While Han Qian was secretly meeting with Feng Xuan and Gao Bao at Guanyue Tower to discuss matters, Han Daoxun was at the prefecture office listening to Fan Xicheng report on what he had learned about Madam Xi’s background. He said with emotion:
“So she’s the daughter of Gao Long and the sole heir of the destroyed prominent Xi clan?”
“The young master may not yet know about the Xi woman’s background. Should I go tell him?” Fan Xicheng said.
“Where’s the need for you to tell him? If this boy hadn’t already thought of using these two chess pieces—Feng Xuan and the Xi clan—how would he suggest I invite the wolf into the house?” Han Daoxun sighed lightly and said with a bitter smile.
Seeing the family head so confidently affirm that the young master must already know the Xi woman’s background, Fan Xicheng suddenly understood what the young master Han Qian’s overall plan truly was.
Xu Prefecture was vast and sparsely populated, with local prominent native clans controlling the region. Great Chu had only been founded thirteen years ago, and its control over frontier prefectures like Xu Prefecture was mostly remote governance. Not to mention Tan Prefecture was sandwiched in between. This resulted in low identification with the new dynasty among migrant populations and made Xu Prefecture a stagnant pool of dead water.
To stir up this stagnant pool of Xu Prefecture’s dead water, they would necessarily need to open commercial routes and lure large numbers of refugees flooding into Xu Prefecture.
This would first require obtaining Tan Prefecture’s permission.
Otherwise, even if Tan Prefecture kept a low profile and didn’t want to attract the court’s attention, they only needed to set up inspection posts at key chokepoints like the Yuan River entrance to prohibit refugees from flooding into Xu Prefecture, and no one could fault Tan Prefecture for it.
After all, the court also strictly prohibited people from moving about freely.
To obtain Tan Prefecture’s tacit consent required giving Tan Prefecture sufficiently large benefits and enticements.
The greatest enticement was for the family head Han Daoxun to tacitly permit Tan Prefecture to secretly dispatch large numbers of troops to take advantage of the opportunity to infiltrate Xu Prefecture, using matters like land reclamation to form forces directly controlled by Tan Prefecture in the shadows.
When Tan Prefecture extended its tentacles massively into Xu Prefecture, it would form a mutually constraining dynamic with the native prominent clan forces led by the Four Surnames. It couldn’t be ruled out that the contradictions between them might intensify and worsen. If the family head Han Daoxun used this well, he could reduce pressure on himself and even accomplish some things by leveraging this balance of power. However, regardless of who ultimately wanted to gain a foothold in Xu Prefecture, they would still have to rely on hard power to speak.
Yet because Tan Prefecture’s power between Xiang and Hu was too strong, if they truly invited the wolf into the house, it would be hard to guarantee that one day their cleverness might backfire, ultimately being usurped by Tan Prefecture like a dove occupying a magpie’s nest, with even the Four Surnames being absorbed by Tan Prefecture.
Fan Xicheng gradually came to recognize the young master Han Qian’s scheming, and didn’t believe that when that day came, the young master would truly be willing to make wedding clothes for Tan Prefecture.
Using these two chess pieces—Feng Xuan and the Xi woman—to secretly cultivate his own power, plus supporting Yang Qin and others to form a boat association, was the key for young master Han Qian to seize the initiative in countering Tan Prefecture and native prominent clan forces in Xu Prefecture in the future, preventing himself from making wedding clothes for Tan Prefecture.
Even if Tan Prefecture knew the Xi woman’s background, as long as they couldn’t guess that Feng Xuan would actually be used by this side, they wouldn’t realize the true intention behind young master Han Qian’s strategy of inviting the wolf into the house. And by keeping the Xi woman at his side while secretly ordering Feng Xuan to gather Xi clan descendants, this would ensure Feng Xuan ultimately couldn’t escape his control.
Having thought all this through, Fan Xicheng was deeply shocked by young master Han Qian’s calculations. He couldn’t help wondering what the young master Han Qian’s ultimate goal was—did he hope for the family head Han Daoxun to become like Ma Yin, while he himself could become a figure like Ma Xun, the heir of the Tan Prefecture Military Commissioner?
Observing the family head Han Daoxun’s slightly gloomy expression, Fan Xicheng ultimately didn’t voice this question.
