Chapter Thirty: The Fires of War Everywhere (Part Two)

After a brief silence, the youngest general spoke first, as protocol dictated.

A "mouke" (commander) under Tuhe-su wiped his face and said, "Though the vanguard was defeated, it is a fact that the main force of the Song is as weak as sheep! Across the prefectures of Hedong, upon hearing of our grand army's approach, officials fled and the commoners trembled; those opening their gates to surrender are countless! What the commander encountered was merely a small exception."

Immediately after, Wudai Hesi chimed in, his tone edged with arrogance, "Exactly! The women of the south have skin as smooth as cream, and gold and silver are piled like mountains! Once Taiyuan is broken, Luoyang and Bianliang will be right before our eyes! The commander simply... simply underestimated the enemy!" He dared not speak too harshly.

Then it was Tuhe-su’s turn.

He surged up from the water, droplets cascading down his thick, muscular chest, and let out a reckless, booming laugh: "Hahahaha! Well said! The Song? Spineless cowards! When I led my troops south, those officials in their red and green robes knelt faster than rabbits the moment they saw my army! Their trousers were soaked! The old emperor of the Southern Dynasty knows nothing but to hide in his palace playing with women and painting birds! Yinsuke, my brother, just had a bit of bad luck this time, running into a rabbit that dared to bite."

"No matter! Tomorrow, the army will march as one and crush Taiyuan! The treasures and women inside shall be for our boys to take! The few Song women I just plundered are soft, yes, but they don't hold up well in play—I need to snatch some of the spirited ones to make it interesting!"

Greed and cruelty flickered in his eyes, drawing a chorus of agreement and laughter from Wudai Hesi and the others. The air was thick with the oppressor's contempt for their prey.

Nianhan remained expressionless, his gaze shifting toward Wanyan Loushi.

Wanyan Loushi rose slowly from the water. As the ice-cold beads dripped away, his body was revealed to be a map of crisscrossing scars. He did not look at Tuhe-su; his voice was low, yet it clearly cut through the laughter.

"A rabbit will bite when cornered, and even a wolf, if careless, can have its eyes kicked by a rabbit." He turned to Yinsuke. "Three thousand elite cavalry are not trained in a single day. Tell me: who is the commander of the Song army? How are they deployed? How did the engagement unfold? What is the morale of the Taiyuan garrison?"

Yinsuke’s face darkened further. "It is Wang Bing of Taiyuan. His men are desperate fighters, not your ordinary Song troops! They dared to engage us in close-quarters combat! They used fire-oxen to disrupt our lines, and the commoners followed them. The battlements of Taiyuan are well-stocked with arrows and stones; the defenders have not wavered!"

Loushi’s eyes narrowed slightly as he nodded. "If Wang Bing could inflict such a defeat upon you, Yinsuke, and annihilate three thousand iron cavalry, he is no ordinary man. This is no 'rabbit,' but a crouching tiger! The morale of the Taiyuan garrison remains unbroken; they are far from lambs for the slaughter."

He scanned the group, focusing on Tuhe-su. "Your plundering has been easy thus far, Tuhe-su, but the cities you have taken fell either because the commanders were incompetent, the Song central government was in chaos and unable to coordinate, or the garrisons were inherently weak and lacked the will to fight. Taiyuan is different! It is the backbone of Hedong; the Song will fight to the death to hold it! The defeat of the vanguard was no accident!"

He paused, his tone turning cold. "Our successive victories have filled the entire army with the arrogance of underestimating the enemy! Today’s defeat is a warning bell! If we continue to treat Taiyuan as nothing, regard the Song army as lambs, and continue to advance recklessly—concerned only with plunder and ignoring our flanks—I fear even greater disasters await us!"

He looked toward Nianhan and Xiyin. "Marshal, Gushen. I believe Taiyuan must be besieged. Sever their supply lines and exhaust their morale. While we clear the surrounding outposts, we must construct heavy siege engines. Only when their grain is gone and their soldiers are spent can we strike and shatter them with the force of a thunderbolt! That is the only foolproof strategy. To force an assault now out of spite is merely to squander the lives of our warriors!"

His words landed with heavy impact, like a bucket of ice water poured over the fervor of Tuhe-su and the others.

