Li Zhigao in Shuzhou submitted a memorial requesting permission to detach a portion of troops to relocate to Suizhou. Feng Liao, along with Han Daoming and Han Daochang, speculated that there must be some behind-the-scenes deal between the Evening Red Pavilion and the Zheng clan, for the Zheng clan to possibly agree to allow the northeastern heartland of Jing-Xiang, located north of E and Huang prefectures, to fall into the hands of the Huaixi Imperial Guards.
Tangyi was currently on excellent terms with Huaidong and Prince Shou’s mansion, and had no intention of disrupting the arrangement between the Evening Red Pavilion and the Zheng clan. However, Feng Liao, Han Daoming, and the others felt this presented an excellent opportunity to fish in troubled waters, allowing them to take advantage and achieve goals such as incorporating cotton cloth and cotton wadding into the autumn tribute.
Feng Liao also dispatched someone overnight carrying a copy of the Shuzhou memorial to cross the river and rush to East Lake to deliver it to Han Qian’s hands, and Han Qian’s reply was sent back to Jinling City before nightfall the next day.
“To Grandfather and all the gentlemen above, may these words find you well. I have learned of the matter concerning the Shuzhou memorial and have given it thought. I believe we should not view this matter as an exploitable opportunity to seek our own advantage, and thus I have drafted this letter for all gentlemen to review. Even without considering the Great Chu state and its people, the Shouzhou army is currently the only major enemy of Tangyi’s troops, and we should exhaust every means and unite all available forces to weaken and strike at them. If the Left Militant Guard Army or the Left Vermillion Bird Army can detach a portion to relocate to Suizhou, monitoring the Shouzhou army from the mountain passes between Huaiyang Mountain and Tongbai Mountain, it will certainly exert tremendous pressure on the Shouzhou army, and we should not muddy this with other considerations but should spare no effort in supporting it. Although Marquis Xinjin’s proposal may contain thoughts of supporting allies and attacking dissidents while establishing his own foundation, and though the court hall will surely have its disputes among various princes and high ministers, the gentlemen should loudly proclaim in court that the standards by which court officials should view matters ought to examine whether they benefit the Great Chu state and its people, rather than various speculations about people’s hearts. If necessary, this letter may be shown to Prince Shou. I too shall submit a memorial from Tangyi requesting support for this matter…”
Han Daoming and Han Daochang were both elders, so Han Qian addressed them as gentlemen in his letter.
Upon seeing the letter Han Qian urgently dispatched someone to deliver, Han Daoming, Feng Liao, Han Daochang and the others were all quite surprised.
They had not expected that Han Qian not only disagreed with their plan to fish in troubled waters, but even wanted them to persuade Prince Shou, Yang Zhitang, and others to spare no effort in supporting the Huaixi Imperial Guards’ deployment to Suizhou, without concerning themselves with whatever secret dealings existed between Lu Qingxia, Li Zhigao, and the Zheng clan.
Of course, in the short term, having the Left Militant Guard Army or the Left Vermillion Bird Army split forces to station in Suizhou would benefit Tangyi.
First, the Huaixi Imperial Guards’ relatively ample military strength should be put to greater use, restraining a portion of the Shouzhou army from the western flank, which could effectively reduce the military pressure Tangyi faced.
Second, even from the perspective of managing Tangyi, they should hope for the left and right flanks to minimize their garrison forces as much as possible, increasingly highlighting Tangyi’s importance.
However, in the long term, a tighter alliance between the Evening Red Pavilion and the Zheng clan, with their roots planted more deeply, would be disadvantageous to them.
From this perspective, even if they did not strongly oppose it, they should fish in troubled waters and seize the opportunity to pursue some additional benefits. They could even take advantage of Emperor Yanyou’s growing coldness toward Li Zhigao and the Zheng clan to somewhat restore Emperor Yanyou’s trust.
They had not expected Han Qian’s urgent reply to be so righteously principled.
