Wusu Dashi soon arrived with Xiao Yiqing, surrounded by their cavalry escorts. They exited the city and hastened to the great embankment on the northern shore to observe the changes in the battle situation from close range.
Through flag signals, he transmitted orders to the vanguard commanders who had entered the southern shore, directing them to shift the focus of the engagement toward the eastern flank and concentrate their attacks on the exhausted forces under Han Yuanqi’s command. However, the Tangyi army formations on the western flank advanced eastward with unwavering determination even as their superior cavalry attempted flanking maneuvers to pin them down.
Wusu Dashi even observed several units of three to five hundred heavily armored infantry directly detaching from the main vanguard formations of the Tangyi army, rapidly advancing toward the central positions of their Yan-Yun infantry camp’s western flank formations. This forced them to refrain from excessively shifting their battle focus eastward.
Whenever they dispatched small cavalry units to thrust forward through the gaps, the small Tangyi armored units that had pushed in would quickly contract, forming defensive positions on the spot with large shields and long spears to counter their cavalry charges, while more armored soldiers from the rear continued to advance and penetrate forward.
Clearly, the elite Tangyi forces had no fear of being cut off on the battlefield. The Tangyi armored soldiers who entered the zones where both armies fought in interlocking engagements even continued to disperse into units of one hundred men spreading outward, deliberately fragmenting the battlefield further.
This also allowed the Tangyi army to control greater depth on the western battlefield, making it more convenient and faster for the Tangyi armored soldiers in the rear to advance forward, penetrate through, and annihilate the forces they had let slip through.
In the Huai River campaign, the Tangyi army had fought quite conservatively at Xiacai, Shanxian, and other locations.
At that time, their main objective was to draw all enemy main forces to the southern front so that Kaifeng’s troops and civilians could withdraw across the Ying River from the northern front. Simultaneously, on the southern front, the Tangyi forces were at an absolute disadvantage in numbers and almost never formed battle lines outside the cities.
When the Tangyi army defended cities, they mostly brought local militia and volunteers onto the city walls for training. Both sides relied heavily on exchanging fire with trebuchets and other siege equipment, making it difficult to discern any clear advantages or disadvantages.
But at this moment, Wusu Dashi could see that the Tangyi army possessed more obvious advantages at the tactical level, particularly demonstrating strong confidence in small-scale dispersed combat. Not only did they not fear being cut off, they even desired mutual fragmentation in interlocking combat zones, attempting to gain greater advantages in fragmented local battlefields through superior arms and armor and veteran tactical expertise.
It was often said that Jianghuai soldiers were weak, but this clearly did not apply to the professional officers and soldiers of the Tangyi army who had been recruited into the ranks for many years, experienced countless bloody battles, and received adequate provisions during peacetime.
Even when the vanguard commanders committed three squadrons of heavy armored cavalry to the western flank, they still found it extremely difficult to tear open the Tangyi army’s heavy armored infantry formations.
Even in the chaotic interlocking combat zones where they could not form charging formations, heavy armored cavalry feared neither strong bows nor powerful crossbows. Once they closed in, they could use long-bladed sabers and heavy spears from their elevated positions to stab and hack downward, easily tearing open light cavalry and infantry formations on the battlefield.
Now, facing the Tangyi army’s heavily armored infantry, their heavy armored cavalry failed to demonstrate the expected advantages and effectiveness.
The Tangyi army’s heavily armored infantry possessed extremely strong defensive capabilities and showed no fear whatsoever of close-quarters melee combat.
From the watchtower on the northern embankment, using his telescope, Wusu Dashi could clearly see that the Tangyi army’s armor could directly withstand the forceful chopping blows of sword edges, then use sturdy shields to block the thrusting attacks of heavy-bladed spears coming from the side and front. This prevented their heavy armored cavalry from deploying the combat advantages they had long grown accustomed to.
Moreover, since horse armor could not protect the lower leg portions of the warhorses, these instead became weak points targeted by the Tangyi army. He watched helplessly as one tall warhorse after another toppled, and heavy armored cavalry officers and soldiers were thrown from their mounts. Even those who managed to climb up and weren’t pinned beneath the horse bodies could only fight in tangled melees on the chaotic battlefield.
With the western formations unable to expand southward and even being pushed back toward the shoreline by the Tangyi army, the flanks of the eastern formations became exposed. Seeing a cavalry unit assembling on the eastern bank of the Yi River near Xixuan Temple, Wusu Dashi worried that the exposed flanks of the eastern formations would become vulnerable to attack. He could only order the eastern forces to abandon their pressure on Han Yuanqi’s units and synchronously contract backward.
