Aoshan Island could be said to be the remnants of Baohua Mountain extending into the river. In the early years of the previous dynasty, the river island was narrow, merely several dozen zhang in circumference, rising six or seven zhang above the water, with its mountain shape resembling a giant turtle, hence the name Aoshan. Over the following century-plus, as the river changed course and sediment accumulated, it has gradually expanded into a sandy island measuring three to four li in circumference when water levels are high, and seven to eight li when water levels are low.
The river’s water level rises and falls with the seasons. Without artificial modification—building embankments around the island to stabilize it—Aoshan Island had limited habitable and arable land. Combined with the vast expanse of the river north of Jinling and the constant movement of river bandits and lake pirates, aside from spring and autumn when riverside residents would cross to the island to farm or gather firewood, no households permanently resided on the island.
In late September of the third year of Yanyou, a contingent of soldiers led three to four hundred laborers to land on Aoshan Island. Thereafter, cargo ships would dock every few days, transporting large quantities of construction materials such as lime, bricks, stone, and timber onto the island to build military camps and dwellings.
Aoshan Island was modest in scale, facing across the river from Tangyi, the capital region, and Yangzhou, and fell under the jurisdiction of Runzhou to the southeast.
The Right Longwu Army had relocated to Runzhou. At this time, using the excuse that small units of Shouzhou troops had slipped through the gap between the Tangyi and Yangzhou defense lines to probe the northern bank of the Yangtze and spy on the south, they were constructing fortifications, watchtowers, and a small dock on Aoshan Island, stationing a small number of alert troops there—this was entirely aboveboard and beyond reproach.
In early October, the northern winds blew southward and the world gradually grew cold.
Compared to previous years, this year, influenced by the turmoil in the Jin Kingdom to the north, Liang forces had massively concentrated in regions north of the Yellow River, making the Huai River line relatively calm.
Worried that the streams and rivers along the Huai River could freeze at any moment, the Liang navy’s deployments had greatly weakened. Since the Liang army showed no signs of massive cavalry concentrations, all this meant that during this winter season, the generals in Jinling could worry less about the northern front.
Several warships sailed from the Qiupu River into the Yangtze, proceeding along the current toward Aoshan Island, docking in the afternoon at the simple pier constructed with several rows of fir wood planks on the island’s southern side.
Yang Zhitang climbed onto the pier, surrounded by a cluster of military officers, ascending the seven to eight zhang high hill on Aoshan Island’s southern side to gaze in all directions.
Choosing to build a naval base here was Han Qian’s mandatory requirement—there was no choice—but standing on the island and looking far into the distance, one could even faintly see the mouth where the Hangou Canal entered the Yangtze. This was undoubtedly a strategic location from which to observe both Yangzhou and Tangyi.
The southeastern side of Aoshan Island jutted into the river with steep terrain, minimally affected by sediment accumulation in the middle, while on either side extended deposited sand embankments—ideal conditions for constructing harbor docks.
Although personnel had been organized to land on the island for less than twenty days and only some simple barracks existed, beyond the pier lay piles of construction materials that had not yet been transformed into solid protective walls and barracks.
“Your Highness, these should be Feng Liao and Han Daochang coming from Tangyi,” an attendant approached, pointing to several sailing ships in the northwestern direction and speaking to Yang Zhitang.
A moment later, Yang Zhitang could also clearly see the shapes of those sailing ships. The two large vessels in front were precisely the oared war sailing ships that served as the main warships of the Tangyi navy on the Yangtze. Apart from the necessary sail-controlling sailors, the ships carried only a small number of guard troops.
Seeing this scene, Yang Zhitang’s heart eased.
As agreed, when Yang Zhitang requested imperial permission to inspect military conditions in Yangzhou—actually the day he formally undertook his matchmaking responsibilities and set off—would be when Tangyi transferred the first batch of warships.
With these two oared war sailing ships, each capable of accommodating up to three hundred soldiers and two hundred sailors for combat operations, the Longwu Navy could be considered to have some scale.
