Jingshan Hermitage was the name of a market town at the southeastern foothills of Baohua Mountain. In earlier years, a hermitage hall had been built there, from which the name derived. Located at the junction of water and land routes from Runzhou City to Jinling, like Longhua Wharf and Yanling Wharf, it was a major town outside Jinling’s periphery where merchants and travelers gathered and the population was densely settled.
Xu Zhu, a direct general of Anning Palace and Deputy Commander of All Armies’ Field Camps, was cut down from his horse by Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan on a low slope ten li west of Jingshan Hermitage.
More than thirty thousand Southern Court Imperial Guards cried out for their fathers and mothers, killed until they abandoned helmets and armor, leaving corpses scattered everywhere with blood flowing like rivers.
Even now, in the long-abandoned fields with overgrown wild grass outside Jingshan Hermitage town, one could still occasionally find severed fingers, hands, and feet that had been cut off and rotted beyond recognition.
Palisade walls extended for several li, connecting with trenches formed by ditches, wrapping the enormous town inside. Over these two months, Jingshan Hermitage had transformed into a massive fortified camp.
Tall and sturdy arrow towers and watchtowers had been built, and thick rammed earth walls crisscrossed throughout.
Although the camp-city lacked proper thick city walls, through palisades, trenches, and numerous obstacles like chevaux de frise and caltrops, it had constructed a relatively reliable defensive system. The elite vanguard of Chuzhou Army relied on this to maintain a standoff with the Southern Court Imperial Guards and Shouzhou Army stationed at Qiuhu Mountain and Jiangcheng City.
Even though the Southern Court Imperial Guards led by Xu Zhu had suffered devastating losses, the Southern Court Imperial Guards, Tower Ship Navy, Palace Guards, and Shouzhou Army controlled by Anning Palace combined still numbered one hundred sixty thousand troops.
Particularly the Shouzhou Army—under Xu Mingzhen’s command, having fought the Liang Army in the Huaixi region for years, their combat effectiveness was no less than the Chuzhou Army’s, and far superior to the newly reorganized Southern Court Imperial Guards, whose morale was unstable.
The various prefectures of Chu and Yang north of the Yangtze River and east of Hongze Marsh, as the foundation of Chuzhou, required sufficient elite troops stationed there to guard against Xu Mingzhen raising forces to directly raid their rear. Therefore, although Chuzhou had been recruiting soldiers during this time and expanded total forces to one hundred twenty thousand, currently they could only deploy fifty thousand elite troops across the river.
On the southern bank, the Chuzhou Army remained at a significant numerical disadvantage. Moreover, Anning Palace continued to draw elite forces from Shouzhou to strengthen defenses and military momentum on Jinling’s eastern front.
Of the fifty thousand Chuzhou troops currently across the river, Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan personally led thirty thousand elite as vanguard forces at Jingshan Hermitage, closely watching the remnants of Southern Court Imperial Guards at Qiuhu Mountain just twenty li away and the Shouzhou Army that had moved south to Longhua Wharf and Jiangcheng City.
The other elite Chuzhou troops that had crossed the river were mainly stationed along the line from Dantu to Beigu Mountain’s Jingkou City.
Although the great victory at Jingshan Hermitage had tremendously intimidated the prefectures and counties east of Jinling, due to remaining at a numerical disadvantage, the territory directly controlled by Chuzhou Army on the Yangtze’s southern bank was still limited to cities within Runzhou near Dantu.
Slightly more distant prefectures and counties mainly exchanged grain and fodder for peaceful coexistence with Chuzhou Army.
Even more distant prefectures like Hu, Xiu, Hang, and Yue that Chuzhou Army couldn’t yet reach—while sitting on the fence and watching, they didn’t forget to seize the time to recruit soldiers and expand prefecture battalions, so that when they eventually had to make a choice, they would hold more bargaining chips. These prefectures even had ambitious individuals secretly plotting something.
Therefore, regarding the overall situation, Chuzhou was far from being able to laugh aloud.
