Han Jun had never imagined that his usually affectionate uncle would, out of fear that the scandal with the Empress Dowager might be exposed and implicate him, actually suggest castrating him.
However, seeing his father not rebuking Second Uncle for such absurd words but instead sitting in silence, Han Jun’s mind fell into panicked chaos. He fell to his knees with a thud, stammering: “Father, your son truly didn’t know all this was Lü Qingxia’s conspiracy. When the Empress Dowager commanded, your son dared not disobey—”
“The Empress Dowager commanded? Could the Empress Dowager also command you to strip off your armor and climb into her bed?” Han Daoming trembled with rage as he rebuked, wishing he could kick Han Jun to the ground and personally take a knife to cut off that troublemaking root and feed it to the dogs.
If Han Qian hadn’t ripped off this lid today, he wouldn’t have known that a blade ready to fall at any moment had been hanging above the necks of the hundreds of Han family members.
Han Duan glanced at Chen Zhiyong. After hesitating a while, he still felt it better to sit to the side and remain silent.
He naturally knew his father’s suggestion still had some holes. The best story would be to secretly claim that Han Jun had injured his lower body while practicing martial arts or doing something else in his youth, leaving him with a hidden deficiency preventing him from performing intercourse. Spreading this to His Majesty’s ears without fanfare would prevent Lü Qingxia and Li Zhigao from using this matter as leverage in the future.
At this moment, a commotion came from outside the courtyard—it sounded like hundreds or thousands of armored soldiers deploying from a nearby military camp, heading north.
Han Daoming stood up with some confusion. They didn’t know what was happening in Tangyi at this moment, but suddenly mobilizing a large army was definitely no small matter.
The courtyard where they were located was part of the county office’s rear residence, with an independent entrance leading to the street outside.
After Han Qian left with his people, only the Han household servants and guards who had crossed the river remained in the courtyard.
Han Daoming and the others pushed open the door and walked out of the courtyard. Standing in the alley looking north, they could see countless torches lit atop the north gate about a li away, illuminating the dark mass inside the gate—all armored soldiers with shields and weapons.
A dozen cavalry rode back and forth, apparently counting numbers. Soon they saw the north gate slowly opening.
Not knowing what had happened, they rushed toward the north gate with their dozen guards, but were intercepted when approaching the north gate training ground.
Feng Liao saw their figures and sent someone to notify the outer sentries to let them pass.
Only then did Han Daoming see that his concubine-born eldest son Han Chengmeng was actually in Tangyi, standing with Feng Liao. He asked in surprise: “Chengmeng, how are you in Tangyi?”
“Chengmeng greets Father and Second Uncle,” Han Chengmeng saluted his father Han Daoming and uncle Han Daochang, saying, “Your son only just arrived at Qingpu Mouth this afternoon escorting a batch of grain. Hearing that Father and the others also crossed the river to Tangyi today, I could finally break away after the grain and supplies at Qingpu Mouth were counted. Your son only entered the city a short while ago. Han Qian just summoned me to inquire about grain supplies. I was thinking of going to see Father after Han Qian led troops out of the city…”
Speaking of which, it was still the good foundation laid by the several years of governance after the vassal reduction wars. Currently, for requisitioning grain and able-bodied civilian volunteers in Jianghuai, the Hunan prefectures had probably the highest degree of cooperation aside from the capital region.
To gather the deployment funds, grain, and other supplies for the Tangyi Field Command, the court’s first thought was to levy from the Hunan prefectures.
Hearing Han Chengmeng’s answer, Han Daoming nodded, thinking that Huang Hua and the others serving as Pacification Commissioners in Hunan had indeed been effective. He saw Han Qian, wearing armor and surrounded by generals, had already entered the north gate tunnel. With hundreds or thousands of soldiers preparing to file out of the city between them, it was inconvenient to walk directly over. He asked Feng Liao: “What’s happened that requires Han Qian to lead troops out of the city at this hour?”
