Ji Zhongqi imprisoned Ma Yin and his son Ma Xun and offered up Yueyang City, allowing this famous city that had stood on the banks of the lake and river for several hundred years to be preserved without suffering the merciless ravages of war once again.
The new Yueyang Prefect, Chief Clerk, Registrar, and officials of various prefecture bureaus were mainly selected and dispatched by the Bureau of Military Affairs and Ministry of Personnel. However, the Prefecture Military Commissioner and Military Commander, who were responsible for organizing the prefecture garrison and city defenses, were held concurrently by Guo Liang, Deputy Commander of the Left Longque Army.
Besides the newly organized prefecture garrison, there were also three thousand elite Left Longque Army troops stationed here, controlling this strategic point where the Yangtze River entered Dongting Lake.
Although the Louchuan Navy currently had one division of elite forces stationed in Tanzhou under the command of the Hunan Regional Administration, as elite forces of the Imperial Guards, the Louchuan Army was not responsible for local security and governance matters such as suppressing bandits and capturing thieves.
The first step in Hunan was to establish the Yueyang Naval Battalion, which the Third Prince also entrusted to Guo Liang to handle in Yueyang.
The two government-operated shipyards in Yueyang and Tanzhou had been destroyed by the rebel forces themselves during the war. The over one hundred captured warships were mainly short-range oared vessels. Even the two five-tooth tower ships couldn’t meet the needs for rapid long-distance strikes should upheaval occur in Jinling.
The twenty-four large double-decked oared sailing warships currently needed by the Yueyang Naval Battalion were all being urgently constructed at the Qianyang Wufeng Mountain shipyard.
The hundreds of captured shipwrights from Yueyang and Tanzhou, along with large quantities of confiscated shipbuilding timber, had long since been transported to Qianyang Wufeng Mountain to offset ship costs.
At least for now, though Qianyang was isolated in one corner, it was the shipbuilding, textile, and iron smelting center of the eight Hunan prefectures, and was gradually becoming the distribution hub for bulk goods like tea, medicine, and tung oil from the Hu and Qian regions.
For this westward journey to escort the bride, Han Qian brought two ships, each with a cargo capacity of two thousand dan. However, the two large sailing warships newly built for the Yueyang Naval Battalion had increased cargo capacity to four thousand dan, with more and more spacious cabins, and lower holds that could carry more cargo.
To meet the wedding procession’s needs, Han Qian carried the Third Prince’s written authorization to temporarily requisition these two sailing warships and their crews, incorporating them into the wedding procession.
After rendezvousing with Guo Rong, Marquis Changxiang, and Princess Qingyang, Han Qian stayed in Yueyang for one day to accept a banquet from local Yueyang officials. The next day, besides loading hundreds of chests of betrothal gifts transported from Jinling onto the ships, they also carried large quantities of goods that could be transported to Shu for the mission. The four sailing warships with six to seven hundred men set sail in grand fashion, traveling upstream toward Yuzhou.
The campaign to reduce feudal domains had gone extremely smoothly. Even though remnants of rebel forces had escaped to Yongzhou without being dealt with, they could no longer pose a major threat. At this time, Great Chu’s western flank could assemble one hundred thousand troops. Such a favorable situation also made the Liang forces deeply wary, not daring to act rashly.
When Han Qian left Yueyang by ship, the tens of thousands of Liang troops assembled in Caizhou still hadn’t dared to strike at the Fangcheng defense line in the northern Nanyang Basin.
At this moment, all was peaceful within Great Chu’s borders. No one anticipated the crisis about to erupt in Jinling.
As the ships entered Yiling territory, before entering the great gorges of Wushan, the land on both banks still belonged to the Jingchu Plain. Han Qian looked northward and saw only gently rolling hills.
Currently, Prince Yong Zhu Yu was still stationed in Guanzhong, and Liang appeared relatively calm internally. However, according to the established historical trajectory, when great turmoil occurred in Jinling, Liang forces failed to exploit the opening, suggesting Liang was not peaceful at that time—perhaps facing severe threats from Jin forces to the north, or perhaps internal unrest was brewing within Liang.
Unfortunately, just as other powers couldn’t easily detect the overwhelming crisis brewing in Jinling at this time, Jinyun Tower’s scouts and spies who had infiltrated Liang’s capital Bianzhou currently had no discoveries either.
Xiazhou, also known as Yiling, was located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, twenty to thirty li east of Wushan’s foothills.
In early years, Xiazhou had belonged to the Jingnan Circuit and was part of the Jing-Xiang lands. When Emperor Tianyou rose to power from the Jiang-Huai region and his military might hadn’t yet reached Jing-Xiang, King Wang Jian of Shu sent troops to occupy Xiazhou. Backed by the mighty mountain ridges of Wushan’s eastern foothills, he developed it as Shu’s eastern gateway, keeping Chu forces outside Wushan.
