No faction could ever be a monolithic iron plate. If Tanzhou’s powerful aristocratic clans had truly been inseparable from the Ma Yin and Ma Xun father-son pair, the Ma clan wouldn’t have experienced internal strife ten years ago, forcing them to submit to Great Chu and request Emperor Tianyou dispatch troops to help quell the rebellion.

At this time, Tanzhou’s powerful aristocratic clans followed the Ma Yin and Ma Xun father-son pair in rebellion for two key factors that couldn’t be ignored, aside from Tanzhou’s elite troops being mainly controlled by the Ma clan and their direct generals.

On one hand, Emperor Tianyou’s purging of local power forces during the Jingxiang campaign, as well as the unwarranted calamity that befell Fan Wenlan and Kong Zhou, made Tanzhou’s powerful aristocratic clans worry that after the reduction of their feudal authority, they too would suffer purges.

On the other hand, they believed that with Shu and Liang forces’ intervention, they could hold out through this battle. If Tanzhou ultimately became independent, they could all be enfeoffed as marquises and ministers, enjoying more illustrious glory and wealth than before.

Although Han Qian had absolutely no interest in such “glory and wealth,” this didn’t mean everyone in the world could be as detached about it as he was.

However, as long as the Yuan River Regional Command’s offensive was sufficiently ferocious and sharp, Tanzhou’s powerful aristocratic clans—who had no integrity or principles to speak of—would consider whether to continue indulging in fantasies of becoming marquises and ministers, or make new choices to avoid being destroyed together with the Ma clan after Tanzhou’s complete defeat.

Just like how Xi Ying and other major Chenzhou clan powers made new choices—as long as Tanzhou’s aristocratic clans came over to submit, it would rapidly widen the power gap between both sides, accelerate Tanzhou’s destruction, and render Liang forces’ assembly at Caizhou meaningless.

This was also a political offensive attached to direct military action. At this time, Shen Yang, Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and others were also secretly contacting powerful aristocratic clans in Tan, Yue, Lang, Shao, Heng and other prefectures through various channels and intermediaries, thereby weakening forces supporting the Ma Yin father and son, and ending the feudal reduction campaign as quickly as possible.

In reality, Tanzhou rebel forces directly under Ma Yin father and son and their trusted generals numbered only forty thousand troops.

At this time, another fifty thousand troops assembled by Tanzhou rebel forces were mainly local militia formed by conscripting able-bodied men from over thirty counties in five prefectures after the Ma Yin father and son proclaimed their secession.

The officers of these local militia were mainly sons of local powerful aristocratic clans.

Currently, Tanzhou rebel forces’ direct troops were garrisoned inside several major cities, guarding against military pressure exerted by Chu forces’ main strength from three directions—Yuedong, Yuanzhou, and Jingzhou. Ma Rong’s forces inside Wuling City were also Tanzhou’s relatively stronger direct troops.

Apart from Tanzhou naval forces, what could still be deployed at this time to reinforce Wuling City by overland routes were mainly local militia conscripted from counties in northwestern Tanzhou and Langzhou’s heartland.

Although these local militia reinforcing from outlying counties had reached approximately ten thousand men by the end of April, they mainly gathered at two places—Qingyun Mountain and Caoyan Ridge outside Wuling City—yet hesitated and didn’t dare attack the elite troops of Zhou Dan and Zhou Shu’s two units stationed at the northern and eastern foothills of Huanglong Ridge to enter below Wuling City and join with Ma Rong’s forces.

The truly intense battles occurred in two places: one below Wuling City, where Li Zhigao from mid-April led his own forces and the foreign camp in a strong assault on Wuling City; the other on the Yuan River, where Fan Xiang led Tower Ship Army and soldiers from Xu Prefecture Water Camp commanded by Yang Qin in intercepting combat against Tanzhou Water Camp’s main forces reinforcing from Dongting Lake.

Since rebel forces in northern and central Langzhou had been completely drawn away, in early May Zhang Xiang had his son Zhang Feng boldly lead three thousand elite cavalry and infantry across the river.

Although Yang En’s mission to Shu hadn’t yet officially transmitted news back, Shu forces at Yiling maintained silence in the face of Jingzhou splitting forces to cross south.

Zhang Feng bypassed Jiang’an City defended by Langzhou Military Commissioner Ma Yuanheng, leading his troops to thrust through west of Jiang’an. In just ten days he passed through hills at the northeastern foothills of Wuling Mountains and several large streams, reaching Caoyan Ridge. Together with Zhou Dan’s forces, they attacked five thousand rebel troops stationed on Caoyan Ridge’s western slope from both sides, routing them in just one day.

At this time, Zheng Hui personally led three thousand combat soldiers, making a flanking maneuver behind Qingyun Mountain to form an encirclement of five thousand rebel troops stationed on Qingyun Mountain’s southern foothills.

