Chapter 138: Defeating Li Tong and Attacking Yingchuan Again

Xiping is located northeast of Wuyang and directly west of Dingying. Ten miles north of the city lies Baiting, which was the territory of the ancient state of Bai during the Spring and Autumn period. East of the city is Tangxiting. During the Jianwu era, Emperor Shusu enfeoffed the son of Xi, the Prince of Sishui, as the Marquis of Tangxi.

At this moment, Li Tong was leading a force of five thousand men out of the east gate of Xiping, passing Tangxiting, and heading toward Dingying. The two places were very close to each other. The Han dynasty's Xiping County lay more than ten li to the southeast of the later Wuyang, while Dingying lay more than ten li directly east of the later Xiping County. Moreover, at that time, Xiping and Dingying shared an upstream-downstream relationship. Xiping sat on the middle reaches of the Wuyuan River, which flowed onward to Dingying and emptied into the Ru River. Consequently, the official highway ran alongside the bank of the Wuyuan River. Passing Tangxiting and heading due east for approximately forty-odd kilometers brought one to Dingying.

Man Chong learned on the morning of July 1st that Liu Bei had set out from Shangcai to attack Dingying. At that time, he had the option to retreat. However, the reason he chose to stay and defend the city was because right behind him lay Zhaoling and Yanqiang, two counties with virtually no troops, and further north lay Xuchang. Coupled with his belief that the forces Liu Bei had levied were merely a mob lacking provisions and even complete weaponry, he figured he could hold out until reinforcements from Li Tong arrived. It was for these reasons that he resolved to hold the city.

Yet, by the time Shen Chen arrived, Man Chong realized the general situation was lost and was forced to abandon the city and flee. Alas, it was already too late; he was intercepted by Shen Chen and slain on the spot.

The battle had concluded by midday. The messenger dispatched by Man Chong to deliver the news rode toward Xiping. Because horses could not be galloped continuously, the journey took an hour and a half, reaching Li Tong just before noon. Li Tong hastily assembled his troops, leaving behind his deputy, Xiping County Magistrate Zhao Yan, to guard the city. Traveling light, he ordered his soldiers to carry twenty days of rations and hurried toward Dingying for reinforcements.

Therefore, at the exact moment Man Chong was cut down, Li Tong had in fact only just set out. Calculated by time, assuming a forced march speed of eight kilometers per hour, it would take roughly five hours to reach the county seat of Dingying.

Consequently, Shen Chen deduced that Li Tong, anxious to rescue Dingying, would certainly fail to dispatch scouts at all times. He advised Liu Bei to immediately head west and ambush Li Tong midway. This proposal won Liu Bei's approval.

However, the soldiers Liu Bei had recruited were indeed rather ordinary. Having marched from Shangcai to Dingying with hardly any rest, their physical stamina was already exhausted. Many suffered from unbearable soreness in their feet and could simply no longer continue walking.

Shen Chen fully understood this. The soldiers recruited by Liu Bei were mostly impoverished commoners whose food and equipment were vastly inferior to the meticulously trained elite soldiers of the Huangmen Pavilion. Furthermore, the training volume of the two sides differed, making it impossible for Liu Bei's men to match the enemy in endurance.

Ultimately, Liu Bei ordered his three Generals of the Left—Jian Yong, Sun Qian, and Mi Zhu—to lead the main force and rest within the city of Dingying. He himself personally commanded a small contingent of cavalry and elite troops brought from Yuan Shao—numbering about three thousand men—along with Shen Chen's four thousand troops, totaling seven thousand men, to head west and intercept Li Tong.

Thus, both sides rushed toward each other along the official highway bordering the Wuyuan River. By the time Li Tong was a little over twenty kilometers away from Dingying, Liu Bei's army had also marched more than ten li to the west, traveling for about an hour. They finally found a cluster of hills on the southern bank of the Wuyuan River and began setting up an ambush.

These hills were densely wooded and situated on the southern side of the post road. Stretching from west to east for several kilometers, they formed a chain of low mounds. The hills were not particularly tall, with their highest peaks falling short of one hundred meters, and the rolling hills flanking the road generally rising no more than ten zhang.

The soldiers concealed themselves within the woods. Since it was daytime, the birds had all flown out to forage, eliminating any chance of startling roosting birds upon entering the forest at night. Throughout the small hills south of the post road, amid the brush and trees, soldiers of Liu Bei and Shen Chen were everywhere.

