Chuzhou army’s commander Qin Ran fled too quickly. When Han Qian led his personal guard battalion into the city, he didn’t get much hard fighting. Only when seizing the west gate did they successively collide with two groups of over a hundred defenders, but it didn’t take much effort to rout them.
Han Qian personally killed two enemies and was splattered with blood all over. He was then firmly guarded in the formation by Yuan Guowei’s men, and his horse-cleaving saber’s blade edge hadn’t even been chipped—it had become mere decoration.
Han Qian didn’t go to the county office but instead rallied his troops directly at the west gate.
The buildings inside Danyang city were mainly brick and wood. Once a major fire started, it was very difficult to extinguish. Now in the chaos of war and disorder, few could spare hands to fight fires. They could only wait for everything combustible to burn out, and the fires would naturally die down slowly.
Yuan Guowei stood beside Han Qian, watching the firelight flickering throughout the city. The tumult in his heart still couldn’t settle down. He hadn’t expected this battle—using speed to create chaos—would conclude so smoothly.
However, his excited, even exhilarated heart also harbored irrepressible worry. What should they do next?
Their capture of Danyang city could only be said to have severely plucked the Chuzhou army’s fur—they hadn’t critically damaged the Chuzhou army’s strength, but it was enough to hurt them. It wasn’t hard to imagine how furious the Chuzhou army would be once they reacted.
The alliance between Tanzhou and Chuzhou was at this moment thoroughly torn to shreds. But Han Qian had deep blood feuds with Anning Palace, and Yueyang had also issued proclamations throughout the realm angrily denouncing Anning Palace and the Crown Prince for murdering the Late Emperor and usurping the throne. The two sides were incompatible as fire and water. Yet here in Jinling, they had only this small force, isolated and without support, plus over forty thousand women and children who were pure burdens. How could they survive to the end facing two powerful enemies whose forces were ten or even dozens of times stronger?
Yuan Guowei had too many worries and perplexities in his heart. However, the soldiers below the wall were at this moment enjoying the satisfaction of revenge and slaying powerful enemies. Seeing Han Qian and Yuan Guowei standing atop the wall, they gathered around, shouting continuously.
“Shi Ji, Xiao Dahu!” Han Qian called out the names of Shi Ji and Xiao Dahu, who had fought bravely without suffering major injuries, summoning them below the wall. Bending down, he instructed, “You immediately lead a contingent to rush to Yanling and organize all the women and children to withdraw to Mount Mao! Abandon all supplies for now—don’t take them. After we finish reorganizing here, we’ll head directly to Mount Mao to rendezvous with you!”
“My Lord, we went through so much effort to capture Danyang—we’re not defending it?” Shi Ji stood below the wall, asking loudly in confusion.
“No, we’re not!”
Han Qian didn’t avoid publicly discussing his initial strategy. Right now, the three thousand soldiers were exhausted remnant troops. They absolutely had to激发 激发 激发 every man’s courage and fearlessness for them to possibly persevere to the end. They needed thorough ideological mobilization. He said loudly:
“This battle was not only to avenge our previous grievances, but more importantly to bare our fangs and claws. Whether it’s Prince Xin or that traitorous Empress of Anning Palace, we must clearly tell them: whoever dares harm our parents, wives and children—unless we all die—we will make them pay a blood price so painful they’ll wish for death. So certain battles must be fought, must be fought without fear of sacrifice. However, Danyang city is too small, won’t have much stored grain, and is too close to Dantu and Mount Baohua. Once our many elderly, weak, women and children are besieged here by Chuzhou forces, we’ll have very little room to maneuver, and the city’s stored grain won’t last long. If we withdraw to Mount Mao, we can take the mountains as our fortress. Any force that dares oppose us, that presumes to eliminate us—we’ll make every stone and every patch of black earth on Mount Mao be painted with their blood! Even if Heaven has decreed that Han Qian must die, Han Qian will die fighting alongside you all!”
“Good, good—even if we die, we’ll die fighting!”
The soldiers inside the city wall roared in response.
