After Zhao Shen and Zu Ti rendezvoused in Jiangbei, Zu Ti gave the central army’s vanguard to Zhao Shen to lead, while he crossed the river from another route entering Jiangnan.
Unlike Zhao Shi who fought guerrilla warfare with light cavalry, penetrating deep into enemy territory to stir up trouble everywhere, Zhao Shen’s vanguard general had to actually capture the cities in Wang Dun’s hands and entrust people to manage them before advancing further.
He needed to maintain close contact with the central and rear armies. Therefore, he had a separate radio and simple generator under his command that could independently contact Zhao Hanzhang and Zu Ti.
It was just that his combat methods were peculiar. He didn’t like steadily advancing, but preferred only attacking strategic locations, and using flanking maneuvers to conversely isolate some officials with low combat effectiveness or who were forced to submit to Wang Dun but whose resistance will wasn’t firm.
When they realized they were isolated and helpless and couldn’t win, while the rear army was approaching, they would surrender their cities.
For the rear army, this was simply delivering heads and military merit. The rear army picked up cities with great delight.
So Zhao Shen had excellent relations with the army. Whenever he needed to replenish grain, fodder, military equipment, and combat personnel, they could respond quickly without delay.
What drew Zu Ti’s attention was that with this style of fighting, his casualties were also not large. Up to now, he had only replenished troops once, mostly wounded soldiers sent down.
Because the city capture speed was fast and the army’s march route was erratic, Wang Dun had already lost popular support and had an extremely poor mass base. This made it impossible for him to grasp the true situation of this army for a while.
But he still knew there was a Zhao Family Army following his rear. Even though he had already decided to abandon Jiangnan and fight in Guangzhou instead, he couldn’t allow his authority to be challenged like this.
Moreover, since the Zhao Family Army crossed the river, he also needed a major battle to boost morale.
For this, Wang Dun released false information and instructed his generals to retreat in defeat from Guangchang County, letting them pass through, while he led troops to ambush on the road between Guangchang and Poyang.
Zhao Shen was still mystical as usual, but after capturing Guangchang County, he didn’t divine. Instead, he sent out five scout routes, having them investigate along the way.
The five scout routes detected nothing unusual.
Zhao Shen frowned and ordered, “Scout again!”
Scouting again still revealed nothing unusual.
Zhao Shen thought for a moment and still trusted his own judgment more. If there were ambush troops on the road… He stared at the map for a while and decided to expend more effort. So he sent Ping Xin with two thousand men to make a great show of detouring to Poyang, while he quietly led the main army toward Le’an in the southeast direction.
Wang Dun failed to ambush them but wasn’t discouraged. He directly led the main army on a shortcut to Poyang to intercept.
The two sides encountered each other in Poyang’s outskirts and fought a battle. Ping Xin only had two thousand men—strong mobility—and he didn’t need to definitely win. The general’s order to him was, “Preserve maximum combat strength.”
So after discovering he couldn’t win, when he found an opportunity he sounded the retreat and turned to run.
Because they only had two thousand men here, while previously they had made a great show of force, Wang Dun suspected there was an ambush ahead—these two thousand were feigning defeat to lure the enemy. So he stopped his generals, saying, “Don’t pursue a desperate enemy. Let’s return to Poyang.”
The urgent matter was Nanchang. They had to capture Nanchang in Yuzhang Commandery so they could lead the main army south.
Ping Xin saw they weren’t pursuing and quietly followed behind them again, appearing now and then to harass them. Whenever they turned back, he would run.
This made Wang Dun’s generals more certain that Zhao Shen wanted to lure the enemy, but Wang Dun had some doubts. He turned to ask the scouts, “Have you detected their main army?”
The scout said, “It should be with them. We investigated the traces after they left. The number of earthen stoves could supply about forty thousand men.”
Wang Dun’s brow furrowed even tighter. After a moment, his expression changed and he cried out, “Not good! This is a feint to the east while attacking the west.”
