128 A Strategy to Defeat the Enemy

"For the glory of the Holy Mother!" With a synchronized roar, the Templars ignored their casualties and the swarming rebels. They spurred their horses, leveled their lances, and charged with every ounce of their strength. Their momentum was so magnificent that the rebel forces were forced back step by step. Within moments, leaving behind hundreds of corpses, the rebels huddled together in fear, watching from a distance as Taishi Ci charged toward the city of Changshe.

Far from the walls, Taishi Ci shouted at the top of his lungs: "I am Taishi Ci, under the command of General Luan Yi, the General Who Conquers the East! Open the gates at once!"

Atop the gate tower, Zhu Jun, who had been guarding the post all day, was resting with his eyes closed. Hearing this distinct Guandong accent and the chaotic noise in the night air, he scrambled up, wiped the sweat from his face, and leaned over the wall. By the faint light of the moon and torches, he looked down and immediately spotted the blood-red cross emblems on the banners and the cross patterns engraved on the soldiers' armor. Having spent considerable time in Luoyang, he had seen the crosses used by followers of the Holy Mother Church at the local church overseen by Luan Fu. He understood that only the Holy Mother Church of Jinan Kingdom used such markings to declare their identity.

"It is truly the men of Luan Ziqi! Open the gates!" Zhu Jun ordered loudly.

His adjutant, cautious by nature, reminded him, "General, be wary of a ruse!"

"Rest assured! These are indeed the men of Luan Ziqi. Look..." Zhu Jun pointed at Taishi Ci and his men below, "They are all wounded; would the rebels go to such lengths to disguise themselves? Besides..." His eyes widened as he looked a hundred paces out, "There are so many pursuing troops!" He cut off further discussion and urged his adjutant, "Open the gates! Follow me to receive our reinforcements!"

With a metallic screech, the gates were slowly lowered. Zhu Jun personally led a contingent of Han soldiers out to form a defensive line. Arrows rained down from both the city walls and the formation, forcing the pursuing rebels back. Zhu Jun’s army then escorted the charging Taishi Ci and his men into the city, and the gates were once again pulled shut.

After delegating the city's defense to his adjutant, Zhu Jun led Taishi Ci straight to the county magistrate's office.

The office had become the temporary command headquarters for the imperial army. Huangfu Song stood in the main hall, holding a candle to study a map spread out on the floor.

"Report! Brother Yizhen, good news! Reinforcements have arrived!" Zhu Jun’s excitement was palpable.

"What?" Huangfu Song jumped up, turning his gaze to Taishi Ci standing behind Zhu Jun. "And this is?"

Taishi Ci clicked his heels together and was about to raise his hand, but remembered he was not in the church camp. He changed the gesture to a formal cupped-fist salute. "I am Taishi Ci, under the command of General Luan Yi. Clad in armor, I cannot perform the full salute; I hope the two Generals will forgive me!"

"It is of no consequence!" Huangfu Song walked up to Taishi Ci and asked with a smile, "Where is Luan Ziqi now?"

"Reporting to the General of the Household: the... General Who Conquers the East is currently encamped thirty miles southeast of Changshe."

"Oh?" Huangfu Song returned to the map, searching until he found the location. He exclaimed joyfully, "So Ziqi is there! Haha... Brother Gongwei, Ziqi has chosen his position well! Camping there is like driving a nail into the enemy's flank, pinning him down! If they try to attack the city, Ziqi can strike their rear; if they try to attack Ziqi, our army can sally forth and crush them head-on. Bo Cai is in real trouble now!"

Zhu Jun examined the map following Huangfu Song's finger, and the situation was indeed as described. With Bo Cai caught between two fires, he was in for a bitter harvest. "I once thought Xu Zijiang's praise that Ziqi could 'settle the world from horseback' was an exaggeration, but I never expected it to be so precise. His ability to choose such a campsite alone shows the style of a grand master of warfare!"

"Indeed!"

Hearing the praise from Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, Taishi Ci nearly laughed out loud. The reason was simple: in the church army, all matters regarding marching and camping were actually handled by Xu Shu, and Luan Yi never interfered. Attributing this merit to Luan Yi was, frankly, a stretch.

However, although he wasn't sure if Luan Yi knew how to deploy troops or set up camps, Taishi Ci agreed with the praise of his ability to "settle the world." If nothing else, Luan Yi’s strength, which far exceeded that of ordinary men, was staggering, and such immense power was inseparable from formidable martial prowess. If someone so strong could not settle the world, who could?

"By the way, how many men did Ziqi bring?" Huangfu Song asked.

Taishi Ci bowed and replied, "The General brought ten thousand troops, but after several battles, many were lost. We now have fewer than eight thousand elite soldiers left."

"What? Only eight thousand?" Huangfu Song felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him; his heart sank. In his view, compared to Bo Cai’s hundreds of thousands of rebels, this force was pathetically small. What could they possibly achieve?

"General of the Left, General of the Right, there is one more thing I must report!"

"Speak freely!"

