When Wen Bo accepted the surrender terms, the newly formed Right Divine Martial Army had over twelve thousand soldiers stationed in the western territories. Among them, two thousand were able-bodied men recruited locally from Luoshan County, and the families of these soldiers had already been progressively relocated to Le’an and other counties before the new year.
Another three thousand soldiers had their families incorporated as civilian households by Tangyi when it recovered Huailing, Linhuai, Shoudong, and other counties.
Together these soldiers numbered over five thousand, and while their families were registered in Tangyi’s household records as military households, they differed vastly from the military garrison households maintained by the Imperial Guards and the Imperial Attendant Guards.
The Great Chu implemented a military garrison system primarily to ensure troop replenishment for the Imperial Guards and Imperial Attendant Guards while minimizing military expenditures as much as possible. The burden on these households was heavier than that on ordinary self-farming peasants, yet their status was even lower. Their children were forbidden from working in trades, engaging in commerce, or migrating. They could not marry outside military garrison households, could not participate in the civil examinations or local official selections, with their only path to advancement being through establishing military merit.
Tangyi’s military households—or soldier households—had enlisted men organized into battalion formations. In addition to their families receiving allotted farmland, the soldiers themselves received military pay more generous than farming income. They did not need to provide their own armor and weapons, and had opportunities within the military for various types of training and education. Even after retiring from active service, besides receiving partial stipends, they would be preferentially recommended for work in local government or administrative positions, with their children receiving preferential treatment in education, employment, and even official appointments.
Particularly noteworthy were the elementary schools established in the counties of Huaixi, which had limited resources and currently primarily enrolled children from military households.
This stark contrast ensured that the lower-ranking soldiers in Tangyi’s army possessed stronger cohesion and loyalty than those in the Imperial Guards and Imperial Attendant Guards.
Han Qian planned that after these five thousand-plus soldiers were transferred back to Huaixi, they would all be granted family leave for a period, allowing them to reunite with their families and participate in and genuinely experience the differences between Tangyi’s new policies and traditional practices.
Military officers would have shorter leave periods, after which they would come to Liyang to participate in training programs lasting three to five months.
Ordinary soldiers would have longer leave periods. As long as the situation in Jianghuai did not deteriorate beyond expectations, they might not need to reassemble and undergo new training until after the new year.
More complex and troublesome were the remaining seven thousand soldiers whose families were not in Tangyi.
Among these seven thousand soldiers, a considerable portion had abandoned their families on the southern bank when they fled north across the river years ago.
After the Jinling Incident, their families had been removed from various garrison military garrisons and made into official slaves and servants of the prefectures and counties.
When Wen Bo and his forces were persuaded to surrender, the court had planned to separate this portion of people from the official slaves and servants of the prefectures and counties and incorporate them back into the garrison military garrisons. However, the Ministry of War had just begun this work when events such as the Right Divine Martial Army’s detention in Canglang City and the raid on Liangzhou occurred. Amidst the chaos, the work was suspended.
However, the Ministry of War had already compiled a preliminary list of approximately four thousand seven hundred households.
Han Qian planned for Tangyi to step forward to purchase and ransom these nearly five thousand households of official slaves and servants, relocate them to Tangyi, and restore their commoner status. However, this matter still required Chen Jingzhou to return to Jinling and work together with Han Daoming to negotiate with the court.
Tangyi could forgo other merit rewards this time and would need to pay a certain price, but he believed the court had no need to detain these soldiers’ families.
For ordinary soldiers, they mainly followed their superior officers and commanders with the flow. If the court truly detained their families, it would only breed resentment without producing any other effect.
Moreover, given Tangyi’s current control over such a vast population base, it did not lack four to five thousand soldiers.
More troublesome were the remaining two thousand soldiers whose families were neither in Tangyi’s territory nor left on the southern bank. Among them, a small portion had families who had either fled and scattered with whereabouts unknown, or had starved to death in the fields with no remains. However, most of these soldiers’ families were still under Shouzhou Army’s control.
These soldiers happened to be the most elite personal guards directly under Wen Bo, which was why after fleeing north across the river, they had been directly settled in Huoqiu and Shouchun, the two most core locations controlled by the Shouzhou Army.
