Chapter 569: Outwitting Nan Zheng (Part 2)

Li Huan had been eagerly awaiting the return of the garrisons from Xingdao and Gucheng since noon. He knew the troops couldn’t return so quickly, but he was deeply worried that something might have happened to them. Based on the reports from his scouts, there was no activity at the Anxi Army’s camp; they were still resting, which gave him some relief. He was afraid that the Anxi Army would learn about the garrisons in Gucheng and Xingdao and send troops to intercept them. Judging from the current situation, the Anxi Army was taking the Luobao Road and had quickly captured Baocheng, so they likely didn’t know about the troops in Xingdao and Gucheng.

Li Huan kept comforting himself, but his heart remained heavy, filled with unease. At dusk, he received news sent by pigeons from the troops in Gucheng. Su Yu, the deputy commander of the garrison there, had led some troops twenty li away with no incidents along the way, which made Li Huan breathe a sigh of relief.

At that moment, a scout rushed from afar and shouted at the foot of the city wall, “Marshal!”
“What happened?”
“We’ve received news from the front— the main force of the Anxi Army has set out. It’s about twenty thousand cavalry, moving swiftly this way. They’re less than twenty li away.”
“Ah!”
Li Huan exclaimed in shock. Had the Anxi Army’s main force arrived so quickly? Undoubtedly, they must have heard about the troops retreating from the east and were coming to intercept them.
“Hurry! Get back quickly!”
Li Huan prayed silently, frantic. Why hadn’t the troops from Gucheng returned yet?
“Marshal, look! They seem to be coming,” one of his guards shouted, pointing into the distance.
Li Huan strained to see through the darkness and spotted a group of figures several li away to the east, about three or four li apart.
“Pass my order—light the torches and prepare to open the city gates!”

Even when the troops returning from Gucheng were still three li away, the defenders of Nan Zheng began preparing. Torches were lit all along the city walls, and thousands of soldiers rushed to the battlements. Li Huan also stood atop the city gate, frowning as he gazed into the distance. He could now vaguely make out the group—only about three or four thousand people. He was puzzled. Weren’t there five thousand soldiers in Gucheng’s garrison? Where were the remaining thousand?

Soon, the troops from Gucheng County approached the city and stopped about a hundred steps away. There were only a little over two hundred warhorses in their army; the rest were infantry. Their formation was disorganized, and they appeared extremely tired. Li Huan let out a soft sigh. This was his army—its shortcomings could already be seen in the details. If it were the Anxi Army, the troops would not become disorganized even after days and nights of marching. Yet it was precisely these minor differences that made them no match for the Anxi Army.

In the darkness, dozens of riders rushed forward, led by Deputy General Su Yu. He raised his head and shouted loudly, “Marshal Li, it’s your subordinate, Su Yu!”

“Where is General Li?” Li Huan asked from the top of the city wall.

“General Li is behind transporting supplies. He sent me back first.”

No wonder over a thousand men were missing—they must have gone to transport supplies. Li Huan cursed under his breath, “What time is it now? Still worrying about supplies!”

He waved his hand and ordered, “Let them enter the city!”

The drawbridge was lowered with a rumbling sound, and the city gates opened wide. Su Yu turned his horse around and ordered, “Form up and enter the city!”

The soldiers rallied their spirits and formed into three columns. This was the custom of the Anxi Army—troops entering the city had to form into three groups, a habit that had naturally developed. Although Zhao Chongjie had considered many details, such as deliberately disorganizing the troops’ formation, he still couldn’t cover everything. In terms of organizing the troops to enter the city, he inadvertently revealed a hint of the Anxi Army’s style.

Yet it was this slight difference in style that made Li Huan frown. His troops had always entered the city in two columns; he had never seen them form into three. Though he felt a bit uneasy, he hadn’t realized the authenticity of this army. He simply found it strange.

Rows of soldiers approached the city gates, crossed the drawbridge, and entered the city. Li Chongjie, disguised as a colonel, rode in the middle of the group. As he crossed the drawbridge, he couldn’t help but look up—just then, Li Huan was also looking at him. Their eyes met. Li Huan was stunned. How could there be such a valiant officer in his army? He had never seen him before, and his horse was also exceptionally fine—definitely not a mountain horse from Shu. What was going on?

At this moment, doubts finally arose in his mind. After looking at the soldiers again, his doubts grew even stronger. Many of his troops were locals from Hanzhong or people from Shu; they were generally not tall and somewhat thin. Yet these soldiers before him were all burly, and some even had features resembling those of the Hu people. Li Huan began to sense trouble. Just then, his gaze fell on the heavy-armed infantry armed with long halberds who were about to approach the city gates. Though their faces couldn’t be seen in the darkness, what were those two-zhang-long weapons in their hands? Such weapons had never existed in his army.

A cold sweat poured down Li Huan’s back. He suddenly understood and immediately shouted, “Quick! Close the city gates and raise the drawbridge!”

All the soldiers were stunned and didn’t react at first. Li Huan, desperate and sweating profusely, grabbed the officer in charge of the city gates by his clothes and roared, “Damn it, are you blind? They’re the Anxi Army! Close the gates now!”

