After Shen Yang and the Third Prince negotiated with Du Chongtao for several days, Du Chongtao finally agreed to allocate additional money and provisions to the Dragon Sparrow Army according to the standard for three thousand able-bodied civilian laborers, so the Dragon Sparrow Army could independently recruit civilians near their garrison to meet the needs for building fortifications and assisting with defense.
In practice, this meant allocating an additional three thousand shi of millet, one thousand shi of bean fodder, and sixty shi of salt to the Dragon Sparrow Army each month.
The troops under Zhou Shu, Guo Liang, and Gao Chengyuan were stationed at Niushou Stronghold on the eastern side of Xiangzhou City. Under the advocacy of the Third Prince and Shen Yang, this money and provisions would naturally be prioritized for supply to Li Zhigao and the Left Office stationed in the left forward position.
With this money and provisions, Han Qian no longer needed to additionally supplement materials to Jingzikou and Canglang City. He could even gather some mountain products to offset previous deficits.
Han Qian was not only building a city at Canglang—at Jingzikou, he similarly advised Li Zhigao to first utilize the remaining alley foundations to build small enclosures of a hundred paces or seventy to eighty paces square.
Li Zhigao excelled at commanding troops and charging into battle but wasn’t skilled at managing logistics, so he simply handed over the two hundred-plus accompanying master craftsmen and workers he’d been allocated for Han Qian to manage uniformly.
At Jingzikou, Han Qian’s cooperation model with the strongholds was similarly to dispatch master craftsmen to guide lime firing and the mining and smelting of coal and iron materials, with the Left Office responsible for purchasing. This could actually save more than half the manpower, enabling related work to advance rapidly.
After the military remonstrance, Han Qian had once worried that Li Zhigao’s control over the First Regiment would face severe testing. After all, the Dragon Sparrow Army’s junior officers were almost all filled by household soldiers of the Xinchang Marquis Estate, and theoretically they all owed loyalty to Xinchang Marquis Li Pu.
However, facts proved Han Qian’s worries somewhat excessive.
When Prince of Eastern Zhe Li Yu commanded troops, Li Pu mostly engaged in auxiliary matters. Li Zhigao, however, had been incorporated into military units since age fourteen, initially serving as a personal guard soldier beside Li Yu. At eighteen, he formally led troops on the front lines, initially serving as a scout officer.
After Great Chu established its capital at Jinling, the northern borders were largely confirmed. Xu Mingzhen, Du Chongtao, and other generals guarded the northern front, opposing the Liang army. However, the expansion and conquest on the southern front continued until the eighth year of Tianyou before basically stabilizing.
During this period, Li Yu’s forces bore the heaviest combat burdens.
Li Zhigao was very young but skilled at commanding troops and using soldiers. He was also brave in combat, earning his uncle Li Yu’s appreciation. He grew step by step from squad leader to regiment commander. When Li Yu was transferred to the court and no longer commanded troops, Li Zhigao also left the army to serve as Legal Officer in prefectures and counties, accumulating experience in governing administration and criminal justice.
Zhou Yuan, Zhou Shu, Chai Jian, and others were indeed direct lineage trained by the Xinchang Marquis Estate and Wanhong Tower, beyond Li Zhigao’s control. However, many of the Xinchang Marquis Estate’s ordinary household soldiers were elite fierce troops that Li Zhigao had directly led in the military.
Li Zhigao also deliberately arranged his core confidants into the First Regiment he personally commanded. Previously, under limited resources, Xinchang Marquis Li Pu and the black-veiled woman had both wanted to strengthen the First Regiment’s combat power as much as possible, raising no objections to Li Zhigao’s such arrangements.
They simply hadn’t anticipated that Li Zhigao would break free from their control.
The families of these soldiers were all incorporated into garrison military prefectures, no longer under the Xinchang Marquis Estate’s direct control.
As for incorporating the five hundred elite of the original Guard Battalion into the First Regiment, this encountered no resistance either.
After all, the expansion of the Linjiang Marquis Estate Guard Battalion from one hundred fifty men to five hundred elite had been completed under Li Zhigao’s hands.
At this time, even if there were some dissenting voices within the First Regiment, they were quickly suppressed by Li Zhigao.
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In mid-December, the Liang army captured Suiping City in southwestern Caizhou. The Shouzhou army was forced to contract eastward. From this point on, the northern front of the Nanyang Basin was completely exposed to the Liang army’s view.
At this time, more and more Liang army forces entered the Nanyang Basin for operations.
