Currently within Huaixi territory, from the Yangtze River to the Huai River, there were two main water transport canal routes connecting them: the Yongyang Canal (Shiliang, Puyang River) and the Anfeng Canal (North and South Fei Rivers). However, both canals had calm waters and required crossing two stone weir ship locks in between. Currently, with extremely numerous cargo vessels transporting supplies from south to north, water route speed couldn’t be fast.

Both Jinling and Han Qian had set deadlines for the Li family to arrive at Xiacai to report. After the Li clan crossed the river, to save time, they traveled along the post road beginning at the great embankment on the east bank of Chao Lake, passing through Shiquan and turning east, arriving at Chao City then heading north, passing through Shoudong to reach the south bank of Jiaoshan Gorge—they had walked the entire route.

This post road was currently Huaixi’s main north-south overland artery. Along the route, main and branch post roads connected Donghu, Liyang, Shiquan, Chao, Feidong, Huailing, Shoudong, Shouchun and other areas that were Huaixi’s flattest and most prosperous regions.

Where the post road encountered several relatively wide streams and rivers, previously they mainly relied on ferry boats, but currently all had opening-and-closing type pontoon bridges installed.

Opening-and-closing pontoon bridges primarily meant constructing concrete or brick-and-stone foundation bridge piers in shallow water areas near the banks with fixed bridges mounted on top, while the middle deep water sections were connected with pontoon bridges.

The pontoon bridges opened and closed during fixed time periods. This way, larger vessels unable to pass through shallow water areas could pass through this floating river during pontoon bridge open time periods, while overland vehicles and horses could travel the post road during pontoon bridge closed time periods. This could reduce the construction cycle and cost of large bridges while also not blocking waterway passage on that stream or river due to the pontoon bridge.

Where encountering narrower ditches and channels, basically all had straight iron-beam bridges installed. Traditional arched bridges had become extinct on main post roads. Currently, the priority was ensuring loaded wagons could pass smoothly, guaranteeing overland transport capacity.

This post road wasn’t newly built. After Tangyi took over Huaixi, over two years they primarily conducted repairs and renovations based on the original foundation, but the impression it gave Li Xiu was extremely profound. This completely demonstrated where Tangyi’s strength surpassed other provinces and counties.

What also left a deep impression on Li Xiu was that the wagons traveling on this post road, unlike other provinces and counties, were mostly four-wheeled wagons.

The Jianghuai river system was well-developed with convenient boats and ships, so horse-drawn wagons were rarely used for hauling goods. In the Central Plains region, four-wheeled wagons were also extremely rare.

This was mainly because although traditional four-wheeled wagons had large load capacity and relatively stable bodies, all four wheels were fixed to the wagon frame, making turning extremely stiff. With even slightly complex or bumpy road conditions, the wear on wheels and draft animals was extremely great.

Huaixi’s four-wheeled wagons, however, seemed not to have these drawbacks. From the loaded cargo, one could see that a heavy wagon traveling on a straight post road carried approximately thirty shi of goods—the load capacity could be said to be extremely astonishing.

Besides this, there was another matter that left a deep impression on Li Xiu: on this post road stretching nearly four hundred li in total length, there were over forty iron-beam bridges.

To guarantee passage of loaded wagons with total weight exceeding four to five thousand jin, bridges needed to be straight without slopes—otherwise a single military horse simply couldn’t possibly pull such a heavy vehicle across the bridge. But with a straight bridge body, considering that three to four loaded wagons plus several pedestrians might pass simultaneously, traditional wooden beams would struggle to bear the weight, not to mention brick and stone materials could only be used for arched bridge construction.

Tangyi used iron beams.

Contemporary iron smelting and casting could be said to be quite developed, with official and private iron works distributed across provinces and counties, but large castings—like four-pronged iron anchors over two thousand jin—still only the smelting workshops of Xu Province and Donghu had the capability to cast.

While a grooved iron beam weighing over a thousand jin seemed much lighter than a large iron anchor, with a total length of three zhang and needing to guarantee sufficient and long-lasting repeated compression over years, the casting difficulty was actually far greater than iron anchors.