Time ticked away second by second. After about half an hour, the horizon at the western end of the road was choked with billowing dust.

Li Tong was indeed anxious to rush to the rescue. Following Sun Ce’s assassination, Sun Quan was preoccupied with domestic affairs and would not come to harass Xuchang, prompting all southern Cao forces to withdraw from Runan to the vicinity of Yingchuan to guard against Shen Chen at Kunyang.

To his utter astonishment, Liu Bei suddenly emerged, summoning the remnants of the Runan Yuan clan under Yuan Shao’s orders and launching an offensive northward toward Xuchang. This clearly caught the Cao forces off guard. After all, the rear area of Runan was extremely empty at the time, with the majority of Xuchang's defensive forces deployed to the southwest, leaving only Man Chong’s meager two thousand-odd men in the southeast. Fearing that Liu Bei would defeat Man Chong and then march north to attack Xuchang, Li Tong had hurried forward in frantic haste.

By this point, the officers and men had been running at a trot for an hour and a half, covering about forty-odd li. The entire formation was practically disjointed from front to back. The soldiers were parched and exhausted, while officers lashed them with whips, urging them to pick up the pace.

"General, let us rest a moment," urged one of Li Tong's deputy commanders. "The men have been galloping for an hour and a half and will reach Dingying very soon. If we do not let them rest, I fear that upon arriving at Dingying, they will have no strength left to fight the enemy."

Li Tong glanced back over his shoulder. The formation was scattered and straggling. As it was the transition between summer and autumn, the afternoon heat was oppressive. The soldiers were gasping for breath, completely drained of sweat, their faces dark and lips pale. True to the deputy's words, they could no longer sustain such a forced march.

Looking ahead, he pointed toward a distant mountain ridge and said, "There are hills ahead, and the river lies right opposite them. We shall rest in that forest."

"The General orders a halt for rest at the hills ahead!"
"The General orders a halt for rest at the hills ahead!"
"The General orders a halt for rest at the hills ahead!"

Couriers galloped their horses back and forth, shouting down the line. The morale of Li Tong's soldiers instantly rallied, their desperate pace quickening a fraction as they sprinted toward the woodland.

Indeed, the past tens of kilometers of the journey had been across an unobstructed plain, with villages and farmland dotting both banks of the river. Only that patch of forest could shield them from the scorching glare of the sun, making Li Tong's choice entirely logical.

Most importantly, he assumed Liu Bei was still besieging Dingying. Shen Chen's last known movement had been reported two days prior, when he dispatched men northward from Kunyang to raid Yangzhai. How could Li Tong possibly have anticipated that Shen Chen's troops possessed iron feet, capable of running all the way here in a mere three days to intercept him?

Instantly, Li Tong's army stampeded into the forest, with even more men bolting toward the river like freed beasts. The rear guard had eaten the dust of the vanguard the entire way, leaving them filthy and grime-covered; even if they could not bathe, simply drinking some water and wiping down their arms would be a relief.

Meanwhile, hidden within the forest, Liu Bei, Shen Chen, and the others had spotted Li Tong's approaching army from afar. Conserving their energy while the enemy exhausted theirs, the soldiers instinctively gripped their weapons, and some raised their bows and crossbows.

"Big Brother, they're here," Zhang Fei said, lowering his voice as much as possible. "Let's attack."

"Not yet," Shen Chen shook his head. "If we go now, we cannot wipe out the enemy completely. Wait until they rest by the riverlet with their guard down—that is when we can catch them all in one net."

Zhang Fei glared at Shen Chen. "You brat, I was fighting wars before you were even born!"

Shen Chen glared right back. "General Zhang, I have heard that you frequently flog your soldiers without cause. If one day you serve under my command, I will certainly make you taste the sting of the whip as well!"

"You!"

Zhang Fei flew into a furious rage, gripping his eight-foot serpent spear as he glared at him.

Liu Bei looked at Zhang Fei, frowned, and rebuked him, "Third Brother, show no disrespect! Listen to the Little Scholar."

"Hmph." Zhang Fei possessed a volatile temperament and let out a cold snort, saying no more.

Shen Chen couldn't be bothered to entertain him; he had no desire to cultivate good relations with everyone. Gan Ning also possessed a ferocious streak and loved killing, but his bloodlust was confined to the battlefield and his temperament remained reasonably open to persuasion. If Zhang Fei refused to show compassion to the common soldiers and insisted on marching further down the path to his own doom, Shen Chen wouldn't mind letting him taste the whip.

