To gain the trust of Liang’s court and ministers, Wen Bo and Zhao Mingting could not easily withdraw to defend Chuzhou. Even if only to present their credentials of loyalty, they could only steel themselves to attack the camp the Tangyi Command Post had established on the northern bank of the Chu River. However, this also meant they were steeling themselves to gnaw on a hard bone.
The several thousand troops initially assembled by the Tangyi Command Post—besides the Xuzhou soldiers—were elite veterans from the former Left Guangde Army, whose fighting spirit, training, and combat experience could be called the elite among elites.
During these years in Xuzhou, Han Qian had maintained troop numbers below three thousand, but the prevalence and reserves of equipment and war machinery had never stopped. Among the initially assembled several thousand soldiers, he had achieved equipping nearly all squad leader-level junior officers with lamellar armor.
The northern bank camp was cramped and still needed to allocate large open areas for placing whirlwind trebuchets.
Therefore, no matter how fierce the fighting became, Han Qian only arranged fifteen hundred elite infantry to defend within, while other troops first withdrew to the southern bank to rest as reserve forces, then alternated into battle according to the combat situation on the northern bank.
Whirlwind trebuchets were unwieldy, easily destroyed by fire after enemy breakthrough, and occupied extensive space. Only six were placed within the camp, mainly to guard against the enemy positioning whirlwind trebuchets on the perimeter to bombard the camp.
Besides whirlwind trebuchets, the camp’s most abundant equipment consisted of bed crossbows, small and medium-sized scorpion catapults that launched scattered stone projectiles and fire oil jars, as well as various types of light and heavy war chariots convenient for assembly and disassembly.
Additionally, Han Qian had groups of six to eight small and medium-sized shuttle boats in the Chu River chained together with iron links, then fixed in place with wooden stakes driven around them, forming eight floating platforms for positioning whirlwind trebuchets to threaten enemy forces attacking the camp from the eastern and western flanks.
On this foundation, Han Qian further set about constructing a southern bank camp, continuously using warships to transport more militia and able-bodied men from Tangyi.
The Chaozhou garrison forces led by Wen Bo, having just repelled the Huaixi Imperial Guards and rested for over ten days, had recovered their morale to its peak. Having dismantled and transported large quantities of siege equipment to the battlefield, their combat effectiveness could be said to be at its absolute zenith.
During the final days of the second year of Yanyou, this battlefield on the northern bank of the Chu River spanning barely over one li in depth became like a meat grinder, devouring the lives of soldiers from both sides.
Of course, the Shouzhou cavalry and Chaozhou garrison forces suffered casualties three times those of the Tangyi Command Post forces, which was even more shocking to behold.
Finally, Xu Mingzhen arrived at Chuzhou bearing the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu’s edict to personally supervise the battle, ordering Wen Bo to temporarily halt the futile offensive against the Chu River camp. Only then did this cruel probing slaughter temporarily come to a pause.
By this time, the Shouzhou cavalry and Chaozhou garrison forces had already left three thousand corpses on this freezing wilderness.
……
……
The overwhelming enemy forces withdrew like wind sweeping away remnant clouds into Chuzhou, over forty li to the northwest. It was already the third day of the first month of the third year of Yanyou.
When Han Daoming again boarded a boat from the southern bank camp to enter the northern bank’s fortification, he saw that the crude camp walls, far from becoming tattered and incomplete during nearly ten days of fierce combat, had instead become more solid, thick, and towering.
Hundreds of militia and able-bodied men had even begun covering the inner face with a layer of city bricks three feet thick when the enemy’s offensive weakened two days earlier.
Now that the enemy had withdrawn like wind sweeping away remnant clouds, they could begin adding barracks on the outer face.
These city bricks had originally been fired for repairing Jinling’s outer city walls and were convenient to transport by boat.
Moreover, Jinling’s outer walls stretched over fifty li, with sections requiring repair and brick covering spanning eighteen or nineteen li. By postponing the plan to repair the outer walls and conserving these bricks, there would be enough to construct twenty or thirty small fortified camps throughout the Jianghuai region.
Compared to the northern bank’s fortified camp of merely over three hundred paces square, the southern bank camp was several times larger at a full thousand paces square, though its protective walls currently consisted only of rammed earth low walls half a person’s height.
Subsequently, the southern main camp’s protective walls would be widened and heightened, but there were no plans to cover them with city bricks—if they couldn’t contain large enemy forces on the northern bank of Chuzhou, it would already mean Han Qian’s operational intent had completely failed. At that point, what needed to be done was withdraw all military and civilian personnel from the southern bank of the Chu River, not mount a desperate last stand.
Additionally, during this period, Han Qian had also constructed a pier extending into the river on the riverside of both northern and southern camps to allow medium-sized vessels to dock directly for unloading personnel and cargo.
All these tasks were completed in an orderly manner by Han Qian organizing thousands of military and civilian personnel during the ten days of fierce fighting on the northern bank. Han Qian never seemed to consider the possibility of being unable to hold the northern bank camp—he personally remained on the northern bank throughout to supervise the battle.
Han Qian was not satisfied merely with repelling one Shouzhou Army offensive. After all, controlling the Chu River required more than controlling a single point.
After confirming the Shouzhou Army had withdrawn into Chuzhou to reorganize, Han Qian ordered Feng Xuan and Lin Haizheng to each lead a contingent westward along the southern bank of the Chu River, establishing one camp each on the eastern and western sides of Tingzi Mountain. They would first establish camps on the southern bank, then overcome all difficulties to construct camps on the northern bank, forming connected encampments to control Tingzi Mountain, the middle reaches of the Chu River waterway, and Daci Mountain south of the Chu River.
