“Upon first arriving in Xuzhou, Han Daoxun and his son used the strategy of beating the grass to startle the snake, inducing the Four Surnames to hastily instigate a prison riot. Han Daoxun and his son suppressed the riot overnight, frightening the Four Surnames’ offspring into fleeing Qianyang City in panic, causing Qianyang City to fall completely into the hands of Han Daoxun and his son. The Four Surnames were thus forced to agree to establish commercial trade and maintain the status quo with Han Daoxun and his son. Although the situation within Xuzhou’s territory currently remains extraordinarily complex, this is also the best control the central government has been able to achieve over Xuzhou in the hundreds of years since Qianyang City was established and Wu River became a prefecture. Now that no news has emerged of Bureau of Operations scouts operating in Xuzhou, they have presumably been expelled by Han Daoxun and his son or have already suffered heavy losses…”

Inside the Langzhou Vice Governor’s office, Ma Xun, heir to the Tanzhou Military Commissioner, sat behind the main desk. Ma Rong, the Langzhou Vice Governor who controlled the military administration, provincial garrison, and provincial prison, was Ma Xun’s paternal uncle. At this time, according to Tanzhou’s internal ranking, he could only sit below Heir Ma Xun, watching as Heir Retainer Wen Ruilin stood in the hall delivering an impassioned address.

The various developments that had appeared in Xuzhou over the past month were completely unexpected by everyone, causing the great mountains of southwestern Hunan, peaceful for many years, to seem to boil day and night.

Numerous Tanzhou Military Commissioner officials led by Heir Ma Xun had no choice but to gather at the river mouth where the Yuan River entered Dongting Lake, in Hanshou City where the Langzhou provincial administration was located, to personally observe the situation of refugees passing through and discuss countermeasures.

Just as Ma Xun arrived in Hanshou City, their informants planted in Qianyang City sent news that Han Daoxun was collecting money along both banks of the Yuan River to lift land prohibitions.

Wen Ruilin naturally strongly recommended closing off the passage for refugees traveling south via the Yuan River, and moreover preventing the populace of Tan, Lang, Yue, and other places from being misled by rumors into flooding into Xuzhou, ignoring the information Han Daoxun and his son deliberately released.

Prohibiting refugees from crossing borders was originally the duty of provincial and county administrations. They could even strengthen interrogation of merchant vessels and caravans, detaining all border-crossing people without travel permits. In that case, whatever calculations Han Daoxun and his son had would come to nothing.

On the larger scale, in Wen Ruilin’s view, Tanzhou should strive to maintain the status quo in the southern Hunan prefectures, quietly awaiting developments in the Jinling situation.

As long as turmoil appeared in Jinling’s situation, the native-registered tribal peoples of the southern Hunan prefectures were actually extremely dispersed in power. Even though their strongholds were all easy to defend and difficult to attack, by issuing proclamations to detain officials dispatched by Jinling and maintaining the status quo with the native-registered tribal peoples and great clans, they could rapidly stabilize the situation in the southern Hunan prefectures.

“Han Daoxun is collecting wealth by lifting land prohibitions, without restricting land-reclaiming refugees from establishing stockade dwellings. Isn’t this an excellent opportunity for us to comprehensively infiltrate and control Xuzhou?” Although Heir Ma Xun greatly valued Wen Ruilin’s opinions, not everyone secretly gathered in the Langzhou Vice Governor’s hall today felt Wen Ruilin’s words were reasonable. Ma Yuanheng, seated below Ma Rong, had served as Xuzhou Prefectural Governor thirteen years ago. After being driven out of Xuzhou by the Four Surnames, he led his remaining forces to seek refuge with clansman Ma Yin. Though his hair and beard were now completely white, his spirit remained vigorous as he currently served as Changsha Magistrate, making him one of the core members of the Tanzhou Group.

Ma Yuanheng still remembered the humiliating history of being driven out of Xuzhou like a dog by the Four Surnames. He thought that if they followed Wen Ruilin’s plan, even if they could peacefully coexist with the native-registered great clans in the future, it would only nominally bring the southern Hunan prefectures under Tanzhou’s governance. But the goal of relying on the southern Hunan prefectures to become Tanzhou’s stable rear area still could not be achieved.

The balance of power between Xuzhou’s native-registered and guest-registered factions had been broken by Han Daoxun and his son. With Han Daoxun collecting wealth and lifting land prohibitions along both banks of the Yuan River while the Four Surnames’ power retreated into the mountains and forests, if they did not take this opportunity to intervene on a large scale, when else would they?

