Chapter 130

Chapter 130

Prince of Qin's people found it absurd, but the news of the imperial relief convoy appearing at the border of Western Shu and Jiangnan wasn't just a rumor. If refugees were allowed to flee south, trouble was sure to follow. Prince of Qin frowned—who could have imagined someone would use tens of thousands of troops as bait? He turned to Fei Xun: "What are you planning to do?"

Fei Xun looked at the map, pondered for a moment, then said: "We cannot let news of their relief efforts spread. Find a way to make the Lu Family Army act."

The border of Western Shu was still far from the heartland, and most refugees were still on the road. The Lu Family Army was continuously advancing deeper into Western Shu. Once news of the imperial relief arrived, they would lose the initiative entirely. Fei Xun pointed to a certain location on the map of Western Shu: "The refugees won't turn back, so it will take time for the relief news to reach the interior. Your Highness can start a war right now."

There was no way to control the refugees now; the only option was to seize the initiative. As long as the rumor that the court was inciting rebellion spread faster than the relief news, they would still have the upper hand.

Fei Xun looked at the Lu Family Army still on the march: "Then we must outmaneuver them."

He pointed to several positions on the map, already forming a plan in his mind.

...

Near the heartland of Western Shu, the Lu Family Army had already gathered. They had been following the route given by the Eastern Palace, ostensibly for disaster relief, yet they passed through many prefectures without stopping. The Eastern Palace instructed them to hurry and deliver the grain to Liangzhou in the interior. But General Lu, a veteran of many campaigns, had never seen such a tricky marching route.

"We've spotted many Western Shu scouts along the way," one of the Lu family scouts reported. "We're too large a force to move covertly. Prince of Qin's people must know about our movements."

This put them at a disadvantage. Once war broke out, the Prince of Qin's army would have better intelligence.

They were about to reach the drought-stricken heartland, with their first relief destination just ahead, likely reachable by tomorrow. But at this moment, General Lu felt a strong sense of being manipulated. Years of battlefield intuition had saved him many times. "Halt the advance. Don't go forward."

As soon as he spoke, a crowd of people dressed as refugees emerged from the dense forest. Before the imperial army could assess the situation, these "refugees" suddenly attacked. Arrows flew, and the Lu Family Army immediately went on the defensive. As soon as the fighting began, General Lu knew these were no ordinary soldiers. Their ability to move swiftly through the woods showed they were highly trained.

He had long known that Prince of Qin kept private troops, but he hadn't expected them to be such elite forces. If the intelligence from the Brocade Guard about hidden soldiers was true, this war in Western Shu would be extremely difficult!

"Don't harm them!" General Lu warned.

But before they could even deal with the bandit soldiers in front of them, the Lu family's advance scouts rushed back overnight: "General! The people in the front-line prefectures have rebelled!"

The people had rebelled before they even arrived.

"Someone forged documents of the imperial army's dealings with the prefectures, delivering grain mixed with stones as false relief supplies. The people no longer trust the court..." the scout said. "The commoners in the front counties, pushed to desperation, killed the officials and no longer believe in the imperial government."

To find a pretext for rebellion, Prince of Qin's Mansion actually arranged for the deaths of corrupt officials in Western Shu prefectures to incite the greatest public outrage.

Popular resentment was inevitable—the drought-stricken locals already held grudges against the prefectural officials. They fabricated a story that corrupt officials in Western Shu had colluded with the court to embezzle grain, and then had the officials killed—people killing officials, officials stealing grain. These events inevitably united the drought-stricken populace.

These bandit soldiers were not here to test them; they were the advance force, deliberately creating a conflict between the court and the bandits. The moment they engaged in battle, the news must have already reached the drought-stricken prefectures.

General Lu had anticipated this outcome back in the capital. This war was inevitable. Western Shu had long been Prince of Qin's personal domain! Once the people clashed with the imperial army, Prince of Qin's Mansion would have a reason to raise an army on the spot!

He realized this was already a trap!

"General, the terrain is complex, and they might cut off our grain supply," the strategist said.

These refugee bandits were not only skilled at fighting in the wilderness but also deliberately aimed to cut off their supply lines. Marching with grain posed the greatest challenge, because they had to protect the provisions, severely limiting the Lu Family Army's mobility.

"Capture a city, garrison it, then rescue the people," one general suggested. "General, we can't prevent the rebels from framing us. The only way to prove ourselves is to deliver grain into the city and present real grain before the people."

"No! General Lu, be careful. There's something suspicious here. We should investigate the situation first," Weng Yanqing tried to stop them, but the military officers no longer wanted to listen to him.

The grain they carried would hardly reach the people now. Moreover, they could not allow this grain to fall into the hands of the local bandits. In the eyes of the people, this grain was already the false grain mixed with stones. If Prince of Qin intercepted this batch, he could use it for his own purposes—it would never reach the commoners...

