Yang En’s mission to Shu would not yield any news for the time being, but as long as the Lord of Shu didn’t reject Yang En at the door, this matter would create tremendous psychological pressure on Tanzhou.

At this time, Zhang Xiang in Jingzhou made a show of crossing the river at any moment to enter northern Langzhou for combat. Even Marquis Zhenyuan Yang Jian dispatched subordinate officers with two five-toothed tower ships to Jingzhou to strengthen the combat power of Jingzhou’s Water Camp. This was enough to make Tanzhou jumpy with fear, even suspecting that Chu and Shu had already reached a secret agreement, forcing them to strengthen defenses in the cities of northern Langzhou.

As Tanzhou’s Water Camp shifted large numbers of warships and soldiers westward, Xu Prefecture’s Water Camp under Yang Qin and others’ command moved with lightning speed through the lower Yuan River in mid-April. In just over a day, they borrowed strong winds to cross the Dongting Lake domain and enter the Yangtze River.

Yuedong Main Camp here assembled over forty sailing warships. When Yang Qin led Xu Prefecture Water Camp’s warships to join them, there was not the slightest delay. Li Zhigao, Zhou Dan, and Zhou Shu boarded ships with their troops overnight, and at dawn on April 18th, they once again broke into Dongting Lake from the Yangtze River mouth.

At this time, after days of torrential rain, Dongting Lake’s water level had surged several feet compared to March. After submerging the surrounding tidal flats, the entire lake domain had expanded by nearly double.

Han Qian stood at the bow looking around at the vast expanse of water on all sides. The lakeside vegetation that could previously be seen was now submerged beneath the lake water, with several white-feathered waterbirds soaring in the distant sky.

“We’ve suddenly entered Dongting Lake—what does Staff Officer Han think the Ma Yin father and son will think at Yueyang, and will they commit all of Tanzhou Water Camp’s main forces to intercept us?” Tower Ship Army Vice Commander Fan Xiang asked, standing behind Han Qian.

Fan Xiang was a vice commander-level general under Marquis Zhenyuan Yang Jian. This time he was responsible for leading Water Camp warships to escort the elite troops of Li Zhigao, Zhou Dan, and Zhou Shu into the Yuan River. At that time, he would also lead troops and warships to remain in the Yuan River, opening up the battlefield west of Dongting Lake together.

However, at this moment of breaking into Dongting Lake domain where they were at a disadvantage, Fan Xiang was quite worried in his heart, fearing that Tanzhou Water Camp would come out in full force. They appeared to have quite a few soldiers, but the warships were all unsuitable for boarding combat. Once entangled, casualties would be unimaginable.

“As long as information hasn’t leaked, the Ma family father and son should be more worried about the Shu army’s withdrawal at this time, making it difficult to determine our ultimate intentions, right?” Han Qian said with a somewhat speculative tone. “Of course, speculation at this time has no meaning—we’ll act according to circumstances!”

On the battlefield, there were no unchanging situations.

Tanzhou Water Camp’s main forces were stationed in the deep lake marshes south of Yueyang City. Their sudden entry into Dongting Lake now gave them the advantage of initiative. Borrowing the strong southeast wind blowing in, they could pull away some distance from Tanzhou Water Camp’s main warships.

However, if Tanzhou’s Water Camp soldiers at the Yuan River mouth and Hanshou fought to the death to intercept them, using every possible means to slow their speed, and they didn’t want to hastily engage in decisive battle with Tanzhou Water Camp’s main forces in the narrow waterways at the Yuan River mouth, then abandoning ships and landing at the Yuan mouth would also be an option.

Tanzhou Water Camp’s deployment speed was fast, but their elite infantry’s speed of assembling in southern Langzhou wasn’t that fast. Were they really afraid Ma Rong would dare to lead seven or eight thousand troops out of the city for field battle with them in southern Langzhou?

In short, they had to use every possible method to throw Tanzhou’s defensive deployment into chaos, glimpsing more advantageous opportunities for combat from within. They didn’t necessarily have to reach Yunpan Ridge before landing and stopping the ships.

……

……

As Han Qian expected, when large numbers of Chu army warships that were sailing westward upstream—thought to be reinforcing Jingzhou—suddenly broke into Dongting Lake, the Tanzhou generals and officials in Yueyang City at this moment developed serious disagreements over the Chu navy’s unusual movements and their operational intentions.

The former Yuezhou Prefectural Governor, who was appointed Yuezhou Military Commissioner after Ma Yin proclaimed himself Prince of Xiang—Ji Zhongqi—advocated watching developments quietly.

Ji Zhongqi was originally a household general of the Ma clan serving at Ma Yin’s side. During the Ma clan’s internal strife, he led troops to protect Ma Yin’s escape from Tanzhou, then commanded troops to assist Chu forces in combat, quelling the rebellion.

