Before Tan Xiuqun and He Liufeng led their forces ashore, Lin Haizheng had already been forced to abandon the simple camp between the low mountains on the north side, withdrawing to the southern bank of Shiquan Stream, one of the upstream tributaries of the Zhegao River, to reorganize his battle lines.
Besides the initial four thousand-plus troops Lin Haizheng led as the first batch entering Fucha Mountain to intercept enemy forces, subsequently Han Qian continuously transferred elite troops like Han Bao from various units as reinforcements. In four days, troops assembled at Fucha Mountain exceeded seven thousand, using nearly one-third of Tangyi forces’ strength to intercept enemy reinforcements from Chaozhou attempting to move south from this direction. Additionally, Zhao Wuji and Han Donghu led over eight hundred elite cavalry and guard battalion troops conducting guerrilla operations on the southern side of Fucha Mountain.
Under Wen Bo’s command, enemy forces attacked both fiercely and violently, fearless of sacrifice. Four days of fierce battle resulted in cumulative casualties exceeding three thousand for Tangyi forces at the western foot of Fucha Mountain, with the remaining troops utterly exhausted.
Lin Haizheng’s forces ultimately failed to establish firm footing on the northern low mountains. The stockades hastily constructed over several days also had to be abandoned, with large quantities of war equipment set ablaze during retreat, falling back to the second defensive line.
This section of Shiquan Stream appeared over one hundred zhang wide, but because of shallow spring waters, the riverbed covered with cobblestones was exposed in most places, with only a shallow channel of water flowing through—completely incomparable to summer and autumn rainy seasons when stream waters overflowed the banks.
Such a stream and river was insufficient to form a terrain obstacle, and thus insufficient to restrict Shouzhou forces from attacking across.
Enemy forces hastily lacked conditions to construct pontoon bridges across the downstream river channel, but this seven to eight li long, semi-dry streambed where Shiquan Stream flowed into the main Zhegao River channel could be said to be the main gap for Shouzhou forces to rapidly reinforce Liyang.
Wen Bo fought with extreme determination.
Because the eastern foot of Fucha Mountain had even more precipitous terrain, with several streams and rivers in the upstream Chu River winding through mountain ridges along with undulating low mountain spurs cutting the terrain within a radius of over ten li into broken fragments unfavorable for cavalry charges, Wen Bo immediately—that is, three days ago—concentrated nearly four thousand cavalry he could assemble to the western foot.
Tangyi forces equipped with heavy shields, various light war chariots plus powerful crossbows and scorpion crossbows—light cavalry lacking heavy armor and even lacking sufficient bows and crossbows found it very difficult to frontally assault infantry defensive formations. But wave after wave directly wading through the shallow stream waters to circle around to the southern bank of Shiquan Stream, severing contact between Lin Haizheng’s forces and naval warships assembled in the main Zhegao River channel as well as other Tangyi forces, intercepting subsequent supplies Lin Haizheng’s forces required—this proved very effective.
Zhao Wuji and Han Donghu led over eight hundred soldiers entering the southern foot of Fucha Mountain, but with such great numerical disadvantage, insufficient to clash with enemy cavalry in open terrain. They mainly utilized terrain to cruise on both flanks, using arm-drawn crossbows with faster and denser firing rates to engage in entangled combat with enemy cavalry entering the southern bank of Shiquan Stream, still holding slight advantage, yet unable to expel enemy cavalry from the southern bank of Shiquan Stream.
Liyang City was located encircled by mountains east of the lake—Qingcang Mountain, Rusu Mountain, Wuyu Ridge and others. Wen Bo having witnessed Tangyi forces’ combat tenacity, knew that merely deploying two to three thousand or even more cavalry to the southern banks of the Zhegao River and Chu River still could not expel Tangyi forces from beneath Liyang City, could not even pass through mountain passes and valley gorges of Qingcang Mountain, Wuyu Ridge and other mountains to relieve those forces under siege at the southeastern foot of Rusu Mountain.
They had to open a corridor at the western foot of Fucha Mountain for infantry to move south and grain supplies to be transported into Liyang. Only thus could they possibly drive Tangyi forces out.
