Chapter 275- A Star Will Rise
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
Lang Mountain, Qin Army Tent
Baiqi gathered all his generals to plan for the next stage of their mission.
Based on their original plan, the next stage would be to attack Wang Ling camp.
“Once we manage to conquer the camp, Zhao army will be trapped in Gu Pass, and it will once again be us surrounding them. Hence, we have to win the battle tomorrow.” Baiqi rallied.
“We await your orders!” The generals replied.
“In the siege tomorrow, Meng Ao’s forces will be the main while Huan He and Ying Bao will back him up by blocking the Zhao Zhuang troops at the bottom of Gu Pass. Wang He’s troops will stay in the camp and wait for my orders!”
“Yes, general!”
Ouyang Shuo sat at one side, a sense of worry and doubt flashed across his face. Since they were trying to take over the camp, why wouldn’t Wang He’s troops be sent out? He looked at Wang He’s expression and didn’t see any unhappiness. Maybe Baiqi still has other plans.
Destroying the Wei Army not only destroyed the alliance that was forming. The Qin troops also gained a lot of grain and resources.
The Qin had sent almost all their grain toward the Yewang Stronghold. The fire set by Zhao Zhuang had destroyed the years worth of grain accumulated by the Qin. Hence, although they had regained the transport routes, the amount of grain that Fanju could gather within the country was limited.
As they kept trying to acquire grain, the commoners were grumbling. To support the troops on the frontline, even grain from their houses were asked to be contributed. Of course, they wouldn’t be happy.
Hence, Zhao Kuo felt that if the two armies continued, that the Zhao army was stronger.
Fortunately, the destruction of the Wei who brought massive amounts of grain had really benefited the Qin.
The Qin king had already contacted commoners to help transport this batch of grain to Guanglang City.
The plains where the Wei and Qin armies fought was in Henei prefecture and really close to Changping. In a few days, they had managed to reach Guanglang City. Hence, the lack of grain was solved and the Qin problem wasn’t as bad as Zhao Kuo expected.
The morning the next day, the sun rose; it was good weather.
Early in the morning, the Zhao Army started to get busy, moving all the chariots and usable things out to prepare the chariot circle formation.
Just as they began to get busy, the Qin army set out.
The black flood under the coordination of the drums, formed up into neat rows and walked out of the camp.
Baiqi stood on the tower and looked on as usual, looking down and commanding the troops.
The first one to leave was the 120 thousand infantry and cavalry led by Meng Ao. This army had been attacking Wang Ling camp for several days and had gotten familiar with the route. The only difference was the order to fight to the death given yesterday.
In the Qin army, the moment they decided to fight to the death, if anyone tried to escape, they would be killed mercilessly. If one was scared, he might be a burden to the others. Hence, for these battles to the death, the soldiers would all fight like their backs were against the wall.
In the rolling dirt and dust, Huan He and Ying Bao made use of the cover to follow closely behind. During the battle with the Wei, Huan He lost few troops and had 90 thousand men left who could fight.
Seeing Meng Ao’s troops attack Wang Ling camp once again, the guards didn’t panic. After several days, they were sure that the enemy was just faking.
The news of the Wei army losing was only known to generals of the Zhao army to not affect morale. Zhao Kuo ordered this to prevent its spread. If not, whoever disobeys it would be killed.
Hence, out of those defending, apart from the few generals, most of them didn’t know a thing.
What they didn’t know was that the Qin army today was very different from the last few days. The generals knew that and ordered for the soldiers to be on guard. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
During the few days of attacks, although Meng Ao didn’t achieve much, at least they had filled up all the moats.
The huge army stepped over the moats and held the scaling ladders, starting a relentless assault against the camp that was originally theirs. The soldiers weren’t afraid of dying and gave their all.
Such a fierce army was something the Zhao army didn’t expect. Only then did they realize that the Qin army was attacking for real this time. However when they realized this, it was too late as they had already suffered heavy casualties.
Luckily, the Zhao army wasn’t so average like the Wei army. Although they had a bad start, they reacted quickly and using the advantage of the wall, started to slaughter the Qin troops.
The alchemical fire oil cabinet and various defensive weapons were used to their fullest, causing huge damages to the Qin army.
Meng Ao, who was commanding the troops, didn’t have any reaction and didn’t care much about the loss of life. He coldly waved the flag in his hand, sending group after group up, not stopping until they achieved their goal.
