Mount Li, also called Embroidered Ridge, was a northern foothill branch of the Qinling Mountains. Its peaks undulated gracefully, trees luxuriant and verdant. This being only early spring in the second month, grass and trees had not yet turned green. Viewed from afar, it resembled a grayish-green dragon.
At the mid-slopes of Mount Li, over two hundred armored cavalry waited quietly before a canyon entrance. Occasionally a fine horse snorted, or one or two great birds cried out as they flew across the sky, breaking the canyon’s tranquility. The valley stretched long and deep, winding up and down, with a waterfall plummeting from a hundred-zhang cliff, water splashing against mountain rocks with a murmuring sound.
Zhu Yu, wearing a green robe, stood on a protruding stone platform gazing at the canyon’s wondrous scenery.
Several swift horses galloped from outside the mountains, alarming the cavalry guarding the canyon entrance. Seeing the arrival was Vice Commander Chen Kun, they relaxed their vigilance and cleared a passage, allowing him to enter the canyon directly to meet with Prince Yong.
“Why aren’t you staying in Da’an City? What are you doing running here?” Zhu Yu asked.
Da’an City was the illustrious former capital Chang’an of the previous dynasty. After the previous dynasty’s fall, Chang’an City, destroyed by war, had only been incorporated into Liang’s territory four years ago and renamed Da’an City for reconstruction.
After the conclusion of the Jing-Xiang campaign, the Liang court internally summarized lessons learned—primarily that they had controlled the Guanzhong region for too short a time.
Guanzhong had experienced a century of warfare and was devastated. The remaining forces there had not developed strong attachment to Liang.
During the Jing-Xiang campaign, Guanzhong troops’ offensive through Wuguan Pass toward Jingzi Pass had been consistently lukewarm, resulting in forces that penetrated the Nanyang Basin never receiving truly effective support from the Guanzhong region throughout the entire Jing-Xiang war.
Whether for subsequent military operations against Chu from the western front or deploying forces to conquer Shu, developing Guanzhong had become Liang’s urgent priority.
During the middle period of the previous dynasty, the Jingzhao Prefecture and Guannai Circuit had a population of nearly four million at its peak prosperity. But after a century of devastating warfare, the various provinces under the Guanzhong Regional Command now had just over one million people. The population of Jingzhao Chang’an Prefecture, once reaching two million, now totaled fewer than three hundred thousand across its eighteen counties, yet remained a foundation Liang could not neglect.
After Zhu Yu led the Black Armored Regiment back to Luoyang from Bian Province, he barely had two months to rest before being appointed Minister of the Guanzhong Regional Command and leading the Black Armored Regiment to garrison Da’an City, beginning development of Guanzhong. Half a year had now passed.
Zhu Yu was not entirely satisfied with the outcome of the Jing-Xiang campaign. Even stationed in Guanzhong, he constantly concerned himself with Chu’s movements.
Chen Kun handed his horse to an accompanying guard to lead away, climbed onto the stone platform, and said rather excitedly, “The Chu Emperor’s final disposition of Han Qian’s escape was decided half a month ago. Scouts just delivered the report. It seems we need only wait quietly for the Han father and son to make peace with Tan Province, and that will be our time to attack Jing-Xiang again…”
Zhu Yu made no sound. Taking the report, he sat on a moss-covered rock to the side and read carefully, then shook his head and said, “All this time everyone has been fixated on Han Qian’s flight, but few can step back and look at the entire chess board.”
“Does Your Highness think there’s something else suspicious about this matter?” Chen Kun asked in surprise.
“I initially had some doubts in my heart, but now I’m seventy to eighty percent certain,” Zhu Yu said.
“What did Your Highness initially suspect?” Chen Kun asked, puzzled.
“In the Jing-Xiang campaign, one could say Han Qian alone reversed the battle situation, causing our fruitless return. Yang Mi not rewarding Han Qian might be explained as disliking how Han Qian gambled with his son for extraordinary merit, or perhaps even then being wary of the Han father and son. But given Yang Mi’s suspicious nature, if he truly intended to depose the heir apparent yet still wanted to use the Han father and son to assist Yang Yuanpu, it would be impossible not to keep close watch on them. He shouldn’t have allowed Han Qian to escape so easily,” Zhu Yu said. “Now seeing that he’s demoted Shen Yang to serve as Ezhou Administrator, the situation becomes clear. All of this is Yang Mi’s chess game, and the Han father and son are his pieces for plotting against Tan Province…”
“Han Qian’s escape this time was quite thorough. Given Yang Mi’s suspicious nature, would he really let the Han father and son both go to Xu Province without sufficient means of control?” Chen Kun asked, still puzzled.
