Yongfeng Fort was located approximately one hundred forty-plus li west of Chaozhou City. The South Fei River’s channel made a large bend in the western Chao plains, making the waterway distance from Yongfeng Fort to Chaozhou City as long as two hundred li.

Although this caused the various contingents infiltrating via separate routes to detour an extra sixty to seventy li around the South Fei River channel as their center, the Shouzhou forces couldn’t penetrate their intentions. Their defensive lines frantically maneuvered, but before assembling sufficient troops, who would dare crash into the Tangyi forces’ spearhead?

Therefore, aside from some hardship, the various contingents infiltrating to the outskirts of Yongfeng Fort encountered no setbacks.

However, this surprise assault operation had only just begun its opening act.

In previous years, aside from during Emperor Tianyou’s rule over Huainan, three Military Governors of Huainan before him had all devoted themselves to excavating the Yongfeng Canal, connecting the South and North Fei Rivers to strengthen water route communications between the Yangtze and Huai regions.

After the Yongfeng Canal was completed, subsequent newly built post roads heading north to Shouzhou and west to Huozhou and Guangzhou all passed through Yongfeng Fort. As the most important water and land transportation hub in the western Chao region, Yongfeng Fort held greater prominence in Gaocheng County than the county seat over twenty li to the west.

After decades of development, over ten thousand people had gathered here. The market town was far more prosperous than ordinary county seats, and surrounding the town were crisscrossing irrigation channels and field paths, with villages large and small scattered about.

On the south bank of the South Fei River stood a stone ridge over ten zhang high, currently controlled by a Tangyi cavalry unit.

Han Qian held Wang Jun’s hand as they climbed the stone ridge. He observed that the ridge extended three to four li left and right, like a natural barrier on the south side of Yongfeng Fort. The frozen South Fei River lay beneath the ridge’s cliff face, and looking northwest, two or three li away stood another low ridge extending northward, like a gateway on the western face of Yongfeng Fort. The Yongfeng Canal had been excavated at the eastern foot of that ridge.

Han Qian didn’t look at the troop assembly situation to the north, nor did he gaze down from this height at the panicked enemy forces inside Yongfeng Fort. Instead, he looked southwest.

Dawn had broken over an hour ago, but the thin mist had not yet dispersed. Dark blue peaks appeared faintly through the thin mist, far more majestic than the cliffs and low ridges on this side.

Deep within those peaks lay the Huaiyang Mountains—cutting off Jingxiang from Huainan, serving as the watershed between the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, stretching a thousand li in all directions. In later generations, they would be known by the famous name Dabie Mountains.

Including Tongbai Mountains, the Huaiyang Mountains formed a massive arc across heaven and earth. Their northern slopes bordered Guangzhou and Huozhou, their western slopes bordered Dengzhou, their southwest bordered Suizhou and Huangzhou, their southern slopes bordered Shuzhou, and their eastern slopes bordered Chaozhou.

The Huaiyang Mountains could be said to be a formidable mountain range that no hegemon seeking to conquer the Jiang-Huai region could avoid.

“In a certain sense, Yongfeng Fort’s strategic value is far more important than Huozhou City itself. For us especially, this is true. Besides the cultivation zones extending hundreds of li west, north, and east, the Huaiyang Mountains to the south are also densely populated with village settlements.”

Han Qian held his riding whip horizontally before him, speaking to Wang Jun who rode alongside him.

“It’s precisely because the Jiang-Huai region has seen continuous warfare over the past hundred years, combined with harsh exploitation during brutal conflicts, that countless households fled into the thousand-li expanse of Huaiyang Mountains to struggle for survival. Before the Jinling Incident, the population statistics for the five prefectures of Huaixi—Chao, Chu, Guang, Huo, and Shou—totaled only eight hundred thousand. After the Jinling Incident, over two hundred thousand military and civilian personnel were compelled by Anning Palace to cross the river and retreat into Huaixi, bringing Huaixi’s total population barely above one million. However, not counting the mountainous regions within Jingxiang’s Suizhou and Huangzhou, nor the southern Shuzhou territory, just within the northern and eastern slopes of Huaiyang Mountains—how many fugitive households and mountain dwellers are actually hidden there? Over the twenty-plus years since Great Chu’s founding, there has never been an accurate census. Some estimate tens of thousands, some estimate two to three hundred thousand, some even claim that just within the mountain territories under Chao and Huo prefectures’ jurisdiction, there are four to five hundred thousand mountain dwellers hidden away—opinions vary wildly. However, how many households are actually hidden throughout the mountainous regions of western Chao and southern Huo will soon become clear…”

Han Qian wore a crimson cloak over his armor against the cold, his frame appearing imposing. Wang Jun had only fastened an inconspicuous fur garment over her jacket, standing beside Han Qian.

