Jinting Han people

After the initial battle between the Jin and Han armies, both sides realized that the other was not an easy opponent, so they remained calm and returned to their camps to rest for a period of time.

Although the first battle was a minor setback for the Han army, Yang Nandi was not in a hurry. He analyzed the situation with Yang Jiantou, Wen Shuo, and others, and concluded that, so far, their side still held an absolute advantage. After all, from the perspective of the overall battle, his losses were only a few hundred men, which, although twice the number of the Jin army, was insignificant. Moreover, the large amount of supplies that had been left behind were now being transported to the Han army, which further enhanced the Han army's combat strength.

Conversely, the Jin army was not only outnumbered but also had very little supply remaining in the city. If they held out within the city, they would face starvation within half a month at most. Therefore, the Jin army had only two options to break the stalemate: one was the less desirable option, a direct assault on the Han army's camp to completely defeat them; the other was the better option, waiting for reinforcements to arrive from the Yangtze River to the north before their own supplies ran out, allowing them to be supplied with provisions by water.

Once Yang Nandi understood this principle, how could he give the Jin army a chance to turn the tide? So, on the very night after the first battle ended, he notified the entire army to make targeted arrangements.

First, he strengthened night patrols. To guard against Jin army raids and camp destruction, he doubled the number of patrolmen and deployed nearly two hundred more sentries around the perimeter, forming a dynamic network that allowed the Han army to react immediately whenever anyone left Yidao City.

Next came the reinforcement of the camp and improvement of fortifications. To completely trap Yidao City and leave the Jin army with no way to escape, Yang Nandi personally surveyed the surrounding terrain and decided to push the camp forward, constructing a seven-mile-long palisade surrounding the city, stretching from the Yidao riverbank in the south to the river mouth in the north. This was no small project, so Yang Nandi forcibly conscripted approximately five thousand people from the surrounding Yidao area to work day and night, completing the palisade in three days.

This only blocked the land route. To further block the waterway, Yang Nandi simply built a pontoon bridge at the mouth of the Yi River, directly cutting off the Yi River. He then set up small fortifications at both ends of the pontoon bridge and drove wooden stakes into the water. In this way, even if the Jin army sent a navy to rescue them, the pontoon bridge would prevent them from directly entering Yidao City and transporting supplies. Only by breaking through from the front could they join up with the Jin army in Yidao, but how easy was that?
The Jin army inside the city naturally saw through the Han army's intentions, but they were somewhat helpless. Of their entire army, only Du Zeng and his hundred or so cavalrymen could perform well in open battle, but they were not enough to storm the camp and win. They needed the enemy's laxity to cooperate, but given the Han army's current posture, that was completely impossible.

However, they couldn't just sit and wait to die, so the Jin army tried to raid the camp twice at night, but the results were indeed far from ideal. After the Han army received a supply of arrows, they saw the Jin army approaching and took cover behind the wooden palisades to fire arrows. The Jin army had no arrows to return fire, and as the fighting progressed, the Han army's strength increased rapidly in less than half an hour. The Jin army was unable to break through and could only retreat in defeat.

On the fourth day after the siege began, a new Jin navy arrived at the mouth of the Yi River. They numbered quite a few, about fifty warships, their holds laden with over a thousand bushels of rice. Seeing a pontoon bridge at the river mouth, they attempted to forcibly destroy it and break through. However, the Yi River was not as wide as the Yangtze, only about a hundred zhang (approximately 300 meters) wide. While the two armies fiercely fought for control of the pontoon bridge, Yang Nandi requisitioned a small number of boats and filled their holds with dry firewood, placing them upstream behind the pontoon bridge as a show of force. Upon seeing this, the Jin navy immediately retreated, anchoring on the north bank of the Yangtze. The two sides faced each other across the river, and the Han army maintained its siege of Yidao City.

As things stand, if the war continues, there is no doubt that the Han army will annihilate the Jin army inside the city.

However, Yang Nandi dared not underestimate his enemy. Even a cornered beast will fight back; having encircled the Jin army did not guarantee victory. Logically, the Jin army still had the strength to fight. Therefore, he would concentrate all his forces for a fierce counterattack, a desperate struggle. If they counterattacked, only by suppressing this offensive could victory be truly secured.

But to Yang Nan's surprise, he led his troops to wait in the camp for five, six, seven days in a row... The Han army was preparing for battle every day, but the Jin army in the city showed no signs of coming out to fight.