Chaos ensued on the city walls as the soldiers shouted, “Close the gates! It’s the Anxi Army!”

Li Chongjie, who had just crossed the drawbridge, realized they had been identified by the enemy. He also shouted, “Brothers, charge into the city!”

The Anxi Army stopped forming ranks. Roaring, they charged toward the city. At that moment, the drawbridge began to creak as over a dozen soldiers armed with halberds rushed up, swinging their weapons to cut the chains. Sparks flew everywhere, and with two sharp cracks, the chains on both sides were severed. The drawbridge, which had been raised three feet, crashed back down.

By now, half of the 3,800 Anxi Army soldiers had rushed into the city. But Nanzheng City was divided into an inner city and an outer city. They had only entered the outer city gates. Between the two cities was an inner moat, crossed by a stone bridge about a hundred steps long and four zhang wide. Only by crossing that bridge and breaking through the inner city gates could they truly enter Nanzheng.

The terrain was highly disadvantageous for the Anxi Army. The Hanzhong troops had already recognized them as the Anxi Army, and nearly 20,000 defenders were arriving from all directions. By this point, Li Huan had calmed down from his initial panic and immediately organized his soldiers to counterattack. There were over 4,000 soldiers on the outer city walls. They drew their bows and launched a dense barrage of arrows at the Anxi Army outside the city. The Anxi soldiers raised their shields to defend themselves and charged fiercely into the city. At the back were 1,000 heavy-armed infantry with halberds. Clad in heavy armor, they were unafraid of arrows, and the Hanzhong arrows had little effect on them.

Inside the outer city gates and on the stone bridge, there were also over two thousand soldiers from the Hanzhong army. They didn’t have time to retreat into the inner city before the gates slammed shut. These over two thousand soldiers became the first targets of the Anxi army’s fierce battle. The sounds of battle cries filled the air, and the outer city gates and stone bridge were densely packed with soldiers from both sides. In that narrow space, a bloody struggle ensued.
…
Ten miles away on the main road, Li Siyeh was leading 20,000 cavalrymen toward Nanzheng. Neatly arranged columns of cavalry marched along the road. They hid nothing, knowing they couldn’t evade the scouts of the Hanzhong army. So they simply showed their combat intent. The loud sound of horse hooves echoed on the uneven ground. Torches formed long serpents in the air, and the Anxi cavalry, armed with spears and mounted, advanced in a massive force toward Nanzheng City. Their marching speed wasn’t fast; Li Siyeh wouldn’t launch a full-scale attack until he received news from Zhao Chongjie.
According to Li Siyeh’s original plan, he intended to use gunpowder and the power of his troops witharrows knives to storm Nanzheng City. To capture such a well-fortified and heavily defended city within three days, he would have to use thunder bombs to break through its defenses. But the withdrawal of the troops from Gucheng County and Xingdao County provided him with a golden opportunity. He could annihilate one of those armies and then feign a retreat to trick the defenders into opening the gates of Nanzheng.
From the news he had just received, Zhao Chongjie had already completed the first half of the plan by handling the withdrawal from Gucheng County. Now they were approaching Nanzheng City. Despite his experience in countless battles, Li Siyeh still felt a bit nervous. He knew that no plan could be perfect—there would always be some oversight. Moreover, the demeanor and style of the Anxi army were completely different from those of the Hanzhong army. As the commander-in-chief, could Li Huan not see this?
It seemed inevitable that a bloody battle for the city would ensue. Just as he thought this, a bright arc rose in the southern sky and suddenly exploded mid-air. This was the signal that the Anxi army had launched its attack. Li Siyeh immediately ordered, “The entire army, advance at full speed! March straight toward Nanzheng!”
The 20,000 cavalrymen suddenly sped up, their chaotic horse hooves sounding like a storm as they rushed down the southern road.

The battle to capture Nan Zheng had reached its climax. On the stone bridge spanning a hundred paces, corpses piled up like mountains and blood flowed like rivers. Nearly two thousand soldiers from the Hanzhong army, who failed to evacuate in time, were almost entirely slaughtered. Only a few hundred remained, clinging to the inner city gates and desperately resisting the repeated attacks by the Anxi army. They cursed in despair, pounding on the gates in an attempt to create a gap and retreat inside, but the gates remained firmly shut. With no way out and only a fight to the death left, there was no possibility of surrender—only survival for one side or the other, with no thought of prisoners at this point.

However, the dense arrow rain from the Hanzhong army slowed down the Anxi forces’ advance. The inner and outer city walls were packed with Hanzhong soldiers, numbering over ten thousand. They shot arrows from both sides, a torrential downpour so dense it blocked out wind and rain. The Anxi army also suffered heavy losses, with over a thousand dead, including Zhao Chongjie’s warhorse, which was killed by an arrow. Zhao Chongjie leaned against a bridge pillar, protected by a dozen bodyguards with shields, directing the battle amidst the arrow storm.