Under these circumstances, when the remnants of the Taowu Market military households brazenly raided and seized Danyang, then burned it to ruins, ordinary Chuzhou generals naturally raged with fury, eager to immediately gather forces to tear the remnants of the Taowu Market military households to shreds. But generals who truly understood the greater situation felt as if a needle had been viciously stabbed into their vital lower back—appearing to draw little blood but piercing to the heart.
Wang Wenqian had been at Beigu Mountain yesterday morning inspecting the water camp construction when he learned of Danyang’s attack. At first uncertain, he didn’t know if elite Shouzhou troops that had crossed the river the previous day had somehow bypassed their reconnaissance network to raid Danyang.
Who could have guessed then that Han Qian had infiltrated Jinling and seized military authority from Marquis Xinchang Li Pu?
Even after Qin Ran’s side quickly determined that Taowu Market military households’ remnants had struck, Wang Wenqian and other Chuzhou generals worried more that Yueyang might be secretly colluding with Anning Palace out of fear of Chuzhou Army’s might after the great victory at Jingshan Hermitage.
At that time, Chuzhou forces at Jingshan Hermitage were on high alert like frightened birds. Rather than immediately organizing troops to counterattack in retaliation, they worried more about potential movements from the Southern Court Imperial Guards and Shouzhou Army elite stationed at Longhua Wharf and Qiuhu Mountain area.
Wang Wenqian also rushed to Jingkou and Dantu immediately to inspect defenses for vulnerabilities, avoiding being exploited by Anning Palace forces.
Not until this morning’s predawn, when Wang Wenqian reached Jingshan Hermitage to meet with Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan, did their scouts near Maoshan capture several Taowu Market military household family members and learn through strict interrogation that Han Qian had secretly arrived in Jinling four days ago, replacing Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and taking command of the remnant military households.
Only then did they confirm that Yueyang had no collusion with Anning Palace. Besides the fact that Han Qian and Anning Palace shared blood feuds impossible to resolve, the Southern Court Imperial Guards and Shouzhou Army at Baohua Mountain’s southern foothills and Jiangcheng City had shown absolutely no appropriate response to Han Qian’s raid on Danyang City for a full day and night.
Even so, regarding how to handle Danyang’s attack, the Chuzhou generals gathered at Jingshan Hermitage still had major disagreements.
The moment Zhang Ping, Lin Haizheng and others entered Maoshan to meet with Han Qian, inside Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan’s temporary princely residence at Jingshan Hermitage, the vast hall was filled with over ten generals and officials seated in two rows—all core figures who had crossed the river with Prince Xin—discussing how to respond to Danyang’s attack.
The core generals and officials seated in Chuzhou Army included great generals at Commander level like Rao Geng, Su Xingzhou, and Zhao Zhen, and senior advisors like Chief Secretary Wang Wenqian and Palace Gate Commissioner Ruan Yan.
Military commanders like Rao Geng and Su Xingzhou thought more directly. With their strong will, now that Danyang had been attacked and they had confirmed Yueyang had no collusion with Anning Palace while Han Qian commanded only three thousand remnant weak troops, they naturally strongly advocated immediately deploying forces for firm retaliation to eliminate the southern threat.
However, Wang Wenqian and Palace Gate Commissioner Ruan Yan had deeper concerns.
Deploying forces for retaliation to annihilate Han Qian’s three thousand remnant troops in one stroke would certainly be good, but the problem was that Han Qian had assisted Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu in defending Xichuan only three years ago, and organized forces in Xuzhou to help Yang Yuanpu destroy the Ma family just last year and the year before.
Taowu Market’s three thousand remnants under Marquis Xinchang Li Pu had low morale and unstable military spirit, weak to the point of helplessness. But yesterday under Han Qian’s command, they brazenly dared raid Danyang City guarded by Chuzhou elite and captured it at minimal cost—was their morale still low, their military spirit still unstable?
How many troops would they need to dispatch to be confident of capturing Maoshan in one strike?