Cavalry assaulting from the flanks, shield-bearing infantry attacking from the front—piercing strikes against the defensive lines Tangyi forces hastily constructed at the western foot of Fucha Mountain continued for four straight days without stopping, ultimately forcing Lin Haizheng to abandon the north bank camp.
Because contact with other units was severed by enemy cavalry entering the south bank, unable to obtain more supplies, while previous intense battles and abandoning the north bank camp resulted in large quantities of war equipment being destroyed, making it even harder to suppress enemy cavalry assaults, Lin Haizheng at one point doubted how long his remaining forces could hold the southern bank of Shiquan Stream—until Tan Xiuqun and He Liufeng arrived with timely reinforcements.
Tan Xiuqun led two thousand soldiers arriving by ship.
During winter on the Ruan River and Yangtze River, water flowed gently. Giant sails catching the wind sailed downstream rapidly and smoothly. Soldiers suffered no particular discomfort, having conserved strength and energy for many days. Landing on the upper reaches of the Zhegao River, they were at their most vigorous.
Their landing point had an eight to nine li gap from Lin Haizheng’s forces. This gap was severed by over two thousand enemy troops that had originally waded across Shiquan Stream to the south bank.
After landing, Tan Xiuqun directly had He Liufeng lead one battalion of soldiers already suffering considerable casualties from attacking East Pass Stockade to establish a camp at the beachhead. He personally led three battalions in a品-shaped formation along the northern bank of Shiquan Stream, using shield wagons, barrier-gate blade carts, side-panel carts and others to protect the flanks, resisting wave after wave of cavalry charges, advancing westward in a crosswise pattern, reopening direct contact with Lin Haizheng’s forces currently stationed upstream of Shiquan Stream.
Where cavalry exceeded infantry—besides strong mobility favorable for flanking and encircling attacks—in frontal battlefield engagements they had height advantage of looking down from above, favorable for left and right slashing, and also more favorable for assault operations, tearing apart the opponent’s formation.
Between Fucha Mountain and Wuyu Ridge further east, and Qingcang Mountain to the south, was a narrow valley region extending roughly forty to fifty li east-west but only six to seven li wide north-south. With Tangyi forces blocking main mountain passes and valley gorges with armored soldiers, this restricted enemy cavalry mobility and flanking maneuvers in this region.
At this time, with infantry formations using various war equipment and heavy shields to protect flanks, also equipped with large quantities of bows and crossbows, keeping enemy cavalry at bay on the perimeter, there no longer existed the dilemma of infantry unable to advance or retreat before enemy cavalry.
When Zhao Wuji and Han Donghu led cavalry charging over to converge with Tan Xiuqun, as long as enemy cavalry dared approach, with infantry holding the central route and cavalry rapidly assaulting from flanks, shooting with bows and crossbows in crosswise advance, the offensive became even more fierce.
Enemy cavalry even lacked bows and crossbows. Seeing the situation offered little opportunity, after entangling for half a day they had no choice but to withdraw across Shiquan Stream to the north bank for reorganization before nightfall.
Before nightfall, Tan Xiuqun led forces converging with Lin Haizheng, with He Liufeng also subsequently arriving.
Merely defending the southern bank of Shiquan Stream made it very difficult to thoroughly seal off enemy cavalry movement. More importantly, Han Qian’s intention was to completely control Fucha Mountain from both eastern and western flanks. Thus they still needed to quickly cross to the north bank of Shiquan Stream and recapture the north bank camp.
Going even further, they needed to construct another stockade between the main Zhegao River channel and the north bank camp, forming crosswise blocking depth with the south bank stockade. Only then would they have established a relatively stable defensive line at the western foot of Fucha Mountain that need not fear being severed.
That night with stars and moon filling the sky, after formulating the battle plan, aside from Lin Haizheng’s forces suffering nearly half casualties continuing to remain on the south bank for reorganization, Tan Xiuqun, Zhao Wuji, and He Liufeng led troops wading across Shiquan Stream to launch an attack on Shouzhou forces that had only occupied the north bank camp for less than a day.
