Facing Li Xiu’s immense shock and doubt, Han Qian merely said calmly:

“We constructed two trestle bridges, each nearly twenty li long, between Xihua and Yanling to cross the flood zone, so that when the enemy’s main forces were completely drawn to the south and southeast sides of the Chen-Bian Post Road, the military and civilians of Bianjing could evacuate at the fastest possible speed!”

Two trestle bridges, each nearly twenty li long!

Li Xiu suddenly understood why, during this period when the battle at Xiacai was so urgent, the number of master craftsmen and military artisans deployed from Tangyi to Xiacai had been so strictly limited—they had been simultaneously constructing two trestle bridges west of the Chen-Bian Post Road to cross the flood zone, ensuring the rapid evacuation of Bianjing’s military and civilians.

Li Xiu had previously considered the possibility of building pontoon bridges, but the terrain of the flood zone was complex. Even without considering the impact of water currents, the difficulty of constructing pontoon bridges was far greater than across gently flowing streams and rivers.

The flood zone’s inundation varied in depth, but generally speaking, shallow silted areas predominated.

Especially after entering autumn, as upstream water flow decreased and rainfall in the Huai River region diminished, floodwaters gradually receded. In many places the deep waters had already retreated, but the mud and silt left behind by the Yellow River flood zone accumulated deeply, like swamps, making it extremely difficult even for mules and horses to traverse.

All the floating vessels used to erect the trestle bridges needed to be specially built for constructing floating trestles in the flood zone and could not be converted from existing civilian boats.

The two trestle bridges combined stretched thirty to forty li long—just the specialized floating vessels alone would require the construction of three to four thousand new boats, wouldn’t they?

Li Xiu estimated that no earlier than May had Han Qian begun extensively mobilizing master craftsmen and military artisans, concentrating them in several shipyards in Shouzhou and Huoqiu. Yet in just five short months, they had managed to build such an enormous quantity of specialized floating vessels. To what degree had Tangyi’s shipbuilding capacity grown?

As long as these floating vessels were pre-fabricated at the shipyards, they could then travel north via the Ying River. After reaching the predetermined positions, they could be rapidly deployed from the central river channel toward the edges of the flood zone, naturally avoiding detection by Mengwu scouts blocked outside the flood zone’s perimeter.

Of course, evacuating over a hundred thousand women and children to near the entrances of the floating trestles within Yanling and Xihua counties could not be accomplished in just three to five hours. Before that, they needed to completely isolate the enemy’s main forces outside the floating trestle corridor.

Previously, everyone had believed the Chen-Bian Post Road was the only passage for Bianjing’s military and civilians to evacuate south and west before the Huai River’s streams froze solid. The Tangyi army and Bianjing garrison’s early battle deployments also revolved around the Chen-Bian Post Road as their core. Kong Xirong’s six thousand advance troops were even being bottled up at the southern end of the Chen-Bian Post Road by the Mengwu, possessing elite forces but unable to deploy them.

Now it appeared all this had been a feint—the purpose being to draw the enemy’s main forces to the southern line, to the east and south of the Chen-Bian Post Road. Over a hundred thousand Bianjing military and civilians then successfully executed a golden cicada shedding its shell maneuver via newly constructed floating trestles west of the Chen-Bian Post Road.

Perhaps even now, Wusu Dashi, Xiao Yiqing, or Xu Mingzhen still believed they had successfully trapped over a hundred thousand Bianjing women and children plus over fifty thousand Liang-Chu allied troops north of Chenzhou.

“So the so-called great decisive battle was purely bait to lure the enemy?” Li Xiu asked in shock.

“Not entirely. If the Mengwu cavalry’s main forces hadn’t moved south, I was still planning to drive the entire Shouzhou army east of the Guo River. That would have been even more advantageous!” Han Qian said with his hands clasped behind his back. “Now we can only say we fought them to a draw!”

With casualties of just over ten thousand, successfully evacuating over a hundred thousand Bianjing military and civilians, even evacuating over three hundred thousand people south from Danxian, Wuting, Xiacai, Guoyang and other places—this was called fighting to a draw?