Although Yueyang had no prior collusion with Anning Palace, and the Southern Court Imperial Guards and Shouzhou Army stationed at Qiuhu Mountain and Jiangcheng showed no reaction whatsoever to Danyang’s destruction, when they deployed forces to attack Maoshan, would Anning Palace continue remaining silent with no reaction?
Han Qian’s brazen military raid destroying Danyang could very likely change the strategic situation around Jinling. They needed to consider response strategies from deeper levels and larger perspectives.
After half a day’s discussion, especially after receiving afternoon reports that an elite cavalry force of three to four hundred had departed from Jilong Mountain in northern Xuanzhou at night and reached western Maoshan by morning to join Han Qian, the Chuzhou generals finally abandoned thoughts of immediately organizing forces to storm Maoshan in retaliation, deciding to temporarily hold troops steady and observe how the situation developed over the next few days.
After the generals and officials dispersed, Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan kept Wang Wenqian behind to speak privately.
Yang Yuanyan was tall with a mighty physique, sporting thick short whiskers on his upper lip. Extremely similar to the young Emperor Tianyou, his rather deep-set eyes gave his appearance a somewhat sinister quality. Seated behind the long desk, he took the tea cup passed by Consort Gu Mei and looked toward Wang Wenqian, saying:
“Yueyang must have perceived your siege strategy and sent Han Qian here…”
Beyond needing to block information from Anning Palace, the siege strategy—driving hundreds of thousands of civilians into Jinling City to consume Jinling’s grain stores, thereby inciting civil unrest and disrupting Anning Palace’s defense—was rather vicious.
Therefore, at any time, the siege strategy couldn’t be publicly discussed and could only be deployed as quiet contingency moves.
Neither Yang Yuanyan nor Wang Wenqian believed Han Qian acted to save Jinling’s common people. After all, from Yueyang’s perspective, after witnessing Chuzhou Army’s might in the Jingshan Hermitage battle, they wouldn’t sit by and watch Chuzhou easily capture Jinling and occupy the entire Jianghuai region. They might even hope for Chuzhou and Anning Palace to mutually destroy each other so Yueyang could ultimately reap fisherman’s profits.
As for whether Yueyang had actually sent Han Qian to sabotage their siege strategy, Wang Wenqian remained doubtful, saying: “Scout cavalry infiltrated Maoshan and captured several unimportant women and children, learning through interrogation that Han Qian seized military authority from Li Pu rather discordantly. After raiding Danyang, Han Qian didn’t lead his troops south or east toward Taihu’s shores to retreat, but rather embedded himself like a nail in Maoshan. There are too many inscrutable aspects. Currently we have too little information and need further confirmation to understand his true intentions.”
“But matters cannot wait until you’ve clarified all doubts before handling them. By then, even daylilies will be cold,” Yang Yuanyan said with a stern expression.
“Yes, Your Highness,” Wang Wenqian replied.
“What do you think we should do about this?” Yang Yuanyan asked.
Wang Wenqian pondered briefly, organizing his thoughts from the past day, and recommended: “Your Highness should dispatch troops to take over Jintan and Liyang cities, defending them firmly, while separately deploying three thousand elite cavalry to patrol between Danyang, Jintan, and Liyang. If combat opportunities arise, seek to annihilate Han Qian’s forces; if no opportunities exist, never rashly storm Maoshan, lest we be exploited by Han Qian.”
Yang Yuanyan nodded, saying: “Correct. Regardless of whether Yueyang perceived our siege strategy and sent Han Qian, our taking strategic control of Jin and Li cities east of Maoshan has great benefits. On one hand, we should now further cut communications between Jinling and the prefectures and counties of Jiangnan East Circuit. With Han Qian occupying Maoshan as a buffer, we needn’t worry about Anning Palace dispatching large forces to encircle and launch strong raids. One or two thousand armored infantry defending each of Danyang, Jintan, and Liyang cities will suffice, though we must guard carefully to prevent another Danyang-style raid. This will also force the forty to fifty thousand old, weak, women, and children under Han Qian to procure grain only west of Maoshan. This way, your siege strategy remains flawless, and we can use this to apply pressure on various counties in Su and Hu prefectures.”