After spring this year, with the successive completion of Anfeng Canal and Yongyang Canal, Tangyi’s naval warships could directly enter Hongze Lake and the Northern Fei River, thereby opening the waterway for naval warships to enter the Huai River and blockade Shouchun and Huoqiu cities.
Regardless of how the Central Plains situation developed, even if Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang had not made any verbal promises, Han Qian planned to seize Shouchun and Huoqiu cities from Xu Mingzhen’s hands, making Huaixi completely intact and preventing the Shouzhou Army from continuing to have the opportunity to wedge itself on the southern bank of the Huai River like a fishbone stuck in the throat.
Of course, even with Emperor Zhu Yu’s promise, even if Xu Mingzhen, considering realistic military pressure, would abandon cities like Huoqiu, Shouchun and fully withdraw north of the Huai River, it did not mean Xu Mingzhen would agree to release the families and dependents of Wen Bo’s elite personal guards back to Tangyi.
Therefore, what needed to be done next was for Tangyi’s navy to form a pincer movement on Shouchun, Huoqiu, Fengtai and other cities from the Northern Fei River and Linhuai areas, while the main infantry forces would assemble south of Shouchun, Huoqiu, Fengtai and other cities.
Maintaining military pressure on the Huoqiu, Shouchun, and Fengtai garrisons had another benefit: ensuring Xu Mingzhen would not throw himself into the embrace of the Weizhou rebels.
After Emperor Zhu Yu’s Xuanjia Capital elite forces joined with the Caizhou troops and revealed their fangs in Biangjing or Luoyang, Xu Mingzhen would inevitably realize that the Xuanjia Capital elite could enter Caizhou only with Tangyi’s covert cooperation. At that time, if he still wanted to join the Weizhou rebels and no longer submit to Emperor Zhu Yu’s authority, he would face attacks from both north and south.
Only if Xu Mingzhen returned to Emperor Zhu Yu’s embrace could the ownership of the three ruined cities of Huoqiu, Shouchun, and Fengtai possibly be resolved through negotiation.
Han Qian had Wen Bo first serve as deputy to Gao Shao in the Military Intelligence Staff Department, working together with Xi Fa, Wang Zhe and others to formulate and advance plans for encircling Huoqiu and subsequently withdrawing the Right Divine Martial Army and covering the Liang army’s border passage. This would also help him familiarize himself with Tangyi Army’s commanders while gaining deeper understanding of Tangyi Army’s combat methods.
As for the Wen clan, the younger generation had already been formally enrolled in Liyang Academy. Like the families of Chen Qiao and others, and even the Han clan’s young descendants, even if they had decent or even deep family learning foundations, they still had to complete two years of new learning before being selected for appointment based on merit.
The foundation of Han Qian’s new policies lay in new learning.
From the earliest gathering of five hundred craftsmen’s children for collective education ten years ago, to after the Jinling Incident when Han Qian returned to Xuzhou and formally promoted the establishment of elementary schools at the county and township levels and established three types of intermediate schools—craftsman, craft guard, and martial instruction—in Qianyang and Chenzhong. After arriving in Tangyi, he further established the more advanced comprehensive Liyang Academy on the foundation of these three intermediate schools. The development of new learning in Tangyi was continuous and consistent.
How could the Wen clan possibly refuse the opportunity for their children to enter new learning?
They clearly understood that new learning not only trained large numbers of qualified military officers, craftsmen, and clerks for Tangyi, establishing Tangyi’s current foundation, but in terms of the military specifically, the martial instruction schools differed from the traditional military family officer training system, breaking the past pattern where lower-ranking officers were dependent on and subordinate to higher-ranking officers, where military family children formed cliques internally and established their own factions. This strengthened connections and camaraderie among middle and lower-ranking officers across various brigades and regiments, promoting the formation of Tangyi’s military officer corps.
Han Qian also planned this time to bring Tan Yuliang’s Tianping Capital forces to Tangyi to strengthen the cultivation of middle and lower-ranking officers and advance integration. At the same time, he would arrange for a group of veteran Xuzhou soldiers to retire from active service and enter the local reserve sequence. This would both control the scale of active forces and economize on military expenditures, while ensuring Xuzhou’s mobilizable military potential did not decrease.
