In early November, in the southern Shanxi basin east of the Taiyue Mountains, the weather grew increasingly harsh and cold. The wilderness and mountain ridges were already covered in blankets of white snow, and streams and rivers had frozen over.
By this time, the siege of Jincheng had entered its third month.
Li Xiu had led his forces in earlier sweeps through the northern parts of Zezhou, even advancing into Luzhou territory. But now he had contracted his troops to the two counties of Gaoping and Lingchuan in northern Zezhou, flanking the passage between Zezhou and Luzhou from left and right. However, they had not constructed extensive fortifications or military camps to completely seal off the corridor between Zezhou and Luzhou.
After news of the great victory at Fanchuan River arrived, Kong Xirong led the First and Second Central Campaign Armies and no longer maintained a complete encirclement of Jincheng. He deliberately opened up a passage on the northern side of Jincheng, focusing instead on reinforcing the encircling camps on the city’s left and right flanks.
However, even in such harsh winter conditions, work by over twenty thousand able-bodied men on constructing dams, water channels, and other projects at Black Tiger Ridge southwest of Jincheng had not ceased. This series of earthwork and stonework projects was designed to ensure that after next spring, rainfall from dozens of li around would be gathered into the reservoir lake on the northern slope of Black Tiger Ridge, then channeled directly to flood Jincheng below.
Before the war, Wusu Dashi had not withdrawn the southward-migrating Mongol people. Quite the contrary—he had directly gathered over a hundred thousand Mongol military and civilian personnel in Jincheng, adopting a desperate, fight-to-the-death posture.
Wusu Dashi clearly did not believe that with these hundred thousand-plus Mongol military and civilians, he was truly qualified to fight a decisive battle against Liang’s elite forces in Zezhou territory.
Beyond delaying Jincheng’s fall, Wusu Dashi’s actions were mainly based on the hope that Yang Yuanyan, Yang Zhitang, and other youthful or hawkish factions in Chu who resented Huaixi’s incorporation into Liang could successfully inflict heavy damage on Liang forces from the southern front, thereby breaking the siege of southern Shanxi.
The Battle of Fanchuan River officially declared Wusu Dashi’s wishful thinking bankrupt.
Kong Xirong opened a narrow passage on the northern side of Jincheng to allow this news to enter the city smoothly and spread among Jincheng’s military and civilian population. He wanted to see how much resistance remained in the hearts of Jincheng’s defenders after learning that their hopes of Chu forces relieving their siege had turned to bubbles.
Beyond weakening the resistance of the Mongol military and civilians, Kong Xirong still hoped to induce the hundred thousand-plus Mongol military and civilians to break out through the gap he had deliberately opened northward, planning to lure them into the wilderness of northern Zezhou where these hundred thousand-plus Mongol military and civilians could be completely annihilated, rather than dragging the war into next summer.
Of course, even if these Mongol military and civilians did not break out northward, and the war dragged on until after next spring, flooding Jincheng with accumulated water according to the established plan would be a last resort measure.
On a bitterly cold winter night, over a dozen dark figures approached Jincheng from the north, first attracting the attention of the city defenders with the distinctive tone of a reed flute.
After the dozen-plus infiltrators were hauled up to the city head in hanging baskets, Zong Bei, the northern city commandant, caught sight of Xiao Yiqing’s gaunt face, frozen pale in the firelight, and was startled. He hurried over to pay his respects: “Master Xiao, why have you come in person?”
Over sixty years old, Xiao Yiqing’s body could not match that of military veterans. Having trekked over mountains and through waters, penetrating Liang’s blockade lines, he had suffered greatly. By now he was utterly exhausted, and the bone-piercing cold was unbearable.
Supported by his guards, he sat down with his back against the parapet wall. His boots were soaked through with snow water. Even wrapped in thick felt, he couldn’t stop shivering. His voice trembled as he asked:
“Where are Siqing and Zhe’he?”
“I’ll immediately send someone to notify General Zhe’he and General Xiao,” Zong Bei said.
