In the third month, Heluo was dry with little rain. The Mongol forces, taking advantage of boats and ships, attacked into the Yi-Luo River, successfully cutting off the garrison forces east of Yanshi and in Gong County, focusing their main offensive on the eastern bank of the Yi-Luo River.

Besides Liang Shixiong leading twenty thousand Eastern Liang troops attacking Hulao Pass day and night from the east, by mid-third month over forty thousand troops had entered the eastern bank of the Yi-Luo River, attacking from the rear against Hulao Pass and Su Mu, Shen Peng, and other units garrisoning the fortified camps at the northwestern foot of Mount Song.

Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing’s intentions were very clear. Unable to capture Baima Gorge and Yanshi City, the ridges of Mount Mang merged into one body with Luoyang, Mengjin, and other places, giving Han Qian the advantage of interior line troop deployment. However, the northwestern flank of Mount Song had treacherous terrain. As long as they could wedge elite forces into Mount Song, they could sever the eastern fortified camps, Gong County’s administrative city, and Hulao Pass from the western flank’s fortified cities like Baima Gorge and Yanshi. Once they captured the eastern fortified camps, Gong County’s administrative city, and Hulao Pass, they could connect these regions with Xingyang into one piece, thereby opening the eastern gateway to Heluo. In subsequent campaigns in the Heluo region, the situation would become favorable to them.

Feng Xuan and Chen Kun defended Hulao Pass with only ten thousand troops, many sick and wounded. Under the tremendous pressure of enemies on two sides, they could only abandon seizing positions outside the pass city, contracting all forces back inside the pass city to defend based on the city.

Once the Eastern Liang Army and Mongol forces pressed close to the pass city’s exterior, they could set up whirlwind catapults and other siege weapons, throwing stone projectiles ceaselessly day and night, bombarding Hulao Pass.

When Feng Xuan, Zhou Dan, Su Lie, and other units moved north, they were forced to leave all large and medium-sized war chariots and siege weapons in Xiacai and other places. Combined with large quantities of precision castings that now could not be transported through the Songnan plank road, the engineers and craftsmen inside Hulao Pass could only make do with limited resources, manufacturing some simple siege weapons to participate in defense—though not much inferior to the enemy’s.

The eastern fortified camps, including Gong County’s administrative city, still deployed Su Mu, Shen Peng, and other units totaling twenty thousand troops, but they were mainly old Liang army officers and soldiers with weak combat effectiveness. Let alone competing with elite enemy troops outside the city—under attack by nearly twice their numbers of enemy forces, by mid to late third month they had lost several camps consecutively, losing over five thousand troops. The commanding general Su Mu died fighting valiantly. Han Qian had no choice but to order Shen Peng to lead the remnant forces to withdraw and defend Gong County’s administrative city.

Gong County’s county seat was located at the central point between Baima Gorge and Hulao Pass. The Yi-Luo River flowed past the northwest of the city—it was a critical node on the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank that could not be lost.

With the enemy’s offensive on the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank concentrated mainly on Hulao Pass and Gong County’s county seat, their attacks appeared even more calm and unhurried.

To relieve the defensive pressure on Gong County’s garrison, Han Qian had Wen Bo and Xue Chuan responsible for defending the eastern ridge of Mount Mang. He personally stationed himself at Baima Gorge to supervise the battle, deploying elite troops from the eastern ridge of Mount Mang, Mengjin, and other places—including the Imperial Guard cavalry—all concentrated at Baima Camp on the eastern bank of Baima Gorge. He ordered Han Donghu, Li Qi, Wang Tang, Huo Li, Shi Ruhai, and other generals to take turns leading units along the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank, attacking the Mongol army’s camps and positions on the eastern shore in rotation.

Entering the fourth month, Wusu Dashi transferred Zhao Mengji’s unit of over thirty thousand former Shu troops by waterway to the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank region, increasing the Mongol and Eastern Liang forces on both banks of the Yi-Luo River to over one hundred thousand troops. The warfare intensified to white heat.