After three consecutive days of riding with the army on campaign, even with excellent care, it was extremely arduous. Yet at this moment, her spirit was radiant, her snow-white face gleaming like porcelain, her beautiful eyes revealing bright clarity, giving no sense of fatigue whatsoever.

Although the main forces infiltrating via separate routes were now assembling on the north bank of the South Fei River, making final preparations to attack Yongfeng Fort defended by only six to seven hundred Shouzhou troops, her thoughts, like Han Qian’s, still cast their vision toward the deep peaks to the southwest.

She didn’t know how great a disturbance this Tangyi troop movement would provoke, but clearly, there were very few people in this world who could truly see through Han Qian’s intentions. And those few could be counted on one hand—at this moment, none should be within Huaixi territory.

Indeed, Yongfeng Fort was a focal point they would heavily attack in this surprise operation. But Han Qian organizing troops to infiltrate through the enemy’s Chaozhou defense line to attack Yongfeng Fort was not because he coveted the supplies the Shouzhou forces had stockpiled here, nor was it to burn this prosperous market town to ashes in one conflagration, then destroy the Yongfeng Canal’s dam locks to cut off this most important waterway passage within Huaixi, followed by extensively devastating agricultural production in the Huaixi hinterland.

If it were other commanders, successfully achieving the above operational objectives in this surprise assault and then successfully withdrawing the raiding forces would qualify them to enter the ranks of renowned contemporary generals. But Wang Jun knew clearly in her heart that her husband would not be limited to just this.

The Battle of Xichuan had made Han Qian’s reputation soar.

The world saw the Dragon Sparrow Army’s bloody brave fighting, saw the Third Imperial Prince’s youthful steadfastness, saw the whirlwind catapults’ magnificent display, saw Han Qian’s unpredictable ingenious stratagems. But there was another more important factor that the world rarely mentioned or that very few saw clearly.

That was how the mountain stronghold forces, besides directly providing nearly half the troops defending Xichuan City, also had stronghold forces controlling the vast mountain ridges west of the Xichuan River, preventing the Liang forces from completely blocking Xichuan City’s retreat routes throughout the entire Jingxiang campaign, or even effectively cutting off communications between Xichuan City and Jingzi Pass on the western flank.

Afterward, the Fleet Army’s naval forces, with their western flank unthreatened, easily broke through the Liang forces’ blockade, reached beneath Xichuan City, successfully rendezvoused with the Dragon Sparrow Army, and broke the Liang forces’ months-long siege.

Subsequently, the mountain stronghold forces provided over half the garrison troops and civilian households for the newly established Junzhou.

Mountain stronghold forces formed from two sources: first, remnant vagrant armies and bandit forces fleeing into remote mountain forests during chaos; second, ordinary civilians fleeing warfare, migrating from plains regions into mountainous areas to struggle for survival.

Only by deeply analyzing the deeper underlying victory factors behind the Battle of Xichuan could one more clearly understand why Han Qian would suddenly launch such a surprise offensive in the harsh winter months.

This land of Huaixi, over the past hundred years, had experienced warfare surpassing or at least equaling that of Jingxiang and Nanyang.

Even after Great Chu’s founding, Liang forces had made three large-scale invasions into Huaixi; small-scale raids never ceased any year.

Since the Jinling Incident, especially after Li Zhigao led the Huaixi Imperial Guards across the river for the northern campaign, warfare had now continued for nearly two years.

Although there were no remnant vagrant army forces among the peaks of the northern and eastern slopes of Huaiyang Mountains, making the internal military strength of these mountain regions insufficient for fortified self-defense, the number of ordinary civilians who had fled warfare and migrated into them was definitely not small.

