On the third day after Zhang Qian crossed the Gushui River and entered the Xiangbei Army’s defensive zone—the first day of the twelfth lunar month, with only one month remaining before entering the sixth year of Yanyou—Han Qian in Lean City still hadn’t received any response from Li Zhigao.

On this day, Han Qian ordered Su Lie and Zhao Wuji to lead their forces across the Gushui River from the direction upstream of Dushan Ford, crossing via an earthen dam blocking the river, and enter the eastern bank region.

Although Li Zhigao gave no direct response, after Su Lie and Zhao Wuji led six thousand cavalry and infantry onto the eastern bank, the Left Vermillion Bird Army forces west of the Gushui River hugging the western bank also quickly withdrew westward.

Han Qian reined in his horse atop the eastern bank’s remnant embankment, gazing at the Xiangbei Army officers and soldiers withdrawing westward.

The pale, powerless afternoon sun shone down from overhead. In the bitter cold wind, it provided not the slightest warmth.

“Li Zhigao won’t give a direct response, so he retains the initiative to provoke military conflict. He probably thinks this can make us constrained and hesitant, unwilling to easily deploy forces west of the Gushui River, right?” Guo Rong said with emotion.

Although the Xiangbei Army voluntarily withdrew from camps near the western bank, before Li Zhigao gave a formal response, west of the Gushui River remained the Xiangbei Army’s defensive zone. If the Xiangbei Army truly wanted to provoke military conflict and the two armies had a bloody clash on the Gushui River’s western bank, Tangyi still wouldn’t be in the right.

Now they could see Xiangbei Army scout cavalry at their closest point to their forward forces—less than one hundred paces away. Both sides held swords and bows across their fronts, with the possibility of close combat and violent bloody conflict erupting at any moment.

But at this moment, Han Qian could no longer care about so much. He had Kong Xirong order the deployment of more forces, surging like tidewater in a mighty flood onto the western bank. He ordered vanguard forces to break off the sharp arrowheads and use blunted arrows to shoot at approaching harassing Xiangbei Army scouts, driving them away. They used war chariots and large shields to form arrays, advancing step by step, while rear forces occupied camps the Xiangbei Army had withdrawn and abandoned…

Secret agents who had infiltrated deep into the Jin state territory sent back carrier pigeon messages last night with recent news from the Jin state, making Han Qian even more worried about the current situation.

Under siege by three routes of forces led by Jin Crown Prince Shi Chengzu, Luzhou surrendered general Tian Weiye, and Chengde Army Military Commissioner Wang Yuankui, Taiyuan Prefecture—called the mighty northern city—even under the defense of new Jin Emperor Shi Jiyuan, couldn’t hold out for half a year. It completely fell at noon on the sixteenth day of the eleventh month.

With new Jin Emperor Shi Jiyuan and others at the head, the last thirty thousand Jin army elite were either killed or surrendered, completely annihilated.

The Mongols seemed to have anticipated this outcome very early. After three days of massacring the city, on the twenty-fourth day, an edict enfeoffing Jin Crown Prince Shi Chengzu as Prince of Yong, Chengde Army Military Commissioner Wang Yuankui as Prince of Hejian, and Luzhou surrendered general Tian Weiye as Prince of Dongliang was directly promulgated to the world at Taiyuan Prefecture.

Judging merely from these three men’s enfeoffment titles, one could also anticipate that the seventy to eighty thousand surrendered troops and affiliated forces led by Shi Chengzu, Tian Weiye, and the third man, after simple reorganization, would advance toward the Guanzhong (Yongzhou) region along the Fen River valley at the fastest speed. As for the Mongols, besides a portion of cavalry, most forces in the early period would perhaps mainly focus on digesting newly acquired territories.

However, one couldn’t assume that because Tian Weiye, Shi Chengzu, and Wang Yuankui’s forces were surrendered or affiliated armies, their combat strength would necessarily be weak.

