On the Guanzhong Basin west of the Jing River, the sound of galloping hooves thundered like war drums in people’s hearts.

“What? Even after daybreak, we haven’t seen the vanguard cavalry of the Pingxia contingent emerge from the Jing River valley?”

Receiving the report that scouts north of Chiyang had waited until daybreak without seeing Li Siqi’s advance forces emerge from the Jing River valley, Wang Mao, sitting on horseback watching the Sanghe Bay battlefield, immediately felt dark clouds gathering over his heart.

The southward speed of large cavalry forces naturally wasn’t as fast as imagined, but scouts, patrols, and other advance units had responsibilities for pathfinding and reconnaissance. They certainly needed to appear earlier and faster than the main forces.

If after daybreak Li Siqi’s advance cavalry still hadn’t emerged from the Jing River valley, then the main Pingxia Qiang cavalry forces absolutely could not arrive at the eastern bank of Heiniu Beach within the scheduled time to reinforce!

What on earth was Li Siqi doing?!

“There must be treachery here!”

Wang He reined in his horse and stopped, saying with furrowed brow.

“The Liang army on the opposite bank appears to have had large forces gather overnight, but the morning offensive is weak and feeble—completely unlike that martial brute Cao Ba’s style! Under Wang Xiaoxian’s command were all weaklings. The vast majority surrendered without fighting. This Liang army route advancing eastward from Tianshui hasn’t encountered any hard battles to fight. They absolutely cannot have become exhausted so quickly…”

“Quickly assemble two thousand cavalry and lead them to follow behind me to reinforce Heiniu Beach. Be fast.” Wang Mao felt disaster was imminent. Unable to wait for Wang He to finish assembling cavalry, he first urgently led three hundred escort cavalry, spurring horses at full speed to rush the forty li to reinforce the eastern bank of Heiniu Beach.

The escort cavalry beside Wang Mao all rode horses selected from a hundred—the finest steeds. But by the time they reached Heiniu Beach, it was already late morning.

From afar, he saw that the simple defensive line on the eastern bank of Heiniu Beach, defended by only two thousand cavalry and infantry, had already been torn open in several places by Liang cavalry. His heart sank halfway.

Their main camp stationed behind the defensive line had also been penetrated by small Liang cavalry contingents assaulting from both flanks.

These Liang army cavalry were holding torches high even in broad daylight, evading pursuing troops’ encirclement and blockade, setting tent after tent ablaze, continuously creating greater chaos behind the defensive line.

Besides Heiniu Beach—so named because this section’s riverbed was a single expanse of black rock resembling a black ox lying underwater, forming a shallow beach over two hundred paces wide that cavalry could directly cross—in the upstream and downstream directions of Heiniu Beach, there were also dozens of floating rafts the Liang army had hastily constructed overnight from felled timber. These were now carrying brave Liang troops who had dismounted to fight on foot, crossing the river to attack.

Heiniu Beach was still too narrow. Facing it were simple defensive fortifications that the Chengde Army had rushed to construct over the past three or four days. Behind these fortifications, several hundred heavily armored Chengde infantry held heavy shields, crossbows, and long spears in defense, with Chengde light cavalry and fully armored cavalry arrayed on both flanks.

Wanting to directly assault across the river through such a narrow passage as Heiniu Beach and seize a foothold on the eastern bank was extremely difficult. Casualties would also be extraordinarily heavy.

Constructing simple floating rafts to争取 multi-point crossings on both flanks of Heiniu Beach made it easier to bypass the defensive line the Chengde Army had established directly opposite Heiniu Beach, fully utilizing their numerical advantage to break through deep into the eastern bank.

Although the Chengde Army still had small numbers of naval warships in Mo River, when night fell yesterday, Wang Mao had judged Sanghe Bay would be the Liang army’s main attack direction. Most of the small naval force of about a thousand men had been transferred by him to the river mouth position in the lower reaches of Mo River. He hadn’t expected the Liang army’s true breakthrough point to be at Heiniu Beach.

Besides the three to four thousand Liang troops already committed to the battlefield, Wang Mao saw a dense mass on the western bank—at least another four to five thousand Liang troops waiting to cross the river.