Fan Xicheng thought to himself that when the young master Han Qian suggested inviting the wolf into the house the night before last, he hadn’t voluntarily mentioned the Xi woman’s background, yet the family head had specifically instructed him to investigate the Xi woman’s background. The father and son were actually secretly competing with each other. If he punctured this layer of window paper, how foolish would that be?
Of course, Fan Xicheng also had worries in his heart. The Xi clan currently might only have two or three thousand people remaining. Even if young master Han Qian, through Feng Xuan and the Xi woman, brought all these people under his wing, at most he could obtain three to five hundred able-bodied men. Could a mantis’s arms truly contend with Tan Prefecture, which actually controlled nearly two million people?
……
……
Although quite a few tasks remained when darkness fell, and Han Daoxun had set himself the rule of not resting until the day’s affairs were handled, the various clerks were all famished. Han Daoxun still permitted them to return home to fill their bellies before coming back to the prefecture office to work overtime.
The prefecture office only provided one midday meal for officials who reported for duty.
Han Daoxun didn’t want to break the rules. He brought Fan Xicheng back to the rear residence at Furong Garden to eat first.
Han Daoxun wanted to eat something simple before returning to the front office to handle documents. He never imagined that upon returning to Furong Garden’s west courtyard, Han Laoshan had prepared nothing and was nowhere to be seen. Only when he asked Qing Yun did he learn that Han Qian was fooling around in the back kitchen, causing everyone in the household’s evening meal to still not be ready.
Han Daoxun also wanted to see what Han Qian was up to. He walked toward the back kitchen with Fan Xicheng. From across the corridor, they could hear Han Laoshan shouting with heartfelt distress: “Young ancestor, if you want to eat braised duck tongues and have bought a hundred ducks to slaughter, how am I supposed to handle this?”
Braised duck tongues?
Fan Xicheng was completely baffled. He wondered if they were braising a hundred duck tongues to make one dish.
That would be far too extravagant!
Although Han Daoxun didn’t go so far as to wear patched clothes and eat plain food, he was usually extremely frugal. Meat dishes were mostly preserved meats. Slaughtering a hundred ducks just to make one dish of braised duck tongues—what kind of performance was this?
Fan Xicheng saw the family head’s expression remained calm and followed him toward the back kitchen. From afar, he could smell the fragrant aroma of braising liquid being boiled—it truly made one’s appetite stir.
Looking again at the reed mats for drying grain spread in the back kitchen’s narrow courtyard, they really were covered with over a hundred bloody ducks. The scene was quite “gory.” Fan Xicheng clicked his tongue inwardly, then saw young master Han Qian wearing a short jacket, directing people to rinse a foot-tall ceramic jar with boiling water.
“First rinse this jar with boiling water, then rinse it again with scalding braising liquid. Finally, fill it with braising liquid and wait for it to cool before sealing. Only then can the braising liquid be preserved for a long time—you absolutely must not be lazy and skip this step. When boiling braising liquid, add plenty of oil—at least enough so you can see a thick layer of oil floating after jarring. Once you taste the braising liquid fermenting and turning sour, throw it away. Don’t be reluctant—eating something that’s gone bad could cost you your lives…”
Han Qian instructed Han Zhou Shi and two cook women on how to boil and preserve braising liquid, while having Zhao Ting’er and Xi Ren transcribe everything he said.
Seeing his father and Fan Xicheng approach, Han Qian said with a smile:
“Today when I went to feast at Guanyue Tower, several braised dishes were somewhat sour. I thought if Father has to eat in Xu Prefecture in the future without being able to enjoy superior braised flavors, then being prefectural governor really wouldn’t have much meaning. Thinking I didn’t have anything particularly important to do these days, I decided to teach Han Zhou Shi and the others how to boil braising liquid. Once the braising liquid is ready, duck tongues need to be simmered over low heat to properly absorb the flavor—dinner will still take quite a while.”
“At noon at Guanyue Tower, the young master found several dishes not to his taste and flew into a rage, nearly having Guanyue Tower demolished!” Zhao Ting’er seized the opportunity to complain.