Xiao Yiqing rested in the tower for a while. Xiao Siqing, Zhe’he, and other Jincheng defenders rushed over. By this time he had drunk a bowl of hot soup and had somewhat recovered.
“You all know that Liang and Chu armies fought a battle at Fanchuan River, don’t you?” Xiao Yiqing asked.
“Liang forces shot arrow-letters into the city. I believed their intention was to confuse people’s hearts, so I ignored them and strictly forbade soldiers from privately spreading such matters,” said Zhe’he. As a young Mongol general who had risen over the past decade, he was also a noble kinsman of the Mongol Thirteen Wing Tribes and had studied military strategy and Han classics under Xiao Yiqing in his youth. He was currently one of the core generals of the Southern Court.
In the Battle of Zhiguan Pass, Zhe’he’s unit suffered the heaviest casualties. Afterward, he was assigned to Jincheng to serve as Inspector of Zezhou.
Xiao Siqing, meanwhile, had been sent over to lead forces strengthening Jincheng’s defense after Yangcheng fell.
Their initial battle plan was to hold Jincheng until next summer. They were certain that after Chu swallowed the Min region, domestic sentiment would be fervent, and they should mobilize troops before next spring and summer. As long as Chu forces attacked Huaixi, Liang forces would inevitably retreat without fighting.
Who could have imagined that Liang forces would shoot arrow-letters into the city claiming that Chu forces had acted rashly and suffered heavy losses?
Zhe’he and Xiao Siqing were not completely disbelieving of the arrow-letters’ contents, but under these circumstances, what else could they do besides strictly forbidding soldiers from privately spreading such matters?
“Bring me those arrow-letters to look at…” Xiao Yiqing said.
Every day, over a hundred arrow-letters were shot into the city. The language was concise, even accompanied by images, so that even most illiterate soldiers could roughly guess their meaning after viewing them.
Zhe’he had several different types of arrow-letters on his person. He took them out for Xiao Yiqing to examine.
After reading the arrow-letters, Xiao Yiqing found nothing exaggerated—perhaps Liang forces didn’t need to exaggerate at all.
With twelve thousand troops, actively crossing Fanchuan River and defeating nearly thirty thousand soldiers from what Chu considered their elite forces with absolute superiority and no dramatic fluctuations—this was already sufficiently shocking.
“Prince Chu Xin Yang Yuanyan did indeed attempt to attack Huaixi in early October, but suffered a severe setback in the Battle of Fanchuan River. Yang Yuanyan was wounded by arrows in this battle and was only saved from death on the battlefield when his subordinates desperately rescued him. Currently, Chu forces are silent as cicadas in winter. Although they still deploy over a hundred thousand troops along the Yangtze River line, don’t expect them to have the courage to attack Huaixi again in the short term. Meanwhile, the Sima clan has completely stopped mentioning joining Chu and has withdrawn several secret envoys from Chuzhou. I suspect the Sima clan may have even secretly sent envoys to Luoyang…” Xiao Yiqing said.
Currently, Liang forces had deliberately opened the passage north of Jincheng. The defenders could completely send scouts to verify the arrow-letters’ contents. Since Xiao Yiqing had come personally, he certainly wouldn’t conceal what could be called an utterly terrible current situation.
Xiao Siqing and Zhe’he stood there stunned. They had expected the situation to be unfavorable but hadn’t imagined it could be this bad!
The current situation meant that Chu forces were completely unable to tie down much of Liang’s forces from the southern front. Even the Sima clan, who had originally planned to possibly turn toward Chu, might now turn toward Liang forces instead?
Didn’t this mean that Eastern Liang forces would also find it difficult to pose any substantial threat to Liang forces from the eastern front?
Xiao Yiqing had noticed the Sima clan’s intention to join Chu, as well as Xu Jin and Zhao Mingting’s wavering hearts, but he had maintained silence. The main reason was that after Liang Shixiong and Weibo’s elite forces were annihilated at Xingyang, Zhu Rang and Liang Ren were incapable of achieving anything significant.
