Chapter 669: Dangyang

In the late spring of the tenth year of Wude (AD 34), Cen Peng's general title underwent a slight change.

Previously he had been "Grand General Who Guards the South" — as the name implies, his chief duty was to watch over the southern front for the Wei Emperor. But recently, by Diwu Lun's edict, he became "Grand General Who Conquers the South"!

The Wei Emperor's decree read:

"By the banks of the Jiang and Han, the King commanded Zhao Hu: 'Open up the four quarters, extend our borders and lands.'"

"South of Xiangyang, to the Great River, and on to the Southern Sea — you shall conquer it!"

Cen Peng bowed his head and accepted the command: "Your servant Cen Peng reverently receives the order!"

In Diwu Lun's eyes, Cen Peng was the Wei general with the keenest grasp of the greater picture. Over the past few years, in order to seize Qingzhou, Xuzhou, and Huaibei at his leisure and to fend off the Qiang and Hu, Diwu Lun had expended too much grain on military campaigns. With the east and north plunged into war, the other regions had to make sacrifices. And so Jingzhou became the most stable link on the battlefront. Had it been Wu Han or young Geng, they would likely have clamored and complained, but Cen Peng endured it. He fortified Xiangyang City until it was like an iron barrel; to the west, Cen Peng also reinforced the garrison at Danyang, leaving Jia Fu and Deng Feng at Shangyong no opening to exploit.

The most crucial change, however, was that he turned Nanyang upside down! The powerful families of the former dynasty and the old associates from Liu Xiu's hometown had already been badly weakened after the Red Eyebrows ravaged them, so Cen Peng uprooted them entirely and relocated them to the north. The estates of the Chongling Liu clan and the Xinye Deng clan became military agricultural colonies. The remaining land was divided into small plots and rented out to the tenant farmers and slaves who had suffered so wretchedly under the Han and Xin dynasties, at rents lower than before, to win their support.

This reform proved quite effective; the Wei army had already won considerable popular support on the soil of Nanyang.

After Cen Peng's meticulous preparations and seven years of building momentum, Diwu Lun loosened the chains that had bound the Jingzhou army and finally allowed Cen Peng to strike. "No war on the southern front" was declared over!

After accepting his new title, Cen Peng immediately summoned his headquarters staff and told his trusted aides: "His Majesty has approved the military strategy I submitted. He has resolved to deal with Shu first and Wu later, sweeping them away in turn!"

Specifically regarding the destruction of Shu, Cen Peng's proposal to Diwu Lun was this: launch a simultaneous pincer advance by water and land from north and south. Now that Ma Yuan was already hammering Hanzhong, its complete overrun was only a matter of time, and this had drawn the bulk of the Chengjia armies to mass at Ba Mountain and Bishui Pass. Cen Peng could seize the moment to advance south, take Jiangling, and sever the Wu-Shu alliance. Then he would push west to capture Yiling, enter the Three Gorges to strike Baidi City, and drive straight on to Jiangzhou (Chongqing), seizing Ba Commandery.

Once that happened, the natural defenses of Shu's mountains and rivers would vanish entirely. Gongsun Shu would be attacked from front and rear, with no defenses on the plains, trapped defending Chengdu. By next year at the latest, he would surely be defeated and destroyed!

Hearing this, the headquarters staff were naturally overjoyed. The State of Wei now had four great generals, between whom there was both rivalry and cooperation. Apart from the Xiongnu north of the frontier, only the two separatist regimes of Wu and Shu remained in the Central Plain — there were not many places left to earn military merit. Diwu Lun truly did value Cen Peng. Not only did he give him the promise that "south of Xiangyang, to the Great River, and on to the Southern Sea — you shall conquer it," but Cen Peng would also get at least half the credit for destroying Shu. This meant the Jingzhou army could reap the greater share of the achievements. How many men would rise to wealth and status from this? How could they not be delighted?