Under pressure, Du Chongtao withdrew all the garrison troops from northern strongholds at Fangcheng, Tanghe, Wancheng, and Xinye.
Regarding whether to abandon the garrison positions of the left forward advance force led by Li Zhigao and the right forward advance force led by Ma Xun respectively, and withdraw all troops south of the Han River to hold firm, fierce arguments erupted within the Northwestern Campaign Command.
On this point, Han Qian shared consensus with Shen Yang, and even with Guo Rong.
For Guo Rong, if the western flank completely abandoned defense north of the Han River, this would actually be equivalent to completely abandoning any restraint on the Liang army from the western flank. The Liang army would only need to place small forces inside the Nanyang Basin to apply all their other forces entirely against the Shouzhou army.
In that case, even if they ultimately withstood the Liang army’s offensive, this year’s casualties for the Shouzhou army would be extremely brutal.
This was absolutely not what Anning Palace and the Crown Prince’s faction—including Guo Rong, Xu Zhaoling, Jin Rui, and others—wished to see.
For Shen Yang personally, he also didn’t want factional struggles within the court to cause the Chu army to suffer a heavy defeat—the western flank Chu forces had gathered considerable strength and shouldn’t fight so passively.
For Han Qian, if the Deng Xiang forces abandoned all other directions, leaving only Li Zhigao’s forces plus the Left Office’s mere two thousand six or seven hundred men, if they didn’t want to withdraw south of the Han River, defending the Dan River line alone would face excessive pressure.
If they withdrew south of the Han River, not only would the previous two-plus months of preparation go to waste, but all his plans in the Deng Xiang region would also come to nothing.
However, when Du Chongtao arranged defenses, he mainly positioned his direct lineage Xiangzhou army main force at Fancheng and Xiangzhou City, while arranging the reinforcing guest armies on both flanks.
Under these circumstances, besides the Dragon Sparrow Army having special purposes, other guest generals like Zheng Hui, Xia Zhen, and Tanzhou Military Governor’s heir Ma Xun all hoped more to withdraw south of the Han River to avoid directly facing the Liang army elite’s sharp edge.
Ultimately, Emperor Tianyou’s decree settled the dispute within the Northwestern Campaign Command.
Emperor Tianyou very much wanted to strip Shouzhou Military Governor Xu Mingzhen of military authority. In that case, regardless of whether he deposed the Crown Prince or not, it wouldn’t trigger uncontrollable upheaval. However, he absolutely didn’t want to see the Shouzhou army defeated or annihilated, causing Cai, Shen, Guang, and Shou prefectures all to fall into Liang army hands. The empire’s entire northern border would become extremely vulnerable, with the Liang army able to threaten the Yangtze River line at any time.
As the Emperor Tianyou who had single-handedly created the Chu Empire, his mind remained clear.
He didn’t harbor illusions of mutual destruction between the Shouzhou army and Liang army. Quite displeased with the western flank forces’ passive response to the Liang army, the imperial decree reaching Xiangzhou at the end of December strictly forbade Du Chongtao from withdrawing all forces south of the Han River.
This also ended the disputes within the Northwestern Campaign Command.
However, at this time, the right forward forces led by Tanzhou Military Governor’s heir Ma Xun had all withdrawn from defensive strongholds on the western foothills of Tongbai Mountain to Zaoyang, focusing entirely on defending the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Dahong Mountain to prevent the Liang army from penetrating east to Suizhou. Seeing no way to withdraw south of the Han River, Xia Zhen also arbitrarily led Yingzhou troops to abandon Neixiang City, advancing to the more perilous Xichuan City to rendezvous with Huangzhou Military Officer Zheng Hui.
This exposed about sixty to seventy li of the Dan River’s lower reaches.
The Dan River flowed into the Han River at Canglang City (old Junxian city).
Canglang City (old Junxian city) mainly communicated with the outside world by water routes. Besides this, along the eastern bank of the Dan River and northern bank of the Han River, roads led north to Neixiang and east to Fancheng, but the roads were all relatively narrow and treacherous. Large Liang army forces wouldn’t dare rashly enter, otherwise they could easily be encircled and destroyed.
From Canglang City northward along the Dan River, after passing Mount Heilong in the remaining Qinling range, the river course ran north-south. The western bank was entirely towering mountains and steep ridges, but the eastern bank had a sixty to seventy li gap—mainly low hill terrain between Mount Heilong and Funiu Mountain, ranging from several dozen to two or three hundred meters in height, hardly very treacherous.