Ji Zhongqi once even led Tanzhou troops on behalf of Tanzhou to fight in coordination with Chu forces, participating in the campaign to annex King of Yue Dong Chang’s forces. After his original wife Lady Zhou died of illness, he remarried Ma Yin’s widowed younger sister, and had always been a great general of the Ma clan guarding Yuezhou.

After Chu forces assembled one hundred thousand troops at the northern foothills of Mufu Mountain, Yuezhou’s garrison was somewhat stretched thin. Ma Yin and heir apparent Ma Xun personally led naval and infantry reinforcements into Yueyang City. Ji Zhongqi naturally returned the commander’s seal for directing military operations to Ma Yin’s hands, but this didn’t mean Ji Zhongqi’s voice in Yueyang City had weakened.

With Yang En’s mission to Shu, Zhang Xiang in Jingzhou showing signs of crossing the river, and Xu Prefecture Water Camp’s twelve warships crossing Dongting Lake with lightning speed to join with Chu army’s main forces stationed at the northern foothills of Mufu Mountain—even though Wen Ruilin reminded them that Chu forces might possibly split forces to enter Yuanling, most generals and officials in Yueyang City, led by Ji Zhongqi, all believed Chu forces were most likely strengthening future offensives in the Jingzhou direction, emphasizing the need to further dispatch reinforcements to northern Langzhou.

The day after Xu Prefecture Water Camp’s twelve warships arrived at Yuedong Main Camp, Han Qian, Li Zhigao and others again led a larger-scale fleet out of camp heading west. Ji Zhongqi and others also concluded they were going to reinforce Jingzhou, then assembling even larger-scale forces in Jingzhou to cross the river and attack northern Langzhou.

Ultimately, they really had no confidence in the Lord of Shu, Wang Jian.

This wasn’t to say Yang En’s old friendship with the Lord of Shu Wang Jian worried them about anything, but rather the reality that Liang was strong and Chu weak, with Shu sandwiched between Liang and Chu, determined Lord of Shu Wang Jian’s wavering attitude.

Lord of Shu Wang Jian in his early years was an Imperial Guards general of the previous dynasty, ordered to lead troops into Yuzhou. Over the following ten-plus years of eastern and western campaigns, he annexed large and small forces in Eastern Sichuan to serve as Eastern Sichuan Military Commissioner. After the previous dynasty’s Emperor Zhaozong and his sons were killed by the Emperor of Liang, he then sent troops to occupy the entire Sichuan and Shu region.

Wang Jian pledged allegiance to the Liang Kingdom and was also enfeoffed by the Liang Kingdom as Prince of Shu. It was precisely because of this that people tended to believe the Liang Kingdom’s threat to Shu was far greater than Chu Kingdom’s—in recent years, the strategy Lord of Shu Wang Jian pursued was also allying with Chu to resist Liang.

In Tianyou year fourteen when Liang forces attacked Jingxiang to the south, although they invited Shu forces to deploy from Hanzhong and Yiling, Shu forces held their troops back, understanding very clearly in their hearts that if Jingxiang truly fell into Liang forces’ hands, Shu would be the next target Liang forces would annex.

It was just that Shu forces also didn’t have the courage to provoke Liang forces.

Without the Liang forces’ threat, Lord of Shu Wang Jian naturally very much hoped Tanzhou could become independent from Chu Kingdom.

This way, relations between Shu and Chu would become even more harmonious and peaceful.

This was also the key reason why Shu forces had been gathering at Yiling some time ago. Of course, behind this was also the great influence of Tanzhou dispatching people to secretly bribe Shu Kingdom’s important minister He Yi.

However, given Lord of Shu Wang Jian’s wavering mentality, his heart initially hoped Emperor Tianyou would tacitly permit Tanzhou’s independence. Sending troops to Yiling was also hoping to apply certain pressure on Chu forces. But after Emperor Tianyou boldly had Third Prince Yang Yuanpu command large armies to attack Tanzhou, whether Lord of Shu Wang Jian’s thoughts would persist unchanged was questionable.

This was also what the Tanzhou people worried about most.

After all, for Shu forces, the greatest threat was still the Liang Kingdom.

Even if Great Chu destroyed Ma Yin and completely incorporated Tanzhou into Chu Kingdom, whether from the Yangtze River or Han River attacking Shu upstream, it would be extremely difficult. Under threat from Liang forces in the north, Great Chu couldn’t even possibly deploy more than one hundred thousand elite troops to attack Shu.

However, once Chu forces were frustrated in their military action against Tanzhou and suffered damage to their strength, unable to restrain Liang forces from the south, Liang forces could at any time assemble troops from Guanzhong to enter Shu.