As they spoke, Li Tong's main force reached the foot of the mountain. Aside from a small fraction heading into the forest to rest, the majority of the soldiers swarmed toward the riverbank.

Seeing the enemy about to enter the forest and judging the time to be ripe, Shen Chen picked up a bone whistle, placed it in his mouth, and blew with all his might.

"Trr-trr-trr-trr-trr!"

Instantly, the entire forest erupted with shrill whistles—the signal to loose arrows.

"Release arrows!"
"Release arrows!"
"Release arrows!"

Countless figures suddenly burst from the foliage. Bows and crossbows twanged in unison, sending a tempest of ten thousand arrows raining down.

Caught completely off guard, Li Tong's army suffered devastating casualties.

This sudden upheaval terrified the soldiers by the river. Some scrambled to pick up their weapons to fight, others instinctively turned to flee, and a few, seeing the opposite bank was not far away, simply jumped into the river and swam across.

In a split second, Li Tong's five thousand men plunged into utter chaos. Li Tong himself happened to be waiting on the post road for his bodyguards to fetch him water. Seeing the ambush erupt, his expression altered drastically, and he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Gather! Gather! Form ranks!"

"Dung! Dung! Dung! Dung!"

The beating of battle drums intertwined with the blaring of horns. There were the drums of Li Tong's army, and there were the drums of Liu Bei's army. Squads of soldiers surged out of the woods and charged toward the Cao troops.

Had this been a force of elite veterans, they might have reacted swiftly. But Li Tong's army consisted largely of second- and third-tier troops. Furthermore, they were exhausted from the march and had just gulped down large quantities of river water, leaving their limbs weak and incapable of lifting their weapons to fight.

Consequently, the moment the two sides made contact, the Cao army collapsed like a crumbling mountain.

The open fields were choked with fleeing soldiers of Li Tong's army. Li Tong himself ran reasonably fast; unlike Man Chong, who stayed behind to fight to the death, the moment he saw his army disintegrating and the situation lost, he spurred his horse into a gallop and fled west.

The remaining soldiers of Li Tong's army were not so fortunate. Having guzzled river water while utterly exhausted, running was out of the question—they could barely even walk. They were slaughtered almost to the last man by the allied forces of Liu Bei and Shen Chen.

Perhaps it could not strictly be called total annihilation; only a little over a thousand men had perished in the initial waves of archery volleys, while the rest dropped to their knees and surrendered en masse, not even given the chance to be cut down.

Liu Bei had no fondness for executing prisoners of war, so he ordered all captives to be escorted back to Dingying. Most of these soldiers were natives of Runan, where remnants of the Yuan clan still possessed influence. He could fully leverage the Yuan family's clout to absorb these soldiers into his own ranks.

By dusk on July 1st, the seven-thousand-strong allied army of Liu Bei and Shen Chen returned to Dingying, escorting over three thousand prisoners from Li Tong's defeated force. The task of persuading the captives to surrender naturally fell to Jian Yong, Sun Qian, and Mi Zhu, while the troops were reorganized and restructured.

By July 2nd, the interior and exterior of Dingying city presented a scene of utter disorder. Liu Bei's army had never possessed a solid foundation; its core of elite troops was small, and integrating three thousand surrendered soldiers inevitably threw the entire organizational structure into chaos, making them look very much like a ragtag mob.

Yet there was no alternative. With a total force approaching twenty thousand, Old Liu had never been this wealthy in his entire life. When he was in Xuzhou, though titled the Governor of Xuzhou, his direct command numbered only a few thousand men. Later, when he became the Governor of Yanzhou, his troops were even fewer. The only time he had ever commanded a force numbering in the tens of thousands was when Mi Zhu contributed a massive number of retainers, only for them to be shattered in a single battle by Lü Bu.

Thus, a troop strength nearing twenty thousand completely exceeded his administrative capacity. Restoring order to the army required two to three days, and it was only with Shen Chen's assistance that the absorption and reorganization were barely completed.

By July 5th, this motley, cobbled-together force finally set off on a grand and imposing march.

However, their marching speed was sluggish at best, covering a mere fifty to sixty li per day—roughly twenty-odd kilometers—taking two full days just to reach Yancheng.

One must bear in mind that Shen Chen's troops were strictly trained elites with extraordinary long-range raiding capabilities, maintaining a daily marching speed of four to five kilometers per hour and pushing a daily limit of seventy to eighty kilometers—even faster than Sima Yi's surprise raid on Meng Da.

