After Lin Jiang dragged Liu Zishu back, Liu Zishu’s left arm was broken and severed, his face covered in blood, swollen like a peach. Clearly breathing out more than breathing in, Han Qian at this moment remembered who he was and instructed: “The face slapping punishes his loose tongue and disrespect toward the Empress Dowager. All officers and officials should take this as a warning. However, his crime today does not warrant death. Whether to add further punishment still needs to be reported to the Empress Dowager for her disposal. First drag him away and treat him well—don’t let him die.”
Seeing that Han Qian actually wanted to spare this person’s life, Feng Liao hurriedly gave him meaningful looks, thinking they shouldn’t leave this scourge alive.
However, Han Qian turned a blind eye to Feng Liao’s signals.
Although Liu Zishu had old grudges with Han Donghu and had colluded inside and out with Wei Zhen and others to harm former Left Guangde Army troops, deserving ten thousand deaths, as the one in power, he had to properly grasp the measure of balancing leniency and severity. Today was not the time to overturn the assassination case, so he could not publicly execute Liu Zishu.
As for how this person would hate him and Xuzhou, and whether leaving him alive would be a disaster, he had nothing to worry about.
Although Lin Jiang and the others were unwilling in their hearts, they dared not disobey Han Qian’s orders. They dragged Liu Zishu away for treatment, sparing his life.
With Liu Zishu serving as a cautionary example, and with Zhou Dan cooperating with Han Qian to blockade the entire city, how would the remaining Tangyi County officials and the Jiangzhou troops and officers who had accompanied Zhou Dan to reinforce Huaixi dare to find excuses not to act according to the Empress Dowager’s secret edict?
Although separated from the capital Jinling by only a river, if Han Qian and Zhou Dan hardened their hearts to kill them and silence them, to whom could they appeal for justice?
After Han Qian unhesitatingly took the main seat, Zhou Dan sat to his left. Although Spring Thirteenth Lady was currently being held by Han Qian as a hostage, since she was now acting according to the Empress Dowager’s secret edict, as the edict bearer—equivalent to a supervising commissioner—she sat to his right. Then the Xuzhou, Jiangzhou, and Tangyi officers and officials sat below them, discussing the situation.
The latest news before nightfall was that a portion of Shouzhou army cavalry had already reached Biezi Peak around noon.
At that time, the Right Divine Martial Army had troops guarding Biezi Peak. In just a few short days they had not organized a very solid encampment. Seeing the Shouzhou army’s fierce momentum made victory extremely difficult, not wanting to be surrounded in the open field, they hastily fled toward Zhongli.
Although aside from Zhou Dan, all the officers and officials in Tangyi city did not know of Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang and Xu Mingzhen’s plot, when the main Shouzhou cavalry force abandoned receiving the Chaozhou garrison and brazenly advanced east, making a posture of intercepting the Right Divine Martial Army’s southern withdrawal, anyone with the slightest knowledge of military affairs knew the situation had changed in ways they had not anticipated.
At this time, Han Qian also had no need to specify that Wen Ruilin was a Liang spy. Stating directly that the navy’s raid on Hongze Lake falling into an ambush was all a conspiracy between Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang and rebel leader Xu Mingzhen, no one questioned this, since only this could explain the current changes in the situation.
What currently needed consideration was that after Li Zhigao led the main Forbidden Army force to withdraw from Chaozhou city, from the Han Canal in Yangzhou territory west to Bijia Mountain facing Chizhou across the river—over five hundred li in depth—only the few cities of Chuzhou, Yongyang, Nanqiao, Tangyi, and Liyang remained to resist the enemy army.
Moreover, places like Yongyang, Nanqiao, and Liyang had small, broken city walls insufficient for firm defense. Chuzhou city was slightly larger, but had limited supplies and was over eighty to ninety li from the northern bank of the Yangtze, easily besieged by enemy forces.
Although Tangyi was not a large city, as the gateway location on the northern bank of Jinling, its fortifications were quite solid. It was about twenty-some li from the main Yangtze channel. When waters rose in summer and autumn, without major dikes to stop it on the northern bank, river water would even overflow to beneath Tangyi city.
Tangyi could be firmly defended without fear of siege.
Even if Han Qian did not explicitly state his intention to occupy Tangyi city, directly south of Shiliang, to gather refugees fleeing south, everyone felt they should firmly defend Tangyi. They all knew that even if His Majesty assessed the current situation prudently, he would issue an edict ordering them to firmly defend Tangyi without retreating.
Since they had to defend, next they had to discuss how to defend.
The Jiangzhou troops’ combat strength was somewhat inferior to the Forbidden Army, but Zhou Dan maintained strict discipline, so the difference was not great. However, their numbers were only three thousand.
Even if the Xuzhou Naval Camp came to their aid, they could only hastily deploy two thousand elite troops. How could they possibly contend with enemy forces on the northern bank of the Yangtze whose total troops would very likely exceed two hundred thousand?
Even with a fortified city to defend, it wouldn’t work.
