At this time, Luoyang had no substantial control over Li Zhigao and the Liangzhou army. Having Li Zhigao lead the Liangzhou army westward indeed carried the hidden concern that after annexing various Qiang tribes, the tail might become too large to wag. However, besides Li Zhigao’s westward advance being useful for restraining enemy forces in Guanzhong and suppressing the rise of the Pingxia tribes in Longyou, the people of Luoyang—especially the core officers and officials who had followed Han Qian all the way to this day—all had considerable confidence.

Therefore, after Han Qian made his decision on this matter and even directly appointed Li Zhigao to serve as Commissioner for Pacifying Longyou, the officers and officials had no strong objections. They immediately followed Han Qian’s directive, first dispatching officials carrying the newly engraved seal of the Commissioner for Pacifying and the state edict to rush to Liangzhou to announce Li Zhigao’s new appointment.

The weapons, armor, and military equipment needed by the Liangzhou army for their western campaign were also ordered by the Military Staff Bureau to be collected and transported to Liangzhou as soon as the Southern Secretariat and the three weapons and armor facilities directly under Shouzhou and Huaiyang received the orders. Besides selecting excellent physicians from various units and preparing a batch of necessary medicines, they also contacted Shu to prepare as much as possible before the western campaign a batch of high-calorie dried meat, sugar grain, and other supplies to serve as military provisions for the Liangzhou western campaign forces.

In early November, Li Zhigao again sent envoys to Luoyang, earnestly requesting that Luoyang dispatch a military supervisor to guide the western campaign operations. After Han Qian consulted repeatedly with Gu Qian, Feng Liao and the others, they decided to appoint Feng Yi as Supervisor General of Longyou, along with Lu Ze and Yang Mu, son of Yang Qin, and others as military officials, leading two hundred cavalry into Liangzhou to coordinate with Li Zhigao in leading his forces westward into Longyou.

While Wen Bo, Chen Kun, Feng Xuan and others were responsible for gradually advancing infiltration warfare plans on the northern bank of the Yu River in Xiangshan and Wangwu Mountain, the Liangzhou army’s western campaign operations were also formally placed on the agenda.

The matter of forming a Deliberative Assembly with imperial clan and meritorious nobility personnel, however, stirred up considerable waves in the hearts of Luoyang’s military officials.

In terms of the central power structure, the Deliberative Assembly was similar to the Department of State Affairs. For military officials familiar with the institutional origins of the previous dynasty and the Liang, Jin, Chu, and Shu states, this was nothing unacceptable. But the selection and appointment of deliberative officials in the Deliberative Assembly differed too greatly from tradition.

However, to say that the military officials fundamentally rejected this new institution of the Deliberative Assembly would be absolutely untrue.

The traditional Department of State Affairs was still presided over by executive officials, and the appointment of executive officials was ultimately controlled by the emperor (or ruler). The Department of State Affairs was ultimately a tool the emperor used to check and balance the Secretariat-Chancellery.

The new Deliberative Assembly, filled with imperial clan members and meritorious nobility, with the selection and appointment of deliberative officials being more stable and stronger than the traditional Department of State Affairs, and less constrained by the emperor (or ruler)—this determined that the Deliberative Assembly would ultimately divide a considerable portion of final decision-making power from the emperor’s (or ruler’s) hands.

That Han Qian wanted to limit his own authority and have it jointly controlled by imperial clan members and meritorious officials no longer serving as executive officials—not to mention Han Daoming and several old officials like Lei Jiuyuan and Wen Muqiao who were actually already serving in the role of deliberative ministers—even Gu Qian, Feng Liao, Guo Rong, and military officials like Han Yuanqi, Jing Hao, and Gao Shao, even if only considering their own future prospects after no longer serving as military and political executive officials, would not oppose this matter.

Thus, within the framework of the Deliberative Assembly, they could continue maintaining a certain degree of hereditary succession system, which everyone was happy to see. This could even be viewed as Han Qian finally making some concessions at this time after years of sparing no effort to implement the new system.

