Chapter 565: Yuwen Yong, He Bet Right |
Guangningshan, as the name suggests, is a mountain.
But this mountain is not ordinary.
That Caiqiu used it to station troops meant it had special advantages.
Guangningshan rises only about a hundred meters, its summit flat, three kilometers wide and eight kilometers long, roughly rectangular, covering some twenty-plus square kilometers. Gentle slopes surround it on all sides. An army camped on the summit can look down on every direction, making it a textbook easy-to-defend, hard-to-attack position.
Not only is the mountain itself unique, its location is also remarkably strategic.
Evergreen Valley runs north–south, flanked on east and west by the Mo'ao Mountain ranges. The valley’s average width is only about forty kilometers, and its narrowest stretches drop to less than twenty kilometers. The area where Guangningshan sits happens to be only twelve kilometers wide.
Guangningshan’s ridge runs eight kilometers, planted into that narrow gap like a natural fortress. With the summit so defensible, and with both east and west passes pressed against the mountain walls watched, even an enemy several times—ten times—your size, unless overwhelmingly stronger, would have almost no chance of taking it.
Guangningshan lies deep in the south of Evergreen Valley. Before the war, Caiqiu naturally didn’t attach much importance to it, but times change. After two defeats of the feudatories and the Great Xia forces advancing ferociously, Cai Qiuhu naturally put this natural fortress to use.
Cai Yunzhou is the City Lord of Qinghua City. Yesterday during the day, his uncle Cai Qiuhu ordered him to station troops on Guangningshan. He immediately understood: while the main force camped on the summit, large numbers of scouts had already been posted on both flanks, watching every movement of the Great Xia forces.
Looking at the four feudatories’ situation, Xia Hong would not want to prolong this battle—that was the conclusion already reached earlier.
His uncle Cai Qiuhu had told him the Beast Emperor puppets could most likely only be activated by Xia Hong himself, so as long as Xia Hong didn’t come, Guangningshan would be safe. Cai Yunzhou had nearly convinced himself of that.
Yet now he was genuinely panicking.
On the northern slope below the main camp, a Great Xia force had suddenly surged!
Not exactly “below the slope” anymore—the Great Xia force of nearly twenty thousand had already burst through the palisade gate and was pouring into the camp, crashing toward Cai Qiuhu’s soldiers in a noisy, dense flood.
Unluckily, Cai Qiuhu’s troops had just received his orders and were all charging east, their attention entirely focused on Hou Bing’s ten thousand Great Xia troops and the forty thousand rebels there.
Because the rear forces were on the west, he had just ordered those men to shoot at the enemy. They were all in the drawn-bow, arrow-ready stance. The Great Xia’s rapid charge left the men in the last ranks without even time to change weapons.
“How is this possible? There were so many scouts on both sides, and none of them saw a Great Xia force pass through. How did you reach the north?” Cai Yunzhou’s heart trembled, his emotions slipping toward loss of control. He could not believe the Great Xia had slipped through unnoticed and reached their rear.
Yuwen Yong—the man who had just told him he was gravely mistaken—Cai Yunzhou had already recognized him as Great Xia’s general Yuwen Yong.
Wasn’t Yuwen Yong supposed to be leading troops to wipe out the remnants on Guangningshan’s southern side?
…
“A risky move, but it’s most likely going to work!” Yuwen Yong could see every tremor of terror on Cai Yunzhou’s face. The pre-battle anxiety evaporated from his expression instantly; only excitement remained. He knew that by gambling on Hou Bing’s plan, he had probably bet correctly.
Yesterday, on the fourth day, Hou Bing sent Lu Yin to see him and proposed joining forces with his twenty thousand troops to attack Guangningshan. His first reaction had been that Hou Bing was mad.
He had taken part in the two great battles at Gukou and knew exactly how powerful Cai Qiuhu’s army was. He had twenty thousand troops; Hou Bing commanded twenty thousand. Even if all forty thousand of Great Xia were committed, attempting to break Guangningshan’s camp was a fool’s errand.
Still, Yuwen Yong patiently listened as Lu Yin laid out the whole plan.
After all, he was not the only one seeking military merits.
Hou Bing’s eagerness to win merits and gain promotion was only a microcosm of the ambition spreading through the Great Xia. The common soldiers felt it even more intensely.
Yuwen Yong is Yuwen Hu’s adopted son. His relationship with Yuwen Tao is nominally that of brothers, but in reality it is master-and-vassal. Although Yuwen Tao sincerely treated him like an elder brother, Yuwen Yong never overstepped; he always saw himself as a Yuwen household retainer.
His desire for military merit originated with Yuwen Tao.
Within Great Xia’s inner power circles, the Mirror Valley Faction’s status is considerable. There’s even talk in Xia City that the Mirror Valley faction controls half of the Great Xia military—such is their apparent weight.