Ma Yin, Ji Zhongqi and others worried that once Shu forces withdrew from Yiling, they would have to hold firm until Liang forces completed assembly at Caizhou before they could breathe easier. Similarly, they believed that once Chu forces persuaded Shu forces to withdraw, they would have to achieve critical military progress against Tanzhou before Liang forces completed assembly.

Previously, Zhang Xiang assembling Jingzhou forces at river crossings and large warships being transferred from the northern foothills of Mufu Mountain to Jingzhou made Ma Yin and others worry that Chu forces viewed northern Langzhou as the key breakthrough point for military operations.

They only had ten thousand troops commanded by Ma Yuanheng defending several cities in northern Langzhou, forcing them to draw troops and transfer generals from other places to strengthen northern Langzhou’s defenses.

Even after Han Qian, Li Zhigao and others boarded large numbers of sailing warships entering Dongting Lake, quite a few people in Yueyang City still believed this was Chu forces’ strategy of feinting east while attacking west.

Many people still scoffed at Wen Ruilin’s judgment that Chu forces would split troops to attack Wuling City located in southwestern Langzhou on the north bank of the Yuan River. Ma Xun also felt there was absolutely no such possibility.

“At this time Tanzhou Water Camp cannot come out in full force. We cannot order Water Camps at Yuan mouth, Hanshou and other places to fight to the death to intercept and annihilate this Chu force in Dongting Lake. Tanzhou absolutely cannot hold out until Liang forces attack Deng and Xiang to the south again!” Wen Ruilin wished he could cut out his heart and lungs to show heir apparent Ma Xun his utterly loyal devotion to Tanzhou, that everything he said came from his heart.

In the great hall, Wen Ruilin after all was a strategist at heir apparent Ma Xun’s side. At this time he was mostly speaking directly to heir apparent Ma Xun, hoping to first convince the heir apparent, then continue arguing with state lord Ma Yin, Ji Zhongqi and others.

“Master Wen, you seem to overvalue this scoundrel Han Qian excessively.”

Seeing others mostly holding dismissive attitudes, Ma Xun felt a trace of annoyance at Wen Ruilin’s obstinacy in his heart. At this time he only patiently said to him:

“As the saying goes, even a skilled housewife cannot cook without rice. We must acknowledge that the Han father and son have some capabilities, but their supporting seven or eight thousand troops’ provisions on the upper Yuan River is already extremely strained. Even if at this time they fearlessly risk forcibly breaking into Dongting Lake, if Chu forces split off another ten-thousand-plus troops to go over, at that time Chu forces assembled on the upper Yuan River would exceed twenty thousand men. What will so many troops eat? Could it be the Han father and son can conjure food out of thin air?”

In people’s impression, Chen and Xu Prefectures had always been sparsely populated with barren land. The grain levied by local prefecture and county offices could barely maintain government operations. The grain and fodder that could additionally be used to support troops was extremely limited.

They also didn’t believe the new land tax policies that had turned the Five Streams region upside down could have any effect.

Although Ma Rong hadn’t been able to hold Yuanling, before withdrawing from Yuanling he burned all the stored grain in Yuanling, north of Yuanling, and upstream of the Bai River, ensuring the Han father and son couldn’t obtain provisions from these areas.

Provisions would be the key bottleneck limiting Chen and Xu Prefectures’ ability to further assemble troops. This time, the warships deployed from Yuedong Main Camp—looking at their draft depth and sailing speed borrowing wind force—could clearly determine that besides soldiers, the ships weren’t carrying much supplies.

“No matter how scarce provisions are in Chen and Xu Prefectures, they can still support operations for two or three months.” Wen Ruilin stubbornly maintained his view.

“The money and grain the Han father and son assembled in Xu Prefecture might support over twenty thousand troops for three months without problem,” said Ji Zhongqi, sitting below state lord Ma Yin. “But if Chu forces truly dare to take such risks, then we should let Chu forces pass through even more. That way, if we subsequently reinforce Wuling, as long as we hold out for three months, we can make Chu forces assembled on the upper Yuan River collapse without provisions on their own.”

Wen Ruilin’s heart was full of vexed depression from exhausting his mind and blood, wishing he could roar at everyone in the hall: Damn it, if you had listened to me early on and moved to kill him when Han Qian crossed Dongting Lake at the end of last year, how would today’s predicament exist?

However, his last trace of rationality made Wen Ruilin realize that if he really said such words, he would probably provoke the heir apparent into becoming angry from shame and drive him out on the spot. In his heart he could only console himself: Chu forces splitting troops to the Yuan River to join with Wuling Army, with Tanzhou using Ji Zhongqi’s strategy to reinforce forces west of the lake and engage in decisive battle with Chu forces on the western plains, perhaps isn’t the worst outcome. After all, Chu forces should also be eager to achieve critical progress west of the lake before His Highness the Prince of Yong again assembles troops at Caizhou to threaten the Nanyang-Fangcheng defense line!