Han Qian obviously would not rush into a decisive battle on the first day. At the very least, in the short term, he had too few elite direct troops available for use on the Heluo battlefield and could not afford losses. The objective of early-stage combat was mainly to ensure the enemy could not establish a foothold on the southern shore, and he could even utilize the mountainous hills on both flanks to confine the enemy forces to the Yi-Luo river junction, preventing their military power from extending into Yanshi territory.
In another ten days to half a month, the ice layers along the Yu River would gradually melt.
The Yu River experienced the most severe and typical ice flood conditions in the Central Plains.
Every winter and spring, the river channels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yu River thawed later in spring than upstream—or rather, froze earlier in winter than upstream. Ice dams formed by accumulated ice floes would block the river channels, obstructing the flow, and upstream waters would flood the lands on both banks.
The Mongols had built a dam across the river in Wuzhi County territory, forcing the Yu River to breach the great embankment on the eastern side of Xingyang City and divert its course southward. This would actually intensify the ice flood disasters along the stretch of the Yu River from Mengjin to Xingyang.
This also meant that even if the enemy temporarily established a foothold at the Yi-Luo river junction, they could not enter the higher-elevation Yanshi County territory. When the Yu River entered its ice flood period, they would inevitably have to withdraw first to the northern shore.
The enemy’s new offensive would have to wait until after the ice flood period passed, using boats to cross the Yu River before they could redeploy…
Wen Ruilin and Guo Duanduo did not linger long at the Luo River battlefield. On the second day, they took their leave of Han Qian and departed Luoyang heading south with the first group of southbound officers and officials.
The Songnan Plank Road, constructed between the Funiu Mountains and Mount Song, was currently the main passage out of Heluo, through Rucai, and south to Huaixi.
Taking the hastily constructed Shuanglong Gorge Plank Road into Shangluo, then following the Wuguan Road through Dengjun to Huaixi, the route was even narrower and more treacherous with winding paths.
Although for thousands of years there had been many mountain people, hunters, and herb gatherers active in the southern foothills of Mount Song and the northern Funiu Mountains, with hundreds of villages scattered throughout, the routes from Heluo to western Henan either followed the Jialu River and Shaying River waterways or the Mashi Ping post road along the eastern foothills of Mount Song and the Funiu Mountains connecting to the various prefectures of western Henan. Since the previous dynasty, there had been no formal official post road constructed through the Funiu Mountains and Mount Song directly from southern Heluo through Ruzhou to Chen, Cai, and other places.
The terrain north of the Funiu Mountains and south of Mount Song appeared not particularly high, but streams and ravines crisscrossed the area, fragmenting the topography. As a result, the Songnan region lacked a complete thoroughfare connecting the two areas.
When Zhu Yu returned to Caizhou, he first captured Xinzheng but lacked the strength in the short term to attack the heavily fortified Xingyang. After the Yu River embankment breach, the shallow silted areas between Xingyang and Xinzheng were completely submerged by floodwaters. Only then was he forced to lead his troops through Songnan into southern Heluo regardless of casualties.
Fortunately, Zhu Yu enjoyed extremely high prestige in the hearts of the local powers in southern Heluo. He broke through the rebel army’s blockades at Songyang and other places, then advanced along the Yi River all the way to attack beneath Luoyang City.
When Wen Ruilin and his party passed through the Songnan Plank Road, it was only the tenth day of the second month. The climate in Songyang territory was slightly warmer, the ice and snow had melted, and the narrow post road had been trampled into a muddy mess by the constant traffic of men and horses.
The rhythmic chanting of “heave-ho” echoed continuously along this post road. Not only did tens of thousands of carts and horses pass through, but over twenty thousand able-bodied laborers were also gathered on both sides of the road, gathering materials on site—breaking up fallen rocks, dredging river sand—to fill in the muddy potholes.
Han Qian had not yet directly adjusted Heluo’s local officials, but before the formal abdication ceremony, the county magistrates of Ruyang and Songyang were replaced by Huo Xiao and Guo Xiao respectively, and Rural Patrol Inspectorates were immediately established in both counties.
Their task was to mobilize the manpower and resources of both counties as quickly as possible to further repair and widen the Songnan Plank Road.
The Songnan Plank Road was currently Daliang’s most important lifeline. In the early stages, it was not merely limited to the movement of men and horses—more importantly, the amount of military equipment and supplies that could pass through would directly determine the direction of the Heluo war situation.