Never mind the rumors circulating—just the Right Longwu Army sending people to land on Aoshan Island and undertake major construction was enough for the capital’s generals to discern the signs.
However, even if they saw that Prince Shou Yang Zhitang intended to first build a naval base and harbor dock on Aoshan Island, in many people’s eyes, as long as Yang Zhitang, born of the imperial clan, supported the court, no matter how close the Prince Shou’s household currently was with Huaidong and the Marquis of Qianyang, building a naval fortress on Aoshan Island would be beneficial to the court in the long run.
Otherwise, not to mention the Liang army—if the Huaidong forces or Tangyi troops one day harbored different intentions and crossed south from the northern bank, landing on either side of Jinling city, there would be no defense on the Yangtze.
As for whether to rebuild the Great Chu navy or, as a temporary expedient, first establish a naval unit under the Right Longwu Army’s banner, in many people’s minds the difference was not great.
Of course, even though Yang Zhitang controlled the Privy Council, under the central government’s severely straitened financial circumstances, it was impossible to allocate additional military funds to the Right Longwu Army.
Allocate grain and money from the Inner Court?
That was even more of a pipe dream.
Moreover, because the Right Longwu Army had not previously undertaken heavy combat duties, the military funds it had received, when distributed per soldier, were actually lower by a significant margin than those of the Huaixi Forbidden Army and Tangyi troops.
Therefore, even just for the preliminary construction of the fortress on Aoshan Island, or the naval base and harbor dock, with the Right Longwu Army’s current military funds insufficient, the Prince Shou’s household would first need to provide money and grain from its own coffers.
Fortunately, Yang Zhitang had served as Prince of Yuzhang and concurrently as Governor of Hongzhou for many years, with deeply established roots in Hongzhou and Yuanzhou. Even though he couldn’t compare with deeply entrenched clans like the Feng and Han families, raising five to six hundred thousand strings of cash worth of grain and money in the initial stages posed no problem.
Of course, even without support from Xuzhou and the court, the Prince Shou’s household was not without means to control naval forces.
The Zhennan Military Commissioner established in the previous dynasty once administered the counties along the Gan River and Poyang Lake (present-day Jiangxi Province in its entirety). Hongzhou, as its administrative seat, located on the southwestern side of the vast and misty Poyang Lake, had always been a major water and land garrison for the Gan River and Poyang Lake water system.
After Great Chu’s founding, the Zhennan Military Commissioner was abolished and Hongzhou’s status was intentionally weakened, but to combat and guard against Poyang Lake bandits, Hongzhou’s local provincial troops also maintained a navy of over a thousand men.
When Yang Zhitang cited the increasingly severe enemy invasion situation along the river and coast east of Runzhou and requested permission to transfer Hongzhou’s naval camp to Aoshan Island to defend the capital region, how could the court officials refuse?
The problem was that Hongzhou’s naval camp was limited in scale. Transferring half the troops would yield only six hundred-plus men and twenty-plus large-winged boats and assault combat vessels.
Hongzhou’s naval camp’s main task had always been combating lake bandits and water pirates. The soldiers’ combat effectiveness wasn’t strong enough, and the warships weren’t solid enough to contend with the Liang navy in deep, wide waters, nor could they independently guard the river and coastal defense lines east of Runzhou—this was why they had no choice but to cooperate with Xuzhou.
When the main naval force was annihilated at Hongze Lake, with the Jianghuai situation so perilous at the time, Hongzhou’s naval camp didn’t rush to the king’s aid, and this was the reason.
Otherwise, how could there possibly be problems assembling twenty to thirty thousand men for a navy just from local provincial troops around Taihu Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and the counties along the river?
Of course, for the Prince Shou’s household, the first and most difficult problem to solve was still warships.
The Liang army’s newly established Right Fleet Army navy at Haizhou had summoned shipwrights and timber from various counties throughout the Liang Kingdom, along with large numbers of Jianghuai sailors and shipwrights coerced north by the Anning Palace.