“How do you know this isn’t Han Daoxun and his son’s scheme to lure our Tanzhou into a quagmire?” Wen Ruilin questioned.

“How do you know this isn’t Han Daoxun and his son showing goodwill toward Tanzhou?” Ma Yuanheng countered. “I see that Master Wen sometimes studies the arts of Huang-Lao philosophy too excessively, always feeling that everyone is as inscrutable as Master Wen’s idle speculations. I see this matter as very simple. Han Daoxun and his son serve the Third Imperial Prince, true, but as long as they’re human, they’ll have selfish interests. They may well consider where to go after the Third Imperial Prince loses power in the succession struggle!”

Everyone felt Ma Yuanheng’s words made sense. Currently Jinling was extremely vigilant toward Tanzhou. Officials from Jinling would not easily befriend Tanzhou, at least not publicly. But with Han Daoxun and his son secretly leaving such a large opening for Tanzhou, being timid and hesitant would be somewhat too cowardly.

Seeing that the Heir had already been moved by Ma Yuanheng’s words, Wen Ruilin still refused to yield an inch, saying: “If Han Daoxun and his son truly wanted to show goodwill toward Tanzhou, they wouldn’t keep the Xi clan woman by their side.”

“You!” Seeing Wen Ruilin rely on the Heir’s favor to callously expose his scar without scruple, Ma Yuanheng was so angry his white beard beneath his chin trembled. Slapping the desk, he said, “Wen Ruilin, you guard against the east and west, yet today you cannot explain what exactly Han Daoxun and his son are plotting. Who do you think will support you in blockading the waterway? Even if the Heir listens to your instigation, ultimately the Lord still has the final decision. Do you want to implicate the Heir in receiving the Lord’s rebuke?”

To give his son Ma Xun training experience, Tanzhou Military Commissioner Ma Yin had turned over all matters related to the southwest to him for handling. But if Ma Yuanheng, Ma Rong, or others strongly opposed, matters would ultimately be presented to Military Commissioner Ma Yin for final decision.

“Han Daoxun and his son’s schemes run deep and are not easy to fathom, but in planning the Dragon Sparrow Army for the Marquis of Linjiang, they managed to deceive right under Anning Palace’s nose. Based on this calculation alone, we cannot be too cautious in guarding against these two.”

Although Wen Ruilin had secretly resided in Qianyang for over half a month, and every step Han Daoxun and Han Qian took in Xuzhou was crystal clear in intent and seemed consistent with what they had said when meeting on the Outer River in Yuezhou, when Wen Ruilin tried to see the complete overall picture, he found only clouds and misty seas.

This made the highly self-regarding Wen Ruilin feel he was treading on thin ice at every step.

Regardless of Ma Yuanheng and Ma Rong’s attitudes, he persisted in his own views, advising Heir Ma Xun.

“We must guard against Han Daoxun and Han Qian pulling chestnuts from the fire?”

“Pulling chestnuts from the fire? Is Master Wen saying Han Daoxun and Han Qian intend to carve out Xuzhou as their own territory?”

Ma Yuanheng could not help but laugh heartily, saying:

“Since ancient times, which ambitious heroes have been able to deliberately stir up such chaos and then pull chestnuts from the fire? Taking ten thousand steps back, even if Han Daoxun and his son keep the Xi clan woman by their side with the intention of gathering the Xi clan remnants, and the Four Surnames have no intention of stopping them, the two to three thousand Xi clan remnants amount to only three to five hundred able-bodied men. How can they pull chestnuts from the fire before Tanzhou with its two million registered population?”

“How do you know Han Daoxun and his son aren’t following Yang Mi’s secret orders to lure Tanzhou into revealing its hand?” Wen Ruilin said針鋒相對.

With Wen Ruilin saying this, Ma Yuanheng was also at a loss for words, unable to refute.

“Admittedly the Han father and son may have ambitions, but if they’re truly as clever as Master Wen suggests, they should know that without corresponding strength, excessive ambition is merely the path to self-destruction. As for whether Jinling deliberately had Han Daoxun and his son set a trap, there’s no need for excessive worry. The situation Jinling faces is already chaotic enough—why would they create additional complications in the west?” Ma Rong cleared his throat and said.

Ma Rong was not only a core Ma clan member, but as Langzhou Vice Governor, he controlled Langzhou’s military administration, provincial garrison, provincial prison, and other matters. If they truly wanted to blockade the passage into Xuzhou via the Yuan River, he would be the one to implement it. But he also felt Wen Ruilin’s current state of extreme vigilance was somewhat excessive alarm.

