Watching the thick smoke that had risen over Xingyang City gradually dissipate, Xiao Yiqing also walked down from the city tower with waning interest, heading toward Wusu Dashi’s palace within the city.

Lu Qingxia, her face veiled in light gauze, followed silently behind without a word.

The Mongol army had assembled sixty to seventy thousand elite troops in Mengzhou, while Zhu Rang had gathered over seventy thousand soldiers in Biangliang, Wuzhi, and other locations. However, Liang Shixiong had been unable to hold out for even ten days to half a month longer, and they could only watch helplessly as Xingyang fell.

“Even if you do not remember the great meritorious service my father and son rendered in establishing the Great King’s achievements, today my Liang family manor has been completely soaked in blood at Xingyang. If the Great King shows compassion for this, you should assemble a great army to attack Yingxi!”

As Xiao Yiqing entered the palace and ascended the hall steps, before he could even have someone announce his arrival, he heard the grief-stricken voice of Marquis Wuyang, Liang Ren, emerge from within, his tone even containing a hint of coercion toward Wusu Dashi.

Just as they had initially wanted to directly seize control of Heluo, they had ordered Liang Shixiong to withdraw from Luoyang, Yanshi, and other places at the end of the year before last. Hoping to ensure that the region east of Songshan and Funiu Mountains and west of the Ying River would all belong to Eastern Liang, Liang Shixiong and Zhu Rang had impatiently moved their family members and clan relatives to settle in Xingyang.

It remained unclear exactly how many members of the Liang clan had survived, but the fact that over a hundred women and children of the Liang manor had been ordered shot to death by Chen Kun, with not a single survivor left, had already spread through the mouths of over a hundred escaped soldiers who had swum across the icy Yu River to Mengzhou.

This also meant that except for Marquis Wuyang, Liang Ren, who had been serving as Eastern Liang’s diplomatic envoy and was in Mengzhou before the battle, the entire Liang family line—including Liang Ren’s wife and children—had been annihilated.

Considering Liang Ren’s current situation, even if his tone was somewhat presumptuous, it couldn’t really be considered serious. Xiao Yiqing entered the great hall and saw that all the generals and officials were sitting silently to the side, while Wusu Dashi was trying his best to console Liang Ren with the gentlest tone possible.

Xiao Yiqing shook his head slightly at Wusu Dashi before taking his seat behind the long table.

Wusu Dashi nodded slightly, indicating he understood Xiao Yiqing’s meaning.

Lu Qingxia also knew well the current situation—the newly established Wanhong Tower could play an increasingly limited role. She sat quietly in the lower seat, observing the small exchange between Xiao Yiqing and Wusu Dashi, and understood that no matter how much Liang Ren pleaded, Wusu Dashi could not possibly launch a large-scale offensive against Yingxi during this winter.

Come to think of it, theoretically they could assemble one hundred fifty thousand or even more troops during this winter, but after the Eastern Liang army lost its most elite Weibo troops, their combat effectiveness would inevitably suffer a severe decline.

If the great army crossed the Ying River to attack the Yingxi region east of Funiu Mountain and Songshan—including Xiacai, Xingyang, Xuzhou, Chenzhou, and other places—the Liang army’s main forces directly available for Yingxi operations already exceeded sixty thousand men.

Since the Liang army held interior defensive lines, in a short time they could not only mobilize more troops from other places to strengthen Yingxi’s defenses, but also locally conscript large numbers of able-bodied young men into military service. Ultimately, the scale of forces available on the west bank of the Ying River would not be much less than their own.

There was another key reason: since entering autumn, their main consideration had been reinforcing Xingyang, and they hadn’t prepared many siege weapons and equipment.

If they rushed across the Ying River without more adequate preparations, the Liang army need only implement a scorched earth policy in Yingxi to easily neutralize their offensive, causing them to assemble over a hundred thousand troops to enter Yingxi only to return empty-handed.

Compared to urgently implementing retaliatory strikes against the Yingxi region, what they needed to pay more attention to now was remaining vigilant against the Liang army’s ambitions toward Guanzhong.

