Chapter 965: A Good Paper War

When Bodhisattva Liuzhu parted ways with Xie Xichui and his troops, she once asked the Deputy General of Liuzhou a profoundly probing question.

"Aren't you afraid that even if you and I manage to defend Linyao and Fengxiang, Qingcang City might fall because the 20,000 monk soldiers couldn't reinforce the Liuzhou battlefield in time?"

Xie Xichui's reply at the time was interesting: "With Kou Jianghuai there, that's impossible."

The Beiliang border army had a long-standing tradition of xenophobia. Deputy Commander Gu Dazu of the infantry had already earned a high reputation during the Spring and Autumn Wars. However, outside Liangzhou Pass, he never reached a certain level of influence, and even with the young King of Beiliang's clear backing, this awkward situation remained unchanged. Jinzhegu Zhou Kang, for instance, had openly clashed with him in Chongpi Town. If Chen Yunshui, also a Deputy Infantry Commander, needed to consult with the Liangzhou cavalry or borrow personnel, he likely wouldn't need to go in person; a letter would suffice. Even if he infuriated them by poaching their men, from Yuan Zongzong to He Zhonghu and Zhou Kang, everyone would probably tolerate it, at most laughing and scolding him a few times during meetings. But for Gu Dazu, even though he was an veteran general from the Spring and Autumn period who could secure a place in military history and was hailed as the progenitor of strategic theory, he would certainly not receive such treatment within the Beiliang border army.

It wasn't just Gu Dazu; even the younger generation, represented by Yu Luandao, initially faced difficulties. This is why he had to move from Liuzhou to Youzhou to serve as a cavalry general, instead of directly rising through the ranks of the Liangzhou border cavalry. It's worth noting that before the Youzhou cavalry's string of victories outside Hulukou, the arrogant Liangzhou border cavalry always mocked their Youzhou counterparts as "embroidered cavalry," privately joking that they were Marshal Yan Wenluan's daughters – good for embroidery, perhaps, but absolutely useless in battle.

Then there was Kou Jianghuai, the Liuzhou General whose forces were neighbors with the Dragon Elephant Army. After the first Great Liang-Mang War, when the Dragon Elephant Army needed reinforcements, whether it was He Zhonghu, Zhou Kang, or even the young cavalryman Cao Wei, who had no border experience, when they requested soldiers and generals, despite murmurs of discontent from all levels of the Liangzhou border cavalry, they ultimately complied with the young King's wishes. However, Kou Jianghuai, despite his rank as a Provincial General, was an exception. Although all officials in Beiliang knew he was an extraordinary military genius who had achieved brilliant merits in Guanglingdao, in the end, ten out of ten of his direct forces were merely young peasant recruits. Furthermore, it was said that after Kou Jianghuai finally managed to assemble a ten-thousand-strong cavalry, neither the Xianli pastures in Lianglong nor the Tianjing pastures were willing to provide them with superior warhorses. It was only due to the strict military order from the young King in Qingliangshan that they reluctantly avoided giving inferior quality horses.

Kou Jianghuai's situation was not unique; Xie Xichui, also one of the "Twin Jades of Great Chu," fared little better. Before his temporary promotion to Deputy General of Liuzhou (a third-rank official), he assisted Cao Wei's elite cavalry in rushing to Miyun Pass. At that time, his cavalry force was a motley crew, mostly comprising cavalry from Fengxiang and Linyao Military Towns, who were originally Western Regions horse bandits, along with two or three thousand cavalry recruited by Chai Dongdi and Han Wenbao. Such a disorganized force would likely be looked down upon even by the Youzhou cavalry, who were themselves scorned by the Liangzhou border cavalry.

Whether this deeply ingrained custom could change had some relation to the new King of Beiliang's personal prestige, but the connection was certainly not strong enough to bring about an overnight transformation.

Moreover, the young King seemed to possess an almost arrogant confidence in this regard.

In fact, neither Yu Luandao, who had been recommended by He Zhonghu for promotion to Second Deputy Commander of the Left Cavalry, nor Kou Jianghuai, the Liuzhou General whose title was less than fully deserved, ever disappointed Beiliang.

