“How many forces do you all think Tanzhou can assemble before year’s end?” Seeing Lin Haizheng, Yao Xishui, Chun Shisanniang, and the others all looking quite surprised, Han Qian asked with a smile.
Before Han Qian, Lin Haizheng naturally need not hide his limitations. He immediately spoke his thoughts honestly:
“At their peak strength, the Ma clan only possessed seventy thousand troops. I wildly estimate that Tanzhou could assemble at most sixty thousand forces now. I was thinking that currently Tanzhou has deployed six thousand troops in the Yuanshui direction, mainly stationed at Wuling. Now another portion of forces has followed Ma Rong into Yuanling, meaning Tanzhou will subsequently need to dispatch an additional two to three thousand troops toward the Yuanshui direction to avoid worrying about us attacking into the Langzhou heartland. The court forces assembled in Hongzhou and Yuanzhou are primarily provincial troops. Although their combat effectiveness is weak, the valleys from Yuanzhou into Hengzhou are relatively open, so Tanzhou must deploy at least ten thousand troops there for defense. In northern Langzhou, even with Shu forces assisting in constraining the great general Zhang Xiang, the Shu forces’ main intent is威胁 and containment—the likelihood of them actually attacking Jingzhou is small. So Tanzhou must deploy eight thousand to ten thousand troops in that direction regardless. Ultimately, the father and son Ma Yin and Ma Xun would have approximately thirty thousand forces available to block His Highness leading Ezhou troops westward.”
Lin Haizheng counted on his fingers, continuing to enumerate his initial estimates of Tanzhou’s troop deployments.
“I originally thought the father and son Ma Yin and Ma Xun had at most thirty thousand forces available to resist His Highness deploying from Ezhou. Moreover, cities like Tanzhou must allocate limited forces for defense. I was thinking that if His Majesty decides on feudal reduction now, perhaps not long after the New Year festival we could pacify the Tanzhou disturbances. I never imagined your assessment of Tanzhou’s military potential would be so much higher than mine.”
“The matter isn’t so simple. Your estimate that Tanzhou can assemble sixty thousand troops compares to the previous dynasty’s Ma clan forces occupying the Dongting Lake shores, but you haven’t considered certain changes,” Han Qian said. “In early years, the Ma clan only possessed over three thousand directly subordinate guard troops and retainers. Their other forces were all conscripted and organized from prefectures and counties. After the Ma clan submitted to imperial authority, Ma Yin, Zhao Sheng, Luo Jia, and others gradually converted the thirty thousand troops the court permitted them to maintain into the retainer system—equivalent to expanding their guard troops and retainers tenfold. With further mobilization, the three families can assemble over forty thousand retainer troops. The foundation of the early conscription military system still exists—it couldn’t possibly have deteriorated in just six or seven years. Calculating based on five provinces with two hundred fifty thousand to three hundred thousand households, they can still conscript forty to fifty thousand troops…”
The current era primarily used the retainer system and corvée military system. What Han Qian implemented in Xuzhou was the recruitment system. Along with convict soldiers, clan soldiers, tribal soldiers, and so forth—these were all non-mainstream in the current era, with different demands for military resources and combat effectiveness. Han Qian patiently explained to Lin Haizheng and the others the differences between various military systems and their degree of impact on military potential.
The current era had no specialized military officer academies. The cultivation of military officers and generals either occurred through internal transmission within military clans or through junior officers and soldiers relying on their own comprehension, continuously learning and accumulating experience in warfare. Either way, the results were quite uneven.
Han Qian’s early cultivation of household soldier disciples primarily emphasized reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance. He himself only developed deep thinking about military campaigns and military systems during the Xichuan battle.
Even so, the military education received by the Han family’s household soldier disciples and even the elite scouts and disciples of the Left Bureau was far more complete than that of ordinary military officers.
Going forward, aside from considering widening the post road from Longyacheng to Jimingzhai to provide Chenyang City with sufficient military supplies and provisions, Han Qian also considered further recruiting able-bodied men to expand the Wuling Army’s scale.
With the Four Clans’ submission, the money and grain additionally levied or confiscated from fortresses like Jingyun totaled one hundred twenty thousand shi of grain and over thirty thousand strings of cash. This year’s autumn grain collection was also sequentially completed—when aggregated, this would yield another one hundred thousand shi of grain and nearly twenty thousand strings of cash. After deducting next year’s prefectural and county officials’ salaries, routine public funds, river channels and embankment maintenance, and advance payments for land cultivation, Xuzhou still had one hundred twenty thousand shi of grain and forty thousand strings of cash for the Wuling Army’s various expenses next year.
From attacking Jimingzhai and Chenyang City, even without additional levies, merely confiscating the clan forces’ stockpiles yielded over thirty thousand shi of provisions. Other materials also converted to over twenty thousand strings of cash.
