Although Han Yuanqi and Xuzhou Military Governor Han Jian were uncle and nephew by generation, Han Yuanqi had followed the Liang Emperor in campaigns north and south from his early years, establishing illustrious military achievements before earning the qualification to become an army’s Commander-in-Chief.
He was now over forty years old, his dark, lean face like cold, stern rock, thick whiskers on his upper lip, both eyes bloodshot. He could hardly believe that the six thousand most elite armored troops before his tent had been so completely shattered, with ultimately less than a thousand withdrawing?
Adding the battles at the east and south walls, in today’s single engagement, they had lost six thousand elite troops.
The losses were so severe that Han Yuanqi’s heart ached as if his liver and intestines would break.
Although the Liang army had gathered over forty thousand troops at Xichuan, combat strength varied—there were Imperial Guard elite troops, and there were provincial garrison forces conscripted from various prefectures and counties.
Especially in this type of siege warfare, when the defenders’ fighting will was relatively resolute, they would typically use troops conscripted from various regions to take turns attacking, wearing down the defenders’ forces and will. Therefore, during the previous half month, losing over four thousand troops hadn’t pained Han Yuanqi at all—he had merely viewed it as normal attrition in the Jing-Xiang campaign.
The campaign had dragged on for half a month. The Chu army’s reinforcements assembled from Jinling—besides ten thousand vanguard troops who had already reached the Hanshui mouth along with twenty thousand Tower Ship Navy forces and disembarked in eastern Jingzhou—the one hundred twenty thousand main force had also separately reached Huangzhou and Ezhou.
Han Yuanqi had assumed he had thoroughly figured out the defenders and Xichuan City’s defensive works, and that the rotating siege attacks had sufficiently exhausted the defenders.
At this point, further delay without immediately capturing Xichuan City would severely impact the Liang army’s combat rhythm and deployment in the Jing-Xiang region.
Needless to say, just having the fifty thousand troops before his tent tied down on the Neixiang-Xichuan front line placed enormous pressure on the Liang forces along the Xiangzhou-Yingzhou-Pingzhou front.
Yesterday, seeing signs of large-scale collapse in Xichuan City’s north wall, Han Yuanqi had transferred his direct elite troops to the north side overnight. Especially today, seeing such a large breach collapse in Xichuan’s north wall—anyone would have felt this was an excellent opportunity to take Xichuan in one vigorous effort.
Who could have imagined the defenders had set such a massive trap, waiting for him to send his most elite soldiers into a death trap for them to mercilessly and bloodily devour?
The Chu army could actually build catapults with a range reaching six hundred paces that could hurl five or six hundred jin of stone projectiles at once?
Even more terrifying was that the Chu army, capable of building such formidable catapults, had held back until this moment to use them, resulting in the fifteen thousand Imperial Guard elite troops under his command losing forty percent in a single day!
Han Yuanqi’s chest ached with hidden spasms. He prided himself on steady military command—who could have imagined he would take such a massive fall?
What pained him even more was: how should the upcoming campaign be fought?
Although the defenders had accumulated considerable casualties these past days, today’s battle had clearly lifted the defenders’ morale high.
In comparison, they felt somewhat cold-hearted and trembling, especially watching the mutilated corpses being thrown down from the walls by the Chu army. Morale among the troops was universally low. Forcibly attacking Xichuan City in the short term would only lead to even more severe casualties, yet it would be difficult to bring down the city.
Han Yuanqi sat in bitter contemplation in his military tent through the night. Hearing a rush of hoofbeats urgent as sudden rain charging directly from the east into the camp, Han Yuanqi assumed it was a messenger sent by Prince Yong. Sitting motionless in the great tent, after a while, hearing the guards outside call out “Your Highness,” he realized the Prince had personally rushed to Xichuan. Rising hastily, he saw Zhu Yu personally lift the curtain and stride in.
“Your Highness, Yuanqi has failed your trust. I didn’t recognize the Chu rebels’ feint of weakness, resulting in yesterday’s severe losses.” Han Yuanqi was deeply ashamed, not daring to meet Zhu Yu’s calm, bright gaze.
“This matter doesn’t blame you,” Zhu Yu said, disregarding the fatigue of traveling two hundred li overnight. Walking to sit behind the central long table, he had no intention of censuring Han Yuanqi and asked, “Have you determined what type of siege weapon the Chu rebels used that could hurl stone projectiles six hundred paces away?”
“Two days ago, the Chu rebels positioned sixteen catapults south of the Town Commandant’s Residence. When our army approached for reconnaissance, we saw nothing unusual. But yesterday when the Chu rebels used these sixteen catapults, they screened the surroundings with cloth curtains. Yuanqi failed to notice the peculiarity,” Han Yuanqi said, even more ashamed seeing Prince Yong assign no blame. “Perhaps it was new siege weapons built after Marquis Liyang Yang En entered Xichuan City!”
