Chapter 125: Rescue
The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, finally casting enough light to barely see across the mountainous wilderness.
From the high slope, Dou Jianliang, the main general of the Chen Army, gazed down at the Pei Army's procession stretching like a long serpent beyond the Pass Gate Gorge, his face pale.
He muttered to himself, "How can there be fifty thousand Pei troops? The escort for the military provisions was only ten thousand. At most, twenty thousand soldiers could be mobilized from Jinzhou—how could the military intelligence be so wrong?"
His trusted aide, standing beside him, listened to the desperate sounds of slaughter below and inhaled the nauseating scent of blood carried by the wind, his own face also turning pale. Swallowing hard, he cautiously asked, "General... could it be that we've been deceived by that man surnamed Yu?"
A month earlier, Yu Wenjing, a strategist under Pei Song, had come to defect to Dou Jianliang, claiming that Pei Song's fortunes were waning and he sought a new, wiser master. As a token of his sincerity, he brought with him the secret route and troop numbers of the Pei Army's military provisions transport.
Dou Jianliang had initially been skeptical, but after sending scouts to verify the route as described, they indeed discovered the Pei Army's provisions escort.
The number of Pei troops escorting the provisions was exactly ten thousand—no more, no less. This figure was slightly higher than usual for such missions, which partly alleviated Dou Jianliang's doubts.
After all, with the Southern Border embroiled in intense conflict, these provisions were crucial to whether Jinzhou could hold out. Naturally, Pei Song would take extra precautions. However, having suffered several defeats on the Northern Border front and being tightly suppressed by Wei Qishan, Pei Song had limited troops to deploy, hence the ten thousand soldiers—a number that was neither too large nor too small.
Dou Jianliang naturally coveted these provisions. Although the Southern Chen and Great Liang had formed an alliance, Great Liang had been using provisions as a leash to control them, a situation Dou Jianliang had long resented.
Yet, he remained cautious, fearing it might be a trap set by Pei Song, and lacking a suitable pretext to request troops from Fan Yuan.
The three allied forces—Chen, Liang, and Wei—in the Southern Border had elected Fan Yuan as commander. While each managed their own troops, any military movements had to be reported to Fan Yuan first.
To seize Pei Song's provisions, Dou Jianliang would need at least fifteen thousand soldiers for the ambush, and such a large movement would be impossible to conceal.
While Dou Jianliang hesitated, the Northern Wei's provisions were completely depleted, and they repeatedly appealed to Fan Yuan for aid.
Dou Jianliang opposed this vehemently. It was not yet harvest season, and the provisions Liang was diverting were originally part of the betrothal gifts advanced by the Chen Army to Great Liang. For Great Liang to strangle them with military provisions while using their own supplies to curry favor with Northern Wei—how could such a favorable arrangement be allowed, with all benefits going to Great Liang?
The issue of provisions had brought the three allied forces to a standstill.
Seeing Dou Jianliang's reluctance to act alone, Yu Wenjing advised him to report the discovery of Pei Song's provisions transport to the higher-ups and let Northern Wei seize the provisions themselves.
This way, if Northern Wei succeeded, they would resolve their urgent shortage, and Southern Chen would gain credit for reporting the intelligence.More importantly, by weakening the Wei Army through the grain-seizing battle, once Jinzhou was captured and they continued northward, the weakened Wei forces in the Southern Border would pose less threat to their Southern Chen after joining Wei Qishan’s main forces in the Northern Border. After all, Wei Qishan was already at the peak of his power in the Northern Border.
Careless words spoken, but meaningful to the listener.
Dou Jianliang realized that Pei Song’s defeat was inevitable, and Northern Wei would soon become Southern Chen’s greatest enemy. This prompted him to consider annihilating the Wei Army in the Southern Border entirely during the grain-seizing operation.
If the Wei Army alone attempted to seize the provisions, they might not necessarily be defeated. But by leveraging the threat of the Pei Army in Jinzhou, he could let both sides exhaust each other in battle. Then, he would lead the 20,000 Chen troops—originally meant to ambush alongside the Wei Army—to mop up the remnants.
Even if Fan Yuan later held him accountable, he could shift the blame to Yuan Fang’s reckless ambition. He would claim that Yuan Fang, fearing Southern Chen would steal the credit, launched a counterattack before the Pei Army’s pursuers fully entered the valley. This alerted the Pei Army to the trap, causing them to retreat and rendering their pre-arranged ambush useless—while Northern Wei suffered the consequences of its own greed and was wiped out.
With no living witnesses, even if Fan Yuan doubted this explanation, he couldn’t openly punish Southern Chen. Moreover, seizing Pei Song’s military provisions would free them from relying on Liang for supplies and eliminate any fear of Fan Yuan’s retaliation.
Furthermore, with Wei Qishan losing 20,000 troops in the Southern Border, he would inevitably blame the Liang Camp as well. Would Liang cling to this incident and ingratiate themselves with Wei Qishan’s displeasure, or turn a blind eye and unite with Southern Chen against a common enemy? For the sake of their princess married into the royal court, they ought to know which choice to make.
But now, all these plans had evaporated.
The pursuing Pei Army wasn’t 20,000 strong—it was 50,000!
Even if they had joined forces with the Wei Army from the start, they would have suffered heavy losses to escape. Now, with the Wei Army completely surrounded, they stood no chance of victory.