Li Xiu thought that if they could urgently install two iron-beam bridges not easily destroyed by enemy forces over the two gullies between the Li Family New Encampment and Xiacai City, enabling the Li Family New Encampment and Xiacai City to truly become mutual horns, not cut apart by enemy forces, preventing enemy forces from unscrupulously surrounding and besieging the Li Family New Encampment before attacking, perhaps there would still be possibility of defending the encampment.

However, Feng Xuan only gave him a sixty-man artisan master squad. Even if he could conscript two to three thousand laborers from the refugees, it would be impossible to both fortify the new encampment and construct two iron-beam bridges simultaneously.

Seeing Li Xiu staring at the western gully, Zhou Qiao’an asked, “Is General Li thinking that the pontoon bridges between Xiacai and the new encampment would be easily set ablaze and destroyed by enemy forces, wanting to install iron-beam bridges?”

“Yes,” Li Xiu responded with a sound, his face gloomy.

“This is something Commander Feng specially instructed Zhou Qiao’an to assist General Li with as quickly as possible. Is General Li worried about insufficient manpower?” Zhou Qiao’an asked.

“What use is this bit of manpower? Could we urgently recruit hundreds or thousands of stonemasons from among the refugees?” Li Xiu asked coldly.

“Ha! You traveled all the way from Donghu—could it be you still think Huaixi’s iron-beam bridges are mounted on stone foundations?” Cao Ba mocked.

“Not built on brick and stone foundations?” Li Xiu asked doubtfully.

He had indeed seen along the way that Huaixi had too many places different from other provinces and counties, but with his dispirited will and rushing under military escort, he truly hadn’t stopped properly to look at many details.

“Take our General Li to walk near the pontoon bridge again to open his eyes,” Cao Ba said mockingly.

With matters concerning the life and death of five to six hundred Li family members, Li Xiu didn’t mind Cao Ba’s cold sarcastic attitude. Leading Li Chi, Li Yan, and others, he spurred his horse toward the pontoon bridge area he had already walked past twice.

Only when he settled his mind to look carefully this time did he notice that the stake pillars suspending giant cables on both sides of the gully at first glance appeared to be grayish-white cliff stone, but were actually seemingly stone yet not stone—giant pillars deeply embedded in mud columns that two people together couldn’t encircle.

Looking at the top of the giant pillars, there were over ten thin iron bars the thickness of thumbs extending out.

“These aren’t natural stone pillars?” Li Xiu asked in shock.

“This is stone clay produced in Huaixi, mixed with river sand and crushed stone, intermixed with iron bar mesh cages and poured to solidify. Previously time was too rushed, so they only poured foundation stakes to fix the floating boats. Subsequently pouring another zhang higher and mounting iron beams—they can even pour the iron beams together with the pile foundations, which enemy forces can’t casually damage!” Cao Ba said proudly. “No need to expend manpower quarrying stone from mountains!”

Cao Ba nudged Zhou Qiao’an’s shoulder mockingly, saying, “Seems General Li knows very little about Huaixi—no wonder he got it so badly this time! By the way, in the past the Weaving Bureau’s scouts all had shit in their eyes. This kind of stone clay pile—Huaixi first used it when constructing the Huazhu Peak plank road. You still don’t have any understanding of it until now?”

Li Ji ignored Cao Ba’s cold mockery, grasping Zhou Qiao’an to confirm they could install the two iron-beam bridges in the shortest time. His anxious thoughts settled slightly. Seeing there was still some time before nightfall, he first asked Cao Ba to lead Li Chi and a dozen household generals to rush to the refugee concentration camp to select and recruit able-bodied men.

Only with more able-bodied men available could all matters proceed in sequence.

He himself led several household generals to discuss encampment fortification plans with Zhou Qiao’an.

If not for several hundred Li family household members all being here, Li Xiu wouldn’t mind the encampment leaving some flaws. Even if the encampment walls were somewhat thin and easily breached by enemy forces, it would be completely fine—it would actually be more convenient for luring enemy forces into the encampment for annihilation battles.

This would better strike at enemy forces’ morale.