The relentless attack gave a lot of pressure to the ones trying to defend. They didn’t even have enough time to take a breath. Under the intense attacks, breaches and cracks appeared in some areas, although they were covered. If it continued, breaking through was just a matter of time.
Meng Ao was smart and fast, seeing that holes were appearing in the defense, he immediately sent the reserve force. In a moment, the Wang Ling camp was in danger. The soldiers had no choice but to send an emergency SOS signal to the main forces.
Although Zhao Zhuang was busy with the chariot circle formation, in truth, he was paying attention to this siege. Seeing the Qin army act as he expected and make a genuine attack, he immediately formed up a force to assist.
Just as they rushed to help, the Huan He and Ying Bao troops who were hiding behind Zhao Zhaung’s army charged out and blocked their escape route.
Both generals did what they were tasked to, block as their first priority and kill as their second. The forces weaved around the Zhao Zhuang forces, not letting them move an inch.
Zhao Kuo stood at the city wall of Gu Pass. Seeing Zhao Zhuang’s forces stopped, he knew that the Qin army was determined to take down Wang Ling camp.
Although he had prepared the chariot circle formation, Zhao Kuo didn’t wish to lose the Wang Ling camp so early. Even more so, he wanted to save the 50 thousand troops inside.
Just as Zhao Kuo wanted to move the troops inside Gu Pass to save Zhao Zhuang’s forces, someone reported, “General, there appears to be many Qin forces to the north of Gu Pass; they are carrying a lot of siege weapons; they look like they want to attack Gu Pass.”
“What?” Zhao Kuo didn’t believe it. When did the Qin Army go around the stone wall, when he was totally in the dark? The scouts were really useless. “How many of them?”
“More than 100 thousand.”
Zhao Kuo shivered. A 100 thousand men, if he had sent out some soldiers out of Gu Pass to assist Zhao Zhuang, then Gu Pass would be in danger.
“That’s not right!” Zhao Kuo frowned and muttered. “Why is it so coincidental?”
Thinking back, Zhao Kuo shivered. The Qin army on the north must have set out a few days back to be able to reach here at such a moment. Hence, they could prevent the soldiers in Gu Pass from assisting those in Wang Ling Camp. If Zhao Kuo didn’t care and tried to save them, then it would become a real siege. Hence, either Gu Pass or Wang Ling Camp, one must be lost.
The importance of both, Zhao Kuo was naturally clear.
This was a scheme, and Zhao Kuo could only choose one or the other. He could only choose to defend Gu Pass and give up Wang Ling camp. As for coordinating with the troops in Hukou Pass to pincer the Qin army from the northern side, it was impossible.
The Hukou Pass was too far away from Gu Pass, and by the time they arrived the enemy would have been long gone.
This was the weakness of the Zhao army defensive line. It was too long and they couldn’t smoothly coordinate with one another, giving a chance to the enemy.
At this point, Zhao Kuo had a deeper understanding on how Baiqi used his troops. It was apparent that in this battle, Baiqi had saw through the enemy weakness and made plans to counter it.
Comparatively, Zhao Kuo appeared very weak and inexperienced.
The hard part was that he not only had to sacrifice the Wang Ling camp and the 50 thousand inside, but if he really left them there, the morale of the army would drop.
They had no ability to save them, but if he didn’t save them the army would lose their heart to fight.
Zhao Kuo shook his head bitterly. “Order the troops to turn towards the north to defend; tell those in the camp to defend and once we deal with those sieging Gu Pass, we will send reinforcements.”
Everyone knew that Zhao Kuo’s reinforcements were just a blank piece of paper. When the main force had made the Qin troops on the north retreat, Wang Ling Camp would have been lost, what reinforcements would even be needed?
Although everyone knew it, after all it was quite logical, Zhao Kuo didn’t want to give up Wang Ling camp. But because of the Qin Army, he had no choice but to give it up.
Only then would it not cause too much of an effect on their morale.
One had to say, although this move wasn’t so outright and in the open, it was effective. A leader had to be ruthless and when one needed to sacrifice something, they had to be able to do it.
Baiqi had once again given Zhao Kuo a lesson.
After this Battle of Changping, Zhao Kuo grew and matured quickly. If he could survive and walk out of this battle zone, he would definitely become a star general.
