Without arranging too many guards, Tian Cheng accompanied Han Qian across the river with Guo Nu’er, Xi Ren, Zhao Wuji, and others to meet Zhou Dan and the other mountain village chiefs. Li Chong and Yao Xishui stood on the riverbank watching Han Qian’s group cross.
Zhou Dan was not yet thirty years old, with lean and fair cheeks—vastly different from the mountain bandit king image Han Qian had in mind. Over his scale armor he wore a white robe, making him look more like a scholarly general. The other four men were also representatives of large villages within a two-hundred-mile radius.
It was simple—Zhou Dan and the others were tempted by the heavy rewards Han Qian offered, but did not want their elite village soldiers to join the Dragon Sparrow Army through recruitment.
This would result in quite a number of elite fighters potentially breaking free from the mountain villages’ control and being won over by the Dragon Sparrow Army.
Previously, over twenty elite fighters with no ties to the villages had chosen to directly join the Left Bureau after helping repel the Liang army’s sudden attack on Canglang City—this was precisely what the villages worried about.
They wanted the major villages to be able to participate in the war independently from the Dragon Sparrow Army.
This way, after the war ended, they could still bring these elite village soldiers back, rather than throwing meat buns at a dog and never getting them back.
Therefore, Zhou Dan had sent people to communicate with other mountain villages, agreeing to come to Canglang City together today. The other smaller villages naturally hoped even more that these five major villages could stand at the forefront and negotiate a deal with the Dragon Sparrow Army.
Han Qian pondered for a moment, looking at Zhou Dan and the representatives from the other four villages, then nodded and said, “I can understand Chief Zhou and the others’ concerns, but calculating the recruitment pay might be somewhat more complicated. At the same time, if all villages participate in battle independently, it will be quite chaotic. How about this—you several families combine together to gather fifteen hundred men for battle. You only need to accept supervision from my side. At the same time, I will first provide twenty percent of recruitment pay based on the number of combatants, and will also guarantee provisions based on the number of people from each village entering the eastern bank of the Dan River. But the remaining recruitment pay, we will calculate according to military merit—Chief Zhou, what do you all think?”
Zhou Dan and the others were wary and unwilling to have their forces dispersed and incorporated into the Dragon Sparrow Army. Han Qian simply thought to have them concentrate together to form a mercenary force, but he also had to guard against these people putting in effort without results, so he would not give all the recruitment pay at once.
Of course, Han Qian would also only give them a quota of fifteen hundred men to prevent the mercenary force from becoming too large with the possibility of the tail becoming too big to wag or the guest usurping the host’s position. If even more mountain village elites applied to participate in battle, they would have to be dispersed and incorporated into the Dragon Sparrow Army.
Zhou Dan and the others were also secretly sizing up Han Qian.
Although Han Qian’s official external identity was merely Deputy Commander of the Guard Battalion and Attendant of the Marquis Linjiang’s household, since the Dragon Sparrow Army had stationed along the Dan River line, not only was all contact with the mountain villages handled by Han Qian alone, but even the vast majority of material supplies were controlled in Han Qian’s hands.
And Han Qian’s status had already indicated he was direct lineage close to the Third Prince. For the lower-level mountain village powers, this was already sufficient.
Only Han Qian’s youth surprised Zhou Dan and the others considerably.
After Zhou Dan and the others deliberated for a while, they ultimately decided to accept the conditions Han Qian offered.
With matters decided, they immediately merged an elite force of over a hundred men. Led by Zhou Dan, they crossed the Dan River to establish camp north of Canglang City, then sent people back to the mountain villages to dispatch more troops.
After crossing the river, Han Qian introduced Li Chong, Yao Xishui, and others to Zhou Dan, saying, “General Li is the Recording Aide, responsible for investigating good and evil in the army. If I have any improper actions, General Li will also report to His Highness without sparing my face. However, Chief Zhou was recruited by me, so the soldiers you lead will naturally still be strictly managed by Chief Zhou and the others—additionally, I will now allocate three hundred shi of salt as the first batch of recruitment pay. Chief Zhou, where would you like me to transport this salt?”
With limited manpower, Han Qian could not possibly deliver three hundred shi of salt to each village separately. He only thought to transport it to one location and let them distribute it internally among the mountain villages.
“If Supervisor Han finds it convenient, transporting it to Lutai Valley will do,” Zhou Dan said.
Lutai Valley had streams flowing into the Han River. Located upstream on the Han River, it was over fifty li by water from Canglang City. Sending a covered boat could transport the salt there.
Of course, besides salt, Zhou Dan and the others also hoped to exchange for other materials scarce in the mountain villages. But as long as Canglang City had reserves, Han Qian did everything possible to accommodate them.
“…” Li Chong now found it very difficult to figure out what kind of person Han Qian was. In any case, in his eyes, many of Han Qian’s actions were bold beyond imagination.
To actually allow these mountain villages that had been unruly all these years to form an independent military force stationed right next to Canglang City?
However, hearing Han Qian’s speaking attitude, Li Chong also knew he could not stop Han Qian’s arbitrary decisions at Canglang City. He only wrote down everything he saw and heard truthfully and sent people to deliver the letter back to Xuzhou City.