Whether Han Daoxun and his son had ambitions, Ma Rong could not say, but he thought that as long as they were human, having ambitions was normal. Anyone present had some ambition and extravagant hopes—did that mean they all couldn’t be used?

As for whether this was deliberately designed by Jinling, Ma Rong also felt Wen Ruilin was overthinking. At this time, Jinling should be guarding against turmoil here—how could they be trying every means to induce turmoil here?

Unless Jinling had already gained control of the situation in all other directions, and the internal succession struggle was all a false front, allowing them to free up hands to resolve the Tanzhou problem?

If that were truly the case, then no matter what, if Tanzhou did not want everyone to meekly accept Jinling’s arrangements and have military and administrative authority completely taken over by Jinling, they would have to struggle somehow.

Ma Rong continued:

“There’s no reason in the world to fear the enemy’s strength and thus sever one’s own limbs, much less when it’s still too early to say whether the Han father and son are enemies or friends. More critically, even if Jinling experiences turmoil, the duration may well not be very long. We cannot afford to be complacent now.”

Apart from Heir Ma Xun, Ma Rong and Ma Yuanheng carried the most weight among those present. With both saying this, Wen Ruilin thought the Heir might make a decision without even presenting the matter to the Military Commissioner, wouldn’t he?

Wen Ruilin thought again in his heart—perhaps he really was overthinking things. If he couldn’t understand it no matter how he looked at it, maybe the simplest and most direct explanation was the truth?

“In Uncle’s view, what should we do?” Ma Xun looked toward Ma Rong and asked.

“In the name of Qianjiang Inn, loan five hundred gold cakes to Han Qian. See if he dares issue a receipt and accept this money,” Ma Rong proposed to Ma Xun, then looked toward Wen Ruilin and asked, “What does Master Wen think?”

Wen Ruilin knew Ma Rong was of military background with aggressive ambitions and disliked being timid and afraid to act, but he had to admit that first testing with gold cakes would be more prudent.

Five hundred gold cakes equaled six million coins.

If an inn restaurant that accommodated traveling peddlers and laborers produced this enormous sum in the name of a loan to Han Qian in exchange for the convenience of building dikes and reclaiming land outside Qianyang City, even ghosts could guess where this money came from.

After Han Daoxun and Han Qian accepted this money, if there was no movement from Jinling, no deployment of Chu troops east of Yuezhou, and Han Daoxun and his son truly tacitly allowed them to send several hundred or even over a thousand garrison soldiers and some dependents to Xuzhou to settle in two or three strategic locations along the Yuan River in the name of reclamation, then at least they need not worry this was a trap set by Jinling.

If in the future they could have two to three thousand directly controlled military forces in Xuzhou’s heartland, they truly need not fear Xuzhou could fly from their grasp. How could Chenzhou, sandwiched between Langzhou and Xuzhou, stand alone and break free from Tanzhou’s control?

This would open up six to seven hundred miles of strategic depth for Tanzhou along the Yuan River upstream to the southwest, and moreover allow them to extend their influence through Xuzhou into the former Qianzhong Commandery. This was absolutely better than waiting for turmoil in Jinling before resolving the Chen and Xu prefectures’ problems.

Even if at that time, the native-registered great clan forces would most likely choose to observe and not threaten Tanzhou’s flanks and rear, Tanzhou also should not expect to hastily mobilize manpower and resources from these places.

If Jinling’s turmoil lasted long, Tanzhou could leisurely reorganize the southern Hunan prefectures. But if Jinling’s turmoil was extremely brief, or even if Emperor Tianyou died and his son succeeded, with the Xu clan in-laws behaving dutifully, or if the Xu clan in-laws decided to resolve the Tanzhou threat before the dynastic change, without a stable rear with strategic depth, wouldn’t Tanzhou be screwed then?

However, what Wen Ruilin worried about was that even if Han Daoxun and his son had selfish interests prompting such arrangements in Xuzhou, even if Han Daoxun and his son’s arrangements could deceive Jinling, deceive Anning Palace and the Xu clan in-laws, could they deceive Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, who jointly supported the Third Imperial Prince in the succession struggle with them?

At that time, what would Han Daoxun and his son use to persuade others in the Marquis of Linjiang’s faction to support what they were doing in Xuzhou?

Or could it be that for the succession struggle, the Third Imperial Prince could completely sacrifice interests west of Jing and Hu?

This was what Wen Ruilin found most incomprehensible. But he also knew that in the eyes of Ma Rong, Ma Yuanheng, and others, while Han Daoxun and his son might be very formidable, they still did not qualify as key adversaries worthy of their primary consideration. What they truly focused on currently was still Emperor Tianyou, Anning Palace, and the Xu clan in-laws…