Han Qian and Li Zhigao arranged for the first contingent of Dragon Sparrow Army officers and soldiers not to camp at the western foothills of the Dahong Mountains as specified by Du Chongtao, but to approach Xiangzhou directly by water route, so they could seize more initiative in defensive matters.
Of course, during this period Li Zhigao and Han Qian wouldn’t enter Xiangzhou city to meet Du Chongtao, but they also couldn’t truly just hide at Jingzi Pass.
In fact, besides leaving some scouts to monitor Liang army movements in the direction of Shaoxi Mountain and Blind Bear Valley, and hiring local laborers from Jingzi Pass to continue building up the Jingzi Pass compound, Han Qian and Li Zhigao took over ten men back along the Dan River valley into the Nanyang Basin.
On one hand, they personally surveyed the terrain within the Nanyang Basin; on the other hand, they waited for the first Dragon Sparrow Army contingent to sail up from the Han River.
Five days later, when the first Dragon Sparrow Army contingent of two thousand officers and soldiers arrived east of Xiangzhou city aboard Tower Ship Army naval warships, Third Prince Yang Yuanpu, under escort by Chai Jian, Li Chong and others, also arrived in Xiangzhou on fast horses and met up with Han Qian and Li Zhigao.
Li Zhigao had previously estimated that the Third Prince, departing with the second batch of Dragon Sparrow Army main forces, wouldn’t arrive at Xiangzhou for at least another half month. But in reality, Yang Yuanpu found traveling west by boat too slow. After passing Chizhou, he went ashore with Chai Jian, Li Chong and others, taking the Guard Battalion ahead first, while Chief of Staff Shen Yang, Supervising Commissioner Guo Rong, Vice Commander Chen De, and Zhou Shu, Guo Liang, Gao Chengyuan and others led the Dragon Sparrow Army main force of five thousand officers and soldiers sailing upstream behind.
North of Huangzhou, he encountered the messenger Li Zhigao had sent out and learned of the situation after Li Zhigao met Du Chongtao, as well as Li Zhigao and Han Qian’s decision. Yang Yuanpu spurred his horse even faster northward, finally arriving beneath Xiangzhou city just as the first Dragon Sparrow Army contingent reached Xiangzhou, rendezvousing with Li Zhigao and Han Qian.
By calculation, from disembarking north of Chizhou until reaching Xiangzhou, Yang Yuanpu rode fast horses covering three hundred li per day.
Han Qian and Li Zhigao had advanced first at just such a rapid pace riding horses to Xiangzhou. They naturally knew how grueling such travel was—over a hundred men didn’t know how many horses they’d ruin. Without battle-hardened elite veterans in the army, it would be difficult to persevere.
Chai Jian and Li Chong both looked exhausted. Though Han Qian hadn’t seen Third Prince Yang Yuanpu for only half a month, he could see the Prince had probably lost several jin of weight on this journey.
Han Qian secretly felt that if Yang Yuanpu could truly be this diligent and not fear hardship, they really weren’t without opportunities. He said with a smile: “Since Your Highness has rushed here, we need to adjust our plans somewhat!”
“Adjust how? Not entering Xiangzhou city directly?” Yang Yuanpu asked hesitantly.
Having received the message, he had rushed here day and night with Chai Jian and Li Chong mainly because his cousin-in-law Du Chongtao was ruthless. Even if he just arrested and beheaded a few battalion commanders, such losses were more than the Dragon Sparrow Army could bear at this time.
“After the first contingent deploys in Fancheng, we’ll accompany Your Highness to meet Du Chongtao.” Han Qian pointed toward the ruined city on the northern bank of the Han River, across from Xiangzhou city.
Yang Yuanpu was somewhat puzzled, unable for the moment to guess Han Qian’s intention in temporarily adjusting the original plan.
“Good. Since Your Highness has arrived, we should deploy directly in Fancheng.” Li Zhigao knew military strategy and also understood the intricacies of defensive deployment.
The Deng-Xiang defense line that Du Chongtao presided over still primarily relied on the newly built Xiangzhou city and the Han River. Even if large Liang forces attacked, he had no intention of hastily engaging them in decisive battle north of the Han River.
Although ruined Fancheng faced Xiangzhou city across the Han River, Fancheng could be considered a salient position of the entire Deng-Xiang defense line.
Currently Du Chongtao was commander-in-chief of the Deng-Xiang defense line, and Yang Yuanpu was the nominal vice commander. If Yang Yuanpu entered Xiangzhou and rendezvoused with Du Chongtao, the primary-subordinate relationship would become even more definite.
If Yang Yuanpu didn’t enter Xiangzhou city but instead garrisoned in Fancheng on the opposite bank of Xiangzhou city, the implications would be subtle.
If Du Chongtao didn’t cross the Han River to enter Fancheng, then Yang Yuanpu, in his capacity as Marquis of Linjiang, Vice Campaign Commander, and Commander of the Dragon Sparrow Army, would have the authority to require all forces north of the Han River to submit to his command, effectively becoming the frontline commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Campaign.
If Du Chongtao didn’t want this situation to occur, he would either have to agree to their demands, or move his own commander’s headquarters across the Han River, relocating north to Fancheng.
