The long Wushan Gorge stretched four hundred li. The four ships had extremely deep drafts. After lowering their sails, pulled upstream by three to four hundred trackers, their speed was naturally quite slow.
Starting from when Han Qian and his party entered the Nanjin Pass Gorge until reaching Baidi City in Kuizhou, the four-hundred-li waterway took a full half month to traverse.
From Baidi City traveling westward along the river, they still had to cover another eight hundred li of waterway to reach the major eastern Sichuan town of Yuzhou City, also the site of ancient Jiangzhou City. From Yuzhou heading west, passing through Luzhou then north into the Zi River (Tuo River), winding another eight hundred li would bring them to their journey’s destination—Jinguan City, Chengdu Prefecture, the base from which King Wang Jian of Shu had founded his kingdom.
Baidi City was originally named Ziyang City, built by Gongsun Shu, the warlord who occupied Shu during the late Western Han Dynasty.
Legend had it that when Gongsun Shu controlled Shu and built a city on the mountain, he observed white mist rising from a well in the city like a white dragon. He then proclaimed himself the White Emperor and renamed the city Baidi City, with the mountain it backed against named Mount Baidi.
Baidi City was located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, bordered by mountains on one side and surrounded by water on three sides. Backed by towering gorges, it commanded the water and land routes, controlled the gateway to Wushan, and was directly adjacent to the east with Kui Gate—the final section of the long Wushan Gorge, known for “all waters meet at Fuwan, Qutang contends for one gate.”
High cliffs rose steeply on both banks. The mighty river flowing through this area was suddenly narrowed into a ravine barely over a hundred meters wide, sometimes only fifty meters. Even during the dry season, tens of thousands of cubic meters of river water per second surged and poured through—no wonder it was called “Kui Gate, most magnificent under heaven.”
After Han Qian’s fleet exited Kui Gate, standing at the stern taking in the full view of Kui Gate, the feeling was even more profound. He secretly reflected that as long as Shu had even one capable naval division stationed at Baidi City, even Great Chu’s most mighty and formidable naval forces would find it difficult to fight their way out through Kui Gate.
So-called strategic locations contested by military strategists throughout history—this was exactly it.
“In such a powerful current, ordinary stone anchors simply cannot grip the riverbed!” Yang Qin stood beside Han Qian, watching the turbulent waters rushing into Kui Gate, and said with emotion.
Even traditional broad-bow flat-bottom boats, when stopping midway, often couldn’t find suitable large trees to moor to on the banks. Sharp-bottom boats wanting to stop midway could only rely on anchors.
In early years, ships mostly used stone anchors, with ropes sunk to the water bottom. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, people began using copper and iron cast anchors.
Four-pronged iron anchors sinking to the water bottom could deeply grip the mud of the riverbed, far superior to stone anchors that simply rested on the riverbed. However, with current iron casting technology, three to four hundred jin iron anchors were about the limit.
Not to mention turbulent flows like Kui Gate—even in the relatively calm and wide sections of the Yangtze River, three to four hundred jin iron anchors couldn’t stop giant vessels with cargo capacities reaching three to four hundred thousand jin!
One could use winches to sink stone anchors weighing several thousand or even ten thousand jin to the river bottom to moor ships, but in such turbulent currents, such heavy stone anchors couldn’t hold four-thousand-dan or two-thousand-dan large ships, much less thousand-dan vessels. Moreover, raising and lowering such heavy stone anchors was extremely cumbersome and slow.
Although Longya City was already casting thousand-jin iron claw anchors, judging by Kui Gate’s water conditions, they might not be able to secure even thousand-dan ships.
“After the Chu-Shu peace talks, the two regions no longer prohibit merchants and travelers. With Shu roads open, when ships pass through Kui Gate Gorge, we can extensively test the newly made iron anchors!” Han Qian said to Yang Qin.
In Han Qian’s view, for various crafts to develop, working behind closed doors definitely wouldn’t work. The key was practical application to accumulate more hands-on experience. If the vessels built at Wufeng Mountain could be tested in turbulent flows like Kui Gate Gorge, technical improvements might proceed faster.