Although previously elite forces had been transferred north to Heluo from the three closest locations of Xiacai, Shanxian, and Guangzhou, the soldiers carried only their arms and armor. Because the plank road was narrow, nearly twenty thousand military horses were left detained in Ruzhou territory, not to mention bed crossbows, various war chariots, and the numerous refined iron components for constructing warships.
Currently, the transport capacity of the Songnan Plank Road, in good weather, could only use several hundred military horses daily to transport just over a thousand dan of supplies.
If only twenty to thirty thousand dan of combat supplies could be transported into Heluo per month, it might not even satisfy the grain shortfall for eighty thousand officers and soldiers, let alone significantly enhance the combat effectiveness of the various armies.
When Wen Ruilin retraced his steps along the Songnan Plank Road, he could also see the capabilities Tangyi demonstrated after directly taking over Ruyang and Songyang counties.
All along the way, approximately thirty iron chain bridges had simultaneously entered the construction phase—this was just twenty days after Ruyang and Songyang counties had been taken over.
The transport capacity constraints of the Songnan Plank Road were secondary to the treacherous terrain. The primary issue was that it was cut by north-south running streams, river gorges, and ravines. These stream valleys were both deep and steep. Even though the Liang army had built pontoon bridges along the route over the past six months, or detoured around slopes and ridges to narrow points to construct wooden beam bridges, travel remained extremely inconvenient.
The critical factor was that horse-drawn carts could not pass through, which directly limited transport capacity.
First constructing iron chain bridges as expedient measures, then gradually building iron beam bridges to progressively expand and enhance the transport capacity of the Songnan Plank Road—this was the key to whether the Heluo situation could truly stabilize.
If the transport capacity problem of the Songnan Plank Road could not be resolved, even if the battle situation on Luoyang’s northern flank remained stalemated until next year, not only would the situation fail to ease, but because the Mongols could more conveniently transport men, horses, and supplies to Mengzhou, Xingyang, and Yongzhou, they would ultimately gain absolute strategic superiority.
After Wen Ruilin and his party traversed the Songnan Plank Road and traveled southward along the Mashi Ping post road, the journey became much smoother. Three days later, they arrived at Yingshang, preparing to cross the Huai River and head first to Shouzhou.
All along the way, they could see the common people of the former Liang state in Heluo, Cai, Ru, Xu, Chen, and other regions. When these people saw official proclamations announcing that the former emperor had died and that the Dachu Tangyi Commissioner, the Marquis of Qianyang, had received abdication and succeeded as the new ruler of the Liang state, they were filled with shock, disbelief, and suspicion. Their hearts could not settle in the short term.
However, along the route, besides orderly columns of supply troops and transport soldiers, Wen Ruilin and his party also saw veteran soldiers and military officials summoned north from various prefectures and counties of Huaixi to return to duty. Although their faces also showed disbelief, they displayed more excitement and high spirits.
Wen Ruilin could fully imagine why they were so excited, but precisely because of this, his heart was filled with complex, mixed emotions.
Thinking rationally, this was the best choice. Otherwise, even if they enthroned the Prince of Luo to succeed to the throne, it was hard to imagine they could defend Heluo against the well-prepared Mongols. Yet his heart was filled with complex, mixed feelings. He also did not know what kind of outcome awaited him when he took up his post at the Southern Interior Ministry, nor did he know what kind of intense reaction the Chu court and various factional powers would have to this entire affair…
Liangzhou lay between the Qinling Mountains and the Daba Mountains. Cold currents found it difficult to penetrate, and the early spring season was much warmer than the Heluo region. The city of Liangzhou built on the northern bank of the Han River during the previous dynasty had an outer city wall with an eight-li depth. At its most populous, the outer city contained over ten thousand households. However, the outer city had long been destroyed by the fires of war, and the Shu army afterward only rebuilt the inner city.
Before being carved out and separated, Liangzhou’s various counties had only fifteen to sixteen thousand households in total. Although Liangzhou’s administrative county had the most people, the total was merely six thousand households, mostly scattered among rural villages.
The inner city was somewhat more prosperous due to the garrison, but the outer city was filled with broken walls and ruins, utterly desolate.
At this time, however, Liangzhou’s outer city was packed with people—but they were all the families of officers and soldiers who had been swept up in the flight westward from Xiangfan, Yingsui, Dengjun, and other places. Each one wore ragged blue-green clothes, with yellow faces and emaciated bodies.