Now, with their speed reduced to a third or a quarter of that, it became evident that swelling troop numbers were not necessarily a blessing. Bloated forces, combined with low soldier quality and lackluster morale, often proved far less effective than a compact detachment of elites.

Nonetheless, Shen Chen knew that small detachments of elites were only suited for surprise raids—such as Deng Ai's stealthy invasion of Yinping or Li Su's night-march capture of Caizhou, both of which involved merely three to five thousand men. For frontal sieges and pitched battles, large armies remained indispensable.

By this time, Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian had finally learned of Shen Chen's diversionary tactics. They discovered that he had coordinated with Liu Bei to slay Man Chong, crush Li Tong, and seize Dingying all within a single day. Consequently, they hastily rallied their troops and fell back to defend the Linying and Yanqiang sectors to safeguard the security of Xuchang's immediate southern approaches, while simultaneously ordering Cai Yang to join forces with them for the joint defense of Xuchang.

Cai Yang was leading three thousand elite troops dispatched by Cao Cao from the Guandu front lines southward to Runan in preparation for an offensive against Liu Bei. Historically, he was slain by Liu Bei, prompting Cao Cao to send Cao Ren instead to defeat Liu Bei, ultimately forcing Liu Bei to flee back to Yuan Shao and later head to Nanyang under the banner of forging a southern alliance with Liu Biao.

Yet today, before Cai Yang even arrived, Man Chong was dead and Li Tong's army had been shattered. Venturing into Runan now would be tantamount to suicide, so he was reassigned to Yanqiang to garrison the area alongside Li Dian.

By July 9th—after a full four days—Liu Bei's main force finally arrived at Zhaoling. Situated south of Yanqiang and less than two hundred li from Xuchang, this location corresponded to the distance between modern-day Luohe City and Xuchang City, roughly seventy kilometers, or one hundred and seventy-five Han li.

The night the army reached Zhaoling, Shen Chen once again proposed a split-force strategy to Liu Bei.

Inside the Zhaoling County Yamen:
Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang, Shi Ren, Liu Yan, Yuan Lin, Xiahou Zuan, and various other generals and strategists were gathered in full attendance. Chen Dao was still merely a captain of the personal guards, standing watch at the entrance.

Liu Bei occupied the seat of honor in his capacity as General of the Left of the Han Dynasty and Governor of Yanzhou. Guan Yu and the others sat to Liu Bei's lower left. Because Shen Chen was not his subordinate but rather an allied commander, he and Gan Ning, Shen Mi, Deng Zhao, and other generals sat to Liu Bei's lower right. According to Han dynasty custom, the right side was regarded as superior, making this a gesture of profound respect toward guests.

Once everyone was seated, Shen Chen cupped his hands toward Liu Bei and said, "Lord Xuande, the Cao forces are massing south of Xuchang, leaving their rear severely depleted. I intend to lead my troops northward, cross the Ying River from Yingyang, break through Yingyin, and strike directly at Xuchang. When that happens, Xiahou Yuan and his cohorts will inevitably fall into chaos, and Your Lordship can sweep clean the courts and nests to march straight into the heart of Xuchang!"

Liu Bei frowned and said, "If we do this, the Cao forces will surely fall back to Xuchang to protect the city. Would that not place the Little Scholar in grave danger?"

Shen Chen smiled and replied, "It is of no consequence. As the saying goes, speed is the essence of war. Our soldiers drill day and night, capable of marching six hundred li in three days and twelve hundred in six. Zhaoling is but a stone's throw from Xuchang; our army can reach it in a single day. Although heading north to Yingyang will take a somewhat circuitous route, we can reach the walls of Xuchang in at most two days. Therefore, the Cao forces will certainly not react with such swiftness."

Sima Yi and Xiahou Yuan already possessed some of the fastest marching speeds in the Three Kingdoms period—the former averaging over forty kilometers a day and the latter seventy. Yet Shen Chen surpassed even Xiahou Yuan, pushing his pace to eighty kilometers a day. While still falling short of the legendary iron feet of later generations, it was nevertheless miraculous for the era.

Naturally, such speeds could only be achieved on plains like those of Henan and Hebei; in mountainous regions such as Sichuan, Shu, Liaodong, or the Qinling Mountains, achieving such a pace was utterly impossible.

Hearing Shen Chen's words, Liu Bei asked with concern, "Is this truly feasible?"

