Li Zhigao, Guo Liang, Zheng Hui, and Zhou Dan each bore responsibility for defending one section of wall. Among them, Li Zhigao’s defense of the eastern wall was the heaviest task. Zheng Hui and Zhou Dan defended the southern and northern walls respectively—also key points where the Liang army could easily choose to attack, making their burdens equally heavy.

Guo Liang defended the western wall bordering the Xichuan River. The narrow space between the riverbank and the wall’s base made his defensive task the lightest. Together with the Xuzhou Battalion and the Guard Battalion personally led by the Third Imperial Prince, they assumed responsibility as the general reserve force.

Han Qian, bringing Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Xi Chang, ascended the eastern wall to find that Shen He and Yang En had also been invited by the Third Imperial Prince. They were borrowing the moonlight to gaze toward the enemy camp in the east.

Though it was a clear night with a bright moon and sparse stars, the enemy camp ten miles away was pitch black. Even with viewing glasses, no movement could be discerned.

Confirmation that a newly arrived force had entered the Liang army camp to the east came from scouts who had just returned from venturing outside the city. At this moment, they could only faintly see torches extending several hundred paces on the eastern side of the enemy camp, moving slowly like serpents or dragons, corroborating this report.

“How many troops has the Liang army stationed in this eastern camp area?” Shen He asked, pointing at the continuous pitch-black enemy camps outside the city.

“Within the eastern enemy camp fortifications, approximately fewer than thirty thousand elite Liang troops are currently stationed. Additionally, the Liang army built a camp upstream on the Xichuan River with roughly five to six thousand soldiers. Neixiang City to the east also has over five thousand garrison troops. If the Liang force that entered tonight was transferred from regions east of Neixiang, then the Liang army stationed around Xichuan City should already exceed forty-five thousand. The Liang army also has over twenty thousand able-bodied laborers captured from Suizhou and Yingzhou.”

Shen Yang patiently explained to Shen He the severe situation Xichuan currently faced, continuing:

“Previously, though we repelled several waves of Liang attacks, the Liang army’s early focus was not on Xichuan but on Fancheng. This included large numbers of craftsmen capable of building siege equipment, who were mainly concentrated at Fancheng in the early period. Only now will we face the true test!”

When Shen He and Yang En entered the city from the west, they had not seen the Liang deployments to the east and north. Seeing the defenders’ orderly military appearance within the city and that Xichuan City’s walls and most buildings within the city remained intact, they had thought the situation more optimistic than imagined. They had not expected that the Liang main force’s primary target in the Nanyang Basin during the early period was capturing Fancheng—breaking through the passage to attack Xiangzhou City from both north and south.

The Liang army’s previous military operations around Xichuan had mainly been siege and containment, restricting the defenders’ movements. Large-scale siege warfare had not yet begun.

Thinking that the Liang forces now gathered around Xichuan City were already five to six times the defenders’ strength, with the possibility of further troop concentration later, Shen He’s relieved and cheerful expression upon entering the city suddenly became grave again.

“The Liang army is massively constructing siege equipment. Consider that even Fancheng could not withstand continuous bombardment by forty to fifty trebuchets over ten-plus days—the walls collapsed in large sections. Xichuan’s walls are not as solid and thick as Fancheng’s. I believe Xichuan must use strategy to first severely dampen the Liang army’s sharp edge. Otherwise, Xichuan absolutely cannot hold until Jinling’s reinforcements arrive!” Han Qian said, brows slightly furrowed.

When Zheng Hui garrisoned Xichuan City, it was even more ruined than Fancheng. The previous walls had collapsed in large sections, with gaps everywhere.

When Zheng Hui forcibly conscripted seven to eight hundred elderly and weak from the surrounding area to repair the fortifications, it was simply impossible to completely demolish and rebuild the previous ruined walls—they could only patch the gaps.

When Han Qian and the others clustered around the Third Imperial Prince entering Xichuan City, including soldiers and laborers, they numbered twelve to thirteen thousand. But in such a short time, they could only reinforce the ruined walls based on the previous foundation.

In reality, Xichuan City’s walls had quite a fragile structure.

According to Left Bureau scouts’ observations of the Fancheng battlefield, the traction trebuchets built by the Liang army, positioned three to four hundred paces before the battle lines, could hurl two to three hundred-pound stone projectiles directly onto the walls when over a hundred men exerted force together.