On the north bank, besides having numerical advantage in troops and horses, Shouzhou forces merely held an empty burned-out stockade with no war equipment whatsoever. Besides improvising some rolling logs and stones based on local conditions, even arrows were seriously depleted.
Whether the Tianping Command forces led by Tan Xiuqun and Dong Tai, or the elite troops led by Zhao Wuji and He Liufeng, all excelled at mountain warfare and squad-scale combat. This all determined that in moonlit nights with restricted vision and inconvenient command relay, their combat capability far exceeded the so-called elite forces of the age.
When Chishan Army attacked Langxi, the two most critical ambush battles achieved victory because Chishan Army’s daily training conducted coordinated combat operations in squad units of ten-plus men.
This not only provided stronger combat tenacity when engaging in close combat with enemy forces—more stable, not immediately collapsing due to chaos or being severed by enemy forces—these advantages could be even more fully demonstrated in night combat.
Crossing Shiquan Stream overnight to attack, besides not giving enemy forces longer preparation time, besides worrying that each day’s delay would bring more enemy reinforcements, there was another important reason—Zhao Wuji, Tan Xiuqun, and He Liufeng had greater confidence in night combat.
Although the north bank camp was built on a low mountain, the mountain terrain was relatively gentle, rising only about ten-plus zhang high close to the north bank of Shiquan Stream. Besides the western and northern faces, infantry crossing Shiquan Stream could even directly launch offensives against the camp from the southern face.
Lin Haizheng’s purpose in establishing camp here was primarily to block and delay enemy forces, preventing enemy forces from circling around from the flanks. This required the camp to control a larger area along Shiquan Stream, rather than building the camp in a defensible yet isolated precipitous location.
Otherwise, Wen Bo could directly split off elite forces to seal the camp’s entry and exit points while other forces circled past to reinforce Liyang.
For the camp to control a larger area of the north bank region, it could not be built in too isolated and precipitous terrain. This caused Lin Haizheng, under continuous multi-day offensive, to be unable to hold out and forced to temporarily withdraw to the south bank.
Of course, for Zhao Wuji, Tan Xiuqun, and He Liufeng wanting to attack this location, there were no particular terrain obstacles either.
Seeing Tan Xiuqun and others crossing the river overnight to attack, Wen Bo was also secretly alarmed. Although they held advantage in troop strength, Wen Bo knew the difficulties in his heart.
Even so, he was also clear in his heart that in this battle, he had no room to choose retreat and must hold fast until subsequent reinforcements arrived.
As long as they could establish firm footing on the north bank of Shiquan Stream, even if Liyang City fell into Tangyi forces’ hands, they would not have lost the initiative.
On one hand, they would preserve contact between Chaozhou and Chuzhou, able to continue sealing a portion of remnant Chu forces within the Wujian Mountain range. On the other hand, controlling Fucha Mountain, waiting until they assembled more elite troops from Huozhou and Shouzhou, waiting for grain, money and material support from Liang to transform into strength within soldiers’ bodies, transform into military equipment suppressing Tangyi forces’ attacks—afterward, how much difficulty would there be in recovering Liyang City encircled by mountains without waterways for Xuzhou warships to directly sail beneath the walls?
Only the troops newly arrived at the north bank of Shiquan Stream were too elite, obviously far stronger than previous Tangyi forces—perhaps from this point alone, one could judge that civilian unrest in Sizhou was Han Qian’s behind-the-scenes manipulation. Otherwise, how could the Tianping Command organized from Sizhou rebel forces accepting amnesty possibly be so elite?
On the chaotic, rugged night battle battlefield, cumbersome war chariots obviously could not be pushed by manpower directly to the camp’s chest-high protective walls, mainly deployed on both flanks to suppress Shouzhou cavalry attacking from the flanks.
However, Xuzhou also constructed some lighter, more solid war chariots that, surrounded by armored elite infantry, stormed the camp along the gradually rising slopes…
In his heart, Wen Bo knew the importance of holding the north bank camp, but the development of events did not shift according to his personal will.
Over the past four days, Shouzhou forces assembled at the western foot of Fucha Mountain totaled eleven thousand-plus troops—four thousand cavalry, seven thousand infantry—also paying casualties exceeding three thousand to capture the camp.
