Chapter 775: Is This the Battle of Fei River?

In all armies, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, the most important thing in a campaign is guarding against disease and epidemics.

Especially in summer, when corpses have baked under the sun, it is easiest to trigger cholera, that death-god of an epidemic, and the excessive heat is also unfavorable for a large army on campaign.

Therefore Zhang Zhao sent Gao Huaide with five thousand men on a probing attack, capturing two small stockades of the Qinghuai Army to provoke them, but after Liu Renzhan held fast and refused to come out, he withdrew his troops and pulled back, waiting for the fierce heat to subside before attacking again.

At the same time, Zhang Zhao did not go to Haozhou at all, because Haozhou already had Gao Huaide's twenty thousand men in the city; if he brought another twenty thousand, then forty thousand men plus seventy or eighty thousand laborers would all be crammed into Haozhou, and the pressure on supplies and provisions would be too great.

So Zhang Zhao simply withdrew to Guide Prefecture, detached more than ten thousand soldiers to the various prefectures to be fed, and in the meantime summoned Empress Cao Yanxi and Zhang Xianjing over for a few days of reunion.

After that he went to Xuzhou, pacified the local populace, re-established three garrison battalions in Xuzhou using the fields left behind after the Wuning garrison moved away, and while he was at it, heard the plans of Li Cunhui, Pan Mei, and others for taking Yangzhou.

On the fifteenth of the ninth month, when Zhao Kuangzan and Zhang Xianyu had escorted Cao Yijin's coffin to Chang'an, and Empress Cao Yanxi and Third Lady Cao Yannai had both gone to receive it, Zhang Zhao once again assembled his great army at Suzhou.

Before this, Duke of Tian Liu Zaisheng had already led fifteen thousand men by land and water down the Ying River from Yingzhou (Fuyang, Anhui), fiercely attacking the Qinghuai Army's Anfeng city on the north bank of the Quebei reservoir.

Anfeng city lies southwest of Shouzhou, right in the center of the 'river' character formed by the three rivers Yi River, Tang River, and Fei River (East Fei River); not only does it have its back to Quebei and is easy to defend and hard to attack, it can also send troops out at any time to control these three rivers.

As long as these three rivers are in hand, relief supplies and troops can be guaranteed to travel by water and be delivered swiftly and easily to the outskirts of Shouzhou.

But if the Zhou army occupied Anfeng city, it could calmly stab Shouzhou in the rear, especially via the East Fei River; at this time the Yellow River had not yet come to 'plunder' Huainan, and Lake Wabu had not yet appeared.

South of Shouzhou, the Lake Wabu region through which the East Fei River flows was a thousand li of fertile fields with a large population, and the Zhou army could calmly requisition grain and conscript laborers there, using Shouzhou's own people to attack Shouzhou city.

Liu Renzhan naturally understood this reasoning; he had long since built Anfeng city into a small fortress and sent the fierce general Huangfu Hui with four thousand men to hold it; the city's civilians had long been moved away, eight months' worth of grain was stored, and with Quebei behind it, there was no worry about water.

Liu Zaisheng came with fifteen thousand men, of whom only three thousand were imperial troops of the Wuwei garrison; the rest were garrison battalions from the various prefectures and long-service braves from the various inspection offices; they besieged it for several days and truly could not crack this turtle shell.

So Liu Zaisheng simply left two thousand men outside the city to keep watch, and personally led the remaining troops northeast to join the siege of Shouzhou directly.

This immediately put Huangfu Hui in an awkward spot, because he discovered an unsolvable problem: the Zhou army had so many mules and horses that if they sortied with only a few tens of thousands of men, they could almost achieve half a mule or horse per man.

This time when Liu Zaisheng went to Shouzhou, the two thousand men he left behind had two horses per man, and relying on their high mobility, they kept Huangfu Hui completely pinned down.

His purpose in holding Anfeng city was to control the upper reaches of the Yi River, Tang River, and Fei River, but the Zhou army outside the city had two thousand cavalry and mounted infantry, which meant he did not dare leave the city at all, let alone talk about controlling these three rivers.

Huangfu Hui tried sending a few hundred men out of the city to probe, and as he expected, the Zhou troops left behind on the other side immediately came out with several hundred men to confront them.

If they went far from the city, the Zhou army would sound a gong, and immediately dispatch twice their number of troops to rush to the battlefield.

If they stayed near the city, the Zhou army would send only a few dozen men to follow them from a distance, and at any sign of movement, would summon the main force with things called signal-fire bombs.

