Deep within Xuanjiao Ridge, there was an ancient plank road built during the Spring and Autumn period that connected Huzhou and Runzhou by land.
Although shipbuilding technology in the Jianghuai region had advanced rapidly since the previous dynasty, the waters of Taihu Lake were vast and treacherous—small boats could hardly withstand the wind and waves. This made the ancient plank road deep within Xuanjiao Ridge still an extremely important overland transportation route connecting the two prefectures of Hu and Run.
Sitiandun seemed remote, but located beside the ancient plank road, it had prospered as a commercial hub with a flourishing population since the previous dynasty.
However, after the Chuzhou Army crossed the river and took control of Runzhou, Huzhou Prefect Huang Hua dispatched troops to blockade the southern exit of the ancient plank road from Xuanjiao Ridge, though he still hadn’t thought to station troops inside Sitiandun.
The defense of Sitiandun was mainly the responsibility of the Xu clan—a local family that had long monopolized the positions of village elders and assistants—who organized household troops and village militia from surrounding areas.
No matter how elite the Xu Family Fortress militia cut off from outside contact were, or how solid the Xu Family Fortress stronghold was, these advantages were only evident when defending against bandits. But facing the Qiuhu Army, which possessed young and valiant generals like Li Qi and fierce warriors trained for years by the Prince’sMansion, they were quite inadequate.
The Wei clan and other families had fallen to this state, and at this point they abandoned their fence-sitting hesitations and other petty calculations. To secure a foothold in Sitiandun, Wei Huang and other family disciples showed far more enthusiasm when attacking Xu Family Fortress than they had shown half a month ago when defending Lishui City and engaging in contact battles with infiltrating Southern Yamen Imperial Guards.
Xu Family Fortress was built against a low mountain, and this low mountain’s terrain was relatively stable, allowing the Qiuhu Army to directly attack its northern wall by climbing the northern low mountain without needing to construct siege towers or scaling ladders.
Wei Huang, Tian Wenzhong and other Lishui aristocratic family sons first led troops to attack, exhausting the defenders as much as possible. When the defenders felt confident—even having two hundred defenders exit the northern wall trying to drive all the Qiuhu Army forces down from the northern low mountain—Li Qi led the Prince’sMansion fierce warriors in a flanking attack, slaughtering all two hundred defenders who had counterattacked outside the northern wall on the low mountain, leaving none alive.
The defenders’ will to resist collapsed at this point. They opened the fortress gates and chose to surrender…
The Chuzhou Army might understand the conflict between Han Qian and Li Pu, but Huzhou Prefect Huang Hua didn’t understand and didn’t dare take that risk.
With the Qiuhu Army occupying Sitiandun and accepting surrenders, gathering over four thousand troops, if they suddenly emerged from the southern entrance of Xuanjiao Ridge’s ancient plank road, they would strike directly between Jiudu Mountain and Changxing City, threatening from the side and rear the five thousand Huzhou troops at Jiudu Mountain and Xianshan Lake.
Huzhou Prefect Huang Hua didn’t dare let these five thousand troops bear the risk of being attacked from both sides with their retreat cut off. Seeing Sitiandun fall, without waiting for the Qiuhu Army to emerge from the southern entrance of the ancient plank road, he hastily recalled Huang Tianxing’s forces back to Changxing county seat.
Gao Shao, without lifting a finger, led his forces to control the Jiudu Mountain-Xianshan Lake area…
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Wang Wenqian stood atop Canglong Ridge at the northern foot of Maoshan Mountain. Half a month had passed, yet he could still see the scattered debris in the camp at the mountain’s base, completely empty. Who could imagine that half a month ago, this had been one of the Chishan Army’s main fortresses at the northeastern foot of Maoshan Mountain?
Han Qian had ultimately led his forces to transfer southeast.
Of course, if Han Qian really had led the Chishan Army and two to three hundred thousand elderly, weak, women and children to directly attack Huzhou, Wang Wenqian wouldn’t be so worried—by the time the Chishan Army and the state troops of Hu-Hang and other areas determined victory or defeat, they would have long since determined victory or defeat with the Anning Palace.
The key issue was that Han Qian had dispersed so many women and children into small groups, evacuating them into Fuyu Mountain, while Han Qian led the Chishan Army’s main force to hole up between Fuyu Mountain and Jieling Mountain. Though it seemed he had withdrawn, he was only about a hundred li from Maoshan, with the possibility of killing his way back from the southern foot of Jieling Mountain at any time.
Jieling Mountain stretched over a hundred li east to west in southern Runzhou, forming the boundary between Runzhou and Xuanzhou. Its mountain ranges couldn’t compare with Fuyu Mountain and Yi Mountain. Particularly on the western side, there were gaps of various sizes that could allow the Chishan Army to infiltrate. This meant the Chuzhou Army troops stationed in Liyang and Yangxian counties needed to divide forces to garrison more mountain strongholds at mountain passes to form a complete defensive line.
