Currently, the entire Mangshan region—from Xixuan Temple Stronghold, northern Yanshi, Mengjin, and Mianchi—all defense matters were under Wen Bo’s supervision. If they planned to deploy troops against Ziguan Pass north of Mengjin at the end of next year or the year after, whether for preliminary war preparations or subsequent command and coordination of vanguard forces, aside from Wen Bo, there would naturally be no more suitable candidate for supreme commander.

However, to truly deploy troops northward from Ziguan Pass, relying solely on the two infantry combat brigade elites stationed in Mengjin, Mianchi, and Yanshi, plus Chen Yuanchen’s troops—merely over fifteen thousand elite soldiers—to fight their way through Ziguan Pass, which currently had over forty thousand elite Mongol troops defending numerous fortified passes and strongholds, would be far from sufficient.

At that time, they would need to transfer large numbers of cavalry and infantry combat elites from other directions.

Involving coordinated operations among various units, and considering that fighting along Ziguan Pass would likely require contesting every inch of ground with extremely fierce and complex combat, preliminary war preparations needed to be thorough. On the Military Intelligence Staff side, Han Qian also designated Feng Xuan and Guo Que to be responsible for central coordination.

Considering the need to divert enemy attention and prevent the enemy from detecting their intentions and then concentrating resources to further strengthen strongholds along Ziguan Pass, Han Qian simultaneously ordered Zhao Ci’s cavalry brigade transferred to Chengzhou to accept Li Zhigao’s command, strengthening the intensity of attacks on Qinzhou region north of Chengzhou. He also sent large numbers of engineering craftsmen to Mianyang and Lueyang to accelerate the widening and construction of the post road on the north bank of Xiniu River, creating the appearance of first seizing Qinzhou before taking Fengxiang.

In the fourth year of Taihe, Han Qian implemented a new round of local administrative reforms, changing the prefecture-county system to aMansion-county system.

Yingzhou became Xingyang Prefecture, Shangzhou became Shangluo Prefecture, Huazhou became Huatong Prefecture, Dengzhou became Nanyang Prefecture. From Junzhou and the southwestern region of Dengzhou, Xichuan Prefecture and Yunyang Prefecture were separately established. Guangzhou became Xinyang Prefecture, Caizhou became Caizhou Prefecture, Ruzhou became Ruzhou Prefecture, Xuzhou became Xuchang Prefecture, Chenzhou became Chenzhou Prefecture, Haozhou became Huainan Prefecture, Shouzhou became Shouchun Prefecture, Chaozhou became Chaozhou Prefecture, Huozhou became Huaiyang Prefecture, and Chuzhou became Chuzhou Prefecture. Additionally, the five counties of Donghu, Liyang, Wushou, Tangyi, and Shiquan were separated from Chuzhou Prefecture and Chaozhou Prefecture to form Donghu Prefecture separately. Xuzhou became Xuzhou Prefecture, Jingzhao Prefecture became Luoyang Prefecture, Liangzhou became Hanzhong Prefecture, Jinzhou became Jinzhou Prefecture, Yingzhou became Yingchuan Prefecture. The Xiacai region was separately listed to establish Caizhou Prefecture, and the four counties of Shanzhou, Lingbao, Mianchi, and Lushi on Heluo’s western flank were separated from Luoyang Prefecture to newly establish Shanzhou Prefecture.

After this round of adjustments, Great Liang administered twenty-four prefectures, one hundred twenty-six counties, and one thousand seventeen township offices.

The urgent need to reform local administration at the beginning of the fourth year of Taihe, besides using the establishment of Shanzhou Prefecture as justification to properly and legitimately focus on strengthening construction of roads, cities, and other infrastructure opposite the main entrance of Ziguan Pass, was also to comprehensively reform the provincial troops and local power structures.

The latter’s significance was extremely important, and could better conceal the true intention of establishing Shanzhou Prefecture—to focus on strengthening infrastructure construction opposite Ziguan Pass.

After changing from prefectures and counties to fu-prefectures and counties, provincial troops would also be disbanded. Local garrison duties would be taken over by reserve brigades directly under the Right Grand Secretary’s Military Affairs Department. Local bandit suppression and public security matters would be handled by a separately established Patrol and Investigation Bureau, while supervision and prison matters would be made independent from the prefecture offices and placed directly under the central Surveillance Bureau.

