“Over a hundred years ago, the Xi clan split into two branches. The branch that entered Chenzhou, after reproducing for a hundred years, only had about a thousand clan members by Xi Ying’s generation, never managing to enter the ranks of Chenzhou’s great families. However, Xi Ying was deeply cunning and calculating, and he fathered ten sons, each possessing great strength and exceptional martial prowess. After they came of age, Xi Ying had them each govern a stockade. In just a few years, they exchanged small stockades for medium ones, medium stockades for large ones, occupying all the territory of Chenyang County and western Xupu, expanding their subject tribal population to over twenty thousand people. The man defending Old Dragon’s Head is Xi Ying’s seventh son, Xi Shehu, also the strongest and most valiant among Xi Ying’s ten sons. However, his temperament is rather hot-tempered, and sometimes even Xi Ying has no way to deal with him! Xi Shehu was originally the stockade chief of Jiming Stockade. Now that Xi Ying is personally stationed at Jiming Stockade, yet he sent Xi Shehu to guard such an insignificant place as the southern slope stockade, they must have had another conflict!”

Xi Xunqiao pointed at the armored giant who had broken through the encirclement and was fleeing toward the northern slope of Old Dragon’s Head with dozens of tribal soldiers, introducing Han Qian to some details about the Chenzhou Xi clan.

Han Qian had summoned Xi Xunqiao to Longya City in September, hoping that unlike Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong, he could serve Xuzhou. But Xi Xunqiao harbored various concerns in his heart.

In particular, he wasn’t entirely convinced that the Han father and son were loyal to the Great Chu court, and he was unwilling to help the Han father and son establish a separatist regime in Xuzhou—Xi Xunqiao was different from the vast majority of tribal generals and chieftains. Well-read in poetry and literature, he preferred that the realm might one day be unified, rather than having various hegemon lords carve the realm into scattered fragments.

After Zheng Hui arrived in Xuzhou, on one hand Xi Xunqiao confirmed the military authority stripping matter and confirmed that the Han father and son were indeed loyal to the Great Chu court. On the other hand, he also confirmed the court’s determination and investment in stripping military authority. Even if he helped the Wuling Army now, he wasn’t too worried about being held accountable if they failed.

So at this moment, Xi Xunqiao revealed some secret information about Chenzhou’s great families to Han Qian—information that the scouts Han Qian had previously sent out would have difficulty investigating and understanding in a short time.

Han Qian looked through the telescope and saw Kong Xirong get up from the ground. From a distance, he appeared to be unharmed, so Han Qian focused on listening to Xi Xunqiao introduce the situation of Chenzhou’s tribal generals.

That armored giant was half a head taller than Kong Xirong. Despite being entangled by over a hundred armored troops led by Zheng Xingxuan and Kong Xirong, he unexpectedly knocked Kong Xirong to the ground with a heavy hammer blow. Taking advantage of the surrounding soldiers rushing forward to rescue Kong Xirong, he tore open a breach and led his remnant troops to break through the encirclement.

Han Qian had naturally arranged long ago to collect and analyze intelligence on Xi Ying and his ten sons, but he hadn’t truly taken seriously the legends of Xi Shehu’s ability to lift a thousand jin. He thought those were either exaggerated through repeated tellings or rumors deliberately spread by the Chenzhou Xi clan to intimidate other forces.

Only at this moment was he truly deeply shocked by the martial prowess of the armored giant Xi Shehu—whom the Chenzhou tribal people called General Shehu.

Kong Xirong was already one of their side’s most formidable generals, yet Xi Shehu, after being entangled by numerous armored troops for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, with seven or eight arrows already embedded in his shoulders, back, and abdomen, his armor nearly dyed red by seeping blood—in this condition, he could still absolutely overpower Kong Xirong in strength!

This gave Han Qian a new understanding of the martial prowess of Chenzhou’s tribal generals.

Although Xi Ying’s other sons might not possess Xi Shehu’s level of martial prowess, even if they all reached the level of Tian Cheng or Kong Xirong, and could personally lead troops in charging assaults with such fearless disregard for death, what terrible price would they have to pay to capture Jiming Stockade?

