The Kingdom of Shu’s sudden violation of their treaty, dispatching troops to occupy the Wuchuan River Valley that rightfully should have been Great Chu territory, ultimately caused far less of a stir in Jinling than the recent large-scale concentration of Imperial Guard forces along the Yangtze River and in Shuzhou.

Most of the scholar-gentry and prominent family scions in the capital couldn’t even figure out where the Wuchuan River Valley was located.

In the vast majority of people’s understanding, the kingdoms of Shu and Chu only shared borders in the Wushan Gorges and the upper reaches of the Han River valley.

Meanwhile, in Jingzhou downstream of the Wushan Gorges and Junzhou downstream in the Han River valley, Great Chu had elite Imperial Guard forces stationed, and no reports of unusual Shu military activity had emerged from either location.

Where exactly was the Wuchuan River Valley?

As for those scholar-gentry and prominent family scions who did know where the Wuchuan River Valley was located, they paid little attention to the Shu army’s actions.

Qianjiang and Qianzhong had originally been synonymous with barbarian territories, and Sizhou only nominally belonged to Great Chu.

In reality, the Great Chu court couldn’t dispatch even the most insignificant official to these places, couldn’t collect even half a basket of grain and taxes, and like the numerous tributary states in Qianzhong, they all remained stubbornly independent of Great Chu’s governance.

The Wuchuan River Valley was originally territory that Sizhou had just seized from the Wu tribespeople.

In fact, during the Qin and Han periods, Wuchuan had belonged to Ba Commandery in the Sichuan-Shu heartland, and during the previous dynasty it had also been part of Jiannan Circuit in the Sichuan-Shu heartland.

The Shu army seizing the Wuchuan River Valley from Sizhou—never mind the common people, even a considerable portion of court officials found it rather inconsequential.

Only those ministers with genuine political ambitions could perceive how far-reaching the loss or retention of the Wuchuan River Valley would be for Great Chu’s control over the southwestern situation.

Of course, considering that Chu and Shu both faced the threat from Liang’s military forces, and that Great Chu’s internal troubles north of the Yangtze hadn’t been completely resolved, most ministers at court didn’t advocate completely breaking ties with the Kingdom of Shu.

Regarding Jingzhou and Junzhou, they merely transmitted orders for Zhang Xiang and Zheng Hui to strengthen their vigilance, with no immediate plans to increase troops for a standoff. As for the Shu envoy Wei Qun on his mission to Great Chu, they ultimately only sent troops to place him under house arrest at Duding Post Station, restricting his movements without actually imprisoning him.

There was certainly no talk of beheading him in humiliated rage to demonstrate a complete severing of relations with the Kingdom of Shu.

Carefully analyzing the mindset of Shu’s ruler and ministers, it was perhaps precisely because they anticipated Great Chu would react this way that they felt they could take advantage of Sizhou’s internal chaos to dispatch troops and occupy the Wuchuan River Valley without harming the overall situation of Shu-Chu cooperation. They believed that as long as they could successfully control the Qianjiang passage first, Chu’s ruler and ministers would ultimately choose to compromise and tacitly accept this fait accompli.

After Pacification Commissioner Huang Hua arrived in Hunan and facilitated the Sizhou civil unrest ending with this outcome, Shen Yang, Yang En, along with Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Yang Zhiyuan and others were all satisfied.

Without deploying resources from Hunan’s heartland on a large scale, they had quelled the civil unrest, preserved Sizhou, and prevented the possibility of Shu forces completely controlling the Qianjiang passage.

Even the most demanding critic would acknowledge that no one else dispatched to Hunan could necessarily have done better than Huang Hua.

The court also avoided falling into the embarrassing position of having to compromise with Shu forces.

Precisely because of this, the court could now resolve to transfer six hundred thousand shi of grain from the Hunan Branch Secretariat as military provisions and pay to be transported to Shuzhou, making final preparations for the next phase’s comprehensive offensive against Chaozhou.

Even though Xuzhou gained considerable benefits in the process—including that after recovering Wuchuan, the Salt and Iron Bureau Supervisor position established by the Hunan Branch Secretariat in Wuchuan County would temporarily be controlled by Xuzhou to repay the grain, weapons, and armor borrowed from Xuzhou during this period.

But all of this still fell within the tolerance of the ministers of the Policy Council.

After all, Xuzhou hadn’t directly annexed Sizhou and hadn’t displayed overly inappropriate ambitions. The court had even, for the first time, directly extended its reach into the remote mountains along the Qianjiang.

Otherwise, deploying troops and dispatching generals to that desolate place of Sizhou to confront Shu forces—who knew how much grain and resources would be consumed before the situation could be stabilized.

