The refugee camp where He Aba stayed was about twenty li northwest of White Hoof Ridge—a rather large village located at a river bend.

The village’s perimeter was protected by a rammed earth wall, with a river over ten zhang wide meandering north past the village’s northwest side, seemingly flowing toward Hongze Lake.

Through interrogating wounded prisoners, Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng learned this village was called Qingjin Ferry. A post road built during the previous dynasty but abandoned due to warfare decades ago passed through here, turning west three to four dozen li toward Shiliang County town.

Because Hongze Lake, Fanliang Lake, and the adjacent Jinhu and Shiliang counties had numerous lakes and marshes with crisscrossing streams and rivers, even if not like Xuzhou with its hundreds of li of unbroken mountain ridges, the terrain was still quite complex.

Only after Han Qian rendezvoused with the former Left Guangde Army subordinates at Ding Family Gully did he decide to use the Taihu and Yangtze River waterways to transfer over ten thousand women, children, and elderly to the Hongze Lake and Fanliang Lake area to settle and make their living.

In the early stage, they had only sent people to scout the situation near White Hoof Ridge once. Even so, because large amounts of records were lost during the warfare, they remained very unfamiliar with many nearby place names, stream and river directions, and the situation of ancient post roads.

Some work could only be remedied in later stages—it was difficult to achieve perfection in such a short time.

Sometimes, they only needed to be better than the enemy and make fewer mistakes—that was enough.

Fortunately, nearby villages mainly relied on this ancient post road for coming and going.

Even though in official records this post road was abandoned, with no official roads or post roads connecting across the river, Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng, leading their troops a few li west from White Hoof Ridge, could still easily identify this ancient post road. The severely frost-heaved roadbed was still yellow earth foundation, with exceptionally tall and dense trees on both sides.

The young and able-bodied men in the village had been captured when the Anning Palace rebels retreated north from Chuzhou. Even the few fishing boats and ferries were all seized together.

Over two hundred abandoned elderly, weak, women, and children remained in the village.

After receiving news, He Aba gathered a refugee force of over a thousand people fleeing warfare from western Chuzhou. Three months ago they ran to this place and took it as their camp—becoming the largest refugee force within a radius of twenty to thirty li.

Of course, not wanting to attract the attention of the Imperial Guards and Anning Palace rebels, after He Aba’s group settled here, they temporarily hadn’t thought of annexing nearby small refugee groups to expand their power.

The scarred man, leading over ten Silver Halberd Guard soldiers and able-bodied refugees, fled back in panic. But he anticipated that after the Chishan Association determined their actual strength, they would definitely press their advantage to attack Qingjin Ferry, not giving them a chance to stabilize their position. He advocated that the remaining two hundred thirty to forty able-bodied men at Qingjin Ferry should evacuate first.

With He Aba captured, Huaidong’s person in charge of coordinating infiltration into Chuzhou’s informants and planted agents, along with the seven subordinates who had secretly controlled this refugee force with He Aba, had either died in battle or been captured together with He Aba. The refugee able-bodied still didn’t know their relationship with Huaidong or the scarred man’s identity. Having suffered such devastating casualties, frightened, afraid, fearful, and resentful—who would be willing to listen to him?

Furthermore, the most difficult thing for refugee forces was separating able-bodied men from family women and children.

When Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng led over three hundred cavalry and infantry to Qingjin Ferry, they were still endlessly arguing about whether to stay or leave. Seeing matters were difficult, the scarred man could only be forced to lead over ten Silver Halberd Guard soldiers, mount horses and flee through a gap in the northeast wall, riding away.

Of the thousand-plus refugees at Qingjin Ferry, except for a few who fled in the chaos, the vast majority gave up resistance and chose to surrender.

This best suited Kong Xirong and the others’ wishes.

Not that Kong Xirong and He Liufeng feared hard fighting—actually they worried that warfare here being too intense and bloody would attract the attention of Imperial Guards to the south or Anning Palace rebels.

In that case, subsequent situation developments might not all be within their control.

