LF Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Bluff

Experienced generals focus on familiarity with battlefield rules, unexpected maneuvers, and striking where the enemy is unprepared.

Jiang Yinghua stabilized her position and allowed her soldiers to scout for two days. The group of bandits was indeed holed up in the deep mountains, which was originally the bandits’ lair.

She sent a confidential letter via express delivery to the capital. The secret agents’ news should arrive within five days.

Remaining still was easier said than done, as troop morale can easily dissipate, and protracted battle lines were never a good thing. After all, encircling and suppressing a mountain was no easy task.

While waiting for news, Jiang Yinghua was not idle. She was within the jurisdiction of the Shuofang military governor, and she couldn’t trust the person in front of her. She secretly sent a letter to the Fanyang military governor, asking him to strictly seal off the northern border line where Shuofang and Fanyang adjoined to prevent the rebels from fleeing and growing stronger.

In terms of seniority, Jiang Yinghua should call that person imperial uncle. After Your Majesty ascended the throne, he was very supportive. For most of his life, he had diligently guarded the border without any disloyal intentions.

At this moment in the capital, the court was already in chaos. A group of officials were distraught, not because of the small-scale turmoil caused by bandits in the northern border, but because Prince Yun’an, who was usually mediocre, dared to establish himself as king in the territory of the Yue Kingdom, or rather, the land that now belonged to Great Chu.

Such an act of usurping power, ignoring the Emperor’s authority, naturally required military conquest. Unlike the bandits in the northern border, Prince Yun’an rose up in his own territory, so his roots were naturally deep. Once troops were dispatched, it would be a tug-of-war for survival.

Yan Wanzhi’s intelligence network had obtained some news about this, but the information came too late, almost simultaneously with the news of Prince Yun’an’s self-proclamation as Emperor. Even if Your Majesty was prepared, the enemy had planned this in advance, feigning weakness and biding their time for decades.

Having only been on the throne for a few months, and not yet having cleaned up the mess left by the previous Emperor, a large-scale war broke out again. Your Majesty was so busy that she didn’t even have the chance to close her eyes, let alone Yan Wanzhi, who was in charge of the Secret Service.

The Southern Border concerned the safety of the country, and in the Northern Border, there was a little Prince of Yun’an that she was concerned about. Day after day, she wandered between the Forbidden Palace and teahouses with panda-like eyes.

Until Jiang Yinghua’s urgent secret letter arrived, Your Majesty and Yan Wanzhi’s already frowning faces became even more worried.

Jiang Yinghua and Qiao An would not request assistance without a reason, but Your Majesty did not dare to increase troops to the northern border rashly.

There were fewer than 400,000 imperial troops in the court, and 250,000 had been assigned to deal with the South Yue. In these troubled times, the imperial troops scattered in the outskirts of the capital could not be easily transferred, otherwise, if the capital lost its defense, the base might be taken.

The Shuofang military governor had about 45,000 soldiers, plus the garrisons of various prefectures and counties within the jurisdiction, totaling less than 60,000. In other words, the most difficult predicament would be if all the prefectures turned against them and colluded with the military governor to launch a mutiny. Jiang Yinghua would be using less than 30,000 soldiers to fight against twice as many rebels.

Your Majesty assessed this and looked quite unhappy. Yan Wanzhi looked at the secret letter with a face full of doubt. The Secret Service’s intelligence did not show any abnormalities, and the military governor was a key target for the court’s secret agents to guard against. A conspiracy to launch a mutiny would always leak some information, but there was no clue at all.

Unless, all two groups of people she had planted had defected and were bought off by that person.

Because of her personal grievances, Yan Wanzhi had been closely monitoring the northern border. However, that person happened to return to the capital during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Your Majesty was afraid that the situation would be unstable and deliberately detained his family members in the capital. That person even took the opportunity to say that he wanted to stay a few more days to take care of his mother and concubine, and was now peacefully cultivating in a Buddhist temple.