Even if this action fell far short of reversing the situation in the Huai River region, it shouldn’t merely be called fighting to a draw, should it?

Such an outcome was far better than having over a hundred thousand military and civilians annihilated in Bianjing City and the million-plus civilians between the Ying and Guo Rivers all falling under Zhu Rang’s control.

Han Qian had no obligation to comfort Li Xiu’s inner shock. He immediately called him to walk before the long table where maps were spread out, explaining the battle plan for receiving the Danxian and Wuting garrison forces.

In one more day, Bianjing’s military and civilians would completely evacuate to between Yanling and Xihua. The advance troops were rapidly retreating south via the two floating trestle long bridges, then dispersing via military and civilian boats remaining in the upper Ying River toward the new embankments south of Wanqiu.

On the north side and flanks of the two floating trestles at Yanling and Xihua, several small but sturdy fortified camps had been constructed, which could allow Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun to lead the Bianjing garrison and Bianjing relief forces to withdraw into them and resist the enemy’s pursuit. Having all the northern forces completely withdraw within half a month would not be a major problem.

The current trouble was that Wen Bo and Tan Xiuqun’s troops defending Danxian and Wuting fortresses were completely surrounded by enemy forces.

Because the Bianjing relief army’s main forces had left behind sufficient war equipment and provisions when advancing north, these two fortresses could withstand enemy assaults in the short term, but the Tangyi army still needed to provide support.

The plan was to use the specialized cargo vessels and trestle planks withdrawn from Yanling and Xihua to construct a trestle bridge from the mouth of the Dan Creek—the Dan Creek being relatively shallow, with summer and autumn floods causing sediment accumulation in the river channel, making it unnavigable after winter water levels dropped—eastward to Yatou Ridge west of Dancheng, forming a support point for aiding Dancheng to the east and Wuting to the northeast.

If the enemy refused to abandon their siege of Dancheng and Wuting, considering that the muddy ground would freeze solid in at most another month, at which point Mengwu cavalry could gallop freely in all directions, Li Xiu would need to lead his troops to hold Yatou Ridge using the precipitous terrain until after the ice and snow melted next spring, then make other plans.

Of course, they would also consider using Yatou Ridge as a forward fortress base on the west bank of the Ying River to directly threaten the enemy’s foothold in central and western Bozhou, but later they would basically consider transferring it to the Liang army for garrison duty.

“You need not worry about the safety of the Li clan members. After you lead troops north, I will arrange for Dou Rong to lead an elite brigade to garrison there, protecting Xiacai’s eastern flank,” Han Qian said, seeing a trace of worry in Li Xiu’s eyes.

Once they discovered Bianjing’s military and civilians had successfully executed their golden cicada escape, the unwilling enemy forces might very likely launch even fiercer offensives against Xiacai. But if Han Qian ordered Dou Rong to defend Xiacai’s eastern flank and make the Li Family New Fortress the main camp, Li Xiu wasn’t too worried the Li Family New Fortress would be captured by enemy forces.

After all, the Tangyi army’s brigade-level core combat power was far stronger than the thousand-plus village militia he commanded by more than just a little bit. And after two months of construction, the Li Family New Fortress as the eastern flank’s main support point had its defensive capabilities greatly enhanced.

Li Xiu also understood that Han Qian’s arrangement was still meant to use main battle battalions to resist the enemy’s frenzied counterattacks on the Xiacai defense line. In comparison, Yatou Ridge’s early defensive combat mission was not heavy—deploying village militia auxiliary troops would be sufficient. Later, after the Bianjing relief army’s main forces withdrew from the north, Han Qian would have completely adequate troops at his disposal.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, I was wondering where the hell all those master craftsmen and military artisans had gone! Over these years, when it comes to playing devious tricks with the Great One, nobody’s fucking pulled it off yet!”

When Li Xiu brought Li Chi back with their new combat mission, after Cao Ba learned the details he could only point at the sky and curse the earth in great lamentation.

Li Xiu deeply understood that all this could not be entirely encompassed by schemes and plots.

