Although Jin Feng had handed tactical command to Zhang Liang, he had taken part when the overall strategy was drawn up, so he knew Zhang Liang had prepared a direct assault plan.
Previously, however, with Qing Munan trapped on Wulang Mountain, Zhang Liang had held back from using it. He feared driving all the bandits up the hill and putting her in greater danger.
Instead he used misdirection: the elite escorts drew the bandits’ attention in the south, while the hunter led Captain Xiao’s force on a hidden flanking march that broke through the eastern side in one stroke.
Now that Qing Munan had been rescued, Zhang Liang no longer needed to hold back.
Sure enough, not long after Da Liu left, the urgent beat of war drums rose from the distant camp.
The next instant, hundreds of burning jars soared out of the concealed woods and crashed into the densest clusters of bandits.
Although Mr Feng had warned them earlier, the bandits were no longer massed in large groups, so the number killed in this volley was not great. But Jin Feng, however, had added a smoke-producing substance to the kerosene. In moments, flames sprang up everywhere on Wulang Mountain and thick smoke billowed into the sky, blotting out the sun.
Many bandits coughed violently, eyes streaming with tears. They could barely see companions a few metres away.
On the eastern side, Captain Xiao confirmed that all the Changxin troops had withdrawn. He abandoned the narrow mountain path he had been holding, handed the prisoners to the Changxin Army to guard, and led his men from the mid-slope straight south toward the place where the bandit chiefs were gathered.
Every one of them had a wet towel tied across mouth and nose.
This not only let them distinguish friend from foe in the smoke, it also kept them from choking.
At the same time, the remaining government troops in the main camp below the mountain, led by Captain Xiao’s deputy, wrapped wet towels round their faces and charged toward Wulang Mountain.
Zhang Liang had offered them the same terms: one bar of scented soap, any fragrance they chose, for every bandit killed or captured.
Killing or capturing a chief, second-in-command, or lesser leader earned extra rewards.
So in the eyes of the government troops, the figures running back and forth at the foot and on the slopes of Wulang Mountain were not bandits, but walking silver ingots.
They attacked with extraordinary ferocity, each man running faster than the last, terrified that if he lagged the bandits would all be killed by someone else.
Human potential is limitless. Once these troops were spurred by Zhang Liang’s lavish bounties to disregard death itself, their overall bearing was utterly transformed.
This is morale, something mysterious yet very real.
When two armies of equal size and equipment clash, the side filled with soaring morale and absolute confidence of victory will always defeat the side whose spirits are low.
That is why Zhang Liang went to such lengths to kindle the government troops’ fighting spirit.
The bandits’ situation was the exact opposite.
The widespread flames did not kill many, but they severely impaired vision.
The bandits could no longer see what was happening below the mountain, yet they could hear the shouts of charging government troops coming from every direction.
Long ago, the warriors of the Eastern Jiang led by Xiang Yu were unrivalled in bravery, yet when surrounded at Gaixia, even they were shaken by the Chu songs rising on all sides, and the mighty Overlord and Lady Yu both took their own lives beside the river.
If even Xiang Yu’s elite could be broken like that, how much more a mere rabble of bandits.
Though they knew the government troops were fewer in number, many bandits trembled in terror and lost all will to fight.
When the government troops reached the foot of the mountain, the kerosene had almost burned itself out, but thick smoke still drifted upward.
Waving their weapons, the troops fell upon bandits half-blinded by the fumes.
Faster than the government troops were the escorts who had earlier pinned the bandits in place and drawn their attention.
At Da Zhuang’s command, the escorts tied the wet towels they had prepared long ago across their faces, then split into three smaller formations.
This time they did not need to guard their rear. The arrays became true arrowheads and, like arrows loosed from a bow, drove swift and sharp into the bandit masses.
Each small formation was a meat-grinder, reaping every bandit in its path.
In moments, Wulang Mountain echoed with screams and the roar of battle.
At the mid-slope, the bandit chiefs were stunned into stupefaction.
Defeat was now inevitable.
They simply could not understand how, with superior numbers, terrain, and equipment, they had been beaten.
And beaten so swiftly and completely.
While the chiefs were still trying to make sense of it, they suddenly they heard shouting behind them.
By the time they turned, Captain Xiao and his men were already upon them.
Moments later, every chief and second-in-command had been taken alive by Captain Xiao.
The captain was grinning from ear to ear.
These chiefs were worth a fortune.
Bandits were always a leaderless mob. Now leaderless, they soon began to break and run.
Once a few started, others quickly followed.
The rout spread like wildfire. The bandits fled frantically toward the western and northern sides of Wulang Mountain.
This was the perfect moment to cut them down, and the government troops were not about to let it pass. They pursued relentlessly.
How could Zhang Liang, having prepared so thoroughly, have overlooked this possibility?
Zhenyuan Escort Bureau had a branch in Qing Shan County. Its escorts, together with more than four hundred local government troops, had long been waiting on the bandits’ escape routes.
The fleeing bandits had not gone far before all three mountain paths were sealed by heavy crossbows and trebuchets.
…
The battle did not end until dusk.
By then everything below the mid-slope of Wulang Mountain was blackened by smoke, and bandit corpses lay everywhere.
The captured bandits, lined up along the mountain path, stretched as far as the eye could see.
There were far too many prisoners for the escorts to guard.
Zhang Liang had no choice but to discuss the matter with Captain Xiao.
“Captain Xiao, I’m afraid we must trouble the brothers of the government army to deliver all these prisoners to Black Water Gulch.”
“Brother Zhang Liang, ‘trouble’ is too strong a word. Leave it to me!”
Captain Xiao thumped his chest.
This time the government troops had reaped a huge harvest and their morale had soared.
If fighting broke out again, the Guangyuan troops could definitely be counted on to fight hard battles.
Most important of all, a bandit-suppression operation on this scale had never happened before, not in Guangyuan, not anywhere along the entire Western Sichuan Route.
This was a major achievement. The prefect would certainly report it to the court.
The Great Kang had suffered from banditry for years. News like this would surely bring rewards from the throne.
When that happened, Captain Xiao would find promotion impossible to avoid.
Therefore he felt boundless gratitude toward Jin Feng and Zhang Liang, and escorting prisoners was the least he could do.
Night had already fallen, so the army could not march. Captain Xiao arranged for the government troops to camp on the spot and guard the captives.
…
The Qing Shan County Gazetteer records:
In the autumn of the twenty-third year of Yong’an of the Great Kang, the First Bandit-Suppression Team from Xihe Bay was besieged on Wulang Mountain. Baron of Qingshui, Jin Feng, together with Guangyuan Prefectural Captain Xiao Dayuan, led one hundred escorts of Zhenyuan Escort Bureau and two thousand prefectural troops of Guangyuan in a campaign on Wulang Mountain.
More than 1,300 enemy bandits were slain and over 3,200 captured.
From that day forth, Qing Shan County knew no more bandit trouble. The common people, moved to tears of gratitude, set up longevity tablets to the Baron of Qingshui in their homes. Their number cannot be counted…