While Hongzhou, within Prince Shou’s sphere of influence, also had two shipyards—one even operated by the Prince Shou’s household itself—they had long focused on building small to medium vessels for navigation in Poyang Lake waters.
They had neither shipwrights experienced in building large ships nor timber suitable for constructing large ships.
This timber typically had to be felled from deep mountain forests, then air-dried for two to three years before it could be used for shipbuilding. Otherwise, ships would crack and deform shortly after entering the water, unable to withstand large waves, let alone venture out to the Yangtze estuary to engage the enemy.
The several shipyards in Jianghuai previously capable of building thousand-dan large ships were all concentrated in Jinling, Runzhou, and Chaozhou.
After the Jinling incident, the shipyards in these three locations were all destroyed. The stored timber was either burned or transported away, and the sailors and shipwrights were all coerced into fleeing north, becoming the shipbuilding force for the Liang navy.
Besides this, only the shipyard that Gao Chengyuan had established in Yueyang years ago had stockpiled a batch of timber suitable for building large ships, which could now be put to use.
The problem was that this shipyard was directly administered by the Hunan Pacification Commission. What confidence did Yang Zhitang have that he could compete with the court for warships built by the Yueyang shipyard, or directly demand the seasoned timber stockpiled for three years and skilled shipwrights under his own name?
It must be known that Huang Hua, Chen Fan, and others were all representatives of the Jiangdong aristocratic clans. They most strongly opposed the Prince Shou’s household extending its reach too far into the Jiangdong counties.
As main warships of the Tangyi navy, the oared war sailing ships had narrow, shuttle-like hull shapes. Under full sail, even to the naked eye their speed was clearly far superior to ordinary hard-rigged sailing ships.
Drawing near, the cast-iron ram at the bow resembled a beast lurking just beneath the water’s surface.
During the Jinling incident, when the Lanting Lane group used Xuzhou warships to assault the Donghua Gate water gate, although the hull sustained severe damage and had to be abandoned midway, they tore open iron grilles as thick as a man’s arm and even collapsed a section of the solid water gate wall—an exceptionally vivid impression.
At that time, many warships of the Five-Tooth Army were built by Xuzhou.
Although most of these warships had sunk at Hongze Lake, afterward the Liang army conscripted large numbers of laborers and vessels to tow all the Xuzhou-built sunken ships to Haizhou, even those whose hulls had been burned through by fire, demonstrating how much Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang valued the excellence of Xuzhou warships.
Yang Zhitang had heard from intelligence agents of the Directorate of Operations that initially, more than ten warships of the Liang navy at Haizhou were directly modified using the frames of sunken Xuzhou vessels.
Long anticipated, seeing the war sailing ships approaching the pier, Yang Zhitang could not wait to board and meet with Feng Liao and Han Daochang.
Since these two ships were to be directly transferred, Feng Liao and his party had brought fewer than sixty guards and sailors.
Seeing Yang Zhitang so eager, Feng Liao simply ordered the guards and sailors to withdraw and let Prince Shou’s personnel take over both ships.
When engaging the enemy, to avoid fire attacks and facilitate weapon handling, the sixteen massive sails on three masts would all be lowered, with the ship propelled forward by sixty large oars on upper and lower decks rowing together. The side rails and deck atop the cabins held a total of thirty bed crossbows and scorpion catapults, all with ranges of two hundred fifty paces.
Without the long pole rams used by Five-Tooth warships (tower ships), unable to destroy enemy vessels with long-range attacks, Han Qian also strongly advocated avoiding boarding combat, instead using the solid hull to directly push and ram aside encircling enemy ships.
The war sailing ships had sixteen watertight compartments inside. Minor hull damage was no great matter. As long as the overall structure remained solid and didn’t deform, the war sailing ship could maintain its proper combat effectiveness and hold out until battle’s end.
Besides enhanced fire prevention, the ships also had specialized water-drawing fire-extinguishing equipment. When facing enemy fire attacks, this was far more efficient than soldiers and sailors frantically using wooden buckets to haul water and douse fires.