If the Liang army built thirty to forty such heavy trebuchets, even Xichuan’s most solid and thick eastern wall would probably collapse in large sections within ten days.

After the walls collapsed, without walls to defend, facing wolf-like Liang elite forces charging in at five to six times their numbers—how long could the Chu army hold?

“Han Qian, I know you have always been resourceful and full of stratagems. What methods do you have to dampen the enemy’s sharp edge?” Shen He asked, staring at Han Qian like a drowning man grasping at straws.

Han Qian had seen Shen He several times before, but only seen him—there was truly no deep contact to speak of. Seeing Shen He’s appearance of knowing him quite thoroughly, Han Qian thought Emperor Tianyou indeed must have additional informants watching his and the Left Bureau’s every move.

But now was not the time to deeply contemplate this question. Faced with Shen He’s inquiry, Han Qian only nodded slightly. Even if he had any stratagems, he could not openly discuss them standing atop the city wall.

“Enemy commander Han Yuanqi is the nephew of Xuzhou Military Commissioner Han Jian and is greatly valued by the Liang Emperor. He employs troops steadily—I fear he will be difficult to catch exposing any weakness,” Shen Yang said worriedly.

Defeating the enemy through extraordinary strategy filled the historical records, but the vast majority of successful cases were built on foundations where enemy commanders were arrogant and underestimated opponents, or the enemy army itself had severe hidden dangers and weaknesses.

Besides the initial setbacks in forcefully attacking Canglang City and Iron Alligator Ridge, after the Liang army’s strategic intentions toward the Jing-Xiang region were completely exposed, Han Yuanqi, who personally commanded from Neixiang, had conducted extremely steady offensives on the western front over the past month-plus, only launching several probing attacks on Xichuan City.

Seeing the defenders’ resolute combat will, Han Yuanqi halted the offensive. Within ten miles east of Xichuan City on the gentle slopes, at the gorge mouth where the Xichuan River emerged from the southern foothills of the Funiu Mountains, and at the confluence where the Xichuan River joined the Dan River, he drove laborers to build camps or utilized previously abandoned ruined fortifications to construct strongholds. First stabilizing his own footing, he maximally restricted the Dragon Sparrow Army within Xichuan City, making large-scale operations difficult.

Now that the Liang army had captured Fancheng, Han Yuanqi transferred large numbers of craftsmen from Fancheng to construct siege equipment.

Additionally, the Liang army gathered vessels along the Han River to the greatest extent possible. The Liang forces in Guanzhong at Wuguan Pass were also deliberately rapidly building a batch of warships so they could possess larger-scale naval combat strength on the Han River and Dan River.

Before Jinling’s most elite Tower Ship Fleet advanced westward, the Xuzhou boatmen had only three hundred naval soldiers and six warships—still too weak. Once the Liang naval forces advanced westward, they would necessarily be forced to withdraw from the Xichuan River and would need to hide in the tributary streams upstream on the Dan River.

At that time, Xichuan City would face enemies on all four sides, and the passage to retreat into the deep mountains on the western bank would also be cut off.

Currently, according to scouts’ reconnaissance of enemy movements around Xiangzhou City, the Liang army would most likely first besiege Xiangzhou City while shifting the next phase of combat focus to forcefully attacking Xichuan City.

Stratagems ultimately still had to be built on a foundation of considerable strength. The Liang army held absolute advantage and still proceeded so methodically step by step—how could they use extraordinary strategy to defeat them?

…

…

At the end of the second month, the Liang army’s naval forces, organized from surrendered troops, detached three thousand soldiers aboard over a hundred large and small warships to enter the Dan River. Yang Qin and Feng Xuan, leading the Xuzhou boatmen, were forced to withdraw from the Xichuan River, marking the complete siege of the Dragon Sparrow Army’s main force within Xichuan City.

On the sixth day of the third month, the fortified camps built by the Liang army around Xichuan City all opened their gates facing Xichuan City. After removing obstacles like wooden caltrops and chevaux de frise, teams of Liang soldiers in orderly armor clustered around simple but practical covered wagons and mantlet cars that could block arrows and stones from the city, pushing forward toward Xichuan City.

This also signified that the stalemate between the Liang and Chu armies at Xichuan, lasting until this moment, was completely broken.

Within the Liang army formations, hundreds and thousands of able-bodied laborers pushed over ten watchtowers slowly forward.

The watchtowers built by the Liang army erected two long poles seven to eight zhang high on movable frames, then used ropes to suspend wooden houses several chi square to the tops of the poles.

