Hearing Han Qian explain the strategy of feinting east to strike west, Zheng Hui slapped his thigh in praise: “Having Lord Han and the Defense Commissioner serving Great Chu is truly Great Chu’s fortune! I, Zheng, am also fortunate to serve in court alongside Lord Han!”
“Lord Zheng overpraises me!” Han Qian said humbly. “I’m accustomed to taking shortcuts and exploiting opportunities, but such unconventional tactics should only be used occasionally—they are not, after all, the orthodox path.”
Zheng Hui shook his head with a smile. He knew that Shen Yang, the Admiral, Marquis Zhenyuan Yang Jian, and even His Majesty were all dissatisfied with Han Qian’s actions during the Jingxiang campaign in encouraging the Third Prince to defend Xichuan City.
Though this topic was not suitable for deep discussion, Zheng Hui didn’t feel Han Qian had done anything wrong.
As the Xichuan defending general who absolutely could not escape at the time, Zheng Hui was more aware than anyone of the dangers the Dengxi region had experienced before and after. He clearly understood in his heart that without Han Qian encouraging the Third Prince to seize control of Dengxi’s defense with overwhelming force, followed by a series of extraordinary strategies, Jingxiang would likely have already fallen into Liang Army hands. At that time, even if Tanzhou didn’t declare independence, today’s military authority stripping action against Tanzhou would certainly not be happening.
Zheng Hui observed Han Qian—not particularly imposing or handsome in appearance, yet possessing a composure and bearing that ordinary people could hardly match, making it difficult to associate him with his actual age.
Zheng Hui was only thirty-seven this year, yet already held positions at the level of Chenzhou Prefect and Vice Defense Commissioner of the Wuling Army. He could absolutely be called part of the Great Chu dynasty’s young faction, yet he was still considerably older than the mere twenty-one-year-old Han Qian.
In fact, even Zheng Xingxuan, who was a generation younger than Zheng Hui and cultivated as an up-and-coming talent of the Zheng family, was about the same age as Lin Haizheng—already twenty-four or twenty-five.
As a military officer at the battalion commander level, he could already be called a backbone force in the Great Chu military, absolutely worthy of being called young and accomplished. Yet before the composed and measured Han Qian, he truly couldn’t muster his youthful spirit.
Zheng Xingxuan secretly pondered the words Han Qian had just spoken.
Although he had previously been proud and haughty, believing that Han Qian had merely won through luck by using unconventional tactics and playing tricks during the Jingxiang campaign, after joining the Commandery Prince’s Office and learning more clearly about everything that had happened there before and after, and especially after entering Xuzhou this time, he had to admit that Han Qian indeed possessed extraordinary abilities beyond others. No wonder the Third Highness relied on him so heavily.
This was something he could not envy.
Han Qian established the strategy of feinting east to strike west as only a general direction. Feng Liao, Zheng Xingxuan, Yuan Guowei, as well as other military advisors around Zheng Hui, would further refine the details.
Not to mention chieftains like Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong—among the 1,600 soldiers from the four clans that Han Qian had incorporated into the Wuling Army before and after, there were certainly quite a few soldiers, and even some low-ranking officers, who in their hearts hoped for the Han father and son to suffer setbacks and for the Wuling Army to fail in Chenzhou.
What Zheng Hui and the others needed to do was secretly and deliberately relax certain restrictions, and through these soldiers who had not yet developed loyalty to the Wuling Army, through restless elements among the four clans, spread news that the Wuling Army had suffered extremely severe losses in the battle at the southern slope stockade, and that Zheng Hui, Han Qian, and others feared Xi Shehu’s valor and intended to adjust their attack direction.
Afterward, they would select elite troops familiar with water from the infantry battalions to reinforce the naval battalion, resume warship construction at the Wufeng Mountain shipyard, continuously send scouts to Xupu, transfer the naval battalion’s base from Wufeng Mountain to Wukou Stockade, and constantly dispatch warships to raid the rivers and streams between Chenyang and Xupu.
Han Qian spent even more time with his guards accompanying the naval battalion.
The various clan forces of Chenzhou, as long as there was any possibility, were unwilling to become puppets of Tanzhou. So while refusing to allow Tanzhou troops to enter their territory, on one hand they continued conscripting able-bodied tribal men, and on the other hand adjusted their defensive deployments between Chenyang and Xupu.
Xupu was located at the northwestern foot of Xuefeng Mountain. The largest river valley basin in the middle and upper reaches of the Yuan River was within Xupu County territory, with fertile soil, suitable climate, and abundant products. Of Chenzhou’s over 13,000 native and immigrant households, almost half lived in the Xupu River valley basin.
