In early September, there was already a slight chill in Luoyang City. Grass and leaves began to wither, and when a gust of wind blew, yellow leaves fell.
Tian Weiye stood tall and dignified in the hall, his tiger-like eyes restrained and composed as he calmly observed the various people in the hall. He lacked much self-awareness of being a prisoner, and with interest glanced at the military campaign map hanging on the western wall of the great hall.
Han Qian, wearing a vermilion python robe, sat behind the imperial desk in Lingyun Pavilion, also observing Tian Weiye. Of medium build, without much martial bearing—if not for him deliberately maintaining what he considered his dignity, his appearance could be said to be quite ordinary.
Yet such a person, who had initially been unremarkable as a guard officer beside Jin Prince of Lu Shi Chengyuan, only rose to prominence because his younger sister Lady Tian was taken as a consort by the Jin Prince of Lu. He then rapidly advanced to positions like Luzhou Military Commissioner, Commander of Military Forces, and Luzhou Governor, even suffering contempt from other Jin army commanders due to his nepotistic connections.
When the Prince of Lu rushed to Taiyuan Prefecture to compete for position, he left Tian Weiye to defend Luzhou.
Tian Weiye’s truly famous battle was when, under the siege of one hundred thousand elite Liang army troops led by Zhu Yu, he stubbornly defended Luzhou City for over a year, never allowing the Liang army to break into the city.
Due to the city’s grain supplies being exhausted, Tian Weiye led his troops to surrender Luzhou City to the Mengwu people.
Prince of Lu Shi Chengyuan was furiously enraged by this. He had Noble Consort Lady Tian, along with Tian Weiye’s wife, children, elderly mother who had relocated to Taiyuan at the time, and nearly three hundred members of the Tian clan relatives, dragged before Taiyuan City gates and beheaded with their corpses exposed.
This ultimately led to Tian Weiye being the first to lead troops to break into Taiyuan City, and finally driving Prince of Lu Shi Chengyuan along with his children and consorts into the Jin Palace, burning them all to death in one fire, completely burying the foundation that the Jin state had established over merely twenty years.
Afterward, Tian Weiye willingly became the Mengwu people’s henchman, successively attacking and occupying Jin, Pu, Yan, Lin, and other provinces. Ultimately, it was he who led troops to capture Yongzhou City. It could be said he rendered outstanding meritorious service for the Mengwu people’s southern invasion.
Victory and defeat on the battlefield were common occurrences. All the ministers and commanders in these times had forged iron-hearted resolve, viewing the cruelty and bloodshed of the battlefield and even tens of thousands of deaths quite lightly.
Even though Tian Weiye willingly allowed himself to be employed by the Mengwu people, and the number of Liang army officers and soldiers who died at Tian Weiye’s hands was certainly not small, even Gu Qian, Jing Hao, Han Yuanqi, and others did not advocate imposing capital punishment on Tian Weiye. They even advocated recruiting Tian Weiye’s surrender.
This was respect for the formidable strength he had demonstrated on the battlefield.
Great Liang did not lack famous ministers and veteran commanders. Even if they recruited Tian Weiye’s surrender, Han Qian was unclear how much genuine loyalty this lone man could truly have toward Great Liang in his heart. It was impossible to have him command military and political affairs again.
However, Han Qian considered that even after Tian Weiye had bloodily slaughtered Shi Chengyuan after capturing Taiyuan Prefecture, he could still gain ordinary sympathy and recognition within the Jin state. If Tian Weiye could surrender, it would still weaken the resistance will of Jin territory’s soldiers and civilians.
Since Great Ancestor Zhu Wen of Liang rose to prominence in the River-Huai region, the two armies of Liang and Jin had been fighting on the northern and southern banks of the Yu River for nearly forty years. The intensity of warfare exceeded that between Liang and Chu, and far exceeded that between Liang and Shu.
The soldiers and civilians of Liang and Jin territories could be said to be hereditary enemies.
This caused Chen Yuanchen’s troops, when attempting to infiltrate into the more densely populated mountainous areas of the southern foothills of Taihang Mountain, to encounter quite strong resistance. Currently, results were not ideal—this could no longer be explained just by these mountain regions’ local magnate clan forces being relatively strong.
