Old Zhao stood there awkwardly. He had gotten excited teaching his daughter methods to please her master, never imagining the young master would return suddenly and overhear everything. He was so embarrassed he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Looking at the face she had missed for so long standing before the ornamental gate, Zhao Ting’er suppressed the trembling in her heart and complained reproachfully, “Young Master! You come back just to tease Ting’er!”
Though every moment of delay in Jinling from now on would bring mounting dangers, standing in his own courtyard at this moment and seeing how elegantly and quietly Zhao Ting’er had maintained it, Han Qian still felt deeply attached to this place.
He also knew that stepping into the courtyard meant his period of leisure was over, and he would have to deal with Jinling’s current crisis-filled situation.
Standing under the grape arbor, Zhao Ting’er wore a half-sleeved jacket and skirt, exposing her snow-white, lotus-like slender arms. Beneath the pale green thin silk, her snow-soft skin appeared and disappeared tantalizingly. Her face was charming and enchanting, and compared to when they had parted last year, her figure seemed to have grown slightly taller, making her appear even more graceful and elegant.
Watching Old Zhao try to slink away guiltily, Han Qian called him back and told him to arrange accommodations for Du Qiniang, Du Jiuniang, the Du Yijun couple, Du Yiming, and the Du siblings’ mother, Du Zhou Shi.
The Du siblings came from a scholarly family—they were literate, had studied medicine, and knew music. Though they were now legally the Han family’s servants, Han Qian would never treat them as ordinary servants.
Han Qian had Old Zhao arrange a separate courtyard for the Du family to live in. Ordinarily, Du Qiniang and Du Jiuniang would serve in this household under Zhao Ting’er and Xi Ren’s direction, while the brothers Du Yijun and Du Yiming would first be assigned to the Left Bureau to work as clerks. In short, everyone would be used according to their abilities—he would not support idle people.
Additionally, Han Qian called Old Zhao back and asked, “You know about Haizheng and Yun Niang’s marriage, right?”
“I know about it. She’s a remarkably pretty girl,” Old Zhao said.
“Does Haizheng’s mother have any thoughts about this match?” Han Qian asked.
Lin Haizheng’s father and brothers had died early, and he depended on his widowed mother, widowed sister-in-law, and nephew Lin Zongjing.
Yun Niang was the daughter of an education official from Shicheng County in Yingzhou. After her father was convicted and executed, she, along with her widowed mother and thirteen-year-old younger brother, had all been redeemed by Han Qian and sent to Jinling, though their status had now been reduced to servants.
Han Qian was still worried that Lin Haizheng’s mother might have objections to this marriage.
“What thoughts could she have? How could that girl possibly be unworthy of that rough fellow Lin Haizheng? She’s pretty, well-mannered and educated. Though her father was executed for his crimes, she still comes from a scholarly family of good standing. The Lin family matriarch is absolutely delighted,” Old Zhao said.
“That’s good. Then in the next couple of days, help arrange the wedding. Whatever is needed, take it from my resources. Make it lively and festive—don’t skimp on the proprieties,” Han Qian said. He wasn’t someone who insisted on formalities, but that didn’t mean others weren’t particular about such things, so he instructed Old Zhao to take charge of organizing everything.
“Will do!” Old Zhao agreed, then led the Du siblings who had been waiting in the front courtyard to settle them in a nearby vacant residence.
“…” Zhao Ting’er tilted her head looking at Han Qian and said, “Young Master seems to have changed quite a bit this time?”
“Where have I changed?” Han Qian examined himself several times and said, “My nose is still a nose, my hands are still hands.”
Han Qian had always been resolutely determined to the point of near cruelty. Whatever intentions he wanted to carry out, he rarely considered others’ thoughts. Yet this time he not only proactively arranged Lin Haizheng’s marriage, but actually cared about Lin Haizheng’s mother’s wishes—this was something Zhao Ting’er could never have imagined before.
Zhao Ting’er saw Xi Ren walking in from the front courtyard carrying a bundle. She helpfully took the bundle from her and asked, “Sister Xi Ren, what exactly happened to Young Master in Xiangzhou this time?”
