By the time the Liang commander realized the severity of the situation at the front and finally ordered a retreat, within the two-hundred-pace-radius pocket formation inside the north wall breach, Liang corpses already covered the ground completely.
For the Liang army, killing their way through the breach had been easy, but turning back to escape from the pocket formation proved difficult. Especially when the withdrawal gongs sounded, the over one thousand Liang troops still trapped in the pocket formation saw their last shred of morale collapse.
Li Zhigao and Guo Liang each personally led elite units, not only routing the Liang troops within the city but seizing the opportunity to pursue them out of the city. Following the fleeing soldiers, they charged into the Liang army’s northern encampment four hundred paces away, burning over thirty of their catapults and over a hundred other siege weapons before withdrawing at their leisure.
Today’s battle left Liang corpses strewn everywhere, but the truly bloody and cruel battlefield was within the north wall breach.
Severed limbs and broken arms were everywhere, like a scene from Asura hell, causing even the most valiant Chu soldiers extreme discomfort at the sight.
Zhou Dan led his troops to redeploy the north wall’s defenses. Over a thousand laborers rushed again to the breach previously bombarded by the Liang army, discovering that the sand, stone, and timber materials stockpiled beforehand to fill the breach had long been soaked through with fresh blood.
Looking at the severed limbs and broken arms covering the ground, many laborers nearly vomited their gall.
No matter how bloody or cruel the battlefield, they still had to work through the night filling the blood-soaked sand, stone, and timber into the breach, sealing it before dawn, then carting out the mangled corpses by the wagonload to be thrown outside the city, preparing for tomorrow’s possibly even crueler bloody battle.
Han Qian stood before a pile of flesh and bone remnants for a long while. The Third Prince twice sent people to summon him. Seeing that the Liang troops regathering outside the north wall should have been frightened into losing courage for some time, he invited Zhou Dan to accompany him to the Town Commandant’s Residence.
Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and others were all wounded. Xi Chang had suffered severe injuries and remained unconscious. To suppress the frenzied Liang army at the north wall, the Xuzhou Battalion—which previously had suffered no casualties—this time lost two hundred soldiers in battle, with most other soldiers also bearing wounds.
Were it not for achieving such a great victory to lift spirits, the Xuzhou Battalion would be almost completely finished after this battle.
By now, night had deepened. Oil-soaked torches illuminated the Town Commandant’s Residence bright as day.
Today’s battle had been extremely perilous—Xichuan City had nearly fallen—but after the battle, hearts still trembled with excitement.
The Youth Guard Battalion had also suffered heavy casualties. At this moment, less than half remained standing to guard the Town Commandant’s Residence. Seeing Han Qian enter, the young warriors’ hearts pounded with excitement.
Han Qian was nominally still the Youth Guard Battalion’s Deputy Commander. Many couldn’t help wanting to request transfer to fight at Han Qian’s side.
All along the way, seeing the soldiers’ trembling excitement, Han Qian’s mood was inexplicably oppressed, secretly sensing he was ultimately someone who feared death. Entering the great hall and seeing everyone present, he bowed in salute to the Third Prince.
Seeing Han Qian’s robes stained with blood, Yang Yuanpu asked with concern, “Has Teacher Han been injured somewhere?”
“This is all the blood of Xuzhou Battalion soldiers. Our casualties today were also very heavy!” Han Qian said, bowing in salute to the Third Prince.
“The Left Division could build such advantageous weapons—if we’d used them earlier, how could today’s casualties have occurred?” After escorting Third Prince Yang Yuanpu back to the Town Commandant’s Residence today, Li Chong hadn’t returned to the battlefield. Though no one pointed this out afterward, at this moment seeing Han Qian not even glance at him directly, both jealous and resentful, he couldn’t help throwing cold water on things.
Today’s battle had virtually annihilated over six thousand of the Liang army’s most elite troops, but Zhou Dan’s forces had suffered eight hundred casualties, Li Zhigao’s forces over four hundred casualties, plus the Xuzhou Battalion and Guo Liang’s forces sealing off the Liang army from the west—the defenders’ casualties also totaled fifteen hundred.
Not to mention the previous half month of intense fighting, in which the defenders had accumulated nearly two thousand casualties.
In reality, within Xichuan City at this moment, barely five thousand soldiers remained combat-capable, with less than three thousand laborers remaining.
In Li Chong’s view, if the Left Division could build catapults with a six-hundred-pace range and they’d been deployed immediately, the Liang army would have had no way to position seventy or eighty catapults within four hundred paces of Xichuan’s walls to continuously bombard the city’s fragile walls. Over the past half month, the Liang army wouldn’t have dared attack the city so frequently and fiercely.
“Indeed, if Lord Han had brought out such advantageous weapons earlier, our army’s casualties wouldn’t have been so severe!” Shen He also said with some regret, not understanding why Han Qian had engaged in such mystification, needlessly increasing casualties.
Han Qian originally didn’t want to address Li Chong and Shen He’s questioning, but seeing Yang En and Shen Yang both slightly furrow their brows, he sat down behind the long table and spoke slowly:
“No one wishes to bear such heavy casualties, but we needed even more to delay for time!”
Though Han Qian’s eyes couldn’t be called particularly sharp, as his gaze lightly swept over, Li Chong lowered his head guiltily.
Han Qian didn’t wait for others to question further, continuing:
“No single advantageous weapon is omnipotent. The Scorpion Crossbows built by the Left Division actually don’t compare to contemporary three-bow crossbow beds—everyone can see this clearly. And while the Whirlwind Cannons we built can indeed hurl projectiles to strike distant enemies at six hundred paces, if we’d used them immediately, the Liang army could have adjusted their deployment and immediately built even larger catapults to counter us. They control the area outside the city and can find more excellent, more resilient timber. They also have more able-bodied laborers to conscript. At that point, in mutual bombardment, what great odds of victory would we have had? How long could we have held Xichuan City from being breached by the Liang army?”
