Standing before the window, watching as Feng Yi, Kong Xirong, and others were all persuaded to leave by Feng Liao, Han Qian shook his head and couldn’t help but sigh. Looking at Xi Ren’s bright and captivating face, he said with a bitter smile, “Only now do I more deeply comprehend what is meant by ‘the tree desires stillness, but the wind will not cease’! Sometimes this wind not only blows fiercely from outside, but there’s no peace within either!”
“Then compared to you, wouldn’t Prince Tan’s side be like standing on the mouth of a volcano ready to erupt violently at any moment?” Xi Ren walked to the window, standing shoulder to shoulder with Han Qian, gazing out at the mulberry and elm trees whose yellow leaves had all fallen. Counting on her fingers, she said, “Setting aside external troubles—his birth mother schemes for power, his elder brother is like a tiger, his father-in-law like a wolf, his consort a fox. Originally he had a master he could rely on and who would support him, but now that master must hide in the shadows to watch his good show. Tell me, how long can Prince Tan endure?”
“It seems perilous at every turn, but I ask you—throughout history, how many have been able to grasp such power at his age? Whether he can emerge from this dangerous situation depends entirely on his own fortune and character. If I don’t wisely protect myself now, I’ll find it hard to escape mortal danger. And even if I were willing to sacrifice myself now, even if I told him all my secrets, he might not believe me. And even if he believed me, he might not be patient enough to wait for the right opportunity. In reality, there’s nothing I can do—it would be of no help to the overall situation. On this point, I still fall short of my father.” Han Qian shook his head with a bitter smile.
“If you told Feng Liao about Li Zhigao’s secret, could Feng Liao comfort everyone’s restless thoughts?” Xi Ren turned her head, fixing her gaze on Han Qian.
“Actually, Feng Liao is the most difficult to deal with. Before the Feng family met with disaster, he already had ambitions to establish merit and career. After the Feng family’s misfortune, his resentment runs deepest. As for Feng Yi and Kong Xirong, though they normally don’t seem particularly close to Feng Liao, they greatly respect his ability to plan matters. The others have simpler temperaments—perhaps they care more about whether their women and children can be better settled. If even Feng Liao can settle his mind, the others won’t pose any major problems,” Han Qian said.
“So there isn’t a single person who doesn’t fall within your calculations, is there?” Xi Ren’s beautiful eyes gave him a sidelong glance.
“But being human is exhausting. Now my mind can finally barely settle down. This time I can return to Xuzhou to recuperate for a year or two. Otherwise, this youth will truly turn white-haired from worry.” Han Qian took Xi Ren’s soft, snow-white hand and said, “Help me check—have I grown a few white hairs during this period…”
Though he said this, he was actually trying to pull Xi Ren into his embrace.
Xi Ren glared at Han Qian and said reproachfully, “You keep saying you want to return to Xuzhou to observe mourning—is this the attitude of someone in mourning?”
“In my heart I respect my father’s selfless dedication and his aspiration to aid the world and save the people, but what does that have to do with vulgar customs?” Han Qian said with a smile.
“You certainly think openly about it, but if I indulge your lustful heart, in others’ eyes, won’t I become some kind of seductive wanton woman bewitching her master?” Xi Ren moved to stand behind Han Qian, undid his hair bun, picked out a white hair to show him, and said, “White hairs can’t be plucked—otherwise the more you pluck, the more will grow.”
Standing behind Han Qian, Xi Ren massaged his shoulders. Her eyes fell on the books at the desk, where there were lines of small characters annotated by Wang Jun with a writing brush dipped in ink. She asked, “Wang Wenqian has already withdrawn to Yangzhou—how long do you intend to detain his daughter? But speaking of it, it’s difficult to handle. You can’t release her, can’t keep her, and you can’t very well bind her and take her back to Xuzhou, can you?”
“What do you think should be done?” Han Qian turned around, grasping Xi Ren’s soft hand in his palm and asking.
“Yao Xishui, Zhang Ping, Yuan Guowei, and others all know she’s at your side. It seems you can only hand her over?” Xi Ren stared at Han Qian and asked.
“Come, let’s go ask her together where she wishes to go,” Han Qian said.
Xi Ren hadn’t wanted to go see Wang Jun together with Han Qian, but she was also curious to see how such an extremely intelligent woman as Wang Jun would decide her own departure or staying.
Nominally, Wang Jun was still a war prisoner under detention and supervision, so she and two personal maidservants lived in a detached courtyard in a corner section of the government office, with several guards constantly on watch around them.