Han Qian further deployed troops and generals, transferring Cao Ba, Dong Tai, Zhang Guangdeng, and other units from the Songnan plank road and Shuanglong Gorge plank road into Heluo to participate in battle. He recruited twenty thousand able-bodied men from Heluo to supplement the ranks. Both sides engaged in seesaw warfare on the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank.

Although both sides had their battle formations torn open and routed many times, because both sides had established camps and trenches on the flanks, leaving large numbers of reserve troops in the rear and flanks during every engagement, whenever front-line forces were routed, flank troops would charge into the battlefield as the main force, covering the retreat of scattered routed soldiers to regroup and preventing the battle situation from collapsing catastrophically.

This also made the warfare extraordinarily cruel, bloody, and tragic.

Although the Mongols still conserved their core elite cavalry, using valiant and skilled cavalry more for flank operations, in the relatively open eastern bank region, they still inflicted massive casualties on the garrison forces. Due to the Mongol cavalry’s frequent sorties, they boosted the morale of Zhao Mengji and other units’ soldiers who originally had weak combat effectiveness, increasing the difficulty of the garrison’s counterattacks.

Even when garrison forces could scatter and rout these troops from time to time, the Mongol cavalry fiercely charged from the flanks, often forcing them to contract and retreat before they could expand their victories, preventing them from effectively annihilating enemy forces.

Speaking of it, the old Liang army’s armor and siege weapons had been consumed too much in previous battles, while Tangyi Army’s elite siege weapons could not be transported in time. Han Qian’s anxiety was useless—in the third month, Mount Song frequently experienced continuous drizzle, limiting the Songnan plank road’s transport capacity even more. Every day, soldiers were carelessly killed along with their pack mules falling off mountain cliffs.

From late third month to mid-fourth month, both sides’ casualty ratios were comparable. Considering that most enemy forces still had to attack pass cities like Hulao Pass under unfavorable circumstances, overall the enemy still held the advantage.

The scale of forces the enemy could deploy still far exceeded the garrison forces. Not only could the enemy’s Mengzhou main camp continuously draw elite officers and soldiers from Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye’s two units nearby, sending them in rotation to fight on the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank, the Eastern Liang Army east of Hulao Pass was even more troubled that the terrain prevented more troops from deploying offensively.

Although Han Qian had large numbers of able-bodied men available for conscription in the Heluo region to supplement insufficient forces, these were all untrained new soldiers. Incorporating them massively into the ranks to replace the dead and wounded barely ensured each unit maintained full strength, but overall combat effectiveness was continuously declining.

Seeing the brutal seesaw warfare east of Baima Gorge, Gu Qian, Lei Jiuyuan, Zhu Juezhong, and others even suggested Han Qian contract forces back west of Baima Gorge, hoping Shen Peng, Feng Xuan, and Chen Kun could defend Hulao Pass and Gong County’s county seat until the great flood season arrived.

Even if one of Hulao Pass or Gong County’s administrative city fell, it would be better than elite forces being completely depleted. Only by preserving these elite officers and soldiers could they have the capital for a comeback.

Between preserving men by losing territory or preserving territory by losing men, Gu Qian, Lei Jiuyuan, and others all weighed the options—otherwise they would not have abandoned Bianjing initially.

However, Han Qian knew that if either Hulao Pass or Gong County’s administrative city fell, the situation on Heluo’s eastern flank would become extremely dire. Tangyi Army’s core elite forces had not yet reached the point where they must withdraw to defend cities.

The seesaw warfare continued until late fourth month. The Yu River’s great flood season did not arrive early, but heavy rains fell consecutively in the eastern and southern Luo regions, causing streams and rivers originating from the northern foot of the Funiu Mountains and western foot of Mount Song, like the Yi River, to surge with rising waters. Around Yanshi, Baima Gorge, Gong County, and Hulao Pass, continuous misty rain fell day after day without end.

Before the second phase of warfare, Han Qian had intentionally destroyed the embankments of streams, rivers, ditches, and canals on the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank so that during flood season, the great waters could flood this entire region more muddily, increasing the degree of waterlogging.

