After October, leaves fell and grass yellowed on the western foothills of Mount Long, with howling cold winds.

Behind him lay the ruined city of Changdao County. Li Zhigao sat astride a tall date-red warhorse, wearing a dark blue-black cloak over his armor to guard against the blade-sharp cold winds that blew after winter arrived in the northwest.

Over the past half year, occupying and subjugating local forces in Cheng and Wu prefectures had proceeded quite smoothly. Hou Mo, the Chengzhou Prefect who had previously accepted Mongol enfeoffment, ultimately surrendered by leaving the city. Han Qian enfeoffed him as Deputy Commander of Longxi Forces, assembling over two thousand tribal Qiang cavalry from Cheng and Wu prefectures under Li Zhigao’s command.

Li Zhigao had initially led only over five thousand troops into Longxi. After absorbing descendants of Han troops who had garrisoned Longxi in earlier years and locally conscripting large numbers of military horses, he now commanded eight thousand cavalry and infantry.

However, besides Wang Xiaoxian dispatching over three thousand Shu troops to Tianshui to strengthen the city’s defense, Wusu Dashi simultaneously ordered Li Yuanshou to lead Pingxia Qiang cavalry southward. The warfare in southern Qinzhou became deadlocked.

The Qiang cavalry incorporated from Cheng and Wu prefectures were far from firmly committed to Great Liang—they were essentially fence-sitters with a mentality of attaching themselves to whoever was stronger. Naturally their combat strength couldn’t be considered very strong.

However, in the valleys of Mount Long’s western foothills, wanting to continue advancing into Qinzhou’s more open and level terrain, the main cavalry and infantry forces led by Li Zhigao still lacked sufficient strength to contend with Pingxia’s elite cavalry in such terrain for the time being.

Currently they could only match the Pingxia Qiang cavalry evenly by relying on superior armor and crossbow equipment, unable to maneuver and penetrate into Qinzhou or the Longxi regions further north.

At this point, Li Zhigao could only return to the old approach—constructing stronghold after stronghold along Mount Long’s western foothills, occupying advantageous terrain and gradually extending northward step by step.

Besides strengthening control over Cheng and Wu prefectures to the south, this also gradually compressed the operational range of Pingxia’s elite cavalry northward.

This was a clumsy method, but also an effective one.

Han Qian also supported this strategy of building solid fortifications and fighting grinding battles, specially dispatching a team of engineering craftsmen from Luoyang to Chengzhou. Li Zhigao conscripted Han civilian craftsmen from Cheng and Wu prefectures, giving the Western Expedition Army far greater advantages than the various Qiang tribes in constructing fortifications.

With soldiers possessing superior armor and crossbow equipment, defending fortifications also held greater advantages.

Constructing fortifications simultaneously allowed scattered Han people and some Qiang people to gather around the strongholds to live and farm, truly consolidating them into usable forces loyal to Great Liang.

Although the Xiniu Road was perilous and narrow, monthly over four thousand shi of tea, wine, cotton cloth, iron goods, salt, soap, and other supplies were transported into Longxi. Besides monthly transporting six to seven hundred excellent warhorses to the interior, they could also exchange for over twenty thousand shi of grain and corresponding horses to support stronghold construction and military consumption.

Li Zhigao gazed toward the vast Mount Long mountain ranges to the northeast. He thought the battle to attack Xingyang should have reached its most critical moment by now. Whether Xingyang could be captured would directly determine Great Liang’s next counteroffensive progress into the Guanzhong region.

Sitting in his saddle at this moment, Li Zhigao was filled with emotion. Who could have imagined that in merely two short years, the situation would reverse step by step so quickly?

“Roar!”

Since the mid-to-late period of the previous dynasty, Wei-Bo elite troops and valiant generals had dominated the Central Plains. Since Liang Shixiong took office as Wei-Bo Military Commissioner nearly twenty years ago, he had stood like a mountain ridge, preventing Hebei Jin forces from advancing south even one step, also relying on the martial prowess and valor of Wei Prefecture locals.

Speaking of Liang Shixiong’s foremost battle general, it was not his three sons but his clan nephew Liang Xing, who had followed him in campaigns north and south since youth.

In his youth, Liang Xing possessed great strength and courage. He had once single-handedly torn through an encirclement of several hundred Jin cavalry to rescue Liang Shixiong trapped in a siege. After age thirty, he had synthesized the great accomplishments of Hebei and Wei-Bo spear schools to create the Dragon Coiling Spear—Wei-Bo’s foremost spear arts master.

