The Wu-Qi naval battle at Langya Platform—Han Qian and Xi Ren quickly found relevant records in the dozen-plus volumes of “Records of Yue.”

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Wu Kingdom’s navy was powerful, invincible along the Yangtze River from Dongting Lake to Poyang Lake and Taihu Lake. When Wu forces attacked Qi, apart from the main force advancing north along Hangou and other inland rivers and lakes, they also dispatched a flanking force taking the sea route to raid the eastern coastal regions of Qi Kingdom at that time, engaging Qi Kingdom’s navy in the sea area east of present-day Mizhou at Langya Platform.

However, naval forces operating on inland rivers versus entering ocean combat had completely different requirements for ships’ and soldiers’ ability to withstand wind and waves—these were two entirely different concepts.

Wu Kingdom’s navy’s cross-sea expedition fifteen hundred years ago, although in terms of distance was only six to seven hundred li, before barely reaching the Langya Platform sea area, quite a few warships unable to withstand ocean winds and waves had already capsized and sunk. Large numbers of naval officers and soldiers were exhausted from being tossed by wind and waves, ultimately suffering disastrous defeat by Qi Kingdom’s navy waiting at ease for the fatigued enemy.

Because of this, during warfare in the Jianghuai region over thousands of years, navies frequently fought on inland rivers but rarely had records of ocean engagements.

Probably for this reason too, even discovering signs that Liang forces were establishing a major naval camp in Haizhou, Wang Wenqian and other Huaidong officers hadn’t deeply considered the possibility of Liang forces taking sea routes to raid and harass Jianghuai coastal areas.

Of course, the coastal region east of Huaidong was the Huaidong Salt Fields under direct jurisdiction of the court’s Salt and Iron Transfer Commissioner Bureau, and from the Yangtze mouth southward were the coastal regions of Su, Xiu, Hang, and Ming prefectures. Even if Liang forces had the possibility of raiding Jianghuai coastal areas via sea routes, Huaidong needn’t worry about it.

According to current conventional shipbuilding technology, building warships with strong wind and wave resistance was very difficult, but in recent years Xuzhou had adopted watertight bulkhead structures to build large ships, greatly enhancing hull strength and substantially improving the safety of naval coastal operations.

Currently there was also sufficient evidence indicating that before Zhao Kuo’s suicide, he had transmitted back to Liang Kingdom Xuzhou’s textile, ironworking, and shipbuilding techniques.

This also meant that with Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang building a naval main camp in Haizhou, producing new ocean-going vessels with stronger wind and wave resistance no longer had major obstacles. As long as officers and soldiers underwent corresponding ocean combat training, within one to two years there was still capability to organize a coastal navy battle force.

“Draft a secret memorial for me to memorialize this matter…” Han Qian piled the stack of books on the desk. After pondering for a long while, he said to Xi Ren.

“Even if Liang forces are truly planning this, it would take at least one to two years before achieving any results. If you expose this now, it will instead give Jinling people more excuse to immediately organize a new navy east of Runzhou, thereby reducing the fiscal support Tangyi can obtain…” Xi Ren said.

The main force of Great Chu’s navy having been destroyed at Hongze Lake didn’t mean the court had no plans to organize a new navy.

The shipyards in the capital region had been successively destroyed before and after the Jinling Incident, and large numbers of shipbuilding craftsmen had all been abducted by Anning Palace to Shouzhou. This didn’t mean the entire Jiangdong region no longer had capability to build large ships.

In fact, in Jiangdong’s Taihu Lake region, the common people had quite strong shipbuilding capabilities, and the court also couldn’t possibly completely hand over the Yangtze River waterway to Xuzhou naval camp’s control.

However, under the current tense situation, everything had to prioritize containing enemy offensives and stabilizing the north bank defense line. Only then could Han Daoming openly fight for more supplies and other related support for Tangyi in the court.

Throughout court and countryside, precisely because there were concerns that after river ice melted the Tower Ship Army would move south invading the Yangtze waterway, only at the current stage should they more fully support strengthening Xuzhou naval camp’s battle capabilities—after all, rebuilding a navy and forming combat capability required time.

So not exposing at this time the true plot of Liang forces establishing a naval main camp in Haizhou was advantageous for Xuzhou.

Once a secret memorial was drafted to memorialize this matter, not only Lu Qingxia, Li Zhigao and others, but even Emperor Yanyou and court ministers would all have an excuse and would be extremely willing to immediately select locations east of Runzhou to newly prepare and organize a new naval battle force.

This could not only guard against future raids by Liang’s Haizhou navy on coastal regions, but would actually directly weaken Xuzhou naval camp’s control over the Yangtze waterway, possibly enabling the court’s control over the Yangtze north bank region to return to the proper track.

Han Qian sighed slightly, pillowed on Xi Ren’s lap, and said: “I’m not thinking of displaying how high-minded and principled I am, but even waiting until one to two years later when Liang navy truly raids Jiangzhe coastal areas from offshore, from any angle, neither court nor palace could possibly hand coastal defense duties to Xuzhou naval camp. Rather than waiting until that time to watch helplessly as they hastily organize new naval battle forces then get beaten into complete defeat again, depleting Great Chu’s vitality, better to remind them now to prepare more in advance, so they won’t be suppressed too miserably when the time comes. We need to prepare to attack Liyang half a month from now, need cooperation from all parties, and also need to show sufficient sincerity! If people now worry we have ambitions to control the Yangtze waterway, who knows what obstacles they’ll create behind our backs.”

