Chapter 333. The Battle of Liaoyang 2
Several exchanges of attack and counterattack followed.
But it was still a shooting battle between five thousand and two thousand.
The difference in numbers was obvious, and the equipment of the Liaoyang defenders was not very different from that of the Balhae soldiers.
They were men from the same land, armed in much the same way.
As arrows passed back and forth, many of the armored infantry outside the walls fell.
But the Balhae soldiers, whose armor was often incomplete, also continued to suffer casualties.
More importantly, the Balhae troops did not fight as well as the Jin army.
If anything, they were still closer to Liao troops than to Jin soldiers.
Go Youngchang handled his cavalry in the Jurchen manner.
They rushed close, poured in volleys of arrows, and withdrew the moment the enemy tried to advance.
He shook them several times in the same way, but the Liaoyang defenders did not collapse easily.
As if determined not to give them even a moment of rest, Go Youngchang launched alternating attacks again and again, but he could not break through.
The Liao troops made several attempts to rush after them, yet they could not catch cavalry.
Armored infantry could not run down armored cavalry.
That truth was obvious.
The problem was that even knowing it, the Liaoyang defenders had few other choices.
Since Hubodagang, they had lost too many horses.
An army that should have sent cavalry to pursue, bite into the flanks, and cut off retreat could now do little more than march heavily out from the city gate and then march back in again.
Go Youngchang saw that weakness.
So instead of forcing a breakthrough, he tried first to exhaust the minds of the defenders.
Before an enemy that could not catch him, he turned his horses, loosed arrows, and withdrew again.
It was closer to mockery than battle.
Before long, the Liao soldiers who had been driven out beyond the walls retreated back inside.
They had gained nothing and lost their cavalry.
Once the gate closed, Go Youngchang's Balhae troops returned and established themselves before the southern gate again.
They had appeared to withdraw, only to come back and settle into position once more.
The faces of the Liaoyang defenders watching from the walls stiffened.
The Balhae banners were planted forward.
The drums sounded low.
Their camp was established at a distance from which the southern gate could be clearly seen.
From that point on, insults and accusations against Xiao Baoxian continued without pause.
They did not merely curse him.
They recited, one by one, the things he had done since coming to Liaoyang.
How he had driven Balhae soldiers into dangerous outposts.
How he had forced Han clerks to rewrite household and tax registers and squeezed the people dry.
How he had seized military horses, confiscated metal goods, and even taken farming tools for the repair of weapons.
How he had beaten wagoners for the slightest delay and had clerks whipped for a single error in a ledger.
How he used Balhae men at the front while distrusting them, then placed all the blame upon them whenever something went wrong.
Go Youngchang's voice filled the field before the southern gate.
The soldiers on the walls could not avoid hearing him.
At first, they endured it with clenched teeth.
As time passed, however, their eyes began to waver.
Many of them had experienced those things in their own lives.
They remembered fathers dragged away.
Brothers sent to dangerous outposts.
The horses and metal goods from their own homes taken into the military stores.
Go Youngchang pressed directly upon those memories.
"Are you defending Liaoyang, or Xiao Baoxian's life?"
"You men standing atop those walls—are you people of this city, or shields for that bastard?"
"If he survives, he will tear even the cooking pots out of your homes!"
The hearts of the defenders inside the city began to shake.
The men who had fought one another only moments ago were now separated merely by the city wall.
Yet as Go Youngchang continued shouting, that boundary gradually blurred.
They began asking themselves whose side they were truly on.
Was obeying Xiao Baoxian the same thing as defending Liaoyang?
Or were they simply risking their lives to protect a man who had tormented them?
The battle settled into a stalemate.
Youngwoo, who had been watching, went to find Go Youngchang.
"What happened with the matter I mentioned before?"
"What do you mean?"
"I told you to arrange for people inside the city to respond and open the gates."
Go Youngchang lowered his voice and answered quietly.
"Tonight."
"Ohhh. I will lead the way myself. Just show me the route and I will seize the bastard."
Instead of answering, Go Youngchang swallowed hard.
His throat moved visibly.
Then he lowered his voice further.
"That day, I sent men ahead and slipped agents into the city.
"The objective is to open a gate from within.
"Because they have to move secretly, there cannot be many of them.
"The problem is reaching the southern gate.
"They must pass the gate tower and the guards inside the city.
"The moment they are discovered, the whole thing becomes much larger."
Youngwoo looked toward the wall.
"Which side?"
Go Youngchang pointed toward one section.
From far away, the wall appeared to run in one unbroken line.
But when Youngwoo stared carefully, he saw a very short break in that line.
The gap was not visible from straight ahead.
An outer stone wall stood slightly offset from it and concealed the place at an angle.
Because the walls overlapped, it looked merely like a corner in the fortification.
The shadows of one stone wall lay across the other, hiding a low opening.
The outer wall caught the sunlight.
The inner wall beside it lay deep in shadow.
Within that darkness was a small gate through which a man could pass with his body lowered.
From a distance, it simply looked like a place where the city wall bent once before continuing.
Only someone who already knew what to look for could notice the hidden gate between the broken wall and the overlapping section.
"See where the wall appears to overlap over there? There is actually a hidden gate inside."
"Ohhh. So that is what a hidden gate looks like."
"You cannot see it. If you could, it would not be a hidden gate."
"How did you know about it?"
"I served here in Liaoyang as an aide."
"Hahaha."
Youngwoo narrowed his eyes and examined the place.
"Hahaha. We are going in through there?"
"Yes."
"It looks rather narrow."
"It is wider when seen from the side. From here, you can barely see the opening at all."
"The cavalry cannot go through."
Go Youngchang nodded.
"That is right. There is a slope as well. We cannot send many men in."
"What is the plan?"
"The moment our people inside open the hidden gate, we send in a special assault group.
"They force a path through the interior, reach the southern gate, and remove the bar."
The corner of Youngwoo's mouth twisted slightly.
"Would it be difficult to push everyone inside?"
Go Youngchang looked at him.
"How?"
Youngwoo stepped closer.
His voice dropped even lower.
"We seize Xiao Baoxian without making a sound.
"Then hang his head over the southern gate.
"The morale inside the city will collapse first."
Go Youngchang's gaze wavered for a moment, then steadied.
He looked left and right, checked even the movements atop the wall, and leaned closer toward Youngwoo.
His lips barely moved so that the wind would not carry his words away.
Youngwoo naturally lowered his head as well.
Their shoulders nearly touched.
Their fingers moved briefly between the break in the wall and the southern gate, while their voices were no louder than breaths slipping between their teeth.
From a distance, they looked like two commanders discussing how to break a city in broad daylight.
But up close, the atmosphere was different.
This felt less like an operation directed by military orders, banners, and drums than two men planning how to climb a wall in the middle of the night, pick open a gate, and drag one man out of his house.
Go Youngchang explained the routes and the width of the hidden gate.
Youngwoo described what they would do once inside.
He spoke as if they had already entered the city.
Their whispers grew quieter.
Their expressions grew more serious.
From far away, they looked like two generals discussing strategy.
Up close, they looked more like two back-alley thugs planning the order in which they would climb over someone else's wall.