“Good, good—this subordinate will immediately accept this order and go to Yanling to organize the women and children to withdraw to Mount Mao!” Shi Ji and Xiao Dahu also responded loudly. Mustering the two hundred-some soldiers under their command, they brought over newly captured warhorses and immediately left the city for Yanling Wharf to organize the over forty thousand elderly, weak, women and children left there to withdraw to Mount Mao.
Most of the Taowu garrison households had received basic cavalry training, though they couldn’t be called skilled.
The newly captured warhorses still had stubborn temperaments. Shi Ji and Xiao Dahu led their troops out of the city, proceeding in a crooked, uneven line. Standing atop the wall, Han Qian could even occasionally see people falling from their horses. But no matter how badly bruised and battered they fell, no one suggested stopping to rest.
The time available to them was extremely limited. The main Chuzhou army force was stationed at Dantu city, over sixty li north of Danyang city, standing along the river.
Although Yanling was only about twenty li from Mount Mao’s eastern foothills, the movement of over forty thousand elderly, weak, women and children would be far slower compared to well-trained troops.
Han Qian in Danyang could temporarily attract the Chuzhou army’s attention, making them temporarily not dare act rashly. But the delay wouldn’t last long. Even if scattered remnant soldiers didn’t discover the abnormality at Yanling Wharf, with such a major incident occurring, the Chuzhou army would inevitably strengthen reconnaissance along the Yanling line to find out exactly what had happened.
At this time, the situation in the city stabilized further. After having his wounds dressed, Kong Xirong still insisted on leading teams with Zhao Wuji to hunt down the few remaining enemies in the city. Dou Rong, Wei Chang and others led teams knocking on door after door of deep mansion compounds, confiscating grain supplies, and concentrating the captured warhorses toward the west gate.
After the Chuzhou army crossed the river, they dispatched troops to collect grain from nearby prefectures and counties, basically assigning quotas with kind words. Politically, they still wanted to win the support of local gentry and aristocratic clans—their goal was still to ascend to the imperial throne. But Han Qian and his men didn’t have that time. They could only select large households to plunder the city. Those deep mansion compounds that wouldn’t open were smashed or scaled over walls to enter.
Forty to fifty thousand people would consume three to four hundred shi of grain daily. Moreover, there weren’t many villages in Mount Mao, with extremely limited stored grain. Previously, Xinchang Marquis Li Pu had led everyone to stop at Yanling Wharf for nearly two months, almost exhausting Yanling Wharf’s grain stores. Any grain they could transport into the mountains before the Chuzhou army reacted had to be done against time.
“When Master Han spoke of taking the mountains as a fortress, what specific plan does he have?” Yuan Guowei, seeing the situation in the city had mostly settled, probed deeper into Han Qian’s next plan. They had already taken the first step. Next they still needed to contact Yueyang. As an old minister loyal to Prince Tan, Yuan Guowei also needed to report separately to Yueyang beyond Han Qian, so he hoped to know more.
“…Speaking of taking mountains as a fortress, Mount Qiuhu was exactly that—taking the mountain as a fortress. But alas, it was simply abandoned by Li Pu like that,” Han Qian looked toward the northwest direction where Mount Qiuhu lay, saying with considerable regret, “If Li Pu had the courage to hold Mount Qiuhu, at least for a year he needn’t fear Anning Palace could conquer it. How would there be today’s狼狈 狼狈 狼狈 predicament?”
Yuan Guowei carefully considered Mount Qiuhu’s defensive system and thought the same.
Mount Qiuhu’s front was sealed by the solid military prefecture fortress blocking the valley entrance. The mountain ridge gaps around it also had sturdy outposts built. More importantly, Mount Qiuhu backed onto Mount Baohua, which stretched nearly a hundred li. These past years of mining coal and iron ore had developed the rear mountain quite fully, with plank roads leading directly to Mount Baohua’s northern foothills along the Yangzi River.
Under these circumstances, large forces couldn’t break into Mount Qiuhu from the front, while small forces, even if they could infiltrate through mountain trails, couldn’t deal with six to seven thousand elite troops. They could even supplement grain supplies and elite forces from outside through mountain trails.