Huangfu Hui and his officers looked at each other in dismay; they had never seen such a thing, able to play hide-and-seek with them by relying on large numbers of cavalry.

Even so, Huangfu Hui still did not rashly take the next step, because he did not know whether Liu Zaisheng had really left or only pretended to leave.

Yet from the city wall, Huangfu Hui watched the Zhou army transport cartload after cartload of grain, fodder, and supplies ceaselessly toward Shouzhou, and his heart burned with anxiety.

One must know that ever since Liu Renzhan attacked the two prefectures of Haozhou and Sizhou last year, Liu Zaisheng had been stockpiling supplies in Yingzhou near Shouzhou; at least half of the Zhou army's military needs for this siege of Shouzhou depended on Yingzhou for supply.

By letting Zhou army supplies pass through like this without end, he was completely wasting the purpose for which Liu Renzhan had ordered him to hold Anfeng.

So Huangfu Hui gathered the good horses in the city and sent out several waves of scouts and outriders under cover of night.

These scouts probed as far as more than fifty li from Anfeng city before reporting back that it was safe.

Because Anfeng city was only about ninety li from Shouzhou, and no enemy was seen within fifty li, it naturally meant they really had gone to besiege Shouzhou.

Huangfu Hui was overjoyed and immediately mustered three thousand five hundred of the four thousand troops in the city, sallying out to fiercely attack the Zhou army's camp outside the city.

On the Zhou side, the defenders were the Caizhou Central Garrison of the garrison battalions; they had only two thousand men, and still had to send out a portion to escort army grain, and Huangfu Hui's troops were also quite strong in combat, so they could only hold the stockade and fight bitterly.

Huangfu Hui personally donned armor and led the fierce assault; the two sides fought from early morning until nearly noon, and just as the Caizhou Central Garrison's camp seemed about to collapse, Huangfu Hui suddenly heard the thunder of hooves; he looked up and could not help letting out a miserable cry, for he saw the Zhou army coming from three directions, raising dust that filled the sky.

It turned out Liu Zaisheng had indeed withdrawn to a distance of fifty li, but the two thousand cavalry of the Wuwei garrison under his command were all uniformly Hexi dragon horses, and since Huangfu Hui had only a hundred-odd roving scouts, he could not conduct a carpet search and interception; the Wuwei garrison's roving scouts had long since detoured around and were instead watching Huangfu Hui's sortie from the city.

As soon as the fighting started on his side, Liu Zaisheng sent out five hundred of his most elite cavalry to round up and hunt down Huangfu Hui's scout cavalry, while the rest rushed at top speed to the battlefield outside Anfeng city.

Amid the earth-shaking thunder of hooves, Huangfu Hui's troops, who had already been fighting for more than four hours, were utterly exhausted; they tried to retreat, but the Caizhou Central Garrison in the camp suddenly threw away all caution and sallied out to entangle them.

In their panic, Huangfu Hui's force was shattered in a single blow by the Zhou army that had galloped back from more than fifty li away.

Huangfu Hui still tried to salvage the situation, but he was struck directly on the head by a lance from Murong Xinde, the Regional Commander of the Zhongwu garrison, and fell to the ground gravely wounded, unable to rise.

The three thousand-odd men scattered like birds and beasts, and the gates of Anfeng city were not closed in time, so the city was taken by direct assault through the gates.

After uprooting the strongpoint of Anfeng city, Liu Zaisheng left Murong Xinde with three thousand men to hold it, and supplies from Yingzhou could finally be transferred to Anfeng city without worry.

Moreover, Anfeng city was only one hundred fifty li from Luzhou, that is, Hefei, enough to keep watch on the movements of the Southern Tang's Baoxin Army in Luzhou.

On the twenty-third of the ninth month, Zhang Zhao arrived at Haozhou with twenty thousand infantry and cavalry, and before his arrival, Gao Huaide and Fu Zhaoxu had already led fifteen thousand troops and tens of thousands of laborers westward to the vicinity of Shouzhou.

Liu Renzhan's defense of Shouzhou was extremely thorough, displaying his ability as a famous general of the Southern Tang.

Shouzhou was the gateway to Huainan; whenever the northern dynasties attacked the southern dynasties, they usually struck Shouzhou first, seeking to occupy it and use it as a great base on the Huai River, then split their forces into two routes and advance along the water to seize everything north of the Yangtze.

The most famous historical example is of course the Battle of Fei River, where Fu Jian of the Former Qin lost several hundred thousand troops here, leaving behind idioms such as 'seeing soldiers in every bush and tree' and 'starting at every sound of wind and cry of crane.'