Currently, the Mongol forces stationed in Guanzhong and Longyou consisted mainly of three contingents—those of Wang Yuankui, Wang Xiaoxian, and the Qiang Pingxia tribal chieftain Li Yuanshou—totaling over seventy thousand infantry, cavalry, and mounted infantry. However, the Liang army forces to the south and east of Guanzhong and Longyou included Li Zhigao’s Liangzhou army, Kong Xirong’s Shangluo campaign army, and Jing Zhen’s Huatong campaign army, whose elite combat troops together also exceeded seventy thousand men.

Currently, Li Zhigao’s Western Expedition Army appeared quite active in Longyou. After nearly a year of recovery, the entire Liangzhou army had recruited soldiers and purchased horses upon entering Longyou, gaining nearly thirty thousand elite troops willing to serve under Han Qian. This directly changed the military balance in the Qinling region.

If the Mongol and Eastern Liang elite forces attacking Yingxi from the eastern front achieved no significant results and were forced to withdraw after spring next year, and if Han Qian then launched an offensive against Guanzhong, the Mongol cavalry elites from the eastern front would have to travel north from the east bank of the Ying River, cross the dried Yu River bed near Bianjing, then head north through the gap between Wuwu Mountain and the southern foothills of Taihang Mountain in northern Mengzhou, and finally cross the Yu River at Hejin (Puzhou, Jinzhou) to enter Guanzhong for reinforcement. Going around such a great circle, even at the fastest speed would require two to three months of marching time.

However, if Han Qian transferred his forces deployed in Yingxi and Heluo to the western front after spring next year, he would need only half a month.

This time difference would be extremely fatal to the Guanzhong battlefield situation.

Another crucial point was that the combat strength of the Luoyang navy was even stronger than they had imagined.

Without using the rare ice-sealed period of the Yu River over the next two months to strengthen military defenses in the Weihe River region, once the connection between Guanzhong and Hedong was temporarily severed after spring next year, even if they assembled large reinforcements north of Xiangshan at that time but couldn’t cross the Yu River, wouldn’t they have to watch helplessly as the tragedy of Xingyang’s fall repeated itself?

Their most important task this winter was no longer to rush into implementing retaliatory offensives, but rather to make the best use of the upcoming Yu River ice-sealed period to strengthen Guanzhong’s defensive military forces as much as possible, while also having the Eastern Liang army strengthen defensive fortifications on the east bank of the Ying River, rather than single-mindedly pursuing harassment operations of little effect.

Of course, Wusu Dashi showed great sympathy for Liang Ren’s grief and anger, and patiently consoled him repeatedly, but never relented on the matter of sending troops to Yingxi.

Perhaps understanding that beneath Wusu Dashi’s seemingly accommodating demeanor lay an immovable will, Marquis Wuyang, Liang Ren, took his leave in a dazed state.

After Liang Ren had withdrawn and departed, the somewhat exhausted Wusu Dashi looked toward Xiao Yiqing and asked, “Now that Xingyang has fallen and the Liang navy is extremely formidable—apart from when the rivers and Huai are frozen—they will not fear threats from the eastern flank, and will necessarily set their sights on Guanzhong next. What strategy does Minister Xiao think should be pursued from here?”

Xiao Yiqing pondered for a moment before saying to Wusu Dashi, “I request Your Highness dismiss those around us…”

If Wusu Dashi did not adopt what Xiao Yiqing was about to say, it would instead have extremely negative consequences, so he requested a private conference.

Wusu Dashi waved his hand, indicating that all generals and officials should first withdraw to wait in the outer hall.

“All the tribes that have already migrated to Guanzhong and the Hejin region should be completely withdrawn and resettled in Taiyuan, Shangdang, and other places. Appoint Wang Xiaoxian as Fengxiang Military Governor, Wang Yuankui as Weinan Military Governor, and Li Yuanshou as Longyou Military Governor. Aside from appointed marquises, let them recommend and appoint all local officials themselves…” Xiao Yiqing said solemnly.

Wusu Dashi fell into contemplation.

Xiao Yiqing’s proposal could be said to be a major reversal of their previous strategic policies.

