Jinting Han people

Chapter 352 Lu Zhi Rebuilds the River Bridge
As China's second longest river, the Yellow River and its tributaries stretch across northern China, and with such a long stretch, there are naturally countless places suitable for crossing it. However, in the middle reaches of the Yellow River where Luoyang is located, the crossing points were not as convenient as they are in later times.

After all, the Yellow River here is sandwiched between the Qinling and Taihang Mountains. While the terrain widens abruptly at Luoyang, making the current more swift, there are still large sections unsuitable for crossing. Especially in the Heyin area (now the Xiaolangdi Scenic Area), the banks are lined with towering green mountains, and during the rainy season, the turbulent currents constantly crash against the shore, making it no less treacherous than the Tianmen and Yiling areas. Only slightly to the east, north of Mangshan Mountain, are there some suitable crossing points, such as Xiaopingjin and Mengjin…

However, there are not many ferry crossings. It is not until the easternmost end of Beiman Mountain, where the Luo River, the Yellow River and Mang Mountain meet, that there are large areas of ferry crossings that can be freely crossed. There is also a famous pass here, namely Chenggao Pass, which is also known as Hulao Pass because King Mu of Zhou once imprisoned a tiger here.

Therefore, in this campaign against the King of Zhao, if the Hebei rebels wanted to advance smoothly into Luoyang, they only had two choices: either openly cross the river in front of the imperial guards and fight a battle in the Mangshan Mountains, or they could only detour to Chenggao and wait to join forces with the Henan rebels before launching a joint attack on Hulao Pass.

From a political perspective, the Hebei rebels had already achieved a major victory in Hebei, while the Henan rebels had yet to make any breakthroughs. Currently, the Hebei rebels were far more likely to enter Luoyang first than the Henan rebels. If the two armies joined forces, even if they won, they would enter Luoyang simultaneously, thus wasting a golden opportunity. Therefore, in reality, the Hebei rebels only had the option of crossing the river; they had no other choice.

However, as mentioned earlier, crossing the river rashly was extremely risky, and neither Liu Xian nor Liu Hong dared to guarantee victory. Even after capturing Mengjin, the army hesitated to advance. Fortunately, Lu Zhi had previously promised to handle the matter, so the Changshan army was happy to relax for a few days and see what methods this "Sleeping Dragon of Hebei" had up his sleeve.

Three days after Liu Kun surrendered, Lu Zhi arrived at Mengjin Pass on light cavalry. He climbed the city wall of Mengjin and saw the devastation of the destroyed river bridge. He was deeply saddened and said to Liu Xian, who was with him, "I never thought that the magnificent national structure that Du Wuku spent half a year building would be destroyed in this battle."

Zhao Xiang, who was traveling with him, said: "A person's life is like grass and trees going through spring and autumn. Who can live without growing old? No matter what kind of building it is, there is no beam that will never break, nor a stone tablet that will never fall. The river bridge is just an inevitable passerby in the fleeting years."

Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but smile. Lu Zhi laughed and said, "Xiulong truly takes life and death lightly! However, as people of this era, we cannot lightly speak of rise and fall. Our predecessors blazed trails and endured hardships to achieve the prosperity of our land today. As their descendants, we should carry on their legacy and make the land even more prosperous!"

Liu Xian asked, "Then how does Zidao plan to help us cross the river?"

Lu Zhi replied, "I had anticipated that Sun Xiu would burn down the river bridge, so I collected boats in Ji County before setting out and also supervised the construction of another batch. Now we have more than 600 boats, which will be delivered here soon."

"Over six hundred ships?" Liu Xian was overjoyed upon hearing this, as such a number of vessels far exceeded his expectations. His pessimistic outlook on crossing the river stemmed from the fact that he hadn't found many ships within Hanoi Commandery, as they had likely already been requisitioned by Sun Xiu. However, with over six hundred ships, nearly ten thousand soldiers could be transported across the river for battle at once, which would significantly mitigate the disadvantage of the difficult crossing.

Unexpectedly, Lu Zhi continued, "I intend to use these six hundred ships to rebuild the river bridge, to show our determination to restore our nation."

Everyone looked surprised. At first, they almost all thought Lu Zhi was joking, but seeing his serious expression, they couldn't help but consider the feasibility of the matter. However, no one felt it was necessary. After exchanging glances for a moment, even someone as renowned as Liu Hong couldn't help but ask, "I remember when Du Yu built the river bridge, it cost nearly ten thousand taels of gold, took three months to survey, two months to cast, and two months to build. Zidao, don't you think it's going too far to rebuild the river bridge now?"

Lu Zhi calmly replied, "With the legacy left by our predecessors, our desire to restore the river bridge is not a surprising thing."

