Though Feng Xuan claimed his lowly status meant he couldn’t be of much use even if he pledged allegiance, Han Qian saw things differently.

In Xu, Chen, Shao, Heng and other provinces, the conflicts between indigenous and migrant populations had been extremely severe since the previous dynasty. Officials dispatched by the court were also viewed by local indigenous tribespeople as representatives of migrant interests and faced exclusion. Additionally, because the local indigenous population still practiced a tribal system, their social structure was extremely closed. Officials previously appointed to places like Xu and Chen typically only utilized contradictions among the great clan tribes to maintain balance, grasping some degree of initiative in local affairs.

When central government power was strong and the great local clan tribes held reverence, this balancing naturally proved effective. But with Tanzhou currently in a semi-independent state, how could one expect the great clan tribes south and west of Tanzhou—where the mountains are high and the emperor far away—to maintain much reverence?

If his father now tried to play the balancing game among the great clan tribes in Xuzhou, it would be like playing with fire.

After all, Xuzhou only had four great clan tribes. Though they had conflicts among themselves, they were also deeply intertwined and could too easily reach consensus.

Moreover, with the Ma family’s influence reaching in behind the scenes to make trouble, his father had no foundation in Xuzhou—on what basis could he manipulate the four families at will?

A more effective approach would be to exploit internal contradictions within the Shanyue tribes to disintegrate the great clan tribes.

Of course, this was easier said than done.

Though Feng Xuan appeared to have humble status, he was suitable to serve as the ant hole that breaks the dike in disintegrating the great clan tribes.

Even just as a nail driven into the Shanyue people with their severe xenophobic mentality, his usefulness would be far greater than Feng Xuan himself believed.

However, since Feng Xuan was now willing to fall into the trap, Han Qian didn’t explain much. He immediately had him select four absolutely trustworthy men to rush back to the village and bring his family into the city.

No matter how ruthless Feng Changyu and Feng Jin were, they couldn’t annihilate a village of their own clan. But bringing out the wives and children of key figures like Feng Xuan served two purposes: preventing harm from Feng Changyu and Feng Jin, while ensuring Feng Xuan could never get off their pirate ship.

Naturally, Han Qian wouldn’t completely trust Feng Xuan either, secretly dispatching two men to monitor every move of Feng Xuan and his people, guarding against changes.

Entering the city only as evening approached, everything in Lotus Garden needed organizing and arranging. Preparing a banquet under such circumstances naturally caused chaos. It dragged on until over an hour after nightfall before barely being ready.

Han Qian inevitably had to free himself to socialize at the banquet. Besides observing with his father who seemed most impatient tonight, he also hoped to buy time for the scouts dispersed throughout and around the city to gather more useful intelligence to glimpse what kind of deadly trap the four clans—Feng, Xi, Xiang, and Yang—had set.

The banquet dragged on for an hour.

Though the wine used at the banquet was all purchased temporarily from Xuzhou city, what was served to officials like Xue Ruogu had been processed with quicklime in the rear courtyard by Zhao Ting’er and others.

Though wine mixed with lime water didn’t taste good to Han Qian, some people drinking it for the first time found it had a distinctive flavor.

Besides, none of the mid and low-ranking officials present tonight would criticize the Prefect, and they had no idea that Han Daoxun, Han Qian, and others accompanying the drinking were all consuming the original low-proof wine. Thinking they couldn’t adapt to the strong liquor the Prefect had brought from Jinling, after drinking intermittently for an hour, they all felt top-heavy and light-footed, thinking themselves poor at holding liquor.

At this time, Feng Xuan returned to the city with his wife and children. Han Qian left the banquet to see him.

Besides his own wife and children, Feng Xuan had also brought the wives and children of four tribal leaders into the city. But even forced to make this choice, Feng Xuan still wore a grim expression before Han Qian, seething with resentment, wondering what Han Qian would coerce him to do next.

At this moment, Tian Cheng and Gao Shao walked in with serious expressions. Without having Feng Xuan and the others avoid them, Han Qian directly asked, “Have you contacted all our people in the city?”

“We’ve contacted everyone we could in the city, but aside from the four clans evacuating their city dependents last night, we haven’t discovered other abnormalities yet. However, three of the Left Bureau scouts who entered the city early have infiltrated the provincial prison and we currently cannot make contact with them. Without the Young Master’s permission, we took the liberty of dispatching all contactable scouts in the city to the vicinity of the provincial prison.” Gao Shao said.