After thinking for a long time, Yan Wanzhi finally mustered up the courage to speak, “Your Majesty, Prince Zhao and General Qiao’s suspicion is not groundless. It is my duty, and I boldly ask Your Majesty to allow me to go to the Secret Service branch in the northern border to investigate in person to prevent any changes.”

“That’s all we can do now. Be careful in everything. Report back as soon as you have any news. I will give you a secret edict, which cannot be used unless it is a critical moment.” Your Majesty lowered her eyes and thought, finally picking up a pen and ink to reply.

Just as she received Your Majesty’s reply, Jiang Yinghua felt a little comforted in her heart. Then, the soldiers outside the tent urgently reported that two groups of bandits, about 10,000 strong, had suddenly appeared and were rushing towards the garrison.

“What do you mean ‘suddenly appeared’? Did they not come from the mountains?” Jiang Yinghua asked coldly in surprise.

“Reporting to Your Highness, that is indeed the case, they are not bandits from the mountains.” The soldier replied tremblingly.

Without much thought, Jiang Yinghua exchanged glances with Qiao An and ordered the troops to prepare for battle. Just as the two forces fought against each other, and the fighting was in full swing, another soldier came to report that the bandits in the mountains were also rushing towards the garrison.

Jiang Yinghua was very surprised. Were they trying to attack her from the north and south? “About how many troops are there?”

“Slightly fewer than the ones currently fighting.”

After listening to the soldier’s response, Jiang Yinghua had no other doubts. In this case, the total number was less than 30,000, which was not much different from her estimation.

The imperial troops guarded the city, with city walls and barbicans as barriers. There were Qiao An and several older generals, as well as well-trained formations. Apart from being time-consuming and laborious, there was no great difficulty in engaging the enemy, and the chances of winning were about 60%.

After two days and nights of fierce fighting, Jiang Yinghua asked Qiao An on the city tower in confusion: “Hiding in the mountains was a good strategy, why did they come out of the mountains like crazy to bite people?”

Qiao An frowned, “I’m afraid they are trying to contain our main force, what is their intention?”

“Even if they have a plan, we are now at a disadvantage. I hope that, as my elder sister said, the military governor has not changed.” Jiang Yinghua was now overwhelmed and indeed trapped by the rebels. It would take time to resolve the battle quickly.

“Take one step at a time, Your Highness must not be distracted. It is important to win this battle.” Qiao An’s eyes did not leave the battle, and he carefully exhorted her.

Seeing that the rebels were at a disadvantage, another wave of bandits came rushing in, with not many troops. Jiang Yinghua narrowed her phoenix eyes slightly: “Is this reinforcement?”

Who knew that the bandits would erect tall wooden poles on self-made earth chariots, suspending the old, the young, women, and children. From afar, they set up a row of shields in the front, and the leaders hid behind, instigating the crowd to cheer and send messages to the city tower with arrows.

Opening the provocative note, it clearly stated that these old, young, women, and children were the family members of the two prefectural governors. Now that they were standing in front of the battle, it was up to Jiang Yinghua to decide whether to order the firing of arrows.

“Useless bastards!” Jiang Yinghua gritted her teeth. The city she was currently in was at the junction of two prefectures. Before the war, she had arranged everything properly, ordering the two men to lead the garrison to block and station in the prefectural city to deal with the sporadic disturbances of the scattered bandits. How could they be so incompetent as to allow their family members to be kidnapped?

Jiang Yinghua could not believe it based on empty words. Could it be that they just kidnapped people and claimed they were whoever they wanted?

Jiang Yinghua hardened her heart and was about to ignore the threat, but Qiao An raised his hand to stop her: “No, the lives of the people in the city are lives, and the lives of the old, young, women, and children are also lives. This is a tactic to attack the heart. Your Highness should pretend to agree, and wait until the hostages are released before pursuing the matter. Do not forget the strength of the cavalry.”