Not to mention anything else—just if the Imperial Guards to the south heightened vigilance and strengthened blockades of water and land passages advancing north in southern Chuzhou, and the court ordered counties between Taihu and the Yangtze to strengthen supervision, how would the Chishan Association transfer over its ten thousand women and children?

Of course, with dozens of refugee forces, large and small, gathered in Shiliang County, with tangled and complex contradictions, fighting each other over territory and food sources, even hundreds or thousands engaging in armed conflicts—this was all extremely normal.

The guards Kong Xirong brought, in such hot weather, unavoidably still had to wear extra robes over their lamellar and scale armor for disguise. But if truly participating in killing, there certainly wasn’t any way to worry about too much.

The current result could be called everyone rejoicing—not to mention Kong Xirong and He Liufeng, even Lin Sheng had no interest in demonstrating glorious military achievements by killing refugee able-bodied.

Using elite combat forces composed of former Left Guangde Army veteran soldiers to suppress refugee able-bodied who were still at a numerical disadvantage—it was really somewhat bullying.

To prevent other unexpected changes and facilitate controlling this refugee force while further clearing out Huaidong agents planted among them, Kong Xirong, He Liufeng, and Lin Sheng briefly discussed and still decided to detain all these people at White Hoof Ridge camp overnight.

Though the houses and camp at Qingjin Ferry were relatively intact, with the village perimeter having a complete wall and three to four thousand mu of normally cultivated fields, it had no direct water route connection with Fanliang Lake and was also slightly too far from White Hoof Ridge.

Later, when the Chishan Association had more association members and women and children migrate north, they could settle some people here. But now they couldn’t disperse limited elite forces to occupy this place.

Although Qingjin Ferry was only twenty-some li from White Hoof Ridge, Kong Xirong and the others still labored until the latter half of the night before returning to White Hoof Ridge camp.

With torches burning high and the full moon in the firmament exceptionally bright, this brought tremendous convenience for night marching.

Han Qian stood in the watchtower beside the drawbridge, arms folded, watching prisoners pass across the drawbridge in succession. The vast majority of elderly, weak, women, and children all had sallow complexions and looked frightened.

Having interrogated He Aba and three other Huaidong planted agents, he also confirmed that Huaidong’s control over this refugee force was far from as deep as when Tan Yuliang and Zhao Zhixian had controlled Fish Eagle Village years ago. He also confirmed they hadn’t been infiltrated by Anning Palace rebel agents. The vast majority could be directly absorbed into the Chishan Association or dispersed around White Hoof Ridge for settlement, treating them as peripheral affiliated forces to control.

The problem was that with the camp suddenly gaining over twelve hundred people, supplies carried over in the early stage became tight accordingly.

Particularly treating over ninety wounded prisoners, plus among the two hundred-plus able-bodied captured overnight, another fifty to sixty had minor injuries needing treatment—this meant the bandaging medical materials and medicines for treating external wounds and stopping bleeding they had previously carried would be continuously consumed in large quantities, at most lasting half a month.

Perhaps before the second batch of medicine and bandaging materials could be supplemented, they would first be nearly consumed completely.

Medicine and bandaging materials were relatively easy to secretly transport over. After all, they occupied small volume—medicine transported by one or two pack horses could be used for one or two months.

The target wasn’t obvious and was also easy to secretly transport through gaps from southern Chuzhou.

However, even if subsequent personnel didn’t increase, with nearly two thousand people in the camp alone, subsequently at least a thousand dan of grain would need to be supplemented monthly. Wanting to secretly transport this over wouldn’t be an easy matter.

If they transferred over ten thousand elderly, weak, women, and children, before farming around White Hoof Ridge recovered, even if they could supplement food by catching fish and shrimp, within a year they would need to supplement at least two to three thousand dan of grain monthly to get through the famine.

The reason He Aba’s so-called organized refugee able-bodied were so vulnerable was actually mainly because most people were starved with sallow complexions—they couldn’t be called able-bodied at all, much less undergo harsh and bitter training.

Also because of hunger, most refugees ate raw fish, crabs, shrimp, and snails. Neither food nor drinking water were particular—quite a few had already contracted schistosomiasis (water poison epidemic). And other minor illnesses and disasters—there was even less talk of seeking medical treatment.

