Jinting Han people

Chapter 730 The Pursuit Battle in Handong

In early August of the sixth year of the Qiming era, after careful preparation, the Han army moved its garrison to Jingling and officially began the encirclement and suppression of the Qi army on the eastern route.

It must be said that the Qi people who invaded Anlu County were indeed highly skilled and daring. In just half a month, they traveled 700 li south from Wancheng, carrying only seven days' worth of supplies, and made their way all the way to the vicinity of Xiakou. Along the way, they captured four military garrisons, burned down sixteen villages, and finally even captured Quling County, where they openly rested and reorganized within the city.

It should be noted that this place is only two or three hundred li away from Wuchang, an important town in Jiangzhou, and Baling, an important town in Xiangzhou. They could be surrounded at any time, but Lu Wang Zhang, who was leading the army, was not afraid at all. As the most trusted younger brother of Qi army marshal Wang Mi, he had led troops to fight the enemy in this situation many times. No matter whether the enemy was the Jin army or the Xianbei people, he always found a way to avoid the enemy's strength and escape from seemingly impossible situations.

Just as Liu Xian had anticipated the Qi people's intentions, Wang Mi's actions in the Jingzhou direction had only one purpose: to use a small number of elite cavalry to tie down as many of the main Han army forces upstream as possible, preventing them from rescuing those downstream. At this juncture, Wang Mi had only one request for Wang Zhang: to make the commotion in Handong as big as possible.

This was Wang Zhang's forte, and he was naturally full of confidence in it. He said to his soldiers, "Don't be afraid of making too much noise. After fighting for so many years, I've learned one thing: no matter how many troops there are, whether it's 100,000 or 1 million, as long as they move, they will naturally reveal their weaknesses and flaws. I don't believe that Li Ju can be that much stronger!"

Therefore, Wang Zhang's first objective was to advance on Xiakou, a key town in Jingzhou, and provoke Zhuge Yan's troops in Xiakou.

This is the first philosophy that the Qi army learned in their years of pursuit battles: if you want to be good at escaping, you cannot be afraid of fighting, and you even have to act quite warlike.

After a brief rest, Wang Zhang led his troops to the walls of Xiakou City, forcibly forcing the surrounding populace to set up camp for him. He then sent men to challenge Liu Xian at Huanghu Cliff on Snake Mountain in Xiakou, unleashing all the slanderous words Qi Han had used against him. Zhuge Yan could not tolerate this. He immediately dispatched Lü Poluo and Zhu Yan to meet the enemy in battle. The two armies clashed in front of the city with about a hundred cavalrymen each, attracting the attention of the surrounding populace who gathered on the city walls to watch.

This Qi army was indeed a rare elite force. Wielding long spears, they charged head-on into battle and even managed to gain the upper hand over Lü Poluo. Leading them was Liang Ju, a former Jin general who had defected to Qi and Han. He rode a bright red warhorse, wielding a long spear, and charged forward, thrusting the spear tip at any enemy he encountered. Then, taking advantage of the moment his horse stumbled, he would kill the fallen rider.

The Qi people's actions were entirely due to their superior quality and number of warhorses. After several rounds, Zhuge Yan could no longer keep up. The city lacked sufficient cavalry, which made him unwilling to engage the Qi army in open battle. He then wrote to Li Ju for help, requesting the Han army to surround and annihilate them as soon as possible.

Wang Zhang had been waiting for this moment. He had deployed scouts along the river, and upon seeing naval movements on the water, he anticipated that the Han army had begun to encircle him. He immediately abandoned his existing camp. Before leaving, he posted a proclamation on the camp, boasting that he would lead his army to attack Anlu. Zhuge Yan, lacking horses, naturally couldn't catch up and could only watch helplessly as Wang Zhang and his party departed.

In most people's minds, Anlu was a key stronghold in Jiangxia, difficult to conquer, and certainly not a first choice for attack. Wang Zhang's high-profile announcement of his impending march to Anlu also defied military common sense. Therefore, Wang Zhang must have been using a feint, actually fleeing in another direction. Zhuge Yan indeed thought so, and thus he again submitted a memorial to Li Ju, requesting him to reinforce Xiling and Wuchang to block Wang Zhang's eastward escape route.

After receiving Zhuge Yan's letter, Li Ju did not immediately express his opinion. Instead, he pondered for a moment and first asked his advisors, "What are your opinions?"

Gou Yuandao said, "The Qi people seem so arrogant, but in the end, it's just bluffing. Before our troops even reached Xiakou, they withdrew. Aren't they just trying to avoid battle with us? I think they still want to play games with us, rampage westward, and join up with the main force of the Qi people."

