Li Zhigao and Zhou Yuan entered the city overnight.
Dark clouds densely covered the sky without a trace of starlight, like an iron lid pressing down tightly.
In the Xinchang Marquis household’s villa adjacent to the Wanhong Pavilion, the Black Gauze Lady, Xinchang Marquis Li Pu, Chai Jian, Li Chong, Yao Xishui, Su Hongyu, and even Chun Shisanniang had already gathered, waiting for Li Zhigao and Zhou Yuan to arrive.
Several large candles burned, emitting faint crackling sounds.
“That boy Han Qian—back in Jinling just three or four days and he’s already caused so much trouble. His various measures are all aimed at avoiding control from our side! His ambitions have truly expanded too much!” Zhou Yuan said as he entered the room. Thinking the Xinchang Marquis and others should have been discussing for a long time, he couldn’t wait to throw out his viewpoint.
Li Pu, Chai Jian, Li Chong, Yao Xishui, and others remained silent. They had gathered half an hour earlier, and their conclusion was the same.
Han Qian’s arrangements in Xuzhou under the Left Bureau’s name, his arrangements at the Qiuhu Mountain Villa, his arrangements within Jinling city—they had all verified these and could confirm Han Qian hadn’t concealed anything from them.
However, precisely because of this, they understood even more clearly what Han Qian’s purpose was in urgently wanting to directly borrow 30 million coins in the Linjiang Marquis household’s name.
Because besides the expenses for the Left Bureau’s directly subordinate 200 elite troops, they also had to support Yang Qin’s group, support the reconstruction of the Yangtan Water Fortress in Xuzhou, secretly support Feng Xuan, ransom Xi clan members, and particularly yesterday Han Qian had decided to directly support nearly 300 Left Bureau descendants.
All of this was far beyond what could be sustained by the income and expenditure of the workshops, fleet, and warehouses controlled by the Left Bureau.
Moreover, Han Qian was also building dams and reservoirs on the upper Peach Stream River and adding a batch of hydraulic machinery. Which of these many matters didn’t cost enormous sums?
If Han Qian couldn’t immediately raise money, the Left Bureau might not even sustain itself past next month.
Previously, when Han Qian agreed to let them insert personnel into the boat gang led by Yang Qin, an important factor was that Han Qian should clearly understand in his heart how much maintaining a boat gang with elite martial force consumed. He very obviously wanted the Tunying Military Prefecture to directly bear the expenses of the boat gang and rebuilding the Yangtan Water Fortress.
But all of this had very likely changed from the moment Han Qian proposed that the Left Bureau borrow 30 million coins in the Linjiang Marquis household’s name, with this money to be used directly by the Left Bureau.
Han Qian would very likely no longer agree to let their side intervene in the boat gang’s construction and expansion.
If they could truly raise 30 million coins, Han Qian could at least keep the Left Bureau sustained for a year or two.
And Han Qian’s decision to directly support nearly 300 Left Bureau descendants also had an obvious purpose—to reduce as much as possible their side’s infiltration and control of the Left Bureau elite, ensuring the Left Bureau elite’s loyalty to him personally.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why Han Qian would spend enormous sums to support nearly 300 Left Bureau descendants.
Could the workshops truly lack these 300 youths to work?
The conclusion was obvious. The key was what should they do, what could they do?
Li Zhigao sat down and shifted the sword at his waist backward. Han Qian’s attitude had obviously become suddenly hardline after discovering they had tampered with Fan Dahei.
It seemed their matter of winning over Fan Dahei had already touched the bottom line of what Han Qian could tolerate.
Li Zhigao didn’t know what to say. Should he blame his father and the others for being too accustomed to secretly controlling others?
“Regarding building water mills, how confident are you?” Xinchang Marquis Li Pu asked Zhou Yuan.
Zhou Yuan was somewhat puzzled.
Li Zhigao was also confused, not knowing what his father and the others had discussed earlier, why they suddenly asked about this matter.
“We’ve calculated that if we truly build fifty water mills before year’s end, hulling a thousand dan of rice daily, it could approximately generate over ten thousand dan of rice and grain in new annual income for the military prefecture…” Xinchang Marquis Li Pu said.
Li Zhigao understood. Father wanted the Granary Office or Works Office to control this loan, then additionally subsidize funds and grain to the Left Bureau, thereby achieving control over the Left Bureau and limiting the momentum of Han Qian’s constantly growing power.
Obviously, given the current situation, they needed the Left Bureau to exist.
Particularly in circumstances where the Third Imperial Prince and Shen Yang both clearly supported Han Qian, they had to have reasonable excuses to prevent Han Qian from using the Left Bureau’s name to directly control this enormous loan, causing the Left Bureau to become an independent force within the Tunying Military Prefecture beyond their control.
