Xishe Tao fled Jimingzhai in panic, and the Wuling Army took the fortress without bloodshed. Lin Zongjing currently led three hundred-man squads stationed within.

Lin Zongjing was only seventeen years old at this time. Zhao Wuji, Guo Nu’er, Guo Que’er, and Xi Fa’er—these four youths were also merely seventeen years old. Among the many household soldier disciples, the oldest was only eighteen.

A thousand years later, seventeen or eighteen would still be impulsive adolescents. Yet Lin Zongjing and the others were already mid-level military officers holding their own.

Although Lin Zongjing and the other disciples had been cultivated and tempered over these three years, and most had experienced the bloodshed and brutality of the Xichuan battle, commanding two or three hundred troops to garrison a small fortress posed no great problem. However, their stepping forward to hold their own so early also demonstrated from another perspective that Han Qian actually had limited personnel available in Xuzhou.

Currently, Tian Cheng and Gao Shao led two battalions of infantry, while Yang Qin commanded three warships and six hundred naval combat soldiers, assembled at Chenyang City under the command of Zheng Hui and Zhang Ping. From Wuliuxi and Longyacheng to Jimingzhai, the defensive line was held by Lin Haizheng leading one infantry battalion.

Additionally, aside from the six hundred troops at Wukouzhai and Qianyang City, Langxi, Tanyang, and Zhongfang counties each had only two or three hundred sword and archer militia recruited locally for defense.

If any disturbance arose within Xuzhou at this time, their forces would be stretched thin. For this reason, Han Qian and the others did not advocate actively attacking Yuanling from Chenyang!

Jimingzhai was an old fortress with over two hundred years of history. Having experienced no warfare, both the fortress walls and the buildings within were well preserved.

Before Xishe Tao’s hasty retreat, he set fire to the great warehouse storing grain and supplies. However, Xishe Tao did not persist until the warehouse was completely destroyed before fleeing the fortress. The fortress inhabitants, fearing the fire would spread, worked together to extinguish the blaze, leaving behind large blackened scorch marks. Only the upper layer of stored grain was burned.

A rough count revealed that after occupying Jimingzhai, they still captured fourteen or fifteen thousand shi of grain from the warehouse along with various other military supplies. This showed that the Chenzhou clans had long prepared to hold Jimingzhai for an extended defense, never imagining that Xishe Hu would recklessly dispatch troops and fall into their trap.

However, the fortress inhabitants of Jimingzhai—primarily mountain Yue indigenous registered tribal households—clearly harbored no goodwill toward the Wuling Army either. Only under military suppression did no one dare stand up in resistance.

When Han Qian entered Jimingzhai, doors and windows were shut tight along every street. If not for lamplight seeping through door cracks, one might suspect this was a dead fortress.

Han Qian only stayed one night at Jimingzhai. Early the next morning, he departed from Jimingzhai to return to Longyacheng.

On the journey back to Longyacheng, Han Qian deliberately made a detour to Laoya’ao to view the battlefield where Xishe Hu and the Jimingzhai tribal soldiers had been lured and killed.

Previously, to deceive the Chenzhou clan forces, Han Qian had specifically brought Zhao Wuji, Xi Fa’er, Xi Ren, and others to the naval garrison at Wukouzhai.

No one believed the Han father and son would hand over command of the Wuling Army to Zheng Hui. At that time, Han Daoxun remained garrisoned at Qianyang City while Han Qian stayed with the naval forces. How could Xishe Ying and other Chenzhou clan chieftains not fall for the deception? How could they dare not prioritize the defense of Datanzhai?

Excessively misled by subjective perceptions, all the Chenzhou clans overlooked how vastly different attacking Jimingzhai and Chenyang City from Laolongxia was compared to attacking Datanzhai from Wukouzhai by waterway, where establishing even a foothold outside the fortress would be difficult.

Only after the Laoya’ao ambush battle occurred did Han Qian return to Longyacheng, then detour through Laolongxia and Jimingzhai to meet with Zheng Hui and Zhang Ping at Chenyang.

Having traveled in such haste previously, he still hadn’t had the opportunity to view the ambush battlefield located only five or six li off the Laolongxia post road.

