Zheng Hui, escorted by Yuan Guowei and Zheng Xuanxing this time, led only about twenty men into Xuzhou.

Even though these men were the elite among the elite, and even if Han Qian sincerely handed over command authority of the three battalions of armored troops, with just this handful of men, Zheng Hui would find it difficult to thoroughly grasp full command of the army. In the end, he would inevitably have to rely on Han Qian to become the link between him and the various generals.

Initially, Zheng Hui only hoped to achieve this much, after all, he couldn’t expect the Han father and son to be completely without selfish interests. He hadn’t expected that Han Qian would proactively facilitate the formation of a personal guard battalion.

Watching everyone’s secretly astonished expressions, Han Qian was almost moved by his own selflessness, yet in his heart he could only swallow his crushed teeth into his stomach.

If it weren’t for his foolish father pulling him aside for a chat until midnight in Qianyang City, earnestly giving him thousands of instructions and exhortations, why would he surrender authority so thoroughly?

Of course, after agreeing to it, thinking back, some matters were indeed very necessary.

With no movement from the Ezhou side, and the court not even formally stripping Tanzhou of military authority, if Xuzhou sent troops first, they would bear enormous pressure. If Tian Cheng and the others showed even the slightest negligence, the result would be an utterly dismal outcome with no hope of recovery.

Of course, as the most outstanding member of the Zheng family’s generation, Zheng Hui’s ability to command troops and manage the military had already been fully demonstrated in the Xichuan defensive battle.

Previously, through Zheng Hui’s mediation, the Zheng family had clearly mastered part of the distillation technology, yet they were still willing to resell the spirits produced by Yandangji Manor at high prices, without seizing profits from Yandangji Manor—this also demonstrated Zheng Hui’s magnanimity and breadth of mind.

Under such circumstances, Han Qian was also willing to cooperate seamlessly with Zheng Hui, both letting down unnecessary vigilance and maximizing the role of Xuzhou troops in containing Tanzhou, rather than playing any tricks over command authority to constrain Zheng Hui.

This time, Han Qian summoned the remaining Left Division soldiers and Left Division youths who had reached sixteen years of age into the army, and turned over the rosters of this portion of men along with the other 3,600-plus soldiers to Zheng Hui’s control.

At the same time, Han Qian also explained in great detail to Zheng Hui the problems existing with this portion of Left Division soldiers and the other three battalions of armored troops, as well as the directions for continued strengthening and improvement going forward, so that Zheng Hui could comprehensively grasp the entire army’s situation at the fastest speed.

In this way, excluding the over 1,500 craftsmen, artisans, and laborers forming the semi-armed supply battalion, the three elite battalions plus the personal guard battalion Zheng Hui selected after arriving at Longya City—totaling 3,800 elite troops—were completely and entirely handed over to Zheng Hui’s control.

……

……

On the first day of November, northern winds blew down snow, and the mountain wilderness turned frosty white.

The newly established Wuling Defense Commissioner’s Office, and Xuzhou Field Command was also formally renamed the Wuling Army. On this day, the Third Battalion’s Tenth Company of armored troops, under the command of Battalion Commander Lin Haizheng, marched out of Longya City along the narrow and steep courier road, advancing toward Old Dragon’s Head six or seven li to the north.

Old Dragon’s Head, as the prefectural border between Chen and Xu prefectures in the hinterland of Longya Mountain, was a cliff forty to fifty meters high deep within Longya Mountain.

The courier road built in the early years of the previous dynasty passed through the gorge between the cliffs; this section of courier road passing through the cliff, only three to four hundred paces deep, was also called Old Dragon Gorge.

The mouth of Old Dragon Gorge was only three to four zhang wide. Since Han Qian led his troops into Longya City at the end of last year, the tribal soldiers from Jiming Stockade to the north had piled large amounts of rocks and timber into the gorge road to prevent Xuzhou troops from suddenly passing through Old Dragon Gorge to attack Jiming Stockade.

However, the terrain of Old Dragon’s Head wasn’t particularly precipitous—from both sides of the courier road there were gentle slopes that could be climbed to ascend the forty to fifty meter cliff.

In earlier years, a branch of the Chen Prefecture Xi clan that occupied Jiming Stockade had built two stockades on the northern and southern slopes of Old Dragon’s Head, occupying over a thousand mu of nearby valley land.

These two small stockades were quite crude, and in earlier years had only a dozen or so tribal households living and reproducing there combined.

However, after Eagle Fish Stockade fell, the powerful families of Chenzhou became doubly tense and vigilant toward the Han father and son, so three to four hundred tribal soldiers split off from Jiming Stockade to the north and moved into the stone stockade on the southern slope of Old Dragon’s Head. Over the past two months, they had worked hard to strengthen the stockade’s defenses.

