Chapter 274: Returning Home (7)

Drifting in and out of consciousness, without day or night.

Sometimes, drifting between sleep and wakefulness, he would see things: a dim sky, people's faces, occasionally bumpy roads, falling rain, and swaying objects.

His mind was temporarily unsuitable for thought; even feelings of discomfort barely registered. Occasionally, various images would surface—memories from his previous life, as well as fragmented childhood memories belonging to Ning Liheng in this life. His body felt like it was in a state of chaos, allowing memories to come and go freely.

Many things he had done, the schemes and intrigues that consumed so much of his life, came to mind. Wars of that era might not have been filled with gunpowder smoke, but hidden beneath the surface, they were equally bloody. As too many people and their interests were swept forward, countless lives were lost at his hands—people killed, families destroyed, some consciously, some not.

Decision after decision, gamble after gamble, countless situations influenced, the causes and consequences of events, hard-won successes or failures. Amidst these scenes, familiar as breathing, small fragments were intertwined.

The antique-style era, still somewhat unfamiliar: a courtyard in heavy summer rain, a lantern-lit garden at dusk, a small bridge, flowing stream, and village amidst farmland. The serene woman in plain white playing the zither, who turned from the bridge and gave him a gentle smile. His wife, proud as a rose at their first meeting yet resigned to her fate, and their later interactions: late-night talks in the small building, her strength despite her illness. She stood behind the building, holding a torch, looking at him with stunned eyes, then set the small building on fire...

Those fragmented images flickered in and out. When he was slightly more awake, other scattered bits of memory would faintly and with difficulty seep in from the outside world.

"Mr. Ning, we won... we won..." "Steward..."

"Son-in-law, son-in-law... the son-in-law fell down..." "Run! Run! Run!" "Young Master Ning, they won't dare come again..." "Young Master Ning, they want to capture you..." "Son-in-law..." "Son-in-law, son-in-law..." "Son-in-law, son-in-law, son-in-law..." The voices called out relentlessly, ceaselessly repeating. He couldn't distinguish their meaning, but when he was more lucid, he felt as if much time had passed and many roads had been traveled.

At one point, he awoke from his sleep...

The time returned to the evening of July 11th.

Gray clouds, dark ground, a furious storm.

The horizon drew closer: Stone Bridge Ferry. Water washed away the last traces of blood. Broken weapons, overturned battle flags littered the ground, and corpses lay immersed in the water, one after another. As lightning streaked across the sky, it outlined long, dark silhouettes on the riverside grass. Nearby, bodies lay still. Only in the distance, figures approached, several leading on horseback, all dressed in black.

An Xifu, Black Plume Guard.

The figures in black dispersed across the slaughter-like grassland, searching for clues, then regrouped in the rain a moment later.

The contingent slowly moved forward among the corpses. At one point, the leading figures stopped. Not far ahead, more scattered bodies lay, but these were better equipped. One armored corpse was surrounded. Its head had been severed, and several blades and spears were embedded in the body, having been thrust through gaps in the armor. By now, the corpse's blood had likely drained completely.

Normally, such an act of pure vengeance would be rare on a battlefield. However, this scene alone revealed the frenzy of the initial attack, when this side was surrounded and hacked by numerous blades. The general might have been extraordinarily skilled, but in such circumstances, he could only be hacked to death by the crazed soldiers who encircled him, his head severed.

The black-clad general on horseback glanced, then turned his head away.

"Yao Yi," a low murmur, echoed in the storm. He looked south. "Too fast..." Shortly after, the black-clad general gathered his subordinates in the rain. After giving orders, he waved his hand, and the force of fewer than two hundred men split into two, galloping off in different directions, south and north.

After noon that day, Lu Qiao's contingent was the first to be scattered, becoming the initial sacrifice for the zealous Wude Army soldiers. Before that evening, Yao Yi was defeated and killed. An Xifu's Black Plume Guard only arrived on the battlefield then. An hour later, Xue Dounan's division, under Fang La, engaged the Wude Battalion and was routed again.

The Wude Battalion, at this point, was like a fiercely precise counterattack, thrusting directly northward...

In hindsight, the scheme that unfolded between July 10th and 11th at the border of Suzhou and Huzhou might not have primarily targeted Fang La's various armies. Strategically, whether it was scattering gold and silver on the road, using the remaining elite scouts to distract the enemy, or spreading numerous rumors, the fundamental goal was merely to confuse the opponent for a short period, allowing the five pursuing armies from the south to temporarily separate.

As Ning Yi himself stated, once the enemy was given time to react, such a large escaping force could never have eluded Fang La's reconnaissance amidst the hills and waterways near Hangzhou. Achieving this temporary effect relied not only on various stratagems but primarily on the enemy's (like Yao Yi's) underestimation, exploiting their psychological inertia to gain a brief respite in a delicate situation.

Ultimately, those most severely manipulated were the Wude Battalion soldiers themselves, who constituted the fleeing force.

