Zu Ti wasn’t blind. When they hid, he couldn’t catch them and could only suspect the Prince of Langya was hiding forces, but couldn’t speak openly about it.
But when they fought with such commotion, how could he not know?
Zu Ti vaguely realized he had misunderstood the Prince of Langya and immediately had Zuo Min take a military force to investigate.
Zuo Min took people and crouched on a hilltop watching them fight. After they had fought about enough, only then did he raise the Zhao Family Army banner and the “Zu” character flag.
Dai Yuan suddenly saw the “Zhao” character flag rise on the hilltop and was shocked. “When did the Zhao Family Army cross the river?”
Seeing Zu Ti’s banner again, his face turned deathly pale. “Zu Ti is leading the army?”
Chen Pan, whose weapon had been knocked away by Dai Yuan’s blade and who nearly lost his life to him, heard this and his face turned iron-blue. “You actually didn’t know the Prince of Langya had already pledged allegiance to Zhao Hanzhang?”
Dai Yuan: …
He knew nothing at all.
Like Dai Yuan, Wang Gui dragged Dai Xie thousands of miles to Yuzhang Commandery, having prepared a whole speech to persuade him to surrender. Then upon hearing the guard troops’ report, he was shocked. “The general went to Jiankang to loyally serve the king? How did we not know? We didn’t receive any messages along the way.”
No wonder Yuzhang lost both battles against Wang Dun—it turned out Dai Yuan wasn’t with the army.
Wang Gui stamped his foot and said to Dai Xie, “Since General Dai isn’t here, Young Master Dai might as well stay here to command this army.”
Dai Xie opened his mouth and lowered his voice, saying, “Although we’re brothers, my elder brother’s deputy generals may not necessarily obey my commands.”
Wang Gui said, “I’ll persuade them.”
He asked the deputy general three questions. “General Dai is loyal to the Prince of Langya, isn’t he?”
Deputy general: “Yes.”
Otherwise, why would he go to Jiankang City to serve the king loyally?
“The Prince of Langya has already pledged allegiance to General Zhao. Have you all received this order?”
Deputy general: “We received it.”
“General Dai at this time, isn’t he also pledging allegiance to General Zhao along with the Prince of Langya?”
The deputy general was silent for a moment, then said, “Yes.”
Wang Gui immediately pushed Dai Xie forward and said, “Wang Dun acts against reason and has openly rebelled. He was originally advancing on Jiankang, but now has turned south instead. Clearly, he knows he cannot match the imperial court’s main army, so he wants to seize Guangzhou.”
“Guangzhou has many mountain forests and much miasma. If he really escapes to Guangzhou, suppressing the rebellion will be even more difficult. So defending Yuzhang is of utmost importance. With General Dai absent, why not request Young Master Dai to temporarily manage military affairs, to cooperate well with General Wang Xuan of Jingzhou and jointly suppress the rebellion?”
The deputy general hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and agreed.
Dai Xie was Dai Yuan’s blood brother. He knew the two brothers had always had good relations and their political views were very consistent. Handing over the main army to Dai Xie was better than being defeated by Wang Dun.
Wang Gui breathed a sigh of relief. Although he hadn’t completed Zhao Hanzhang’s task of persuading Dai Yuan to surrender, he had gotten Dai Xie to take control of the Yuzhang Dai Family Army. This counted as half completed, right?
The Dai Family Army and Jingzhou Army formally cooperated. The two armies combined into one to jointly resist Wang Dun’s main army.
Wang Dun’s vanguard launched attacks seven times in two days. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, but neither could take Nanchang County in Yuzhang Commandery.
Wang Dun stood before the map in silence. Beside him, Du Hong was quietly reporting, “We just received a battle report. Mi Ce and Zhao Ju each led fifty thousand troops south from Yiyang Commandery, attacking Lujiang from two routes. Wang Yifeng from Jingzhou has also sent troops and is heading our way. There’s also another main army—we don’t know who’s leading it—that has already taken Xunyang, Linhu, and Xiang’an counties in succession.”