Selecting the location for the Deliberative Assembly and determining the first batch of deliberative ministers were easy matters. The key was the subsequent selection of deliberative ministers, deliberation rules, and guiding principles for deliberating on state affairs. This involved an extremely complex entirely new system that no one could confidently claim to have thoroughly understood in a short time.

Han Qian was in no hurry either. He first gave his uncle Han Daoming the title of Deliberative Minister and had him work with Zhu Juezhong, Lei Jiuyuan, Wen Muqiao, Xi Chang and others to first ponder this matter. Even if the initial framework was somewhat crude, it wasn’t a problem—this would instead give him more adjustment space later.

What Han Qian was most concerned about at present was still the progress of military operations in each direction…

…

…

Xiangshan stretched over three hundred li from east to west. Within Yuanqu County of Puzhou, there was a sunken valley that allowed forces to pass directly from the Fen River valley to the banks of the Yu River. Xiangshan was thus divided into the western section of Zhongtiao Mountain and the eastern section of Li Mountain. Further east from Li Mountain was Wangwu Mountain, which shielded the area west of Mengzhou.

Zhongtiao Mountain, Li Mountain, and Wangwu Mountain were like barriers stretching for hundreds of li, standing on the northern bank of the Yu River, shielding the Fen River valley behind them while facing Mangshan and Songshan on the southern bank across the river.

In the turbid waters of the Yu River in early October, traces of blue-green could be glimpsed. When the north wind blew, it already carried bone-penetrating cold. A tall figure stood atop a riverside military fortress between Li Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain, gazing at the continuous Mangshan range on the southern bank.

This person wore crimson robes over mountain-patterned armor. In his forties with a broad ruddy face and a short mustache that gave him an unusually martial appearance, Tian Weiye at this time, as the foremost valiant general who had surrendered to the Mongol army and established so many military achievements, did not rely on his personal martial prowess.

From Tian Weiye’s position, he could only see several squadrons of warships on both sides of the Yu River tentatively approaching the northern bank. Risking damage to the ship’s hull from the shore, the warships forced their way to shore, and squads of armored soldiers jumped down like wolves and tigers, feeling their way into the mountain ranges to the north.

Whether Zhongtiao Mountain, Li Mountain, or even Mangshan on the southern bank—all had steep northern slopes and gentle southern slopes. This meant that if they crossed the Yu River to directly attack Mangshan on the southern bank, climbing Mangshan from the northern slope would be extremely difficult. But for Liang forces to cross the Yu River from the southern bank and enter Li Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain from the southern slope was much easier.

If they wanted to eliminate the small Liang forces that had entered Li Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain, having armored soldiers board warships to enter the Yu River and then land on the southern slopes of Li Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain was also easier than directly attacking from the northern slopes.

“The Liang army has only drilled over a thousand soldiers into Li Mountain and Xiangshan, and they’ve been surrounded for half a month. Now dispatching several times as many troops to eliminate them from the southern slope should be as easy as crushing fleas. Why is Commander Tian so troubled?” A military advisor saw Tian Weiye standing atop the military fortress with a furrowed brow for a long time and couldn’t help but ask.

“If only things were that simple!”

Tian Weiye shook his head, knitting his brows that were split by a scar, and said in a hoarse voice:

“Heshan and Zhehequ despise Zhou Yuan as a buffoon who fawns and flatters, and look down on him greatly, but Zhou Yuan’s words cannot be ignored. Han Qian and his father Han Daoxun rose to prominence in the remote and mountainous Xuzhou. Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou came from mountain bandit and rebel origins. When the Chishen Army rose in Jinling, they initially relied on Maoshan to resist Chuzhou’s elite forces, then retreated to establish themselves at Fuyu Mountain, ultimately reversing the chaos in Jinling. This shows that Han Qian and his forces place extreme emphasis on the construction and offense-defense of mountain camps. Later, Tan Yuliang, Tan Xiuqun, Dong Tai, Dong Ping, Zhang Guangli, Zhang Guangdeng and other generals were instigated by Han Qian to establish mountain strongholds in the deep mountains and old forests of Sizhou to launch civilian uprisings, leaving the Yang clan of Sizhou helpless and forced to watch as Han Qian pacified Tan Yuliang and his forces. When Han Qian entered western Huai, he brought mountain guerrilla warfare to its ultimate expression. Now we see the Liang army has only sent over a thousand soldiers into Li Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain to cause trouble, but I worry this is merely the Liang army’s first step—they may still be unfamiliar with the terrain. Subsequently, they’ll very likely massively increase infiltration forces into Li Mountain, Zhongtiao Mountain, and Wangwu Mountain. If we don’t take early precautions now, it will become a major problem later…”

