“Ahhh!”
Standing in the residual snow of the shabby alley, hearing the muffled, agonized screams from inside the courtyard wall, Han Duan felt his thighs tightening and twitching in that instant. He thought to himself that Han Jun truly hadn’t found it easy escaping back to Jinling before this.
After quite a while, Han Duan looked toward Feng Liao and asked, “We should go in and witness this with our own eyes…”
With countless lives and fortunes at stake, to prevent anyone from deceiving them with sleight-of-hand tricks, Feng Liao absolutely had to see it with his own eyes before he could feel at ease. He lifted his robe hem, indicating Han Duan should go first.
The empty courtyard had only three earthen rooms, their windows covered with thick cloth.
When Feng Liao and Han Duan pushed open the door, inside was a newly built heated floor radiating warm currents that would prevent anyone from catching cold even stark naked.
The two people responsible for performing the castration on Han Jun stepped aside. Han Duan peered over and only then saw Han Jun had already fainted. He wondered why after entering the courtyard he hadn’t heard any more screaming.
Han Jun lay there naked from the waist down. The wound between his legs hadn’t yet been cleaned, appearing as a bloody mess that made Han Duan’s scalp tighten. He couldn’t understand why so many people each year would willingly enter the palace to seek their fortunes.
In the twenty years since Great Chu’s founding, initially the palace eunuchs and maids together numbered only over three hundred, most being old retainers Empress Xu had brought from the Guangling military commissioner’s office. In just over ten years, the numbers had surged to over seven thousand.
When Emperor Yanyou took Jinling, he had dismissed nearly all the previous palace eunuchs and maids. In less than two years, the eunuchs and palace maids serving in the palace had recovered to over two thousand, half of them castrated eunuchs.
It was truly hard to imagine that so many families among the common people, seeking positions, would heartlessly send their sons into the palace for castration.
After Feng Liao also confirmed it, Han Duan walked out with him. Standing under the porch, he lowered his voice to ask, “What if Han Jun doesn’t survive…”
In these times, countless people died from external wounds becoming infected. Each year, who knew how many corpses of those who couldn’t endure castration for palace entry or penal castration in prisons were dragged out to be buried in mass graves. Who knew whether Han Jun could survive?
“Then we can only claim externally he died of illness. It’s still better than leaving a living hidden danger,” Feng Liao said coldly.
“Indeed!” Han Duan agreed.
Han Duan still had to remain behind, at least until five or six days later when Han Jun’s lower body injury slightly stabilized, before he could bring Han Jun back across the river to Jinling. Feng Liao took a boat in the afternoon through the Yangtze waterway in a circuitous route, hurrying back to the southeastern camp at Tingzi Mountain to rendezvous with Han Qian.
He arrived just as Yin Peng came by boat from Yangzhou at dusk to see Han Qian at Tingzi Mountain.
Facing the formidable pressure from Liang forces, Huaidong was forced to abandon cities on the northern bank of the Huai River, comprehensively contracting to the southern bank. But they still couldn’t prevent large Liang cavalry forces from directly penetrating between southern bank cities to plunder grain, livestock, and able-bodied men while burning buildings.
In the freezing weather with the Huai River completely frozen along its entire length, Huaidong’s territory consisted of flat plains—for Liang cavalry, there were virtually no obstacles.
Huaidong could only implement comprehensive scorched earth policies, withdrawing more militia into nearby cities.
Huaidong’s cavalry numbered only over five thousand and completely lacked the capability to entangle with Liang cavalry several times their number in open terrain.
Even Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan was extremely worried at this time that Han Qian couldn’t hold out at Tangyi and would choose to withdraw to the southern bank.
In that case, with Li Zhigao blockaded at Shuzhou, the Shouzhou Army could free up fifty to sixty thousand troops to attack Yangzhou, Dongyang, and other places from the west. Huaidong’s situation then could truly be called precarious as a pile of eggs.
Even if Han Qian’s forces withdrew to turtle up in the isolated city of Tangyi without accomplishing anything, it would greatly increase pressure on the Yangzhou side.
Ten days ago, when Han Qian led his forces westward along the Chu River and fiercely battled the Shouzhou Army sweeping southeast on the northern bank of the Chu River, this had somewhat relieved the officers defending Yangzhou.
Whether Wang Wenqian or Zhao Zhen, both now hoped Tangyi forces could establish a foothold on the northern bank of the Chu River.
In that case, Han Qian’s forces’ defense on the northern bank of the Yangtze would be extended into a line. At least before the Shouzhou Army suppressed Han Qian’s forces back into Tangyi, they would have no energy to spare for the east.
In that case, as long as Huaidong focused fully on defending against Liang forces to the north, they could still more or less hold out.
Yin Peng came this time hoping to establish closer cooperation with Tangyi, sharing resources to a certain degree.
Besides sharing military intelligence for the five to six hundred li region from Hongze Marsh and Fanliang Lake to Huaiyang Mountain, Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan also hoped Huaidong’s western flank defenses could better connect with Tangyi’s northeastern flank defenses, while hoping to purchase several large warships from Xuzhou.
Chuzhou had initially organized naval forces, but after the Jinling incident, most large warships organized in Chuzhou’s naval forces were destroyed in naval battles with the Louchuan Navy.
Though Huaidong still organized over fifteen thousand naval soldiers at this time, most warships were converted fishing boats and small to medium commercial vessels.
Though the main Great Chu naval forces were annihilated at Hongze Marsh, the direct cause being that the equipped large warships—particularly the main warships based on Yueyang naval forces—were primarily sharp-bottomed warships Xuzhou built that drew too much water and were extremely unsuitable for shallow lake navigation, those who truly understood naval warfare knew in their hearts that responsibility for defeat couldn’t be pushed onto the warships Xuzhou built.
