Han Bao, Huo Li, and Wang Zhe escorted Princess Yunhe Zhu Xi, Shen Peng, and Zhao Ci across the Huai River into the defense zone under Tangyi’s jurisdiction. It was already early in the fourth month.

Although the temperature had not yet become sweltering, the entire Jianghuai region had entered early summer, with exceptionally abundant rainfall. The waters of the Huai River surged mightily.

The earthen embankments constructed during the previous dynasty on the south bank had long since fallen into ruin. After Han Bao and his group crossed the Huai River, they only saw scattered remnant earth mounds dotting the vast expanse of water, still vaguely showing traces of the old long embankment.

It was only early in the fourth month, not yet officially entering the rainy season. Upon inquiry, everyone learned that several heavy rainstorms had fallen in succession over the previous days, resulting in the scene of flooding already overflowing the south bank of the Huai River at this time between late spring and early summer.

At this time, aside from Wen Bo’s troops being besieged in Luoshan City, the other forces of the Shouzhou Army had successively abandoned the central and southern heartlands of Guang, Huo, and Shou prefectures, withdrawing their entire line to Qisi, Huoqiu, Shouzhou, and other places hugging the south bank of the Huai River. Some forces had also withdrawn to the north bank of the Huai River, occupying Ying and Qiao prefectures.

Now the heartland of Liang was in complete chaos. Not to mention that after being forced to contract their defensive lines and yield the central and southern heartlands of Huo and Shou, the Shouzhou Army had an urgent need to resolve military provisions and fodder. Even if they could hold Huaixi at this time with sufficient grain reserves, sending troops now to occupy the southern Liang regions of Ying and Qiao—after Liang Emperor Zhu Yu suppressed the rebel army, he could still argue this was to consolidate defenses in the militarily weak areas of Qiao and Ying and prevent the rebel army from moving south.

Whether they would ultimately yield Ying and Qiao depended on whether the central military forces were strong or not.

After the left and right armies of the Tangyi Control Command took over a total of twelve counties including all of Haozhou, the central and southern parts of Huozhou and Shouzhou, and Le’an and Huangzhou in eastern Guangzhou, they did not immediately send troops to launch an offensive against the military strongholds of Shouzhou, Huoqiu, Qisi, and Fengtai that remained under Shouzhou Army control on the south bank of the Huai River. However, their gains could already be called extremely bountiful.

This time, fundamentally speaking, it was because Liang had experienced severe turmoil. Tangyi’s recovery of Huailing, Linhuai, and the other twelve counties could be said to have been obtained without effort.

Even though it was inevitable that the Shouzhou Army would fall into complete disarray and withdraw in panic, the achievements of Han Bao, Huo Li, Wang Zhe, and others could already be called quite brilliant.

Setting aside how profound and enormous the impact of these several people’s achievements was on Heshuo and the entire Central Plains region, just for the Tangyi Army at this time, without them transmitting accurate news back in time, the two cities of Linhuai and Zhongli bordering the Huai River would most likely still be under the control of the Shouzhou Army or the Hejin Army. At the same time, Han Qian could not have arranged for Kong Xirong to lead troops to take over Le’an and Huangchuan Cities ahead of the Xiangbei Army.

Perhaps in the vast Huaixi region, if Han Qian managed the northeastern and northern slopes of Huaiyang Mountain well, he would already occupy the advantageous position of commanding from above, not needing to concern himself with the gain or loss of three or four cities. But controlling four more cities had an even more important significance—the over two hundred thousand people near these four cities would henceforth become civilian households under the rule of the Tangyi Control Command.

In Huaixi, which was sparsely populated with wasteland everywhere, population was far more important than occupying two or three hundred more li of land.

Currently, the regions bordering the Huai River in the northern parts of Huo and Shou prefectures were still under the control of the Shouzhou Army. Xu Mingzhen was also using the Left River Fleet Army’s advantage of controlling the middle and upper reaches of the Huai River waterway to forcibly compel civilian households in these regions to relocate to Ying, Qiao, and other places on the north bank of the Huai River. He could relocate over two hundred thousand people from along the banks. However, in this windfall for Tangyi, the newly added population still exceeded five hundred thousand, effectively doubling the scale of military and civilian forces that the Tangyi Control Command controlled in Huaixi, for the first time surpassing Huaidong and Xiangbei to rank first among the three northern garrison towns.

