“Damn! These dog thieves are quite clever—they stubbornly refused to take the bait!”

Han Donghu led just under two hundred men to the ruined stockade at the northern foot of Lianyun Ridge to rendezvous with the forces led by Lin Jiang. Seeing only a dozen or so corpses on the ground while more enemy spies had already fled into the depths of Lianyun Ridge under cover of night, he frustratedly whipped the broken walls with his riding crop.

The battle to recover Chaozhou had been ongoing for nearly a year. Most of the local people had already been displaced from their homes, fleeing elsewhere. Within a radius of two to three hundred li, few signs of human habitation could be seen. Moreover, Chaozhou territory was filled with hills and shallow ridges, which made it easy for small groups of elite scouts to infiltrate and lie in wait without being detected.

Even though Han Qian suspected that Liang army scouts had infiltrated and were lurking within Chao and Chu prefectures, he had no way to discover their whereabouts. However, considering that if Liang scouts were truly lurking nearby, they would certainly be watching Li Zhigao and the others’ every move at all times, he had Han Donghu and the others wait like hunters by a tree stump, watching Li Zhigao and the others, waiting for the infiltrated Liang scouts to reveal a weakness.

When Wen Ruilin, Lei Jiuyuan, Shen Peng and the others split into two groups to ambush the messengers Li Zhigao sent to Zhongli, Han Donghu and his men successfully captured their tracks.

Targeting the small group of enemy spies taking shelter in the ruined stockade at the northern foot of Lianyun Ridge, Han Donghu had Lin Jiang lead his forces in a frontal assault from the east, intending to flush out the prey, while he led over two hundred elite troops in ambush on the necessary route from the northern foot of Lianyun Ridge toward the southwest of Haozhou.

Han Donghu thought that after the enemy spies were startled, they would hastily rush to rendezvous with Xu Mingzhen and the elite Shouzhou forces, allowing him to catch them off guard.

He had not expected this group of enemy spies to be so cunning. Aside from a dozen men who broke out westward in scattered groups, the main force fled into the depths of Lianyun Ridge.

Although Lianyun Ridge appeared small, it was not something their four to five hundred men could completely blockade and surround.

Moreover, the Shouzhou army had twenty thousand elite cavalry stationed eighty to ninety li away. Now that the situation had changed drastically, perhaps large groups of enemy cavalry had already dispersed to seek opportunities for battle.

In terms of cavalry, after Yang Yuanpu ascended the throne, the Forbidden Army had never been able to organize a cavalry force of any scale, let alone contend with the Liang army’s iron cavalry.

The only cavalry unit of any scale the Chu army previously had was in Xu Mingzhen’s hands.

Han Donghu and Lin Jiang dared not linger here too long. After capturing three live prisoners, they rode south in the faint dawn light beginning to show in the eastern sky.

……

……

“I never expected Lei Jiuyuan would be right there in Lianyun Ridge. At the time, I really shouldn’t have withdrawn so quickly—I should have continued the pursuit!” After interrogating the three captives, Han Donghu learned that besides Wen Ruilin who had escaped from the main Chaozhou camp and General Shen Peng and the others, even Lei Jiuyuan, a trusted minister of Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang, had been right there in Lianyun Ridge. He stamped his feet in regret.

“People die for wealth, birds die for food—ultimately it comes down to the word ‘greed.’ The reason various schemes succeed is mainly by exploiting human greed,” Han Qian said to Han Donghu with a smile. “When you can know that a figure like Lei Jiuyuan is in the mountains yet still calmly assess the situation to determine whether to advance or retreat—that’s when you’ll have mastered military strategy.”

“Yes,” Han Donghu replied shamefully.

“Since Lei Jiuyuan has personally infiltrated near Chaozhou, Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang must either be hiding in Xuzhou or hiding in Yingzhou!” Feng Liao came over and said.

“Indeed, the situation is truly bizarre. But we shouldn’t over-speculate about our opponent’s schemes—just do our own work well!” Han Qian stood at the foot of a low hill by the river beach, gazing at the overcast sky to the north, and nodded.

After meeting with Yao Xishui at Li Zhigao’s residence and obtaining the Empress Dowager’s secret edict at Yandang Promontory, he had not directly followed the three merchant ships to Yueyang to rendezvous with the Xuzhou Naval Camp when it arrived. Instead, he went to meet up with Feng Liao, Su Lie and the others who had withdrawn to Na Mountain.

As long as Li Zhigao, after receiving the Empress Dowager’s secret edict, could persuade the various generals to abandon the forced assault on Chaozhou city and not be exploited by the Liang army and Shouzhou army, and as long as the Xuzhou Naval Camp could timely enter the Yangtze waterway to ensure the remnants of the Tower Ship Army dared not come in to blockade the Huaixi Forbidden Army’s retreat route, the situation would generally not collapse.

What Han Qian cared more about at this time were the nearly one hundred thousand refugees who had fled south of Hongze Lake and west of Fanliang Lake due to the chaos of war.

This also concerned how the Xuzhou Naval Camp would establish itself in the Jianghuai region in the future.

The situation in Guangde Prefecture was generally still trending toward stability. The former Guangde army troops and their families who were truly deprived of their fields and residences numbered only fourteen to fifteen thousand when combined. Even if all these people were relocated to the eastern region of Chuzhou north of the Yangtze, the force would still be quite weak, insufficient to become the foundation for the Xuzhou Naval Camp to establish itself in Jianghuai.