This was especially true for Xie Xichui, who had already helped Cao Wei secure the victory at Miyun Pass.

Before Xie Xichui garrisoned his troops there, Fengxiang Military Town already had two thousand defending soldiers, half of whom were young peasant recruits and half Youzhou infantry. Compared to Qingcang City's low walls, the Great Feng Dynasty had clearly placed greater importance on Fengxiang Military Town, which could immediately reinforce the Protectorate General of the Western Regions. Its city walls were built to the same scale as those of a Central Plains prefecture capital. Furthermore, unlike the ancient towns of Qingcang and Linyao, throughout the Great Feng Dynasty, Fengxiang, whose chief officials held the same rank and salary as those of the other two towns, was allowed to have over two hundred subordinate officials wearing Great Feng insignia, far exceeding the one hundred and twenty permitted in Linyao and Qingcang. If the Protectorate General of the Western Regions further west failed to control the more than ten major states within its jurisdiction, during times of war, defeated and fleeing Western Regions nobles would inevitably pass through Fengxiang Military Town before choosing either to enter the Central Plains via Old Beiliang or to turn southeast and seek refuge in Shuzhao.

Thus, the history of Fengxiang Military Town, like its city walls, was more substantial than that of Qingcang or Linyao.

Without Xie Xichui's 10,000 monk soldiers as the core, Fengxiang Military Town, facing an assault by 10,000 Southern Dynasty infantry and three thousand cavalry poised outside the city, would at most have managed to pile up more barbarian corpses below and atop the city walls. Fengxiang would have been destined to fall anyway, forcing Beiliang to surrender this strategic point that covered nearly half of the Western Regions. Perhaps if Liuzhou suffered a crushing defeat against Huang Songpu's western army, the loss or gain of Fengxiang and Linyao would hold little significance. However, as long as the two sides remained in a stalemate, which side held the two towns could greatly alter the course of the war. One side needed a crucial rear base for Yu Luandao's and Cao Wei's cavalry forces, while the other could use it to muster troops in Gusai Prefecture and significantly reinforce Huang Songpu. Especially if the Liuzhou cavalry were fortunate enough to achieve a major victory and still had the strength to break through the Southern Dynasty's border defenses and campaign north into Gusai Prefecture, then Beiliang losing these two towns could even be considered a fatal mistake.

The 10,000 Southern Dynasty infantry, using swarm tactics to assault the city, were truly fearless. However, as it was an attack launched with perceived certainty of victory, they did not bring extensive provisions, grain, or siege equipment that would have slowed their advance. Therefore, even these infantry, whom Beiliang considered to have siege capabilities equal to the Youzhou infantry and Liyang's Jinan infantry, struggled significantly. Although the attacking infantry, despite having no geographical advantage, still displayed astonishing accuracy during the exchange of arrows, many young peasant recruits participating in their first real battle, even after being warned not to peek during arrow volleys, had their bodies dragged off the battlements. With Xie Xichui largely refraining from deploying the Lantuo Mountain monk soldiers, waves of suicide squads, armed with shields and blades in their mouths, repeatedly charged the city walls, only to be fiercely repelled by the Youzhou infantry and young peasant recruits each time.

From midday until dusk, the infantry suffered nearly two thousand casualties, with more than half dying atop the city walls and then being thrown down.

During this time, Xie Xichui only allowed the exceptionally brave monk soldiers to participate in the defense twice, and only twice.

Night battles were naturally disadvantageous for the besieging party, and the infantry gave up after attempting one more assault.

Having repeatedly scaled the city walls but failed to breach them, like a martial arts master on the verge of a breakthrough, they naturally wouldn't give up.

The next day was destined to be an even more brutal battle of offense and defense.

The defending side was unusually silent.

Everyone looked towards the Lantuo Mountain monk soldiers, especially their impassive young commanding officer, with expressions of grief and indignation.

It wasn't that they feared death, but rather that if the young man named Xie was willing to send a thousand of his men to the frontline of the city wall, many fewer of them would die.

