Mount Mang was a remnant range of the Qinling Mountains and a branch of Xiao Mountain. From east to west, it comprised thirty-three peaks and ridges, passing through six counties—Gong, Yanshi, Mengjin, Luoyang, Xin’an, and Mianchi—stretching over three hundred eighty li. It lay across the southern bank of the Yu River and the northern flank of the Heluo Basin, looking north toward Xiang Mountain (Zhongtiao Mountain).
Mount Mang’s terrain could not be called particularly precipitous. At its highest and most dangerous points, the mountain ridges rose about a hundred zhang. Overall, the eastern and western flanks were high and steep, while the middle section was relatively gentler. But the mountain’s southern slopes were gradual while its northern face was precipitous, pressing close to the Yu River, making it difficult for enemy vessels to cross.
In early February, the Yu River was still firmly sealed by ice. Han Qian stood with Guo Rong, Feng Liao, Wen Bo, and others atop the ridges at Mount Mang’s eastern end. Using telescopes, they could see into Meng Province City on the northern bank controlled by enemy forces, where aside from tens of thousands of troops successively assembling and garrisoning, large numbers of vessels were also assembled at the navy encampment on the northern side.
Seeing this scene, Guo Rong said with emotion: “The Mengwu have long been prepared to wait for the Former Martial Emperor’s death, then aside from having the Eastern Liang forces enter Hulao Pass from Yingyang and having Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye lead forces to attack Tongguan and Hua Province, they would assemble forces in Meng Province to cross the Yu River from there and attack Yanshi, Mengjin, Gong County, and other places!”
Although the enemy’s main forces in Meng Province had only assembled from Huai, Wei, Lu, and Ze provinces over the past half month, the Mengwu had built a major navy encampment in Meng Province after last summer and autumn, assembling large-scale vessels for training.
However, currently the river channels on the northern bank were all sealed by solid ice, so these vessels temporarily could not be used.
But in another half month to a month, the north would also gradually warm. When the ice on the Yu and Luo rivers melted, these vessels the enemy had assembled on the northern bank would come into play.
Moreover, because Heluo had previously been occupied by Liang Shixiong, and because the Wei River region and the Yu River ferry areas west of Hangu Pass had completely fallen into Mengwu hands, the vessels in Heluo, Jing, and Wei regions had either been destroyed by rebel forces or captured by the enemy.
Finding even a few fishing boats in the Heluo region was now difficult.
After the Yu River dike broke, floodwaters invaded the Jia-Lu River from the broad, shallow flood zone on the western bank before flowing south into the Sha-Ying River. This determined that as long as Yingyang remained under enemy control and the Yu River dike was not properly repaired, and the sluice gates where the Jia-Lu River met the Yu River were not restored, Tangyi’s navy warships could not directly enter the Yu River from the Sha-Ying and Jia-Lu rivers.
Han Qian had already mobilized a group of master craftsmen to organize personnel to build shipyards on the shores of Yique Lake west of Luoyang City.
However, even with special processing techniques for lumber that did not require the traditional years of treatment before use, even with naval officers, soldiers, shipwrights, and sailors all transferable from Huaixi, building various warships and organizing a combat-effective navy capable of preventing enemy invasion of the Yi and Luo river basins—at the earliest this could only be achieved after autumn.
Although they seemingly still possessed eighty thousand troops in Heluo, and the Heluo region had over two hundred thousand able-bodied men who could be mobilized, before the two armies completed integration, before the new systems were implemented, and before Liang’s troops—mostly weak and injured—received adequate rest and reorganization, they had no strength to launch a proper counteroffensive. They even had to first withstand the enemy’s initial assault before they could consider having initially established a foothold in Heluo.
Aside from having Kong Xirong, after absorbing Li Qi’s forces and Yong Province’s remnant army, assume the important task of restraining the Guanzhong enemy’s main forces from the southern flank in the Shangluo and Lantian direction, Han Qian had also ordered Feng Xuan to lead forces into Hulao Pass east of Gong County to block the Eastern Liang forces’ offensive from Yingyang and Bian from the east, and ordered Zhou Dan to lead forces to garrison Tongguan to resist the enemy offensive launched from Hejin and Yong Province together with Jing Zhen defending Hua Province City.
