Chapter 675: The Tide Has Turned

Just as the great battle of Hanzhong was drawing to a close, Gao Huaide on the Qishan road also achieved his breakthrough.

For more than twenty days beforehand, Gao Huaide had been feigning weakness. He had large numbers of laborers put on padded armor and mixed them with a portion of the Xiongwu Garrison troops, then had the Xiongwu Garrison commander-in-chief Zhebu Jiashi lead them to besiege Xingzhou and attack it, making it appear that they were indeed a detached force with very few elite troops.

Xingzhou was the later Lueyang County of Hanzhong in Shaanxi. Since ancient times it had been a strategic pass on the route from Qin and Long to Ba and Shu, long known as the link between Qin and Shu and the key pass of Shaanxi and Gansu.

At this time, although the Chencang road guarded by Lueyang had already fallen into disuse and thus lost some of its strategic advantage, it was still the crucial northern gateway of Meng Shu.

Zhang Qianzhao, the Zhaowu Military Governor of Lizhou under Meng Shu, naturally understood this. Although he could not personally go to Xingzhou (Lueyang) to hold it, he still issued a death order for the Prefect of Xingzhou, Han Jixun, to hold fast and not sally forth, saying that wearing the Zhou army down until it withdrew would be a great merit.

Zhang Qianzhao's arrangement was entirely correct, because after the great chaos in the Central Plains, Meng Shu had always wanted to advance into Guanzhong, and so had continuously stockpiled grain and arms in Xingzhou and other places in preparation.

At present, Xingzhou together with the nearby military stockades held more than four hundred thousand shi of grain.

With that much grain, it was enough for the Shu army to starve the Zhou army into retreat ten times over.

At first Han Jixun thought the same way, but as time dragged on, he could no longer hold himself back.

Because the Zhou army outside the city was simply too pathetic. Even their attacks on the city were listless and timid.

The more Han Jixun thought about it, the more he felt that with two thousand elite troops of the Fengsheng Army under his command, having to defend the city against these four thousand-odd weak soldiers of the Zhou army was truly unbearable.

And the officers and men of the Fengsheng Army under him thought the same. In their view, since the Zhou soldiers wore padded armor, they must surely be the main force. After all, no one would be willing to give auxiliary troops such high-grade equipment as padded armor, would they?

Could it be that the Zhou army's fighting strength was simply not strong to begin with, and that after Military Governor Zhang was defeated in Guanzhong last time, he had deliberately exaggerated the Zhou army's fighting strength to save face?

After enduring bitterly for more than ten days, from Prefect Han Jixun at the top down to the common soldiers of the Fengsheng Army, and even the people of Xingzhou, no one could stand watching any longer. So Han Jixun, egged on by yabing guards eager for merit, waved his hand grandly.

Sally forth! Let us go smash the Zhou army.

The process went quite smoothly. Most of the Zhou army outside the city was laborers in disguise. Han Jixun led fifteen hundred elite troops of the Fengsheng Army out of the city, and in less than a quarter hour of battle, the laborers collapsed like a landslide and were slaughtered as they fled north in rout.

This was no pretense; they were indeed thoroughly defeated by the Shu army.

Han Jixun was so excited he seemed about to ascend to heaven in broad daylight. Like Wang Zhaoyuan, he had risen from among the close attendants of Meng Chang.

Wang Zhaoyuan was Meng Chang's intimate playmate; Han Jixun was Meng Chang's personal physician.

After arriving in Xingzhou, not one of the arrogant soldiers and fierce generals looked up to Han Jixun, and most court officials believed he had risen by flattery, speaking of him with considerable mockery.

But Han Jixun did not see it that way! He believed he was a great talent, and that Meng Chang, the Sage Meng, had recognized his ability and therefore deliberately promoted him.

So Han Jixun wanted to win a great merit and shut everyone's mouths.

Now that the great merit of defeating the Zhou army was right before his eyes, how could he not be excited?