However, with several hundred Li family women and children in the encampment, even if reinforcement troops from Xiacai City could guarantee enemy forces wouldn’t dare easily besiege the encampment, he absolutely didn’t want the encampment to be easily torn open with gaps under enemy forces’ frontal assault.

Fortunately, Zhou Qiao’an and Guan Zhui had extremely strong capabilities. Li Xiu only needed to state requirements, and they could formulate corresponding plans. They could even think through manpower arrangements and other matters thoroughly in very short time, requiring no mental or physical labor from Li Xiu.

Li Xiu also had his nephew Li Yan (Li Changfeng’s third son) gather together several dozen young household troop sons and nephews from the clan to first serve as scouts, establishing perimeter security around the new encampment. Before long, he saw Cao Ba riding a thin horse back by himself.

Li Xiu thought there was some obstruction with selecting and recruiting refugee able-bodied men. Frowning as he looked over, Cao Ba waved his hand dismissively, saying, “Your nephew is quite capable. I led him on a trip to get familiar faces with people on all sides so he won’t be made difficulties for. The rest he can supervise—nothing for me to do! Also, for the materials needed here for bridge construction and encampment fortification, I specially greeted Feng Liao about it. All no problems. Cao Ye’s face is still quite useful in Xiacai…”

“How many encampments will be built around Xiacai City’s outer perimeter, and how many able-bodied men does Xiacai City plan to recruit from refugees as local militia for supplementation?” Li Xiu asked Cao Ba with furrowed brows.

He now needed an overall understanding of Tangyi’s defense line plan on the north bank to better decide how to fortify the new encampment and how to fight future defense, but currently this information could only be obtained from Cao Ba.

“Five encampments will be built around Xiacai’s outer perimeter. Only this way can the north entrance of the pontoon bridge be protected, not giving small groups of enemy forces opportunity to penetrate and set fire to destroy the pontoon bridge. Each encampment seems to be planned to organize six to eight hundred able-bodied civilian households—our side counts as the most. Additionally, Xiacai City will organize three thousand civilian households,” Cao Ba said, curling his lip. “However, you don’t need to worry about all these miscellaneous things. If enemy forces truly mass assemble on the east bank of the Guo River, at that time this side will transfer over twenty thousand elite war horses from the rear. They won’t truly expect your Li family women and children to defend this encampment to the death. At that time, Dan County and Xiacai will have eighty thousand Tangyi troops. However they fight will be enough. Could the Weizhou rebel army really tilt over a hundred thousand main forces to the southern line for decisive battle with us?”

Li Xiu shook his head, saying without optimism, “If I were Southern Court Marshal Wusu Dashi of the Mengwu people, besides directing Zhu Rang, Xu Mingzhen, and Chief Minister Tan to assemble one hundred thousand infantry to attack between Dan County and Xiacai, I would also transfer another thirty to forty thousand elite cavalry over. How would Tangyi respond then?”

“The Mengwu people’s foothold isn’t stable yet. They want to engage in a great decisive battle with us now?” Cao Ba didn’t believe Li Xiu’s judgment, shaking his head to ask rhetorically.

“The Bianjing Liang army has less than twenty thousand troops and has already been beaten nearly to ruin. Currently they should no longer be the first target the Mengwu people want to eliminate. Severely defeating Tangyi’s army on the west bank of the Guo River is their primary objective,” Li Xiu said gravely. “Only this way can they rebuild the confidence and low morale of the Shouzhou army and Xu-Si army. Otherwise, the Mengwu people forcibly pushing out the puppet false emperor Zhu Rang to integrate Liang state’s eastern forces and troops will always be an empty framework. Not to mention being unable to pose any threat to Tangyi—even forming substantial threat to Huaidong would be difficult. This is absolutely not what Wusu Dashi or Xiao Yiqing wish to see.”

“Hearing you say this, there’s some logic to it. Xu Mingzhen has indeed been beaten fearful by Tangyi’s army these years. When Tangyi’s army fights the Shouzhou army, there truly is no pressure at all,” Cao Ba said, scratching the back of his head.