However, on the northern front, aside from defensive deployments on both eastern and western flanks, the gap most vulnerable to enemy attack was currently the Yi-Luo River mouth area between Mount Mang and Hulao Pass.
The Yichuan River and Luo River each had their own sources but merged in Yanshi County territory northeast of Luoyang City to become the Yi-Luo River, which joined the Yu River (Yellow River) in Gong County territory, forming a flat and expansive lower Yi-Luo River alluvial plain in Gong County.
Currently they had no naval combat strength within the Yi-Luo River and could not prevent enemy vessels from directly entering the Yi-Luo River after the ice melted. Thus they could hardly prevent Mengwu cavalry and infantry from landing on both banks of the Yi-Luo River mouth, then advancing along the Yi-Luo toward Yanshi and Luoyang, isolating Hulao Pass east of the Yi-Luo River as a solitary city.
Han Qian turned to look at Wen Bo, Han Yuanqi, Chen Kun, Su Lie, Xue Chuan, Han Donghu, and other generals behind him and said:
“The Mengwu’s momentum is at its peak now, but whether we can block the enemy forces outside the Yi-Luo River mouth and prevent them from directly extending their reach into Heluo not only determines whether we can successfully establish a foothold in Heluo, but also determines whether the Mengwu’s fortunes turn from flourishing to declining. Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing necessarily understand this principle very clearly as well. All generals must prepare to be wrapped in horse leather on the banks of the Yi-Luo River! And I will also establish my headquarters tent in the ridges at Mount Mang’s eastern foot. Do not try to persuade me to withdraw the headquarters tent to Luoyang City—if it truly reaches the point where we must retreat to defend Luoyang City, Luoyang City itself cannot be held…”
Aside from forces under Feng Xuan and Zhou Dan used to strengthen defenses on Heluo’s two flanks, Han Qian currently deployed Wen Bo’s eight thousand elite troops under Su Lie and Xue Chuan’s two brigades, plus Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun’s twenty thousand infantry and cavalry, all in the Yi-Luo River bank areas to defend Luoyang’s northern gate.
Additionally, the three thousand guard cavalry led by Han Donghu, Huo Li, and Shi Ruhai would protect his command tent at Mount Mang’s eastern foot.
In the short term, the enemy had only assembled forty thousand troops in Meng Province City across the river to attack the Yi-Luo River mouth area. They were not at too great a numerical disadvantage. But the problem was that after the Yu River thawed, the enemy possessed large forces in Guanzhong that could not be deployed against Hua Province, Tongguan, and Lantian Pass. At that time, they could take the Yu River waterway and come around to the Yi-Luo River mouth to participate in the struggle for this region.
Tangyi had always utilized the convenience of water routes and river channels to rapidly assemble and move troops to attack enemy forces. Now with the situation reversed, it naturally felt extremely passive.
The only thing that could provide some reassurance was probably that they occupied the defensive advantage.
Not to mention that both banks of the Yi-Luo River were studded with fortified settlements—Mount Mang, as Heluo’s northern flank feng shui auspicious land, had for millennia had countless princes and nobles buried within it, resulting in excellent development of Mount Mang’s southern slopes with roads crisscrossing through the southern ridge areas.
At Mount Mang’s eastern foot alone, Xixuan Temple built four to five hundred years ago during the Northern Wei period was quite spectacular in scale.
Xixuan Temple was a temple complex composed of three major temples—Wolong Temple, Lianhua Temple, and Pujing Temple—plus two smaller temples, Yongle Temple and Yongfu Temple, distributed along Mount Mang’s eastern ridge southern slopes. Backing Mount Mang to the north and overlooking the Yi-Luo River to the south, the building complex stretched for over two li.