Rather than continuing to bind the Sima clan together with Zhu Rang and Liang Ren, unable to pose much threat to Liang forces from the eastern front, Xiao Yiqing had hoped more that after the Sima clan joined Chu, they could cooperate with Yang Yuanyan, Yang Zhitang, and others to divide Huaixi and inflict heavy damage on Liang forces from the southern front, thereby effectively reducing the pressure they faced in the north.
Who could have imagined that what was once Chu’s most elite Chuzhou Army would prove so utterly vulnerable?
Now that Liang forces had deliberately opened a narrow passage north of Jincheng, their intention was not hard to guess—the purpose was to lure the hundred thousand-plus military and civilian personnel in Jincheng to break out northward.
However, Liang forces had nearly a hundred thousand elite troops to the east, west, and north of Jincheng. For the hundred thousand-plus military and civilian personnel to traverse over three hundred li of wilderness in the ice and snow without sufficient reinforcements to reach Luzhou City or escape to regions further north of Luzhou was nothing short of a pipe dream.
In other words, Liang forces’ deeper intention was to lure their forces from Luzhou and Taiyuan into northern Zezhou to receive the Jincheng forces withdrawing north, conveniently allowing them to launch another large-scale battle in northern Zezhou.
Knowing full well that Liang forces’ “siege on three sides, leaving one gap” intention was so naked and obvious, Wusu Dashi could not do nothing and abandon the hundred thousand-plus Mongol military and civilian personnel in Jincheng.
Currently, Liang forces had completely mastered the rhythm of the north and south battlefields. Even if they abandoned the hundred thousand-plus Mongol military and civilian personnel in Jincheng, Liang forces had sufficient patience and capability to drag things out until next late spring, or even until after entering summer, accumulating water from mountain streams and rivers, using dams and large channels to guide it over to flood Jincheng.
At that time, the hundred thousand-plus Mongol military and civilian personnel in Jincheng would find it difficult to escape the tragic fate of complete annihilation.
The Mongol Southern and Northern Courts’ Thirteen Wing Tribes had a total population of only about one million. Knowing full well that nearly one-eighth of their military and civilian population was trapped in Liang forces’ jaws, if Wusu Dashi stood by and watched them die, not only would the Northern Court erupt in chaos, but even on the Southern Court side, who knew how many officers would be full of complaints.
However, to rescue them, they could not delay. At this time, the northern lands were frozen with ice and snow, and streams and rivers were sealed with ice—conditions still more favorable for elite Mongol cavalry to fight in the hilly wilderness between the Taiyue and Taihang Mountains.
They absolutely could not be careless, though.
That Liang forces dared set such a trap represented considerable confidence on their part—just as before Prince Chu Xin Yang Yuanyan intended to invade Huaixi, Han Qian had dared deploy only minimal forces in Huaixi, with no intention of transferring his northern elite forces south…
—
“Sima De is the son of Sima Yan. When Sima Yan died of illness in Biangjing years ago, Sima Tan held military and political power in Xuzhou, and Sima De could not compete with his uncle. For nearly a decade he has devoted himself to poetry and songs to avoid suspicion. This time Sima Tan’s use of Sima De as envoy to come to Luoyang to have an audience with His Majesty should also consider that Sima Yan and Sima De’s branch of the Sima clan has no record of antagonism with Bianliang…”
Sitting on the soft carpet, Feng Yi spoke of how he and Wen Ruilin had met with the Sima clan’s secret envoy Sima De in Chenzhou on their return journey from Tangyi, traveling together back to Luoyang.
When Zhu Yu launched his military coup to usurp the throne and ascend to emperor, the then-head of the Sima clan, Sima Yan, had quickly memorialized his support. When Zhu Yu personally led his army on the southern expedition, both Sima Yan and his son Sima De attended upon the emperor and were quite diligent, earning Zhu Yu’s trust.
