Chapter 27: A Match for the Chess Master

  "Let Wei Wenchang station troops in the Xuanfeng Road, deep ditch and high wall only defend but not fight. Is this idea thought out by your distant nephew Chen Yingliang?" Fan Zigai asked bluntly.

  Bai Hong Ce nodded without hesitation, his face not red or nervous, and replied: "Yes, Ying Liang Xian is originally the clerk of the Henan Zanchi Prefecture, assisting me in handling military and administrative affairs in Henan County. He has the responsibility to advise me, and what he said makes sense, so I naturally need to report it to the Governor."

  "Marquis Pei has picked a good nephew, this luck is truly enviable even for an old man like me." Fan Zigai said with a hint of sarcasm and smiled, then pondered for a moment before suddenly saying: "Your nephew said that Wei Wensheng's army is not a match for Yang's rebel army, isn't this statement too rash? Wei Wensheng's troops are different from our city guards in the east capital, with over 10,000 cavalry alone. Although I don't understand much about military affairs, I also know that in field battles, cavalry comes first. It won't be easy for Yang's rebel army to defeat Wei Wensheng, will it?"

  Fan Zhuxiu saw the sympathy, and forgave the straightforward words of his subordinate. "The prediction of my young nephew is not arbitrary, but cautious." Pei Hongce replied respectfully: "The Left Wuwei of Daxing and our Right Wuwei in Dongdu are both armies that have not fought for ten or twenty years. The remaining elite troops have also been taken to the Liaodong battlefield by His Majesty. The remaining soldiers and horses, from generals to soldiers, are almost all new recruits who have never been on the battlefield. Such an army is indeed ominous in front of the powerful Yang Jiantao's rebel army. Although the victory or defeat of the Minister of Defense is no longer our responsibility in Dongdu, he has a large army of 40,000 people under his command, and 40,000 lives are at stake. I hope Fan Zhuxiu will think thrice."

  Pei Hongce's last words moved the famous honest official Fan Zigai, who thought for a moment before nodding and saying: "Duke Pei's words are reasonable. It is not easy to form an army of 40,000 soldiers. I will personally write a letter to Wei Wensheng, advising him to station his troops inside the Hangu Pass and carefully prepare for battle."

  "Magistrate Fan, you are the governor of Dongdu, and Magistrate Wei is the governor of Xidu. You do not have jurisdiction over each other. If you write to him like this, I'm afraid...". Beside them, Huangfu Wuyi spoke up cautiously: "I'm afraid it may be considered an abuse of power."

  "Old man is just suggesting, whether to listen or not is up to him, not me. Anyway, old man has said the suggestion, this doesn't count as overstepping authority, does it?" Fan Zigai retorted back, and only then did Huangfu Wu Yi understand that Fan Zigai was somewhat shirking responsibility, so he nodded in agreement. Fan Zigai didn't say anything more, immediately replaced Chen Yingliang's suggestion with his own, wrote it into a letter to inform Wei Xuan, and also reminded Wei Xuan to beware of internal traitors, investigate hidden leaks, and then sealed the letter, sending a messenger out of the city, rushing to Xifeng Road to deliver the letter to Wei Xuan.

  It may be due to the influence of Chen Yingliang's winged moth that this non-existent handwritten letter from Fan Zigai suffered an unexpected accident on the way - when crossing the Shuanghe River and preparing to enter the Lingxiao Road, Fan Zigai's envoy unexpectedly encountered a patrolling rebel scout team, and was surrounded as soon as they crossed the river. The envoy and his entourage were captured by the rebel scouts, and Fan Zigai's handwritten letter to Wei Xuan also fell into the hands of Yang Xuangan and his decision-makers.

  Upon seeing Fan Zige's letter, Yang Xuangan was indeed greatly shocked and exclaimed: "I really underestimated this old thing Fan Zige, he actually knew how to make us suffer the most with Wei Xuan's death, and even guessed that there was a traitor among our troops just by deduction. When did this old thing become so formidable?"