However, with Han Qian’s attitude so clearly stated, Han Daoming, Feng Liao, and Han Daochang followed his wishes and that very night took the letter to see Prince Shou Yang Zhitang, hoping Yang Zhitang would join them in quickly promoting the Huaixi Imperial Guards’ deployment to Suizhou, so that they could draw away a portion of the Shouzhou army and prevent the Shouzhou army from creating military provocations on the day of Han Qian’s wedding.
Prince Shou’s mansion was at this time sparing no effort in organizing a naval force, expanding defenses along the river and coast east of Runzhou.
Even though in the subsequent memorial from Left Divine Martial Army Commander-in-Chief Chai Jian recommending Zheng Yu’s son, Right Vermillion Bird Army Vice Commander-in-Chief Zheng Xingxuan, to succeed him as Shaozhou Regional Commander, the intention to exchange defense zones with the Zheng clan was abundantly clear, the interests affected for Prince Shou’s mansion were minimal.
Prince Shou’s mansion’s traditional sphere of influence was in Yuanzhou and Hongzhou, with no involvement in Hunan or Jing-Xiang. The old guard of the Divine Mausoleum Bureau reaching a deal with the Zheng clan to exchange their respective defense duties so both sides could more pragmatically manage their spheres of influence was something Yang Zhitang was willing to grudgingly accept at this time.
As a result, the opposing voices from Shen Yang and others became negligible. In late November, besides the Personnel Ministry transferring Zheng Xingxuan to command Shaozhou, the Bureau of Military Affairs quickly issued formal orders directing Zhou Shu to lead the Left Militant Guard Army to relocate to northern Suizhou, enabling them to emerge from Huaiyang Mountain and actively seek battle opportunities within Guangzhou and Huozhou territory.
Such rapid decision-making was mainly because internal turmoil in Jin caused the Liang army to massively concentrate on the northern front, making this winter the best opportunity for the Chu army to adjust its northern defensive deployments. Shen Yang and Yang Si did not dwell excessively on this matter.
Han Daoming’s words in the Council Hall were shocking and penetrated to the heart of the matter—if troop deployments were not adjusted at the most favorable moment, could they really drag their feet with such wrangling until the Liang army’s main forces shifted their attention back to the southern front before Great Chu deployed its troops?
It would take at least half a year for Zheng Hui’s forces and Chai Jian’s forces to complete their full defense exchange, but Zhou Shu’s commanded Left Militant Guard Army had been withdrawn to Shuzhou’s interior lines for rest during this period and bore no defensive responsibilities on the Lujiang defense line. Upon receiving the Bureau of Military Affairs’ orders, they immediately departed from Shuzhou City in batches at maximum speed.
The forces of over ten thousand troops first boarded ships in batches to proceed west along the Yangtze River, disembarking at the southern dock of Huangzhou City, then following the post road east of Huangzhou City, continuing northward until entering the territory of Yingshan and Lishan counties in eastern Suizhou.
Tongbai Mountain, in terms of terrain, belonged to the western foothill extension of Huaiyang Mountain.
East of Tongbai Mountain, between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain, the terrain was significantly influenced by major fault zones, with particularly neat mountain boundary lines. Due to water erosion, this region formed some broad river valleys and transverse mountain ridges.
This was also another major corridor connecting Jing-Xiang with Henan outside the Nanyang Basin.
The Three Passes of Northern Jing—Wusheng Pass, Pingjing Pass, and Jiuli Pass—were located in the northern mountain ranges of Yingshan County and Lishan Counties, and were essential routes for southern invasions into the northeastern heartland of Jing-Xiang via Guangzhou and Huozhou.
For a long time, because Xu Mingzhen led troops garrisoning the middle and upper reaches of the Huai River, the Three Passes of Northern Jing and the southern Yingshan and Lishan counties had all been Great Chu’s heartland, and the central government did not pay particular attention to fortification construction or defense here.