Nianhan’s gaze finally fell upon Gushen.

This wise man, who had created the Jurchen script and possessed a deep understanding of Han and Khitan cultures, had been sitting with his eyes closed in contemplation. Only now did he slowly open them. He did not respond to Loushi directly, but spoke in a calm, all-encompassing tone.

"The blood of Yinsuke's three thousand iron cavalry has stained the snow of the Fen River red; it is indeed regrettable, but—"

His tone shifted, and his gaze swept across the generals like a torch. "This defeat is merely a small chip of wood sent flying when the great wheel of our Great Jin crushes the rotting timber of the Southern Dynasty. It is of no consequence to the big picture and cannot shake the foundations of our mission to annihilate the Song."

He stepped out of the stream, where his personal guards were already waiting with dry towels and fur robes. As Xiyin calmly donned his clothes and walked back toward the command tent, the other generals followed suit, their cold skin meeting the air, making the atmosphere all the more grim.

***

Back in the tent, Xiyin walked to the massive topographical map of Hedong, his finger pointing precisely at the location of Taiyuan. Nianhan spoke in a deep voice, "Gushen, what is your view?"

Gushen turned, his eyes sharp, his voice steady and powerful.

"Marshal, fellow generals. This defeat was caused by underestimating the enemy, and it is also a final flicker of light before the Song dynasty’s destiny expires. However, as Loushi said, the root cause lies in our failure to grasp the true nature of the Song and to carry out our established strategy."

He gestured to the map, laying out his analysis point by point:

"First, Taiyuan is the key; if it breaks, Hedong collapses. Taiyuan is a fortress; a direct assault is the worst strategy. We must employ the 'Lock-City Method.' Order the elite 'Meng'an' cavalry to choke every city gate so that not a single grain of rice or a single soldier can enter Taiyuan!"

"Divide our forces to clear the periphery—Yuci, Shouyang, and the rest—to isolate Taiyuan. The grain in the city can last three months at most. When the time comes, the soldiers and people will turn against one another, and the city will fall without a fight! Why should we waste the bodies of our Jurchen warriors to fill the deep moats and scale the high walls of the Song?"

"Second, a pincer movement from east and west to lock down Bianliang. This is the foundation of destroying the Song! The Western Route Army will take Taiyuan, seize the Taihang and Zhiguan passes, and threaten the Guanzhong region, leaving the Song court with no path of escape to the west!"

"The Eastern Route Army must by now have swept through Hebei and reached the Yellow River. Once we clear the periphery of Taiyuan, we will drive south, strike directly at Hezhong Prefecture (Yongji) along the Fen River, threaten Luoyang, and join the Eastern Route Army beneath the walls of Bianliang! Time is on our side regarding Taiyuan; why rush for a momentary victory?"

"Third, the Song is doomed to perish because its heart is rotting!"

Gushen’s voice carried a chilling mockery. "Their military system is utterly corrupt! Ranks are unfilled, pay is embezzled, and equipment is rusted. The Imperial Guards of Bianjing are nothing but dogs used for show! Their court is torn by vicious factional strife, with monarch and minister suspicious of one another."

"The likes of Tong Guan and Cai Jing have hollowed out the national treasury, leaving the elite northwest frontier forces to suffer from hunger and cold! The hearts of the people are lost, for their harsh laws are fiercer than tigers. When we break their cities, we need only show a little favor—announce the abolition of the Song’s heavy taxes—and the people will welcome our army with food and drink! Their local governments have no power, and their prefectures are isolated. With Taiyuan under siege, which prefecture or county in the Hedong Circuit would dare to come to their aid? None!"

He looked around at the generals. "With such a riddled, decaying body, even if there were ten Wang Bings and a hundred Taiyuans, how long could they possibly hold out? The defeat of the vanguard is a mere skin ailment; how could it move the great plan of our conquest?"

"Fourth, attacking the heart is superior; attacking the city is inferior."

His eyes gleamed with wisdom. "This scoundrel Wang Bing is brave, yes, but he is only one man. Behind him lies the broader trend of a Song court where generals and ministers are divided and the soldiers have no will to fight!"