Feng Liao would leave several military officers and sailors behind to provide detailed guidance to Prince Shou’s personnel on how to operate these two ships. At this moment, they first demonstrated once for Yang Zhitang, then asked with a smile, “The bare ship is priced at twenty thousand strings. Including various ship weapons and a set of replacement parts, the total is forty thousand strings. Two ships together cost eighty thousand strings—within three months, aside from human error or capsizing due to wind and waves, Xuzhou will repair any damage at no charge; within one month, if Your Highness finds anything unsatisfactory, Xuzhou can also accept returns—I wonder if Your Highness is satisfied?”
What objections could Yang Zhitang raise?
Setting aside everything else, just the four iron anchors at bow and stern, each weighing three to four thousand jin, were beyond what Hongzhou could cast.
With these four iron anchors, such a large hull could be stably moored directly in the deep water at river’s center, without worrying about being unable to find even a large tree on shore for mooring.
It was precisely because they lacked such iron anchors capable of gripping the river bottom’s silt that the thousand-dan large ships built in Jianghuai were all shallow-bottomed, flat-bottomed designs, allowing them to beach directly on shallows for mooring. The Five-Tooth warships were the same, unable to construct pointed-bottom vessels.
However, pointed-bottom warships of equivalent scale, even when propelled by large oars, had significantly faster speeds than flat-bottomed warships.
As a veteran general who had followed Emperor Tianyou in campaigns north and south, how could Yang Zhitang not know the importance of speed in combat between opposing forces?
At least currently, at least for large warships, Xuzhou had an irreplaceable advantage simply by being able to cast such massive iron anchors.
The large and medium refined iron components used inside the hull to reinforce structural strength also had to be cast in single pieces—currently, only Xuzhou seemed capable of this.
Truthfully, in the upcoming defensive operations along the river and coast, Yang Zhitang wouldn’t be willing to commit these two warships to battle. He would mainly use small and medium warships as expendable assets to counter the Liang navy in relatively shallow and narrow inland waterways.
However, without several impressive large oared war sailing ships, the Longwu Navy would lack prestige, let alone deter the Liang navy from directly entering the Yangtze waterway east of Runzhou. Speaking of which, during the Great Chu navy’s tower ship era, the Five-Tooth tower ships they had devoted themselves to building had far less practical utility than large oared war sailing ships—yet didn’t they still have to grit their teeth and build them?
At this moment, Ji Xiyao, accompanied by a dozen people, walked over from the other side of Aoshan Island to meet with Prince Shou Yang Zhitang, Feng Liao, Han Daochang, and others.
Ji Xiyao had been on Aoshan Island these past few days, providing detailed guidance and suggestions for constructing the naval base, harbor dock, and repair yard here.
Prince Shou’s household had countless capable artisans and craftsmen. Whether the warships provided by Tangyi or the suggestions put forward by Ji Xiyao harbored any ill intent was not difficult to discern.
This was Yang Zhitang’s first time meeting Ji Xiyao, but every suggestion Ji Xiyao had made during his days on the island had been reported to him immediately.
He had also asked Liu Chengsi to have the household’s craftsmen carefully evaluate them, only to discover that every suggestion Ji Xiyao made had ingenious aspects that the household’s craftsmen had either overlooked or never even conceived. It was hard to imagine that this dark, thin youth before him, who appeared barely thirty years old, possessed engineering and construction skills comparable to those of the late Marquis of Liyang, Yang En. Moreover, it was this person who had originally presided over the Xuzhou shipyard—who knew where Han Qian had recruited such a talent.
Of course, Ji Xiyao hadn’t come to provide free guidance—he strongly hoped that when Prince Shou’s household constructed Aoshan Island, they would purchase lime, bricks, stone, timber, and other construction materials from Tangyi.