As if validating Tian Weiye’s words, at this moment they saw in the distance, from a water bay to the west of the southern bank, several fast boats suddenly emerge from the reeds, rowing with oars. Taking advantage of the current, they approached the northern bank of the Yu River from southwest to northeast.

The position where these fast boats landed was only seven to eight li from the riverside military fortress at their feet. At this time with clear autumn skies and expansive visibility, Tian Weiye and his subordinates could see that there was a stream gully that had nearly dried up after autumn due to reduced rainfall, forming a gap on the northern bank of the Yu River.

In less than the time it took to burn a stick of incense, several fast boats had darted into that stream gully seven to eight li to the west. Tian Weiye also saw a squad of Liang army soldiers emerge from the mountains to the north to meet these fast boats.

Although they had several thousand naval forces and one hundred fifty to sixty warships of various sizes in the Yu River waterway between Mangshan and Xiangshan, it was impossible to completely blockade this section of the Yu River stretching over three hundred li. They also couldn’t timely prevent these fast boats from slipping through gaps in the blockade to cross the Yu River, which was only about three li wide at this point, to reach the northern bank.

With difficulty, over ten warships of various sizes carrying several hundred soldiers surrounded them from both sides. But Tian Weiye saw that this squad of Liang forces crossing the Yu River had already proactively thrown several fast boats directly into the stream gully and set them on fire, destroying them. Together with the soldiers who had met up with them, they brought ashore the supplies the fast boats had transported, including eight mules and horses, and were now fleeing into the mountains to the north.

“Can the Liang army’s horses be part monkey? They’re actually drilling into the mountains too?” Seeing this scene, a general behind Tian Weiye called out in frustration.

“These are short-breed horses transported from Qianzhong. They can’t run fast, but they’re accustomed to walking narrow mountain paths,” someone familiar with the situation explained.

Tian Weiye furrowed his brow. The scene before him meant the Liang army might have already completed preliminary reconnaissance and was now deliberately transporting more supplies and personnel into a certain point in Li Mountain or Zhongtiao Mountain to establish themselves, even willing to use these easily built fast rowing boats as consumable items.

Now their naval forces still held the advantage on the Yu River, but in another month, the Yu River would freeze over.

They were abandoning their offensive against the Heluo region this winter, but the Liang army could transport large forces and supplies into Li Mountain, Wangwu Mountain, and Zhongtiao Mountain on the northern bank, taking root and forming strongpoints. When the Yu River thawed in February next year, would they still be able to successfully eliminate these strongpoints one by one?

From the Heluo campaign in the first half of the year, Tian Weiye had clearly recognized that the opponent currently entrenched across the river, refusing to retreat an inch, might be even more difficult to deal with than Zhu Yu. This cast a shadow over his heart regarding future tug-of-war battles around Xiangshan, secretly feeling he needed to make early preparations to avoid falling completely into a passive position.

“The soldiers from Mengzhou’s naval camp who landed are about to pursue and kill this Liang force. It seems even Zhao Mengji’s subordinates clearly understand that letting Liang forces drill into the belly of Li Mountain and Wangwu Mountain won’t benefit them…” At this moment, a subordinate reminded Tian Weiye.

Tian Weiye turned his head and saw two to three hundred soldiers landing at that stream gully. It looked like they were going to bite onto that Liang force that had just entered the mountains for elimination.