During the Jinling Incident, Suizhou was more influenced by Yueyang, so local forces organized militia and volunteers to garrison Wusheng, Pingjing, and Jiuli passes, blocking the routes through which the Shouzhou army could invade Jing-Xiang.
Of course, at that time Xu Mingzhen’s attention was completely drawn to the eastern front, and he had no inclination to invade Jing-Xiang through the Three Passes of Northern Jing and clash with Du Chongtao garrisoned in Xiangzhou or Zhang Xiang garrisoned in Jingzhou.
After the Anning Palace rebel forces were expelled from regions south of the Yangtze River, the Shouzhou army fell into prolonged food and fodder shortages for an extended period, lacking the strength to contest the Three Passes of Northern Jing and expand into Jing-Xiang territory. Subsequently, various military engagements broke out from the end of last year onward, leaving them continuously without spare capacity to look westward.
Therefore, this gap between Huaiyang Mountain and Tongbai Mountain remained primarily defended by Suizhou’s local forces and had not yet fallen under the Shouzhou army’s control.
Zhou Shu taking over defense duties for Yingshan County, Lishan County, and the Three Passes of Northern Jing would enable him to use Tongbai Mountain as a base to look north toward Guangzhou and Huozhou—the significance was extraordinary.
With movement in Shuzhou, the Shouzhou army was forced to make corresponding adjustments. Large contingents of troops almost simultaneously concentrated at maximum speed toward cities and fortifications north of Wusheng Pass, Jiuli Pass, and Pingjing Pass, preventing the Left Militant Guard Army from taking advantage of the winter to attack Guangzhou and Huozhou.
Guangzhou and Huozhou were currently regions where the Shouzhou army maintained relatively good agricultural production, and were also the Shouzhou army’s lifeline…
…
…
Time flew swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, it was the twelfth month, the final month of the third year of Yanyou.
On the fourth day of the twelfth month, with less than four days remaining until Han Qian and Wang Jun’s wedding, broken snow drifted down from the leaden sky as a sailing vessel traveled north up the Yuxi River.
The river channel spanning over ten li between Rusu Mountain and Qibao Mountain, after nearly a year of repeated dredging and silt removal, could now allow thousand-dan sharp-bottomed vessels to pass through the main navigation channel at Rusu Mouth into Chao Lake without obstruction, even though it was now the depths of winter in the twelfth month when Chao Lake’s water level was at its lowest point of the year.
Besides river dredging, the embankment post roads on both banks of Rusu Mouth had also been completed, with some newly constructed compound-style garrison villages established. On the riverbanks, over a thousand able-bodied men and women were taking advantage of the low shallow water to shoulder and carry baskets, excavating river mud and transporting it to the great embankment.
“This river channel can already accommodate large vessels even in the depths of winter—why must the riverbanks continue excavation?” Under the accompaniment of Han Daoming, Han Daochang, and many Han family disciples, Han Wenhuan, who had personally crossed the river to East Lake to preside over the wedding this time, had white hair covering his temples. He now stood at the bow with his attendants’ support, observing the situation on the riverbanks, and asked Feng Liao in confusion.
“Chao Lake’s downstream has only the Yuxi River mouth connecting to the Yangtze. The breadth of this mouth directly determines the scale of flood discharge from Chao Lake in summer and autumn, and Chao Lake’s subsequent land reclamation around the lake is closely related to this,” Feng Liao explained.
“Lake reclamation?” Han Daochang exchanged a glance with his elder brother Han Daoming, silently pondering the terminology in Feng Liao’s words.
Besides accompanying his father to East Lake for the wedding this time, he had also traveled back and forth across the great river multiple times over the past year, but his comings and goings were always rushed, and he understood many matters only superficially. Thinking that since the people around Han Qian already had this concept of lake reclamation, it meant Han Qian’s next target was not merely limited to Chuzhou City, and it also meant that Chaozhou City had already fallen within his sights, hadn’t it?