The Mengwu couldn’t possibly not guard against Han Qian finding alternative routes to evacuate Bianjing’s military and civilians. Timing it precisely one month before the northern river channels completely froze over, pushing the battle to its highest intensity—the calculations could be said to be extremely precise.

After the Mengwu cavalry’s main forces moved south to participate in the battle, both the Shouzhou army and Xuzhou-Sizhou army displayed quite strong combat power and morale.

But who could have imagined that from the initial preparations for northern relief until now—only four to five months or slightly over half a year—Han Qian had secretly prepared to construct two floating trestle passages spanning the flood zone with a total length of nearly forty li across the upper Ying River?

Besides newly constructing nearly four thousand specialized floating cargo vessels, considering that the floating trestles needed relatively reliable stability when large numbers of troops rapidly crossed them, several hundred sets of giant anchor blocks alone consumed three to four million jin of iron—nearly equivalent to the annual total production of Jinling’s official iron foundries for over a year.

Military strength could never be simply measured by troop scale.

Because Tangyi possessed the capability to construct extra-long floating trestles crossing the flood zone, the flood zones on both banks of the Ying River to a greater extent could be said to be obstacles to Mengwu forces advancing west from east of the Ying River, rather than obstacles to Tangyi forces advancing east from west of the Ying River.

This would also directly limit the Shouzhou army’s or Mengwu’s subsequent control over this region between the Ying and Guo.

Even if the Mengwu now became aware of Han Qian’s scheme and wanted to bypass the Bianjing relief army’s main forces currently blocking the western-center position of the Chen-Bian corridor, mobilizing troops from the perimeter to attack Yanling and Xihua—it was already too late.

Was it possible for the Mengwu to switch from defense to offense, attacking the Bianjing relief army’s main forces from the south at any cost?

Li Xiu believed the Mengwu would not be so impulsive.

Both sides had comparable troop scales near the Chen-Bian Post Road. Particularly, over fifty thousand enemy troops had hastily entered the southern side of the Chen-Bian corridor, previously considering mainly cutting off the Chen-Bian corridor.

With over fifty thousand enemy troops on the southern side of the Chen-Bian corridor, especially with Kong Xirong’s over six thousand advance troops threatening their rear from the south, hastily reversing their offensive and defensive posture to actively attack the Bianjing relief army’s main forces—which consisted of cavalry and infantry with several simple fortresses to rely on—their chances of victory would absolutely not exceed thirty percent.

Li Xiu and Cao Ba assembled over ten squad leaders to convey the new combat instructions. After Dou Rong led the Guard Battalion to garrison and they completed the defense handover, Li Xiu left the Li Chi and Li Yan brothers behind. He and Cao Ba then assembled over a thousand village militia to board boats and travel up the Huai River into the Ying River.

On the sixth day they reached the mouth of Dan Creek west of Danxian.

This was Li Xiu’s first time boarding a boat to enter the Ying River, and also his first time entering the core of the flood zone.

Although it was already winter, the water levels in the upper Huai River and even the upper Yangtze River had dropped, and even the water level in the upper Yu River had fallen to the same period last year’s level, but after the Ying River received the incoming water from the upper Yu River, its flow was seven to eight times greater than the same period in previous years.

Even though at this moment the water level had receded in most of the flood zones on both sides, the remnant embankments on both banks of the Ying River were still mostly submerged underwater, at most showing their tops, with large numbers of houses collapsed in the mud.

All along the way, they could see rotting corpses of humans and livestock along the banks from time to time. Flocks of black crows like oppressively dark clouds circled in mid-air, making harsh, grating cries.

It was hard to imagine what the banks of the Ying River had been flooded into when water levels were at their peak in summer!

“General Li, Commander Cao…”

At this time, a pontoon bridge water battalion had already arrived early to station at the mouth of Dan Creek. They had linked together over a dozen large floating vessels with iron chains, dropped huge anchors, and constructed a floating dock sixty to seventy paces square in the river’s center position.

After Li Xiu, Cao Ba and others boarded the floating dock, a military officer from the pontoon bridge water battalion reported on the nearby situation.