But after the Shu army pursued them to a hillside, they heard a burst of "heavenly thunder" explode, and from the slopes on both sides, countless burly, broad-shouldered, thick-waisted fierce men suddenly charged down.

Although the armor they wore was very old, they still fought one against ten, and quickly cut the pursuing Shu army to pieces, sending them fleeing in utter disorder.

Gao Huaide roared from the hillside and loosed an arrow that struck Han Jixun square in the chest.

As it turned out, the lamellar armor on Han Jixun was actually a treasure armor; even an arrow shot with Gao Huaide's strength could not pierce it.

But immediately after, Wang Quanbin, Pan Mei, Cao Bin, Zhang Quan, and more than ten others swarmed forward, surrounded Han Jixun and seven or eight of his personal attendants, and rained blows upon them.

Poor Prefect Han, a medical officer by origin, could not withstand the attacks of these fierce men, and before long was pounded into a pulp of flesh.

Gao Huaide drove the routed soldiers of the Fengsheng Army before him and seized the chance to attack the city, quickly taking Xingzhou.

Immediately after, this force of four thousand elite troops, pent up for so long, did not pause for a moment. In a single day they raced more than seventy li, sweeping down nine Shu army stockades in succession along the Jialing River, capturing three hundred fifty thousand shi of grain and countless arms and baggage.

With so much materiel, Gao Huaide forcibly conscripted tens of thousands of able-bodied men from around Xingzhou as laborers, and they practically carried his warriors forward as he continued the mad dash, all the way to Sanquan County.

Sanquan County likewise had an important pass, Yang'an Pass. In history, during the Northern Song period, Yangping Pass, more than seventy li away, would be relocated here, and later generations would call it New Yangping Pass.

On the ninth day of the fourth month, Zhang Zhaozhong and Zhang Zhaojie, reinforcing Gao Huaide, arrived with five hundred elite troops of the Hanshan Unit, and also brought along the Fenjin Unit demolition troops of the Ministry of Works Vice Director Shi Chongmin.

The men used gunpowder to blast open the gates of Yang'an Pass, and in just one day captured this natural fortress, then pressed straight on to the military stockades north of Lizhou city.

Only at this point did Zhang Qianzhao, the Zhaowu Military Governor of Lizhou under Meng Shu, learn that Xingzhou had already fallen, that Han Jixun had long since died in battle, and that the Zhou army's speed of movement was so fast it left him dumbstruck.

The Lizhou Zhaowu Army originally had eleven thousand men, the largest and most heavily manned of all Meng Shu's military provinces, but the area it covered was too vast, so these men were simply not enough.

By now, Zhang Qianzhao had only a little over seven thousand men left. He did not dare go out and face the five thousand fierce men under Gao Huaide, so he could only choose to defend to the death while continuously sending to Chengdu for reinforcements.

And the thirty thousand troops of the Southwestern Field Headquarters dispatched by Meng Chang had only just reached Mianzhou (Mianyang), a full three hundred li from Lizhou.

Gao Huaide also learned from captured Shu army officers that the Meng Shu court had already sent reinforcements.

So, disregarding the disadvantage of having numbers equal to the defenders, he directly launched a fierce assault on Lizhou, hoping to capture it before the Meng Shu reinforcements arrived.

However, Zhang Qianzhao was after all a famous general from Dai and Hedong in the north. His Shu troops would certainly be no match for the Zhou army if led out to fight, but they were still capable of defending a city.

Gao Huaide attacked furiously for more than ten days, successively capturing natural fortresses such as the Greater and Lesser Mantian Stockades, and finally closed in on the city of Lizhou itself, even succeeding in blasting down the low wall on the east side of Lizhou.

But Zhang Qianzhao directed laborers and commoners in emergency repairs, and in a single night built two earthen walls.

The people of Lizhou, terrified that the Zhou army would massacre the city after entering, also resisted desperately. Gao Huaide personally joined the assault, but in the end was driven back out.