“In this humble minister’s view, although Han Daoxun has great talent, he’s still somewhat easier to handle than Han Qian. Your Highness must never take Han Qian lightly,” Wang Wenqian said.
“I understand this. I’m thinking of using this opportunity to establish a separate southern front camp to manage military and political affairs, with headquarters in Jintan. Zhao Zhen is steady and measured with excellent strategic thinking—I’ll send him as Camp General Manager to command there. Besides Zhao Zhen’s six thousand cavalry and infantry, he can recruit another four or five thousand troops locally. Blockading the territory east of Maoshan while managing grain and troop procurement should be more than sufficient—Yin Peng is quite familiar with Han Qian’s situation, so assign Yin Peng to Zhao Zhen as Military Adjutant,” Yang Yuanyan said.
“If Your Highness considers matters so thoroughly, the southern front should be secure,” Wang Wenqian said.
“I plan to have Ruan Yan supervise the rear formation at Dantu while you remain at my side for planning. Every step forward must be taken with extreme care—I fear my considerations may have oversights,” Yang Yuanyan said.
“Yes,” Wang Wenqian responded.
“Qin Ran carelessly lost the city, causing Danyang’s destruction and unsettling military morale. What do you think should be done?” Yang Yuanyan asked in a calm tone.
“The crime of losing the city deserves punishment. How to handle it is Your Highness’s decision,” Wang Wenqian said.
“Then summon him back to the main camp. Allow him to lead charges three times—if he doesn’t die, pardon his crime of losing the city,” Yang Yuanyan said.
“Your Highness is wise,” Wang Wenqian said.
Wang Wenqian knew Prince Xin’s treatment of negligent officers was historically severe with no room for pleading. If he pleaded for Qin Ran, besides intensifying His Highness’s suspicions of private dealings between them, it might even increase punishment for Qin Ran.
……
……
Taking leave from Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan, Wang Wenqian returned to his temporary lodging courtyard at Jingshan Hermitage and sent guards to find Yin Peng. Half an incense stick’s time later, Yin Peng walked in looking worried.
Wang Wenqian’s heart sank abruptly. He signaled everyone else to withdraw and asked Yin Peng: “Still no news of Jun’er?”
“Maoshan is now filled inside and out with old, weak, women and children from Taowu Market. It’s easy to capture a few scattered women and children from the periphery, but our people still have no way to infiltrate Yinyun Hermitage to find the young miss,” Yin Peng said guiltily. “I should have brought the young miss to Dantu earlier.”
“Jun’er will protect herself. Besides, Han Qian and his chaotic troops won’t know Yinyun Hermitage is one of our secret communication points. Jun’er may simply be trapped inside Maoshan,” Wang Wenqian said. “Once Maoshan’s interior defenses aren’t so tight, Jun’er will find a way out herself.”
Of course, though Wang Wenqian said this, he understood more clearly in his heart that this was likely just self-consolation.
From current intelligence, when Han Qian led remnants retreating into Maoshan, their armor and weapons had been replaced—and not from plunder after raiding Danyang. Qin Ran’s forces defending Danyang were mostly light cavalry without so many lamellar or scale armors. Today they sent scout cavalry infiltrating Maoshan’s edges and saw that quite a batch of soldiers in Maoshan had changed into lamellar and scale armor.
This indicated Maoshan contained some war materiel stored against contingencies—this was also an important reason Wang Wenqian opposed hastily organizing forces for retaliatory counterattack. They temporarily couldn’t spare more troops. Hastily organizing four or five thousand to go might suffer another devastating blow, making the situation even uglier. Better to station those four or five thousand in cities like Jintan and Liyang to blockade Maoshan from the east.
The three thousand troops under Han Qian’s command were a different concept from the three thousand remnants under Marquis Xinchang Li Pu.
Moreover, Marquis Xinchang Li Pu had led remnants retreating to Yanling east of Maoshan beforehand without dispatching large forces into Maoshan, seemingly unaware that war materiel was secretly stored in Maoshan.
