Chapter 1013: The Imperial Army Has Already Crossed the Great River

"I've also received some intelligence from Jinling here!" The attendant served tangerine peel soup, carefully simmered, bitter with a hint of sweetness. As the three enjoyed it, Li Gu said to the other two: "The situation with the sovereign and ministers of Jinling and the southern army is truly gratifying!"

Hearing this, Zhao Yanjin couldn't help but ask curiously: "Have they made another blunder, issued some reckless order?"

"The sovereign of Jiangnan, Li Yu, has been keeping to the deep palace this whole time, holding beauties in his arms, amusing himself with poetry and song. All major military and state affairs are basically left to Chen Qiao and Feng Yanlu to handle. Their conscription has already exceeded thirty thousand, and Jinling's forces now number nearly sixty thousand..." Li Gu said.

"By that reckoning, all told, Jiangnan has some two hundred thousand troops. With so many soldiers, can the lands of Jiangnan and Jiangxi alone afford to support them?" Zhao Yanjin raised the question.

Li Gu said: "After all, Jiangnan's foundations are still fairly deep. Facing the crisis of national ruin and familial destruction, exhausting the treasuries to hold out for a while is still more than sufficient!"

"Though they are many, in the end they are a motley rabble, their combat effectiveness is doubtful, not worth fearing!" Shi Shouxin said dismissively.

"Shouxin speaks truly!" Li Gu sighed slightly: "Originally, I wanted to do my utmost to preserve Jiangnan's vitality, but with the Jinling court so militaristic, added to their long history of heavy levies and oppressive taxation, the destruction and losses Jiangnan suffers will still inevitably be severe!"

Hearing Li Gu say this, Shi Shouxin immediately said: "To reduce the losses, the only way is to break into Jinling as quickly as possible and end the war!"

Nodding slightly, Li Gu continued: "According to news coming out of the Jinling court, if the Yangtze cannot be held, their final plan is to concentrate their forces, hold fast in Jinling, and await a change in circumstances. To that end, Lin Renzhao has submitted several memorials requesting reinforcements for Changzhou and Xuanzhou to strengthen defenses, but all were rejected!"

Hearing this, Shi Shouxin couldn't help but say: "This Lin Renzhao does have some foresight, but it's a pearl cast into darkness! Though Jinling is a place of strategic advantage, a crouching tiger and coiled dragon, it is not itself an easily defended position. Once the passes and fortresses up and down the river are broken and communications are opened, isn't it laughable to still vainly hope for preservation?"

"Indeed!" Li Gu also chuckled lightly: "Throughout the ages, whenever foreign armies have reached Jinling, none have ever failed to take it. Stubbornly fighting a purely defensive war will only end in the city falling and the people dying!"

Hearing the two discuss, Zhao Yanjin spoke up: "I feel their thinking isn't so hard to understand. A thousand-li Yangtze defense line, caught between enemies front and rear, with defenses everywhere—never mind two hundred thousand motley troops, even double that couldn't hold it. Regardless, Jinling is indeed a great city, a strong city. If they want to drag things out awaiting a change, it counts as a choice!"

"Army Supervisor Zhao speaks well!" Shi Shouxin also expressed approval, saying with confident ease: "In any case, such is the tide of events—Jiangnan ultimately has only the path of defeat and ruin!"

"Well said!"

"That Lin Renzhao is indeed a man of outstanding courage and strategy. He planned to lead elite troops in stealth to Changzhou and launch a surprise attack on our joint forces with Wuyue. Unfortunately, the generals were timid and opposed it, so it never came to pass!" Li Gu added, his tone carrying rare praise, from the posture of a victor.

Shi Shouxin immediately took note, a visible change on his face, saying: "Changzhou and Runzhou are within arm's reach. Elite troops moving in stealth could arrive in a single day. Had it come to pass before we noticed, it would have been no small trouble!"

"Guo Tingwei should have received word by now as well. I've also written to him—he should be on his guard!" Li Gu said: "It's just a pity that such a capable general, one Jiangnan agonized over, is still a surrendered general from the state of Min!"

"This world is never short of loyal and righteous men! His Majesty once said that among Jiangnan's generals and marshals, there is only one Lin. I hope he won't die on the battlefield afterward. If we can capture him alive, I would like to meet him..."

From the intelligence Li Gu received, one could see how unbalanced the flow of information was between the two warring sides. Jiangnan's military and governance held no secrets whatsoever before the commanders pacifying the south—how were they supposed to fight this war?

While Li Gu, Shi Shouxin, and Zhao Yanjin sat in the warm chamber, warming wine and discoursing on military affairs, one military order after another was issued from the Jianghuai field headquarters, dispatched to the various armies. The most important of these was sent to Zhang Yongde's army.

After the previous field headquarters meeting, Zhang Yongde had led twenty thousand Jianghuai Han troops, moving stealthily west to Hezhou, stationed at Liyang, with his target set directly on Dangtu across the river. Among the many commanders of the Han army, Zhang Yongde was not particularly old, but his seniority was deep—before he was even twenty, he was already a junior officer in the imperial army. He was both the son-in-law of Guo Wei, Duke of Xing, and a senior general who had risen from the Emperor's side—his background could be said to be formidable.

