After reading the secret edict, a good long while passed before Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, and Qin Wen stood up and bowed deeply to Han Daoxun with a formal salute: “We failed to recognize Your Excellency’s loyal and devoted heart. Our words in the past contained many offenses. Please forgive us, Your Excellency.”
Han Daoxun laughed heartily and said: “If Ruogu were merely a mediocre person who only knew flattering words, I, Daoxun, would truly be greatly disappointed. It’s just that previously, we couldn’t control the situation and worried the Four Surnames wouldn’t fall into the trap, so we kept the secret and didn’t inform Ruogu. I must ask Ruogu not to blame my son and me.”
“How dare we, how dare we!” Xue Ruogu said with embarrassment. “Your Excellency and Commandant Han are pillars of the court. That Ruogu didn’t ruin Your Excellency’s and Commandant Han’s grand plan is already extremely fortunate.”
“Now that autumn has arrived, the court may at any time dispatch additional troops to Ezhou to reduce the regional power. Xuzhou must also prepare at the fastest speed to dispatch troops northward from the Yuan River,” Han Daoxun said. “We’ve discussed with Administrator Zhang—before the court’s decree reaches Xuzhou, we ask that Ruogu temporarily assume the position of Chief Clerk, and ask Administrator Li and Administrator Qin to go to Langxi and Tanyang to preside over county administration!”
The Feng clan had already disintegrated, and Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and Xi Xunqiao leading their followers in surrender meant that military and political power in Xuzhou had been completely stripped from the hands of the local Four Surnames.
The power of the Xiang clan, Yang clan, and Xuzhou Xi clan was mainly distributed in Tanyang County and the southern territory of Langxi County. Having Li Tang and Qin Wen serve as magistrates of Tanyang and Langxi would allow them to advance the new policies of land tax reform and local-outsider registry merger in these two counties at the fastest pace, preparing military supplies and more troops for Xuzhou’s military campaign when winter arrived.
The provincial Chief Clerk had the responsibility of assisting the Provincial Governor in supervising various departments and governing civil administration. This was also key to pushing the new policies deeper and conducting thorough governance of Xuzhou.
Xue Ruogu had previously served as the provincial Administrative Clerk and had once assisted Han Daoxun in handling provincial administration, so he was competent in this regard.
Although over the past half year, the three men Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, and Qin Wen had all observed coldly from the sidelines, they were aware of the various new policies. They just hadn’t imagined that the Han father and son’s implementation of new policies was to dig as deeply as possible into Xuzhou’s military potential for the upcoming war against Tanzhou.
The wine feast had grown cold, but hearts were burning hot.
With Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and Xi Xunqiao willing to actively cooperate, Han Qian planned to first relocate over two thousand people from these three families’ direct lines and close branch relatives to be settled in Qianyang, Zhongfang, and Linjiang counties.
To put their minds at ease, Han Qian would take the over thirty thousand mu of newly cultivated grain fields from the past two months in Zhongfang and Linjiang and use them to exchange for their estates and residences in Tanyang and Langxi.
“To prevent the Three Surnames from becoming a hidden threat again, should we consider breaking up the over two thousand clan members of the Xiang, Yang, and Xi surnames into separate households and dividing these estates among them?” Han Qian said.
Local gentry clan power was extremely strong, closely related to the contemporary patriarchal tradition of inheritance by legitimate sons and inheritance of official ranks and property by legitimate eldest sons. Dividing families and splitting property—even including concubine-born sons and unmarried daughters—to implement a system of “equal division among brothers” was actually one of the reform policies Han Daoxun had long wanted to implement.
Implementing this policy in Xuzhou had even more urgent practical needs.
On one hand, Han Qian needed to quickly grasp the situation in Xuzhou and prepare for winter warfare. This required close cooperation from Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and Xi Xunqiao, which meant compromising with them to a certain degree, resolving the hostility of local registered barbarian households as quickly as possible, while also preventing resources from concentrating in the hands of the three families’ direct lines as before, which would again become a hidden threat affecting Xuzhou’s stability.
