Regardless of whether enemy generals like Tian Weiye and Zhao Mengji had already seen through their intentions, and regardless of whether Tian Weiye and Zhao Mengji strengthened the defenses of Pu and Jin prefectures on the northern side of Xiangshan after entering winter, subsequently intensifying their suppression efforts in Xiangshan and even preemptively building fortified strongpoints in some vacant areas—such as relatively open valleys and flat slopes—they still couldn’t prevent the Liang army from continuously dispatching elite forces to the northern bank after winter to disperse into the mountain forests for infiltration warfare.
Initially, Wen Bo mainly deployed small elite scouting forces from the eastern foothills of Mangshan to infiltrate the northern bank. After entering mid-to-late October, Chen Kun’s stationed forces at Hulao Pass and Mengjin successively increased their infiltration warfare efforts into the northern mountain regions, searching for footholds and constructing strongpoints.
The reason for this graduated arrangement was primarily that the Yu River hadn’t frozen in the early period, and the Mongol navy temporarily still held absolute superiority on the Yu River, making it difficult for the southern bank to guarantee sufficient supply needs for forces crossing the river for combat in the early stages.
Both phases of the Heluo campaign successfully repelled the enemy. The distribution of fields to soldiers had also concluded, lifting troop morale and ensuring combat effectiveness. But for soldiers entering Xiangshan to conduct infiltration warfare, they couldn’t provide sufficient material support, so momentum also couldn’t be built up.
At the same time, the early period still required further reconnaissance and surveying of the complex terrain of Li Mountain, Zhongtiao Mountain, and Wangwu Mountain, ultimately deciding to place the focus of infiltration warfare on Li Mountain (eastern section of Xiangshan) and Wangwu Mountain (branch of Xiangshan), which had more precipitous northern slopes and broader north-south mountain depth.
There was another factor: the forces stationed at the eastern section of Mangshan, from junior officers to rank-and-file soldiers, were mostly Tangyi veterans. Whether organized as scouting squads or broken down into even smaller units, their ability to conduct independent combat operations was extremely strong.
Meanwhile, the forces assigned to the Jingzhao garrison district stationed at Mengjin, as well as the two infantry brigades stationed at Hulao Pass with Chen Kun as commanding general, incorporated large numbers of old Liang army soldiers at the middle and lower levels.
Even after three to four months of intensive training, the junior officers of these units still couldn’t compare with the elite officers of the Tangyi army who had undergone repeated various training exercises. Their ability to conduct independent combat operations as scouting squads was much weaker. Penetrating into Li Mountain and Wangwu Mountain to persist in infiltration warfare required a longer adaptation period.
Infiltrating into Li Mountain and Wangwu Mountain, besides having to fight against Mongol forces entering the mountains for suppression, they also had to face mountain villagers and local village stronghold forces who lived in the mountains and, due to the continuous three to four decades of tug-of-war between Liang and Jin in this region, harbored a certain hostility or even hatred toward the Liang state deep in their hearts.
How to divide and win over these people, how to mobilize them to become a force jointly resisting the Mongols—this placed even more stringent demands on junior commanding officers at the squad leader level.
The western section of Xiangshan had an even more elongated mountain configuration with fewer village people and stronghold forces in the mountains. The eastern section’s Li Mountain and Wangwu Mountain had more substantial north-south mountain configurations, and the mountains also had many wide valleys and streams, making village strongholds relatively dense there.
Dealing with relationships with these mountain strongholds became more complex. The soldiers needed time to familiarize themselves with the local customs and conditions of Jin territory.
In the early period, groups of ten-plus to twenty or thirty men penetrated mountains and forests, playing hide-and-seek with Mongol forces entering the mountains for suppression. Quite a few forces couldn’t establish footholds, with many soldiers killed or captured, and many soldiers forced to retreat to the southern bank. But after becoming more familiar with the terrain, small forces began gathering together, forming combat forces of dozens or even two to three hundred men per group, seeking relatively stable footholds in the mountains or constructing strongpoints.
During this period, mid- to high-ranking commanders like Chen Yuanchen who participated in the rotating combat units also repeatedly crossed back and forth across the Yu River, personally commanding frontline strongpoint construction and anti-suppression warfare in the mountains.
Elite Mongol cavalry couldn’t enter the rugged narrow mountain terrain for combat. The soldiers under Zhao Mengji were all Shu soldiers forced to leave their homes and unable to return to Shu.
