a proper rest. I know nothing of commanding troops. How many days will our army need to recover?"

Count Yu considered briefly. "After so many days of marching, three days would be best."

The Marquis of Han murmured, "Three days. In other words, we must stall for three days. We must let the Son of Heaven see our army crossing the river to attack, without actually sending our army into battle."

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he said delightedly, "Count Yu, I have a plan. See whether it can be put into practice."

"Oh? Please, go ahead."

The Marquis of Han explained his ingenious idea. "There are many auxiliary troops and slaves in the army. Why not send a junior officer to dress them in our army's uniforms, give them banners and standards, and have them cross the river day and night? Put only a few men aboard each ship and use concealment to create the illusion of troops swarming across. Meanwhile, our army can camp beside the Han River and let the men recover properly. The Son of Heaven knows nothing of military formations. We should certainly be able to fool him."

"An excellent plan, Marquis of Han. I will send men to carry it out at once." Count Yu said happily, "The Grand Preceptor once told me that you were quick-witted in a crisis. Today, you have proved him right. We must work together wholeheartedly this time. Neither You nor Ji has any talent. This southern expedition will depend on you, Marquis of Han."

The Marquis of Han also sent messengers to consult the others on the list. After that, all they could do was leave matters to fate and see whether Xiong Dun truly was as unstoppable in battle as Marquis Luo Su had said.

The envoy from Chu State slipped away while Ji Wan was raging and hurried toward the royal capital without pausing to rest. From the envoy, Xiong Dun learned that Ji Wan had angrily ordered his troops into action. The generals stationed at the other two positions also reported that the King's Army's vanguard was raising sails on the opposite bank, apparently preparing to cross.

Seeing that Ji Wan had indeed taken the bait, Xiong Dun laughed and told his attendants, "Ji Wan truly is an ignorant child. How could a ruler who has so little concern for his soldiers win their loyalty? I suspect the Zhou People's army must be unsettled and full of resentment.

"Pass on my command. Every division commander is to follow the earlier instructions and let the Zhou vanguard cross the river. Attack only when their center begins crossing. Remember to be cautious. There must be capable men in their army. If success proves impossible, withdraw first and wait until I take the field in person before seeking a decisive battle."

Xiong Dun was exceedingly cautious. He believed there must be capable men among the Zhou People, and they could not possibly offer no resistance to Ji Wan's reckless order. After all, disobedience would bring, at worst, dismissal by the Son of Heaven, after which they could return home and still enjoy wealth and honor. Actually obeying Ji Wan's command could cost them their lives.

Chu State now had fifteen thousand elite soldiers, all trained personally by Xiong Dun. Five thousand of them were the elite of the elite.

Their backgrounds were relatively straightforward. They were mainly descendants of the meritorious followers who had helped Chu State's ancestors found the state, descendants of Yin Shang who had migrated south in recent years, and State People seized from other feudal states. In this land filled with Southern Barbarians, they rallied closely around the Xiong clan and formed the King of Chu's core support.

The largest contingent in the army was naturally its slave soldiers. Xiong Dun had conquered many Southern Barbarian tribes over the years, leaving his army with vast numbers of barbarian slaves.

These barbarian soldiers mainly served as cannon fodder and laborers. The armies of every state had large numbers of slave soldiers. Those who performed well could be rewarded with freedom. Even if they did not gain the status of State People, they would no longer be merchandise that could be beaten or killed at will.

Xiong Dun divided the slave soldiers under his command between the other two generals, while he took his elite troops to face Ji Wan. If he could rout Ji Wan's force early, or even capture the Son of Heaven of the Zhou State alive, victory over the other two armies would come without a fight.

Even if Ji Wan's force proved more cautious, he could strike the other two Zhou armies when they came to rescue the Son of Heaven. Encircling a target and attacking its reinforcements had always been a highly effective tactic.

The southern climate was humid, its soil softer than that of the north, and its streams and forests abundant. Xiong Dun had already prepared this grand gift for Ji Wan. He would make the Son of Heaven in Luoyi understand that warfare was never merely a contest of troop numbers.