Shen Chen answered, "Three months ago, we already made a dash all the way to Xuchang once before. Back then, within five days, we first feigned an attack on Xuchang, then shattered Yexian, Kunyang, and Wuyang, before pushing northward to take Xuchang directly—turning a circuit of six hundred li while averaging over a hundred li of marching every day."

Though six hundred Han li amounted to little more than two hundred kilometers, managing to execute feints, battles, and ambushes within a mere five days while averaging forty kilometers daily was an extraordinary feat of mobility that left observers utterly astounded.

Gasps of astonishment rippled through the hall. Looking at one another in disbelief, the gathered officers found the feat almost unimaginable.

Liu Bei looked at him with profound respect and said, "I heard of this matter as well. At the time, I only knew the Little Scholar had fought his way to the very gates of Xuchang, forcing Cao Cao to rush back overnight to defend the city. I had no idea the process was fraught with such intricate twists and turns."

Shen Chen stated, "I am well aware that the soldiers are exhausted, but this is a matter of necessity. The enemy is stronger than we are; if we do not devise extraordinary measures, how can we hope to rescue the dynasty of Han?"

Liu Bei nodded. "The Little Scholar's unwavering dedication to restoring the Han house commands my deepest respect. Very well, I shall follow the Little Scholar's counsel. Two days from now, regardless of whether the Little Scholar has reached Xuchang or not, I will launch an assault on Yanqiang. Even if we cannot push all the way to Xuchang, we shall at the very least pin down the enemy forces for you."

"My thanks, Lord Xuande." Shen Chen bowed in gratitude.

Although the army Liu Bei commanded was bloated, the risks he shouldered were immense, as he had to confront the main force of the Cao army. Since his troops were not elite veterans and Cao Cao's forces would focus their attention squarely on him, a single lapse in judgment could result in a rout.

In contrast, Shen Chen was merely leading a small detachment on a flanking raid in the rear. Given that Xuchang was extremely underdefended, the probability of success was exceptionally high. Thus, compared to the rear-area theater, Liu Bei's pressure on the frontal battlefield was actually far greater.

Therefore, once the strategy was finalized that day, Shen Chen allowed his soldiers to rest for a single day. On July 10th, Liu Bei's army set out northward once more to surround Yanqiang County, while Shen Chen detached his forces from the main body, heading west first in the direction of Dingling.

"Brother Shen!"
"Mm!"

As Shen Changqing walked along the road, acquaintances would greet him, exchanging nods or brief words of acknowledgment.

Yet regardless of who they were, not a single face held any superfluous expression, as though they remained indifferent to everything around them.

To this, Shen Changqing had long since grown accustomed.

For this was the Demon Suppression Guard—an institution charged with maintaining stability in the Great Qin Empire, whose primary duty was the slaying of malevolent demons and ghosts, alongside certain other subsidiary enterprises.

One might say that every single person within the Demon Suppression Guard had blood on their hands.

When a person grows accustomed to witnessing life and death, indifference settles over many aspects of existence.

When he first arrived in this world, Shen Changqing had felt somewhat out of place, but over time, he had simply adapted.

The Demon Suppression Guard was vast. Those permitted to remain within its ranks were either formidable experts of peerless strength or individuals possessing the potential to become such masters.

Shen Changqing belonged to the latter category.

Within the Demon Suppression Guard, careers were divided into two main tracks: Town Protectors and Demon Slayers.

Anyone entering the Demon Suppression Guard began at the lowest tier as a probationary Demon Slayer, subsequently rising through successive promotions with the ultimate prospect of becoming a Town Protector.

His predecessor's memories showed that he had been a probationary Demon Slayer within the Guard—the absolute lowest rank among Demon Slayers.

Equipped with his predecessor's memories, he was thoroughly familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Guard.

Before long, Shen Changqing halted before a pavilion.

Unlike the rest of the Demon Suppression Guard, which radiated a chilling aura of slaughter, this pavilion stood out like a crane among chickens, radiating a tranquil serenity that contrasted sharply with the blood-soaked atmosphere of the surrounding compound.

At this moment, the doors of the pavilion stood wide open, with individuals occasionally entering and exiting.

Hesitating for just a moment, Shen Changqing stepped across the threshold.

Upon entering the pavilion, the atmosphere shifted abruptly.

A fragrance of ink mingled with the faint, metallic scent of blood washed over him, causing his brows to knit instinctively before smoothing out just as quickly.

The scent of blood clinging to everyone in the Demon Suppression Guard was something that practically defied all attempts to wash away.