“Something’s not right!”

Wen Ruilin climbed onto the watchtower on the southern slope of Meitang Mountain, gazing at Tangyi troops’ outer defensive line at Shenjia Stockade three or four li away. Seeing Xu Mingzhen’s deeply furrowed brow, he too seemed to realize that today’s Tangyi troops were somehow different.

Even after multiple previous engagements, the tenacity of Tangyi troops left Wen Ruilin astounded.

In this battle spanning just twenty to thirty days, the palisade walls around Shenjia Stockade had been shattered several times over, yet were repeatedly patched with timber and stone transported from the rear by Tangyi soldiers.

Both sides continuously charged forward to destroy each other’s torsion catapults and other siege equipment, then continuously built new catapults to hurl tens of thousands of stone projectiles at each other’s positions.

They continuously broke open nearby mountain rocks, transporting over virtually all the stone tablets they could collect from left and right.

The South Fei River’s shallow, ice-broken channel was now filled with broken timber and shattered stone—besides what had been smashed askew by Tangyi positions’ catapults, more had been pushed in when laborers were driven to clear the assault path before the positions, depositing large amounts of damaged stone projectiles nearby.

Besides frontal attacks, they had sent small elite units into Huaiyang Mountain at any cost. Although fighting against Tangyi troops of equivalent scale, the direct elite forces that had followed the Xu clan for years suffered heavy casualties, but this fundamentally curbed Han Qian’s pace of mobilizing stockade forces and expanding his troops.

The severe cold weather had once been very unfavorable to them.

Besides causing many soldiers to freeze to death or suffer frostbite from the heavy snow, it had delayed their offensive on the Wujin Ridge line by over twenty days.

Yet it was during these twenty-plus days that Tangyi troops occupied nearly fifty stockades along the main tributaries upstream of the South Fei River, obtaining relatively sufficient supplies, and mobilized and conscripted over four thousand able-bodied men to serve as their expendable troops—at a speed and on a scale beyond their imagination.

However, the severe cold weather was also advantageous to them.

On one hand, the streams and rivers on Huaiyang Mountain’s eastern and northern slopes thawed about half a month later than usual, so that Tangyi navy warships could currently only patrol within Chao Lake, unable to approach Huaiyang Mountain along waterways like Dragon Pool River.

On the other hand, there had been little rainfall in Huaiyang Mountain since winter began, and ice and snow melted much later than usual years, so they didn’t need to worry about changes in stream and river water levels.

If the fighting dragged on to April or May, any casual downpour would severely affect their offensive launched from the downstream river valley.

At the current pace, Tangyi troops’ defensive line at Wujin Ridge looked unlikely to hold until April.

However, since this morning’s dawn, scouts had confirmed that small elite units of Tangyi troops responsible for controlling rear stockades were successively assembling toward Shenjia Stockade. Shouzhou army generals all tended to believe Tangyi troops might see that the standoff couldn’t be prolonged and were planning to launch a large-scale offensive.

However, why were the small elite units transferred from Huaiyang Mountain’s heartland not filling into the frontal river valley defensive line but instead concentrating at gaps along the mountain ridges on both flanks?

Could Tangyi generals believe that launching counterattacks from the steep ridge paths on both flanks was more advantageous?

At this moment, looking beyond the hundred-zhang-high ridge of Wujin Ridge, they could see columns of smoke rising from deep within Huaiyang Mountain, as if the persistently dry early spring weather had caused mountain fires to ignite in Huaiyang Mountain.

However, in such dry weather, whether it was the small elite units they had sent in or Tangyi troops hunting down the forces they had sent into the mountains, using dry wild grass and forest trees to ignite mountain fires was quite simple—but why were there fires everywhere?

Unfortunately, for scouts infiltrating Huaiyang Mountain to scale mountains and cross ridges through Tangyi troops’ blockade to transmit messages was not so easy, requiring at minimum two or three days.

Wen Ruilin’s mind hung suspended, unable to settle. Following Xu Mingzhen to the forward camp positions, he saw that the Tangyi soldiers behind the defensive line seemed to have higher morale today than usual, causing his imagination to run wild even more.

Xu Mingzhen summoned the generals and implemented many precautionary and alert measures, but Wen Ruilin couldn’t calm his thoughts.

After nightfall, when fighting at the front temporarily ceased, not long after Wen Ruilin returned to his tent, Xu Mingzhen sent someone to summon him.

