046. Empty Dream
"Yao Mountain is steep, but there is no place to defend five miles west of the city. There are only low hills, which are easy to attack but difficult to defend. There is a narrow road in front of Yao Mountain, which is not suitable for a large army to pass. With Yao Mountain in front, they may take a detour to capture Mu'an City and besiege us here from the west of the city. If we take Yao Mountain, there will be no more mountains to rely on."
Shang Changheng looked at Zuo Baichuan.
Perhaps it was the tacit understanding they developed from practicing martial arts together. After a moment of silence, Zuo Baichuan said, "I'll go to Mu'an."
"Outside Mu'an City is a plain, and the city wall... probably hasn't been repaired for a long time." Shang Changheng is no longer a young man, but a steady young general.
Zuo Baichuan had a cold smile on his handsome face, showing his murderous intent. "So what? I'm going to fight these bastards face to face and let them know that we Zhou people are not spineless."
"Okay." Shang Changheng nodded, then looked at Wei Qingxia and pointed to a spot on the sand table. "You stay here. If the Dongyi want to attack, let them in and let them attack the city. Then, completely trap them outside Mu'an City. The Dongyi will definitely send reinforcements. You have to hold off the fleeing Dongyi and stay here."
He pointed his finger backwards, "Stop the enemy reinforcements."
Zuo Baichuan and Wei Qingxia both looked surprised.
Even Qingling understood that Shang Changheng wanted to use the city of Mu'an as a starting point. If he wanted to capture Yaoshan, he had to take Mu'an first. Zuo Baichuan would guard Mu'an, and Wei Qingxia would send people to block the road and let a group of people go in to fight, and then form a siege. At the same time, Wei Qingxia had to deal with the Dongyi people who came to reinforce.
"Fifteen days." Shang Changheng said in a deep voice, "No matter what, you have to hold on for fifteen days."
Of the two, Wei Qingxia's battle was obviously more difficult to fight. Zuo Baichuan wanted to say something, but was interrupted by her: "Changheng, what do you want to do?"
Shang Changheng's eyes were cold and he spoke word by word, "Fight back to Yangcheng."
Yangcheng, they were beaten out of Yangcheng like a stray dog, even the Grand Marshal Wei Shanfu was killed there. Qingling finally remembered this battle.
The Battle of the Thrash.
Both Yangcheng and Yaoshan were places for beatings. Grand Marshal Wei Shanfu died in this battle. The young general Shang Changheng also gained a firm foothold among the three armies because of this battle and became the commander-in-chief of the three armies.
The description in "Guangyouzhi" is also very vague. It only records what positions Shang Changheng captured, but does not mention any military tactics. Now it seems that after Shang Changheng arranged everything, he wanted to personally lead his men to the rear.
There is no such thing as a war without danger. Zuo Baichuan and Wei Qingxia said nothing, perhaps because they had been forced into a situation where they had no way to retreat.
Qingling remembered that the books had recorded that during the Ruixing period, the Great Zhou and the Dongyi had negotiated several times and finally ceded land to stop the war. Grand Marshal Wei Shanfu wanted to fight but was powerless, and ceding land meant handing over the people of the Great Zhou. Before the Zhou Dynasty, human sacrifices were rare, but after that, human sacrifices were very common among the Dongyi. A small sacrifice was held every three days and a large sacrifice was held every five days. The people used were naturally Zhou people.
The Zhou people were even the ones who stored up food and fodder for them, so when the war started, the Zhou Dynasty suffered defeat after defeat. All they fought for was supplies. Natural disasters in the Zhou Dynasty meant that there was no grain to harvest, and not to mention the army, even the common people were starving to death, freezing to death, or dying of disease in every village and town.
"Let as many enemy troops as possible into the encirclement," Shang Changheng said. "The more the better. The more people are trapped, the more people Dongyi will send to rescue them. Call all the generals and vanguards of the various armies. You can choose any of them. You must pin them down in Mu'an City."
"Yes, sir!" they said in unison.
As they left, they both stopped and looked back.
Wei Qingxia said, "It's peaceful, Changheng."
Zuo Baichuan smiled and said, "If you can bring peace to the country, the prosperity of the world will depend on you."
Qingling watched him discuss tactics all night long, and he understood more clearly how difficult this battle was for them. Even the commanders-in-chief and generals of the three armies could only eat porridge made from wild grass and grain. They discussed from nightfall until dark, when scouts came to report that the Dongyi had made a move. Shang Changheng immediately ordered Zuo Baichuan and Wei Qingxia to set off.
"Be faster, faster than their horses!"
They could only run on their feet, and no one said a word of objection. They picked up their helmets and ice blades and turned around to leave. The girl who once said that she would create the sharpest weapon in the world, put on her armor and rushed to the battlefield without saying a word. The Great Zhou allowed women to go to the battlefield, and they could also command regular troops to fight. Although there were few of them, Qingling remembered that in the history books, the queen of the founding emperor of the Great Zhou was a female general who was good at fighting.
Time became blurred here, Qingling could not distinguish it clearly, or perhaps because this was Shang Changheng's memory, many unimportant times passed in a flash. It was probably that Mu'an City had already tied down the Dongyi people. It was another evening when he got the news. Shang Changheng put on his armor, took a long-handled sword and hurried out. There were not many horses left in the army, and he used them all to lead his men to attack overnight.
No matter what Mu'an's battle situation is, only if he wins will he have hope of turning the situation around. Otherwise, even if the enemy troops in Mu'an City are defeated, it will not hurt them at all.