Prince Shou’s household in Hongzhou owned large numbers of cheap slaves who could fire lime, bricks, and fell timber, but transporting from Hongzhou over a thousand li would involve substantial shipping costs. If they wanted to purchase locally from kilns controlled by aristocratic clans in Runzhou and elsewhere, prices would be significantly higher than in Tangyi.
Tangyi even provided a paste called “stone mortar” which, when mixed with lime for masonry, once dried achieved solidity comparable to lime mixed with boiled glutinous rice paste, but at a price lower than boiled glutinous rice paste.
In short, Han Qian wanted to provide the Right Longwu Army’s new naval unit with the most considerate and thorough service possible. Bills could even be deferred, as long as Prince Shou’s household agreed to allow Chishan Association merchant vessels unrestricted access to county towns and wharves in Hongzhou first—Hongzhou being Prince Shou’s traditional sphere of influence, where not only hundreds of thousands of mu of princely estate farmland were located, but Yang Zhitang currently also held the title of Hongzhou Governor.
Everyone hoped to build a more solid foundation. Moreover, what Tangyi provided was truly excellent and reasonably priced—could they possibly reject the superior for the inferior, the cheap for the expensive?
As for Tangyi’s repeated requests to lift trade restrictions, Yang Zhitang didn’t believe that after lifting restrictions, Xuzhou and Tangyi combined—with just fourteen counties and four hundred thousand adult males—could export that much goods.
Seeing the time was about right, Yang Zhitang, Feng Liao, Han Daochang, and others boarded ships heading toward the Hangou Canal mouth, hoping to reach Yangzhou city and meet with Wang Wenqian before dark.
***
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Wang Wenqian had also led Yangzhou’s military officials to respectfully await at the western city’s outer ferry dock since afternoon.
Yang Zhitang, as Privy Council Minister and Prince Shou, was ostensibly coming to inspect Yangzhou’s defenses by imperial order.
Besides Wang Wenqian, Yangzhou Field Command Chief Marshal Zhao Zhen, Prefecture Vice-Governor Yin Peng, Chief Administrator Xu Zhi, and other military officials were all gathered beneath the newly erected colorful canopy at the ferry.
However, by this time, news that Prince Shou had been entrusted to come to Yangzhou as matchmaker to present betrothal gifts had already spread throughout Jinling, Yangzhou, and other places.
Watching Prince Shou Yang Zhitang’s fleet slowly approaching, Yin Peng thought to himself that this marriage matter had been dragged back and forth for so many years. Probably only someone of Yang Zhitang’s stature coming forward as matchmaker could preserve some face for the Wang family—otherwise, the Wang clan’s uncles would be completely at odds with each other.
Feng Liao and Han Daochang accompanied Yang Zhitang to shore, meeting with Yangzhou’s military officials headed by Wang Wenqian. Official business had to be discussed before matchmaking matters.
At this time, another accompanying merchant vessel docked at the pier’s northern side. The ship carried thirty-two chests of betrothal gifts, which would be received by another Wang family elder and carried directly along the western city wall’s embankment road to the Jian Garden on Shugang Hill.
There wasn’t much to say about Yangzhou’s defenses.
After autumn, Tangyi troops had intensified raids on enemy-occupied zones in Chao and Chu north of the Shu River, with forces frequently deployed to tie down the main attention of Shouzhou’s southern line forces.
The defenses north of Fanyang Lake, including the Dongyang County territory, all fell under Chuzhou’s jurisdiction.
Yangzhou faced minimal military pressure. At the beginning of the year, the Yangzhou Field Command had stationed thirty thousand troops. By this time, besides ten thousand soldiers already converted to garrison farmers, they had also recruited over two thousand disaster-stricken refugee households. Using funds borrowed from Tangyi, purchasing seeds, farm tools, livestock, and provisions, along the Hangou Canal’s western bank and Lake Shaobo’s western shore, they had built lake embankments, garrison camps, and dug canals wherever space allowed, opening up over a hundred thousand mu of grain fields.
Yangzhou’s western wing defense line had not only not weakened but had been greatly strengthened.