The turning point came on the twenty-seventh of the fourth month. Yin Zhengqi, Commander-in-Chief of the Shu-Punitive Field Headquarters and Duke of Cai, ordered Erzhu Jing to remain as Acting Military Governor of the field headquarters and hold Xingyuan Prefecture, while he himself personally led twenty-five thousand troops from all units plus tens of thousands of laborers, advancing from Xingyuan Prefecture into Shu by the Jinniu road.

Because the Shu army at Xingyuan Prefecture had already collapsed, and Zhang Qianzhao at Lizhou was powerless to send aid, Yin Zhengqi led the great army and captured Yangping Pass, the natural fortress on the Jinniu road, almost without lifting a finger, then joined forces with Gao Huaide beneath the walls of Lizhou.

As soon as Yin Zhengqi arrived, the Zhou army, which had been somewhat irritated and restless from being ground down by Zhang Qianzhao at Lizhou, was instantly lifted in morale, while the Shu army above and below lost their nerve.

Yin Zhengqi, Yin Yaozi, was the first cousin of Emperor Shaoming and an old follower who had been with the Emperor since his humble days.

In the ranking of the great generals and famous ministers of the Zhang Zhou, Yin Zhengqi was second only to Yan Jin. He had also married a legitimate daughter of the second branch of the Cao family of Shazhou, making his status extremely exalted.

In the Zhang Zhou, Yin Zhengqi governed the localities when out, and inspected the imperial guards when in. He had twice overseen the armies in Guanzhong and twice served as Chief Commander of the Palace Guard Cavalry and Infantry.

Before him, neither the new generation of fierce warriors like Gao Huaide, elder brother of Gao E'niang, nor the Emperor's trusted confidants like Zhang Zhaozhong and Zhang Quan, dared to presume upon favor and act arrogantly.

A man's name is like a tree's shadow. You could not necessarily say Yin Zhengqi's command ability surpassed that of Ma Zhaoyuan, Erzhu Jing, and the rest, and in martial prowess he certainly could not match Gao Huaide, Zhang Cheng, and the others.

But as long as he arrived, the officers and men felt as though they had found their backbone, as though they had a solid rear support.

Very often, such a great general did not need to direct anything specifically. His mere appearance represented the army's morale and fighting spirit.

The pressure that Yin Zhengqi's arrival placed on Zhang Qianzhao and the Shu army inside Lizhou was immense.

And Yin Zhengqi conducted matters with great care. He first ordered An Shuqian, an old acquaintance of Zhang Qianzhao and a veteran tool, the Grand General of the Left Jinwu Guard, to go and urge surrender.

An Shuqian and Zhang Qianzhao had in former years both served as cavalry officers under Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang, and their relationship was very good.

An Shuqian, holding Yin Zhengqi's letter urging surrender, said to Zhang Qianzhao: "My lord, out of loyalty you left your homeland and returned to Shu. Now the Sage Shaoming treats the men of Dai and Hedong generously, no different from Emperor Wu. Why not surrender early?"

Zhang Qianzhao was already sixty-six years old this year, his beard and hair all white, and he had left his homeland more than twenty years ago. It was impossible that he did not miss it. But looking at An Shuqian, he gave three long sighs, and still did not take the letter urging surrender. Instead, looking at An Shuqian, he said.

"I was born a fighting man. I received great favor from Emperor Wu and the two emperors of the Zhuang and Ming temples, and only returned to Shu because I could not stomach Wang Ershisan's (Li Congke's) rebellion. When I was at the end of my rope, the Meng clan treated me as a worthy of the state. How could I betray them now!"

With that, Zhang Qianzhao had An Shuqian escorted out, then summoned his officers and said: "We eat the Meng clan's salary and bear the duty of defending this land.

Now that the Central Plains army has arrived, to kneel at will would betray that debt of honor and make them look down on us. Better to fight to the death in repayment. If we still cannot hold, then you gentlemen will have done all you could."

What to say of Zhang Qianzhao as a man? His ability was at best slightly above average, and he shared the common failing of the Daibei and Hedong fighting men — indeed of all fighting men under heaven — a fondness for wealth and goods.

