SWDnovel Chapter 1475 Enemies on All Sides
Chapter 1475 Enemies on All Sides
Chapter 1475 Enemies on All Sides
In the fourteenth year of Yanxi, Sima Yi sent his two sons, Sima Liang and Sima Jun, with heavy gifts to cross the sea to Liaodong. Their plan was to provoke the Xianbei, Goguryeo, and the Three Han tribes in the east to jointly attack Gongsun Xiu, and to agree to share the land of Liaodong.
August, Liaodong.
Pingcheng, Xi'an.
"Woo-wu-wu-"
The sound of a cow horn came from the valley to the east.
The city guard rushed to the crenellations and saw a dark mass of cavalry surging in like a tide on the distant horizon.
The dust kicked up by the horses' hooves condensed into a yellowish-brown haze in the air, turning the setting sun into a murky, coppery rust color.
"Goguryeo people!" the lieutenant's voice trembled. "Look at those banners... it's a royal princess herself!"
King Goguryeo rode a jet-black Liaodong horse. He was about forty years old, with a thick, short beard on his chin, and wore a gilded iron helmet with three pheasant tail feathers on top.
"My comrades!" Wei Gong raised the ring-pommel sword in his hand, its blade reflecting the setting sun and gleaming with a blood-red light:
"In Pingcheng, Xi'an, there are Han Chinese silk and ironware, as well as grain that Gongsun Xiu has stockpiled for three years! If we break through this city, we can hold our swords for three days!"
"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!"
More than 10,000 Goguryeo cavalrymen shouted in unison, the sound echoing through the city walls.
Most of these cavalrymen were clad in leather armor, while a few leaders wore lamellar armor stripped from the corpses of Han soldiers, and their weapons were a motley collection.
Ring-pommel swords, spears, maces, and even wooden clubs with stones tied to them.
But their eyes were gleaming green—the kind of green that wolves have when they see a fat sheep.
The warhorse, with its hooves tucked under the horse's belly, reared up on its hind legs.
An even more mournful roar echoed from below the city walls.
……
At the same time, within the territory of Changli County.
If the Goguryeo people's attack was like a heavy hammer blow, then the Xianbei people's raids on the border were like a pack of wolves hunting their prey.
The villages surrounding Changli County were shrouded in smoke and in complete disarray.
The dirt road was trampled to a pulp by horses' hooves, with cart tracks and bloodstains mixed together, making a "plop plop" sound when stepped on, like stepping on rotting entrails.
None of the houses were intact.
The thatched roof was ripped off, revealing bare beams, like the skeletal remains of a gutted animal.
The mud walls were riddled with holes, and some houses were still emitting smoke—choking black smoke from a mixture of charred wood and cloth.
Beside a well, a wooden bucket was broken into seven or eight pieces, the well rope was cut, and half of the rope hung limply over the well opening, like a dead snake.
A corpse lay three steps away, with three bone arrows stuck in its back, the blood already congealed into a dark brown color.
At the village entrance threshing ground, the Xianbei people were dividing up the spoils.
The cavalry of the Buyou tribe surrounded more than a dozen stolen oxcarts, which were piled high with sacks. Some of the sacks had torn open, and golden millet was spilling out and scattering all over the ground.
Chief Mu Yan rode on a chestnut horse, his gilded crown swaying so brightly in the setting sun that it made one dizzy.
He held a scroll of bamboo slips in his hand, a copy of the Book of Songs that he had apparently stolen from somewhere, and was slowly reciting it:
"When I left, the willows were swaying gently. Now I return, the rain and snow are falling heavily."
His Mandarin had a strong grassland accent, but surprisingly, his pronunciation was accurate and clear.
A young leader next to him grinned and said, "What are you reciting, sir? It sounds like you're singing."
Mu Yan closed the bamboo slips, his eyes sweeping over the mess on the ground: "A Han poem. It says that when you leave home, the willows are green, and when you return, the snow is falling heavily."
He paused, then added, "Unfortunately, when we arrived, all that was left here was ashes."
Everyone laughed.
Mu Yan did not laugh; his gaze was fixed on the distance.
There stood the formidable walls of Changli, which were incredibly tall even for Xianbei cavalry, as he slowly spoke:
"Han people farm like ants carrying food. They harvest season after season and store grains in granaries. We herd livestock and rely on the weather for our livelihood. If the grass withers and the sheep die, people will starve to death."
He raised the riding crop in his hand, the one adorned with a wolf's head:
"Men, prepare to advance! The Han people's food is right before us! Loot all their food and women!"
"Ouch——!"
