Chapter Eighty-Nine: Wang Chuying’s Total Defeat, Part One

In recent years, the strength of the Land of Prosperity had risen at a startling pace, and Yang Sancheng’s ambition swelled ever larger. He even sought to swallow up and unite every faction and power across the Wild Continent.

To gain a clear picture of the neighboring factions and kingdoms, Yang Sancheng founded an intelligence network, trained countless spies and informants, and secretly dispatched them to every factional region and every kingdom on the Wild Continent to gather information.

He then compared the reports brought back by these agents, judging which faction was weaker and easier to conquer. For those weaker factions or kingdoms, he planned to use both soft and hard tactics: first finding fault on some pretext, then using that trouble to stir the beginnings of war, displaying his strength to intimidate the other side. If they yielded, he would absorb them outright; if they accepted neither threat nor persuasion, he would send troops under his command to attack and force their submission.

A few months earlier, Yang Sancheng had received intelligence on the Azure Peak Kingdom from one of his agents.

After discussing it with his subordinates, he learned that although the Azure Peak Kingdom had been founded five or six years earlier than the Land of Prosperity, it possessed not many soldiers, yet governed a population of six million.

Moreover, in all these years, though attacked many times by other factions and barbarian kingdoms, it had never once been conquered.

The reason was that the Azure Peak Kingdom lay within the protective range of Twin Peak Mountain, covering an area of more than two hundred thousand square li, encircled by branches and ridges of the Twin Peaks.

Not only was it surrounded, but it was enclosed in three layers, with several dozen li between each layer. Around every layer stood four gates for entry and exit.

Each layer and each gate was guarded by soldiers, and those soldiers had all undergone strict training in every respect, their fighting quality exceptionally high. Whenever they clashed with an enemy, they suffered defeat only rarely.

Even when they did lose, and enemy troops chased them as far as the territory of Azure Peak Kingdom, the mountains of Azure Peak wrapped around the kingdom inside and out, their terrain perilous and easy to defend but hard to assault.

When enemy soldiers pursued them to the city gates at the foot of the mountain and saw such a forbidding natural shield, they no longer dared continue the battle.

Even if they forced the issue, it was still exceedingly difficult to take. Thus, though the Azure Peak Kingdom had fought many wars against foreign enemies, it had suffered very few defeats.

After learning the true nature of the Azure Peak Kingdom, Yang Sancheng cared less about how many troops it had or how formidable they were; what he coveted was the terrain in which it stood.

The land where the Azure Peak Kingdom lay was too strategically advantageous. In military terms, it could be said to have no equal on the Wild Continent, with nothing else able to compare.

Precisely because its geography was so singular and so defensible, ever since the kingdom was founded and exchanged blows with many other factions, it had remained nearly invincible.

Such a perilous and commanding place was the very kind every factional kingdom dreamed of seizing.

Because this natural fortress had been formed by the hand of nature itself, once occupied and permanently garrisoned, the savings in merely resisting outside invasion would be immense. Not to mention that the land within was broad, fertile, rich in water, and perfectly suited for long-term settlement by its people.

Upon learning how secure the Azure Peak Kingdom’s surroundings were, Yang Sancheng immediately grew greedy for it, and at once ranked its conquest among the great tasks he was determined to accomplish in his lifetime.

Because the region governed by Yang Shengtian lay relatively close to the Azure Peak Kingdom, Yang Sancheng assigned the mission to one of his three regional kings, Yang Shengtian, the King of Prosperity.

After receiving the order, Yang Shengtian personally made a covert tour of the area where the Azure Peak Kingdom stood, so as to better grasp the situation and ensure victory. He discovered that the region was indeed exceptionally dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and that any assault could only come by way of the road at the mouth of the Twin Peaks.

Between the two mountains of the Twin Peaks there was a span more than a thousand meters wide. Since the people of the Azure Peak Kingdom and its armies often moved through this route, and in order to make passage convenient, the kingdom had used enormous quantities of huge stones to build a sixty-meter-high stone wall linking the two mountains. In the middle of that towering wall were set two massive stone gates, forty meters high and wide, and more than a meter thick. Skilled craftsmen from within the kingdom were summoned to install iron wheels beneath each gate, and polished stone rails were laid beneath the wheels. Soldiers were stationed there every day, and at fixed times the stone gates were opened and closed for the kingdom’s people to pass through.

After secretly investigating the surroundings of the Azure Peak Kingdom, Yang Shengtian concluded that only by attacking its main gate, the great stone entrance some ten li beyond the Twin Peaks, could there be any chance of forcing his way into the kingdom.

Thus Yang Shengtian mobilized thirty thousand elite troops and intended to go personally to challenge the Azure Peak Kingdom.

Among his men was a deputy commander named Wang Chuying, about forty years old, tall and imposing in stature. This man was fiercely loyal to Yang Shengtian and was also one who loved competition and glory. He had followed Yang Shengtian for five or six years.

During those five or six years, Wang Chuying had followed Yang Shengtian through campaigns east and west, helping him earn many merits, and had won Yang Shengtian’s favor.