The scale of southward-retreating military and civilians from within Yanling territory was more than half smaller and had already completely evacuated. The first batch of flat cargo vessels and trestle planks could be transported to the mouth of Dan Creek during the night for laying floating trestles eastward across the flood zone to the western foot of Yatou Ridge seventeen to eighteen li away.

At this time the weather had not yet reached the Great Cold period.

Yatou Ridge extended only four li from east to west. Its eastern foot was about eleven to twelve li from Danxian’s ruined city. Its main peak was only twenty-some zhang high. The surrounding areas were low-lying depressions. After the floodwaters receded, they were full of muddy slurry, like swamps. Except for laying floating trestles, even tall horses could not wade through the deep-mired muddy ground.

In fact, the enemy forces had already realized they had fallen for a feint. But the general situation was set. They dared not rashly attack the Bianjing relief main forces and Bianjing garrison to the north. They could only withdraw part of their forces to between Wuting and Danxian, intending to devour the two elite Tangyi army units remaining to defend Wuting and Danxian to satisfy their hatred.

The enemy obviously also saw Yatou Ridge as a key node, realizing the Tangyi army would lay floating trestles to Yatou Ridge to support Dancheng and Wuting. Yesterday an enemy cavalry unit attempted to drive horses directly across the flood zone to garrison Yatou Ridge.

Traveling through the muddy ground was far more difficult than imagined. Over two hundred enemy troops only struggled through the four li wide muddy ground east of Yatou Ridge by nightfall, but were met head-on by auxiliary troops and soldiers ambushed by the pontoon bridge water battalion and had over fifty men killed.

At this time there were still over one hundred thirty enemy troops occupying the eastern foot of Yatou Ridge.

Although the pontoon bridge water battalion had two hundred troops remaining at the western foot of Yatou Ridge, as auxiliary troops their armor and personal physical qualities were a large step below the main battle battalions. Taking advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness they could make one killing attack, but now had no way to devour the remaining one hundred thirty to forty elite enemy troops.

More enemy troops were driving people in the region east of the flood zone to harvest reeds and cut down trees, wanting to lay a simple passage through the muddy ground.

“Send me and the Assault Squad to Yatou Ridge first!” Cao Ba said.

This pontoon bridge water battalion had first brought over a dozen flat cargo vessels—wide and flat, able to barely propel themselves with poles even in rotten muddy ground. It took over two hours of extreme difficulty to first transport Cao Ba and an elite hundred-man Assault Squad to Yatou Ridge.

When Li Xiu brought the remaining Assault Squad troops in the second batch to Yatou Ridge, Cao Ba had not waited for him to arrive and had already led the first batch of Assault Squad elites to capture the eastern foot of Yatou Ridge. The enemy forces could not determine the Tangyi army’s navigation capabilities on the Ying River and hastily did not timely reinforce the eastern foot.

When he reached the eastern hilltop, he saw fifty to sixty remnant enemy troops fleeing in panic into the muddy ground where their feet became mired and progress difficult. That bastard Cao Ba was having the new recruits in the Assault Squad practice shooting with arm-drawn crossbows at enemy soldiers who had only fled forty to fifty paces away.

In the distance they could see enemy troops using harvested vegetation to lay a simple passage. From the eastern foot of Yatou Ridge eastward was about four li of muddy ground. Fortunately, the Bianjing relief army’s main forces had attacked and defended here against the Shouzhou army for over a month, cutting down all the nearby trees, so the enemy forces still had not managed to complete this four li long simple passage.

As the New Fortress village militia boarded Yatou Ridge in batches, the enemy forces could only abandon construction of the simple passage.

The simple passage was even less stable than floating trestles and extremely narrow, unable to pass many soldiers at once. Even if they could successfully complete it to Yatou Ridge, if they actually sent troops over, wouldn’t they just be delivering food to the Tangyi army elites already garrisoning Yatou Ridge?

Although it took over two days to transport the thousand-plus soldiers in batches to Yatou Ridge, Li Xiu still dared not be careless. The pontoon bridge water battalion continued according to the original plan to lay floating trestles without stopping.