“If I were Yang Mi, I would grant Xu Province to the Han father and son,” Zhu Yu stood up, hands clasped behind his back. “While using Yang Yuanpu to nominally control E Province, having Shen Yang and Zhou Dan go first to develop E Province is actually preparation for future military operations against Tan Province.”
Chen Kun thought that Xu Province, located in a remote corner, distant and mountainous, with a population only one-twentieth that of Tan Province, was originally a semi-autonomous province anyway. Granting it to the Han father and son would cause no loss to Chu. If this could truly secure control of Tan Province with its twenty-seven counties and population exceeding two million, it would truly be an extremely profitable transaction.
Thinking of this, Chen Kun asked, “Should we send someone to Tan Province with a message?”
However one looked at it, since they had discovered this secret, they could not sit idly by and watch the Chu Emperor succeed.
Zhu Yu pondered briefly: “The information should be spread, but Tan Province may not necessarily be fully on guard. As for Anning Palace and Xu Mingzhen, their thoughts might be more easily swayed.”
Chen Kun said, “I’ll arrange it immediately!”
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———
The second month in Xu Province was much warmer and more humid than Guanzhong.
The Xuefeng Mountain Range and Wuling Mountain Range had extensive evergreen tree and shrub forests, but their deep green color in winter appeared somewhat desolate and monotonous. Entering the second month of Tianyou’s fifteenth year, tender green new leaves emerged, new grass grew in clumps across fields and mountain hollows, and winter jasmine along cliff faces or by streamside cottages put forth delicate yellow stamens, enriching the layers of color between heaven and earth.
Standing at the bow, Han Qian gazed at the surrounding mountains and fields, but in his heart he wished the warm, rainy spring would delay its arrival.
To build the diversion weir and overflow weir at Wuliu Stream, the river channel needed to be dammed, while upstream water from Wuliu Stream would be diverted through a narrow canal dug from the side.
To save manpower, this narrow canal was only three zhang wide and six to seven chi deep. Normally it could only serve as an irrigation branch canal; during the dry season it could function as Wuliu Stream’s main channel, but during flood season it could not.
The Wuliu Stream water conservancy project had to be completed before the rains intensified in the Longya Mountains. Otherwise, if upstream water exceeded this branch canal’s capacity, the construction site and the several stockade villages being built near the river mouth, plus over ten thousand mu of newly reclaimed grain fields, would constantly risk flooding, severely affecting subsequent land development efforts.
This would also mean subsequent plans would need further adjustment.
Though Han Qian knew a thousand threads tangled in Xu Province and problems could arise anywhere—it was impossible for everything to proceed according to plan—if too many or too severe problems emerged, he couldn’t handle them all.
He was now racing against time for two reasons: on one hand to establish capability to restrain Tan Province by autumn and winter; on the other hand he had to guard against what would happen if, after the Tan Province campaign ended, that old Emperor Tianyou really did grant Xu Province to the Third Prince.
At that point, wouldn’t he and his father have gained no benefits at all?
The three-masted oar-sail ship slowly sailed toward the inner lake dock on the east side of Wufeng Mountain. A small boat happened to pass by, herding a large flock of gray-feathered ducks. Three to five duck-herding youths stood or crouched at the bow, curiously examining the several crossbows mounted on the cabin roof and deck.
These duck-herding youths were all children from the plantation. Seeing the war-sail ship approach, their eyes showed no fear. Spotting uncles they recognized on deck, they excitedly waved in greeting.
If not for the cold spring river water, some of these youths would have leaped into the lake to display their swimming skills.
“If one could leisurely boat here, it would be quite pleasant indeed,” Zhao Ting’er said in a soft, delicate voice as she stretched lazily.
Han Qian turned back, seeing her languid yet charming face, his heart stirring slightly.
Xi Ren squatted on the deck. Who knew where she’d found the pebbles she was throwing toward the duck flock in the lake, startling many gray-feathered ducks into loud quacking.
The year before last, when Han Qian had made a commotion throughout Qianyang’s food shops and taverns demanding duck to eat, then subsequently purchased salted duck breast on a large scale to sell in Jinling and elsewhere, Qianyang City had developed the habit of nearly every household raising ducks.
On the plantation side, the duck flocks being raised could maintain around one hundred thousand birds. Earlier, they had also used the soup incubation method to hatch thirty to forty thousand ducklings to send to Wuliu Stream and Longya City, providing more affordable meat and poultry.