Since the Hebei upheaval, although he was a general under Liang Shixiong, he still preferred leading from the front and charging into battle. The souls who had perished under his spear were already countless.

At this moment, he only looked down unwillingly at two long crossbow bolts protruding from his chest—slightly longer than ordinary feathered arrows—their tail fins still vibrating fiercely with sound.

His armor was crafted by secret methods of the Blue Qiang tribe, somewhat lighter than ordinary mountain-pattern chain mail but with doubled protective power. Liang Xing had personally tested it by shooting with a three-shi strong bow—within fifty paces it couldn’t penetrate the armor.

He hadn’t expected that from siege nest carts one hundred sixty to seventy paces away, Liang Army had shot two crossbow bolts that not only penetrated without obstruction through the sturdiest chest armor plates—at this moment of death his perception became extremely acute—but the arrow tips also pierced through his body, emerging an inch or so from his back and pressing against the armor plates behind. His thighs and left armpit had already been struck by several arrows, with blood long since staining his battle robe crimson.

Looking at the Liang Army vanguard elite forces he had stabbed to death with his spear on either side, their corpses lying helter-skelter on the city wall, blood flowing in streams along the brick crevices, Liang Xing roared like a tiger and propped himself up with his spear, thinking that even in death, he must stand atop the city wall.

But the Liang Army soldiers swarming up like a tide were like giant waves, mercilessly toppling and trampling his corpse with tiger eyes still open. Some even stabbed it twice more to vent their hatred.

Liang Xing’s martial prowess meant his death in this moment earned not the slightest sympathy or regret. In the eyes of countless old Liang Army veterans, he and Liang Shixiong were shameful traitors who had nearly destroyed Great Liang’s fortunes and plunged the He-Huai lands into overwhelming war chaos.

To strengthen the Xingyang Vanguard Camp’s combat power, the fifty single-soldier spring crossbows manufactured by Huaiyang Armory this year—with all units competing desperately for them—were all allocated by Han Qian’s personal edict for use beneath Xingyang City.

After thousands upon thousands of civilian brave auxiliary troops, braving enemy arrows, stones, and poured hot oil, filling in the six to seven zhang wide moat regardless of casualties to create four attack passages directly approaching the walls, the Xingyang siege warfare entered its final critical stage.

Although the western wall had been bombarded by stone projectiles over the past month and a half until it was broken and damaged everywhere with collapsed breaches, and the western gate barbican had completely collapsed and blocked the western gate, the garrison fought like cornered beasts, displaying heart-stopping fighting spirit.

Among these twenty thousand garrison troops, most soldiers were Wei-Bo elite forces who had followed Liang Shixiong in campaigns north and south for many years.

The Liang-Jin struggle over the Central Plains had not ceased for over forty years. The number of martially valiant veteran soldiers was extremely high. Wang Yuankui and Tian Weiye’s forces were all Hebei and Hedong elite troops. The combat strength of the Wei-Bo elite troops Liang Shixiong had commanded these years was absolutely not inferior to any faction. Their armor was also quite complete—almost everyone wore fine armor, unafraid of arrows.

Moreover, this was a desperate last stand with no retreat for them.

The Hebei upheaval was precisely when they followed Liang Shixiong and Zhu Rang in rebellion, launching fatal attacks from behind that completely destroyed the He-Huai situation. This also determined that even if Han Qian gave an accounting to Zhu Yu in the netherworld, he would not accept their surrender.

Both sides engaged in bloody close-quarters combat in every corner of the western wall exceeding two li in length, like a meat grinder devouring the lives of elite soldiers from both sides.

At one point over one hundred nest carts approached the front of Xingyang City, but over half were destroyed by whirlwind catapults the garrison continuously constructed. However, over thirty single-soldier spring crossbows on the remaining nest carts continuously harvested the lives of garrison soldiers like deadly instruments.

Although the accuracy of single-soldier spring crossbows still didn’t meet Han Qian’s requirements at this time, between one hundred fifty and two hundred paces they were deadly weapons for precisely penetrating armor and sniping enemy commanders.

Especially when one’s own soldiers scaled the walls and fought the enemy in close combat, single-soldier spring crossbows could still provide additional long-range shooting support, playing quite a critical role in the waxing and waning morale of both sides’ soldiers.