Han Daoxun’s side was also concerned about developments. He now had Fan Xicheng and Zhao Kuo run over to inquire about the situation. Just as they stepped into the courtyard and heard what the Clever Cat Gao Shao said, their expressions changed as they asked in surprise, “The deadly trap is in the provincial prison? They’re going to incite the prisoners there to riot and break out?”

“What a brilliantly vicious and audacious scheme!” Han Qian couldn’t help but applaud, sneering sarcastically at Feng Xuan with biting mockery, “There should also be quite a few Shanyue commoners living in the city, right? I said you’re all ants, and you still don’t believe it?”

Fan Xicheng, Zhao Kuo, Gao Shao, Tian Cheng, and even the usually terrifyingly mature-beyond-his-years Zhao Wuji were all secretly alarmed. If the Left Bureau hadn’t dispatched two groups of scouts to infiltrate Xuzhou over a month early, and later had nearly thirty scouts enter Qianyang City ahead of them, they wouldn’t have dreamed of discovering upon first arrival that the four clans dared harbor such malicious intent.

“Whether this matter is true or not, it’s all just the Young Master’s speculation. How can you treat it as fact?” Feng Xuan said stubbornly.

“Give them armor and weapons. Let them shed tears only when they see the coffin.” Han Qian glared at Feng Xuan, not expecting him to truly be such a stubborn bone. He gestured for Guo Nu’er to bring five sets of armor for Feng Xuan and his four subordinates to change into first. They would act together with them later, but the wives and children of Feng Xuan and his men would all be detained in Lotus Garden as hostages.

Next, Han Qian had Gao Shao, Tian Cheng, Yang Qin and others begin preparations here while he first rushed to the west courtyard with Fan Xicheng and Zhao Kuo to see his father, who was still hosting the wine banquet.

Xue Ruogu and the others were drinking with bleary eyes, completely unaware of the pervasive murderous intent inside and outside the Prefect’s residence. Seeing Han Qian and the others return, they noticed nothing unusual, still thinking the new Prefect was very approachable. They were noisily requesting Zhou Yourui sing “Bodhisattva Barbarian” to enliven the wine atmosphere.

Zhou Yourui had brought the Music Bureau’s musicians and entertainers over at night but insisted on not joining the banquet, continuously playing the zither and singing in the courtyard to add cheer. Now seeing Han Qian, Fan Xicheng, and Zhao Kuo return wearing armor and gripping swords at their waists, their eyes sweeping over everyone in the hall with unusual sharpness, her heart jumped, thinking privately that something might truly happen tonight.

Zhou Yourui took up her pipa and sat properly in the courtyard. Her slender jade fingers plucked the strings as her clear, bright singing voice melodiously rose: “Small mountains overlap, gold glimmers and fades, cloud-like hair crosses snowy fragrant cheeks, too lazy to rise and paint moth-brow eyebrows, playing with adornments and grooming slowly, mirror before and behind reflecting flowers, flower-face mutually reflecting, newly embroidered silk jacket, playing with adornments and grooming slowly…”

Han Qian naturally had no mind to appreciate Zhou Yourui’s beautifully heavenly voice. He sat beside his father and calmly informed him of the latest situation.

“The provincial prison?” Han Daoxun had also been pondering how the four clans would deal with him, this new Prefect. He truly hadn’t imagined they would be willing to hand over the entire Qianyang City to rioting prisoners breaking out of prison. After a moment’s shock, he asked Han Qian in a low voice, “The provincial prison holds quite a few prisoners, doesn’t it?”

Though Han Daoxun had reviewed all aspects of Xuzhou’s situation, he hadn’t memorized details like exactly how many prisoners the provincial prison held. He only knew that in Xuzhou with a total registered population of only forty to fifty thousand, the provincial prison held an extremely large number of prisoners.

This was closely related to the salt administration currently practiced by Great Chu.

Great Chu implemented a strict system of official production, collection, transport, and sale at every stage from production to sales to ensure sufficient salt revenue to supplement inadequate military funding.

This also caused salt prices everywhere to soar.

In Jinling, salt prices reached two thousand coins per bushel, while in remote regions like Chen and Xu, to maintain the rapidly bureaucratized and costly salt official system, prices were even more outrageous—six to seven thousand coins or even over ten thousand coins per bushel.

