Just as Han Qian was about to return to Canglang City to send people to contact the mountain villages, he saw over a dozen riders suddenly emerge from the northern mountain ridges in the distance, abruptly inserting themselves into the wilderness between the river bend and Neixiang City.
Whether from the direction these dozen riders appeared or from the armor they wore, it was clear these men were messengers dispatched by Xia Zhen and Zheng Hui from Xichuan City to contact this side.
Seeing over a hundred Liang cavalry each riding out from the river bend and Neixiang City, intending to intercept the dozen riders coming from the north, Li Zhigao subsequently dispatched over a hundred cavalry from the ruined stockade to provide support.
Of the messengers sent from Xichuan for contact, only three were brought to Iron Alligator Ridge in the end. Four wounded men escaped back the way they came, while six were shot dead under the Liang army’s powerful bow interception.
These three men were all trusted aides of Yingzhou Military Aide Xia Zhen. Han Qian and Li Zhigao had seen them before in Fancheng. Seeing them covered in blood, they directly let them come forward to speak.
“What matter required forcing through the Liang army’s blockade in broad daylight to report? Could it be that lives from Yingzhou and Huangzhou are so worthless?” Han Qian looked at the scouts sent from Xichuan City, his face full of displeasure as he spoke first.
Those who could break through the Liang army’s interception were all elite riders with superb horsemanship and extraordinary skills. Their hearts also grieved for their fallen comrades. Hearing Han Qian say this, they merely pulled out a blood-stained letter from their robes with gloomy expressions and presented it:
“This is a letter from our Military Aide Xia. Please, Commander Li, read it.”
Li Zhigao broke the wax seal and skimmed through it once, then passed it to Han Qian and Guo Liang to read.
The jointly signed letter from Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen requested that Li Zhigao and Han Qian send boats to evacuate them from Xichuan City.
The reinforcements from Yingzhou and Huangzhou led by Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen had now increased to fifteen hundred men. Previously they had divided their defense between Xichuan and Neixiang Cities. However, when the Liang army advanced north and west, Xia Zhen immediately abandoned Neixiang City, which had taken over two months to repair, and led the Yingzhou reinforcements to retreat to Xichuan to join Zheng Hui.
During these two days when the Liang army fiercely attacked Iron Alligator Ridge, Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen had not thought to send troops to provide flanking support. Now they had actually sent people requesting boats be dispatched to evacuate them.
Han Qian laughed heartily and said to Li Zhigao with a smile, “Those two, Zheng and Xia, truly think their faces are worth so much!”
Although the Liang army had cut off the overland route for Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen to withdraw from Xichuan City, the Xichuan River originated in the Funiu Mountains to the north, curved around outside Xichuan City, and flowed into the Dan River over ten miles west of the river bend—it was the largest tributary of the lower Dan River.
At this time, Xichuan City and Iron Alligator Ridge were connected by waterway.
Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen could even abandon Xichuan City and lead their troops north along the western bank of the Xichuan River to the river mouth, as long as boats were sent from this side to receive them.
However, while Han Qian and Li Zhigao could not pursue Xia Zhen’s responsibility for abandoning Neixiang City without authorization, they absolutely would not indulge him with the convenience of sending boats to evacuate them comfortably.
“Performing one’s duty diligently is the basic obligation of all commanders. When darkness falls, you will slip back to Xichuan and tell both Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen that without my military order, if they dare abandon the city and flee again, do not blame me for showing no mercy.” Li Zhigao tightened his lean face and reprimanded the four military officers sent from Xichuan City.
After Li Zhigao waved his hand to dismiss the four military officers from Xichuan to have their wounds bandaged, Han Qian gave Tian Cheng a look and made a gesture of capture.
Tian Cheng understood perfectly. Leading his men to follow, when the four military officers were unprepared, they swarmed forward to detain them, producing ropes to bind them tightly.
“What is the meaning of this? What crime have we committed?” The four military officers struggled unwillingly and roared angrily.
