When Han Qian claimed the road was at risk of being washed away by flood waters, Yang Hu absolutely wouldn’t let himself be led by the nose based on Han Qian’s words alone. He immediately invited Xi Shepeng, Fu Gengwen, and Han Chengmeng to rush to the Crow Ridge dam construction site for an on-site inspection to verify the truth of Han Qian’s words.
An Jixiang bore an edict to deliver the Empress Dowager’s bestowed gifts, so naturally he couldn’t join in this commotion and had to cross the river with Han Qian to Chenzhong city first.
Han Qian also followed protocol, arranging for Feng Yi, who was responsible for ceremonial affairs and postal relay stations, to accompany Yang Hu, Xi Shepeng, Fu Gengwen, and Han Chengmeng—these four men—to Crow Ridge.
The mountain ridges north of the Chen River valley were branches of the Wuling Mountain range extending eastward into Chenzhou territory, with layer upon layer of mountains.
Among them, Songfeng Ridge where Gaoyiyu was located had the most rugged and precipitous mountain terrain. Running north-south with strange peaks, steep cliffs, and deep ravines like abysses, to the west it interlaced with the northern mountain ridges of Panlong Ridge, naturally forming the boundary between Sizhou’s northeastern region and Chenzhou.
Songfeng Ridge’s terrain was similar to Longya Mountain on the southern bank of the Chen River. Longya Mountain stretched over sixty li east to west and over fifty li north to south, with its western mountain formations being particularly steep and precipitous, naturally forming the boundary between Xuzhou and Sizhou.
From Songfeng Ridge eastward were also undulating hills and ridges, but the terrain was relatively much gentler. Even the highest peak was only one-third the height of Songfeng Ridge’s main peak. This was also the area Chenzhong County was focusing on developing north of the Chen River valley.
In this region, five township inspection offices had been temporarily demarcated, using the newly built northern bank post road to connect these five townships. The area where Crow Ridge was located was one of them.
Within the boundaries of Crow Ridge township, the post road was mainly constructed on the lower-elevation river valley plains, with some villages distributed along the Chen River.
A north-south oriented shallow valley extended from deep within the northern mountain ridges to the post road on the northern bank of the Chen River.
Han Chengmeng and the others reined in their horses at the valley entrance, seeing that within the shallow valley was a stream nearly ten zhang wide. However, its riverbed had almost completely dried up during the early autumn season, flowing from beneath a wooden bridge into the Chen River.
The river dam Han Qian mentioned was upstream on this stream. Once it collapsed, both the wooden bridge and the post road before and after it would be impacted by flood waters—this section of post road was also blocked off with barricades, with danger and no-entry signs posted beside the road.
A newly built road followed the eastern bank of the stream, turning directly into the depths of the shallow valley.
Feng Yi led Yang Hu, Xi Shepeng, Fu Gengwen, and Han Chengmeng, surrounded by escorts, veering toward the depths of Crow Ridge.
At this point, Han Chengmeng and the others could more clearly see the terrain within the shallow valley.
Flanked by mountain ridges on both sides, the shallow valley was approximately five to six hundred paces wide. However, because the streambed was very shallow, everywhere in the shallow valley showed traces of water erosion, making cultivation impossible.
Looking at some construction sites distributed along the route, combined with Feng Yi’s introduction, Chenzhong County intended to build an overflow weir upstream to regulate the water levels during flood and dry periods of this river called Green Bamboo Stream.
In this way, the nearly ten-li section of shallow valley downstream from the overflow weir would have value for dredging channels and building embankments, with subsequent potential to cultivate three to four thousand mu of good farmland.
Not to mention that after the overflow weir was completed and water flow stabilized, more workshops utilizing water power could be built along the stream banks downstream.
This was also one of the key construction areas for Chenzhong County on the northern bank of the Chen River over the next two years.
Fu Gengwen felt somewhat interested in all this, but urged by Yang Hu and Xi Shepeng, the group quickly arrived at the river dam construction site.
This was a mountain valley pass with even narrower terrain, an opening less than ten zhang wide, with the overflow river dam also largely completed.
