Han Qian and Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, escorted by over a hundred guards in the dead of night, brought Wen Rulin and rushed to Hanshou City to meet with Zheng Hui.
Han Qian also brought along several principal offenders captured after breaking Wuling City—Wuling County Magistrate Wang Dazhi, Deputy Chen Lu, Marshal Zhou Chu, and Registrar Zhao Jicheng—to Hanshou City as well.
In addition to leading Zhou Shu, Fan Xiang, Zhou Dan and other generals at Hanshou City, Zheng Hui also had the surrendered general Zhang Han, who was a son of the Zhang clan of Shishou.
They couldn’t trust Wen Rulin’s one-sided account, so naturally they had to summon Zhang Han, Wang Dazhi, Chen Lu, Zhou Chu, Zhao Jicheng and other surrendered generals and captured officials who had contact with Baimao City’s defending general Gao Long for detailed questioning.
Of course, Zheng Hui and the others all felt this risk was worth taking.
First, Wen Rulin had been captured directly in Wuling City, so there was no possibility of setting a trap at Baimao City in advance.
And from Hanshou to Baimao City, besides having a post road connecting them, the water route was only one hundred thirty to forty li. If there were any problems, coming and going would be convenient.
Even without Wen Rulin, after Zheng Hui and his forces took Hanshou City without effort, they were also considering whether to advance on Baimao City or cities to the southeast like Ziyang and Taojiang.
It was just that Ma Yuanheng’s forces defending Jiang’an City hadn’t been captured yet. If they advanced too early on Baimao City at the Xiang River mouth, they might prematurely alert the Ma father and son to abandon Yueyang City early and flee back to Tanzhou.
At that time, with the Yuedong camp and Jingzhou forces on the periphery unable to rush over in time, and unable to quickly capture Baimao City themselves, hastily engaging the rebel army’s main force in field battle on the lake beach land outside Baimao City at the Xiang River mouth—they truly didn’t have much chance of victory.
If they could persuade Baimao City’s defending general Gao Long to surrender, and they occupied Baimao City at the gateway to the Xiang River, cutting off the Ma father and son’s southern retreat to Tanzhou, this would indeed be the key node to rapidly advance the war.
Of course, placing hopes on Gao Long surrendering and offering the city, sending Wen Rulin back alone would be insufficient to gain Gao Long’s trust. Who should accompany Wen Rulin to Baimao City?
Zheng Hui, Zhou Shu, Zhou Dan and others all had command responsibilities and couldn’t abandon their soldiers without reason to accompany Wen Rulin to Baimao City to persuade surrender.
Zhang Ping looked around. Now it was Marquis Xinchang Li Pu who advocated using Wen Rulin. Knowing Han Qian wouldn’t undertake this matter, he stood up and said: “I’ll accompany Scholar Wen to Baimao City to persuade Gao Long to surrender.”
“If I say Master Zhang’s prestige is slightly insufficient and perhaps inadequate to gain Gao Long’s trust, Master Zhang won’t be unhappy, will he?” Han Qian said with a smile.
Li Chong, who had originally agreed that Zhang Ping should go with Wen Rulin to persuade Gao Long, now looking at Han Qian’s smile, found it somewhat sinister no matter how he looked at it. His heart skipped a beat: Zhang Ping had always said Han Qian wasn’t so easy to see through. When Han Qian proactively gave Wen Rulin to them this time, was he setting a trap here, waiting for Father to jump in?
If Han Qian said even Zhang Ping as Military Supervisor had slightly insufficient prestige and was inadequate to persuade Gao Long’s surrender, and Zheng Hui as Campaign General Manager couldn’t leave the main army without authorization, and Han Qian himself assumed an attitude of standing by with folded arms—wouldn’t Father be the only suitable candidate?
Yet he couldn’t say Han Qian’s words were definitely wrong.
In his early years, Zhang Ping merely held the position of Inner Palace Count, a seventh-rank position in the Inner Court Bureau. After being transferred to the Third Prince’s side, he was only appointed as sixth-rank Prince’s Mansion Secretary after the Jing-Xiang conflict.