Elite combat forces and excellent logistics supply and management had always been inseparable.

Lost farmers from Jiangnan could intermittently cross the river wanting to enter northeastern Chuzhou to cultivate wasteland. Officials and garrison troops along the route could turn a blind eye.

However, if wanting to transport grain and organize thousands or tens of thousands to cross the river in an organized, large-scale manner to establish themselves in northern Chuzhou required getting through all levels from top to bottom—required tacit approval from people in the court.

Just like at this time, aristocratic families from the capital region and nearby prefectures and counties, as well as some court princes, ministers, powerful eunuchs, and newly rich who had gotten wind early, had already sent people to massively enclose fields near Chuzhou city or in southern Chaohu Lake and areas along the Yangtze in southern Chuzhou. This was approved by a large batch of court and government officials from aristocratic families including Prince Yuzhang Yang Zhitang, Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, and powerful eunuchs like Wei Zhen.

Otherwise, how could officials and garrison troops along the route play deaf and dumb, neither hearing nor asking about organized, large-scale forces of unclear origin crossing north into the river?

Not to mention Jinyun Bureau—even if the Ministry of War’s Geographic Office dispatched reconnaissance cavalry to investigate, they could easily find clues and trace back to Guangde Prefecture.

If before most of the former Left Guangde Army subordinates and their families had transferred over, this matter alarmed court officials and Yang Yuanpu, what subsequent changes would occur—even Han Qian found it hard to predict.

Thinking of this, Han Qian turned and said to Feng Liao: “He Aba and other Huaidong agents, plus four other captured Silver Halberd Guard soldiers—send people to deliver them to Yangzhou first thing tomorrow morning!”

……

……

By late July, the Imperial Guards’ siege of Chaozhou city had continued for two and a half months.

Li Zhigao fought extremely steadily at Chaozhou city, not at all reckless.

Even occupying absolute advantage, Li Zhigao still didn’t completely encircle Chaozhou city but left a gap several li wide to the north, facilitating defenders abandoning the city to flee north while also using this to undermine the defenders’ fighting spirit.

However, on Chaozhou city’s front, Li Zhigao built stronghold after stronghold and thought of every method to fortify them.

Frontal attacks on Chaozhou city mainly used whirlwind catapults to bombard the city walls, with an attitude that even confronting until next year didn’t matter.

In this situation, anyone could see the rebels at Chaozhou absolutely had no chance of turning defeat into victory. Chaozhou city’s fall was just a matter of time. And even if Liang forces intended to recruit Anning Palace rebels, they absolutely couldn’t rashly dispatch troops to cross the Huai River southward in such circumstances.

Yin Peng also, after the court’s recovery of Chaozhou situation was thoroughly confirmed, was ordered to bring several attendants and, together with Guo Xiao who Han Qian had left at Zhuyu Bay as liaison, walk into White Hoof Ridge camp.

At this time, over half a month had passed since Han Qian sent people to deliver wounded prisoners like He Aba back to Yangzhou.

Yangzhou hadn’t dispatched people to participate in attacking White Hoof Ridge camp, didn’t even know beforehand. Only when Han Qian’s side sent people to deliver wounded prisoners like He Aba over did Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng learn that Prince Xin had personally deployed personnel to attack White Hoof Ridge camp and failed.

Although these many matters made Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng stamp their feet anxiously in Yangzhou, they could only first take good care of He Aba and the others, then send people to Chuzhou to report the matter, with everything continuing to await Prince Xin’s decision.

Only the day before yesterday did Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan finally dispatch an envoy to Yangzhou, ordering Wang Wenqian to fully take charge of liaison matters with the Chishan Association.

At this time, White Hoof Ridge camp had already erected palisade walls along the inner sides of the north and south channels and at the ridge opening position, enclosing this narrow strip of land on White Hoof Ridge’s eastern slope—two li long north to south, over four hundred paces wide east to west—all as the Chishan Association’s camp.

However, the palisade walls weren’t particularly high—only a bit over one person’s height. Scattered trees inside and outside hadn’t been cleared but were deliberately preserved. Unless walking close by, standing far away it was difficult to discover the palisade walls’ existence.

