The Warring States, Books 1-3

by Greg Strandberg

  “We’ll have to–”

  Lushan wasn’t able to finish before a huge swarm of arrows flew forth from the Zhao archers’ bows and sailed out high over the battlefield, shooting higher and higher until they arced downward and began their descent, pointing directly down on the Wei Army’s right-flank.

  Sun watched as many of the infantrymen and archers dropped their weapons and raised up their small circular shields, those lucky enough o have them. The rain of arrows turned into a rain of death as they fell into the ranks, and Sun watched as hundreds of men went down, many thrashing about with painful wounds, but far too many not moving at all. What was worse were the dozen or so chariots that toppled over, some of them taking others with them.

  “Those shields don’t work too well,” Lushan pointed out.

  Sun shook his head. “Not everyone has one. I think the next few volleys won’t be as deadly as those without become less.

  He was right. A few moments after that first volley of arrows flew out another one followed. This time only dozens dropped where before it’d been hundreds. By the time the third volley came out a few moments after that just a dozen or so men dropped – already the Zhao archers were losing their effectiveness.”

  “Here they come,” Sun said, pointing up at the chariots on the eastern side of the road as they began to roll forward and then down the hill and toward the city.

  “We’ll wait for them to reach the mid-point of the field before ordering them out!” Sun yelled over the already loud rumbling of hundreds of chariots rolling down the hill.

  Lushan nodded, not even trying to speak over the loud noise. He watched the field ahead of them and felt his heart begin to pound with anxiety as the chariots rushed at them.

  “Hold!” Sun yelled out.

  He cast his gaze down the long line of chariots and infantrymen on either side of him. The chariots were a quarter down the hill and at the top the infantry units were starting to shift about, and Sun knew they’d be marching down in seconds.

  “Hold!” he yelled again as the chariots reached the mid-point of the field.

  Lushan looked up at him, concern in his eyes. They’d agreed to call for the advance when the Zhao troops were halfway through the field. What is he doing?

  “Hold!” Sun called out again, the chariots rushing toward them at breakneck speed, already past the halfway point and without a single arrow fired at them.

  Lushan looked up again. At any moment the Zhao forces would cross the three-quarter mark of the field, and when that happened Wei wouldn’t have enough time or space to get their chariots into enough of a charge to block the Zhao chariots. They’d instead be rundown, the massive cars useless. He looked up at Sun once again, and saw that he had his jaw firmly set and his eyes locked on the chariots rushing toward them. If he didn’t give the–”

  “Charge!” Sun yelled. “Charge, charge, charge!”

  The horses all down the line jumped as their drivers thrashed the reins down on them, and then they were rushing out to meet the Zhao chariots.

  Sun didn’t watch them take off, he spun around to Lushan and a few other officers standing nearby.

  “Pull the left-flank back behind the city,” he ordered.

  Lushan looked up at him in shock.

  “They’ll route us,” he said.

  “Do it!” Sun shouted down over the sounds of the chariots around them. “Pang’ll need that hole open when the time comes.”

  “There’s no indication that Pang will reach us in time! Lushan called back. “Pulling those troops back now will spell our doom!”

  Sun looked at the Wei General coldly.

  “Do it,” he said, and then rode off down the line.

  ~ ~ ~

  “What are they doing!” Ren shouted, his arm shooting out to point at the left flank of the Wei army. “They’re pulling their line back, the fools!”

  “Could it be some kind of trap, sir?” Ren’s leading officer asked.

  “It has to be, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is,” Ren said. “There’s no indication that they have anymore troops anywhere and our scouts all report that the roads are clear.”

  “What do you want to do sir?” the soldier asked, nervousness in his voice.

  Ren looked over at him and his usually cold face broke out in a smile.

  “Why, fill that hole of course!”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Here’s their charge!” Lushan shouted, looking angrily up at Sun. “They’re filing that hole our forces left on the left-flank.”

  Sun nodded. “Good.”

  Lushan looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “What do you mean ‘good?’ Those forces are going to run over us like we’re nothing.” He threw his arms up. “I don’t know why Pang ever gave you the command of this army – I’m taking over here.”

  Sun pulled out a small dagger and rushed at Lushan, putting the blade to his throat.

  “To call those forces back into position now would be folly,” he said coolly and slowly. “Trust me, Lushan – I know what I’m doing.”

  Lushan highly doubted that, but he had few choices open to him but to nod, and that ever so slightly. Sun let him go and he smoothed his robes out.

  “It’ll be your head on the line for this one,” Lushan said, casting a cold look at Sun.

  Sun nodded. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “Fire!” Sun shouted.

  Almost instantly the archers all up and down the Wei lines let their arrows fly out at the advancing Zhao infantry. The arrows flew out in an arc and then downward toward the infantry. The chariots were already too far up to get too many arrows, but the infantry blocks were ideally positioned. Hundreds of men fell to the ground and a second volley was already flying out just moments later. More men fell to the ground, but not as many as the first time. The soldiers pressed on, and Sun gave the word.