Yet on the other hand he was fair-minded, and could make his soldiers serve him unto death.

When the officers of the Zhaowu Army heard Zhang Qianzhao speak thus, they all voiced agreement. The deputy commissioner Mao Yuanwei even said:

"I have heard that the Shaoming Son of Heaven rewards loyalty and righteousness, and favors generals of faithful heart. If we were to kneel early, even should we keep our lives, what future would there be?

But if we fight with all our strength and only then surrender, we may make the Zhou Son of Heaven regard us with new eyes. And even if we die in battle, we can still, like Hou Yi, bring blessings upon our descendants."

Very well! If Sage Zhang knew what these yabing officers of the Zhaowu Army were thinking, it is hard to say whether he would laugh or weep.

Had he, indirectly, helped Meng Chang raise a batch of loyal ministers?

Yin Zhengqi's surrender-demand procedure was complete. Since Zhang Qianzhao would not surrender, he said no more.

At present, counting the civilian laborers, he had well over a hundred thousand men under his command. Although there were several hundred thousand shi of captured grain to supply them, it would not do to linger too long before Lizhou — for behind it there was still the natural fortress of Jianmen Pass to be attacked.

Since Gao Huaide had already blasted down a section of the eastern wall, Yin Zhengqi chose that spot as the breakthrough point.

He first ordered the garrison troops of Chang'an, Tianshui, and Xiangyang commands to attack.

On the second day he sent the imperial armies of the Xiongwu, Changguo, and Zhaoyi garrisons in a fierce assault.

At the same time, Yin Zhengqi dispatched Jiao Jixun and Wang Tongxin, each with two hundred men, to take small paths over the mountains, and by surprise they seized Jiameng Pass, the back door of Lizhou, completely sealing off the Zhaowu Army's line of retreat.

By this point in the fighting, the Zhaowu Army in Lizhou actually wanted to surrender. But Yin Zhengqi was not about to grant their wish. They wanted to fight when it suited them and surrender when it suited them — where was there such a good bargain?

On the third day, Yin Zhengqi ordered fierce generals such as Zhang Zhaozhong and Li Cunhui to lead the Hanshan regiment and the personal troops of the various guards in a furious assault.

The Shu army could not withstand the sudden increase in the intensity of the attack, and with their retreat already cut off, they collapsed along the entire line after no more than half a shichen, with several thousand killed or wounded.

The deputy commissioner of the Zhaowu Army, Mao Yuanwei, and others came out and surrendered. Zhang Qianzhao, Military Governor of the Zhaowu Army in Lizhou, locked himself inside the military governor's headquarters.

Yin Zhengqi thought he was going to burn himself to death, but in the end the man could not bring himself to go through with it.

However, a few days later, Zhang Qianzhao still felt he had wronged Meng Chang, and being advanced in years as well, he fell into a depression and straightaway suffered an apoplectic stroke. Within a few days he died of illness.

At this time, Meng Shu's reinforcement army had only just reached Jianzhou (Jian'ge County). When they suddenly learned from fleeing soldiers that both Xingyuan Prefecture and Lizhou had already fallen, Wang Zhaoyuan, who held actual military authority, was terrified. He did not dare remain in Jianzhou, and wanted to lead the troops back.

The old general Shi Jun pleaded bitterly, but to no avail. This pretty-faced young man, who at the outset had boasted of leading twenty or thirty thousand tattoo-faced fierce youths to pacify the Central Plains, was scared out of his wits the moment he heard how ferocious the Zhou army was — that in sixty days they had destroyed such pillars of Shu as Sun Hanshao and Zhang Qianzhao. How could he dare go forward to hold Jianzhou?

This was something that even the Martial Marquis Zhuge of old had never encountered! No wonder I, Army Supervisor Wang, am afraid.

On the fourth day of the fifth month, Wang Zhaoyuan refused the old general Shi Jun's orders and, on his own authority, led his trusted followers south from Jianzhou.