After Xiong Dun and Ji Wan issued their respective orders to advance, Yu Boxiu, stationed in Deng, began putting on a show. Lord Qi, stationed in Lu State, and Count Cheng, stationed in Ruo State, began organizing their armies. They planned to send one division of the vanguard across to scout the way, followed by another two divisions, so that the entire vanguard could cover the troops crossing afterward.

The exhausted soldiers sat aboard the large ships. Most were northerners and had already struggled to adjust to the local conditions along the way. Now the ships' swaying made many of them seasick, drowsy, and weak all over. Military orders could not be disobeyed, so they could only press forward, but resentful complaints spread increasingly through the ranks.

Ji Wan naturally knew nothing of this. Standing atop the walls of Deng, he gazed at the fluttering banners and seemingly endless army, his heart swelling with pride. He had long since put Xiong Dun's provocation out of his mind.

As he saw it now, Xiong Dun was merely a fat sheep awaiting slaughter. Those provocative words had been nothing more than a dying man's last display of arrogance.

Amid this rather strange atmosphere, the vanguards of all three King's Armies had largely crossed the Han River. Two consisted of elite soldiers, while the third consisted of slave troops.

After landing, the three forces saw no sign of the Chu army amid the many hills and forests within sight. They began searching ahead for places to make camp.

Beyond the Han River and a short stretch of stony shore lay rolling low hills. Since this could not be considered a wholly real world, the hills and forests here were especially numerous.

The vanguard commanders believed the Chu army might be lying in ambush in the forests, so they specifically ordered their men to avoid those woods while scouting.

Although chariots dominated warfare in this era, the armies still had some horses for scouting. Parties of men were sent out one after another.

They had no choice but to spread the army out. As more and more soldiers landed, there simply was not enough room to deploy in their previous formations. Back in the Central Plains, the flatlands stretched as far as the eye could see. Not just thousands, but tens of thousands of men could form a single line.

Now, however, they could only move outward squad by squad, while trying to avoid wasting their strength climbing hills. They had no maps of the area and could only head toward places with fewer trees. Even so, many soldiers had their trouser legs snagged by shrubs, and some had their skin slashed, leaving bloody scratches.

"Woooo!"

Loud horn blasts suddenly sounded all around them. Immediately afterward, large bodies of Chu soldiers charged out from behind the hills. Familiar with the terrain, they had hidden in the landing troops' blind spots and lain concealed in the low undergrowth. The soldiers threw off the grass, branches, and other debris covering them.

"Form ranks!"

Seeing large numbers of Chu troops charging down from higher ground, the commanders were terrified. The vanguard mainly handled reconnaissance and small engagements. The strongest fighting units in the army had yet to cross.

Still, the King's Army was well trained. Though somewhat panicked, the soldiers could still obey orders and form the circular battle formations they had practiced.

The Chu troops formed ranks and loosed three arrows apiece before closing, sending volleys at the King's Army from every direction. Their advantage in elevation inflicted considerable casualties.

The King's Army naturally returned fire, but the Chu troops held the high ground and had come prepared, bringing large shields specifically to defend against arrows. Whenever the King's Army fired a volley, they raised their shields together on command. By the time the arrows reached the higher ground, they had lost much of their force, and the bows the King's Army had brought were not powerful enough to pierce shields. Apart from a few stray arrows, they inflicted little damage on the Chu troops.

This sent Chu morale soaring even higher. Wave after wave of arrows flew, and the soldiers hurled down the logs they had prepared. Since this was an ambush and they had feared discovery by the Zhou army, they had not prepared many. The Chu soldiers charged downhill together behind the rolling logs.

Almost the instant the two armies met, the King's Army's front rank was cut down. They could not withstand the attack at all!

Many King's Army soldiers were terrified. They could feel the weakness still lingering throughout their bodies. There was no way they could hold off these vigorous Chu troops with their soaring morale.

The Chu officers noticed this too and shouted in delighted surprise, "The Zhou troops are exhausted! Send the entire army forward! All slave soldiers, advance as well! Tell every slave that His Majesty will free anyone who earns merit!"