The Mengzhou naval camp was under Zhao Mengji’s command.

In the earlier period, warships from Mengzhou’s naval camp were mainly responsible for blockading the Yu River waterway, but Mengzhou soldiers didn’t directly enter Xiangshan and Wangwu Mountain from the southern slopes to eliminate small Liang forces that had drilled into the mountains. They only responded to Tian Weiye’s request by using warships to transport Hejin garrison soldiers ashore.

Those ten-plus warships patrolling and blockading the waterway didn’t have soldiers from the Hejin garrison. The soldiers now landing for combat were all Mengzhou garrison troops. It appeared that after over half a month of observation, Zhao Mengji had also realized that allowing Liang forces to freely drill around in Xiangshan and Wangwu Mountain on the northern bank posed great harm.

“Signal those ten-plus boats to come here and pick up a squad of our elite forces to go over and assist in combat!” Tian Weiye said.

That stream gully was only seven to eight li from their side, but the riverside cliff terrain between them was broken with no complete road. They had no way to directly send elite forces over to reinforce and needed warships to transport them.

…

…

Seeing enemy forces pursuing into the mountains from behind, Chen Yuanchen had a small unit of men lead the Yunnan-Western horses carrying supplies to drill first into the depths of the mountain ravine. He brought over a hundred soldiers to stop in a slope valley.

The slope valley couldn’t be considered too steep or rugged. It was covered with mixed shrubs and divided in the middle by a flood-carrying dry gully.

After entering winter, the southern slope of Xiangshan hadn’t had rain for many days. At this time, the dry gully was filled with dead leaves and cobblestones.

The forested slopes on both sides of the dry gully didn’t seem particularly steep, but with interlaced ravine cliffs and mixed shrubs, relatively speaking, the dry gully filled with withered yellow rotting grass leaves and cobblestones was their most convenient passage into the mountains at this time—it could barely allow men and horses to climb.

The enemy forces were also pursuing along the dry gully.

When Chen Yuanchen was born, the Jingxiang area had not yet been incorporated into Chu territory. Numerous small separatist forces and remnant roving armies fought constantly. From the sixth to eighth years of Tianyou, the prefectures of Jingxiang were successively incorporated into Chu, and major wars ceased. But for the mountain ranges west of the Dan River, to compete for limited living space, the forces of various mountain strongholds were not peaceful either.

Chen Yuanchen could be said to have grown up accompanied by the fires of war from childhood. When the Jingxiang war erupted and he followed his father Chen Jingzhou in pledging allegiance to the Dragon Sparrow Army, though only fifteen years old, he already stood atop the Xichuan city walls wielding sword and bow, participating in the extremely brutal defense of Xichuan.

Later, when garrisoning Junzhou to blockade Liang forces at Wuguan, as well as during the campaign to reduce the domains and quell the rebellion in Jinling, although Chen Yuanchen served as a guard officer beside his father Chen Jingzhou, whenever there was opportunity, he would rush to the front lines to fight. He was one of the most valiant young-generation commanders of the mountain stronghold faction.

After Emperor Yanyou ascended the throne in Jinling, Chen Jingzhou, Zhou Dan and other main commanders of the mountain stronghold faction were successively transferred out of the Imperial Guard system. Although Chen Yuanchen still hoped to remain in the Imperial Guard as a general, his elder brother had unfortunately been killed by an arrow during the attack on Jinling city. He became the eldest son of the family and needed to bear more responsibility.

Moreover, Emperor Yanyou at that time was already quite suspicious of mountain stronghold faction commanders. He ultimately still first followed his father Chen Jingzhou to serve in Guangde Prefecture, and was later transferred to serve in the Ministry of War in Jinling.

On this trip to Luoyang, Chen Yuanchen requested to serve in the frontline army. After Han Qian consulted Chen Jingzhou’s opinion, he had him serve as a senior military advisor beside Wen Bo.