“At nightfall, scouts rushed back reporting that over three thousand enemy cavalry had crossed Biezi Peak heading south. By tomorrow, the enemy cavalry assembled around Chuzhou will increase to over seven thousand. Additionally, the Shouzhou Army that previously arrived at Chaozhou had over eight thousand infantry advancing east along the southern foothills of Mount Fucha this afternoon. The Marquis and Zhou Dan and other generals judged that this enemy force would very likely insert itself between Tingzi Mountain and Mount Wujian, blocking the Right Divine Martial Army, navy remnants, and Chuzhou garrison from breaking south. The Marquis decided to personally lead troops to reinforce Tingzi Mountain, containing the enemy’s eastward and southward advance, to prevent the Chuzhou garrison from not daring to break out and possibly surrendering directly to the enemy…” As a participant minister who had received imperial orders to comfort the troops, Han Daoming naturally had nothing Feng Liao needed to conceal. He revealed the entire plan for the night troop deployment.
Tingzi Mountain’s range wasn’t large, but located northwest of Mount Daci, right against the north bank of the Chu River, its geographical position was extremely important. To the north, it was only thirty to forty li from Chuzhou city and the southeastern edge of the Mount Wujian range—making it a springboard for the Chuzhou garrison, Right Divine Martial Army, and navy remnants to withdraw south to the Yangtze’s northern bank.
Conversely, besides being a key point controlling the north bank of the Chu River, Tingzi Mountain was also a transfer point for the Tangyi Field Command army’s defense line to extend north from Mount Daci toward Chuzhou and advance into the Mount Wujian range.
Under current circumstances, whether to defend Chuzhou city and whether to encompass the southern section of the Mount Wujian range into the Tangyi defense line—Han Qian still couldn’t make a final decision.
This had no direct relationship with whether Han Qian dared fight hard battles. It mainly depended on the progress of troop preparations and changes in the Great Chu court situation.
If court opinions could be relatively unified, and Han Qian had twenty thousand well-equipped elite soldiers at his disposal, he would dare to rely on the Yangtze and place the defense line’s northern flank at Chuzhou city, directly building a triangular area with about a hundred li of depth—including Chuzhou city, Tangyi, and Mount Daci—into a defense zone containing the enemy army’s southern gaze toward the Yangtze.
However, too many unpredictable variables currently existed.
The troops Han Qian could use in the early stage, besides the Xuzhou River Forces, consisted of just over three thousand Jiangzhou troops, over four thousand newly organized Chishan Army troops, and over a thousand Guangde Prefecture soldiers.
Even if Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou both cooperated with him fully, the various disadvantages of chaotic command systems, incomplete armor and weapons, and unfamiliarity with newly incorporated troops couldn’t all be completely overcome in just seven or eight days.
Han Qian was even less certain whether unexpected changes might occur in court.
Therefore, the plan Han Qian currently formulated was relatively more conservative—striving first to establish a firm foothold on Tingzi Mountain’s northern slopes, ensuring the enemy couldn’t seal off the passage south from the Mount Wujian range and Chuzhou city to Tingzi Mountain in the short term.
Even so, Han Daoming felt this move was extremely risky. He asked in alarm:
“The enemy can gather fifteen to sixteen thousand troops around Chuzhou in the next day or two. Even if Han Qian has already arranged a small portion of troops at Tingzi Mountain to receive reinforcements, he can ultimately use only five to six thousand men. How can he ensure the enemy’s advance won’t directly insert itself into the open area between Chuzhou city and Tingzi Mountain?”
“The Liang army’s main force hasn’t moved south. Before the Shouzhou Army receives adequate rest and reorganization, they may not dare fight hard battles,” Feng Liao said. “Besides the Marquis and Zhou Dan leading the Jiangzhou troops and former Left Guangde Army members west, five hundred vanguard troops are already stationed at Tingzi Mountain. At this time, nearly three thousand remnant navy and Right Divine Martial Army soldiers have also withdrawn into the southern section of Mount Wujian and can emerge from Mount Wujian to fight south at any time. Chuzhou city still has over a thousand garrison troops—a battle isn’t necessarily impossible. Moreover, when narrow paths meet, the brave prevail. For us to establish a firm foothold at Tangyi, we need a victory to boost morale…”
“As supreme commander, Han Qian doesn’t seem to need to personally lead troops there, does he?” Han Daochang asked hesitantly. “If something goes wrong, wouldn’t that ruin everything?”