His vision went black in waves.

Li Siqi’s three thousand Qiang cavalry had failed to arrive as promised. At this moment, the elite Liang forces assembled at Heiniu Beach were three to four times their number, all desperately rushing to cross the beach. How could this battle still be fought?

No matter how difficult, Wang Mao knew he had no room to easily concede defeat.

If they were routed here, the Liang army would directly advance eastward along the edge of the northern mountains, sealing the southern entrance of the Jing River valley. Then the Chengde Army, together with Wang clan relatives and families of generals and officials—forty to fifty thousand people in total—would be trapped between the Jing, Mo, and Wei rivers, becoming turtles in a jar with no escape.

“Brothers, follow me!”

Although Wang Mao had stopped personally charging into battle these past years, he knew his two younger brothers below him were no pushovers. Even having been enfeoffed as heir apparent, he dared not indulge in luxurious living and forget military and political affairs.

Wielding his war halberd to inspire the morale of the soldiers behind him, he pulled the reins and was the first to spur his horse toward the battlefield.

The Liang army hadn’t constructed many crude floating rafts overnight. Combined with the river embankment on the eastern bank of Mo River remaining largely intact, this increased the difficulty of the Liang army crossing. This meant the harassing Liang troops who had crossed on both flanks were still extremely limited in number.

Wang Mao ignored the harassing Liang troops on both flanks. Seeing that the Liang army’s main crossing route was still this shallow water area at Heiniu Beach, he thought that as long as they could suppress the Liang army’s main forces on the narrow river beach and prevent them from advancing, not letting the Liang army’s superior forces deploy at ease, once Wang He and others led reinforcements to arrive, this battle wasn’t yet lost.

Even without someone holding him back, Wang Mao wouldn’t directly enter the chaotic battlefield to fight.

After inspiring morale, surrounded by more than ten escort cavalry, he stopped at the battlefield’s edge, watching the three hundred elite cavalry who had rushed here with him charge into the battlefield. They indeed suppressed the Liang army’s momentum somewhat, pressing several hundred Liang troops who had crossed the river beneath the broken embankment within two to three hundred paces of depth on the river beach.

However, before Wang Mao could feel relieved for long, the Liang army dispatched two more units of heavily armored infantry who crossed the river on horseback, then formed battle arrays on both flanks of the river beach. In the middle, another unit of heavily armored cavalry slowly crossed the river.

The Liang army rarely used heavily armored cavalry for frontal charges, but this didn’t mean the Liang army couldn’t assemble two contingents of heavily armored cavalry when necessary.

After the Liang army completed a new round of pre-battle formation, over a thousand troops—primarily heavily armored infantry, heavily armored cavalry, and lightly armored crossbow cavalry—advanced uphill from the narrow river beach toward the defensive fortifications built close to the river embankment that had already been battered.

These Liang troops clustered forward holding various weapons and siege equipment while loudly shouting something.

The battlefield was too noisy, and Wang Mao was relatively far away, unable to hear clearly what the Liang army was shouting.

“These Liang army soldiers are shouting that Li Yuanshou and Li Siqi have already surrendered to Great Liang. Not only will they not come to reinforce, but they have already captured Yongshou County, blocking our northern withdrawal route.”

She Rong, the deputy commander of the garrison on the eastern bank of Heiniu Beach, rushed over to report what the Liang army was shouting.

“Nonsense! Li Yuanshou and Li Siqi would never surrender to the Liang army!” Wang Mao shouted in exasperation.

Although he felt quite panicked at this moment, regarding the claim that Li Yuanshou and Li Siqi had surrendered to the Liang army, he was the first not to believe it.

If that were true, the Liang army had no need to fight so fiercely at Heiniu Beach. Li Siqi could also have taken advantage of their unpreparedness to attack their rear route, catching them completely off guard.

Something unexpected must have happened—perhaps it was more likely that Li Siqi had become timid. But he absolutely did not believe Li Yuanshou and Li Siqi had surrendered to the Liang army.

“The soldiers below are more concerned about where Li Siqi’s reinforcements are and when they will arrive,” She Rong asked.