The direct lines of the three families—Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and Xi Xunqiao—would ultimately receive more estates, but each family’s holdings would only be around a thousand mu, which would only qualify as medium-scale landlords even in Jianghuai.
As further compensation for the direct lines of the three families, Han Qian suggested giving them control of the over twenty thousand-stone sailing ships controlled by Qianyang City, and also entrusting them exclusively with trade matters with the various barbarian settlements in the upper Yuan River provinces.
The major local surnames of Jingzhou and Chenzhou were full of vigilance toward Xuzhou and had already blockaded trade with Xuzhou, forbidding merchant ships from entering or leaving. These major local surnames had very limited loyalty to Great Chu, and the secret edict in Han Qian’s hands had no effect on them.
Han Qian even suspected that after the court took military action against Tanzhou, the major local surname forces of Chenzhou would very likely gather to support Tanzhou.
Now that they were implementing land tax reform, local-outsider registry merger, and other new policies in Xuzhou, the major local surnames of Chenzhou were extremely nervous and had already been secretly recruiting soldiers and buying horses. It was just that the situation in Xuzhou developed too quickly—Han Qian hadn’t given the major surname forces of Chenzhou a chance to act before Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and Xi Xunqiao were forced to surrender.
Once the warfare against Tanzhou officially began after winter arrived, their relationship with the forces of the various tributary provinces and counties of the upper Yuan River would inevitably become even more tense.
Han Qian could currently only hope that with the three families—Xiang, Yang, and Xi—taking the lead, they could restore trade with these regions.
Setting aside other supplies, Xuzhou was already beginning to lack salt.
With the downstream passage of Yuan River blockaded, they urgently needed to transport rock salt from Shu through Jingzhou.
Tea, medicine, cloth, and other goods produced in Xuzhou had already accumulated in large quantities and also needed to be exchanged for scarce resources like cattle and horses through the upper Yuan River. They even needed to import more copper coins to purchase military supplies from the Xuzhou populace.
With Xuzhou incorporating miscellaneous levies into the land tax, supplies needed for warfare like tung oil and timber now had to be purchased with money rather than directly requisitioned through establishing categories as before, greatly increasing the demand for currency.
On the provincial government side, besides the greatly increased land tax revenue, they also had to substantially raise commercial taxes and income from government-run workshops to possibly maintain the provincial government’s own operations while continuing land reclamation, constructing canals and roads, and supporting three to four thousand elite armed forces.
Although the provincial and county land tax was expected to increase to one hundred seventy to eighty thousand shi of grain and fodder and over thirty thousand strings of cash—already quite considerable—after abolishing corvée labor, the provinces and counties would need to allocate money and grain to hire labor for repairing city walls, roads, and dikes. Adding the salaries and public funds for provincial and county officials would consume about half the land tax.
Since they couldn’t implement the garrison soldier system in Xuzhou, abolishing corvée labor also abolished the traditional conscription system. The recruitment system was currently the only viable option.
The provinces and counties had to maintain about a thousand security troops. Additionally, they needed to prepare three thousand elite armed forces. Provisions, armor, weapons, warships, barracks construction and repairs, and so forth might require basic annual expenditures of forty to fifty thousand strings of cash, not to mention the enormous costs that would surge during wartime.
Although Han Qian hoped that Ma Yin and his son Ma Xun would voluntarily relinquish their regional power under the enormous pressure the court imposed, this possibility was slim. Who would willingly fall from being a regional lord to a prisoner who might be confined for life?
Going forward, besides maintaining and training troops, Xuzhou needed to prepare a batch of supplies as reserves.
In the latter half of the night, Han Qian had Yang Zaili, Xi Xunqiao, and Xiang Jianlong brought from prison again.
Besides land tax reform, local-outsider registry merger, clan members relocating inland, breaking up clans into separate households, and exclusive management of commerce, Han Qian also demanded that the three families surrender sixty thousand shi of grain and twenty thousand strings of cash as last year’s supplementary autumn grain collection. Additionally, they had to hand over their respective settlement troops, dependents, and privately hidden weapons and armor.
