Wu Ku trembled as he replied truthfully, “And, and the granary was burned. The, the two small military boats that were just repaired were also taken away.”
Tang Tishou nearly spat out blood: “How many people came? How did they beat you like this?”
Wu Ku kept his head low, not daring to look at Tang Tishou: “A few, a few dozen, maybe?”
Tang Tishou felt a wave of dizziness: “How many?”
“They were truly cunning. First, they set the granary on fire, luring all our men to put it out, and then...” Wu Ku quickly explained.
Rong Liang frowned: “The granary suddenly caught fire, and you didn’t think there was something wrong? Shouldn’t you have heightened security at a time like this?”
Wu Ku started sweating: “The guards at the dock and the prisoner camp were all on duty; they didn’t, didn’t join in putting out the fire.”
Rong Liang was baffled: “In that case, if there were only a few dozen of them, how did they get past the guards and rescue the prisoners?”
Wu Ku wiped the sweat off his forehead: “Well, that is, the other side might also have had a hundred people?!”
Rong Liang scolded: “You don’t even know how many people the enemy had?”
Wu Ku stammered, unsure what to say.
Tang Tishou took a deep breath to calm his nerves: “Not a single prisoner was left behind? They were all rescued?”
Wu Ku looked close to tears: “Yes, they’re all gone.”
Tang Tishou forced down the anger in his chest and asked: “Have the casualty numbers been tallied?”
“We, we lost 215 men,” Wu Ku replied, head hanging low.
Tang Tishou waited a moment, but Wu Ku stopped after reporting the number of their own dead.
A bad feeling rose within him: “We have no wounded? All dead? What about the enemy? How many dead or injured?”
Wu Ku practically shrank his head into his neck: “We have no wounded; all were killed. The method was clean—either a fatal stab or an arrow through the throat.”
He glanced up at Tang Tishou, saw his face dark as a storm cloud on the verge of rain, and fell to his knees in terror: “The enemy, the enemy suffered no, no casualties. Please punish me, General. This failure is mine.”
Tang Tishou’s vision went dark, and he nearly couldn’t catch his breath: “No casualties on their side? Your camp of over a thousand soldiers was wiped out by a few dozen people, and now you tell me the enemy had no casualties?!”
Wu Ku pressed his body even lower. Though the weather had already turned cold, he was drenched in sweat all over: “Yes, yes.”
“They, they attacked at night, knew the terrain well, struck and fled, and we, we...” He tried to defend himself but couldn’t find the words to justify it.
Tang Tishou suppressed the urge to spit blood: “Was it the Jinyang Army? Did they use crossbows?”
Wu Ku shook his head: “No, it wasn’t the Jinyang Army, and they didn’t use crossbows. It was, it was Ze’a Commandery that did it.”
Rong Liang frowned: “Ze’a Commandery? Does Ze’a Commandery have that kind of fighting strength?”
Zhu Dian snorted coldly: “No crossbows? Then how did over a thousand of your men get beaten like this? Is the enemy really that strong, or are you just too weak!”
For their Quzhao force, the dock position was somewhat awkward.
They were not skilled in naval warfare, and the Yan Kingdom was just as poor at it.
The main navies—Daqing Commandery and Sizhou—were too busy with their own problems to even think about engaging in naval battles with Fengzhou.
This meant that after they captured Fengzhou, the dock was almost never used.
Yet the dock was a strategic location, so they couldn’t just abandon it without guards. Some advisors in Quzhao even suggested dismantling it to prevent anyone from landing and attacking them by sea.
But that proposal was eventually vetoed by the Grand Chanyu.
If a navy really wanted to land, they didn’t necessarily need a dock.
First, sailors could all swim; they could stop the boats just offshore and simply swim ashore.
Second, ships of this era weren’t particularly large; given enough water depth and the right conditions, they could come to shore without a dock.
So whether the dock was demolished or not made little difference. But keeping it gave Quzhao one extra option—a route for transporting supplies. Without a dock, troops could still land for combat purposes, but moving cargo would be very troublesome without good loading and unloading facilities.
It was precisely this ‘backup’ strategy, viewed as rather useless, that had led to slack discipline among the dock guards.
Though this garrison was designated as Quzhao’s navy, in practice, they were rarely called upon for either combat or transport.
Psychologically sidelined and relegated, their naval training had dwindled to near nothing, and their presence became increasingly negligible.
Even the Grand Chanyu himself, let alone Tang Tishou of Donghu Commandery, often overlooked them.
Only after Shanguan County was breached and occupied by the Jinyang Army did transporting supplies become a major problem, making the water route the best option.
That was when Quzhao ordered their navy to step up training and had the prisoners repair boats to prepare for grain shipment.
Wu Ku’s sweat flowed faster now: “It was a night, a night raid. I don’t know how they did it. They didn’t even land at the dock. We, we simply didn’t spot them, and that’s why...”
Tang Tishou didn’t press that point and instead asked: “How do you know it was Ze’a Commandery? Just because they didn’t use crossbows?”
Wu Ku hurriedly shook his head: “No, we saw the cargo ship.”
Rong Liang frowned deeply: “I still doubt it was Ze’a Commandery. What purpose would they have in raiding us? Just to rescue prisoners?”
Tang Tishou rubbed his temples: “If not Ze’a Commandery, then who else? Apart from Ze’a, only Daqing Commandery and Sizhou have boats.”
Rong Liang pondered: “I still suspect the Jinyang Army.”
Zhu Dian shook his head: “Impossible. If it were the Jinyang Army, why wouldn’t they use their crossbows?”
“Moreover, places like Gefeng and Shanguan County are neither coastal nor have ships. How could they travel by sea to attack our dock?”
Wu Ku nodded eagerly: “That’s right, that’s right. Many of our men saw the cargo ship. It had to be Ze’a Commandery.”
Rong Liang thought for a moment and said: “Could it be that not using crossbows was a deliberate trick to mislead us?”
Zhu Dian countered: “Then how do you explain the cargo ship? Where did the Jinyang Army land? And where did they get a ship?”
“Besides, what would be the Jinyang Army’s purpose in attacking our dock? They don’t even have a dock themselves. What would they do with captured naval troops?”
Rong Liang lowered his head in thought. When he considered it, it really didn’t add up. Then a possibility occurred to him: “Could it be that Gefeng and Ze’a Commandery have joined forces?”
Tang Tishou, brows furrowed, shook his head: “Unlikely.”
Frowning deeply, he added: “Whether it’s Ze’a Commandery or the Jinyang Army, neither seems to have much reason to attack us last night.”
Wu Ku murmured: “Could it be that they have no one to repair their ships?”
Last night’s target had been very specific: the batch of naval prisoners.
Rong Liang shook his head: “If rescuing those prisoners was about fixing ships, then it couldn’t be Ze’a Commandery.”
“Ze’a has its own docks and fleet, and naturally its own shipwrights. Why would they go to such trouble to snatch these prisoners?”
“But,” he hesitated before continuing, “if it were the Jinyang Army, it would make sense. They have nothing.”
Zhu Dian said: “If they have nothing, how do they have a ship? And why do they need shipwrights?”
“They lack not only ships and docks but even a coastline. What use are shipwrights to them?”
