After Zhang Qian crossed the Gushui River, he remained constantly at Li Zhigao’s side, observing how events would develop.

Li Zhigao’s command tent was set up in the western main camp. At noon the next day, Deng Tai sent someone to report that a short while earlier, Luoshan City, which had been tightly sealed for half a year, had lowered the eastern city drawbridge, and several people had entered Luoshan City from the eastern main camp where the Tangyi Army was stationed.

Zhang Qian, Xu Jing, Yao Xishui, and others hurriedly accompanied Li Zhigao to the northern main camp where Deng Tai served as commander.

The watchtower built from bamboo in the northern main camp was both tall and narrow. People standing atop the watchtower over six zhang high could clearly see the situation inside and outside Luoshan’s eastern city gate.

By the time they rushed to the northern main camp and climbed the bamboo-constructed watchtower, the eastern city gate drawbridge had already been raised. They also couldn’t determine whom exactly Han Qian had dispatched to enter Luoshan City to negotiate with enemy generals like Wen Bo, Cao Ba, and Xue Chuan.

Although Zhou Yuan had also sought craftsmen to imitate Xuzhou in grinding bronze spyglasses, something had gone wrong somewhere—the results were never quite satisfactory and couldn’t effectively extend one’s field of vision.

After Li Zhigao and the others climbed the watchtower and observed for a long while, they couldn’t detect any abnormalities within the city. They could only first go to Deng Tai’s main tent to wait.

After waiting until about dusk when the sun slanted westward, just as Li Zhigao was planning to first return to the western main camp, scouts keeping watch in the tower rushed over to report that over ten people in Luoshan City were walking toward the northern city gate. The garrison forces at the northern gate tower were preparing a hanging basket, seemingly intending to use it to lower people out of the northern gate.

Their movements outside the city were clearly seen by the Luoshan garrison, yet they themselves didn’t know what was happening inside the city—this was truly frustrating enough.

After waiting the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, over ten armored soldiers brought Guo Rong, former Marquis of Dangkou Wen Zhanyu, and Chief Administrator Gu Dingyuan under Wen Bo’s command into the main tent to meet Li Zhigao, Zhang Qian, and others.

Emperor Tianyou had campaigned north and south in war. As Wen Muqiao’s eldest son, Wen Zhanyu had also established illustrious military achievements and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Dangkou. But he had sustained disabilities to his hands and feet on the battlefield. After Great Chu’s founding, he hadn’t held any specific official positions. However, his son Wen Yuan was one of Wen Bo’s personal guard commanders and also an outstanding figure among the Wen clan’s third generation.

Li Zhigao had known Wen Zhanyu from earlier years. Xu Jing and others could also recognize his appearance bore some resemblance to Wen Muqiao and Wen Bo from his slightly narrow face and high prominent cheekbones. Seeing his disabled hands and feet, naturally they had no difficulty guessing his identity.

However, they had long known Wen Zhanyu previously wasn’t in Luoshan City. Seeing Wen Zhanyu appear at this time undoubtedly confirmed that the Wen clan members had indeed been abducted by Han Qian’s people from Xuzhou to Tangyi and had already negotiated conditions with Han Qian, which gave him the opportunity to enter Luoshan City with Guo Rong at noon to see Wen Bo.

At this moment inside the main tent, the atmosphere was oppressively heavy, as if thunderstorms would descend in the next instant.

Zhang Qian’s heart rose to his throat. He worried Li Zhigao couldn’t restrain himself and would turn hostile on the spot, having people detain Guo Rong and Wen Zhanyu, even directly dragging them before the tent for execution as a demonstration. Then the situation would truly become a complete mess.

Li Zhigao put down the documents in his hands, his expression darkened as if covered by dark clouds. He ignored Wen Zhanyu and Gu Dingyuan, his shadow-filled eyes staring fixedly at Guo Rong. Struggling mightily to restrain his inner fury, he asked, “So the Marquis of Qianyang has already negotiated conditions with the Wen family?”