After discussing numerous matters, the welcoming banquet did not disperse until late at night. Everyone departed separately. Chen Jingzhou would first stay in the guesthouse for a day, then return to Jinling tomorrow to report back. Feng Liao would need to accompany him on the trip to Jinling to inform the core figures of the Han Mansion about the Liang army’s border passage.
In fact, once Emperor Zhu Yu deployed troops in Biangjing or Luoyang, the matter of border passage would be difficult to conceal. It would inevitably trigger a storm of discussion, requiring Chen Jingzhou and the Han Mansion’s people to respond in court. They might even need to promote Chu-Liang peace negotiations, getting the court to formally agree to allow a portion of Liang forces to continue transferring through Liangzhou and Xiangbei to Caiying and other areas.
Han Qian still could not rest, or rather his mind could not rest at this moment. He sat in his study drinking tea and reviewing official correspondence.
“Zhu Yu seems to be ill, perhaps he was injured in the Hejin battle?” Xi Ren observed Wang Jun bustling about in the outer chamber, pushed away Han Qian’s hand reaching to embrace her waist, and discussed the matter with him quite seriously.
Han Qian fell into contemplation. He had indeed noticed that Zhu Yu’s health was somewhat poor. Compared to their meeting at Turtle Mountain in earlier years, he could even be said to be like a different person. This was why even though he was hidden among Shen Peng and Jing Zhen’s attendants, Guo Rong, Wang Zhe, and even Wen Bo had not recognized him.
Zhu Yu was accomplished in both civil and martial arts. At the founding of the Liang state, he had led troops in campaigns. The Xuanjia Capital was an elite fighting force he had personally forged. In his early years, he often personally led charges into battle, which earned him great support from middle and lower-ranking officers.
Before the Battle of Hejin, the situation was extremely unfavorable for the Liang forces in Guanzhong. To boost morale and win that battle, Zhu Yu might very well have disregarded his own safety and supervised the battle from the front lines. On an extremely chaotic battlefield, Zhu Yu being wounded would not be unimaginable.
Although besides Princess Yunhe, Zhu Yu’s other consorts had borne him three sons and two daughters, and this time he secretly left Guanzhong but covertly left his eldest son, Prince Luo Zhu Zhen—who had turned eighteen and been brought along during the Northern Expedition against Jin—to oversee Yongzhou, he still had two other sons and two daughters who were young and trapped with Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun and others by the rebel forces in Biangjing.
However, if something truly went wrong with Zhu Yu’s health, Han Qian truly could not imagine how dire the situation in Hehuai would become. Prince Luo Zhu Zhen currently showed no ability to turn the tide.
Of course, he had no way to worry too much about this at present.
…
…
In the summer of the seventh year of Yanyou, the Hehuai region continued to suffer severe drought. Due to disasters and warfare, large groups of refugees roamed the wilderness.
After the Heshuo upheaval, although Caizhou had fourteen to fifteen thousand troops, on one hand morale was in turmoil, while on the other they were constrained by the Xiangbei Army to the south and the Shouzhou Army whose main forces had withdrawn north of the Huai River and then expanded in all directions, even invading eastern Caizhou. As a result, for over a year and a half they dared not leave Caizhou to reinforce the Liang forces besieged in Biangjing.
Throughout August, while the Jianghuai region’s rainy season had not passed and various areas still frequently suffered from floods, the severe drought in the Hehuai region showed no sign of relief.
After brief rest and reorganization, the Caizhou forces, having mobilized over twenty thousand soldiers, finally marched out of Caizhou before the end of August. They advanced along the hills at the eastern foot of Funiu Mountain, through Yinzhai in eastern Ruzhou and Changge in northern Xuzhou toward Xinzheng County in southern Rongzhou (Zhengzhou).
Most of Rongzhou, including Xinzheng, Rongyang and other counties, had already been occupied and controlled by Weizhou rebel forces.
Rongzhou was located between Huaizhou, Weizhou, Biangjing, Luoyang (Henan Prefecture), and Xuzhou, situated on the western flank of the Hehuai Plain with extremely important strategic position. It was also a core node for Weizhou rebels to bypass Biangjing and connect with Henan Prefecture through Weizhou and Huaizhou. Naturally they could not allow Caizhou forces to attack.