With such great advantages in military equipment and having lost the initiative to establish positions on the north bank of Shiquan Stream, that Wen Bo could still drive Lin Haizheng’s forces to the north bank at comparable casualties was already sufficient cause for pride.
However, the problem was that besides Shouzhou cavalry suffering lighter casualties, the over seven thousand elite infantry he originally relied on to defend Chaozhou City suffered nearly three thousand casualties in previous battles—already could be called extremely heavy casualties. At this time they were again the main force defending the camp. Shouzhou cavalry being Xu Mingzhen’s direct forces, after withdrawing to the north bank, still scattered on the perimeter responsible for flank containment.
These forces, after merely one day of reorganization, had to face fierce assault from vigorous and fierce Tianping Command warriors. The pressure they endured was beyond ordinary imagination.
Even with the situation critical, even with Wen Bo personally leading his retinue into battle to reverse disadvantage, he still could not prevent watching Tianping Command elite forces from the south and southwest killing into the camp, driving his forces into step-by-step retreat. Meanwhile Shouzhou cavalry fighting on the flanks all night also failed to tear through the interception lines He Liufeng, Zhao Wuji, Han Donghu and others led…
Not wanting complete army collapse, Wen Bo at noon the next day had no choice but to lead remnant forces withdrawing north under cavalry cover for temporary reorganization.
When new reinforcements arrived at dusk and Wen Bo again wanted to deploy new offensives against Tangyi forces that had recaptured the north bank camp, at this time came news that the forces trapped defending in the shallow valley at the southeastern foot of Rusu Mountain had been routed by Tangyi forces.
At this moment, Wen Bo could only choose to lead forces withdrawing northwest to the Taoyu Stronghold southeast of Chaozhou City for reorganization.
The forces in the shallow valley at the southeastern foot of Rusu Mountain were three thousand elite troops lured out of Liyang City by diversionary tactics. Their existence could at least tie down over three thousand Tangyi forces plus over two thousand Right Dragon Martial Army troops reinforced from the south bank.
The end of the battle in the southeastern valley of Rusu Mountain not only meant the remaining thousand-plus garrison troops in Liyang City would suffer terrible blows to morale, but also meant Han Qian could send up to five thousand troops into the Fucha Mountain western foot battlefield in as little as one day.
Not only could he no longer continue organizing attacks in the short term, even Zhao Mingting, who had led forces fighting fiercely for days at the eastern foot of Fucha Mountain, failed to tear through the defensive lines Zhao Qi and Su Lie led forces forming. At this time he could only lower banners and muffle drums, choosing temporary withdrawal for reorganization…
…
…
Han Daochang, representing the Revenue Commission supervising grain transport, arrived at the western foot of Fucha Mountain already ten days after the Liyang campaign ended. By this time a newly reinforced and solid stockade stood tall on the north bank of Shiquan Stream, with traces of intense combat no longer so obvious.
To restrict enemy cavalry from wading across Shiquan Stream, over two thousand civilian laborers conscripted from capital region counties to the north bank were constructing a low palisade wall along the southern bank of Shiquan Stream.
This low palisade wall extended westward to the eastern bank of the main Zhegao River channel, extending eastward into the rugged mountains of Fucha Mountain.
Besides restricting rapid enemy cavalry infiltration, this low palisade wall had another function—during flood season, it could constrain surging waters from Fucha Mountain and northern low hills and mountains within the Shiquan Stream channel, preventing flooding in the bay region south of Zhegao River, east of Chao Lake, north of Qingcang Mountain, thus becoming favorable for cultivation.
Besides the bay region between Zhegao River and Qingcang Mountain allowing large-scale military farming, the low-lying lakeside areas between Rusu Mountain and Qingcang Mountain—as long as great effort was expended constructing embankment dikes, farmland available for military cultivation would also reach over one hundred thousand mu.
The military farming pressure in these two regions for constructing embankment dikes lay on the side facing Chao Lake, but combined they only needed to construct ten li of large dikes—far easier than constructing over two hundred li of distant dikes along the river.