Without the protection of Neixiang City in the northeastern corner, large Liang army forces entering the interior of the Nanyang Basin could directly cross these low hills, water their horses at the Dan River, and might then cut off contact between Canglang City and Jingzikou.
When Han Qian learned of Xia Zhen abandoning Neixiang City’s defense, he was at Xiangzhou at the time, so anxious he stamped his feet. But all he could do was immediately that very night advance westward along the Han River without stopping, pass through Canglang City, head north from the Dan River remnant road east of Mount Heilong, and lead Left Office scouts to rush to Iron Alligator Ridge, sixty li from Canglang City.
Iron Alligator Ridge was located on the eastern bank of the Dan River. Less than ten li to the north, the Dan River channel formed a roughly ninety-degree sharp angle, turning west into the towering mountains and steep ridges of the southwestern Qinling foothills.
Though Iron Alligator Ridge’s main peak was only over sixty zhang high, the terrain was quite treacherous. Standing at the summit and looking left and right, many crisscrossing remnant roads and abandoned villages lay quietly hidden beneath heavy snow, distributed among the low hills across the seventy-plus li from Neixiang City to Mount Heilong. There were no impregnable natural barriers to prevent Liang army forces from reaching the Dan River shore.
Standing atop Iron Alligator Ridge’s main peak, Han Qian could even see a detachment of Liang army scouts dressed in black robes and armor wandering the wilderness less than twenty li away—from there eastward was the flat, open Nanyang Basin with two to three hundred li of depth.
If Xia Zhen were still leading troops to garrison Neixiang City over twenty li to the northeast, the Liang army scouts wouldn’t dare operate so brazenly in this area.
Sunlight illuminated the snowy ground, everything bright white all around. Six black-canopied boats drifted downstream, mooring at the foot of Iron Alligator Ridge.
Seeing Li Zhigao jump onto the river beach, Han Qian led Tian Cheng, Xi Ren, and others down Iron Alligator Ridge to rendezvous with Li Zhigao.
“Why did the Military Inspector come personally?” Han Qian asked.
“That dog thief Xia Zhen feared battle and abandoned Neixiang City’s defense. This entire section of the Dan River waterway’s flank is exposed. I worried the Liang army intended to control the Dan River waterway, and Xiangzhou’s response was slow, so I first led a battalion of troops over to be prepared,” Li Zhigao said. Leading troops from upstream along the Dan River, he’d arrived extremely quickly. “I didn’t expect we’d both think of the same thing—you also rushed to Iron Alligator Ridge first.”
“I received news last night and urged His Highness to see Du Chongtao, trying to arrange for Gao Chengyuan’s forces to come over. But unable to wait for the results of His Highness’s meeting with Du Chongtao, I rushed here first to observe the Liang army’s movements,” Han Qian said. “Now that you’ve led a battalion here, I can relax a bit—at least I can sleep soundly for two or three days.”
“How do you predict the Liang army will fight?” Li Zhigao asked.
“You must prepare to fight a hard battle,” Han Qian warned Li Zhigao. “Now that the Liang army has entered the Nanyang Basin, how they fight next is no longer something advance general Han Yuanqi can decide. If I were Liang army commander-in-chief Han Jian, I would order Han Yuanqi to control the Dan River waterway at all costs, then attack Jingzikou in a pincer movement with forces from Guanzhong. This way, provisions and troops levied from Guanzhong could flow directly from Wuguan down the Dan River to support their southern front main force operating inside the Nanyang Basin!”
Li Zhigao nodded. He had judged the same.
Though the Liang army had advanced to Fancheng, and from there to Fangcheng Pass north of the Nanyang Basin was flat, open terrain, it was still three hundred li by land route.
Especially with the Deng Xiang Chu forces not abandoning the mountain strongholds on both sides, the southern front Liang army’s supply pressure would be enormous.
Additionally, for this campaign, the Liang army mainly levied provisions from regions east of Luoyang. Guaranteeing nearly two hundred thousand troops plus roughly equal numbers of civilian laborers still imposed great pressure.
If they levied grain from the Guanzhong region west of Luoyang, transporting it east through Tongguan, then south to Ruzhou and Xuzhou, then from Ruzhou and Xuzhou delivering it to the front lines was still quite troublesome.
As long as the Liang army could control the Dan River waterway, provisions from southern Guanzhong could be transported to assemble at Shangzhou. After reaching Wuguan, they could flow directly down the Dan River, making things much more convenient.
Only that way could they potentially achieve the objective of long-term occupation of the Nanyang Basin.