Volume Two: The Feudal Lords, Grandfather and Grandson Chapter 47: Seizing the City

Wei Fufeng walked without pause toward the rear residence of the prefectural office.

The rear residence extended through four courtyards, roughly divided into eastern and western sections. The eastern part resembled the layout within the city: a hundred-meter-long hall avenue, akin to a street, flanked by courtyard gates, with the ancestral hall for rites at its far end. The western section was a garden stretching a hundred meters, adorned with rocks, ponds, winding covered walkways, and elegant pavilions. One could easily imagine that the official who once built this western garden and the prefectural office had been a cultured gentleman.

Wei Fufeng passed through the ceremonial gate and stopped at the entrance of the hall avenue. Looking inside, he immediately saw two long rows of guards, stretching all the way to the innermost two-story, upturned-eaved pavilion. He did not proceed further, leaving all matters to his subordinates.

Wei Fufeng remained rational and composed. The Prefect Yang Shoubo, upon seeing him, perhaps driven by indignation to a willingness to die rather than cooperate, but Wei would not flaunt his authority for the sake of past humiliation—he kept his focus on the greater matters at hand.

After a brief wait, Zhang Tianyu and two soldiers emerged from a side door on the left of the hall avenue, striding over to Wei Fufeng. They saluted militarily and respectfully said, “Sir, Yang Shoubo is willing to cooperate.”

“What else did he say?” Wei Fufeng asked calmly.

“He cherishes his life, but kept asking where we are from. We paid him no mind,” Zhang Tianyu replied.

“Keep a close watch on him. Don’t let any guards leak our background,” Wei Fufeng instructed, and Zhang Tianyu answered respectfully.

Wei Fufeng nodded in satisfaction. “Zhang Tianyu, from now on you are Commander of Troops.”

“Yes, thank you, sir, for your promotion.” Zhang Tianyu saluted, promoted from deputy to commander.

With Yang Shoubo’s cooperation secured, Wei Fufeng obtained military orders signed by Yang and sent someone bearing these orders to the officer commanding the militia guarding the prefectural office.

The messenger informed the militia officers that the inner guards of the prefectural office would henceforth be replaced by the newly arrived troops, while the militia would only guard the exterior.

The militia had been left behind by the previous administration. On seeing the official orders, no one doubted them. They believed the new Prefect distrusted them and had brought in the Divine Strategy Army as inner guards, so they withdrew, taking up positions outside.

After removing the militia from the interior, Wei Fufeng replaced the armored guards at the gate. The nine guards, unsuspecting, were captured upon entering, only realizing then that the armored men let in were enemies.

With the prefectural office under control, Wei Fufeng moved to the next phase: a strategy his grandfather had once described—to attack the Li clan’s stronghold in Xicheng County to divert their attention, causing them to overlook the changes at the prefectural office for a brief time.

Ten able-bodied militia, armed with orders for business outside the city and Wei’s own commands, left the prefectural office and exited the city unimpeded, heading for the encampment of the Fufeng Army.

Upon receiving the orders, the Fufeng officers immediately mobilized, following the mountains along the Han River toward Yinghu Stronghold.

Ying Lake, formed by the Han River, was a vast freshwater lake. The Li clan’s stronghold was located there, in a land of abundant fish and rice.

By afternoon, the Fufeng Army and eighty strong militia arrived at Yinghu Stronghold and launched a feigned attack—bows drawn, arrows loosed, and shouted threats without mounting a true assault.

Yinghu Stronghold resembled a small city, with a four-meter-high wall of brick and stone stretching a mile long, bristling with soldiers. A genuine assault would have been costly.

Though no real siege occurred, the hail of arrows and bolts inflicted several dozen casualties on the defenders.

The defenders’ arms amounted only to what the militia could muster. To be fully armored would have been considered rebellion, and even the Lis could not afford such armaments.

The fierce onslaught frightened the commander into lighting the beacon fires and sending messengers for reinforcements; even without reinforcements, the situation had to be reported to the Marquis’s residence.

Beacon fires relayed the message across several stations. When smoke rose over Yinghu Stronghold, the relay towers on the hills also ignited their signals.

From the watchtowers at Xicheng County’s west gate, the sight of smoke prompted the gate officials to dispatch urgent messengers to both the prefectural office and the Marquis’s residence.

Wei Fufeng, awaiting word, received the urgent report and immediately issued military orders to all city gate officials.

Each gate was to dispatch sixty percent of its militia to assemble outside the west gate, and orders were sent to the Marquis’s residence in the east district, commanding them to send five hundred troops to repel the bandits.

Wherever the orders arrived, they were obeyed. The Marquis’s residence had indeed been monitoring the influx of new troops at the prefectural office, speculating based on the information received.

Their thinking leaned toward the Prefect’s distrust of the militia, so Yang Fugong had dispatched two hundred Yushan Army troops as the prefectural office’s inner guards.

The afternoon’s beacon fires jolted the Marquis’s officials into action, instinctively ordering their household troops to gather and prepare for battle.

Several hundred household soldiers gathered with weapons in hand; the Prefect’s orders soon arrived, commanding five hundred to proceed to the west gate under the command of the so-called Yushan Army commander, Zhang Tianyu, and then on to Yinghu Stronghold to repel the raiders.

None in the Marquis’s residence sensed anything amiss; their anxiety made the Prefect’s orders seem a natural military response.