Zhou Yuan smiled bitterly, “Building fifty water mill houses could theoretically hull a thousand dan of rice daily, but the flow势 of mountain streams and rivers is greatly affected by the rainy seasons. If we laboriously build them, generating two or three thousand dan of rice and grain in new annual income would be the maximum. It’s not nearly as good as Han Qian says.”
Zhou Yuan could preside over the Works Office. Even if he wasn’t a figure like Yang En, he still understood construction matters.
This matter was a pit Han Qian had dug for him, yet he had to jump in. Otherwise, would he truly yield control of Works Office affairs?
One must know that Han Qian’s ability to gain momentum within the Dragon Sparrow Army—the workshops played a key role.
Just because they wanted to obtain relatively inexpensive lime, blue bricks, coal, and other materials from the workshops, they had to allocate over a thousand dan of rice and grain to Han Qian each month—this money and grain not only allowed Han Qian to hire over a thousand laborers from within Tunying, but over this past year had also supported construction within the Qiuhu Mountain Villa and supported the Left Bureau system’s expansion.
If Works Office affairs were truly yielded to Han Qian to preside over, who knew how much money and grain would be controlled by Han Qian, how much of it Han Qian would divert to support the Left Bureau system’s expansion—at that time it would be even harder to control him.
Li Zhigao finally understood. Father and the others truly couldn’t squeeze out funds and grain to directly support the Left Bureau, yet the current situation couldn’t do without the Left Bureau system that Han Qian had initially established.
“Is Father determined to strive for the Dragon Sparrow Army to participate in battle before winter?” Li Zhigao asked.
“Yes,” Li Pu nodded somewhat helplessly and said, “His Majesty summoned me to the palace today. I’ve already mentioned this matter. Although His Majesty didn’t directly approve, he had Director Yu go to the Bureau of Military Affairs to retrieve the newly drawn strategic map of the Jing-Xiang region…”
Li Zhigao secretly sighed. If His Majesty was inclined toward the Dragon Sparrow Army reinforcing from the western front, and they needed to guard against the Anning Palace and the Xu clan secretly making moves, they couldn’t do without the arrangements the Left Bureau had made along the Jiang-E line during the previous period.
In short, in the short term, they were unlikely to directly win over Yang Qin and others for their use.
With Fan Dahei as a precedent, Han Qian would even less likely allow them to intervene in boat gang affairs.
And even assembling five thousand soldiers for expedition, with supply after leaving Jinling provided by the Bureau of Military Affairs, the soldiers’ armor, winter clothing, and such before the expedition—each item was a major expense.
In the end, their side’s power was too weak, with too few supporters, which made Han Qian’s indispensability even more prominent.
Zhou Yuan glanced at Yao Xishui, hesitating to speak. Chai Jian, however, glared angrily at him. Zhou Yuan smiled awkwardly, ultimately keeping certain words bottled up in his belly without speaking them.
Li Zhigao sighed inwardly, thinking that even if they had such thoughts at this time and sent Xishui over, could they be certain Han Qian would definitely accept her?
Yao Xishui’s eyelids drooped slightly, as if she hadn’t noticed Zhou Yuan and Chai Jian’s small movements.
“If we remain silent, the Left Bureau won’t necessarily be able to make much noise!” The Black Gauze Lady spoke at this time. “There are still many matters—let’s discuss them after this expedition.”
Li Zhigao thought the same. Right now, ensuring this expedition didn’t go awry was most urgent.
Even though the Regional Military Command’s Zhao Mingting had suffered such great losses at the hands of the Han Daoxun and Han Qian father-son duo this time, at this moment he had also personally rushed to Shouzhou to personally watch over the Liang kingdom’s movements north of Guangshou, temporarily having no time to settle accounts with Han Qian.
……
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After being confined to his residence for several days, Feng Yi was unbearably frustrated. Taking advantage of his father going to the office for roll call, he threw a tantrum before his grandmother, finally obtaining permission to leave the residence for fresh air, but he promised not to seek out Han Qian, and to temporarily postpone his duties with the Third Imperial Prince without reporting for duty.
With four bodyguards he couldn’t shake off following him closely, Feng Yi also couldn’t go to the Wanhong Pavilion for pleasure. He ran to the recently renowned Little Fan Pavilion, but seeing the several newly promoted courtesans at Little Fan Pavilion were merely so-so.
