The specific matters were being watched over by Tian Cheng, Yang Qin, and others. Having taken Zhongfang County, Han Qian had also removed the biggest stone weighing on his heart. After returning to the rear quarters of the garrison commander’s office, he wanted to find a room with bedding to rest and restore his energy before considering what needed to be thought about tomorrow.
The courtyard in the rear quarters was not large, with two pomegranate trees planted. Early summer in Xuzhou was not particularly hot, and after nightfall there was even a bit of coolness. The branches and leaves of the pomegranate trees grew quite beautifully. Guards were stationed in the courtyard, and with no sudden incidents occurring and no one coming to disturb Han Qian.
Han Qian did not even know where Xi Ren had run off to at this time, and was too lazy to concern himself with her. Seeing light in the east wing room and remembering that when he had wandered over earlier it was a bedroom, he pushed the door open and walked in, only to discover Xi Ren sitting by the bed.
She had removed her leather armor at this time and had somehow found a dark green ru-skirt to change into. Without wearing any gauze or silk, her snow-white arms and fragrant shoulders were exposed, as white as snow, as smooth and fine as milk. Her beautiful face appeared so charming and alluring in the candlelight.
Han Qian was startled, but also subconsciously swallowed, supporting himself on the door frame as he stood with one foot inside the room while the other foot did not dare lift up. He asked: “What are you trying to do?”
“When did you become so timid?” Xi Ren’s eyes, deep as the dark night, looked over as she asked: “I’m not hiding any weapons on my body. Are you still afraid of me? Or does the young master truly not want to possess my body?”
Han Qian looked at Xi Ren’s appearance and enchanting figure that could drive any man mad, licked his somewhat dry lips, stepped into the room, and finally stood before the writing desk, staring at Xi Ren’s fair face as he asked: “If you have something to say, just say it directly. I don’t want to suffer this torment.”
“Xi Ren is willing to offer her body to the young master, and the Xi clan members will also continue to be loyal to the young master, but only if the young master does not go to accept the surrender of those dog thieves, father and son Feng Changyu and Feng Jin!” Xi Ren stood up, walked before Han Qian, wanting to deliver her most beautiful body into Han Qian’s mouth.
“Aren’t you making an impossible demand?” Han Qian said with a bitter smile.
Feng Changyu, Feng Jin, and others had led over three hundred tribal soldiers to retreat deep into Zhongfang Mountain. According to current scout reconnaissance, they had all fled into Longqiao Stronghold in the upper reaches of Zhuxi River.
Not to mention how perilous Longqiao Stronghold was—from the eastern foothills’ river valley along the northern bank of Zhuxi River into the mountains, at the narrowest point of the mountain path, only a single horse could pass by clinging to the cliff wall. At this time, never mind over three hundred tribal soldiers—even if it was just thirty-some tribal soldiers guarding this treacherous path, trying to take it by force would require extremely tragic casualties.
Moreover, while the Four Clans had indeed lost over a thousand elite stronghold soldiers in this battle, each of their four families’ core strongholds still had two to three hundred elite stronghold soldiers on guard, and they could even further conscript able-bodied men from subordinate strongholds. Trying to suppress all Four Clans through military means before the end of this year was rather unrealistic.
And if Han Qian truly used brutal methods to bloodily suppress all the Four Clans without leaving any room for reconciliation, on one hand there was not enough time, and on the other hand, how would he conduct business afterward with the various clans of Jingzhou upstream on the Yuan River and even the tribal peoples of the various provinces in the former Qianyang Commandery?
As the gateway to the former Qianzhong Commandery, Jingzhou and other places’ communication links with the Central Plains either had to detour through Shu or go down the Yuan River—this was where the prominent value of Xuzhou’s position lay.
Therefore, both attacking and pulling, using military conquest and gentle pacification together, was the truly reasonable choice.
No matter what Feng Changyu and his son Feng Jin had done to the Xi clan people and to Xi Ren, in his eyes they were no different from Xi Zhen, Yang Zaili, Xiang Jianlong, and others.
“Is this also Xi Ren making an impossible demand?” Xi Ren pressed her body close, her beautiful eyes alluringly fixed on Han Qian as she asked.
Han Qian had not removed his armor and felt somewhat dulled, but looking at this girl’s deliberately seductive eyes, he still could not control himself from placing both hands on Xi Ren’s soft and elastic waist. Through the thin silk garment, he truly regretted that these past two years of monastic life had wasted such heaven-sent treasures. His hands could not help sliding down along those moving curves.