Broken weapons and scattered arrows lay among the trampled grass withered by cold winds.

Hundreds upon thousands of corpses sprawled haphazardly across the wilderness, not yet collected for burial. Blood had long since congealed into pools of dark purple-black everywhere.

“Better to be a dog in times of peace than a person in times of chaos,” Han Qian stood among the withered thatch grass, deeply moved by this saying.

Yao Xishui looked over in considerable surprise.

In her impression, Han Qian employed every possible means in his actions with ruthless and decisive methods. Because of his feint strategy, Laoya’ao was littered with corpses for dozens of li. She never expected he would have the face to hypocritically express such sentiments. However, even a formidable hero like Cao Cao had written famous verses like “Bones exposed in the wilderness, not a cock-crow for a thousand li,” had he not?

……

……

When Han Qian passed through Laolongxia from Laoya’ao and returned to Longyacheng without catching his breath, Zheng Hui sent a messenger to announce that some Tanzhou troops had already garrisoned Yuanling City.

“Tanzhou moved so quickly!” Lin Haizheng was still in Longyacheng at this time. Upon learning this news, he was quite shocked by how swiftly the Tanzhou forces had moved south.

Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang were equally shocked.

Contemporary customs were far more open than in later generations, though official appointments for women remained exceptional cases. However, when Han Qian was in Longyacheng, he did not exclude Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang from participating in military deliberations.

“The Chenzhou clan forces deployed their tribal troops’ main strength on the southern front, with only six hundred tribal soldiers in their prefectural seat of Yuanling City. After Xishe Ying’s three sons were annihilated at Laoya’ao, the clan chieftains remaining in Yuanling immediately dispatched people rushing to Wuling County to request aid and welcome Tanzhou forces into their territory. The timing works out just right,” Han Qian remained composed. This news conveyed by the messenger did not shock him much.

“How many Tanzhou troops can currently be confirmed to have entered Yuanling City?” Lin Haizheng stared at the military messenger sent by Zheng Hui.

In the Battle of Laoya’ao, his unit served as reserves. Although they participated in combat against Xishe Yan’s forces in the final stage, they ultimately didn’t get to fight any hard battles. Afterward, he was responsible for defending the Laolongxia-Longyacheng line, leaving him somewhat regretful.

At this moment, his greater concern for Tanzhou troop movements also reflected his hope to directly participate in the upcoming campaign against Tanzhou.

Lin Haizheng was much younger than Tian Cheng and Gao Shao. Being from household soldier backgrounds, he felt somewhat inferior compared to Zheng Xingxuan from distinguished aristocratic families, making him quite eager to prove himself through military achievements.

“The specific number of Tanzhou troops entering Yuanling City still needs confirmation. Currently we only know their commanding general is the veteran Tanzhou general Ma Rong,” the messenger replied.

Han Qian nodded, asking nothing further, and arranged for someone to lead the messenger away to rest.

Lin Haizheng asked Han Qian, “Ma Rong is the Langzhou Military Commissioner, the second-ranking figure in the Ma clan in Langzhou after Ma Yuanheng. The fall of Chenyang City and Jimingzhai, along with the annihilation of Chenzhou tribal forces’ main strength, clearly had an enormous impact on Tanzhou. On the other hand, doesn’t this also indicate that the court has not yet officially begun the reduction of feudal powers, and the Third Prince in Ezhou has not yet officially deployed troops against Yuezhou?”

Han Qian nodded, quite pleased that although Lin Haizheng was eager for battle, he could also analyze more deeply the additional implications hidden behind simple information. This was a prerequisite for becoming a commanding general in the future.

The current Lin Haizheng still needed considerable time for refinement and maturation to gradually mature.

Of course, though such speculation seemed reasonable, Han Qian temporarily could not confirm Ezhou’s current situation.

With treacherous routes, messengers dispatched at this time could not take the most convenient waterways but could only traverse mountain ridges while avoiding the watchful eyes of tribal fortresses along the way and Tanzhou scouts. Communication with Ezhou was extremely inconvenient.

Han Qian currently only knew Ezhou’s situation from a month ago.