Everyone was thrust into a dead end with no retreat, using life and death as a threat, and gold and power as bait, supplemented by humiliation and hatred. This left such a group with no other choice, repeatedly emphasizing the difference between four thousand and one thousand men. The initial speech seemed persuasive, but it later became almost pure incitement. Of course, without the desperate pressure to fight when cornered, this incitement would have had little effect.

In fact, had Ning Yi not already been injured, he might have had to thank Xia Qi thoroughly. Ning Yi's arrow at the time was almost recklessly audacious, but the entire army then had no retreat. Coupled with Tang Xiuxuan and others' tacit approval of Ning Yi, the killing of Xia Qi and his subordinate almost served as a sacrificial banner. Others might have thought Ning Yi was merely reckless and stumbled into it, but no one else would have possessed Ning Yi's decisiveness and the air of taking everything for granted. Especially the phrase "Stop nagging! Don't be so wishy-washy! What are you whining about! Are you even a man?!" which subsequently even determined the course of the battle in a small area.

The Wude Battalion was already a remnant force at this point. Even if the morale of the men was temporarily inflamed to its maximum, the role of the generals in the first battle against Lu Qiao could hardly be called command. The troops were merely driven by both passion and despair, fighting desperately against Lu Qiao's forces. In a situation of four thousand against one thousand, the destructive power generated by such a mindset was almost terrifying. Only after this decisive victory, which almost annihilated Lu Qiao's army, did Chen Xingdu and others truly begin to establish leadership within this newly confident army.

Their subsequent rush north and the killing of Yao Yi, though the entire process was also relatively easy, caused less destruction than the first battle. This was because they had by then escaped the immediate danger, and at least a small portion of the men had regained some clarity. After two battles within half a day, while the soldiers were undoubtedly immersed in the thrill of slaughter, revenge, and triumph, their physical exhaustion was severe. They briefly discussed what to do next. Someone suggested they shouldn't fight a third consecutive battle, fearing it would exhaust the troops. Immediately, someone cursed back: "Stop nagging! Don't be so wishy-washy! What are you whining about! Are you even a man?!" After this incident spread, anyone in the army who harbored thoughts of retreat was mocked in this manner.

In hindsight, had they not chosen to fight three consecutive battles in a single day, preventing An Xifu from timely command of the remaining three armies, the outcome of this war might still have been futile.

When An Xifu's Black Plume Guard contacted Shen Zhucheng to the south and Mi Quan to the north, Xue Dounan's division had already been routed. An Xifu could only gather two contingents totaling fewer than three thousand men, which were then separated north and south by the then-arrogant Wude Battalion, making coordinated action difficult.

The Wude Battalion was actually exhausted by then. However, having just won three consecutive battles through a strategy of defeating forces one by one, neither An Xifu nor Liu Dabiao, who arrived later, dared to divide their remaining two armies to pincer the Wude Battalion. This, however, meant they missed the best opportunity to defeat the Wude Battalion.

An Xifu was no ordinary general, though. After confirming Xue Dounan's defeat, he first instructed Mi Quan in the north to maintain distance from the Wude Battalion, while Shen Zhucheng in the south continued southward on the other side of Stone Bridge Ferry. This wasn't for combat but to allow Shen Zhucheng's force to directly search for straggling refugees to the south. Though the Wude Battalion advanced rapidly, the refugees following them could not keep pace and would undoubtedly be south of Stone Bridge Ferry. An Xifu seized this weakness and fiercely pursued.

Subsequently, the Wude Battalion retreated at full speed. Relying on the thousand or so guards and martial artists left in the camp, An Xifu and Shen Zhucheng dared not launch a rash camp attack. After this, An Xifu integrated Shen Zhucheng's and Mi Quan's two contingents, simultaneously gathering remnants of their own forces, and informed Qingfeng Stronghold and Xiaoluo Town to cooperate. They began to hunt down the escaping group. Meanwhile, the Wude Battalion, having developed a fierce fighting spirit from these battles, found itself in a stalemate in the hills south of Huzhou, where neither side could temporarily gain an upper hand. After the escaping group abandoned a protracted fight, they began to head north.

An Xifu, however, had seized upon the army's weakness: its need to protect the refugees. He constantly harassed them, provoking skirmishes and ambushes. While Chen Xingdu and others possessed leadership skills, their strategic and tactical abilities were ultimately insufficient. Ning Yi, on whom they had originally relied, was now in a coma, only occasionally waking during the journey, unable to think clearly about much. For a time, the group could only defend conservatively. On July 15th, they arrived in Fuzhou, where they received a grand hero's welcome.

Only Ning Yi, whose achievements were the greatest, became separated and went missing amidst the flames and crowds during a chaotic night on July 13th, when An Xifu attacked their camp. Heavily protected by a squad of elite soldiers, he had drawn more enemy fire, leading to his disappearance.

For a long time thereafter, he did not reappear before the public. After extensive propaganda and and rewards for the Wude Battalion's remnants, the name Ning Liheng, like an ephemeral night-blooming cereus, briefly filled everyone's eyes. However, after Tong Guan and Tong Daofu arrived in Jiangnan, his name was quickly buried by numerous battle reports and achievements, fading from most people's memories. Only a small number of people still remembered his name and quietly sought his whereabouts.