Yes, the earlier river dike construction plan was over one hundred li, but that was calculated from the mouth of Wushou River.
Now including shoals from Wushou River to Yuxi River in the calculations, the scale of distant dike construction along the river directly doubled and more.
This spring, land grants needed to be made to family members of Tangyi forces’ soldiers.
After establishing a solid defensive line garrisoning at the western foot of Fucha Mountain, conducting military farming on the eastern shore of Chao Lake and allocating fields around Liyang City for distribution was the more realistic plan. By autumn, Tangyi would directly have new harvests, greatly reducing pressure on relief provisions.
Han Daochang had already seen Han Qian’s drafted proposal for Tangyi forces recruitment and compensation.
All soldiers recruited into Tangyi forces’ ranks—their family members, depending on land quality, would all be granted ten to fifteen mu of subsistence fields. Soldiers with beheading merit, severely disabled or killed in battle would additionally be granted ten to fifteen mu of subsistence fields.
Han Qian did not wish meritorious soldiers of Tangyi forces to transform into new landlords. Direct land grants were capped at thirty mu of good farmland.
Recruited soldiers’ military service was limited to three years. Besides subsistence fields, monthly pay combined to one dan of grain. All military equipment, horses and even shoes and clothing—all daily necessities—were provided by the camp.
After three years of service completion, they would enter reserve battalions. During the five-year period, they needed to undergo three months of wartime readiness annually. During readiness periods, pay was granted according to regular soldiers; other times at half rate.
After the five-year reserve period, besides requiring conscription during wartime, normally they would pursue their own livelihoods. But the military camp would again grant supplementary pay at half rate until death…
This was the recruitment system Han Qian had long implemented in Xuzhou. Although Han Qian transferred two thousand elite troops from Xuzhou before the New Year, with a batch of veterans entering reserve duty, currently Xuzhou’s provincial troops had already recovered to three thousand in scale.
A new batch of officers, clerks, and one thousand elite combat soldiers were currently en route from Xuzhou rushing to reinforce Tangyi.
Of course, after reviewing Han Qian’s proposal, Han Daochang’s mood still could not calm down even now.
This proposal was far too costly in grain and money.
Great Chu currently combining garrison soldier systems was implementing the military prefecture system, currently already comprehensively implemented throughout the Imperial Guard and Imperial Guard Army systems.
Military prefecture soldier households, besides initially being granted some land for cultivation, afterward generation after generation had to serve as soldier households—brother succeeding brother, son succeeding father—without interruption. Besides obtaining military merit to leave the register, otherwise they had no qualification to be selected as officials.
Besides rewards for military merit, soldier households incorporated into garrison battalions for defense and campaigns ordinarily not only received no additional military pay, but also had to self-provide military equipment and weapons. Even every ten to fifteen households bore responsibility for maintaining one warhorse or other military livestock—the burden was extremely heavy.
Military prefecture soldier households, besides being slightly more stable than refugees, actually endured tremendous oppression and exploitation. But this system greatly ensured the central court had sufficient elite troop sources while also bearing no heavy fiscal burden.
But if following the plan Han Qian drafted, every regular soldier of Tangyi forces’ military expenditures would be two to three times that of Imperial Guard and Imperial Guard Army regular soldiers.
Although Han Daochang had not held office long and did not understand military-political affairs well, having long been responsible for managing Han clan properties, he could still calculate these accounts. In his heart he sighed—where would investing one million strings of cash and grain be enough for Han Qian to maintain Tangyi forces at twenty thousand troop scale?
Investing one million strings of cash and grain annually might not even be enough!
Besides this, Han Qian also wanted Han Daoming and Han Daochang to fight in court for a special privilege for Left Guangde Army veterans—all Left Guangde Army veteran soldiers who participated in Jinling campaigns, willing to be recruited anew into Tangyi forces, their service period would be calculated from when they initially joined Chishan Army or Left Guangde Army. Those not fully granted subsistence fields previously, or who lost subsistence fields due to various disputes, could all be re-granted or supplemented according to new standards from Tangyi.
This also meant the earliest batch of Left Guangde Army veterans could complete their three-year service period by early next year and transfer to reserve duty…