“If the young master dares to go to Jingyun Stockade, this matter might succeed.”
Xue Ruogu now looked at Han Qian differently. Although the Regional Inspector’s son was somewhat ruthless and greedy, having such courage was quite commendable. He also agreed with Han Qian going to Jingyun Stockade to persuade the Four Surnames to settle the matter, and he straightforwardly stood up to support him.
The Four Surnames hadn’t dared to incite trouble in the provincial garrison but had instead withdrawn all their descendants. Xue Ruogu was pondering the Four Surnames’ intentions.
To put it bluntly, the Four Surnames’ great clans acted so recklessly because they bullied the fact that officials sent by the court to the locality couldn’t truly control real power, and bullied the court’s lack of control over the localities. But when Han Daoxun, upon first arriving in Xuzhou, demonstrated the strength to engage in mutual destruction with the Four Surnames, the Four Surnames’ great clans actually retreated instead.
Unless absolutely necessary, the Four Surnames ultimately didn’t dare take that final step. But they also feared Han Daoxun would use the momentum to massacre the Four Surnames, so they could only withdraw their descendants to city stockades completely under their control—易守难攻—to observe the situation.
Even though Han Daoxun had eliminated all the witnesses, there was still no way to make the Four Surnames lower their guard.
Of course, was this stalemate really what the Four Surnames wanted to see?
Definitely not.
If the stalemate continued, the unknown risks the Four Surnames faced were also extremely great.
What was urgently needed now was someone of great weight to step forward, who might possibly make the Four Surnames believe the new Regional Inspector had no intention of mutual destruction.
And besides the Regional Inspector’s son, Xue Ruogu couldn’t imagine who else could be qualified!
“No, it’s too dangerous for you to go in person,” Han Daoxun said resolutely. “If anyone goes, I’ll go personally to persuade Yang Zaili and the others to open the stockade and come out.”
The greatest risk wasn’t in the Four Surnames daring to take desperate risks. Han Daoxun was truly worried that people sent by Zhao Mingting were at this very moment inside Jingyun Stockade.
Beating the grass to alert the snake and luring the snake from its hole was precisely the strategy Han Qian had set in Wuling, with the purpose of enticing Ji Kun to jump out and join hands with the Four Surnames to cause trouble, so they could injure and hurt Xuzhou’s venomous snake in the shortest time possible.
If Ji Kun was currently in Jingyun Stockade, then Ji Kun would urge the Four Surnames to make things big and irreparable, then have all the responsibility pushed onto their side by the Palace of Tranquility, promising that ministers from the Palace of Tranquility faction would come forward to pacify the Four Surnames. The bewitchment of the Four Surnames would be enormous.
Han Qian entering Jingyun Stockade alone was too dangerous.
Even if risks had to be taken, Han Daoxun would rather go to Jingyun Stockade himself.
Fan Xicheng, as well as Gao Shao, Tian Cheng, Yang Qin and others waiting outside the west courtyard, all felt their hearts jump when they heard Han Qian say this.
Unlike Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, and Qin Wen, they completely understood how truly treacherous the actual situation was.
Although when attacking Yang’s water stockade, Han Qian had personally led the team, that time they had completely seen through the actual strength and weakness of Yang Qin and Ji Kun’s forces before avoiding the solid and striking the hollow. The action was bold but the risk wasn’t great. But going to Jingyun Stockade this time could truly be called venturing alone into a dragon’s pool and tiger’s den.
“Father, you staying in Qianyang City to hold the fort is the key to deterring the Four Surnames from acting rashly and ensuring your son can walk out of Jingyun Stockade alive.”
If possible, Han Qian naturally wouldn’t want to risk his own life, but from the moment he set the strategy of beating the grass to alert the snake and luring the snake from its hole, he knew things absolutely couldn’t be resolved simply.
If after yesterday’s sudden action and controlling the provincial prison situation, he had hoped his father could henceforth easily gain a foothold in Xuzhou, he would obviously be underestimating this venomous snake Ji Kun. Ji Kun’s ultimate goal was still to make his father unable to establish himself in Xuzhou.