If they still had over forty thousand men, how could it be that every time they came to attack them it was the same group?
Sometimes they came to provoke twice in one day.
Wang Dun always sent generals out to battle, but he personally supervised each time. He had a good memory and was very familiar with this army that popped up like mice from time to time.
“The main army isn’t here. These two thousand men are to attract our attention. They…” Wang Dun’s brain spun rapidly and soon thought of Yuhan County. He gritted his teeth, “They must have gone to Le’an, transferred from Le’an to Yuhan, then from Yuhan to Nanchang…”
That would be much closer, and moreover, it exactly avoided his sphere of influence.
The Le’an County magistrate hadn’t surrendered to Wang Dun. Instead, he tore up Wang Dun’s letter and then publicly memorialized the Prince of Langya, saying Wang Dun was a traitorous subject and villain.
At that time, Wang Dun’s attention was all on Jiankang. He thought that as long as he captured Jiankang, these small county magistrates’ opposition would be useless. Therefore, he paid no attention to these magistrates who opposed him.
He hadn’t expected that sparing them then would apply today.
Wang Dun immediately left a portion of men to intercept these two thousand, ordering the main army to advance at top speed to reach Nanchang within two days.
At this time, Zhao Shen had already, with the Le’an County magistrate’s help, passed between Le’an and Poyang and reached Yuhan. A portion of Dai Yuan’s army was stationed here. He could pass through here toward Nanchang.
But at this time, Zhao Shen was no longer in a hurry. He waited for Wang Dun to arrive outside Nanchang City. Then he and the Dai Family Army could encircle from Yuhan toward Nanchang—that would be luring the enemy into a trap.
When Zu Ti received Zhao Shen’s telegram, he was very satisfied. He immediately ordered the main army still in Jiangbei to cross the river, then divided into three routes. Two routes went to Jiangdong to pursue Wang Dun’s main force, while one route joined with Zhao Ju, Mi Ce, and Wang Yifeng to recover the cities in Jiangnan that Wang Dun had seized.
Six routes of main armies crisscrossed through Jiangnan and Jiangdong, capturing the cities Zhao Shen hadn’t taken and taking them over, connecting them into one piece.
Zu Ti was very forceful. Not only Jiangnan—areas in Wu Commandery and vicinity controlled by local aristocratic families were also entered.
The garrisons in these places mostly obeyed the Zhou clan. Currently, the head of the Zhou clan was called Zhou Zhi.
His grandfather and father were both famous ministers of the Wu state. After Wu fell, his father Zhou Chu entered Jin and served as Imperial Censor. At this time, he was also in Jiankang. After the Zhao Family Army entered the city, he had been forced to remain in the city.
Zu Ti asked him to escort the Prince of Langya’s family to the capital.
Zhou Zhi was a cautious person. Knowing this matter couldn’t be refused, he agreed.
Before leaving, he wanted to write a letter to his family.
Zu Ti happily agreed.
Zhou Zhi’s letter was sent back to Yixing. The Zhou Family Army, which had always ignored Wang Dun’s main army passing through their territory, suddenly attacked Wang Dun’s main army, blocking their path. Zhao Shi quickly caught up and left information for the rear army.
Two routes of rear armies quickly pursued.
After Zhou Zhi sent out his letter and was crossing the river with the Prince of Langya’s family and Wang Dao, looking at the rolling waters of the Yangtze River, he still couldn’t help but sigh.
The division and unity of the realm seemed to have the Heavenly Way directing it. He just didn’t know whether his and the Zhou clan’s future was also predetermined by fate.
After seeing the Zhao Family Army crossing the river in an orderly fashion, the common people inside and outside Jiankang City would curiously go watch the excitement and enthusiastically discuss this matter. In their expressions, he saw no aversion or disgust. At that time, he knew the Zhou clan should follow the trend and choose Zhao Hanzhang.
So when Zu Ti “requested” him to stay in Jiankang City to protect the Prince of Langya against Wang Dun’s assassins, he hadn’t thought of escaping but went along and stayed.
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