Only by bringing Chaozhou City on the northern shore of Chao Lake into his possession could one truly speak of reclaiming land around Chao Lake.
Or perhaps precisely because of this, the defense exchange between the Left Divine Martial Army and the Right Vermillion Bird Army, along with Zhou Shu leading the Left Militant Guard Army to station in Yingshan, Lishan, and other places, was currently most aligned with Tangyi’s interests.
After all, only if Zhou Shu led the Left Militant Guard Army northward through the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain, opening a new battlefield in southern Guangzhou and Huozhou and drawing more Shouzhou army forces westward to Huozhou, would they have any possibility of recovering Chaozhou territory and Chuzhou City.
Han Qian must have urged them to unhesitatingly support this behind-the-scenes deal between the Evening Red Pavilion and the Zheng clan in court for precisely such reasons, mustn’t he?
Han Daochang speculated wildly in his mind, and soon noticed that several riverbank docks were distributed along one side of the Rusu Mouth channel, where some small cargo vessels could be seen transporting bundles of newly harvested red sugarcane ashore.
The garrison villages on both sides primarily housed disaster-stricken refugees and were far from prosperous enough to leisurely consume sweet cane. Han Daochang surmised this red sugarcane must be transported ashore for planting in cane fields, and asked Feng Liao with considerable interest, “Xuzhou originally did not grow this red sugarcane, but I heard Han Qian has vigorously promoted it in Xuzhou these past two years. Now you must be planning to expand the planting scale in Tangyi as well—but what is the reasoning behind this?”
“The Marquis has said that commoners in this age are sallow and emaciated, with malnutrition extremely prevalent, but thinking everyone could have meat to eat in this age is quite unrealistic. However, consuming more cane sugar can likewise supplement calories and strengthen the body. The Marquis therefore proposed that within two years, Xuzhou and Tangyi should achieve a standard of five jin of cane sugar or granulated sugar consumption per person annually for ordinary households, which is why red sugarcane cultivation has expanded in Xuzhou these past two years. Red sugarcane prefers moisture but cannot tolerate flooding. Tangyi’s climate is still somewhat less mild and moist than Xuzhou’s, and riverside and lakeside areas prone to flooding are suitable for opening up paddy fields. Currently, we are mainly considering planting some in the slope valleys west and south of Rusu Mountain, then next year assessing whether to promote it further…” Feng Liao replied.
Han Daochang only knew that wealthy families commonly mixed malt sugar with water as a beverage, and knew that major households in southern Zhe and Lingnan grew cane and extracted sugar for profit.
However, hearing Feng Liao say that Han Qian had explicitly proposed raising the per capita sugar consumption of Xuzhou and Tangyi to such a high standard, Han Daochang was still secretly astonished.
One must understand that while his elderly father enjoyed malt sugar beverages every few days, he might not consume five or six jin of malt sugar in an entire year. He did not know how Han Qian could achieve having ordinary households in Tangyi and Xuzhou all consume five or six jin of malt sugar annually.
Ordinary households were desperately poor, not to mention the slaves and servants attached to powerful clan and noble families.
Sugar consumption in this age was still an extravagant commodity, and at the same time, cane field management requirements were much stricter than ordinary farmland, being grown only by major households in southern Zhe, Lingnan, and other regions on a quite limited scale.
However, what Han Daochang did not know was that the cane fields opened up in Xuzhou in recent years had already proven that as long as sufficient soil fertility was ensured, in moist regions like Xuzhou and even further north along both banks of the Yangtze River, one mu of cane field could extract roughly one hundred jin of good sugar.
From this point alone, cane sugar, like cotton cloth, was far from as extravagant as people imagined—it was just that current-age cane field cultivation capacity had not yet refined to this level.
However, like soap extracted from tung oil, cane sugar was not an indispensable necessity in the impoverished lives of current-age households, making it even more difficult to promote than cotton cloth.
