At their peak, the Feng family owned over a hundred warehouses in Huainan and Jiangdong. The Feng family fleet also possessed over a hundred large ships transporting goods back and forth between various regions. All these had to be disposed of at reduced prices to be converted into money and grain for maintaining troops or rewarding civil and military officials.
Issuing official salaries or rewards could include firewood, charcoal, rice, flour, silk and cloth. One could bestow gardens and residential fields, even gift servants and singing girls, but there was no precedent for rewarding sailing ships.
Han Qian ultimately didn’t take over the entire Feng family fleet—that would be too conspicuous a target with traces too obvious. In the end, he took control of twenty large sailing ships, raising the transport capacity of the fleet concentrated at Yandang Promontory by late October to seventy thousand shi.
The vast majority of the Feng family fleet still employed hired workers, but those in charge on each ship were all servants or household troops cultivated by the Feng family. To ensure control over these people, their family members all lived in Jinling, right under the Feng family’s watchful eyes where they could reach them.
In other words, the transport capacity of the Xuzhou shipping guild expanded by more than double all at once, without needing to transfer additional helmsmen and sailors from Xuzhou. Simply hiring from among the Feng family servants gathered at Yandang Promontory with nowhere to go was sufficient.
The shipping guild guards could be recruited from the Feng mansion’s household troops.
This seemed quite natural. After all, from the moment these servants and household troops stepped out of the Feng family mansions, they were theoretically refugees with free status but no remaining wealth. However, involving human hearts, many matters became complicated.
On one hand, the Feng family would habitually continue viewing these servants and household troops as Feng family private property. On the other hand, these servants and household troops, feeling they had nowhere to rely on, still had the inertia of psychological dependence on the Feng family.
Han Qian wanted to quietly deceive everyone into going to Xuzhou, making the entire affair appear to outsiders as if all Feng family members, servants, and household troops voluntarily went to Xuzhou. And in the end, the vast majority of Feng family servants and household troops would ultimately be taken over by him. Many matters required the covert cooperation of Feng Liao, Feng Yi, and Kong Xirong.
The promissory note’s function was mainly to entice and deceive.
Han Qian wanted to tell those Feng family members worried about falling into difficulty after reaching Xuzhou, through Feng Liao, that as the price for redeeming the promissory note, the Han family would prepare fields and residences for them in Xuzhou. Of course, no one should expect him to honestly return the debt.
It was as if the Feng family still had a final batch of overlooked assets, but these could only be realized after reaching Xuzhou.
For those Feng family members who truly refused to go to Xuzhou and wanted to seek refuge with relatives and friends nearby, they would use Li Qilü’s incident to intimidate them, hinting that if Feng family members remained near Jinling, they would very likely still suffer persecution.
After all these things were done, Han Qian recruiting guards and sailors from among the Feng family servants didn’t stir the slightest ripple.
By the last day of the deadline to leave the capital, over five thousand four hundred people from the Feng mansion, dragging children and crying mournfully, boarded thirty-six ships specially prepared by the Xuzhou shipping guild. Together with thirty thousand shi of grain loaded in the lower holds, they set sail from Yandang Promontory, leaving Jinling and heading toward Xuzhou.
Looking at the desolate emptiness of the manor, Han Qian then took a small awning boat to rush to Yongchun Palace estate on the opposite shore.
Han Qian entered the estate and saw the Third Prince, accompanied by Shen Yang and Zheng Hui, ascending a rockery constructed of lake stones to gaze at the fleet raising sails and entering the Yangtze River. Over ten guards all stood at a distance to the side.
Shen Yang and Zheng Hui’s expressions were quite gloomy when they saw Han Qian arrive.
Han Qian smiled inwardly. Shen Yang and Zheng Hui didn’t know about the Xi clan members or about the deal he’d reached with Tanzhou regarding local prohibition matters. But just seeing so many people from the Feng mansion relocating together to Xuzhou, harboring worries about him was only natural.
Otherwise, Shen Yang and Zheng Hui’s reactions would be too slow.
“Teacher Han, I was just about to send someone to invite you over!” Yang Yuanpu greeted Han Qian quite happily. “Teacher Han, when do you plan to leave Jinling?”
Hearing the Third Prince’s words, Shen Yang and Zheng Hui’s hearts both jumped, and their eyes looking at Han Qian immediately sharpened. They wondered how the Third Prince could trust Han Qian so much—how could he let Han Qian leave Jinling at this time?
Han Qian smiled faintly and said: “Without His Majesty’s secret decree, I’m afraid Lords Shen and Zheng won’t agree to let me take the family members of Tian Cheng and others together, much less the five hundred Left Bureau sons!”
Shen Yang and Zheng Hui’s mouths gaped wide, unable to imagine that the Feng mansion servants’ relocation to Xuzhou was actually a secret plot decided by His Majesty. Though there was no one nearby, Zheng Hui still instinctively lowered his voice to ask: “Is His Majesty’s next move against Tanzhou?”
Neither Zheng Hui nor Shen Yang were stupid. With Han Qian and the Third Prince revealing such critical information, if they still couldn’t think of this, they shouldn’t expect to maintain their current positions.
In fact, the case of the assassin’s nighttime intrusion into the Prince’s Manor had left many doubts in their minds. Seeing the mix of true and false news over the past half month, along with all the Feng mansion people going to Xuzhou this time, they already suspected all this was Han Qian’s secret plot.