Although letters sent back to Jinling at regular intervals mentioned the progress of the Jing-Xiang campaign, the cruelty and horror of the Xichuan bloody battle, and the impact of Fan Dahei’s death on Han Qian’s heart, could hardly be depicted in a few brief words.
So at this moment, Zhao Ting’er found it very difficult to explain clearly this change in Han Qian.
“Has he changed?” Xi Ren glanced at Han Qian and asked Zhao Ting’er in return.
Seeing that Xi Ren refused to say anything, Zhao Ting’er pouted and peeked outside. Seeing her younger brother Zhao Wuji in the front courtyard instructing over twenty Xi clan youths on how to scout the surroundings, she thought that when her brother was free, she would question him thoroughly about what had happened during their days in Jing-Xiang.
After resting briefly and washing up and changing into casual clothes, Han Qian received word that Gao Shao, Lin Haizheng, Xi Chang, Guo Nu’er, Lin Zongjing, and others who had returned to Jinling early had all rushed over to see him.
“Gao Shao, arrange for someone to go to His Highness and inform him that I’ve returned to Jinling. Tell him that after I’ve washed up a bit, I’ll go pay my respects to His Highness,” Han Qian told Gao Shao to send someone ahead to the Prince’s Manor to inform the Third Prince that he had returned to Jinling.
The Han family estate was just an ordinary residence. The reception hall, aside from the main seat against the north wall, could only accommodate six sitting mats on either side. Han Qian stood in the central courtyard listening to Gao Shao and the others report on recent developments in Jinling.
During this period, the Left Bureau had mainly maintained the status quo.
Apart from the workshops, warehouses, money shops, and the intelligence office, the scouts from the military bureau who had returned to Jinling early with Gao Shao and Lin Haizheng had also been given leave and returned to the garrison military prefecture to reunite with their families.
Under the personal attention of the Third Prince and Shen Yang, compensation had also been provided to the families of casualties.
After soldiers died or were wounded, following the military prefecture’s practice of “younger brother succeeds elder brother upon death, son succeeds father upon death” in the hereditary military system, Gao Shao and Lin Haizheng, working with the military bureau, had already selected some sons of fallen soldiers to supplement the Left Bureau’s military and intelligence offices, serving as scouts and intelligence agents.
Combined with the elite troops Han Qian had newly recruited from the convict soldiers and mountain stronghold militias, the military and intelligence offices had actually expanded considerably from their original size.
However, the expansion of workshops, warehouses, and money shops had actually stalled after news of the Liang army’s massive southern invasion reached Jinling early in the year.
Han Qian had no plans for now to expand the workshops, warehouses, and money shops belonging to the Left Bureau on a larger scale, thinking it better to maintain the status quo for the time being.
After Lin Haizheng’s wedding at the end of this month, Han Qian planned to have him move with his family to Xuzhou to work with Ji Xiyao in managing the shipyard, weaving workshop, coal yard, iron foundry, plantations, and other affairs there.
At the same time, Han Qian would incorporate Xi Chang and others into the Xuzhou shipping guild.
These two areas of business had no direct connection to the Left Bureau and could be considered the Han family’s private enterprises. Even if the Third Prince later arranged for someone else to take over the Left Bureau, they could not take over these two areas.
Outside the Left Bureau, Li Zhigao and Zhou Shu had been ordered to lead troops garrisoning Junzhou, but the other forces of the Dragon Sparrow Army, under the command of Gao Chengyuan, Guo Liang, and others, had all returned to Jinling.
These troops had also been released from wartime organization and returned to the garrison military prefecture. During this time, the garrison military prefecture had allocated the farmland under its jurisdiction to each military household.
Hearing Gao Shao mention the latest situation at the military prefecture, Han Qian couldn’t help but pause in surprise and ask, “All the military prefecture’s land has been distributed?”
“This is something Lord Shen Yang vigorously promoted during the month since returning to Jinling,” Gao Shao said, seeing Han Qian’s somewhat unusual expression and uncertainly adding, “Is there something wrong with it?”
