Chapter 594: Troops Arrive in Xiangzhou

“The waters of the Yellow River come from the heavens, rushing to the sea and never returning…”
The Yellow River originates from the snow-capped mountains on the plateau, flowing for thousands of miles. Countless tributaries join it along the way, widening the riverbed. Its mighty currents surge forth from Sanmenxia without any constraints, eventually forming a vast, turbulent river in the Luoyang area before plunging into the sea.

It was now November, and the Yellow River had entered its dry season. The river surface had become much calmer, and the weather grew colder. Many of its tributaries had begun to freeze, and even near the riverbank, thin layers of ice appeared—a precursor to the river’s complete freezing.

That morning, Li Qing’an, accompanied by Li Guangbi and dozens of other generals as well as local officials from Henan, went to the banks of the Yellow River in Heyin County to inspect its condition.

Li Qing’an had arrived in Luoyang three days earlier, rested there for one night, and set off the next day to Heyin for an inspection.

“General, please take a look!”
Li Guangbi pointed to a stretch of thin ice along the riverbank, dozens of miles long and about seven or eight zhang wide. “It appeared the day before yesterday. The appearance of this ice means the Yellow River will freeze soon.”

Li Qing’an stared at it for a while before asking, “How thick is the ice? Can people walk on it?”

“I’m not sure. We can send someone to test it.”

At Li Guangbi’s order, two soldiers carefully went down to the riverbank with long poles. As they approached the ice, they struck it repeatedly with their poles. After about a dozen strikes, the ice began to crack, and water seeped through the cracks. One soldier stepped on the ice to gain balance, but the ice beneath his foot suddenly split. Had his companion not quickly grabbed him, he would have fallen into the river.

The two soldiers rushed back and reported, “General, the ice is only half an inch thick. It’s slightly thicker near the bank, about one inch, but it’s not safe for walking on.”

Li Qing’an nodded. At that moment, a few bodyguards brought in an old boatman. “General, the local boatman you asked for is here.”

The old boatman immediately knelt down and kowtowed. “This humble servant bows to Prince Zhao.”

Li Qing’an smiled and asked his bodyguards to help the old man stand up. He then asked, “What’s your name? How many years have you been sailing on the Yellow River?”

“My name is Luo Wulang. I started sailing on the Yellow River at the age of eighteen. I’m 58 this year, so it’s been forty years.”

“As expected, you have rich experience. Let me ask you—based on the current situation, how many more days until the river freezes? I mean, when it will be safe for people to walk on it.”

The old boatman calculated and said, “These past few years have been a bit abnormal. If it were four years ago, the river would have frozen by now. But these past few years, it takes about seven or eight days at night. Judging from the current situation, it will take at least seven more days before it freezes completely. However, there’s a saying here: ‘Don’t travel on the Yellow River when it first freezes; otherwise, the Dragon King will summon you.’ That means one shouldn’t travel when it first freezes. To go, one must wait until ‘the Yellow River is covered with a brocade quilt, and one can sleep on its surface,’ meaning wait until the first snow after freezing so that one can walk on the ice.”

Li Qing’an and Li Guangbi exchanged a glance and laughed together. After all this trouble, two sayings were more effective—they provided all the information they wanted.

“Then we have no choice but to wait patiently for the first snow!”

Suddenly, Li Qing’an remembered something and asked the old boatman, “Can we sail now?”

The old boatman shook his head and smiled. “Your Highness, does anyone see any boats on the river? We can’t sail now. If we’re unlucky, the boats will freeze to the river surface overnight, leaving us stuck. We can only wait until the ice breaks in spring next year to retrieve them. By then, the hulls will have rotted away. Even if they don’t, during the ice breakup, the strong currents will surely crush large ships. So there definitely won’t be any boats on the river at this time. But in Jizhou and Qizhou areas, sailing might be possible for a few days, but not even two days.”

“Thank you, old boatman.”

Li Qing’an ordered his guards, “Take him away and reward him with ten silver coins.”

The old boatman left, expressing his deepest gratitude. At that moment, Li Guangbi said, “General, according to the intelligence received last night, the vanguard of Cai Xide’s army has reached Handan. I estimate that by the day after tomorrow at the latest, Cai Xide’s army will have surrounded Xiangzhou. Cheng Qianli still hasn’t withdrawn his troops! I feel that Guo Ziyi hopes we’ll go to assist Xiangzhou. After the Yellow River freezes, I wonder what your general’s opinion is…”

Li Qing’an didn’t answer right away. He stared at the other side of the Yellow River for a long time before asking, “Do you want to go help?”

Li Guangbi shook his head. “I think it’s unnecessary. Xiangzhou is defended by 50,000 troops with ample supplies, while Cai Xide only has 100,000 troops. I believe Cai Xide can’t capture Xiangzhou. If we go to help, it will leave Henan vulnerable. If An Lushan’s army takes advantage of that, our retreat will be cut off.”

Li Qing’an glanced at him and said, “General Li, I think you and Guo Ziyi have made the same mistake. You’ve both been deceived by An Lushan’s appearance, thinking he’s only sending Cai Xide’s 100,000 troops to attack Xiangzhou. If that’s really what you think, then you’re greatly mistaken.”