Dependents would be settled in Linjiang County. The over twelve hundred settlement troops would be recruited and incorporated into the Xuzhou Field Army.
Though the conditions were harsh, the three families still retained a considerable portion of clan property and a small number of servants, plus the privilege of exclusive commerce. Going forward in Xuzhou, they would still exist as wealthy rural gentry.
For Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and Xi Xunqiao—who had already placed their lives and fortunes in the hands of the Han father and son when they came down from the mountains to surrender—what better choice could they have?
Not until dawn appeared were all matters thoroughly settled. Xiang Jianlong, Xi Xunqiao, and Yang Zaili were no longer imprisoned in the provincial jail but were placed under house arrest in a courtyard they found in Hibiscus Garden.
To allow Gao Shao and Lin Haizheng to free themselves up to assist him in commanding troops and preparing for the warfare that could erupt at any time, the positions of Provincial Judicial Advisor and Provincial Works Advisor that they had previously held concurrently were relinquished.
As for Han Qian himself, besides concurrently serving as Linjiang County Magistrate, he would completely abandon all affairs at the provincial office. Afterward, he would go to Dragon Fang City to concentrate wholeheartedly on war preparations. Zhang Ping, as Supervisory Commissioner, would also go to Dragon Fang City.
“Even if we can deceive Tanzhou for one more day, that’s good. From now on, I must ask Administrator Xue, Administrator Li, and Administrator Qin to pretend to be sycophants for a while. Going forward, the affairs of the provincial office will require Administrator Xue to work hard assisting my father in governance.” Han Qian stood up with a smile.
“Compared to Your Excellency Han and Commandant Han’s endurance of humiliation and heavy burdens, what does our small grievance count for?” Xue Ruogu stood up to see him off as Han Qian prepared to return to the eastern courtyard to rest.
……
……
“The arrow wound on your shoulder should be mostly healed by now, right?” Han Qian said to Xi Ren while stretching and walking toward the eastern courtyard. “Shouldn’t we discuss the debt you owe me?”
“If Young Master insists on forcing this common woman, Xi Ren’s struggles will be useless. Should I call for Zhao Ting’er to rescue me?” Xi Ren said with charming resentment.
“You help me massage my shoulders first—consider it paying a bit of interest,” Han Qian said. He didn’t dare let Xi Ren use Zhao Ting’er as a shield. He thought he’d first trick her into the bedchamber to get handsy, and worst case, he could deny it after leaving the room.
Walking into the courtyard where he resided, Han Qian discovered several guards standing in the yard who hadn’t returned to rest. Peering in, he saw Feng Liao sitting alone in the small hall waiting for him to arrive.
Han Qian walked into the small hall with a stern face and stared at Feng Liao, asking: “Don’t tell me you’ve been waiting here for me all night after the night feast?”
“You father and son have no intention of occupying Xuzhou. Everything—all of it—is to help Emperor Tianyou scheme against Tanzhou?” Feng Liao asked, meeting Han Qian’s sharp gaze.
“Oh, when did you figure it out?” Han Qian sat down and asked with interest.
“Your Excellency Han has no ambition to be a hegemon lord and cares everywhere and at all times more about the people’s livelihood. Previously, I heard that someone from the Four Surnames was secretly communicating with Supervisory Commissioner Zhang Ping, and I once reminded you to be careful. But after the Four Surnames contacted Supervisory Commissioner Zhang Ping, they easily fell for the trick to attack Zhongfang City, so I suspected Zhang Ping was secretly colluding with you,” Feng Liao directly stated the doubts that had been in his mind these past days. “And after last night’s feast, when you father and son kept Xue Ruogu and the other two behind, everyone thought you father and son would kill Xue Ruogu to purge the provincial office. But even releasing Xue Ruogu and the other two back to Jinling would be far better than killing the three of them. I pondered bitterly for a long time. Aside from the possibility I just mentioned, there’s no better explanation.”