This also required him to formally acknowledge that Mengwu had no possibility of further southward expansion to seize Heluo and Yingxi and advance into Jianghuai in the short term. Besides withdrawing their directly controlled territories back to Hedong, Heshuo, and Yanyun and strengthening their deep cultivation of these three regions, they would also need to divide the Weihe River plain and Longyou into three military governorships, entrusting them to Wang Yuankui, Wang Xiaoxian, and Li Yuanshou to govern separately, thus securing their determination to defend these frontier shields to the death.

The Liang army’s combat strength was extremely formidable, but to capture the isolated city of Xingyang, they had lost nearly twenty thousand elite troops in total, showing that the Liang army was not so powerful as to be invincible.

The most crucial thing now was ensuring that Wang Yuankui, Wang Xiaoxian, and Li Yuanshou had the determination to remain in the Weihe River plain and Longyou to fight to the death, so they could secure Guanzhong from falling into Han Qian’s hands at relatively lower cost.

As for simultaneously withdrawing the tribal populations from Hejin and Heyang, this was also to ease conflicts over land disputes among the southward-migrating tribes as much as possible, enabling Tian Weiye and Zhao Mengji to better win over local forces and contain the Liang army’s expansion from the north and east.

Accomplishing these points would contain the Liang army’s rapid expansion.

As for why Liang, Shu, and Chu could reach a peace agreement, and why Shu and Chu would allow Liang merchants to dump goods in their territories under relatively lenient conditions for huge profits, the most critical reason was that their previous offensive military campaigns toward the River and Huai had been so sharp that both Shu and Chu deeply felt the direct threat they would face if Heluo was lost.

Now if they switched to defense, they could even send people to Shu and Chu to publicize the miserable state of their defeat at Xingyang, weakening Shu and Chu’s vigilance toward them. Correspondingly, the two states of Shu and Chu would naturally raise their vigilance toward the nearby Liang army.

At that point, with the Liang army occupying the center of the realm, surrounded on all sides by strong regional powers or strong states, with only five million registered population, even if Han Qian possessed heaven-defying talent, he would no longer be able to manipulate situations at will.

Of course, making these changes required Wusu Dashi to withstand pressure from within Mengwu, while also communicating well with Zhu Rang, Xu Mingzhen, Sima Tan, and others to avoid making any more fatal strategic errors.

If Zhu Rang and Liang Shixiong had followed his advice last year and built an embankment road between Xingyang and Wuzhi at any cost, how could they have fallen into the embarrassing situation where despite having one hundred thirty thousand reinforcements in the outer perimeter, they could only watch as Xingyang became an isolated city ultimately captured by the Liang army?

“Xiao Yiqing is truly remarkable indeed…”

Han Qian stood by the window, gazing out at the heavy snow falling outside Lingyun Pavilion.

At this time, the Yu River and the rivers in the River-Huai region were already frozen over, and the expected retaliatory attack the enemy army might launch against Yingxi had not occurred.

The Eastern Liang army forcibly relocated the population between the Guo and Ying Rivers east of the Guo River, forming a buffer zone between the Ying and Guo Rivers, while extensively building fortified camps in Weishi County south of Biangliang and Wuzhi and along both banks of the Guo River. The Mongol army’s over twenty thousand cavalry had also withdrawn north to Puzhou through Ziguan Pass between Wuwu Mountain and Li Mountain after the Yu River froze.

Although Wusu Dashi’s plan to divide the Weihe River plain and Longyou region into three military governorships to be held by Wang Yuankui, Wang Xiaoxian, and Li Yuanshou had not yet been formally implemented, Wusu Dashi had already issued clear orders to halt the plan for Mengwu tribes to migrate south to Guanzhong, and to use all the millions of mu of fertile government fields cleared along the Wei River banks to recruit displaced able-bodied refugees as military household farmers for cultivation, strengthening Wang Yuankui and Wang Xiaoxian’s military power along the Wei River.

In addition, other defensive strategies Xiao Yiqing had offered Wusu Dashi for defending against Great Liang had also been thoroughly investigated by internal informants, with the most core main contents now presented on Han Qian’s desk.

