West of Longyang County in Langzhou lay the river mouth where the Yuan River entered Dongting Lake. The fleet had entered the Yuan River from the river mouth west of Longyang County last night, slowing their speed for night navigation. Now as the sky brightened, they could see the city of Wuling County in the distance.

At this time, the surrounding mountain ranges and fertile fields were already covered in white snow. The winding, meandering course of the Yuan River flowed slowly through heaven and earth.

The faint morning mist drifted out, spreading toward the snowy wilderness. Wuling City, beneath its covering of white snow, was shrouded in thin vapor, like a fairyland.

On deck, Gao Shao and Tian Cheng, standing behind Han Qian, nervously fixed their eyes on the naval camp stationed on the west side of Wuling City.

Three thousand elite troops and dozens of warships of the Tanzhou naval forces were stationed there—the main military strength by which Ma Rong, a core general of the Ma clan, Langzhou Administrator, and Wuling County Magistrate, controlled this fertile land in the lower Yuan River.

Last night, Han Qian had concentrated the main forces on the three war sailing ships.

At this moment, the three war sailing ships were positioned at the front of the entire cone-shaped fleet formation. Once the Tanzhou naval forces at Wuling showed signs of deploying to intercept them on the Yuan River’s main channel, they could only use these three war sailing ships as the main force to tear through the blockade.

The Feng family’s fate should have already made Tanzhou abandon their illusions about Jinling, but that didn’t necessarily mean Tanzhou would allow them to proceed to Xuzhou.

Therefore, until they truly entered Chenzhou territory, everything remained full of enormous variables.

Once they reached Chenzhou, matters would be somewhat easier.

Even though the Chenzhou provincial garrison also had over a thousand troops, like Xuzhou, the Chenzhou provincial garrison was mainly controlled by local prominent families who had even less intention of being loyal to the court.

Even if the Chenzhou provincial garrison attempted to intercept the fleet, they had confidence in repelling them. After all, the local prominent families of Chenzhou didn’t have many decent warships, and the provincial garrison consisted mainly of infantry.

Gao Shao and Tian Cheng were simultaneously worried that the soldiers behind them would become greatly suspicious. Once military morale became unstable, or even a mutiny occurred, they wouldn’t need Tanzhou to act—they would find it difficult to reach Xuzhou smoothly on their own.

……

……

“Han Daoxun and his son Han Qian have boundless ambitions. Having them as neighbors is absolutely no blessing for Tanzhou!”

Although after the Jingxiang campaign, Wen Ruilin had strongly advocated winning over Han Qian to join Tanzhou, even representing Heir Apparent Ma Xun in rushing to Turtle Mountain to meet Han Qian, at this moment, contrary to everyone’s expectations, he stood forth strongly urging Ma Rong to deploy troops to detain the fleet that was gradually approaching Wuling City.

Chizhou, Jiangzhou, Ezhou, Huangzhou, and other prefectures and counties were not subordinate to each other. Even when they saw the Xuzhou boat gang’s fleet crowded with people, their movements suspicious, and hesitated about dispatching military ships to intercept and search, the fleet had already sailed far away.

However, the Tanzhou Military Commissioner’s Office governed the three prefectures of Yue, Lang, and Tan, with scouts and mounted scouts distributed throughout every corner of the eight-hundred-li Dongting Lake.

Even though Yuezhou had not managed to dispatch military ships to intercept and search directly, even though no clear information had yet been transmitted from Jinling, through the fishing boats and merchant vessels distributed across the surface of Dongting Lake, Tanzhou’s informants had already gathered most of the details about this passing fleet.

Connected with the matter of Feng clan members migrating to Xuzhou in two batches half a month earlier, Wen Ruilin, Langzhou Administrator Ma Rong, and others could basically confirm that the Han Daoxun father and son harbored ambitions to establish independent control of Xuzhou. Han Qian himself was most likely within the fleet.

Time was too short, and there was simply no time to send someone to Tanzhou to request instructions from the Military Commissioner or Heir Apparent about whether to detain the fleet or open the passage and tacitly permit the fleet to pass through to Xuzhou again. Ma Rong had to make a decision now.

When the Feng clan members initially sailed across Dongting Lake, Wen Ruilin had advocated detaining them.

