The camp at the eastern foot of Tingzi Mountain had originally been a village where over a hundred households lived. The defenders had no intention of stubbornly resisting in the stronghold and fighting to the death with Tangyi troops, so the houses in the village were largely preserved intact.
The defenders had set fires when withdrawing, but there had been heavy snow the previous night, and remnant snow still accumulated on eaves and courtyard corners, so the fires hadn’t managed to catch.
The short main street was actually paved with stone slabs, and along the street more than ten residential compounds were all deep and spacious with white walls and black-tiled roofs. One could see this had been an extremely prosperous market town on the southern side of the Tingzi Mountain official road, and it was quite fortunate it hadn’t been destroyed by the flames of war—of course, the densely packed houses were mostly covered with green tiles, and not much firewood and straw had been stored in the village, which was also a main reason the fires hadn’t spread during the defenders’ hasty retreat.
Feng Liao and Yin Peng entered the large courtyard serving as a temporary command post. They temporarily didn’t see any trace of Han Qian, but unexpectedly saw Li Xiu, Li Chi, Wei Zhen and others all talking with Feng Xuan and Guo Rong in the main hall.
The Wujian Mountain range had previously still been under Shouzhou forces’ blockade, but the southern foot of the Wujian range was only thirty to forty li from the north bank of the Chu River, and from the Chu River going south to the Yangtze shore was also only thirty to forty li. For three to five scouts to move stealthily at night to relay messages had long since ceased to be difficult.
Therefore, when Yin Peng was in Yangzhou he already knew about the situation of the remnants of the Right Shenwu Army and navy that had fled to Wujian Mountain, and the court had also explicitly ordered these troops to come under Tangyi Campaign Headquarters’ command.
Before the battle at Puyang River mouth, Yin Peng also had some understanding of Han Qian’s order requiring Wei Zhen to lead Chuzhou City’s military and civilians to withdraw into Wujian Mountain. He hadn’t expected to see them here only days later.
“Where is His Lordship?” Feng Liao saw Han Donghu and Xi Fa’er were both in the main hall and asked.
“He just entered the village and found a side courtyard to catch up on sleep. He told us to wake him after another half hour,” Han Donghu said.
Feng Liao nodded. At this time there were too many matters requiring attention. When people were busy, one could say there wasn’t a moment to spare. Even Han Qian could only find scattered bits of time to get some sleep to restore his energy.
Feng Liao glanced at Li Xiu, Li Chi, and Wei Zhen without saying anything, then directly went to ask Feng Xuan about the specific battle situation from last night.
There was no need to deliberately hide these matters from Yin Peng. After hearing Feng Xuan’s brief account, he also understood why Li Xiu, Li Chi, Wei Zhen and others were appearing here at this time.
During yesterday’s fierce battle at Tingzi Mountain, apart from a portion of enemy troops guarding Yuping Mountain on the southern side of the Wujian range, all other Shouzhou cavalry scattered in the wilderness had been drawn to the eastern foot of Tingzi Mountain.
Li Xiu and the others had no intention of remaining in Wujian Mountain to hold firm and fight guerrilla warfare. At dawn, seizing the opportunity, they led their cavalry out of Wujian Mountain, and taking advantage of the enemy troops retreating to Chuzhou City, they found a gap and withdrew to Tingzi Mountain.
At this time, over two thousand troops were stationed in the mountain hollow northwest of the camp to rest and reorganize. These several men had brought their escorts into the village to see Han Qian.
When they fought their way out of Zhongli City, Li Xiu and Li Chi had only over fourteen hundred cavalry remaining under their command. Among the over two thousand troops in this first batch to withdraw, over a thousand were Chuzhou defenders and officials led by Wei Zhen.
The Right Guangde Army, predecessor to the Right Shenwu Guard Army, had in its early period, apart from sons of the Zhedong Prince’s Mansion, mainly consisted of Lishui gentry clan sons and clan soldiers.
During the entire Jinling Incident, Li Xiu and Li Chi, who followed Li Pu, as well as other Li clan nephews, had quite close relations with Wei Zhen and others.