In the Liang-Chu agreement, although Great Liang submitted as a vassal to the Chu court and paid nearly one million strings in annual tribute, trade between the two sides had not been severed, and they retained the Xuzhou enclave.

Trade links with Shu were even more open, and transporting commercial goods to Qianyang, Nanzhao, and other places, as well as through the Zheng clan to various Lingnan provinces, was even more convenient.

Maintaining trade channels brought the most direct benefits: beyond allowing the mining and industrial sectors of Huaixi, the Nanyang Basin, and Heluo to continue developing, it also imported over twenty thousand head of livestock, nearly two thousand warhorses, six hundred thousand shi of salt, two to three million jin of copper and precious metals like gold and silver, over one hundred thousand barrels of tung oil, as well as various materials like dyes, paper, tea, and medicines for Great Liang annually, along with a net population inflow of over thirty thousand people, mainly young adults.

Beyond population, because Great Liang’s foreign trade—apart from the portion directly controlled by Chishan Company—was still mainly controlled by a limited forty-some merchant companies, and since these merchants had close life-and-death relationships with the central government, they could basically guarantee that profits beyond expanded production were all deposited in Great Liang’s First Savings Bureau.

This model, combined with corresponding taxes and levies, also basically ensured that a considerable portion of materials imported from outside could be requisitioned by Han Qian for military use, merely converting part of it into debt owed to Great Liang’s First Savings Bureau.

It was precisely because of this that Great Liang could so rapidly transition from defense to offense against enemy forces while simultaneously ensuring continued development of domestic agriculture, mining, and other industries, supporting the continuous enrichment and solidification of the new learning research system without harming the people’s foundation.

If Xiao Yiqing’s strategy succeeded and relations between Great Liang and Chu-Shu grew increasingly tense, with greater restrictions on trade, the losses in material and population imports alone would be enough to give them serious trouble.

“The Military Intelligence Staff Department’s spies lurking in Taiyuan and Yunzhou have already secretly spread word that Xiao Yiqing received bribes from Wang Yuankui, Wang Xiaoxian, and Li Yuanshou before recommending the establishment of regional governorships in the fertile lands of Guanzhong, to delay as much as possible the Mengwu people’s conferral of governorships on Wang Yuankui, Wang Xiaoxian, Li Yuanshou, and others,” Feng Liao, Gao Shao, and Han Yuanqi stood behind Han Qian, suggesting. “Since the Eastern Liang army has forcibly relocated the population on the west bank of the Guo River eastward, building water embankments west of the breach point and at Changge to divert the great waters of the Yu River into the Guo River would cause minimal harm to the people, while also causing the defensive camps the Eastern Liang army built west of the Guo River and south of Bianjing to be flooded and rendered useless…”

Liang Shixiong had initially breached several dozen zhang of the Yu River’s southern embankment, but after years of water erosion, the breach between Xingyang and Wuzhi had expanded to several li in length.

Before capturing Wuzhi and Biangliang, they couldn’t close the breach to return the Yu River to its original course, but building stone embankments west of the breach to force the breach to expand eastward could actually achieve the purpose of diverting more of the Yu River’s great waters toward Wuzhi territory and the southwest of Biangliang during summer and autumn, limitedly reducing the flooded area in eastern Xingyang, Xinzheng County, and northern Changge.

Simultaneously, by selecting shallow shoals on the east bank in Changge territory to build diversion embankments, they could further achieve the goal of diverting part of the floodwaters into the Guo River.

In the future, if they had the capability to build a dam completely blocking the upstream channel of the Sha-Ying River, they could completely divert the Yu River’s great waters into the Guo River.

However, such a dam capable of completely blocking flood peaks surging from upstream during summer and autumn would be too difficult to construct. Diversion embankments were more practical, since they would only divert part of the floodwaters, and the embankments would tilt southeast, greatly reducing the force of flood peak impacts during summer and autumn.

As times and circumstances changed, Han Qian nodded in agreement for the various departments to implement this plan he had previously suspended—this could be considered going with the flow.