At this time, blocking the eastern exit route for Guanzhong Liang forces and occupying and assimilating the Heluoyang region where Emperor Zhu Yu’s influence ran deepest, while expanding from Rongzhou southward into southwestern regions like Xuzhou and Ruzhou, were the main combat objectives for Weizhou rebels on the western front.
With Caizhou forces marching north aggressively, Xu Mingzhen, who had expanded his sphere of influence to southern Xuzhou but faced enormous military pressure from Tangyi Army in the south, naturally chose to watch from the sidelines. However, Liang Shixiong, who personally held the position of Military Governor of Henan Prefecture, could not sit and watch Caizhou forces advance into Rongzhou’s heartland and trigger a series of chain reactions. He ordered his eldest son, Marquis Wuyang Liang Ren, whom he had appointed as Prefect of Rongzhou, to assemble twenty thousand elite troops south of Xinzheng County to intercept the Caizhou Army.
The two armies met at Xiaoxi Plain south of Xinzheng County in early September. Both sides deployed their formations on either bank of the Xiaoxi River, which appeared extremely shallow due to the severe drought—the water barely reaching chest height when wading across. Hundreds of scout cavalry galloped and rode across the vast plains.
Before the battle, Emperor Zhu Yu formally raised the dragon banner. He himself appeared before row after row of orderly formations, surrounded by over a hundred iron-armored elite guards.
Although a total of five thousand Xuanjia Army elite had entered Caizhou under Tangyi’s cover in successive waves, the main force marching north was still the Caizhou troops with low morale and turbulent hearts. Without boosting morale before battle, defeating the Weizhou elite across the river remained uncertain.
Although Caizhou Military Governor Han Jian had not initially supported the usurpation plot and was executed by Han Yuanqi, after Emperor Zhu Yu ascended the throne, he dispatched large numbers of his direct subordinate commanders and officials to assist Han Yuanqi in controlling the situation in Caizhou.
Even though large numbers of Caizhou Army soldiers had been deployed out of Caizhou for campaigns over the year, with most now trapped in Biangjing with Han Yuanqi, the troops and officers remaining in Caizhou still supported Emperor Zhu Yu.
Zhu Yu’s appearance immediately triggered an ocean of welcoming声waves on the southern bank of the Xiaoxi River. War drums thundered as three units of Xuanjia Army elite cavalry led the way directly wading across, establishing a beachhead position on the northern bank and pushing enemy forces northward. This created space for the five thousand Caizhou Army infantry soldiers in the vanguard to construct pontoon bridges, facilitating more soldiers’ entry onto the northern bank to attack the Weizhou rebel positions there.
The Battle of Xinzheng lasted two days and one night, but most of the time was spent contesting control of the northern riverbank.
Once the Caizhou Army secured footing on the northern riverbank and constructed several pontoon bridges, over two thousand more Xuanjia Army elite cavalry circled through dense forests upstream of the Xiaoxi River to attack the enemy’s flanks. Only then did the battle fully commence.
From this moment to the enemy’s complete rout took less than an hour. What followed was mainly pursuit of fleeing and defeated forces.
After Emperor Zhu Yu entered Xinzheng City, he immediately halted the pursuit of scattered soldiers.
This battle still allowed nearly ten thousand enemy soldiers to escape with Marquis Wuyang Liang Ren to Rongyang City. After all, before the battle a group of Mongol cavalry had crossed the Yellow River south from Huaizhou into Rongzhou territory to supervise the battle and could insert southward at any moment.
Moreover, the distance for enemy soldiers fleeing to nearby cities was short.
These factors limited the Liang army’s ability to expand their gains while pursuing defeated forces.
However, this battle’s significance for the Central Plains war situation, which had been deadlocked for over a year, was extraordinary—like thunder exploding over the Hehuai lands.
After the Heshuo upheaval, the Hehuai situation deteriorated overnight. The main reason was that Emperor Zhu Yu led the main Liang forces in Luzhou and had their retreat cut off by Weizhou rebels colluding with Mongols.
Even though Zhu Yu ultimately succeeded in leading a portion of the Liang army’s main forces through the Fen River valley into Guanzhong, the eastward route from Guanzhong and key strongholds occupying the northern foothills of Funiu Mountain—Hangu Pass, Luoyang, Rongyang, Yanshi and other strategic points—were all seized first by Weizhou rebels or Mongols. This still left the Liang state’s subjects seeing no hope.