Apart from the Huai River banks suffering Liang army raids, because the salt field guards were weak, the Huaidong salt fields were extremely vulnerable to Liang navy penetration. Huaidong currently had no choice but to strengthen defenses on Chuzhou’s eastern line and within Taizhou territory, making military funding even more difficult. Existing grain stores could last another two months before falling into a crisis between harvests.
The group passed through streets and alleys, surrounded by attendants in bright armor, riding horses to enter the Governor’s Office hall. After receiving Yangzhou’s military officials, most mid-level officers withdrew, leaving only Yang Zhitang, Liu Chengsi, Feng Liao, Han Daochang, Wang Wenqian, Zhao Zhen, Yin Peng, Xu Zhi, and others in the hall.
Regarding the conditions offered by Tangyi and Prince Shou’s household, Huaidong still had no way to overturn them.
Tangyi was providing extremely cheap loans of twenty thousand dan of grain monthly. Prince Shou Yang Zhitang would do his utmost in court to secure more aid for Huaidong. The only requirements were that Yang and Tai prefectures lift trade restrictions on Chishan Association, and open the Hailing River east of Taizhou to the Right Longwu Army, so that the Right Longwu Army’s newly formed naval unit could participate in coastal defense north of the Yangtze through the Hailing River from Huaidong salt fields’ western flank…
Dispersing some refugees and disaster victims for settlement in Tangyi also relieved pressure on Huaidong’s relief efforts.
What Wang Wenqian and Zhao Zhen, representing Huaidong, could strive for was only to further increase the loan scale, hoping to subsequently obtain credit for Xuzhou’s armor, weapons, warships, and other military supplies.
Since Huaidong was raising its demands, Feng Liao, representing Tangyi, also bluntly demanded that Huaidong drastically reduce troops stationed on Yangzhou’s western wing, requiring Huaidong to deploy more forces west of Fanliang Lake to probe enemy forces stationed in Shiliang County from between Fanliang Lake and Hongze Lake, actively engaging the enemy in combat.
This would not only more practically increase military pressure on Chuzhou’s enemy forces, but also reduce the military threat to Tangyi’s eastern flank from Huaidong.
Han Qian wasn’t so naive as to think that just because everyone was now allied through marriage, Huaidong would never suddenly turn hostile and attack Tangyi from the eastern flank.
Demanding that Huaidong continue drastically reducing defense troops on Yangzhou’s western wing meant that if Huaidong ever wanted to turn hostile, their concentration of forces on Yangzhou’s western wing would require time—this would give Tangyi sufficient time to adjust troop deployments.
Yang Zhitang absolutely supported Feng Liao’s suggestion.
Currently, the Right Longwu Army was stationed in Runzhou, facing Yangzhou across the river. If Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan had any trust in him, he should reduce Yangzhou’s garrison.
This could actually further relieve pressure within Huaidong.
Whether ten thousand-plus elite troops were left idle on Yangzhou’s western wing defense line or deployed north to intensify counter-raiding operations against Liang forces made an enormous difference. If forces on the Chuzhou line were already sufficient, converting ten thousand-plus elite troops to garrison status would mean annual military expenditures could differ by two to three hundred thousand dan of grain.
Everything discussed here was immediately reported by fast messengers to Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan, currently headquartered in Dongyang.
Feng Liao and Han Daochang first accompanied Prince Shou Yang Zhitang to settle in at the hostel. At dawn they could faintly hear people coming and going in Yang Zhitang’s courtyard. Feng Liao paid no attention. Waiting until noon the next day, they all proceeded together to the Governor’s Office to discuss matters. It seemed that only then did Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan’s reply arrive—they could continue withdrawing part of Yangzhou’s garrison, but demanded that before next summer’s grain harvest, the loaned grain increase to fifty thousand dan monthly.
Feng Liao’s position was simple: the Han family was drained dry. Providing thirty thousand dan of grain monthly was the absolute limit. For the excess, if Prince Shou Yang Zhitang could find a way, they wouldn’t obstruct him.