Thus, the former prefecture governors who had concentrated local military, political, and judicial powers in one person would, after becoming prefecture administrators, no longer control local garrison authority and would not be permitted to interfere in local supervision and prison matters, but would focus on developing civil administration.

Only in military strongholds would chief officials with the title of Commissioner also oversee local defense, military administration, and judicial matters.

In mid-spring of the fourth year of Taihe, after the Yu River ice breakup passed and taking advantage of the period when the Yu River water level had receded but not yet risen again, Han Donghu, who was appointed Commissioner of Xingyang Prefecture, organized over twenty thousand soldiers and civilians to begin single-sided repair and filling of the Yu River embankment breach from the west side.

After the capture of Xingyang and Mi County, over sixty thousand registered households were incorporated. There were also over sixty thousand households of civilians who had fled into the eastern foothills of Songshan to escape the warfare. Adding the return flow of people who had previously migrated south from Xinzheng, the newly established Xingyang Prefecture—comprising the four counties of Xingyang, Hulao Pass, Mi County, and Xinzheng—recorded one hundred seventy thousand registered households in early spring of the fourth year of Taihe.

Agricultural production in Xingyang had suffered nearly devastating damage over the years, with the vast majority of people facing livelihood problems, but such a population base also provided relatively sufficient labor for Xingyang’s agricultural production recovery and for construction and repair of basic engineering projects like embankments, roads, and cities.

Having prefecture, county, and township offices organize displaced people and impoverished households to participate in land reclamation, embankments, roads, and other basic infrastructure construction, providing corresponding money and grain during the process, or directly converting them into corresponding farmland acreage and housing as compensation to replace direct relief—this was the work-for-relief model Han Qian had consistently implemented since his early years in Xuzhou.

However, this relied on robust financial and grain support.

The so-called money and grain, besides funds directly allocated by the central government to Xingyang localities for construction, also saw Great Liang’s First Savings Bureau establish a branch office in Xingyang before year’s end. Led by the First Savings Bureau, Xingyang Prefecture Savings Bureau was jointly formed to raise funds and support local production recovery through low-interest lending.

For instance, every soldier from Xingyang who enlisted, in addition to their family directly receiving fifteen mu of irrigated and dry land, could borrow up to twenty strings of cash at low interest from the savings bureau for purchasing farm tools, seeds, oxen, provisions, and repairing housing.

For an utterly destitute landless household, as long as one able-bodied man enlisted, the family’s livelihood could be maintained.

Even without enlisting, by working as hired labor on basic infrastructure projects for prefecture, county, and township offices, besides having their own food and lodging guaranteed, adult men could earn three jin of polished rice per day as wages, while able-bodied women earned two jin of polished rice per day, basically solving their family’s daily subsistence.

Aside from Xingyang garrison expenses, including central allocations and savings bureau construction loan plans, Xingyang Prefecture’s budget for water conservancy, roads, cities, and farmland reclamation and construction in the fourth year of Taihe reached three hundred thousand strings of cash.

Before recovering Wuzhi and other areas east of the Jialu River, the Yu River southern embankment breach was destined to remain unclosed. Building earthworks to contain water from the west side alone was destined to bear greater water flow impact, making embankment repair quite demanding.

Before beginning embankment repair and filling, Han Donghu organized soldiers and civilians to quarry large quantities of stone from the eastern foothills of Songshan for reinforcing the embankment’s exterior.

Even so, before the Yu River flood season arrived in May, Xingyang’s soldiers and civilians used two and a half months to repair the collapsed embankment from west to east for over five li, shortening the breach eastward to less than one thousand paces.

On the west side of the breach, they even used bluestone and stone mortar to build a stone dam fifty meters long, four meters high, and ten meters thick at the base to resist the impact of whirlpools at the breach.

Spending such costs naturally produced extremely obvious results.

In mid-May, the new Yu River flood season arrived with surging waters. The remaining embankment east of the breach faced severe and harsh testing. In early June, the water gate built at the Jialu River mouth connecting the Yu River during the mid-period of the previous dynasty, along with the remaining embankments on both sides, were all washed away by the flood, causing over half of the Yu River’s waters to directly drain into the Jialu River and into Wuzhi County territory east of the Jialu River, turning the areas west and south of Biangliang City into a vast ocean.

