Chapter 88: The Bloody Battle at Changping Pass 1

Below Changping Pass, armies had gathered in force.

Riding the tide of a great victory, the Wei army had won every clash with the allied forces of Qin and Chen.

After more than ten days of relentless advance, Wei troops had crossed to the southern bank of the Ling River and driven all the way to Changping Pass.

By then, the Qin-Chen coalition had nowhere left to retreat. They had no choice but to hold Changping Pass.

Inside and outside the pass, nearly three hundred thousand troops were massed. The great battle was about to erupt.

Before long, this place would be strewn with bodies and turned into a hell of flesh and blood.

In the Wei camp, the Marquis of Wei sat fully armored and was convening a war council.

There were as many as sixteen generals in attendance, not counting Xu Anhong and Wu Mingyan.

That meant nearly one hundred and sixty thousand combat troops were arrayed beneath Changping Pass.

This far exceeded the one hundred thousand Wei soldiers that Wang Xiu had once spoken of in the campaign against Chen.

A force of this size, drawn up beneath Changping Pass, was an unprecedented burden on the Qin and Chen commanders inside the pass.

It was true that the defenders inside numbered nearly one hundred and thirty or forty thousand, but more than thirty thousand of them were men of Chen, and they were utterly useless in real combat.

They might help carry supplies or wave flags, but if they were told to meet the enemy face to face and fight to the death, that was out of the question.

In the end, the defenders inside the pass were little more than the hundred thousand Qin troops.

When the original one hundred and thirty thousand Qin soldiers marched into Chen, they had done so in overwhelming force, mighty and unstoppable. Yet after clashing with the Wei army, their frustration had never ceased.

Whether in direct engagement with the Wei forces or in the covert schemes they plotted behind the scenes, everything had been shattered one by one, and they had instead suffered repeated losses of men and commanders.

When the Qin army entered Chen, the Wei army had only just taken Xianghe County. But now the flames of war had already reached Changping Pass.

It was hard to say whose fault that was.

But no matter how one looked at it, there was one man who could not be avoided in any discussion of the matter: Wei Wuji.

Right then, in the imposing central tent, someone brought up the subject.

"My lord, our army has advanced steadily and with perfect discipline. The fall of Changping Pass is now only a matter of time," one general said with a smile.

"Indeed. The battles we have fought along the way have been far too easy. The men of Qin are no different from paper figures," another general sneered.

The Marquis of Wei sat in the seat of authority without saying a word, but his pleasure was still plain to see.

The great undertaking that had eluded him in the days of Marquis Cheng, the Changping Pass that had once seemed impossible to breach, was now about to be taken by his hand.

And with it, the long-standing confinement of Wei to the northern region would finally be broken in one stroke.

Then Wei would be able to stand truly among the states and contend for dominion over the Central Plains.

Indeed, although Wei was acknowledged as the foremost power, it was precisely for that reason that the other states had united to contain it.

In the previous generation, during the reign of Marquis Cheng of Wei, the state had committed all its strength and gathered four hundred thousand troops to attack Changping Pass.

At Chen's request for aid, the Zhou royal house had issued an edict summoning the lords of the realm to take up arms and defend the royal line.

Sure enough, the other states, fearing Wei's continued rise, had all sent troops against it. Within half a month, they had assembled six hundred thousand men and clashed with Wei's army within the lands of Chen.

In the end, Wei had suffered a crushing defeat and retreated once more from Changping Pass. Under the coalition's pursuit, it had even come close to losing Henei Commandery.

Only by relying on the fortifications of its commandery cities, and on Marquis Cheng's willingness to stake everything in a fight to the death, had Wei barely managed to steady itself amid discord within the coalition.

From that point on, although Wei recovered its strength, it never again launched a direct attack on Chen.

This time, however, the Marquis of Wei had personally led the army all the way to Changping Pass. That alone was extraordinary good fortune.

In the present age, Qi was consumed by internal strife and had no strength to spare; Chu and Wu were locked in struggle for supremacy in the south; among the great powers of the time, only Qin remained to oppose Wei.