This action now played a tremendous role. Rainfall from Mount Song’s western foot rushed down from mountain valleys. With ditches destroyed and unable to promptly channel water into the Yi-Luo River and Yu River, it rampaged and flooded everywhere across the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank region.

The enemy forces at this time had no choice but to temporarily suspend attacks on Hulao Pass and Gong County on the eastern front. Only then did Han Qian seize the opportunity to contract some troops from the seesaw battlefield east of Baima Gorge back to camps west of Baima Gorge for rest and reorganization.

Feng Xuan, Chen Kun, Shen Peng, and other generals in the two cities also seized this rare breathing space to treat the sick and wounded, organizing military and civilian personnel to use wooden palisades, earth, and stones to repair breaches smashed open by whirlwind catapults and dig inner trenches within the cities.

Seeing consecutive days of heavy rain combined with drainage ditches deliberately destroyed by garrison forces, causing serious waterlogging, the enemy had no choice but to shift the warfare’s center of gravity to the western front, strengthening attacks from the upper Yu River on Mengjin, Hangu Pass, Taolin Fortress, and other places.

Although this line was mainly defended by old Liang army officers and soldiers, the previous nearly three months of Heluo warfare had not been on the western front. At least from east of Tongguan to western Yanshi, they had not suffered any substantial attacks, allowing the old Liang army officers and soldiers defending this region to receive better rest and reorganization.

Han Qian had previously transferred Li Ji’s unit into Mengjin. Combined with Mount Mang standing on the Yu River’s southern bank, limiting Mongol cavalry deployment in combat, hastily shifting the warfare’s center of gravity meant the enemy could not effectively break through the western front’s Mount Mang defense line during the following month.

Entering mid-fifth month, as the Yu River’s upper stream waters gradually strengthened and rainfall increasingly grew in Guanzhong, He-Huai, Hedong, and other regions, not only did the waterlogging on the Yi-Luo River’s eastern bank show no signs of receding, it actually became more severe. Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing were also forced to withdraw troops from the southern bank. The Eastern Liang Army also withdrew from before Hulao Pass back to Xingyang.

After both sides suffered nearly forty thousand casualties, the second Heluo campaign also entered its final phase.

Across both campaigns, besides Su Mu among new Liang army’s senior commanders, Dong Tai—who earliest followed Tan Yuliang in launching an uprising in Sizhou—along with four other brigade-level commanders died on the battlefield.

Although Han Qian consistently opposed senior commanders charging into battle, on the seesaw battlefield, Mongol cavalry excelled at using small elite force units in penetrating operations, causing tremendous harm to garrison forces.

Even Tangyi Army elite forces, currently lacking lighter war chariots on the Heluo battlefield that could more effectively restrict enemy cavalry charges, along with more penetrating crossbows and other siege weapons—when fighting elite enemy forces in the field, the casualty ratio was roughly fifty-fifty.

In early third month, Xu Mingzhen again united with Sima Tan to launch attacks on Xiacai, Linhao, and other places, opening a second battlefield beyond Heluo. They also withdrew in mid-fifth month back along the Guo River banks.

On the eastern front battlefield, Gao Bao—who in earlier years submitted to Han Qian and successively served as Zhongfang County Magistrate and Tangyi Naval Commander—died when his ship unexpectedly ran aground in shallow waters while fighting the enemy’s Left Tower Ship Fleet naval forces in Hongze Lake. He and his escort guards and over two hundred crew members were surrounded and killed by the Left Tower Ship Fleet—the highest-ranking commander to die on the eastern front battlefield.

Including the diversionary warfare near Tongguan, Huazhou, and Lantian Pass, during the continuous three-month campaign from late second month to mid-fifth month, new Liang army officers and soldiers who died on the battlefield totaled over thirty-six thousand.

Enemy forces who directly died on the battlefield numbered slightly higher, but also limited.

Of course, regarding treatment of the sick and wounded, new Liang army’s standards far exceeded the enemy forces. This also determined that enemy casualties would ultimately exceed new Liang army’s by a margin.

However, regardless of casualties, neither side could completely annihilate the other’s elite forces in organized units. Subsequently, both had sufficient able-bodied men to supplement their ranks. Neither side’s troop scale nor combat effectiveness would decline too much.