Eleven military camps built by the Eastern Liang army on the east bank of the Jialu River were subsequently destroyed by flooding.

The water diversion weir that Zhao Wuji organized soldiers and civilians to build at the shallow shoals southwest of Changge on the Ying River was completed as early as mid-April. In the river channel upstream of the diversion weir, they scuttled a batch of boats loaded with sand and stone. Besides protecting the diversion weir, this further reduced the flood volume flowing south along the Ying River.

The Changge diversion weir then played its expected role, forcing large amounts of floodwater to surge more toward the opposite bank, seeping into the Guo River through the low-lying area between Biangliang and Yanling.

The impact on areas along the Guo River was still difficult to accurately estimate, but the flooded area on the west bank of the Ying River was greatly reduced during this summer and autumn flood season, and the Huai River water level west of Linhuai was also much lower than in previous years.

Before late spring this year, Lin Haizheng and Yang Qin organized soldiers and civilians to excavate flood drainage channels within the flood zone south of Shouchun, which also successfully withstood the test. Just the fertile land cleared between the new and old embankments—over sixty li long and seven-eight to over ten li wide—added over one hundred fifty thousand mu of high-yield grain fields to Shouchun Prefecture.

The fourth year of Taihe passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhu Rang, Xu Mingzhen, and Sima Tan, in order to maintain military preparations totaling two hundred thousand men in eastern Henan, Qilu, Xu-Si, and other areas, while also building large numbers of fortified camps along the west and south of Bianjing, along both banks of the Guo River, and along the north bank of the Huai River and Hongze Lake, could only exploit the local population in every possible way.

Along both banks of the Guo and Si Rivers, major disasters occurred successively in summer and autumn. Floodwaters rampaged across the River-Huai plain within a radius of several hundred li. A total of nearly two million strings of copper-plated iron coins flowed through various channels into territories controlled by the Eastern Liang army, further destroying their fragile commercial economy.

The Eastern Liang army’s defensive camps and cities along both banks of the Guo and Si Rivers were also heavily flooded. After winter arrived, under the command of Zhao Wuji, Lin Haizheng, and others, Xuzhou army and Caizhou army units made flanking maneuvers into eastern Henan in multiple groups. The Eastern Liang army chose to resist through scorched earth defense.

In reality, this meant abandoning blockade of border regions. Refugees and disaster victims from eastern Henan took the opportunity to cross the border line and pour into Huainan Prefecture, Shouchun Prefecture, Chenzhou Prefecture, and Xuchang Prefecture.

Before the Huai River thawed in early spring of the fifth year of Taihe, the number of people from eastern Henan who went south and west to seek livelihoods reached three hundred thousand.

In the fourth year of Taihe, they conducted further surveys of people who had fled into mountain regions of Qinling, Funiu Mountains, Xiao Mountains, Songshan, and Tongbai Mountains due to warfare. Adding refugees received from eastern Henan and guiding mountain households from Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain to relocate and settle in Xingyang Prefecture, the new round of population statistics in early spring of the fifth year of Taihe showed Great Liang’s registered household population exceeded six million.

To ensure mining and industrial development could obtain sufficient surplus labor, Han Qian had never relaxed land restriction prohibitions, but required prefectures and counties to continuously reduce the proportion of low-yield hillside and mountain fields through relocation and construction of water conservancy facilities like channels and weirs, increase the proportion of high-yield irrigated fields, and demanded prefectures and counties work harder on agricultural techniques like seed breeding, seed selection, and crop rotation.

In spring of the fifth year of Taihe, a landmark statistic representing mining and industrial development was presented on Han Qian’s desk.

With the further development and expansion of blast furnace smelting technology, total pig iron and refined iron production across the realm in the fourth year of Taihe exceeded one million shi.

In later times, one million shi of steel production would merely be equivalent to a small steel mill with technical standards remaining at rebar steel level and fifty thousand tons of capacity. But in this era, it took Han Qian over ten years to achieve this goal step by step.

Of course, the discovery of coal and iron ore deposits in the northern section of Wujian Mountain made the most outstanding contribution to achieving this goal. The Yongyang iron mines’ annual steel production accounted for nearly half of Great Liang’s total steel production.