Rushing to Xu Mingzhen’s main tent, he saw several blood-soaked scouts disguised as mountain villagers gasping for breath, recounting to Xu Yin and others who had arrived just before him what they had witnessed in Huaiyang Mountain today.

“Tangyi troops today notified military and civilian residents along the South Fei River upstream and Gaoyang Creek banks to evacuate, saying they need to prevent flooding—how is that possible?” After listening once, Wen Ruilin couldn’t help asking in shock. “Even if Tangyi troops piled firewood along the upstream tributaries and ignited it to melt river ice, how much water force could that generate?”

Because the fierce battle between both sides had continued for many days, the South Fei River channel downstream of Shenjia Stockade was filled with broken timber and shattered stone, which would affect tributary drainage. But the problem was that throughout the entire winter in Huaiyang Mountain, besides several heavy snowfalls, there had been little rainfall.

Although water flow in the channels filled with broken timber and shattered stone had never stopped, the flowing water had always been extremely shallow, which was sufficient proof of this.

They had also been guarding against the possibility that Han Qian might build dams to store water in the mountains. Over the past month, Xu Mingzhen had broken up two to three thousand direct elite troops into small units and sent them into Huaiyang Mountain, but they had discovered no abnormalities.

Han Daoxun and his son Han Qian had been extremely skilled at water management when gathering plague-stricken refugees at Autumn Lake Mountain and when managing Xu Prefecture—this was an undeniable fact. But the problem was that over the past month, with so many scouts and reconnaissance cavalry entering Huaiyang Mountain, could they not even recognize a single river-blocking dam?

Without building large dams to store water, even summer and autumn torrential rains would find it difficult to cause destructive impact on their large camp stationed in the river valley, right?

Or was all this merely Han Qian’s feint strategy—seeing that his own troops found defending Wujin Ridge difficult, he deliberately released false information, wanting them to throw themselves into confusion, thereby delaying the time until Wujin Ridge fell?

The Left Wuwei Army was currently breaking through the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain under Commander Zhou Shu’s leadership. Han Qian clearly wanted to delay more time so Zhou Shu could advance deeper, forcing them to withdraw troops for relief, right?

This was the only reasonable explanation Wen Ruilin could think of.

The group remained in uncertain shock in Xu Mingzhen’s command tent for a long time, unable to sort out any clear thread. At the first mark of the hour of Hai, the forward camp’s commanding general Xu Jin sent someone to report: “Behind the enemy’s defensive line, soldiers seem to hear sounds of river ice breaking and shifting!”

“River ice breaking?” Wen Ruilin was startled. He knew that with warming temperatures, if water flow in the channels became more abundant and encountered blockage downstream, it could burst through the frozen cover on the channel. Could it be that Tangyi troops’ piling of wood and burning ice in upstream channels was taking effect? But before nightfall, he had specifically looked—the channel west of Meitang Mountain showed no rise in water flow beneath the ice layer. He had thought Tangyi troops were purely making futile efforts upstream, creating false alarms.

“Let’s go look at the front.” Xu Mingzhen decisively said.

Wen Ruilin, Xu Yin, and others also stumbled along following Xu Mingzhen, surrounded by guards, disregarding the howling cold night wind as they rushed to the forward positions.

Stars and moon filled the sky, but visibility didn’t extend far.

Fortunately, forward position commander Xu Jin was also worried about problems. Hearing scouts say there were strange sounds behind Tangyi troops’ defensive line, despite the late night, he assembled an elite force to launch an attack on Tangyi troops’ southern defensive line, allowing scouts to approach the outer palisade of Shenjia Stockade to see the upstream channel situation more clearly.

When Xu Mingzhen, Wen Ruilin, and Xu Yin arrived, Xu Jin immediately reported what scouts had observed nearby: “Large amounts of broken river ice are surging downstream, all blocked by the palisade walls in the channel, piling up like a dam…”

On one hand, the palisade logs Tangyi troops had driven into the channel were positioned more to the south. On the other hand, they had never thought of attacking directly upstream along the channel, so the palisade walls Tangyi troops had built in the channel had never been damaged.

Now they hadn’t expected Tangyi troops would use these palisade walls to intercept river ice floating down from upstream to pile into an ice dam, then use the ice dam to block water.

“How high has the river ice piled?” Xu Mingzhen asked with furrowed brow.

“Less than two chi,” Xu Jin replied.

Xu Mingzhen glanced at an accompanying official.