Three thousand Xianbei cavalrymen let out a wolf-like howl.
Most of them wore sheepskin coats, and a few wore simple leather armor.
Their weapons were even more rudimentary than those of Goguryeo: bone arrows, stone axes, and wooden spears.
But each person had a lasso and net hanging next to their saddle—used to capture prisoners and plunder supplies.
After dividing the spoils, the Xianbei cavalry split into dozens of groups and bypassed Changli County from all directions, rushing towards the more distant rear of Changli County like a pack of hungry wolves.
At the southernmost tip of Liaodong, King Mahan also went mad, leading his tribe from south to north, surging across the border like barbarians.
With enemies on three sides in Liaodong and the situation urgent, Gongsun Xiu had no choice but to transfer most of his troops from Liaodong to the border.
-
In September, taking advantage of the chaos in Liaodong, Sima Zhao appointed Wang Hai as the Commandant of Zhenhai, leading a hundred large ships carrying a total of 15,000 soldiers, in preparation to sail across the sea to capture Tajin.
Tajin was originally an important stronghold for the Gongsun clan to defend against the Wei state. During the reign of Gongsun Yuan, troops were stationed here to prevent the Wei army from coming from the sea.
However, as the Wei state continued to suffer defeats on the western front, it gradually ceased to pose a threat.
When Gongsun Xiu, the son of Gongsun Yuan, took over Liaodong, the main target of Liaodong's defense gradually became Goguryeo in the northeast.
Gongsun Xiu knew that with the world divided and Liaodong far from the Central Plains, the Gongsun family could certainly establish a separatist regime.
However, as one of the former territories of the Han dynasty, once the Central Plains are unified, Liaodong will certainly not be allowed to remain isolated.
Therefore, only by taking advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains and expanding one's own power can one have a better chance of negotiating terms with the Central Plains in the future.
Goguryeo harbored the same ambition—to take advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains, which prevented them from turning their attention eastward, and to annex Liaodong.
Therefore, during the decades of chaos in the Central Plains, Liaodong and Goguryeo were also constantly at war.
After Sima Yi retreated to Hebei, anyone who wasn't blind could see that the Wei Kingdom was doomed.
Gongsun Xiu judged that the Han state's focus was on the Central Plains and it had no time to look eastward to Liaodong.
Faced with the powerful offensive of the Han state, the Wei state could only do its best to resist and was powerless to cross the sea.
Therefore, he focused his attention on Goguryeo, preparing to conquer it in one fell swoop.
Alternatively, it could completely defeat Goguryeo in one fell swoop, allowing Liaodong to achieve maximum expansion.
But to his surprise, this time it wasn't just Goguryeo that turned against him; even the Xianbei, who had always maintained relations with him, turned against him.
What he didn't expect was that the greatest danger in Liaodong had not yet surfaced.
-
The night on the Liaodong sea was as dark as ink, with the wind and waves howling.
Wang Hai stood barefoot at the bow of the warship, his scarred face gleaming with a cold, bluish-gray light under the moonlight.
Behind him, a hundred warships lay moored in the darkness like ghosts, their sails half-lowered and oars submerged in the water, drifting slowly toward the shore only with the help of the ocean current.
"Captain, three miles from the shore," the helmsman said in a low voice.
Wang Hai didn't turn around, but raised his hand and made a gesture.
Three green lanterns quietly rose on the mast—a signal to the powerful Tian family in Liaodong who were acting as informants.
The outline of Tajin Port is gradually becoming visible.
That was the deepest natural harbor at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on one side; it should have been an impregnable fortress.
During Gongsun Yuan's reign, he stationed a large number of troops here, set up iron chains and beacon towers to defend against the Wei navy's cross-sea attack.
At this time, the harbor was sparsely lit, no patrolmen were to be seen on the watchtowers, and even the iron chains blocking the river in front of the breakwater were submerged underwater and had not been raised.
"Tian hasn't responded," the lieutenant leaned closer, his voice tense. "Captain, could something have gone wrong?"
Wang Hai narrowed his eyes.
Being a pirate for generations not only made him a born outlaw, but also gave him extensive experience in plundering.
“The information is accurate.” Wang Hai’s eyes flashed with a dangerous light. “Most of the garrison at Tajin has been transferred away.”
"Even if the Tian family leaked the news of our arrival, Gongsun Xiu would not be able to recall the army so quickly."
"Therefore, even if Jinkou is well-defended, the garrison will certainly not be large."
With an army of 15,000, we could overwhelm them with sheer numbers!