Therefore, among the bulk commodities Xuzhou currently exported, cane sugar, like soap and similar goods, was temporarily not a priority. Han Qian was currently primarily working to raise sugar consumption within Xuzhou and Tangyi as much as possible.
In this age, adequate meat supply was still too extravagant, but currently Han Qian ensured each soldier in the army received over two jin of cane sugar monthly, providing sufficient support for soldiers to maintain good physical strength during combat and training.
Additionally, laborers engaged in heavy physical work such as building riverbank embankments or constructing fortifications and city walls also received over one jin of cane sugar monthly.
These two items alone consumed nearly all the roughly four to five hundred thousand jin of cane sugar annual output from the over five thousand mu of cane fields and sugar extraction workshops directly administered by the Engineering Bureau in Xuzhou.
For the next step, Han Qian planned to increase Tangyi and Xuzhou’s cane fields to around fifty thousand mu over two years, raising cane sugar output to fifty thousand dan, but because cane field management requirements were relatively high, requiring high-level soil fertility and strict water control and drainage, currently they were primarily managing cane fields through plantation methods.
This output seemed extremely high, but spread across five to six hundred thousand military and civilian population in both regions over the next two years, it amounted to less than ten jin of sugar per person annually.
Considering that soldiers in the army and heavy laborers consumed much more sugar than ordinary people, this also meant ordinary commoners’ sugar consumption would merely maintain at a level above certain caloric supplement intake.
This was similar to Tangyi utilizing river beaches and riverbanks to expand duck and poultry breeding as much as possible. Currently, Xuzhou’s duck and poultry breeding scale reached over one million birds, which in fact still could not satisfy internal consumption and had not reached the stage of large-scale external export.
Currently, Han Daochang and many Han family disciples were no longer outsiders. Whenever opportunities arose, Feng Liao explained the operational methods within Xuzhou and Tangyi in as much detail as possible to help them integrate quickly. Moreover, the old master enjoyed hearing about these matters along the way.
Many models in Tangyi’s army differed tremendously from other military management in this age.
Taking soap alone as an example, Tangyi’s army soldiers received one bar of soap monthly, strictly using soap for washing and cleaning—this was something worldly people found difficult to imagine.
Not to mention desperately poor households and slaves and servants, even among reasonably prosperous households in this age, how many could persist in using soap pods to clean their bodies in daily life?
Of course, Han Qian had long insisted on using large quantities of tung oil and other oils to manufacture oil soap, then distributing it and mandating soldiers to habitually use it in daily life, keeping epidemic diseases and wound infections in the military at an extremely low level.
Subsequently, batch after batch of veteran soldiers left the military and returned to village settlements, and these good habits took root and sprouted in every corner of Xuzhou.
With the foundation in Xuzhou, Tangyi replicated all this only faster, with even better results.
Passing through Rusu Mouth into Chao Lake, everyone saw several thousand laborers on the east side constructing a second nested embankment outside last year’s newly built great embankment.
The two great embankments were separated by distances ranging from one thousand to two thousand paces. Feng Liao explained that doing this, besides creating approximately one hundred thousand mu of additional land for East Lake County, more importantly raised East Lake County’s resistance level against Chao Lake’s summer and autumn flood seasons.
Otherwise, if they subsequently focused on developing the core region inside the first long embankment and encountered flooding, the losses would be unimaginably severe.
Constructing double and nested embankments here, along with continued excavation at Rusu Mouth, complemented each other, while the naval base’s harbor port was located between the two great embankments.
“This time, I shall remain in Tangyi and not return. Perhaps in my lifetime I may witness a mighty and majestic city rise upon the northern shore!” Han Wenhuan’s withered old hand tremblingly grasped the ship’s rail as he spoke.
At Han Wenhuan’s advanced age, living out his retirement anywhere was perfectly reasonable, but truly remaining in Tangyi still carried vastly different implications in many people’s eyes.