When the Feng clan members passed through Dongting Lake in two batches at that time, the first batch consisted of fast sailing ships, and Tanzhou internally hadn’t had time to communicate. But the second batch of ordinary sailing ships traveled at half the speed and entered Tanzhou territory several days later—there would have been completely enough time to detain them.

Ultimately, Tanzhou Military Commissioner Ma Yin made the final decision to let both batches of ships carrying Feng clan members pass through safely.

After all, they really had no reason to intercept the Feng clan members, and even worried this was a trap Jinling had set for them—if they detained the Feng clan members without cause, Jinling would use this as a pretext to send troops against Tanzhou.

Afterward, Wen Ruilin had remained in Wuling. Unexpectedly, barely half a month after the second batch of ships carrying Feng clan members had passed through—perhaps only just now mooring in Xuzhou territory—the Xuzhou boat gang’s fast sailing ships were again carrying over a thousand people seeking passage.

Although during the two days the fleet entered through Yuezhou and then crossed Dongting Lake, Han Qian himself had not appeared or been seen by Tanzhou’s informants, among the over thousand people the Xuzhou boat gang was carrying this time, many were clearly members of Han Qian’s direct forces used in Jinling.

This most likely meant this was the last time the Xuzhou boat gang would pass through Tanzhou territory. Afterward, the Han father and son would hide behind Tanzhou and form their own system.

Unable to request instructions from Tanzhou in time, on the Langzhou side, some people shared Wen Ruilin’s position and advocated detaining the fleet, but more people advocated continuing to turn a blind eye and let the fleet pass.

First, during the past year, Tanzhou had built two fortified stockades north of Qianyang City and had twelve hundred elite combat forces available in the Xuzhou heartland.

In the sparsely populated Xuzhou, this already counted as quite considerable military strength.

Furthermore, even if the Han Daoxun father and son had ambitions to manage Xuzhou, they would realistically find it difficult to organize more than two thousand miscellaneous troops, and the Four Great Clans would surely be even more wary of the Han father and son going forward.

This meant that unless they obtained Tanzhou’s support, otherwise the Han father and son would find it very difficult to establish a firm foothold in Xuzhou.

In the past, Tanzhou naturally hoped to completely swallow the prefectures of Chen, Xu, Shao, and Heng, making them Tanzhou’s strategic depth. But Heir Apparent Ma Xun leading troops at the northern foothills of Dahong Mountain had been devastated by the Liang army’s cavalry, severely crushing the confidence of everyone in Tanzhou from top to bottom.

Regarding ambitions toward the Chen and Xu prefectures, most people on the Tanzhou side had also shifted from complete annexation to winning over and forming alliances.

For Wen Ruilin to stand forth now advocating detaining the fleet actually seemed somewhat unconventional.

“Third General is not a man of hesitation—will you truly sit and watch the Han family fleet pass?” Wen Ruilin stared at Ma Rong and asked.

“If Jinling uses Tanzhou to attack the Han father and son, Tanzhou could naturally and logically annex Chen and Xu prefectures. With this as the plan, we absolutely cannot detain the fleet now. We need only have our troops already infiltrated into Tanzhou remain carefully on guard, and the initiative will forever remain with our Tanzhou,” said a brigadier under Ma Rong’s command who had long found Wen Ruilin disagreeable. He now strongly recommended letting the fleet pass first.

“If Jinling requests to borrow passage through Tanzhou to attack Xuzhou, how should Brigadier Zhou respond?” Wen Ruilin’s sharp gaze fixed on that brigadier.

“Is Master Wen suggesting Jinling wishes to employ the strategy of ‘false passage to attack Guo’ against Tanzhou?” The brigadier glanced at Wen Ruilin disdainfully and said, “If Jinling wants to use such a childish stratagem against Tanzhou, wouldn’t this be an excellent opportunity for Tanzhou to turn their scheme against them?”

Wen Ruilin was at a loss for words. He said to Ma Rong: “Han Qian should be concealed within the fleet. Third General could perhaps send someone to invite Han Qian ashore for a meeting, delay him for several days, and wait for the Military Commissioner’s Office to make the final decision…”

……

……

Two oar boats sailed over from the river harbor. No matter how the messenger wearing blue official robes stood on deck jumping and shouting, inviting Han Qian to land and meet with Langzhou Administrator Ma Rong and others, the fleet had absolutely no intention of lowering sails or reducing speed, passing at full speed through the river channel.