After Liang Shixiong withdrew from Heluo last November, Zhu Yu had immediately had Chen Kun lead forces to garrison Xixuan Temple, conscripting civilian labor to transform Xixuan Temple into a military garrison fortress on the Yi-Luo River’s western bank.
This created favorable conditions for defending from Mount Mang’s southern slopes with convenient troop movements in and out.
Even if enemy elite forces forcefully inserted themselves onto the Yi-Luo River’s northern bank, Heluo’s defending forces could still effectively utilize Mount Mang’s favorable terrain to transport counterattack forces to the Yi-Luo River mouth position.
When the battle turned unfavorable, the fortified settlements on both Yi-Luo River banks with no natural defenses could even be temporarily abandoned, with forces contracting westward and southward. But the ridges at Mount Mang’s eastern foot on the Yi-Luo River’s western bank absolutely had to be defended to the death.
Rather than retreating to sit in command before Luoyang City, Han Qian established his headquarters tent at Mount Mang’s eastern foot precisely to win the defensive battle at the Yi-Luo River mouth at any cost.
Only by rejecting enemy forces outside the Yi-Luo River could Han Qian subsequently extend his military edge to Xiang Mountain (Zhongtiao Mountain) on the opposite bank. Even if in the short term they could not contend with the Mengwu in the plains north of the Yu River, deploying forces into Xiang Mountain and bringing into play the advantageous tactics Tangyi’s forces had relied on these years of using mountains as cities and fighting from mountain positions—to the north they could threaten the Hejin region controlled by enemy forces, to the east they could threaten the Meng and Huai regions controlled by enemy forces.
After Zhu Yu’s death, Han Qian returned to Luoyang City and stayed only two days, meeting with more of Heluo’s generals and officials before tirelessly rushing between the Yi-Luo and Mang-Xiao areas to inspect terrain and defenses. At this time, before Hulao Pass, small-scale contact battles between Feng Xuan and the Eastern Liang forces had already commenced, and enemy forces within Meng Province City on the northern bank were also restlessly stirring.
Currently the Yu River’s ice layer was still quite thick. Meng Province’s enemy forces would obviously directly cross the ice to insert themselves into the Yi-Luo River mouth rather than wait for the ice layer to melt before crossing by vessel.
“In difficult times, Li Zhigao did not choose to submit to the Mengwu, so we need not worry about Liang Province or Sichuan. But there are too many variables in Jianghuai,” Han Qian turned to look at Guo Duanduo, Wen Rulin, and others and said. “When you depart south today, what requires most attention is still the movements of Chu Province forces. Under Mengwu instigation, we cannot rule out the possibility that Yang Yuanyan might act desperately like a cornered dog…”
Even nominal submission was still only nominal.
Regardless of what the subsequent negotiation results were, and regardless that the new capital was clearly established in Luoyang—even though subsequently Liyang Academy, the Administrative Commissioner Office’s central institutions, and Wang Jun, Zhao Ting’er, Xi Ren, and other women would all come to Luoyang to reunite with Han Qian—Liyang and Donghu’s status would not be weakened too much.
Han Qian also decided to take Liyang, Donghu, Shiquan, Wushou, Tangyi, and other places as the core, and encompass both flanks of Chao Province and Chu Province, designating them as a separate administrative region.
This region not only over these past years but for quite a long period in the future would be the core area where the new Liang developed industry, mining, commerce, and other enterprises—the most important tax source for the new Liang. It was simultaneously the central area for the southern front’s defense against movements by Chu court forces, and moreover the core area for subsequently maintaining close relations with the Chu court, conducting communications, and material and commercial exchanges.
Han Qian decided to directly establish in Donghu a dispatch agency under direct Luoyang central control—the Southern Inner History Office—responsible for military and governmental affairs in this region.
With this large group of Tangyi soldiers and mid-to-high-level generals and officials moving north, Han Qian also had to select a group of generals and officials from Heluo to move south to accelerate the integration of the two armies.