The rolling logs caused few casualties, but they further disrupted the King's Army's formations. The troops at the front had fallen into complete chaos. Their commander struggled to preserve their formations, doing everything he could to keep even the smallest units together.

Having fought in many wars, he knew perfectly well that scattered soldiers facing an organized army were no better than pigs and sheep awaiting slaughter.

"Withdraw!"

Surveying the battlefield, the commander keenly realized that this was a doomed battle, launched at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

He was a descendant of the Ji clan, deeply influenced by the Sage King. From the moment he joined the army, he had accepted the possibility of returning wrapped in a horsehide shroud, but he did not want to die here for nothing. As he ran, he prayed to the two kings in the unseen beyond. King Wu, Sage King, protect the Zhou State. So many Zhou People will die in this battle.

The same thing happened at all three landing sites. The Chu army chased down the exhausted, helpless soldiers and slaughtered them. The ships that had brought them were still approaching with more of their comrades aboard. Only a few men managed to board ships and escape.

Seeing that the remaining Zhou soldiers were putting up stubborn resistance with the river at their backs, the Chu commanders halted their attacks and began trying to persuade the junior officers to surrender. They did not intend to recruit them; that was impossible, since these men held fiefs directly under the Son of Heaven.

The main purpose of securing their surrender was to extort ransoms later, another distinctive feature of this era.

Countless bodies lay strewn from the wooded hills to the banks of the Han River. The vast majority were King's Army soldiers. Blood soaked the sand and stones along the shore, and even the waves that washed in from time to time were stained crimson.

Since Ji Zhao had reorganized the Son of Heaven's Six Armies and led them on the Eastern Campaign decades earlier, the Six Armies had never suffered such terrible losses.

They possessed the most powerful chariots, unstoppable on the battlefield, but those could not be used here. They were strong warriors, but days of forced marching had drained their strength.

No one knew what the dead soldiers had been thinking, but the survivors' hearts were filled with anger. The minor nobles, especially, could not accept that they had become cannon fodder sent to their deaths.

Treacherous ministers!

There must be treacherous ministers at the Son of Heaven's side!

Otherwise, how could such a reckless order have been issued, disregarding our lives and making us fight under these conditions? If I make it back, I must expose those treacherous ministers to the Son of Heaven.

By now, surrender was the only possible outcome. As a group of minor nobles laid down their weapons, the soldiers who had followed their lords into battle did the same.

News of this impossible-to-conceal defeat soon reached Ji Wan.

The Marquis of Han held the newly compiled casualty report. He had not expected losses this appalling either, and his whole body trembled. In a shaking voice, he said, "Your Majesty, according to the figures just compiled, more than five thousand men were killed in this battle, and another five thousand were captured. We have effectively lost an entire army."

"What?" Ji Wan could not believe his ears.

The Marquis of Han handed Ji Wan the report, then could not help saying, "Your Majesty, the Sage King once wrote in his military treatise that victory in war depends on favorable timing, advantageous terrain, and unity among men.

"Most of our King's Army soldiers come from the great states of the Central Plains. They were already struggling to adjust upon arriving in the lands of the Southern Barbarians. Thus, the timing does not favor our army. We know nothing of Chu State's waterways and terrain, its mountains and rivers, its forests and lakes. Thus, the terrain does not favor our army. Our soldiers have marched for days and are utterly exhausted, and they are unskilled in fighting on water. Thus, unity among men does not favor our army.

"With none of these three factors on our side, does Your Majesty still believe our army can win? I advise Your Majesty to withdraw. We should return to Grand Preceptor Luo's old strategy and use five states to contain Chu. Once Xiong Dun dies of old age and Chu State falls into internal turmoil, we will naturally be able to defeat it with ease."

Holding the report, Ji Wan still could not believe it. He skimmed it hastily and hurled it to the ground. Hearing the Marquis of Han's words felt as though Luo Su were slapping him repeatedly across the face. He whipped out his sword and roared, "I have a hundred thousand elite soldiers! You incompetent fools! How could a hundred thousand elite soldiers possibly lose? You must have failed to carry out my strategy properly! I will put on armor and command them myself. Victory will be certain! If you dare mention retreat again, I will kill you with a single stroke for colluding with the enemy!"