Taishi Ci collected his thoughts and said, "After my General arrived in Yingchuan, Bo Cai sent his vanguard, Peng Tuo, with fifty thousand men to intercept us. The two armies clashed one hundred miles west of Changshe. We feigned a retreat and set an ambush fifty miles west of Zhanding Peak. We raided Peng Tuo’s camp by night and dealt his army a crushing defeat. Therefore, Bo Cai’s hundreds of thousands have been reduced by at least fifty thousand!"

"What? Fifty thousand? Luan Ziqi has quite an appetite! Ten thousand defeating fifty thousand, tsk tsk tsk..." Zhu Jun was stunned.

"Heaven truly helps us!" Huangfu Song was more concerned with the reduction in numbers. By whittling down Bo Cai's force, Luan Yi had greatly facilitated their next move.

"Reporting to the two Generals, my master sent me into the city for another important matter." Stooped in his posture, Taishi Ci found himself missing the warmth of the church tent. Luan Yi often said: "All followers of the Holy Mother are her people. In the kingdom of the Holy Mother, everyone shares the same roots; all are children of the Holy Mother, brothers and sisters. No one is more noble than another, and no one is lower than another. We are equals and live together in harmony."

Because of this philosophy, in daily work, although the church had titles like leader, bishop, and knight, there was no barrier of status. Everyone spoke their minds freely. Take Zhang Fei, for example; he often interrupted Luan Yi while he was speaking. Luan Yi never got angry; he was always smiling and would even join in on the banter, creating a lively atmosphere. It was nothing like this, where he had to be servile and submissive. Even if Huangfu Song permitted him to be at ease, the guards inside and outside the hall would not allow it.

Thinking of this, Taishi Ci felt the Holy Mother Church was even more heartwarming, like a big family.

Hearing there was more to report, Huangfu Song asked, "What else, brave warrior?"

"Reporting to the two Generals, my master has devised a strategy to defeat the rebels!"

"Oh?" Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun exchanged a smile, showing no surprise. Taishi Ci was puzzled; why weren't these two great generals surprised that his master had found a way to win? Had they already thought of a way to crush Bo Cai themselves?

Zhu Jun asked, "Let us hear it."

"My General says that to break Bo Cai, we must use fire!"

As soon as the words fell, Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun burst into laughter. Huangfu Song said, "Haha... Ziqi's plan coincides exactly with my own." He picked up the map from the floor and held it for Taishi Ci to see. "Bo Cai commands over a hundred thousand men, yet he knows nothing of war. He has set up his camp in a grassland without clearing the weeds. Now that autumn is deepening and the vegetation is withered, a single fire would plunge the rebel camp into a sea of flames."

"Exactly so!" Taishi Ci marveled silently; a great general is indeed a great general to think just like his master.

"A pity!" Huangfu Song shook his head with a sigh. "The plan is good, but it relies on a west wind. However, since last month, the wind has blown only from the east; there has not been a single day of west wind. If not for this, I would have already sent Bo Cai into a sea of fire."

Taishi Ci reassured him, "General, do not fret. My master is also aware that 'everything is prepared, except for the west wind.' Before I left, he asked me to inform you that there will definitely be a west wind within three days."

"Hmm? Is Ziqi truly a divine man? How does he know the west wind will arrive?" Zhu Jun was greatly astonished.

Taishi Ci thought to himself: My master is of course a divine man! If he weren't, how could he have used the Five Thunders to execute Zhu Ying? However, he remembered well that before leaving, Luan Yi had repeatedly instructed him to be low-key and specifically warned against portraying him as overly supernatural. He pondered the answer Luan Yi had given him and explained, "My General says that in the Yingchuan region, at this time of year, cold currents from the eastern ocean meet with warm currents from the west, and the 'Siberian' cold current from the far north also blows here. The meeting of these currents creates a west wind that blows toward the east."

"What?" Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun were bewildered, especially intrigued by the "Siberia" that Taishi Ci had struggled to pronounce.

Taishi Ci stammered, unable to explain further, and concluded, "In any case! My General has lived in Yingchuan for generations and is intimately familiar with its climate. He knows that a west wind always blows in mid-September. The exact time will be within these few days!"

"Oh!" That made sense.

Huangfu Song asked, "Does Ziqi have a specific plan?"

"My master wishes to request..."

Seeing Taishi Ci being overly formal, Zhu Jun waved his hand and laughed, "What is this about requesting? We are the ones relying on Ziqi now! Speak plainly!"

"Yes!" Taishi Ci felt an even greater affinity for Zhu Jun, who had risen from humble origins. He continued, "My General says that on the night the west wind rises, you two Generals should lead your armies out to set the fire. When our army sees the flames in the rebel camp, we will take advantage of the chaos to storm the western gate and strike directly at the rebel grain stores in the rear. In this way, the rebels will surely be defeated!"

"Excellent!" The usually steady Huangfu Song, thinking of the impending fire, could not help but rub his hands in excitement. "We shall do as Ziqi says. When the wind rises, we will destroy the rebels and achieve immortal glory together!"