“Since the Mengwu people intend to send people to infiltrate Chu and Shu to spread word of their severe casualties, to stimulate Chu and Shu’s vigilance toward us, our military actions going forward should also temporarily show some restraint, conveying to Chu and Shu that our strength is insufficient, and that we had no choice but to exchange tens of thousands of elite officer and soldier casualties for Xingyang merely to ensure Heluo’s eastern flank security, maintaining the Liang-Chu-Shu agreements without damage.” Feng Liao said.

Even if Xiao Yiqing’s strategy succeeded and caused Great Liang considerable trouble, in Feng Liao’s view, the situation they faced was still much more optimistic than when Han Qian had just succeeded to the position of state ruler.

Feng Liao currently still hoped that Great Liang could rest and recuperate for two or three more years, allowing national strength to be further restored and enhanced.

Although Great Liang currently had five million one hundred seventy thousand registered household population, only equivalent to Shu, the growth rate of Great Liang’s able-bodied young men was much higher than Shu.

This was also directly related to the large-scale promotion of new medicine.

Jianghuai and Sichuan-Shu could be considered prosperous regions, and famines had rarely occurred in various provinces and counties these past two years, but even during the so-called prosperous periods of the early-to-middle previous dynasty, newly born population members who successfully grew to adulthood accounted for only forty to fifty percent.

This also meant that nearly fifty to sixty percent of newborns died before reaching adulthood due to various epidemics and accidents.

However, Han Qian had established a systematic public medical health and epidemic prevention system in Xuzhou very early on, and the infant mortality rate had long since dramatically dropped to below ten percent. The infant mortality rate in Huaixi had also significantly decreased in recent years.

Public health systems and township-level medical and public health systems in Heluo, Yingxi, and other places had only just begun to be established, but Feng Liao believed they would quickly achieve remarkable results, especially since they were directly importing large numbers of experienced medical officials to these regions to advance related matters.

This also meant that with the same population base, Great Liang’s annual new adult male population was two to three times that of other regions. Add in the portion from extended adult lifespans, and the net scale of Great Liang’s annual new able-bodied men would not be lower than that of Chu or the territories controlled by the Mengwu people.

In this situation, even if everyone got a rare opportunity to rest and recuperate, even if Great Liang’s manufacturing and new learning stagnated and stopped developing, as time lengthened, Great Liang would not be at a disadvantage.

Han Qian walked to the map hanging on the west wall, staring intently at the terrain of Heluo and Guanshan.

Wang Yuankui occupying Yongzhou and Wang Xiaoxian occupying Fengzhou and Qizhou not only had fortified strongholds and dangerous positions to defend, but Mengwu cavalry reinforcements from Yan-Lin and other northern provinces could also arrive quickly—it would be difficult to capture them suddenly.

To truly attack, there were two choices.

One was to send all cavalry to Chengzhou to join with Li Zhigao’s Western Expedition Army, defeat the Pingxia tribe, seize Qinzhou, then penetrate through Long Mountain from Qinzhou into Fengxiang territory, advance along the Wei River, successively recover Sanguan, Chencang, Feng County, Hanxing, Qinchuan, Fufeng, and other fortified passes and cities west of Yongzhou, and finally have the Shangluo and Huatong armies block enemy reinforcements from the north and jointly besiege Yongzhou to capture it.

This was also the most secure method of warfare, but the key was: if Li Xiu, Cao Ba, Zhao Ci, and Zhu Zhen’s four cavalry brigades were transferred to Chengzhou, how would supplies be resolved?

Even advancing westward in summer and autumn when warhorses could graze, adding twenty thousand more combat and auxiliary troops going west would increase monthly material consumption by nearly twenty thousand shi, already exceeding the supply capacity of Cheng and Wu Provinces, which had a total population of only one hundred twenty to thirty thousand.

In Ruyang and Songyang County territory where Songshan and Funiu Mountain intersected, the terrain was mainly hilly. The Songshan plank road construction had already been extremely costly, and the Niuji Road on both flanks ran along deep cliffs and steep walls—further widening it would be much more difficult.

Even if they spared no expense to further widen the Niuji Road, it could not be completed in one or two years.