At this moment, the doubts they’d harbored for so long finally received answers, but simultaneously they worried in reverse whether Han Qian and his father Han Daoxun, controlling only this much power in Xuzhou, could play much of a role when the court moved against Tanzhou.
Of course, they didn’t know about Tanzhou’s use of local prohibition to infiltrate Xuzhou or about the Xi clan members. But these two matters had offsetting effects on Han Qian’s integration of Xuzhou, so it didn’t affect their judgment.
Han Qian naturally hoped to directly gather five to six thousand elite fighting strength in Xuzhou, but this was unrealistic. After all, all parties couldn’t appear too slow to react, otherwise the flaws would be too obvious.
Therefore, besides the Feng family servants and household troops relocating to Xuzhou this time, Han Qian could only take the Left Bureau scouts, the Han family’s household troops and servants in Jinling, and five hundred Left Bureau sons in one departure. At the same time, he had to bring the family members of main Left Bureau military officers like Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Lin Haizheng.
This way, Han Qian could integrate two to three thousand elite fighting strength in Xuzhou, while simultaneously making the entire affair appear like a long-plotted escape.
At this time, the cooperation of Shen Yang and Zheng Hui was needed.
Under the Guard Army Bureau’s control, once Tian Cheng and others brought out their family members privately from Jinling without reporting, it would be reported to Shen Yang at the fastest speed. This was when Shen Yang needed to help delay.
The five hundred Left Bureau sons needed to find appropriate excuses right now to be transferred directly from Taowu Camp to Yongchun Palace estate, so that when Han Qian “escaped,” he could “deceive” them away all at once.
However, after the escape incident occurred, Emperor Tianyou would use the pretext of stabilizing the southwestern frontier to tacitly accept the fact of the Han father and son “carving out” Xuzhou. He might even send more Left Bureau family members to Xuzhou to show sincerity.
Doing this would help Han Qian stabilize the emotions of Left Bureau officers and soldiers, making them the backbone force controlling Xuzhou. At the same time, this was also to mislead Tanzhou into misjudging Emperor Tianyou and the court’s weakness, relaxing their vigilance toward the court.
However, by autumn next year at the latest, Han Qian must complete integration in Xuzhou to coordinate with Jinling’s military action against Tanzhou.
After Han Qian explained to Shen Yang and Zheng Hui the ins and outs of the deceptive stratagem, Yang Yuanpu then took from his bosom the secret decree drafted by Father Emperor and showed it to Shen Yang and Zheng Hui, then handed it to Han Qian to keep on his person.
Han Qian needed this secret decree to persuade his father. At the same time, with this secret decree, he could nominally not only mobilize all resources in Xuzhou, but also command Chenzhou and the Qianzhong prefectures upstream of Yuanzhou to coordinate operations.
Of course, this only gave Han Qian the necessary righteous justification when necessary.
The Chenzhou Regional Inspector was at least a mobile official appointed by the court. The various Qianzhong regions were all pacified regions—how could they possibly heed Han Qian’s summons?
At most, when Han Qian dealt with Xuzhou’s indigenous forces, this secret decree might have a deterrent effect on the powerful clans controlling these prefectures and counties.
“The Feng clan’s westward relocation has already caused discussion in the manor. Lord Han’s departure should be sooner rather than later,” Zheng Hui said after reading the secret decree’s contents, unable to help taking a deep breath before speaking again.
With such a large-scale Feng clan migration, all people harboring resentment toward the court relocating to Xuzhou, if there were no veiled discussions at all, that would be strange indeed.
However, currently there were only private discussions—no one had lifted the lid yet. All plans could naturally proceed as normal. But who could guarantee how long they could delay before someone directly submitted a memorial impeaching the Han father and son for harboring treasonous intentions?
If Emperor Tianyou continued playing blind then, how could Tanzhou not wake up?
Therefore, in Zheng Hui’s view, Han Qian’s “escape” must occur before that.
“Those watching my side now include people from the Crown Prince’s side and people from Prince Xin’s side. They mostly hope His Highness’s side will cause some great chaos, so there’s still some time,” Han Qian smiled.
Zheng Hui smiled. Shen Yang sighed.
If the Third Prince’s number one strategist “escaped,” even for the court’s face, Emperor Tianyou would ultimately adopt a posture of tacitly accepting the Han father and son carving out Xuzhou to externally cover up this “escape” scandal. But internally, the blow to the Third Prince could be described as fatal and devastating.
Before the final truth was revealed, almost all princes and ministers would be unable to support the Third Prince’s ascension.
Under this premise, even if Prince Xin’s and the Crown Prince’s sides detected abnormalities here at this time, they would mostly choose to observe developments.
This would thoroughly and completely help Han Qian accomplish a perfect act of “deceiving superiors and concealing from subordinates,” causing Tanzhou to fall into a trap without easily detecting it!
Zheng Hui smiled because he instantly guessed Han Qian’s intention. Shen Yang sighed because factional struggles had caused many to forget they served Great Chu.
Of course, Zheng Hui and Shen Yang weren’t unaware of the possibility that the Han father and son might seize the opportunity to carve out Xuzhou. But considering the overall situation, using Xuzhou—which wasn’t under court control anyway—to gamble for the entire essence of the Dongting Lake region, however one looked at it, was worth doing.