They might not believe Li Yuanshou and his son Li Siqi had surrendered to the Liang army, but the soldiers below, even mid and low-level officers, were more concerned about when reinforcements would arrive. Without reinforcements, relying solely on their two thousand-some troops to resist wave after wave of Liang army attacks, morale couldn’t hold for long.

Feng Xuan had personally rushed to the western bank of Heiniu Beach last night to take command, concentrating elite forces from all units. After dawn, he organized troops to assault across the beach, but the fighting hadn’t been too intense.

On one hand, Feng Xuan needed to systematically destroy the defensive fortifications the enemy had built on the broken embankment on the eastern bank. Otherwise, cavalry would be squeezed by these defensive works and unable to deploy.

On the other hand, Feng Xuan wasn’t certain when the Pingxia cavalry would arrive—Han Bao also had no time to send someone to cross over a hundred li of mountains and ridges west of the Jing River valley to notify him. Feng Xuan worried that when forces extended deep into the eastern bank, their flanks would be exposed to the blade of Pingxia Qiang cavalry arriving at any moment.

However, seeing Wang Mao personally leading several hundred escort cavalry rushing in panic from the Sanghe Bay eastern bank defense line to Heiniu Beach, at this moment not only had they nearly finished destroying the enemy’s simple defensive fortifications on the eastern bank, Feng Xuan could confirm that the Pingxia Qiang cavalry led by Li Siqi had been pinned down in the Jing River valley by Han Bao and his forces.

At this moment, Feng Xuan directly dispatched double the forces to enter the opposite river beach, strengthening attack density and intensity.

He had to admit the enemy’s will was very tenacious, and they occupied the terrain advantage. But at this time, the harassing forces crossing from both flanks had also grown numerous enough to assemble into cavalry squadrons, continuously assaulting and striking the rear of the enemy defensive line from the flanks. The enemy quickly couldn’t hold out.

Without enemy interception, cavalry squadrons shot forward like released spears, one after another killing onto the eastern bank of Mo River.

Feng Xuan first had Lu Ze lead a cavalry unit to rush toward the Jing River valley at maximum speed.

Even if Han Bao’s forces managed to pin the Pingxia cavalry in the Jing River valley as scheduled, having frantically marched three hundred li of mountain roads on foot over three days and four nights, the condition of the first batch of forward soldiers arriving at the battlefield must be extremely poor. At this time, they still had to bravely tangle with the enemy. Without reinforcements to drive away the Pingxia Qiang cavalry, casualties would be unimaginable.

Besides Lu Ze leading a cavalry unit to rush northeast toward the Jing River valley first, Feng Xuan also ordered Li Zhi to lead a combined cavalry-infantry unit to follow closely behind. However, they need not enter the Jing River valley but should choose ground to establish camp near the southern entrance of the Jing River valley north of Chiyang city, thoroughly blocking the Chengde Army’s northern escape route.

He personally led the remaining three thousand-some cavalry, thrusting downstream along the eastern bank of Mo River, routing or forcing back all enemy defensive forces on the eastern bank of Mo River, so that Cao Ba and Houmo’s two units still remaining on the western bank, plus a logistics auxiliary force, could smoothly cross Mo River…

Although the Chengde Army possessed over twenty thousand cavalry north of the Wei River and west of the Jing River, nearly half their cavalry were assembled on the northern bank of the Wei River opposite Xianyang city, used to block over forty thousand Great Liang elite forces on the southern bank from organizing boats to cross the Wei River from west of Xianyang city.

Although Wang Yuankui had confiscated all boats in Yongzhou territory and blocked the lower Wei River and Ba River channels with sunken ships, Li Zhigao still found some boats in Fengxiang territory and urgently concentrated them at Xianyang for the main force to cross the river.

Wang Yuankui’s ultimate goal was still to lead his direct forces to escape toward Qing, Yuan, and other areas deep in the northern Wei plateau.

This determined he could not deploy slowly withdrawing infantry on the northern bank of the Wei River to delay the southern line Liang army main force from crossing. But having deployed half his cavalry as rear guard forces on the northern bank of the Wei River, after his defensive line on the eastern bank of Mo River collapsed, he had no more mobile combat forces in hand. For the collapse of the entire situation, he had absolutely no remedy.