“It wouldn’t be Yang En. Otherwise, the Chu army would have already deployed such weapons on the battlefield long ago, not waited until today’s Xichuan battlefield,” Zhu Yu shook his head and said.
Han Yuanqi thought this made sense and said painfully, “Then it must be Han Qian. The site where the Chu rebels positioned these sixteen catapults was cramped. Han Qian used troops compiled from Xuzhou convict laborers stationed at the Town Commandant’s Residence’s south wing. When these siege weapons were deployed, only a small number of Xuzhou convict laborers were nearby. When cloth curtains were erected around the area, I failed to give it sufficient attention—I only understood what was happening after thousands of our sons had died meaninglessly and in vain. My heart bears such guilt!”
“That the defenders could build such advantageous weapons yet hold back until this moment to use them—the viciousness and danger of this stratagem can truly be called snatching chestnuts from the fire. Even if it were me, I couldn’t have guarded against it. You needn’t think too much,” Zhu Yu comforted Han Yuanqi, then after pondering briefly said, “Today the army rests for one day. Tomorrow, continue attacking the city according to the established rhythm.”
Han Yuanqi truly didn’t know whether continuing the siege tomorrow could yield even two or three parts chance of victory, given that the northern position had been routed. But he still said through gritted teeth, “Tomorrow Yuanqi will personally lead elite troops to scale the walls and will definitely take Xichuan for Your Highness.”
“I’m not telling you to go die,” Zhu Yu glanced at Han Yuanqi and said. “The defenders may move their siege weapons below the walls, but regardless of casualties at that time, you must escort artisan masters to scale the walls and thoroughly examine the form of the siege weapons the Chu army uses. Otherwise, there’s no way to fight the upcoming battles.”
“…” Only now did Han Yuanqi understand why His Highness ordered him to continue attacking the city tomorrow. He secretly felt the Prince’s mind was indeed clearer, and this approach was indeed correct. Otherwise, he truly didn’t know how to fight the upcoming battles.
Even if they spent another ten days to half a month building over a dozen giant catapults to bombard the Chu army, the Chu army’s siege weapons were hidden inside the walls with the walls blocking for them, while their catapult positions would be exposed outside. Who knew how severe the casualties would be before they could persist to bringing down Xichuan City.
“Have the strongholds west of the Xichuan River shown any activity?” Zhu Yu asked again.
“Since last night, quite a few more troops have been gathering in the mountain ridges on the opposite bank of Xichuan City,” Han Yuanqi said.
“Before the battle, assuming these stronghold forces wouldn’t be used by the Chu army, we didn’t expend effort to avoid alerting the enemy—this was truly our greatest mistake,” Zhu Yu said with furrowed brows, quite regretfully.
Han Yuanqi hesitated briefly before finally asking in a lowered voice, “Your Highness, Yuanqi fell into the defenders’ trap and wasted too much time here with delays. How much chance of victory do we really have in this campaign?”
“…” Zhu Yu didn’t blame Han Yuanqi for asking such a rash question, nor did he answer. Instead, he involuntarily frowned looking toward the southeast direction.
Only then did Han Yuanqi understand—how much chance of victory they had in this campaign truly depended on how quickly the Chu Emperor advanced with reinforcements.
…
…
Although counterweight catapults weren’t siege weapons that already existed in this era, they didn’t contain particularly profound or mysterious technical content either.
For someone of Yang En’s caliber, seeing them a few times would roughly allow replication. Even existing traction catapults could be simply modified by removing the pull ropes and replacing them with suspended boxes that could hold several thousand or even ten thousand jin of sand and stone.
When Han Qian first deployed counterweight catapults, erecting cloth curtains around them was also in hopes of preventing the Liang army from discerning the key points for replication as much as possible. At minimum, he hoped that before this battle concluded, counterweight catapults could remain an exclusive technique mastered by the Left Division.
However, the next day, seeing the Liang army again pushing over a dozen catapults to the front formation outside the east wall, Han Qian knew his wish couldn’t be realized.
The Liang army’s commander was truly difficult to deal with!
The east wall was already too fragile to withstand sustained bombardment from catapults for several more days.
Once the east wall collapsed entirely, and the Liang army had sufficient vigilance, Han Qian couldn’t hope to seal the flood-like Liang army outside Xichuan City relying on just over a dozen or twenty counterweight catapults.
Han Qian could only push the counterweight catapults behind the east wall, forcing the Liang army’s existing catapults to struggle to establish positions before the wall.
Several hundred Liang troops, clustering around siege towers, mobile towers, and observation towers, charged fearlessly from the front. Li Zhigao commanded troops raining down arrows and stones, but couldn’t completely annihilate this group of Liang troops below the walls.
