Gao Shao worked through the night preparing for withdrawal, mainly loading the supplies they had captured from the vicinity of the east city onto carts and rounding up over two hundred cattle, horses, mules, and other large livestock. By dawn the next day, while the temperature had not yet heated up, he sent someone to inform Li Pu. Seeing Li Xiu lead troops to take over defense of the east city, he and Zhang Ping led two thousand soldiers and broke camp to head for Donglu Mountain.
Lishui City was only thirty-some li from the northern foot of Donglu Mountain, connected by a post road. They reached Donglu Mountain by noon.
At this time, scouts returning from the rear brought news that Li Qi had led two hundred cavalry out of Lishui City before noon. On the southern shore of Dutang Lake, with inferior numbers he routed over three hundred Southern Court Imperial Guard cavalry who had come from Jiangcheng City to probe for military intelligence.
In this small-scale cavalry engagement, Li Qi’s troops killed over a hundred enemy cavalry on the spot, with casualties of fewer than ten themselves.
Although Li Qi commanded few cavalry, this probably frightened the Southern Court Imperial Guards in Pingling, Jiangcheng, and other cities into silence—they probably wouldn’t even dare send scouts and reconnaissance riders into the northern territory of Lishui County, right?
Gao Shao left the troops to rest in the temporary camp at the mountain’s base. He and Zhang Ping first rushed to Shang Family Fort to see Han Qian.
“…From the looks of it, Marquis of Xinchang can’t wait to establish his own distinctive presence in Lishui City!”
Aside from Lin Haizheng, Zhao Wuji, and others leading the Chishan Army’s First Command elite forces to garrison the northern foot of Mount Mao, watching the Southern Court Imperial Guards and Chuzhou Army to the north and northwest, Feng Xuan, Zhou Chu, Zhao Qi, Kong Xirong, and others led portions of the Second and Third Commands along with Guard Battalion elite troops. They had all moved south to Donglu Mountain over the past two days and were encamped around Shang Family Fort.
Large numbers of elderly, weak, women, and children were also racing against time to migrate south in batches.
Currently the passage southward along the western flank of Mount Mao was completely open. As the battle situation continued and food shortages in Jinling and nearby counties persisted, large numbers of civilians would continue fleeing south to escape famine. More servants would come with their families to submit. Han Qian needed to seize this time to evacuate the elderly, weak, women, and children south and east.
Gao Shao entered the great hall inside Shang Family Fort and informed Han Qian about Li Pu’s eagerness to incorporate Lishui’s aristocratic families and force Lishui descendants to kill prisoners as proof of loyalty. In front of Zhang Ping, he bluntly exposed Li Pu’s current intentions.
Han Qian rested his hands on the long table, sat up straight, stretched comfortably, and said calmly:
“What’s surprising about this? If Marquis Li wants to establish his own distinctive presence, it’s nothing more than sending someone to Yueyang to request a new banner.”
Zhang Ping hesitated for a moment, then said: “Since the late Emperor founded Great Chu’s foundation, over these years efforts have been made to limit the scale of each family’s private soldiers. It was only with great difficulty that Imperial Guard and Palace Guard soldiers were all incorporated under the jurisdiction of various garrison military offices, no longer privately owned by any family. Now Marquis Li is allowing submitting aristocratic families to directly command private soldiers incorporated into battalions—this is somewhat regressive. I wonder what Prince Li Yu would think if he knew of this?”
Seeing that Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu, along with Li Xiu, Li Qi, and other young Li clan generals, had obediently been stationed at Little Mao Peak for nearly a month, Zhang Ping could more or less guess that Li Yu was very likely hiding somewhere in Mount Mao or nearby.
Currently Yueyang’s forces in Jinling seemed to have won two or three battles, but in reality they were still pitifully weak. He did not want Li Pu and Han Qian each doing their own thing and developing serious differences, causing the small opening Yueyang had worked so hard to create here to be destroyed in one fell swoop.
Perhaps neither he nor Han Qian could dissuade Li Pu from stubbornly going his own way, but he believed Li Yu’s words would carry absolutely sufficient weight.
By saying this, he meant that Han Qian should perhaps formally meet Li Yu once.
Zhang Ping’s suggestion that Han Qian go see Li Yu was echoed by Gao Shao, Yuan Guowei, and others, who also felt that if Li Yu was near Mount Mao, meeting him might be more advantageous to the situation.