Wei Zhen’s son Wei Huang also served in the Right Shenwu Guard Army as a high-ranking general at the Regional Commander level, but regrettably, apart from a few officers like Li Chi, Li Xiu, and Xu Jing who fled south back to Jinling, most of the middle and high-ranking commanders who broke out of Zhongli City at that time—Chen Mingsheng, Wei Huang, Li Chong and others—were currently whereabouts unknown, their fate uncertain.
The enemy forces had up to now still not publicly announced the results of the siege of Zhongli, and when breaking out of Zhongli City the battlefield was completely chaotic. Li Chi, Li Xiu, and Kong Xirong, who had led troops to break out of Ya Mountain to meet and cover the navy remnants’ breakthrough, also didn’t know whether there were still some soldiers fortunate enough not to have been killed, hiding among the sand embankments and reed grass of Hongze Lake.
At this time Tangyi also had no capacity to spare to rescue the small portion of remnant soldiers trapped north of Shiliang County.
Wei Zhen had close relations with Li Xiu and Li Chi. That he brought over a thousand Chuzhou officials and defenders to first rendezvous with Li Xiu and Li Chi, then break through together to Tingzi Mountain, was normal—after all, before the situation reversed, large numbers of gentry clans had rushed to the vicinity of Chuzhou City to seize fields and plunder slaves, so their scraping together over a thousand warhorses was normal.
And since Wei Zhen had led only over a thousand Chuzhou defenders and officials to come to Tingzi Mountain together with Li Xiu and Li Chi, this meant the over twenty thousand Chuzhou City civilians who had previously fled into Wujian Mountain had all been left by them to Kong Xirong.
Needless to say Han Donghu and Su Lie were both right there in the main hall, needless to say they long knew of the manipulations Wei Zhen had engaged in regarding the assassination case—even without these factors, the conflicts and disagreements within the Left and Right Guangde Armies during the Jinling Incident were not trivial.
According to Feng Xuan, when Li Xiu, Li Chi, and Wei Zhen led their troops over, they directly requested to see Han Qian, wanting to borrow ships to go to Shuzhou and rendezvous with Li Pu and Li Zhigao at the southeastern foot of Qian Mountain.
Half an hour later, before Han Donghu even went to the side courtyard to call him, Han Qian came in wearing a padded robe, holding a scallion pancake in his hand, wolfing it down while walking in with Xi Ren.
When Han Qian went to the side courtyard to catch up on sleep, Li Xiu and the others hadn’t yet entered the village, so Han Qian was also startled to see them. After sitting down at the central long table and summoning Wei Zhen, Li Xiu, and Li Chi before the table to ask clearly what was going on, he said: “Marquis Xinjin also sent a message yesterday, hoping that after you break out from Wujian Mountain, you could go to Shuzhou to rendezvous with them—since you also have this intention, then I won’t obstruct you…”
Li Chi was Li Pu’s youngest son, Li Xiu was Li Pu’s nephew and son of Zhedong Prince Li Yu. His elder brother Li Changfeng currently still served in the court as Vice Minister of War. Han Qian had never harbored any expectation that they would truly lead their troops to remain and accept his command.
Though the Right Shenwu Army had been destroyed with only over a thousand troops escaping, this was not due to the soldiers fighting poorly. The responsibility couldn’t be traced to commanding generals like Li Xiu and Li Chi who had led their troops in valiant combat against the enemy. Han Qian had no pretext to make things difficult for them either.
As for Wei Zhen, Han Qian’s expression darkened. He stared coldly at his face and asked in a stern voice: “Minister Wei, the written order this marquis gave you clearly specified that you were to lead Chuzhou’s military and civilians to first withdraw to Wujian Mountain, and before receiving new orders from this marquis, in all matters to accept the command of General Kong Xirong. You led Chuzhou’s military officials to withdraw to Tingzi Mountain—do you have Kong Xirong’s permission? If so, please show this marquis the written order Kong Xirong issued…”
At this time Han Qian still needed to maintain good cooperation with Li Zhigao, with Lu Qingxia and Yao Xishui, hoping Li Zhigao could lead the Huaixi Forbidden Army to actively pin down from the western flank the over fifty thousand Shouzhou troops stationed in Chaozhou. This was why he wouldn’t make things difficult for Li Xiu and Li Chi, and would arrange ships to send them to Shuzhou.