But what outsiders see and what you yourself experience can be very different. At least in Yuwen Yong’s view, the Mirror Valley faction’s influence did not reach into Lord Xia Hong’s heart in the same way the Redwood Ridge faction, represented by Luo Yuan’s Rogge faction, did. Nor did it match the standing of the Earthen Slope faction led by Yuan Cheng and Xu Ning.
House leader Yuwen Tao competed with Xia Chuan and was not favored by figures like Yuan Cheng. Rumors whispered that Yuan Cheng and his allies thought the Military Department head position was too important and were grooming Department Chancellor Xia Chuan to replace Yuwen Tao with Xu Ning.
Put bluntly, the Mirror Valley faction’s high standing depended almost entirely on Yuwen Tao’s position as Military Department head. If Yuwen Tao fell from grace, what could figures like Yuwen Yong, Meng Yi, Hong Guang, and Hong Tian do?
Lose that head position, and the Mirror Valley faction could be toppled, sidelined, even marginalized—possibly expelled from Great Xia’s core circle.
The battles at the Pass and in Jinyang had twice defeated the two-town joint forces; the massive fights on both sides of Bone-Erosion Path involved other Great Xia armies, but the Right Route Army remained the protagonist. If the southern foothills of Great Xia were to be secured and the northern march launched on four fronts, the Right Route would likely claim the most glory.
But the current situation opened unforeseen possibilities.
The lord didn’t intend to keep fighting Cai Qiuhu and planned to build a city at Valley Village, clearly limiting the frontline.
If they ceased fighting Cai Qiuhu, what about Chencang?
Chencang’s hundred-thousand-strong army had set up camp in Dongchuan City. Given the lord’s temperament and the territorial requirements, they certainly could not be allowed to remain forever.
The lord would inevitably seek ways to drive Chencang’s army out.
That meant the Department Chancellor’s Left Route Army stationed at Dongchuan Camp would become useful.
Moving into Dongchuan, wiping out Beishuo, taking over Wuchuan, combining with the Central Route Army to push back Wuchuan’s forces—aside from the Right Route, the Left Route under the Department Chancellor could be the breakout star of the northern campaign.
Once war with Chencang began, it wouldn’t be only the Left Route that got chances—Luo Yuan’s Central Route and Yuan Cheng’s Rear Route might also earn merits.
Meanwhile, the Right Route could be left sitting on the sidelines if battle with Cai Qiuhu was called off.
Last night rumors in the Valley Village main tent suggested Lord Xia Hong was considering a rotation, perhaps transferring other armies to relieve the Right Route and garrison the valley.
If they were rotated away, further opportunities for merit would vanish.
The other three routes, especially the Department Chancellor’s Left Route, could easily catch up in meritorious achievements once they engaged Chencang.
Losing out to the Department Chancellor would sting, but losing to Yuan Cheng and Luo Yuan’s armies? Then Yuwen Tao’s face—his position as Military Department head—would be in jeopardy.
By the time rewards were issued after the two-feudatory campaign, Yuan Cheng and his allies might seize the chance to challenge Yuwen Tao’s post.
As a Yuwen household retainer, Yuwen Yong watched all this closely, anxiety twisting in his chest. He constantly wanted to help Yuwen Tao shoulder the burden.
Before the lord formally decided to cease hostilities, he wanted to seize as many military merits as possible so the Right Route could secure top honors in the northern campaign and ensure Yuwen Tao’s position remained unassailable.
This urgent need to keep earning merits was Yuwen Yong’s core motivation for wanting to continue fighting. Even knowing Hou Bing’s plan was audacious, he was moved.
After Lu Yin laid out the plan in full, Yuwen Yong grew even more tempted. He hesitated less than thirty breaths before agreeing to join forces with Hou Bing.
“Commander only gave Lord Hou twenty thousand troops. Half must be set aside to guard prisoners, so only ten thousand can be used. Add your two thousand—sorry, your twenty thousand, General Yuwen—gives us thirty thousand. Guangningshan’s camp holds seventy thousand of Cai Qiuhu’s troops. Alone, we cannot take it, so we must rely on the valley’s rebels.
“The night before last, on the north side of Bone-Erosion Path, over ninety thousand rebels hadn’t even arrived before the battle ended. With Cai Yunzhou stationing seventy thousand on Guangningshan, those ninety thousand rebels dared not approach; they scattered north of Guangningshan and now live in fear, worried Cai Qiuhu will punish them after the war. Lord Hou has found Su Xing’er, the instigator of this Cai Qiuhu rebellion, and already sent people to connect her with that rebel group.
“Thirty thousand plus ninety thousand rebels still doesn’t make breakthrough odds high, but the whole of Cai Qiuhu thinks Great Xia won’t continue north. So Guangningshan likely lacks anyone at the Tribulation Body Realm. With the terrain favoring them, they’re lax. If we plan cleverly and strike unexpectedly, we have a very good chance…”
Without a military order from Yuwen Tao, and with Lord Xia Hong himself at Valley Village, Hou Bing and he opening hostilities on their own risked enormous punishment. Yuwen Yong understood that.