Later, Sima Yan had followed Zhu Yu to Biangjing to serve in office, and the positions of Xuzhou Inspector and Xuzhou-Sizhou Defense Commissioner were assumed by Han Yuanqi—it was only after the Hebei Upheaval, when Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun led troops rushing to Bianliang’s aid, that military and political power in Xuzhou-Sizhou fell back into the Sima clan’s hands.
After Sima Yan died of illness in Biangjing, under Sima Tan’s leadership, the Sima clan quickly severed ties with Biangjing and essentially maintained independence. They subsequently allied with Shouzhou forces and pledged allegiance to Zhu Rang and Liang Shixiong, who were backed by the Mongols.
People like Gu Qian, Zhu Juezhong, Chen Youjian, Zhou Daoyuan, as well as Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun, still had quite favorable impressions of the Sima clan members from Sima Yan and Sima De’s branch.
After the Battle of Fanchuan River, Sima Tan’s reactivation of Sima De to secretly make diplomatic overtures to Luoyang to resolve Luoyang’s “hostility” could be called “knowing people and using them well.”
The opinions of Gu Qian, Zhu Juezhong, Chen Youjian, Zhou Daoyuan, and others were that currently the issues of Shouzhou forces and the states of Shu and Chu had not yet reached a conclusion. Liang currently found it difficult to directly recover the Xuzhou-Sizhou region. Under present circumstances, they hoped Sima Tan would demonstrate sincerity by allowing members of Sima De’s branch, who emotionally might be closer to Luoyang, to control military and political power in Xuzhou-Sizhou as a necessary transition. At the same time, the Sima clan should also purchase appropriate quantities of cotton cloth, iron goods, and other commodities from Huaixi through Zhongli, Linhao, and other places—only this could be seen as preliminary sincerity in willingness to peacefully resolve the Xuzhou-Sizhou issue.
“Well, what do you all think of the Left Secretariat’s proposals?” Han Qian looked at Feng Yi, Wen Ruilin, and Han Jianji, who were seated in the chamber, and asked.
The Right Secretariat had also formally established the Court of State Ceremonies, with Feng Yi serving as Commissioner. After Wen Ruilin was transferred back to Luoyang, he would serve as Vice Commissioner of the Court of State Ceremonies together with Han Jianji.
After the Left Secretariat made decisions on diplomatic strategies toward various feudal states and local powers, the Court of State Ceremonies, as one of the constituent offices of the Right Secretariat, was primarily responsible for concrete implementation.
Because the Staff Office’s external intelligence gathering and infiltration work overlapped considerably with the Court of State Ceremonies’ external diplomatic affairs, Han Qian, besides valuing diplomatic work, also did not want the Secret Bureau, as an intelligence department, to expand its power excessively. In terms of institutional design, he required that the Secret Bureau’s external intelligence gathering and infiltration accept dual leadership from both the Court of State Ceremonies and the Staff Office.
Therefore, compared to the traditional Court of Diplomatic Reception, the Court of State Ceremonies wielded much greater power.
This time, Wen Ruilin could be considered as formally entering Liang’s power core.
“We can first keep Sima De in Luoyang for an extended observation period,” Wen Ruilin suggested.
“Fine. When you think the time is right, it won’t be too late for me to receive Sima De,” Han Qian nodded, agreeing to the current arrangements for the Sima clan by the Left Secretariat and the Court of State Ceremonies. He said, “If we can use peaceful means to have the Sima clan surrender military power and recover Xuzhou-Sizhou, we should make every possible effort to achieve this.”
“After news of the great victory at Fanchuan River reached Chengdu Prefecture, the Shu ruler Wang Yong immediately sent envoys rushing to Luoyang, hoping to select students to study at Luoyang Academy. At the same time, the Shu envoy also carried a private letter from Shu’s Left Deputy Secretary Jing Qiongwen addressed to me, inquiring whether you have any intention of proclaiming yourself emperor. From the letter’s meaning, as long as you proclaim yourself emperor, Shu will immediately sever its feudal relationship with the Chu court and pay tribute to us as vassals,” Feng Yi continued. “The Shu state really is perceptive and sensible!”
“Pay tribute as vassals?” Han Qian smiled, with some measure of disdain.