Many doubts here remained unclear to him, but regardless, he could now confirm Han Qian had long noticed Maoshan’s strategic position and should have long surveyed conditions of Maoshan’s numerous Taoist temples and hermitages.
At this point, it was hard to say Han Qian definitely hadn’t noticed suspicious aspects of Yinyun Hermitage.
Seeing worry between Wang Wenqian’s brows, Yin Peng said: “How about I personally lead a team into Maoshan to find the young miss?”
“When she followed my father to Xuzhou, that was already too willful. With the nation’s fate at stake, how can personal feelings be indulged?” Wang Wenqian shook his head, suppressing worry in his heart, and told Yin Peng: “His Highness is determined to establish a camp in Jintan to oversee Danyang, Jintan, Liyang and other cities, appointing Zhao Zhen as Camp General Manager. He wants you to serve Zhao Zhen as Military Adjutant. I also think you’re quite suitable—after all, you’re more familiar with Han Qian’s situation…”
“With Han Qian occupying Maoshan, if we don’t resolve this, I fear your siege strategy will be difficult to implement?” Yin Peng said worriedly.
According to their original plan, the remnants led by Marquis Xinchang Li Pu were both a tool to consume grain stores south of the capital and disturb the region, and bait to lure Southern Court Imperial Guards or Xuanzhou forces. The next step would drive Marquis Xinchang Li Pu’s remnants west toward Caishi—Li Pu harbored thoughts of fleeing, so leading remnants west toward Caishi, also on the Yangtze’s southern bank, wouldn’t even require deliberate driving.
With Li Pu leading remnants and forty to fifty thousand old, weak, women and children westward while they deployed small numbers of elite cavalry to harass localities from left and right, they would gradually form a buffer zone from Jinling’s east and south all the way to Caishi where people fled and abandoned their homes, severing Jinling’s connection with Xuanzhou and Shezhou to the south, ultimately achieving their goal of cutting Jinling’s communications with Jiangnan East Circuit prefectures and counties.
Now they stationed troops in Jintan and Liyang, blockading passages for Han Qian to retreat east to Taihu’s shores. But should they directly insert troops into the gap between Maoshan and Xuanzhou to the south?
If they didn’t insert troops there, communications between Jinling and Xuanzhou and Shezhou could never be severed.
Yin Peng was extremely familiar with Han Qian, knowing he was exceedingly difficult to handle, but they couldn’t avoid battle out of fear.
Wang Wenqian nodded, saying: “Perhaps His Highness must first fight another battle with Southern Court Imperial Guards and Shouzhou Army at Chishan Lake’s shores before he can turn back at leisure and deploy more forces to deal with Han Qian. When you go to the southern front with Zhao Zhen, never act rashly in the short term—just ensure Han Qian finds it difficult to break through eastern blockades…”
Yin Peng nodded, indicating he remembered this matter.
……
……
After Taowu Market garrison military headquarters was established, land on Chihu Mountain’s northern shore was carved out from Jiangcheng County.
Now Qiuhu Mountain, serving as Taowu Market military headquarters’ core, faced Jiangcheng City on Chishan Lake’s southern shore across the water.
Late April in Jinling already held some summer heat.
Zhao Mingting wore battle armor, standing atop Jiangcheng County’s city walls, braving the blazing sun and gazing toward faint blue mountains beneath the southern clear sky.
After the Jinling incident, Zhao Mingting served as deputy general to Xu Zhu, leading thirty thousand Southern Court Imperial Guards west along Chishan Lake’s northern shore, intending to completely eradicate Dragon Sparrow Army remnants near Jinling City and expel Chuzhou troops who had crossed the river, then numbering fewer than ten thousand.
That way, they could smoothly control all of Jiangnan East Circuit, eastern Zhejiang, Poyang Lake, and Huaixi regions.
Who could have imagined their devastating defeat at Jingshan Hermitage?
