Chapter Five: Women Stand Equal to Men
Almost all the people in Jingyang County, whether or not they had suffered at the hands of the Western Qin soldiers, spontaneously armed themselves with whatever they could find: hatchets, kitchen knives, axes, mallets, rakes, carrying poles, or even cleavers. If none of these were available, they would seize a stick or tear off a table leg to wield as a weapon.
The people of Jingyang County had taken action, and this was exactly what Chen Ying had counted on when he dared to devise such a reckless plan. The Western Qin troops had never anticipated that the people of Jingyang would actually dare to attack them. Precisely because they could not conceive of it, they were caught completely off guard. In the brief chaos that lasted but a quarter of an hour, nearly half of the two thousand Western Qin soldiers were struck down.
With a bang, Zheng Biao raised his arm to shield his head, allowing a townsman wielding a mallet to strike him squarely on the arm. The searing pain twisted Zheng Biao’s face into a grimace.
He howled in desperation, “Great Qin is invincible! Long live Great Qin...”
But before he could rally the Western Qin soldiers for a counterattack, they were engulfed by the surging townsfolk. These furious commoners struck with a force that rivaled the Western Qin soldiers. At first, they had not dared resist, lacking only a leader—once Chen Ying stepped forward, these seemingly meek and timid people transformed into ferocious tigers in an instant.
The Chinese people are the finest of all nations; give them farming tools, and they are the most capable farmers in the world. With only seven percent of the world’s arable land, they feed twenty-two percent of the world’s population—a miracle created by the Chinese. Give them weapons, and they become the most formidable army on earth, conquering all before them and undefeated in battle. Give them tools, and they are the most skilled craftsmen—be it the Grand Canal, the Great Wall, or the Terracotta Army of the First Emperor, every one is a legend that astonishes the world.
Once the people of Jingyang rose up, the outcome of the battle for the city was sealed. The two thousand disarmed Western Qin soldiers never managed an organized counterattack. In just half an hour, Chen Ying and his companions had divided the Western Qin soldiers into dozens of isolated groups within the city, and the final eradication was underway.
With a wet slash, Chen Ying brought his blade down on Zheng Biao’s neck, signaling the end of the battle.
An hour later, the last Western Qin soldier was pounded into pulp by the furious people of Jingyang.
“We’ve won! We actually won!” Zhang Huaiwei could scarcely believe what he saw before him—even though over two thousand Western Qin soldiers had stormed the city, with only seven regular soldiers and thousands of townsfolk, they had not only defended Jingyang, but utterly wiped out the enemy. Such a feat, if told, would scarcely be believed.
Yet the iron fact could not be denied.
“Thank you, Lord Chen, for saving our lives!”
“Many thanks, Lord Chen, for saving us!”
Tens of thousands of Jingyang’s people cheered and fell to their knees before Chen Ying, expressing their gratitude to Chen Ying and Zhang Huaiwei.
“It’s victory!” The tension in Chen Ying’s body loosened at last, and he collapsed to the ground, exhaustion overtaking him and his eyes closing of their own accord.
Zhang Huaiwei shouted desperately, “Is there a physician? Quickly, come save him!”
In the Hall of Chengqian at the Prince of Qin’s residence in Chang’an, Prince Li Shimin lay pale-faced on his seat, gazing miserably at Princess Pingyang, Li Xiuning, and muttered, “We’ve suffered a terrible defeat, a crushing defeat! It’s all Liu Wenjing’s fault—he’s brought calamity to nearly a hundred thousand of our Great Tang’s soldiers!”
Li Shimin’s brows knit in fury as he gritted his teeth: “I’ll go to my father… and deal with him.”
Li Xiuning frowned. “That’s not the most important matter right now!”
Li Shimin asked in confusion, “Sanniang, do you mean those one hundred thousand soldiers are to die in vain?”
“What matters now is how we handle the aftermath,” said Li Xiuning. “The Great Tang is newly established and can muster, at most, one hundred fifty thousand troops. There are twenty thousand in Taiyuan, fewer than five thousand in Chang’an, and less than twenty thousand scattered remnants returning. If Xue Ju launches a major offensive into Guanzhong, what do we have to resist him with?”
At that moment, Lei Yongji, Captain of the Right Guard in the Prince of Qin’s residence, burst into the hall, panic etched on his face.
Seeing his trusted general so distraught, Li Shimin’s anger flared.