“We advised the Marquis. The Marquis said if he cherishes his own life, how can he demand soldiers give their lives?” Feng Liao said. “By the way, when are you crossing back to Jinling? The Marquis just specifically instructed me to see you off…”
Han Daoming glanced at Han Jun, still harboring reluctance in his heart. He signaled Feng Liao to speak to the side and asked: “Has Han Qian truly decided to withdraw back to Xuzhou after the war?”
Feng Liao’s eyes swept over Han Daoming, Han Daochang and the others, saying: “I just advised the Marquis to consider the Han family, but the Marquis said he never received any benefits or kindness from the Han family before. Even if he were to honor blood kinship, at most in the future if Han family members sought refuge in Xuzhou, he wouldn’t turn them away—but he won’t bear such great responsibility for the Han family’s rise or fall. This should be borne and sacrificed for by the Han family members who enjoyed the benefits and grace.”
Hearing Feng Liao say this, Han Daochang, Han Duan, and Chen Zhiyong all turned their gazes toward Han Jun. Han Chengmeng had just arrived at Tangyi and didn’t yet know what had happened.
“Isn’t the Han family’s full support to help him establish himself at Tangyi enough?” Han Jun asked urgently.
Seeing Han Jun’s voice somewhat loud in his urgency, Feng Liao signaled the guards on both sides to seal off the alley entrance, preventing idle people from approaching and overhearing their secret discussion. He said: “Scheming with Lü Qingxia and her faction, from start to finish they will think of every way to strengthen Li Zhigao’s faction’s power while limiting the Marquis from controlling more military authority. Duke Changguo Li Pu must bear the greatest responsibility for this military defeat, but it’s foreseeable that to preserve his life and the glory and wealth of Li family descendants, Li Pu will bow again under Lü Qingxia’s skirt, thereby completely becoming a chess piece played between her palms. This also means a large batch of Marquis Xinchang’s officers and officials like Zhou Yuan, Zhou Shu, Chai Jian, Xu Jing, as well as Li Xiu and Li Qi will return to the Wanhong Pavilion faction. It’s not hard to foresee that the sixty-plus thousand Huaixi Forbidden Army withdrawn to the southeastern foothills of Mount Qian will soon become elite combat power completely controlled by Lü Qingxia, decided with a single word. Additionally, the Left Divine Martial Army combat strength led by Chai Jian at Mount Wuzhi Ridge in Shaozhou is also formidable…”
Hearing Feng Liao say this, Han Daoming and Han Daochang finally realized how terrifying the power Wanhong Pavilion was about to control, as well as the hard strength truly grasped in their hands.
Feng Liao continued: “…By comparison, even with the Han family’s full support, the Marquis at Tangyi can only organize twenty thousand troops at most, and must block the enemy’s advance from the front. The slightest carelessness means utter destruction. If the Marquis remains in Jianghuai, if he doesn’t want to be controlled by Lü Qingxia, besides regaining His Majesty’s trust, what other paths exist? And with the Han Jun matter preceding, how could the Marquis and the Han family possibly regain His Majesty’s trust? Also, Minister Han, haven’t you thought about why Lü Qingxia dared invite the Xuzhou River Forces east this time without worrying that after their eastward advance, the tail would become too big to control?”
“If Jun’er fell from a horse in his youth and was injured, unable to perform intercourse, could Lü Qingxia still use this matter as leverage?” Han Daoming asked through gritted teeth, steeling his resolve.
“The Marquis can engage in false civilities with Lü Qingxia for a while without problem, but this ultimately isn’t a long-term plan. We still need to quietly make His Majesty believe this matter to eliminate future troubles.” Feng Yi didn’t even glance at Han Jun, saying indifferently.
“This matter naturally requires finding a way to quietly reach His Majesty’s ears, and when the matter comes to light, it must withstand verification—only then can there be no hidden dangers.” Han Daoming said through clenched teeth.
…
…
Han Qian left Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Feng Liao and others in charge of Tangyi. He personally led the first batch of five thousand organized elite troops with Chen Jingzhou and Zhou Dan to reinforce Tingzi Mountain.
If possible, Han Qian would prefer to establish his supreme command headquarters at Tingzi Mountain.
This would better coordinate operations on both eastern and western flanks, guarding against the enemy extending their advance further after controlling Chaozhou, reaching the Yangtze’s northern bank from southern Chaozhou.