Han Qian shook his head and said, “It’s nothing. According to the court’s regulations, it should be done this way.”
Great Chu’s military farmland took two forms.
One was purely military farmland, where active-duty soldiers were responsible for farming. The military provided farmland, oxen, seeds, and other means of production, and provided soldiers with rations and military pay for centralized production, with all harvest becoming military resources.
The other was military prefecture household cultivation.
When Emperor Tianyou rose to power in Jianghuai, he incorporated large amounts of acquired land into garrison military prefectures, then distributed these farmlands to the soldiers and their families of the Jianghuai army—the military prefecture households—for cultivation.
Compared to ordinary civilians, military prefecture households could receive some allocated farmland, but besides paying certain field taxes, they also had to bear the cost of equipping and maintaining their armor and weapons during service, and shoulder military service obligations that were heavier than ordinary civilian corvée labor.
When the Dragon Sparrow Army’s garrison military prefecture was first established, the situation was special. On one hand, large numbers of plague-stricken famine victims lacked basic self-rescue capabilities. On the other hand, the first batch of farmland allocated to the military prefecture was extremely limited, and they still needed to organize large-scale manpower and resources to build lake embankments and reclaim wetland fields—tasks that scattered military households could not accomplish.
More importantly, they needed to strictly control the spread of the epidemic source.
Therefore, the military farming method that Han Qian and his father initially proposed for the Dragon Sparrow Army in the “Epidemic Water Memorial” was somewhere between the two. Soldiers and their families were classified as military prefecture households, but the farmland allocated to the military prefecture was not directly distributed to each household. Instead, it underwent unified cultivation, project construction, and resource allocation.
In fact, this also meant that the Dragon Sparrow Army’s garrison military prefecture and over ten thousand military households had remained in a highly organized state for more than a year.
This was also an important factor in why the Dragon Sparrow Army’s combat effectiveness was higher than others imagined.
Han Qian didn’t know whether Shen Yang hadn’t realized this point, or purely believed everything should follow the court’s regulations, or whether he was purely implementing Emperor Tianyou’s will when he decided to distribute all the farmland belonging to the military prefecture to each military household, breaking up the previous high degree of organization within the Taowu garrison military prefecture.
Of course, this approach also had one benefit.
That was that the Marquis of Xinchang’s manor and Wanhong Tower’s previous strong control over the Dragon Sparrow Army through deep penetration of military prefecture affairs was also correspondingly weakened.
Reverting to the normal garrison military prefecture system, the military households belonging to the Dragon Sparrow Army would normally farm the land allocated by the military prefecture and maintain their livelihoods through hard work. Usually only one-quarter to one-third of the military households would be rotated into active service, undertaking military tasks such as road and city construction, defense, and combat.
As for which military households would be called up and which commanders they would serve under once mobilized, all this would fall under the jurisdiction of the Prince’s Manor’s Left and Right Guard Armies.
The advantage of doing this was ensuring that the military authority Emperor Tianyou had bestowed upon the Third Prince would be better concentrated in the Third Prince’s own hands, suppressing the usurpation of power by subordinate commanders.
That Shen Yang immediately promoted this upon returning to Jinling with the Third Prince showed that even if he didn’t know the true secrets of the Marquis of Xinchang’s manor and Wanhong Tower, he was still trying to further suppress the control that the Xinchang Marquis faction had over the Dragon Sparrow Army.
However, Shen Yang’s intentions—or perhaps Emperor Tianyou’s will being advanced through Shen Yang—would not be completely realized.
With soldiers returning to normal rotation duty, normally rotating a new batch every three to four months, whether to maintain necessary military combat effectiveness or manage the closeness and distance between commanders and ordinary soldiers, all this would push commanding generals to continuously strengthen the combat power and treatment of their direct private troops.
If the most elite combat forces in the army were still held in the hands of a few commanders, then Shen Yang’s intentions would ultimately fail.
Han Qian couldn’t say that Shen Yang lacked foresight. Rather, it was that the serious disconnect between Great Chu’s current reality and the emulation of previous dynasties’ systems could not be reversed by any individual.