Throughout the entire third month, the left and right armies of Tangyi and the Administrative Office had been operating at high intensity, busy with various takeover matters.

Before Han Bao, Huo Li, and the others crossed the Huai River, they had already made contact with Tangyi’s scout forces. After crossing the Huai River, they were directly escorted by a contingent of troops rushing to Shoudong.

Shoudong was located seventy li southeast of Shouzhou, one hundred forty li north of Chaozhou City, and forty li south of Fengtai, another city along the Huai River currently controlled by the Shouzhou Army. Han Qian currently had his command headquarters established here.

Whether for subsequent attacks on Shouzhou, Fengtai, and other cities, or for suppressing the Shouzhou Army along the Huai River banks to prevent them from moving south, Shoudong was a military stronghold that the Tangyi Army needed to prioritize developing well at this stage.

Shoudong County had been established by Xu Mingzhen to settle people who had crossed the river under the coercion of Anning Palace. The site selection for building the city had been rather hasty, but the post road from Fengtai to Chaozhou passed through the city, and to the north was the Qingjian River, several dozen zhang wide.

The Qingjian River originated from Qiu Mountain within Huailing territory, flowing west into the Northern Fei River, then into the Huai River. It could be considered a water transport route connecting with the Huai River and Fei River. However, the problem was that at this time the water systems of the middle and upper reaches of the Huai River were still under the control of the Shouzhou Army’s navy.

Huaidong had not opened the Hangou waterway, so the Tangyi Navy’s warships were still restricted to the Yangtze River water system. The troops stationed in Shoudong currently had to take extra precautions against the Left River Fleet Army’s warships potentially attacking from upstream of the Qingjian River.

The low city walls were constructed of rammed earth, only seven or eight chi high.

Although they had been built only a year ago, cracks were already visible on the outer surface of the city walls. One could see how hasty the Shouzhou Army had been when building Shoudong City and how scarce their resources were—these walls had never been properly and carefully compacted.

When Han Bao and his group entered the city, they saw hundreds and thousands of laborers piling earth to build buttress walls on the outer side of the thin city walls. On the outer side of the southern wall, work had already begun on covering it with a layer of city bricks about three chi thick.

The buildings in the city were mainly crude shacks erected by relocated civilian households, but several open areas had been cleared and brick houses were being constructed. A floating bridge had been built over the Qingjian River. As long as the floating bridge was not destroyed, the Left River Fleet Army’s warships would be restricted to downstream of the floating bridge. The Tangyi Army had requisitioned some small fishing boats to mine coal from upstream areas like Qiu Mountain and transport it to Shoudong to fire lime and blue bricks.

Now, wherever the Tangyi Army advanced, they first established lime kilns and brick kilns. If there was coal nearby, they mined it locally; if there was no coal, they found ways to transport it from Huaiyang, Shiquan, Daishan, and other places.

After entering the city, Princess Yunhe, Shen Peng, and Zhao Ci were handed over to dedicated personnel. Han Bao, Wang Zhe, Huo Li, and the Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin brothers who had been caught by Han Bao’s group while fleeing back to their home garrison, first went to the temporary office of the Military Intelligence Staff Office in Shoudong to report.

The Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin brothers were filled with anxiety.

This great achievement naturally belonged to Han Bao, Huo Li, Wang Zhe, and the others. Although they had some small merits, whether these could offset their previous crime of deserting camp was something they had no confidence about in their hearts.

The office was quite crude, with various departments crammed into three low courtyards for work. The personnel were noisy, and affairs were extremely busy. The person who had led them over to report had suddenly encountered something midway and left.

Han Bao and Huo Li walked into a courtyard and felt somewhat lost for a moment. Seeing everyone hurrying about, they couldn’t bear to stop them to ask for directions.

“Baozi!”

Han Donghu strode into the courtyard. At a glance, he saw the much thinner Han Bao and walked over, habitually rubbing his head.

Han Bao, in front of Huo Li and Wang Zhe, was not accustomed to being treated like a child by Han Donghu and slightly turned his head away.

Han Donghu laughed heartily. Seeing Huo Li and Wang Zhe step forward to bow to him, he waved his hand and said:

“You’ve truly rendered great service this time—the Lord has summoned you to report directly to him. I was thinking you should be arriving around now!”