  After taking the letter from Yang Xuangan's hand, he carefully looked at it and found that Li Mi, the military strategist of Yang Xuangan's rebel army, was also frightened. Because Li Mi had long understood that once Wei Xuan's army stationed in the easily defended but difficult to attack Guan Canyon, they would only defend and not fight, and Yang Xuangan's rebel army would basically be unable to hold out for a few days. He knew that the safest way at present was to lure Wei Xuan's army out of the canyon and seek a decisive battle on open terrain, annihilating the main force of the Guanzhong Sui army under Wei Xuan's command in a field battle, so that Yang Xuangan's rebel army could safely besiege Luoyang and then advance westward to occupy Guanzhong at any time. Therefore, Li Mi strongly advised Yang Xuangan to lead his troops out of the canyon and let Wei Xuan smoothly exit the canyon.

  "It's fortunate that this letter from Fan Zhenxi fell into our hands." After wiping away a cold sweat, Li Mi personally interrogated the messenger from Luoyang and confirmed that Fan Zhenxi had only sent this one messenger. Only then did Li Mi breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly suggest to Yang Xuangan that he speed up his army's march, intentionally slackening the vigilance of the scouts within the Tongguan Pass, allowing the scouts of Wei Xuan's army to freely reconnoiter their military situation. At the same time, he suggested that Yang Xuangan lead his troops in a nighttime crossing of the Chan River and set up camp on the east bank, luring Wei Xuan's great army out of the Tongguan Pass as quickly as possible.

  Yang Xuangan was not very willing to listen to Li Mi's suggestions in terms of strategy, but he trusted Li Mi more in terms of tactics. He nodded his head immediately and agreed with Li Mi's suggestion, ordering the army to break camp and cross the river at once. However, Li Mi still did not dare to be careless and after thinking for a moment, he bowed his head to Yang Xuangan and said: "Chu Gong, although we were lucky enough to intercept Fan Zigai's letter, if Fan Zigai doesn't see Wei Xuan's response for a long time or finds out that Wei Xuan's army has left the Hangu Pass, he may send another messenger to contact Wei Xuan. Luoyang is only over 80 miles away from the eastern exit of the Hangu Pass, making it easy to communicate. We can't always have such good luck and intercept Fan Zigai's messengers every time."

  "What should we do?" Yang Xuan asked hastily.

  "It's simple, just send someone to put on a show for Fan Zige and the old things will be fine." Li Mi smiled slightly and whispered in Yang Xuangan's ear, Yang Xuangan burst out laughing after hearing it, clapped his hands and praised Li Mi's clever plan, then immediately arranged for people to carry out the plan without mentioning it again.

  …………

  Let's take a look at Chen Yingliang, the captain of the Chen team. After lying in bed for several days and drinking ginseng millet porridge and ginseng stewed chicken soup for several days, Chen Yingliang's body finally recovered, and he was able to run, jump, and behave normally again. He could also lead the soldiers of the Baoguo Army into training. During this period, the rebel army that confronted the Dongdu City Guard remained quietly in the Jinyong City camp, without coming to challenge the city again, which gave Chen Yingliang enough time to rest and train new soldiers.

  The training of the new recruits progressed exceptionally smoothly, under the care and concern of Chen Yingliang's old soldiers, as well as their intense desire for victory and rewards. The new recruits quickly became fully integrated into the Baoguo army, with a thorough transformation in organization and discipline, and high morale and fighting spirit throughout the ranks. Everyone from top to bottom was eager to go out and fight again, to slaughter and abuse those rebel troops who were actually far inferior to themselves. Their desire for battle was extremely strong, to the point where they almost begged to be sent to the battlefield in writing.

