The commanders of the six defensive strongholds besieged in southern Yuanqu were merely battalion commanders or deputy commanders among the Mongol army’s surrendered military officers. They had initially followed Tian Weiye in submitting to the Mengwu people, but aside from being interested in fame and profit, how much loyalty could they really have toward the Mengwu people?
Seeing more and more Liang army troops pouring into the southern ravines of Ziguan Pass, the commanders of these six defensive strongholds successively chose to surrender.
There was no mercy on the battlefield.
Inside the city were still thirteen to fourteen thousand elite veteran Jin soldiers, plus five to six thousand able-bodied men available for use. Provisions, war equipment—all were sufficient. Tian Weiye was absolutely a veteran commander who could not be taken lightly.
Wen Bo did not want a repeat of the Xingyang battle where Great Liang paid the price of over ten thousand elite troops and over ten thousand auxiliary soldiers and civilian volunteers dying on the battlefield. He directly incorporated the total of over four thousand five hundred surrendered soldiers from Mashou and the other seven strongholds into the Yuanqu Vanguard Battalion, intending at the appropriate time to first drive them to attack the city walls to exhaust the defending forces’ strength.
Surrendered commanders could receive favorable treatment, but that was only relative—they were merely granted nominal scattered official titles and kept in comfortable retirement. For surrender generals who only chose to surrender after being trapped in the city, it was impossible to let them control military authority again—Great Liang was not lacking in such military talent.
Of course, after organizing ten vanguard battalions, Wen Bo did not immediately launch fierce offensives against Yuanqu City. In the early stages, he mainly focused on siege combined with equipment attacks to exhaust the enemy army’s defensive supplies and equipment, and break down the defending forces’ morale.
In the early stages, Wen Bo placed the focus of warfare on the reinforcements advancing south from Anyi and Jiang County.
From Yuanqu heading north to Anyi and Jiang County territory, Ziguan Pass mainly branched into two routes, but along the way were mostly narrow deep gorges and large valleys.
Xiao Siqing urged garrison forces from Anyi, Jiang County, and other places, including large numbers of elite Mongol cavalry, to reinforce from the south, advancing south along deep gorges and narrow valleys where cavalry could not at all utilize their advantage of long-distance flanking maneuvers.
In such terrain, Great Liang forces wielding powerful crossbows and strong bows plus formidable heavy war equipment like crossbow carts could maximize their combat effectiveness to even terrifying levels.
Besieging Yuanqu City and drawing enemy reinforcements to fight in the deep gorges and large valleys north of Yuanqu to maximize the annihilation of Mengwu’s own clan direct-line troops—this was the most core strategy of the entire warfare initially formulated by Han Qian.
In early April, Xiao Yiqing returned to Anyi from Yongzhou.
Although forces were continuously transferred from Taiyuan, Shangdang, and northern Guanzhong areas like Tongzhou and Linzhou, bringing the Mongol troops advancing south from Anyi and Jiang County to as many as fifty thousand, over ten thousand elite Mongol troops had already left their corpses in the deep gorges and large valleys between Yuanqu and Anyi and Jiang County.
Meanwhile, Great Liang forces’ cumulative casualties were less than one thousand men.
Seeing this scene, Xiao Yiqing had no choice but to directly order his nephew Xiao Siqing, whose eyes had turned red from killing, to change tactics and build barriers in the deep gorges and large valleys north of Yuanqu, no longer attempting to open a passage to reinforce Yuanqu.
However, how could Wen Bo allow the enemy army to build layer upon layer of barriers in the deep gorges and large valleys north of Yuanqu, increasing the difficulty of their subsequent northern attack on Anyi, Jiang County, and other heartland areas of the Fen River valley?
Wen Bo directly transferred two subsequently reinforced reserve brigades under Su Lie and Huo Li’s command and direction, switching from defense to offense in the deep gorges and large valleys, attacking fiercely northward all the way, reaching the edge areas of the northern foothills ridges of Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain by mid-May.
However, Wen Bo strictly ordered Su Lie and Huo Li not to rashly advance into the low mountains and short ridges south of Anyi and Jiang County that were favorable for cavalry flanking operations.
Attacking and seizing cities like Anyi or Jiang County—these were campaign objectives to be pursued only after capturing Yuanqu and assembling main forces.