Later, during the Southern Song period, the Southern Song court also won a great victory over the Mongol army outside Anfeng city, which Liu Zaisheng had just captured, securing the Huaiyou region for more than ten years.

It is just that with me, Sage Zhang, things are a bit odd; others first captured Shouzhou, then went down the Huai River to take Haozhou, Sizhou, Huaiyin Prefecture, and other places.

But when Sage Zhang last sent out troops, he first attacked Huaiyin Prefecture, then drove straight for Yangzhou, and finally extorted Haozhou and Sizhou from the Southern Tang.

This was thanks in large part to the contrast provided by the opponent! If at this time there had been an Eastern Jin like the one at the Battle of Fei River south of the Yangtze, or a Liu Song, or even a Southern Chen, none of them would have been so easy to deal with.

But Yang Xingmi alone not only exhausted all the fortune of his descendants, he also took all the fortune of the Southern Tang with him.

After him, only Li Bian had any real ability; the rest all utterly failed to amount to anything, and before Shouzhou was even breached, Yangzhou was already gone.

So at this time, Zhang Zhao could also completely avoid attacking Shouzhou, because he could surround Shouzhou and then send a large army to attack Yangzhou.

But this also had a drawback: if Li Jing withstood the intimidation, Zhang Zhao would have to wait for Ma Zhaoyuan, Zhao Yanjin, Zhao Kuangyin, and the others to gnaw away one by one at the Southern Tang's strongholds on the upper Yangtze before he could cross the river.

Therefore, Zhang Zhao finally decided to take Shouzhou with the force of a thunderbolt, and then go and force Li Jing to surrender.

Shouzhou city lies on the south bank of the Huai River, and its northeast and northwest sides are both protected by the Bagong mountain range.

The Huai River passes through the Bagong range; northwest of the river is Xiashi Mountain, which belongs to the Bagong range.

Southeast of the river is the main peak of the Bagong range, Feiling Mountain; when people generally speak of Bagong Mountain, they mean this one.

Southeast of Feiling Mountain is Purple Gold Mountain.

These three mountains perfectly wrap Shouzhou city inside them.

Liu Renzhan had built a water fortress on the Huai River, with catapults, great crossbows, and various small stockades set up on both banks; to go upstream on the Huai River and reach Shouzhou city directly was extremely difficult.

So the best approach was to take one of the two mountains, Feiling Mountain or Purple Gold Mountain.

Of these, Feiling Mountain was steep and its roads difficult to travel. Purple Gold Mountain was somewhat lower, shaped like a hill, and would certainly be made the main point of breakthrough.

But Liu Renzhan had thought of this long ago. Over the past few years, he had built more than twenty forts and stockades, large and small, on Purple Gold Mountain, linked by excavated tunnels that ran all the way down to the walls of Shouzhou.

On the northeast and southeast sides of Purple Gold Mountain, he had also diverted the Huai River to flood a stretch of boggy ground, making it extremely difficult for cavalry to pass.

With these arrangements, Feiling Mountain and Purple Gold Mountain were like two fists thrust out from the city of Shouzhou — capable of both attack and defense, and able at any time to draw troops and supplies from Shouzhou for support.

The only weakness was that Liu Zaisheng had swiftly stormed Anfeng and captured Huangfu Hui, leaving the "chrysanthemum" of Shouzhou feeling a little exposed to the chill.

After Zhang Zhao led the main army upstream and arrived three li east of Purple Gold Mountain, he could not help drawing a sharp breath. Liu Renzhan's Feiling Mountain and Purple Gold Mountain were absolutely bones hard to gnaw.

He felt a little uneasy at heart, because in history there had been no shortage of wise rulers whose heads grew hot and who finally broke themselves beneath mighty walls — the Former Qin's Fu Jian had gambled away his entire fortune right here.

The older one grows in the jianghu, the smaller one's courage becomes — that is probably what it means.

But Gao Huaide, Yang Jiye, Qu Yanqing, Fu Zhaoxu, and the others were not as hesitant as Zhang Zhao.

In high spirits, they said to Zhang Zhao: "Purple Gold Mountain may have the advantage of terrain, but it is far inferior to Wangwu and Lüliang in Hedong, and cannot be counted as especially steep.

The main force of the Qinghuai Army has just been badly defeated by us at Haozhou. Instead of holding the strong walls of Shouzhou, Liu Renzhan has deployed them on Purple Gold Mountain — he is simply courting death!"

Related