Han Bao introduced Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin behind him.

He intended to bring the Zhang brothers along, thinking that while the Lord was in good spirits, he could have their crime of deserting camp pardoned. When merits were recorded, they could be directly promoted to military officers or directly assigned to serve in the Military Intelligence Staff Office, rather than having to fight desperately to climb up from the bottom as common soldiers.

Hearing Han Bao express this intention, Han Donghu smiled and said, “The Lord mentioned your return and even discussed with General Staff Officer Gao whether to have you directly command a battalion of troops. You can keep these two serving under you in the future—they don’t need to come along and join the excitement today…”

Tangyi had newly established a brigade-level organization between garrison army and battalion, but the commander of a battalion of troops was also a mid-to-high-level general at the rank of Deputy Battalion Commander. Being able to serve under Han Bao in the future wouldn’t be bad at all. Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin felt relieved and said they would wait outside the courtyard.

Huo Li and Wang Zhe followed Han Donghu and Han Bao directly toward the rear office. They didn’t rush to talk about their experiences along the journey back, first asking about the whereabouts of Wang Yan, Wang Tang, and Huo Xiao.

The five of them could be said to be part of Wang Jun’s dowry. Never mind how the generals of Tangyi viewed them—they themselves felt their status in Tangyi was somewhat awkward after arriving.

This journey north had allowed Huo Li and Wang Zhe to completely settle their hearts. They thought that even if they weren’t promoted, even if they continued serving in the Communications Office and Military Intelligence Staff Office as before—their starting positions in Tangyi had already been high enough, just without real power—they would at least have the capital to stand on their own and would no longer fear being excluded or looked down upon by Tangyi’s generals and officials.

Of course, they hadn’t seen Wang Tang, Wang Yan, and Huo Xiao for a while now. They didn’t know where they had been dispatched to serve now that Tangyi’s domain had suddenly expanded so much.

“Wang Tang has gone to serve as deputy general under General Kong Xirong, and Wang Yan has also gone to Huangchuan as county magistrate. For now, they’re both considered under General Kong Xirong’s command. They just left two days ago—if you’d returned two days earlier, you could have seen them. Huo Xiao is right here in Shoudong, but I don’t know where he’s gone at the moment,” Han Donghu said.

After crossing the Huai River, Wang Zhe had already inquired from the military officers escorting them to Shoudong about Tangyi’s current situation. He also knew that although the Huonan Special Task Battalion led by Kong Xirong was organized at the brigade level, it had fourteen to fifteen thousand troops, but they were mainly new recruits enlisted on the northern slopes of Huaiyang Mountain during the winter of last year, with weak combat strength, yet facing a complex situation.

After occupying Le’an and Huangchuan, the original Guangzhou prefectural seat of Huangchuan City became the main garrison location for the Huonan Special Task Battalion. Against this background, Wang Yan took up the position of Huangchuan County Magistrate, obviously like Wang Tang, both serving as assistants to Kong Xirong.

Considering the special nature of Huangchuan and the vast troops of the Huonan Special Task Battalion, clearly Tangyi intended to add another garrison army organization.

“Are we going to see the Lord looking like this? Isn’t that too abrupt?” As they were about to enter the command headquarters, Wang Zhe couldn’t help asking.

After their long trek south and crossing the Huai River, they had only temporarily obtained a set of dry clothes from those escorting them to change into, so they weren’t so ragged and tattered. But they hadn’t properly groomed themselves at all, and each one was stubbly-faced.

Walking up to the command headquarters, Wang Zhe suddenly realized their appearance was too slovenly.

“No need—looking like this better demonstrates the hardship and difficulty you’ve endured!” Han Donghu joked.

When Han Bao, Wang Zhe, and the others walked into the great hall, Feng Liao was discussing matters with Han Qian. He didn’t ask them to withdraw but just had them sit to the side and wait briefly. From the conversation between Feng Liao and Han Qian, they learned more about the current situation Tangyi faced.

After recovering Huailing, Zhongli, Huangchuan, and the other twelve counties, the left and right armies of Tangyi underwent full mobilization. Besides the over-strength Huonan Special Task Battalion, they also incorporated all the supply garrison troops into active service, with total troop strength rapidly expanding to over sixty thousand.