To guarantee domestic currency supply, and also to further expand central annual revenue through coinage, in the fourth year of Taihe Han Qian also issued an edict to reform coinage. He abolished the previous round-holed copper coins and adopted the more advanced sand casting method to recast copper dollars using copper alloy.

To ensure the copper dollars’ own value as much as possible for easier acceptance by the world, the first batch of newly minted “Taihe Tongbao” copper dollars worth ten wen weighed only twenty grams by the newly implemented weights and measures.

At contemporary copper prices and the cost of mining and smelting copper ore and sand casting coins, the Official Money Bureau minting three hundred thousand copper dollars in the fourth year of Taihe was equivalent to providing one million five hundred thousand strings in annual revenue to the central treasury by old money calculations.

No wonder later central governments would do everything possible to tightly grasp coinage rights in their hands.

To facilitate huge payments in bulk trade, the Official Money Bureau began minting gold and silver dollar coins worth one string and ten strings respectively, with a full weight of fifty grams.

The Official Money Bureau also formally implemented a gold-silver bimetallic standard to prevent coveting coinage profits while forgetting the harm of excessive minting to the national foundation. They also began severely cracking down on private minting.

Entering the fifth year of Taihe, Wusu Dashi finally withstood pressure from within Mengwu and conferred Wang Yuankui and Wang Xiaoxian as Weinan and Fengxiang Military Governors, and enfeoffed Li Yuanshou as Prince of Longyou, thereby containing the Liang army’s expansion pace from the western flank.

Zhu Rang also formally proclaimed himself emperor in Biangliang in the first month of the fifth year of Taihe, with the dynastic title Wei. Xu Mingzhen was enfeoffed as Duke of Song, and Sima Tan was enfeoffed as Duke of Pei.

In the second month of the fifth year of Taihe, Huang Lu, Zhang Feng, and other commanders led the Left Wuxiang Army south along the Gan River. After joining forces with the Right Longque Army led by Zheng Hui, taking advantage of the death of Liu Yin—Qingyuan Army Military Governor who had self-proclaimed himself Prince of Nanping—they captured in one stroke Xingwang Prefecture (Guangzhou), which the Liu clan had used as their base.

Chaofeng and other eastern regions subsequently surrendered their cities. The Qingyuan Army Military Governor’s jurisdiction over various Lingnan provinces and over two hundred eighty thousand registered households thus all came under the Chu court.

At this time, Wang Shenzhi—Military Governor of the Wuwei Army who occupied Min territory and had been remotely enfeoffed as Prince of Min by the Liang state fifteen years ago—had already died two years earlier. His son Wang Yanhan succeeded to the position of Prince of Min but was on bad terms with his brothers and ministers, causing tense internal conditions in Min and declining military strength.

Shen Yang, Du Chongtao, Yang En, Zhang Chao, Huang Hua, and others wanted to press their advantage to bring Min territory under Great Chu as territory.

Besides enfeoffing Zheng Hui as Duke of Wuxing to lead troops garrisoning Xingwang Prefecture and further consolidate Chu army rule in Lingnan, in the fourth month of the fifth year of Taihe, an edict was transmitted from Jinling to Xingwang Prefecture, having Huang Lu, Zhang Feng, and the Chenzhou tribal generals Xi Shesheng and Xi Shepeng levy grain and fodder locally and lead troops from Xingwang Prefecture to attack Zhangzhou, a major stronghold in southern Min. Simultaneously, they had Gu Zhilong lead Yongjia forces to attack northern Min from southern Zhejiang.

After the Chenzhou crisis erupted, as a compromise condition, the brothers Xi Shesheng and Xi Shepeng led the Chenzhou tribal battalion away from Chenzhou, embarking on the long journey following Zheng Hui’s distant expedition to Lingnan.

Besides the initial three thousand tribal warriors who set out, over six years the Xi clan recruited over five thousand able-bodied men from tribal households in Chenzhou to fight in the south. In total, over five thousand men perished on the Lingnan battlefield.