As the first city recovered in Huaixi, Tangyi was also the first region where aristocratic clans and court officials sent people to stake claims on fields. With the threat of war reaching the northern bank of the Yangtze, able-bodied men from nearby villages gathering in the city numbered no less than ten thousand.
Although most of these people were household servants and slaves of aristocratic families or court officials, in urgent times there was no principle of following rules or showing mercy.
At the same time, even more refugees were stranded north of Tangyi, south of Hongze Lake and west of Fanliang Lake. If they could all be absorbed into Tangyi, they could provide at least another twenty to thirty thousand able-bodied men.
To prevent the enemy army from becoming alert and dividing forces to intercept refugees fleeing south, they still had to strictly blockade news that Han Qian was in Tangyi city. At Tangyi’s four city gates, except for orders signed by Han Qian and Zhou Dan, everyone could only enter but not leave.
Early the next morning, Su Lie and Guo Xiao led the first batch of Chishan Association members from Na Mountain to Tangyi.
The Chishan Association members and their families exceeded six thousand people. Withdrawing to Na Mountain in batches, they differed from ordinary women and children—the women and children were all organized into women’s battalions and youth battalions, orderly and disciplined. Their withdrawal speed was much faster than a disorganized mob. However, over six thousand people might still need until tomorrow to all withdraw into Tangyi.
This was fortunate because there was an old courier road to follow along the way, and the streams and rivers had all frozen solid enough to walk on. Otherwise, they would have had to collect fishing boats to build pontoon bridges along the way, which would have been even slower.
……
……
Below Chaozhou city was a scene of desolation. Hundreds and thousands of corpses were abandoned on the battlefield. Broken spears and halberds were everywhere. The city walls were also bristling with arrows.
The moat of Chaozhou city, over twenty zhang wide and connected to Chao Lake, had been filled by the Forbidden Army in three directions—east, west, and south—over most of the past period, creating six attack passages over forty paces wide. The other end of these attack passages was piled almost directly to the top of the city walls.
Around the perimeter of Chaozhou (Luyang) city, which stretched over ten li, not a single section of the city walls was intact. More repeatedly had breaches blown open by whirlwind trebuchets, with the garrison repeatedly refilling them with earth, stone, and wooden palisades.
Li Zhigao’s siege was extremely methodical, but he did attack.
Over the past half year, aside from continuously building whirlwind trebuchets to bombard the city defenders, he had also organized dozens of siege battles of various scales.
The garrison had been able to hold out until this moment not only because the grain and material supplies stockpiled in the city were sufficient, but most critically because before the battle, after excluding women and children, nearly thirty thousand able-bodied men had been driven into the city by garrison commander Wen Bo.
Wen Bo spared no cost in using these young civilian laborers’ lives to wear down the enemy bit by bit. By now he still held twenty thousand elite troops in his hands.
However, for Wen Bo to defend Chaozhou city under Li Zhigao for so long with a weak force under extremely unfavorable circumstances in all aspects—he could be called a famous general. This battle could even be counted as more meritorious than when he originally defended Chizhou city.
It was just a pity that his military achievements were another’s defeats.
Li Zhigao reined in his horse, gazing at the top of Chaozhou city. Although he clearly knew that withdrawing from below Chaozhou city was the wisest decision, he still felt some reluctance at abandoning it halfway.
“Commander, shall we return to the main camp?” Deng Tai drew his cloak tighter, blocking the cold wind from his body, and said to Li Zhigao.
Withdrawing from below Chaozhou city was only the first step. Next was how to abandon the crude Chaozhou main camp and withdraw eighty thousand troops to Shuzhou.
Li Zhigao and Yang En had repeatedly studied this and felt that with Chaozhou falling into enemy hands, if they withdrew to Chuzhou, which was slightly more north than Chaozhou, there was still risk of being besieged. Once again, in the prefectures and counties west of Shuzhou, local troops had all been emptied. If they did not firmly defend Shuzhou, the enemy only needed to divide several groups of light cavalry to stir the Jing-Xiang heartland into chaos.
Even though Han Qian had sent someone over to notify that the Xuzhou Naval Camp would join Zhou Dan in defending Tangyi, Li Zhigao and Yang En felt it was still more appropriate for the main Huaixi Forbidden Army force to withdraw and defend Shuzhou.
As Li Zhigao galloped back to the Chaozhou main camp over ten li away, surrounded by numerous guards, at this time reconnaissance riders returned to report that aside from Xu Mingzhen leading twenty thousand cavalry east last night, today they had also discovered large groups of infantry breaking camp from the directions of Shouzhou and Huozhou, heading toward Chaozhou city.
Although infantry movement was somewhat slower, they had very limited elite cavalry to send out to entangle with enemy forces—mostly coordinating in battle. This also meant they had only three or four days left.
Of course, baggage trains and civilian followers would withdraw first, prefectural troops next. Along the way there was no lack of fortified cities and stockades. With elite troops at the rear, there was no fear of problems. However, how the situation would develop afterward was unknown.