The Wuling Army’s supplies for the coming year would be quite abundant.
Xuzhou’s five counties’ population and field acreage were also gradually tallied. Mountain fields, dry land, and irrigated fields totaled approximately one million five hundred thousand mu. Because irrigated fields were too scarce, the final field tax could only be set at one hundred thousand shi of grain and twenty thousand strings of cash annually.
Xuzhou’s population had nearly doubled compared to what was registered over seventy years ago. Including people who had recently migrated in, the total reached over twenty-two thousand households and one hundred seventy-six thousand people. Males between sixteen and forty-five years old also reached fifty-six thousand. Even further restricting the able-bodied standard to between eighteen and forty years old, there were still over forty-five thousand—all indicators reaching the standards of a mid-sized province.
Xuzhou implemented unified indigenous and immigrant registration, but it was impossible to eliminate in a short time the indigenous-immigrant conflicts or rather hatreds accumulated over nearly a thousand years. Whether implementing the retainer system or conscripting troops, neither was realistic. They could only rely on relatively abundant financial resources to recruit soldiers.
Of course, Han Qian would not merely be satisfied recruiting in Xuzhou’s five counties. After two days, he invited Xiang Jianlong and Yang Zaili to Longyacheng to discuss with them the possibility of recruiting soldiers from the upper Yuanshui, saying:
“The clans in the upper Yuan River heavily exploit tribal households. There are large numbers of tribal people who labor diligently yet cannot fill their bellies or clothe their bodies, while grain fields and lakes are mostly controlled by great clans. Tribal households seeking to make their own living cannot find even a crack of opportunity. If the Wuling Army were to recruit able-bodied men from the upper Yuan River, Elder Xiang and Elder Yang, do you think this would be feasible?”
Xiang Jianlong and Yang Zaili now feared their secret contact with Xishe Ying would be exposed. How could they dare point fingers at Han Qian’s words? They only repeatedly agreed but couldn’t articulate any reasoning.
“I invited you two elders here hoping you could offer counsel and strategies to Han Qian, not to have you come here responsible for nodding,” Han Qian said with a smile. “You two elders need not worry about my knowing of your secret contact with Datanzhai. Within the Xiang and Yang clans, quite a few people did report this matter to me, but I feel that seeing Xishe Ying assembling such strong forces in Chenzhou with Tanzhou backing behind him, Elder Yang and Elder Xiang’s momentarily wavering thoughts were perfectly natural human behavior. Moreover, without Elder Xiang and Elder Yang providing intelligence to Xishe Ying, how would Xishe Ying easily believe the Wuling Army’s offensive had shifted eastward? If the deeply calculating Xishe Ying had remained garrisoned at Jimingzhai, how could we have lured out and annihilated three thousand tribal soldiers?”
“We were momentarily confused, our hearts clouded by that scoundrel Xishe Ying’s words,” Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong, disregarding their advanced years, fell to their knees before Han Qian with tears and snot streaming down, begging for mercy. “Young master, whatever assignments you have, if we show the slightest reluctance, may we die horrible deaths and have our lineages severed! We only hope young master will give us two old muddle-heads a chance to achieve merit and atone for our crimes!”
Seeing Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong personally admit they indeed secretly colluded with Xishe Ying, Lin Haizheng wished he could draw his sword and run them both through.
“Look at what you two elders are saying. Didn’t I say I don’t mind this matter? You, you—what are you afraid of? Quickly rise, quickly rise. I invited you here today to seek counsel, not to frighten you…” Han Qian bent down and with great effort helped up Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong, who stubbornly refused to rise from the ground, pressing them back into their chairs.
“Pfft!”
Xi Ren couldn’t help laughing aloud.
Han Qian turned and glared at Xi Ren, telling her to be serious. Then with a straight face, he discussed grand strategy with Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong:
“Besides having your two elders’ family boats help recruit fierce soldiers from the upper Yuanshui, currently my Han family also has over ten merchant ships at Qianyang City. The shipyard is also continuously building new ships with nowhere to go for now. I was thinking these merchant ships could merge into your two families’ fleets for joint operation. Hereafter, the repair and new construction of both family fleets would all be the shipyard’s responsibility. After annual accounting of profits and losses, I would only need forty percent of the dividends. What do you two elders think?”
“Everything is at young master’s disposal.” Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong wished they could dig out their hearts to show Han Qian their words were utterly and completely sincere.
To recruit soldiers from the upper Yuan River through the fleets of Yang Zaili, Xiang Jianlong, and Xishe Xunqiao’s three families, Han Qian had to assign people to watch them, preventing them from colluding with powerful forces in Jingzhou or even the old Qianzhong commandery, sending over organized tribal soldiers harboring different intentions. At this time, he also conveniently settled the joint operation matter. This way, regardless of how large the scale of commercial trade the three families controlled in the upper Yuan River, he could involve himself and gain some dividends from it.