In truth, the bulk of the Li clan’s grain was stored at Yinghu Stronghold—the very foundation of the Marquis’s power—so nothing could be allowed to happen to it.

Five hundred household troops hurried to the west gate and reported to Zhang Tianyu. Zhang brought only twenty of his own armored guards, but with the assembled eleven hundred militia, set out in a noisy rush to reinforce Yinghu Stronghold.

As Zhang Tianyu led his force away from the city, the Fufeng Army at the stronghold withdrew, doubling back in a roundabout route toward Xicheng County. The two armies passed each other on the road, separated by a mile.

When Zhang Tianyu arrived at Yinghu Stronghold, it was near dusk. Though the raiders had vanished, the garrison could not send their own men back hungry.

The stronghold’s commander, realizing the reinforcements were mostly familiar faces, let them inside to eat and spend the night.

As sunset fell, the Fufeng Army reached the vicinity of Xicheng County and, following Wei Fufeng’s orders, hid in the forest near the east gate, lighting no fires, gnawing on dry rations and salted meats, drinking from mountain streams.

Upon receiving word, Wei Fufeng set the next stage into motion. He ordered the militia guarding the prefectural office perimeter to be reassigned to the city’s four gates.

Fourteen men of the Chuan’nan Army, together with sixteen strong militia from Shangzhou, were sent to the east gate under a Chuan’nan leader, who was given a deputy command at the gate.

Simultaneously, orders were sent to the county office, instructing the magistrate to deploy a hundred and twenty prison guards to the four city gates. The county office, with a staff of two hundred guards, was split between the left and right captains.

Upon receiving the prefectural orders, the magistrate cursed Li Yun, the left captain, who had absconded with fifty guards, while the right captain, Zhou Xiong, had taken twenty home for his father’s funeral.

To send out a hundred and twenty guards as ordered was reasonable, but with seventy already missing, the county office would be left empty.

The magistrate dared not defy the prefect’s reasonable command, so after cursing, he reluctantly ordered the deployment, summoning all absent guards and yamen runners, even having runners replace guards in the prison.

There were more than four hundred prisoners in the jail—should a riot occur, it would be a disaster.

By the time these arrangements were made, dusk was falling. The weary magistrate, having finished assigning duties, was about to retire to the rear residence for dinner and rest when suddenly Wei Fufeng and his father entered the main hall, catching his eye with surprise.

Dressed in an azure official robe, Wei Xuan stepped forward and bowed respectfully. “Sir, I have been summoned, as all hands are needed at the county office. I have come to serve.”

The magistrate, feeling vexed, cursed whoever had made such a muddle, but having recently accepted a heavy bribe, he dared not show displeasure and merely said, “Very well, you may take up duty at the records desk.”

“Yes, I shall do so at once,” Wei Xuan replied with due respect, and together with his son and four strong retainers, went to the assistant magistrate’s office. The magistrate paid them little mind and went to his rear quarters to rest.

Upon arrival, the four retainers, at Wei Fufeng’s signal, remained on guard outside. The father and son entered the office, with Wei Xuan naturally taking the seat behind the desk, his eyes casually scanning the room. In truth, he was glad to have an official post at the county office.

“Fufeng, it’s so late—why did you call your father here?” Wei Xuan asked gently.

“Father, I am only following Grandfather’s instructions,” Wei Fufeng replied with a smile. The fright and regret of the morning had deepened his affection for his father.

Wei Xuan nodded and asked nothing more. He was used to enduring in silence under his father’s stern gaze and knew his father was disappointed in him.

Of the seven brothers, he was the most gifted, favored by Uncle Wei Zhaodu and appointed as secretary of Fufeng County, while none of the others could enter officialdom.

Since the disaster of Huang Chao, the world had been plunged into chaos, and learning had become the most useless of skills. The other brothers could all serve the family in some capacity, but he was fit for nothing—neither high nor low.

...

Just as Wei Fufeng and his father entered the office, a mutiny broke out in the east gate’s gatehouse. The gate official was chatting with the new deputy, inquiring about his origins, as he did not recognize him.

The deputy smiled and replied glibly, claiming to be the nephew of Registrar Qian.

The gate official, showing proper respect, was about to ask more when suddenly the deputy drew his blade in a flash, and with a cold gleam and a crunch, the official’s head fell.

Within the gatehouse were four confidants of the official, who drew their swords in alarm, but at that moment, a rush of pikemen surged in from outside.

The deputy moved even faster. Having slain the official, he hurled his blade at one of the foes, the weapon burying itself in the man’s face.

The pikemen, bristling with spears like a porcupine, drove at the remaining three enemies.

The trio, unremarkable fighters, tried to retreat in panic, shouting. One was kicked in the waist by the deputy and sent flying, only to be run through by a spear. The other two also perished on the spot.

The deputy retrieved his blade, calmly wiped the blood from it on a corpse, sheathed the weapon, and stepped out of the gatehouse to address the startled guards. His name was Lu Tao, formerly of the Tiger Guards, now promoted to sub-commander.

Lu Tao walked the walls with composure, followed by four retainers. The militia stationed behind the parapet, though unfamiliar with him, knew he was a military official sent from the prefectural office.

Rank-and-file soldiers naturally feared officers, and even if they heard something amiss, dared not question him, especially with most of the original garrison still away on the reinforcement mission.

Seeing that no one dared stir, Lu Tao signaled a subordinate to send out the agreed signal.