“Promise me!” Xi Ren grabbed Han Qian’s hands with her own, asking.
“The Xi clan youths have also been training for nearly two years. I’ll give you three days. After three days I’ll send people into the mountains to find the Four Clans to accept their surrender!” Han Qian said.
“…” Xi Ren flung Han Qian’s hands away, her body agilely slipping out from Han Qian’s embrace as she walked toward the outer room, preparing to change back into her leather armor and ready to lead the Xi clan youths into the mountains.
“No one crosses the river and demolishes the bridge as quickly as you!” Han Qian’s skills were not as agile as Xi Ren’s, and he actually could not catch this woman, grinding his teeth in frustration as he called out.
“Does the young master want to obtain Xi Ren’s heart?” Xi Ren directly removed her ru-skirt—she was still wearing a silk undergarment inside. As she put on her leather armor and inserted her short blade into the leather sheath on the outside of her thigh, she turned her head back, her seductive eyes fixed on Han Qian as she asked.
Han Qian muttered: “Just getting your body is enough. What would I want your heart for—I can’t stir-fry it and eat it? If you fail to assassinate the Feng father and son and die in Longqiao Stronghold, won’t I end up with nothing at all?”
Xi Ren completely ignored Han Qian’s grumbling and muttering. Once her equipment was properly arranged, she pushed the door open and walked into the deep night.
Han Qian saw that Xi Fa’er was guarding the courtyard and knew that Xi Ren had long ago planned to go into the mountains to assassinate the Feng father and son. He only sighed slightly in his heart. Although he had ultimately chosen over thirty Xi clan youths to cultivate the art of stealth assassination, under tight security, how could assassination be so easily accomplished?
Even if the assassination succeeded, how could they safely withdraw from the pursuit of several hundred tribal people?
Assassination had always been a mission that could only possibly be completed using death warriors.
It was just that the Xi clan’s hatred for the Feng father and son was too deep—this was a knot in the hearts of Xi Ren and most of the Xi clan youths that could only be untied for them to feel at peace.
Han Qian sighed slightly, stood in front of the corridor for a while, then returned to the room and lay down to sleep in his clothes.
…
…
Twelve Xi clan youths followed Xi Ren and Xi Fa’er into the mountains. Three days later, Xi Fa’er led four Xi clan youths carrying Xi Ren—who had been struck by two arrows in her left shoulder and was weak from blood loss—into Zhongfang City.
The arrow shafts had already been cut short, but without hemostatic medicine along the way, they had not dared to easily dig the arrowheads out from the flesh.
Han Qian washed his hands with alcohol and personally dug out the arrowheads, helped her apply wound medicine, and asked softly: “Was it worth doing this?”
Although the assassination had succeeded, eight Xi clan youths who had trained for nearly two years were killed while breaking through the encirclement. Xi Ren, Xi Fa’er, and the others who escaped back were all wounded. If Han Qian had been making the choice, he absolutely would not have been willing to waste so many capable people just to take the lives of Feng Changyu and his son Feng Jin.
“It was worth it. We also burned down the granaries of Longqiao Stronghold and Guiyan Stronghold for you, so this time I still don’t owe you anything.” Xi Ren endured the pain and spoke through gritted silver teeth.
Longqiao Stronghold and Guiyan Stronghold were both small strongholds from the upper reaches and source of Zhugong Creek, where only one to two hundred stronghold people cultivated valley land and multiplied in the mountains. They were also the only two strongholds in Zhongfang Mountain that the Four Clans could currently rely upon.
The valley fields in the mountains were not irrigated land, and the grain harvest from cultivation was limited. Most stored grain was collected by the stronghold heads and stored in granaries. Xi Ren’s burning of the granaries would make it even harder for the over three hundred Four Clans stronghold soldiers who had fled into the mountains to hold out for too long, and sending people into the mountains would make it easier to negotiate terms with the Four Clans’ leaders in the mountains.
But Xi Ren saying this was clearly trying to renege on the conditions she had promised him before setting out to carry out the assassination. Han Qian was so angry his teeth itched, thinking to himself: Wait until you recover from your wounds, little woman—let’s see who can renege on whom!
Seeing that Xi Ren’s injuries were not serious, Han Qian stood up and walked out of the bedroom. He spoke to Feng Xuan, Feng Zhang, and others waiting in the small hall outside: “You may go into the mountains now. Tell the Four Clans’ chieftains and leaders that if they only falsely agree to my conditions in order to escape, thinking that after returning to their respective strongholds they can live in peace—they are gravely mistaken. When that time comes, please don’t blame me for being ruthless in attacking their strongholds one by one and exterminating their clans!”
