Regardless of whether Han Daoxun was willing or not, his closing the city gates to refuse Han Qian entry and Han Qian’s bearing thorns bare-chested to plead guilty appeared in the eyes of the world as a grand performance staged for Jinling to see. The intention was that the Han father and son currently only wanted to occupy Xuzhou in fact, but didn’t want to immediately tear off all pretenses with Jinling. Now it remained to be seen whether Jinling would descend this step they had provided.
Han Qian first entered the city bearing thorns to plead guilty. Subsequently, Han Daoxun ordered the city gates opened, first admitting over a thousand people including Left Bureau scouts, boat gang armed guards, and Feng clan members into the city for settlement. Then he ordered the Xuzhou boat gang’s fleet to transport the Feng family servants, retainers, and Left Bureau disciples to Wufeng Mountain to receive reorganization. After this flurry of activity, Han Daoxun finally convened the officials at the provincial office to discuss how to punish Han Qian’s crime of flight.
What could the Xuzhou officials say?
Suggest first confining Han Qian in the provincial prison under strict guard? Or perhaps suggest the Governor directly bind Han Qian and send him to Jinling for punishment?
Within Qianyang City, there were currently two official armed forces.
The provincial garrison previously controlled by the Four Great Clans was currently in a semi-paralyzed state, with only two to three hundred old, weak, sick, and disabled remaining, barely maintaining public order inside and outside Qianyang City.
The prison garrison directly commanded by Zhao Kuo had been purged once during the prison uprising, then reorganized with the Han family’s retainers as its foundation. After the Jingxiang campaign, it recruited elite convict soldiers who had earned merit on the Jingxiang battlefield and returned home as military officers, expanding its scale to three hundred men.
The ordinary soldiers of the prison garrison were overwhelmingly client-origin youths. Though not numerous, this force was utterly loyal to Governor Han Daoxun and was currently Han Daoxun’s main support for controlling the area around Qianyang City. However, because the prison garrison’s forces were too few, their influence couldn’t yet extend into every corner of Xuzhou.
As for those entering the city this time, setting aside the Feng clan members, the over four hundred boat gang armed guards and Left Bureau elite scouts could all be said to be the private soldiers of the Han father and son.
Who at this time still couldn’t see the situation clearly—weren’t they courting death?
Everyone spoke at once, saying nothing more than that Han Qian was young, that the Feng family’s punishment had filled him with fear and panic, causing him to commit such an error. The Governor should strictly discipline him, but how to handle it should await an edict from Jinling before further discussion.
In the end, the discussion returned to the rhythm Han Qian had anticipated from the start—first submitting a memorial pleading guilty. Of course, before Jinling’s decree arrived, most people felt that for now they couldn’t confine the Governor’s son, lest it harm the Governor’s son’s physical and mental health.
“Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, and Qin Wen said not a word during the great hall deliberations. After the discussion ended, they left with very poor expressions, unwilling to accept the young master’s invitation to come to Furong Garden for a private banquet.”
In the eastern courtyard residence of Furong Garden, Fan Xicheng, who had just returned from the front office, glanced at Feng Liao, Feng Yi, Kong Xirong, and others seated beside Han Qian, and recounted the situation at the front office deliberations.
Han Qian sighed softly in his heart. Among the provincial office’s officials of various ranks, excluding the Four Great Clans, there were still over thirty people who were officially appointed circuit officials from Jinling. But when Wang Yu had died and his father had come to Xuzhou to assume his post, only Xue Ruogu alone, unafraid of retaliation from the Four Great Clans, had walked out of Qianyang City to welcome them.
And on the night they entered Qianyang City, it was also Xue Ruogu who had invited Li Tang and Qin Wen together to help his father and son suppress the prison uprising.
For Xue Ruogu not to stand up at this time and directly denounce the wolfish ambitions of the Han father and son was already giving them face, already showing enough forbearance. It was just that Han Qian at this time couldn’t yet leak knowledge of the secret edict to Xue Ruogu and the others.