"Execute the second plan!" Wang Hai roared, "Charge the harbor! All ships, full sails and oars, charge straight for the main dock!"
Having traversed the seas for so many years, he knew all too well the tricks of the Liaodong people.
If the other side is truly prepared, they are most likely waiting for us to halfway into port before dropping oil-soaked boulders from the cliff top to trap us like turtles in a jar.
In that case, the only way to survive is to be faster than the other side.
Moreover, since they knew that the enemy's garrison was insufficient, it meant that the general guarding Jinkou was likely playing a ruse.
"Ignite the ship!" Wang Hai roared again.
Twenty speedboats, fully loaded with fish oil and hay, burst out from the convoy, torches suddenly igniting at their bows.
The ship's crew, all former subordinates of Wang Hai, roared as they cut the mooring lines. The north wind propelled the fire ship faster and faster, like an arrow released from a bow, heading straight for the harbor.
There was finally some movement in the harbor.
Exclamations, the sound of gongs, and footsteps mingled together.
Several torches suddenly lit up on the cliff top, swaying wildly—clearly, the defenders had not expected the Wei army to disregard the signals from within and launch a direct assault.
A few rockets were launched sparsely into the sea, but they couldn't catch up with the fire ship that was sailing with the wind.
"boom--!"
The first fire ship crashed into the wooden pier, and flames shot into the sky.
Then came the second, the third... and Tajin Port was instantly transformed into a sea of fire.
The logs stockpiled on the shore, the ship materials piled up at the dock entrance, and even several Liaodong warships that hadn't had time to set sail were all burned into towering torches.
"Log in!"
Wang Haiba was the first to jump onto the gangway.
The Wei army surged toward the dock like a tidal wave.
Only then did the garrison in the harbor manage to put up a resistance—about a thousand men, in a scattered formation, clearly not elite troops from Liaodong.
Wang Hai grinned.
He made the right bet!
He spat, pointing his blade at the largest barracks in the harbor, "Follow me and kill!"
At this moment, his scarred face twisted like a demon in the firelight.
Three Liaodong garrison soldiers came rushing towards them.
Leading the charge was a one-eyed old soldier, his ring-pommel sword radiating the ruthlessness characteristic of veterans, the blade aimed straight for Wang Hai's neck.
Without dodging or yielding, Wang Hai raised his short halberd with his left hand, sparks flying with a clang, while his long sword, like a venomous snake, shot out from under the halberd and plunged into the old soldier's abdomen.
His intestines, mixed with blood, gushed out. The old soldier's one eye widened, he made two gurgling sounds in his throat, and he fell backward.
The other two, their eyes reddening, lunged at him from the left and right.
Wang Hai spun around, his sword and halberd drawing a semicircle—the head of the man on the left flew into the air, while the man on the right, his collarbone caught by the halberd tip, screamed as he was slammed into a burning grain stack, instantly becoming a human torch.
"Captain! The arrow tower on the west side!" a former pirate shouted.
Wang Hai looked up.
Thirty paces away, on a stone watchtower, five or six archers were firing arrows wildly.
Arrows whizzed through the charging Wei army, and several men fell to the ground, struck by arrows.
"Oil canister!" Wang Hai roared.
Two guards rushed over carrying earthenware jars.
Wang Hai grabbed a jar, weighed it in his hand, and then hurled it—the jar arced through the air and smashed against the second-floor window of the arrow tower, shattering with a crash, spilling fish oil all over the archer.
"Rocket!"
A rocket followed closely behind.
With a loud "boom," the second floor of the arrow tower turned into a cage of fire.
Amid screams, the two fire figures jumped out of the window, crashed onto the bluestone dock, twitched twice, and then remained still.
"Push forward! Don't let them form a battle line!"
Wang Hai pointed his blade forward.
The Wei army surged into the depths of the port like a tidal wave.
The resistance was sporadic and desperate – the Liaodong army left behind were mostly old and weak, and when faced with the well-rested and vigorous Wei troops, they were often cut down after only two or three exchanges.
Occasionally a few brave ones would emerge, but they were quickly overwhelmed by enemies many times their number.
Wang Hai kicked open a warehouse door and suddenly heard a whooshing sound beside him.
He instinctively turned to the side, and a harpoon flew past his ear and landed hard on the door panel.
The soldiers who threw pitchforks charged forward, wielding short blades.
Wang Hai didn't turn around, but instead swung his knife backhand.
The blade swept across the side of his neck, sending up a spray of blood.
"Stubborn."
He flicked the blood off his knife and stepped out of the warehouse.
The port area has been basically cleared.