The Shouzhou army truly becoming part of Liang meant not only that Liang gained one hundred thousand elite troops for nothing—with Shouzhou’s one hundred thousand troops occupying the Huaixi region, even if Han Qian barely held Tangyi, there would be no way to completely block the Liang army’s military edge outside the Yangtze waterway.
Imagine if the capital heartland could be attacked by Liang forces at any time—what would become of the economy and people’s livelihood?
Thinking of this, Li Zhigao drew his cloak tighter, handed his warhorse to the attendant behind him. Having rushed about ceaselessly these past two days, he was utterly exhausted. He stepped toward the rear residence, wanting to rest briefly before going to find Yang En to discuss other matters.
Li Zhigao had just entered the rear residence when he saw Li Pu standing in the courtyard. He asked: “Does Father have some matter to find your son?”
Seeing Li Zhigao enter, Li Pu said with a bitter face:
“I have already become your prisoner, but Li Xiu, Li Qi, and Li Chong view you as a brother. How can you stand by and watch them die?”
“Your son sent out six waves of messengers before and after. Over forty elite cavalry died or were wounded, all intercepted by enemy forces. Father, you also know this,” Li Zhigao said. “Great Chu’s only organized cavalry force has fallen into Xu Mingzhen’s hands. Now aside from the Huai River, the gently flowing streams and rivers between Jiang and Huai have almost all frozen solid—this is the best time for cavalry to gallop freely. Your son is not standing by watching them die!”
“The enemy spy Wen Ruilin—did you not deliberately let him escape?” Li Pu still didn’t believe it, staring at Li Zhigao and asking.
“Your son said Wen Ruilin was an enemy spy, but Father didn’t believe it. How can you now suspect your son deliberately let Wen Ruilin escape?” Li Zhigao asked with a mixture of laughter and tears. But saying this, his eyes flashed as he glanced toward Su Hongyu and Yao Xishui standing in the corridor. He secretly felt that although Deng Tai’s martial prowess was outstanding and his command in battle was conventional without producing any flaws, he ultimately lacked subtlety. At the time he had been busy going to see Yang En and had specifically instructed Hongyu to carefully help Deng Tai watch Wen Ruilin to prevent any mishaps. Had something gone wrong here?
Li Zhigao grew suspicious in his heart, but his expression remained unchanged as he first dealt with Li Pu.
After he and Deng Tai entered the hall, before his expression could darken, Yao Xishui said quietly from the side: “This matter doesn’t blame Sister Hongyu. I insisted that Sister Hongyu not help Deng Tai…”
“Why?” Li Zhigao asked.
“Does Big Brother hope Li Xiu and Li Qi break out of the encirclement alone, or hope they break out leading the Right Divine Martial Army’s troops?” Yao Xishui asked.
“Ah!” Li Zhigao sighed, somewhat mentally and physically exhausted as he sat down in a chair.
Deng Tai instinctively felt an itch at the back of his neck. After thinking for a long time, he finally understood.
Considering that Liang forces must have other scouts lurking nearby, even if he could quietly dispose of Wen Ruilin along the way, at most it would only delay one or two days before enemy forces noticed the abnormality.
These one or two days made little difference to the main Forbidden Army force below Chaozhou city, since enemy forces were always watching changes in the Forbidden Army’s offensive and defensive posture below Chaozhou city. But as long as they could persuade Li Pu to submit and change to acting according to the Empress Dowager’s secret edict, one more or one less day would make a completely different fate for the Right Divine Martial Army.
Getting the news one day earlier, if Chen Mingsheng, Li Chong and the others handled things decisively, there was still possibility of leading the main Right Divine Martial Army force to escape back. One day later was the current situation where the Right Divine Martial Army was completely blocked at Zhongli. Wanting the entire army to break out would be no different from sprouting wings and flying to heaven.
However, as Yao Xishui said, Li Xiu, Li Qi and the others breaking out alone versus leading the main Right Divine Martial Army force to break out would have enormous impact on the future political situation.
If the Right Divine Martial Army preserved its strength, even if Li Pu was stripped of office and reduced to commoner status, he would inevitably still have opportunity to make a comeback.
Moreover, their next goal was to win over and restrict Chai Jian, then recruit the remaining younger members of the Eastern Zhe Prince’s household faction for their own use.
If the Right Divine Martial Army preserved its strength, how could they possibly achieve this goal?
Even if Yang Yuanpu and the court officials ultimately punished Li Pu, possibly even implicating Chen Mingsheng and the others, they would very likely have Li Changfeng come forward to reorganize the Right Divine Martial Army.
However, when Yao Xishui crossed the river to return to Jinling, they had not yet confirmed whether they could persuade Yang En to assist. Using herself to deliberately leave such a flaw—wasn’t that too risky?
What if they couldn’t persuade Yang En? What if Li Pu would rather die than obey the Empress Dowager’s secret edict?
Yao Xishui said: “Whether Wen Ruilin died or escaped has no impact on the Huaixi Forbidden Army—but if Wen Ruilin truly died so quietly, wouldn’t it mean that in the end no one would know he was a Liang spy?”
“Ah!” Li Zhigao sighed again, ultimately saying nothing…