Feng Zhang had originally been Feng Changyu’s clan nephew. When Han Daoxun and Han Qian entered Xuzhou, he and Gao Bao were selected together and assigned to the Four Clans’ fleet, responsible for escort duties, traveling back and forth between Jinling and Xuzhou.
During the Jingxiang campaign, Feng Zhang and many Four Clans’ descendants had established military merit. Upon returning to Xuzhou, he and many others were granted merit titles.
Because of the Four Clans’ opposition to Qianyang City, they had not sought any official positions in Qianyang City. Instead, after the Four Clans’ fleet was disbanded, they all returned to their respective strongholds.
Feng Zhang and over ten others had previously been only minor leaders or the most ordinary stronghold soldiers in their family strongholds. But after gaining merit, they were no longer willing to be like puppets, completely at the beck and call of the Four Clans’ chieftains.
And as people with official status, they also had reward money to purchase fields and residences, and even hire people to open new strongholds. They had in fact broken free from their previous personal dependence on the Four Clans’ chieftains.
This time when the Four Clans gathered over thirteen hundred stronghold soldiers to raid Zhongfang City, Feng Changyu, Xiang Jianlong, and others worried that Feng Zhang and these people might possibly be won over and bought by the Han father and son, so they excluded these “dissidents,” yet trusted Gao Bao greatly.
Feng Changyu, Xiang Jianlong, and others had not thought at all that the calculation of military merit in the Jingxiang campaign and the granting of mid- and low-level merit titles, and even Feng Zhang and others’ return to Xuzhou to purchase fields and residences and open new strongholds—Han Qian had put considerable thought into these matters with the intention of dividing the Four Clans.
This time Han Qian invited Feng Xuan, Feng Zhang, and others to Zhongfang City (Yingyu Stronghold), mainly wanting to divide the tribal strongholds controlled by the Four Clans—choosing key points along mountains and waterways to split them into sixteen township strongholds, and ask Feng Xuan, Feng Zhang, and others to serve as township stronghold inspectors to advance the matter of field tax reform.
Each township stronghold would govern four to eight village strongholds. Each would retain thirty to sixty households of tribal people while also accommodating twenty to forty households of refugees who had newly migrated in these two years, as well as a small portion of Tanzhou surrendered soldiers and their dependents.
The excess stronghold people would all be relocated to settle in Zhongfang City, near Wuliu Creek, or near Qianyang City. All the people of Xuzhou would be combined into one register, no longer governed as two separate categories of native and guest households.
Feng Xuan, Feng Zhang, and others were originally small native households of Xuzhou. Even after returning home and purchasing fields and residences to open new strongholds, the field tax reform would not yet touch their interests, and serving as township stronghold inspectors would count as formal appointment to office.
It was just that Feng Xuan was one matter, but Feng Zhang and others had long been under the rule of major clan chieftains like Feng Changyu. To suddenly want to resist, they had many misgivings in their hearts.
Moreover, the tribal households of the various strongholds had strong resistant emotions, and Feng Zhang and others had not gained sufficient prestige in a short time to pacify them.
The best method was still to get the Four Clans’ chieftains and leaders trapped in Longqiao Stronghold to surrender. Feng Xuan and Feng Zhang were also willing to go to Longqiao Stronghold on Han Qian’s behalf to negotiate with chieftains like Xiang Jianlong and Yang Zaili.
In order to quickly stabilize the situation in Xuzhou, the conditions Han Qian gave to Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and other leaders were relatively favorable. They only needed to agree to cooperate with the implementation of the new field tax policy, support the merger of native and guest household registers, and give up control over the tribal households. At that time, he would allocate fields ranging from several hundred mu to several thousand mu along the river in Zhongfang County and Longjiang County to settle the Four Clans chieftains’ close relatives.
And as long as they were willing to be loyal to the Xuzhou Defense Commissioner’s Office and no longer harbor rebellious thoughts, Han Qian would even distribute all the thirty-some large and medium-sized merchant ships currently owned by Qianyang City to them free of charge, allowing them to monopolize trade with the tribal strongholds of the various provinces in the upper reaches of the Yuan River, ensuring they could maintain their previously luxurious lifestyle in Xuzhou.
Of course, if they wanted to relocate their entire clans away from Xuzhou, Han Qian would not obstruct them either.