This would also affect the entire situation, directly impacting Great Chu’s deployments and military plans in other areas.

As for whether Marquis Qianyang Han Qian was truly docile and obedient at heart, the ministers of the Policy Council felt there was no need to be overly concerned.

As long as Huang Hua, Wu Zun and others could truly grasp control of Hunan’s situation, with spare capacity to first attack the rebel forces occupying Yongzhou, the Hunan Branch Secretariat would then have elite troops and abundant supplies with no external threats to worry about. How could they fear that remote places like Xuzhou and Sizhou could stir up any significant disturbances?

For Great Chu as a whole, if this upcoming offensive could smoothly recover Chaozhou and Shouzhou and annihilate the Anning Palace rebel forces, the situation of internal and external troubles tormenting them from both sides would completely turn around.

At that time, with capacity to transfer a division of Imperial Guards to garrison the Wuchuan River Valley, withdrawing the three thousand Tianping Metropolitan troops to rest and reorganize in Hunan’s heartland—could the Marquis of Qianyang brazenly obstruct this?

Currently along the Qianjiang line, with Xuzhou forces providing rear support, Tianping Metropolitan forces threatening from the flank, and Sizhou and Chenzhou forces jointly intercepting from the front at Shiqian, it was actually quite difficult and extremely risky for Shu forces to continue pushing south along the treacherous Qianjiang River valley.

Under current circumstances, Great Chu’s court didn’t need to worry in the short term about any major changes in the Wuchuan River Valley situation. Even if there was stalemate and back-and-forth struggle, they didn’t need to fear the situation deteriorating further.

Ultimately, subsequent developments in the Wuchuan River Valley no longer affected the overall situation.

At this point, Shen Yang, Yang En, Yang Zhiyuan, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang and others—even including Marquis Xinchang Li Pu—still advocated for Li Zhigao to lead his forces in attacking Chaozhou as soon as possible, lest complications arise from delay.

However, Emperor Yanyou issued several consecutive imperial edicts ordering the Hunan Branch Secretariat to urge Tianping Metropolitan forces to dispatch troops to recover the Wuchuan River Valley early, and insisted on waiting until Shu forces were expelled from the Wuchuan River Valley before deciding whether to launch an offensive against Chaozhou.

Even though Shen Yang and others believed that whether the Wuchuan River Valley campaign progressed smoothly wouldn’t affect the overall situation, and worried that delaying the Chaozhou campaign might have subtle negative effects on military morale, with Emperor Yanyou so insistent, they had no recourse.

They could only continuously apply pressure on the Hunan Branch Secretariat, ordering Tianping Metropolitan forces to strive to launch an offensive against the Shu forces occupying the Wuchuan River Valley before year’s end, sparing no cost to expel Shu forces from the Wuchuan River Valley as quickly as possible.

After the rebel army troops and Sizhou forces underwent nearly five months of brutal offensive and defensive warfare, three thousand soldiers were finally selected for incorporation into Tianping Metropolitan forces. In terms of individual soldier quality, they generally met acceptable standards.

However, even with Xuzhou providing abundant material supplies, armor and weapons all supplied according to Xuzhou infantry battalion standards, and with Xi Fa’er, Dou Rong, Han Bao and others leading over a hundred training officers to assist Tan Yuliang in conducting comprehensive intensive crash training for Tianping Metropolitan troops, trying to complete combat preparations against Shu forces within a month was extremely rushed.

Nevertheless, besides Fu Gengwen and others representing the Hunan Branch Secretariat remaining at Hujian Pass to supervise the battle, Pacification Commissioner Huang Hua directly transcribed Emperor Yanyou’s imperial edict and the Bureau of Military Affairs’ official correspondence to Tan Yuliang and Fu Gengwen, applying pressure on them.

Huang Hua increasingly projected an attitude that if they continued delaying without fighting, he would transfer troops from Shaozhou into the Wuchuan River Valley to engage in combat.

Chai Jian had previously worried about military authority being usurped and hadn’t heeded Huang Hua’s summons, but now with Emperor Yanyou issuing several consecutive imperial edicts urging battle, nothing could be taken for granted anymore.

According to the original plan, with Xuzhou not directly dispatching troops, Han Qian could only mobilize logistics support with maximum efficiency at the fastest speed.

With Xuzhou’s assistance and abundant material support, Fu Gengwen and others extracted nearly ten thousand adult men and sturdy women from the rebel soldiers’ families, deploying them into the southern slopes of Caojing Ridge and the northern foothills of Panlong Ridge at maximum speed.