Previously, to facilitate the Liang-Chu peace agreement, Liang had called itself a state rather than a court and simultaneously acknowledged vassalage to Chu. All offices had also reduced their ranks and changed their titles. Even before his death, Zhu Yu had voluntarily accepted a lower rank, and even Princess Yunhe had been demoted to Commandery Princess Yunhe.
Relations between Liang and Chu had completely ruptured. Liang no longer needed to acknowledge vassalage to Chu, and Feng Liao, Gu Qian, and others now hoped these various matters could be promptly corrected.
For example, the Military Staff Office should revert to the Privy Council, the Left Secretariat to the Central Secretariat, the Deliberative Council to the Chancellery, the Right Secretariat to the Department of State Affairs, and all offices should revert to “Six Ministries offices.”
Of course, the most fundamental point here involved Han Qian “proclaiming himself emperor.”
“Let’s just defer all these matters for now. Who has the time to concern themselves with such things now?” Han Qian shook his head, telling the Court of State Ceremonies not to heed Jing Qiongwen’s encouragement or get involved in these matters.
Proclaiming himself emperor, changing office plaques, or even having Shu acknowledge vassalage and pay tribute—these were all matters of saving face, not urgent necessities at this time. Han Qian would not trouble himself with such things at this critical juncture.
No matter how much Feng Liao and Gu Qian insisted, Han Qian would not allow the court to return to the old structure of Three Departments and Six Ministries.
Han Qian’s disagreement with directly proclaiming himself emperor at this time had another layer of consideration: after the factual rupture in Liang-Chu relations, commercial exchange between Liang and Chu—at least on the surface—had completely ceased.
Even though Han Qian had issued an edict before the war, when the situation became urgent, requiring Jingzhao Prefecture and the three provinces of Yongzhou, Hedong, and Henan to increase this year’s investments in infrastructure and people’s livelihood construction, thereby expanding domestic demand to absorb possible excess production capacity and commodity surplus, the rupture in Liang-Chu relations still meant the sudden loss of an export market with annual trade values as high as twenty million strings of cash. The impact on industrial and mining production in Huaixi, Xuzhou Prefecture, and other places was still enormous.
Han Qian’s refusal to directly proclaim himself emperor, and his current lack of interest in requiring Shu to acknowledge vassalage and pay tribute to Liang, beyond not caring about empty titles, was mainly because he wanted to continue exporting some commodities to Jing, Xiang, Yue, Tan, E, and Jiang prefectures through Shu as intermediary merchants.
At the same time, it was a way to identify and attract forces friendly to Liang.
These were all matters that the Court of State Ceremonies needed to participate in.
The number of forces within Chu friendly to Liang would determine what fundamental strategy could be adopted toward Chu in the future—whether it would be necessary to launch a full-scale war of conquest with the entire nation’s resources, or whether it would be possible to achieve the merger of Liang and Chu into one nation through small-scale warfare combined with peaceful transformation.
At this time, the covert agents and spies lurking in Jinling were mainly testing attitudes from all sides, doing everything possible to subtly weaken the internal resistance within Chu toward Liang.
Han Qian was discussing with Feng Yi, Wen Ruilin, and Han Jianji the work priorities and key points for the Court of State Ceremonies over the coming period when Wang Zhe and Qin Wen entered Lingyun Pavilion carrying a document and reported:
“According to intelligence from sources inside Jincheng, Xiao Yiqing was indeed among the several people who infiltrated Jincheng four days ago! Not only have Kong Xirong, Han Donghu, and Li Xiu all submitted requests, but Minister Li and Minister Tian have also both advocated that fire-subduing crossbows can be used in this battle. In addition, the Staff Office also suggests that the Court of State Ceremonies send people to accompany Sima De and the Shu envoys to Jincheng to observe the battle…”
“If we can lure the main Mongol forces out from Taiyuan this time, if we don’t use the fire-subduing crossbows now, when will we?” Feng Yi also said excitedly.