Li Xiu said, “That the Marquis of Qianyang isn’t going north to supervise the battle but staying in Xiacai seems leisurely, but in reality he should also anticipate this decisive battle is inevitable. Of course, for Tangyi, this battle also cannot be avoided. It’s just that how many officers and soldiers caught in the middle between both sides will die has already become something certain people are concerned about…”

“When General Li led people rushing into the Provincial Administration Office intending to detain Empress Dowager Changxin and the new emperor to go to Chongwen Hall, you also didn’t seem to think too much about rights and wrongs, did you?” Zhou Qiao’an interjected at this time.

Li Xiu of course knew that Zhou Qiao’an, sent by Feng Xuan to assist him in governing the Li Family New Encampment, was absolutely not an ordinary minor clerk in Tangyi. His coming to assist was, it could be said, carried the nature of supervising the army. Facing his words that were not without sarcasm, he could only darkly accept them.

Cao Ba chuckled and asked Li Xiu, “According to what you’re saying, the best result of this battle for Tangyi would only be a costly victory?”

“Otherwise what do you think?” Li Xiu asked rhetorically. Seeing Cao Ba stumped by his question, he sighed deeply again and said, “Of course, for the Marquis of Qianyang, even a costly victory is a result he can accept…”

Hearing Li Xiu still determined that Li clan members in this battle would face more danger than fortune, Cao Ba stretched lazily and said, “Cao Ye just hopes to kill a few more enemy soldiers, not worry anxiously like you. By the way, Li Xiu, if you’re worried your Li family sons and nephews will suffer too heavy casualties, then have your Li family sons and nephews form into one squad and hand them to me to lead—among the able-bodied men newly selected from refugees, probably not many can follow me in charging into battle.”

Any military force, even defending an encampment, must necessarily have vanguard troops capable of leading charges or breaking through enemy lines, constantly disrupting the enemy’s offensive rhythm, but this was absolutely not something refugee men hastily trained for ten to twenty days could be competent for.

In Li Xiu’s heart, he planned to assemble half the elite household troops, then select an equal number of refugee able-bodied men to form a breakthrough vanguard squad as reserves.

Of course, the Li family absolutely didn’t lack qualified candidates to serve as breakthrough squad leaders, but speaking of the very top breakthrough squad leader candidates on bloody battlefields, probably only three to five people in the entire Tangyi army could compare with Cao Ba!

Wen Bo had a reputation for skillful warfare, with a considerable factor being that Cao Ba personally led a breakthrough elite force, always able at necessary times to control the trend and rhythm of local battlefields.

“What are you hesitating about? Don’t tell me you think Cao Ye is petty and would deliberately harm your Li family sons and nephews to send them to their deaths?” Seeing Li Xiu pondering silently without speaking, Cao Ba said displeasedly.

“I can use you for breakthrough charges, but if you don’t obey my commands, I will execute you before the battle lines. I think even when Wen Bo returns, he’ll have nothing to say,” Li Xiu threatened sinisterly.

“Chattering like a woman—when you besieged Chao City back then for so long, when did I ever let you gain half an advantage?” Cao Ba muttered.

Hearing the information Cao Ba mentioned, Li Xiu estimated that when the great decisive battle arrived, Han Qian might assemble another thirty-some thousand troops in Xiacai. However, several hundred Li family members didn’t count for much in this rolling tide of flesh and blood. Since he wasn’t free and Tangyi had countless capable officials and military generals, there was no room for him to speak. He only thought to seize as much as possible the final gaps before the decisive battle to make amends by doing more preparations.

As the main relief army for Bian advanced north, every day there were thousands upon tens of thousands of refugees migrating from north to south. Previously, the refugee camps on both flanks of the north bank camp had gathered sixty to seventy thousand people. They prioritized arranging for women and children to go north, keeping able-bodied men behind to assist with city and encampment construction.

For Li Xiu to select twelve hundred able-bodied men from among them, as well as relocating some dependents to the Li Family New Encampment, was extremely simple and trouble-free without any complications.

This time, over a hundred thirty household troops plus a considerable number of household troop sons and nephews followed the Li family in exile to Xiacai—all elite military officers who had accompanied Li Xiu in campaigns north and south these years. Li Xiu transferred seventy as military officers and in three days erected the framework of a thousand-man squad.