On the other side of the dense forest, the bandit soldiers removed the last camouflage tarps. The moment the Lu Family Army counterattacked, the war situation fully unfolded! Deep in the mountains, the Lu Family Army and the bandits engaged in the first fierce clash. The bandits cleverly lured them toward the interior of Western Shu.

The war had truly begun.

Sensing that the Lu Family Army had taken the bait, the Prince of Qin's bandit leader waved his hand, signaling the others to fall back. "Master Fei said we must lure the Lu Family Army over today. Remember everything that happens tonight—it will be the imperial army massacring the rebellious people, and the Prince of Qin's army, passing by, will come to their rescue."

"Will they follow Master Fei's plan?" someone asked.

"Of course," the bandit leader replied. "Fighting in these deep mountains, they can't use their full strength. If they don't fight, we'll circle around and cut off their grain, forcing them to fight."

The corrupt officials in the nearest prefectures had already been killed. The Lu Family Army was not skilled at mountain warfare, and they had taken the mountain route to avoid our hidden posts. That means they only have one choice under our plan: capture a city and garrison there.

The Lu Family Army, burdened with grain, could not easily fight while defending. Their only option was to enter a town, use it as a base, and then both attack and defend freely. The bandit troops exposed before the Lu Family Army were few in number. The Lu Family Army would be wise to seize a city by nightfall, or else they would be drawn into a protracted war of attrition.

These generals knew this best.

"Don't worry, Master Fei has already sent people to intercept the relief efforts..." the bandit said. The strategy of distributing relief at the edge of Western Shu was indeed clever, but as long as they started the war before the relief arrived, the news of the relief could not travel faster than news of the incident in Liangzhou's heartland.

The Lu Family Army moved at great speed. General Lu knew they had to strike quickly and soon exploited the bandits' weaknesses to advance. But just then, several elite cavalry burst from the wilderness, directly blocking the Lu Family Army's advance at the junction of the two sides.

"What's going on?" the bandits asked.

The scouts recognized them: "It's the Brocade Guard!"

Several hundred Brocade Guard light cavalry arrived and joined the Lu Family Army, halting their advance.

Just as they were about to press their advantage, they were suddenly stopped. The generals' expressions darkened as they saw who had come.

Qi Hanzhou appeared at that moment, and Weng Yanqing finally breathed a sigh of relief.

General Lu frowned slightly when he saw Qi Hanzhou. The Brocade Guard's mission was to investigate hidden troops, not to interfere with the Lu family army. Yet he dared to halt the entire army and block them from entering the city.

"Wait!" General Lu ordered the other officers.

The other generals' expressions eased slightly. Qi Hanzhou had ridden hard without stopping. Seeing them pull back, he looked at General Lu.

"In war, what kind of news spreads fastest, General?"

Many years ago, the tragic massacre at Youzhou on the northern border had been repeatedly presented before the military officials at court. Qi Hanzhou continued: "From the very beginning, the people in the disaster-stricken areas were never within Prince of Qin's consideration. The Fei family dared to massacre the entire city of Huaizhou back then—do you think they care about a few drought-stricken commoners now?"

Liangzhou and other affected prefectures would become the second Youzhou, the fuse that would ignite the war in Western Shu.

Prince of Qin's Mansion deliberately provoked, using the drought-stricken people to tie them down and even inciting rebellion. But these involved only a few prefectures. If they were forced to enter and seize a city to provide relief, the front line would be dragged into the heart of Western Shu... If another massacre like Youzhou unfolded there, the Lu Family Army, trapped in the disaster zone, would not be able to wash their hands of it, and Prince of Qin would exploit it to the fullest!

General Lu suddenly realized the problem. He opened the brocade pouch given by the Crown Prince when they left the capital. Inside was only one character: "WAIT." "What do you want to do?"

"General, you must wait," Qi Hanzhou said calmly. "Wait for news from the court."

General Lu frowned. In military campaigns, it was taboo to be overly concerned about the rear.

"General! An express courier from the Ministry of War!"

All the generals immediately turned to look at the messenger.

The messenger, gasping for breath, dismounted and rushed before the generals. He said urgently: "A large number of refugees are moving southward. At the border of Western Shu, four prefectures—Jiangling, Dongzhou, and others—have opened granaries and started relief operations in the name of the imperial court. Many refugees are heading there... The news of the court's disaster relief has spread in the southeastern region of Western Shu!"

Hearing this, the Lu Family Army's generals were astonished.

General Lu immediately recalled the terrain of Western Shu. He knew that the number of imperial troops dispatched this time was inconsistent with reports, and he knew the Crown Prince had deployed troops to scout routes and survey terrain. But he never imagined that grain had been secretly diverted to Jiangnan, and that four prefectures were simultaneously providing relief. How could the court manage to distribute relief in four prefectures at once in such a short time?

The four prefectures reported by the messenger formed almost a continuous border from south to north, completely cut off from their own side, all located to the east of Western Shu.

"How is this possible?!" exclaimed one of the military officers. "Then what are the grain supplies we are transporting behind us?"