  Chen Yingliang, who had gained a certain foundation, was naturally looking forward to going into battle again and thoroughly establishing his reputation as the Right Wuwei War God. However, what made Chen Yingliang extremely frustrated was that his teammates were really too incompetent, especially in terms of scouting. Although Chen Yingliang had repeatedly advised Fan Zigai through Pei Hongce to strengthen their scouting capabilities, he still didn't know where Yang Xuan's main force was or how many rebel troops there were in the Jin'gang City camp. This made Chen Yingliang not dare to take the initiative to ask for battle, fearing that they would encounter too many enemies and suffer a crushing defeat. He could only try his best to gather information about the enemy situation outside the city through Pei Hongce's channel, anxiously waiting for an opportunity to strike.

  It's okay, Pei Hongce is indeed very kind to his distant nephew Chen Yingliang. For important military matters, he always answers questions and keeps in touch, sometimes even taking the initiative to send information. On the third day after Fan Zigai sent someone to contact Wei Xuan, Pei Hongce returned to Shangchun Gate from a meeting at the Imperial City. When passing through Jiaoye Fang, which was on his way, he came to the Baoguo Army camp and called Chen Yingliang to the side of the camp. With a smile, he said: "Wise nephew, good news! Wei Shangshu has replied, and he has decided to accept your suggestion to station the main force in the easily defended and difficult-to-attack Xifeng Pass, only sending a small detachment out of Xifeng Pass to appropriately restrain and probe Yang's main force, looking for an advantageous opportunity to attack."

  "Agreed?" Chen Yingliang was also overjoyed and said with a hint of relief: "I've been worried that Fan Liuzhu and Lord Wei are not under the same command, and Lord Wei is eager for revenge and won't accept this suggestion."

  "Commander Wei and Garrison Commander Fan have a slight friendship, and they are both loyal to the imperial court. As long as the suggestion is correct and reasonable, he will certainly listen." Pei Hongce smiled and said: "There's also the matter of internal traitors. In his reply, Commander Wei said that he also suspects there are Yang bandit spies in his troops, and is carefully investigating. Because of this, Garrison Commander Fan privately asked me to pass on a message to you, saying that you are a talented individual, telling you to focus on training your soldiers, lead the Reporting Army with peace of mind to kill the bandits and quell the rebellion, be loyal to the country, and when Yang Xuangan's rebel forces are pacified, Garrison Commander Fan will certainly plead for merit on your behalf before the Emperor."

  Chen Yingliang hypocritically showed humility, repeatedly thanking him. Originally, this matter was basically over here, and Pei Hongce was also preparing to return to Shangchunmen for garrison. However, Pei Hongce suddenly patted Chen Yingliang's shoulder and smiled: "You little guy, your luck is really good. For the sake of Wei Shangshu's letter, four imperial guards and a eighth-grade inner servant died, but in return, Fan Youzhou personally praised you and promised to reward you, which can be considered as great luck."

  "What does it mean that four Imperial Guards soldiers and a eunuch died?" Chen Yingliang asked with some confusion.

  "The eunuch who was sent to contact Wei Shangshu, the Minister of War, on behalf of Fan Liu's guard, encountered the pursuing troops of Yang Jue's rebel army on his way back. The four imperial guardsmen who were protecting him all died on the road back to the city, and their bodies were not even found. The eunuch escaped to the outside of the city gate, but was killed by the rebel scouts at the Over-the-River Stone Bridge, just a little short of returning to the city. At that time, it was already deep in the night, during the third watch. The garrison troops at the city gate waited until the rebel scouts had left before retrieving his body and finding Wei Shangshu's reply on him."

  The speaker was unintentional, but the listener had a mind. For a long time, Chen Yingliang, who relied on solving cases to make a living, immediately discovered that something was wrong and asked in a hurry: "Uncle, you just said that our messenger returned to the city at midnight? Was killed by bandits at the stone bridge over the river? And the reply from Wei Shangshu was found on the messenger's body after the fact?"

  "Yes, it was the third watch last night." Pei Hongce nodded and said: "Xianzhong, Uncle will return to Shangchunmen, you take good care of your body, if there's anything, just have someone tell me."