Jiang Yinghua followed his advice and allowed the defeated bandits to escape, leaving behind not only this group of old, young, women, and children, but also two sacks.

After directing the strategy of pursuit, Jiang Yinghua sent people to investigate. In the sacks were two prefectural governors, beaten black and blue and unable to move.

Jiang Yinghua now wished she could fire a volley of arrows and turn these two stupid pigs into hedgehogs to vent her anger. The soldiers carried the men to her, and she asked coldly, “How is the prefecture? Why were you captured?”

The two men trembled like sieves in fright, and said in hoarse voices: “Your Highness, something bad has happened. The military governor, the military governor has sent troops to break through the city.” After saying that, they began to cry and wail.

Jiang Yinghua’s expression changed upon hearing this. She exchanged glances with Qiao An and hurriedly summoned the cavalry back. Then, she ordered people to contact the scouts she had sent out. Jiang Yinghua did not bother to wait for them to return to verify the news and hurriedly wrote a letter to send to the capital.

At night, the first thing she received was a letter of request for help from the Fanyang garrison. It turned out that, according to Jiang Yinghua’s request to strengthen the defense along the line, they were defeated by the main force of the Shuofang army. They did not know that Jiang Yinghua’s side was already stretched thin and thought that this was the closest reinforcement, so they intended to ask for help.

Misfortune never comes singly. Jiang Yinghua was physically and mentally exhausted after receiving this news. How could this be? The military governor did have a lot of troops in his hands, but how could he break through the prefecture while also stubbornly attacking Fanyang? With the battle lines drawn so long, what was he aiming for?

Jiang Yinghua forced herself to calm down and tried to review the situation. She vaguely realized that the crux of the problem lay with the prefectural officials and the bandits. If the prefectures and bandits were originally the military governor’s shields for the mutiny, feinting a shot at the imperial court to divert attention, then everything would make sense.

How could two middle-aged prefectural governors, who had been guarding the local area for a long time, be so incompetent? Sacrificing family members to stage a bitter-meat trap to deceive her, an inexperienced girl, was indeed a good plan.

The Fanyang jurisdiction was the gateway to the northern border and must not be lost. Now that she did not know how the main force of Fanyang was doing, Jiang Yinghua sent Qiao An to take half of the imperial troops to assist the blockade line. She urgently sent another document to the court requesting reinforcements and troops due to the Shuofang military governor’s attack on Fanyang.

Qiao An also knew that Fanyang could not be lost. However, he could not let go of Jiang Yinghua, who only had 10,000 imperial troops in hand, to face the unknown number of rebels in the prefecture alone. He stubbornly reassigned someone else to the Fanyang line and stayed behind to deal with the rebellion in the two prefectures with Jiang Yinghua.

Jiang Yinghua calculated that as long as she could hold on for five days, she would have hope to go north to defend Fanyang. Once the court’s reinforcements arrived, the rebels in the two prefectures would soon be wiped out.

When Yan Wanzhi came here, she had presupposed in her heart that the secret agents here had all been exposed and rebelled. She first sent fake news to test them, and as expected, the response was as she expected. Yan Wanzhi was shocked, and it turned out that the military governor had long grasped the people she had placed, and all the fake news that was sent back to the capital were according to the plan.

Realizing the abnormality, she did not dare to go to the Northern Office. She directly took out Your Majesty’s secret order, and according to the instructions above, she gathered the garrisons of nearby prefectures and counties to go to Jiang Yinghua’s location to provide reinforcements. Therefore, Your Majesty had already received Yan Wanzhi’s report on the day Jiang Yinghua sent out the request for help, and in a panic, she sent another 50,000 imperial troops to the northern border.

The simultaneous deployment of troops in the north and south was a rare crisis in the country. Your Majesty’s eyes were gloomy. Such coincidental changes in two places must have been conspired secretly. While commanding the battle deployment, she ordered people to investigate the conspiracy behind it.