When Han Qian and Xi Ren pushed open the door and entered, Wang Jun was sweeping up fallen leaves in the courtyard together with her maidservants. Seeing Han Qian walk in, she quickly said, “I read some idle books last night, so I haven’t finished revising the册子 you wanted—perhaps I’ll need to give it to you two days later.”
“The Yueyang forces have already captured Jiangzhou. Your father will withdraw with the Chuzhou Army to Yangzhou in the next couple days. If you want to rejoin your father, I’ll send someone to escort you to Liyang right away,” Han Qian said.
“Ah, Jiangzhou has already been taken—so quickly.” Wang Jun tucked back her scattered hair, gazing with some melancholy over the west courtyard wall toward the distant mountains. After a moment she turned back to look at Han Qian and asked, “After this battle, will you return to Xuzhou?”
Xi Ren observed Wang Jun with great interest.
Although they had met a few times, both had maintained their respective positions without much intimacy, so there wasn’t much understanding between them. But the matter of Han Qian relinquishing his military command to return to Xuzhou—even many close associates like Feng Liao couldn’t fathom it, yet this “outsider” Wang Jun understood Han Qian’s thoughts best.
“…” Han Qian looked at the slightly confused expression in Wang Jun’s beautiful eyes and nodded somewhat reluctantly.
Wang Jun lowered her head to look at the fallen leaves at her feet and said softly, “It will only be a month or two before you join Prince Tan. At that time, hand me over to Prince Tan! Even if the Yueyang forces capture Jinling, they’ll need to recuperate. And even if they send troops across the river, they’ll attack Shouzhou first. By then I might be able to return to Yangzhou to see my father.”
“Very well.” Han Qian nodded.
……
……
In mid-October, the Yanjiang Pacification Army and Jiangxi Pacification Army—over a hundred thousand troops—used barely half a month to capture all of Jiangzhou territory with devastating force, completely joining Huzhou and Jiangxi into one continuous territory.
After the Chuzhou Army was forced to withdraw north of the river under threat from the Liang Army, Yueyang still had nearly forty thousand elite fighting forces entrenched in northern Xuanzhou, practically pressing their sharp fangs savagely against the throat of Anning Palace.
If the great families and noble houses of the realm still couldn’t see clearly where the overall situation lay at this point, they would truly be blind.
On the nineteenth of October, Guangde Army Supervisor Zhang Ping arrived at Nanxun City, the administrative seat of Huzhou. Huzhou Prefect Huang Hua came out to respectfully welcome him. The next day, his youngest son, three young legitimate grandsons, and several dozen other clan members followed Zhang Ping in relocating to Xuancheng. Subsequently, he and his eldest son Huang Tianxing submitted memorials to Yueyang, raised the banner of punishing rebels and criminals, mustered their forces aboard over a hundred warships large and small, and took the Taihu water route to recover Jiyang, Wuxi, Jinling, and Yanghu counties—all left empty after the Chuzhou Army withdrew.
At this time, the last batch of Chuzhou Army also departed Jiangnan by ship, withdrawing to Yangzhou on the northern bank.
The situation now became even more distinct.
Though Shouzhou Military Commissioner Xu Mingzhen still controlled over forty thousand elite Shouzhou troops in Chuzhou and Shouzhou, at this moment he dared not act rashly. He was even forced to withdraw the garrison stationed in Shuzhou back, to prevent the Chuzhou Army that had retreated north of the river from taking advantage to expand westward across Hongze Lake.
Though Anning Palace’s garrison in Jinling and the surrounding areas totaled one hundred twenty to thirty thousand troops, over the past half year they had been suppressed by the Chuzhou Army west of Baohua Mountain, unable to catch their breath or advance eastward even an inch. Military supplies had been in constant shortage, leaving both combat strength and morale quite low.
Now with the Chuzhou Army withdrawing north, Yueyang’s main force of one hundred twenty to thirty thousand troops advancing eastward along the river from the west with lightning speed, and nearly forty thousand elite Guangde Army troops eyeing them hungrily from the south—how would they dare divide their forces to seize cities like Dantu and Danyang in Runzhou to the east?
It was just that as the Left and Right Guangde Armies divided forces to occupy Pingling, Lishui, Liyang, Danyang and other cities, with Huzhou forces occupying Jiyang, Jinling and other cities, the Southern Bureau Forbidden Army dared not contract their eastern and southern defense lines. In haste, they merely dispatched thirty thousand troops to reinforce Chizhou, hoping to block Yueyang’s main forces west of Chizhou so they could free their hands to first deal with the Guangde Army to the south.