When Han Qian “absconded” from Jinling, Zhang Ping left the capital to deliver an edict to Xuzhou and stayed on to serve as Military Supervisor of the Xuzhou Defense Commissioner’s Office, Military Supervisor of the Wuling Army, and Military Supervisor of the Yuan River Campaign.
However, Military Supervisor was merely a temporary appointment with no corresponding official rank. And Zhang Ping as Military Supervisor had never had any real power from start to finish, serving for a short time, so naturally he had no prestige to speak of.
Zhang Ping’s previous mission carrying the edict to persuade Xi Ying had been fine—on one hand, Xi Ying’s status and influence on the war situation weren’t as prominent as Gao Long’s; on the other hand, the disposition of major Chenzhou native families had already been made clear by Emperor Tianyou in the second imperial edict transmitted to Xuzhou.
However, at this moment, the opportunity was fleeting. Now they simply didn’t have time to send someone to Jinling to request an edict. Someone of Marquis Xinchang Li Pu’s caliber had to come forward to possibly persuade Gao Long to surrender the city.
Otherwise, even if Gao Long, Ma Yuanheng and others had intentions to surrender, they would hold fast until Emperor Tianyou issued an edict pardoning their crimes with certain guarantees before surrendering the city.
Zhang Han led his forces to surrender because not surrendering meant being jointly besieged and annihilated by Zheng Hui and Li Zhigao. After surrendering, they still had to immediately participate in the assault on Wuling City, losing over a thousand soldiers before gaining preliminary trust. But the ultimate arrangement for a surrendered general like him still depended on Jinling’s decree.
Thinking that all this was very likely a trap Han Qian had set for them, Li Chong clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white.
“It seems only this marquis can personally make the trip to gain Gao Long’s trust.” Marquis Xinchang Li Pu glanced at Han Qian and said calmly.
“Let your son go in Father’s place.” Li Chong pressed his hands on the long table before him.
Marquis Xinchang Li Pu shook his head, insisting he would personally accompany Wen Rulin to Baimao City to meet Gao Long.
After settling on the strategy, Zheng Hui had people find several sets of blood-stained Tanzhou military uniforms for Wen Rulin, Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, and several personal guards to change into, so they could disguise themselves as deserters and smoothly enter Baimao City to see Gao Long. Whether they could persuade Gao Long to surrender would depend on whether Marquis Xinchang Li Pu’s fate was strong enough.
At this time, torrential rain began to fall. A cavalry squadron escorted Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and Wen Rulin away from Hanshou City. After waiting over an hour, the rain lessened, and Chief of Staff Zhou Shu and Tribal General Xi Ying led five thousand troops also departing Hanshou City, traveling along the slippery post road toward the southeast.
If Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and Wen Rulin could persuade Gao Long to surrender the city, Zhou Shu and Xi Ying would first lead their forces into Baimao City, then Zheng Hui would lead the main force over to completely cut off the Yueyang rebel army’s escape route to Tanzhou.
Even if there were complications in this process, they would control losses to a minimum, ensuring the original pace of military operations wouldn’t be greatly impacted.
After Zhou Shu and Xi Ying’s forces disappeared into the misty rain, Han Qian opened an oiled paper umbrella and walked down the city access road with Xi Ren.
“Thump thump thump”—Han Qian turned around to see Yao Xishui holding an umbrella chasing from behind, while Li Chong stood with several guards a dozen steps away.
Han Qian stopped and stepped aside with Xi Ren toward the city wall to let Yao Xishui and Li Chong pass first.
“Before Wen Rulin was recruited by Ma Xun, he had been living in seclusion cultivating himself in an ancient temple deep in the Xuefeng Mountains. He became acquainted with Ma Xun’s brother-in-law, who then introduced him to Ma Xun…” Yao Xishui stopped before Han Qian. At this time the rain grew slightly heavier again. She stared at Han Qian’s eyes through the rain curtain.
Li Chong and his guards stood a dozen steps away, blocking others from approaching so Yao Xishui could speak privately with Han Qian.
“What, is there a problem?” Han Qian asked.
