“…”
Hearing the latest news Wang Zhe brought from East Lake, Han Qian sat on a stone bench before the main tent, gazing at the stars in the night sky, silent for a long time.
“After Wei Qun arrived in Jinling and presented the state credentials, besides sending people to Chu Province to lobby, these past two days he has also been diligently visiting Li Changfeng, Zhou Yuan, Prince Shou and others. We speculate that the so-called allied forces expedition against Liang strategy’s fundamental purpose is still to persuade Lü Qingxia’s side to deploy Chai Jian’s allied forces to attack Guanzhong…” Gao Shao also brought conclusions from the Military Intelligence Staff’s preliminary analysis.
Han Donghu and Huo Li—who had returned from Hebei and was serving as a senior guard military officer in the Guard Cavalry Battalion—spread out the maps they had brought.
Chu forces currently bordered Liang forces in four regions.
From east to west, the first region was the lower Huai River defense line under Huaidong forces’ responsibility.
The second region was the middle Huai River defense line under Tangyi forces’ responsibility.
The third and fourth regions were respectively the upper Huai River and Nanyang Fangcheng defense lines under Xiangbei forces’ responsibility, and the Qinling Jingzi Pass and Xichuan defense lines under Xiangbei forces’ Chai Jian division.
The Liang forces corresponding to Chai Jian’s division were the Shang Province Wuguan garrison.
Although Han Qian’s previous memorial had been retained by the court without being made public, Han Qian’s position and attitude had long been clear. He believed Shu Kingdom’s eyes and ears lurking in Chu territory would not find it difficult to discern some clues, nor find it hard to imagine why Wei Qun, after arriving in Great Chu bearing state credentials, sent people to Chu Province but did not send anyone to East Lake to make contact.
On the upper Huai River, Li Zhigao’s forces had besieged Luoshan city for so long without attacking. Firstly, he was sparing his direct forces; secondly, he hoped to force Wen Bo to surrender the city without bloodshed, so that Wen Bo and his elite troops could be used by him.
If Tangyi could seize control of the Wen clan members one step ahead, court and country would certainly only praise Tangyi’s merit rather than accuse Tangyi of sinister intentions. But if Wen Bo and Luoshan’s garrison surrendered to Li Zhigao at this time, could Li Zhigao and Lü Qingxia accept them without reservation?
Would Li Zhigao and Lü Qingxia conversely worry even more that Wen Bo might lead Luoshan’s garrison to coordinate from inside and outside with Tangyi forces to attack Xiangbei forces?
Under such circumstances, Chai Jian stationed in Deng and Jun would indeed not dare act rashly.
However, after the Wen clan members followed Wen Muqiao in pledging to Liang, they were granted a fief north of Xu Province city where they lived as a clan—with Liang Kingdom in great turmoil and the Sima clan’s attitude ambiguous and unclear, they had not directly imprisoned the Wen clan members but had deployed troops to monitor them from all sides.
How could they manage to send forces to silently infiltrate northern Xu Province, abduct several hundred Wen clan members, then break through the Sima clan’s pursuit and successfully abduct them to Tangyi?
Besides the inevitable supervision by Xu-Si forces around the Wen clan’s residential area, looking at the life trajectories of father and son Wen Muqiao and Wen Bo, one knew the Wen clan members must also have organized corresponding defensive forces internally. Even if only dozens of elite martial forces existed like the Eastern Zhe Prince’s mansion retainers, they would be extremely difficult to handle—especially since learning that Tangyi had sent forces to abduct them, the Wen clan members would resist to the death, wouldn’t they?
Honestly speaking, if Wang Zhe were asked to formulate an action plan, this would simply be impossible.
To do it, they could only coordinate with Huaidong to send troops crossing the Huai River (currently Tangyi had no waterway directly connected to the Huai River; they had to borrow passage from Huaidong before warships could enter the Huai River), while advancing toward Si Province, dispatch a division of two to three thousand elite cavalry to quickly circle to northern Xu Province to abduct people.
Of course, this also required hoping that when troops crossed the Huai, the Sima clan would not evacuate several hundred Wen clan members to Xu Province city ahead of time.
But with Han Qian now summoning Shen Peng, Wang Zhe naturally understood this matter might not lack a slim chance.
Previously, to control the local warlord Sima clan, Liang Emperor—besides transferring Sima Xian to serve in the capital with current whereabouts unknown—must have planted insiders in Xu-Si beyond Han Yuanqi.