“What are Minister Han and Commander Yang discussing?” Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong came over to ask.
Han Qian naturally wouldn’t tell Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong they were discussing how naval warships could successfully fight their way out from downstream through Kui Gate. He smiled and said: “All along the way, we’ve relied entirely on hundreds of trackers enduring hardship for us to smoothly pass through the long Wushan Gorge. I’m having Yang Qin take out some copper cash to reward the trackers—thinking about it now, perhaps it would be better to do it in the Marquis’s name.”
When Han Qian’s party traveled westward, they hadn’t asked the Xiazhou Yiling garrison commander to directly dispatch government slaves to help them pull the ships. Instead, after arriving in Yiling, they hired local trackers, which also conveniently provided opportunities to interact with the common people of the eastern Sichuan region.
These trackers who worked year-round along the beaches and banks of the long Wushan Gorge—in the dead of winter their bare shoulders were tanned black, covered with bloody welts carved by the tow ropes.
On riverbanks full of chaotic rocks, a pair of straw sandals couldn’t hold up for long. By the end of one journey, their feet were covered with bloody wounds cut by sharp stones.
Even so, for this journey the trackers could only barely scrape by.
The hardships of people’s livelihood could be glimpsed from this.
Although the hire payment had been paid in Yiling, Han Qian still took out one hundred strings of cash and had Yang Qin send people ashore to distribute it as rewards to the three hundred-plus trackers in Marquis Changxiang’s name.
After passing through Kui Gate Gorge, the terrain on both banks became gentler, with continuous low hills. The river surface also widened, with narrow sections still nearly two thousand paces wide.
At this point, they no longer needed to hire trackers. The four ships raised their large sails and sailed with the wind, their speed immediately picking up. In just three days they reached the major southeastern Sichuan town of Yuzhou.
Marquis Changxiang feared Marquis Qingjiang’s suspicion, so he was usually extremely cautious about not forming connections with officials, and his relationships with local officials were quite distant.
As Han Qian’s party traveled westward, along the way besides exchanging the necessary documents for passage, they rarely docked to stop. On the fifteenth day of the eleventh month, they finally entered the territory of Jinguan City, Chengdu Prefecture—the richest and most prosperous region of Sichuan and Shu.
Turning from the Zi River into the Pi River, the sailing ships could directly reach the wharf outside the southern city gate where the prefecture capital was located.
The Pi River also served as the moat of Chengdu Prefecture city.
King Wang Jian of Shu had already dispatched Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial Wei Qun, leading ceremonial guards, to meet Han Qian and Guo Rong at the southern city wharf and discuss the dates and protocols for the next steps of audience and marriage discussions.
The bulk cargo Han Qian brought on this journey was for his private sale and wouldn’t be unloaded for now. However, the two to three hundred chests of silk fabrics, jewelry and jade that were state gifts and betrothal gifts, as well as the wealth Han Qian had secretly brought into Shu for socializing with Shu’s powerful nobles, all needed to enter the city together.
The Court of State Ceremonial had also prepared horses and carriages in advance. Zhou Chu led the household troops in loading chest after chest of betrothal gifts onto the carts. Han Qian and Guo Rong, accompanied by Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong and Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial Wei Qun, admired the majestic and imposing Shu capital.
Sichuan and Shu, particularly the Chengdu Plain, had been fully developed since the Qin Dynasty—much earlier than the Jiang-Huai region. During the previous dynasty’s peak population, over 1.2 million households and more than six million people were recorded. However, during the middle and late previous dynasty, because imperial clan members repeatedly fled to Sichuan for refuge, they brought warfare from Guanzhong into Sichuan and Shu. Though things had been peaceful for over ten years under King Wang Jian of Shu’s rule, according to Shu’s Ministry of Revenue investigations over the past two years, the population had only recovered to five hundred thousand households, fewer than three million people—less than fifty percent of the previous dynasty’s peak.