Although Liangzhou occupied the fertile Hanzhong Basin between the Ba Mountains and Qinling Mountains, with hundreds of thousands of mu of land available for cultivation, the problem was that reclaiming wasteland required investment in farm tools, oxen, and mules. Before the new season’s harvest, over twenty thousand officers and soldiers and nearly one hundred thousand family members needed guaranteed grain rations.
Liangzhou had neither sufficient farm tools nor draft animals. Nearly one hundred thousand military personnel and civilians who had withdrawn westward from Yunyang, Fangling, and other places received daily grain rations of only half a jin for adult males, with women and children receiving even less—half of that amount. Mixed with wild vegetables, grass leaves, or tree bark to swallow, they lacked even the strength to stand and move about. How could they be expected to take the most primitive bone plows and stone hoes to reclaim wasteland and dig irrigation channels? In this era with extremely scarce oils and fats, the standard grain ration for adult males during agricultural work periods was two jin of coarse grain daily plus small amounts of salt or soybean paste.
However rudimentary the reclamation conditions, seeds at least had to be fully provided, right?
That Liangzhou had endured until now without running out of grain was fortunate, thanks to Li Zhigao having reclaimed an additional two hundred thousand mu of new fields along both banks of the Han River over the previous two years. When Xiangbei collapsed, Liangzhou had over one hundred thousand dan of stored grain.
But this stored grain was still far too inadequate to last until the summer grain harvest.
Overall, conditions in the inner city were somewhat better. The houses and streets were orderly, and the inner residence of the Provincial Governor’s office, built by the Shu army, was quite imposing and magnificent.
Yet at this moment in the Provincial Governor’s council hall, the atmosphere was somewhat oppressive. The guards stationed in the front courtyard of the office could clearly hear Yao Xishui’s hoarse, angry voice coming from inside:
“Elder Brother, do you know how many heads rolled at the White Horse Post when the Liang bandit Zhu Wen conducted his massacre? Do you know how many days and nights the great fire at Prince Lu’s mansion burned before it was extinguished? Do you know what countless old friends have longed for day and night all these years? How can you be content serving an enemy state? Now that Han Qian has greedily seized the position of Liang ruler, he will inevitably become enemies with the Chu state. The Mongol cavalry will absolutely not miss the opportunity to trample Heluo. He cannot withstand attacks from both north and south and has no choice but to show goodwill toward Liangzhou. But Elder Brother, think about it—what are Han Qian’s chances of holding Heluo? And even if he manages to gain a firm foothold at the Luo River, with his wolfish ambitions, how could he possibly not tear up today’s oaths and allow you, Elder Brother, to sleep peacefully at his bedside? Why did we suffer such a crushing defeat? Wasn’t it all thanks to Han Qian? How can you negotiate with a tiger today?”
The guards inside and outside the Provincial Governor’s office were all elite troops from Li Zhigao’s personal guard units.
Li Zhigao had intended to select them for training as reserve military officers. He taught them literacy and explained simple methods of drill and army management. They thus had some understanding of the general situation under heaven.
Yet none of them had imagined that when Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang lay critically ill, he would not pass the throne to his son Zhu Zhen, but instead have his officers and officials welcome Han Qian to Luoyang as the new ruler. Even less had they imagined that after Han Qian succeeded as ruler of the Daliang state, his first act would be to send Feng Liao into Liangzhou to confer upon Commander Li Zhigao the title of Military Commissioner of Liangzhou, incorporating Liang and Jin prefectures into Liang state territory.
Although Li Zhigao maintained extremely strict military discipline, the guard officers and soldiers stationed in the front courtyard could not help but crane their necks to peer into the council hall.
The doors of the council hall stood wide open. Li Zhigao seemed unconcerned that his personal guard officers and soldiers could hear the arguments inside. They could all see Yao Xishui standing at the front of the hall, her face flushed red with agitation and anger.