Wen Rulin had long lurked in Chu, and Guo Duanduo over these two years had primarily been responsible for communications between Liang and Chu. Among the first batch of officials selected from Heluo to move south and join the Southern Office, these two led the selections.
Over these two years, Guo Duanduo had more opportunities to meet with Han Qian. He was also one of Liang’s officials most resolute in establishing Han Qian. Accepting the position of Senior Administrator of the Southern Inner History Office, he had no psychological barriers and did not feel he would have difficulty getting along with the generals and officials remaining in Donghu. Wen Rulin, however, felt somewhat numb. He even worried whether some old soldiers from the Five Guard Army remnants would remember old grievances and rush over to assassinate him.
Wen Rulin could be considered a mid-level general and official in Liang, but he had only learned of the abdication after Han Qian arrived in Luoyang. Although half a month had passed, the shock in his heart had not completely dissipated.
If he was so shocked, one could imagine how strongly Liang’s lower-level soldiers’ hearts must be shaken.
In such circumstances, Wen Rulin found it difficult to imagine Han Qian would make the decision to defend the Yi-Luo River mouth to the death. Yet thinking carefully, although defending the Yi-Luo River mouth would be very difficult under these circumstances, if they abandoned the Yi-Luo River mouth this spring and allowed enemy forces to press upon Luoyang City itself, wouldn’t that make Heluo’s people’s hearts even more hesitant and wavering, such that the matter of integrating the two armies could not proceed at all in Heluo?
Thinking this way, the abdication, the integration of the two armies, and defending the Yi-Luo River mouth to the death were all of a piece.
Only by fearlessly enduring through this crisis could the situation be considered stable.
Wen Rulin was thinking about how to express his loyalty appropriately when he heard horn sounds carrying from the north—”wu wu.” They all turned to look and saw forces like ant swarms filing out from the fortified settlements surrounding Meng Province City. From this scene, the enemy forces could not wait at this time to deploy troops against the Yi-Luo River mouth on the southern bank.
Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun had no excess words. After saluting Han Qian, surrounded by escorts, they spurred their horses rapidly toward the main camp on the Yi-Luo River’s western bank to direct the battle.
Xiao Yiqing had urgently entered Yong Province on the fifteenth day of the first month to meet with Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye, arranging military deployments on the western flank. He had even personally rushed to Qi Province to meet with Marquis Wei Wang Xiaoxian.
However, he did not linger long on the western front. Whether Wang Xiaoxian agreed to lead forces to attack Lantian Pass, or Tian Weiye took responsibility for attacking Hua Province while Wang Yuankui led forces to cross the river from Hejin to attack Tongguan—these battle arrangements did not require much of his concern.
And in fact, limited by terrain, after incorporating Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian’s forces, their troops on the western flank had expanded to one hundred thirty thousand, yet they could not effectively deploy against Lantian, Hua Province, and Tongguan.
Considering that Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian were newly surrendered, and that Han Qian had deployed sixty thousand troops on the western flank, they temporarily had no way to extract large forces from the western flank to strengthen the offensive on the northeastern flank.
Although Xiao Yiqing’s trip to Yong Province was in hopes of persuading Zhao Mengji to transfer forces to Meng Province, over the past two years Zhao Mengji’s and Wang Xiaoxian’s forces occupying Feng, Qi, and Qin provinces had been able to maintain only one-third normal grain rations. The troops were weak and military morale extremely unstable—these two years they had been constrained within fortified settlements to avoid mutiny and desertion.
Currently Wang Xiaoxian could only agree to participate on a small scale in attacking Lantian Pass, while Zhao Mengji’s forces, if they were to transfer east, would need at least two months of rest and reorganization under adequate subsequent grain supplies before they could possibly recover some combat effectiveness.
Even though everyone was well aware that the true offensive, aside from urging Liang Shixiong to lead forces from Yingyang to attack Hulao Pass, would mainly require assembling forces from Meng Province to attack the lower Yi-Luo River bank areas of Gong County and Yanshi across the Yu River.