Mount Qiuhu used the entire Mount Baohua as its fortress. Unless Anning Palace or Chuzhou could completely control Jinling and Runzhou, there was no need to worry about anyone gnawing on this hard bone.
Unfortunately, from the very beginning of planning the Dragon Sparrow Army, Han Qian and Shen Yang had invested so many resources and efforts into Mount Qiuhu, building that defensive system. Yet after Xinchang Marquis Li Pu, Zheng Chang, Han Daoming and the others saw Anning Palace control Jinling, not one dared defend it. They immediately fled east in panic, even allowing over ten thousand elderly, weak, women and children to be captured by Anning Palace for execution.
Thinking of this, Yuan Guowei also felt deeply pained. But unfortunately, with the Grand Consort, Zheng Chang and others present, they would absolutely never admit that abandoning Mount Qiuhu was an extremely mistaken choice.
Mount Mao was much smaller than Mount Baohua, stretching north to south only about twenty li, extending east to west only seven to eight li. Its mountain and river situation was far inferior to Mount Baohua. And they had only three thousand remnant troops in hand, yet needed to protect forty to fifty thousand women and children.
However, taking Mount Mao as their fortress and withdrawing to defend Mount Mao was still far better than being trapped defending Danyang city.
***
***
“…”
The sky was cloudless and clear. Standing on the riverbank looking toward the northeast, one could see black smoke billowing over Danyang city. Xinchang Marquis Li Pu stood there for a long while not knowing what to say. His heart surged with tumultuous waves, unable to find a moment’s calm:
That bastard Han Qian had actually led three thousand remnant troops to attack Danyang city, defended by two thousand Chuzhou army elite? And here at Yanling Wharf, aside from temporarily organizing over a thousand able-bodied women into a women’s battalion, that bastard hadn’t left a single soldier to defend!
Wasn’t that bastard afraid that after tearing up the alliance, Prince Xin would dispatch three to five hundred elite cavalry to slaughter these forty to fifty thousand unarmed elderly, weak, women and children?
Xinchang Marquis Li Pu’s heart churned with enormous waves.
Today was three days after the agreed date when Han Qian had said they could return to Yueyang on their own. Li Pu had felt something was wrong before dawn. Unable to wait, as soon as the horizon showed its pale belly, he sent people from the compound where they were confined under house arrest into the town to investigate. Only then did they discover that Yanling Wharf’s remnant troops had suddenly vanished completely, gone without a trace.
Li Pu had thought that bastard Han Qian was ruthless and cruel, abandoning the women and children, taking the few remnant troops and fleeing by night. In his heart, he rather hoped this was so. But soon he saw firelight flickering faintly from Danyang city’s direction.
Only then did he realize that after nightfall yesterday, Han Qian had taken advantage of the Chuzhou army’s lack of vigilance, leading his troops to infiltrate near Danyang city under cover of darkness. Then, taking advantage of the dim period when dawn was breaking but not yet bright, he killed his way into Danyang city, tearing the alliance between Chuzhou and Tanzhou to shreds without any scruples.
Han Qian’s bold recklessness and unorthodox tactics once again deeply shocked Li Pu.
He didn’t know what made Han Qian think that with three thousand remnant troops he could capture Danyang city. And even if he took advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness to capture Danyang city, how many men could he have left? And with what could he face the fifty thousand Chuzhou army elite who had already crossed the river, burning with fury?
Didn’t that bastard know that Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan need only extend one little finger to crush the forty to fifty thousand elderly, weak, women and children here at Yanling Wharf into powder?
Didn’t that bastard know that the alliance between Chuzhou and Tanzhou, even if only the last false skin remained, couldn’t be easily torn apart?
Yueyang had long ago issued proclamations throughout the realm, angrily denouncing Anning Palace and the Crown Prince for murdering the Late Emperor and usurping the throne. The two sides could absolutely never reconcile or compromise. Now tearing up the alliance with Chuzhou as well—could Yueyang possibly be enemies with both Anning Palace and Chuzhou simultaneously?!