Faced with this sudden development, Li Zhigao, Guo Liang, Li Chong, and others were all shocked, not knowing what Han Qian intended to do.
When Tian Cheng brought these four men over, Han Qian stared at them with an iron face and shouted sternly, “What crime? I ask you—when Xia Zhen abandoned Neixiang City without authorization, as his attendant bodyguards, did you advise against it? You did not stop Xia Zhen from abandoning the city but fled with him in cowardice—your responsibility is equal to his. How dare you question what crime you have committed? Commander Li is kindhearted and magnanimous, but you will not pass through my hands so easily—”
“We are military officers of Yingzhou, not subject to your control, you upstart!” The leading burly man struggled and roared.
Han Qian signaled Tian Cheng to stuff wooden gags into these four men’s mouths to stop their clamoring, then said to Li Zhigao, “These four cannot be sent back. First hand them over to me to escort back to Canglang City for future judgment.”
Li Zhigao also resented Xia Zhen for abandoning the city without a fight and would not care about such minor details. He signaled that Han Qian was free to escort the men back to Canglang City.
Li Chong thought to himself that even if these four were to be charged, at this time without legal officials from the Defense Command, it should properly fall to him as Recording Aide to pursue this matter. But thinking that Han Qian was truly overbearing beyond measure, and moreover not wanting to create conflict with Yingzhou’s local powers, he suppressed his silence.
…
…
Han Qian rushed back to Canglang City from Iron Alligator Ridge without stopping. Li Chong and Yao Xishui also followed along.
Remaining at Iron Alligator Ridge held no meaning for them. After all, large quantities of supplies were mainly distributed and transited through Canglang City. If any corruption were to occur, it would most likely happen with Han Qian.
As Recording Aide responsible for investigating military misconduct, Li Chong naturally also needed to go to Canglang City.
After returning to Canglang City, Han Qian designated two shabby rooms in a corner of the city as lodging for Li Chong and Yao Xishui, then paid them no further attention.
In an earthen fort a hundred paces square, one should not expect any spacious courtyards within the city. In fact, it was built in the form of square enclosure houses—four dense rings of row houses built inside and outside the city, totaling one hundred eighty-two rooms, used as barracks and cargo storage.
Only at the very center was a two-story square tower built like an official seal, also convenient for command and observing movements outside the city.
Next, Han Qian arranged for Guo Nu’er and others to cross the Han and Dan Rivers to negotiate recruitment matters with various mountain villages. No one realized that this day was already the beginning of the fourteenth year of Tianyou.
The recruitment price Han Qian offered was that for each able-bodied man helping defend Canglang City and Iron Alligator Ridge, he would give one shi of salt per month as military pay, but recruits needed to provide their own weapons and armor.
One shi of salt sold for three thousand coins in Xuzhou City. In the Han River mountain villages where trade routes were forbidden, it reached as high as six or seven thousand coins. Han Qian could be said to have offered an astronomical price for recruitment.
Additionally, the pay for able-bodied laborers currently accepting employment was also directly raised from the earlier monthly rate of four sheng of salt to two dou of salt per month.
There was no alternative. The situation at Iron Alligator Ridge and Canglang City was dire and dangerous. Without heavy rewards, how could there be brave men?
Words without credibility cannot stand.
In the two months the Left Bureau had established itself at Canglang City, conducting fairly equitable material exchanges and hiring workers from surrounding mountain villages in the name of the Dragon Sparrow Army—though the time seemed short, over the past several decades, all forces that had attempted to rule the Deng-Xiang region had failed to achieve this.
At the same time, because these mountain villages were too isolated, their material supply was too imbalanced.
All these factors caused the Dragon Sparrow Army’s reputation to rapidly establish itself within a hundred-mile radius.
Even the mountain villages initially most wary of Han Qian, tempted by scarce supplies, had sent small numbers of workers before the battle at Canglang City erupted to exchange for the most desperately needed salt and medicine, and to observe the situation here.