Tian Weiye and his captured soldiers mainly came from the eastern foothills of Taiyue Mountain, the northern slopes of Taihang Mountain’s southern foothills, the western foothills of Taihang Mountain, and the entire southern Jin and central Jin regions including the Shangdang Basin.
Wen Bo organizing the surrendered soldiers into vanguard battalions and driving them to fight to the death attacking city walls was based on tactical considerations, to effectively reduce casualties among his own elite troops.
Han Qian did not oppose this decision, but privately wrote to Wen Bo, hoping he could be both strict and lenient with these surrendered soldiers. Especially surrendered soldiers who had experienced three charges should be given treatment as elite combat troops. Even those meritorious surrendered soldiers with strong wishes to return home should be given travel money and allowed to leave.
Han Qian did this based on strategic-level considerations.
Only after effectively reducing the resistance will of soldiers and civilians in southern Jin, central Jin, and other areas could infiltration and guerrilla warfare be used in Taiyue Mountain and the mountainous areas of Taihang Mountain’s southern foothills, preparing in advance for subsequently weakening and expelling the Mengwu people’s rule in this region.
The role of infiltration warfare should not be underestimated. In this northern expedition from Ziguan Pass, especially in the early stages of warfare delaying enemy reinforcements from entering Yuanqu—besides heavy snow—the troops that had entered Li Mountain and Wuwu Mountain in the early stages to take root deserved great credit.
Regarding recruiting Tian Weiye’s surrender, Feng Liao and Gu Qian advocated granting him the third-rank military scattered official title of귀德 General, bestowing a residence, and first maintaining him in Luoyang City. But to show emphasis on surrendered Jin army generals, Han Qian specially summoned him for audience in Lingyun Pavilion.
However, seeing his appearance, Han Qian lost interest and said a few comforting words before permitting him to withdraw.
“Tian Weiye didn’t show too much interest in this military campaign map.” Watching Tian Weiye leave under the “escort” of guards, Feng Liao turned back to glance at the campaign map beside him and said with considerable feeling.
What truly gave Han Qian a headache now was how to advance the second phase of warfare in the northern expedition to Ziguan Pass.
By directly summoning Tian Weiye for audience in Lingyun Pavilion this time, he also intended to display some subsequent operational plans of the Staff Department on this campaign map to test Tian Weiye’s reaction.
Speaking of those who currently had an extremely clear understanding of both sides’ troops and combat strength, Tian Weiye absolutely ranked among the top.
After seeing this campaign map, the subtle reactions in Tian Weiye’s expression could directly reflect his predictions about the outcome of subsequent warfare between the two armies.
However, Tian Weiye’s performance was much calmer than everyone had imagined. Or perhaps Tian Weiye deliberately wanted to demonstrate his dignity as a surrendered general who was neither servile nor overbearing, leaving everyone without much gain.
Han Qian rested his chin in his hand, gazing at the map on the western wall, lost in thought.
Wusu Dashi had assembled over one hundred twenty thousand elite troops in the Fen River valley, including fifty thousand elite cavalry from the Mengwu clan itself. Their combat strength could not be underestimated.
Besides the Mengwu people developing smelting and manufacturing in Yanyun and Bohai in early years, these years they had relocated the Southern Court to Taiyuan Prefecture, and the manufacturing scale and level had made considerable progress. Even if their direct-line troops lacked powerful weapons like spring-arm war crossbows, their overall equipment level was not low.
In the Fen River valley where terrain was relatively open and favorable for coordinated infantry-cavalry operations, if troop scales were comparable, Great Liang forces equipped with the latest spring-arm war equipment could only exert quite limited advantages.
Moreover, the disparity in troop strength between both sides was so great.
Counting all of Great Liang’s forces currently in Jiang County, south of Anyi, and throughout Yuanqu territory, they currently had only over sixty-five thousand soldiers.
However, besides emerging from the northern slopes of Wuwu Mountain to engage the enemy army in decisive battle on the Fen River middle reaches’ southeast bank valley, Han Qian had no other better choices.
First, he could not withdraw troops from the northern slopes of Wuwu Mountain.