Li Guangbi was shocked. “Isn’t it an army of a hundred thousand?”
“Hmph!” Li Qing’an sneered. “An Lushan has five hundred thousand troops, yet he only sends two hundred thousand—half to attack Hedong and half to attack Henan. What does that mean? That two hundred thousand troops are enough for him to conquer the whole country? You’re underestimating An Lushan too much. Those two hundred thousand troops are just a decoy, meant to deceive you and Guo Ziyi so you can’t see his true intentions. Shi Siming’s troops advancing to Hedong are to hold Guo Ziyi’s army in place, preventing him from sending reinforcements to Cheng Qianli in Xiangzhou. Sending only a hundred thousand troops south is also to mislead you, making you think Cheng Qianli’s fifty thousand troops can defend Xiangzhou. Once you can’t cross the river to help, he will surely launch a full-scale attack on Xiangzhou with no less than three hundred thousand troops. With three hundred thousand troops, do you think Cheng Qianli can still hold Xiangzhou? If Xiangzhou falls, An Lushan’s main force will strike Hedong from the south—what will Guo Ziyi do in the north?”
Li Guangbi was stunned. Li Qing’an’s analysis made sense; it was entirely possible. And wasn’t that already the case? The Yellow River was now impassable for ships, and it would take another ten days or half a month until it froze solid enough for troops to cross. An Lushan was exploiting this critical time gap.
“So… how should we respond?” Li Guangbi was confused; he couldn’t think of any countermeasure.
Li Qing’an also sighed slightly. “Guo Ziyi won’t follow my orders as a general, so I issued an order under the guise of official authority, but he still refuses to abandon Xiangzhou. I know there must be a reason why Guo Ziyi is determined to defend it, and I can’t be too explicit—after all, this is just my speculation. But now it seems the situation is moving in line with my assumptions. Yesterday, I sent pigeon messages to both Cheng Qianli and Guo Ziyi along the way. If it’s still possible to retreat now, they still insist on staying put. There’s nothing more I can do.”
Li Qing’an gazed at the surging Yellow River, feeling powerless for the first time.
…
Xiangzhou, today’s Anyang, was the location of Ye Commandery during the Han Dynasty. It was the largest city in southern Hebei, serving as the gateway to Hebei and holding great strategic value. The city wall was over sixty li in circumference, six zhang high, built entirely of huge stones. Three chariots could travel side by side on top of the wall, and horse-head walls were built every li. After centuries of continuous repairs, the city had become impregnable.

Additionally, the water in Anyang flowed around the city, forming a natural moat. The river was three zhang wide, making it difficult to build a bridge even with ordinary wooden planks. With four city gates and four protective bridges, along with this impregnable city and the defense of 50,000 troops, plus enough food to sustain 100,000 people for a year, the commander Cheng Qianli was full of confidence in holding the city.

Cheng Qianli was an old friend of Li Qing’an—more precisely, an old rival. Even when Li Qing’an was still a military officer in Anxi, he had already been the deputy governor of Anxi. He first fought against Gao Xianzhi; after Fu Menglingcha fell, he was transferred to Beiting, and then fought against Li Qing’an again, losing once more and being sent back to Chang’an to idle away his time. After many hardships, he eventually followed Guo Ziyi and became his deputy general.

It was only then that Cheng Qianli seemed to find his place. Guo Ziyi trusted him greatly, not only letting him take charge of important tasks but also strongly recommending his merits to Li Qing’an. Li Qing’an honored Guo Ziyi by making Cheng Qianli the governor of Xiangzhou and the deputy commander of the northern army. This was Cheng Qianli’s first promotion to a governorship, which undoubtedly filled him with gratitude toward Guo Ziyi.

After taking charge of Xiangzhou, Cheng Qianli diligently implemented Guo Ziyi’s strategy of relocating people, continuously moving the population from Hebei to Hedong and Henan. But in recent days, Cheng Qianli faced increasing pressure as news of An Lushan’s massacres spread throughout Hebei, causing panic in all the prefectures and counties there.

Moreover, since the massacres in Anxi and Xindu, An Lushan’s army had completely shed its false pretenses. Along the way, they burned, looted, and raped women. The barbarian soldiers were extremely cruel—killing indiscriminately and sending thousands of young women to northern tribes to become slaves for life. This further heightened the panic among the people of Hebei. Within days, over a million people from more than dozens of counties in eight prefectures—Zhao, Yi, De, Bei, Xing, Ming, Wei, and Bo—fled to Xiangzhou to escape the war. While the previous large-scale migration from Hebei consisted mainly of rural farmers, this time most of the refugees were urban civilians. Lacking draft animals, they had to travel on foot while avoiding An Lushan’s advancing army. They generally headed south through open fields, and within days, a million refugees had arrived in Xiangzhou.