Before he could vent his fury, Lei Yongji stammered, “Prince Qin… Your Highness, Jingyang… Jingyang…”
Li Shimin struggled to rise, nerves taut. “What about Jingyang?”
Lei Yongji’s face was grim. “Urgent beacon fire!”
Li Shimin exclaimed in surprise, “Xue Ju moves fast!”
Li Xiuning asked, “How many plumes?”
In ancient times, beacon fires could only convey simple signals: a single plume meant peace, two plumes signaled alarm—an enemy force of over three thousand threatening the city. The highest alert, city in peril and its people doomed, was three plumes.
“Three plumes!”
At those words, Li Shimin fainted onto the bed.
Li Xiuning turned pale with shock. Physicians rushed in to treat Li Shimin, and when it was found that he was merely overcome with rage and anxiety, she heaved a sigh of relief, then called out, “Prepare the carriage—we go to the palace!”
Chang’an was only eighty li—about forty kilometers—from Jingyang. For a fine warhorse, with constant relays and no concern for exhaustion, the distance could be covered in half an hour by changing mounts six to eight times.
As Li Xiuning hurried to the palace from the Prince of Qin’s residence, Emperor Li Yuan of the Great Tang had already received a detailed report: King Zong Luohou of Yixing under Western Qin had led two to three thousand men to breach Jingyang.
Li Yuan nearly fainted when he heard. The news was a bombshell that sent shockwaves through the nascent Tang court.
The court was in an uproar. Led by Chancellor Xiao Yu, many ministers proposed relocating the capital, cloaking their arguments in high-sounding rhetoric—they claimed Taiyuan was the emperor’s base of power, secure and well-established…
Crown Prince Li Jiancheng was deeply opposed to Xiao Yu. However noble the argument, moving the capital was tantamount to fleeing, and would bring shame upon them throughout the land. The most critical issue was that their faction was weak in court; the only one opposing the plan was Minister Feng Lun and his son Feng Deyi, Director of the Imperial Library.
Yet Xiao Yu branded Feng Deyi a sycophant, accusing him of wishing to place the Emperor in peril, with sinister motives. Feng Deyi was left speechless.
At that moment, Li Yuan looked to his old friend Pei Ji, but before Pei Ji could speak, the attendant in the Hall of Sweet Dew announced loudly, “Princess Pingyang requests an audience!”
Li Yuan’s face darkened. “At a time like this, Pingyang still wants to make a scene? No…”
He meant to refuse, but before he could finish, Princess Pingyang’s voice floated into the hall.
“Father, I request permission to take command and rescue Jingyang!”
Li Yuan had become emperor through his extraordinary political acumen and military insight. He knew better than anyone that Jingyang must be saved, yet he was constrained by circumstances he could not speak of.
The Tang was newly established and the people’s hearts unsettled. When Zong Luohou’s forces took Jingyang, he had already received a secret message from Li Daozong, commander at Tong Pass: Wang Shichong of Luoyang had sent Wang Xuanying with thirty thousand men close to Tong Pass. Though Tong Pass was formidable, without reinforcements, Li Daozong’s three thousand old and weak soldiers could not possibly hold it.
But Chang’an itself required a substantial garrison. After consulting with Crown Prince Li Jiancheng, Li Yuan found, to his sorrow, that he could spare only three thousand troops for Li Daozong without compromising Chang’an’s security.
Three thousand at Tong Pass was but a drop in the ocean.
How could he spare forces to aid Jingyang?
Frustrated, Li Yuan immediately dismissed the court, retaining only the crown prince and his daughter Li Xiuning.
When Li Xiuning learned that her father truly had no troops to spare, she was not flustered. Instead, she asked Li Jiancheng, “Elder brother, how many men can you draw from the Six Guards of the Eastern Palace?”
“Excluding those sent to Tong Pass, at most two hundred.”
“Two hundred?” Li Yuan was dejected. “Is the Tang truly at the end of its rope?”
Li Jiancheng said, “The Prince Zhao’s residence can spare another hundred.”
Li Yuan replied, “What good is that?”
“It’s enough!”
Both Li Jiancheng and Li Yuan looked at Li Xiuning in surprise. “Enough?”
“Indeed. Two hundred from the Eastern Palace, one hundred from Prince Zhao’s residence, another hundred from the Prince of Qin’s, and one hundred from Princess Pingyang’s own household.”
Li Xiuning declared loudly, “With five hundred men, it is enough to break the siege of Jingyang!”