This unexpected turn of events greatly annoyed him. Generals like Yang Nandi, whose style was based on meticulous calculation, hated nothing more than unforeseen circumstances. This meant he might have overlooked some crucial factors. His subordinates were also very puzzled. They privately discussed whether their commander had miscalculated the amount of grain stored in the city, or whether the Jin army in the city was carrying surplus provisions, or perhaps it was a tactic to wear them down and lull them into complacency. Surely the enemy general wouldn't be so foolish as to intend to starve himself to death within the city!
Meanwhile, intelligence arrived in Yi'an that Ying Zhan's troops had captured Lingyang, completely occupying Tianmen County, and seemed poised to march north. When this news reached Yang Nandi, it only intensified his anxiety. Were the Jin army within the city waiting for reinforcements? If Ying Zhan were to lead his troops to attack Yidao by land, the pressure on him would be immense.

However, he calculated the timeline. Even if Ying Zhangang captured Lingyang, it would be impossible to send reinforcements immediately. The generals couldn't change the soldiers' will; they would need at least five days to rest before traveling by land. With the mountains blocking the way, it would take at least seven days. In short, twelve days wouldn't be enough to relieve Yidao's crisis. Yang Nandi planned to wait three more days. Three days later, on the twelfth day after the Han army arrived at Yidao, if the Jin army in Yidao still hadn't left the city, he would launch a general attack.

Two more days passed, and it was now close to November. The weather was getting colder. Although there were a few sunny days, dark clouds soon covered the sky again. To the Han army, it looked as if there was a heavy city in the sky, about to press down on them. On this day, snowflakes began to flutter and dance in and around Yidao City.

This snowfall was much heavier than the sleet of the previous days. Although it still couldn't compare to the blizzard in Kansai, it was still as heavy as apricot blossoms. Before long, a layer of white cotton covered the hard ground. The soldiers walked on it, making a crunching sound. The chill then seeped in with the snowmelt, soaking their shoes and socks. So the soldiers had to huddle inside the camp to warm themselves by the fire. A few soldiers who were still patrolling the camp held their weapons, such as spears and swords, to their sides, their hands tucked into their sleeves, heads bowed and feet hunched. Even so, they couldn't escape the winter chill, shivering incessantly.

In this situation, Yang Jian asked Yang Nandi whether to cancel the hidden sentries, since it would be difficult for the enemy to launch a surprise attack in the snow, and it would only make the soldiers suffer from the cold.

Yang Nandi initially thought the proposal was unreasonable. His most urgent need was to know the news of the Jin army, so how could he reduce the number of sentries? Therefore, he denied it, saying, "Have you not heard the story of Ding Feng fighting bravely in the snow? In the Battle of Dongxing, almost every family in the Cao Wei Huainan clan was in mourning. How can we relax our guard when we have so few men?"

However, Yang Jian immediately suggested again that having so many sentries stationed around the area without any fires to warm themselves would certainly cause frostbite even if they didn't freeze to death, rendering them ineffective as a precaution. He argued that it would be better to increase the number of night patrol soldiers and add more campfires, which would be far more effective than having sentries stationed around.

Hearing this, Yang Nandi found himself somewhat speechless. After all, soldiers were a general's asset, and frostbite would indeed affect morale and be detrimental to combat. So he agreed, "Alright, then you, Second Brother, will be in charge of the night patrols for the next few nights." However, after this conversation, a glimmer of inspiration faintly surfaced in Yang Nandi's mind. It seemed that this inspiration was shaking up his recent confusion. If he could grasp it, the stalemate in the battle would be easily resolved. Yet, this inspiration was so elusive, giving him a frantic feeling that it was right in front of him, but he just couldn't grasp it.

But that night, as he was resting, a flash of inspiration struck him in his dream, causing him to suddenly wake up from his bed. He then got up, put on his armor, and called out to his soldiers, "Pass on my order: have all officers assemble here!"

Yang Nandi finally saw through Zhou Fang's plan: the enemy had no intention of defending the city, nor of a decisive battle. He was stalling for time, waiting for the Yi River west of the city to freeze! Once the Yi River froze, the Han army's long siege would be ineffective, and they could safely leave Yidao City. Yang Nandi had previously overlooked this point because the Yangtze River, unlike the Yellow River, does not freeze in winter. Using this ingrained thinking, Yang Nandi subconsciously assumed the Yi River would freeze as well.

But in reality, with the heavy snow falling right now, the Yi River might already be passable by midnight!
Upon realizing this, Yang Nandi wished he could sprout wings and immediately lead his troops to surround the Jin army. However, most of his men were asleep, and the weather was freezing, so it would take a long time to muster the troops. After waiting for a while, Yang Nandi saw that only half of the officers and soldiers had arrived, and he was unwilling to wait any longer. He left Yang Jian to wait for the rest of the army in the camp, while he led the troops he could muster immediately to pursue them to the west of the city.