Xupu was high around the edges and low in the center. The largest water system within the territory, the Datan River, flowed northwest from Heiqi Mountain into the Yuan River. The mouth of the Datan River was the water and land entrance from the Yuan River into the Xupu valley plain. Datan Stockade built there was also a major commercial town along the Yuan River, on par with Chenyang, Qianyang, and Wukou.
Datan Stockade was originally garrisoned by Xi Ying’s fourth son Xi Shetao with four to five hundred tribal soldiers. In mid-November, the various clans of Chenzhou continuously conscripted able-bodied warriors from their tribal households, increasing Datan Stockade’s defending soldiers to 1,400 or 1,500. Xi Ying himself finally personally took charge in Xupu, having his seventh son Xi Shehu and ninth son Xi Shetao defend Jiming Stockade, and his third son Xi Sheyan defend Chenyang City.
At this time, Zheng Hui led his troops to bypass Jiming Stockade, passing directly through the hills along the southern side of the Chen River and the northeastern foot of Longya Mountain to raid Chenyang City. After attacking for two days, he abandoned the whirlwind catapults and other cumbersome siege equipment and hastily fled back to Old Dragon’s Head via wild paths on the northeastern foot of Longya Mountain.
As Han Qian had predicted, Xi Shehu, eager to establish military merit, seeing over two thousand Wuling Army troops fleeing south in disarray—how could he still have the patience to sit at Jiming Stockade waiting like a tree stump for rabbits?
Xi Shehu led two thousand tribal soldiers surging out of Jiming Stockade in full force. He was lured by Zheng Hui into a mountain hollow at the northeastern corner of Old Dragon Gorge, where his formation was first thrown into chaos by sixty bed crossbows secretly deployed on the flanking ridge at Meizi Slope.
Initially, Xi Shehu didn’t recognize that Laoya Hollow was a carefully chosen field battle location by the Wuling Army. While urging his officers to fiercely pursue the Wuling Army main force trying to escape from the southern mouth of Laoya Hollow, he personally led elite troops to attack the bed crossbow position at Meizi Slope. Unexpectedly, he himself was firmly held back by the three hundred armored troops led by Zheng Xingxuan. While defending the southern exit of Laoya Hollow, Zheng Hui, Tian Cheng, and Gao Shao also reorganized their troops and circled around from a diagonal path outside Laoya Hollow to the northern entrance, trapping the over two thousand tribal soldiers inside the low-lying valley of Laoya Hollow.
At this moment, over thirty heavy armored cavalry—rarely seen on the Chen-Xu battlefield since ancient times—were also thrown into battle.
Driven by the armored troops, the tall warhorses, their entire bodies protected by fine steel horse armor, ignored the arrows shot by the tribal soldiers and ruthlessly charged into the tribal soldiers’ gradually disordered formations, cruelly and efficiently harvesting the lives of the tribal soldiers.
Because Xi Shehu had rashly sent troops from Jiming Stockade in his eagerness for merit, the defending general of Chenyang City, Xi Ying’s third son Xi Sheyan, worried that Xi Shehu was too rash and would have difficulty opposing the Wuling Army’s main force at Old Dragon Gorge, also led eight hundred tribal soldiers out of Chenyang City in pursuit.
Of course, Xi Sheyan hadn’t anticipated falling into a trap at the time. He was more thinking that if Xi Shehu could pin down the Wuling Army main force, his arrival with troops could fight a battle of annihilation, imagining that after this battle, the Xi family would become the dominant power in Chen and Xu prefectures.
In this case, Zheng Hui and Han Qian were even less likely to show mercy, and there was no time to force the surrender of the over two thousand tribal soldiers trapped at the bottom of Laoya Hollow. At this point, they threw over ten newly built wheeled scorpion catapults into battle, continuously launching ignited fire oil jars from the heights of Meizi Slope toward where the tribal soldiers were most densely packed—in the fastest, most effective, and most cruel manner, they sought to annihilate the over two thousand tribal soldiers who had left Jiming Stockade in the shortest possible time.
Xi Shehu possessed valor that could match ten thousand men, but this time, for the convenience of pursuing the Wuling Army main force, he had left Jiming Stockade without wearing heavy armor that would hinder movement. Though he wore an extra layer of leather armor in battle, it couldn’t stop the concentrated shooting of fine steel arrow points. After being struck by dozens of arrows, he finally crashed down before Meizi Slope, and even in death had toppled the two outermost bed crossbows.
With Xi Shehu’s death, the remaining tribal soldiers completely collapsed, fleeing across the mountains and wilderness to avoid pursuit.