Han Qian had decided to use Xi Ren, and Zhao Ting’er had the biggest objection. Seeing she had held it in all day without mentioning it, she now wanted to find a way to show a little temper. He couldn’t help laughing and joked with his father:
“Even Xi Ren thought those duck dishes were made too crudely. For Guanyue Tower to deceive this young master with such things—if I didn’t show some temper, then what was the point of me working so hard following my father all the way to take up office in Xu Prefecture?”
Han Qian deliberately mentioned Madam Xi’s given name. Seeing neither his father nor Fan Xicheng’s eyes showed the slightest confusion, he knew his father had also learned of Xi Ren’s background by now.
Xi Ren wasn’t yet very familiar with Han Qian’s temperament. How could she know that his casual remark concealed so many twists and turns?
Standing to the side, seeing Han Daoxun and Fan Xicheng glancing over—especially Fan Xicheng looking at her several times after entering the courtyard—she also felt embarrassed, as if after meeting Feng Xuan and Gao Bao today, Han Qian’s commotion at Guanyue Tower was truly related to her.
“You slaughtered a hundred ducks just to braise a few plates of duck tongues?” Han Daoxun asked.
“How could I be so wasteful?” Han Qian said. “Duck gizzards, duck livers, duck hearts can all be braised and eaten. But the duck meat I bought today is somewhat tough, not fatty and tender enough. Following the recipes transcribed in *Zhou Xuetang’s Letters*, I made several osmanthus ducks. The flavor may not be authentic—Father, don’t mind too much later.”
“…These past days, everything has gone smoothly for you, so your mood shouldn’t be bad. There’s no reason to torment the uninvolved Guanyue Tower,” Han Daoxun was the person who knew Han Qian’s temperament best and didn’t believe he spoke so casually. He asked, “Stop playing dumb and acting foolish. What scheme are you really plotting?”
“If Father wants to spread a reputation for extortionate taxation and extravagant debauchery, there always needs to be some iconic anecdotes,” Han Qian said with a laugh. “Now our household has killed a hundred ducks just to make one dish—spreading this would be impressively imposing, wouldn’t it?”
“…” Fan Xicheng was dumbstruck. What kind of explanation was this? What kind of behavior was this?
Han Daoxun stared at the courtyard full of bloody ducks, frowning in thought for a while before asking, “You want your father to encourage people in Xu Prefecture to raise more ducks and poultry?”
Han Qian slapped his thigh and laughed, pointing at Han Laoshan and the others with a laughing scolding: “You fools, given half a day and you still couldn’t figure it out. Several of you combined truly don’t match my father’s quick-wittedness!” He laughed again with his father: “Those above have preferences, those below pursue them even more zealously. The day before yesterday when I traveled up the Yuan River, I saw the silted shoals along both banks were extremely wide. Even if we eventually build embankments to create fields, there will necessarily be many ponds where small fish, shrimp, crabs, insects, snails, and earthworms grow abundantly. Yet very few village stockades along both banks raise ducks and poultry—they’re not fully utilizing the land’s productivity, which is truly regrettable. I don’t know if Father noticed, but I think if Father at this time merely relies on official correspondence to make local people change customs, it would be far less effective than our household eating duck lavishly and eating innovatively! These excess slaughtered ducks we can’t finish—smoke and preserve them all as cured meats and ship them to Jinling for sale! Today’s commotion at Guanyue Tower was also to hope they could improve their duck-cooking skills, so Xu Prefecture develops a custom of eating duck, making duck-raising more prevalent.”
Only then did Fan Xicheng understand—the young master’s actions, at their root, were still thinking of every possible way to expand the scale of trade from Xu Prefecture to Jinling. He truly intended to use the family head’s reputation to the utmost extreme.
Han Daoxun shook his head with a bitter smile. He had agreed that after arriving in Xu Prefecture, he would bear the reputation of an extortionate official, but he never imagined Han Qian would truly apply it without limit.
Han Qian said with a laugh: “Today I personally went into the kitchen to test-make several roast duck dishes. They’ll be served together later. If Father has unfinished official business, go handle it first. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed later.”
Han Qian wanted to stir up Xu Prefecture’s stagnant waters. He hoped the scale of direct commercial trade participation and refugee influx in Xu Prefecture would be as large as possible. However, no matter how abundant Xu Prefecture’s products were—whether medicinal herbs, tea, cinnabar, and so on—limited by population, what could currently be transported out of Xu Prefecture for sale was quite limited in scale.