That Wang Yuankui could become Chengde Army Military Commissioner garrisoning Dingzhou and Hengzhou meant his own capabilities and the Chengde Army’s combat strength had already been considered by Jin state ruler and ministers as capable of blocking Mongol cavalry from raiding south across the border.

How could Tian Weiye’s strength be weak when he could hold Luzhou for over half a year under Emperor Liang Zhu Yu?

Tian Weiye had originally been a subordinate officer of Prince of Lu Shi Jiyuan, ordered to defend Luzhou against over half a year of Liang army offensives with all his might. But afterward Liu Jun fell into a Mongol trap and was killed. When Luzhou fell under heavy siege again with arrows and grain exhausted, Tian Weiye was compelled to lead his forces in surrender.

However, Prince of Lu Shi Jiyuan subsequently dragged over four hundred of his wives, children, and elderly in Taiyuan Prefecture into the marketplace, and regardless of gender or age, had them all torn apart by chariots and executed. This severed all ties of gratitude between Tian Weiye and Prince of Lu Shi Jiyuan. When leading surrendered troops to besiege Taiyuan Prefecture, he was particularly fierce.

Ultimately it was Tian Weiye who led forces first attacking into Taiyuan City, forcing Prince of Lu Shi Jiyuan along with his sons, consorts, palace ladies, and eunuchs all into the Jin Imperial Palace’s Taiye Pavilion, then setting a fire that consigned over four thousand people to the sea of flames.

At present, the Mongols were obviously most satisfied with Tian Weiye’s performance. During the Taiyuan City siege they prioritized strengthening Tian Weiye’s forces. Although when Tian Weiye led forces to surrender to the Mongols he had only ten thousand troops remaining, after paying heavy costs to capture Taiyuan City, he still had over twenty thousand elite troops—forces equivalent to Prince of Yong Shi Chengzu, slightly less than the Chengde Army commanded by Wang Yuankui.

After attacking into Taiyuan City, nearly twenty thousand surrendered troops would also be preferentially absorbed by Tian Weiye.

Even without the convenience of carrier pigeon messages from Taiyuan to Yongzhou, Zhu Yu would surely also receive the news before too long. This was destined to make it even more impossible for Zhu Yu to deploy many forces on the southern front to guard against the Chu-Shu allied forces. This also meant there was even less time left for him.

Thinking of this, Han Qian pulled the reins, about to spur his horse down the embankment and cross the river ice to the eastern bank.

The western bank had only stopped organizing civilian laborers to break open the river ice these past two days—he didn’t know how solid the ice had frozen. Seeing Han Qian wanted to directly go to the eastern bank, Huo Li and other attendant military officers dared not obstruct him. They directly spurred their horses ahead of Han Qian to first test the solidity of the river ice, forming a security perimeter on the eastern bank to guard against being exploited by small groups of Xiangbei Army scouts roaming the outer perimeter.

…

…

Watching Tangyi Army forces divide into several routes crossing the Gushui River onto the western bank, firmly and resolutely advancing westward, Yao Xishui, Xu Jing, and others accompanied Li Zhigao standing atop a low mountain south of Luoshan City, watching all this in silence.

“The Marquis of Qianyang goes too far in bullying people! Does he think we dare not provoke military conflict?” Deng Tai gritted his back teeth, saying with resentment.

The Tangyi Army cavalry scale was also extremely limited. They had scouted that the Tangyi Army had only about two thousand cavalry transferred to the western flank. Besides the initial thousand-plus cavalry who crossed the Gushui River coordinating with forward forces to advance, at this time another force of over a thousand cavalry was crossing the river from the Dushan Ford direction. Even using your toes to think, you’d know that should be Han Qian’s personal guard cavalry.

Han Qian crossed the Gushui River at the first opportunity?

Wasn’t this firmly concluding they dared not be first to provoke military conflict?

Deng Tai wanted nothing more than to grab his long halberd and lead a contingent of troops to charge toward Dushan Ford—better than staying here enduring this indignity.