“Did Master Han know early on that Wen Rulin’s background had suspicious elements?” Yao Xishui asked.
“Miss Yao, you’re overthinking this,” Han Qian laughed it off, saying: “In those years, the Shenling Bureau’s eyes and ears extended throughout the realm. Even though it was severely damaged when the previous dynasty fell, its strength still shouldn’t be underestimated. Perhaps you have secretly planted eyes among those around Ma Yin. How could my understanding of Tanzhou exceed yours? Moreover, I still haven’t seen any problems with Wen Rulin. The world has countless capable people—does every person with a bit of ability cause you such alarm and uncertainty? Aren’t you being too unconfident? Haven’t you misjudged enough people these past few years?”
Han Qian knew the Shenling Bureau’s secrets, so Yao Xishui wasn’t surprised. She continued pressing: “It’s truly not a trap you’ve set?”
“Does Miss Yao want me to cut open my heart for you to see?” Han Qian protested. “The situation in Tanzhou is already settled. Even if Gao Long is unwilling to surrender and detains the Marquis to hand over to the Ma father and son, they wouldn’t dare directly kill the Marquis. Although matters might have some additional complications, the Marquis’s reputation for great courage would already be established. My loyalty to the Marquis and to Miss Yao is utterly sincere—the sun and moon can attest! Yet Miss Yao suspects me in every way—this truly leaves Han Qian speechless!”
No matter how splendid Han Qian’s performance, Yao Xishui wouldn’t believe it. But she truly couldn’t see a single flaw in the entire affair, so for now she could only depart first with Li Chong.
……
……
Zhang Ping, Li Chong, and Yao Xishui waited anxiously at Hanshou for two days before an escort finally rushed back to Hanshou bearing Marquis Xinchang Li Pu’s secret message.
In the letter, Marquis Xinchang Li Pu said Gao Long agreed to surrender, but Baimao City, as the gateway for Tanzhou’s northern entry into Dongting Lake or southward from Dongting Lake into the Xiang River, even the two thousand troops who had fled from Hanshou were all core forces whose families had been settled in Changsha County of Tanzhou. Gao Long had no confidence in leading all four thousand garrison troops to surrender to the court together.
The Ma father and son were indecisive, and in earlier years had been forced to submit to Emperor Tianyou due to internal chaos. Over these years, worried that their generals would usurp power and betray them, they had on one hand limited the scale of generals’ private forces, and on the other frequently transferred generals, restricting generals’ control over military forces—this was also the reality.
Gao Long agreed that two nights later in the deep of night, he would have his subordinates open the east city gate to admit the Chu army into the city.
To show his sincerity, Gao Long didn’t detain Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and Wen Rulin.
Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and Wen Rulin had now joined with Zhou Shu and Xi Ying. Over five thousand elite troops stopped at a village settlement about thirty li from Baimao City to observe the situation.
Even if Gao Long had no intention of false surrender, to avoid alerting other defending generals in Baimao City loyal to the Ma clan, they had to depart at nightfall two days later under cover of darkness to have a chance of quietly reaching before Baimao City’s east gate, waiting for Gao Long to open the east city gate.
However, considering Gao Long still might falsely surrender, in that case, Marquis Xinchang Li Pu leading only Zhou Shu and Xi Ying’s two forces totaling over five thousand soldiers would have insufficient strength to turn the tables and seize Baimao City.
And even if Gao Long had no intention of false surrender, after Marquis Xinchang Li Pu led Zhou Shu and Xi Ying’s forces to seize the city amid the chaos, they would inevitably alert the garrison of Tanzhou City a hundred li away.
If they hoped Gao Long could further cooperate with them to lure Tanzhou City’s garrison to come reinforce Baimao, they also needed more troops to ambush Tanzhou City’s garrison midway.
To guard against all eventualities, Zheng Hui and Military Supervisor Zhang Ping led Zhou Dan and surrendered general Zhang Han’s two forces by land route toward Baimao City.
This battle was extraordinary for the Marquis Xinchang’s mansion. Li Chong also couldn’t sit still and hurried ahead to join his father.