After the cavalry and infantry west of Mo River all entered the eastern bank, Feng Xuan did not risk directly attacking the ten thousand-some enemy cavalry opposite Xianyang city.

At this time, there wasn’t even need to specifically open a northern crossing route across the Wei River for the southern line main force. Feng Xuan directly led forces northward to assemble in Chiyang County territory at the southern entrance of the Jing River valley, forming a north-south pincer attack with the southern line main force, thoroughly leaving the Chengde Army with no escape route on earth or in heaven.

The over two thousand Chiyang garrison immediately abandoned the city and fled toward Liquan city. Subsequently, even more Chengde Army forces swarmed toward Liquan city.

Feng Xuan remained indifferent to all this. He was waiting for the southern line main force to methodically cross the Wei River before advancing together toward Liquan city.

Liquan city’s fortifications were extremely solid, but Liquan sat right on the western bank of the Jing River, surrounded by completely flat terrain.

Although Wang Yuankui had scuttled large numbers of boats in the Wei River channel, without enemy interference, Feng Xuan believed naval warships sailing over, together with logistics auxiliary troops on both banks dragging sunken ships one by one from the main channel, restoring navigation on main waterways like the Wei and Jing rivers would not take much time.

At that time, he would rendezvous with Jing Zhen, Kong Xirong, Li Zhigao, and other route forces outside Liquan city. Once newly manufactured heavy siege equipment from Luoyang was continuously transported via the Wei and Jing rivers, they would certainly be able to breach Liquan city’s gates at much lower cost.

Having led forces on a three-hundred-li raid to enter Black Wind Gully in southeastern Yongshou County, Han Bao’s feet were rubbed bloody by his combat boots. Afterward, he led exhausted vanguard troops to lure Pingxia cavalry into Black Wind Gully for entanglement. By the time he was carried into Chiyang city for treatment, both feet had long become a blur of blood and flesh.

When reinforcements arrived at Black Wind Gully, of the first batch of over three hundred vanguard entering Black Wind Gully, two hundred had died in battle. The remainder, including Han Bao, were all covered in wounds. When Lu Ze led forces into the Jing River valley and Li Siqi led the Pingxia contingent in frightened flight, of the two thousand troops who had flanked westward from Tongguan city in a surprise assault, over five hundred in total had died in battle within Black Wind Gully.

The assault forces had no heavy armor protection and were extremely exhausted. With over five hundred battle deaths leaving only about two hundred enemy corpses on the Black Wind Gully battlefield, the casualty ratio was far higher than the enemy’s. However, regarding the overall interception battle situation, this was the primary achievement.

In late April, eighty thousand Great Liang cavalry, infantry, and elite naval forces tightly besieged over fifty thousand Chengde Army soldiers and families of generals and officials inside Liquan city.

Liquan city was solid, but as a county seat under Yongzhou jurisdiction, it had only five hundred paces of depth. The circuit of city walls was merely over two thousand paces—nowhere near comparable to Yongzhou city with its walls over twenty li long.

Such a small city normally housed only six to seven hundred civilian households.

At this time, Wang Yuankui and Wang Mao had crammed nearly sixty thousand people including soldiers, Wang clan relatives, and families of generals and officials, plus thirty to forty thousand large livestock inside. The crowding could be imagined.

Liquan city was too small. Even though they could slaughter warhorses and other large livestock for food, there were no defensive siege weapons.

After blocking all four city gates, besieging forces directly pushed whirlwind trebuchets and other heavy siege equipment to two hundred paces before the city, able to bombard without blind spots any corner inside the city.

At this time, no favorable treatment could be given to Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao.

Except for mid and low-level officers below battalion commander rank and ordinary soldiers who could be pardoned upon surrender, the surrender letter personally drafted by Jing Zhen listed high-ranking Chengde Army commanders, officials, and Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao among war criminals who must be captured or killed.

Jing Zhen even offered a thousand gold reward for the heads of Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao.

Under continuous assault by over a hundred whirlwind trebuchets and siege crossbows, the garrison suffered casualties every moment. Morale quickly completely collapsed. Garrison soldiers successively lowered themselves on ropes from city walls to surrender.