Although Xi Shepeng and Xi Shesheng were successively promoted to high-ranking positions like Deputy Commander and Military Supervisor due to distinguished military service, and Xi Ying was enfeoffed as Marquis of Xuyang, the strength of the Chenzhou Xi clan and their affiliated tribal villages had been almost completely exhausted.

At the end of the third year of Taihe, seeing that the Heluo situation was stable and the Liang army’s strength was flourishing, Xi Ying worried about barbarian troubles residing beside Xuzhou, and petitioned to relocate the last two thousand or so direct and collateral clan members—mainly women and children—to settle in Jiangdong to demonstrate his sincerity in submitting to and serving the Chu court loyally.

Simultaneously, the Chenzhou tribal battalion under Zheng Hui’s command no longer retained independent organization but completely integrated into the Right Longque Army, and their tribal soldiers’ families all relocated to Tanzhou and other places, registered as military household troops.

In the blink of an eye, it was the cold winter of the fifth year of Taihe.

Located in the western foothills of Mangshan between Mianchi and Mengjin, covered in vast snow.

The western foothills of Mangshan had steep and precipitous mountain terrain, like a huge triangle embedded between Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain on the north bank. The Yu River also formed a large bend here, flowing first from southwest to northeast, then turning to flow southeast near southern Yuanqu.

The Yu River waters flowed between mountain cliffs and hanging walls, winding tortuously with rapid currents, now completely frozen over.

Shaofeng Peak, rising over four hundred zhang high, had relatively broad terrain on its northwest side near the Yu River. In earlier years, the Liang army had built a watchtower here backing against the peaks and ridges of the western Mangshan foothills.

In the second year of Taihe, Mianchi garrison forces expanded the watchtower into Lingshang Stronghold, guarding a small path on the western flank of Shaofeng leading to the heartland of Mianchi County in the southern Mangshan foothills, preventing enemy forces from the north bank from advancing south through here. In the second and third years of Taihe, soldiers from both sides fought several fierce battles around Lingshang Stronghold. After repeated repairs and expansions, by the fourth year of Taihe it had become a solid military fortress.

Taking advantage of the establishment of Shanzhou Prefecture with its seat in Mianchi, in the fourth year of Taihe the locality widened this small path over forty li long from Lingshang to Mianchi into a standard post road.

Directly opposite Lingshang was Mashou Stronghold in southern Yuanqu County. North of Mashou Stronghold was the entrance to Ziguan Pass. Heading north along the ravine between Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain for fifty li led to Yuanqu City under Puzhou jurisdiction.

The first battle going north would occur at Mashou Stronghold.

After the prefecture-county reform, Wen Bo was appointed Commissioner of Shanzhou Prefecture, leading the Xue Chuan and Su Lie infantry combat brigades to relocate to the western Mangshan foothills and areas including Hanguguan Pass, Lingbao, and Mianchi.

After capturing Xingyang City, the Heluo eastern defense line advanced to Xingyang, and the Mengzhou water camp also suffered heavy damage. Mengjin, Gong County, and Yanshi became relatively safe.

These three counties came under Luoyang Prefecture administration. At this time, incorporating defense of these three counties into the Luoyang garrison district while moving Wen Bo’s troops westward all seemed perfectly natural and proper.

Initially, when attacking and seizing Mashou Stronghold, Wen Bo didn’t even personally come to the front lines, but had Su Lie command his troops to cross the river from Lingshang to launch the attack.

From any angle, this was just a routine raid the Liang army launched against northern defensive strongholds along the Yu River after it froze.

Such offensives also occurred simultaneously in Xingyang, Hulao Pass, and further west in Lingbao and Tongguan territory. Even Chen Yuanchen’s troops that had infiltrated Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain launched attacks during this winter against garrison forces in more northern mountain regions.

Tian Weiye didn’t pay too much attention. He believed Mashou Stronghold’s walls were solid and dangerous, with complete war equipment, and the surrounding terrain was extremely confined and disadvantageous for Liang army deployment—two thousand elite defenders would be sufficient.

In the ravine south of Yuanqu, several defensive strongholds had been built, connected to Mashou Stronghold by post roads continuously constructed and improved since Qin and Han times. Even if anything unusual occurred, reinforcements could arrive quickly.