But if they could gain these one hundred thousand refugees gathered within Shiliang County’s territory, the situation would be completely different.

“After Lei Jiuyuan and Wen Ruilin suffered Han Donghu’s surprise attack, in their haste they could only send people to contact Xu Mingzhen, having him lead the Shouzhou cavalry to insert themselves into the southeast of the Wujian Mountain Range to block the Right Divine Martial Army’s retreat route. The situation is still extremely favorable for us—should I go see Zhou Dan now?” Feng Liao asked.

Although they had failed to capture big fish like Lei Jiuyuan, Wen Ruilin, and Shen Peng, they had captured three live prisoners, and the information obtained from interrogating them was extremely critical.

As long as the Shouzhou elite cavalry, within the next two days, directly penetrated to the Yandun Mountain and Biezi Peak area, in the short term they would certainly first try to annihilate the main Right Divine Martial Army force currently remaining north of Yandun Mountain and Biezi Peak. Then they could arrange personnel to encourage the refugees east and south of Yandun Mountain and Biezi Peak to relocate toward the riverside region.

Only in this way, after the Xuzhou Naval Camp entered the Yangtze waterway, could these wanderers and refugees be utilized by Xuzhou.

However, to truly achieve this objective, there was still a prerequisite condition: they had to control a defensible city along the river to shelter these wanderers and refugees, and even allow the former Left Guangde army troops and their families to take temporary refuge there.

Otherwise, under the trampling of the Liang army cavalry, the tens of thousands of refugees would have no ability to resist. Especially if the Liang army saw through their intentions, even if they could not drive these refugees into Haozhou or Chaozhou territory, they might very likely conduct merciless slaughter.

The target Han Qian and Feng Liao had currently selected was Tangyi County city, located over fifty li west of Na Mountain and facing Jinling city across the river.

Tangyi County formerly belonged to Yangzhou. After Emperor Tianyou founded his dynasty, he incorporated Tangyi into Chuzhou. In later eras, this would be the Liuhe County region of Jinling on the northern bank of the Yangtze.

In the current age, within Tongyi County’s territory, mudflats stretched endlessly and lakes and marshes crisscrossed. Without the restraint of major dikes, every summer and autumn, the northern bank of the Yangtze was flooded with great waters. Although it was right next to Jinling, it was quite dilapidated.

Although Tangyi County city was not directly adjacent to the northern bank of the Yangtze, several relatively open rivers passed through its territory, with good navigation conditions.

At this time in Tangyi County, aside from the county magistrate, county deputy, county captain and other officials appointed by the court, as it served as the gateway north of Jinling and was an important node connecting the southern Jiangnan East Circuit with Chu and Chao prefectures, and bore the important responsibility of guarding against movements by the Huaidong Army, Zhou Dan personally led Jiangzhou troops to garrison Tangyi.

After the war to suppress the vassal princes, as the Left Vermilion Bird Army’s Deputy Commander, Zhou Dan had originally led his troops to garrison Hengzhou and even served as Hengzhou Prefect for a time. But after Li Zhigao was transferred to Ezhou Prefect and led a portion of the Left Vermilion Bird Army north into Ezhou, with military and political power in Shao and Heng falling under Chai Jian’s control, Zhou Dan’s days under Chai Jian had not been easy.

After Yang Yuanpu ascended the throne, Zhou Dan was transferred to Jiangzhou Prefect.

Jiangzhou was a major prefecture, and the prefect’s rank was a full fourth grade. Zhou Dan’s appointment to this position could not be said to show Yang Yuanpu as harsh and ungrateful. But aside from a small number of household troops, the forces Zhou Dan had originally brought from the mountain stronghold had essentially been completely separated from him.

Zhou Dan as a person still preferred commanding troops in battle.

When troops from various prefectures were conscripted this time to assist the main Huaixi Forbidden Army force in combat, it should have been the Prefectural Administrator or Military Commissioner or Military Staff Officer leading the prefectural troops in response to the reinforcement call. Yet Zhou Dan personally led over three thousand Jiangzhou troops to come.

However, over the past half year, Zhou Dan had not gotten an opportunity to fight, and his forces had been stationed in Tangyi the entire time.

How many men from the Right Divine Martial Army could escape back could only be left to fate. Feng Liao thought that when he went to see Zhou Dan, besides persuading Zhou Dan to have the three thousand Jiangzhou troops firmly defend Tangyi County, he also had to persuade Zhou Dan to stand with Xuzhou’s side and accept the former Left Guangde army troops as well as the large number of refugees about to flee south from Shiliang County.

Only in this way could Tangyi County possibly mobilize more military forces to withstand enemy attacks.

“I’ll personally go see Zhou Dan,” Han Qian said with hands clasped in his sleeves.

“Won’t that be too risky?” Feng Liao asked with some hesitation.

Although the early mountain stronghold forces had been employed by Yang Yuanpu under Han Qian’s persuasion, and mountain stronghold generals like Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou naturally had closer relations with Han Qian, people’s hearts were hard to fathom. Moreover, Zhou Dan, Chen Jingzhou and the others had received considerable favor from Yang Yuanpu.

Who knew whether Zhou Dan might have peculiar thoughts if Han Qian walked alone into Tangyi city?

“A man like Zhou Dan cannot be deceived with schemes. Some matters must be laid out openly with him. Only if I personally go will it be most appropriate,” Han Qian said calmly.