Naturally, since the Shouzhou Army possessed large cavalry forces on the northern bank of Chuzhou, they had also preemptively established camps on both flanks of Tingzi Mountain on the northern bank. While the Tangyi Command Post forces could easily establish camps on the southern bank, crossing the Chu River to construct camps on the northern bank under the very noses of the Shouzhou Army would inevitably require even more grievous sacrifices.
However, without wanting to be suppressed within Tangyi by the numerically superior Shouzhou Army, and wanting to gain some strategic depth on the northern bank of the Yangtze River—how could this be achieved without bloodshed and terrible sacrifice?
“The Liyang city to the west was seized first by troops Wen Bo dispatched. Next, I will take Liyang regardless of how heavy the cost, bringing the Qingcang Mountains upstream of the Chu River and Fucha Mountain to the north under our control. Only then can we truly control the Chu River. After that, we can advance our forces northward along the tributaries on the northern bank of the Chu River, pressing forward step by step. Theoretically, we could construct fortified camps all the way to Yuping Mountain southwest of Chuzhou and the southern flank of Mopan Valley northeast of Chuzhou. With Kong Xirong leading forces to persist in combat in the Wujian Mountains, we could then completely sever Chuzhou’s connections with the outside world, turning it into an isolated city.”
In the crude command tent, using oil lamps to illuminate the dim interior more brightly, Han Qian pointed to the detailed map hanging on the wall and introduced the subsequent operational plan to Han Daoming, who had again entered the northern bank camp.
“However, even if Li Zhigao doesn’t slacken on the western front, Xu Mingzhen can still concentrate forty thousand troops facing us directly. With the discernment of Xu Mingzhen, Wen Bo, and others—no matter how slow they are—after our forces capture Liyang, they’ll understand all my intentions. The subsequent struggle along the northern bank tributaries will become extremely brutal. Even if the court permits me to recruit twenty thousand soldiers from former Left Guangde Army remnants and northern refugees, it will be far from sufficient. Because to realize this intent will require no less than twenty thousand sons throwing their heads upon this land!”
When the main naval forces and Right Shenwu Army were annihilated with over forty thousand soldiers virtually vanishing overnight, Han Daoming had felt no particularly deep impression, only worrying for the safety of Jinling and the Great Chu state that was intimately bound to the Han family’s fate. Now, hearing Han Qian say that seizing Chuzhou from the Shouzhou Army would require sacrificing no less than twenty thousand soldiers, he felt his heart skip with alarm.
Han Jun’s problem was already a minor detail—Feng Liao could supervise its execution. What Han Qian was discussing now were the benefits Han Daoming would need to fight for in court for the Tangyi Command Post going forward, or rather how the Han family should thoroughly integrate into this strategy.
“If ministers in court question why the Tangyi Command Post didn’t dispatch troops earlier to join Wei Zhen in defending Chuzhou, how should we respond?” Han Daochang asked.
“If anyone asks that, tell them I can hand over the position of Supreme Commander of the Tangyi Command Post—spare them from staying south of the Yangtze conducting armchair strategy with such ease!” Han Qian said with a laugh.
Han Daochang was left speechless by Han Qian’s words. These years he had mainly managed clan properties, only entering officialdom recently, and in the Salt and Iron Transport Commission at that. How would he know much about military and political affairs?
“That shouldn’t be feared as grounds for questioning, but to gain more support on the northern bank, you still need specific proposals before you can speak persuasively,” Han Daoming said.
He knew that Han Qian’s ability to hold the northern bank camp this time mainly relied on utilizing river transport and the Chu River waterway connecting to the Yangtze for swift transportation of large quantities of military supplies and war equipment. If they had truly dispatched troops earlier, even if several thousand soldiers could be sent into Chuzhou, without sufficient supplies and equipment for support, they would ultimately only be besieged within Chuzhou by the numerically superior Shouzhou Army.
At that point, even if Han Qian could barely hold Chuzhou, he could only pitifully hope for others to lead troops to his rescue. Where would there be any initiative whatsoever?
“For specific proposals: besides Tangyi and Liyang, where we currently are can establish the new county of Puyang. Tingzi Mountain can establish Tingshan County. The southwestern foot of Daci Mountain along the river can establish the new county of Wushou,” Han Qian said. “These five counties, just in the riverside area south of the Chu River, can reclaim six to seven hundred thousand mu of new land by constructing distant embankments to contain the river waters. Currently, Tangyi has received over sixteen thousand refugee households, with capacity to settle another fourteen thousand households. For household servants willing to serve as Tangyi soldiers, besides regular military pay, their families relocated north can be granted thirty mu of grain fields. However, constructing a hundred li of distant embankments and reclaiming new fields from Tangyi to Liyang will require at least over one million strings of cash. The stretched treasury presumably cannot produce this sum of money and grain. While Xuzhou can currently exert full effort only to make up shortfalls in armor and war equipment, this gap will need the Han family to fill…”
Han Daochang drew in a sharp breath.
The Han family was already inferior to the Feng family. Adding years of turmoil that had severely damaged their vitality, if they now disposed of all remaining estates and clan properties, they could probably barely scrape together one million strings of cash and grain.
Han Qian was asking the Han family to bankrupt itself and additionally abolish Han Jun to help him establish a foothold at Tangyi!
“Does Second Uncle worry this will ultimately be like drawing water with a bamboo basket—empty effort with no return on investment?” Seeing Han Daochang’s hesitant expression, Han Qian asked with a smile.