“Since ancient times, in all matters, people generally know what happens but not why it happens. Moreover, most people do not reflect deeply or seek innovation, which is why over thousands of years, many phenomena have been ignored, and their underlying principles have never been explored.”
After seven years of separation, Han Qian once again sat in the Clear Hall of Lian Garden in Liyang City. His heart swelled with countless emotions. Sitting in the garden, he pointed to the exquisitely crafted water-powered stage in the corner and spoke to everyone present.
“During the reign of Emperor Ming of Wei, someone presented a wooden puppet theater with a hundred performances. Ma Jun created a moving wheel mechanism powered by hidden water flow beneath the stage. When the wheel turned, the wooden puppets on stage would move—female puppets danced and played music, drums beat and flutes played, wooden figures jumped and threw swords. People called it ‘ingeniously varied in countless ways.’ When I lived in Liyang, I also commissioned skilled craftsmen to build this stage. The stage has complete human and bird puppets, with hidden gears beneath, driven by flowing water, bringing them to life like a hundred children performing plays—quite lively. Wencong and Wenyuan both loved it endlessly back then. Most people just watched the spectacle, but we cannot merely watch the spectacle without understanding that the water-powered machinery Daliang has built over these years all follows these same principles. During the Former Han Dynasty, people said ‘artemisia fire makes chicken eggs fly.’ Many people, when first reading this phrase in ancient texts, did not understand its meaning. Later, during the Han Dynasty, Gao You explained: ‘Take a chicken egg and remove its contents, light artemisia fire, place it inside the empty shell, and swift wind will lift it up and make it fly.’ The actual principle is using the hot air rising from the lamp flame to make the eggshell float upward. During the Shu Han period, Zhuge Kongming followed this principle to create Kongming lanterns for transmitting signals. During the Han Dynasty, the great craftsman Ding Huan created a nine-layered Boshan incense burner. When incense inside the burner was lit, hot air rose, causing birds and beasts on the burner to revolve around mountains, called the ‘coiled dragon lamp.’ In fact, whether it’s the artemisia egg lamp or the coiled lamp, the principle is the same—all use fire to generate wind that drives continuous rotation and ascension. Returning to our original topic, how is this essentially different from water flow striking paddle wheels? How should the principles behind this be expressed using mathematical calculations? Over thousands of years, very few people have truly studied this deeply—this is truly regrettable!”
After Han Qian returned to Huainan, moving into Lian Garden in Liyang City which he had left years ago, he did not rush to summon his generals and ministers to discuss operational plans for crossing the river and campaigning south. Instead, he first gathered Chen Jitang and the teachers and students of Liyang Academy to discuss New Learning.
Although in recent years Han Qian had focused on promoting the development of Luoyang Comprehensive Academy, Liyang Comprehensive Academy had always remained a stronghold for the development of New Learning.
Many foundational technical breakthroughs in New Learning were made by Liyang Comprehensive Academy.
When Han Qian went north to inherit the throne of Daliang, Chen Jitang did not follow him north. Instead, he devoted his main energy to developing Liyang Comprehensive Academy. Not only did he not hold any important position in the central government, but even after the establishment of Huainan Province, he did not take on any specific assignments.
However, despite this, when the first batch of meritorious generals and officials were awarded honors at the beginning of the year, Han Qian insisted against opposition on granting Chen Jitang the title of Marquis Wushou to recognize his outstanding contributions to the development of New Learning.
This discussion lasted from morning until evening, brilliant and fascinating throughout. Han Qian witnessed the active thinking of the teachers and students at Liyang Academy, which greatly comforted him. He hosted them for a banquet in Lian Garden before respectfully seeing them off.
Although given his current prestige and position, this might seem somewhat ostentatious, he still needed to use this attitude to encourage New Learning to continue developing forward without falling into the quagmire of complacency.
After seeing off the dozens of teachers and students from Liyang Academy, Lian Garden became somewhat quieter. Li Zhigao, Gao Shao, Yang Qin, Kong Xirong, and Zhao Wuji needed to discuss plans for crossing the river and launching the campaign throughout the night. Han Qian did not need to concern himself with these trivial matters. He had fresh tea prepared and invited Feng Yi, Wang Zhe, and Yin Peng to join Chen Jitang and Wang Wenqian—Wang Jun’s father whom he had not summoned to Luoyang for years—to sit beneath the moon drinking tea.
For all these years, Wang Wenqian had been staying in Lian Garden. It was only when Han Qian personally led this southern expedition that Wang Wenqian temporarily moved out, vacating Lian Garden to serve as Han Qian’s command headquarters.
Han Qian personally held the teapot and poured tea for everyone. Finally, he asked Wang Wenqian:
“Prince Xin is arrogant. Even at this point, he may not necessarily submit, will he?”
“That’s correct. He would rather follow Zhu Rang’s example and burn himself to death than kneel in surrender to you. However, Zhao Zhen has been commanding troops in Suiyang these years with limited contact with Chuzhou, so some work can be done there,” Wang Wenqian said.
Currently, Daliang had assembled one hundred sixty to seventy thousand elite troops. Even with this formidable military force sweeping across both banks of the great river would not be difficult. But when Han Daoxun, in order to preserve the entire Chu state and royal house, had willingly endured brutal torture unto death, Wang Wenqian could understand that Han Qian now wished to reunify the realm using gentler, less violent means.