They made a rather optimistic estimate: "Now that Shu's elite troops have all been transferred north, only the so-called Yi River King, Tian Rong, is left in Nan Commandery with a mere twenty thousand motley soldiers. If the General bears down on them with the great southern-conquest army and Tian Rong dares to resist stubbornly, he will surely be ground to powder. Once we seize Jiangling, everything east of the Three Gorges can be pacified by a mere proclamation."

The advantage was so overwhelming that a mentality of underestimating the enemy and expecting easy victory pervaded the entire army, but Cen Peng was not affected in the slightest. He still arranged every unit methodically.

"At the end of the third month, the vanguard of ten thousand will advance south from Xiangyang, retaking Yicheng and Ruo County in succession. The fleet will also sail straight down the Han River to the ferry at Lankouju to monitor the movements of the Wu army in Jiangxia Commandery."

Cen Peng knew very well that in this struggle for Jiangling, his true enemy was not the Chengjia Yi River King, Tian Rong, but the Han general Feng Yi, stationed in the Jiangxia and Jingnan regions!

Over the past seven years, while Gongsun Shu had been muddle-headedly wasting time, Liu Xiu had not been idle. After unifying the internal Shanyue tribes, he had also sent Deng Yu to subdue Jiaozhou. Feng Yi, meanwhile, had been diligently farming on both banks of the Yangtze. Though his troop strength was less than Cen Peng's, in terms of warships and naval forces alone, he surpassed him. With the fierce battle at Hanzhong raging for a full month, the war was no longer a secret. Using the Yunmeng Marshes, Feng Yi's reinforcement speed would be extremely fast.

"Therefore, Jiangling must be taken swiftly!"

Cen Peng continued to point out his strategy on the map: "At the beginning of the fourth month, leave five thousand troops to defend Xiangyang and ten thousand to defend Nanyang. The remaining fifty-five thousand main-force troops and five thousand cavalry will advance south and encamp at Lankouju, while the vanguard continues on to Dangyang County (present-day Jingmen, Hubei)…"

Dangyang County was precisely the midpoint between Xiangyang and Jiangling. Situated among the foothills of the Jing Mountains, with layered peaks arrayed to its north and the Yunmeng Marshes winding to its south, it served as the gateway to Jiangling and was the only obstacle on the Wei army's path forward.

Cen Peng said: "The so-called Yi River King, Tian Rong, may be persuaded to defect to us by the Grand Herald and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but if he harbors delusions and stubbornly resists from his corner, he will surely come to Dangyang and join forces with the Wu army to block the imperial host."

He then picked up a troop marker representing five thousand men from the Wei army's main southward-advance camp, moved it westward, and gently set it down on "Linju County," northwest of Jiangling.

Cen Peng said: "Our main army will confront the Wu and Shu allied forces at the Jiang-Han region, while a flanking force emulates the Qin general Bai Qi's battle to seize Chu's Xiling. It will cross the Ju River westward and thrust straight into the western part of Nan Commandery! It will capture Linju County in one stroke, then sweep south to take Jiangling."

Cen Peng had been likened by Diwu Lun to a "pawn" on a chessboard. Before crossing the river, his habitual tactic was to advance the pawn one step each day, appearing quite conservative. But once across the river, he would rampage freely, unleashing unexpected strokes that caught his opponent off guard.

Everything was in place. At the beginning of the fourth month, after the vanguard successfully completed its mission, Cen Peng's main army also struck camp and set out. Along the way, he strictly enforced military discipline, ordering the officers and men not to plunder the common people. Wherever he passed, the elders of Yicheng, Ruo County, and other places came to welcome him, offering cattle and wine, hastily making their allegiance clear.