That the Sima clan had not directly pledged to the Wei Province rebels who currently held better prospects was probably due to insiders planted by Liang Emperor playing a role.
Shen Peng was one of the Chengtian Bureau’s two chief commandants. He should be able to contact and deploy insiders Liang Emperor Zhu Yu had planted in Xu-Si. Going further, were there Chengtian Bureau secret agents within the Wen clan members’ residential settlement?
“They must want to trick us. Wen Muqiao had a father-killing enmity with him. If he abducts the Wen clan members to Tangyi, how could it possibly make Li Zhigao’s side fear taking action?” Zhao Ci said sharply. He resented how Wang Zhe had used them these months to fish out secret agents lurking in Tangyi, fearing this was another Tangyi deception.
With Zhao Ci saying this, the hall immediately fell silent.
Everyone certainly remembered that years ago, Han Daoxun had gone to persuade Wen Muqiao and been captured and murdered by Anning Palace. One could say Wen Muqiao was one of the direct culprits who killed Han Daoxun.
Speaking of which, Han Qian rushing back to East Lake then planning to send special warfare elite to infiltrate Xu Province to abduct Wen clan members—everyone’s astonished feelings had not yet completely settled.
Because of this blood feud, even if they could successfully abduct the Wen clan members to Tangyi, it would involve extremely complex struggles of hearts and minds behind the scenes.
If Wen Bo worried that in revenge for that year’s blood feud, they would harm the Wen clan members, might it instead more firmly drive him toward Li Zhigao, so he could borrow the Empress Dowager faction’s power to rescue the Wen clan members from Tangyi?
If it truly turned out this way, all their great efforts would somewhat backfire.
Of course, this old affair was too sensitive, especially with Wang Jun present. Gao Shao and Feng Liao both restrained themselves from mentioning it, yet unexpectedly Zhao Ci bloodily ripped it open.
“You are young after all. Your father lurked in my Han family for over ten years, toying with so many people in the palm of his hand, yet was never as unable to contain himself as you. From where do you see that I want to trick you?” Han Qian looked at Zhao Ci, face slightly stern, asking, “Why my father died, you may not know. But how your father died, do you also not know? Could it be you think your father died in Xu Province because I ordered him killed, then hypocritically erected a monument and recorded his deeds?”
After Zhao Kuo killed himself by striking stone, Han Qian ultimately buried him in Longya Mountain beside his father’s tomb chamber, also ordering a monument erected recording Zhao Kuo’s years serving the Han family and his final stage—risking danger to transport the corpse back to Xu Province and dying in service.
Zhao Ci’s face flushed red from Han Qian’s rebuke.
Shen Peng waved his hand, indicating he should be patient, saying: “My lord also knows that heaven-overturning changes occurred in Xu-Si these past six months. Regarding many matters there, I’m also not very clear. If my lord truly wants to abduct the Wen clan members to Tangyi, give Shen five hundred elite troops to masquerade as Liang forces, perhaps we can try. But Shen cannot guarantee certain success—can only say it’s fifty-fifty odds.”
“Directly handing troops over to your command is impossible, but we will ask you to accompany them. Under current circumstances, if success chances can reach fifty-fifty, it’s worth doing,” Han Qian said to Han Donghu, Wang Zhe, Xi Fa’er, Guo Que and others, “You will formulate plans with General Shen. Whatever resources you need to deploy, the Military Intelligence Staff will fully cooperate.”
The Military Intelligence Staff only had small guard forces and could only draw personnel from the Guard Cavalry Battalion. But action arrangements still had to be led by the Military Intelligence Staff, since this was not a conventional enemy territory penetration surprise attack operation.
“We have seven secret agents detained by my lord. If we bring them along, success rates might be somewhat higher?” Shen Peng said calmly.
Han Qian looked toward Wang Zhe. He remembered Wang Zhe mentioning this but hadn’t taken it to heart.
“Two died from severe injuries. The other five are all imprisoned,” Wang Zhe said.
Han Qian spread his hands toward Shen Peng, saying: “Now I can only return five people to you. If this succeeds, I will release you. When Liang Emperor returns to Bian capital, I will also send someone to escort Princess Yunhe back. As for whether Chu and Liang will later kill each other until blood flows like rivers, I, Han Qian, will not make things difficult for a woman and child.”
“Let us hope my lord does not forget today’s words.” Shen Peng stood up, pulling Zhao Ci to leave first with Han Donghu, Wang Zhe, Xi Fa’er, and Guo Que to discuss a concrete feasible abduction plan.
