Chapter 90: The Bloody Battle at Changping Pass, Part 3

At the foot of Changping Pass, tens of thousands of Wei infantry lay upon their weapons, waiting.

Before the Wei army’s lines stood more than a dozen towering siege engines, rising like solemn fortresses.

Under the command of their respective generals, the formations of the Wei host gradually took shape.

In the first rank came the fiercest archers and crossbowmen, arrayed at the very front; behind them stood the more ferocious and overbearing heavy crossbows.

Further back were the infantry, and beside them a variety of siege equipment.

The weather was overcast today, perfect for an assault.

At the rear of the Wei army, under layers of protection, the Lord of Wei stood beneath the great standard, gazing ahead with calm composure.

"Today, the Qilin banner shall be planted upon the pass," he declared, his voice striking the ground like iron, filled with unshakable resolve.

A ruthless blow, a swift victory—that was the principle of war the Lord of Wei had set. He demanded that every commander cooperate closely, concentrating the full force of their strength to crush the enemy in a single battle.

This war had dragged on far too long, and the strain upon the treasury had become unbearable.

"My lord, messengers from the various divisions have come asking whether they are to attack." The speaker was Wei Chengze, once reduced to the rank of scribe.

After being stripped of office for so long, he had grown used to his present station, his face now bearing only humility and calm.

"Pass down the order to all divisions: when the central army beats the drums, they are to commit themselves fully. We must settle this in one battle." The Lord of Wei’s voice was deep and steady, carrying unquestionable authority.

"Yes." Wei Chengze bowed to his father, then withdrew.

...

Before the Wei battle line, the troops of each division were fully prepared, awaiting only the central command.

For this campaign, the Wei army had deployed forty thousand infantry in all, with archers and foot soldiers making up twenty thousand each.

Had the terrain not constrained him, the Lord of Wei would likely have sent even more.

Wei’s strategy was simple: overwhelm with superior force and strike with the greatest possible power.

Thud... thud... thud...

At last, in the expectation of the soldiers, the drums of the central army sounded.

"Shield-bearers advance to cover! Archers, move forward!"

With the shouts of the officers, the Wei vanguard began to move.

Rows upon rows of heavy shields were raised, and the archers in front were shrouded beneath their solid protection.

Because the archers’ range was limited, they had to press forward before their arrows could reach Changping Pass.

Boom... boom... boom...

The marching feet of the soldiers, along with the crashing impact of shields borne overhead, resounded like thunder shaking the heavens.

Even from afar, the Lord of Wei could hear the rolling roar.

And this, for a man who usually never allowed emotion to show, caused the Lord of Wei to reveal a rare trace of excitement.

The long-cherished wishes of the Marquis of Mu and the Marquis of Cheng would be fulfilled by his own hand. The Lord of Wei could no longer remain tranquil.

"The former lords of Great Wei, behold as Hongyi makes Wei flourish and rise!"

He murmured to himself.

His first objective was to remove the title of marquis above his head and replace it with that of a duke.

Among the five great powers of the age, only Wei, the foremost of them all, remained merely a marquisate. That was the one thing the Lord of Wei could least accept.

"Ji Zhao, let me see who will come to protect you this time."

He ground out the words through clenched teeth.

It should be noted that Ji Zhao here was the reigning Son of Heaven of Great Zhou, the nominal overlord of all under heaven.

Without Changping Pass blocking the way, the state of Chen was nothing more than paper before the Lord of Wei, and the house of Zhou would have no more natural barrier to rely on.

Leaving aside the ambitions that churned within his heart, the battle at the Wei front had already begun.

Once the archers came within range of the Qin army, the Wei heavy crossbow units opened fire to cover the advance of the main force.

Zing, zing, zing...

The close-range heavy crossbows roared to life, launching fearsome bolts nearly two meters long.

The reinforced arrows flew with tremendous speed and soon reached Changping Pass.

Because they were test shots, many flew over the crest of the pass and fell behind it.

But those that struck the walls did immense damage to the Qin troops on the battlements.

Each bolt could usually pierce two, even three Qin soldiers at once.

The unfortunate victims would then be flung several more meters by the lingering force of the shaft.

"Adjust quickly, prepare to fire again!" shouted the officers within the Wei heavy crossbow ranks.

On Changping Pass, though the Qin soldiers were cowed by the force of the Wei assault, they still summoned their courage and loosed one arrow after another, trying to block the advance of the Wei archers.

Yet even so, the Qin arrows could not trouble the Wei archers in the slightest. Most of the attacks were stopped by the great shields.

The Wei archers advanced steadily, and the Qin soldiers found it difficult to hold them back.

Then the Wei heavy crossbows fired again, raising another shriek of wind.

The Qin counterfire faltered once more.

At that moment, standing behind the massive shields, Gu Jian’s heart began to sink.

Though the Wei army was only using heavy crossbows for now, he could already sense the thunderous assault that would come next.

"Quickly inform Commander Wei and tell him to send reinforcements at once. We may not be able to hold much longer," Gu Jian shouted to the messenger beside him.

Amid the exchange of arrows between Qin and Wei, the Wei crossbowmen had already reached their assigned positions.

By then, only five or six dozen Wei crossbowmen had been killed.

But nearly a hundred Qin soldiers had fallen to the heavy crossbows.

Once all the Wei archers were in place, the infantry behind them began to advance as well.

They pushed immense siege engines and extended scaling ladders, slowly making their way toward Changping Pass.

"All units heed the order: nock your arrows, full draw, prepare to fire..."

At the officers’ cries, the Wei archers drew out their iron-tipped arrows and bent their bows to the full.

"Lower your shields!"

At the front, the Wei shield-bearers, at the officers’ roar, brought the great shields down from overhead.

At the same moment, a piercing cry of "Loose!" rang out through the Wei archers’ formation.

The instant that command was shouted, nearly ten thousand archers released their strings together, and a tidal wave of arrows blanketed the sky.

"Take cover! Take cover!"

On Changping Pass, the furious shouts of Qin officers and soldiers echoed in every direction.

When the rain of arrows arrived, there were always some who failed to find shelter. The storm fell, and nearly three hundred Qin soldiers were slain in an instant.

By then, the archers who had lowered their shields had already drawn their long bows to the full. After the first wave descended, the second was poised to follow.

"Loose!"

The whistling rose again, and once more a vast black curtain came down over the Qin defenders on the pass.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Endless arrows rained from the heavens, and many more Qin soldiers died horribly.

Yet compared with the first wave, because everyone had taken cover properly, only five or six dozen Qin troops were shot down.

At the same time, the Wei army’s third wave was already ready.

"Loose!"

Amid the hoarse roars of the Wei officers, the shriek of the wind swelled once more.

Thus, under the Wei army’s fierce assault, the Qin soldiers were driven hard against the battlements and could not lift their heads.

One of Gu Jian’s personal guards had also been killed by an arrow, and at this point he was filled with despair over whether the pass could be held.

"Has the central army sent aid?" Gu Jian asked the guard at his side.

"General, General Ying Hui is right below the pass, but even he cannot get up here now," the guard replied.

Indeed, beneath Changping Pass, Ying Hui’s troops were waiting there in full.

To rush up onto the pass was to become a living target; Ying Hui was not foolish enough to do that.

He could only wait. The Wei rain of arrows would not last forever, and when it ended, the true battle would begin.

Once the Wei infantry reached the front of the arrow line, the force of the Wei archers’ attacks would diminish considerably.

Only then did the Qin soldiers on the pass finally gain a moment to breathe.

But what awaited them next was an even more merciless ordeal.