"We must exploit the rot. We shall take the scandals of the Song court—the corruption of Tong Guan, the chaotic governance of Cai Jing—and broadcast them across Hedong, carving them onto wooden placards to be shot into the city! Let the garrison and the people know for whom they are sacrificing their lives!"

"Use bribery: command the entire army that whoever surrenders the city will have their property and official ranks preserved; whoever kills a Song official and defects will be heavily rewarded! Especially in recruiting the Han people of Yanyun, promise them generous treatment to make them turn their blades!"

"Sever their faith: strictly seal off all news, burn the post roads, and turn Taiyuan into a blind, isolated island! We can forge official proclamations of the fall of Bianjing and the surrender of the Song Emperor and shoot them into the city to shatter their spirits!"

"Punish the loyal: place a heavy bounty on their heads! Spread rumors that Wang Bing is hoarding power for himself and intends to carve out his own territory, and let the Song court destroy him for us!"

"Only when the Song people feel that resistance leads to death and surrender also leads to death will they truly feel fear—fear so great that they forget they are Song people, thinking only of how to survive."

"This is the way to destroy a nation."

He concluded, his tone resolute: "Therefore, the defeat of the vanguard is not worth worrying about! Follow the established strategy: besiege Taiyuan, clear the periphery, rest the troops, forge siege engines, and wait for them to die!"

"At the same time, send out elite scouts to explore the south and clear the path for the main army to drive straight for Luoyang and Bianliang! Marshal Nianhan, fellow generals, the empire of the Song is already within our grasp; why lose our composure over a minor setback?"

***

Everyone was stunned.

The rough-hewn warriors did not understand the intricate meaning of his words at all, and it was only after someone explained it to them repeatedly that they grasped his point. They had often heard that Gushen was a wise man who had frequently offered counsel to the Great Ancestor, but they had never thought much of it. Now, seeing him stand at such a height, analyzing the war between the two nations, they were truly left speechless.

Nianhan listened to the profound and grand analysis as Xiyin unraveled the situation like pulling silk from a cocoon; the gloom on his face gradually dissipated. He suddenly stood up, his massive frame like a mountain. He strode back toward the freezing stream, and the generals followed close behind.

The icy water submerged their bodies once more.

Nianhan took a deep breath, the water of the dead-of-winter stream enveloping him, and his low, majestic voice echoed through the valley: "Gushen’s words are the true principles of breaking a nation! Yinsuke’s defeat due to arrogance shall be a lesson for the entire army! Once his wounds heal, he shall receive twenty lashes and be fined half of the wealth he plundered in this battle, as a warning to others!"

"Tuhe-su! Take thirty percent of what you and your men have plundered and use it to provide for the families of the fallen soldiers!"

"Loushi!"

"I am here!"

"The responsibility of besieging Taiyuan, clearing the periphery, and building the siege engines is yours! You must lock this city tight!"

"I accept the order!"

"The rest of you, ready your troops for war! When Taiyuan’s grain runs dry, that will be the moment our grand army tramples Hedong and waters our horses in the Yellow River!"

He looked toward the south for the last time, his eyes burning with monstrous ambition: "Command every Meng'an and Mouke: the Song court is rotting, and Heaven’s Mandate rests with our Great Jin! The blood shed at Taiyuan shall be repaid by the entire Southern Dynasty! When we capture that Southern Emperor, we will use his golden crown as a wine vessel to offer sacrifices to our fallen sons!"

Before the words had finished, Nianhan suddenly lunged forward, and with all his might, slammed both palms onto the freezing surface of the river!

"CLAP!!"

A massive spray of water erupted, the icy river scattering like a pledge!

"Striking the water as our oath!!"

The generals roared in unison, following Nianhan’s lead, striking the water with all their might!

"CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!!"

The dull, thunderous sound of water being struck exploded across the frozen river, mixed with beast-like howls that drowned out the howling wind and snow, signaling that the Jin war machine, following a more cold-blooded and efficient trajectory, would continue to crush everything to the south!

Nianhan stood bare-chested, droplets sliding down his knotted muscles. He stared at his own distorted, ferocious reflection beneath the surface, his mouth curling into a cruel arc.

A fortress like Taiyuan? It was nothing more than a few stumbling blocks on the road to the dragon throne of Bianliang that needed to be trampled into dust.