Yet Qin was still considerably weaker than Wei and had been forced to resort to intrigue and stratagem. The outcome, naturally, was already determined.

The smaller states posed even less threat to Wei. After all, even the Son of Heaven of Zhou had understood the situation and refrained from issuing an edict calling for the suppression of rebels.

Still, while achieving these victories, an image could not help but rise unbidden in the Marquis of Wei's mind.

It was a young face, almost exactly like the face he himself had worn in his youth.

"My son... my son!" the Marquis of Wei said inwardly.

Having such a son should have made him overjoyed, and yet whenever he thought of him, his heart ached as though cut to the bone.

While the generals were arguing, General Xu Anhong rose to his feet.

He turned toward the Marquis of Wei, bowed, and then swept his gaze across the assembled generals.

"Our army's victories have indeed come one after another," he said, "but do not forget the Qin attempt to strike at our supply lines a few days ago."

"If the young lord had not discovered it in time, and allowed the Qin to succeed, would you still be standing here, full of bravado?" Xu Anhong asked, his face full of displeasure.

Too many victories had made these men forget the taste of defeat. They had grown arrogant and complacent, and such a mindset was bound to lead to trouble.

The Marquis of Wei nodded as well and said in a deep voice, "The old general speaks well. Pride comes before a fall. If you continue in this manner, then I fear the shame suffered by Marquis Cheng all those years ago may be repeated today."

At the Marquis of Wei's rebuke, the generals all stiffened and lowered their heads obediently.

"We know we were wrong," they said at once, bowing low and knocking their foreheads to the ground again and again.

If they were branded as men incapable of bearing great responsibility, their chances of further advancement would be slim indeed.

"These last few days, our campaigning has gone smoothly. But do not forget that there are still one hundred thousand Qin troops in Changping Pass, lying in wait with drawn blades."

The Marquis of Wei's voice grew ever heavier, and the generals bowed their heads even lower.

"Our danger has never truly gone away. Whether it is a Chen army attempt at a surprise attack or the Qin trying to burn our provisions, any of it could turn our hard-won victories into nothing but a dream." His tone sank further still.

He was reminding himself as much as anyone else not to be dazzled by the success before his eyes and ruin everything at the last moment.

"We know our crime," the generals hastily said. At a time like this, they had to let the Marquis of Wei cool his anger first.

After speaking for a while, the Marquis of Wei lost the desire to continue and motioned for everyone to rise.

"Enough. Leave the confession for later. Who will tell me how we are to take Changping Pass?" he asked impatiently.

Changping Pass had already been encircled for two days, and four or five probing attacks had been launched, yet none had yielded any notable result.

The situation, one might say, was still at a stalemate.

A strange thought even flickered suddenly through the Marquis of Wei's mind: if Wei Wuji were faced with such a situation, what would he do?

In the Marquis of Wei's heart, Wei Wuji's mind was simply terrifyingly brilliant.

The generals remained silent. They knew full well what level they were at; it was better not to make fools of themselves.

"Qingliang... have all the various siege engines been completed?" the Marquis of Wei asked the man at his side.

The man called Qingliang smiled before answering, "My lord, they are almost finished."

"When can we launch a full assault?" the Marquis of Wei pressed.

"Tomorrow, we can begin the attack and smash the Qin army in one stroke," Lu Qingliang said with a smile. His confidence was genuine.

The Marquis of Wei laughed heartily. He cared about this matter above all else. If it succeeded, he would be able, like his father Marquis Cheng of Wei, to truly overbear all the states and make the world bow before him.

"Pass down the order. Tell the craftsmen to hasten their work. I will reward them richly," the Marquis of Wei commanded.

"Yes, my lord. On behalf of all the artisans, I thank you," Lu Qingliang replied with a bow.

Under the gaze of the assembled generals, the Marquis of Wei slowly made his way out of the tent.

At that moment, the setting sun stained the sky a blood-red hue.