The mountain village laborers working at Canglang City had thus increased from three hundred to eight hundred in less than two months.
Of course, in the Battle of Canglang City, Han Qian had conscripted mountain village laborers to fight. The village laborers’ casualties could be considered rather heavy, but the compensation and rewards—considered quite generous by contemporary standards—when brought back to the villages by some laborers, naturally aroused in more people the desire to compete for rewards.
Another point was that on Li Zhigao’s side, even during the most intense fighting, he had not forcibly driven the mountain village laborers Han Qian sent over onto the battlefield as cannon fodder, but had protected them well within the ruined stockade.
When Han Qian offered heavy rewards, first at Iron Alligator Ridge only a minority of mountain village laborers chose to leave out of fear of death. Among those who remained, nearly two hundred were willing to accept recruitment for combat.
By the third day, mountain villages south of the Han River and west of the Dan River also gave responses. Five groups either crossed mountains or rode simple wooden boats, following the scouts Han Qian sent to contact the villages as they rushed to Canglang.
However, these five groups did not directly cross the Han or Dan Rivers to arrive below Canglang City to meet Han Qian. Instead, they stopped on the opposite bank of the Dan River from Canglang City, hoping Han Qian would personally cross the river to discuss employment terms with them.
“Village Chief Zhou Dan of Miyun Village and others hope to independently lead their forces in battle rather than having their village men dispersed and incorporated into the Dragon Sparrow Army!” Guo Nu’er, who was primarily responsible for contacting the mountain villages, crossed the river to arrive below Canglang City and reported to Han Qian.
Han Qian stood before the riverbank, looking at the five groups on the opposite bank of the Dan River. None were very large—each group had only twenty or thirty men. However, he had heard of Zhou Dan of Miyun Village.
Zhou Dan was the son of a chief under the bandit leader Qin Zongquan.
After Qin Zongquan captured Xuzhou City, he was defeated by the Liang Emperor Zhu Kang, who had been enfeoffed as Prince of Liang at that time, during the Hede reign of the previous dynasty. His three to four hundred thousand troops scattered in all directions, with a considerable portion fleeing into the deep mountain forests of the Han and Dan Rivers.
Zhou Dan’s father was among them, flowing into the upper Han River to establish Miyun Village.
After Zhou’s father died, Zhou Dan inherited his position.
Miyun Village was located deep in a mountain ravine over seventy miles up the Han River, occupying a sunken valley where they built their stockade. With fourteen to fifteen hundred villagers, it was considered a large village within a two-hundred-mile radius.
Miyun Village could draw out at least two hundred elite able-bodied men. Han Qian looked at the five groups on the opposite bank—none exceeded thirty men. It seemed they had come now to negotiate terms with him. After negotiating conditions, they would then bring more troops out from the mountains.
“Since they want to negotiate terms, then I will cross the river to meet them.” Han Qian casually lifted his robe hem and stepped toward the covered boat.
“Sir, please remain at Canglang to hold command. Let Tian Cheng go instead,” Tian Cheng urged.
The mountain village powers were too complex, dwelling deep in the mountains with unfathomable hearts. Tian Cheng worried there was not entirely no possibility that Zhou Dan and others had been infiltrated by Liang spies.
“Since they have come to Canglang City, they trust me, Han Qian. How then could I, Han Qian, disappoint them?” Han Qian said magnanimously.
Of course, while Han Qian said this with his mouth, in his heart he wanted to slap himself twice, thinking to himself that he truly valued face over life and deserved the suffering. But he thought that to finalize terms would ultimately require allowing Zhou Dan and others to independently lead troops in battle along the Dan River line—crossing the river now to meet Zhou Dan and others was substantially a considerable risk.
Regardless of what Han Qian thought, these words moved Tian Cheng and others deeply. Li Chong and Yao Xishui, who had heard the news and rushed over to observe, heard Han Qian’s words and merely pursed their lips, noncommittal.