In the rush, Yang Nandi only led four thousand men out of the camp. It was the dead of night, dark and snowing, and the men shivered in the cold wind. But Yang Nandi paid no heed to this and simply ordered, "No need to take a detour, just go straight along the city wall!"

At this moment, there were still some lights and shadowy figures on the walls of Yidao City. The soldiers were somewhat frightened by this, and most of them suspected that if they crossed over like this, they would surely be attacked by arrows and stones from the Jin army on the walls. But Yang Nandi glared at them and urged them repeatedly, so they dared not object and had no choice but to follow their commander across the snow.

The group, torches held high, approached the city with trepidation, until they reached the city walls, where, as expected, there was no reaction from the ramparts. Yang Nandi, realizing his fears had come true, immediately shouted, "The rebels can't have gone far! Let's go, let's go quickly!"

The Han army quickened their pace again, braving the wind and snow to circle around to the west of the city, where they encountered the Jin army leaving the city. It turned out that, to avoid attracting attention, they had placed straw figures and torches on the city walls to create the illusion of continued night patrols, while secretly opening a crack in the west gate of Yidao City. The Jin army had slipped out under cover of darkness. They had been on the move for almost an hour, and seven or eight thousand men had already left the city, but more than two thousand remained. Most of the Jin soldiers who had left the city had already crossed the icy river and were heading west.

Upon seeing this, Yang Nandi immediately divided his army into two parts: one led by Wen Shuo to block the city gate, and the other led by himself to pursue the Jin army that had crossed the river.

The Jin army, caught off guard by the Han army's deception, hadn't even formed ranks for concealment. Wen Shuo's Han soldiers, shouting battle cries and flashing blades, easily cut the enemy into pieces, then seized the east gate and stormed into the city. Clearly, the Jin army, still trapped inside, had no way to escape. Unable to contact their superiors, and faced with the Han army's overwhelming force, they cried out in despair and finally knelt in surrender.

On the other hand, Yang Nandi's pursuit was not going smoothly. He led no more than two thousand soldiers, and most of them were not elite troops. Zhou Fang was maintaining order on the west bank of the icy river. When he saw the Han army cross the river, he realized that the enemy's soldiers were few in number, a clear case of overwhelming numbers. He immediately led his trusted men to launch a head-on attack on Yang Nandi's forces.

The commander-in-chief leading from the front was undoubtedly a great encouragement to morale, and the Jin soldiers fought with renewed vigor. Yang Nandi's troops, having rushed through snow, were exhausted and, upon engaging the Jin army, failed to immediately defeat Zhou Fang's main force, resulting in an increasing number of Jin soldiers surrounding them.

Yang Nandi had hoped that the Han army would arrive to his aid as soon as possible while he was engaged in battle. However, they were currently located west of Yidao City. Yang Jian had gathered his forces but was unaware of the details of the battle, so his advance was very cautious, and he did not arrive immediately. Under these circumstances, Yang Nandi's pressure increased greatly. Seeing his soldiers panting heavily, he knew that their strength was almost exhausted, and in the end, he had no choice but to shrink his lines, abandon the pursuit of the Jin army, and retreat to the east bank of the Bing River.

This resulted in the Han army not achieving a complete victory. As night fell and dawn approached, although the Han army behind them came to join them and took over Yidao City, the majority of the Jin army led by Zhou Fang also successfully withdrew and joined up with the Jin navy waiting on the north bank.

In this battle, the Han army regained the face lost in the initial battle, killing more than 2,500 Jin soldiers, which can be considered a considerable victory. However, overall, they did not achieve the goal of annihilating the Jin army. Taking both battles into account, they can be considered to have a slight advantage.

Both sides knew that although the battle at Yidao City had come to an end, the large-scale battle between the Han and Jin armies had just begun.

On that very day, as Yang Nandi recaptured Yidao City and was tallying up the losses and prisoners of war, an urgent military report from Yi'an arrived at the army headquarters, containing the following message:
After capturing Tianmen, Ying Zhan's troops rested briefly before heading north to join Gan Zhuo's forces in Zuotang County, Nanping Prefecture. Meanwhile, Wang Xun's navy set sail from Jiangling, crossing the Yangtze River to the Ouchi River on the south bank, less than forty li from Yi'an. Behind them, Wang Kuang's main force had already landed, preparing to join the three armies, totaling approximately 140,000 men.

After reading the military report, Yang Nandi remained silent for a long time. He thought to himself that everything was exactly as he had predicted. The Jin army's three-pronged encirclement was just a prelude; the encirclement of Yi'an was the real focus. Now, their long-prepared offensive against the Han army was finally about to reach its climax. (End of Chapter)