The reason the Hehuai situation did not completely collapse was thanks to Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun timely leading troops to preserve Biangjing City from falling into rebel hands.
However, after fighting several brutal battles for control of Biangjing City, the forces under Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun, and Lei Jiuyuan, Jing Hao and others who remained in Biangjing suffered extremely heavy losses. Afterward, besides defending Biangjing City while awaiting relief, they were unable to launch counterattacks.
Under these circumstances, the prefectures and counties across Hehuai responded differently.
Powerful regional military forces like Xu Mingzhen and Sima Tan either gathered troops for self-protection or took the opportunity to expand their territory.
They were waiting to see who would emerge victorious between Biangjing and the Weizhou rebels before deciding which side to sell to. In their hearts, they might even harbor thoughts of taking the opportunity to establish themselves as independent kings.
However, one thing was certain—they would not easily participate in the chaotic war situation.
Some weaker prefectures, counties, and local forces close to rebel-controlled areas were mostly forced to surrender to the rebels and aid in their tyranny. Those distant from the rebels, where rebel reach was temporarily limited, mostly remained neutral and observed how the situation developed.
At the most dire moment, beyond the Guanzhong region, throughout Hehuai’s thirty-five prefectures that constituted Liang state’s core ruling area, aside from Biangjing, only Caizhou and Mizhou in the southeastern corner openly denounced the Weizhou rebels.
However, Caizhou and Mizhou were surrounded by wolves and tigers and were unable to dispatch relief forces to Biangjing.
Of Hehuai’s thirty-five prefectures, besides the twelve prefectures occupied by rebels or Mongols—Rongzhou, Heluoyang (Henan Prefecture), Weizhou, Huaizhou, Xiangzhou, Weizhou, Bozhou, Qizhou, Zizhou, Yunzhou, Chengzhou, and Qingzhou—and aside from Biangjing City, Caizhou, and Mizhou openly denouncing or confronting the rebels, nearly twenty prefectures in the central, southern, and southeastern regions, facing such chaos in Hehuai, either remained silent, observed the situation, secretly recruited and trained soldiers, or took the opportunity to expand.
Emperor Zhu Yu’s appearance in southern Rongzhou, leading Caizhou troops and Xuanjia Army elite to decisively defeat the Weizhou rebel elite who had rampaged through Hehuai unchecked for over a year—beheading over ten thousand, occupying Xinzheng City, and threatening Rongyang and Yanshi with military force—not only threw the western front Weizhou rebels into complete chaos, but even the rebels besieging Biangjing were forced to contract toward core fortified positions on both flanks, fearing they would suffer attacks from within and without.
For those prefectures, counties, regional military forces and local powers still maintaining observation and neutrality, how could the shock in their hearts be small at this moment?
Prefectures and counties in Ruzhou and northern Xuzhou, which had previously maintained indifference to Caizhou troops passing through their territory heading north, received decrees from Zhu Yu delivered by successive teams of Xuanjia cavalry after the Battle of Xiaoxi River. Within just a few days, county officials brought six to seven thousand able-bodied men and over one hundred thousand measures of grain into Xinzheng City to pay respects to Zhu Yu.
Xu Mingzhen also very obediently withdrew from southern Xuzhou, eastern Caizhou, and western Songzhou, contracting his forces to Ying and Qiao prefectures. He then dispatched his adopted son Xu Jin to rush to Xinzheng to pay respects to Emperor Zhu Yu, tearfully recounting the difficulties of these two years and his concern and longing for Emperor Zhu Yu.
Unlike the heartland which contained large areas of valley and river valley plains, the Funiu Mountains between Guanzhong and Heluoyang consisted of layer upon layer of mountain ranges with treacherous peaks and deep valleys.
This region, since the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, had been adjacent to the central dynasty’s capital region. How could Xu Mingzhen not be clear whether passable routes existed in the mountains connecting Huazhou to Caizhou?
