The three ships docked directly at the riverbank. Yang Qin and the others jumped onto the beach and came over to pay their respects to Han Qian.

This was also why nearly all regions of Jianghuai, Sichuan, and Hunan built flat-bottomed boats—primarily for convenient beaching. If they used sharp-bottomed large ships with drafts of five or six feet deep, in shallow silted beaches like those near Canglang, they would need to build piers over ten meters long to reach the land.

Moreover, the current ironworking techniques were limited, making it quite difficult to produce large anchors weighing a thousand jin. Without large trees on the shore to moor to and without sufficiently heavy anchors to grip the riverbed, anchoring ships in the water also became problematic.

Therefore, the Xuzhou shipyard under construction would face considerable difficulties in building truly fast sailing ships.

In fact, many people questioned whether the Xuzhou shipyard even needed to be built.

Han Qian had been obstinate about this matter. Whenever Ji Xiyao sent letters, he always replied to them first, not only providing financial and grain support, but even when Ji Xiyao encountered various technical difficulties in preparing the shipyard, he would provide solutions in as much detail as possible, encouraging Ji Xiyao to boldly try the methods he envisioned.

Despite the enormous expenses, he bore them alone. At the same time, he did his best to send to Xuzhou those young craftsmen from the workshops who others saw as restless and unbound by tradition, assigning them to Ji Xiyao’s use.

“Build a fortification here?”

Yang Qin came to see Han Qian and was greatly shocked to learn that Li Zhigao and Li Chong continued upstream along the Dan River while Han Qian remained here with Tian Cheng and others.

Was this something their Left Administration could actually accomplish right now?

Yang Qin had roamed the martial world for many years. He had dared to assassinate court officials for profit at Ji Kun’s instigation, so he could be called bold and arrogant, but even he had never thought of building a city here.

Of course, if they could conscript three to five thousand able-bodied laborers and had the funds and grain to support these laborers, this would be a natural course of action. But where were the funds and grain? Where were the laborers?

Currently, the Left Administration scouts deployed in Deng-Xiang, together with the boat guild guards and sailors, totaled fewer than eighty men. How could they accomplish this?

Capture wild folk?

Although there were large numbers of fugitive households living in mountain strongholds in the deep mountains and wild ridges, these fugitives were mostly controlled by remnants of defeated forces from successive Deng-Xiang campaigns over the past several decades.

When warfare ceased, perhaps a single decree from Jinling distributing land would bring these fugitive households gradually down from the mountains to register, but now if they tried to peacefully send people to forcibly conscript laborers, they would be shot back with a volley of arrows rather than see ghosts.

With just these few elite forces in the Left Administration, they shouldn’t even think about attacking mountain strongholds.

The Longque Army might have the capability to forcibly take down a few mountain villages, but after suffering casualties, once they captured the strongholds, the money and grain would certainly be distributed as rewards to valiant soldiers. As for the fugitive mountain folk they captured—the Longque Army needed large numbers of able-bodied laborers to build camps and fortifications at Jingzi Pass, didn’t they?

Yang Qin worried that Han Qian was exploiting the newly established boat guild too harshly, so he straightforwardly laid out all the difficulties he could think of.

“There is a business in this world that has caused countless heads to roll over the past several decades, yet it persists despite repeated prohibitions. What do you think it is?” Han Qian asked Yang Qin with a faint smile.

Yang Qin had initially broken the Yangtan Water Stronghold, which was later destroyed by Zhong Yanhu. Although they had been enemies when Han Qian broke Yangtan Water Stronghold, Yang Qin could not blame him afterward. But Yang Qin’s subsequent allegiance to him was more due to being forced by circumstances.

Now that Yangtan Water Stronghold had been rebuilt in Xuzhou and Guo Nu’er, Lin Zongjing, and others had been incorporated into the boat guild, Han Qian wasn’t worried Yang Qin would harbor disloyalty. However, clearly he couldn’t expect Yang Qin to have no thoughts of his own and blindly follow his every command.

When persuasion was needed, appropriate persuasion was still necessary.

“Trafficking contraband salt?” Yang Qin asked in surprise. “Could we really do such a thing?”

The civil unrest that swept across both sides of the great river twenty or thirty years ago, thoroughly shaking the previous dynasty’s rule, had initially been started by a gang of illegal salt traders.

Whether learning from that lesson or perhaps to raise military funds, Great Chu’s crackdown on contraband salt since its founding had been even more severe than the previous dynasty. Every year, no fewer than eight hundred to a thousand salt criminals who trafficked more than one dan of salt had their heads chopped off.

Yet in the current world, salt profits were truly enormous. Even with heads rolling, contraband salt could not be completely eliminated.