A mature military officer with previous experience leading and training hundred-man squads in combat, merely responsible for leading fourteen to fifteen new recruits, was naturally adept and comfortable.

Even though time before the decisive battle arrived was extremely pressing, it was barely enough for simple drill training.

Li Xiu formed a breakthrough squad with sixty elite household troops and one hundred forty refugee able-bodied men, with Cao Ba as squad leader. The drill training for the breakthrough squad was even simpler—almost from the day of formation it had combat capability.

Subsequently, primarily focused on defending the encampment, there was also no need to master overly complex battle formation changes. Simple battle formations primarily using sword-shields and war-spears as main weapons, with nearly one-third elite household troops as backbone, could become proficient after three to five days of drill training.

Li Xiu also used several old household troops to assist Li Yan in organizing household troop sons and nephews into an inner guard squad to protect the dependents on the inner side when encampment walls were torn open with gaps.

Li Chi was more skilled at internal affairs, so together with his mother Zheng Shi, leading Li family able-bodied women, he coordinated with Zhou Qiao’an and Guan Zhui to organize refugee dependents and construct the encampment.

For encampment fortification, besides the east and north sides easily subjected to enemy frontal assault where they poured eight stone-clay iron-core pillars to support the thin palisade walls, Li Xiu still piled earth and stone inside the palisade walls.

Without sufficient manpower and time, this earth and stone couldn’t be tamped down layer by layer according to rammed earth methods, but it could effectively absorb the impact force received by the outer palisade walls.

Han Qian came to inspect twice. In the end, he still allocated weapons and armor to the Li Family New Encampment local militia according to main battle battalion standards.

This was the part Li Xiu valued most.

Two hundred arm-drawn crossbows—new recruits only needed to learn to draw the string and load bolts to cover a certain battlefield range. After drill training for ten-some days, they could be put to use. But longbow archers, without three to five months of arduous practice, wouldn’t even know where to shoot arrows when drawing the bow—beyond thirty paces, they might have no accuracy at all.

Ordinary provinces and counties—local militia at most wore leather armor, wielding swords, spears, and small shields for combat, while Tangyi’s main battle battalions had elite veteran soldiers who almost all could wear heavy armor primarily composed of lamellar armor.

Heavy armor versus leather armor on the battlefield for protection were completely two different concepts.

Cao Ba’s breakthrough squad, all wearing lamellar armor, could charge through enemy arrow rain, and even with swords and spears striking them, it would be very difficult to break through the armor.

Leather armor might resist long-range massed arrow shooting, but at close distance, strong bows and powerful crossbows were difficult to protect against comprehensively, not to mention defending against close-quarters spear thrusts.

Tangyi’s heavy armor coverage ratio exceeded even the Imperial Guards by a notch. These years, the Shouzhou army confronting Tangyi’s army on the battlefield had deeply felt this.

It was also fortunate that the Shouzhou army was mostly composed of elite former Chu army troops. These years on frontal battlefields, they hadn’t performed too poorly, but strategic disadvantage had still caused the Shouzhou army to retreat step by step.

The Shouzhou army facing Tangyi’s army psychologically had absolutely no advantage. Moreover, after retreating to gain footing along both banks of the Guo River this year, they were currently extremely unstable.

Li Xiu thus concluded that the Mengwu people would definitely deploy elite cavalry to the Dan County-Xiacai line battlefield, absolutely not expecting the repeatedly defeated Shouzhou army to truly serve as main forces on the southern line, fighting a decisive battle with Tangyi’s army.

Li Xiu estimated that Tangyi forces of equal troop scale could beat shit out of the current Shouzhou army. The Mengwu people could not possibly fail to consider that if the Shouzhou army completely routed, it would cause their situation in the He-Huai region to fall into what degree of deterioration.

In the ten-some days after the Li clan members arrived at Xiacai, the relief army for Bian’s northward advance also proceeded extremely smoothly.

Although the Shouzhou army deployed large numbers of elite troops on Dan County’s southern flank to intercept the relief army for Bian using advantageous river and stream terrain, after several engagements, they were all routed and had to hastily retreat into northern city fortifications.