Guo Rong saw that all the generals in the main tent were glaring at him like tigers, wishing they could skin him alive and swallow him whole. Yet without the slightest fear, he walked closer and clasped his hands toward Li Zhigao, saying:

“Wen Bo, Xue Ba, and other generals deeply detest the evil acts of Anning Palace and Xu Mingzhen in cruelly murdering the late emperor and usurping the throne. But helpless that their clan members were coerced as hostages by the traitor empress, compelled under duress to serve as accomplices to tyranny, they now also deeply feel their sins are grave. They wish to lead the Luoshan garrison back to Great Chu to serve the court. However, no matter what, with Administrator Zhang and Marquis of Xinjin both here, this matter should at least inform Administrator Zhang and Marquis of Xinjin, draft a preliminary proposal, then submit it to the court—that would be more appropriate.”

Seeing dark clouds massed on the faces of Li Zhigao, Deng Tai, and others, Zhang Qian stepped forward to smooth things over, clasping his hands toward Wen Zhanyu and Gu Dingyuan and asking, “But I wonder how the Luoshan garrison is willing to truly submit to the court, also not intentionally delaying time?”

Zhang Qian said he was asking what conditions the Luoshan garrison had, but actually he was asking what conditions Han Qian and the Wen family had already negotiated.

Guo Rong smiled faintly, directly answering on behalf of Wen Zhanyu and Gu Dingyuan:

“The Marquis of Qianyang’s memorial to the court half a month ago already stated very clearly—since the court officials have decided to ally with Shu to attack Liang, even though Tangyi has different opinions and worries the Central Plains war situation will endanger Jianghuai, it absolutely will not stand aside. The urgent task at hand is to reorganize the Luoshan garrison into one army, commanded by Wen Bo under the authority of Left Martial Prowess Army Commander-in-Chief, Marquis of Jiangyin Huang Lu, to strengthen the offensive against Wuguan, ensuring they can seize Yongzhou City jointly with the Shu army before next summer, ahead of the Mongols and Weizhou rebel forces. Doing so also gives the Luoshan garrison an opportunity to atone for their crimes through merit. Afterward, rewards and punishments should also be discussed based on how actively they engage in battle…”

Zhang Qian’s heart skipped a beat. He wondered what kind of conditions these were and what Han Qian’s intentions were. Could it be to force the Luoshan garrison to enter Yongzhou, using brutal warfare to consume the Luoshan garrison’s combat strength, achieving the goal of wearing them down and weakening them?

Zhang Qian looked hesitantly toward Li Zhigao, not knowing what Li Zhigao thought in his heart. But in his view, such conditions for the Xiangbei Army absolutely couldn’t be considered good—after all, their longstanding expectation of absorbing the Luoshan garrison was completely dashed. But they also couldn’t be considered extremely poor.

Previously, Li Zhigao had sent people into the city to offer surrender, but the conditions Wen Bo proposed were to carve out Guangzhou separately for him to concurrently serve as Governor of Guangzhou commanding garrison forces. He would only nominally accept the authority of the Xiangbei Defense Commissioner’s Office.

In that case, surrender would equal non-surrender. The Xiangbei Army’s forces would still have to withdraw from Lingshan, Yiyang, and other places. Once Wen Bo changed his mind, for Xiangbei it would be equivalent to losing both people and territory.

The current conditions had Wen Bo lead forces to attack Guanzhong. On one hand, he would continue under Xiangbei Army surveillance. On the other hand, he would be completely separated from the Tangyi Army. At least in the short term, there would be no need to worry about him being completely won over by Han Qian, right?

Moreover, Tangyi showed no ambition to absorb Wen Bo’s forces. Perhaps Han Qian clearly knew in his heart he couldn’t truly win the Wen clan’s trust? Then preventing Li Zhigao and other factions from absorbing Wen Bo and the Luoshan garrison might also be a realistic choice for Tangyi to currently eliminate flank threats and limit competing forces from growing stronger.

With Wen Zhanyu formally appearing in Luoshan this time, the secret of Tangyi abducting the Wen clan members could be considered semi-public.

If Wen Bo led forces attacking the Guanzhong Liang army and truly established some military merit, the court could legitimately pardon the Wen family’s crime of following Anning Palace in rebellion and move the Wen clan members from Tangyi to settle in Jinling.

This way, Wen Bo and the Luoshan garrison could be independent of both the Xiangbei Army and Tangyi Army, also satisfying the expectations of many princes and high ministers.