“My lord, the Tangyi Army already has over nine thousand troops who’ve crossed the Gushui River. Their forces in Huangchuan and Lean have also begun moving, replacing them along the Gushui River banks. Are we really going to let them advance right up to beneath Luoshan’s eastern city walls?” Zhong Yanhu, leading a force withdrawing from the eastern camps, even though he hadn’t served long under Li Zhigao’s command, still found today’s frustrating scene unbearable. He spurred his horse to Li Zhigao’s command banner, asking loudly with reluctance, “Are we really going to let them press right up to Luoshan’s eastern walls?”

“You will follow orders as given.” Li Zhigao said loudly with a darkened expression.

He stood like a boulder towering on the cliff. The bitter cold wind made him, just past forty years old, show a few more traces of weathering on his face.

“Could Han Qian truly have some means to recruit the Luoshan garrison to surrender?” Seeing the Tangyi Army so firmly and urgently cross the Gushui River, Yao Xishui couldn’t help asking doubtfully.

Although Jinling was full of rumors that Han Qian’s main purpose was still to prevent them from absorbing the Luoshan garrison, Han Qian’s performance at this time seemed far too impatient.

As a clerk retained by Shen Yang from the very beginning when the Vermillion Bird Army was newly formed, Zhang Qian had known both Han Qian and Li Zhigao for nearly ten years or longer. Watching the Xiangbei Army generals’ indignant appearance, his palms were also sweating.

He wasn’t clear whether Li Zhigao would suddenly order the various forces east of Luoshan City to stop their westward withdrawal, instead contracting and forming arrays toward this side, blocking the Tangyi Army’s inch-by-inch westward advance.

Zhang Qian’s heart also couldn’t help cursing Han Qian for being too impatient, too much of a bully. Doing this—wasn’t he directly plastering his contempt for the Xiangbei Army on his face for the world to see? This bastard was concluding Li Zhigao would swallow this insult and yield, concluding Li Zhigao dared not make a move to provoke military conflict. Wasn’t the current situation a trap to strike the Tangyi Army mid-crossing?

If military conflict truly erupted here, as Shen Yang’s special envoy, what should he do? What could he do?

As Zhang Qian worried, he also noticed the back of Li Zhigao’s hand gripping the sword at his waist showed bulging veins, his hand trembling slightly—clearly struggling mightily to restrain his inner fury. He didn’t even know what chaos Great Chu would descend into if the Xiangbei Army and Tangyi Army provoked conflict and blood flowed like rivers in slaughter!

He suddenly realized that those people in Jinling City intent on watching fires burn across the river probably few would realize how big a conflagration this fire would become once it truly ignited, right?

…

…

The Tangyi Army’s westward advance and the Xiangbei Army’s westward withdrawal continued for a full day.

This was an extremely oppressive day.

By dusk, He Liufeng led the Tangyi vanguard’s three thousand elite troops, formally entering the main camp the Xiangbei Army had vacated east of Luoshan City.

The eastern main camp, like the other three main camps, was what Li Zhigao had devoted his efforts to constructing over the past half year or more. They were all built almost hugging the outer edge of Luoshan City’s moat, using layer upon layer of palisade walls, earthen berms, and trenches to trap the Luoshan garrison inside the city.

During this day, the Luoshan garrison besieged for over half a year didn’t attempt to exploit the chaos to break out from the eastern city, nor did they make any other moves. It seemed everything happening outside the city had not the slightest relation to them.

Early the next morning, Tan Xiuqun and Su Lie led their forces from the southeast and northeast directions respectively, approaching eastern Luoshan City, forming a triangular array with He Liufeng’s forces already in the eastern camp, establishing camps and fortifications.

At this time, the Tangyi Army had a total of over twenty-three thousand troops who had crossed the Gushui River, distributed in a triangle formation in the not particularly spacious area from east of Luoshan City to the Gushui River. Only less than ten thousand troops, serving as the rear army, still garrisoned in the fortified settlements east of the Gushui River.