With Liang Xing, called Wei-Bo’s foremost valiant general, shot dead atop the walls, Liang Army counterattacks could no longer drive down the vanguard elite forces personally led by Chen Kun from the western wall.

Night fell, but burning houses and bonfires were everywhere inside and outside the city. The firelight illuminated the sky, lighting the broken Xingyang City as bright as day.

Liang Shixiong excavated a deep, wide inner moat on the inner side of the city wall and erected whirlwind catapults in the city, hurling bricks and stones obtained from demolishing houses as projectiles toward the walls.

Chen Kun ordered wooden palisades carried up the city wall and erected as wooden shelters to block stone projectiles. He personally led the vanguard elite forces to remain nailed to the walls like iron spikes, refusing to withdraw even while suffering casualties every moment.

The collapsed breaches in the wall had been filled by the garrison with wooden palisade walls and earth and stone, but after all they weren’t consolidated with lime mortar and were still quite loose.

With Chen Kun holding the western wall, hundreds and thousands of laborers scaled the wall overnight to dig open the breaches, forming passages for directly deploying troops into the city.

Although the inner moat on the inner side of the wall blocked progress, the inner moat was after all not as deep and wide as the outer moat.

Gaining a foothold on the western wall regardless of casualties, they not only relocated whirlwind catapults close to the wall’s base to bombard the garrison’s catapult positions in the city, but also placed over twenty spring-powered bed crossbows atop the walls to seal off the main street connecting to the west gate, restricting the garrison from counterattacking the western wall.

At this point they couldn’t worry about civilian casualties in the city. Spring-powered scorpion crossbows continuously hurled fire oil jars into the city, igniting entire streets, lanes, and compounds until the western city fell into a sea of flames. By afternoon the fire continuously spread, causing the garrison’s catapult positions in the city to also fall within.

Only then did Chen Kun order over ten cumbersome trench-bridging carts dragged directly through the breach into the city and positioned across the inner moat. That night a torrential rain extinguished the western city’s great fire—the flames didn’t continue spreading—but the passage for entering the city to annihilate the final garrison forces was completely opened.

Light yet sturdy iron-armored carts were pushed into the city, sheltering soldiers as they advanced deeper into the city along streets and lanes.

On the Yu River north of Xingyang City, the river water was also wrinkled by cold winds, raising white-capped waves.

Wusu Dashi personally rushed to Mengzhou to supervise the battle. Mengzhou’s naval camp also erupted with extremely strong combat strength, swarming southward toward the south bank using their advantage in ship numbers.

To prevent Liang Shixiong and his remnant forces from escaping at this final critical moment, Luoyang’s navy was also fully deployed in fierce battle on the Yu River between Xingyang and Mengzhou.

At this time the naval battle on the Yu River was also approaching its conclusion.

Dozens of warships still burning with residual flames were slowly and irreversibly sinking into the river.

The disorganized remnants of Mengzhou’s naval camp were retreating in panic toward the north bank, hoping the fortifications in front of the naval base could give them final shelter.

Less than half of Luoyang navy’s warships remained. At this moment they didn’t pursue the victory.

Besides continuing to blockade the dock outside Xingyang’s north gate that had already fallen into a sea of flames, they were more concerned with salvaging and rescuing comrades who had fallen overboard after their warships were capsized.

This battle was fought too fiercely, with countless soldiers dying in combat. Watching enemy troops struggle in the water, no one had the inclination to rescue prisoners. They either shot them with bows and arrows or sat watching as the surging river waters swallowed them…

“Liang Shixiong, you dog thief, when you betrayed His Majesty, did you ever think of today?”

Chen Kun personally led elite forces, driving a remnant unit into a corner in the northeast of Xingyang City with no room to retreat. His tiger eyes nearly splitting, he glared at the blood-covered Liang Shixiong and roared.

Liang Shixiong’s shoulders and arms had both been pierced by powerful crossbows. Only with two guard escorts supporting him on either side could he barely stand.

He looked at the Tiger Guard warriors behind Chen Kun gathering in increasing numbers, their faces revealing ferocious expressions wanting to devour them alive.

He had once served as Privy Council Minister in the Liang capital. He was somewhat familiar with these people’s faces. Clearly the Tiger Guards Chen Kun had selected for the siege were all old Liang Army soldiers harboring deep hatred toward him. That’s why they pursued his group relentlessly in the city regardless of casualties, never giving him any chance to escape through the east or north gates.