As for whether the Wen clan and Luoshan garrison truly submitted their allegiance and could be used by the court in the future—those were matters for later.

Zhang Qian of course was willing to rapidly report such a result to the Jinling officials for discussion and decision, but at this time he also couldn’t disregard Li Zhigao’s opinion. Even if he wanted to rush back to Jinling in the coming days to report this matter, he had to first clarify Li Zhigao’s opinion.

Li Zhigao pondered for a long while before saying to Zhang Qian, “Since the Marquis of Qianyang has already negotiated such conditions with the Luoshan garrison, then please trouble Administrator Zhang to make the trip and see how the officials decide!”

Hearing Li Zhigao say this, Zhang Qian thought privately—what kind of opinion was this? He asked cautiously, “Would it be better if I met Wen Bo face to face, truly clarified everything, then rushed back to Jinling to report the matter?”

“Then I trouble Administrator Zhang.” Li Zhigao clasped his hands.

“What about jurisdiction over Luoshan City?” Xu Jing, when Zhang Qian and Guo Rong and the others were heading to Luoshan City to see Wen Bo, couldn’t help asking.

Li Zhigao didn’t interrupt Xu Jing’s question. Deng Tai, Yao Xishui, and others also all stared at Guo Rong and Wen Zhanyu.

Luoshan County was located north of Yiyang. Exiting the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain, one had to pass through Luoshan County to border the Huai River. It could be called a strategic location controlling the upper Huai River and overlooking Caizhou to the north.

Of Guangzhou’s five counties, Lean County and Huangchuan County had already fallen into Tangyi’s pocket. They didn’t expect to reclaim them at this time, but they had to争 争争争 Luoshan County no matter what.

“Huaixi is devastated, with vast land but sparse population, urgently needing Luoshan City’s twenty thousand civilians to fill the gap. As for Luoshan City itself, we still must trouble Marquis of Xinjin to defend it. Both armies will join hands to strike the Shouzhou rebel army together.” Guo Rong said.

Xu Jing looked back toward Li Zhigao, uncertain whether he could accept the result of people and territory being divided between the two armies.

Li Zhigao stood up, unable to conceal his dejection as he said, “I’ll see Administrator Zhang off partway.”

Having people escort Zhang Qian along with Guo Rong, Wen Zhanyu, and others back to beneath the northern city gate, where the garrison lowered round baskets to receive them into the city, standing before the camp gate watching Zhang Qian enter Luoshan City with Guo Rong and Wen Zhanyu, Deng Tai couldn’t help asking doubtfully:

“Could Han Qian be hiding even deeper schemes, wanting to use Wen Bo to harm our Xiangbei?”

Reorganizing the Luoshan garrison into one army to coordinate with the Left Martial Prowess Army in combat against the Guanzhong Liang army would inevitably require borrowing passage through Xiangbei territory to enter Junzhou, then breaking through the Wuguan passage from Jingzikou to enter Guanzhong.

Deng Tai worried that when Wen Bo’s forces passed through Xiangbei territory, they would coordinate inside and out with the Tangyi Army to suddenly create trouble. In that case, it would put the Xiangbei Army into an even more passive situation.

“This shouldn’t require too much worry, right?” Xu Jing said.

Luoshan City had sufficient supplies and solid fortifications. They were unwilling to pay heavy casualties and couldn’t do anything about Wen Bo’s forces in the short term. But if Wen Bo led forces westward borrowing passage through Xiangbei, they could retreat to defend Lingshan and Yiyang main camps. Only a small number of troops would be needed to hold the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain. Large numbers of elite soldiers would accompany Wen Bo’s forces back to the southern foothills of Huaiyang Mountain. At that time, if Wen Bo truly dared create trouble, annihilating Wen Bo’s forces in open country would be much easier than forcibly attacking Luoshan City no matter what.

Moreover, when Wen Bo’s forces borrowed passage through Xiangbei, first all key cities along the route would be under strict Xiangbei Army control, then they would precisely supply fixed amounts of grain, fodder, and provisions. If they dared make any unusual moves, they could directly cut off Wen Bo’s grain and provision supplies. No matter what heaven-reaching, earth-penetrating abilities Wen Bo had, with over ten thousand elite troops crying out in hunger, even if he colluded with Han Qian, what waves could he stir up?