Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 57 - Petty Cunning

At the waterfront the next morning, Kongming was reading a scroll of poetry while Wu Jun directed hundreds of sailors converting a flotilla of light attack boats into floating cottages. The boats were bigger than Wu Jun's skiff. They looked like miniature castles with high leather sides to protect the rowers from arrows and with openings for oars and crossbows. Wu Jun set us to work thatching the roofs and walls with bundles of straw. We asked what they were for but Wu Jun didn't know and it was not until the third day at the third watch after sunset that we found out. 

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 Kongming woke us up just before Lu Su arrived demanding to know why he had been dragged out of his bed in the middle of the night. 'For a moon light pleasure cruise,' Licia translated as Kongming grinned in the lantern light.

 'There is no moon,' Lu Su complained, but Kongming just laughed.

Denny, Licia, Miguel, Chen Ling and I joined Wu Jun in the largest cottage-boat where Kongming and Lu Su were already drinking tea and chatting by the light of a dim lantern. The boats were almost invisible. The heavy thatch was completely covered with black cloth and even the oars were painted black. We set off with the boats tied together in a line to keep them together in the darkness. None of the boats showed a light and we marvelled at the utter darkness. We couldn't see a hand in front of our faces. The cold, black night air seemed to congeal around us as the fog thickened on the Long River. The oars were muffled with rags and no one spoke. The silence was oppressive. By the fourth watch, the boats were in single file heading up the river near Cho Cho's naval base when Wu Jun looked at Kongming and handed me two heavy sticks of wood and a large drum and put the lantern outside the thatch. He gestured and I began to pound the drum. Quickly all the other crews copied us. Each boat showed a light and the crews shouted battle cries and pounded drums - the universal signal to attack. 

 Lu Su called out in alarm. 'This force is not big enough to attack Cho Cho. Even if we achieve surprise, we shall be wiped out.'

'They won't counter-attack in this fog,' Kongming laughed. 'They'll fear a trick. Let's drink some more wine. Relax and enjoy yourself.'

Suddenly, the night air was filled with a hissing sound and a patter that sounded like hailstones. Cho Cho's pickets were shooting arrows at us. Drummers on the shore sounded the alarm and more arrows began to pour down on us. As we rowed along the shoreline, we heard a shout from the shore. Licia translated. 'We have beaten off the first wave of attack boats. They are heading up the river.'

Arrows fell as thick as hail stones in a storm as our little fleet rowed up and down the shoreline, the crews happily beating drums and shouting insults. My arms began to ache, and I gladly passed the drumsticks to Miguel. The heads of a few crossbow bolts penetrated the thatch. Wu Jun shouted above the noise,'We must encourage our foreign guests to improve their thatching skills.' 

He passed around a large pot of rice beer amid calls, 'Our throats are getting dry.'

Just before sunrise, Kongming ordered the boats away from the shore. Our boats looked like floating porcupines. 

 'Each boat has five or six thousand arrows,' Kongming later reported to Zhou Yu. 'So we have collected one hundred thousand arrows. This is known in the military handbooks as, "Borrowing to defeat the enemy."

'And tomorrow,' Denny laughed, 'you are going to give them all back.'

Zhou Yu acknowledged Kongming's genius with a mixture of chagrin and admiration. 

'Your skill is far beyond mine! How can you be defeated?'

'The feat was an act of petty cunning, not worthy of your praise,' said Kongming modestly. 'But yesterday, I surveyed Cho Cho's naval station. It is invulnerable to any ordinary attack, but, I have a plan. Let us see if we have the same idea.' 

 Kongming called for brushes and ink and they both wrote on their hands. When they looked at each other's hands, they had written the same word, 'fire.'

I grinned at Miguel and bowed. 'Master Mi-Guo, we must acknowledge your supernatural advice.'

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