"Military supplies and a small portion of disaster relief grain."

Qi Hanzhou looked at General Lu, his tone serious, "Some of it has been replaced with weapons and military necessities."

General Lu looked up sharply. Within the goods they were escorting, most were secretly battle supplies.

The Eastern Palace was so audacious as to swap the goods right under everyone's noses.

And the Crown Prince had prepared for them nothing but war rations and weapons.

"What about the others? How are the people of Western Shu to be fed?! If they all head to Jiangnan and the Prince of Qin intercepts them, we'll be annihilated," argued a soldier.

"No, they didn't intercept it; the news got out."

Another general murmured, "The grain has reached the eastern border of Western Shu."

Four prefectures opening their granaries simultaneously to provide disaster relief was no small matter—how to mobilize granary resources, whether the court's grain transport teams could all arrive in time... these issues seemed nearly impossible to them, yet these were exactly the achievements of those pedantic civil officials they had always looked down upon.

"The Ministry of War dispatched swift riders disguised as commoners to spread the relief news; the Ministry of Works surveyed trade routes and roads; the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue coordinated the rear. What was ultimately needed was the Jiangnan officialdom," Weng Yanqing explained further. "While you were marching toward Western Shu, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had already sent a message to the Prince of Jin's mansion to dispatch grain ahead."

The court could not have dispatched grain to four prefectures and counties and initiated relief so quickly, but by sending letters ahead and having the prosperous Jiangnan prefectures and counties carry out the relief, it could be done fast. However, they had only left the capital such a short time ago; how could the relief news have spread so widely in such a short time?!

The military officers were stunned and looked toward Qi Hanzhou and Weng Yanqing.

If the several court departments had not united, and if the Jiangnan officialdom were still the same corrupt network of officials and gentry, this plan would hardly have been possible. But the Crown Prince was different; from Jiangling to Jiangnan, there were several upright officials willing to trust him without hesitation—Zhang Wuyong, Prefect of Yingtian Prefecture; Vice Prefect Xu of Jiangling Prefecture; and Wang Guanzhi, who personally surveyed and led the way...

Only in this way could they deliver relief in the shortest time, guide the people away, and withdraw from the disaster area.

The disaster relief was carried out in eastern Western Shu, while the war was fought in the north... The Prince of Qin wanted the court to gain a bad reputation, but Ying Fusheng had set the situation thus, trying his best not to harm the common people in the slightest.

The biggest worry for the Lu Family Army upon arriving in Western Shu was the refugee problem, but quietly and stealthily, these greatest concerns had already been resolved by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and those behind him.

All the civil and military officials—the true role of civil ministers is precisely to relieve the generals on campaign of their worries.

The generals fell silent, quietly looking at this map of Western Shu.

Qi Hanzhou knew better than anyone the anger of the Lu Family Army. Had they not been genuinely devoted to the people, these generals would not have abandoned their previous advantage of flexible marching and followed the Eastern Palace's orders to take treacherous mountain routes deep into Western Shu. Precisely because of this, they were now filled with resentment.

"General Lu, on behalf of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, I offer my apologies."

Qi Hanzhou bowed with his hands clasped. "It was truly necessary to keep the truth hidden beforehand. To deceive the Prince of Qin's army, the Lu Family Army had to give their all."

General Lu looked at him, his expression had completely changed.

Only if the Lu Family Army advanced on all fronts would the Prince of Qin incite popular resentment and rebel without hesitation. They first forced the Prince of Qin to revolt, used the Lu Family Army's maneuvering to drag him into battle, and then all that remained was to await good news from the disaster relief transport team.

Now the news had arrived as expected.

"Now we can act without worry," said Qi Hanzhou.

At court, Ying Fusheng did not go to Western Shu; the Crown Prince needed to remain at the Eastern Palace. But his men were already deployed throughout Western Shu. Behind him was the vast map of Western Shu. Across the crisscrossing complex terrain on the map, a miniature picture of the plan was gradually taking shape before him.

If the army does not penetrate deep into the territory, it won't be manipulated by others.

What he wanted was for the Prince of Qin to strike first, so that the court army could counterattack.

Ying Fusheng was only good at using people; dispersing them throughout Western Shu had already achieved his goal. He was far less familiar with this territory than Qi Hanzhou, who had been searching for bandit soldiers for nearly a year. Now that he had set up the necessary game plan, the natural boundary would keep the military confrontation concentrated outside the drought area.

What remained was for the generals to do their part.

Ying Fusheng stood alone before the Western Shu map, the candlelight beside him flickering unsteadily. As the disaster relief transport team and General Lu's forces split into two columns, the battlefield gradually shifted northward, settling on the northern plains beyond Liangzhou City. The refugees moved toward Jiangnan; the drought-stricken areas were isolated. The entire front line, through his careful design, had been moved far away from populated areas.

"Qi Hanzhou, I leave the rest to you."