“Can’t it all be our side showing sincerity?” Xi Ren asked.

“Now we still must ensure we can capture Liyang first. Other matters can wait until after taking Liyang to consider,” Han Qian said. “After capturing Liyang, I’ll have other considerations.”

Xi Ren nodded. Capturing Liyang was key to cutting off contact between Chuzhou and Chaozhou and suppressing the Tower Ship Army north of the Yangtze waterway. Only then would subsequent strategic intentions of encircling Chuzhou City and thereby forcing Shouzhou forces out of Chuzhou have possibility of realization.

Only at this point would they truly have depth on the Yangtze north bank to establish foothold and develop power.

Xi Ren went to draft the secret memorial. When she brought it over for Han Qian to review, she saw Han Qian had already reclined diagonally on the soft couch in his clothes, snoring lightly.

The next day, Han Qian reviewed the secret memorial Xi Ren had drafted. At noon he found time to call over Feng Liao, Guo Rong, Gao Shao and others to discuss the matter.

Han Qian planned to have Guo Rong take this secret memorial first to Shuzhou to see Li Zhigao and inform him of the matter.

To ensure attacking Liyang on schedule, as long as Li Zhigao could then agree to conditions of actively deploying troops from the western flank to pin down Chaozhou defenders, even if Wanhong Tower wanted to dispatch commanders to organize new naval battle forces, as long as they could eliminate other obstacles, Han Qian wouldn’t object.

After Guo Rong, Feng Liao, and Gao Shao thought it over repeatedly, they also felt that at this time they couldn’t be too greedy. Before taking all of Chuzhou territory, in other aspects they truly needed to make more compromises—without Huaixi Forbidden Army’s cooperation, Chaozhou alone had over fifty thousand defenders, obviously not something Tangyi forces could handle independently.

However, just as Guo Rong was taking Han Qian’s signed secret memorial, planning to rush to Wushou main camp to board ship and depart for Shuzhou to see Li Zhigao, news transmitted back from Shuzhou caused Han Qian to immediately halt Guo Rong’s journey.

Last night at nightfall, Lin Zongjing had been ordered to lead warships transporting the first batch of Li Xiu and Li Chi’s troops to reach Bijia Mountain main camp in southeastern Shuzhou. At Bijia Mountain main camp, Lin Zongjing saw Li Chong, whom everyone had thought died in the breakout battle outside Zhongli City.

After Li Zhigao led Huaixi Forbidden Army to withdraw from beneath Chaozhou City, he built two main camps on Shuzhou’s eastern flank: one was at the southeastern foot of Qian Mountain, the Lujiang main camp centered on Lujiang County seat, and one was Bijia Mountain main camp in southern Lujiang County and eastern Zongyang County bordering the Yangtze, simultaneously controlling defense of Tongling City on the Yangtze’s south bank. Nearly sixty thousand Huaixi Forbidden Army troops were mainly stationed in these three locations, forming a gateway protecting the western flank’s Shuzhou and Chizhou heartland and controlling the middle Yangtze waterway.

Probably out of consideration that even without depending on Xuzhou naval camp, Huaixi Forbidden Army also needed capability to maintain contact with the south bank, after Li Zhigao withdrew troops from beneath Chaozhou City, he directly moved the commander’s headquarters to Bijia Mountain main camp. Simultaneously, over this past half month, at the riverside bay at the foot of Bijia Mountain’s southern slope, they urgently collected over a hundred fishing boats and transport ships to drill a navy.

Just as Tangyi forces would collect warhorses as much as possible to drill small numbers of cavalry, Huaixi Forbidden Army self-organizing warships to drill a small portion of navy was also to have multi-level coordinated combat capability. The Bureau of Military Affairs wouldn’t prevent this but also wouldn’t provide extra money and grain.

At this time, not only Li Zhigao and Deng Tai and other commanders, but Duke Xinguo Li Pu, as well as Marquis Liyang Yang En, Imperial Weaving Bureau lady official Yao Xishui and others were all at Bijia Mountain main camp.

When Lin Zongjing rushed to Bijia Mountain main camp, out of courtesy considerations, he also first went ashore with Li Xiu and Li Chi to pay respects to Li Zhigao and others. Only after going ashore did he learn that Li Chong, leading over ten remnant soldiers, had traveled stealthily all the way through enemy-controlled Shouzhou, Chaozhou and other places, and just the day before Feng Xuan led troops attacking the camp at the eastern foot of Tingzi Mountain, had escaped back to Bijia Mountain main camp.

As yet another high-ranking commander who escaped and returned south, that Li Chong could escape back alive was already extremely fortunate. No one would pursue war defeat responsibility against him. But after Li Chong escaped back to Shuzhou’s Bijia Mountain main camp, accompanying soldiers widely spread rumors saying that when Han Qian recovered Wuling County years ago, he already knew the identity of Liang Kingdom spy Wen Ruilin, yet harbored ulterior motives and deliberately concealed it, resulting in the navy main force falling into enemy schemes, ultimately having the disaster of being destroyed together with Right Shenwu Army, while Xuzhou troops took the opportunity to return to Jianghuai.

When Lin Zongjing heard such rumors spreading among officers and soldiers in Bijia Mountain main camp, he naturally was immediately indignant expressing dissatisfaction. That very night he led warships downstream along the river, rushing back to report the news…