The moment Wang Zhaoyuan moved, it set off a chain reaction in the Shu army, because everyone knew who it was whose word actually counted.

Now that Wang Zhaoyuan was gone, if they stayed to defend Jianzhou under Shi Jun — an old general destined to be marginalized and out of favor — it was foreseeable that if they beat back the Zhou army, most of the credit would be taken by Wang Zhaoyuan behind them.

And if they lost, not only might they lose their own lives, they would not even get the compensation for their families, or even a good name for dying for the country.

Therefore, no matter how Shi Jun gave orders, most of the Shu troops refused to hold fast at Jian'ge.

Wang Zhaoyuan was happy to have more troops around him, because it made him feel safer. So not only did he not stop them, he secretly encouraged it.

And so the Meng Shu Southwest Field Army — thirty-five thousand troops plus forty or fifty thousand civilian laborers — had marched in grand array to Jianzhou, but after only two days they abandoned the more than three hundred thousand shi of grain they had laboriously transported, along with great quantities of baggage, and fled in panic to Jiangyou County in Longzhou, southwest of Jianzhou, that place of flourishing blossoms.

The old general Shi Jun was stricken with grief. He had come commanding thirty-five thousand troops, yet in the end only three or four thousand were willing to stay and hold out with him. The army's morale was utterly destroyed.

On the flight to Jiangyou County, Wang Zhaoyuan lost the help of the old general Shi Jun, and only then did he learn how difficult it was to command a great army that, with the civilian laborers, numbered a full hundred thousand.

In his headlong flight, the Meng Shu imperial army, famed as elite, fell into organizational chaos, with communications cut off. Many soldiers, especially the civilian laborers, truly believed they had been defeated.

Along the entire route there was clearly no Zhou army in pursuit, and Jianmen Pass was still in their own hands. Yet by the time Wang Zhaoyuan reached Jiangyou, the forty or fifty thousand civilian laborers had almost all scattered, leaving only two or three thousand.

Of the more than thirty thousand Shu troops, all except a few units controlled by Li Tinggui, Zhao Chongtao, and others lost a considerable portion of their soldiers. In the end, fewer than twenty thousand reached Jiangyou.

Muma Stockade — located on the banks of the Jialing River, it was one of the most important military stockades behind Jianmen Pass, bearing the heavy responsibility of screening the southeast side of the pass. The Shu army had placed three hundred elite soldiers there to hold it.

Moreover, at the foot of the mountain below Muma Stockade there was a small path called the Laisu Road. From the Laisu Road one could go directly to the rear of Jianmen Pass.

This foremost pass in Shu, which one man could hold against ten thousand, naturally had its weakness too: it could only defend against the north, and was very hard pressed to defend against an approach from the direction of Shu itself.

Therefore, once an enemy from the north could spare a few hundred elite soldiers to get behind Jianmen Pass, the natural fortress would fall without a fight. In former years Shi Jingtang's seizure of Jianmen, and Wang Quanbin's destruction of Shu decades later, both relied on this same stratagem.

The Laisu path was known to the Shu army, and in truth known to the Zhou army as well.

Because in recent years Shu had frequently taken part in the Silk Road trade, and while that had earned Meng Chang great quantities of gold and silver for building his palaces, it had also allowed the Zhou state to learn many of Shu's secrets.

What was more, the commander of the stockade on the Laisu Road, Muma Stockade, was none other than Zhang Xiaobao, going by the assumed name Han Silang.

At this moment, the atmosphere inside Muma Stockade was extremely heavy. Under Zhang Xiaobao's lame leg he had pinned down an officer whose head was covered in blood, and who might or might not still be alive.

Around him stood a dozen or more men with swords drawn, guarding him. Facing him, another dozen or more men held swords as if about to rush forward and cut him down, though their expressions were full of terror.

Zhang Xiaobao clapped his hands with an air of ease. He looked at the burly man leading the other side and said calmly:

"Zou Dalang, don't hold out any longer. If you want to come with your old man and submit to the Sacred Zhou, to serve the Shaoming Son of Heaven, then open the stockade gate with me right now.