Though he had never earned any resounding military glory, a review of his record would reveal he had been quite active—suppressing bandits in the early days of the state, pacifying Li Shouzhen's rebellion, campaigning in Huainan, pacifying Chuanshu—he had an active presence in all these campaigns.

He hadn't been able to participate in the great northern expedition, but on the southern pacification front, he was again a senior commander. Compared to his old senior Li Chongjin, Zhang Yongde, though lacking a fearsome reputation, had far better fortune and extremely deep roots. Generally speaking, men like Zhang Yongde tend to climb the highest in the end.

At dawn, on the banks of the Yangtze, a large force of the Han army had already assembled. At the same time, on the great river, the naval forces had also formed their battle array. Escorted by his personal guards, he boarded a warship—he would personally oversee the river-crossing operation.

"Chief Inspector, the entire army is ready, we can strike at any moment!" Zhang Yanqing, the commander of the Yangzhou naval forces, stood alongside Zhang Yongde and reported to him.

This time, Zhang Yongde held the post of Chief Inspector at the Jianghuai field headquarters, ranking among the top four commanders of the southern pacification army. Standing on the deck, gazing across the river, through the morning mist he could faintly make out the Caishi cliffs on the opposite shore. Listening to the river wind howling and the waves striking the rocks, Zhang Yongde pulled his military robe tighter, a fierce light blazing in his eyes, his voice resolute: "Transmit the order to attack—take Caishi Rock!"

"Yes!"

At Zhang Yongde's command, one hundred fifty Han warships left their anchorage and sailed toward the opposite shore, riding the wind and breaking the waves, pressing forward without hesitation. Had there been background music, the scene would have been even more stirring, enough to make one's blood boil.

The situation of the southern army on the opposite shore was already fully known. The Han troops participating in the river-crossing operation numbered only a little over seven thousand—half naval forces, half elite Jianghuai soldiers, all of whom knew how to swim. For the Han army, the difficult part was the landing operation; once they set foot on the opposite shore, the remaining fighting held no difficulty for them whatsoever.

The terrain of Caishi Rock was indeed advantageous, easy to defend and hard to attack—otherwise it would never have become a place contested by every military power. Under the leadership of the old minister Zhu Gong, defensive arrangements had been made. However, no matter how impregnable a fortress, in the end it must be defended by men.

To take Caishi Rock, the Han army had made thorough preparations, preparing in advance ten tall ships specially for landing, their height nearly level with the top of the rock. Using them to approach the shore, troops could step directly onto the cliffs. Of course, before the formal landing, a "fire preparation" was conducted—the Han army's strong bows, hard crossbows, fire arrows, and thunderclap cannons launched indiscriminate strikes against the stockades and enemy troops on the rock.

This lasted a full half hour. When the sky had fully brightened to pale white, amid the chaos and terror of the defending southern troops, Zhang Yongde decisively ordered the tall ships to shore. From them, several hundred armored soldiers, as death-daring vanguard, were the first to set foot on the riverbank.

The enemy troops on Caishi Rock hadn't yet completely collapsed; some soldiers, led by their officers, launched counterattacks, relying mainly on bows and arrows, rolling logs, tumbling stones, fire oil, and other deadly implements. The threat they posed was considerable, inflicting casualties on the Han army.

But casualties could not stop the pace of the landing after all. The vanguard troops Zhang Yongde had selected were all death-daring men—fierce warriors with no concerns for the rear, fearless of death, seeking life through death itself, advancing wave after wave. After paying a cost of some two hundred casualties, Han soldiers set foot on the top of the rock—then a second, a third...

Following them, Zhang Yongde continued dispatching troops as reinforcements. When the landed troops reached the strength of one battalion, the position was already secure enough; when they broke a thousand men, they could launch counterattacks; when they exceeded two thousand, the southern troops on Caishi Rock were directly routed...

The entire river-crossing process, apart from the fiercer resistance encountered during the landing, posed no real threat—as easy as drinking water. And from start to finish, Zhu Gong, the main commander responsible for defending Dangtu, was not in the military stockade at Caishi Rock—he was in Dangtu county town.

However, upon learning that the Han army had crossed the river and was attacking, he still led the Dangtu troops to reinforce. It was just that Caishi fell too quickly—by the time he led his army from the county town over twenty li away, the defenders had already collapsed.

In the moment of crisis, Zhu Gong did not choose to gamble everything, leading his troops to retake Caishi Rock and drive the Han army back into the water. Instead, he led his men and retreated north without hesitation, preparing to return to Jinling to raise the alarm.

And so it was—the twenty thousand defenders of Dangtu collapsed at the first clash. Zhang Yongde did not order pursuit either, but after consolidating, concentrated his ships to ferry all the Han troops from the northern bank across. That night, they camped in place at Caishi. The next day, they marched north, their spearpoint aimed directly at Jinling—and Caishi was barely a hundred li from Jinling.