Han Qian shook his head, not feeling this was the right time to meet Li Yu.
When the time was truly right, Li Yu would appear on his own—why would he need to send people searching all over the mountains?
Moreover, he did not think meeting Li Yu would really yield any good results.
Han Qian’s state of mind had undergone many changes. He might understand the thinking of the Li family’s younger generation and Li Yu’s helplessness better than anyone.
Once upon a time, had he shown even half a shred of recognition for his father’s political ambitions?
Once upon a time, hadn’t he been full of thoughts that his father’s political ambitions were an impediment to him, at one point trying every means to overcome this impediment?
Li Yu not appearing while having Li Xiu and Li Qi lead people to join Li Pu probably also showed he was very clear about the thinking of the Prince’s Mansion’s younger generation, right?
What Han Qian needed to do now was not to invite out Li Yu, who did not wish to appear, to forcefully suppress Li Pu and young Li family generals like Li Xiu and Li Qi. Rather, he needed to guide the situation, let Li Pu and the others play their proper role, and first endure through the current difficulties.
Seeing that Gao Shao, Zhang Ping, Yuan Guowei, and others still had bellies full of complaints, Han Qian consoled them:
“Troops have no constant configuration, methods have no fixed form. In urgent times, one needs all the more to act expediently. If Marquis Li insists on this, it may not necessarily be a bad thing. Prince Xin yesterday also ordered the establishment of a new military office at Beigu Mountain, conscripting able-bodied servants from Dantu, Danyang, and Jingkou counties as military households to supplement insufficient troop strength in various battalions.”
“The Chuzhou Army could conscript thirty to forty thousand able-bodied men from these three counties to supplement their battalions, right?” Although Wang Wenqian’s daughter Wang Jun had long ago pointed this out, predicting it would ease the aristocratic family resentment Han Qian bore for issuing orders to conscript servants into military service, when it actually happened, Zhang Ping and Gao Shao were still alarmed.
After all, aside from bearing aristocratic family resentment and hostility, the Chishan Army faced even more direct and urgent threats from the Chuzhou Army and Anning Palace.
The Chuzhou Army’s forces south of the Yangtze River would soon break through a hundred thousand. Then they would no longer divide forces to the southern front in scales of two or three thousand like adding oil to a lamp. It was extremely possible they would send twenty or thirty thousand troops thundering south.
Especially after the Battle of Shang Family Fort—the Chishan Army should have drawn sufficient attention from Prince Xin and the Chuzhou Army.
Han Qian pressed his hand on the long table and said: “That’s why I say, the situation is perilous and changes moment by moment. If Marquis Li is willing to do more, willing to shoulder more responsibility, it’s always a good thing.”
As far as Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu was concerned, since he chose to remain even after having military authority seized, he was certainly unwilling to be subordinate to Han Qian. Yao Xishui chasing after Zhang Ping and Lin Haizheng to rush to Jinling but not appearing at the first opportunity was even less the mark of someone who would behave dutifully.
From Li Pu and Yao Xishui actively requesting to attack Lishui City, Han Qian was very clear about their thinking. He was not at all surprised that they could easily capture Lishui City, or that after incorporating the surrendering aristocratic families, they would impatiently establish their own independent system.
From the Qin and Han dynasties through the previous dynasty’s thousand-plus years, the court had no specialized institution for cultivating military officers and mid to high-level commanders. Training was mainly completed through internal transmission within military families—this was also intricately and deeply entangled with the sociopolitical foundations of aristocratic families.
Li Yu, as Great Chu’s foremost general, even after years in retirement—merely people like Chai Jian, Li Chong, Zhou Shu, Zhou Yuan, and Chen Mingsheng could not reflect the true underlying foundation of the Li clan as the premier military aristocratic family since Great Chu’s rise.
The emergence of young Li family generals like Li Xiu and Li Qi, seizing opportunities to shine brilliantly on the battlefield—what was surprising about that?
Under the valiant fighting of young Li family generals like Li Xiu and Li Qi, easily capturing Lishui City, Li Pu’s confidence swelling, wanting to establish an independent system based in Lishui and no longer be constrained by Han Qian’s side—what was surprising about that?