The warships Xuzhou built were fast and structurally strong.
That Gao Chengyuan had initially led the rootless Yueyang naval forces to battle fiercely with Great Chu’s most elite Louchuan Navy in the Yangtze waterway without falling at a disadvantage demonstrated the advantages of Xuzhou warships.
Currently, with Xuzhou naval forces entering the Yangtze waterway, the Louchuan Navy and Liang naval forces would very likely not rush to enter the Yangtze to fight Xuzhou naval forces to the finish. After the Huai River thawed, the threats Huaidong faced would greatly increase.
If Huaidong naval forces couldn’t occupy an advantageous position in the lower Huai River, it meant that after the Huai River thawed, Liang cavalry would very likely not withdraw back to the northern bank.
At that point, the entire Huaidong region would become a buffer zone for fighting Liang forces, the production system would collapse accordingly—what would support one million military and civilians?
The most pressing problem Huaidong faced was no longer holding major cities until the Huai River thawed, but whether they could control the lower Huai River waterway after thawing, and what their options were if they couldn’t control the lower Huai River waterway.
This time Yin Peng also brought back extremely critical information: after Liang forces occupied Haizhou, they immediately moved large numbers of military and civilians from Xuzhou to construct camps at Peacock Lake southeast of Haizhou.
Peacock Lake had channels connecting south to the Huai River and east to the ocean, never freezing year-round. Wang Wenqian suspected Liang forces very likely intended to establish a shipyard or major naval camp there, or both.
When the Anning Palace rebels fled north across the river, among nearly two hundred thousand military and civilians were large numbers of master craftsmen and workers.
In naval terms, besides over ten thousand elite Louchuan Navy sailors, there were hundreds to thousands of experienced shipwrights.
Hearing Yin Peng introduce the latest situation developments north of Chuzhou, even Feng Liao couldn’t help gasping, sighing, “Even without our early intervention, the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu probably wouldn’t have rushed to lead Liang’s main forces south to attack the Huaixi Imperial Guards, would he?”
“If I stood in Zhu Yu’s position, I also wouldn’t rush to attack south,” Han Qian said, standing with hands in sleeves in the bitter cold wind. “Even completely annihilating the Huaixi Imperial Guards, Liang forces still wouldn’t have the opportunity to devour Great Chu. If unfortunately suffering excessive losses under the pincer attack of Huaixi and Huaidong forces, never mind Liang’s northern enemies—even within its borders there would be unrest…”
After Great Chu pacified Wu and Yue, they had conducted a census of the population in ruled territories. At that time, combining Liang Zhe, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan, Huaidong, Huaixi, Jingxiang and other regions, the total population was under eleven million.
These years, Jingxiang, Huaidong, and Huaixi had frequent warfare, so populations hadn’t increased but rather declined somewhat.
Though southern regions had also successively experienced two large-scale wars, both were resolved extremely quickly without forming protracted, brutal, bloody tug-of-war and military confrontations. Therefore, in Liang Zhe, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other regions, counting all hidden and scattered populations, Han Qian estimated there should be substantial increases over the ninth year of Tianyou census.
Taking Hunan’s prefectures as an example, in the ninth year of Tianyou they had over 1.8 million people. But after the vassal reduction warfare, just the five prefectures of Tan, Lang, Yue, Shao, and Heng had actual census populations reaching over 2.2 million.
The four prefectures of Chen, Xu, Si, and Ye had populations approaching five hundred thousand, while Yongzhou and Chenzhou currently controlled by rebels also had over two hundred thousand.
This meant Hunan’s eleven prefectures actually had populations reaching three million.
Jiangxi’s population was slightly less. But including Liang Zhe and the capital region within the former Jiangnan East Circuit, with populations flourishing, whether in potential or scale, they far exceeded Jiangxi and Hunan.
Though lacking accurate census data, Han Qian estimated Great Chu currently controlled over forty prefectures south of the Yangtze with total population no lower than thirteen million.
Even if Great Chu abandoned all territory north of the Yangtze River, even if Liang forces had no more serious northern threats, it would be extremely difficult to completely defeat Great Chu through just one or two campaigns.
And not only did Liang’s north face more serious threats, the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu’s position was illegitimate. Suppressing the previous Zhu Gui rebellion was far from completely resolving internal hidden dangers.
Currently, the over sixty thousand direct cavalry forces the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu personally commanded on the southern front were the foundation for his rule over Liang and commanding generals and ministers to obey orders. Once they suffered heavy losses, whether new rebellions would erupt within Liang became hard to say.
After the Liang Emperor went south and accepted Xu Mingzhen’s submission, rather than directly crossing the river south from west of Hongze Marsh, he turned to attack Chuzhou. Han Qian could blindly and confidently claim this was because he personally defended Tangyi. But analyzing from the overall situation the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu faced, Zhu Yu still wanted to use the opportunity of personally supervising the southeast to replace control of Xuzhou with his direct forces, thoroughly integrating the Sima Dan family under his command.
This way, the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu could basically grasp the southern Liang situation in his palm. Only afterward could he more calmly win the loyalty of veteran generals supervising other regions, stabilizing his rule.
That Liang forces, after seizing Haizhou, immediately showed signs of building a major naval camp and large shipyard there further demonstrated the Liang Emperor Zhu Yu had extremely deep plans for campaigning against Great Chu.
On another front, the Liang Emperor enfeoffing Xu Mingzhen as Duke of Huo and permitting him to hold Huaixi as a military commissioner, in exchange, most likely still required Xu Mingzhen to surrender the Louchuan Navy.
Compared to Shouzhou, Haizhou with its ice-free harbor was indeed more suitable as a foundation for Liang to develop naval forces on a large scale. But the prerequisite was that Bianjing had to maintain extremely strong control over the southeast including Xuzhou.