Zhao Chongjie was deeply worried. The Anxi army was now in a very vulnerable position, trapped between the inner and outer cities, as if under an ambush. Arrows fired from all sides made it impossible for their soldiers to look either forward or backward; they could only defend themselves back-to-back with shields. This prevented them from launching attacks, and a large number of troops were confined to the outer city passage, which was ten zhang long and five zhang wide. Nearly two thousand people were crammed into this narrow passage, with hail-like arrows raining down on them. Fifty Anxi soldiers formed a shield wall at the entrance of the passage, effectively blocking the arrows. Yet, it was still extremely dangerous inside—their troops would suffer heavy casualties if the Hanzhong army launched a fire attack.

For now, they could only hold out until reinforcements arrived, but Zhao Chongjie refused to go that far. It would be a disgrace to him, no different from failing to capture Nan Zheng itself. His only hope was the Mo Dao army, who were unafraid of arrows. He planned to use them to take the outer city. Next to the outer city gates was a narrow path about thirty steps long, leading straight to the city wall and wide enough for only three people to walk side by side. It was a shortcut for the defending soldiers to move up and down the walls, but now it became the key route for the Anxi army to seize Nan Zheng.

At this moment, the passage was packed with over a hundred soldiers from the Anxi Moadao Army. On one side was the city wall, while on the other side they faced a deluge of arrows. The Moadao soldiers were not afraid of arrows—relatively speaking, their armor was sturdy, and a few stray arrows indeed found it difficult to penetrate it. But if dozens or hundreds of arrows were fired at once, even the strongest armor would be pierced. To cover the Moadao soldiers, dozens of ordinary soldiers were positioned at the edge, unarmed, each holding two shields to form a dense defense against the arrows coming from the inner city.

By now, this passage had become the focal point of the battle between the two sides. Hundreds of archers from the Anxi Army, protected by shields, fired at the Hanzhong Army above the passage. Though they were in the minority, their archery was extremely precise, effectively suppressing the Hanzhong soldiers and preventing them from using boulders and logs to attack the Moadao soldiers, thus ensuring the success of the Moadao Army’s siege efforts.

To defend the outer city wall, the Hanzhong Army also deployed nearly a thousand soldiers, forming a dense defensive wall to fight against the Moadao soldiers. The battle for access to the city walls intensified. The Moadao soldiers were fierce and unstoppable; with their long Moadao swords, they would slash through enemies, cutting them in half or severing their heads. Yet, as one group was killed, another would take their place, piling up corpses that reached three feet high, severely blocking the path to the city. The Moadao soldiers behind them used long poles to push the corpses off the wall into the inner moat. However, the Moadao soldiers also suffered heavy losses. In nearly half an hour of fighting, nearly a hundred of them had died, many of whom drowned after falling into the river.

By then, Lin Haixiong, a senior officer of the Moadao Army, had rushed to the front lines. Known as the “Slaughter God of Moadao,” he was one of the most formidable warriors in the Anxi Moadao Army. Standing over ten feet tall with an exceptionally robust build and powerful arms, his two-foot-long Moadao sword resembled a butcher’s blade in his hands.

As the sword flashed, heads rolled, flesh flew, limbs were severed, and screams echoed through the night. With a roar, he leaped onto the city wall. With one swing of his sword, four Hanzhong soldiers were cut in half, and with another swing, three heads flew off, blood spraying ten feet high.

Lin Haixiong’s terrifying presence terrified the dozens of Hanzhong soldiers surrounding him. They had never seen such a ferocious killer before and were so frightened that their legs trembled. With another roar, Lin Haixiong charged at the soldiers, slashing them with his sword. Dozens more were killed, and the Hanzhong soldiers screamed in terror and fled.

Lin Haixiong laughed loudly. Waving his hand, he shouted like thunder, “Brothers, charge the city!”

The soldiers with halberds rushed onto the city walls, and a path to victory was finally opened. As more and more halberd soldiers and other Anxi troops stormed the outer city, the tide of battle began to turn. The thousands of Hanzhong troops in the outer city could not withstand the Anxi forces’ assault and retreated into the inner city through the passages on the walls.

At that moment, loud horn sounds came from the distant night sky. A sea of torches appeared outside Nanzheng City. The 20,000 main force of the Anxi army had finally arrived. The balance of victory was tilting in favor of the Anxi forces. The outer city had already been captured by them, and their morale soared as they drove the defenders in the inner city back step by step. In particular, the nearly 1,000 halberd soldiers marched in formation, wielding their swords to form an invincible army, advancing steadily toward the inner city’s towers. No one could stop their advance; any who resisted were torn to pieces or trampled underfoot. They were the gods of war, the greatest army in the world.

Finally, the gates of the inner city slowly opened. The Anxi cavalry, holding swords and torches high, charged into Nanzheng City like a torrent of flames.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Li Huan, the governor of Hanzhong, sighed deeply and opened the southern gates, leading thousands of his remaining troops to flee toward Shu. In just one day and night, Li Siyue’s 40,000 Anxi troops captured Nanzheng, meaning they had taken control of Hanzhong as well.