Seeing Wang Dun’s silence, Du Hong continued, “Zu Ti issued a proclamation saying they dispatched eight hundred thousand troops to Jiangnan and have already surrounded us heavily…”
Wang Dun suddenly slapped the table. Du Hong immediately shut his mouth and didn’t make another sound.
Wang Bin comforted Wang Dun, saying, “In warfare, the claimed troop numbers are always doubled and then ten thousand added when reported externally. If you ask me, the Zhao Family Army dispatched at most four hundred thousand this time, and perhaps only three hundred thousand are actually usable.”
If Zhao Hanzhang were here, she would definitely praise Wang Bin—his guess was extremely accurate.
Du Hong’s spirits lifted and he also said, “Three hundred thousand troops, and they crossed the river from afar. The terrain isn’t as familiar to them as to us. I don’t believe they can hold hands and block every gap. If Yuzhang won’t work, at worst we take more detours. General, why don’t we first go east then south? Once we’re in Guangzhou, they’ll have no way to deal with us.”
What Wang Bin wanted wasn’t this. He didn’t want to go to Guangzhou—in his eyes, that place was barbaric wasteland. “Since they only have this many people, with elder brother’s abilities, wouldn’t counterattacking be an easy matter?”
Wang Dun glanced at him and said, “Zu Ti isn’t Sima Rui, nor is he Dai Yuan. With equal combat strength, it’s very difficult for me to gain advantage from him.”
Wang Dun also only had three hundred thousand men. Of these three hundred thousand, a considerable portion did logistical work. Those who could be called combat strength numbered only two hundred forty to fifty thousand.
“Moreover, Zu Ti also has Sima Rui’s forces under his command.” Wang Dun said, “We must survive first and preserve our strength before we have opportunity to do other things.”
So he adopted Du Hong’s suggestion and decided to first go east then south, but he also didn’t plan to give up this Yuzhang route.
So he had Wang Bin, Wang Ying and several others follow Du Hong to transfer east, while he personally led a military force south to support Yuzhang.
He earnestly entrusted Wang Bin, “I’m entrusting you with half my fortune. You should listen more to Du Hong’s advice and definitely, definitely bring these goods and people to Guangzhou for me.”
These people and funds were his foundation for rising again.
Wang Bin also solemnly agreed.
With Wang Dun personally going into battle, the morale that had been suppressed recovered considerably.
Besides this, he also sent out several military forces to block the rear, obstructing the southern advance of Zu Ti, Zhao Ju, Wang Yifeng and others’ armies.
Wang Dun’s new strategy took effect. The Zhao Family Army couldn’t pursue him for the moment, and he led the main army fiercely toward Yuzhang Commandery.
In the rear where Wang Dun couldn’t see, Zhao Shi learned from a newly captured requisition team that large amounts of grain and fodder were being sent eastward, and immediately changed direction heading east. “Wang Dun must want to escape from the east. Let’s continue chasing!”
Since the first time he captured a requisition team and discovered he could learn Wang Dun’s main force’s movements from them, he especially liked capturing requisition teams.
Zhao Shi cheerfully chased after Wang Dun’s family fortune.
In a place not far from him, Zhao Shen had just captured a county seat. Because Zhao Shi roamed everywhere and moved freely, he didn’t know his cousin was nearby.
At this moment, he was kneeling on the city tower, devoutly bowing in the four directions before taking out a tortoise shell and earnestly casting it and calculating.
A scout who had run up was panting heavily and wanted to report. Zhao Shen raised his hand to block him, stopping him from speaking. “I’ve calculated that Wang Dun’s advantage lies in the east. He must be fleeing eastward, am I right?”
The scout had followed him all the way from Luoyang here and was already used to this, honestly replying, “The general is impressive—you could calculate this! Wang Dun’s main force has indeed gone east, but Wang Dun himself took a military force south. Judging by the direction, he’s heading for Yuzhang.”
Zhao Shen put away the tortoise shell. “Then I calculated half correctly. Rounding up, that counts as calculating correctly. Good, assemble the troops. Let’s go meet this General Wang!”
—