Of course, Han Qian firmly believed the situation was more favorable to them.

After three months of repairs and widening, by late fifth month the Songnan plank road and Shuanglong Gorge plank road’s transport capacity increased by over twice compared to before. Subsequently, once iron beam bridges were successively erected, allowing heavy-loaded carriages to travel directly between Cai-Ru and Heluo, bottlenecks in transport capacity could be further resolved.

Currently in the Heluo region, grain and cloth were not particularly scarce. Even ten to twenty thousand dan of salt monthly could be supplemented by pack mule transport over mountains and ridges.

However, for Heluo region’s manufacturing, especially casting siege weapons, to reach a considerably high level by winter, merely transferring a batch of engineers was still far from sufficient.

If Heluo could initially restore a certain scale of siege weapon and armor casting this year, that would be quite good. However, to extensively use water-powered machinery in casting armor and siege weapons to greatly improve efficiency, components for water-powered machinery, siege weapons and armor used to strengthen Heluo garrison forces in the early stages, refined iron castings for building warships, and even soap, oiled felt cloth, cane sugar, tung oil, and so forth—all initially needed to be transported from Donghu, Huaiyang, and other places.

Compared to tradition, over the past ten years the Engineering Academy had developed not only more varieties of water-powered machinery in Xuzhou and Huaixi, but their structural complexity and precision far exceeded what people of this era could imagine.

The vast majority of water-powered machinery consisted of precision castings. The Heluo side temporarily could not produce them, but these precision castings often weighed four to five hundred jin. Transporting them overland over mountains and ridges by human power or pack mules was fundamentally impractical. Large casting components weighing two to three thousand jin required heavy-loaded carriages for transport—all depending on improvements to overland post roads.

As for Feng Xuan, Xue Chuan, Zhou Dan, and other first-batch elite forces transferred north to participate in battle, the crossbows, scorpion crossbows, and various light war chariots used on battlefields to restrain cavalry charges that they temporarily abandoned in Xuzhou and Xiacai—not until mid to late fifth month were they successively transported to the Mount Mang front line. They never got to play much role on the Heluo battlefield.

However, Han Qian believed that with further widening of the Songnan plank road, Heluo forces’ combat effectiveness would inevitably improve further before winter arrived. At that time, they could show the enemy forces some real power.

Han Daochang, Han Duan, Qin Wen, and Han Jianji led the first batch of over three hundred Chishan Association and Secret Bureau undercover personnel and family members who were released from Jinling or had previously evacuated, arriving in Luoyang in mid-fifth month.

Luoyang City at this time still awaited reconstruction.

The Taiwei Palace and Ziwei Palace left from the previous dynasty—which Zhu Yu had renovated once when he commanded Heluo and rebuilt Luoyang City in earlier years—had now all become ruins. When Liang Shixiong led remnant forces to withdraw from Luoyang, though in haste he lacked the capacity to destroy the inner and outer city walls, he set fire to Luoyang City, which burned for three days and nights before being extinguished.

The old Liang army only fully garrisoned Luoyang City in mid-eleventh month last year. After that, they experienced so many twists and turns—comprehensive repairs and reconstruction had not even begun.

Currently, Ziwei Palace was the location of the Sui dynasty’s palace city, and Taiwei Palace on the southern side was the Sui dynasty’s imperial city. Although both palaces now existed only as ruins, because the Jian River passed through Ziwei City while the Luo River passed between Taiwei Palace and the main city, where the Jian River and Luo River intersected the waters were broad and wide. In early second month, Han Qian decided to build a naval main camp and shipyard on the ruins of Taiwei Palace’s southern city gate, Yique Gate. Only now was it beginning to take shape.

However, even the shipyard’s infrastructure construction had just formed a scale. Temporarily, not even the first true warship had been completely built—only twenty-plus fishing boats were conscripted for training.

When Zhu Yu commanded Heluo and rebuilt Luoyang City, he actually only rebuilt the southern city of the original Sui capital Luoyang City, its area less than half that of the previous dynasty’s peak prosperity. But now, everywhere bore traces of arson and burning.