By the end of October, the surrounding muddy ground would most likely completely freeze solid. Then tens of thousands of enemy troops could surround them from all directions. With Yatou Ridge’s main peak only twenty zhang high, no matter how precipitous the terrain, it was limited. Without sufficient supplies and war equipment, twelve hundred troops could not possibly hold Yatou Ridge.

With ready-made flat cargo vessels and trestle planks, and deploying more professional pontoon bridge water battalion soldiers, the floating trestle construction speed was also extremely fast. On the fifth day it was completed to the western foot of Yatou Ridge. Large quantities of supplies could then be continuously transported by water route, then transported into Yatou Ridge via the floating trestle. When the Bianjing relief army’s main forces retreated south, they would also allocate a batch of elite combat power to come over.

Of course, Li Xiu leading the New Fortress village militia who had boarded Yatou Ridge early also seized the time to dig trenches and construct earthen protective walls day and night according to the terrain, expanding as much as possible the internal passage between the eastern and western ridge heads. Later, after large quantities of military supplies and war equipment were transported over, they would continue strengthening Yatou Ridge’s defenses based on the current foundation.

These past few days, although the enemy forces’ offensive against Wuting and Danxian’s ruined city was fierce, Li Xiu standing at the eastern foot of Yatou Ridge could on clear days faintly see with the naked eye the attack and defense situations of both cities. The defending soldiers of Wuting and Danxian under Wen Bo and Tan Xiuqun’s command showed no panic at being surrounded by enemies, very stably pinning enemy forces beneath the city walls.

This also demonstrated the significance of their foothold on Yatou Ridge.

Though separated by the Yellow River flood zone, even if they currently could not threaten the enemy forces to the east, their appearance atop Yatou Ridge could greatly boost the defending troops’ morale while making enemy forces feel like thorns in their backs.

At this time, not only had Bianjing’s women and children all retreated into the west bank of the Ying River, but Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun had also led their troops into the western Chenzhou region. After just simple rest and reorganization, they could at any time pass through the precipitous trestle routes in northern Ruzhou to enter the southern Heluo region and join with the Liang army’s main forces led by Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang to launch the final assault on rebel forces in Luoyang and other cities…

“Your Highness, this is Han Qian and his Tangyi army! These past three or four years I’ve had Guanjiang Tower dedicate a third of our manpower to watching Tangyi, studying every move Han Qian makes in West Huai, yet I never imagined that while the Tangyi army drew our main forces to the southern line, they would spare no cost to construct floating trestles to receive Bianjing’s military and civilians. In the Huai River region we ultimately fell one step short. Fortunately Your Highness gave Tian Weiye a death order to capture Yongzhou City before November regardless of casualties. Otherwise the situation would truly look rather ugly.”

Xiao Yiqing wore a gray robe, standing alongside Huainan Prince Xu Mingzhen beside a robust middle-aged Mengwu man, gazing toward Yatou Ridge.

The middle-aged Mengwu man was the Mengwu Crown Prince and Southern Court Grand Chancellor Wusu Dashi.

Having accepted northern refugee noble clans over these years, even setting up his fief as prefectures and counties thirty years ago, fully implementing Han systems, Wusu Dashi was the soul and core figure in Mengwu’s southern seizure of Yanyun, eastern conquest of Bohai, and subsequent southern invasion to take Heshuo and Jin territories.

Looking at his robust build and full beard, perhaps the first impression given was that of an invincible military general. But at this moment he wore drab leather furs against the cold, holding in his hand a viewing bronze mirror captured from the battlefield, more clearly observing Yatou Ridge’s defensive situation, saying to Xiao Yiqing:

“Zhu Yu’s body cannot hold out much longer either. Victory or defeat with Tangyi is not determined in a moment.”

“That’s true. Zhu Yu’s condition may not last past next spring. When the remnant Liang soldiers support that child Zhu Zhen as their lord, what is there to fear?” Xiao Yiqing said with a scornful laugh.

Wusu Dashi pointed toward Yatou Ridge, asking: “By the way, who is the general Han Qian sent to Yatou Ridge—have we found out? Their defensive deployment is extremely methodical, advancing and retreating with precision. Xuzhou and the Tangyi army’s rise has been at most ten years altogether, yet under Han Qian’s command there really are quite a few capable officials and excellent generals!”