Senior military advisor of the field headquarters enjoyed the treatment of a deputy brigade commander. In the army this was already considered mid- to high-level officer status. But Chen Yuanchen was unwilling to sit in the commanding general’s tent around sand tables and battle maps directing operations.

In the earlier period, small forces had been entering Xiangshan for over half a month and had gained considerable understanding of Xiangshan’s complex internal terrain. This time, in their effort to transport supplies and personnel across the blockade to the northern bank, considering attempting to find a foothold inside Xiangshan and establish a strongpoint, Chen Yuanchen requested to lead a squad to the frontlines to grasp more detailed information.

He was currently the highest-ranking commander who had entered Xiangshan.

Watching the enemy forces pursuing closely from behind, Chen Yuanchen calmly crouched behind a two-foot-high boulder and took the spring-armed crossbow carried by the guard beside him.

This specially made spring-armed crossbow, though a single-soldier crossbow, weighed fifty catties per unit.

Elite infantry in the army carried eighty catties in step combat and fifty catties in mountain combat. By this standard, this crossbow alone required one strong soldier without armor to carry it specially.

In his youth, Chen Yuanchen already had the strength to bind an ox and could draw a three-stone super-strong bow to shoot enemies at three hundred paces—this could be called divine skill in the army. But this new spring-armed crossbow manufactured by the weapons facility had a draw strength as high as five stones and could shoot specially made long crossbow bolts to kill enemies at four hundred paces.

Compared to heavy spring-armed ballista crossbows compiled into battle formations, which emphasized suppressing enemy massed attacks or shooting at enemy large war machines or city towers, watchtowers and other larger targets with no high requirements for precision, single-soldier spring-armed crossbows had extremely high precision requirements.

Each single-soldier spring-armed crossbow required long-term precision calibration during the later manufacturing stage. Currently, only a few dozen units had been trial-manufactured for supply to frontline combat troops. Even the formal model designation and name hadn’t been determined yet.

To be honest, the precision of this type of single-soldier spring-armed crossbow was still somewhat unsatisfactory. But when Chen Yuanchen learned that this single-soldier crossbow had a range reaching four hundred paces, he was also stunned speechless for a long time.

He also knew that in rugged mountain combat, this type of single-soldier war crossbow could make enemy soldiers feel no sense of safety even at four to five hundred paces distant—the significance was enormous.

He directly suggested to Wen Bo to take out all the spring-armed crossbows and equip them to forces conducting infiltration warfare in Xiangshan, without particularly worrying whether these war machines would be captured by enemy forces.

The enemy soldiers pursued from four hundred paces away. Due to the complex terrain, their formation was rather scattered. The enemy soldiers in the front ranks appeared quite relaxed, clearly not realizing there would be any threat from such a distance.

Chen Yuanchen unhurriedly used the gear winch to draw back the thin steel wire bowstring, loaded a two-foot-long specially made long crossbow bolt into the bolt magazine, and tried to steady the trembling crossbow body as much as possible when pulling the trigger. He watched the long crossbow bolt leave the groove and in the next instant strike fiercely into the left shoulder of an enemy soldier four hundred paces away.

After a moment of panic and alarm, the enemy forces quickly became alert. The front ranks raised heavy shields seeking cover and also attempted to accelerate their pursuit rather than slowly maintaining distance behind while seeking vulnerabilities.

However, the dry gully was filled with scattered stones. The enemy forces held heavy shields high while being mindful of the threat from this ultra-long-range single-soldier crossbow, so their speed climbing up along the dry gully didn’t become much faster.

Chen Yuanchen unhurriedly fired four consecutive bolts with the single-soldier spring-armed crossbow, wounding two people. Another enemy soldier’s face was directly pierced through by the powerful crossbow bolt. By this time, over three hundred enemy soldiers had only advanced to within two hundred paces.

Besides the specially made single-soldier spring-armed crossbow in Chen Yuanchen’s hands, the soldiers around him were also equipped with over fifty arm-drawn crossbows.