However, this vanguard elite force had already lost over half its men lying forever in pools of blood after entering the city. But the remaining Tiger Guard warriors still struck such terror into the hearts of the elite personal guard troops around Liang Shixiong.

Liang Shixiong raised his head to look at the city wall behind him. Two groups of Liang Army soldiers were rapidly advancing westward from the west along the north wall and northward from the south along the east wall, crushing the disorganized routed troops with nowhere to flee on the walls like withered grass and rotten wood, launching an attack on the final watchtower at the northeast corner of the wall.

Liang Shixiong looked behind him again. He had been too confident, failing to transfer over one hundred Liang Mansion women and children out before the Yu River was blockaded. He watched them shivering under the protection of personal guard troops in a circle.

Liang Shixiong knew deeply that today he had reached a dead end. He roared: “Chen Kun, this old man today might as well use this soon-to-decay body to fulfill your honorable reputation. But the Liang family women and children all suffered because of me. I presume you also dare not violate Great Liang sovereign’s strict order not to kill prisoners and surrendered enemies…”

Having spoken, Liang Shixiong drew the last decorative yet practical sword at his waist, placed it horizontally at his neck, and pulled diagonally backward. A line of blood sprayed out.

“Enemy chieftains—release crossbows, shoot to kill, no pardons!” Chen Kun’s tiger eyes were blood-red as he gave the ferocious order.

Bowstrings crashed like thunder. Crossbow bolts like a locust swarm densely covered the corner of the wall.

The sounds of arrows drilling through flesh and continuous crossbow releases rose and fell in the corner of Xingyang City, as if they were tones clearer than the shrieking of women and children between heaven and earth—over one hundred Wei-Bo personal guard soldiers had killed until exhausted, struggling even to raise the swords and bows in their hands. Chen Kun gave them no chance to surrender. As they fell one after another, lying in pools of blood, next it was the turn of the family women and children who had followed the Liang Mansion and Liang Shixiong into Xingyang in recent years to become souls beneath the arrow rain at even faster speed.

Xingyang City’s final corner was at this moment also completely soaked in pools of blood.

At this time the soldiers atop the walls also captured the final watchtower, with earth-shaking cheers erupting from the walls above and below.

But Chen Kun seemed drained of strength, sitting down heavily in the corner of the wall, guarding a pile of enemy corpses dead beyond any doubt. The corpse of a young girl rolled over, her tender face still showing the terror of death.

Chen Kun removed his helmet and set it beside him on the mud ground stained red with blood. He laid his war spear across his lap like an old monk entering meditation.

Zhao Wuji rode over. Seeing the ground covered in corpses, he dismounted.

Chen Kun removed the tiger tally and seal from his waist, saying: “These women and children were killed by my order in violation of His Majesty’s strict decree. I have no face to see His Majesty. Please, Commander Zhao, return this tiger tally and seal to His Majesty on my behalf. Whatever punishment there is, Chen Kun will bear it alone. The other soldiers are meritorious without fault.”

“Help General Chen back to his quarters to bandage his wounds.” Zhao Wuji signaled the escort guards beside Chen Kun to first take him to recuperate.

Setting aside the civilian brave auxiliaries who assisted in the siege, among the various units’ elite forces who rushed to capture Xingyang before the Yu River froze, no fewer than ten thousand died in battle. The soldiers could be said to have killed until their eyes were red. If not for the督战 teams entering the city, probably even the final two thousand-plus prisoners would not have been spared—all would have been slaughtered.

In the eyes of old Liang Army generals like Chen Kun, Liang Shixiong was the foremost criminal responsible for the Hebei upheaval. They believed that without Liang Shixiong’s instigation and planning behind the scenes, Zhu Rang had neither the courage nor the capability to conspire with the Mongols in rebellion.

It was also years of accumulated vengeful hatred in their breasts that led Chen Kun in the end to leave not a single survivor even among the Liang Mansion women and children.

Zhao Wuji understood the vengeful hatred in Chen Kun’s heart, but how to handle this, he would not decide arbitrarily. What was most urgent for him now was cleaning up the aftermath of victory.

Before the siege, the garrison had twenty thousand Wei-Bo elite troops. In the end only over two thousand prisoners were taken. The remaining nearly eighteen thousand soldiers were all killed. Among the city’s civilian households, able-bodied men forced to participate in defending the city who died, plus civilians who perished in the sea of flames in the city, also numbered as many as twenty thousand.