Besides White Hoof Ridge here, along the way Yin Peng also saw small-scale refugee camps to the south and southwest, each with very tight security. Obviously the Chishan Association was using peripheral small-scale refugee camps as watchtowers and blockade lines, preventing Imperial Guard and Anning Palace informants and agents from directly infiltrating to White Hoof Ridge to see what was really there.

The Chishan Association was dragging out as long as possible the time before the White Hoof Ridge core camp was discovered—obviously wanting to transport over as many personnel and supplies as possible before the court and Imperial Guards strengthened supervision and blockades.

Crossing the drawbridge into the camp, he could also see in the lakeshore marsh fields, reeds near the lake had been cleared, with a row of waist-high wooden stakes driven in the perimeter. This prevented boats from directly approaching the camp from the outer lake when water levels rose.

Of course, besides the trestle wharf, in such a short time, near the southern palisade wall they had already built a simple small-scale shipyard, with four small black-canopy oar boats about to be completed and launched.

Though without long-term cellar storage and air-drying, directly using new materials to build boats—after launching, the planks would easily deform and leak. But in the short term, to build a batch of fishing boats to catch fish and shrimp nearby, there weren’t so many particulars. As merchant ships or warships for medium to long-distance transport—this approach definitely wouldn’t work.

Of course, if they truly needed three to five sturdy cargo merchant ships or warships here, Yin Peng believed the Chishan Association with Xuzhou’s backing would have ways to obtain them.

Conversely, for the Chishan Association to establish themselves here, the quantity of small fishing boats needed to catch fish and shrimp in Fanliang Lake and nearby streams and rivers was extremely large—possibly one to two hundred boats wouldn’t be nearly enough. There was no way to directly transfer them in large scale from elsewhere—they could only organize construction at the camp.

Seeing fields inside and outside the camp had also been cultivated, but no matter what, two to three thousand mu scale of new fields, even if all planted with grain, even waiting until harvest, would still be far from sufficient to maintain the daily consumption of the two thousand people already in the camp at this time.

Secretly estimating the population gathered at peripheral camps again, the Chishan Association had already gathered about three thousand people nearby in a short time. Yin Peng was secretly shocked—just didn’t know how many were refugee forces incorporated from nearby, how many were former Left Guangde Army subordinates transferred from Guangde Prefecture.

“Commandant Yin, thank you for making this trip…” Feng Yi walked out of the courtyard to welcome Yin Peng and accompanying personnel.

“Marquis Qianyang has been staying at White Hoof Ridge all along?” Yin Peng didn’t know beforehand who he would meet with for discussions after coming over. He had thought that after that meeting at Zhuyu Bay, Han Qian should have already returned to Xuzhou and wouldn’t be continuously taking risks remaining in Jianghuai.

Seeing Feng Yi, he then understood he had been wrong from beginning to end. He secretly felt that Chuzhou personally directing personnel to attack White Hoof Ridge camp and suffering such great frustration—it wasn’t unjust.

Walking into the council hall converted from an ancestral hall, Han Qian stood before a newly drawn map, calculating with Xi Ren the engineering quantity for subsequently dredging the Qingjin Ferry lateral channel.

The river flowing north through Qingjin Ferry, after subsequent confirmation, was the Shanglin River that directly connected to the southern lake marshes of Hongze Lake.

During the early and middle periods of the previous dynasty, Shiliang County organized labor forces and directly dug a seven to eight li long lateral channel right next to northern Qingjin Ferry, connecting the Shanglin River with Fanliang Lake on the east side of White Hoof Ridge, giving Fanliang Lake and Hongze Lake one more connecting waterway within Shiliang County territory.

However, in the late previous dynasty, with heroes contending for supremacy in Jianghuai, water conservancy fell into disrepair for years. After Great Chu’s founding, the prefectures and counties of Huainan were viewed as buffer zones between Liang and Chu. After several floods overflowed—the lateral channel had long since become clogged. The connecting waterway between Fanliang Lake and Hongze Lake in Shiliang County was thus cut off.

Whether connecting Fanliang Lake and Hongze Lake, facilitating farm irrigation, or more greatly dredging and draining floodwaters coming from upstream of the Shanglin River—this lateral channel’s function was extremely important.