The effective range of these arm-drawn crossbows still met the standard of military strong bows, reaching one hundred thirty paces away. From elevated positions they had even greater advantage. This could already be said to meet the standard of heavy crossbows. But being finely cast, light-armored soldiers could carry them into mountain combat.

Chen Yuanchen commanded these heavy crossbowmen to divide into three squads, taking turns walking down along the dry gully, closing distance with the enemy forces to shoot, alternately suppressing the enemy soldiers below in the dry gully, buying more time for supplies to be transported into the mountains.

Seeing they couldn’t force their way up the dry gully, the enemy forces disregarded the densely forested steep slopes on both flanks and immediately also divided forces to the flanks, thinking to use their numerical advantage to outflank from the sides and suppress Chen Yuanchen and his men.

Chen Yuanchen led his soldiers in fighting while retreating, avoiding entanglement as much as possible.

When encountering terrain on both flanks that was steep and difficult to climb, Chen Yuanchen would also seize opportunities to organize forces for one or two counterattacks, driving back the eagerly pursuing scattered enemy forces.

Without realizing it, they had traversed a winding ten-plus li in the mountains, climbing over two hundred zhang in elevation, but they still hadn’t reached the top of the first mountain ridge. The Yu River had already fallen far below their feet.

The pursuing forces had over twenty soldiers shot dead or wounded along the way, making their speed even slower. By now they had been left far behind, but they hadn’t withdrawn.

Xiangshan’s mountain configuration was quite elongated, relatively thin from north to south.

From Chen Yuanchen’s current position, there were only two mountain ridges running north-south. The southern ridge formed the southern slope. Though the terrain was called gentle, the average height of the southern ridge still stood about three hundred zhang above the Yu River’s water surface. The northern ridge was another hundred zhang higher, with the canyon between them also extremely steep.

Forces that had entered Xiangshan in the earlier period had discovered a long-abandoned village stronghold halfway up the mountain behind the southern ridge, believing they could establish a strongpoint there.

Crossing over from the ridge gap at the top of the dry gully and following a wild path clinging to a hundred-zhang cliff, Chen Yuanchen saw that abandoned mountain stronghold hidden in the mountain hollow.

In times of peace and prosperity, Chen Yuanchen secretly felt this could truly be called a paradise beyond the world. Behind the stronghold was a living spring that continued flowing even in winter. To the west was also a gentle slope where over a hundred mu of slope fields could be cultivated—ten-plus households living and multiplying here would have no problems.

The key issue was that Liang and Jin had fought over Xiangshan for many years. Some necessary living supplies from the outside world couldn’t be transported in, so they could only rely on cultivation to meet all survival needs. Moreover, Liang and Jin periodically had small scouting forces break in—it was impossible not to harass the mountain people.

Even for escaping war, not many people would choose this Xiangshan with its narrow north-south configuration situated at the center of two nations’ defense lines.

Chen Yuanchen brought together a deputy battalion commander and two squad soldiers who had gathered in advance and said: “The enemy forces are clinging quite tightly this time. Even if we can defend this ruined stronghold, we mostly cannot make them withdraw. The enemy forces will most likely establish camp at the ridge gap or in the relatively stable mountain hollow on the southern side of the ridge to blockade us here. We must establish defenses at the ridge gap to prevent them from establishing themselves on the southern side. If we cannot accomplish this, or if accomplishing it requires great casualties, then we cannot choose this ruined stronghold with an easily blockaded exit as a strongpoint…”

The goal of establishing a strongpoint, besides being easy to defend and hard to attack, was more importantly to provide various support for forces dispersed throughout Xiangshan conducting infiltration warfare.

This ruined stronghold had the险要 advantage of one man guarding the pass, but as long as enemy forces occupied the ridge gap on the southern side, the only cliff path entering and exiting the stronghold would be sealed off. Therefore, establishing a strongpoint here required first considering holding the ridge gap together and considering whether there was a second alternative location nearby they could retreat to.

Of course, they also needed to consider how determined the enemy forces were to attack this strongpoint. This would require actual engagement to determine…