Zhao Zhixian and Tan Yuliang had originally fled to a mountain hollow with a narrow entrance upstream of Zhugong Creek to block the ambushers and wait for reinforcements. But the scene at Luojiao Creek’s mouth left them unable to sit and wait for death.
This scene before them made Zhao Zhixian and Tan Yuliang convinced the Four Great Clans’ tribal forces had colluded with the Han father and son.
Though previously they had believed this absolutely impossible, what else could they think seeing this bloody scene before their eyes?
Zhao Zhixian felt timid in his heart, but Tan Yuliang worried the Han father and son might lead troops from Qianyang City’s direction at any moment. In fact, at this moment, several smoke columns had successively risen in the clear sky south of Shima Pass.
They had secret agents hidden in Qianyang City and several settlements north of Qianyang City. As long as the Han father and son made major movements in Qianyang City, the secret agents would ignite firewood piled in buildings to cause fires and warn them here.
Though the road from Qianyang City was rugged, it wouldn’t take the Han father and son three hours to lead troops over, meaning they had at most only three hours to rout the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers and retreat into Zhongfang City to defend.
Though Qianyang troops sailing by boat would take slightly less time, the several naval warships under the Han father and son were all large pointed-bottom vessels—fast but requiring ready-made docks to quickly land. Otherwise, coming by land road would actually be faster.
Tan Yuliang changed into fine steel scale armor and led over thirty horse riders charging from the mountain hollow where they’d temporarily sheltered. Losing over a dozen men, they fought their way out from the encirclement of over a hundred Four Clans’ settlement soldiers, joining the three hundred-plus cavalry on the mountain ridge, then desperately spurred horses toward Luojiao Creek’s southern bank.
With summer rains abundant, Luojiao Creek’s water level was high and warhorses couldn’t ford directly. Tan Yuliang ordered a forced attack on the wooden bridge behind the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers.
Seven or eight warhorses formed groups, charging the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers defending the wooden bridge. As iron spears pierced horses’ bellies and chests, riders on horseback also swung war swords viciously down toward Four Clans’ settlement soldiers’ heads, or with arms tightly clamping long lances, thrust sharp blades three chi long into Four Clans’ settlement soldiers’ bodies…
Over hundreds of years, the Wuxi tribes had rarely been defeated facing forces from the Central Plains. Besides being fierce and warlike, a more important reason was occupying strategic positions and familiarity with treacherous terrain on all sides. They rarely engaged in hard battle with elite armored soldiers in open river valleys or flat basin areas.
At this moment, for both sides downstream of Luojiao Creek, this was a brutal bloody battle.
The Four Clans’ settlement soldiers assembled on the open beach downstream of Luojiao Creek could be said to be fighting with backs to the water.
On one hand, they now firmly believed everything before them was a trap jointly set by the Han father and son and Tanzhou. Tanzhou’s forces could never let them withdraw at leisure. On the other hand, their scout boats had detected two war sailboats slowly approaching from the Great Bend direction.
These were Xuzhou camp army warships, many times more solid and massive than the Four Clans’ awning boats.
Though the Four Great Clans had deployed over thirty awning sailboats in a surprise attack on Yingyu Fort (Zhongfang City), they hadn’t prepared for naval combat.
Their small warships hadn’t prepared large quantities of oil jars and firewood for fire attacks, hadn’t prepared hooks and clamps to secure enemy ships for boarding combat. Facing warships with hulls dozens of times larger equipped with multiple crossbow beds, on the open Yuan River surface, no matter how many awning sailboats they possessed, they had little chance of victory.
Hastily engaging in naval combat now, the most likely outcome was them sinking to the river bottom to become food for fish and shrimp.
The Tanzhou armored soldiers the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers faced, besides routing and scattering the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers so they could retreat into Zhongfang City in time, similarly didn’t think they had any other retreat.
Collision of iron and blood, entanglement of blade and flesh.
Sprays of fresh blood flew half into the air. Severed limbs rolled on the creek beach, corpses lying askew. Blood had already stained the creek water red, flowing into the murky Yuan River but quickly stirred colorless.
At dusk, when Han Qian and Tian Cheng led over a thousand Xuzhou camp soldiers through Shima Pass and reached Zhugong Creek’s southern bank, the bloody battle at Luojiao Creek bank had just ceased.