Regardless of anything else, as long as the enemy had opportunity to gain a foothold close to the Yangtze’s northern bank, the Tower Ship Navy’s warships could threaten the Yangtze waterway’s navigation safety to a certain degree.
Even if the Tower Ship Navy’s warships couldn’t directly compete with the Xuzhou River Forces’ large warships on the Yangtze, occasionally emerging from northern bank streams and rivers under their control to conduct raids and guerrilla warfare in the Yangtze would be immensely troublesome.
However, for them to completely seal the stream and river mouths through which Tower Ship Navy warships entered the Yangtze waterway was no easy task.
To achieve such an effect, besides Li Zhigao deploying troops from Shuzhou in coordination, Han Qian’s own forces also needed to use Mount Daci as their base, ensuring that west of Mount Daci—meaning about a hundred li of Yangtze shoreline in southeastern Chaozhou—all remained within the Tangyi Field Command army’s effective military strike range, preventing the enemy from establishing fortifications along such an extensive shoreline, and preventing the Tower Ship Navy remnants that might subsequently move into Chao Lake from using small and medium streams to enter the Yangtze for surprise attack operations.
This was actually quite a difficult task.
Simply relying on the Yangtze to establish a defense line along the river was far from sufficient. At the same time, having all fortifications distributed tightly along the Yangtze’s northern bank would make the defense line look too thin.
Even backed by the Yangtze, these fortifications wouldn’t fear being cut off by the enemy, but how should they later arrange large-scale cultivation on the northern bank?
Without sufficient depth and buffer in the defense line, if the enemy made a surprise attack and could charge over—how could they ensure people and horses could safely leave city fortresses to cultivate?
Han Qian personally leading troops with Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou to Tingzi Mountain this time was mainly to see if defending Chuzhou city was possible.
If possible, Han Qian absolutely didn’t want to abandon Chuzhou city.
Chuzhou city, forty li north of Tingzi Mountain, backed against the southern peaks and ridges of the Mount Wujian range. Topographically it was positioned somewhat more north than Chaozhou city—the Yangtze waterway from Jiangzhou eastward flowed at a diagonal angle from southwest to northeast, making the eastern Chuzhou city much closer to the Yangtze shoreline, yet positioned somewhat more north than Chaozhou city. So after they occupied Chuzhou city, support from Mount Daci wouldn’t be too distant, yet they could also overlook Chaozhou’s flank and rear, threatening enemy communications between Chaozhou and Shouzhou.
At this time, if the Tangyi Field Command army relied on Chuzhou city’s protection, their defense line along the Yangtze’s northern bank could stride out from Mount Daci in large steps, extending westward to Mount Qingcang in Liyang County territory, effectively sealing the passage for enemy forces from east of Chao Lake to reach the Yangtze.
But the biggest problem was that even if the Shouzhou Army’s main force at Chaozhou city was contained by Li Zhigao to the southwest, their northern forces moving south from Zhongli or through Mopan Valley via Yongyang still numbered forty to fifty thousand. How many troops did Han Qian currently have to defend Chuzhou city?
This was still the predicament they faced without the Liang army’s main force adjusting strategic deployments.
Besides defending Chuzhou city, Han Qian had another more feasible alternative plan.
That was to abandon Chuzhou city and replicate in the Mount Wujian range the strategy of using mountains as fortresses that he had implemented at Mount Mao.
In that case, the Tangyi Field Command army would only need an elite force of three to five thousand operating inside the Mount Wujian range. As long as they weren’t surrounded and annihilated by the enemy, they could greatly contain enemy activities in the Chaozhou and northern Chuzhou areas, substantially weakening their control over this region, similarly achieving their envisioned objective.
The problem was that among the remnant soldiers currently withdrawn to the southern peaks of Mount Wujian, it was hard to imagine Li Xiu’s and Li Qi’s units would follow his commands. These troops were mainly cavalry—as long as they found gaps, they could withdraw at maximum speed to the northern bank along the river, or even traverse Chaozhou to join Li Zhigao in Shuzhou, which wouldn’t be particularly difficult.
Cavalry remained the strongest mobile combat force in the world.
The other remnants were mainly Left Five Fang Army navy remnants with extremely poor soldier morale, anxious to withdraw south and not adept at fighting mountain guerrilla warfare. Han Qian wanted to withdraw them and incorporate them into the navy, separately dispatching elite troops into Mount Wujian to maintain forces in Mount Wujian at no less than three thousand.