Of course, with the Chuzhou Army’s forces on the southern bank expanded to one hundred thousand men, their military strength was relatively sufficient—dividing out another three to five thousand troops wasn’t a serious problem. The more critical issue was that the situation in Jiangnan had been stirred into fragmented chaos by Han Qian, bewildering and perplexing, leaving Wang Wenqian’s mind turning in a thousand directions, no longer able to see clearly what Han Qian’s next intentions might be.
“The Chishan Army’s grain supplies are limited. I also think Han Qian’s next step should be to break through an opening toward Huzhou, winning greater living space for the Chishan Army between Hu and Hang…” Yin Peng stood beside Wang Wenqian, stating his judgment.
“Not necessarily! West of Liyang as well as Lishui and Pingling counties are empty of grain—whoever comes won’t be able to requisition any grain. The possibility of Han Qian leading the Chishan Army’s elite main force to kill their way back from the western foot of Jieling Mountain is not great. Even if he really did kill his way back, we could handle it—after all, the Anning Palace would bear even greater pressure at that time. This wouldn’t differ from our original intention to blockade the Chishan Army on the western side. However, whether the Chishan Army will attack Xuanzhou cannot be speculated using common reasoning. We cannot rashly conclude that the Chishan Army’s main force will definitely enter Huzhou!” Wang Wenqian said, frowning and shaking his head.
“Before His Highness and the Anning Palace determine superiority and victory, Gu Zhilong obviously cannot go pledge allegiance to Yueyang, which is a thousand li away. And Han Qian’s destruction of aristocratic clans’ foundations in the localities has actually also severed the connections and influence of the Han and Feng families in Xuanzhou, allowing Gu Zhilong to better control local forces. Xuanzhou has narrow territory but strong cities—even victory through frontal assault would be a pyrrhic victory, and stored grain isn’t plentiful. Why would Han Qian want to gnaw on this hard bone?” No matter how Yin Peng looked at it, he was convinced that even if the Chishan Army didn’t launch a frontal assault on major Huzhou cities like Changxing in the next step, they would divide forces to infiltrate the Hu-Hang territory east of Fuyu Mountain.
As long as the Chishan Army could requisition sufficient grain in Hu-Hang territory, time was actually on the Chishan Army’s side.
Compared to the Chishan Army, they faced quite a few hidden worries and variables. On one hand, they worried that Xu Mingzhen, currently still remaining on the northern bank of the Yangtze, might bypass Hongze Lake to launch large-scale offensives against Chuzhou and Yangzhou. On the other hand, they were also worried that after Liang State’s situation stabilized, the Liang army might at any time launch a major southern campaign attacking into Shouzhou or Chuzhou.
Additionally, besides the increasingly tight grain stores in the Chishan Army’s hands and besides Han Qian having previously sent Zhang Ping and Feng Yi to Langxi City to negotiate and compromise, after the Chishan Army occupied the ruined Guangde City, there had been no action to rebuild city walls or strengthen city defenses. This also indicated that Han Qian didn’t want to waste extremely scarce resources on the northern foot of Fuyu Mountain.
Seeing that even Yin Peng lacked sufficient vigilance toward the Chishan Army, Wang Wenqian sighed inwardly, knowing it would be even harder to persuade His Highness and people like Rao Geng and Ruan Yan. But then again, even if they maintained sufficient vigilance toward the Chishan Army, what could they do under the current situation?
Dispatch more troops to the southern front?
Even if Han Qian was forced to abandon his designs on Xuanzhou and obediently advanced his main force east of Fuyu Mountain into Hu-Hang and other prefectures, what good would this bring the Chuzhou Army besides delaying timing by a bit?
In the end, at this time they could only hope that the Xuanzhou and Huzhou forces would perform more brilliantly and be able to contain the Chishan Army’s current flourishing expansion.
Han Qian had grasped the measure too well. The Chuzhou Army at this time had no way to make the decision now to let the Anning Palace go and instead direct their main attack at the Chishan Army.
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In early July in Yueyang, the sweltering weather was thoroughly drenched by a torrential rain. Hearts that had been restless from the heat also calmed down. Watching raindrops still dripping from the eaves, distant mountains appeared blue-green, revealing light and vibrant greenery.
Besides the ceaselessly croaking frogs, the cicadas that had disturbed the heart with their noise had also quieted after the rain.
Qing Yang rolled up her silk sleeves, revealing an inch of snow-white jade-carved arms. Resting her flower-like face on her hand, she gazed into the distance of the courtyard, her pair of lively beautiful eyes like deep, clear springs.
A letter sent from Yuzhou lay unfolded on the desk at this moment.