“The river valley within Wujin Ridge is relatively deep and wide. As long as heaven doesn’t suddenly send torrential rain, even if all upstream river ice melts completely, it cannot accumulate much depth of water. Even if the palisade walls block broken ice to form a temporary dam, a water level rise of two chi is already the limit—moreover, ice dams are ultimately different from earth and stone weir dams. Large amounts of river water can still seep through, reducing upstream stream water accumulation.” That official was an assistant in the Commissioner’s Office Works Section, skilled in construction and water management, very familiar with conditions of tributaries upstream of South Fei River. He could roughly calculate the total water volume currently accumulated upstream of Wujin Ridge in South Fei River.

One must know that throughout the entire winter, the water level beneath South Fei River’s ice cover had been very shallow, with the ice cover suspended in the air over the vast majority of channels.

Looking at the current situation, Tangyi troops appeared to be making an empty show of strength no matter how one looked at it.

Although their large camp was mainly built on the riverbed, they had also considered the situation of streams and rivers swelling after the fighting dragged into April or May. Not only was the outer perimeter of the forward camp fortified with palisade walls, but embankments had also been raised with earth on both sides of the channel. If the upstream water level was merely raised two or three chi by an ice dam, there wasn’t much to worry about.

“Be carefully alert!” Xu Mingzhen said.

It was already late at night. All he could do was order the various camps to strengthen their vigilance and have Xu Jin’s side first abandon some camp areas on low, silted ground.

The group stood guard at the forward camp for an hour, confirming the ice dam hadn’t piled higher. They breathed slightly easier, thinking that no matter how capable Han Qian was, without heavy rainfall, he couldn’t make the water force upstream of South Fei River surge at will. What they needed to worry about more was sudden changes in weather.

However, seeing the clear stars and moon tonight, it didn’t look at all like wind and clouds would suddenly change.

Even if they needed to strengthen the embankments, that could wait until tomorrow.

After bustling about until dawn, Wen Ruilin returned to his tent to sleep, but couldn’t sleep soundly at all. Tossing and turning for over an hour without falling asleep, seeing morning light penetrating through tent flap cracks, he had warm water brought to wash up, then rushed to see Xu Mingzhen. Only then did he learn that Xu Mingzhen had returned to the main camp earlier but didn’t rest long—half an hour ago he had run to the forward camp again.

Wen Ruilin left the central army main camp and saw forward camp soldiers all frantically transferring to high ground on both sides, the camp in complete chaos. Deeply sensing the situation was dire, he hurried toward Xu Jin’s main tent. Seeing Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin, Xu Yin, and other Shouzhou officers there with terrible expressions, looking as if the sky had fallen, he asked in shock: “What happened?”

“Behind Shenjia Stockade’s palisade wall, river ice has piled over five chi high…” Xu Yin said.

“How is that possible?” Wen Ruilin’s face instantly turned pale. Instinctively feeling cold throughout his body, he asked incredulously, wishing Xu Yin would tell him it was just a joke.

He had returned to sleep for just over an hour—how could such a change suddenly occur within that hour?

Could Han Qian really have such vast supernatural powers that he could casually control the water force upstream of South Fei River?

Yet within the main tent, not one person could answer his question.

Not only had the ice dam behind the palisade wall rapidly piled to over five chi high in the past hour, it hadn’t stopped continuing to pile higher.

Just before Wen Ruilin arrived, Xu Jin had dispatched an elite unit to forcefully charge onto the palisade wall defended by Tangyi troops. They saw that behind the ice dam, water was completely full, like a mountain lake appearing out of thin air, extending five or six li upstream and beyond—meaning Tangyi troops had, completely beyond their imagination, controlled the inflow of upstream water with extreme precision.

Tangyi troops were currently pushing sections of floating logs wrapped in iron spikes into the water, presumably to increase their impact force when the flood swept over.

Retreat?

The passage opened west of Meitang Mountain was only six chi wide. Even if they were given an extra day, how many of the over thirty thousand combat soldiers and over twenty thousand laborers assembled in the river valley south of Meitang Mountain could evacuate?

Not to mention the tens of thousands of shi of military supplies.

……

……

The main and tributary channels of South Fei River south of Wujin Ridge wound and twisted. Water flow speed in early spring wasn’t high—roughly thirty li per hour. Considering the depth and breadth of the river valley inside Shenjia Stockade, to form an ice dam water force with sufficient impact on the enemy camp, the timing of breaking hidden dams along the banks to gather water had to be extremely precise. But in reality, complete precision was also impossible to achieve.

Regardless, under current existing technical conditions, it was absolutely impossible to leave the enemy army completely unprepared.

All efforts were aimed at shortening the enemy army’s reaction time after they became sufficiently alert.