General Geng Zhi also said, "That's for sure. What way can he possibly survive now? Is he really going to fight us in Jiangxia? As long as our army doesn't care about the enemy forces in the west, he'll have no choice but to flee east."

Therefore, the general consensus was that the forces should be concentrated to pursue the enemy eastward, and the Jiangzhou army should be urged to block the passage.

Li Ju neither agreed nor disagreed, saying, "There's no need to rush. Let him go his way, and we'll fight our own. As long as our army proceeds step by step, blocks all his routes, and seizes his position, everything will be resolved." So they continued to act according to the original plan.

Several days later, a battle report arrived from Anlu. Wang Zhang had employed psychological tactics; instead of fleeing eastward, he actually led his troops back to the walls of Anlu, attempting to take advantage of the city's unpreparedness and launch a surprise attack. However, he ran right into Chen Chuan's forces, who were already fortified there. The two sides clashed hastily outside Anlu and were forced into a field battle.

The Han army, mostly composed of heavily armored infantry, was initially at a loss when faced with a sudden cavalry charge. Fortunately, the officers reacted quickly, their experience from daily drills allowing them to issue orders to their troops, organized into units, to form circular formations with spears. Simultaneously, the units coordinated their movements, gradually shrinking the smaller circular formations into a larger one. They used this formation to withstand the Qi cavalry's charge.

Wang Zhang was taken aback by what he saw. He found the Han army's formation change to be extremely swift and disciplined, a speed he had never witnessed before. However, considering the advantage of cavalry in open field battles, he still attempted a charge. Unexpectedly, the spear formation, which should have collapsed at the first charge, did not falter significantly in the face of the cavalry's onslaught. Then, the Qi soldiers exchanged fire at the edge of arrow range, but because the Han soldiers were all heavily armored, the effect was minimal.

After this brief skirmish, Wang Zhang realized that he could hardly find a breakthrough and was unlikely to capture Anlu further. So he reluctantly gave up the idea of ​​fighting the Han army and disengaged from the battle to continue northward.

If he continued north, he would likely encounter Zhang Guang's troops in Sui County. However, this northward advance was still a feint by Wang Zhang. He chose to take a small detour, traveling only a hundred li north before turning west towards the Dahong Mountains. He then forced his way through these hilly areas, emerging from the mountains and proceeding southwest through Quling, directly approaching Jingling. There, on the east bank of Jingling, he forcibly seized civilians and forced them to build boats, making it appear as if he intended to cross the Han River. This series of dazzling actions was completely unexpected. Even Li Ju had not anticipated that the Qi army could employ such a surprising strategy. Because the Han army's deployment had only just begun, this Qi army could not possibly be aware of it. Yet, Wang Zhang took every risky step, inadvertently evading several encirclements and even finding a breakthrough that Li Ju had not considered.

If this Qi army were to cross the Han River and join forces with the Qi army on the western route, the sheer power of 20,000 cavalry charging would make it difficult for the Anhan army, no matter how rigorously trained, to contain them within Jingzhou. In other words, looking across the world, if 20,000 cavalry were to deliberately leave, there would be no force capable of stopping them.

Moreover, Wang Zhang probably didn't know that his troops were currently heading straight for Li Ju's main camp, and that Li Ju's defenses were weak, giving him an excellent opportunity to surround and behead him.

Faced with this predicament, Li Ju's advisors were terrified. They urged him to withdraw from Jingling and ordered all units to come to his aid and blockade. But Li Ju remained unmoved. He personally went to the shore to inspect the Qi army's shipbuilding efforts. Seeing the horses on the opposite bank as numerous as the tide, he said to his men:

"The Qi people are now truly bluffing. They want to cross the river and join forces with the western route. Why didn't they just send out their troops together earlier? The reason is simple: 20,000 cavalry and nearly 40,000 warhorses. How much would the horses need to feed each day? People can endure hunger, but horses cannot. They will run to death if they are not fed for two days. If they hide in the mountains and forests, they probably wouldn't be able to afford to feed them even if the grass is scrambled dry! They are just trying to lure me into sending more troops to pursue them and disrupt our pursuit plan."

After a moment's thought, Li Ju smiled and said, "I already have a plan. Since he wants me to mobilize troops, then I'll show him how."

He then ordered the remaining infantry units to remain stationary and continue to strengthen the blockade of the key transportation routes in eastern Handong. He then ordered Zhang Yi's troops to lead their naval forces back to Jingling, and to place straw figures on the ships on the return journey to create the appearance of a large army returning to reinforce the region. Simultaneously, he ordered Tian Hui's cavalry to lead their troops north to Yunshe County. He anticipated that the Qi forces, upon seeing the naval forces, would inevitably flee north again to conceal their tracks, thus creating an opportunity for the two armies to encounter each other.