On the fourth day, western gate garrison deputy commander She Rong united with soldiers to capture commanding general Wang Lie and opened the western gate to welcome besieging forces into the city. Garrison forces along the route all surrendered at first sight.

Even commanders listed as war criminals also successively abandoned resistance.

However, Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao ultimately did not cheapen others with their heads.

They drove dozens of female relatives from their residence to the rear courtyard of the county office and shot them with arrows to death, then piled firewood, poured fire oil and ignited it. The father and son finally threw themselves into the sea of flames and died by suicide.

After Jing Zhen, Kong Xirong, Li Zhigao, Feng Xuan, and Zhu Zhen entered the city and rushed to the extinguished fire site, logistics auxiliary troops merely recovered from the ruined courtyard a pile of charred corpses burned beyond recognition.

“Separately interrogate generals, officials, and guards close to Wang Yuankui to confirm Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao killed their wives and concubines before walking into the sea of flames to die by suicide…” Officers responsible for post-battle cleanup came over to report to the group.

Jing Zhen and Zhu Zhen bore great grudges against Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao. They felt not the slightest regret about their deaths.

Li Zhigao, Kong Xirong, and Feng Xuan only rubbed their hands and sighed.

If Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao had finally surrendered and been captured, at least they wouldn’t have to die. But for them, becoming prisoners was hardly better than death.

They had once had choices. It was their greed and unwillingness that buried their final choice. They probably also didn’t want to live on to be mocked for the rest of their lives.

Of course, Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao shooting female relatives from their residence to be buried with them before death also confirmed their cruel and hateful nature.

“Such cruel people—their father and son’s corpses should be dragged to the city head, exposed for three days before being abandoned in the wilderness. In Liquan city, stonecutters should also be found to carve steles recording their cruelty to warn future generations. Other corpses should be separately buried.” Neither Jing Zhen nor Li Zhigao could conveniently speak directly about disposal of Wang Yuankui and his son Wang Mao’s corpses. Kong Xirong spoke directly.

Jing Zhen waved his hand, signaling the commanding officer responsible here to follow Kong Xirong’s words.

Besides dispatching someone to immediately depart for Luoyang to report victory, Jing Zhen also consulted with Li Zhigao and Kong Xirong before escorting 216 mid and high-ranking Chengde Army prisoner commanders plus 156 Wang clan relatives to Luoyang to present as captives.

As for how to dispose of other prisoner soldiers, as well as subsequent campaign arrangements, Guanzhong prefectures’ defense deployments, prefecture and county official appointments, and so forth—these would wait for Han Qian’s edict from Luoyang.

Of course, Luoyang had long predicted recovering Guanzhong before mid-year. For subsequent governance and defense arrangements in Guanzhong, Han Qian had also long transmitted edicts soliciting opinions from Jing Zhen, Kong Xirong, Li Zhigao, Feng Xuan, as well as Chai Jian, Zhu Zhen, and others.

Even without public proclamation, at this time Great Liang’s senior ministers and veteran commanders all understood very clearly in their hearts that Han Qian had already taken reunifying the realm as his personal mission.

As Great Liang’s territory continuously expanded, how to subsequently govern localities had already become the focus of discussion and attention among court and military officials.

In the early previous dynasty, following the Western Han inspector system, the realm was divided according to mountain and river configurations and transportation convenience into fifteen circuits. Supervisory officials were established as needed to assist the central government in supervising prefectures and counties, but this only played a supervisory role without forming true administrative divisions above the prefecture and county level.

From the early to middle and late periods, the military commissioner system initially used for border regions was widely applied nationwide. The realm’s political districts were basically carved up by various military commissioners. At most, over forty provincial garrisons appeared under heaven, forming a situation of local garrison separatism, ultimately causing the previous dynasty’s collapse and the realm’s division into four parts.

After Liang, Jin, Shu, and Chu established their states, although they also put great effort into promoting new systems that both facilitated local governance and limited local forces from growing too powerful and powerful ministers from separating—all while continuing old systems—the time was too rushed, none very successful.