The stream was cut off at the waist here. Downstream was almost completely dry, yet above the river dam a suspended lake nearly five to six zhang higher than the ground had been dammed up. Looking into the pass, with shimmering waves, the gourd-shaped lake surface was approximately one thousand mu wide.
Seeing this scene, both Fu Gengwen and Han Chengmeng were quite shocked. Looking at the many submerged trees along the lake with treetops still exposed above the water surface, all proved this was a large lake that had just been dammed up.
When Chen Jingzhou went to Guangde Prefecture to serve as Prefect, Fu Gengwen, seeing subtle changes in Guangde Prefecture’s situation, used the opportunity of reporting to the Personnel Ministry to rush to Jinling. Learning that the Political Affairs Hall was reactivating the Hunan Branch Province and specially establishing a bureau under the Branch Province to govern southwestern vassal prefectures’ affairs, before he even made special efforts to maneuver, the Personnel Ministry first came to inquire about his intentions.
With the reactivation of the Hunan Branch Province, those employed—such as Huang Hua, Wu Zun, and Chen Fan—were all representative figures of Jiangdong aristocratic family clans. According to Emperor Yanyou’s and the Political Affairs Hall lords’ thinking, they wanted east and west to mutually check each other, both relying on aristocratic families while avoiding aristocratic families becoming excessively powerful.
Fu Gengwen, wanting to extricate himself from Guangde Prefecture, went with the flow and accepted the new position. Along with Han Chengmeng, who had originally been a subordinate official of the Hunan Branch Province and had never sought a position in the central Six Ministries’ bureaus and offices, they rushed to Xuzhou at the first opportunity without stopping.
Whether from hearsay or from hearing things from An Jixiang and others, Fu Gengwen prided himself on having some understanding of the southwestern vassal prefectures. However, casually seeing such a large-scale artificial suspended lake appearing before him, he was somewhat dumbfounded.
“It’s this river dam that had problems during construction,” Feng Yi said, with an attitude of being extremely familiar with the situation, introducing the matter to Yang Hu, Xi Shepeng, and Fu Gengwen. “At the beginning of last month, multiple seepage points appeared in the central part of the river dam, with the overall structure unstable. After discovering this situation, craftsmen building embankments downstream were quickly withdrawn, roads were all blocked off, and entry by people and livestock was prohibited—coming along the road you all saw the abandoned work sheds. If it can hold for one or two months until winter when rainfall decreases and water levels drop, it might be possible to organize craftsmen for repairs. However, there’s no guarantee when the river dam will collapse. Once it collapses, over one thousand mu of lake water will pour down, destroying not merely the wooden bridge downstream.”
From the withdrawal from the downstream valley and the seepage situation, the river dam having problems was clearly not a matter of just one or two days. However, in Yang Hu’s eyes, the entire matter was absolutely not simply coincidence—he just couldn’t see where the flaw lay.
Risk passing through this dangerous section of post road?
Seeing a trace of an inscrutable faint smile at the corner of Feng Yi’s mouth, Yang Hu felt slightly chilled in his heart. He worried that just when he persuaded Xi Shepeng to risk passing through this section of post road, the river dam would “extremely coincidentally” collapse.
Did he dare take this risk? Did Xi Shepeng dare take this risk?
Moreover, the suspended lake’s water level height difference approached five zhang. What the embankment dammed up was over one thousand mu wide—who knew how deep—of lake water. Just looking at it made one’s heart leap with anxiety.
“Lords, should you first follow me to Chenzhong to meet with Han Qian and Lord An, or what do you say?” Seeing Fu Gengwen, Yang Hu, and the others looking worried and afraid, Feng Yi asked with a grin.
This river dam wasn’t completely finished. Originally there had been a temporary diversion channel elsewhere that could channel water from the valley through a western gorge to flow out. However, last month the diversion channel had been filled in ahead of time. The suspended lake reservoir began accumulating water. After several autumn rains fell, the suspended lake formed.
What Han Qian wanted was that when Chenzhou’s rotating battalion passed through the border, he would have an excuse to frighten and obstruct them.
Don’t look at how extremely broad the lake surface above the river dam was—the actual pressure the river dam bore was only related to water level height.