If you're not willing, then hurry up and run off yourself, go back to the countryside and farm. Don't hold up your brothers' chances at rank and riches."

Having said this, he seemed to grow a little wistful. "We've been comrades for a full six hundred days, eating from the same pot. I still don't want to watch you all throw your lives away for nothing!

Otherwise your old man would only need to find a chance to shove you off a cliff, and that would be the end of it."

The men around Zou Dalang were shocked and uncertain. Some were clearly already swayed, and kept glancing at his face.

Zou Dalang's forehead streamed with sweat. Zhou was strong and Shu was weak now; Xingyuan Prefecture was gone. Shu already had the look of a dying state. Poor wretches like them, if they had a way to switch sides, would naturally seize it.

"Han Silang, I don't care about the others. Just let the duzhi go and let us leave. Commander Sun is holding my wife and children, so I dare not leave without taking him." Zou Dalang pointed at the officer pinned under Zhang Xiaobao's lame leg.

Zhang Xiaobao's heart relaxed. He knew that the moment Zou Dalang said this, the man was finished.

At a time like this, as a squad general, if you thought only of your own wife and children and not of the young men around you, who would still be willing to die for you?

Sure enough, the moment Zou Dalang's words fell, the faces of the sword-bearers around him all changed. Seeing that the moment had come, Zhang Xiaobao suddenly roared, "Now!"

Zou Dalang had been guarding against Zhang Xiaobao's attack, but never expected the blades to come thrusting from his left and right. With a clang he dropped the hengdao saber from his hand, and turned his head with difficulty, looking in pain and bewilderment at the "good brothers" beside him — only to see them all gnashing their teeth.

"Squad general, we have parents, wives, and children too!"

On the seventh day of the fifth month, Yin Zhengqi dispatched Zhang Cheng with four hundred brave men of the Hanshan regiment to cross the Jialing River and take the Laisu path. On Muma Stockade, Zhang Xiaobao finally met his elder brother, and the two shared their own moment of emotion.

Back when Zhang Xiaobao had volunteered to enter Shu, no one could have foreseen the enormous role he would play today.

The Zhang brothers led troops together to seize the Qiang (Qiang) storehouse at Dianzi, blocking the back gate of Jianmen Pass, then set off fireworks at night to signal Yin Zhengqi.

Yin Zhengqi then sent An Shuqian to Jianzhou City to urge surrender. The old general Shi Yun sighed three times, and tears fell like rain.

He looked around at his officers and saw that they were all quite moved. If he opposed them any further, his life would likely be in danger.

"That you, gentlemen, have been willing to hold this place with me rather than withdraw to Jiangyou has already given me, Shi, the greatest face. Now that things have come to this, how would I dare block you all from serving the new dynasty?"

With that, Shi Yun ordered a man to take his written command to Jianmen Pass and notify the garrison to open the pass and surrender.

He himself dressed in plain white clothes, held the golden seal of the Chief Deployer of the Southwestern March in both hands, opened the four gates of Jianzhou City, and came to Yin Zhengqi to beg for surrender.

On the tenth day of the fifth month, Yin Zhengqi dispatched Li Cunhui, Gao Huaide, Zhang Quan, Wang Quanbin, Li Rong, and others with six thousand elite cavalry to launch a surprise attack on Wang Zhaoyuan and the Shu troops under his command, who had fled to Jiangyou County for refuge.

Wang Zhaoyuan and the others had no idea that Shi Yun had already surrendered Jianzhou. They were still waiting for news of Shi Yun's victory over the Zhou army so they could share in the credit.

The twenty thousand Shu troops were completely unprepared. Jiangyou County was no natural stronghold or stout fortress, and moreover the county town could not even hold Wang Zhaoyuan's twenty thousand men, so many of the Shu troops had to camp outside the walls.

This place was also part of the Shu central plain, favorable for cavalry charges. Li Cunhui personally charged to the front line, descending like divine soldiers from heaven at the hour of dawn.