If there was an example worth emulating, it was when after the vassal reduction campaigns, to facilitate Yang Yuanpu’s control of recovered Hunan prefectures to strengthen his power, Emperor Tianyou established a Branch Secretariat at Tanzhou governing Tan, Lang, Yue, E, Shao, Heng, Xu, and Chen prefectures. This could be said to be a relatively successful example.

When Yang Yuanpu ascended the throne, the Hunan Branch Secretariat continued to be retained, but no longer established a Branch Secretary commanding military and political affairs. Instead, Pacification Commissioner, Transport Commissioner, and Surveillance Commissioner separately handled Hunan prefectures’ military and political affairs, financial revenue, and criminal justice supervision.

This both facilitated local governance and successfully suppressed local forces from rising, while avoiding excessive concentration of military and political power in one person’s hands.

Han Qian now had the intention to directly establish Great Liang’s first Yongzhou Provincial Administration after recovering Guanzhong. The Left Interior Minister’s Office and Council had repeatedly discussed related issues for quite some days.

Four days later, Gao Shao together with Xi Xunqiao, Han Chengmeng, and other officials carried Han Qian’s edict to Liquan to rendezvous with Jing Zhen, Li Zhigao, Kong Xirong, and others, formally announcing establishment of Yongzhou Provincial Administration with Yongzhou as the provincial capital.

Besides Feng, Qi, Yong, Tong, and other prefectures and counties recovered before May this year that would subsequently be reformed to the prefecture-county system, as well as northern Wei prefectures about to be recovered, Hanzhong Prefecture, Jinzhou Prefecture, Shangluo Prefecture, and Huatong Prefecture would all be placed under Yongzhou Provincial Administration jurisdiction.

Compared to the Hunan Branch Secretariat, Yongzhou Provincial Administration would have the Military Commissioner and Surveillance Commissioner jointly handling military and civilian political affairs plus administrative supervision, criminal justice, and other matters. The first Military Commissioner and Surveillance Commissioner would be Jing Zhen and Xi Xunqiao, with a clearly specified five-year term.

Han Chengmeng would serve as the first Prefect of the capital Yongzhou Prefecture.

Although the Military Commissioner oversaw a Military Preparation Office managing local military administration and reserve forces, active-duty main combat forces would still be directly commanded by various campaign armies.

According to campaign needs, a Longyou Commissioner’s Office would be established west of Long Mountain, governing Qinzhou, Chengzhou, and Wuzhou with capital at Tianshui. Chai Jian would serve as Longyou Commissioner concurrently commanding the Longyou Campaign Army as Commander-in-Chief, overseeing three brigades of cavalry and infantry under Zhao Ci, Houmo, and Zhou Tong responsible for defense west of Long Mountain and striking from the south northward against Pingxia Qiang cavalry forces occupying Yin, Xia, and other areas.

With Shangluo Campaign Army plus Liangzhou Army units under Deng Tai, Zhang Song, and Chai Xun organized into Yongzhou Campaign Army, total organization of six brigades totaling thirty thousand active-duty cavalry and infantry soldiers.

Feng Xuan would serve as Deputy Military Commissioner of Yongzhou Provincial Administration and Military Supervisor of Qing, Yuan, Yan, and Lin prefectures concurrently commanding Northern Yong Campaign Army as Commander-in-Chief. Besides recovering Qing, Yuan, Yan, Lin, and other four northern Wei prefectures—in fact in mid to late May, garrisons in northern Wei prefectures like Qing, Yuan, Yan, and Lin all fled without fighting, allowing Feng Xuan to gain these four prefectures without bloodshed and incorporate them into Yongzhou Provincial Administration—Northern Yong Campaign Army would subsequently also be responsible for attacking from the western flank the territories controlled by the Mongol Northern Court, conducting military strikes against them.

Relations between Liang and Shu currently hadn’t yet ruptured, so no campaign army would be directly established. However, elite main forces certainly needed to be stationed to monitor the Liang-Shu border defense.

Han Qian had Zhu Zhen serve as Liangzhou Prefecture (Hanzhong) Commissioner, leading two cavalry and infantry brigades to garrison Liangzhou.