Even though Han Qian had not interfered at all with the actions of Chenzhou’s powerful families at Old Dragon’s Head over the past two months, Xuzhou’s 3,000 elite troops were garrisoned at Longya City, less than six li from the southern slope stone stockade. The Xi clan youths, led by Zhao Wuji and Xi Fa’er, could reach Old Dragon’s Head several times in a single night—how much dared Chenzhou’s powerful families really alter the southern slope stone stockade?

The so-called strengthening of defenses was merely pounding an earthen wall two arm-widths thick on the inner side of the flimsy stone wall, allowing tribal soldiers to stand directly on the stockade wall for defense, making the stockade wall look somewhat more solid and not liable to collapse with a single blow.

The vegetation in front of the stone stockade had all been cleared away by the defending tribal soldiers. More than ten rolling logs, each over a zhang long, thick enough to require one person’s arms to encircle, and weighing over two hundred jin, could be thrown down from the stockade wall and roll directly to the courier road entrance four to five hundred paces away.

Han Qian, along with Zhang Ping, accompanied Zheng Hui to the front lines to supervise the battle. Watching more than ten rolling logs mixed with boulders weighing hundreds or even thousands of jin rolling and crashing down the slope, the momentum was extremely terrifying. Even standing three to four hundred paces away, he could feel the ground beneath his feet trembling slightly.

Han Qian had rigorously practiced the Shi Gong Fist and trained with sword and bow. He had even personally struck down Yingzhou Vice Administrator Xia Zhen outside Xichuan City, and when luring Liang Army elite troops into Xichuan City for annihilation, he had also stood on the front lines, but all of that had been carefully calculated.

He had never personally experienced leading troops in a charging assault, and for the moment couldn’t fully appreciate how perilous it was to storm the southern slope stone stockade while enduring rolling stones and logs.

Many soldiers couldn’t dodge in time and were immediately struck with broken bones, severed limbs, and splattering brain matter.

To avoid unnecessary casualties, Lin Haizheng had to avoid the smooth gentle slope and direct his soldiers to advance from both sides along steeper terrain where the rolling stones and logs couldn’t reach, pressing close to the southern slope stone stockade.

Between Longya City and Old Dragon’s Head, over the six to seven li distance, though the terrain wasn’t particularly severe in its undulations, it was still uneven. Three hundred paces directly south of the southern slope stone stockade, there were two elevated positions.

Han Qian watched as over a hundred armored troops climbed up and clumsily hauled the heavy bed crossbows up, setting them up aimed at the southern slope stone stockade.

Bed crossbows had a very slow firing rate, and these two elevated positions were still somewhat lower compared to the southern slope stone stockade, but arranging fourteen or fifteen bed crossbows in a line still presented quite an imposing sight.

The bed crossbows, at a distance of three hundred paces, still had tremendous force.

Although the defending tribal soldiers all hid behind the battlement walls, and the bed crossbows couldn’t immediately shoot through or collapse the battlements, the bricks and stones they shot sent fragments splattering in all directions. If the defending tribal soldiers were hit by even a single piece of debris, their heads would be split and bloodied, causing them to howl in pain like ghosts.

At this point, Lin Haizheng directed men to drag timber up to the high ground and construct arrow towers, gaining the advantage of elevation so the bed crossbows could shoot down from above at the wall top, further suppressing the defending tribal soldiers so they dared not show their heads.

The rolling stones and logs being hurled down from the stockade wall toward the slope greatly decreased. Han Qian then watched Lin Haizheng direct two companies of one hundred armored troops each, holding high large shields and long spears, to advance from the front toward the southern slope stone stockade under the cover of more than ten light shield carts.

The stockade wall was too low, only one zhang high. There was no need to push specially-made, cumbersome siege engines up the slope—simple scaling ladders would suffice to conveniently scale the stockade wall.

The Chenzhou tribal soldiers were also quite combat-ready, and they knew that once the Wuling Army armored troops got close to the stockade wall, it would be disadvantageous for defending the fortification. Immediately, a company of tribal soldiers charged out from inside the stockade, attacking from their elevated position into the Wuling Army formation, engaging in bloody close combat.

“We still need to set up the whirlwind catapults!” Zheng Hui was also constantly watching changes on the battlefield. Unable to restrain himself, he pointed to the elevated ground four hundred paces from the southern slope stone stockade and said to Zhang Ping and Han Qian: “Perhaps luring the tribal soldiers to attack that elevated position forcefully would be better than attacking the stone stockade from below!”

Zheng Hui had long heard that tribal soldiers were fierce and warlike, but this was his first time witnessing it.