It turns out that Du Yu had considered many factors when building the river bridge. To ensure the pontoon bridge could withstand the impact of ice jams, after reporting to Sima Yan, he collected several thousand kilograms of iron and stone, which were then used to cast eight iron pillars with ox-shaped bases. These pillars were then placed on boats, holes were drilled in them, and they were sunk to the bottom of the river. In this way, the iron pillars would not topple in the turbulent currents and could also serve as anchor points to secure the pontoon bridge.

The river bridge has burned down, and many wooden piles have been destroyed, but the iron pillars remain. With the iron pillars still standing, the most difficult part has been solved.

Lu Zhi had served as a court official in his early years, responsible for the maintenance of the river bridge. Therefore, he had seen the documents recording the bridge's construction. Even after many years, he remembered them vividly. He confidently told the crowd, "Please give me five days, and I will rebuild the river bridge!"

"Five days? There's no joking in the army!" Sima Yi said with a smile.

“Five days should be enough.” Lu Zhi looked at Mangshan Mountain on the opposite bank and said slowly, “When I was demoted from Luoyang, I had already imagined this day a thousand times in my mind, and I will not make a mistake again.”

The following day, a massive fleet sailed into Mengjin, its imposing presence stretching for miles, its ships lined up one after another. This sight initially unsettled the imperial guards on the south bank, who set up sentries to keep watch and be on guard against the rebel army crossing the river to fight.

When Lu Zhi began directing the rebel army to oversee the construction of a pontoon bridge across the river, the imperial guards were taken aback. They repeatedly sent men to confirm, and saw that the rebels were not in a hurry to cross the river, but instead were erecting wooden stakes in the water, hammering and tamping them down, then using ropes to secure the boats and laying planks on them. Only when they saw that the pontoon bridge had been built to a height of five or six zhang (approximately 10-15 meters) did they have to believe that the rebel army was going to rebuild the river bridge.

When the news reached Sun Xiu's ears, he was equally incredulous: "What? They're rebuilding the river bridge?"

This news almost made him laugh out loud, making him forget his displeasure at Liu Kun's surrender and surrender of the city. When Xin Ran asked him how to deal with it, Sun Xiu waved his hand and said, "It seems they just want to kill time. Let them build! Let's see how long they can kill time."

"What if they succeed in repairing it?" Xin Ran asked.

"Let alone how long it would take them to complete the project, even if they completed it quickly, what difference would it make?" Sun Xiu stroked his chin and stated his plan:
"Didn't we requisition all the boats from the surrounding ferry crossings? Last time, we only used a small portion of the fire ships. Once they're repaired, we'll use the same trick again and burn them down once more. How can they possibly stop us then?"

"Not to mention," Sun Xiu picked up the letter in her hand, shook it at Xin Ran, and chuckled:

"Oh dear, those swineherds in Chang'an have fallen for my trick. They've already sent 50,000 reinforcements, which will arrive in Luoyang within ten days."

"In this way, I can deploy 80,000 troops on Mount Mang and wait for them to tire themselves out. What can those petty thieves on the other side of the river do when they cross it? Can they fight us?"

Upon hearing this good news, Xin Ran was invigorated. He thought it was indeed true and didn't take the matter to heart. However, two days later, a messenger rushed in with the news: "Lord Xin, something terrible has happened!"

Xin Ran asked, "Did the rebel army secretly cross the river?"

"No, the rebel army is building a river bridge, and they've already completed half of it!"

This greatly alarmed Xin Ran, who immediately rode lightly to the top of Beiman Mountain and looked towards Mengjin Ferry. There, on the vast river, a small island surrounded by reeds could be seen, but to its north, a large pontoon bridge was rising and falling with the current, connecting it to the Mengjin Pass to the north.

"How could the rebel army move so quickly?" Xin Ran asked the scout who was monitoring the situation.

The scout replied, "I also find it incredible. The enemy seems to have received divine assistance. When they erected the bridge piers, they never seemed to need a second one. They could find the exact position of each one and just built the bridge step by step without making any mistakes. In just two days, they restored most of the river bridge."

At this point, he asked in a low voice, "Lord Xin, there's a rumor circulating in the army that the enemy soldiers received Du Wuku's true teachings in a dream, which is why they were able to hold their ground so easily. Do you think... is this true or false?"

Xin Ran sternly rebuked, "Our army is protected by Lord Sun, who is the Grand Master of the Celestial Masters, with connections to Heaven and Hell! Even Emperor Xuan has issued a divine decree! How dare you lowly people question him?"

Having said that, he immediately ordered, "No matter how they repair it, we only have one move: continue to burn it with fire ships. That way, the enemy army will never be able to cross the river!"

So, late that night, Xin Ran, following Sun Xiu's instructions, pulled out more than a hundred boats that had been collected beforehand from the Xiaopingjin ferry, loaded them with dry firewood, doused them with kerosene, lit them, and pushed them into the current. The fire boats sailed downstream, their flames shooting into the sky, standing out conspicuously in the darkness.