This undoubtedly placed immense pressure on Cheng Qianli. No more refugees could be admitted into Xiangzhou City, so they had to be sent to Hedong. There were two routes from Xiangzhou to Hedong: one was Fukouxing west of Fuyang County in the north, and the other was Baixing in the southwest. To reach Hedong, one had to first enter Weizhou. To flee as closely as possible, the people from Zhao, Yi, Xing, and Ming provinces mainly escaped to Hedong through Fukouxing, while those from De, Bei, Wei, and Bo provinces crossed Xiangzhou City and entered Weizhou, then together with the people of Weizhou, fled to Hedong and the capital region via Baixing.

For this reason, Cheng Qianli dispatched 10,000 troops along with large amounts of food to help millions of refugees flee westward. Yet, news continued to reach him of refugees being caught and killed by bandit armies, weighing heavily on his heart. It felt as though he was bearing an immense burden, unable to sleep day or night, filled with anxiety.

Early that morning, just as Cheng Qianli had fallen asleep for a short while, he was awakened by urgent news. “General Cheng, Cai Xide’s 30,000 vanguard troops have arrived at Fuyang County and engaged in fierce battles with our 5,000 troops guarding the refugees. Outnumbered, our forces were defeated, and the 50,000 refugees who had not yet fled westward suffered heavy casualties.”

Almost instinctively, Cheng Qianli sat up with a cry of “Ah!” Cai Xide’s vanguard had already entered Xiangzhou. He stared blankly at the ceiling before anxiously asking, “Where is Cai Xide’s main force?”

“Cai Xide’s main force has already reached Handan!”

Handan was only sixty li away from Fuyang County, meaning by now Cai Xide’s 100,000 troops would have fully entered Xiangzhou. Cheng Qianli let out a long sigh—An Lushan’s army had arrived after all.

He got up, washed his face with cold water, which snapped him out of his daze and energized him. He then said to his personal guards outside, “Let’s go to the city walls!”

It was not yet fully light; the sky was overcast, without stars or moon, and the land was still shrouded in a gray mist, making it impossible to see beyond a hundred steps. Yet, all the soldiers on the city walls could feel an inexplicable fear, as if the mist filling the air was a breath of death, a poisonous gas exhaled by demons, surrounding them and suffocating them.

Cheng Qianli also felt this suffocating fear. He immediately ordered, “Beat the drums!”

“Boom! Boom! Boom!” The loud drumbeats resounded from the city walls of Xiangzhou, thunderous in sound, as if fighting against the fear permeating the air. Since ancient times, the sound of war drums had been used as a tactic to combat evil forces. Amidst the rhythmic drumbeats, the soldiers’ courage gradually returned.

Cheng Qianli breathed a slight sigh of relief, feeling a hint of pride—after all, not everyone could master such tactics to boost morale in an instant. He mounted his horse and began walking along the city walls, circling them every day. This had almost become a kind of devout religious ritual for him. Though it appeared to be an inspection of the walls’ defenses, it was actually a form of psychological self-suggestion. Only by seeing these seemingly impregnable defenses could his anxious heart gradually calm down and his confidence be restored. Cai Xide’s army was approaching, and he needed to relieve some of the pressure on himself.

Yet today, this method seemed to fail Cheng Qianli. After walking for nearly half an hour, his stress hadn’t diminished at all. All of this stemmed from a pigeon message delivered by Li Qing’an the previous night. The message said that An Lushan was likely to lead a large army southward, possibly numbering over 200,000 troops, urging him to evacuate Xiangzhou as soon as possible to preserve his forces.

Although Li Qing’an was his old rival, Cheng Qianli didn’t dismiss his words at all. Given Li Qing’an’s current status, he wouldn’t have sent such a message lightly. If he said so, there must be good reason.

But no matter what, he couldn’t follow Li Qing’an’s orders. If he were to retreat, it would have to be under Guo Ziyi’s command. But would Guo Ziyi order him to withdraw?

A bitter smile appeared on Cheng Qianli’s lips. Impossible. Tens of thousands of people were already fleeing southward from Xiangzhou to Weizhou and Baixing. If he abandoned Xiangzhou, those people would be left defenseless and exposed to An Lushan’s brutal army. How could Cheng Qianli bear such a thing?

In any case, he must hold Xiangzhou. He believed that once the Yellow River froze over, Li Qing’an’s army would come to aid him. That was his only viable option.

At that moment, the sound of horse hooves came from afar. He turned around. It was already daylight, and the fog had thinned enough to allow him to see clearly up to 500 steps away.

A cavalryman was riding swiftly toward them along the top of the city wall. Cheng Qianli felt an ominous sense. He held back his warhorse and waited for the cavalryman to approach.

Before the horse could stop completely, the cavalryman leaped off and rushed forward a few steps before kneeling and saluting. “General Cheng, urgent news!” he reported.

The cavalryman handed over a red pigeon message tube, a practice borrowed from the Anxi army, where red tubes indicated extreme urgency. Cheng Qianli took a deep breath and, with trembling hands, pulled out the pigeon message. After glancing at it quickly, he was as if struck by lightning. The message fell to the ground, containing just one sentence: An Lushan, leading an army of 200,000, had already arrived in Raoyang County of Shenzhou and was advancing rapidly southward.