Over the past year, although Tangyi couldn’t conduct accurate surveys of the northern and eastern slope regions of Huaiyang Mountains adjacent to Chaozhou and Huozhou, nor accurately estimate the specific scale of these mountain region households, they had still expended great effort investigating the situation.

Where did Tangyi’s true advantages lie?

Xuzhou, which Han Qian and his father Han Daoxun had managed and deeply cultivated for years, could be called a standard mountainous prefecture.

During the Jinling Incident, when Han Qian led the Chishan Army in their southern transfer, he had once contemplated establishing operations in Fuyu Mountains for long-term resistance. After being “captured” at Maoshan, Wang Jun had spent nearly a year at Han Qian’s side and was intimately familiar with all this.

Combining these factors and reconsidering the significance of Yongfeng Fort, one would understand that Yongfeng Fort was actually the gateway for entering deep into the northeastern slopes of Huaiyang Mountains via the upper river valleys of the South and North Fei Rivers.

Unlike Wujian Mountains whose highest peaks were only forty to fifty zhang, hundreds and thousands of peaks in the northeastern section of Huaiyang Mountains rose three to four hundred zhang and higher, with precipitous and steep terrain. Some streams and rivers originating from Huaiyang Mountains, particularly major tributaries like the South and North Fei Rivers, had river valleys and riverbeds with relatively gentle terrain that actually served as the main passages deep into the Huaiyang mountain region’s interior.

In fact, as the surprise attack forces assembled toward Yongfeng Fort’s outskirts, on one hand, under Tian Cheng, Feng Xuan and others’ direction, they were racing against time to assemble troops on the north bank of the South Fei River, making final preparations before the assault. On the other hand, Xi Fa’er had already led over a hundred scouts to advance along the South Fei River valley into Jiangjun Ridge for preliminary reconnaissance.

In the formulated operational plan, they had also considered the scenario of being unable to successfully capture Yongfeng Fort.

However, the backup plan was neither to retreat along the original route nor to enter Wujian Mountains to the east, but rather to advance southwest into the northeastern slopes of Huaiyang Mountains, then establish roots relying on the vast mountain region extending over five hundred li from northwest to southeast and with a depth of three hundred li across the eastern section of Huaiyang Mountains.

This was the fundamental intent behind Han Qian launching this surprise attack while seizing the opportunity when the main Liang forces were all assembled on the north bank of the Yellow River and the Shouzhou forces couldn’t independently launch a large-scale offensive on the southern line.

The most fundamental point was that within half a year to a year, the main Liang forces couldn’t transfer to the southern line.

These main forces included not only the Liang army’s elite troops, but more importantly, combat supplies within Liang territory could only primarily support the northern line in the short term and couldn’t be shifted southward.

Otherwise, if Tangyi divided elite forces to penetrate deep into Huaiyang Mountains at this time while the Liang and Shouzhou forces could assemble large armies and attack the Chu River and Fucha Mountains defense lines regardless of casualties, it might cause Tangyi’s complete collapse.

Of course, the Martial Guard Army’s relocation from southwest of Huaiyang Mountains to Suizhou, forcing the Shouzhou forces to transfer nearly twenty thousand elite troops from the Chaozhou line to western Huozhou, was also a necessary prerequisite enabling this surprise assault operation.

Otherwise, with seventy thousand defending troops on the southern line, Han Qian wouldn’t dare easily infiltrate.

Several fast horses crossed the river ice, rushing to the south bank levee.

Guo Que used hands and feet to quickly climb up the cliff face, arriving before Han Qian somewhat out of breath, reporting: “There are three thousand enemy cavalry moving south along the North Fei River, seemingly personally led by Xu Mingzhen. After they rendezvous with over two thousand infantry emerging from Gaocheng, they show no signs of stopping to organize formations, as if wanting to take advantage of our army’s unstable footing and charge along the Yongfeng Canal in one sustained push…”

Guo Que was quite excited—besieging a point to strike reinforcements was what they most anticipated.

“If they want battle, give them battle. Relay orders to Han Donghu to contract the cavalry from the western flank, don’t intercept, let the enemy main force through, withdraw and consolidate on the south bank of the South Fei River. You go rendezvous with Tian Cheng first, adjust deployments to prepare for engaging the enemy reinforcements on the northwest or north side of Yongfeng Fort. I’ll follow shortly,” Han Qian said with a slight smile.