And with the Third Prince leading his troops to garrison Fancheng, right next to the Han River, they could even directly intercept grain ships coming along the Han River, forcing some provisions to be diverted to supply the Dragon Sparrow Army’s garrison in Fancheng…
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“……”
Du Chongtao was just over forty years old, with a thick short mustache on his upper lip. Among Great Chu’s founding generals, he could be considered relatively young—Xu Mingzhen, Li Yu, Niu Gengru, as well as Zhang Xiang and Li Pu were all considerably older than Du Chongtao.
At this moment, Du Chongtao’s gaunt face resembled weathered rock. He stood on the gatehouse of Xiangzhou city facing the Han River beach, expressionlessly watching dozens of military vessels mooring at the northern bank’s river beach. Over two thousand Dragon Sparrow Army officers and soldiers jumped onto the beach, then climbed up the riverbank, gathering toward Fancheng’s south gate.
Although without his orders the Fancheng garrison refused to open the city gates to admit the Dragon Sparrow Army, the problem was that Third Prince Yang Yuanpu, surrounded by over a hundred elite cavalry, stood on the northern bank gazing across, showing no intention whatsoever of compromising.
The Tower Ship Army’s naval warships were only responsible for transporting the Dragon Sparrow Army officers and soldiers to Xiangzhou city, but weren’t responsible for remaining in Xiangzhou to assist in combat. Therefore, after the officers and soldiers disembarked, they showed no intention of lingering and directly turned around, heading east past the rapids before turning south.
Even if they needed to obtain some supplies locally, they planned to wait until after reaching Yingzhou.
The Tower Ship Army naval commander responsible for transporting the Dragon Sparrow Army wasn’t a fool either. He knew they weren’t currently under the Northwestern Campaign Commander’s authority, but once hostilities erupted, Du Chongtao or the Third Prince would have the power to mobilize all combat resources within Deng-Xiang territory, including forces from other units temporarily staying in Deng-Xiang.
However, besides the Tower Ship Army’s naval warships turning around to head east, Du Chongtao saw that three more warships remained moored at the northern bank without departing.
These were three warships from the Xuzhou boat gang, led by Yang Qin.
Although Han Qian absolutely didn’t want the Left Bureau to bear the responsibility for the Dragon Sparrow Army’s logistical supply—that would only crush the still quite fragile Left Bureau—he had previously adopted such a forceful attitude in expanding the Left Bureau’s authority and limiting the infiltration and control of Marquis of Xinchang’s household and Wanhong Tower over the Left Bureau to maintain relatively independent status. The Third Prince and Shen Yang had both given their support. At this time, he still needed to have the Left Bureau demonstrate corresponding capabilities.
This way, after the war if Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu still wanted to find fault with the Left Bureau, the Third Prince and Shen Yang would have more reason to speak on his behalf.
Therefore, Han Qian still ordered Yang Qin to lead three warships, procure a batch of supplies and depart Xuzhou first, rendezvous with the first westward-advancing Dragon Sparrow Army contingent at the Han River mouth before entering the Han River and heading north, so that after arriving at Xiangzhou they could seize more initiative.
Additionally, if they truly wanted to intercept grain ships arriving at Xiangzhou from other places, they needed two or three warships in hand!
With merely a written order, how could grain escort officers from Jiang, E and other regions possibly ignore Du Chongtao’s orders and hand provisions over to the Dragon Sparrow Army?
When the time came, they’d still have to rely on seizing them!
Of course, without warships and corresponding boat gang elite escorts, after the Xuzhou fleet reached Yuezhou, they would also temporarily remain in Yuezhou awaiting orders under Feng Xuan’s leadership.
“The Third Prince is truly willful. If he makes a separate mess on the northern bank with everything in chaos, how can this battle even be fought?” Ma Xun, heir to the Tanzhou Military Commissioner who had led five thousand Tanzhou reinforcements into Xiangzhou, stood beside Du Chongtao and said with pursed lips.
For this battle, besides the fifteen thousand garrison troops under Du Chongtao’s command in Deng-Xiang, and besides the seven thousand reinforcement troops conscripted by the Dragon Sparrow Army, the court had preliminarily also issued edicts to conscript between one to three thousand troops from each of the twelve riverine prefectures west of Jiangzhou to assemble at Xiangzhou. Moreover, the provisions and other materials needed for the war were also currently mainly being allocated from these twelve riverine prefectures.
Not only Ma Xun leading Tanzhou forces, but military commissioners from other prefectures like Jiangzhou Campaign Commander Zhong Yanhu had also successively led their troops to Xiangzhou, submitting to Du Chongtao’s command to resist the Liang army.
If the western flank’s hostilities further intensified, Jinling’s military mobilization of the region west of Jiangzhou would become even larger and more thorough.
“We’ll cross the river to meet His Highness!” Du Chongtao said expressionlessly.
Others couldn’t understand what mentality Du Chongtao had that made him decide to lead the generals across the Han River to meet the Third Prince. Of course, even though Du Chongtao was the western flank commander-in-chief, actively crossing the river to meet his vice commander would only demonstrate his reverence for Emperor Tianyou and imperial authority when word spread. This couldn’t be considered breaking protocol.
Of course, the biggest problem was still—what would the other reinforcement troops, as well as Xiangzhou’s local military, civilians and officials think when they saw Du Chongtao do this?
Would they mistakenly believe that Du Chongtao would bow before the wet-behind-the-ears Third Prince and hand over command of western flank operations?
And how would that wet-behind-the-ears youth on the opposite bank view Du Chongtao’s action?