At this time, Tian Weiye was more worried that this winter, the Liang army forces entering Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain would attempt to cross Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain in small dispersed units, penetrate the blockade line they had established in the northern ridges of Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain, and conduct raids in Anyi, Jiang County, Yangcheng, Qinshui, Quwo, and other territories, causing serious destruction.

At this time, Tian Weiye was deploying more of his main forces on the northern front.

At that time, the Yu River was frozen three chi thick, with carts and horses treading across the ice and snow to ford the river.

Su Lie led his troops across the river heading north, but bypassed Mashou Stronghold. Three thousand elite troops directly circled to the northeast seven or eight li of Mashou Stronghold, taking positions in the valleys between the southeastern flank of Yaowu Ridge.

Although the Yu River was now frozen three chi thick and the Mongol army could completely bypass Yaowu Ridge valley to reinforce Mashou Stronghold from the southern ice surface over four or five li wide, this valley was the necessary land route for Yuanqu garrison forces to reinforce Mashou Stronghold.

In other words, once the Liang army established a firm foothold in the southeastern valley of Yaowu Ridge, after the Yu River thawed, their troops and war equipment from the southern bank could continuously land at the southeastern valley of Yaowu Ridge through water transport.

Then when the Liang army attacked Mashou Stronghold westward, Yuanqu garrison forces would be isolated outside Mashou Stronghold, unable to provide reinforcement.

The terrain around Mashou Stronghold was confined—it was an essential defense position guarding the southern entrance of Ziguan Pass. As long as Mashou Stronghold was held, the Liang army on the southern bank could not project large forces into Ziguan Pass.

Tian Weiye naturally could not allow Mashou Stronghold to fall into crisis. Learning of this situation, he immediately rushed to Yuanqu City to take command, deploying troops to attack Yaowu Ridge, intending to repel Su Lie’s forces and reopen communication with Mashou Stronghold.

At this time, mobilization orders from Luoyang, Xiazhou, Huatong, Xingyang, Shangluo, and other prefectures were formally issued. The six major main force infantry combat brigades and警备 brigades of Han Bao, Li Chi, Lin Sheng, He Liufeng, Wen Yuan, and Huo Li continuously marched toward Mianchi County.

Huo Li’s First Guard Brigade departed from Yanshi at the closest distance, arriving at Lingshang two days later.

At this time, Tian Weiye had just assembled eight thousand troops and arrived at Yaowu Ridge.

Considering that south of Mianchi was the capital of the Liang state where elite troops could assemble very quickly, Tian Weiye dared not divide some troops to circle westward across the river ice to flank from the west side of Yaowu Ridge. Instead, he concentrated forces to fiercely attack Yaowu Ridge from the northeast.

Having not fought major battles for nearly two years, the various armor and military equipment bureaus under the Military Intelligence Staff had first equipped Su Lie and Xue Chuan’s troops with newly manufactured crossbows and shield carts.

On the frontal face of Yaowu Ridge valley, although there was an open attack passage over three hundred paces wide, thirty spring-arm mounted crossbows and thirty single-soldier spring-arm crossbows positioned on combat vehicles lined up in a row, with twenty spring-arm scorpion catapults positioned behind them. The Mongol army’s offensive swarming forward relying on shields was easily dissolved before approaching the defense line.

Tian Weiye could fight hard battles, and his subordinate officers and soldiers all came from bitter cold places like Ze and Lu, having fought on battlefields for years and long accustomed to bloody affairs—they could be called hundred-battle elites. But the armor they wore and even the large shields they held could not defend against single-soldier spring-arm crossbows, let alone withstand mounted crossbow fire. After suffering two to three hundred casualties, they huddled in the low ground below, with no one willing to wade into this death trap again.

The Mongol army had also used refined iron to manufacture large numbers of shield carts, but under harassment from small infiltrating forces on both flanking ridges, by the time Tian Weiye transferred these shield carts to Yaowu Ridge, Xue Chuan had already led troops to complete the encirclement of Mashou Stronghold and successfully sealed the defending forces attempting to sally forth from the stronghold inside, setting up seven or eight whirlwind catapults on the narrow open ground south of the stronghold.

At this time, Wen Bo entered Lingshang with Jing Hao, Guo Zong, and others to supervise the battle, and Huo Li led three thousand reinforcements from the First Guard Brigade to Yaowu Ridge to join forces with Su Lie…