On May 11th, this rebel force gathered at Caoyan Ridge—mainly Shishou local militia—chose to surrender under the command of General Zhang Han. Then, under the supervision of over ten thousand Chu elite troops, they turned their weapons around to participate in the strong assault on Wuling City.

On May 14th, Chu forces attacked into Wuling City from three routes. Main commander Ma Rong was surrounded on the back street of the county government. Seeing no hope of breaking through, he committed suicide with his sword. Afterward, less than fifteen hundred remaining garrison soldiers chose to lay down their weapons and surrender.

At this time, exactly one month had passed since Li Zhigao led his troops to press toward Wuling City and launch the siege.

Zheng Hui subsequently led the eight thousand elite troops of Zhou Shu, Zhou Dan, and Xi Ying’s three units, plus over four thousand surrendered soldiers from Zhang Han’s forces, along with Fan Xiang’s Tower Ship Army naval soldiers—altogether over fifteen thousand troops—flanking the river downstream, rushing without stopping toward Hanshou, the administrative seat of Langzhou downstream.

Hanshou was the most important city on the western Dongting Lake plains. Only by successfully capturing Hanshou would they truly control the lower Yuan River and the western Dongting Lake plains.

At the same time, Li Zhigao would coordinate with Zhang Xiang’s son Zhang Feng to lead six thousand elite troops northward toward Jiang’an County on the southern Yangtze bank.

At this time within Langzhou territory, aside from two thousand rebel troops in Hanshou County who hadn’t surrendered, there was only Ma Yuanheng leading eight thousand naval and infantry troops garrisoning Jiang’an County, facing off against Zhang Xiang’s forces guarding Jingzhou on the northern bank.

Additionally, cities and forts in Langzhou like Shishou either chose to pledge allegiance to the court due to surrenders by generals like Zhang Han, or because their garrisons had been drawn away with no troops to defend the cities—they chose to raise white flags on the city walls and surrender before Chu forces even arrived.

Han Qian along with Zhang Ping, Li Chong and others temporarily remained responsible for guarding Wuling City, using Wuling City as the new logistics and supply base to treat wounded soldiers and prisoners, and transport grain and fodder.

Having just captured the city, everything inside was still in chaos. Han Qian along with Zhang Ping, Li Chong and others climbed the relatively intact city walls on the south side of Wuling City to oversee the city search operations.

Looking around in all directions, the remains of soldiers from both sides below the city had just begun to be collected and buried. Everywhere were mud pellets and stone projectiles smashed by whirlwind cannons from both sides. Apart from the south wall being relatively intact, the other three sides’ walls had collapsed with gaps in sections, destroyed beyond recognition in a month of siege warfare.

Some buildings inside the city had been destroyed by whirlwind cannons, but more were destroyed by fires deliberately set by both enemy and friendly forces.

Charred corpses, thousands upon thousands of refugees whose homes had been burned and who had nowhere to shelter, either numbly or grief-stricken, wandered through streets and alleys, awaiting inspection by troops entering the city to prevent rebel soldiers from hiding among them.

On the Yuan River several li away, quite a few destroyed warships had sunk into the river. Occasionally, ship masts could still be seen protruding from the river surface, at the mercy of the river current’s assault.

In the frontal assault on Wuling City, Li Zhigao, the foreign camp, and surrendered general Zhang Han’s forces suffered casualties of two thousand four to five hundred men. Such casualties could already be called grievous, but the intercepting battles on the Yuan River were even more tragic.

The Ma Yin father and son also knew Wuling City absolutely could not be lost. Seeing over ten thousand local militia assembled at Qingyun Mountain and Caoyan Ridge hesitating and not daring to attack forward, they on one hand dispatched envoys to urge them on, but more importantly deployed their direct elite Tanzhou Water Camp forces, attempting to forcibly break through the Yuan River waterway to reinforce Wuling City with troops and supplies.

Although Yang Jian led Tower Ship Army’s main forces frequently entering Dongting Lake for combat to pin down Tanzhou Water Camp’s main forces, Fan Xiang’s forces and Xu Prefecture Water Camp on the Yuan River still bore extremely heavy intercepting responsibilities. Almost every day on the Yuan River, large and small naval battles erupted.

Xu Prefecture Water Camp’s twelve large sailing warships and other medium and small oared warships lost nearly two-thirds in a month of assault battles. Casualties among the eighteen hundred Water Camp soldiers and boatmen also neared half—more tragic than battle losses in several directions on land.

Han Qian silently watched everything. Even though he understood very clearly in his heart that these were necessary sacrifices to restore order, compared to his previous iron-hearted hardness, at this time he had difficulty suppressing a trace of compassion emerging in his heart. He secretly felt this might be the drawback of shirking the main commander’s responsibility to Zheng Hui and Li Zhigao.