Of course, Guanzhong Liang forces were not incapable of opening a plank road through Funiu Mountain connecting Huazhou and Caizhou. In the past, even the Shu capital had been opened up through towering cliffs and treacherous deep ravines. Tangyi forces had forcibly constructed the Huazhu Peak plank road through the Huaiyang Mountains. But from Shangluo County controlled by Guanzhong Liang forces to western Caizhou was over four hundred li of treacherous plank road—how difficult would construction be?
Not to mention that north of Funiu Mountain lay the Heluoyang region controlled by Weizhou rebels.
If Emperor Zhu Yu truly devoted full effort to constructing such a massive plank road through Funiu Mountain, other forces might be negligent, but how could it escape the eyes of Weizhou rebel scouts?
Never mind constructing a plank road—even ten or twenty people traversing this rugged dangerous mountain terrain might encounter Weizhou rebel scouts.
For Xu Mingzhen, who closely monitored developments in Guanzhong, he could deduce with his toes that the only possibility was that Xuanjia Army elite, with Chu forces’ cover, passed through the Qinling Mountains from Liangzhou and Chu territory into Caizhou.
Xu Mingzhen could even directly confirm it was that bastard Han Qian who secretly assisted Xuanjia Army elite in returning to Caizhou.
Xu Mingzhen did not know what secret agreement Emperor Zhu Yu and Han Qian had reached. At this moment he could only choose to bow his head again in submission to Emperor Zhu Yu.
Otherwise, what could he do?
After summer began, Han Qian had completed military assembly in the south. Tangyi Navy had successively established new shipyards and naval bases at Wafou Lake west of Guangchuan, Linhuai, and Shoudong, and at Liangang Lake north of Gaocheng. Tangyi Navy added over six thousand troops in four new capital units.
Whenever necessary, Tangyi Navy could kill its way into the Huai River and engage the Left Tower Ship Army, which was already at a disadvantage in warship numbers, drive them from the Huai River waterway, and subsequently cut off communications between Shouchun, Fengtai, and Huoqiu cities and the northern bank.
Beyond this, Tangyi Army had assembled fifty thousand cavalry and infantry south of Shouchun, Fengtai, and Huoqiu. The distance between them was so short that these fifty thousand troops needed only half a day to advance directly beneath the three cities’ walls.
Emperor Zhu Yu’s appearance north of Shouzhou Army at this time, summoning loyalist forces, met with responses from all the prefectures south of Biangjing—Xu, Ru, Song, Bo, Chen and others—who献人献粮 presented people and grain. For a time, he appeared to have gained the upper hand over the rebels on the western flank.
Although Xu Mingzhen knew that once the Mongols reacted and mobilized more forces to cross the Yellow River south from Huaizhou into Rongzhou, Emperor Zhu Yu’s days might not be easy, he simultaneously understood clearly that if he did not submit now, Emperor Zhu Yu and Tangyi Army would very likely first join forces to attack Shouzhou Army.
Under joint attack by Emperor Zhu Yu and Tangyi Army, in the Qiaoying region where most people’s hearts still turned toward the Liang court, how could Shouzhou Army maintain its position?
Although after Zhu Yu’s usurpation, his father Zhu Wen died suddenly in the palace soon after, making it impossible for Zhu Yu to wash away suspicion of patricide—which once caused Liang state’s generals and ministers to harbor deep misgivings and formed a foundation for the Weizhou rebellion’s momentum—in less than two years since the Heshuo upheaval, with continuous warfare and disasters throughout Hehuai, people unable to make a living, and local gentry and great families in precarious positions facing danger of collapse at any moment, this caused many to remember Zhu Yu’s good points again.
With Xu Mingzhen willing to pledge loyalty again, since everyone was not children, Emperor Zhu Yu naturally would not pursue his crimes of failing to relieve Biangjing and maintaining armed observation. Instead, he issued a decree establishing the Chenzhou Military Commissioner’s Office, governing the four prefectures of Ying, Qiao, Chen, and Bo, appointing Xu Mingzhen as Chenzhou Military Commissioner. He urged him to dispatch troops from Chenzhou to attack rebel forces south of Biangjing and open communications between Biangjing and Liang state’s southern territories.
Emperor Zhu Yu simultaneously ordered Xu Mingzhen to withdraw his forces from Fengtai, Shouchun, and Huoqiu cities on the southern bank of the Huai River, turn them over to Tangyi Army, and use this as a bargaining chip to negotiate peace with Chu state…