Several crossbow bolts whooshed into the river water before those two oar boats, warning that if they approached any closer, they would mercilessly shoot and kill everyone on the boats on the spot.

Han Qian looked at Wuling City on the north bank of the Yuan River. Though separated by only three to four li, with a spyglass he could even see the surprised yet grave expressions of Ma Rong, Wen Ruilin, and others standing atop the city wall. He instructed Gao Shao behind him, saying: “Have someone shout that after I reach Xuzhou, I will send someone to invite General Ma Rong to Qianyang City to reminisce about old times.”

“You’re afraid of throwing a meat bun at a dog—once you enter Wuling City you won’t be able to leave. Ma Rong isn’t necessarily any less clever than you,” Zhao Ting’er muttered quietly behind him.

After the boats passed Wuling County and continued southwest, both banks featured towering mountain ranges. The river surface located within deep gorges also became much narrower.

Although the wind was blocked by the high, precipitous mountains, fortunately in the depths of winter, the Yuan River’s current was slow, allowing the fleet to continue advancing at a speed of one to two hundred li per day even without hiring trackers, finally arriving at the river beach outside Qianyang City on the twelfth day of the tenth month.

However, the scene outside Qianyang City at this time was vastly different from what Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Lin Haizheng, and others had imagined.

At this moment, Qianyang City’s gates were tightly shut, the gate tower bristling with weapons and soldiers, presenting the appearance of a great enemy pressing upon them.

As for the Feng family servants who had arrived in Xuzhou earlier, aside from the first batch who had been settled in advance at the newly constructed Yangtan Water Stockade in Wufeng Mountain, more people had arrived in Xuzhou half a month ago. At this time, they were all stranded on the river beach near the wharf, a scene of complete disorder.

Including the Feng clan members, all were prohibited from entering the city. Feng Liao had tried many times to send people into the city to find Han Daoxun, but unfortunately, they couldn’t even get through the city gate, let alone meet with Han Daoxun face to face.

The current situation was as if the small Qianyang City was completely surrounded and besieged by several thousand refugees fleeing to Xuzhou, so tightly packed not even water could trickle through.

“My lord, the old master has closed the city gates—does this mean he’s refusing to let us enter the city?” Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Lin Haizheng looked at each other in dismay. None of them had imagined that upon reaching Qianyang in Xuzhou, they would encounter such a scene.

What should they do? Surely they couldn’t forcibly attack the city?

Thinking of this, Tian Cheng and the others felt their scalps about to explode!

“Han Qian, Lord Han has closed Qianyang City and refuses us entry outside the city—what is the meaning of this?”

Although Han Qian fleeing directly to Xuzhou so early greatly surprised Feng Liao, several thousand people had been stranded on the river beach for half a month. In the chaotic camp, people’s hearts were panicked and restless. Feng Liao had been mentally and physically exhausted over this past half month. He leaped aboard the ship in great urgency, too anxious to maintain a respectful demeanor anymore, and asked while directly calling Han Qian by name.

Feng Liao was somewhat unclear about what the current situation was, unclear why Han Daoxun would close the city gates and refuse to let them in.

Han Qian gazed at the Qianyang city gate tower three li away. He sighed slightly in his heart, walked back into the ship’s cabin, and removed the robe from his body, baring his chest and back. He then took several thick yet flexible thorn branches and placed them on his back. Lifting the curtain to let the cold wind blow in, he shivered from the cold, then had Lin Haizheng bind his hands behind his back.

“My lord, if you go to see the old master and explain things clearly, that should suffice. There’s no need to suffer like this, is there?” Lin Haizheng asked in puzzlement.

Han Qian wanted to walk directly beneath the city wall for a private discussion with his father, but he was more afraid that his old man, being single-minded, would righteously eliminate his own kin without waiting for him to enter the city, directly ordering him shot to death.

If that really happened, who would he cry out his injustice to before dying?

Han Qian thought it over and over. Binding himself up and running beneath the city wall to plead guilty would be more secure.