When Han Daoxun and his son entered Xuzhou, the provincial prison was in an uproar. At that time, the prison held nine hundred inmates, sixty percent of whom were salt criminals.

Yang Qin could easily arrive at the answer to Han Qian’s question.

It was just that salt profits were currently one of the main sources for raising military funds. The Salt and Iron Transport Commissioner’s authority had become so great that it surpassed the Ministry of Finance and the Commission for State Expenditures. Salt officials were spread throughout provinces and counties, with extremely numerous eyes and ears.

Not to mention, they still didn’t know how many people under职方司 Zhao Mingting were watching them right now.

If they really did this, wouldn’t they be handing a handle directly to the Anning Palace and the Crown Prince’s faction?

When the matter was exposed, not only would their heads be forfeit, but the Third Prince, having aroused public outrage, wouldn’t need to think about the succession struggle anymore, would he?

“Where has your mind wandered?” Han Qian laughed. “Why can’t we sell salt openly and legitimately? Yangtan Water Stronghold has certainly done plenty of contraband salt trading in the past—you couldn’t fail to think of even this much!”

“How can we sell salt openly and legitimately?” Although Han Qian said he should be able to think of it, Yang Qin was still utterly confused for the moment.

“Between Jianghuai, food salt is all officially transported and officially sold, but in Xuzhou, food salt is commercially transported and commercially sold. So let me ask you—should food salt here be officially transported and officially sold, or commercially transported and commercially sold?” Han Qian asked.

“Xiangzhou city has a Salt and Iron Bureau. Officials and commoners within Xiangzhou all must buy their salt from official shops, so naturally here it should be officially transported and officially sold, right?” Yang Qin said uncertainly.

“Wrong!” Han Qian said. “Du Chongtao serves as Xiangzhou Administrator and concurrently as Deng-Xiang Defense Commissioner, which means he oversees Xiangzhou’s military and civil affairs and the defense of Xiangzhou and Dengzhou. But don’t forget—we are currently standing on Junzhou’s territory! Never mind civil administration—in reality, even local provincial troops and security matters are beyond Du Chongtao’s reach! Could a small Xiangzhou Salt and Iron Bureau possibly extend its reach into Junzhou and control Junzhou’s salt affairs?”

“Ah? We can really do this?” Yang Qin asked somewhat foolishly, still with confusion all over his face.

“Can you straighten your spine? Our backing is the Third Prince, the Deputy Commander of the entire Northwestern Army. How can you be so lacking in ambition?” Han Qian asked with a laugh.

Great Chu’s salt system implemented official production, official collection, official transport, and official sales. Contraband salt exceeding one dan was subject to immediate execution—extremely harsh. However, there were also very rare exceptions.

Border provinces like Chen and Xu were located in remote areas with numerous water bandits and mountain brigands along the routes. In these border provinces, salt affairs were conducted through official production and collection but commercial transport and sales.

Junzhou had long been abandoned.

In haste, the court hadn’t yet thought to reestablish Junzhou, but to limit the power of border commanders, the court also hadn’t incorporated Junzhou into Xiangzhou—only temporarily placing defense matters against the Shu army in Liangzhou under the jurisdiction of the Deng-Xiang Defense Commissioner’s Office.

However, Han Qian speculated about Du Chongtao’s mindset—he too didn’t want to remind the court about reestablishing Junzhou.

On one hand, there were no people here who could be registered. The mountain strongholds wouldn’t accept incorporation. Establishing new provinces and counties, besides wasting money and grain feeding a group of officials, what else could be accomplished?

On the other hand, if new provinces and counties were established, the court would necessarily dispatch a new administrator. Why would Du Chongtao invite another heavyweight official to share his authority?

For anyone else, trying to exploit this loophole would undoubtedly be seeking death.

What common person, cherishing their life, would dare say that salt affairs, fortification construction, and other civil matters here were not subject to the jurisdiction of the Xiangzhou Salt and Iron Bureau, the Xiangzhou Administrator’s Office, or the Deng-Xiang Defense Commissioner’s Office?

Others couldn’t do it, but the Third Prince Yang Yuanpu could.

Theoretically, as long as the boat guild could obtain salt permits, they could purchase food salt from salt officials at a price of one thousand qian per dan and transport it to Junzhou for sale.

Of course, if there truly wasn’t a single person within Junzhou’s old territory, the salt transported there couldn’t be sold, which would also be futile. If they dared to cross borders to sell salt in Xiangzhou or other provinces and counties, exceeding one dan would also be a capital offense. But the problem was that Han Qian and his men had just discovered that hidden between the mountains along the Han and Dan rivers were large numbers of fugitive households.

If Han Qian now rashly tried to register these fugitive households in the provincial census and levy taxes and labor service, it would only provoke fierce resistance. But what about selling them salt at relatively low prices, or trading with them for goods, or even exchanging for them sending people down from the mountains to work?