At roughly the moment the morning sun rose above the eastern ridge, the ice dam piled over seven chi high finally collapsed. Turbid floodwater carrying broken river ice surged forth like galloping horses, bringing section after section of floating logs bursting through the breach.

Because too much shattered stone and broken timber had accumulated in the channel below, plus large amounts of broken river ice also directly cascaded into the channel below, this forced the ice-cold floodwater to sweep toward the enemy’s forward camps on both sides.

The palisade walls built around the outer perimeter of the enemy camp and the embankments on both sides of the channel were too flimsy, torn open with breaches in just a few strikes.

With nearly two hours of reaction time, most soldiers in the enemy’s forward camp had withdrawn to high ground on the left and right flanks, but this couldn’t save the Shouzhou army from defeat.

Yuan Guowei climbed Eagle Beak Cliff. Using a bronze telescope, he could more clearly see the panic in the enemy camp. Large numbers of abandoned supply carts were overturned by floodwater. Mules and horses struggled in the flood. Countless supplies were swept up by the floodwater, tumbling with the water toward further downstream.

Four li away from South Fei River was Meitang Mountain. Although the mountain itself wasn’t tall and couldn’t compare to Wujin Ridge to the south, the river valley pass at the mountain’s foot was narrower. Large amounts of debris, drowned mules and horses, and river ice accumulated there unable to rush through, quickly blocking up again.

This would not only worsen flooding south of Meitang Mountain, but would also completely eliminate the possibility of the enemy army rapidly evacuating through the narrow passage west of Meitang Mountain.

Of course, Han Qian wouldn’t possibly allow the enemy army to leisurely evacuate north over Meitang Mountain. The frontal assault path in the river valley had been completely destroyed by floodwater, but four thousand elite troops deployed to both flanks of Wujin Ridge since yesterday now launched their attack.

On Wujin Ridge’s northern slope, flood channels formed mainly by rainwater impact and low-lying terrain had been filled with chaotic stones and miscellaneous timber. Originally extremely rugged, passable only by mountain villagers, hunters, or small elite forces climbing through, the Shouzhou army had cleared chaotic stones and miscellaneous timber over the past month to facilitate multi-channel attacks. Now this conveniently allowed Tangyi elite troops to attack downward along the steep slopes.

Although the Shouzhou army had also built some trenches, palisade walls, and fortified structures as defensive works on the northern slope’s flood channels to guard against possible Tangyi counterattacks along these channels, large numbers of soldiers were crowded onto the steep slopes on both flanks in complete chaos, causing soldiers behind these defensive works to fall into disorder.

If troops and civilians couldn’t be organized in an orderly fashion, even the most solid city was mere decoration—let alone simple defensive works?

Tangyi elite troops attacking down the steep slopes, although carrying on shoulders and backs and able to bring only small amounts of heavy crossbows and scorpion catapults with fire oil canisters and stone projectiles fired in nowhere near dense volleys, inflicted far greater damage and created far more chaos for the enemy army from their high position than ever before.

Unable to stop the chaos from expanding, much less organize soldiers to block Tangyi troops’ offensive launched from high ground, Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin and others, seeing the overall situation lost, could only flee in panic on horseback through water toward Meitang Mountain’s southern slope, surrounded by guards.

Although this directly announced the forward camp troops’ defeat, for Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin, Wen Ruilin and others, the forward camp’s over seven thousand elite combat soldiers and ten thousand able-bodied laborers already had to be abandoned with the determination of a warrior severing his own arm.

If they didn’t want the situation to completely collapse, how many of the over twenty thousand elite troops in the large camp on Meitang Mountain’s southern slope could withdraw into Anfeng Stockade—that was the key to preserving the Shouzhou army’s vitality.

In the riverbed camp, accumulated water was already over three chi deep, with broken river ice spinning about.

Reaching Meitang Mountain’s southern slope, Wen Ruilin from the waist up was still fairly presentable, but from the waist down, after soaking in floodwater for most of an hour, he was already numb. His whole body trembled uncontrollably. Guards on left and right brought fur robes to wrap around him. After drinking several mouthfuls of liquor, he finally recovered after a good while.

Meitang Mountain’s southern slope was also in complete chaos. River beaches and valleys at lower elevations had been submerged by floodwater. Although the southern slope wasn’t as steep as Wujin Ridge’s northern slope, thirty to forty thousand troops and horses all crowded over. Especially as generals attempted to lead war horses over the mountain ridges retreating north, people or military horses constantly slipped and fell, bringing down a large swath.