Even five hundred would be enough!

So, when the Northern Mang barbarians sounded their horns for the siege at dawn the next day, a general who had left the Youzhou infantry to serve as Fengxiang Military Town's commander said a few words to Xie Xichui. That middle-aged man, whose shoulder had been pierced by a stray arrow the previous day, then once again drew his blade and personally rushed to the battlefield.

He uttered those words with a smile.

"General Xie, you can rest easy. Feel free to sit on a stool high on the city wall and watch how our Beiliang border army repels the enemy!"

In the Liyang army of the Central Plains, any colonel or irregular general might be flattered and called "Great General" by others.

But in Beiliang, only the old King of Beiliang, Xu Xiao, held this honor. Neither Yuan Zongzong nor Yan Wenluan, commanders of the cavalry and infantry respectively, could claim it, nor could the old and new Protectors of Beiliang, Chen Zhibao and Chu Lushan.

Apart from the Youzhou cavalry, who had once fought alongside him outside the Pass, the new King of Beiliang, Xu Fengnian, was still very rarely addressed as "Great General," more often simply as "Your Highness."

Thus, Xie Xichui was addressed as "General Xie," with his surname preceding the "honorary" title.

This was certainly not intended as a compliment.

As Deputy General of Liuzhou and the direct commander of both Fengxiang and Linyao Military Towns, Xie Xichui appeared completely unfazed by this affront. His face remained calm as still water, and he watched the general stride away.

Throughout that entire day, the infantry added over two thousand more lonely souls to the foreign land.

After consulting with the cavalry general, the commander of the 10,000 infantry began to withdraw his troops.

Of the two thousand Beiliang border infantry defending the city, only six hundred remained.

The defending commander, who had almost died on the city wall, spat out a mouthful of blood after being roughly dragged off the battlement by a monk soldier. He then shouted curses in the direction of the Deputy General of Liuzhou: "Damn you, Xie Xichui!"

Of the remaining six hundred men, fewer than a hundred were veteran Youzhou soldiers; the rest were all young peasant recruits.

Both sides were filled with animosity towards the young man who had remained as unmoving as a mountain from beginning to end.

Just as the Northern Mang forces were on the verge of retreating,

Xie Xichui issued an order: "Monk soldiers, follow me out of the city. Regardless of the cost, at least hold them for three hours."

Such an act of standing by during battle only to swoop in at the end to claim credit had not been seen once in twenty years in the Beiliang border region, where military law was as strict as a mountain.

Xie Xichui offered not a single word of explanation.

The middle-aged monk from Lantuo Mountain, who had saved the defending general, hesitated for a moment as he followed Xie Xichui down from the city wall, then finally asked, "General Xie, should we notify Linyao Military Town? And then swallow up that entire wave of infantry?"

This warrior monk was a prominent figure in Lantuo Mountain, excelling in both Buddhist doctrine and martial cultivation.

He understood that mastering one principle illuminated all others.

Through the secret message from the female Bodhisattva before her departure, he already knew that Yu Luandao's cavalry would make an urgent turnaround to assist them in intercepting the infantry.

But for some reason, Xie Xichui merely said, "No need."

The monk was utterly perplexed but said no more.

After all, Xie Xichui was the commanding general.

The middle-aged monk had personally experienced the terrifying strictness of Beiliang's military discipline.

No matter how discontent the two thousand defending infantry were, and no matter how closely Xie Xichui stood by idly, every single one of them still valiantly faced death!

He was simply filled with doubts. He had only ever heard of military generals throughout history, with the rare exception of those who feared their merits would overshadow their lords, either being content with their achievements or wishing for greater ones. This young man named Xie, however, was peculiar.

After leading the monk soldiers out of the city, Xie Xichui turned and glanced at the ravaged city walls of Fengxiang Military Town, muttering to himself.

"Drifting people, drifting people... people of Liuzhou, people exiled... Master Li, to use troops with such ruthlessness and such unparalleled brilliance... even a discussion of strategy with you twenty years ago would surpass our fierce struggles today."