The supply garrison troops were mainly surrendered soldiers captured during the great victory at Wujin Ridge. Not abusing them, giving them enough to eat, warm clothes, and work was already sufficient preferential treatment. Naturally, they couldn’t be paid military salaries.

When the supply garrison troops were converted to regular soldiers, the recruitment system had to be implemented, and military salaries naturally had to be paid according to regular soldier standards.

After twenty thousand supply garrison troops were converted to regular soldiers, there were twenty thousand fewer free laborers for constructing garrison posts, roads, ditches, barracks, and so on. But not only had these tasks not decreased, they had greatly increased, requiring additional money and grain to hire able-bodied laborers. Since the new system had to be implemented and corvée labor had to be abolished, they couldn’t forcibly conscript able-bodied laborers without compensation. They could only use money and grain to hire them.

Adding to this the need to continuously provide large quantities of new armor and weapons, and with the preparations for warfare against Shouzhou and Fengtai not yet formally underway, the Control Command’s regular military expenditures for the third month had exploded by sixty to seventy percent.

When news of the great chaos in Liang reached Jinling, Huaidong sent people to Jinling to lodge complaints saying Tangyi was secretly communicating with the Liang army, possibly causing Chu military forces to miss a heaven-sent opportunity to send troops to campaign in the Central Plains. Han Qian scoffed at this, mocking Huaidong for actually having the face to lodge complaints. Fortunately, the Qiao and Chen clans were not affected at all, and their enthusiasm for investing in the Official Money Bureau instead became even higher.

Even though the Control Command could currently transfer funds from the Official Money Bureau to fill the gaps in military expenditures, this was ultimately borrowing money and debt, a matter of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

However much they filled the gap on this side, that much of a gap would be left in the Official Money Bureau.

The purpose of establishing the Official Money Bureau was to raise funds to support the development of manufacturing and commerce. They couldn’t indefinitely transfer money and grain from the Official Money Bureau to fill gaps in military expenditures.

After Wang Zhe and the others listened from the side for a long time, they finally understood that Feng Liao’s intention was to advise Han Qian not to rush to reduce or exempt taxes on the twelve newly recovered counties this year to stabilize people’s hearts.

With five hundred thousand newly added people, even if the Control Command didn’t levy taxes too harshly and made some reductions and exemptions, this year’s summer and autumn grain could still collect three to four hundred thousand shi of grain and three to four hundred thousand strings of silk and poll money, which could greatly fill the Control Command’s expenditure gap for this year.

“This year we need to complete the work of surveying farmland acreage. Some people will also need to be relocated inland to Chuzhou and Yongyang to fill out the civilian households there. We also need to sort through potential agents and spies the Shouzhou Army might have planted. If we come on fiercely to collect money and grain without giving these people a chance to rest and recover, many matters probably won’t receive very good cooperation. Let’s endure one or two more years of hard times. When we become more prosperous in the next year or two, we’ll find ways to fill the Official Money Bureau’s gaps then,” Han Qian disagreed with Feng Liao’s position, persuading him to find solutions from other places to fill the military expenditure gaps.

Over the past month, Han Qian had not remained in Linhao or Shoudong but had traveled without rest to visit all twelve newly recovered counties once.

The newly added population of over five hundred thousand, even though quite a few were people coerced north by Anning Palace after the Jinling incident, were all sallow-faced and thin, in tattered clothes, living extremely difficult lives.

To maintain such a vast military force over these years, apart from a very few generals and officials and their families who had integrated into the core of the Shouzhou Army, Xu Mingshou could not possibly give preferential treatment to so many people.

Among the people who had fled north across the river, regardless of their previous status, as long as they didn’t hold some official position in the Shouzhou Army, they didn’t live well. The lower-class poor had practically every grain that could be squeezed from them exploited away.

Now was the season of spring famine, with the gap between harvests. The Control Command even had to allocate substantial money and grain for relief and exempt this year’s summer and autumn grain taxes to possibly allow them to catch their breath slightly and avoid large-scale famine.

Han Bao and the others couldn’t interject in these matters and could only listen silently. But being qualified to sit in on such discussions also indicated their future status in Tangyi would be different from before.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, hearing people moving in the courtyard, Wang Zhe and the others were sitting right by the door and looked out into the courtyard. It was Princess Yunhe, Shen Peng, and Zhao Ci being led in.