Even if some matters couldn’t immediately be started at this time, Han Qian still hoped to help Han Donghu and Su Lie determine later work plans first.

With the lateral channel having previous foundations, the clogged places were mainly at both ends. Therefore, wanting to re-dig and dredge would be relatively much easier.

Once the lateral channel was dug through, Qingjin Ferry’s strategic position would be even more prominent, not even below White Hoof Ridge.

After all, the lakeside area on White Hoof Ridge’s eastern side was too narrow and couldn’t possibly control boats sailing into Fanliang Lake’s one hundred forty to fifty li depth.

In comparison, after the lateral channel was dug through, Qingjin Ferry would be an even more important strategic node.

Han Qian put down the charcoal pencil, setting it on the map, and turned to look at Yin Peng: “This time does His Highness Prince Xin have a definite answer? He won’t pull any more tricks like night raids on White Hoof Ridge?”

Yin Peng smiled awkwardly. Huaidong couldn’t make up its mind to tear apart its face and part ways completely with Xuzhou, yet playing these petty tricks only to get beaten black and blue—he was also quite speechless.

Even having Yangzhou preside over such matters wouldn’t have made things so embarrassing.

“The Chishan Association secretly establishing itself in Shiliang County poses the worry of raising a tiger that invites disaster for Huaidong, yet has no visible benefits,” Yin Peng collected his embarrassed expression and, according to the talking points he and Wang Wenqian had agreed upon, said solemnly. “That Huaidong can turn a blind eye is already enough consideration for Marquis Qianyang. But for the Chishan Association to want to borrow the Hangou Canal to transport supplies and personnel through Yangzhou territory—isn’t this being too demanding?”

Very obviously, after Li Zhigao recovered Chaozhou, the situation would be unfavorable for Huaidong. But Huaidong couldn’t possibly because of this, or because of Han Qian’s threats, not only tolerate the Chishan Association establishing itself on Fanliang Lake’s western shore but also condone Chishan Association boats borrowing passage through Yangzhou territory.

If that were truly the case, would Prince Xin want any face at all?

“Doesn’t Huaidong, controlling territory in Haizhou that reaches the sea, truly want to know if the new salt-drying method I spoke of is real or fake?” Han Qian stared at Yin Peng and asked.

The Huaidong Salt Fields directly under the Salt and Iron Bureau’s jurisdiction were located on the vast coastal tidal flats between the Jianghuai estuary. But currently, over half of Haizhou territory north of the Huai River estuary was still under Huaidong Kingdom’s control.

Haizhou’s eastern region also reached the sea.

Part of the salt consumed within Huaidong was obtained by secretly organizing personnel on eastern Haizhou’s tidal flats to boil seawater.

However, boiling seawater to make salt wasn’t an easy matter.

The Salt and Iron Bureau’s Huaidong Salt Fields employed over forty thousand households—nearly three hundred thousand salt-making families—with three thousand salt soldiers and over a thousand salt officials large and small, only maintaining annual production of over one million dan of sea salt from the Huaidong Salt Fields.

Haizhou had always been impoverished land, with three counties. During the previous dynasty’s prosperous times, its population was only one hundred forty to fifty thousand.

By the middle and late previous dynasty and through the Liang-Chu struggle across the Huai River’s two banks, although Haizhou was located at the edge of the eastern main battlefield, battles large and small continued constantly. Large numbers of population either died or fled, with vast tracts of fields abandoned.

Currently, the area under Huaidong’s direct control in Haizhou, besides garrison troops, had a population of only two thousand-plus households.

Even not considering that Liang forces might infiltrate and attack at any time, even not considering the Salt and Iron Bureau’s supervision, how many personnel could Huaidong organize on the coastal tidal flats north of the Huai River estuary to extract seawater for boiling to make salt?

If truly following the Huaidong Salt Fields’ salt-boiling efficiency, Huaidong would need to organize at least four thousand-plus households—nearly thirty thousand salt-making people—on eastern Haizhou’s tidal flats to harvest firewood and boil seawater to make salt to satisfy the salt needs of Huaidong’s over one million military, civilians, and livestock.