After Yang Shengtian was assigned by Yang Sancheng to govern a region on his own, his status changed as well, and he was transformed from a general into a regional king, the King of Prosperity.

When Yang Shengtian had still been a general, Wang Chuying had served as one of his most capable deputy commanders. Now that Yang Shengtian had become a regional king, the position of general had temporarily been left vacant.

Seeing that the general’s seat remained empty, Wang Chuying had long hoped for war to break out, so that he might fight and make new merit as soon as possible, allowing Yang Shengtian to promote him to that post.

When he heard that Yang Shengtian meant to attack the Azure Peak Kingdom, Wang Chuying was secretly overjoyed. He thought, after all this waiting, the chance had finally come. His opportunity to earn merit had arrived again, and this time, no matter what, he must seize the first great credit.

So before any of the other deputy commanders could even speak, Wang Chuying eagerly volunteered, asking Yang Shengtian to entrust him with the opening assault on the Azure Peak Kingdom.

Seeing Wang Chuying step forward so boldly, Yang Shengtian naturally felt grateful to have such a brave, battle-hardened, and loyal deputy. Yet he also knew that this war against the Azure Peak Kingdom would be far harder to win than any ordinary campaign of the past.

Thus he stopped Wang Chuying from trying to lead the attack alone, and proposed that Wang Chuying join the other three deputy commanders in leading the assault, so that they could support one another.

But Wang Chuying was impatient to win distinction and paid no heed. Relying on Yang Shengtian’s habitual trust and favor, and taking advantage of a time when Yang Shengtian had returned to the Land of Prosperity to discuss matters with King Yang Sancheng, he privately took the war banner and led thirty thousand soldiers toward the Twin Peaks.

Just as Wang Chuying arrived at the mouth of the Twin Peaks, Huang Xianlin, a deputy commander under Wei Xiaoping of the Azure Peak Kingdom, learned from his informants that Wang Chuying was bringing troops to attack. He had already led ten thousand soldiers to wait for him five li inside the mountain pass.

After learning the enemy’s purpose, Huang Xianlin said bitterly, “Your kingdom lies thousands of li from ours, and the two realms have always minded their own affairs, living in peace without offense. Who would have thought that, for the sake of your swelling greed and ambition, you would disregard the peaceful lives of both peoples and march here across such a great distance to invade our land and sow hatred between us? Truly despicable beyond words! Since that is how it is, we shall show you what defeat tastes like.”

When he finished speaking, Huang Xianlin waved over three of his generals. They were Zhu Hongxiu, Wang Qingjie, and He Xinzhou.

After speaking a few quiet words to them, he sent General Zhu Hongxiu forward to meet Wang Chuying’s men in combat.

“General Zhu Hongxiu, remember what I said. After you spar with them for a while, pretend that you cannot beat them. Make it look utterly convincing, so they believe you truly are no match for them, and then turn and run back!”

Zhu Hongxiu followed Huang Xianlin’s instructions and fought Wang Chuying’s man for about fifteen minutes before pretending he was losing, turning around and fleeing back.

Next came Wang Qingjie and He Xinzhou. Each went up in turn, wrestled with Wang Chuying’s generals for a while, and likewise feigned defeat before turning and running back.

After all three generals had retreated, Huang Xianlin charged forward himself and fought Wang Chuying for about half an hour. Then he too pretended to be unable to withstand Wang Chuying’s blows, turned and fled, shouting to his soldiers as he ran, retreating toward the stone gate.

Seeing this, Wang Chuying truly believed that Huang Xianlin had been frightened by his strength and dared not linger in battle. He immediately shouted at the soldiers behind him to give chase.

All the while, Huang Xianlin cried for his men to withdraw, glancing back at Wang Chuying as he pursued him.

Thus the two armies became a chase of one running while the other pursued.

After running some three or four li, many people suddenly stood up on the mountainsides on both sides, each cloaked entirely in leaves so that they looked like little trees. There were nearly twenty thousand of them, and they shouted for slaughter with thunderous force that shook the valleys.

Some of these “tree men” hurled stones down at Wang Chuying’s troops on the road, some drew bows and loosed arrows, and some, working together in groups, lifted huge lengths of timber studded with sharp iron spikes and rolled them down the mountain.

As a result, Wang Chuying’s soldiers were struck by arrows from the “tree men” on the slopes, crushed by falling stones, or smashed by rolling giant logs, all the while crying out in agony.

Only then did Wang Chuying realize that the defeats suffered by Huang Xianlin and his generals had all been feigned, and that he himself had fallen into Huang Xianlin’s trap.

He immediately turned and ran back, shouting for retreat as he fled.

By then, Huang Xianlin’s “tree men,” who had earlier been hiding at the Twin Peak pass, had somehow already come down the mountain, blocked the road at the entrance, and were charging at Wang Chuying’s retreating troops.

Huang Xianlin himself also turned around and led his soldiers back into the fray, striking toward Wang Chuying’s direction as he tried to withdraw.

Before long, Wang Chuying and his men were like water sealed inside a barrel, tightly hemmed in on every side by Huang Xianlin’s troops...