After all, Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, and Qin Wen’s alienation from and even resistance to his father and son at this time was precisely what Tanzhou expected. Otherwise, the flaw would be too obvious.
Feng Liao had been in Xuzhou for over half a month. Though this was only the first time he’d been allowed to enter the city, he understood the Xuzhou situation quite clearly. He knew that over the past year and more, it was precisely Xue Ruogu and the other two’s loyalty to Jinling that had gathered them under Han Daoxun’s command to serve conscientiously. For Xue Ruogu and the other two, the situation had suddenly transformed. He immediately suggested: “Perhaps we need to send people to watch Xue Ruogu and the other two, lest they make trouble in secret.”
Han Qian glanced at Feng Liao, thinking that even if Feng Liao ultimately learned that the Han father and son were scheming for the court against Tanzhou and had calculated the Feng clan into it as well, as long as the Feng clan members could take root in Xuzhou, he believed the quite sensible Feng Liao shouldn’t harbor too deep a resentment toward his father and son, right?
“We do need to send people to watch Xue Ruogu and the other two,” Han Qian pondered for a moment, then said to Feng Liao. “In the past when my father was in Xuzhou, it was only through the full assistance of Xue Ruogu and the other two that he barely stabilized the situation. Currently, it appears that even if Xue Ruogu and the other two don’t make trouble in secret, they will certainly be thoroughly negligent in all matters. My father lacks assistants well-versed in administrative affairs at his side. I wonder if Brother Feng would be willing to condescend to this role?”
“What the young master commands, how could Feng Liao not comply?” The formerly proud and arrogant Feng Liao now also lowered his posture in reply, willing to serve at Han Daoxun’s side.
No matter what, Han Daoxun was the Han family head. Serving at Han Daoxun’s side would always be more acceptable to Feng Liao than remaining at Han Qian’s side awaiting assignments—yet he hadn’t thought that Han Qian wanted to personally integrate the Feng family servants and retainers himself and so wouldn’t let him remain at his own side, lest these servants and retainers habitually gather more around Feng Liao.
“Feng clan descendants have been accustomed to having clothes handed to them and food brought to their mouths, enjoying wealth and privilege. Of those who can manage affairs, not even one or two in ten. In the past, this didn’t matter—the Feng clan’s wealth could support them for eight generations. But at this time, it is absolutely not a blessing for the Feng clan. For the Feng clan to rise again, they must first suffer in their hearts and wills, labor in their muscles and bones, starve in their bodies and skins, be emptied in their persons—thus to steel their hearts and natures, to increase what they cannot do,” Han Qian said to Feng Yi and Kong Xirong. “I will set aside an estate at Wufeng Mountain specifically for Feng clan members to move in and cultivate. They may not use servants or retainers as substitutes. Brother Feng will remain at my father’s side to serve. As for leading the clan members in labor at the estate and instructing the younger generation in reading, studying martial arts and military matters—these duties you two must shoulder.”
Even after stripping away the Feng family servants, Han Qian didn’t want to feed four to five hundred Feng clan members for nothing.
Feng Yi and Kong Xirong more or less felt Han Qian wasn’t being fair. Feng Liao was more able to recognize reality.
First, the Han father and son controlled the great authority in Xuzhou. No matter how friendly they were with the Feng clan, they wouldn’t allocate so many resources to let the Feng clan become in one stroke a powerful clan in Xuzhou possessing five to six thousand servants.
Handing over the servants and retainers was merely the condition for the Feng clan members to settle and make a living in Xuzhou under the protection of the Han father and son. This was something Feng Liao had thought through clearly while still in Jinling.
And the Feng clan at this time in Xuzhou could be said to be starting from nothing on a difficult road.
Apart from the over four hundred pampered, arrogant yet incompetent, resentful, and disloyal clan members, the Feng clan currently had nothing in hand.
Feng Liao was also considering—if the Feng clan didn’t want to be crushed, where did their future path lie?