The ship moored at the inner lake dock. Han Qian was in no rush to disembark. Seeing the newly constructed river embankment extending from Wufeng Mountain, damming the Yuan River water in the western channel narrowed by more than half, the plantation on the western side had expanded considerably outward in the two months since arriving in Xu Province compared to early in the year, with nearly another ten thousand mu of grain fields newly reclaimed. His heart filled with much joy.
Besides the people engaged in farming and land development, even more people on the western side of Wufeng Mountain were concentrated on excavating river channels and constructing sluice gates.
It was not the case that after building river embankments running south and north from Wufeng Mountain, the tens of thousands of mu of land between the great embankment and Qianyang City would all become fertile fields capable of growing two crops annually.
Low-lying terrain prone to waterlogging and poor drainage, plus loose soil quality and other such defects—without sustained long-term improvement and enhancement, planting grain, cotton, hemp and so forth would have difficulty achieving optimistic yields. Most new fields could only plant a single crop of winter wheat, to be harvested before late April, thus avoiding flooding after summer began.
On the Linjiang County side, even after the Wuliu Stream water conservancy project was completed and higher terrain was developed, damming the river to reclaim additional hundreds of thousands of mu of grain fields along the river would similarly require much more effort.
“Han Qian, Han Qian!”
Feng Yi and Kong Xirong happened to be at the inner lake dock at this time. Seeing Han Qian returning to Qianyang by ship today, they strode over to greet him.
Over these two-plus months, Han Qian had mainly remained stationed at Longya Mountain, rarely returning to Qianyang. Today was the first time seeing Feng Yi and Kong Xirong since arriving in Xu Province.
After this half-year of tribulation, especially after arriving in Xu Province where he had to lead clansmen as pampered and full of resentment as himself to farm fields and build houses, Feng Yi had become much darker and thinner. But compared to his former dissolute, decadent life in Jinling, he appeared much more spirited.
Kong Xirong had practiced martial arts and physical training with his father Kong Zhou since childhood, growing taller and more robust than Feng Yi. He had always been Feng Yi’s follower, with no particularly assertive personality traits.
At this meeting, though Han Qian saw he was still as taciturn as before, his eyes were deeper and more focused than in the past. The Feng clan’s disaster should have transformed him the most.
For the over four hundred Feng clan members, Han Qian had the Xi clan allocate over two hundred rooms from the newly built Xi stockade plus two thousand mu of new fields to settle them.
Besides insufficient housing, given the grain production from riverbank beach land, two thousand mu of new fields were insufficient to feed over four hundred people. But Han Qian additionally allocated some residential land plus over three thousand mu of wasteland beach for the Feng clansmen to build and reclaim themselves, to change their bad habits of being waited on hand and foot.
Resentment was inevitable, but from Feng and Kong’s appearance, they seemed to have managed.
Han Qian stopped the guards about to block Feng and Kong, walked toward them, and said with a smile, “Seeing how lean you’ve both become, we haven’t met in over two months—you’ve suffered quite a bit! But don’t complain. Look at my condition—if you’d followed me to Longya Mountain, it would likely have been even harder to endure.”
“We’re not afraid of hardship now, but spending all day farming and raising ducks is too boring. Do you have some other assignment we two could do?” Feng Yi asked shamelessly. “Oh, I heard that this time Palace Domestic Service Director Zhang Ping came to Qianyang to deliver the decree, and Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang also came along. Could we accompany you into the city to see them?”
Feng Yi and Kong Xirong currently could not freely enter Qianyang City. Even wanting to see old friends, they had to wait specifically at the dock for Han Qian to arrive.
“You two really want to see Chun Shisanniang?” Han Qian asked with a smile as he looked at Feng Yi and Kong Xirong.
Feng Yi’s face flushed slightly with guilt. After all, it was he who couldn’t withstand pressure and exposed Chun Shisanniang and Little Crow Guo Que’er’s identities in the Left Bureau. Honestly, he was afraid to see Chun Shisanniang. After hesitating briefly, he said, “It was me who exposed Little Crow and Chun Shisanniang’s identities—I wronged you. This blockhead Xirong never made a sound about it, and blamed me for a long time afterward. This time it’s him being awkward about wanting to see Chun Shisanniang but too embarrassed to say so. I dragged him along to see you. We don’t need to meet her face-to-face—just sneaking a look would be enough.”
Han Qian glanced at Kong Xirong, thinking with a headache—he hasn’t developed youthful romantic feelings for the unscrupulous Chun Shisanniang, has he?
“Fine, you can accompany me into the city,” Han Qian nodded in agreement. Seeing attendants bring horses over, he also had people bring horses for Feng Yi and Kong Xirong, then they galloped toward Qianyang City several li away…