Chapter Twenty-One: Gaining the Emperor's Favor

Routed soldiers are blind with panic, like maddened cattle that cannot be handled by ordinary means. Li Wenyuan understood this well, yet was helpless to do anything but steel his heart and order his three thousand cavalry to ready their blades, prepared to round up the fleeing men.

He commanded his men to raise the great Sui banner, and beside it, the banner bearing the character for Li. Selecting a hundred men with booming voices, he had them shout in unison at the routed troops, “Stop where you are! Any who charge the line will be killed!”

The several hundred men at the front were evidently seasoned shirkers; desperate to save their skins, they ignored the cavalry’s shouts and simply tried to shove past, intent only on scrambling aboard the large ship moored at the shore. The cavalry, acting on Li Wenyuan’s prior orders, did not hesitate—a saber flashed, and the lead man’s head was severed, blood spraying over those behind him. The men behind, shocked into sobriety, ceased their frantic actions and fell to their knees, begging for mercy.

Li Wenyuan noted that though these soldiers’ armor was in disarray, their gear was mostly intact. He addressed them, “Who among you is an officer? Step forward and speak.”

A sturdy man with a scar across his cheek replied, “Sir, I am the commander of a thousand in this unit.”

Li Wenyuan nodded, seeing that there was still someone leading. This man, at least, had not abandoned his men to save himself. He displayed his general’s tally and said, “I am the General of the Western Expedition, personally appointed by His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Sui, here by imperial command to assist the army’s retreat. Any who dare disrupt discipline or charge the lines will be executed without mercy. You must make yourselves known—name, rank, and position.”

The officer, hearing Li Wenyuan claim the title of General of the Western Expedition and seeing his badge—though not daring to approach and inspect it—immediately knelt and said, “Forgive me, General! I am a commander of a thousand men under General Yuwen. My surname is Zhang, given name Juntao. This scar on my face was left two years ago during the campaign against Goguryeo; my men call me ‘One Scar’ as a joke.”

Li Wenyuan nodded and asked him a few more details, learning that these men made up nearly his entire unit; apart from those lost to illness caused by the climate, all the rest were present. Li Wenyuan told Zhang Juntao, “If you retreat in an orderly fashion, you’ll be fine. But if you flee in panic, the Goguryeo will surely pursue, and how many will survive their slaughter?”

Seeing Zhang Juntao bow his head in silence, and the others likewise looking down, Li Wenyuan continued, “I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourselves. From now on, you are promoted to Deputy General. Your soldiers are promoted—squad leaders to company commanders, and so forth, each up a rank. Gather up the routed soldiers, form ranks at the ferry, and prepare to cover our comrades as they cross, fending off any pursuing Goguryeo.”

Zhang Juntao nodded and went to relay the orders to his men. Before long, another group of routed troops arrived. Zhang Juntao recognized the leader and said to Li Wenyuan, “General, that man is the commander of a thousand from the neighboring camp. He’s a veteran skiver, always the first to retreat in battle—hardly dependable. But he does have some good men under him.”

Li Wenyuan nodded and repeated his tactic, but this time, instead of a hundred, over a thousand men bellowed the warning, backed by a bristling forest of spears. The deterrent effect was now overwhelming, and none dared charge the lines; all halted at the old soldier’s shout.

Li Wenyuan addressed the new arrival, “I am here on secret orders from the Emperor to defend this crossing and draft troops on site. Any who refuse will be dealt with according to military law.”

The old soldier understood at once that Li Wenyuan intended to select men from his ranks. “General, since you bear the imperial edict, I will fully cooperate. My brothers here are at your disposal.”

Li Wenyuan was amused at how quickly the man distanced himself from the draftees—a true veteran indeed. But he had no intention of recruiting the man himself; instead, he had Zhang Juntao select over a thousand able soldiers to add to his own unit, confiscating all the equipment from the old soldier’s group for future use.

The large ship, manned by soldiers from south of the river, ferried over a thousand men across. On a sudden inspiration, Li Wenyuan sent a soldier from Jincheng with them to inform Xue Ju to gather more carts for transporting armor and weapons back to Jincheng.

Meanwhile, Li Wenyuan observed Zhang Juntao as he organized and drilled his men, encouraging officers and soldiers to become better acquainted. Though he had yet to see Zhang Juntao in battle, he was quietly impressed by the man’s skill at training troops. What had been a rabble of routed soldiers were now moving in and out of formations with a measure of discipline. Li Wenyuan could not help but consider drawing him in.

Seizing a moment, he called Zhang Juntao over and asked, “Juntao, where are you from?”

Zhang Juntao, sitting atop a horse Li Wenyuan had given him, found the general’s manner amiable and down-to-earth, without the aloofness so common among high-ranking officers. Smiling, he replied, “General, I hail from Fufeng commandery.”

“You’re clearly skilled at leading and training men. Why not serve under my banner from now on? I’ll arrange to have your parents, wife, and children brought to live in Jincheng.” Li Wenyuan spoke earnestly.

“It would be my great honor to serve under you, General. My parents have long since passed, and as I enlisted to take my father’s place, I never married,” Zhang Juntao replied.

Li Wenyuan was intrigued. He had heard of Hua Mulan taking her father’s place in the army—was Zhang Juntao also a woman in disguise? The thought made him study Zhang Juntao more closely.

Noting his silence, Zhang Juntao continued, explaining that his father had been a commander of a thousand under the former Chen dynasty, who, after surrendering to Sui, retained his rank and was sent to guard Lingnan. In his old age, unable to campaign in distant Liaodong, he was replaced by his son according to Sui law, who then led his men in the last campaign against Goguryeo. Having served in Lai Huer’s army, Zhang Juntao’s unit had, under Zhou Fashang’s leadership, repelled the Goguryeo’s pursuit and ensured the safe retreat of Lai Huer’s defeated troops. His methods of drilling soldiers were learned from Generals Zhou Fashang and Lai Huer.

Li Wenyuan nodded, sensing that Zhang Juntao’s background was likely more complex than he let on, but chose not to press further. “Rest assured, here, heroes will never lack a place to prove themselves.”

Zhang Juntao nodded and returned to drilling the troops. Soon, another group of routed soldiers arrived at the crossing, and more men were selected to fill the ranks. Repeating this method, they eventually gathered fifty thousand elite troops. Besides Zhang Juntao’s unit of ten thousand, there were four other ten-thousand-strong units—including Li Wenyuan’s own—all expanded from the original Jincheng troops. For ease of command, they were provisionally organized into five units, A through E: Li Wenyuan led Unit A, Zhang Juntao Unit B, and the remaining three were each led by one of the three original Jincheng commanders.