At first glance at Princess Yunhe, who had changed back into women’s clothing, Wang Zhe felt dazzled. He hadn’t expected that Princess Yunhe, who had trekked through mountains and rivers with them all the way, suffering endless hardships, now wore a ru skirt and walked gracefully in, so fresh and beautiful. On her still-childish face was a composure and steadiness inappropriate for someone her age.

However, Wang Zhe noticed that Han Qian’s gaze had not fallen on the radiant Princess Yunhe, nor had it fallen on Shen Peng, a core figure in Liang’s Chengtian Bureau, but instead fell on Zhao Ci, who had remained silent throughout the journey and acted somewhat recklessly.

Wang Zhe was puzzling over this when the expressions of Xi Fa’er, Lin Haizheng, and others sitting in the hall discussing matters all changed dramatically. Xi Fa’er even gripped his sword hilt and directly ordered the guards on both sides to arrest Zhao Ci.

“Forget it. When people come, they are guests. Don’t be rash,” Han Qian waved his hand languidly, signaling those on both sides to withdraw. Only then did he look at Zhao Ci and ask, “Are you Zhao Kuo’s son or nephew?”

“My father is Zhao Kuo…” Zhao Ci said.

“No wonder you’re cast from the same mold. How old are you this year?” Han Qian asked. “Looking at your age, you seem two or three years younger than me. When Zhao Kuo infiltrated my father’s side, you were just barely old enough to remember things, right?”

Hearing Han Qian say this, Wang Zhe suddenly recalled—wasn’t this Zhao Kuo the family retainer who had been by Han Daoxun’s side for many years and who, during the Jinling incident, stole Han Daoxun’s corpse, returned it to Xuzhou, then killed himself by dashing his head against a rock?

Infiltrated?

Zhao Kuo was actually a Liang spy?

When they had escorted Princess Yunhe and Shen Peng back, their attention had all been focused on Shen Peng. They hadn’t thought to thoroughly investigate Zhao Ci’s background, making such a major oversight.

Wang Zhe also felt deeply ashamed, lucky that nothing had happened.

Han Qian had originally been interested in chatting with the Liang captives, but he hadn’t expected one of them to actually be the offspring Zhao Kuo had left behind in Liang. Immediately, he lost all interest and directly instructed those on both sides to take them away.

Han Qian also said to Guo Rong, “Draft a memorial for me reporting this matter to see what the court intends to do with them.”

Throughout the journey, Shen Peng and the others had not caused any trouble and had been quite cooperative. Everyone had gotten along fairly well. Unexpectedly, just upon arriving at Shoudong, Han Qian decided to hand them over to Jinling for disposal.

Han Bao and Huo Li immediately wanted to stand up and say something, but thinking of their status and having heard after crossing the Huai River that people in Jinling were currently spreading talk of Tangyi colluding with the enemy, if Tangyi arbitrarily imprisoned a Liang princess at this time without handing her over to the court for handling, wouldn’t that make the intricacies inside even harder to explain?

Only, how could the matter of Shen Peng delivering messages and notifying Chen Kun and Han Yuanqi to rush reinforcements to Kaifeng be explained clearly?

Of course, once the people were handed over, these matters naturally couldn’t be concealed. To facilitate their escape, Shen Peng and Princess Yunhe would choose to make deals with the court’s people at that time and couldn’t possibly keep Tangyi’s secrets. They had no such obligation.

“These two such important Liang figures being held in Tangyi—there’s no way to keep this news hidden. Since the news can’t be kept secret, Tangyi must inform the court no matter what, or else privately detaining an enemy nation’s princess and general—what would that amount to?” Wang Zhe lowered his voice and said to Han Bao and Huo Li. “However, at this time we’re only sending up the memorial, not directly escorting them to Jinling, so there’s room for maneuvering. The court might feel escorting these two back to Jinling would waste state funds and thus order Tangyi to be responsible for guarding them instead.”

Han Bao and Huo Li, no matter how clever and capable, were far less adept at these intricate power struggles than Wang Zhe.

They still wanted to ask what should be done if the court, upon receiving the memorial, demanded Tangyi hand over Princess Yunhe and Shen Peng. Seeing Han Qian look in their direction and Han Donghu signaling with his eyes, they stepped forward to pay their respects…