Word Number：524 Author：闲穿径竹 Translator： Release Time：2025-06-27

　　In the dim glow of his study, the county officer of Shanfu, one Jia Ben, paced the floorboards with no small measure of agitation. After a few tight circuits, he halted and looked squarely at Huang Guiren. “I say, Master Huang,” he began, voice low with concern, “you’ve always been a dab hand with horse and bow—could pick off a leaf at a hundred paces, so the talk goes. But these rebel blighters aren’t just a rabble; they’ve numbers on their side, and we—well, we’ve barely enough men to fill a teahouse, let alone hold the county. So then—what the devil are we to do?”　　Huang Guiren, for his part, appeared entirely unruffled—indeed, he spoke with the calm assurance of a man who had already played the board in his mind: “Zhang Tongwu commands no more than two thousand men”, he said evenly. “You, Brother Jia, may lead the regulars in open assault. I shall take my salt guild lads and strike from the flank—catch them off guard. As for Zhang’s soldiers, many of them have no true loyalty; they fear An Lushan more than they follow him. They’ve thrown in with him for now, but their hearts are elsewhere. Dispatch a few clever agents into their midst, make contact, and stir up dissent. Once confusion breaks out within their ranks—why, we may very well seize Zhang Tongwu alive.”　　Came the following evening, just as the sun dipped low and turned the sky to brass, Jia Ben led his force to the southern gate of Suiyang and issued a challenge to the enemy. Meanwhile, Huang Guiren and his salt guild brethren lay in wait outside the western gate, hidden and still. Upon the ramparts, Zhang Tongwu himself peered out and, seeing only a few hundred men arrayed before the southern gate, dismissed them with a sneer. With a wave of his arm, he gave the order—stones and arrows were loosed in a torrent. In an instant, the heavens seemed to rain death, and Jia Ben’s soldiers found themselves pinned down, unable to advance an inch.　　Jia Ben, still vexed and at a loss as to how to force the gates, was suddenly roused by a change within the city. All at once, plumes of smoke began to rise—fires had broken out in several quarters. It was the Tang soldiers, who had feigned allegiance to Zhang Tongwu, now revealing their true loyalties and rising in coordinated revolt from within. Disorder spread like wildfire through Zhang’s ranks. In the chaos, hidden sympathisers threw open the gates—both south and west. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jia Ben and Huang Guiren led their men forward in a pincer strike, charging through the breaches. The defenders atop the walls, caught off-guard and in disarray, could not hold their ground. Jia Ben’s troops surged in, cutting down the gatekeepers and flinging wide the locks, allowing the full force of the army to pour into the city like a tidal wave.　　Zhang Tongwu, seeing the battle lost, fought a desperate rearguard action as