In fact, the east wall plus densely packed troop shelters was less than three zhang high. Even though counterweight catapults were somewhat lighter, they still exceeded four zhang in height. The Liang army only needed to approach using observation towers taller than the walls to see the catapults’ main structure clearly from above.
However, the Liang army wasn’t satisfied with just this. They evidently worried that the catapults built by the Left Division might still conceal some mystery in their base. They launched three forced attacks on the east wall, were repelled three times, and lost hundreds of fierce soldiers’ lives before pausing slightly.
At this point, the Liang army had clearly confirmed that counterweight catapults were nothing more than this—but indeed they were nothing more than this.
Han Qian at this moment couldn’t wait for stronghold troops to gather on the east bank then take a detour through the depths of the Funiu Mountains to reinforce. That way, the time would be too long, and they might still be intercepted by the Liang army in the Funiu Mountain depths, with no way to directly reinforce Xichuan City.
Han Qian could only send people to secretly reach Jingzi Pass to find Yang Qin and Feng Xuan, ordering them to prepare the fleet to forcibly break through the Liang navy’s blockade on the Xichuan River. Regardless of the sacrifice, they must transport the newly assembled stronghold troops from recent days into Xichuan City.
The Liang Emperor had risen between Bian and Luo, also using naval forces to contend with various powers before earning his current foundation. Though not as elite as Great Chu’s Tower Ship Navy, they had still produced a batch of outstanding naval commanders like Zhou Shicheng.
Coming from Xuzhou with no water route connection, Zhou Shicheng could only abandon his subordinate warships at Xuzhou. Leading over two thousand naval troops and boatmen under his command, he followed the main army south into Xiangzhou, collecting civilian vessels from Ping and Ying and a small number of warships captured from the Xiangzhou naval camp to rebuild a naval fleet.
Zhou Shicheng had originally assumed that before Jinling’s elite naval forces arrived, his forces in the Dan River and Xichuan River were sufficiently powerful. But seeing the Xuzhou Boatmen’s Guild ship formation charge from the river mouth into the Xichuan River, he realized that the naval camp that had hastily fled upstream into the Dan River when they arrived actually possessed combat strength not to be underestimated—at least not easily defeated.
Han Qian stood atop the west wall, his expression grave as he used a telescope to look toward the river mouth direction, gazing at the naval battle occurring on that stretch of river.
When the Xuzhou Boatmen’s Guild fled into the upper Dan River to avoid the Liang navy’s main force, they had already absorbed the grain transport fleet from Yingzhou, thus possessing over forty vessels of various sizes and three hundred armed guards.
The guild could transport the over two thousand newly assembled stronghold recruits from the mountain ridges along the Xichuan River’s west bank to Xichuan City on the east bank in one trip. But the problem lay in how to tear open the Liang naval camp’s blockade.
Sometimes sacrifice was necessary, and this time what was sacrificed were the two fast sailing warships Han Qian had expended enormous effort building anew in Xuzhou.
As over a hundred vessels large and small in the Liang naval camp’s ship formation closed in from left and right flanks, the two fast sailing ships adjusted their sail angles to the optimal windward surface.
The southeast wind this day also blew fiercely, stirring waves surging like mountains of jade.
The two fast sailing ships, like arrows leaving the bowstring, directly broke through waves to charge into the Liang naval camp’s ship formation, launching suicide attacks. Utilizing their sturdy, massive hulls’ advantage, they rammed through the Liang naval camp’s ship formation, immediately smashing seven or eight Liang warships to pieces, with over a hundred soldiers falling into the water…
Relying purely on two fast sailing ships still couldn’t completely reverse the enormous disparity in warship numbers and naval troops between both sides on the Xichuan River.
Moreover, the two fast sailing ships newly built by Xuzhou were only constructed to cargo vessel standards, not warships in the strict sense.
The two fast sailing ships were extremely fast. The pointed-bottom hulls of the shuttle boats breaking through waves appeared incomparably swift and fierce, preventing the Liang army from boarding to attack in their haste. But in the instant of contact, they densely fired volley after volley of fire arrows and hurled dozens of fire oil jars.
The two fast sailing ships were quickly ignited, transforming into two blazing fireballs burning intensely on the river surface.
However, at this point, the purpose of disrupting the Liang ship formation had been achieved.
The fleet truly transporting stronghold recruits, escorted by six oar-sail warships, broke through the chaotic Liang warships’ interception and sailed at full speed toward the dock outside Xichuan City’s west wall.
Through over twenty li of river pursuit, the Xuzhou Boatmen’s Guild lost nearly all its warships, with half its troops fallen in the water and not rescued. Yet on the twenty-first day since the Xichuan City siege battle began, they successfully transported over two thousand stronghold recruits plus over five hundred elite troops Chai Jian had transferred from Jingzi Pass into Xichuan City.