During the second phase of the Heluo campaign, Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing deployed nearly forty thousand Shu soldiers to the southern bank of the Yiluo River. When defending camps or forming battle arrays with elite Mongol cavalry protecting their flanks, they could still display some combat effectiveness. But even though Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing forcibly abducted over thirty thousand women from Heshuo, Hedong and other prefectures and counties for marriage, converting them into Mengzhou military households, when now broken into groups of one to two hundred or three to five hundred to fight in Wangwu Mountain and Li Mountain, they found it difficult to overcome low morale.
Small forces entering the eastern and southern foothills of Wangwu Mountain, even when encountering superior numbers of Zhao Mengji’s forces in narrow terrain, could often rout these Shu soldiers.
The combat effectiveness of Tian Weiye’s forces was somewhat stronger, but with two to three times the manpower in precipitous mountain terrain, they could only fight the Liang army’s infiltration forces to a draw.
Of course, to prevent soldiers from being too eager for combat, Han Qian issued orders several times requiring infiltration forces to use the treacherous complex terrain against enemy forces, strictly prohibiting wasteful battles and wars of attrition, avoiding unnecessary casualties, and making establishing footholds the priority in the early period.
Upon entering the third year of Taihe, elite forces from the southern bank entering Li Mountain, Wangwu Mountain, and the western section of Zhongtiao Mountain for infiltration warfare had already exceeded ten thousand men. Seizing existing mountain strongholds ahead of enemy forces and selecting treacherous terrain to build new strongholds on-site using local materials in makeshift fashion, they had established a total of seventeen mountain gorge strongpoints.
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The Liangzhou army also embarked on their western campaign journey during this time period.
Via Lueyang County on the western flank of Liangzhou, following the Xiniu River—the western source of the Jialing River—upstream, one could reach Chengzhou between Qin and Wu prefectures.
The Xiniu River had swift currents, dangerous shoals, and scattered reefs, unsuitable for boats. But on the northern bank was an extremely treacherous ancient road called Niuji Post, also an important dangerous route that Longyou forces had used in earlier years to attack Hanzhong and Shu. At the end of Han, Shu forces had repeatedly taken this route into Qishan.
Niuji Post had fallen into disrepair over the years. Even under the Shu ruler Wang Jian, he hadn’t expended great effort to repair it. Wang Jian at that time was mainly concerned that repairing this route would create a passage for Liang forces to attack Hanzhong from Longyou.
When Feng Yi, Lu Ze and others rushed to Liangzhou in late November, the delivery of weapons, armor, crossbows and other military equipment and supplies, due to the treacherous roads, had only completed partial assembly in Mianyang County of Liangzhou.
Dispatching troops should be swift rather than slow. At the same time, advancing west along Niuji Road was extremely treacherous, requiring forces to clear the way. Li Zhigao also worried that the situation in Longyou could change at any moment and couldn’t wait until preparations were completely ready before dispatching troops.
Besides Chai Jian guarding Jinzhou, at the end of November, Li Zhigao had Zhou Tong and Hao Zixia temporarily oversee Liangzhou military and political affairs. Deng Tai served as commanding general of the western campaign’s rear army and, together with Feng Yi, Lu Ze and others, led the rear army’s main force and supply trains at a slower pace. He personally led two thousand vanguard forces with Zhang Song and other officers, advancing west first.
Opening roads through mountains and building bridges over water all along the way, they took a full twenty-plus days and didn’t enter Chengzhou territory until late December.
The soldiers all wore light armor, but the degree of disrepair of Xiniu Road exceeded their imagination. By this time, the soldiers’ armor was extensively damaged, making them look ragged, like a large group of beggars.
Chengzhou administered Tonggu, Changdao, and Shanglu, with the administrative seat at Shanglu County. From the second year of Baoying to the thirteenth year of Xiantong—a span of over one hundred fifty years—it had been occupied by Tibet, and only nominally returned to allegiance to the previous dynasty during Emperor Zhaozong’s reign.
The two thousand Liangzhou army vanguard forces entered Chengzhou territory utterly exhausted. As long as they passed through the final section of river valley called Niuwei Gorge, sandwiched between mountains and torrential currents, they could enter the relatively gentle terrain of Chengzhou’s Shanglu valley. But at this moment, a cavalry force stretched across before the gorge, blocking their final westward route.
Seeing the mass of dark cavalry all holding bows and spears, numbering no less than one thousand, Zhang Song, who was personally leading a scouting squad to explore the road at the front formation, felt his scalp tingle upon seeing this scene.