While other defeated troops fled panic-stricken toward Jinling abandoning helmets and armor, Zhao Mingting remained somewhat calmer, first leading direct troops to withdraw to Qiuhu Mountain, then using Qiuhu Mountain’s defensive system to block several waves of strong attacks by Chuzhou cavalry, rallying scattered troops and successfully blocking Chuzhou Army’s pursuit east of Qiuhu Mountain.
For his merit in rallying scattered troops, Zhao Mingting formally became one of six great Commanders under Southern Court Imperial Guards, first commanding over ten thousand remnants defending Qiuhu Mountain. When Shouzhou Vice Military Governor Xu Mingzhen and Shouzhou Army’s great general Zhou Zhen—second only to Xu Mingzhen and brother-in-law to Empress Dowager Xu—led forces across the river southward, Zhao Mingting yielded Qiuhu Mountain to Zhou Zhen and moved his forces to Jiangcheng City south of Chishan Lake.
This way, relying on Tower Ship Navy warships and great vessels entering Chishan Lake, Jiangcheng City and Qiuhu Mountain formed mutually supporting positions, containing Chuzhou Army on the eastern wing, unable to advance westward half a step.
Regardless, Zhao Mingting didn’t believe that delaying the situation would benefit them more. But the battle at Jingshan Hermitage not only unsettled military morale but also set many officials’ minds wandering in Jinling City. Without perfect preparations, engaging the Chuzhou Army in another hasty battle was inadvisable.Who could have imagined that at this time, Yueyang’s remnant forces in Jinling—Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, who had once jointly issued denunciation proclamations with Chuzhou and fought alongside Chuzhou Army at Jingshan Hermitage—would launch a surprise attack on Danyang City guarded by Chuzhou Army and burn it?
That’s right—Zhao Mingting still didn’t know Han Qian had seized military authority from Marquis Xinchang Li Pu. They too were in extreme shock. But their understanding of Maoshan wasn’t as urgent as Chuzhou Army’s. The scout cavalry they dispatched merely reconnoitered intelligence at Danyang, Yanling, and Maoshan’s periphery.
Honestly, Zhao Mingting and other Anning Palace generals even suspected this was a ruse jointly staged by Yueyang and Chuzhou.
“Commander, this is a proclamation transmitted from Maoshan to surrounding market towns. Yesterday it wasn’t Marquis Xinchang Li Pu’s forces that struck Danyang City—it was Prince Tan’sMansionCounselor-Consultant Han Qian who has arrived in Jinling!” Over ten cavalry galloped through the setting sun, raising clouds of dust. Arriving before Jiangcheng’s southern gate tower, one person couldn’t wait for the gate to open and directly tied a recently confiscated proclamation to a stone and threw it up the city wall, calling out loudly.
“What?”
Hearing his subordinate’s shout before the city, Zhao Mingting could hardly believe it. He reached out to catch the proclamation thrown up the city wall and saw Han Qian in this proclamation copied and distributed to surrounding market towns claiming to accept appointment from Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu and Hunan Executive Secretariat as Jingzhao Prefecture and Jiangdong Prefectures Pacification Commissioner to suppress rebellion, specifically organizing Chishan Rebellion-Suppressing Army at Maoshan, ordering surrounding Jingzhao Prefecture and Jiangnan East Circuit prefectures and counties to provide grain, taxes, and corvée labor for his use, conscripting slaves and official slaves from Jingzhao Prefecture counties into military service, rewarding merit fields for military achievements, with no families permitted to obstruct…
“What is this fellow trying to do? Has he truly gone mad, not afraid of offending everyone under heaven?”
Duke Yingguo, Imperial Clan Administrator Yang Tai had come to Jiangcheng today to comfort the troops. Hearing Han Qian was in Jinling, he was greatly shocked. Seeing the proclamation’s contents startled him even more. He completely couldn’t guess what Han Qian—who shared blood feuds with Anning Palace—suddenly appearing in Jinling to first raid and destroy Danyang City in Chuzhou Army’s hands, then issue such a proclamation, intended to accomplish.
Zhao Mingting’s thick brows furrowed tightly…