As for Li Pu regressively adopting the troop system, incorporating submitting aristocratic families and allowing aristocratic family descendants to directly control private soldiers incorporated into battalions—Han Qian was even less surprised.
Bottom-tier servants suffered cruel exploitation. The vast majority were illiterate, physically weak, burdened with families, bloated and clumsy. In the eyes of Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu, who had experienced the formation process of Taowu Garrison Military Office and the Dragon Sparrow Army, they might not be so wretched, but Taowu Garrison Military Office’s incorporation of famine refugees into the army still consumed most of half a year before showing brilliant performance in the Jingxiang warfare.
Did they have half a year or more in Jinling? Could they gather enough grain to feed so many troops? Could they have an undisturbed garrison area covering hundreds of thousands of mu to settle servants’ families and put their hearts at ease?
Many problems brought by the Chishan Army conscripting servants into military service and rapidly expanding forces could not be concealed even by conquering Shang Family Fort. Naturally Li Pu saw all this too!
Not to mention that the position Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu and others stood on was naturally opposed to bottom-tier servants.
Allowing submitting aristocratic family descendants to lead private soldiers incorporated into battalions and recognizing aristocratic families’ absolute control over private soldiers and retainers, although it would limit Li Pu’s control over newly organized troops to merely command over submitting families, as long as each family’s dependents were concentrated within Lishui City, effectively becoming hostages under their control, at least in the short term there was no need to worry about their loyalty.
This could also maximally reduce the pressure on them to gather provisions and military pay, maximally reduce the difficulty of mobilizing and organizing troops, and avoid dispersing the limited elite forces in their hands.
To be honest, if Han Qian were not bearing his father’s dying wish, unwilling to see Jinling strewn with corpses of the starved, if there were not currently an extremely narrow path he could walk, he too would be unwilling to shoulder this huge and fragile snowball on his back.
Even with the lessons and experience of the dream world to reference, Han Qian was very clear in his heart that under current social conditions, trying to successfully mobilize, rouse, and organize the bottom-tier populace was truly too difficult.
Li Pu being able to act this way in Lishui City—Li Xiu, Li Qi, Yao Xishui, and others should all agree.
No matter what, the greater the momentum Li Pu created in Lishui City, the more it could reduce pressure on their western flank.
What would Han Qian go find Li Yu for now? Did he lack even this bit of patience with Li Pu?
Not only would Han Qian not go find Li Yu, he was thinking of sending the aristocratic family descendants and clansmen captured when Shang Family Fort was conquered to Lishui, handing them to Li Pu for incorporation. He said to Zhang Ping: “I must also trouble Administrator Zhang to make a trip and send these people to Lishui…”
“Ah?” Zhang Ping was very surprised. The Han Qian of the past was so high-spirited and assertive. Detaining these people would at least count as a form of constraint on families submitting to Li Pu. He asked uncertainly: “You really want to send these people to Lishui City?”
“I have no habit of killing prisoners. Keeping these people consumes two to three hundred jin of grain daily,” Han Qian said. “Unless Marquis Li’s side is unwilling to take them over, I can only continue to detain them at Shang Family Fort…”
“Marquis Li might claim these people were demanded from Minister Han.” Zhang Ping said.
He did not think Li Pu would refuse. After all, taking these people back to Lishui City would only be more advantageous for his control and cultivation of submitting aristocratic families. But he sensed that given Li Pu’s nature, he might claim these people were forcefully demanded from Han Qian.
“How could I let Marquis Li take advantage of me like this? I will say that Administrator Zhang forcefully demanded them from me.” Han Qian smiled.
“I dare not claim this merit.” Zhang Ping said modestly.
“To weather hardships together and maintain peaceful coexistence, I must ask Administrator Zhang to expend more effort.” Han Qian said seriously.
He was not giving Zhang Ping this favor for nothing. The reason he attributed this merit to Zhang Ping was also to facilitate Zhang Ping’s liaison between Lishui and Donglu Mountain, and to make Li Pu feel better in the short term, inflate his confidence further, and take bigger and more resolute steps.
Zhang Ping pondered for a moment. He always felt Han Qian’s reaction to Li Pu’s actions in Lishui was too indifferent. He thought Han Qian could not possibly truly believe he could peacefully coexist with Marquis of Xinchang, but he nodded and accepted this matter.