The Shu troops were still asleep when the Zhou army broke through their camps one after another. Apart from a small number of elite troops who put up brief resistance, the entire army collapsed.

By daybreak, Wang Zhaoyuan had stripped off his silk robes and changed into commoner's clothes, intending to flee back to Chengdu, but he was discovered by the Deputy Pacification Commissioner Zhao Chongtao.

The furious Zhao Chongtao raised a mace and shouted, "I will kill you, you traitor who brought ruin to the state!" and smashed Wang Zhaoyuan into a pulp of flesh.

On the twelfth day of the fifth month, Yin Zhengqi left Jiao Jixun to guard Jianmen Pass and led his troops to Jiangyou County. By then the Shu army had already completely collapsed. Of the twenty thousand imperial guards, over seven thousand had been killed and ten thousand captured — essentially the entire army was annihilated.

At this point, the last line of defense for Meng Shu was only Mianzhou (Mianyang), northwest of Chengdu Prefecture.

Mianzhou was the strategic hub of Shu at this time. Whether an army marched by the Yangtze or by the Jinniu Road through Hanzhong, it had to pass through Mianzhou to reach Chengdu.

The terrified Meng Chang still did his utmost to scrape together five thousand men, and even prepared to personally lead the campaign to defend Mianzhou.

But Han Baozheng, the Commissioner of the Northern Court of Palace Attendants, Deputy Pacification Commissioner of the Southwestern March, and Prefect of Mianzhou who was defending Mianzhou, had no intention of resisting.

What was there left to resist for? His own niece was about to become a favored consort of the Zhou dynasty's Shaoming Son of Heaven — why the hell would her own uncle keep resisting?

Besides, his wife and children at home, and his younger brother, had long been gleefully awaiting the Great Zhou's unification of Shu.

His younger brother Han Baosheng was even more excited, and lightly, as if in passing, let slip the news that the Han family's niece was about to become a favored consort of the Shaoming Son of Heaven.

When the Shu officers in Mianzhou heard this, they were overjoyed, and immediately crowded around Han Baozheng as he opened the gates of Mianzhou and came to Yin Zhengqi to beg for surrender.

Yin Zhengqi naturally had to give face to Zhao Jinfang and Lady Han Qiniang, the couple. Not to mention that Lady Han Qiniang had once treated Yin Zhengqi's spear and staff wounds, so there was a bond of friendship between them. Thus he treated Han Baozheng with great generosity.

When the Shu troops in Mianzhou saw this, they immediately felt at ease. They even helped Yin Zhengqi trick the reinforcements sent by Meng Chang into entering the city, and then forced them to surrender as well.

A few days earlier, Sun Hanshao had led a hundred or so personal followers through great hardship, barely escaping from the Micang Road to Bazhong, when bad news arrived.

The last line of defense on the Yangtze for Meng Shu — Zhao Yuanzhen, Military Governor of Wutai Army in Fuzhou — had surrendered without a fight and handed over Fuzhou City.

After Ma Zhaoyuan, Chief Administrator of the Zhou Pacification Headquarters in Shu and Duke of Jiuquan Commandery, absorbed the Shu troops along the river, the Zhou army's vanguard had already reached Tongzhou (present-day Dazhou, Sichuan), which bordered Bazhong.

Soon after, news of the fall of Lizhou and Jianzhou arrived one after another. The thousand or so men Sun Hanshao had managed to gather immediately lost heart.

This famous general of Shu knew the cause was lost, so he calmly arranged for his officers and soldiers to go to Tongzhou and surrender to the Zhou army.

His officers begged him to come along. Sun Hanshao sighed three times, shook his head, and said, "The new dynasty has no place for old men like me." Then he drew his sword and cut his own throat.

With the war reaching this point, the destruction of Meng Shu was a foregone conclusion. The only remaining question was whether Meng Chang, the ruler of Shu, would beg for surrender or kill himself for his country.

(End of Chapter)

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