Gao Shao, Feng Liao and others remained at the southern line in command, but half the military officers from the Military Intelligence Staff had accompanied the army on campaign. Formulating specific operational plans no longer required excessive interference from Han Qian.

Guo Que first galloped off to rendezvous with Tian Cheng. Han Qian glanced once more at the peaks to the southwest, saying to Wang Jun: “We should return as well. If things go smoothly, perhaps we can sleep peacefully tonight.”

“Xu Mingzhen personally leading reinforcements charging here non-stop—he’s aware of Yongfeng Fort’s importance, but clearly still hasn’t realized we can use the frozen river surface to rapidly transport siege equipment. He wants to inflict heavy casualties while we’re not yet established,” Wang Jun said with emotion.

The Tangyi cavalry force was far smaller in scale than the Shouzhou forces. Infiltrating behind enemy lines, what most needed resolution were the supply and heavy siege equipment transportation problems. These directly determined the surprise attack forces’ ability to remain in enemy territory and conduct siege operations.

Otherwise, even if Yongfeng Fort’s garrison consisted of only six to seven hundred men with only a single rammed earth protective wall less than three chi thick surrounding it, without siege equipment, forcing an assault would result in quite horrific casualties.

Not to mention trying to hold Yongfeng Fort afterward.

Of course, the enemy reinforcements arriving from Shouzhou to the north and Huozhou to the west, under Xu Mingzhen’s personal command, thinking to strike quickly while this side wasn’t yet established, must have completely failed to see through the fundamental intent behind Han Qian launching this surprise assault operation.

They hadn’t anticipated that Tangyi forces would defend Yongfeng Fort, so they would only assume that after Tangyi forces captured it, they would immediately destroy the town and nearby hydraulic facilities like locks, dams, and canal embankments, then rapidly transfer away.

This location was at the junction between the upper and middle reaches of the South and North Fei Rivers, with relatively high terrain. The Yongfeng Canal’s two sides required dam locks to maintain stable water storage in the canal for boats to pass through.

The contemporary era wasn’t without the capability to construct dam locks.

Not to mention Xuzhou—along the Hangou Canal, the core waterway connecting the Yangtze and Huai, several dam locks had been built to control water levels in the Hangou based on tidal fluctuations in the Yangtze and Huai Rivers.

When outer rivers rose at high tide, gates opened to admit water; at low tide, gates closed to maintain internal water levels in the Hangou.

Boats entering or leaving the Hangou all had to pass through locks.

Previously, to resolve the inefficiency problem of grain transport boats passing through locks, a segmented transport method was adopted—establishing storage granaries at dam lock locations, so grain transport boats from various regions each handled a certain segment of transport. That is, upon reaching a dam lock, they would unload grain into the granaries for the next river segment’s fleet to handle, thereby conserving manpower and material resources and increasing the scale of grain transported annually to Luoyang and Chang’an.

However, even constructing dam locks on very small waterways was absolutely considered a major engineering project in the contemporary era. Once destroyed, repairs might take three to five years or more.

Material transport between Chaozhou and Shouzhou wasn’t particularly heavily dependent on the Yongfeng Canal, but after the Yongfeng Fort dam locks were destroyed, the Shouzhou naval forces would be unable to freely navigate between the Huai River and Yangtze River systems.

If Xu Mingzhen and the Shouzhou officials determined that the core objective of this Tangyi troop movement was destroying Yongfeng Fort’s dam locks, they wouldn’t dare delay without fighting.

Moreover, both banks of the South and North Fei Rivers were key garrison farming zones for the Shouzhou forces. The flooding situation throughout Chu, Yang, and Tai prefectures in Huaidong this year—caused by Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang raiding Huaidong last year and focusing on destroying river embankments and dams—they wouldn’t forget so quickly.

If not for such concerns, delaying two or three days would allow them to assemble several thousand more troops, making the situation even more favorable for them. Even if Yongfeng Fort temporarily fell by then, in their view, they should have confidence in leisurely recapturing it.

…

…

The South Fei River flowed from the southwest, passing through a cliff face—the southern cliff was the ridge Han Qian had climbed with Wang Jun after arriving at Yongfeng Fort. The Huainan Military Governor’s office in the previous dynasty had excavated a canal entrance on the east side of the northern cliff, drawing water northward to connect with the North Fei River.