When the fleet reached beneath Yiling City, the winding peaks and ridges of Wushan were also clearly visible.
To reach the Shu capital as quickly as possible, Han Qian and his party stopped to dock at Yiling City but didn’t enter. They merely met hastily with Yiling’s garrison commander at the wharf before continuing upstream toward the Nanjin Pass gorge entrance.
The Nanjin Pass gorge entrance was the eastern exit of the four-hundred-li-long Wushan Gorge.
Although Han Qian’s desk was piled high with thick stacks of hydrological and geographical data about the Nanjin Pass gorge entrance, when he personally witnessed the mighty peaks suddenly appearing before him and the magnificent sight of an earth-shattering great gorge cleaving through the mountains, he still couldn’t conceal his inner shock.
The river surface, over two thousand paces wide, suddenly narrowed to about two hundred paces at the gorge entrance. The river water was like a war spear, piercing through layer upon layer of peaks to create a passage as narrow as intestines. The rapids roared like ten thousand galloping horses, and many dangerous shoals and stone pillars could faintly be seen distributed throughout the river.
Since Han Qian and his party were traveling upstream, seeing these dangerous shoals and stone pillars in the river’s center didn’t give them such a shocking feeling. However, on the riverbanks beneath the stone cliffs on both shores, there were many rotten timbers and broken oars washed up by the river—all remains of ships that had capsized and been destroyed in the waters.
Travelers and boatmen called the long Wushan Gorge the Gates of Hell, and this wasn’t an exaggeration.
The turbulent current at the gorge entrance was like ten thousand galloping horses. The four sailing warships couldn’t hope to enter the river gorge—at this moment, without three to four hundred trackers walking barefoot across the chaotic rocks on the riverbanks, desperately hauling on long ropes as thick as an arm and advancing step by step, they would inevitably be washed downstream by the roaring current.
Entering the gorge entrance, both sides rose into sheer mountain cliffs several hundred meters high. Unable to borrow wind power, without three to four hundred trackers, relying solely on rowing, could two hundred-plus robust oarsmen really push four large ships loaded with betrothal gifts and other cargo through this first thirty-six-li section of Nanjin Pass Gorge?
Nanjin Pass Gorge was merely a small part of the long Wushan Gorge.
The long Wushan Gorge, also known in later ages as the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, stretched four hundred li from Nanjin Pass in Xiazhou Yiling to Kui Gate east of Baidi City in Yuzhou. One could say it cleaved through Wushan itself—most places on both banks were precipitous cliffs rising seven to eight hundred meters above the river.
The river surface at the eastern entrance of Nanjin Pass was only two hundred paces wide, with dangerous rocks piled on both sides, but this wasn’t the narrowest or steepest part of the long Wushan Gorge. At its most treacherous, the river surface was only just over a hundred meters wide.
As the greatest river of this land, when the river surface narrowed to one hundred meters wide, how turbulent would the water flow and current be?
No wonder that over thousands of years, though this land had seen so many wars of annexation, battles traveling upstream from Yiling to attack eastern Sichuan were so rare.
The current was so turbulent, the cliffs on both banks so precipitous.
At heights of thirty to forty meters above the river surface, there were stone holes and intermittent rotten timbers left from ancient plank roads. Not only were the plank roads destroyed, even if rebuilt, the intermittent roads were only two to three meters wide, pressed tight against the cliff walls, with fragments of stone constantly tumbling down from the cliff tops—completely unusable for military purposes.
At this time, not to mention Shu having thirty to forty thousand elite troops defending the eastern line—even with just seven to eight thousand elite troops determinedly defending, while downstream forces could capture Yiling without difficulty, trying to attack into Yuzhou through the long Wushan Gorge would still be harder than ascending to the heavens.
“Minister Han, traveling through Wushan, what are your impressions?”
Watching Han Qian stand on the deck, staring at the cliff walls on both banks without speaking for a long time, Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong, having tired of discussing poetry with Feng Yi, redirected his attention to him.
Seeing the pride hidden between Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong’s brows, Han Qian said with emotion: “A poet from the previous dynasty wrote of the Wu Gorge’s turbulent waters, mentioning ‘At dawn I left Baidi amid colored clouds, returning a thousand li to Jiangling in a single day. The apes on both banks couldn’t stop their cries, yet my light boat had already passed ten thousand mountains.’ Han Qian didn’t take it seriously, but today seeing the high cliffs on both walls pressing against the water, the current like ten thousand galloping horses, I can truly say ‘even riding swift steeds or riding the wind could not be faster!'”