Zhang Song looked more carefully at the distant cavalry’s appearance. The vast majority were Qiang people. He hadn’t expected that just ten days ago, scouts they had sent out to gather intelligence had confirmed that the Qiang tribes within Chengzhou territory were still divided and scattered. Now they had actually united to block their path?
If the two thousand infantry behind him had undergone sufficient rest and reorganization, perhaps they could still fight. But they had arrived here utterly exhausted, while the enemy forces were fresh and rested, blocking before the gorge. How could this battle still be fought?
“Looking at the situation before us, it must be that we spent too much time opening mountains and cutting roads along the way, giving the various forces in Chengzhou time to unite during this period. Of course, it’s also possible that the Mongols or Wang Xiaoxian have already sent people into Chengzhou. With just our current forces, we probably can’t fight our way into Chengzhou,” Zhang Song brought people back, reined in his horse beside Li Zhigao, and suggested: “Why don’t we first retreat to the pass to the east, wait for reinforcements from the rear to bring large shields and crossbow equipment, then advance west again?”
They had led the army west from Mianyang to Lueyang on the banks of the Jialing River, then led two thousand vanguard forces along the dangerous road to advance first. The road was narrow all along, and they didn’t even have many horses.
Along this route, besides necessary supplies, the soldiers all traveled light, equipped mainly with spears, crossbows and light leather armor.
Their current position had the post road backed by towering cliffs a hundred-plus paces to the north—terrain unfavorable for enemy cavalry to outflank them. But on the southern side, the Xiniu River was extremely shallow at this time, exposing large stretches of riverbed connected to the post road by gentle slopes, about three to four hundred paces wide.
At this time, besides blocking their path head-on, enemy cavalry could also attack their flanks from the riverbed.
Fighting in such terrain, Zhang Song was very worried that the two thousand soldiers behind them with scattered formation and exhausted men and horses couldn’t withstand several charges from enemy cavalry.
Zhang Song didn’t think now was the time for hasty engagement. He advocated retreating to a more defensible strategic pass about ten-plus li away to hold firm, waiting for Deng Tai and Feng Yi to lead the rear army’s main force before making plans.
“When brave warriors meet on a narrow road, the courageous one wins. The enemy’s fighting spirit isn’t strong—this battle can be won,” Li Zhigao shook his head, not adopting Zhang Song’s suggestion.
Even waiting ten days to half a month for the rear army’s main force to arrive, the narrow terrain near Niuji Post wouldn’t be sufficient for them to bring five to six thousand superior forces into play. But as time dragged on, it might cause more tribal forces nearby to unite more closely and be better prepared to resist their westward advance.
Another point was what Zhang Song had said—if the Mongols or Wang Xiaoxian had already sent people into Chengzhou to win over various tribal forces, resulting in over a thousand troops uniting to intercept their westward advance, dragging things out would make the problem more troublesome.
The tribes in Chengzhou aligned with the Mongols, seeing their westward forces increasing daily, would very likely request reinforcements from Wang Xiaoxian. Currently Wang Xiaoxian had four thousand troops stationed at Tianshui City, less than two hundred li from Shanglu County in Chengzhou. If these forces entered Chengzhou, their difficulty in seizing Shanglu and other counties would greatly increase.
The climate between Qin and Min was warmer and drier. They hadn’t encountered rain or snow along the way, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be rain or snow blocking the post road in the next ten days to half a month. Generally speaking, weather in Chengzhou after spring became much more humid with more rainfall.
Since the defeat at Xiangbei, military morale had scattered. Although after pledging allegiance to Great Liang they received half a year of rest, what was restored were the soldiers’ weak bodies—military morale and fighting spirit were actually quite low. Choosing temporary retreat now was acceptable, but retreating without fighting out of timidity—would this further strike the already low morale and military spirit?
Now over a thousand cavalry were intercepting before the gorge, but seeing their mixed armor and clothing colors, with considerable disorder among the cavalry squadrons, it was evident that even if the Mongols or Wang Xiaoxian had already sent people into Chengzhou to unite local forces, it was also quite hasty. Therefore, although this cavalry force currently occupied advantageous terrain on the flanks, they showed no signs of immediately launching an assault.
Li Zhigao decided to fight—to fight right now.
The soldiers had already rested and hastily eaten some dry rations. Even if they were still exhausted, Li Zhigao understood quite well the soldiers who had followed him for many years and knew they should still be able to sustain one battle.