From the moment Wen Bo led forces abandoning Dan County, crossing the Ying River, and entering Heluo via the Songnan plank road, Xiao Yiqing had realized that his previous advocacy for Liang Shixiong’s remnant forces to abandon Luoyang, Yanshi, and other cities and withdraw east to Yingyang and Bian for rest and reorganization was very likely the biggest mistake he had made since the Mengwu army’s southern invasion.
His advocacy for Liang Shixiong’s remnant forces to withdraw from Heluo was naturally not out of sympathy for the Eastern Liang forces’ difficulty defending ruined cities or their heavy casualties.
Both he and Wusu Dashi wanted Liang Shixiong to lead his remnant forces to withdraw first because they actually intended to wait until Liang Emperor Zhu Yu passed away, then have Mengwu’s direct forces capture Luoyang and other cities, thereby justifiably incorporating Heluo—such a crucial region—into the Mengwu Empire’s directly administered territories.
No one in this world willingly became a complete puppet. Zhu Rang currently submitted to the Mengwu as a vassal, but after the Eastern Liang forces captured Heluo and grew even stronger, would they continue to willingly accept their control without ambitions to break free?
This was a question both Xiao Yiqing and Wusu Dashi had to consider, which was why they finally decided last November to have Liang Shixiong withdraw first rather than continuously dispatch more forces to defend Luoyang, Yanshi, and other ruined cities to the death.
They had even considered the possibility that remnant Liang and Tangyi forces might join together, considered the possibility that after Zhu Yu’s death, Heluo affairs would be entrusted to Han Qian’s command. Wusu Dashi had therefore even secretly ordered Tian Weiye to leave Prince Liang Luo Zhu Zhen a way out when attacking Yong Province City—otherwise they would not have been unable to even capture Lantian Pass on Yong Province’s southern flank.
But how could they have imagined that Liang Emperor Zhu Yu, while his eldest son Zhu Zhen still commanded troops in Shangluo, would resolutely have his generals and officials directly establish Han Qian as the new sovereign?
Because Zhu Zhen had remained in Shangluo without returning to Luoyang, they had even mistakenly believed Zhu Yu’s health would not collapse so quickly, so that their reassembly of forces on Heluo’s two flanks was also slightly slow.
They could originally have held Luoyang, Yanshi, Gong City, Hulao Pass, Mengjin, and other places at relatively small cost together with Eastern Liang forces. But this critical strategic error forced them this time to possibly pay several times the casualties before they could possibly recapture these fortified settlements.
Xiao Yiqing and Wusu Dashi stood side by side on Meng Province’s city tower with grave expressions, gazing at the banners waving among Mount Mang on the southern bank. From the armor style and colors they could clearly discern that large numbers of Tangyi’s elite troops had rotated in to garrison there, while in the Hulao Pass direction to the southeast, entirely Tangyi’s elite able-bodied soldiers had rotated in to garrison.
The battle before Hulao Pass had fully commenced three days ago.
Hulao Pass was a formidable pass situated between Mount Song and the Yu River, only ten li west from the Yi-Luo River mouth, and only fourteen or fifteen li further west from Xixuan Temple—its geographic position was extremely important. But having long been located in Liang’s heartland, after Liang was established, the pass city had only been repaired to ordinary standards. Over these two years it had also experienced multiple offensive and defensive battles, leaving the pass city quite dilapidated.
Defending Hulao Pass, Feng Xuan knew he could not allow the Eastern Liang forces to set up cyclone catapults and other heavy siege weapons. Therefore, when enemy forces pressed from the east, he did not simply defend from the city but dispatched forces to fight relying on the pass city, resolutely not allowing enemy forces to establish camps within a thousand paces of approaching the pass city.
Limited by the Songnan plank road’s narrowness, to ensure rapid troop passage, when Feng Xuan led forces into Heluo, he had temporarily left almost all heavy war machines in Xiacai and other places. Soldiers carried only their personal armor and weapons, traveling on horseback, even mostly trudging on foot for the section from Ru Province to Yichuan.
