under estimating kongming

Part 13 - We Are Still Retreating

Licia and Miguel were delighted to see me. 'When we couldn't find you, we got worried,' Licia said, 'but someone told us you had gone on ahead.  We were just about to go back to Xinye when Dr Zhang spotted you, though his binoculars, on the wall with inscrutable Kongming.'

We sat under a canopy, overlooking Xinye, drinking tea and munching Kongming's buns while I explained how I had fallen asleep on the wrong carriage.

Meanwhile, Kongming was talking to Dr Zhang who told us that a cavalry unit headed by Zilong, Xuande's youngest general, had delayed Cho Cho's men by galloping about with coloured flags. When Cho Cho's confused scouts finally reached Xinye they found the city guarded only by a white ghost waving a fan and Kongming playing the guzheng. It must have appeared such an obvious trap that they decided to wait for Cho Cho.

Late in the afternoon, Dr Zhang, watching through his binoculars, announced that Cho Cho's shock troops were approaching. Xuande ordered his men to put out their cooking fires and conceal themselves behind piles of rocks scattered around the hill top. Meanwhile, Kongming and Xuande were sitting in the shade of the canopy, chatting and drinking casually as if expecting entertainment. Kongming spoke to Licia which she translated as, 'We have prepared the rocks according to your advice, Honourable Lee-Xia.'

As the shock troops advanced toward us, Xuande made a signal and the hill top was suddenly filled with banners and the silence was shattered by a hundred drums beating attack. We put our hands over our ears as several nearby horn players blared up and down the scale with a total disregard for the consequences.

After some confusion, the shock troops dismounted and toiled up the hill despite the weight of their iron armour and a steady bombardment of rocks, stones and arrows. They stubbornly kept up the attack for more than an hour but they never reached the top. The sun was setting before they picked up their wounded and retired into the empty city of Xinye followed by the jeers of Xuande's men.

As the darkness increased, Xuande led most of his men down the hill leaving a few men to tend hundreds of campfires on the side of the hill top facing Xinye. As there were far more fires than soldiers, we figured Kongming wanted Cho Cho to think Xuande's entire army was staying on the hill.

We were huddled around a fire drinking tea while Dr Zhang and Kongming took turns watching Xinye through the binoculars. Sparks of fire started to appear in the city. Zilong's cavalry were shooting fire arrows over the walls into the thatched roofs that had previously been treated with saltpetre, sulfur and other flammable material.

The wind rapidly enlarged the fires until most of the city was ablaze giving enough light for Cho Cho's shock troops to flee through the only gate that was not on fire. Then, Zilong's cavalry attacked them.

Kongming stood up yawning and told Licia, 'Honourable Lee-Xia, you were correct. Cho Cho was too clever. He decided I would not set a second fire trap.'

It took Licia a second to realize what Kongming was talking about. 'Stones and fire! . . . What's next? Water?'

I grinned. 'Cho Cho is underestimating Kongming . . . again.'

We all walked down the hill, guided by soldiers with dim lanterns, while Dr Zhang tried to explain to Kongming how binoculars worked.

'You proposed using fire, stone and water,' Kongming told Licia. 'So far we have used rock and fire. Now you think it is time to use water?'

'So what about paper?' Miguel asked. 'We didn't use paper, yet. And what about scissors.'

'Kongming has ordered Zhang Fei to make a squadron of paper air planes,' I joked.