Over the next two days, led by Zhou Dan, the various villages quickly gathered fifteen hundred men, all with their own weapons and armor. Perhaps because the many mountain villages were quite familiar with each other, they discussed among themselves the organization of troops and appointment of officers at all levels in an orderly manner, electing Zhou Dan as Commander. They built another camp outside Canglang City to garrison.
These days, although the Liang army’s offensive against Iron Alligator Ridge had not stopped, it was not as intense and ferocious as the first two days. More often they pressed close to the northern foot of Iron Alligator Ridge to restrict Li Zhigao’s forces from operating outside Iron Alligator Ridge.
However, this did not mean the Liang army had given up contesting Iron Alligator Ridge. The main reason was that heavy snow had fallen continuously for three days after the new year, blocking roads and delaying the advance of the Liang army’s infantry—who were more skilled at sieges and capturing strategic positions—toward the western line.
The Liang army obviously was not willing under these harsh conditions of mountain-blocking snow and muddy roads to expend their elite vanguard cavalry in siege warfare.
The Dragon Sparrow Army took advantage of the mountain-blocking snow to race against time building stockades and ramparts, digging defensive trenches, transporting supplies, and further adjusting troop deployments along the Dan River line.
At this time, Li Zhigao transferred all over two thousand elites of the First Regiment to Iron Alligator Ridge. His forces and Guo Liang’s separately held two mountain passes at the northern foot of Iron Alligator Ridge. Gao Chengyuan’s forces were all transported by boat to Jingzikou to defend the险要 positions alongside five hundred Xuzhou military soldiers led by Zhang Bao, a military officer under Du Chongtao, blocking the passage for Liang troops from Guanzhong to advance east through Wuguan Pass.
Han Qian kept the boat gangs led by Yang Qin, Feng Xuan, and others, as well as the boat fleets of the four surnames, in Xuzhou, also taking on the important task of transporting materials and personnel for the Left Forward Division.
Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen, trapped defending Xichuan City, had once bypassed Li Zhigao and Han Qian to send people to Xuzhou City requesting the Xuzhou army dispatch warships to evacuate them from Xichuan City. But after being severely reprimanded by Du Chongtao, they were now cooped up in Xichuan City upstream on the Xichuan River.
Considering the increasingly urgent situation on the western line, Han Qian ultimately suggested to the Third Prince and Shen Yang that they send Chai Jian to join Zhou Shu and also transfer the Dragon Sparrow Army’s Third Regiment from Niushou Fort east of Xuzhou City to the west to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
On the morning of the eighth day of the first month, having returned from Iron Alligator Ridge at midnight the previous night, Han Qian slept for two hours before rising to handle military affairs and patrol the city’s defenses. Just as he climbed atop the wall, he saw over ten covered sailing ships coming upstream from the lower Han River.
“What ships are those?” Han Qian asked Tian Cheng.
“They’re provisions and military supplies being transported from Yingzhou to Xichuan!” The scouts positioned at the southern foot of Black Dragon Mountain had already confirmed the origin of these ships. Tian Cheng reported.
“Yang Qin, Feng Xuan,” seeing Yang Qin and Feng Xuan idling outside the city, Han Qian called out loudly, “Immediately gather your men and intercept all those ships for me. Tian Cheng, you also take a squad aboard the boats. If anyone dares resist, kill them without mercy. All responsibility rests with me!”
Hearing Han Qian’s loud shouting, Li Chong and Yao Xishui didn’t know what was happening. When they climbed the city wall and saw the fleet flying Yingzhou Prefecture banners, they finally understood the situation. Looking at each other in dismay—Han Qian had previously detained without authorization four military officers sent by Yingzhou Military Aide Xia Zhen to request aid, still imprisoning them in Canglang City’s private jail without handing them over to the Xuzhou army’s legal officers. Now he was going to intercept supply boats sent by Yingzhou to transport provisions?
The western flank’s reinforcements and provisions were mainly assembled from the twelve provinces including Jiang, Huang, E, and Ying. To conserve the Xuzhou army’s manpower and resources, except for a portion that needed to be transported to Xuzhou City for centralized storage, the provisions collected from these twelve provinces were each province’s responsibility to supply and transport for their own reinforcements.
So Han Qian ordering the interception of Yingzhou’s supply fleet was absolutely a major taboo.
“Han Qian, what is your intent?”
“Xia Zhen has a record of abandoning cities. Who knows whether these ships going to Xichuan will evacuate Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen’s two forces southward?” Han Qian said.
“If those two dare abandon the city again, military law will naturally deal with them. Your current actions directly violate the Defense Command’s military orders,” Li Chong said.
“…Xia Zhen dared flee without fighting, yet when did you become so timid and fearful?” Han Qian looked coldly at Li Chong and asked.
Li Chong was stunned, instantly rendered speechless by Han Qian’s rebuke.
Han Qian signaled Tian Cheng and Yang Qin to immediately carry out his orders and not let these ships break into the Dan River mouth, or sending boats to pursue them would be too late!
If Zheng Hui and Xia Zhen fled south by boat, even if they were caught and punished afterward, what good would it do?
As for whether detaining Yingzhou’s supply boats without authorization directly conflicted with the Defense Command’s current regulations, Han Qian did not care. If he didn’t dare break even this rule, the Third Prince’s prestige would be too worthless.