Cen Peng received the local elders and said to them with great amiability: "The Great Wei Emperor grieves that Nan Commandery has long been enslaved by Gongsun and Liu Xiu. Therefore, he has commanded me to raise an army and campaign far away, to punish the guilty and rid the people of harm." He firmly refused to accept the cattle, wine, and other gifts, setting the people's hearts at ease. For a time, along the shores of the Jiang and Han, the counties nominally subordinate to the Chengjia regime vied to open their gates and surrender.

When the three armies reached the vital Han River ferry at Lankouju, the vanguard reported back: "We have advanced to the north of Dangyang County. Tian Rong has led over ten thousand troops and joined forces with twenty to thirty thousand Wu soldiers to block us at Dangyang Bridge. Their banners are planted thickly along both banks."

"Feng Yi has moved after all!" The staff officers were both worried and glad. Their worry was that the Wu army had acted far too quickly! Most likely, after the Hanzhong campaign began, Liu Xiu received Gongsun Shu's plea for aid and sent Feng Yi north to reinforce, to prevent Cen Peng from seizing Jiangling.

Their gladness came from the fact that, so far, the enemy had been deploying exactly according to Cen Peng's script. Jiangling was left empty — that flanking force of five thousand might truly achieve an extraordinary feat!

Cen Peng alone frowned and remained silent, only pressing the scouts: "Is the Wu army at Dangyang truly Feng Yi's division?"

The scouts said the banners they saw were indeed those of "Feng, Grand General Who Conquers the West of Han." Yet Cen Peng still shook his head: "Feng Gongsun is a man skilled at leading troops. Even if cautious, he would not fight in such a rigid and foolish manner."

But even with doubts in his mind, Cen Peng made no changes to his deployment for the time being. He still ordered the vanguard to build extra cooking fires and make a show of strength, holding the Wu and Shu armies in a standoff at Dangyang, while quietly awaiting news from the flanking force.

However, in the middle of the fourth month, the general commanding the flanking force hurriedly sent a man to report that, following Bai Qi's southern-conquest route, they had reached the Ju River when they were suddenly attacked by an enemy detachment. These troops were unlike ordinary Shu soldiers — their discipline was strict and they were quite fierce. Although the flanking force's casualties were light and they successfully withdrew east of the Ju River, their movements had been exposed. The enemy would certainly strengthen their defenses, so the plan to raid Jiangling could only be put on hold for now.

"Shu troops in the Linju sector? Under the banner of 'Jia'?"

This was an unexpected development. Cen Peng was slightly surprised, and then recalled a certain man.

"Could it be that the so-called Governor of Shangyong Commandery, Jia Fu, Jia Junwen, also took this route, slipping south to this place and spoiling my plans?"

Toward this man, Cen Peng felt not the slightest contempt. Years ago, Jia Fu and Deng Feng had stirred up enormous trouble in the Danyang and Wuguan area. Had Diwu Lun not personally held the line for him by garrisoning Wancheng, Cen Peng's rear would have been unstable, and he likely would not have had the peace of mind to slowly lay out his plans in Xiangyang.

Before this campaign, Cen Peng had left some troops in the western part of Nanyang to guard against Jia Fu and Deng Feng, but he truly had not expected Jia Fu to leap into the southern theater. Wasn't this a case of "enemies are bound to meet"?

"General, under these circumstances, how should we proceed?"

Faced with the questions from his staff officers and deputy generals, Cen Peng said calmly: "The art of war states: 'Engage with the orthodox, win with the unorthodox.'"

"Since the unorthodox approach has failed, we shall first meet the enemy at Dangyang with a grand and righteous host. After six or seven years of tempering, the raw recruits have become veterans. His Majesty has also furnished us with many new state-forged weapons of war — it is indeed time to test them. Leave ten thousand rear-guard troops to defend Lankouju and watch over the provisions and baggage. The remaining forty thousand men and five thousand cavalry will march for Dangyang within days!"

Cen Peng's gaze fell upon the place where the enemy troops were encamped at Dangyang. It was a small locale, one so minor that on less detailed maps, its name could not even be found:

"Changban Slope!"