If one was the main commander responsible for the overall battlefield situation, any compassion was extravagant and superfluous.

At this moment, Han Qian could better understand that old matter his father had spoken of on the eve of departing from Jinling to assume the post of Xuzhou Prefectural Governor—why its influence on him had been so profound. But regrettably, in the coming ten years, Han Qian still couldn’t see any possibility of eliminating warfare in the Central Plains.

Facing the world’s chaos reaching such extremes, Han Qian truly didn’t know what kind of feelings his father harbored in the depths of his heart.

“The city has been preliminarily cleared once through. How should we handle the numerous captured soldiers and surrendered officials? Please give instructions, sir.” Tian Cheng, surrounded by over ten guards, walked toward the south wall and reported to Han Qian.

Since Zheng Hui, Li Zhigao and others had to continue deploying troops in other directions without stopping, within Wuling City it was Han Qian who took charge of handling everything.

“Wen Ruilin was in Wuling City before the battle. Have you searched him out?” Han Qian asked.

“Instructions were given during the city search. He hasn’t been discovered yet, but Wuling County’s surrendered officials are all held concentrated in the rear residence of the county government. Wen Ruilin might be mixed in among those people. Does sir want to go take a look?” Tian Cheng said.

Regarding the rebel forces’ main generals and officials in Wuling City, Tian Cheng and others had confirmed them with telescopes during the siege. But there were seventeen to eighteen hundred captured soldiers and Wuling County surrendered officials combined who had surrendered in the city. Currently they were all driven to the temporarily established prisoner-of-war camp for detention, with no time yet for further sorting.

At present, only preliminary searches had been conducted inside the city. It was still possible that some rebel generals and officials were disguised and hiding in ordinary civilian households.

Han Qian asked Zhang Ping with a smile: “Minister Zhang, would you like to go to the county government together?”

Zhang Ping also had to move into the city to conduct official business. At that time he would need to select an intact residence near the county government for temporary lodging. Naturally at this moment he followed Han Qian walking toward the county government direction.

Just entering the county government, they heard clamorous sounds coming from the rear residence. Han Qian walked over and saw a group of soldiers about to rush into the rear residence but were being blocked with all their strength by Zhao Ting’er and Yao Xishui, who led people in furious indignation.

“What’s going on?” Han Qian walked over with a dark face, staring at the three to forty soldiers blocking the rear courtyard gate whose alcohol fumes were overwhelming, their military uniforms embroidered on the chest with the two characters “Wuling.”

Longque Army, Tower Ship Army, and the foreign camp, under Zheng Hui and Li Zhigao’s leadership, had respectively departed toward Jiang’an County and Hanshou County. Aside from wounded and sick soldiers, mainly Wuling Army soldiers remained garrisoning Wuling City.

“I wanted to come select some useful hands when I ran into these drunk fellows trying to rush in and snatch away the female family members detained here!” Zhao Ting’er’s heart pounded chaotically as she stood behind Han Qian speaking in a low voice.

“Drag them all out. Give each person ten lashes to sober them up,” Han Qian said to Tian Cheng behind him. “Then announce my orders throughout the city. From this moment on, those who leave their posts without permission and those who drink alcohol in violation of prohibitions will all be severely punished without leniency. Those who dare forcibly seize civilian women or wives will be executed without mercy! Those who dare assault prisoner-of-war camps, county prisons and other government offices will be executed without mercy!”

To cope with continuously expanding military operations, Wuling Army constantly recruited new soldiers from Xuzhou and from loosely controlled prefecture counties in the middle and upper Yuan River. A mixed bag of characters was unavoidable.

In the short term, focus had been entirely on battle formation training. Also because of continuous reorganization, Wuling Army hadn’t yet exposed major problems regarding military discipline.

Zheng Hui previously hadn’t focused on strict enforcement, and after Han Qian handed over command authority, he couldn’t possibly interfere again with military discipline enforcement matters.

On another level, captured soldiers and surrendered officials after taking a city were spoils of war. The family members of captured soldiers and surrendered officials in the city similarly belonged to spoils of war shared by meritorious soldiers.

Ordinarily speaking, some young and beautiful female family members would all be distributed to generals in the army.

Those female family members with plain looks but still passable would be organized into brothel camps to serve ordinary soldiers for pleasure while also raising military funds from this.

Those who were truly aged and decrepit would be thrown into hard labor camps together with other prisoners of war.

Capturing Wuling City was a great victory. After experiencing multiple cruel and bloody battles, some soldiers at this time became somewhat unable to restrain their urgent need for release. They ran over wanting to select surrendered officials’ female family members to go enjoy, not expecting to run into Han Qian.

Over ten guards behind Tian Cheng rushed out, blocking the troublemaking soldiers and ordering them to remove their armor to receive punishment. No one dared resist.