891 Trees Look Like Soldiers (1/2)

Chapter 891 – Trees Look Like Soldiers

Regarding the Battle of Fei River, why was Fu Jian so anxious and did not wait for the whole army to gather before setting off together?

It was not that he did not want to; rather, there was no way he could.

With the ancient technological standards, what kind of concept was gathering a million people in one place?

Even if one walked on a big road that was relatively wide and could allow 20 people to walk at once, the entire army would take up 50 kilometers of land.

That was a terrifying and uncontrollable situation.

If the million troops proceeded together, the resources would not be able to meet the supply.

The only way was to split up. Fu Jian's strategy was to split the million troops into a few groups. When the first one fell, the second one would replace it; he wanted to use a human ocean method to push the East Jin army to death.

Fu Jian once said that he had so many troops that he could cut the river flow just by throwing the horse whips into the river. Reality proved that before his second group even had a chance, the war was totally over.

...

Compared to the former Qin that was filled with problems, East Jin before the Battle of Fei River was another different story.

When news of Fu Jian coming down south spread to Jiankang, the East Jin Imperial Court was astonished.

Easy Jin at that time was split into two military powers, one was the Hengchong Army housed in Jingzhou and the other was the north house army defending Zunnan, which was led by Xie Shi and Xie Xuan.

From the direction that Fu Jian was attacking from, the north house army took up the main battle responsibilities.

Xie Xuan was really anxious, and sought help from the number one person in East Jin, Xie An. Xie An was just a polite minister, so he obviously did not have any good ideas. As such, he could only try to cover up by saying, ”The Imperial Court has other plans.”

In truth, there was no other plans, and Xie Xuan could only rely on himself.

Heng Chong was also really anxious, and he sent three thousand elite guards to Jiankang. In the end, Xie An said to them, ”It's already settled here; go back to defend the west!”

When Heng Chong heard that, he sighed, ”We are finished!”

Seeing that the imperial officials were all going to become prisoners of war, they could not take it and went to look for Xie An. Xie An had no way to handle all of them, so he left to tour. During the day, he did not show himself in Jiankang.

Some people lavished praise on Xie An and said that he played an instrumental and defeated Fu Jian. In truth, this was just people saying random stuff and was far from the truth.

Xie An was already leaving it to the heavens at this rate. Luckily, if he were a prisoner, he would not be at any life threatening risk. Fu Jian treating prisoners well was a tradition, and he had sent word that after he destroyed East Jin, he would give Xie An a good position.

In Chang An City, Fu Jian had built a mansion for him in advance.

Xie An only knew how to act and could not provide any help. Xie Shi and Xie Xuan could only gather all the troops they had and go for an all-out battle with Fu Jian's army.

In the 10th month, Fu Jian's vanguard forces crossed the Huai River and attacked Shouyang City. Fu Rong planned to destroy the surrounded Jin army and sent out another 50 thousand troops to Luojian in the east to prevent East Jin reinforcements.

At that point, Fu Jian's main force was still being gathered and Fu Jian himself was with a portion of his troops in Xiang City.

The surrounded Jin army sent a letter to Xie Xuan for help but, Fu Rong intercepted the letter. Fu Rong happily felt that the end of the Jin army had arrived and immediately told Fu Jian the news.

Fu Jian was on cloud nine when he heard it and immediately led 80 thousand cavalry to Shouyang to gather with Fu Rong. The remaining main force slowly proceeded on the roads.

Xie Xuan and the north house army main force of 70 thousand entered Luo Jian to try to save the trapped Jin army.

However, there were 50 thousand Qin troops standing between them, so the north house army had no choice but to attack. Liu Laozhi under Xie Xuan led five thousand elite troops to sneak attack the Qin army. The Qin army was not prepared and collapsed.

Just like how all other battlefields collapsed, the soldiers were unable to deduce how many enemy troops there were and could not effectively resist. They were just trying to escape.

The general was unable to prevent such a collapse, and they were either killed or captured. In the end, 15 thousand of them died and their supplies and equipment fell into the hands of the Qin army. 50 thousand troops falling under the attacks of five thousand; this was pretty much a premonition of what was going to come.

This failure stunned Fu Jian. For the first time since he set out, he felt fear.

After taking down Luo Jian, the Jin army continued forward to gather with the troops that were surrounded. At this point, the navy and army, a total of 80 thousand, had gathered up and camped at the east of the Fei River.

At this very moment, a key person who decided the outcome of the battle appeared. He was Zhu Xu, who was captured. After he was captured, Fu Jian followed tradition and treated him well.

Zhu Xu was appointed as the ambassador to persuade them to surrender. However, not only did he not do that, but he said to Xie Shi, ”Although they have a million troops, they are just gathering. The situation now is different; use the chance that all their men have not arrived to swiftly attack. As long as you can crush their vanguard forces, you can destroy their million men army.”

Xie Shu originally planned on defending but under Zhu Xu's persuasions, he decided to strike out.

The Fei River was decided as the location where the two armies would go all out.

Fu Jian's army gathered at the Fei River west shore, right opposite the Jin army. At that time, in the Fujian army, Fu Rong's forces numbered 250 thousand and Fu Jian brought over 80 thousand troops.

However, Fu Rong sent another 30 thousand troops towards Jingzhou, and he also lost some men in Luo Jian. At the same time, he left some to defend Shouchun. Hence, at the moment, there were truly only 150 thousand former Qin troops.

The Qin army was all elite Di race soldiers and were all gathered in the middle troops commanded by Fu Rong. Apart from that, there were many Han Chinese, Xianbei people, Qiang, and Wuheng people. They did not feel much loyalty toward the former Qin made by the Di Race and came because of fear.

The racial differences added many more complications, and it made commanding much harder. Just language alone was a huge problem, and Fu Rong's orders needed to be translated into different languages before they could be spread down.

150 thousand men coming from so many different races; without receiving proper training, they were squeezed together on the west coast of the Fei River. Even if a god was their commander, it would be difficult to command them.

Both sides waited solemnly by the river and neither side acted.

Fu Jian and Fu Rong came onto the Shouyang City wall, looking out at the orderly Jin troops opposite them; the enemy had elite soldiers. Then, they looked north at the trees on Bagong mountain, which all looked human shaped.

Fu Jian looked at Fu Rong and said with shock and fear, ”The enemy looks strong; we should pay attention!”

This was where the idiom Caomu Jiebing came about. It was to show about that after the defeat at Luo Jian, Fu Jian had already turned from being overconfident to lacking in confidence.