Upon seeing the fire ships appear again from upstream, the soldiers along the riverbank immediately reported this to Lu Zhi. Even in the dead of night, they continued bridge-building work. Lu Zhi was prepared for this; he ordered his soldiers to string an iron chain across the west side of the newly built river bridge. When the fire ships approached, they were all stopped by the iron chain.

Then Lu Zhi ordered his soldiers to take out the small boats prepared for repairing the pontoon bridge and have them row towards the fire ships. These small boats were equipped with long locks with nail heads. After approaching the fire ships, the nail heads were hammered into the bow of the fire ships, and they could then be towed back to shore.

This operation was personally directed by Lu Zhi's eldest son, Lu Chen. They rowed across the river, securing any fire ships they encountered and leading them to shore. They worked from midnight until 1:45 AM. The Hebei rebels watched from the bank, cheering and shouting as each fire ship was secured and dragged away. By dawn, all the fire ships had been intercepted and burned to ashes, their bodies blackened beyond recognition. Looking upstream, all was silent; the river flowed quietly, its surface shimmering with fragmented light, and no other flames were seen approaching from the west.

The next morning, the rebels continued building the next section of the river bridge. Lu Zhi's prediction of five days was not an exaggeration; in fact, it left room for improvement. It would probably take another two days for the river bridge to be successfully repaired.

Meanwhile, seeing that burning the boats was not an option, Xin Ran had no choice but to notify Shi Yi, Sun Yan, and others stationed at Mangshan, instructing them to form ranks and shoot arrows along the riverbank to prevent the rebels from building the last section of the pontoon bridge.

Upon hearing this, Shi Yi and his generals did not consider it a difficult task. They immediately ordered their soldiers to fill their ranks with arrows, lead their troops to the riverbank, and form a battle array. They would then unleash a hail of arrows as soon as the pontoon bridge was erected on the other side.

However, to their surprise, the rebels did not come to build the pontoon bridge under the rain of arrows as they had expected. Instead, they first sent more than forty ships that they had never seen before.

These ships were not like the usual river crossing vessels, which either had only a cabin to barely shelter from the wind or no cabin at all. Instead, they were warships specifically designed for combat.

The warship was narrow and long, and could accommodate about fifty people. The cabin was large and thick, covered with cowhide, and occupied almost two-thirds of the entire deck. The cabin was divided into two levels. The lower level had oar holes, which could allow thirty people to row and turn. The upper level had crossbow windows and spear holes on all four sides, allowing people to shoot out and fight.

These were the main warships used in battles on the Yangtze River. They were impervious to arrows and stones fired at the shore from the water; no matter how many arrows the imperial guards on the shore fired, they couldn't break through the hull. Only by boarding similar warships could they be dealt with. However, the imperial guards here were completely unprepared. Even though many of them were armored cavalry, and some were the best-equipped heavy infantry in the country, they were helpless against these water monsters.

The two sides exchanged fire for two or three hours, with the Imperial Guards practically taking hits on the water's edge. Seeing hundreds of their own men killed or wounded while the warships remained unscathed on the surface, their morale plummeted. Shi Yi and his men had no choice but to withdraw their troops from the water's edge. After a brief rest, they held two more mobilization meetings, attempting to fight the warships again, but unsurprisingly, they were forced to retreat once more.

Who could have imagined this? Logically speaking, the people of Hebei are the least familiar with naval warfare. Yet Lu Zhi pulled out such a tactic, leaving the Imperial Guards with no choice but to admit defeat.

At this point, the Hebei rebels had completely removed the obstacles to building the river bridge, and on the fifth day at noon, they successfully laid the pontoon bridge across to the south bank.

On the day of its completion, all the rebel soldiers were deeply amazed. They walked back and forth on the river bridge, a sense of pride welling up within them—the miracle that seemed unprecedented to the world could be accomplished so easily! From that moment on, they were all in high spirits, feeling that final victory was within reach.

After this incident, the generals of Changshan Army were completely convinced of Lu Zhi's abilities and admired him greatly. They privately discussed, "Our army was able to get to this point entirely because of the two lords in our army!" They called Lu Zhi "Wenjun" (the Civil Lord) and Liu Xian "Wujun" (the Martial Lord), meaning that Liu and Lu were meritorious heroes who served the emperor.

With the river bridge completed, the army, which had previously halted its advance, set off again. Three days later, 100,000 loyalist troops successfully crossed the river and set up camp ten miles north of Mangshan.

Seeing this, the Imperial Guards on Mount Mang abandoned Mount Mang and retreated back to Yanshi City. Judging from the current situation, this is the last battle left for the two armies.

(End of this chapter)