Dou Jianliang’s face was ashen. Even a fool would realize they had fallen into a trap set by Pei Song and his strategist. His eyes bulged with rage as he gnashed his teeth and roared, “Pei Song, you dog! Yu Wenjing, you treacherous rat!”
His aide could already imagine the consequences of facing Fan Yuan upon their return and asked fearfully, “General, what should we do now?”
Dou Jianliang glanced down the mountain, his expression turning ruthless. “As long as not a single Northern Wei soldier leaves this valley alive today, their annihilation will be blamed on their own recklessness! Bandit Pei is cunning—somehow deploying 50,000 troops to reclaim the provisions. We cannot save the Wei Army now. To avoid further pointless casualties, we must retreat!”
The aide also looked downhill. The shouts and clashing of weapons had faded, leaving only the thickening scent of blood carried on the night wind.
After a dazed moment, he clasped his hands and flattered Dou Jianliang: “The general is absolutely right. That Yuan Fang, always chasing glory, endangered you and caused countless casualties among our Chen troops!”
Dou Jianliang remained silent, his gaze growing darker as he stared downward. He summoned a taciturn Chen officer standing nearby and ordered in a low voice, “Take men down the mountain stealthily. Check whether Yuan Fang is dead or captured. If he’s still alive, kill him yourself.As long as there were no witnesses left, he wouldn’t fear Fan Yuan’s accountability regarding their failure to provide support when he returned.The Chen general merely nodded, selecting two nearby columns of Chen Army soldiers who silently melted into the dense darkness—clearly the death troops who had accompanied Dou Jianliang.
But just then, serpent-like flames erupted across the opposing Black Sheath Ridge. The recent autumn heatwave had left everything parched, the mountains littered with dry branches and withered leaves. Once ignited, the fire swiftly grew into a raging inferno. Accompanying the blazing flames came earth-shaking battle cries.
Limited visibility in the night obscured which army was charging down from the forested slopes—only a seething mass of figures pouring like boiling lice into the valley below could be glimpsed through the firelight.
Dou Jianliang roared: "What's happening? Who ordered the ambush troops on the opposite side to move?"
To effectively ambush the Pei Army entering the gorge, Dou Jianliang's Chen forces had concealed themselves along both ridges, awaiting the signal flare to attack.
While his subordinate officers were equally bewildered, commotion erupted from the rear forests. Horses neighed wildly as they stampeded downhill, soldiers chasing after them and further disrupting their formations.
Dou Jianliang bellowed in fury: "What now?!"
An aide glancing back spotted flames slowly rising from the rear woods and cried out in terror: "Fire! General, it's burning!"
The blaze, driven by wind, advanced from the forest's depths. Soldiers hiding among the trees scrambled frantically while panicked warhorses bolted uncontrollably.
Instantly, ambush forces from both mountainsides were streaming downward. The thunderous combination of hoofbeats and terrified shouts at the spreading fire filled the air.
"Who set this fire?!" Dou Jianliang shouted desperately.
He had never intended to engage the Pei Army below.
Fifty thousand troops!
Even if they'd suffered losses battling Yuan Fang's twenty thousand Wei soldiers, confronting them now would strip him to the bone—only by sacrificing substantial forces could he hope to escape.
Frantic, Dou Jianliang commanded: "No one charges downhill! Retrieve the horses and retreat along the back slopes!"
But his shouts were drowned by the roaring flames and soldiers' chaos. As fire spread in all directions, Dou Jianliang's desperate slaying of several fleeing soldiers failed to deter the rest.
Below, Yuan Fang leaned against his last ten guards standing back-to-back, surrounded by mounds of corpses.
Exhausted and caked in drying blood that blurred their vision, they stared blankly at the fires blazing on both ridges and the torrent of reinforcements pouring downhill like dumplings into boiling water, momentarily unsure if they were hallucinating.
But when the densely surrounding Pei Army troops abruptly shifted formation to engage the mountain forces, the reality became clear. One aide wept with overwhelming relief, crying out to Yuan Fang: "General! We're saved!"
Yuan Fang remained skeptical. After being besieged for so long without Dou Jianliang's aid, would he suddenly risk everything against the Pei Army now? Despite his doubts, the glimpse of hope reinvigorated them. They roared, swinging their weapons to cut down advancing Pei soldiers.
After holding out a while longer, they indeed saw cavalry clad in Chen Army uniforms charging toward them.
Yuan Fang's guards cheered ecstatically: "Reinforcements!"Yuan Fang was equally astonished. During the desperate battle earlier, he had realized that the military provisions seized from Pei Song would likely not be recovered today, so he decisively ordered his subordinates to burn the grain carts.
Amid the lingering flames of several remaining burning carts, Yuan Fang recognized the leader as a young officer he had seen beside Dou Jianliang. Just as he began to wonder if he had misunderstood Dou Jianliang—speculating whether some unforeseen circumstance had prevented timely reinforcement—the young officer raised a longbow from horseback.
And the arrowhead was pointed directly at him!
Nearby guards rushed forward to shield him, shouting, "General, be careful!"
But the released arrow was already in flight, and the guards' movements were too slow. Just as the arrow was about to strike Yuan Fang between the eyes, another arrow shot out from the side, its tip colliding with overwhelming force against the one fired by Dou Jianliang's guard, shattering the latter's arrowhead completely.
Everyone was stunned. Dou Jianliang's guard turned to look at the archer, only to see a low-ranking soldier astride a tall horse, face smeared with blood obscuring his features, wearing the uniform of the Pei Army.
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