At that time, the siege of Yuanqu had already lasted four months.
Yuanqu City’s perimeter had no moat. To besiege the enemy army, Wen Bo even dug a long trench over one zhang deep around Yuanqu City, coordinating with encircling camps and solid ramparts to completely surround Yuanqu City, restricting Tian Weiye from leading troops out of the city to counterattack or break through. Then he unhurriedly set up whirlwind catapults to bombard Yuanqu City.
Yuanqu City had been repeatedly repaired and was extremely solid, but after four months of bombardment, most of the city walls on the east, south, and north sides had already collapsed.
Although Tian Weiye organized soldiers and civilians inside the city to build wooden palisade inner walls filled with earth and stones to continuously patch up the breaches, they were still dilapidated and nothing like before.
Under Xiao Yiqing’s urging, Wang Yuankui, together with reinforcements transferred from northern Guanzhong areas like Yan-Lin Provinces, simultaneously sent troops to attack Huazhou and Tongguan. But besides each having one infantry combat brigade, after the new year Han Qian had also transferred three reserve brigades to be uniformly commanded by Jing Zhen to defend Heluo’s western flank.
However, as Han Qian had predicted, Wang Yuankui, having been enfeoffed as Weinan Military Governor and having moved his family members and close relatives from Dingzhou and Hengzhou to Yongzhou, intended to manage the Wei River as his new base territory and was reluctant to expend his direct-line elite troops.
With Wang Yuankui unwilling to commit his Heshuo elite troops to attack cities, and Mengwu cavalry being poor at siege warfare, the surrendered armies from Yan-Lin and other areas were driven to attack beneath Huazhou City with even more lackluster offensives.
With no other options, Wang Yuankui could only ultimately drive civilian volunteers and able-bodied men forcibly conscripted from the countryside to attack the city walls, using this to counter Xiao Yiqing’s criticism of his ineffective attacks.
Relatively speaking, Kong Xirong defending Lantian Pass and Deng Tai defending Lueyang and other places had an even easier time.
In mid-to-late June, Li Mountain, Wuwu Mountain, and the southern foothills of Taihang Mountain successively entered the rainy season with frequent torrential downpours. Mountain floods poured into the Yuanqu Basin, and Wen Bo had no choice but to contract his forces to higher terrain areas, slowing the attack on Yuanqu.
However, at this time, forces from various units had all built solid ramparts in the ravines and mountain gorges south and north of Yuanqu, completely controlling the middle and southern sections of Ziguan Pass. Even if they let the defending forces out of Yuanqu City, there was no worry they could break through the encirclement.
Yuanqu City’s food supplies being sufficient was only relative.
The rainy season on the north bank of the Yu River was brief and intense, ending in mid-July. The mountain temperatures were also cooler, perfectly suitable for attacking the city. At this time, food in Yuanqu City had already become scarce. The defending officers and soldiers’ daily rations were reduced to half a jin, while ordinary civilians were only given a spoonful of black beans to stave off hunger.
Only at this point did Wen Bo massively deploy the vanguard battalions, driving them day and night in rotating attacks from three sides against the city walls, exhausting the enemy army’s physical strength and will.
Spring-arm mounted crossbows and spring-arm scorpion crossbows were pushed before the enemy city with much higher accuracy than whirlwind catapults. Single-soldier war crossbows from watchtowers sniped at the city walls, continuously able to kill and wound enemy soldiers.
By early August, the vanguard battalions, at the cost of three thousand officer and soldier casualties, successfully captured Yuanqu’s south gate, opening a passage for elite Liang troops to directly kill their way into the city from the south gate.
Tian Weiye had excavated inner trenches inside Yuanqu City and built protective walls on the inner side of the trenches, while also connecting and reinforcing the courtyards throughout the city.
Honestly, if they had forcefully attacked Yuanqu City in early February, who knows what tragic costs and sacrifices would have been required to possibly capture this city. But Wen Bo stubbornly dragged it out until half a year later in mid-August before formally killing his way into the city for street fighting.
Having not seen reinforcements advance south for such a long time, the defending officers and soldiers’ morale grew increasingly depressed.
From June onward, food in the city began to grow scarce. The defending forces spent over two months in the torment of semi-starvation.