The remaining Liaodong defenders retreated to the last stone fortress, numbering about a hundred, and held out desperately through the narrow doorway.
The Wei army's several charges were repelled by a hail of arrows, and more than twenty corpses lay on the ground.
Wang Hai squinted and sized him up.
The stone fort was built during the reign of Gongsun Yuan. The walls were three feet thick, and there was only one wooden door with iron-plated edges.
A direct assault would come at too high a cost.
"Captain, shall we mount the ramming log?"
The lieutenant asked.
"Too slow." Wang Hai's gaze fell on the oxcarts carrying grain at the dock. "Go, tie the oil canisters to the carts, light them, and push them over."
Half an hour later, three oxcarts engulfed in flames roared toward the stone fortress.
The defenders' arrows clattered against the cart's surface, but they couldn't stop the suicidal charge.
"boom--!"
The first car crashed into the wooden door, and flames instantly engulfed the doorway.
Amid screams, the second and third vehicles crashed into the stone fortress one after another, turning the bottom of the fortress into a living hell.
Thick smoke billowed from the arrow holes, and the defending soldiers coughed as they fled out of the gate, only to be immediately engulfed by the swords and spears of the Wei army.
Ever since a certain fellow surnamed Feng first invented the tactic of burning the passes with fire oil, all the major cities have been forced to stock up on fire-resistant materials such as sand.
Even pirates have learned this oil-based warfare tactic, which has greatly increased their plundering success.
There's no other reason than that the sea is rich in fish oil.
When raiding ashore, encountering a small castle like this is like applying oil to a fire – extremely efficient.
After the fire was extinguished, Wang Hai stepped over the charred remains of the wooden door and entered the stone fortress.
Inside, more than thirty charred corpses lay scattered about, and the air was filled with the mixed smell of roasted meat and blood.
A young guard, still breathing, leaned against the wall, a broken spear embedded in his chest, blood and foam spilling from the corner of his mouth with each breath.
With a swift stroke of his blade, Wang Hai ended the opponent's last chance of survival.
The deputy general of the Tian family, who was originally an inside agent, was finally found in a secret room in the garrison commander's mansion. He was bound hand and foot and his mouth was stuffed with rags.
Seeing Wang Hai enter with a knife, it immediately shook its head repeatedly and whimpered incessantly.
With a flash of light, the knife precisely severed the rope, and Wang Hai pulled the rag out of his mouth:
Where is the commander?
“They ran, they ran away…” Deputy General Tian coughed up blood, “When that fellow saw the general launch fire ships to rush the ferry, he knew he couldn’t hold it, so he ran away immediately.”
This also explains why the garrison was in such disarray.
As dawn broke, Tajin Port had already changed hands.
Wang Hai stood on the dilapidated dock, watching the Wei army's supply fleet slowly sail into the sea.
The morning light pierced through the sea fog, illuminating the mountains of grain, fodder, and weapons piled up in the harbor.
The lieutenant reported: "Captain, the inventory is complete. We have 10,000 shi of grain, 30,000 arrows, 300 warhorses, and..."
He lowered his voice, "A complete set of Liaodong coastal defense maps."
This is the most important thing, far more important than any supplies.
Wang Hai took the scroll of silk painting and unfolded it.
The map shows the detailed defenses of cities, counties, and ports near Liaodong.
“That’s quite a gift.” Wang Hai pointed to two places on the map. “We must take advantage of the fact that Gongsun Xiu’s army is all in the north and capture Pingguo and Wenxian as soon as possible.”
Pingguo is a key fortress in central Liaodong, controlling the land route northward.
Taking Pingguo would allow us to directly unite with the Xianbei Buyao tribe's cavalry and launch a pincer attack from the east and west.
Wenxian County, on the other hand, was responsible for protecting the flank of Taxian County and preventing the Liaodong navy from launching a counterattack from the east coast.
He turned to his deputy and gave the order:
"You stay here, I will immediately lead men out to sea, advance eastward along the coast, and take Wen County before the Liaodong army can react."
"Two days later, General Sima (Sima Zhou) will arrive with a large army. We can suggest that he take Pingguo directly."
Once these two locations are captured, and the Xianbei Buyou tribe cavalry joins forces, they can advance by land and water to directly attack Xiangping.
"Here!"
A sudden sea breeze rose, dispersing the smoke of battle.
In September of the fourteenth year of Yanxi, the State of Wei launched a surprise attack on Tajin while Gongsun Xiu's defenses in the south were weak.
They then advanced by both land and water, capturing Pingguo in Wen County.