In fact, Huaidong’s secret salt-making scale on eastern Haizhou’s tidal flats only produced seven to eight thousand dan annually—not even one-tenth of Huaidong’s needs. What was truly needed mainly still took advantage of gaps in the Salt and Iron Bureau’s supervision, using convenient proximity to directly dispatch people to collude with salt-making households or salt field clerks to directly traffic in illicit salt into the territory.

This also ensured Huaidong Vassal Kingdom internally could obtain over three hundred thousand strings of salt profit annually.

That Huaidong could currently maintain one hundred twenty thousand troops mainly still relied on plunder of Chang and Run prefectures during the Jinling Incident. But one-time plunder couldn’t sustain long-term.

Military consumption was extremely huge—not only soldiers’ provisions, constructing garrison barracks, forging weapons and war equipment, raising livestock and horses, preparing four sets of military uniforms per person for summer and winter annually—a total of four hundred eighty thousand uniforms for the entire army, seasonal rewards and gifts—just speaking of these was an astronomical sum.

Huaidong maintaining one hundred twenty thousand troops’ military preparations consumed over half the wealth plundered from Chang, Run, and other prefectures in just one year.

Next, without even the court applying pressure, Huaidong itself planned to reduce standing forces to sixty thousand, removing sixty thousand troops to organize as garrison soldiers for collective land cultivation to compensate for insufficient military needs.

Even so, Huaidong’s fiscal expenditures couldn’t do without annual salt profit income as high as three hundred thousand strings.

So no matter what, Huaidong had to think of every method to weaken the Salt and Iron Bureau’s control over Huaidong Salt Fields, to obstruct the court from conducting fundamental reform and transformation on salt matters.

As for whether the new salt-drying method Han Qian spoke of was real or fake, when Yin Peng went to Chuzhou to report the matter, Ruan Yan and others also didn’t dare rashly conclude it was fake.

“…” Han Qian pulled a small booklet from the desk, handed it to Yin Peng, and said: “The Hedong Salt Pool has used drying methods to make salt for hundreds of years, but the coast doesn’t use it. It’s not that there weren’t attempts before—actually compared to boiling salt, drying salt by the sea just wasn’t seen as advantageous. I had people collect salt books from hundreds of years, carefully distinguished the advantages and disadvantages of various methods. On coastal tidal flats, salt field seepage, tidal invasion, brine turbidity, storms and rain—all are disadvantages. Some drawbacks are difficult to overcome, but some are easy to overcome. Thus I formulated methods for constructing salt field dams and pools, testing salinity, channeling and irrigating, filtering brine—all in this small booklet. However, the new method hasn’t undergone large-scale testing yet and perhaps has great room for improvement. But doesn’t Huaidong want to take this method first to Haizhou to verify it? I believe it’s always better than testing at Huaidong Salt Fields. Commandant Yin, what do you say?”

Yin Peng stared at the small booklet Han Qian handed over. He didn’t believe Han Qian would truly let Huaidong easily obtain this new salt-drying method.

Han Qian stuffed the small booklet into Yin Peng’s hands and said: “My conditions are very simple. In a few more days, Xuzhou will have two merchant ships dock at Yangzhou. At that time, please ask Lord Wang and Commandant Yin to be magnanimous…”

As a vassal prefecture, for merchants from Xuzhou to enter Great Chu’s heartland, after taxation and purchasing, they also needed to go to designated areas for trading.

Xuzhou merchant ships theoretically could enter Chuzhou, but under the Salt and Iron Bureau’s supervision, they obviously couldn’t trade with refugee forces in northeastern Chuzhou. Yangzhou territory belonging to Huaidong was the blind spot the Salt and Iron Bureau couldn’t supervise.

For the Chishan Association to establish itself on Fanliang Lake’s western shore and maintain contact with the outside while obtaining different supplies, the most stable passage was also Yangzhou…

Han Qian at this time didn’t raise higher demands. Yin Peng could take the new salt-drying method away to verify first, but at this time he had to allow Xuzhou’s two ships of supplies to sail through Yangzhou into White Hoof Ridge.