  As he spoke, Pei Hongce turned around and was about to leave, but Chen Yingliang quickly grabbed him and said, "Uncle, please wait a moment."

  "What else?" Pei Hongce asked.

  Chen Yingliang did not answer, his eyes rolled around in thought for a moment before he carefully said: "Uncle, don't you think this is a bit strange? The rebel scouts killed our messenger, and the gate guards of our city took a long time to bring back his body. In the meantime, the rebels had plenty of time to cover their tracks. Why wasn't Wei Shangshu's reply to us intercepted by the rebel scouts?"

  "Perhaps the rebel scouts forgot to search him?"

  "The enemy forgot to search the body, perhaps there is this possibility, but this possibility is very small." Chen Yingliang said: "Firstly, our messenger has Jinyiwei soldiers protecting him. Even if the rebel scouts are stupid, they must have guessed that he was a big shot and given him enough attention. Secondly, why didn't the rebel scouts think of searching the body for something valuable when they had enough time?"

  After listening to Chen Yingliang's analysis, Pei Hongce also found that something was wrong and quickly nodded: "Right, this is very wrong. So, wise nephew, why do you think the rebel scout would do such a thing?"

  "Uncle, is it possible that...?" Chen Yingliang smiled and said: "Yang Ni's treachery was intentional, he deliberately let his scout forget to search the body, and deliberately let Wei Shangshu's letter fall into our hands?"

  "Did you deliberately let Wei Shangshu's reply fall into our hands? Why?" Pei Hongce asked in surprise.

  "Because of that reply, it's highly likely to be a forgery!" Chen Yingliang replied decisively: "Yang Xuangan is a rebel, and for some purpose, he deliberately forged a reply from Wei Shangshu, using our genuine messenger to send the letter to the east of the city, and then staged a big show of pursuit in front of our gatekeeper soldiers. Even if we wanted to disbelieve that the letter was real, it would be impossible!"

  "What does it mean? 'A thrilling chase'?" asked Bae Hong-seok, trembling.

  "If I were Yang Xuangan, the rebel leader, this is what I would do." Chen Yingliang replied confidently: "I would send someone disguised as our messenger to run to the Luque Gate at midnight, shouting and claiming their identity. Then, they would intentionally be caught by the pursuing soldiers on the bridge and pretend to die there. After that, the pursuing soldiers would put the body of our real messenger on the bridge, making it look like a real scene. Anyway, it's so far away, and it's at night, our Luque Gate guards can't see clearly what happened on the bridge, they can only identify the situation by listening to the sounds."

  Pei Hongce was stunned, and after a long while, he suddenly let out a loud roar, startling all the soldiers who were in strict training. Then Pei Hongce didn't say another word, jumped onto his horse and galloped towards the imperial city at high speed, leaving his personal guards unable to keep up. Chen Yingliang smiled slightly, knowing that he might be able to show off again, then turned to the soldiers who had stopped training and roared: "What are you standing there for? Don't you continue training? The battle is about to start, if you don't train your body well, how can you kill the enemy and achieve merit?"

  About a moment later, another fast horse rushed into the military camp of Baoguo, and on the horse was a commander of the Imperial Guard, holding a token and shouting loudly: "The imperial edict of King Yue, Chen Yingliang, the registrar of Henan Zanzhifu, must enter the palace immediately to meet His Highness, no mistake is allowed!"

  "Yes, sir!" Chen Yingliang responded with a suave bow, then immediately handed over the training to the four camp marshals and mounted his warhorse, which had been prepared in advance, following the commander of the Imperial Guard out of the camp towards the Imperial City. Meanwhile, Chen Yingliang secretly smiled to himself, "Who would have thought that under Yang Xuangan's command, there could be such a capable person who can put on such a good show? The more capable people Yang Xuangan has under his command, the more opportunities I will have to showcase my skills!"