Even without concentrating and settling the over four hundred Feng clan members together, Feng Liao suspected that perhaps before long, the Feng clan would completely become a pile of scattered sand.
For Han Qian to now propose concentrating the Feng clan members in one estate and forcing them to labor to suffer in heart and will, labor in muscles and bones—in Feng Liao’s view, this was perhaps the only method to keep the Feng clan from falling apart.
At least he, Feng Yi, and Kong Xirong—if they didn’t have the coercive power of the Han father and son to help them, they had no way to require other clan members to obey orders and act.
And Feng Yi and Kong Xirong, having experienced this drastic change, should also mature and bear some responsibilities.
At this time, Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Lin Haizheng walked together across the courtyard and came over. Han Qian called to Xi Chang who was guarding in the courtyard and said to him: “First take the Feng family people to settle at Xi Stockade. The fields and houses below Jilong Ridge west of Xi Stockade—hand them all over to the Feng family people to cultivate and inhabit. Where housing is insufficient, Xi Stockade should fully support their construction and cultivation. Money and grain should be recorded and reimbursed based on actual expenditures…” He then said to Feng Liao: “Brother Feng, go to Xi Stockade to familiarize yourself with the situation, then return to the city. My father urgently needs Brother Feng’s assistance.”
Outside Qianyang City, there were only two strongholds Han Qian could directly control—one was Yangtan Water Stockade, one was Xi Stockade. The Feng family servants and retainers were all temporarily arranged at Yangtan Water Stockade, so the Feng clan members could only be arranged at Xi Stockade, carving out a piece of land near Xi Stockade for them to cultivate and farm.
As for what Han Qian said to Feng Liao, on one hand it was valuing his planning abilities, on the other hand it was to reassure him.
Newly arrived in Xuzhou with everything in chaos, seeing that Han Qian still had many busy matters, Feng Liao, Feng Yi, and Kong Xirong first left with Xi Chang, taking their clan members to relocate to Xi Stockade for settlement.
After Feng Liao, Xi Chang, and the others left, Han Qian called Lin Haizheng, Gao Shao, Tian Cheng, and Yang Qin inside.
Han Qian had already instructed Gao Shao to tell Yang Qin about the secret edict. Yang Qin at this time still had a face full of surprise, temporarily still digesting this shocking news.
Han Qian paid him no mind and directly asked Fan Xicheng:
“Steward Fan, currently among the household troops and retainers in the residence, what is their mood?”
At this time, his flight to Xuzhou and his father’s intention to “occupy Xuzhou” had been formally made public. But whether the matter succeeded or failed, hearts and minds were hardest to control, so he needed to immediately ascertain the reactions inside and out to the “flight.”
Fan Xicheng licked his lips, somewhat embarrassed, and said: “The household troops and retainers’ families are all in Xuzhou. Most people, beyond their shock, have barely suppressible excitement. There should be no problems…”
After the household troops and retainers no longer had the burden of families, they remained loyal to the Han father and son—more precisely, they believed the Han father and son could bring them greater glory and wealth.
Obviously, with Han Daoxun and Han Qian occupying Xuzhou, the vacant positions in the provincial office, provincial garrison, and subordinate counties would naturally first select utterly loyal Han family retainers to replace the circuit officials currently appointed by Jinling.
The previous status and position of the Han family retainers was better than servants and commoners, but they had no personal freedom. Unless like Lin Haizheng they achieved very distinguished military merit, otherwise they had little opportunity for advancement. Zhao Kuo currently only held the acting position of prison garrison commander.
With this restriction suddenly lifted, everyone inevitably had an excited feeling of dogs and chickens ascending to heaven.
What made Fan Xicheng feel secretly embarrassed was that amid this barely suppressible excitement, the family head Han Daoxun’s devoted sincerity appeared somewhat desolate. Even most people in this residence believed the family head Han Daoxun’s previous closing of the city was merely acting…
Fan Xicheng didn’t know what the family head Han Daoxun, seeing all this, truly felt.