This cliff wasn’t high, but the terrain was quite treacherous, meaning enemy forces couldn’t easily approach from the south or west side to directly enter Yongfeng Fort and rendezvous with the garrison.

The northeast side of Yongfeng Fort—also the east side of the Yongfeng Canal and north side of the South Fei River—had relatively flat terrain, but was now occupied by the assembled Tangyi forces.

At positions further north stood three small hilltops rising several zhang to over ten zhang. These had all been occupied by Tangyi forces arriving a day early, who had built simple camps with felled wood. This could also be said to be an outer defensive line and blocking position established to cover the main forces attacking Yongfeng Fort.

When Guo Que initially reported, there were three thousand enemy cavalry coming from the Shouzhou direction along the South Bank of the North Fei River and two thousand infantry charging from Gaocheng. But by afternoon, when enemy forces charged from the northwest direction along both banks of the Yongfeng Canal, it was confirmed that another contingent of over a thousand enemy cavalry from the Huozhou direction had arrived at roughly the same time.

“Xu Mingzhen hasn’t yet determined whether this is a major counteroffensive long planned by the court, yet he’s directly transferred cavalry from the western flank to come here. Looks like he still takes us quite seriously!” Han Qian held a brass telescope, observing the enemy deployment on the west bank of the Yongfeng Canal.

Clearly, the enemy forces worried they might tamper with the river ice and were dispatching small cavalry units to repeatedly patrol both banks of the Yongfeng Canal. But their forward positions had already been established on the east bank of the Yongfeng Canal. The distance between the two armies’ vanguards was so close that with one charge, they could hurl spears into each other’s formations.

“The enemy reinforcements plus the garrison inside Yongfeng Fort mean they’ve assembled total forces here exceeding seven thousand men. By any measure, they now hold absolute numerical superiority. And we infiltrated to Yongfeng Fort via separate routes over three days. In such frigid weather, traveling plus camping in enemy-controlled territory consumed tremendous physical strength. I believe even if Xu Mingzhen’s courage is limited, he should launch an attack directly,” Tian Cheng said with emotion. “This would save more trouble than us fighting at night to kill onto the west bank of the Yongfeng Canal—night battles still depend on heaven’s mood.”

They wouldn’t let the Shouzhou forces delay further. If the Shouzhou main forces on the west bank of the Yongfeng Canal didn’t attack before dusk, they would preemptively launch an offensive.

Night battle conditions were even more demanding. Only on clear nights with better visibility could the Tangyi forces gain greater advantage.

“Looking at their deployment, they probably still want to attack our center-left flank in one sustained push, first seeking to establish communications with Yongfeng Fort,” Feng Xuan said, sitting astride his tall warhorse. On their side, over a hundred coal fires burned scattered about. It appeared the soldiers were seizing time to cook and eat to have strength for fighting, but actually, in the cold air, they were creating masses of vapor and fog to block the enemy’s line of sight. Yet from the edge zones, they could observe the enemy formations without obstruction. “That armored general ascending the southern slope surrounded by over ten men should be Xu Mingzhen himself.”

“Xu Mingzhen can be ranked alongside Li Yu, Du Chongtao and others, but I wonder if this time he has any exceptional qualities to give us a shock…” Han Qian said with a smile.

“Husband inherits Father-in-law’s legacy, yet Xu Mingzhen views Husband as a treacherous schemer. When one’s judgment of people shows such great deviation, no matter what exceptional qualities one possesses, it’s difficult to fully display them,” Wang Jun said.

She drew her fur garment tighter against the cold wind.

With great battle imminent, some inexplicable emotion surged within her breast—both anticipation and apprehension. She couldn’t help pressing slightly closer toward Han Qian.

Surrounded by subordinate officers and guards, Xu Mingzhen stood with grave expression before a nunnery called Meishan Hermitage on the northern cliff.

On the north side of Yongfeng Fort, all three thousand Tangyi cavalry and infantry had dismounted and formed six separate formations. But because the Tangyi forces were building fires to cook, masses of white vapor and fog churned through the shallow valley north of Yongfeng Fort, preventing them from seeing finer details.

Meanwhile, nearly two thousand Tangyi cavalry were dispersed on both flanks, their deployment appearing quite conventional.