If he did that, with Wusu Dashi having assembled such a large-scale army, even if fearing disadvantageous combat in deep gorges and large valleys and not directly entering Ziguan Pass from the north to recapture Yuanqu, he would very likely cross the Yu River and Wei River after winter arrived, join forces with Wang Yuankui’s troops, and attack Huazhou and Tongguan.
If he didn’t withdraw troops from the northern slopes of Wuwu Mountain but intended to confront Wusu Dashi’s commanded forces at the northern foothills of Wuwu Mountain and in Jiang County territory without engaging in decisive battle, that was also not a good strategy.
Dragging it out to the depths of winter, their eastern flank defenses would be vulnerable, easily exploited by the Eastern Liang army. Having directly attacked the core territory controlled by the Mengwu people this time, demonstrating such strong combat strength and fighting will, Zhu Rang and Xu Mingzhen would certainly choose to fight hard.
Moreover, this year’s news that Great Liang forces had directly advanced north from Ziguan Pass intending to directly seize the Fen River valley should have reached Shu and Chu by now. This battle demonstrated Great Liang’s strength and confidence. Having annihilated nearly forty thousand enemy troops so far, and almost completely wiping out Tian Weiye’s elite Luzhou troops that had once swept through Hedong, was sufficient to completely reverse Chu and Shu’s views on the Heluo situation.
Such news reaching Shu and Chu would inevitably trigger extremely complex psychological changes in Shen Yang, Yang En, Du Chongtao, as well as Wang Yong, Cao Gan, Jing Qiongwen, and others.
If the confrontation at the northern foothills of Wuwu Mountain dragged on, these psychological changes among the Shu and Chu people could potentially gradually evolve into substantial subtle shifts in Shu-Chu relations with Great Liang.
They still had to fight, but the key was how to fight?
“Where have Zhao Ci and Lu Ze’s cavalry units reached now?” Han Qian suddenly asked.
“New information just arrived at noon today. The two cavalry units arrived at Ruyang and Songyang one after another. They can reach Luoyang in two days,” Yin Peng said.
For the upcoming decisive battle, Han Qian had transferred Zhao Ci and Lu Ze’s cavalry units all the way back to Luoyang from Chengzhou over a thousand li. Combined with Zhu Zhen and Cao Ba’s units that had already advanced north, they would have a total of over twelve thousand elite cavalry available on the northern slopes of Wuwu Mountain.
Besides Li Xiu still leading one cavalry unit garrisoning Chenzhou, these over twelve thousand elite cavalry were essentially the results of Great Liang’s efforts over recent years in building cavalry forces by selling everything—actually, there was no need to sell everything. Importing several thousand excellent warhorses annually from Songfan and Qishan meant warhorse numbers were already sufficient, but officers and soldiers proficient in mounted archery were still insufficient.
Great Liang’s previous combat zones had also restricted cavalry deployment. Early military expansion focused mainly on heavy armored infantry. When cavalry was truly needed in large numbers, they were regrettably few.
Conducting decisive battle in the open Fen River valley, with the Liang army’s infantry combat brigades as the main force, they would be fearless of enemy cavalry attacking from the front. But during mobile operations, they still needed elite cavalry to protect the flanks.
Of course, to overcome the cavalry shortage deficiency, both flanks would deploy more light war chariots loaded with crossbow equipment.
More crucial at present was mobilizing and requisitioning more troops to advance north for combat.
Entering October, the streams flowing through the Fen River valley had formed thin ice, grass and leaves turned yellow, and looking out across the mountain ridges of Wuwu Mountain’s northern foothills, branches were sparse and leaves scarce, with heaven and earth shrouded in dark yellow tones.
Tens of thousands of troops surged from the barriers and gorges of Wuwu Mountain’s northern foothills like a blue-black flood, quietly flowing across the open river valley plain.
Prior to this, over four hundred warships of the Luoyang navy had advanced north along the Yu River’s great river bend from north of Tongguan.
At the northeastern foothills of Xiangshan, a ferry bridge built during the previous dynasty spanned across the Yu River, connecting this Pujin Ferry that had been renowned throughout the realm since Qin and Han times. This ferry bridge was formed by connecting floating boats with iron chains as thick as arms, with both banks using four iron oxen each weighing one hundred thousand jin for traction.