Scout cavalry could not approach for close reconnaissance. Using captured viewing mirrors, they also could not see clearly the faces of people four to five li away. Xiao Yiqing still did not know that the defending generals who had now entered Yatou Ridge were Li Xiu and Cao Ba. But with Yatou Ridge forming a mutually supporting position with the ruined Danxian and Wuting, he was clear in his heart about Han Qian’s intent in making such military deployments.

Wuting’s defending general was Tan Xiuqun, formerly a surrendered general from Tanzhou who joined Han Qian. He and his brother Tan Yuliang were employed by Han Qian, stirring up civil unrest in Sizhou, ultimately forcing Jinling to grant amnesty and establish the Tianping Commandery.

Wuting’s fortress was relatively intact and very difficult to crack. Though Danxian’s city walls were ruined, the one responsible for defending Danxian’s ruined city was Wen Bo, renowned throughout Jianghuai for defending cities.

In reality, the battle here had become a thankless task. That they had dragged things out until now without withdrawing was not because they were thinking of besieging points to strike reinforcements.

One main reason was that Tian Weiye’s side had not yet sent news of capturing Yongzhou City. Regardless of whether Zhu Yu’s body could last until next spring or summer, the gain or loss of Yongzhou City was too critically important to the entire western front—it must be ensured to fall into their hands before year’s end no matter what.

Another reason was that at this time organizing the Shouzhou army and Xuzhou-Sizhou army to take turns attacking Dancheng and Xiacai was also beneficial for reshaping their confidence in establishing a foothold on the southern line, so that Zhu Rang, Xu Mingzhen and other forces could truly pin down the Tangyi army from the eastern front…

On the eighteenth of October, Shen Peng and Zhao Ci led three thousand troops into Yatou Ridge, joining with Li Xiu’s forces to strengthen support for the troops besieged at Danxian and Wuting.

At this time the shallow water marshes had just begun forming thin ice.

The Bianjing relief army’s main forces were also successively retreating south by boat from Xihua County in northern Chenzhou.

Kong Xirong’s advance army was still temporarily fixed at Wanqiu, observing the enemy forces to the north from the southern side of the Chen-Bian Post Road, also pinning the enemy army’s flank so they could not freely attack the Bianjing relief army’s main forces withdrawing into Xihua County territory.

Judging by mid-October weather and southern cold current conditions, in another half month the Ying River would freeze over. Mengwu cavalry might at any time cross the Ying River westward. At that time Kong Xirong’s forces would not rush to retreat south but would temporarily first withdraw to fortresses on the west bank of the Ying River, assisting the Liang army in strengthening Chenzhou western region defenses.

As the Bianjing relief army’s main force of thirty thousand soldiers successively retreated south to the Xiacai and Linhuai line, the Xuzhou-Sizhou army, Shouzhou army and Mengwu cavalry who had frantically counterattacked the Xiacai defense line for the last half month ultimately returned without success on the twenty-first, withdrawing to Guoyang and east of the Guo River.

The enemy forces surrounding Dancheng and Wuting also lifted their siege and departed at approximately the same time. Part of their troops withdrew into Bozhou and Luyi, part withdrew to Bianjing’s southern metropolitan fortresses to the north.

The Huai River battle between the Ying and Guo ultimately ended with an outcome of much thunder but little rain. The Mengwu ultimately did not think to use the garrison forces at Danxian and Wuting as bait to draw the Tangyi army’s main forces north and launch a great decisive battle in the plains south of Dancheng.

Except for Wen Bo leading part of his troops to continue defending Danxian’s ruined city and handing Yatou Ridge over to the Liang army for defense, Tan Xiuqun’s forces who had suffered heavy casualties and Li Xiu’s forces all retreated south for rest and reorganization.

During the journey south, for over two days Cao Ba kept nagging incessantly in Li Xiu’s ear, complaining that this battle was truly much thunder but little rain, fought too unsatisfyingly. If he had known he would have stayed at Xiacai—at Xiacai’s eastern flank he could at least have gotten several defensive hard battles, far better than purely being a decoration at Yatou Ridge…