Once they encounter each other, this is the time for the Han army to turn the tables and take the initiative.

As Li Ju had predicted, the subsequent developments in the battle unfolded as follows: although the Qi army was building a large fleet on the opposite bank of Jingling, creating a formidable spectacle, they had no real intention of crossing the Han River. When their massive fleet sailed upstream, Qi scouts, seeing the large number of figures on the vanguard, assumed the main army was in pursuit and immediately reported this to Wang Zhang.

Wang Zhang was overjoyed upon hearing this. He believed he had Li Ju completely under his control, and couldn't help but sneer, "Everyone says Li Shihui has the style of Han Xin, but I think he's just a Zhang He. It's only because there are no heroes in this era that such a nobody can become famous!"

Having said that, he gathered his troops, abandoned Jingling, and headed north straight for Yundu.

To most people, Yundu is probably a relatively unfamiliar name, hardly considered important. But three hundred years ago, it had another resounding name—Green Forest Mountain. This place was famous for its numerous evergreen pines and cypresses, and its complex terrain. When Wang Mang usurped the Han throne, Wang Kuang and Wang Feng were based in Green Forest Mountain, maneuvering against Wang Mang's army. They gradually absorbed surrounding anti-Wang Mang forces, growing in strength, including the brothers Liu Yan and Liu Xiu. In other words, this was the birthplace of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Clearly, Wang Zhang's reason for heading to Green Forest Mountain was to emulate the Wang brothers of yesteryear, using the complex terrain to continue shaking off any potential Han army pursuers. After a brief resupply and rest, he planned to return to Jiangxia territory and catch the Han army off guard.

Wang Zhang's plan was perfect, but unfortunately, Li Ju seized the initiative this time. They had just spotted the graceful Green Forest Mountains to the north when they encountered Tian Hui's troops on the official road. Tian Hui, under orders from Li Ju, avoided direct combat with Wang Zhang's forces and retreated upon encountering them. However, he dispatched several scouts along the way to track Wang Zhang's movements, and then led Han cavalry in pursuit, maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far from Wang Zhang.

At first, Wang Zhang thought that the Han army was unprepared and, although they had managed to track him down, they still needed time to redeploy their troops, which was why he had escaped. But after a few days, he discovered that the situation was not so simple. The Han army seemed to be deliberately maintaining their distance. They had no intention of fighting the Qi people, nor did they want to let the Qi people continue to wreak havoc. So they adopted this follow-up strategy.

This was precisely Li Ju's idea. In his view, the most difficult step in dealing with this Qi army was finding their trail. Once that step was accomplished, the subsequent steps would be quite simple. As long as the Han army and the Qi army remained a quarter to half an hour apart, the Qi people would be unable to stop and do anything. They could neither plunder the civilians nor attack the military camps. They could only continue to try to shake off the Han army's pursuit. However, in such a short time, the tracks of tens of thousands of warhorses could not be hidden at all. Based solely on the hoofprints and droppings left by the cavalry, the Han cavalry could easily catch up.

Under these circumstances, the war in the eastern part of Han gradually transformed from guerrilla warfare by the Qi people into a simple pursuit. The Han army pressed on from the rear, relentlessly pursuing the Qi people without engaging them in any battle. The Qi army, on the other hand, tried their best to shake off the Han army's pursuit. As long as they could create distance between themselves and the Han cavalry, they could regain the initiative.

But as late August approached, several days passed before Wang Zhang fled from Yundu to Suixian, only to discover to his astonishment that all his previous tactics were proving futile. Take, for example, the horsemanship that the Qi people were most proud of; the Han and Qi armies were evenly matched, with no clear advantage. The Qi people tried to use the terrain to outmaneuver the Han army, but they were unfamiliar with it, while the Han army thrived, especially with the guidance of the local villagers.

After a prolonged chase, the Han army's home-field advantage gradually became apparent. They were able to quickly obtain supplies on the spot, while the Qi people could only consume the grain they had previously plundered. The men could hold out, but the horses couldn't. Without sufficient horse feed, the Qi warhorses began to die from exhaustion and disease. The Han army's blockades in various locations were also being strengthened. If this continued for several more days, the Qi army would likely die from exhaustion before even engaging in a single battle.

The time had come to make a decision. After a brief discussion, Wang Zhang of Qi made up his mind to turn his forces around and engage the Han army in a head-on cavalry battle. (End of Chapter)