By the late Han period, the upper classes already had the custom of taking Five Mineral Powders and other metallic-mineral medicines. Alchemists commonly used the fire-subduing method to remove the violent toxicity from metallic-mineral medicines. This had already been seven or eight hundred years of history.
The so-called fire-subduing method, whether using saltpeter to subdue sulfur in metallic-mineral medicines or using sulfur to subdue saltpeter in metallic-mineral medicines, was essentially the violent combustion reaction of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal in the metallic-mineral medicines.
By the end of the previous dynasty, alchemists honored as distinguished guests by the gentry elite had produced fire-subduing pills and lead pills that could be considered prototypes of gunpowder. They had even invented the technique of using saltpeter to make ice. However, there were significant deficiencies in the processes of identifying, refining, and pulverizing saltpeter and sulfur, which meant that fire-subduing pills had not yet attracted military attention.
When Han Qian had held Huaixi, he had Liyang Academy begin researching gunpowder (fire-subduing pills).
At that time, the fire-subduing pill production methods handed down from the previous dynasty were too crude and rudimentary. It was also unknown whether large-scale saltpeter deposits existed within Huaixi territory—even now, no naturally occurring saltpeter mines had been discovered within Huaixi. The preparation and purification of saltpeter, as well as the differentiation between true saltpeter and Glauber’s salt and other minerals, were all major problems at the time.
Only after Han Qian succeeded to the position of Liang ruler did gunpowder production techniques become relatively mature. However, large-scale saltpeter deposits had still not been surveyed within Huaixi territory. At the same time, steel smelting and casting could not yet be considered mature. Therefore, gunpowder technology had always been strictly kept secret and not put into practical use.
Represented by the spring-arm crossbow, the carved iron blade chariot, and steel-framed iron-armored warships, Liang’s steel smelting technology had developed into a new level.
In these two years, the techniques for preparing saltpeter using existing minerals within Liang territory had also become relatively mature. Luoyang Academy, which had undertaken subsequent research tasks, had successfully tested fire cannons suitable for combat deployment by the end of last year, along with several types of practical shells including explosive rounds. They were internally designated as fire-subduing crossbows.
When the Chu-Liang situation became critical, besides transferring Zhao Wuji, Cao Ba, Li Chi, and Lu Ze to rotate into Chuzhou, Han Qian had also secretly transferred the first batch of thirty fire-subduing crossbows produced into Huainan Province. Twelve fire-subduing crossbows were equipped on the two newest iron-armored steel-framed warships, while another eighteen were secretly deployed in Tangyi and Shiliang cities.
Unfortunately, Yang Yuanyan had completely failed to lead Chuzhou forces successfully into Tangyi and Shiliang county territory. When Zhao Wuji raised troops to attack from the densely forested and swampy Fanchuan River region into Chuzhou territory, a fire-subduing crossbow weighing over five thousand jin and measuring over three meters long thus lost its first opportunity to enter combat and test its power.
Since the fire-subduing crossbows suitable for combat deployment were only successfully tested at the end of last year, and had been primarily deployed secretly to the southern front in the early period, the First and Second Central Campaign Armies on the northern front had each only been equipped with one battalion of fire-subduing crossbows, totaling just twenty-four fire-subduing crossbows.
Even fire cannons capable of launching twenty-kilogram solid shot had relatively limited destructive effect on solid city walls in the short term before achieving scale. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Han Qian required Kong Xirong and Han Donghu to avoid using fire-subduing crossbows in actual combat as much as possible.
Currently, the Imperial Guard Camp had been equipped with four more battalions of fire-subduing crossbows. Anticipating that the main Mongol cavalry forces would very likely emerge from Taiyuan Prefecture this time to rush to northern Zezhou to receive their Jincheng defenders withdrawing north, commanders at the front like Kong Xirong, Han Donghu, and Li Xiu, as well as Li Zhigao and Tian Cheng, all felt that the Imperial Guard Army’s four battalions of fire-subduing crossbows should be urgently transferred to the southern Shanxi battlefield to participate in the battle against Mongol forces…