If Xuzhou fell into a situation of confrontation and division, there would obviously be no way to answer to the court. Even if the Palace of Tranquility didn’t interfere, the Censorate would inevitably impeach his father.
Han Qian continued:
“Today your son brazenly collected wealth all day in Qianyang City. The obtained wealth amounts to one or two million cash. The reputation for greed and baseness should have already reached the Four Surnames’ ears, right? Even if someone is instigating them, what reason would the Four Surnames’ chieftains have at this moment to insist on killing a greedy and base person?” Speaking to this point, Han Qian smiled at Fan Xicheng and asked, “Master Fan, am I right?”
Hearing Han Qian say this, Fan Xicheng’s heart suddenly jolted. Only now did he understand that the young master Han Qian, at least when he decided at noon to have Zhao Zhixian come forward to invite migrant great households to the banquet, had already anticipated this situation.
Even if Ji Kun was currently in Jingyun Stockade and would do his utmost to exploit the conflict between indigenous and migrants to provoke and bewitch the Four Surnames to cause trouble, ultimately it was the Four Surnames who made the decision, not Ji Kun.
Everything Han Qian did was still aimed at influencing the Four Surnames’ chieftains, showing that they wouldn’t win over migrants to suppress indigenous people, ensuring the Four Surnames wouldn’t be completely led by the nose by Ji Kun.
And with the family head Han Daoxun remaining in the city, prepared for mutual destruction, he could better deter the Four Surnames from being easily bewitched by Ji Kun.
Seeing Zhao Ting’er peeking in, Han Qian beckoned and said, “Ting’er, didn’t you say you had nothing to do? Tomorrow accompany your young master to Jingyun Stockade to see the scenery!” Han Qian also cupped his hands toward Xue Ruogu and the others, “Persuading the Four Surnames to open the stockade gates won’t be easy. I still need to prepare my arguments well, so I won’t keep Lord Xue and the rest of you company here.”
Right now in Qianyang City, openly there couldn’t be many more actions to provoke the Four Surnames, while covert matters couldn’t be discussed in front of Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, and Qin Wen. Han Qian simply went back to the rear courtyard first to sober up. Gao Shao, Tian Cheng and the others also delivered tonight’s collected wealth to the rear courtyard for Zhao Ting’er to keep.
“Scraping together so much wealth, and in the end still having others look over with wholehearted admiration—this feeling truly is great!” Han Qian lay on the bed with his limbs sprawled out, saying with a laugh to Zhao Ting’er.
“Master Fan and my brother don’t have the young master’s shamelessness,” Zhao Ting’er said with a laugh.
“Tomorrow when you accompany me to Jingyun Stockade, are you afraid?” Han Qian asked.
“If the young master isn’t afraid, how could Ting’er be afraid?” Zhao Ting’er asked innocently, staring at Han Qian’s face.
“What a silly girl. I’m afraid in my heart,” Han Qian grabbed Zhao Ting’er’s small hand and pressed it to his chest, saying, “Feel my heart. Isn’t it beating much faster than usual? How can a person not be afraid? It’s just that some things truly can’t be helped!”
……
……
Qianyang, as one of Xuzhou’s three counties, was where Xuzhou’s essence lay.
The Yuan River flowed down from upstream, entering Qianyang County territory from the southwest corner. It flowed roughly northwest for about sixty li, then suddenly turned south for nearly sixty li, reaching Qianyang City where both the county seat and prefectural seat were located, before flowing east through the Great South Mountain canyon to join the Wu Waters flowing north.
This section of the Yuan River’s course formed a large zigzag shape, which also constituted the general terrain of Xuzhou’s most elite Qianyang County. The terrain was relatively gentle. Besides the large amounts of shallow silted terrain along the Yuan River banks, the interior of the zigzag was mostly low hills and mountains.
Outside the large zigzag were towering mountains and steep ridges that even birds found difficult to cross. Xuzhou’s other two counties, Langxi and Tanyang, were among these towering mountains, on the north and south flanks of the large zigzag.
Although the absolute quantity of fields owned by the indigenous great surnames inside the large zigzag wasn’t low, out of sensitive defensive concerns, the Four Surnames built their city stockades among the towering mountains outside the large zigzag. This actually formed a situation of cutting off Qianyang’s connection with Langxi and Tanyang, surrounding Qianyang.