However, with enemy forces unable to establish camps before Hulao Pass or push heavy war machines onto the battlefield, as one of Tangyi’s most elite heavy armored infantry battle brigades, in just three days they had made the Eastern Liang forces cry for their parents.
The reversal of offensive and defensive situations had too great an impact on both sides’ soldiers.
Yingyang’s defending forces had also fought bitter battles continuously for years. Not to mention their damaged armor and weapons, the proportion of wounded and sick in the army was extremely high. Their condition was not much better than Western Liang forces. Especially since this portion of Liang forces had withdrawn from Hulao Pass to retreat to Yingyang for rest and reorganization for less than two months before having to turn around and attack Hulao Pass again—morale was even more dismal.
Xiao Yiqing had not expected Yingyang’s defending forces to achieve any decisive great victory at the start, but he had not expected their combat strength to be so weak.
Due to the rugged terrain of Mount Song’s northern foot with no space for large-scale cavalry flanking maneuvers, attacking Hulao Pass from the eastern flank, Xiao Yiqing could only hope Liang Shixiong would steadily and methodically push forward.
They ultimately still had to push inward along both banks of the Yi-Luo River through this fourteen or fifteen li gap between Hulao Pass and Xixuan Temple.
After the Mengwu captured Yanyun, over more than ten years of management, although they had not previously launched a major southern invasion, aside from cavalry they had also organized massive infantry. Combat effectiveness was tempered during the campaign against Bohai, and after absorbing Bohai troops, before this southern invasion, they had expanded to a force of one hundred thousand men.
This was also the Mengwu’s direct elite aside from cavalry.
Although time was rushed, by this point they had also assembled twenty thousand cavalry and twenty thousand Yanyun infantry in Meng Province, and conscripted forty thousand able-bodied civilian braves from Taiyuan, Shangdang, and Heshuo.
Speed was paramount in warfare. Especially with the abdication causing turmoil in Heluo and old Liang forces’ hearts, whether Xiao Yiqing or Wusu Dashi, neither would delay until after the ice on the Yu, Luo, and other rivers completely melted before launching their offensive.
That would give Han Qian at least a month’s breathing room.
Over ten thousand armored troops and cavalry had already deployed from fortified settlements on Meng Province City’s southern flank. Soon under the command of vanguard generals, they assembled and divided into three routes, crossing the Yu River’s solid ice to advance onto the plains on the Yu River’s southern bank and Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank west of Hulao Pass. But on the southern bank, aside from Hulao Pass’s defending forces remaining unmoved, forces from settlements distributed along Mount Song’s northwestern foot southwest of Hulao Pass and settlements on the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank also deployed amid earth-shaking war drums, dividing into several routes to advance toward the Yu River’s southern bank embankment area.
Tangyi forces and old Liang forces had not yet integrated. The two armies’ soldiers’ armor and banners had not been unified. Even standing on Meng Province’s city tower nearly twenty li away, using telescopes, Xiao Yiqing and Wusu Dashi could clearly distinguish that Tangyi forces mainly deployed from the western flank Xixuan Temple direction, while old Liang forces under Han Yuanqi mainly deployed from settlements at Mount Song’s northwestern foot on the eastern flank.
The total scale of forces Liang deployed this time was somewhat less than theirs, around sixteen thousand men. Obviously Han Qian also intentionally reserved sufficient reserve forces to observe battlefield changes.
Liang’s cavalry forces were small in scale and did not directly advance rapidly to the Yu River bank area but spread out along the hills on both flanks to prevent their cavalry vanguard units from occupying the hills’ terrain on both flanks. Both sides entrusted the core combat mission of the engagement to infantry entering the plains on the Yi-Luo River’s western bank.
Soon nearly forty thousand troops from both sides, divided into several routes, like three-colored torrents colliding on the battlefield distributed east to west on the southern bank, splashing waves of iron and blood…