However, if he also let Wei Zhen and the over thousand Chuzhou military officials go freely, then he would be too much of a soft persimmon, too easy to squeeze.
From east of Chaohu Lake to Hangou, a depth of three hundred li was all战区 under Tangyi Campaign Headquarters’ jurisdiction. Chuzhou, as the core regulated prefecture in the战区 under Tangyi Campaign Headquarters’ jurisdiction, had all its officials and military and civilians under Han Qian’s command.
Wei Zhen had experienced countless storms in his life. Facing Han Qian’s interrogation, his expression remained relatively composed as he said: “It is true His Majesty decreed that Wei should accept Marquis Han’s command, but Wei is at least an official of the court holding the Fourth Rank Upper Grade governing one region. Yet Marquis Han requires Wei to accept orders from a subordinate general who doesn’t even have credentials or seal—isn’t this making things a bit too difficult for Wei? Wei obeyed Marquis Han’s orders and led Chuzhou City’s military and civilians to withdraw into Wujian Mountain and lie low for twelve days. When Marquis Han sent no new orders, I specially led a portion of troops to rendezvous with Generals Li Xiu and Li Chi and break out of the enemy encirclement. I ask Marquis Han, what did Wei do wrong?”
As a regional governor of one prefecture, even though the court had decreed he should accept Marquis Han’s command, while in the Wujian Mountain range he held the highest rank, so by rights he should take the lead, with Kong Xirong and Li Xiu and other generals accepting his command. Therefore he also righteously refuted that the part of Han Qian’s written order requiring him to accept Kong Xirong’s command was an improper order.
“You fled in cowardice from battle, yet you still have all these excuses. This marquis won’t argue with you—whatever justifications you have, go explain them to His Majesty!” Han Qian pounded the table arbitrarily and said, “Someone come! Bind Wei Zhen for me and escort him to the Bureau of Military Affairs to be prosecuted for his crime of cowardly fleeing from battle!”
Wei Zhen held considerable prestige among the capital region’s gentry clans, and moreover there were no major vulnerabilities to grasp regarding his defense of Chuzhou City and withdrawal. Han Qian didn’t want to create complications at this critical juncture, so at present he could only first drive him back to Jinling, in order to detain the over thousand Chuzhou defenders, break them up and incorporate them into various units to replenish the troops Tangyi forces had lost in yesterday’s battle, and prepare to participate in the next phase of combat.
As long as Han Qian didn’t execute Wei Zhen on the spot, Li Xiu and Li Chi, who themselves had matters to ask of others, wouldn’t say anything. They just silently watched as Wei Zhen and the escorts waiting outside were bound on Han Qian’s orders.
Han Qian signed a written order, had Feng Xuan send people to take over the Chuzhou defenders, and arranged ships to send Li Xiu and Li Chi’s troops to the southern bank of the Chu River, telling them to circle around to the Wushou River mouth southwest of Daci Mountain, where he would then arrange large ships to send them to Shuzhou.
After Li Xiu and the others left, Han Qian asked about the specific cooperation terms Feng Liao had discussed with Yin Peng last night. He summoned Feng Xuan, Guo Rong, Yang Qin who had personally escorted a batch of war machines to Tingzi Mountain, as well as Feng Yi and others to discuss. Finding no flaws, he had Feng Yi represent him and accompany Yin Peng on a trip to Yangzhou.
“By the way, when I came over this time, the Minister specifically had me deliver several books to Your Lordship,” Yin Peng said, about to take his leave and directly board ship from Tingzi Mountain with Feng Yi to rush back to Yangzhou, when he remembered something. “I’ve left these books in the camp on the front shore. Your Lordship, remember to collect them.”
“Then please thank Minister Wang on my behalf,” Han Qian said. He was puzzled in his heart why Wang Wenqian would send him books for no reason—did he and Wang Wenqian really have such deep friendship? Of course, he also couldn’t ask Yin Peng to specifically take the books back with him when returning to Yangzhou.