The Wuling Army armored troops’ morale was not weak, and the first-wave assault troops selected by Lin Haizheng had extremely excellent weapons and armor—Han Qian didn’t know where he had scrounged up so many fine steel lamellar armors and scale armors—yet they were pinned down at a ridge opening about a hundred paces southwest of the southern slope stone stockade, unable to break through.

The tribal soldiers’ equipment was much cruder, with a considerable portion even using crudely woven rattan armor and rattan shields made from vines, yet they were exceptionally fierce. Their faces were painted with various beast patterns using pigments, and grimacing, they wielded iron-wrapped spiked maces and axes, hacking and smashing fiercely, pinning over two hundred Wuling Army armored troops below the ridge opening with no way to attack upward.

No one doubted they could take Old Dragon’s Head in this battle, but today was only the first day of sending troops to attack Chenzhou, and taking Old Dragon’s Head would cost three to four hundred casualties—how could they continue fighting the battles ahead?

Moreover, Lin Haizheng temporarily had not yet selected tribal soldiers to enter the first wave attacking the southern slope stone stockade. Otherwise, the problems might be even more severe.

Zheng Hui’s tactics were very simple: set up two to three whirlwind catapults on the high ground they controlled and bombard the gate of the southern slope stone stockade, collapsing that section of the gate and trapping the defending tribal soldiers in the narrow stockade. Then, in the subsequent contest for the stockade wall, the Wuling Army’s advantages of superior weapons, armor, and powerful siege equipment could be more fully utilized.

And if the tribal soldiers wanted to leave the stockade to destroy the whirlwind catapults, they would have to attack the elevated position currently occupied by the Wuling Army, giving the Wuling Army armored troops the advantage of the high ground.

On a battlefield of clashing blades and shields, when both sides had comparable morale, whichever side occupied the high ground could exert far too great an advantage.

At this moment, Zheng Hui took over battlefield command from Lin Haizheng. Though his words carried a tone of consulting Han Qian and Zhang Ping, as a mature general-level commander, for a battle of this scale, where was there need for Han Qian or Zhang Ping to chatter and say anything?

Han Qian merely arranged for people to prepare the components of three whirlwind catapults and transport them to the front lines, waiting for Zheng Hui’s order.

“Xingxuan, personally lead troops to defend the high ground!” Zheng Hui knew that to truly win the respect of the Wuling Army soldiers, the Zheng clan members had to take the lead in fighting hard battles.

Yuan Guowei and Zheng Xingxuan had initially led only about twenty men to escort Zheng Hui into Xuzhou. Subsequently, over thirty more Zheng clan members and retainers had crossed mountains to enter Xuzhou and rendezvous with Zheng Hui, all incorporated into the personal guard battalion.

Zheng Xingxuan was the eldest son of Huangzhou Prefect Zheng Yu and also commander of the personal guard battalion. He immediately selected a company primarily composed of Zheng clan members and retainers as officers, and climbed up to the elevated ground where twelve or thirteen bed crossbows were set up to suppress the stockade wall.

By now, the tribal soldiers were using thick wooden planks as large shields and carrying them onto the stockade wall. The bed crossbows’ effectiveness had become quite limited, and due to angle and distance limitations, they couldn’t shoot at the tribal soldiers leaving the stockade to block the Wuling Army’s direct attack on the ridge opening before the southern slope stone stockade.

The components of three medium whirlwind catapults were transported up the elevated ground and quickly assembled. Stone projectiles weighing over a hundred jin each were tied with ropes to carts and hauled with effort up to the high ground.

Stone projectiles weighing over a hundred jin, bombarding from three hundred paces away—how could the flimsy stockade wall and gate archway possibly withstand them?

After thirty to forty stone projectiles bombarded it, the brick-faced stockade gate quickly collapsed together with the adjoining sections of stockade wall.

The southern slope stockade was truly too weak.

The tribal general defending the stockade also clearly understood in his heart that once the defenders were completely trapped inside the southern slope stockade, the hundred-pace square southern slope stockade was far too cramped. Then, when the Wuling Army set up more catapults before the stockade, wouldn’t every stone projectile that crashed over cause casualties among them?

Taking advantage of the southwest corner gate not being completely collapsed and blocked, that tribal general led the tribal soldiers charging out from the stockade, killing their way toward the elevated ground where the whirlwind catapults were set up.

After leaving the southern slope stone stockade, the open terrain available for deploying troops was extremely limited. Han Qian watched as over two hundred tribal soldiers charged out from the stockade, densely packed yet surging like a black tide. His scalp tingled involuntarily. At this moment, there was no need for him to remind anyone of anything. Zheng Hui ordered Lin Haizheng to dispatch three more companies of one hundred men each to attack from the flanks along the slope. He took the drumstick from the drummer’s hands and beat out a heart-stirring war drum—”boom, boom, boom”—to decisively determine the outcome of the first battle advancing north into Chenzhou…