Frivolous gossip and vulgar flirtation, yet each one claimed her maidenhood intact—Feng Yi truly couldn’t muster much interest. He requested a private room facing the street, summoned a qin player and a musician, sat by the window watching the stream of people and horses outside like dragons, listening to slightly hoarse tunes, thinking that occasionally living such pure and desireless days was also leisurely.
Only at this moment could he chase the four bodyguards to guard in the corridor outside, gaining some peace.
“Your ‘Qingshan Music’ is played somewhat improperly. When did Little Fan Pavilion’s musicians become so mediocre?” After calming his mind, Feng Yi detected that the melody plucked from the qin player’s hands was quite off. But he wasn’t annoyed either. Rather than directly chasing the person out as he would have in the past, he asked with his head tilted.
“Third Young Master Feng is truly refined. I thought I had already practiced this Qingshan Music well enough. It seems in the future I cannot disguise myself as a qin player—the flaws are too obvious!” The qin player smiled mockingly and pushed the guqin before him to the musician beside him to play and sing.
Feng Yi’s mouth fell open. He stared at the qin player for a good while before vaguely recognizing from the eyebrows and eyes that this was indeed Han Qian. “You, you—how did you transform into a different person?”
“Qin player Han Qian pays respects to Third Young Master Feng.”
Han Qian stood up and made a perfunctory salute, walked to the window across from Feng Yi, poured himself a cup of wine, and sipped it while looking at the bustling traffic below, sighing with emotion.
“If my remaining years could all be as leisurely as Third Young Master Feng’s today, life would truly be quite good.”
“I wanted to come find you, but my father has people watching too closely—I simply couldn’t break free. Also, my father said that regarding your side’s barter trade, our Feng family will accept this loss for now, but if I go to find you, my Feng family will have no choice but to go to Zhao Mingting and say the Feng family’s goods were robbed…” Feng Yi explained with an awkward smile, indicating that these past days he hadn’t deliberately been avoiding meeting Han Qian.
“If your father truly dares to do this, then the Feng family’s cargo boats probably shouldn’t expect to leave Jinling smoothly in the future,” Han Qian said with a smile. “Of course, I won’t do things that put you in a difficult position. Otherwise, why would I need to meet you in this appearance? I came to see you mainly because His Highness is concerned about you, having me come ask if you’ve changed your mind?”
Feng Yi thought to himself that it would be better not to be concerned, and said with an awkward smile, “Look what you’re saying—don’t you understand me? I heard your side is making quite a stir now. The Dragon Sparrow Army is about to go to war. Oh, right—you’ve also opened another money shop in Wuli Alley. What’s that about?”
“Besides coming to inquire after you on His Highness’s behalf, I’m mainly here to find you about this matter,” Han Qian explained the fundraising loan matter to Feng Yi in detail. “Everyone hasn’t lived peaceful days for many years. Common people in the markets truly don’t have much surplus wealth in their hands. If you help secretly promote this matter, the merit will be considerable. Even if you’re temporarily unable to report for duty before His Highness, I think His Highness won’t believe you’ve changed your mind.”
“How would I change my mind?” Feng Yi said with an awkward smile. “It’s just that my father has arranged for people to follow me—I truly have no way to find people to talk about this matter.”
“For all money and grain collected, the money shop will return four fen in interest monthly without fail. Many people think this time His Highness is truly so short of money that he’s thought of this method to quench thirst with poison. Even if you persuade others to deposit money in the money shop, you can say you’re feeding poison wine to His Highness—what would your father scold you for? Moreover, you only need to let more people know about this matter and discuss it—you don’t need to openly persuade them…” Han Qian said with a smile.
“You won’t abscond with the money and grain, will you?” Feng Yi asked, staring at Han Qian with shifty eyes.
“That’s also none of your concern,” Han Qian said with a smile. “Oh, right—your household bought a third-class household slave called Guo Que’er at the beginning of the year. He’s clever and sensible, quite liked by your household’s outer steward. You can keep Guo Que’er by your side. If there’s urgent matter requiring contact with me, you can have him act as intermediary.”
“You mean that dark-skinned household slave everyone nicknamed Little Crow?” Feng Yi’s mouth hung open for a long time. He never imagined that when Han Qian established the Left Bureau, he had first planted a spy in his household!
“Don’t be so shocked and startled. I’m also acting under orders out of necessity,” Han Qian said. “Have you seen anyone by my side that I can sleep with? His mother—I can’t even touch their buttocks. You and Xirong have at least tasted the flavor.”
“…” Feng Yi chuckled dryly twice, but thinking back, Chun Niang’s flavor was truly soul-consuming and bone-melting. By comparison, the several maids by his side and the so-called courtesans at the Wanhong Pavilion and Little Fan Pavilion were truly all vulgar powder.