The wooden houses resembled nests when viewed. Open on four sides, they could accommodate three to four soldiers inside. From within the nest-houses, soldiers could see past the walls’ obstruction to observe movements within Xichuan City, while also wielding bows and crossbows to shoot down at defenders atop the walls from their elevated position.

After all, Xichuan City’s surrounding walls were only slightly over two zhang high. Even wooden shelters built with palisade wood atop the walls to shield against arrows and stones were no higher than three zhang.

Besides the relatively simple watchtowers, the Liang army also built more solid and massive tower cars.

Tower cars were slightly shorter than watchtowers but still rose nearly a zhang higher than Xichuan City’s walls.

Pushed by over a hundred laborers, the tower cars resembled mobile arrow towers with exteriors covered in raw cowhide.

The top of each tower car could simultaneously accommodate nearly ten archers shooting down from above. The tops also had retractable siege ladders. During siege warfare, when approaching the walls, they could place hooked siege ladders directly onto the wall tops. The Liang shieldmen inside the tower cars could then swarm out to seize footholds atop the walls.

To counter the tower cars and watchtowers that could approach the walls, the defenders had also prepared numerous long poles with hooked spears attached to their heads atop the walls, plus over twenty ballista beds hidden within soldier shelters. Once enemy tower cars and watchtowers approached, they could thrust and volley simultaneously.

Of course, the most troublesome were the trebuchets slowly advancing from the rear of the enemy formation.

The Liang army had no intention of immediately forcing close-quarters combat by scaling the walls. First, they pushed dozens of mantlet cars and covered wagons toward the outside of the eastern gate.

Clearly, the Liang army intended to use these mantlet cars and covered wagons to prevent defenders from sallying out to counterattack.

Han Qian accompanied the Third Imperial Prince, Shen Yang, and Shen He in observing the battle from the eastern wall, but the specific combat was still directed by Li Zhigao.

Li Zhigao dispatched his subordinate brave general Deng Tai to lead troops bearing shields to sally forth, hoping to destroy these dozens of mantlet cars and covered wagons to prevent them from blocking the passage for defenders to counterattack outside the city.

Seeing the defenders sally forth beyond the city wall’s bow and crossbow range, large contingents of Liang troops also formed battle lines and emerged from behind the mantlet cars and covered wagons. Simultaneously, they pushed several tower cars forward, with seventy to eighty archers volleying down from above.

Deng Tai only had time to direct his men to hurl dozens of fire oil jars filled with tung oil before retreating in haste. Though advancing and retreating extremely quickly, by the time they withdrew into the city, over ten men had still been killed or wounded by arrows.

Han Qian watched as the thrown fire oil jars, besides burning over ten mantlet cars and covered wagons, also burned to death or wounded dozens of Liang soldiers and laborers. However, the Liang army paid no heed to such casualties, pushing more mantlet cars and covered wagons forward from the rear to form a vehicle formation two to three hundred paces long.

The vehicle formation stood nearly four hundred paces from the wall. Even if five to six-stone-pull ballista beds could shoot four hundred paces, blocked by the tall mantlet cars, it was still very difficult to wound Liang soldiers behind the vehicle formation.

Not only did the Liang army shovel earth to cover the vehicle formation preventing fire, they also piled more wooden caltrops and chevaux de frise on both flanks of the vehicle formation, forming barrier walls to prevent defenders from directly assaulting the Liang main formation.

Afterward, the Liang army drove hundreds and thousands of laborers forward. Beside the vehicle formation and barrier walls, they dug trenches, then used the earth from digging the trenches to pile and compact an earthen wall.

Han Qian could see the Liang army first wanted to seal them within the city, then use trebuchets to continuously bombard the walls. After large-scale breaches appeared, they would organize troops for a strong assault.

This was also the tactic the Liang army executed at Fancheng.

However, during the continuous bombardment over ten-plus days, Fancheng’s defenders suffered heavy casualties. Before the Liang army organized troops for a strong assault, Du Chongtao had already withdrawn the defenders from Fancheng in advance.

At this moment, the Xichuan River on Xichuan City’s western face was occupied by nearly a hundred large and small warships of the Liang naval forces. The passage for defenders to withdraw westward across the Xichuan River was already blocked—retreat was impossible. The other three sides were all strategic depth controlled by the Liang army—there was nowhere to break through.

At this moment, Han Qian could not help wondering: had he wagered too much on this gamble?