Even capturing the southern slope stone stockade of Old Dragon’s Head had cost them over a hundred casualties, and Jiming Stockade was far beyond comparison with the southern slope stone stockade.

Jiming Stockade’s position on the northern slope of Longya Mountain was equivalent to Wuliu Creek’s diversion dam. The Chen River, the largest tributary of the Yuan River within Chenzhou territory, passed through north of Jiming Stockade.

Chenyang had been established as a county very early, and both native and immigrant populations had managed and settled along the Chen River for a long time. As the second largest fortified settlement in the territory after Chenyang City, Jiming Stockade alone housed several hundred tribal households.

Because Chenyang City was close to the Yuan River and immigrant forces were relatively stronger there, the Xi clan intended to develop Jiming Stockade as their main stronghold. In recent years, who knew how much money and grain they had invested just in building the city walls.

At this time, Xi Ying had assembled over two thousand tribal soldiers at Jiming Stockade, and additionally had over a thousand tribal soldiers stationed in Chenyang City at the mouth of the Chen River, which was no less fortified than Jiming Stockade.

If the defending soldiers at Jiming Stockade and Chenyang City were all as valiant as the tribal soldiers at the southern slope stone stockade, what price would they have to pay to take down these two strategic locations?

Watching Kong Xirong walk back, Han Qian and Feng Liao went over. Seeing that his chest guard had been deeply dented, they called a physician over. After confirming that Kong Xirong’s chest bones and internal organs were not seriously damaged, they let him go rest.

“A direct assault on Jiming Stockade probably won’t work.” Feng Liao said hesitantly to Han Qian.

Han Qian now appeared to have handed over military authority, but the over three thousand armored troops were cultivated through his hard work. Even the slightest loss pained him greatly—at this moment he better understood why some commanders went to great lengths to preserve their strength. Sometimes it wasn’t purely from cowardice and fear of battle, but more often from reluctance to lose this foundation.

He naturally didn’t want to see Zheng Hui command the Wuling Army to assault Jiming Stockade and Chenyang City directly, but if they didn’t attack directly, how should this battle be fought?

Having now taken down the southern slope stockade, with the remnant tribal soldiers fleeing to Jiming Stockade, Zheng Hui wanted to summon the generals to discuss the gains and losses of this battle. Cleaning up the southern slope stockade and clearing out the timber and rocks piled in Old Dragon Gorge so troops could pass through into Chenzhou territory—these were matters Han Qian needed to manage.

With Feng Liao, Chen Jitang, Du Yijun, Zhao Qi, and others assisting him, Han Qian didn’t need to personally attend to these tedious matters. However, he didn’t want to interfere with Zheng Hui’s command authority as the general, so he deliberately stayed occupied here and didn’t join Zheng Hui’s summoned meeting of generals to review and critique the battle.

Before dark, they cleared out the passage through Old Dragon Gorge. With some Wuling Army armored troops camping at the northern mouth of Old Dragon Gorge and others garrisoning the half-ruined southern slope stockade, they didn’t need to worry about tribal soldiers daring to raid their camp at night.

When it got dark, Han Qian personally came over to inspect the fortifications and sentry posts at the northern mouth, checking for any vulnerabilities. At this time, Zheng Hui sent someone to invite him to the southern slope stockade.

Half the stockade wall of the southern slope stockade had been destroyed, and of the few stilt houses in the stockade, seven or eight had been demolished. After rough cleanup, it served as the Wuling Army’s forward command post, though it was quite crude.

Han Qian entered the hall. Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Lin Haizheng, as well as Zhang Ping, Zheng Xingxuan, Yuan Guowei, and others had all been summoned by Zheng Hui. After exchanging greetings, Han Qian sat down behind the long desk opposite Zhang Ping.

“A direct assault on Jiming Stockade—the Wuling Army soldiers probably cannot withstand such heavy casualties. We need to devise a strategy to lure the tribal soldiers out of Jiming Stockade!” Zheng Hui got straight to the point, directly entering discussion of subsequent battle plans.