“Minister Han perhaps truly didn’t know the Wu Gorge’s rapid current and dangerous shoals, otherwise he wouldn’t have specifically requisitioned four-thousand-dan large ships and slowed the journey!” Princess Qingyang, disguised as a young man, couldn’t help but speak sarcastically.
Han Qian had specifically requested from the Third Prince to requisition two four-thousand-dan sailing warships from the Yueyang Naval Battalion to travel upstream. Besides light and precious betrothal gifts, the lower holds were filled with bulk cargo—this was deliberately meant to explore the depth and current speed of this section of the Wushan Gorge waterway after winter began, so he could personally master firsthand information.
Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong and Princess Qingyang were obviously perceptive people who had already seen through his intentions.
However, Han Qian had nothing to be embarrassed about.
Even if Princess Qingyang married into Chu, even after the Third Prince ascended the throne and Princess Qingyang might one day replace Marquis Xinchang Li Pu’s daughter to become empress, this didn’t mean Chu and Shu would truly become as close as brothers without friction.
In the contest between nations, a woman’s weight, no matter how high her status or how charming and favored she was, was never the most important bargaining chip.
Moreover, Jinling not taking Shu didn’t mean Liang forces wouldn’t make moves.
Once Liang forces swallowed Shu and occupied the natural barrier of the Yangtze River to threaten Jingchu, the situation would only become more unfavorable for Jinling.
Han Qian smiled slightly and said: “Along Wushan’s banks, even after winter when yellow leaves fall, the scenery is indescribably magnificent. I truly don’t feel the journey is slowed at all! If the Marquis is eager to return home, anxious to reunite with his sovereign father and son in Jinguan City and eager to exchange brotherly sentiments with Marquis Qingjiang, we could switch to small boats and go ahead—perhaps Marquis Qingjiang is already waiting in Jinguan City to celebrate this marriage…”
Since Princess Qingyang was disguised as a young man at this time, Han Qian couldn’t reveal her identity. Any sarcastic remarks he wanted to make naturally had to be received by Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong.
Although communication along the Shu roads was inconvenient, Han Qian had transferred elite personnel back to Jinyun Tower in June while simultaneously sending scouts and spies to infiltrate Shu to establish Jinyun Tower’s branch organizations. Over these two months, news had gradually filtered back.
As the second son of King Wang Jian of Shu, Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong and Princess Qingyang were both born to Lady Kou, who had died of illness twelve years ago.
Princess Qingyang had been raised since childhood by Wang Jian’s secondary consort Yan Shi and had grown up at Wang Jian’s side, quite favored. However, having left the palace to establish her own residence twelve or thirteen years ago because her mother-consort died early, her relationship with her father Wang Jian had become much more distant.
Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong’s maternal clan wasn’t a great family in Shu either, and he had no capable close ministers to assist him. Yet because of his overflowing talent, he suffered the deepest suspicion from the Shu Heir Apparent, Marquis Qingjiang Wang Hongyi.
No matter how Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong usually disguised himself, after Jinyun Tower scouts had infiltrated Shu for three to four months, they could currently confirm that not many Shu officials supported the marriage alliance. On one hand, it involved Shu’s dignity; on the other hand, they didn’t want to too obviously anger Liang. However, there were indeed some people who counseled Wang Jian to ally with Chu against Liang.
With limited manpower newly entered into Shu, if they investigated without direction, they couldn’t find any useful information in a short time.
Among the many people suggesting to King Wang Jian that he ally with Chu against Liang, there was a court entertainer named Jing Qiongwen who, because of his skill in music and dramatic performance, earned the Shu lord’s favor. This person also enjoyed poetry.
Han Qian ordered the personnel infiltrating Shu to focus on watching Jing Qiongwen. They ultimately discovered that while Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong remained in Chu, he had repeatedly sent people carrying letters back to Shu to secretly meet Jing Qiongwen. Each time Jing Qiongwen met with messengers sent back by Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong, he would enter the palace to see King Wang Jian of Shu.
From this, it could be seen that using Princess Qingyang to form a marriage alliance with Chu was actually Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong’s idea.
The fundamental reason Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong did this was simply that he deeply feared that once King Wang Jian of Shu passed away, he and his sister would be persecuted by Wang Hongyi.
Seeing Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong standing there stunned, Han Qian smiled again and said: “Although Han is not skilled in poetry, since I’ve been entrusted with His Highness’s important task, I must successfully escort Princess Qingyang back to Great Chu.”
In saying this, Han Qian had made his meaning quite clear.
He was telling Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong and Princess Qingyang that just because this marriage had progressed to this point didn’t mean there were no longer obstacles within Shu, didn’t mean things would continue smoothly from here on. No matter what obstacles they encountered, he would stand on their side and do everything possible to ensure Princess Qingyang was successfully escorted back to Chu…