Salt merchants in border provinces like Chen and Xu had already been monopolized by great clans and powerful families. Han Qian didn’t want to intensify conflicts and had no way to forcibly intervene in salt affairs. But in the Xiangzhou direction, with such a big loophole, how could he not exploit it?

However, salt affairs were merely the pretext Han Qian used to persuade Yang Qin and others to work hard and support this matter. His more fundamental purpose was to push for the reestablishment of Junzhou.

He let Yang Qin slowly digest and carefully consider the benefits salt affairs might bring to the Left Administration, while Han Qian himself stood on the riverbank, gazing at the distant clouds and water.

In early September, after learning that Liang state was actively preparing for warfare, Han Qian had tried every means to persuade Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and the others to fight for the Longque Army to participate in the war. But what the Longque Army could accomplish by participating in the war was also something Han Qian had pondered intensely over the past month or more.

If the Liang army didn’t plan to attack the Nanyang Basin this winter and had no plan to launch an offensive from Wuguan, would the Longque Army just make a circuit to Xiangzhou and then pat their backsides and return triumphantly to Jinling?

Perhaps most soldiers and even officers in their hearts might think exactly that.

For people like Guo Rong, Guo Liang, and Gao Chengyuan, making this trip, even without distinguished military merit, still counted as hard work if not achievement. Their seniority in the army would increase somewhat, making it easier to obtain better military positions in the future.

Officers who risked their lives with soaring ambitions to compete for military merit on bloody battlefields were, after all, a minority.

Even Shen Yang, in the depths of his heart, mostly hoped that the various states could cease their conflicts.

From the bottom of his heart, Han Qian also hoped to linger in tender embraces, unable to tear himself away. It was just that harsh reality forced him to suppress this longing and fantasy in the deepest part of his heart, not allowing even the slightest sprout to emerge.

Even if the warfare the Liang army was about to launch was mainly directed at the Shouzhou army and they wouldn’t send large forces into the Nanyang Basin, and even if their Guanzhong forces at Wuguan would only strictly guard their gates without making any extra moves, Han Qian absolutely would not let the Longque Army have no further accomplishments over the next three to five months.

That would be equivalent to the Longque Army wasting three to five months of precious time!

Thinking that Emperor Tianyou likely had less than three years of life remaining, Han Qian wished he could split time into several portions to spend.

The best outcome Han Qian could currently envision was for the Liang army to attack right now, then hold a stalemate in the Nanyang Basin for two or three years, with the Longque Army also being forced to remain garrisoned in Xiangzhou until Emperor Tianyou’s death.

Even if the Crown Prince smoothly ascended the throne then and the Anning Palace held power, as long as Han Qian remained in Xiangzhou with part of the elite Longque Army forces, he would have more options rather than worrying about losing his head and life at any moment.

Of course, given the situations of Liang and Chu states, neither had the strength to sustain a war spanning a thousand li for two or three years without withdrawing troops.

However, the Longque Army could still fight for—at minimum fight for—the opportunity to have part of their forces garrison the western frontier without withdrawing to Jinling.

This was also why Han Qian had strongly advocated in Jinling for the Longque Army to take over defense of the three counties west of Deng, and persuaded Marquis Xinchang Li Pu to maneuver in Jinling to fight for the restoration of Junzhou’s administrative status.

Imperial princes or ministers holding provincial posts from afar was not unusual since the previous dynasty.

So-called remote holding actually meant the Third Prince could remain in Jinling while still concurrently serving as provincial administrator or even Defense Commissioner or Regional Commander, then dispatching trusted subordinate officials to remain in the provinces and counties to handle military and civil affairs.

When Han Qian was in Jinling, he had proposed the idea of fighting to establish a new Junzhou. Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, Li Zhigao, and others also felt this was an excellent strategy to expand the Longque Army’s power. But whether to implement this strategy right now was a matter of debate.

After all, the Longque Army was currently extremely short of funds and grain.

The Evening Crimson Tower and Marquis Xinchang’s potential had already been squeezed dry—otherwise they wouldn’t have indulged Han Qian in borrowing heavily in the Third Prince’s name.

Of course, Han Qian also had no way to beat his chest and swear that old fellow Emperor Tianyou would definitely not live past three years, so everyone should risk their necks and go for it.

In the eyes of Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, Emperor Tianyou, though over sixty years old, was still quite vigorous in spirit. At this time when Emperor Tianyou clearly had thoughts of cultivating the Third Prince, they didn’t want to appear too eager, lest some link go wrong, leading to failure at the final stage and total loss.

This was when Han Qian needed to find another path. The first lever to pry open these various matters was salt affairs.