“Lord Zheng surely knows why my father and I asked Lord Zhang for help in inducing the four great families to forcefully attack Eagle Fish Stockade, right?” Han Qian spread his hands on the long desk and said. “The terrain around Jiming Stockade is even more treacherous than around Eagle Fish Stockade, making it difficult to deploy siege equipment. If the over two thousand tribal soldiers stationed there are as valiant as today’s defenders of the southern slope stockade, we might exhaust the entire Wuling Army without necessarily being able to take it. Jiming Stockade has genuine brick-faced rammed earth walls. Even if we build large whirlwind catapults, we shouldn’t expect to collapse even one corner in less than ten days to half a month. And two thousand valiant tribal soldiers won’t obediently stay inside the fortification, passively watching us continuously bombard them with whirlwind catapults from outside the stockade!”

“If we honestly try to attack Jiming Stockade and don’t want too many casualties, it will take at least a month to take it down. But the troops Tanzhou has assembled in Wuling County territory could reach Chenyang in just five or six days at the fastest, going upriver on the Yuan River,” Zheng Hui said. “I’m wondering if we have any way to lure the tribal soldiers out of Jiming Stockade. However, I’ve heard that Xi Ying is deeply cunning and calculating. Lord Han, do you have any clever plan that could make the tribal soldiers fall into a trap?”

“…” Han Qian was just about to find words to decline this matter when Zheng Hui smiled and said, “The victory at Xichuan was entirely due to your strategy of severely defeating the elite Liang Army troops. And the rapid pacification of the situation in Xuzhou was also entirely thanks to Lord Han’s extraordinary strategies. I may be adequate at methodically commanding troops to attack cities and capture stockades, but now is obviously not the time to methodically attack cities and capture stockades.”

Seeing Zheng Hui speak so sincerely, Han Qian furrowed his brow and began thinking seriously.

Han Qian thought that since all ten of Xi Ying’s sons were fierce and warlike, as long as the cunning and treacherous Xi Ying wasn’t personally stationed at Jiming Stockade, but rather one of Xi Ying’s sons was defending it, there was still a possibility of luring the defending soldiers out of Jiming Stockade to annihilate them in open battle!

After thinking for a moment, Han Qian said: “Xi Shehu, who defended the southern slope stockade today, has exceptional martial prowess. I was startled, and I’m sure everyone’s impression is also extremely deep. But while he has martial prowess in abundance, he lacks composure. Otherwise, today he should have proactively abandoned the southern slope stockade instead of nearly falling into our encirclement and annihilation. If Xi Shehu survives his injuries this time and Chenzhou uses him as the defending general of Jiming Stockade, then it will be easy to lure the tribal soldiers out.”

“That may be so, but how can we get Xi Ying to leave Jiming Stockade and have Xi Shehu defend it instead?” Zhang Ping asked thoughtfully.

“We can arrange it like this: on one hand, we should exaggerate our casualties from today’s battle, spreading word that Lord Zheng is deeply shocked by General Shehu’s valor, believing that with General Shehu defending Jiming Stockade, it will be impregnable, and that Chenzhou using him to defend such a small stockade as the southern slope stone stockade is truly a waste of talent. On the other hand, the naval battalion should also mobilize. I will also coordinate more with the naval battalion, going downstream along the Yuan River to attack places like Xupu, forcing Chenzhou’s great families to dispatch sufficiently important figures to take charge there. Meanwhile, we should also split off part of our forces to the eastern line, making Chenzhou believe we intend to bypass Jiming Stockade, reducing Jiming Stockade’s importance in Chenzhou’s eyes…” Han Qian said.

“Feinting east to strike west—this method is worth trying.” Zheng Hui praised.

Han Qian said: “Xi Shehu was originally the defending general of Jiming Stockade. Under these combined effects, if Xi Ying still doesn’t hand over the stockade’s defense authority to him, father and son will most likely have a falling out. Once Xi Shehu is defending Jiming Stockade alone, Lord Zheng can lead troops out of Old Dragon Gorge, bypass Jiming Stockade to attack Chenyang City. When the attack on Chenyang City is frustrated and you’re forced to withdraw back to Old Dragon Gorge, if Xi Shehu can still hold back from taking action, then we’ll have no choice but to honestly and methodically assault Jiming Stockade directly!”