Of course, messengers who had secretly emerged from Yongfeng Fort reported that the two battalions of Tangyi troops assembled before the fort were still preparing to assault it, having already felled several massive logs to construct simple siege rams. Yongfeng Fort’s thin protective walls would likely have breaches opened after just a few blows.

It was clear that if their side didn’t launch an attack and delayed until nightfall, the Tangyi forces would very likely assault Yongfeng Fort through the night.

Xu Mingzhen looked up at the sky—ten thousand li without clouds, the wind piercingly cold as knives.

The Tangyi forces—or rather, the former Chishan Army—had night battle capabilities superior to other contemporary elite forces. This was directly related to the larger and more mature military officer corps within the Tangyi army. Xu Mingzhen’s envy was useless.

Because the Tangyi forces had infiltrated through the Chaozhou defense line in eight or nine separate routes, for a period of time, the northern Chaozhou region was all controlled by Tangyi forces, preventing Shouzhou scouts and messengers from passing through.

Therefore, besides the initial messenger Chaozhou had sent with reports, they had been without knowledge of the specific southern line situation for a day and a half, causing Xu Mingzhen some concern.

Without sufficient intelligence, no matter how renowned a contemporary general he was, he was still blind. And he suspected that Marquis of Qianyang Han Qian was very likely within the opposing military formations.

Such a large-scale surprise attack—it was hard to imagine Han Qian could truly rest easy remaining in Liyang City for his wedding night. But unfortunately, this speculation still couldn’t be verified.

Several military advisors and commanders had already discussed and formulated a specific operational plan. The forces that had advanced earlier were deployed along both banks of the Yongfeng Canal according to this plan.

Conventionally speaking, using infantry for assault while cavalry covered the flanks was orthodox tactics. But their first wave of reinforcements consisted mainly of cavalry, and they needed to inflict heavy casualties on the Tangyi forces in the shortest time, so they could only adjust their tactics.

Many advocated assembling the cavalry main force to the front, utilizing the charging power of cavalry formations to most rapidly pierce through the Tangyi forces’ center-left infantry defensive line approaching Yongfeng Fort, while arranging two thousand infantry plus small cavalry forces on both flanks to guard against Tangyi counterattacks.

Of course, they also knew that even if the Tangyi forces hadn’t brought heavy siege equipment and cumbersome war chariots, the army was equipped with an extremely large number of powerful crossbows, and these crossbows all had ranges around one hundred twenty paces, even slightly exceeding ordinary infantry bows.

For the three cavalry routes serving as the main assault force, advancing in a “品” character formation, they also advocated placing the limited two hundred-plus heavily armored cavalry at the front of the cavalry formations to break through the Tangyi forces’ front crossbow formations with fewer casualties and greater speed.

At that point, with the Yongfeng Fort garrison emerging to pincer attack, even if they couldn’t rout the Tangyi forces in one stroke, they could drive them away from before Yongfeng Fort.

“Strike!” Xu Mingzhen waved his hand, ordering the commanders to prepare to lead their units in the assault. He still couldn’t risk Yongfeng Fort falling.

Even if Yongfeng Fort fell into enemy hands for just one day, the dam locks might be destroyed. Yet follow-up reinforcements couldn’t assemble until the day after tomorrow at earliest. This also meant that after the Tangyi forces forcibly captured Yongfeng Fort through the night, they would still have opportunity to withdraw at leisure.

The southern line situation was unknown—Sizhao surprisingly hadn’t dispatched elite forces to pursue and engage. Meanwhile, Shou and Huo prefectures hadn’t anticipated the Tangyi forces would dare infiltrate so boldly, so available standing elite forces were limited. Even large numbers of warhorses had been dispersed to various garrison settlements to control horse plague and conserve winter horse fodder consumption.

Add to this the extremely frigid weather, and the assembly and mobilization of soldiers and warhorses between defensive forts, garrison settlements, and cities was truly too slow.

Xu Mingzhen now didn’t seek to inflict heavy casualties on the Tangyi forces—as long as Yongfeng Fort didn’t fall, or as long as they could open a passage to rendezvous with the garrison inside Yongfeng Fort, there would be abundant subsequent opportunities to devour bit by bit this recklessly infiltrating surprise attack force…