Chapter 601: When the hostage appeared (2/2)

His orders gave some pressure to Long Feiye and Han Yunxi; after all, it was hard for two people to face off against an archery force of thousands. But the image of them scurrying amongst the arrows gave everything a long-lasting impression. Although the victor had yet to be decided, in some ways the Qin couple had already won! Against the concentrated onslaught of arrows, neither husband nor wife retreated, but engaged in guerilla warfare against the archers with their own crossbow team as backup. Their strategy was to play defensive and seize opportune moments to attack by surprise.

Because they didn’t retreat, the archers dared not let up their assault, much less worry about the situation on the rest of the battlefield. This gave less pressure to Long Feiye’s, 5,000 troops, but only slightly. They still had no way to completely defeat 50,000 men.

Another hour passed. Scores of dead and injured littered both sides. Long Feiye’s side couldn’t afford too many losses, but the Chu troops could. Even if they lost 5,000, they’d still have over 40,000 left, still plenty of manpower to suppress the enemy. Long Feiye was neither an idiot nor a frivolous man. He wouldn’t blindly set 5,000 men against 50,000 because his true goal today was to play for time! He needed to drag on the fight here until the Western Zhou and south central region troops could overtake Youyun and Yaoshui Prefectures and reinforce them here.

Once he felt he’d delayed things long enough, Long Feiye immediately called for a retreat. General Chu exhaled with relief at the news and ordered, “Withdraw the troops and shut the gates! Leave 3,000 to stand guard, the rest hurry north to help Youyun Prefecture!”

Although they hadn’t managed to completely defeat Long Feiye, they’d gotten to a point where the other side was unable to continue. Now he could set his heart at ease and transfer troops north. Soon enough, his deputy general came with a report of the latest numbers.

“General, we lost a total of 1,000 archers and 5,000 infantrymen. Long Feiye’s 5,000 men have been reduced to 2,000 now.”

“We also lost a day’s worth of time!” General Chu added unhappily. His one consolation prize was the fact that Youyun Prefecture hadn’t sent news of their defeat yet. It looked like they might make it if they hurried there overnight. He arranged for the 3,000 reserve force to defend the city and made preparations for a secret transfer of soldiers overnight, away from Long Feiye’s knowledge. But he’d hardly finished when his deputy general rushed in with a shout. “General! General, bad news! It’s terrible!”

General Chu was currently applying numbing salve to his arm. The sight of his panicked deputy made him all the more irritated, so he simply ignored the man. 50,000 men had failed to destroy Long Feiye’s 5,000 troops and even cost him a precious day of travel. What could be worse than this?

But the deputy general’s words stunned him into leaping up from his seat. He even knocked over the bowl of salve prepared for him by the doctor and forgot about the itching pain in his arm!

The deputy general said, “General, the Duke of Qin’s pitched a camp about 1,000km away and…and hung up the young general outside it. The Duke of Qin said…he’ll cut the young general with a sword for each day we refuse to surrender!”

The Chu Clan’s young general was none other than Chu Tianyin! General Chu had never forgotten about his son, but he’d never ask for him outright unless Long Feiye brought it up first, to avoid being threatened or blackmailed. Now Long Feiye had pushed out Chu Tianyin at a time like this! The thing he’d feared most of all had still come to pass. This was his own flesh and blood, his most favored son! Although the Chu Clan had heirs aplenty, it only had one son by the first wife. None of the others could compare to Chu Tianyin’s martial arts skills or competence, either.

General Chu didn’t have to compete with Chu Yunyi for leadership of the clan, but he would have to retire someday. His precious son was the best candidate for his position. If he withdrew his troops now, his son would remain unharmed. Faced with such a dilemma, General Chu found himself hesitating again.

Chu Yunyi was standing right on the side. He was very clear on General Chu’s feelings towards his child, and the fact that the Chu Clan needed a capable heir with the two of them currently injured. But he hesitated as well. Youyun and Yaoshui were in mortal danger right now. Ning Cheng’s troops had yet to arrive. If they gave up Fenglin Prefecture for Chu Tianyin, won’t they have nothing left?

Then the Chu Clan would have no place to go! Were they supposed to fight their way through the Tianning borders then? Emperor Tianhui had yet to die. If they entered tianning now, then they would be accused of illegitimately taking the throne. They had expended all that effort to induce an early labor in Chu Qingge just so they could claim Tianning’s throne square and fair.

Although they were cooperating with Ning Cheng now, they still had to be on guard against him! Before Emperor Tianhui died and the crown prince took the throne, they had to keep out of Tianning in case they offended Ning Cheng. Then the man would be able to trump up countercharges against the crown prince and empress for trying to usurp the throne, thus wasting all their efforts in Western Liang.

Both brothers had selfish motives at heart, but they had to consider the welfare of the clan as well. They stared at each other for a long time before General Chu spoke first. “Big bro, you’re the clan head. You should decide!”

Chu Yunyi couldn’t help but heave a sigh. “Things would be better if we still had Gu Beiyue in our hands!”

“Big bro, when will Ning Cheng arrive?” General Chu asked.

“We agreed on the day after tomorrow. There’s only two days left….I don’t know if Tianyin….” Chu Yunyi meant to say that he wanted to wait it out. If they could last two more days, then Ning Cheng’s reinforcements would be able to catch Long Feiye’s unawares. It could be taken as a concession on Chu Yunyi’s part, since that meant abandoning Youyun Prefecture in favor of Fenglin. But delaying two days meant that Chu Tianyin would be cut twice by Long Feiye’s sword! If Long Feiye aimed for a vital spot, then one cut would be enough to take his life!

After some thought, General Chu decided to go ahead and risk everything. “Even if Gu Beiyue isn’t in our hands, we can still threaten them!”

If we leak Gu Beiyue’s whereabouts to pressure Han Yunxi, we should at least be able to buy two more days!