At this time, Zheng Hui, together with Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Lin Haizheng, and others, reorganized their formation and led the Wuling Army main force out of Laoya Hollow. At Qixing Slope two li away, they engaged Xi Sheyan and his eight hundred tribal soldiers who had pursued from Chenyang City, still ignorant and unaware…
Before dark, the Wuling Army had completely annihilated the three thousand tribal soldiers lured out of their fortifications at Laoya Hollow, Meizi Slope, Qixing Slope, and other locations on the northeastern foot of Longya Mountain.
That night, with stars and moon filling the sky, illuminating the mountain wilderness in moonlight like water, Zheng Hui pressed on without stopping and led his troops to advance once again to the walls of Chenyang City at dawn.
At this time, Chenyang City had fewer than three hundred defending soldiers remaining. They hadn’t even had time to dismantle and transport into the city the over ten whirlwind catapults Zheng Hui had previously abandoned outside the city.
The defenders piled up firewood and ignited it, trying to burn the whirlwind catapults. But the Wuling Army came with extreme speed. The defenders hastily entered the city and closed the gates to defend. The Wuling Army extinguished the wood piles, and after replacing the suspension ropes and leather pouches, the over ten whirlwind catapults were almost all still usable. They continuously gathered nearby stone monuments and millstones, launching a new offensive against Chenyang City, which now had only three hundred defenders.
Meanwhile, Xi Ying’s ninth son Xi Shetao at Jiming Stockade had fewer than two hundred tribal soldiers defending.
On November nineteenth, Zheng Hui captured Chenyang City.
At this point, Jiming Stockade had become an isolated stronghold heavily surrounded by the Wuling Army. Xi Shetao led two hundred tribal soldiers to abandon the stockade, boarding three covered boats trying to escape from the Chen River into the Yuan River, hoping to flee toward Yuanling or to Datan Stockade in Xupu.
However, at this time Yang Qin had already led three warships from Wukou Stockade to rendezvous with the Wuling Army main force at Chenyang City. At the mouth where the Chen River entered the Yuan River, they directly rammed and overturned the covered boats carrying the two hundred fleeing defenders from Jiming Stockade. The vast majority of the two hundred tribal soldiers drowned at the bottom of the river.
The sun on this day—November nineteenth—had not yet set.
Han Qian stood before the riverside dock on the eastern side of Chenyang City, watching the setting sun’s afterglow fall on the clear surface of the Yuan River, as three war sail ships slowly approached.
The cast iron ram appeared like a venomous snake lurking below the water’s surface, vaguely visible in the clear river water.
Yang Qin stood at the bow. Before disembarking to see Han Qian, he ordered the soldiers standing at the ship’s rail to use hooked spears to drag over a corpse that had been towed alongside the ship.
It was the corpse of Xi Ying’s ninth son Xi Shetao, struck by over ten arrows after falling into the water.
Yang Qin wouldn’t bother to salvage the corpses of other tribal soldiers who had drowned at the river bottom. Xi Shetao, as Xi Ying’s ninth son, was rather special—at least he could avoid becoming food for fish and shrimp.
Xi Shetao had been killed in the water less than half an hour ago. His face hadn’t yet been damaged by the river water, and one could even clearly see his grimacing expression from his final struggles.
Xi Xunqiao and the Chenzhou Xi clan members shared the same lineage from a hundred years ago. Seeing this scene, his feelings were not good. But what shocked him even more in his heart was that the Chenzhou Xi clan, which had successfully unified the powerful clan forces of Chenzhou under the strong pressure of the Han father and son, was actually so vulnerable to a single blow.
Their tribal soldier elite in Chenyang County were not much different in scale from the Wuling Army main force, and they also had the two fortified cities of Chenyang and Jiming Stockade to defend. Hundreds and thousands of tribal households as well as Tanzhou infiltrators had fully supported their resistance against the Wuling Army’s northern advance. Yet in such a short time, not only had their main force suffered severe damage, but they had also lost all of Chenyang County?
When Xi Xunqiao finally decided to offer advice and strategies to Zheng Hui and Han Qian, he naturally hoped the Wuling Army would win, but he absolutely didn’t hope the Chenzhou tribal soldiers would be defeated so miserably.
He had hoped more that Xi Ying and his sons, feeling the powerful pressure from the Wuling Army, would make new choices—abandon the fantasy of establishing a separatist regime in Chenzhou and instead throw themselves into the court’s embrace, joining the Wuling Army in containing Tanzhou and supporting the court’s military authority stripping of Tanzhou.
Who could have imagined that the elite tribal soldiers the Chenzhou Xi clan had organized in Chenyang County would be so vulnerable to a single blow!