Additionally, the garrison troops currently besieged in Chuzhou city with Chuzhou Regional Commander Wei Zhen were a rather troublesome problem for Han Qian.
After Chuzhou city was recovered, local civilian households had long since fled. After Wei Zhen took up his post, he didn’t directly recruit displaced people to resume cultivation, but rather assembled a large batch of capital region powerful clan descendants to cross the river and claim land, then extensively sold or directly plundered the gathered displaced people as slaves and servants for various families.
Because Chuzhou city was positioned somewhat more north than Chaozhou, besides Li Pu and Chen Mingsheng stationing the Right Divine Martial Army main force here to probe the gap between Chaozhou and Shouzhou, protecting the overland supply line from Tangyi to the Chaozhou main camp, the newly organized regional army maintaining local security was mainly recruited from the powerful clan descendants who had crossed the river or their household troops. The powerful clan descendants were also willing to participate in these matters to cover their land seizures and slave plundering.
The Right Divine Martial Army had been led by Chen Mingsheng to Zhongli and annihilated. The garrison troops currently besieged in Chuzhou city were, plainly speaking, the capital region powerful clans’ direct forces. Han Qian found it hard to imagine they would obey his every command under Wei Zhen’s leadership.
Han Qian was inclined to disregard whether the Chuzhou garrison lived or died, but Chuzhou city currently still contained roughly twenty thousand people—mainly slaves and servants that Wei Zhen and capital region powerful clan descendants had plundered and sold from displaced people. Han Qian was unwilling to let these people fall into the Shouzhou Army’s hands or be slaughtered.
Exiting from Tangyi city’s north gate and traveling west several li, then continuing west along the Chu River’s north bank, official roads extended all the way into Liyang County territory.
At this time, stars and moon filled the sky, favorable for infantry marching west by night.
Before dawn tomorrow, there was no possibility of engaging enemy vanguards. Han Qian and his group were still quite composed at this moment, riding horses and discussing possible changes in the war situation before and after entering Tingzi Mountain.
Discussing the matter of replacing the navy remnants from Mount Wujian, Han Qian couldn’t help but sigh:
“Where in this world are there so many divine stratagems and wonderful calculations? Like when I initially kept Wang Lin without exposing his identity—that was mainly because I wanted to use a counter-espionage scheme, thinking I could use Wang Lin to transmit false information to confuse Chuzhou. But actually, too many things before and after the Jinling upheaval were unpredictable. Not exposing Wen Ruilin’s identity was the same—thinking that in future confrontations with the Liang army, I could use this hidden piece. Who knew it would still backfire cleverly? Gao Chengyuan refused to enter Tangyi for treatment, preferring to die on the river. When he died, his heart probably held deep resentment toward me.”
Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou also felt regret for Gao Chengyuan’s death, but they understood clearly in their hearts that the main reason everything turned out this way was Emperor Yanyou’s unreasonable suspicion and vigilance toward Han Qian.
Han Qian was indeed fond of using dangerous schemes and taking risky approaches, but the problem was that several times it was when the situation was most critical that Han Qian had no choice but to use dangerous schemes, had no choice but to take risks to reverse the crisis.
How could this become grounds for suspicion?
Not only Zhou Dan—after receiving Zhou Dan’s secret letter, Chen Jingzhou also immediately chose to support Han Qian.
In fact, as officers of mountain stronghold origins, they clearly knew the attitude of powerful clans and great families toward them, and Emperor Yanyou also didn’t trust them, unwilling to use them to command troops.
Zhou Dan was in his prime years, but Chen Jingzhou was over fifty. Having suffered battle injuries in earlier years that left hidden ailments, his health declined year by year. He worried that one day he might die in office, and with Zhou Dan unable to support the situation alone, conditions in Guangde Prefecture might repeat in Junzhou, with the mountain stronghold disciples remaining in Junzhou suffering bloody purges by powerful clans and great families.
Chen Jingzhou was about to say some comforting words when a dozen cavalry pursued from behind. They reined in their horses, and when the arrivals drew near, discovered it was Han Daoming, Han Daochang and others who had left Tangyi city and were riding to catch up…