The vanguard’s two thousand forces couldn’t all deploy. Li Zhigao arranged front, middle, and rear armies, first having Zhang Song personally lead over three hundred men to advance along the riverbed on the front flank to prevent enemy cavalry from circling around the riverbed to attack their flanks. He personally led five hundred armored soldiers with sword-and-shield bearers at the front, heavy crossbowmen in the hands, spears and halberds mixed among them, advancing head-on toward the enemy cavalry.
The various tribal cavalry forces of Chengzhou united to block before the gorge, originally intending to make the invading enemy retreat in the face of difficulty. They hadn’t expected that the Liangzhou army forces advancing west were already utterly exhausted at this time, yet showed no intention of stopping to rest and reorganize. Incredibly, they immediately launched an attack first.
The tribal cavalry forces immediately became somewhat panicked. Only under Chengzhou Governor Hou Mo’s urging did the tribes hastily dispatch three hundred cavalry to coordinate with Hou Mo’s hundred-plus personal cavalry to meet them.
Chengzhou bordered Longshan and was separated by only a hair’s breadth from Fengxiang Military Commissioner’s Office on Guanzhong’s western flank. But having been ruled by Tibet for over a hundred years, nomadic customs had revived. All the tribes were skilled at mounted archery, and there were many elite warriors who could draw strong bows while mounted.
The front squad of enemy cavalry that first charged out were all mounted archers. At a distance of one hundred forty to fifty paces, they began loosing arrows one after another. Takewood hard bows longer than five feet—only elite archers with enormous strength could draw the bow and shoot while mounted. The scattered rain of arrows came whistling like sharp wind.
Even though the Liangzhou army’s front formation held shields, they were small shields that could only protect head, face, chest, and abdomen. The leather armor at shins and thighs couldn’t block the concentrated shooting of sharp arrowheads. In the blink of an eye, many were struck by arrows.
Fortunately, after arrowheads penetrated armor and entered flesh without hitting vital points, the soldiers in the front formation could still grimly hold on. Hearing the deep horn sounds, they pressed forward along the potholed uneven post road and the even more rugged slopes on the right flank.
Crossbowmen and halberdiers in the rear without shield protection, however, continuously had men shot down.
The batch of arm-drawn crossbows provided by Luoyang had a range of about one hundred forty to fifty paces, but Li Zhigao didn’t let the heavy crossbowmen rush to return fire.
The enemy cavalry’s front formation mainly consisted of longbows, but the nearly three hundred cavalry behind them were now raising their spears. Clearly they expected to see their formation scattered by arrows, then charge directly over to completely disrupt their formation.
With spears and halberds anchoring the formation, Li Zhigao wasn’t afraid of enemy cavalry charging straight through. But the terrain they currently occupied was relatively open. If enemy cavalry saw charging forward was fruitless, they would inevitably spread to both flanks, then find ways to pin them down so mounted archers in the rear could loose arrows faster and more steadily.
The arm-drawn crossbows provided by Luoyang were extremely powerful, but their firing speed was much slower than skilled mounted archers—roughly enemy cavalry could shoot three arrows for every one crossbow bolt fired.
Moreover, because crossbow bolts lacked tail feathers, with only the rear of the bolt shaft shaped into narrow wing forms to improve balance, they were still somewhat less accurate than feathered arrows at long-range shooting.
With their soldiers lacking heavy armor defense, if bow and crossbow formations exchanged fire at such distance, they would definitely suffer greatly.
Li Zhigao suppressed the crossbowmen’s urge to shoot and continued pressing forward despite casualties. When both sides closed to within one hundred paces and he saw the terrain narrowing on the right side with towering cliffs giving an extremely strong sense of oppression, only then did Li Zhigao order the heavy crossbowmen to shoot.
The steel wire strings of arm-drawn crossbows made crisper snapping sounds when released. Over two hundred crossbow bolts shot fiercely in concentrated fire at the enemy cavalry head-on, immediately shooting down over twenty enemy cavalry along with their horses.
The penetrating power of the crossbow bolts was shockingly strong, leaving the enemy cavalry terrified. The remaining hundred-plus mounted archers instinctively tried to pull back distance, not daring to exchange fire with the Liangzhou army at such close range.
Although Longyou hadn’t produced a sufficiently powerful force to command the prefectures of Longyou and Hexi, with tribes fighting endlessly among themselves, precisely because of this, the number of elite soldiers in Longyou and Hexi prefectures was absolutely considerable, with many valiant and battle-tested generals.