Of course, with the Han family’s integration with Xuzhou having progressed to this point, having invested so heavily in Tangyi with all clan resources, Han Daoming and Han Daochang would not oppose the old master’s decision.
Their vessel docked directly at the naval harbor port, where Han Qian led Guo Rong, Gao Shao, and a large group of officers to the dock to welcome the old master.
Han Daochang had traveled to East Lake quite frequently. Ascending the dock, he could see that the dwellings inside the old embankment grew denser with each passing month. South of East Lake Camp, several intersecting streets and alleys had been planned and constructed, forming a brand-new town that had taken initial shape. One need only construct a circle of city walls on the outer perimeter to have a medium-sized city.
However, Han Qian had no plans to construct city walls around East Lake’s periphery.
If the two defense lines at Fucha Mountain and Qingcang Mountain could not block enemy advances, if they could not maintain overwhelming superiority in Chao Lake, constructing city walls would be meaningless.
After all, East Lake City’s future development of numerous workshops and factories would primarily utilize water flow differential as power, which could only be constructed in the shallow mountains and low ridges of Qingcang Mountain and Rusu Mountain on both sides—these were East Lake’s future essence. Could they all be protected by city walls?
Currently, Tangyi’s method of recruiting refugees in Huaidong and Jiangdong still followed the agreement whereby Tangyi dispatched people to Yangrun and other places to sell land and residences at prices no less than twenty percent above market value, with the proceeds then lent to Huaidong or Prince Shou’s mansion in the name of Xuzhou’s Official Money Bureau, benefiting all parties and each taking what they needed.
Starting from late July, Tangyi maintained an inflow level of eight hundred to one thousand refugee households monthly, initially settling them primarily on the eastern side of Chao Lake in East Lake County, providing necessary labor for the focused development of East Lake County over the next two to three years.
Currently, East Lake County, besides laborers additionally hired from Xuzhou, Jiangzhou, and other places, formally registered over five thousand households with more than thirty-five thousand registered population, barely meeting the standard for a medium-sized county.
However, East Lake and Liyang counties combined had only slightly over fifty thousand registered population, still quite far from Han Qian’s initial vision of both counties reaching two hundred thousand population.
Registered population—everything hinged on registered population.
The wedding would be held in Liyang City. Everyone boarded carriages at the dock and proceeded directly via the express road toward Liyang City to the east.
Han Daochang had been concerned about wedding arrangements throughout the journey. After all, it was still over two hundred li from here to Yangzhou, and no matter how delayed, the wedding procession must depart for Yangzhou early tomorrow morning. Only after inquiring did he learn that the wedding procession should have departed yesterday.
The reason they had not noticed was that Han Qian had dispatched Han Donghu to lead over a thousand cavalry overland to Yangzhou to welcome the bride, planning to escort Wang Jun into Tangyi City under Yangzhou troops’ protection, then have Tian Cheng, Zhou Chu, Feng Xuan, and others divide forces to escort them overland to Liyang for the wedding ceremony…
“Why go to such trouble? Why not just dispatch naval warships to receive her and have her disembark at East Lake?” After Han Daoming and the others entered Liyang and directly took up residence in Lian Garden where Han Qian would marry Wang Jun, hearing Guo Rong explain many wedding details in the great hall, he asked in confusion, “Are you concerned the waterway is unsafe?”
Han Qian signaled for guards and unrelated personnel to withdraw, then said, “Publicly, besides claiming the waterway is insufficiently safe, there is another reason—to use the wedding to display Tangyi’s military strength. Of course, only in this way can I imperceptibly concentrate Tangyi, Puyang, Wushou, and Tingshan’s four counties’ most elite combat forces here at East Lake!”
“Ah…” Only then did Han Daoming realize with sudden understanding that Han Qian intended to use his wedding to Wang Wenqian’s daughter to conduct a surprise attack on the Shouzhou army while their officers were completely unprepared.