Jingyun Stockade was located deep in the towering mountains at the northern foot of Great South Mountain southeast of Qianyang. Although it was only thirty or forty li from Qianyang City, upon leaving Qianyang City, one first had to walk east along the river beach on the south bank of Yuan River for fourteen or fifteen li. Upon encountering a creek mouth about one li wide, this was Jingyun Creek. Following Jingyun Creek south for less than twenty li was Jingyun Stockade.
Jingyun Creek was also locally called Chepi Creek. This was because when timber felled upstream came down the creek channel, due to the narrow creek channel and rapid water flow, the timber from various families inevitably got mixed together and became difficult to distinguish, often leading to disputes—hence the name.
Besides being deep with rapid currents, Jingyun Creek also had mountains standing close on both banks, leaving no foothold even for trackers. Following the small paths that even mules and horses found difficult to traverse, these less than twenty li took nearly half a day to walk, before reaching a small creek valley basin located deep in the mountain ridges—this was where the Feng family’s controlled Jingyun Stockade was located.
Han Qian and his group set out very early, but it was nearly evening when they finally scrambled to the front of Jingyun Stockade.
A stone-built stockade rampart less than three hundred paces in depth towered on the west flank of Jingyun Creek. The stockade wall occupied the creek bank to the east and connected to the mountain wall to the west, blocking the essential route into the basin.
Besides being unable to spy on the situation inside the stone stockade, south of the stone stockade in the creek valley basin were roughly several thousand mu of paddy fields and dry land, supporting three hundred households of indigenous tribal people. With Jingyun Stockade as the core, going deeper south, there were also thirty or forty large and small stockades and five or six hundred households of indigenous tribal people living and multiplying there, all led by the Feng clan for generations.
Looking at the steep, straight slope before him—nearly a hundred meters long diagonally, with an angle of about forty degrees and less than one zhang wide—connecting to the stone stockade, with elite stockade soldiers on the towering stockade walls all bare-chested wearing rhinoceros-hide armor, waist-mounted tribal swords, and backs bearing longbows, Han Qian sighed slightly in his heart. Although the Four Surnames had currently only gathered four or five hundred elite troops at Jingyun Stockade, how many elite troops would they need to gather to storm Jingyun Stockade?
And even if they used deceptive tactics to take Jingyun Stockade and destroy the Feng family, Xuzhou still had three other surnames. Their city stockades were all deep and dangerous. Wanting to use deceptive tactics to attack stockades again would be far more difficult.
At the end of the day, those who could ultimately control the situation still relied on hard power!
“I am Han Qian, Deputy Commander in the Dragon Sparrow Army command tent, and also the son of the new Regional Inspector Han Daoxun. I have come specially to pay my respects to Qianyang County Magistrate Lord Feng Changyu and Legal Advisor Lord Feng Jin?” Han Qian stood before the stockade. Seeing that a shed-like structure was built atop the stockade wall, with twenty or thirty fierce armored soldiers glaring down menacingly, among them was someone whose face looked familiar—surprisingly one of Ji Kun’s subordinates, standing brazenly behind a long-haired youth.
“That person is Legal Advisor Feng Jin.” For this trip to Jingyun Stockade, besides Zhao Wuji, Tian Cheng, and Gao Shao, Han Qian had also borrowed an old soldier familiar with local conditions from Xue Ruogu’s side to accompany them. At this moment, this old soldier pointed at the long-haired youth and told Han Qian.
Seeing Ji Kun’s subordinate openly standing behind Feng Jin, Han Qian’s heart felt hollow.
Although rational speculation suggested the possibility of the Feng family father and son directly attacking was very small, he had never dealt with these tribal barbarians before. How could he know whether these tribal barbarians’ way of thinking didn’t have a bit of extremism and obsession?
However, seeing two bare-chested tribal soldiers wearing rhinoceros-hide armor with long hair standing behind and watching Ji Kun’s subordinate closely, Han Qian felt slightly more at ease. He knew Feng Jin was still guarding against Ji Kun’s subordinate suddenly attacking to assassinate him. It seemed the situation temporarily didn’t deviate much from his expectations.