At this time, Yang Qin led four war sailboats and five hundred naval soldiers converging from upstream and downstream of the Yuan River, forming up outside Luojiao Creek’s mouth. Feng Changyu, Feng Jin, and others could only abandon boats, leading over three hundred remnant defeated troops to flee eastward along Luojiao Creek’s northern bank deep into Zhongfang Mountain.
Zhao Zhixian had an arm severed in the melee and fainted for a while. When pain woke him, he was withdrawing with over four hundred other remnant soldiers into Zhongfang City.
Tan Yuliang, Tan Tie, and Zhao Zhixian had less than five hundred remnant soldiers remaining in Zhongfang City. The Four Clans’ tribal soldiers’ fearless ferocity exceeded their expectations. They barely managed to repel the tribal soldiers and recapture the wooden bridge only by arming and deploying nearly all forces hidden in the city for battle.
Even not considering the Han father and son reaping fisherman’s profits, for them this battle was an extremely brutal and unbearable victory.
At this moment, Zhao Zhixian saw Four Clans’ remnant soldiers fleeing in panic into Zhongfang Mountain, while Feng Changyu and Feng Jin also looked with deep puzzlement at Tanzhou forces fleeing in panic into Zhongfang City and closing the gates. Both sides suddenly understood—they had fallen into the Han father and son’s trap—but their eyes remained full of doubt.
“What do the Han father and son intend? Could it be they never intended to ally with Tanzhou from the start and want to swallow all of Xuzhou alone? Do those father and son have such a large appetite to swallow all of Xuzhou?” Zhao Zhixian asked Tan Yuliang with grief and incomprehension.
Xuzhou was vast and sparsely populated, but precisely because it was vast and sparsely populated, with people scattered among mountains and waters, inconvenient roads, plus complex local conditions and fierce customs, it was even harder for outside rulers to control.
Because of this, when the Han father and son expressed goodwill seeking cooperation with Tanzhou, Zhao Zhixian and Tan Yuliang hadn’t harbored any suspicions at all.
“Why would that eunuch traitor Zhang Ping help the Han father and son?” Feng Changyu stood on a rock outcrop, resentfully punching a pine tree stubbornly growing from rock crevices, asking this question of himself and others.
The forced attack on Zhongfang City was Supervisory Commissioner Zhang Ping’s suggestion. Zhang Ping had also promised to come join them after they captured Zhongfang City, then summon major native clan forces from Jingzhou upstream of the Yuan River and Chenzhou downstream to deploy troops together to Zhongfang City and expel the Han father and son.
No matter how stupid Feng Changyu was, he knew Zhang Ping was problematic. Moreover, the establishment of new Zhongfang County, as well as the time and route of Zhao Zhixian and Tan Yuliang leaving Qianyang City for Yingyu Fort to establish the county—all were disclosed to them by Zhang Ping. Otherwise, they couldn’t have so presumptuously laid today’s trap to lure the snake from its hole, resulting in them and Tanzhou’s forces mutually destroying each other at Luojiao Creek bank.
Among those around Han Qian who knew the entire scheme, only a handful could be counted. Even now, more people around him hadn’t even understood how Tanzhou’s forces in Xuzhou had suddenly ended up mutually destroying each other with the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers.
Were the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers so full they had nothing better to do than gather forces to attack Zhongfang City?
Though puzzled in their hearts, it didn’t prevent over a thousand soldiers from exerting full effort to drag several awning boats into Zhugong Creek’s channel, bind them together with ropes, secure them to giant trees on both banks requiring several people to embrace, remove the boat awnings, lay down newly felled miscellaneous wood, and construct a floating bridge.
Deep in Zhongfang Mountain the roads were rugged, and it was surrounded on three sides by the Yuan River. Han Qian wasn’t worried the Four Clans’ remnant soldiers could escape Zhongfang Mountain in a short time. Right now, they still needed to first resolve the four hundred Tanzhou remnant soldiers led by Zhao Zhixian, Tan Yuliang, and Tan Tie who had retreated like cornered beasts to defend Zhongfang City (Yingyu Fort), completely pulling out this nail Tanzhou had driven into Xuzhou’s interior.