These people dispersed along the Wuling Mountain trail connecting Hujian Pass to the Wuchuan River Valley, working day and night to repair and widen this winding path of about one hundred and forty li that crossed sixteen mountain ridges of various sizes.

Meanwhile, Xuzhou also deployed over a thousand able-bodied laborers who used wheelbarrows or directly carried supplies on their shoulders, transporting bags of grain and bundles of arrows through the winding path into the forward outpost established by Tianping Metropolitan forces at Qingyan Temple on the eastern flank of the Wuchuan River Valley.

Just before the deadline set by the Policy Council and Bureau of Military Affairs, large numbers of Tianping Metropolitan troops officially departed from Qingyan Temple on the northwestern slope of Xiage Mountain, entering the interior of the Wuchuan River Valley to engage in combat.

War doesn’t always feature clever stratagems and brilliant schemes—the vast majority of the time it consists of bloody, brutal confrontation and slaughter.

Shu forces had already established firm footholds in the Wuchuan River Valley, building fortified strongpoints, with warships able to move freely on the Qianjiang.

In comparison, Xuzhou couldn’t possibly transport warships from the Ruan River system into the Qianjiang of a different water system.

Meanwhile, Sizhou’s shipyard within Shiqian County territory was pitifully small-scale with poor technical standards, only able to build small awning boats and rowboats, unable to compete with Shu warships on the Qianjiang.

Under these circumstances, Tianping Metropolitan forces could only forcibly advance to the Qianjiang riverbank, enduring pressure from Shu forces’ combined land and water attacks to establish strongpoints, then use cyclone cannons to occupy strategic cliff positions and blockade the hundred-plus zhang wide Qianjiang channel, suppressing Shu warships to the lower reaches of the Qianjiang.

This process appeared simple but was an extremely bloody and brutal tug-of-war.

Particularly in the early stages, with the winding path’s transport capacity extremely limited and large amounts of excellent war equipment unable to be transported over, Tianping Metropolitan forces paid terribly tragic prices to secure each foothold.

Only in later stages, after large quantities of excellent war equipment were transported up, did Tianping Metropolitan forces avoid falling into disadvantage, though casualties remained substantial.

After all, the Shu forces occupying the Wuchuan River Valley were also elite combat units with war equipment and armor no weaker than theirs. Both sides essentially entered into the most brutal war of attrition.

In the short term, neither could deliver a fatal blow to the other. However, in reality, whoever couldn’t withstand such attrition first, whoever showed fatigue first, would fail in this tug-of-war and ultimately be defeated.

Transporting troops and supplies from Hujian Pass through the treacherous post road into the Wuchuan River Valley placed even greater logistical pressure on Xuzhou than transporting supplies five hundred li by water from Yuzhou into the Wuchuan River Valley.

However, the most favorable aspect of the situation was that Shu forces faced an even more serious threat to their rear than Tianping Metropolitan forces and the Sizhou and Chenzhou forces.

That is, Shu forces had previously only opened the Qianjiang passage without promptly conducting comprehensive suppression of the Wu tribespeople who had fled into the deep mountain forests on both flanks of the Qianjiang.

When they concentrated their main military resources at one end of the Wuchuan River Valley, Shu forces’ control over the nearly five hundred li of winding waterway from the Wuchuan River Valley to Yuzhou naturally weakened.

The Wu tribespeople’s counterattacks from the deep mountain forests appeared small in scale, but their short, sudden raids every few days caused Shu forces to suffer frequent casualties that accumulated into significant numbers.

With their supply lines threatened, the morale of Shu forces holding and fighting in the Wuchuan River Valley was further destabilized.

The fighting continued until late February of the second year of Yanyou. Tianping Metropolitan forces initially fielded three thousand troops, twice drawing upon the last able-bodied men from the families to replenish their ranks, but under the attrition of the tug-of-war, ultimately had fewer than two thousand combat-capable soldiers remaining.

Shu casualties were slightly better, and it seemed Shu forces with more troops and generals could better withstand attrition. However, as Wu tribal attacks along both banks of the Qianjiang became increasingly frequent, and mountain tribespeople in southern Sichuan began large-scale mobilization with momentum to advance into Qianjiang, reclaim Banan, and regain control of salt sources, Shu forces ultimately couldn’t hold out first and chose to withdraw from the Wuchuan River Valley.

……

……

After the Wuchuan campaign ended, Han Qian accompanied the latest grain transport convoy into the Wuchuan River Valley. Surrounded by guards, he stood atop a cliff face resembling an eagle soaring in the sky, gazing down at the surging Qianjiang waters flowing mightily northward below.