More critically, iron implements, cloth, liquor, tea, medicines, and other goods produced by the Han family workshops could all be transported through the fleet to the old Qianzhong commandery, and could even go further—to more distant and remote places like Nanzhao.
Throughout the entire twelfth month, Zheng Hui and Zhang Ping organized military preparations at Chenyang without rushing to attack Yuanling or Xupu, primarily drawing Tanzhou forces to Yuanling and stretching Tanzhou’s defensive line.
Although Xishe Xunqiao was unfortunately detained by Xishe Ying when he delivered the coffin to Datanzhai, the remnant Chenzhou clan forces who retreated to defend the Xupu basin east of Datanzhai became quite compliant and law-abiding by year’s end.
Even while continuously conscripting able-bodied men from within Xupu to strengthen Datanzhai’s defenses, they did not dispatch troops to harass Wukouzhai or Chenyang City.
At this time, besides deeper exploitation of Xuzhou’s military potential, Han Qian also assisted his father Han Daoxun in continuing to advance river channel and embankment construction, city repairs, wasteland reclamation, and other matters within Xuzhou’s five counties.
After receiving their lesson, Yang Zaili and Xiang Jianlong also became more obedient. Trade with numerous tribal fortresses in the upper Yuan River rapidly returned to normal.
Of course, this also had great relation to Zheng Hui carrying the imperial decree westward, eliminating the tribal fortresses’ wariness of the Han father and son occupying Xuzhou.
Although nearly a thousand years had passed, Central Plains rule over Qianzhong prefectures and counties only floated on the surface. But since the Qin and Han dynasties, not only the old Qianzhong commandery but even forces in more remote places like Lingnan and Nanzhao—in the vast majority of circumstances—chose to pay tribute and pledge vassalage to Central Plains governments. Cultural and commercial fusion had never been severed.
The clan forces in the upper Yuan River more feared that after the Han father and son occupied Xuzhou, they would overturn the old loose-rein policies and use military force to conquer the upper Yuan River, then implement strict rule.
In that case, the clan forces’ privileges would be completely stripped away.
Now with this layer of worry reduced, the clan forces also desired to restore commerce. As for recruiting soldiers—that was also the court’s need for reducing Tanzhou’s feudal powers.
Thus, before and after the New Year festival of the sixteenth year of Tianyou, batches of scarce salt, cattle, horses, and livestock were transported into Xuzhou.
Simultaneously, over eight hundred impoverished able-bodied men struggling to maintain livelihoods accompanied the ships into Xuzhou. Combined with the able-bodied men Han Qian recruited locally in Xuzhou, the Wuling Army’s forces expanded further to six thousand after the New Year. The labor and supply battalion used as reserve soldiers and supply troops also expanded to two thousand.
After the New Year festival, a new messenger carrying an imperial decree traversed mountains and ridges from Jinling into Xuzhou.
After confirming that Zheng Hui led the Wuling Army to capture Chenyang City, dividing Chenzhou into northern and southern segments and forcing several thousand Tanzhou troops to enter Yuanling for joint defense, Emperor Tianyou finally formally issued an edict at year’s end, removing Ma Yin, Zhao Sheng, Luo Jia, and others from their posts as Tanzhou Regional Commander, Shaozhou Prefect, and Hengzhou Prefect, ordering them to enter the capital to receive new appointments.
Ma Yin refused to obey the decree. He proclaimed himself King of Xiang in Tanzhou, made Tanzhou his national capital, pledged vassalage to the Liang Kingdom, enfeoffed his son Ma Xun as Crown Prince, and enfeoffed Ma Yuanheng, Zhao Sheng, Luo Jia, Ji Zhongqi, and others as Regional Commanders of Langzhou, Shaozhou, Hengzhou, and Yuezhou. Only then did the curtain on the Tanzhou campaign formally and inevitably open.
In Emperor Tianyou’s new decree, he required that new policies like field tax reform and unified indigenous-immigrant registration be limited only to Xuzhou, treated as special measures that must be implemented for Tanzhou’s feudal reduction. But he strictly ordered Han Daoxun and Zheng Hui not to arbitrarily extend the new policies beyond Xuzhou to places like Chenzhou. He also commanded Han Daoxun and Zheng Hui to exert every possible effort to pacify and win over chieftains of great clans like Xishe Ying, in order to more greatly constrain Tanzhou.
As long as chieftains of great clans like Xishe Ying were willing to submit to the court, they could even be permitted to assemble independent tribal battalions to participate in the feudal reduction campaign against Tanzhou…