During this period, Wen Bo’s organization of whirlwind catapults and other equipment to attack the city from outside had never stopped. The vanguard battalions formed from surrendered soldiers also made several feint attacks daily, not letting the defending forces rest.
When Great Liang elite troops killed their way into the city, they saw that the former elite Luzhou soldiers were almost all emaciated to skin and bones, weak and feeble. Wearing armor weighing fifty to sixty jin and wielding spears and halberds, their feet were somewhat unsteady.
On August eighteenth, Li Chi personally led elite troops in a pincer movement from two directions, launching a surprise assault into Yuanqu County Office, routing the elite guard troops defending the county office compound and capturing Tian Weiye, who was commanding his subordinate officers and defending forces in a final resistance from the main administrative courtyard.
At this time, over six thousand remnant soldiers remained in Yuanqu City. At this moment, their will to resist completely collapsed, and they surrendered one after another, ending the eight-month-long Yuanqu offensive and defensive battle.
With the capture of Tian Weiye, who could be called the Mongol army’s foremost subordinate commander, the first phase of warfare at Ziguan Pass could be considered temporarily concluded, but the warfare did not pause because of this.
The Lingshang iron chain pontoon bridge connecting the northern and southern banks had been completed. Heavy wagons departing from north of Luoyang City could transport grain, military equipment, and other supplies all the way directly to beneath Yuanqu City. From Yuanqu south to Mashou Stronghold, as the southern section of Ziguan Pass, post roads between them had been repaired by successive dynasties since the Spring and Autumn period, even more expansive than the newly built post road between Lingshang and Mianchi.
After over two years of rest and reorganization, various unit forces saw military equipment playing an increasingly important role in combat. Officers and soldiers received excellent treatment. The greatest casualties in this attack on Yuanqu City were mainly borne by the vanguard battalions formed from surrendered soldiers. Main force troops only fought hard in the final assault into the city for street fighting. Casualties were not large, physical exhaustion was limited, and they had not lost their capacity for continued combat.
Besides having Su Lie and Huo Li’s two units, which had undertaken interception combat missions in the early stages and suffered larger casualties, withdraw to Yuanqu and the southern entrance strongholds of Ziguan Pass for rest and defense, Wen Bo simultaneously had Lin Sheng lead troops to defend the pass south of Anyi, tying down enemy forces in Anyi.
In late August, Wen Bo led the four infantry combat brigades of Li Chi, Han Bao, He Liufeng, and Wen Yuan, plus the cavalry brigades of Cao Ba and Zhu Zhen that had been transferred to Luoyang in mid-month, along with two reserve brigades, two supply and engineering brigades, and one vanguard battalion organized from five thousand Yuanqu surrendered soldiers, all under Wen Bo’s command and direction, advancing north.
In early September, Liang army forces totaling over fifty-five thousand troops crossed Shuanggou Ridge, entered Tazi Ravine, and arrived in the hills south of Jiang County, establishing camps and strongholds, eyeing Jiang County City to the north with predatory intent.
During the Spring and Autumn period, the state of Jin built Jiang City on the northern foothill slopes of Wuwu Mountain in the Fen River valley’s southeast as its national capital. After Qin destroyed the six states, Jiang County was established under Hedong Commandery. It had now been over one thousand one hundred years.
Jiang County—to its northeast was Yi City County, to its southwest was Wenxi County, to its north was Quwo County. These four counties jointly organized the most expansive heartland of the middle Fen River valley.
Capturing Jiang County and ascending the main peak of Zijin Mountain on Jiang County’s north side, the Fen River winding from the north made a large bend before one’s eyes, turning west until it joined the Yu River on the north side of Puban County.
The Fen River valley on the middle reaches’ southeast bank jointly formed by Jiang County and nearby Wenxi, Quwo, and Yi City was truly a strategic chokepoint—occupying it, one could observe westward toward Pujin Ferry, northward toward Taiyuan Prefecture, and eastward along the Fen River toward Shangdang.
To ensure this strategic chokepoint did not fall, in mid-August Wusu Dashi personally arrived at Jiang County to supervise the battle, assembling fifty thousand infantry and forty thousand cavalry concentrated at Jiang County from all directions. Including forces on both flanks, the elite troops the Mongol army concentrated in the middle and lower Fen River in mid-to-late August totaled over one hundred twenty thousand…