In comparison, Feng Yi, who had rushed to Liangzhou bearing the imperial edict, sat calmly behind the long table on the left side. After Yao Xishui had vented for a while, he said methodically:
“Empress Dowager Wang Chan’er, the Prince of Xiang ‘Yang Lin,’ Chen De, and the others no longer serve any purpose in your hands, yet they consume your precious grain supplies every day. Handing them over to me to take to East Lake should cause you no loss, should it? And accepting the state edict and investiture from our Daliang—our Daliang will neither send a single soldier to Liangzhou nor appoint a single official to Liangzhou, nor will we seize the military authority in your hands. We will even provide, in Daliang’s name, a monthly loan of thirty thousand dan of grain and fodder from the Shu state for Liangzhou’s use and to maintain your troops. With such excellent conditions, I truly cannot imagine on what grounds Miss Yao remains so firmly opposed. This is quite irrational. If the Mongols could offer you such favorable terms, I, Feng Yi, would only advise you to quickly accept Mongol investiture and wouldn’t utter another word of protest…”
Feng Yi spoke glowingly, but the veins on Yao Xishui’s forehead throbbed faintly. She could never forget those familiar faces at Prince Lu’s mansion being devoured by raging flames, could never forget how she as a young child had survived that catastrophe. Even if only in name, she could not accept Liangzhou receiving investiture from the Liang state.
Deng Tai, Zhang Song, Zhou Tong, Hao Zixia, and other generals were all members of Li Zhigao’s personal forces he had trained over the years. Chai Xun represented his father Chai Jian. In addition, Su Hongyu and Li Zhigao’s eldest son Li Zhi also sat within the hall.
Feng Yi was not unfamiliar with any of them.
For any faction, at such life-or-death decision points, no one could completely ignore their subordinates’ dissenting opinions and make unilateral decisions. At this moment, he set aside Yao Xishui and looked toward Deng Tai and the others, saying:
“Over these years of grievances and enmities, it’s very difficult to say clearly who is right and who is wrong. What kind of person I, Feng Yi, am is not important. But what kind of person Han Qian is—don’t pay attention to what those lofty persons who consider themselves members of the pure stream are saying. Search your own hearts and think carefully: Is he truly a treacherous villain without faith or righteousness? Who deserves the greatest credit for defending Xichuan together with Brother Zhigao and all of you? Who deserves the greatest credit for pacifying Tanzhou with all of you and establishing the Hunan Branch Secretariat? Who deserves the greatest credit for the marriage alliance with Shu and for quelling the rebellion in Jinling? Who helped Yang Yuanpu ascend to the imperial throne, and ultimately who could not tolerate whom, harboring endless suspicions, forcing whom to abandon the greatest merit of enthronement and retreat to defend Xuzhou? When the navy was annihilated and the Liang army advanced southward, who stood forth to turn the tide? That’s right—at this time Tangyi harbors ambitions of independence and no longer heeds court orders much. But who created this situation? Who directly caused the Old Master’s death under cruel torture? Furthermore, no matter how much you go against your conscience, you cannot say Yang Yuanpu ultimately died at our hands, can you? And that you could not hold Dengjun and other prefectures and had to retreat in disarray to defend Liangzhou—that was due to military defeat. But aside from leaving you room at every turn, what despicable methods has Tangyi employed that couldn’t be brought into the open? By comparison, think about what methods Wanhonglou has used over these years—you are all surely clear about that. That’s right, Heluo is now in extreme peril. But even if we cannot hold Heluo, you will suffer no loss. On the contrary, you will gain an extremely rare opportunity to rest and recuperate. In the future, you will have more bargaining chips to negotiate with the Mongols and sell yourselves for a good price. And if we manage by chance to hold Heluo, think about it: Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang was such a heroic figure. Several of his grand schemes were ruined by Han Qian, yet he dared to entrust the Zhu clan’s imperial family and the entire Daliang realm to Han Qian. With just these few meager possessions in your hands, what is there to worry about this or that? To be honest, if I return empty-handed, it’s nothing. I also believe Brother Zhigao will not make things difficult for me. But if I return empty-handed like this, I will look down on everyone present from the bottom of my heart. Oh, and I might as well tell you all—when Lü Qingxia launched the palace coup to assassinate Yang Yuanpu, at the moment of failure, the Mongol agents lurking in Jinling attempted to obstruct and delay the departure of your families from the city. Madam Hongyu and Zhang Song, when you escaped Jinling City, you must have been aware of this, no? And as for the Mongols’ intentions—you are surely quite clear about that in your hearts. That night in Jinling City, we killed a total of thirty-seven Mongol covert agents and spies…”
Deng Tai, Zhang Song, Zhou Tong, Hao Zixia, Chai Xun, and the others remained silent. As military commanders, even with their different positions and despite years of open and covert struggles with Tangyi, they were all pragmatic men. At this moment, they all kept silent and offered no opinions.