Compared to Liang and Chu, which each controlled populations above ten million, Shu controlled a population of roughly a quarter or slightly more, making it naturally the weakest. But even so, beyond prefecture and county local forces, King Wang Jian of Shu directly controlled Imperial Guards numbering as many as one hundred sixty thousand.
Even though the Chengdu Plain directly controlled by King Wang Jian of Shu was one of the realm’s rare regions of wealth, maintaining such enormous military preparations was extremely taxing.
Of the one hundred sixty thousand Shu troops, thirty thousand Zhenjiang Army were stationed in Yuzhou, Kuizhou, and Xiazhou Yiling, mainly to guard against Great Chu’s westward ambitions. Sixty thousand troops garrisoned the Shu capital and nearby regions, controlling the most core Chengdu Plain. The most elite seventy thousand troops were stationed in Liangzhou (Hanzhong) and other places to guard against Liang’s southern invasions.
Although it was the depths of winter, Shu’s climate was mild and moist. Standing before the moat, Han Qian didn’t feel particularly cold.
Once the two hundred-plus chests and baskets were all loaded onto the carts, Han Qian had Yang Qin lead the main force to garrison at the military camp the Court of State Ceremonial had specially arranged outside the city. Surrounded by nearly a hundred troops, he was just preparing to get into a carriage to enter the city when he heard the clatter of hoofbeats. Turning to look, he saw three swift horses galloping along the imperial highway outside the southern city gate.
As the three horses drew near, Han Qian saw that the lead rider was Guo Que, who had entered Shu one step ahead to oversee intelligence gathering in Shu.
“What’s happened?” Feng Yi, who was at Han Qian’s side at that moment, asked in surprise.
Guo Que was the Little Crow Guo Que’er who had once served undercover at Feng Yi’s side. Having accumulated merit during the campaign to reduce feudal domains and been granted eighth-rank military honors, he had wanted to take the opportunity to change his former “humble name.” Han Qian had helped him take the meaning of “repelling the enemy” and used the homophonous character “Que” as his name.
That Emperor Tianyou hadn’t used his father as wedding envoy had always weighed on Han Qian’s mind, leaving him unsettled. Now seeing Guo Que disregarding that all around were Shu officials and directly galloping over to meet him, his heart skipped a beat. He didn’t know what had happened in Tanzhou to make Guo Que rush over so urgently to deliver news.
Seeing the newcomer knew Han Qian, the Shu Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial signaled the guards to make way.
Guo Que dismounted and walked over, handing a wax-sealed message to Han Qian and saying in his ear:
“Madam Ting instructed that no matter what the circumstances, this letter must be delivered into your hands at the first opportunity!”
Not knowing what had happened in Xuzhou, Han Qian couldn’t worry about Guo Rong, Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong, and Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial Wei Qun being right beside him. Seeing that the wax seal bore the secret mark he and Zhao Ting’er had agreed upon, he broke open the wax capsule and extracted a slip of paper. On it was written:
“Husband, half a month after you departed from Longya City, Jinling dispatched a messenger with an edict to Qianyang, ordering Father to enter the capital to serve as Capital Region Administrator. I learned the news and rushed to Qianyang, wanting to persuade Father to wait until after the New Year before departing. But Father seemed to have already realized that a crisis was brewing in Jinling. That very day he delegated Xuzhou’s military and civil affairs to Chief Clerk Xue Ruogu and Military Commissioner Tian Cheng, then took Zhao Kuo, Han Laoshan, and several other family servants and directly departed for the capital. I hesitated for a long time but ultimately didn’t dare presume to tell him about the poisoned candles…”
Han Qian’s hands and feet turned ice cold. He hadn’t expected that rather than using his father as envoy to Shu to escort the bride, Emperor Tianyou would at this time transfer his father to Jinling to serve as Capital Region Administrator!
Moreover, such an important appointment as Capital Region Administrator—Emperor Tianyou had issued the decree to replace the position without revealing even half a hint beforehand, not even consulting the Third Prince’s side at all.
Han Qian absolutely didn’t want his father entering the capital at this time, but calculating the timing, his father might already have been in Jinling for two days!