Though Great Chu established harsh laws allowing provinces and counties to summarily execute anyone trafficking one bushel of private salt, smugglers of private salt continued endlessly everywhere.

In remote places like Chen and Xu, it was even more rampant and impossible to prohibit.

Every year in Xuzhou, if not one hundred then at least eighty private salt traffickers were executed, while those smugglers temporarily not yet warranting summary execution filled the provincial prison.

Han Qian hadn’t expected the four clans would dare make moves in this area and hadn’t paid much attention to the specific relevant data.

Han Qian pointed to Prison Warden Zhang Xiaochuan seated below and told his father, “He should know exactly how many prisoners the provincial prison holds.”

Han Daoxun looked toward Prison Warden Zhang Xiaochuan with his thin, long face gazing over in alarmed suspicion. His pair of stern eyes gleamed brightly, as if wanting to carve out Zhang Xiaochuan’s heart, and asked, “Before arriving in Xuzhou, I heard that Xuzhou’s salt criminals were fierce and that during Excellency Wang Yu’s time they were also repeatedly prohibited without effect, filling the provincial prison to capacity. I wonder exactly how many prisoners the provincial prison currently holds?”

Han Daoxun had already inquired about many provincial and county matters during the banquet, so asking about prison inmates now didn’t surprise anyone. But Prison Warden Zhang Xiaochuan and Granary Director Liu Bin, looking up, had their half-drunken stupor shocked away. They stammered, not knowing how to answer Han Daoxun’s question that struck like a cudgel.

Throughout the wine banquet, among the few people who, citing poor alcohol tolerance, remained sober and clear-headed, Zhang Xiaochuan and Liu Bin were two of them.

Without need for signals from Han Qian or Han Daoxun, Fan Xicheng, Zhao Kuo and others had already moved behind Zhang Xiaochuan and Liu Bin, watching their every move.

“The provincial prison holds eight hundred ninety-five prisoners, indeed mainly salt criminals.” As Chief Clerk, all provincial documents and records passed through Xue Ruogu’s hands. He knew the latest prisoner count clearly. Not understanding why Zhang Xiaochuan’s tongue would tie when facing the Prefect’s question, he cupped his hands toward Han Daoxun and answered on his behalf.

Han Qian also gasped, thinking privately that nearly nine hundred salt-trafficking criminals unafraid of strict laws—if they suddenly rioted and broke out of prison, allowing so many to rush out, for Qianyang City with barely over a thousand civilian households and fewer than four hundred provincial and county armed soldiers, it would absolutely be a catastrophic disaster.

“Taking up my post in Xuzhou, after treating you all to wine, I haven’t yet visited the provincial offices to take a look. If you all don’t feel too weary, accompany me to the provincial prison to see just how overcrowded it has become…” Han Daoxun rose abruptly and gestured for Prison Warden Zhang Xiaochuan, Granary Director Liu Bin, Chief Clerk Xue Ruogu and others to lead the way.

Seeing Prison Warden Zhang Xiaochuan’s pale face, Xue Ruogu and the others finally sensed something amiss.

Seeing that Prefect Han Daoxun had already taken the lead walking out of the hall, they didn’t know what had gone wrong that would make Prefect Han Daoxun storm the provincial prison on the very first night of his arrival. Their hearts uneasy, they could only follow.

Zhang Xiaochuan and Liu Bin, being civil officials, had their arms grasped by Fan Xicheng and Zhao Kuo and were half-dragged, half-pulled outside.

No abnormalities had been discovered anywhere else. Even the provincial garrison camps showed no disturbance.

Apart from two scouts each dispatched to monitor the two garrison camps, only Lin Jingzong leading six household guards remained at Lotus Garden. Besides the scouts and spies already assembled near the provincial prison, forty elite warriors including Feng Xuan and his men all donned armor and gripped swords and bows, already arrayed in the garden outside the west courtyard. Seeing the Han father and son emerge, they clustered around everyone and rushed toward the provincial prison.

Qianyang City was small. From Lotus Garden, the rear residence of the provincial office, to the provincial prison was only two streets away.

These two streets had also been sealed off by the fifty-some Left Bureau scouts who had withdrawn here after nightfall. Thus, as Han Daoxun and Han Qian led people directly toward the provincial prison, no one along the way could send advance warning…