“…”

To give Zhao Wuji, Li Xiu, Chen Kun, Han Donghu, and other generals maximum command authority and room to maneuver, even when the Xingyang warfare was at its most intense, Han Qian restrained his impulse to go to Hulao Pass to supervise the battle and remained in Luoyang from beginning to end.

News of the great Xingyang victory was also delivered by swift cavalry to Shangyang Palace one day later.

Han Daoming, Zhu Juezhong, Gu Qian, Feng Liao, Gao Shao, Jing Hao, Han Yuanqi, Chen Youjian, Zhou Daoyuan, and other ministers and veteran generals sat on both sides of the great hall.

Xingyang was a great victory, but the matter of Chen Kun leading over two hundred soldiers in cruelly and mercilessly shooting to death over one hundred women and children of the Liang Mansion was also placed on Han Qian’s desk.

As long as troops could maintain strict military discipline and train diligently, combat strength wouldn’t be poor. After experiencing several brutal battles, they might be tempered into hundred-battle elite forces. But for elite troops to corrode and collapse from within only required simply having laws without enforcement and discipline without strictness.

Besides the repeated strict prohibitions against killing prisoners, abusing captives, and harming women and children, before the Xingyang siege Han Qian had also formally promulgated a national edict abolishing clan extermination, collective punishment, and other criminal laws, abolishing cruel punishments beyond limited capital punishments like hanging, poisoning, and flogging to death.

As a garrison commander-level figure, Chen Kun had shot to death all the women and children of Liang Shixiong’s household in full view of everyone. Chen Youjian, who had replaced Zhu Juezhong to enter the Supervisory Bureau as Right Administrator, also dared not shield Chen Kun. Taking advantage of today’s court deliberation, he presented the decision on how to handle Chen Kun and others to Han Qian’s imperial desk.

Han Qian looked at the Supervisory Bureau’s handling decision, sighed lightly, picked up his brush and dipped it in ink, writing his response directly on the Supervisory Bureau’s memorial while saying:

“Zhao Wuji will lead his forces back to defend Chenzhou and serve as Pacification Commissioner of Western Ying. Strip Chen Kun of his positions as Hulao Pass Commander-in-Chief and Commander. Disband the Hulao Pass Field Army and establish the Xingyang Field Army instead, commanding the forces at Changge, Xinzheng, Mi County, and Hulao Pass, with Han Donghu serving as Commander-in-Chief and Xingyang Military Commissioner. Since Chen Kun has no face to see me, Yichuan County lacks a Registrar—have him go take up the post directly. Additionally, all soldiers who participated in shooting the women and children will be discharged to civilian life. Their merits in attacking Xingyang will not be recorded. Local governments should settle them appropriately but not employ them in important positions again…”

Chen Kun had previously been one of the nine garrison commander generals. Now he was directly demoted to a ninth-rank county registrar. The other soldiers who participated in shooting the Liang Mansion women and children were all discharged.

Even though Han Qian required local governments to receive and properly settle them, Han Qian’s notation of “not employ in important positions again” directly sealed off their future prospects in military and administrative careers.

Everyone fell silent. Han Yuanqi, Gu Qian, and Jing Hao found it inconvenient to plead for Chen Kun, and the punishment proposed by the Supervisory Bureau wasn’t much lighter. It was still Chen Youjian who had proposed it.

“The siege casualties were too devastating. The soldiers in the end all killed until their eyes were red. The Left Guard General also acted impulsively in the moment. Given Liang Shixiong’s great crime of rebellion, according to precedent, exterminating nine generations of his clan wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the soldiers’ hatred.” Since no one else found it convenient to plead for Chen Kun, Feng Liao stepped forward to speak.

Han Qian ignored Feng Liao’s words and directly set the approved memorial aside, then said to Gu Qian, Zhu Juezhong, and others: “Brother Zhu Yu wished not to have an elaborate funeral during his lifetime. His coffin still rests at Qianxi Temple to this day. I observe that Wolong Ridge in Yichuan has extremely magnificent scenery. I imagine Brother Zhu Yu in the netherworld would also hope to see a prosperous age with boats thronging the Yi and Luo Rivers. I intend to construct a tomb at Wolong Ridge to bury Brother Zhu Yu. Have Chen Kun handle this task as well.”

Seeing Han Qian arrange matters for Chen Kun in this way, everyone could say nothing more…