Although each iron ox was cast in segments by parts and then joined as one whole, it could still be called the greatest of the contemporary world. Each iron ox was also anchored with seven iron posts.
Puzhou City, twenty li east of Pujin Ferry, served as the side gate to Guanzhong, called the first lock controlling the land routes from Hedong and Heshuo into Guanzhong, and together with Tongguan to the south was called a vital pass of Guanzhong.
The Luoyang navy naturally had no capability to attack Puzhou City at this time. Even sailing upstream against the current, when approaching Pujin Bridge, they braved arrows and stones from the Mongol troops defending the bridge, risking having their warships suspended in the rapids while having officers and soldiers use giant axes to slowly chop through the iron chains, destroying the ferry bridge and opening passage to continue sailing upstream until entering the Fen River.
Xiao Yiqing accompanied Wusu Dashi standing atop Zijin Mountain on the north side of Jiang County, frowning as he looked toward the forest of masts and oars in the Fen River bend twenty li away.
“Does Han Qian truly believe victory is already in his pocket?” Wusu Dashi’s low voice carried a trace of suppressed anger.
The streams and rivers throughout the River-Huai realm would only successively freeze around mid-to-late November, but Hedong, Heshuo, and other areas north of the Yu River would freeze earlier. Even sudden northern cold currents causing the Fen River to freeze by late October was an extremely common occurrence over the past fifty to sixty years.
The Luoyang navy at this time making a detour of several hundred li by water route to enter the great river bend of the Fen River on the west side of Quwo County meant that if the Liang army main forces could not break through the passage from Jiang County, Quwo, and Wenxi approaching the Fen River’s southeast bank this winter, the Luoyang navy would very likely be completely annihilated in the Fen River.
Everything before their eyes also demonstrated the Liang army’s determination and confidence to engage in decisive battle and seize final victory.
Whether Han Qian had inflated to arrogant self-importance, Xiao Yiqing was not very clear, but he could clearly feel that the faces of commanders around him all grew gloomy, or their pupils more or less concealed some worry.
This was definitely not a good phenomenon with decisive battle about to unfold.
Yet Xiao Yiqing could say nothing about it. The fall of Yuanqu and Tian Weiye’s capture with his troops annihilated was already a shadow hanging over everyone’s hearts that was difficult to remove.
However, none of this was something he had failed to anticipate and worry about beforehand.
He had even very early on suggested replacing the troops in Puzhou and Hejin with infantry more skilled at defending strongholds, and building more barriers in the deep gorges and large valleys south of Jiang County and Anyi to defend them.
However, neither the Yanyun Han troops nor the Bohai kingdom’s auxiliary forces gained the Northern Court’s trust. Rumors that Wang Yuankui, Wang Xiaoxian, Tian Weiye, and others had bribed fleeing northern clans to scheme for Guanzhong and Hedong territories spread wantonly among Northern Court nobility.
Although Wusu Dashi ultimately persisted in enfeoffing Wang Yuankui and Wang Xiaoxian as Weinan and Fengxiang Military Governors, his orders hoping to recruit more Jin territory soldiers and transfer Yanyun Han troops to Hejin under Tian Weiye’s command to strengthen Ziguan Pass defenses were ultimately blocked by the Northern Court.
The Northern Court insisted that at least half the garrison forces in Hejin and Puzhou must be elite Mengwu clan cavalry.
This caused, when Liang troops crossed the river last year’s end to attack Yuanqu from the north, Xiao Siqing and others—worried that cavalry fighting in mountains would be disadvantageous—to fail to resolutely block harassment by small Liang army units, and fail to send reinforcements to join forces with Tian Weiye in Yuanqu. Ultimately blocked at the pass north of Yuanqu, they could only watch helplessly as Yuanqu City was besieged for seven months before finally being captured.
The over twenty thousand troops annihilated at Yuanqu were Jin territory’s most elite surrendered combat force. Under Tian Weiye’s leadership, they had first defended Luzhou City, causing Liang Emperor Zhu Yu to withdraw his troops in failure, then captured Taiyuan City, burying Jin state’s final foundation, and subsequently captured Yan, Lin, Yong, Tong, and other provinces.