Seeing this scene, the three hundred-plus cavalry in the rear formation didn’t want to be crashed into by the mounted archers retreating from the front. They made a decisive decision to gallop to the left flank’s riverbed. Though their formation was quite scattered in the hasty moment, under the leading officer’s loud shouting, they quickly divided into two squads—one squad charged toward Zhang Song’s forces advancing along the riverbed, while one squad intended to attack Li Zhigao’s flank.
Zhang Song also ordered crossbow fire first. He also knew the soldiers were exhausted and could only lead by example, bringing his guards into the front formation to meet enemy cavalry together with soldiers wielding large halberds and horse-cleaving sabers. Both sides first clashed in battle on the riverbed.
Enemy cavalry swarmed over. Zhang Song stood on the lower terrain of the riverbed. Even though he and several guards beside him were still mounted, he still couldn’t see the combat situation on the post road and northern slopes.
Only one thought filled his mind—to angle diagonally across toward the post road to attack, not giving the cavalry enemy sufficient space to maneuver.
“Clang!”
Zhang Song had quite a few guards around him, but only a few war horses. Sitting astride a war horse, he stood out conspicuously in the formation.
Seven to eight enemy cavalry at the front were also valiant. Seeing him fully covered in armor and unafraid of arrows, they also knew he was the commanding general of this force. Disregarding spears thrusting from left and right, using the momentum of their war horses, they directly tore through the thin layer of soldiers at the front who lacked armor and struck weakly, directly pressing near Zhang Song. At the same time, six to seven sharp blades and spears came hacking and chopping at Zhang Song from all directions.
Zhang Song stabbed an enemy dead head-on, his spear accurate and ruthless, directly piercing into that person’s eye socket. Although he held a shield to deflect a spear thrusting at his chest, his right shoulder was viciously slashed by enemy cavalry, and his left armpit was also pierced by a spear that darted in from the side like lightning.
There were too few mounted guards around him, and they were primary targets for enemy shooting. In the blink of an eye, only two mounted guards remained beside him, unable to help him block all the attacks coming from above.
Sword slashes struggled to penetrate armor, but couldn’t block sharp spear thrusts. After all, the force erupting from thrusts was much greater than swinging slashes from horseback.
Zhang Song wasn’t worried about his right shoulder, but instinctively looked toward his left armpit. Looking down, he saw that although the enemy cavalry’s spear had pierced the armor at his left armpit, the spear blade had drilled in less than an inch before getting stuck, failing to pierce through the inner layer of padded armor, much less injuring him at all.
When Zhang Song was struck by the spear, his body even tilted to the side. He naturally understood how forceful that thrust was, yet hadn’t expected that the ten-plus sets of full-coverage plate armor sent from Luoyang, though over ten catties lighter than full-coverage lamellar armor, actually had superior protective capability—they had previously tried testing defensive capability by hacking with swords and sabers, but hadn’t been willing to test with spear thrusts.
Zhang Song couldn’t help but laugh heartily. He withdrew his spear and swept it forcefully from under his armpit toward the blade-wielding enemy on the right.
That Qiang cavalryman had a broad ruddy face and full beard, wearing mountain-patterned ring mail rare in Longyou—clearly also a chieftain-level figure among the tribes. This person obviously hadn’t expected that his thrust from such a tricky angle had failed to pierce Zhang Song’s armor.
Although he withdrew his spear at the first opportunity and lowered his body slightly, using his arm to forcefully receive Zhang Song’s sweeping spear strike, only now did he realize that he and six guard cavalry hadn’t succeeded in cutting Zhang Song down from his horse at the first moment. The cavalry behind were blocked outside, while left and right were all Liangzhou army soldiers.
He was already surrounded.
Even if he blocked Zhang Song’s spear, he couldn’t block the four spears simultaneously thrusting from left and right. In the next moment, his thigh was pierced by a spear. His body stalled, and he watched helplessly as Zhang Song’s spear thrust toward his face…
“The chieftain is dead!”
Enemy cavalry ahead shouted loudly, immediately falling into panic.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Song naturally knew they had killed an important figure among enemy forces. Taking advantage of the enemy cavalry’s panic ahead, he spurred his horse forward, his spear consecutively stabbing down two enemies. Roaring and shouting to encourage the morale of soldiers left and right, he charged in one vigorous effort toward the slope where post road met riverbed…