Wen Ruilin at this moment wanted to cry but had no tears, gazing toward the forward camp direction. He saw Tangyi troops had already killed through to the mountain’s foot, driving countless soldiers and laborers directly into the ice-cold turbid water, then forcing them to discard their armor and wade through water to concentrate at the southern palisade wall. Those who drowned were also numerous. Countless corpses drifted this way.

Two columns of Tangyi troops killed northward along the mountain foot’s edge where turbid water swirled. Fortunately the terrain was rugged, with forest trees and panicked troops blocking them, so their advance wasn’t fast. But soldiers along the route fell into chaos—either surrendering, or fleeing to steeper mountain ridges on both flanks, or being driven like headless flies into the water, struggling to climb onto trees for refuge. No one thought to organize troops to delay these two Tangyi forces’ advance.

“Xu Big Head, Gu Butcher, you lead people to both mountain feet.” Xu Mingzhen shouted loudly.

Seeing Meitang Mountain’s southern slope in complete chaos, with no ready-made roads yet troops and horses competing, it wasn’t easy to sort out. They had to arrange personnel to intercept pursuing troops on both sides to buy more time.

The terrain on both sides was steep and precipitous. As long as three to five hundred elite armored soldiers could fearlessly hold their positions, delaying three to five hours wouldn’t be a problem.

Xu Mingzhen had guarded the border for many years and had no lack of fierce generals and brave soldiers around him. The two military commanders whose names were called immediately responded and stepped forward. Taking over ten guards, they walked toward the mountain feet on both sides while pulling more battle-ready armored soldiers from the chaotic mass of troops and horses.

Afterward, Xu Mingzhen assigned his subordinate commanders and guards to sort out the chaos on Meitang Mountain’s southern slope, pushing mule-drawn carts down into the ravine, suppressing soldiers and laborers in complete chaos, so that order wasn’t so chaotic.

Wen Ruilin finally followed Xu Mingzhen and others climbing to Meitang Mountain’s peak. At this moment he saw that the narrow river mouth west of Meitang Mountain was blocked to death again by large numbers of mule and horse corpses, supply debris, and river ice, forming another precarious ice dam. This turned the river valley area south of Meitang Mountain, two to three li wide and about four li long, into a turbid mountain lake interspersed with floating corpses and river ice.

Of course, most simple barracks, not tall to begin with, still protruded above the water surface. Large numbers of mules and horses still stood in the ice-cold turbid water, showing the flooding wasn’t very deep. But the blow to the Shouzhou army was already sufficiently fatal.

The only fortunate thing was that organizing troops to intercept on the side forward flanks was fairly effective. The rugged terrain made passage difficult for Tangyi troops, making it impossible to bring heavy siege equipment. The narrow terrain also prevented both sides from deploying formations, deadlocking for the moment.

A “crash” of strange sounds erupted. Wen Ruilin looked over to see that perhaps large amounts of floating ice had accumulated. The ice dam west of Meitang Mountain, formed less than two hours earlier, had collapsed. Turbid floodwater carried large numbers of corpses, supply debris, and river ice cascading downstream.

Wen Ruilin was in such pain he wanted to groan aloud. As he expected, large numbers of corpses, supply debris, and floating ice, pushed by floodwater, didn’t advance far before again blocking the channel and raising the water level, forcing turbid floodwater carrying floating ice to flood both sides.

The road south of Meitang Mountain was similarly at low elevation. Large numbers of troops retreating south were stranded on the road. Watching floodwater seep over, they again panicked into chaos, fleeing to steep precipitous mountain ridges on both flanks.

Perhaps Tangyi troops also noticed that after Meitang Mountain’s ice dam collapsed, the water force in channels south of Meitang Mountain quickly stabilized. Wen Ruilin soon saw dozens of oar boats killing their way along the river, carrying not only fierce armored soldiers but also crossbows, scorpion catapults, and other equipment.

“The southern road flooding isn’t deep—retreat!”

Wen Ruilin turned his head back to see Xu Yin speaking out to persuade Xu Mingzhen not to persist any longer. He thought so too. If the blockage below was again broken through by floodwater, Tangyi troops could potentially take boats to circle in front of them and establish intercepting positions.

Another thing—everywhere was now in complete chaos, making message transmission inconvenient. If Tangyi troops circled in front of them, and Anfeng Stockade there was chaotically accepting routed troops without preparation and was captured in the chaos by Tangyi elite troops who had circled around, then they would truly be even more desperate…