A few days ago, Yuzhou forces had finally captured an extremely important riverside fortress of the Wu Liao people in Banan. This meant that her eldest brother Wang Yong’s strategy to manage Banan under their father the Prince’s orders had achieved critical progress.
The Sizhou forces’ northern attack from the upper reaches of the Qian River was also progressing quite smoothly. It was highly likely that after this autumn, the Qian River waterway would be opened. At that time, Yuzhou would not only open communication with the Qianzhong region but would also cut off the illicit salt source of the Chuannan Liao people, containing the expansion of Chuannan Liao power and laying the foundation for fundamentally resolving the Chuannan Liao problem.
In this process, the warships and war machines built in Xuzhou played a major role—the spindle-shaped boats of the Wu Liao people were no match for Xuzhou warships.
The Yuzhou shipyard had also successfully replicated a new-style warship in the sixth month.
These were all tremendously good news, but Qing Yang was somewhat distracted. Her beautiful eyes, deep as spiritual springs, gazed toward Chengyun Hall. Seeing Du Qiniang walking over, she asked: “Have the lords in Chengyun Hall come up with any definite strategy from their discussions?”
“The lords haven’t left Chengyun Hall yet. Even if there’s any news, it wouldn’t come out this quickly,” Du Qiniang said, also quite conflicted as she looked toward Chengyun Hall.
In mid-May, when news reached Yueyang that Han Qian had conscripted slaves to enlist in Jinling and made promises of land grants, it had caused a great uproar in Yueyang at the time.
Although too many people—including the Dowager Consort, the direct military ministers of Marquis Xinchang’sMansion remaining in Yueyang, the Zheng clan, the attached Zhang clan, and even Han Qian’s two paternal uncles Han Daoming and Han Daochang—strongly opposed Han Qian’s action of making enemies of aristocratic clans, with some even advocating drawing a clear line with Han Qian, Shen Yang, Xue Ruogu, and those from mountain stronghold backgrounds like Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou more or less believed that under such difficult circumstances with enemies on all sides, for the Chishan Army to survive and even further develop the situation, conscripting slaves to expand military forces was an unavoidable expedient measure.
Of course, “when a general is abroad, there are orders from the sovereign he need not obey”—more people saw that no matter how much debate there was in Yueyang, there was temporarily no effective way to restrain the Chishan Army far away in Jinling.
After the disputes, Yueyang ultimately just took no position, but with Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang and others opposing, temporarily provided no additional support to the Chishan Army.
More people probably still adopted a wait-and-see attitude, thinking Han Qian, not hesitating to make enemies of aristocratic clans and recruiting a rabble of little use, would ultimately suffer greatly under the strong resistance of Jiangdong aristocratic clans.
Subsequently, Han Qian twice mainly transferred personnel and some scarce resources from Xuzhou, also transferring ships and sailors from Xuzhou, taking risks to pass through the waterway blockade of Jiang and Chi prefectures to enter Jinling to make up for the Chishan Army’s deficiencies.
When the Chishan Army took Shangjia Fortress, proving that recruiting slaves to enlist wasn’t so hopeless, many people’s attitudes had somewhat subtle shifts, though not very obviously.
What excited hearts more at that time was Li Xiu and Li Qi leading the fierce guards of the Zhedong Prince’sMansion to Jinling to join Li Pu.
Even though Li Pu captured Lishui City and incorporated the clan troops of various Lishui families, at that time his directly commanded forces numbered less than two thousand. But the Yueyang side still unanimously decided to grant this force an independent regional command banner outside the Chishan Army.
This could be seen as the Yueyang group’s deep dissatisfaction with Han Qian, or it could be viewed as the Prince’sMansion’s influence in Great Chu being sufficient to command an independent region.
Now when messages were transmitted again from Jinling, the Chishan Army had already gathered nearly three hundred thousand elderly, weak, women and children migrating south to the northern foot of Fuyu Mountain, with the Qiuhu Army similarly protecting over twenty thousand Lishui county people who had withdrawn between Jieling Mountain and Fuyu Mountain.
Han Qian had now sent people to transmit a message back, which was still top secret to the outside world. But Qing Yang and Du Qiniang, who had been mainly attending to Qing Yang during this period, had also seen the contents of the secret letter yesterday when Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu worked through the night at his desk in contemplation.
This time Han Qian hoped Yueyang would make an active gesture of winning over Xuanzhou Prefect Gu Zhilong. This action was not only to relieve the enormous pressure the Xuanzhou forces created for the Chishan Army from the west, but more importantly to win over Gu Zhilong’s loyalty to Yueyang, to win over the Xuanzhou forces for Yueyang’s use.
If this action succeeded, it would mean that after the Jinling incident, Yueyang would be the first to grasp the possibility of reorganizing Great Chu’s realm…