As winter departed and spring arrived, water plants flourished, the river revealing vibrant green hues. Along the riverbanks remained wreckage of sunken warships.

The Wu tribespeople had rebuilt a fortified settlement on the ruins of old Wuchuan city not far away, which was subsequently occupied by Shu forces. The damaged walls still bore stains of blood and flesh not completely washed away by these past days’ steady drizzle.

Truthfully, with more adequate time—even just one more month—to conduct more thorough training of Tianping Metropolitan troops, or waiting for the Wuling Mountain winding path to be slightly widened into a standard five-chi post road facilitating transport of more Xuzhou war equipment to the Wuchuan River Valley, they could have expelled Shu forces from the Wuchuan River Valley with far fewer casualties.

Rather than the current situation where Tianping Metropolitan forces were nearly crippled and decimated, unable to restore combat effectiveness for one or two years.

Although nearly twenty thousand civilians would subsequently migrate here at maximum speed, from the uprising at Panlong Ridge to the recovery of the Wuchuan River Valley, over six thousand able-bodied men had either died in battle or been disabled by severe wounds. This meant these women, children, and elderly would have to endure far more arduous hardships to establish roots and thrive in the Wuchuan River Valley.

In this era, able-bodied men remained the primary source of labor.

For Tianping Metropolitan forces to maintain a standing army of two thousand in the Wuchuan River Valley essentially meant no able-bodied male laborers would participate in subsequent garrison farming.

This degree of sacrifice could certainly be called extremely tragic for the rebel army.

Tan Yuliang, who had once been ambitious and full of aspirations to compete for merit and fame again, now showed grayer hair and appeared somewhat dejected.

“His Majesty shouldn’t doubt that Your Lordship was colluding with Shu forces anymore, should he?” Zhao Zhixian said in a somewhat hoarse voice, hunched over with hands tucked in his sleeves.

Han Qian glanced back at Zhao Zhixian, hearing the resentment in his tone, feeling wronged on behalf of the soldiers who had died tragically in battle, yet unable to blame him.

Zhao Zhixian’s youngest son Zhao Fangcheng and Pei Pu, though serving as physicians not directly entering frontline battlefields, had both unfortunately perished in a surprise raid launched by Shu forces.

Zhao Zhixian had already submitted a resignation petition to the Branch Secretariat. His eldest son Zhao Fanghai firmly refused to inherit his position as Wuchuan County Magistrate—though Zhao Zhixian had earlier hoped to spend his twilight years in Chenzhong or Qianyang, he now decided that after retirement, he and his eldest son Zhao Fanghai would remain in the Wuchuan River Valley to open a medical clinic.

“The rivers and mountains of the watery realm enter the battle maps, what hope do the people have for peace in woodcutting and gathering? I beg you not to speak of enfeoffment and marquis titles—one general’s success is built on ten thousand withered bones. It’s said one battle grieves a hundred spirits, strong armies on both banks never cease. Who says the dark river is always peaceful? Lately it constantly flows with contending blood…”

These were two poems by the previous dynasty poet Cao Song about the An-Shi Rebellion. After Han Qian softly recited them, his expression became even more resolute.

He had once assumed that Shen Yang and others would prioritize advancing the campaign to recover Chaozhou. As long as Li Zhigao smoothly recovered Chaozhou and Great Chu’s internal and external troubles improved somewhat, his subsequent push for Tianping Metropolitan forces to recover the Wuchuan River Valley would face much less resistance and casualties would certainly not be so severe.

He truly hadn’t anticipated beforehand that Yang Yuanpu’s suspicion of Xuzhou would reach such an obstinate degree, even willing to delay major matters like recovering Chaozhou and annihilating Anning Palace rebel forces.

Or perhaps Lu Qingxia, Yao Xishui and their ilk had never abandoned their efforts to kick Xuzhou while it was down?

Seeing the Feng Liao and Feng Yi brothers approaching from the distance, Zhao Zhixian, having decided to retire from office, had no intention of participating in any confidential matters and dejectedly took his leave.

Han Qian didn’t try to keep Zhao Zhixian. He stood on the cliff’s edge with hands tucked in sleeves, letting the river wind flutter his robes. After a long while, he finally said to Feng Liao who had walked up behind him: “I want to restart our intelligence network in Jinling! Select personnel and submit their names to me for review!”

Though Tianping Metropolitan forces suffered tragic casualties, the outcome was still optimistic.

Hearing Han Qian’s new decision, Feng Liao’s face showed delight as he said, “Excellent, I’ll go arrange it immediately…”