Qingling watched him rushing through the night without taking time to rest or eat, and he led the two thousand men he carefully selected to travel day and night. He wanted to be fast and take the enemy by surprise, so he also had a vanguard in front, not a scout, but a small vanguard to kill the enemy's spies.
Then, like a sharp sword flashing with cold light, it pierced into the heart of the enemy in the rear. He did not burn the enemy's food and grass, because without food and grass, the prisoners of war and civilians had to be fed, so he directly overturned the lair of the Dongyi Marshal. He was blood-thirsty, and in the chaos, he swung a long sword cleanly and neatly, and even cut the man in two at the waist.
Unlike when he was arranging tactics, on the battlefield, he was a killing god.
When the sky brightened, Shang Changheng stood on the wall of Yangcheng, holding a bloody head, and shouted to the soldiers he brought with him: "We won! We took back Yangcheng!"
"We won! A great victory!"
"Great victory!"
The young general's face was stained with blood and dust, and his handsome features could no longer be seen. He stood on the city wall in such an embarrassed manner, looking at the east. The morning light fell on him and on the corpses of those who had defended this city to the death. What he was stepping on was not the city wall, but the corpses all over the ground. The shouts of victory after victory were for the heroic souls who fell here and on every battlefield.
In his eyes reflected in the broken light, there appeared a gleam of water that only Qingling could see.
Shang Changheng threw the head off the city wall. He held a long knife in his hand and shouted loudly: "Mu'an's defenders haven't come back yet. No one knows that Yangcheng has been recaptured. Tell Wei Qingxia that there is no need to fight anymore. Turn around and take a detour to Yanjin River. We will fight back!"
After a night of hard fighting, more than half of the soldiers were killed or wounded, and those who remained were all injured. They raised their weapons and shouted in unison: "Kill them back!"
"Kill them back!!"
"Kill them back——"
In the Battle of Xidi, Shang Changheng recaptured fifteen lost cities, beheaded the enemy marshal, and killed twenty-five enemy generals.
The young general's eyes were firm and sharp, like a ignited, blazing flame, using national hatred and family feuds as fuel to burn the enemy completely.
And that gaze suddenly met Qingling's.
In a memory that was not real, their eyes met briefly. Despite thousands of mountains and rivers and thousands of years of time, Qingling felt as if a fire had been ignited in his heart, burning brightly in his poor and monotonous life. Eighteen years of mediocrity and tranquility were completely overturned.
He was on the battlefield, accompanying Shang Changheng in celebrating this great victory.
Everything ended suddenly at this moment. The scene gradually blurred, and ripples appeared like flowers in the mirror and water, and then disappeared.
Qing Ling opened his eyes again and was met with the same gaze. It was that of Shang Changheng a thousand years later. He was no longer as fierce as a wolf or as resolute as a mountain, but a chaos filled with hatred and pain.
"Qingling." Shang Changheng asked softly, "Who are you looking at?"
He was thousands of years ago.
He a thousand years later.
The young eyes and eyebrows gradually overlapped with the person in front of him. Qing Ling moved his lips and said softly: "I'm looking at you, Shang Changheng."
Without waiting for Shang Changheng to speak, Qingling turned his head. Miaoyuan and Zhu Lezhi also came down. Zuo Baichuan and Wei Qingxia were still standing there. Their appearance also coincided with the young generals in Qingling's memory, although they were completely unrecognizable.
Qingling's heart was also in pain. It was clear that these things had nothing to do with him, but his heart was clenched and was about to be crushed alive. It felt sour and sad.
He himself was unaware that the redness in the corners of his eyes and the tears he was shedding seemed like he was crying for Shang Changheng, who had forgotten everything and had no tears left to shed.
"Chang Heng..." Qing Ling's voice was trembling, and he closed his eyes, "Great victory, Yangcheng... I saw it, the Battle of the Whip Land... You won beautifully."
Shang Changheng uttered a low "ah", and seemed to want to laugh, but the corners of his lips moved a few times, only forming an ugly arc that could not be considered a smile.
"Really?" Shang Changheng said, "I seem to remember a little bit."
"A great victory at Yangcheng. Their feet outran the Dongyi horses."
"There were 5,321 deaths in Mu'an City, and 1,683 deaths in Yang City. As the battle went on, the bodies piled up, with broken arms, heads, and internal organs. There were not many intact bodies to be found on the battlefield. Their blood mixed together and dyed the ground red."
Qing Ling suddenly stretched out his arms and hugged Shang Changheng's neck. They had been intimate on the couch several times and had done intimate actions before, but this hug was different, something they had never done before.
Qing Ling lay on Shang Changheng's neck. He didn't quite know how to express his surging emotions. That was not his story and he had always been an outsider.
"They are all heroes." Qing Ling felt that this sentence was so pale, but he didn't know what else to say. He turned his head and looked at the two bodies. They died in the two years after Emperor Ling ascended the throne. Zuo Baichuan's death was really miserable, while Wei Qingxia looked relatively intact.
They were guarding this tomb, and inside the tomb was the mutilated body of Shang Changheng.
Shang Changheng also looked over and said, "Their souls are imprisoned in their bodies. I have suppressed them temporarily. As long as their souls are annihilated, their bodies will self-destruct."
——Peaceful, Changheng.
——Bring peace to the country, and the prosperity of the world will depend on you.
In this prosperous and peaceful age, so many people risked their lives to fight for it, but in the end it was just an empty dream that could never be realized.
Their bones could not bring peace, and their names are not mentioned in history books.
Qing Ling turned his face away, already knowing their fate.
Even though there are the most regrets in the world, he still feels uneasy.
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