The Military Department rules were set by Yuwen Tao. One rule was clear: if you disobey orders, you could be docked pay and beaten; at worst, dismissed and expelled from the army. If irreparable consequences occurred, you might even be stripped of your noble title.
Of course the rules were not absolutely rigid—battlefields have special circumstances. If every action required a direct order, wars would never be fought.
Everyone understood: on the battlefield, final judgment—reward or punishment—comes down to results. If you disobey orders but seize the chance and succeed, you’re praised as decisive. Fail, and you’re punished severely.
As Yuwen Tao’s right-hand man, Yuwen Yong saw this clearly.
With the Longbei faction’s decline after Hou Jing retired to the background, Hou Bing as the newly prominent leader was desperate to change the tide and prove his worth to Xia Hong. He had to gamble.
Yuwen Yong also saw Mirror Valley faction’s precarious position and Yuwen Tao’s potential crisis. That made a gamble necessary.
More importantly, he was not the faction’s top leader. If the gamble failed, he could take responsibility himself and insulate Yuwen Tao from fallout.
If it succeeded, the Left Route could accumulate additional merit and strengthen Yuwen Tao’s position.
If those reasons explained why he agreed to join Hou Bing, the decisive factor was Lu Yin’s meticulous follow-up plan—how to seize Guangningshan by surprise.
“Cai Qiuhu thinks Great Xia won’t continue north. That is their biggest flaw.
“Lord Hou has already moved ten thousand troops toward Guangningshan and, with Su Xing’er’s help, gathered forty thousand rebels along the route. We didn’t hide any of it; all of Cai Yunzhou’s attention is drawn east.
“There’s a secret passage through the eastern cliff of Guangningshan. Su Xing’er’s three elder brothers already snuck through and reached the north side of Guangningshan, linking up with fifty thousand rebels.
“General Yuwen will have his twenty thousand troops disguise themselves as rebels and pass through the secret passage in batches over the next two days. Even if a few are spotted, the scouts will only assume they’re disorganized rebels and might not report up to Cai Yunzhou…”
Hou Bing’s plan was a classic feint. He would lead ten thousand Great Xia plus forty thousand rebels to stage the main attack from the east and draw Cai Qiuhu’s attention; Yuwen Yong’s twenty thousand, together with fifty thousand rebels, would mount the actual main assault from the camp’s rear—the north.
Cai Qiuhu’s reliance on Guangningshan rested on terrain and those seventy thousand troops. If attackers could stealthily reach the camp’s gentle slope, they’d be more than halfway to victory. If Cai Qiuhu’s seventy thousand men had their attention fully focused east, the success rate for the camp assault would be at least eighty percent.
The plan was feasible and carried a high success probability.
With the additional motives mentioned earlier, Yuwen Yong had every reason to gamble.
Now it seemed his bet had indeed paid off.
Just like the expression on Cai Yunzhou’s face, Cai Qiuhu’s army had no defense against the Great Xia troops appearing behind them. Yuwen Yong led his best scout battalion in, and in one sweep they had penetrated three to four hundred meters into the enemy lines. They were less than a hundred meters from Guangningshan’s main tent.
“Hold the line, hold the line! Only thirty thousand are Great Xia troops—the rest are rebels. Don’t panic, don’t panic! The rear forces turn to block the northern enemy. The front continues to fight the eastern enemy!” Cai Yunzhou’s momentary trance lasted only a short while. The horrors below forced him to issue orders; he nearly roared to command every Cai Qiuhu soldier.
Unfortunately, though he told others not to panic, his voice betrayed his own fear. How could such orders turn the tide?
Moreover, when two armies clash, unless everything is going smoothly for the stronger side, the weaker side’s soldiers usually don’t reliably follow orders; they simply react to what they see.
Cai Qiuhu’s army collapse had become inevitable. Their psychological defenses were shattered by the ferocious Great Xia assault.
“Brothers, if we don’t seize Guangningshan’s camp, we won’t be true Caiqiu people. If we stay in Evergreen Valley, Cai Qiuhu will settle accounts with us!”
“Slaughter Cai Qiuhu’s soldiers! That’s our only way out!”
“Brothers, charge with the Great Xia!”
…
As the front-line Great Xia fully broke into the camp, the rebel contingents behind them streamed in. Though many rebels only cultivated to the Digging Realm or even the Lumberjack Realm, the tens of thousands gathered now seemed even more ardent than the Great Xia troops.
As the saying goes, generous rewards breed brave men, but brute courage isn’t only drawn out by riches—sometimes utter despair can force people into heroic madness.
For those over ninety thousand rebels, if they failed to take Guangningshan, death was their only path—absolute despair.
So now, in their minds, the thought of capturing Guangningshan burned even more fiercely and more urgently than in the Great Xia soldiers themselves.