At that time, the Third Prince Yang Yuanpu, accompanied by the Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu, Zhou Yuan, Wang Lin, Zhang Qian, and others, had officially arrived in Ezhou to assume the position of Regional Commander. Shen Yang, serving as Commandery Prince’s Tutor, assumed the position of Ezhou Prefect and actually presided over preparations for the feudal reduction campaign.

Aside from Zhou Shu continuing to garrison Jingzikou, Li Zhigao and Chen Jingzhou—also from bandit leader backgrounds—along with Jiangzhou Military Commissioner and Military Commissioner Zhong Yanhu and other generals, including Zhou Dan who had previously been stationed in Ezhou, all assembled under the Third Prince Yang Yuanpu’s command. Together with the provincial forces of Huangzhou and Ezhou, the infantry camp armored soldiers assembled in Ezhou reached over thirty thousand troops.

The tower-ship navy commanded by the Marquis of Zhenyuan, with over a hundred warships carrying more than fifteen thousand combat soldiers, had just departed from Jinling at that time.

Additionally, the great general Zhang Xiang, currently serving as Jingzhou Prefect, was also assembling fifteen thousand elite troops in Jingzhou.

The Hongzhou direction was also expected to mobilize fifteen thousand troops, primarily provincial forces.

Because Jin forces attempted to occupy the fertile lands of Hedong on the northeastern side of the Guanzhong region in autumn, Liang forces’ defensive focus was forced to shift to the northern front, creating a stalemate with Jin forces along both banks of the Yellow River. Great Chu’s northern defense pressure consequently greatly diminished.

However, Shu forces began massively concentrating troops at Yiling on the upper Jing River since mid-to-late October, showing every intention of dispatching forces to attack Jingzhou.

This should have been the result of Tanzhou dispatching envoys to the Shu Kingdom in late August.

If Tanzhou could achieve independence from Great Chu, the Shu Kingdom would no longer need to worry much about threats from Chu forces. At this time, Shu forces deploying to constrain Chu forces assembled in Jingzhou—not only Han Qian and Zheng Hui, but those in Jinling had long anticipated this.

This made it difficult to count on the great general Zhang Xiang contributing major effort in later stages of the Tanzhou campaign.

The forces assembled in the Hongzhou direction were primarily provincial troops, clumsy at siege warfare. One could only hope they would dispatch troops toward Yuanzhou and constrain some Tanzhou forces in the southeastern direction. Ultimately, one had to count on the nearly fifty thousand troops assembled by the Third Prince Yang Yuanpu in Ezhou to serve as the true main force capable of successfully capturing Yuezhou and advancing into the Dongting Lake heartland.

Although the feudal reduction decree had not yet been issued, by November the situation had already become clear. Unfortunately, most of the elite scouts from the Left Bureau had been incorporated into the military as junior officers. Han Qian currently lacked the capability to conduct deep reconnaissance of Tanzhou. Communication with the Ezhou direction was too delayed, making it difficult to ascertain Tanzhou’s troop mobilization situation in the short term.

“My lord, how many forces do you estimate Tanzhou has currently assembled?” Lin Haizheng remained concerned with this question.

Han Qian analyzed for Lin Haizheng:

“In early years when the Ma clan ruled the Dongting Lake and Xiang River basin, they required six households to contribute one soldier, with six households jointly maintaining arms and armor. Combined with the guard troops and retainers the Ma clan maintained at that time, at their peak strength, the Ma clan once possessed seventy thousand troops. The territory controlled by Ma Yin in alliance with veteran generals Zhao Sheng and Luo Jia is somewhat smaller than during the Ma clan’s peak, but the core regions remain. With full mobilization, the forces Tanzhou can assemble before year’s end might even exceed the Ma clan’s early peak—reaching eighty to ninety thousand soldiers fully equipped with armor and weapons.”

Lin Haizheng said in considerable surprise, “If Tanzhou can assemble such strong forces, wouldn’t the Third Prince have little chance of victory deploying from Ezhou?”

Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang exchanged glances, unclear about what basis Han Qian had for determining that the Ma clan could mobilize so many forces from the Dongting Lake and Xiang River basin.