Although the outer side of the river dam appeared five zhang high, the inner side sat on a section of fractured bedrock.
Previously when Green Bamboo Stream flowed through here, it formed a cascading waterfall over three zhang high. The actual depth of the inner water level was only six meters.
Overall, the construction difficulty of this river dam wasn’t high. Even accumulating water ahead of time posed no danger.
However, not to mention the relationship between water pressure and water depth—the stone pass terrain where the river dam was situated—Yang Hu, Fu Gengwen, and Xi Shepeng completely didn’t know the details. Han Qian truly didn’t believe he couldn’t frighten them.
Yang Hu looked at Fu Gengwen and Xi Shepeng. His rush to Jinling to request the decree had already delayed two months. If they didn’t dare advance westward along the northern bank post road and once delayed, who knew how many more tricks Han Qian and Xuzhou people would come up with next.
Moreover, worrying that the northern bank post road would be impacted by flood waters and not daring to use it—transferring warships from Chenyang to take the water route and go around wasn’t realistic either.
After all, once flood waters rushed down, they would form extremely large surges in the Chen River. The small and medium-sized oar-propelled boats built by Chenzhou could hardly withstand the impact of large waves.
Waiting to transfer them from downstream, first crossing the Chen River to the southern bank, going around via the southern bank post road, crossing the river two more times—would delay three or four days?
Feng Yi remained silent. Han Chengmeng also deliberately avoided suspicion and didn’t come forward.
Yang Hu, Xi Shepeng, and Fu Gengwen deliberated for a moment. In the end, they decided to have Xi Shepeng lead the rotating battalion elite troops to camp on the northern bank tonight first, ordering Yang Hu, Fu Gengwen, and Han Chengmeng—these three men—to first follow Feng Yi across the Chen River to meet with Han Qian and An Jixiang in Chenzhong.
They thought that An Jixiang represented His Majesty, Fu Gengwen represented the Hunan Branch Province—no matter what, Han Qian couldn’t possibly go too far or be too blatant…
…
…
An Jixiang first accompanied Han Qian to Chenzhong. By the time Feng Yi arrived with Yang Hu, Fu Gengwen, and Han Chengmeng, the sky had already darkened. It wasn’t until after the night banquet Han Qian had specially arranged and they had returned to lodge at the relay station that he had an opportunity to ask Yang Hu and Fu Gengwen about the specific situation after their on-site inspection of the Crow Ridge dam construction site.
“The river dam is suspended over five zhang high, accumulating over one thousand mu of lake. Multiple seepage points exist in the central part of the dam body—this wasn’t a problem that appeared just recently. People and livestock downstream have all been evacuated. If Chenzhou’s rotating battalion takes this road, something unexpected could indeed possibly happen. Once an accident happens, some matters would truly be hard to explain,” Fu Gengwen said with furrowed brows to An Jixiang.
Yang Hu found it difficult to be satisfied with what Fu Gengwen said before An Jixiang. He more hoped Fu Gengwen could straightforwardly point out that Han Qian harbored sinister intentions.
Regardless of whether Yang Hu was satisfied, Fu Gengwen could only speak this way.
Reactivating the Branch Secretariat and establishing a Protectorate Bureau to govern southwestern vassal prefectures’ affairs—the court’s intention to strengthen control over southwestern vassal prefectures, especially Xuzhou, was self-evident.
However, from another angle, even if His Majesty harbored extremely deep suspicions toward the Marquis of Qianyang, with various measures all meant to check and balance Xuzhou, deep in His Majesty’s heart did he truly hope Xuzhou would change, or hope Xuzhou would not change?
Fu Gengwen had served as an official at the county level since age eighteen. By now he had thirteen or fourteen years of experience and had long understood the differences and subtleties involved.
When in Guangde Prefecture, almost all aristocratic family clans were in an uproar over Shang Wensheng’s death. He too had been compelled to cooperate in taking action.
However, at this time, before Huang Hua and such figures directly applied pressure to him, and without concrete evidence, no matter what he had to first think of calming the situation—only that could possibly be more advantageous for himself.
If he casually stirred up the situation by grasping at shadows, what benefit would that have for himself?