Although Wang Wenqian had not concerned himself with worldly affairs these past few years, he understood the current situation clearly—the attitudes of families like the Zheng family, Zhang Chao, Zhang Han, and even Zhang Xiang and his son Zhang Feng toward the Liang army had already softened.
However, just as Cao Gan and his son Cao Zhe, along with Jing Qiongwen, even though they understood the general trend, could never possibly actively persuade the Shu ruler Wang Yong to surrender to the Liang army, the Zheng family, Zhang Chao, Zhang Han, and Zhang Xiang with his son Zhang Feng still wanted to preserve their reputations so they could leave a good name in the historical records.
Sometimes life and death were not the most important things.
Moreover, if they surrendered, their clans would ultimately be broken up because of the New Policies. If they delayed surrender until the last moment, Han Qian could not possibly take his anger out on their clans.
Everything had advantages and disadvantages. Han Qian’s generous and merciful treatment of surrendered generals and captured soldiers had to a considerable degree weakened the will to resist among local powers along both banks of the Yangtze River and within the Chu army. But precisely because of this, some people would decide to wait and observe until the very end before making their choice.
At this point, it depended on what methods Han Qian would use to resolve such deadlocks in a less violent manner.
“Let’s not worry about Chuzhou for now. Tomorrow I will send someone to deliver a letter to Jinling, stating clearly that in three days I will dispatch warships to bombard the Jinghai Gate, and in six days the navy will also construct a pontoon bridge for crossing the river at Caishi,” Han Qian said while drinking tea. “If the Chu army ultimately chooses not to avoid our military advance, then we can only fight to the bitter end to determine the fate of the realm. Although my father could not bear to see the people of Jianghuai displaced by war and chaos, if he were alive, he would not want to see Jianghuai remain divided for long, nor would he want to see the soldiers and civilians of both regions struggling long under the shadow of war…”
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“Han Qian will dispatch warships to bombard Jinghai Gate in two days, ordering the Chu military and civilians to evacuate to avoid unnecessary casualties?”
With over a hundred thousand Liang elite troops swarming southward, Jinling City immediately fell into panic as dark clouds pressed down upon the city threatening to crush it. However, the Liang army’s declaration of war not only explicitly stated the time and location for bombarding Jinling and ordered Jinling’s military and civilians to evacuate, but also detailed numerous methods to avoid harm from the bombardment for Jinling’s military and civilians to employ. This somewhat wounded the self-esteem of Jinling’s generals and ministers, while also stirring up their defiant will to resist.
Zhou Bingwu ultimately failed to retire to his hometown as he wished. Though his hair was completely white, he still held the position of Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs. Normally his spirits were often inadequate, but today in Chongwen Hall, reading aloud the declaration of war delivered by Liang army messengers, he became so agitated that even his beard trembled. After reading the declaration, he presented the defensive battle plan for Jinghai Gate that he had discussed with Shen Yang and Du Chongtao.
“Empress Dowager, this Han Qian goes too far with his bullying. Could it be that our great Chu’s three hundred thousand valiant troops truly fear him?” After the disastrous defeat at Fan River, the frail youth had become silent and taciturn, no longer daring to defy Qing Yang’s will in anything. But after all, he was still young and hot-blooded. At this moment, sitting behind the imperial desk, he could no longer restrain himself and let out a protest that was almost a low roar toward Qing Yang. “Although your son is unworthy, I must let the subjects and people of great Chu know that their sovereign is not one who fears death. Your son wishes to personally lead the Palace Guard to defend Jinghai Gate and see just how the Liang army’s warships will destroy Jinghai Gate!”
“The defense of Jinghai Gate should be left to Prime Minister Shen, Marquis Zhou, and Marquis Du to worry about. What chaos are you, Your Majesty, adding?” Qing Yang questioned with unquestionable authority.
“Your son obeys Mother Empress Dowager’s gracious decree,” the youth said dejectedly.
Although Jinghai Gate was the northern gate of the Imperial City, it was also the city gate closest to the riverbank in Jinling City. Apart from Jinghai Gate, there were no other city gates facing the river in the north to resist enemies.
However, Jinghai Gate was exceptionally solid and massive. Its barbican alone spanned three hundred paces and could garrison several thousand elite troops to defend against enemy assaults.
Jingjing Gate was the northern gate of the Palace City, located about five hundred paces from Jinghai Gate. Standing atop the Jingjing Gate tower, one could clearly see the situation of the defense battle at Jinghai Gate.
Now, apart from bombarding Jinghai Gate in two days, the Liang army had also explicitly stated in their declaration that in five days the navy would cross the river and land at Caishi on the western side of Jinling City. Then at this location—arguably the narrowest point along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River—they would construct a pontoon bridge for the Liang army’s main force to march directly south.
The Chu officials assembled in Chongwen Hall were no longer considering whether the Liang army’s declaration might be a deception. They seemed to have completely dismissed the possibility that today’s declaration from the Liang army might be fraudulent, and instead focused entirely on how to deploy troops and formations to repel the Liang army’s offensive at both Jinghai Gate and Caishi…