  “Chariots, advance!” he yelled out, and Lushan next to him sent the order down the lines. He had a grim look on his face, but the earlier tension the two had shown had faded away. Somehow the line had been able to stabilize after much of the troops pulled back. From both sides of the road the chariots sped forth and the ground shook under their might, and they were the only thing keeping Wei alive right now..

  “It’ll be a hard-fought fight if Pang doesn’t show up,” Lushan said to Sun, riding his horse over closer so he could be heard.

  “He’ll be here,” Sun said, his jaw firm and his eyes set, although doubt clouding his mind for the first time. “He’ll be here.”

  ~ ~ ~

  “There!” one of the soldiers shouted out.

  Pang looked up and saw their scout riding back, his horse’s coat showing a fine sheen of sweat. He rode down and came through the columns of men until he’d reached Pang.

  “We’ve got miles yet,” the man said, “and Zhao’s already started the fight.”

  “How is it?” Pang asked. He was eager to be there, but if he couldn’t he had to hear how it was going.

  The messenger shook his head. “Zhao’s got them pressed back against the city and they can’t direct their forces around their right-flank, not with the arrows raining down on them from the hills overlooking the city.”

  “Can they hold?” Pang asked anxiously.

  “I’m not sure,” the messenger said. “They’re pressed hard.”

  Pang nodded and gathered his leading lieutenants around.

  “We’ll have to send the chariots on ahead,” he said.

  “Splitting our forces is just asking for trouble,” one of them said.

  Pang bit his lip, but nodded. “I know, but unless we relieve some of that pressure that Zhao’s putting on Sun’s forces then there’ll be nothing left of them by the time we get there.”

  “It’ll still be hours before the rest of the army arrives,” another man said. “How long will fifty chariots stem the tide for?”

  “I don’t know,” Pang answered truthful
ly, “but I’m not going to do nothing. Send word down the lines and have the men move to the right of the road. Send the chariots up and we’ll get them to the battle in under an hour. Hopefully there’ll be something for them to protect by the time they get there.”

  The men nodded and rushed to do as Pang instructed. He stared at the long road ahead of them once they’d gone and wondered how long Sun could last.

  SIXTEEN

  “The line’s not going to hold!” Lushan shouted at Sun. “You’ve got to call those men back from the city!”

  “Pang will be here!” Sun shot back.

  Lushan was just about to reach for the dagger at his belt, meaning to take command of this army by force, when suddenly there was a loud rumbling noise from the west. He looked up and saw dust clouds rising in the hills where the road led.

  “There!” a man further down the line shouted.

  Both Sun and Lushan put their hands to their foreheads and peered into the swirling clouds. Then they saw it – a lone chariot rushing forth, and then another behind it. Neither man could make out who was driving the car from this distance, but they assumed it had to be Pang.

  “Pull up the left-flank!” Sun shouted. “Hit them with everything we’ve got – Pang’s army’s arrived!”

  A great cheer went up down the line and then the men got to it, shifting all they had and pushing hard against the Zhao line. Thousands of infantrymen fought and died with the push and arrows rained down indiscriminately from both armies. But now with an extra 200 chariots rushing in Sun knew the tide had turned. It would be awhile yet, but eventually the infantry, tens of thousands of men more, would follow, and Zhao could either fight to the death or flee.

  “That’s all,” Pang said suddenly, pointing up the hill where the chariots were coming from. “Just fifty cars.”

  Sun looked up and saw that there were no more chariots coming forth, and no dust cloud rising up higher behind them. For some reason Pang had brought only a small force.

  “Press the attack!” Sun yelled down the line to the commanders, then turned to Lushan. “We can’t back down now.”

  Lushan nodded, knowing they were stuck in this fight now.

  ~ ~ ~

  “They’ve decimated our line,” Ren said to his second in command as he stared down at the field below them. “Or at least our own archers have.”

  “That rush of chariots an hour ago did much to help,” the officer said.

  “There’s no way we’ll get into the city now, even with how many losses we’ve caused Wei here today.”

  The officer nodded. “Now that fighting’s broken out between the states there’s a good chance someone might try to move against us. We’d do best to pull back across the border and see what develops.”

  Ren sucked in a deep breath and let it out again. He didn’t like the idea of running from a fight with his tail between his legs, but he also had a feeling this was just a small battle in a much larger war that’d just stared.

  “Give the order,” he said to the officer. “Start pulling them back.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Pang steered his chariot over toward the group of commanders assembled behind the city. He could see Sun Bin standing there and he meant to find out what had happened before he’d arrived.

  By the time he was a dozen yards from the commanders they’d spotted him and Sun was walking forward.

  “Where were you!” he shouted. “You almost cost us this battle!”

  “The roads were terrible,” Pan said. “It took us twice as long as we expected to cross over them.

  Sun shook his head. “Zhao almost overran us, and probably would have if your scant force didn’t show up when it did.”

  “Well I’m glad to see I’m getting a lot of thanks for my effort!” Pang shouted back angrily.

  “And the rest of your troops, where are they now?” Sun asked.

  “Still coming down the road,” Pan said. “They should be here before nightfall.”

  “A lot of good that will do us now.” Sun crossed his arms and turned to look at Lushan, then back at Pang. “And you could save them a lot of effort if you’d just turn them back around and head back to the Wey border.”