Moreover, the Mengwu people could similarly dispatch large numbers of cavalry to Longyou to reinforce Li Yuanshou.

Beyond this, there was another more adventurous strategic choice.

That was to directly cross the Yu River from Mengjin, forcefully attack Yuanqu County, advancing north through Ziguan Pass between Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain, thrusting their main forces like a sharp blade directly into the heartland of the Fen River valley currently occupied by Mengwu.

Currently, Chen Yuanchen and other commanders had led elite forces that had already infiltrated into Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain on both flanks of Ziguan Pass—this was one advantage for them to advance north through Ziguan Pass.

If they could open this strategic route, advancing north along the Fen River could strike Fenzhou and Taiyuan Prefecture, advancing west along the Fen River could strike Hejin and reach the west bank of the Yu River (the Yu River being the Yellow River, which flowed north-south from west and north of Xiangshan), and advancing east could attack and occupy the Shangdang Basin in Ze and Lu Provinces.

However, the enemy army also keenly understood the importance of this strategic route. Besides initially having Tian Weiye lead troops to defend Puzhou, Yuanqu, and other places, after the Xingyang battle ended, Wusu Dashi had even withdrawn over twenty thousand elite cavalry north through Ziguan Pass to strengthen defenses at various fortifications in the northern section of Ziguan Pass.

Moreover, since Ziguan Pass was located at the junction point of the enemy army’s three strategic regions, once Great Liang forces advanced north through this route, enemy reinforcements would continuously converge from three directions—east, north, and west.

North of Ziguan Pass lay Jiang Mountain, bordered by Li Mountain to the east and Wuwu Mountain to the west. Within the pass, peaks and ridges crisscrossed, with the enemy army currently firmly controlling strategic chokepoints at nearly every segment. For troops to fight their way through this route, the difficulty would absolutely be no less than directly attacking Yongzhou City.

Of course, choosing to advance north from Ziguan Pass had many tactical advantages for Great Liang forces from a purely tactical perspective.

Beyond the fact that Chen Yuanchen and other elite units had already infiltrated and taken root in Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain on both flanks, the most core advantage was convenient supply lines.

The main entrance to Ziguan Pass—Yuanqu Fortress—directly faced Yanghu Stronghold on the west side of Mengjin County. Once Yuanqu Fortress was captured, supplies could be transported directly from Mengjin and Mianchi.

Convenient and direct supply transportation meant savings, meant grain consumption could be reduced to the minimum, meant consumption of national foundations could be reduced to the minimum, and troops wouldn’t need to worry about supply routes being cut by enemy forces.

The most difficult thing to overcome in external campaigns, besides supply route security, was the terrifying transportation consumption.

Generally speaking, an army of fifty thousand campaigning abroad for one year might only need five hundred thousand shi of grain, but to ensure these five hundred thousand shi of grain were transported to the frontline camp, the transportation consumption en route could reach over one million shi of grain—an enormous amount.

The valleys and mountain gorges along Ziguan Pass were numerous, and the terrain was also extremely rugged. Such terrain was actually more favorable for excellent crossbow weaponry to play a greater role.

In valleys and mountain gorges where flanking maneuvers were difficult, this conversely imposed the greatest restrictions on the Mengwu people’s superior cavalry.

If they fought a war of attrition with the Mengwu people around Ziguan Pass, it would more effectively deplete the Mengwu people’s effective forces.

Another advantage was that by next year, if the Mengwu people truly established Wang Yuankui as regional governor of Weinan, when they organized troops to attack Ziguan Pass, Wang Yuankui would very likely be more reluctant to attack Huazhou and Tongguan from the western flank to contain them in order to preserve his strength and strengthen control over the Weinan region…

“Over the next period, we must build many fortified camps along the southern bank between Mianchi and Mengjin, while having Chen Yuanchen and other forces that have entered Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain concentrate and extend more toward both sides of Ziguan Pass,” Han Qian took out a charcoal pencil and directly circled Ziguan Pass on the map, saying, “Since Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing are doing everything possible to guard against our counteroffensive on Guanzhong, then in the next year or two when the opportunity matures, we can consider thrusting through this route into the heartland of Hedong…”