Unfortunately, by this time the situation had completely ceased to favor Anning Palace.
Compared to Huzhou Prefect Huang Hua’s submission, the actions of Hangzhou Prefect Wu Zun and Xiuzhou Prefect Chen Fan came only slightly later.
By the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth of October, Wu Zun and Chen Fan personally led over ten thousand local troops from both prefectures, along with over a thousand carts loaded with grain and several thousand cattle and sheep, arriving at Langxi to accept deployment by the Guangde Army Commissioner’s Office.
Han Qian didn’t require them to camp outside Langxi city, but instead ordered them to continue westward.
Standing at the city gate tower, Han Qian gazed at the dark mass of troops marching westward through the northern gate. The ground was frozen solid, and the sound of boots and hooves trampling the frozen earth gathered together, like a howling cold wind.
After Jiangnan entered winter, the damp cold weather wasn’t too unbearable, but the most painful thing for marching was around noon, when the frozen ground was just beginning to thaw under the sun, turning the mud ridges into a soft, muddy mess. One footstep would sink in, requiring tremendous effort to extract and take the next step. Therefore, marching usually took place at dawn or dusk when the mud ridges were most solidly frozen.
Most soldiers’ robes weren’t thick, but their spirits were quite strong.
Han Qian had no intention of competing for glory with Li Pu, Gu Zhilong, and others. Now was the time for the great families and noble houses to pour their blood into fighting for the new emperor’s enthronement.
The Southeast Route, counting Hu, Xiu, and Hang prefectures plus the Left and Right Guangde Armies, had only sixty thousand troops total. Before Yueyang’s main force arrived, pressing directly to the walls of Jinling would undoubtedly be a foolish move.
Even if Li Pu, Gu Zhilong, and others were eager to establish merit, they wouldn’t make this mistake.
Han Qian could choose not to send the Left Guangde Army out as the main force, but as Commissioner, all military units were under his command, so all operational plans for the Southeast Route had to receive his final confirmation.
Han Qian’s first order was to command Huzhou Prefect Huang Hua to lead Huzhou’s main forces to garrison Yanghu and Jinling cities, having them pin down enemy forces south of Baohua Mountain from the east, consolidate local forces in Su, Run, and Chang prefectures, and guard against the possibility of the Chuzhou Army making a sudden return strike. However, he didn’t expect the Huzhou forces to serve as main combat troops, nor did he have them assault Baohua Mountain directly to fight the Southern Bureau Forbidden Army’s main forces.
Han Qian’s second order was to command Lin Haizheng to lead his forces to garrison Maoshan, and Chen Mingsheng to lead his forces to garrison Lishui, keeping watch from the south over the Southern Bureau Forbidden Army stationed in Jiangcheng and other cities to the north.
Third, he ordered the forces arriving from Hangzhou and Xiuzhou to proceed directly westward, join with the Right Guangde Army led by Li Pu, Gu Zhilong, and others, and advance directly westward along the northern foothills of Mount Jiuhua.
The Yangtze River waterway, from Jiangzhou city all the way to Jinling, flowed in a diagonal line roughly from southwest to northeast.
In other words, departing from the post road between Xuancheng and Jilong Mountain, heading straight west, after capturing Nanling and Fanchang counties, one could water horses at the Yangtze’s edge, cutting off communication between Chizhou and Jinling from the east.
As a riverside major city and the relay point between Chizhou and Jinling, Fanchang was heavily defended. Once subjected to strong attack, the Southern Bureau Forbidden Army couldn’t possibly not send reinforcements. So Han Qian didn’t expect Li Pu and Gu Zhilong to immediately attack Fanchang. Instead, he required them to capture Nanling county seat, located at the northern foot of Mount Jiuhua eighty li west of Xuancheng, before the end of November.
To protect the riverside region between Chizhou and Jinling, Nanling county seat had always been garrisoned by over five thousand Southern Bureau Forbidden Army troops.
Whether in terms of city fortifications, garrison size, or distance from Xuancheng, it was extremely suitable as the first target for the Right Guangde Army to establish merit and career.
Entering November, while the Yanjiang Pacification Army and Jiangxi Pacification Army completed their encirclement of Chizhou city, Li Pu and Gu Zhilong led ten thousand Right Guangde troops plus ten thousand local forces led by Hangzhou Prefect Wu Zun and Xiuzhou Prefect Chen Fan, pressing toward the walls of Nanling city…