In the eleventh month last year, Zhu Yu entered Luoyang City and designated Shangyang Garden adjacent to the Henan Prefecture offices as the imperial palace.

After Han Qian handed front-line warfare to Wen Bo and Chen Kun, he led Han Yuanqi, Feng Xuan, Han Donghu, and other generals back to Luoyang City. Making do with limited resources, he moved into Shangyang Garden and summoned Han Daochang, Han Duan, Qin Wen, Han Jianji, and others for audience.

Han Daochang, now sixty-two years old with both temples frosted white, sat in Shangyang Garden’s spacious great hall. For a moment, his emotions surged. Who could have imagined that in just over ten short years, the former dissolute young man now held the honored position of sovereign.

Han Qian wore a python-dragon robe, seated behind the imperial desk. His robust and valiant physique radiated commanding authority that compelled submission. He quietly listened as Han Daochang and Qin Wen detailed the current situation in Jinling City—some details were difficult for letters to cover comprehensively.

After listening, Han Qian did not immediately comment on Jinling City’s current situation. He said to Han Daochang and Qin Wen, “Though I succeeded to the sovereign position through abdication and successively established the Left and Right Inner Secretariat, Censorate, and Military Intelligence Staff Office to govern Great Liang’s thirteen prefectures’ military and political affairs, I’ve only constructed the general framework. For each aspect to enter proper operations, there remains far too much to accomplish…”

Whether in the middle and late periods of the previous dynasty or in the states of Liang, Chu, Jin, and Shu, control over the central government’s annual revenue and expenditures was extremely important. Besides dividing central financial authority among the three departments of Personnel, Revenue, and Transport, the inner court also established the Inner Treasury Bureau along with the Lesser Treasury and Grand Treasury to manage mountain and wetland profits, palace treasures, grain, gold, brocade, coinage, and other matters.

Combined with the inner court’s extensive use of eunuch officials, this formed estrangement and opposition between inner and outer courts.

Having received the sovereign position through abdication, Han Qian was also extremely surprised. In just three or four short months, he mainly considered how to stabilize the Heluo situation as quickly as possible. Regarding institutional reforms at the entire national level, his considerations were not particularly deep.

Regardless of how central institutions reformed, Han Qian was not worried his personal authority would be weakened. However, from later historical experience, new central institutional reforms should eliminate estrangement and opposition between inner and outer courts as much as possible.

His advocacy of vigorously developing industry and commerce and forcefully promoting common people’s education was destined to require finding a more subtle balance between centralized power and equal rights.

Currently, Great Liang called itself a state rather than a dynasty. Han Qian also took advantage of this to abolish the Lesser Treasury, Grand Treasury, and other components that strengthened inner court power. Han Qian decided to newly establish an entirely new Official Currency Bureau within the Right Inner Secretariat to govern coinage and manage official and private gold and silver houses and money shops within the territory—institutions with embryonic financial functions.

The original Xuzhou Official Currency Bureau would be thoroughly reformed into the First Savings Bureau of Great Liang with bank-like structure and functions.

Han Qian hoped his second uncle Han Daochang would govern the Official Currency Bureau and Great Liang’s First Savings Bureau. This also took into account the contemporary tradition of using clan members to consolidate power.

Though Han Daochang did not directly receive the title of Participant in Determining Government Affairs, he was completely satisfied.

Having deeply integrated into Tangyi these past years, Han Daochang naturally understood the importance of the Official Currency Bureau and Great Liang’s First Savings Bureau. These past years, his main energy had been devoted to this field. Regarding other military and political matters, his insights were above average people but did not reach the standards of Feng Liao, Gu Qian, and others—there was no necessity to insist on participating in the highest-level state policy decisions.

As an elder of the imperial clan, even without the title of Participant in Determining Government Affairs, no one in Heluo would consider his status lower than Feng Liao, Gu Qian, and others.

Now the most critical matter remained helping Han Qian stabilize the Heluo situation, seize Guanzhong, and lay the foundation for Great Liang’s unification of all under heaven…