As for the Shouzhou army in Guoyang united with Xu-Si army vanguard forces wanting to raid the flank of the relief army for Bian with Wen Bo as chief general, they also returned empty-handed several times, only able to helplessly watch as the relief army for Bian main forces advanced step by step beneath Dan County city walls.

This situation matched Li Xiu’s predictions.

Li Xiu also determined that relying solely on the Shouzhou army as main force, it would be very unlikely they could hold city fortifications like Dan County and Wuting on the west bank of the Guo River under the relief army for Bian’s powerful offensive.

As a veteran general who had traversed Jianghuai for half a lifetime, Xu Mingzhen’s self-awareness was indispensable. From the Mengwu people’s performance in the northern territories these two years, Li Xiu also concluded they must have extremely clear recognition of Tangyi’s army and the Shouzhou army’s situations.

If not for this, the Mengwu people also couldn’t have previously gone to such great lengths in Jinling City to create so many maneuvers.

Whenever thinking of this, Li Xiu’s chest had bouts of pain difficult to suppress.

Precisely during the ten-some days the Li clan members arrived at Xiacai, Prince of Xin Yang Yuanpu led over thirty thousand elite troops sitting on the walls observing from Chu Province, completely showing no intention of crossing the Huai River to advance into Xu-Si heartland, not even seeing basic raids. This enabled one after another Xu-Si army force to disengage from the north bank region of the Huai River lower reaches, bypass the north bank of Hongze Lake, and advance toward the east bank region of the Guo River lower reaches.

The great decisive battle Li Xiu prophesied when first arriving at Xiacai could at this moment be said to become reality at any time.

In the east bank region of the Guo River middle and lower reaches, reinforcing Xu-Si army forces crossing the Guo River could join hands with Shouzhou army troops garrisoning Guoyang to directly penetrate between Dan County and Xiacai. Going south to cross the Huai River, they could raid southward into the region between Zhongli, Linhuai, and Huailing in Hao Province.

Even though Tangyi’s navy at this time firmly controlled the Huai River waterway north of Hao Province, time would very soon enter late autumn. In another two months, the Huai River middle and lower reaches waterway still had high probability of freezing solid again.

No one could expect the decisive battle to end within two months.

If after two months the decisive battle still hadn’t ended, or had just begun its opening curtain, with Tangyi’s navy having to withdraw from the frozen Huai River, large groups of enemy forces directly crossing the Huai River southward could raid into heartlands like Shou and Hao.

In fact, time—that is, the initiative in decisive battle—was in enemy hands.

For Zhu Rang and the Mengwu people, at their current stage they only needed to hold key city fortifications in the He-Luo region like Luoyang, Xingyang, Yanshi, and Hangu Pass without being seized by Zhu Yu. Under these circumstances, even if several tens of thousands of enemy forces assembled on the east bank of the Guo River didn’t directly enter the west bank of the Guo River, they could still make the relief army for Bian feel extreme pressure, finding it very difficult to freely attack fortifications like Dan County and Wuting.

This way, the Mengwu people and Zhu Rang could completely drag things to late October or even November, launching the decisive battle at a time more favorable to them.

This also forced Tangyi not to dare relax land defense along the Linhuai-Zhongli line, further limiting the scale of elite troops Tangyi could assemble in the north bank Xiacai region.

Cao Ba had mentioned that when necessary, Han Qian would transfer another twenty thousand elite troops into the Xiacai region, but in reality, they had to place one brigade of elite troops at Linhuai. Ultimately, they only transferred the three reinforced main brigades of Dou Rong, Zhao Qi, and Xiao Dahu to Xiacai, merging with Feng Xuan’s forces, assembling twenty thousand elite combat troops and ten thousand auxiliary troops to make final preparations for the approaching decisive battle.

By early September, besides the fully mobilized Shouzhou army forces numbering as many as seventy thousand, Xu-Si army forces assembled to the east bank region of the Guo River lower reaches also exceeded thirty thousand. Tangyi scouts also detected that around late August, approximately ten thousand scale Weizhou cavalry were moving south from Bianjing’s western metropolitan region. But Li Xiu understood very clearly in his heart—this was absolutely not all enemy forces on the southern line. The Mengwu people’s main cavalry forces would definitely move south to participate in battle…