Having someone escort Princess Yunhe back to the detention compound, Han Qian also indicated for Feng Liao, Gao Shao, Guo Rong, and Zhao Wuji to busy themselves. He walked into the study, picked up his brush wanting to write something, but after writing several characters, could not put brush to paper again for a long time.
Wang Jun and Xi Ren entered, peering over to see the letter opening only had four characters written: “Lord Wen Muqiao.”
Xi Ren asked in surprise: “You’re writing a letter for Han Donghu to bring to Wen Muqiao?”
Han Qian nodded, saying: “Han Donghu and Wang Zhe leading people to infiltrate Xu Province—penetration and withdrawal aren’t too difficult. The hardest part is that Wen clan members will resist desperately, which will be this journey’s greatest danger. Masquerading as Liang forces also probably cannot deceive them. I’m writing this letter to Wen Muqiao—perhaps it can play some role.”
“How could Wen Muqiao believe you would rather bear the evil reputation of being unfilial to also cast aside that year’s blood feud and spare his Wen clan members?” Xi Ren asked. “He has struggled his entire life amid deception and treachery, willing to become Anning Palace’s running dog and talon. How could he possibly understand the elder master’s breadth of mind or your mindset making this decision?”
“No,” Han Qian shook his head, saying, “A figure like Wen Muqiao—even if they chose to collude with Anning Palace, bringing disaster to Great Chu, or held my father in complete contempt—may not fail to understand, may not fail to believe. Like Wang Jun’s father, as early as the Jinling Incident’s beginning, he clearly saw what kind of person my father was, which is why he borrowed my father’s hand to open the curtain on the Jinling Incident’s chaotic situation!”
Han Qian stood up, retrieved a sandalwood box from inside the room, took out the blood letter Zhao Kuo had brought back years ago, and handed it to Wang Jun saying: “This is the blood letter my father left me before his execution.”
This blood letter written by cutting cloth from his robe hem and breaking his finger to write—Wang Jun was seeing it for the first time. Taking it and unfolding it, she saw several lines of blood characters: “Old affairs in Chu Province, accumulated resentment for many years. Execution imminent, this life flashes before my eyes. Truly feel life and death are small matters. My son need not dwell on it…”
Han Qian said: “I wanted to have Han Donghu also bring this blood letter for Wen Muqiao to read, but fear some accident might prevent it from ever returning to my hands.”
At this moment, hearing Wenxin and Yuan’er bursting into the courtyard chattering and playing, Han Qian looked up toward the window. Zhao Ting’er walked into the courtyard. He temporarily set down his brush and walked into the courtyard.
—
When night deepened and all was quiet, Guo Que, Han Donghu, Wang Zhe, and Shen Peng brought the drafted infiltration plan for Han Qian’s decision.
The specific location of the Wen clan members’ residential area—Tangyi’s side had naturally long ago investigated thoroughly. But the internal situation of the estate was extremely difficult for outsiders to penetrate, so Tangyi did not know it. However, Shen Peng knew.
The village headman where the Wen clan residential area was located was a secret agent directly controlled by the Chengtian Bureau. In early years, lurking there to monitor the Sima clan, afterward the Wen clan members’ fief was conveniently arranged there, monitoring them as well.
Of course, Xu-Si territory still had many Chengtian Bureau secret agents. First, this involved Liang Kingdom secrets; second, with the situation unstable, Shen Peng didn’t know how greatly these secret agents had been impacted. At present, he only wished to reveal the few secret agents who might relate to the infiltration plan and needed to come forward to coordinate. Others would require adapting as circumstances required after forces infiltrated Xu-Si region.
Three withdrawal plans were also prepared. One involved deploying two three-masted ships from the navy to sail out to sea, covertly advancing to the bay area northeast of Hai Province to lurk. If infiltrating forces from the south could not shake off Sima clan pursuit, they could only consider transferring from northern Xu Province’s mountain areas eastward toward the northeastern Hai Province coast.
Of course, the biggest problem remained that Wen clan members might resist desperately.
They could not linger too long in Xu Province territory. To capture all Wen clan members alive before enemy reinforcements arrived was too difficult. Bringing back a pile of corpses would be completely meaningless—that would only drive Wen Bo toward Li Zhigao, then seek opportunities to take revenge on them.
Han Qian handed the letter he had spent all afternoon writing and the blood letter his father left to Han Donghu to keep close to his person…