Both types of siege weapons were newly built by the Left Division. After being built, they were only assigned to the Xuzhou Battalion for use. Even though Yang En and others had seen the new catapults’ true form two days ago, only now did they learn that Han Qian called these new catapults “Whirlwind Cannons” and called the other simple crossbow beds “Scorpion Crossbows.” They truly didn’t know from which school Han Qian had learned to master the construction methods for these two new siege weapons.
“Indeed, Lord Han speaks very correctly. It was precisely showing weakness to the enemy that not only delayed things for half a month but also created today’s opportunity to heavily damage the Liang army’s elite troops,” Zhou Dan’s forces had suffered the heaviest damage today, but he had personally witnessed the battle situation reverse in an instant and was most deeply shaken. At this moment, he couldn’t help standing out to argue several points for Han Qian. “This time we’ve heavily damaged the Liang army. Before their commander Han Yuanqi builds even larger catapults, he probably won’t have the courage to forcibly attack the city again…”
All of this was to gain more time and heavily damage the Liang army’s most elite troops, dampening their morale.
Yang En and Shen Yang exchanged glances, both relaxing their furrowed brows. Heavily damaging the Liang army’s offensive will and morale was sometimes especially important, and it also meant the defenders’ will and morale would become increasingly resolute.
They had accompanied the Third Prince to inspect the north wall earlier. Although the stronghold recruits had suffered extremely heavy casualties today, morale was still acceptable.
Especially with Zhou Dan now able to stand out and speak for Han Qian, they believed this battle had also firmed his confidence in defending Xichuan City.
For many people, like Zhou Dan, they actually didn’t fear sacrifice—what they feared was sacrificing meaninglessly, without value.
This point was extremely critical.
Zhou Dan and the other stronghold commanders now all had confidence in defending Xichuan City and believed that after defending Xichuan, the stronghold sons could obtain sufficient benefits at all levels. They could then further tap the stronghold forces’ potential.
Previously, when Zhou Dan and the other stronghold commanders led their troops to participate in Xichuan City’s defense, they’d somewhat felt like they were boarding a pirate ship.
After all, when they’d previously abandoned Canglang City and also transferred stronghold recruits to Xichuan, Zhou Dan and the others hadn’t realized how cruel the situation was. After arriving at Xichuan, withdrawal had become impossible.
Zhou Dan’s forces numbered only fifteen or sixteen hundred. With Li Zhigao, Zheng Hui, Guo Hui, and the Xuzhou Battalion directly under Han Qian’s command, plus the Youth Guard Battalion beside the Third Prince—over seven thousand combat troops total—how could Zhou Dan withdraw?
During this time, Shen Yang and Yang En had also gained further understanding of the stronghold forces’ potential. They thought that as long as they gave them confidence in defending Xichuan City and made them firmly believe defending the city would bring great benefits, recruiting another three to five thousand elite troops from the strongholds would be no problem.
Yang En and Shen Yang looked toward Han Qian, believing he must have already thought this far ahead, right?
“The urgent priority now is to request His Highness and all lords jointly sign a victory report and deliver it to His Majesty’s hands as quickly as possible!” Han Qian said. “Xichuan City’s survival truly depends on whether His Majesty dares commit the Tower Ship Navy’s elite forces directly into Hanshui combat at maximum speed!”
The stronghold forces’ potential naturally needed to be further tapped—people even needed to be sent dispersed into the mountains tonight to conduct mobilization. But in Han Qian’s view, this still wasn’t the most important thing for them to do at present.
After all, the stronghold troops needed time to assemble, and because the Xichuan River was blockaded, they would need to proceed north along the river’s western bank deep into the Funiu Mountains, take a detour, then break through the Liang army’s blockade at the southern foot of the Funiu Mountains before possibly reinforcing Xichuan City. Time-wise, this might be too late and might not necessarily pose much threat to the Liang army.
What Han Qian was more focused on now was Jinling’s reinforcements, especially the Tower Ship Navy’s advance speed—this was the key determining their life or death.
Emperor Tianyou had risen in Jianghuai and was adept at using naval forces. After establishing his foundation in Jinling, he’d further organized the Tower Ship Navy under the Northern Palace Guard system. Currently, it was the only elite reinforcement force that could rapidly transit the Hanshui to reinforce Xiangzhou City and Xichuan.
As long as the Tower Ship Navy dared charge into the Hanshui and tear open the Liang army’s blockade along the river, they could not only reinforce Xiangzhou City and Xichuan City but also split apart the Liang troops positioned on both banks of the Hanshui!
Of course, getting Emperor Tianyou to decide to dispatch the Tower Ship Navy elite forces as vanguard was no easy matter.
First, they needed to make Emperor Tianyou believe the Tower Ship Navy could obtain a foothold at Xichuan during its northward advance.
Otherwise, if the Tower Ship Navy advanced north alone from the Hanshui mouth, breaking through layer after layer of blockades along the way, losses would inevitably be substantial. Without obtaining a foothold on the upper Dan River, in the narrow rivers, large warships were extremely susceptible to destruction by fire attacks.
The Tower Ship Navy advancing north alone truly risked total annihilation.
Great Chu’s foundation lay in Jianghuai, and it relied extremely heavily on elite naval forces.
Even if the victory report reached Emperor Tianyou’s hands, whether Emperor Tianyou would dispatch the Tower Ship Navy to advance north alone—Han Qian had no confidence whatsoever. Perhaps it still depended on whether Yang Yuanpu, this son, carried enough weight in Emperor Tianyou’s heart to make the Tower Ship Navy take this risk!