Yingyu Fort had originally been built beside water. After Tanzhou forces occupied it, they drove several rows of wooden stakes outside the western wall, filling the space between stakes and wall with earth and stone to form a simple dock.
Yingyu Fort’s dock was only four to five hundred paces square. Yang Qin led four war sailboats to immediately blockade Yingyu Fort’s dock so the over a thousand armored soldiers arriving by land could smoothly establish camp on the river beach at Zhongfang City’s southwest corner.
Gao Bao followed Yang Qin off the boat to see Han Qian. Walking into the temporarily erected tent, seeing Han Qian, he excitedly shouted:
“Young Master’s stratagem was too marvelous! That old fellow Feng Changyu fell into the pit Young Master dug. From beginning to end he never figured it out, nearly exhausting himself fighting Tanzhou’s forces before thinking to withdraw into Zhongfang Mountain. Seeing us preparing to attack Yingyu Fort now, their eyes must be popping out of their heads!”
Today, nearly a thousand native tribal soldiers had perished at Luojiao Creek bank. These should all be Gao Bao’s clansmen. Seeing Gao Bao still so excited and animated, everyone in the tent looked at Gao Bao with somewhat awkward eyes.
Han Qian, however, had no spiritual cleanliness obsession. To govern Xuzhou well in the future, Gao Bao would be a very key person, to a certain degree even more worthy of his trust than Feng Xuan. Smiling, he waved for Gao Bao to sit beside him, saying: “After Tian Cheng captures Zhongfang City, you’ll be Zhongfang County’s first county magistrate. Are you psychologically prepared to be County Magistrate?”
“This, this…” Gao Bao said somewhat embarrassedly, “To govern Zhongfang County, Feng Xuan has more prestige than me. Young Master using Feng Xuan might be more appropriate.”
“I have other assignments for Feng Xuan. Zhongfang County Magistrate is your deserved reward,” Han Qian said, not allowing Gao Bao to refuse. He summoned Tian Cheng, Yang Qin, and Lin Zongjing over to have them prepare overnight for a forced attack on Zhongfang City.
Though they had trapped over three hundred Four Clans’ remnant soldiers in Zhongfang Mountain, they had no way to completely blockade Zhongfang Mountain, which stretched over fifty li north-south and had over thirty li depth east-west. If just two or three people escaped, the Four Clans could still gather over a thousand settlement soldiers in a short time.
They had to capture Zhongfang City before the Four Clans’ settlement soldiers gathered again.
“Han Qian…”
At this moment, hearing shouts faintly from atop Zhongfang City walls, Han Qian lifted the tent flap and walked out. Seeing several figures vaguely standing atop Zhongfang City, listening to the voice, it seemed like Zhao Zhixian shouting himself hoarse.
“Han Qian! Our Tanzhou hasn’t treated you father and son poorly—not to mention gifting money and grain, we even let you flee into Xuzhou. You don’t remember Tanzhou’s kindness to you, inciting the Four Clans’ tribal soldiers to attack us, now even personally raising troops to harm us. You’re so faithless and treacherous—soon our Tanzhou’s great army will drive straight in, grinding you treacherous father and son’s bones to ashes!”
“Write down what I’m about to say and have someone shout it to Zhao Zhixian atop the walls shortly!”
Han Qian was too lazy to strain his throat cursing back at Zhao Zhixian. He simply had Lin Zongjing record his words beside him, then later have someone shout them toward the city walls on his behalf.
“My father is the Xuzhou Defense Commissioner enfeoffed by Great Chu. I am the Xuzhou Administrative Commissioner and Camp Military Commander enfeoffed by Great Chu. Tanzhou is Great Chu’s Tanzhou—secretly blockading waterways and intercepting merchant ships bound for Xuzhou, what kindness is that to Great Chu, what kindness to us Han father and son? Tanzhou is Great Chu’s Tanzhou, yet secretly harboring forces in Xuzhou—what malicious intent does this conceal? Tell Zhao Zhixian, Tan Yuliang, and Tan Tie to open the gates and surrender before sunrise tomorrow, and I may use ships to send them back to Tanzhou. If they don’t surrender, just wait for the city to fall and everyone to perish!”