With Tian Weiye captured and his main forces annihilated, leaving only over ten thousand remnant soldiers defending Anyi and other cities, how could this not heavily impact the morale of all officers and soldiers?
Any single military force exceeding ten thousand in scale would give people a sense of boundlessness, let alone both sides investing total forces exceeding two hundred thousand in the Fen River’s southeast valley.
Even if the Luoyang navy didn’t break through layers of blockade to enter the Fen River valley, as long as Han Qian was determined to launch decisive battle, it was destined to be a fight to the death.
After all, the pass valley exiting Ziguan Pass south of Jiang County had an opening of only two to three hundred paces.
Such a wide opening was sufficient for armies of over ten thousand scale to pass through, but for Liang forces with at least eighty to ninety thousand men entering the Fen River valley for combat, once warfare went badly, so many troops trying to withdraw through such a narrow opening into the northern foothills ridges of Wuwu Mountain in a short time would extremely easily form fatal chaos.
Xiao Yiqing had originally thought that considering this factor and considering they had assembled superior forces in the north, Han Qian wouldn’t dare rush into decisive battle and would choose to maintain a standoff with them.
Now it seemed he had still underestimated Han Qian and the Liang army’s determination and confidence…
“I’m merely responsible for sending reinforcements to you and helping boost morale, but how to fight this battle is still up to you and the vanguard commanders to decide…”
Han Qian, wearing a crimson cloak to resist the cutting wind and cold that had arrived in early October, reined in his horse on a hilltop, gazing at the vast scenery in the Fen River valley as he spoke to Wen Bo.
Besides the four reorganized infantry combat brigades of Feng Zhang, He Liufeng, Dou Rong, and Dong Tai, the other forty thousand reinforcements were all able-bodied men recruited over these two years from refugees who had fled from eastern Henan into western Henan and Nanyang, organized into eight reserve brigades before rushing over.
These forty thousand reinforcements had barely received four months of training and organization. Their combat strength naturally fell far short of main force infantry combat brigades, but this was already the limit of reinforcing troops to the Yuanqu frontline under current circumstances.
After all, Shu and Chu were observing the peace agreement without abnormalities this winter, but sufficient forces still had to be left on the eastern and western flanks to withstand offensives from Guanzhong Mongol forces and Eastern Liang army.
Of course, his order for the Luoyang navy to break through the Mongol army’s layers of blockade and advance into the Fen River bend north of Quwo and Wenxi Counties seemed intended to blockade retreating enemy routes and strive for the most bountiful and enticing results in this decisive battle.
But in reality, Han Qian made this deployment in case the decisive battle went unfavorably.
Once warfare went badly, forces that had entered deep into the Fen River valley to fight would find it very difficult to withdraw south through the narrow valley entrance. At that time, they could still fight their way to the Fen River’s south bank, join forces with the navy, and fight while retreating, able to withdraw from the western foothills of Xiangshan to north of Tongguan, avoiding having main forces completely annihilated in the Fen River valley if warfare went badly.
Therefore, this decisive battle absolutely had to determine victory or defeat before the Fen River froze.
Han Qian personally came to the front lines to supervise battle, but still handed command of the battlefield to Wen Bo, Guo Que, and other commanders.
In reality, with both sides committing over two hundred thousand troops to the battlefield, the battle zone covering nearly a hundred li—
Whether it was him, Wen Bo, or the enemy army’s commanders, none could fully control the progress of warfare across the entire situation.
Being able to smoothly deploy various unit forces to predetermined combat positions according to plan in the early stages would already be quite remarkable. When decisive battle progressed to its most intense stage, success would depend more on and test the command capabilities of commanders and officers at all levels.
If this battle could be won, Great Liang would establish the foundation for expelling barbarian invaders and securing dominion over the Central Plains. But if defeated, nearly three years of management would be destroyed in one stroke, and the situation might be even more dire.
Even with Han Qian’s excellent temperament, he had no way to quietly remain in Luoyang waiting for this battle’s final outcome…