The Shuofang military governor used his troops like a god, and in five days, he broke through several cities. Except for Jiang Yinghua’s garrison, almost all the other counties in the two prefectures had fallen.

Fewer and fewer scouts sent out by Jiang Yinghua returned. The piecemeal news pieced together led to the conclusion that the private soldiers raised by the rebellious military governor must be quite a few. The prefecture was not his main force, and Fanyang was his target.

After analyzing the current situation, Jiang Yinghua compared herself to a desert island at sea. After discussing with Qiao An, they determined that the imperial court should have received the news, and the two of them had to plan a breakout, otherwise, they would be trapped and die here sooner or later. In order to meet up with the reinforcements, they had to attack south and carve out a bloody path.

The local military forces gathered by Yan Wanzhi were mainly concentrated in the three prefectures in the southeast, so when she led her troops to attack, she did not meet Jiang Yinghua. The two of them went their separate ways, eroding the southern defense line of the military governor’s rebel army in the two prefectures.

Leading troops to the battlefield was a first for Yan Wanzhi in her life. Moreover, she did not know martial arts. At best, she had learned to use short knives and daggers for self-defense.

Jiang Qiao’s 10,000 troops fought hard for several days and suffered heavy losses, but they finally carved out a glimmer of light. After repelling a wave of attacks, the soldiers were already exhausted. Jiang Yinghua ordered them to temporarily rest and recuperate their strength in the new small city.

At night, half of the people were sleeping lightly to recuperate, and half were on guard patrol. A blood-soaked sentry stumbled and ran to report, waking everyone up, “Something bad has happened, the rebels, a large number of rebels, are surrounding this place.”

Qiao An quickly climbed up high to look into the distance. In the dark night, dark shadows were sweeping in from three sides. He hurriedly informed Jiang Yinghua, “Your Highness, retreat quickly, there are too many people, we can’t beat them.”

The exhausted soldiers retreated north, and the rebels chased relentlessly. Seeing that the situation was critical, Qiao An took the initiative to stay behind, forcing Jiang Yinghua to retreat to the garrison and wait for reinforcements.

That night, the sound of swords, halberds, and knives did not stop on the way back, and the flames filled the sky, eliminating the darkness of the long night.

However, the old general who had been protecting Jiang Yinghua, with his gray hair and old injuries, never returned.

At dawn, Jiang Yinghua waited bitterly on the city tower until her eyes were blurred, but she did not see the familiar figure return.

Jiang Yinghua led 6,000 troops to defend the city to the death, watching the soldiers on the city tower change wave after wave. Until noon the next day, 40,000 reinforcements, wrapped in yellow smoke, rolled in, and the iron cavalry trampled through the rebels’ formation. After half a day of bloody battle, they were completely wiped out.

“This humble general and others are late in rescuing you, please punish us, Your Highness.”

The person who came was a junior general from the Northern Camp, a disciple personally brought out by Qiao An, and the son of the Marquis of Loyalty in the capital.

Jiang Yinghua helped him up, “Send someone to find your master back, you must find him back. Give me 10,000 soldiers, you don’t have to worry about this place, go to Fanyang immediately.”

“Your Highness, Your Majesty’s intention is that you don’t have to go to Fanyang. This humble general is here, first, to pacify the bandits in the two prefectures, second, to lead the reinforcements to the north, and third, to personally escort you back to the capital.” The young marquis explained with a cupped fist salute.

“I will not go to Fanyang, and the 10,000 soldiers will be returned as soon as possible. I will return to the capital after I have cleaned up, and I don’t need you to escort me.” Jiang Yinghua’s tone was indifferent, but it could not be refused.

A general abroad may disobey the emperor’s orders, and Jiang Yinghua was an officially appointed commander, so the young marquis could not disobey her.

Jiang Yinghua already had an idea. Whoever dared to break her teacher-like general would have to pay the price. Now that the reinforcements had arrived and the crisis in Fanyang was promising, she had to clear up the mess in the two prefectures.