  “What if Zhao comes back?” Pang said, caught off-guard by the strange request.

  “We’ll take our chances,” Sun said, then started to walk away.

  Pang watched him go, wondering what his childhood friend was up to. Already he’d be given the glory for this victory, however tenuous it may have been. Whatever attention Pang would get would be minimal, if any came at all. The words of Meilin came back to him, and the jealously Marquis Wu felt for General Wu Qi. Pang watched Sun go, and began to feel the same.

  ~ ~ ~

  A messenger suddenly burst into the tent, panting and with sweat cascading off his brow.

  “To the south!” he managed to gasp. “Chu!”

  “What?” Sun said, sitting up and quite surprised by the sight of the man. “What are you saying, man?”

  “Chu’s advancing,” the man said as he kept his hands on his knees and panted for breath.

  Lushan looked over at Sun.

  “Chu...how could Chu be advancing?”

  Sun looked from the General back to the messenger.

  “What exactly is going on?” he asked.

  Over the past few days Pang had turned his forces back around and headed to the Wey border with Wei. Zhao had moved back across their own border, although they’d stubbornly stayed there for several days, meaning Sun couldn’t pull his own forces out of Wey yet. And now there was word that Chu was acting up to the south. What was going on?

  The messenger collected himself. “Sometime over the past few days Chu used the confusion surrounding what happened her in Wey to mobilize and push forth. When we weren’t even looking they came in and took up large swaths of land, faster than anyone thought possible.” He shook his head and stared at Sun and Lushan. “They’ve seized nearly half of the state!”

  “How bad is it?” Lushan asked.

  “The Chu troops are already so entrenched that it appears the land is lost to us forever.”

  Sun looked over at Lushan. “We’ve got to see this for ourselves.”

  The General nodded and both men headed out the tent and to their horses.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Sir!” a voice called out behind the line, and Sun turned his horse around.

  “What is it?” he asked of the messenger riding up quickly.

  “There’s word from Pan near the Wei border,” he said quickly, then looked up into Sun’s eyes, “Zhao has invaded Wei.”

  “What!” Lushan nearly shouted beside Sun. “How is that possible, they’ve been at the border with Wey.”

  The messenger shook his head. “That was just a diversionary force, it seems – they’re true army moved west when we didn’t’ realize it and invaded.”

  “And Pang?” Sun asked. “He was on the border, did he stop them.”

  “No,” the messenger said, looking down. “He was too far from Anyi, and the attack came north of the border there.”

  Sun looked over at Lushan. “That’s hundreds of miles to the west, he never could have made it on time!”

  “Somehow he did,” the messenger said, “at least fast enough to block their southern movement – many are saying he saved the capital.”

  “We’ve got to get back there,” Lushan said.

  The messenger held out a note to Sun. “This just came, shortly after the message about Zhao.”

  He handed the note to Sun, who broke the seal and read it quickly, then once again more slowly.

  “What does it say?” Lushan asked.

  Sun shook his head. “I’m being called back to Anyi.”

  Lushan looked down at the ground and Sun bit his lip. It was clear this message had been sent from Hui, and Sun didn’t have a good feeling about it at all.

  ~ ~ ~

  It was a cold and rainy day when both Sun and Pang rode back into
the capital city of Anyi and drove their chariot up the cobbled streets to the palace. Both men had met up near Pang’s army, which was holding Zhao at the border. They hadn’t talked much on the short ride from the army camps, and neither felt like talking as they started into the palace and then made it to the throne room. Hui was waiting for them in the throne room, which had been meticulously cleaned over the previous month since Hui had in effect become Marquis in all but name. Although clean, the room was still eerily empty save for a few guards posted at the doors inside and out. Hui ushered the two men forward after they’d entered and looked down on them for several long moments before speaking.

  “The events in Wey did not go as we had planned,” he said in an even tone, and, for the first time since they’d entered, took his eyes off the two men to shake his head and exhale audibly. “No, not as we had planned at all.”

  “The attack from Chu came as a complete surprise,” Sun ventured. “I don’t think anyone could have seen that coming.”

  “And the attack on us from Zhao during that push north by Chu?” Hui shouted, coming up from his chair. “They pushed more than thirty miles into our territory! Who is to answer for that?”

  “I will, Sire,” Pang said. “The army I took away from Anyi could have thwarted that attack.”

  Hui nodded and stared into his hands. “I’m beginning to think that this plan to help Wey was not such a good idea. It’s cost us more than I imagined.”

  Hui reached over to a small basket beside him and lifted it up before upending it in front of him. A dozen papers fell to the floor, most looking to be rolled pieces of parchment, small enough for a bird to carry, although each was torn in half.

  “All of these are messages from the rulers of the other Seven States,” Hui said, motioning toward the small pile of paper. “Each one of them is a copy of the peace agreement signed in Luoyang twenty years ago, and each is torn in half. They arrived from each of the Seven States save Yan, each with no explanation or accompanying words, although I think their message is quite clear.”

  “It was to be expected that the peace would be broken with this latest attack against Zhao,” Sun said.