The rise of any industry whatsoever in Xu Prefecture could directly stimulate expansion of commercial trade scale with Jinling.
He thought that industries in this age that could directly induce widespread participation by ordinary Xu Prefecture people while showing results in a short time were quite limited. Utilizing the characteristics of the Yuan River’s many shoals and slow flow through Qianyang County to raise ducks and poultry was one of them.
Even if weaving canvas and tarpaulin could become an industry, it was still limited by Xu Prefecture’s local cotton and hemp cultivation scale being limited, making it difficult to truly form a pillar industry in a short time.
Growing tea, mineral extraction, and smelting were all the same.
As long as the custom of eating duck could flourish in Xu Prefecture, even if Xu Prefecture didn’t have many ducklings, the boat association could completely transport them from along the Yuan River and even the Dongting Lake shores, enabling duck-raising and cured duck production on this side of Xu Prefecture to rapidly form scale.
Han Qian was breaking his heart over these matters. Naturally, Han Laoshan and the others found it difficult to understand, but his father was ultimately the same type of figure as Wang Yu, Yang En, Shen Yang, and others. With a little thought, he could still understand his intentions without Han Qian needing to waste effort explaining.
Of course, for Xu Prefecture locals to develop the custom of eating duck, which would be more conducive to the rise of the duck-raising industry, Han Qian thought that during this period in Xu Prefecture, he should make several roast duck dishes to promote. This was also his intention in making a commotion at Guanyue Tower today.
Otherwise, he wasn’t particularly fond of eating duck—why bother spending so much effort on it?
Jinling osmanthus duck was indeed exceptional, as was the roast duck commonly eaten in the north—both had several hundred years of history. But Han Laoshan’s wife and several servant women didn’t eat such refined food normally and didn’t know the specific methods.
Even Guanyue Tower, acclaimed as Qianyang City’s number one kitchen, served quite ordinary osmanthus duck and roast duck today.
After meeting with Feng Xuan and Gao Bao at noon, Han Qian specifically dragged out Guanyue Tower’s head chef to question him, only to discover that the Jianghuai and northern cuisine skills they had learned weren’t refined enough. He specifically had them transcribe the recipes, then brought them back to Furong Garden in the afternoon to study.
For Han Daoxun’s journey to take office in Xu Prefecture, his luggage contained mostly books, including many literati letters and notes that transcribed numerous recipes—the saying that literati were mostly gourmands was absolutely true.
Han Qian, Zhao Ting’er, and Xi Ren spent the afternoon searching through recipes and comparing them with the recipes transcribed by Guanyue Tower’s head chef. Only then did they discover that when Guanyue Tower boiled braising liquid, sterilization during preservation wasn’t thorough enough, and they were too stingy with oil—these were key reasons the braised flavors fermented and turned sour. The osmanthus duck and roast duck methods showed signs of cutting corners, missing one or two procedures, causing the flavor to completely change.
While Han Qian, Zhao Ting’er, and Xi Ren studied the recipes, he also had Han Laoshan lead people to buy ducks. But eating duck wasn’t prevalent in Xu Prefecture—the east city market only had two duck shops, and they couldn’t even gather a hundred ducks together. They had to go outside the city to collect them for half a day, finally gathering a hundred ducks to bring back to Furong Garden for slaughter by evening.
By the time Han Qian finished making several braised duck dishes and osmanthus duck, night had deepened. Everyone was famished but didn’t dare voice any complaints.
After Han Qian tasted them himself and was satisfied, besides the evening feast prepared for the household, he called Han Laoshan over: “Pack up a bowl of each of these right now and send them to Guanyue Tower. Have their proprietor and head chef taste them. Tomorrow I’ll switch to a different eatery to wreck their place!”
Seeing Han Qian actually use this method to forcibly promote roast duck dishes, Han Laoshan was both amused and exasperated. He asked: “Young master, if you continue causing trouble for a few more days, will our household truly become despised by both men and gods in Qianyang City?”
“Go! I’ve painstakingly helped this eatery improve their cooking skills. If they’re not grateful, what more do they want?” Han Qian glared at Han Laoshan, telling him to quickly do as instructed and stop being long-winded.