Feng Yi looked again at Yao Xishui and said: “Miss Yao, you harbor thoughts of the Li clan’s imperial family being slaughtered with heads rolling, unable to dispel your lingering hatred. I can understand that. My Feng family also nearly faced extermination. Han Qian harbors the great hatred of his father’s murder. But I think no matter who it is, no one could have endured the injustice of this world more than the Old Master, who sincerely wished to resolve the Jianghuai crisis yet suffered endless schemes and was subjected to the punishment of five horses tearing his body apart. Before his execution, the Old Master left Han Qian a letter written in blood. With your breadth of spirit, Miss Yao, what do you guess the Old Master wrote to Han Qian in that blood letter?”
“How could I possibly guess?” Yao Xishui said coldly, her face taut.
“This starts with an old matter from when the Old Master served as an official in Chuzhou in his early years,” Feng Yi slowly recounted the old affairs of Han Daoxun’s service in Chuzhou, saying, “This old matter had always been buried in the Old Master’s heart. When facing execution, the blood letter he left contained only these words for Han Qian: ‘The old matter in Chuzhou has weighed on my heart for many years. With punishment imminent, this life flashes before my eyes. I truly feel that life and death are small matters. My son, do not dwell on this.'”
“Is there truly such a blood letter?” Su Hongyu, who had been sitting silently beside Li Zhigao, could not help but speak up and ask.
Feng Yi said: “Why would I need to deceive you at this moment? Han Donghu took this blood letter and traveled secretly to Xuzhou to meet Wen Muqiao, persuading the Wen clan to submit to Tangyi.”
“Ah?” Su Hongyu stared at Li Zhigao in shock.
How the Wen clan members were captured and taken to Tangyi, and why Wen Bo, Xue Chuan, Cao Ba, and other generals could set aside their heavy concerns and lead the Luoshan garrison to submit to Tangyi—they had been puzzled by these matters for two years. Yet how could they have imagined that Han Qian had easily resolved the final concerns of Wen Muqiao and his son Wen Bo with this blood letter alone?
“What is hatred? The previous dynasty collapsed, war ravaged like tigers, and your Li clan’s imperial family had heads rolling. But have you thought about how many heads have rolled in Hehuai, Guanzhong, Jianghuai, Heshuo, and Hedong over these fifty years?” Feng Yi said. “To speak of nothing else, taking just Liang and Jin prefectures as examples: During the previous dynasty’s height, the two prefectures were populous and prosperous, exceeding four hundred thousand people. But after Wang Jian incorporated Liang and Jin prefectures into Shu territory, the population was less than forty thousand—nine out of ten heads had rolled. And taking the five prefectures of Huaixi as an example: In the late years of the previous dynasty, ten years before Emperor Tianyou served as Military Commissioner of Shounan, Huaixi still had four million people. But just forty years later, Huaixi recorded only over seven hundred thousand people—three million heads had rolled. Compared to your Li clan’s imperial family, which are lighter and which heavier? Miss Yao cannot forget old grudges, yet you don’t realize that the wronged souls filling the sky—whom should they seek for revenge and redress? Miss Yao cannot forget old hatreds, your heart full of thoughts that Heluo and Huaixi should be shattered to satisfy old grudges. But Miss Yao, you have not considered that if Heluo and Huaixi are shattered, how many of the four million surviving people of Heluo and Huaixi can escape this great catastrophe? And the lonely souls and wild ghosts who cannot escape this catastrophe—whom can they seek for revenge and redress?”
“Feng Yi, the heads rolling in Hehuai were not my doing. What use is there in telling me this?” Yao Xishui glared at Feng Yi, calling out through gritted teeth.
“Miss Yao, you have truly fallen into demonic delusion,” Feng Yi shook his head and said. “You colluded with the barbarians, causing Jin territory to fall to enemy forces and causing warfare in Guanzhong and Hehuai to deteriorate. To speak of nothing else, when Liang Shixiong and Xiao Yiqing breached the Yu River embankment, the floodwaters rolled down. Last year alone in the prefectures of Chen, Xu, Ru, Xing, Ying, Qiao, Hao, Chu, Si, and Hai, those who drowned numbered three hundred thousand, while those who fled their homes and wandered in the wilderness numbered over a million. Miss Yao, tell me—were these people’s fates not tragic? Can Miss Yao say this has absolutely nothing to do with you? Furthermore, at this moment Liangzhou City has over one hundred thousand military personnel and civilians crying out in hunger—what crime have they committed? Should they refuse to accept relief grain that could arrive as early as tomorrow or the day after, merely because Miss Yao cannot forget old grudges and past hatreds, and instead starve to death?”