Han Qian looked at the fish pond. The koi had all hidden in the crevices between rocks deep in the artificial stone formations. The pond water was calm and waveless, smooth as if ironed flat, like a brightly polished bronze mirror. It clearly reflected Princess Qing Yang’s flawlessly beautiful face staring at his back.
Qing Yang hadn’t realized the pond water was like a mirror. She simply hadn’t expected that her elder brother’s many calculations had long since fallen into Han Qian’s eyes.
Of course, having Han Qian or anyone else see through their calculations and pursuits regarding this marriage alliance wasn’t particularly serious.
The show of force from Marquis Wei Wang Xiaoxian and the treatment the Chu envoys received at Jinhua Tower naturally made it easy to guess that the Qingjiang Marquis was behind it all, and easy to guess that the Qingjiang Marquis had suspicions about them. But what truly worried and even frightened them was: just how deep did the Qingjiang Marquis’s suspicions of them run?
Or, as Han Qian had hinted, exactly how much of what they had done in secret had the Qingjiang Marquis seen through? How many of their hidden tracks had he detected?
“Lord Han jests. My fourth brother has always been willful and reckless. He prides himself on knowing military strategy and warfare, and his martial skills are exceptional. Most likely, having heard of Lord Han’s illustrious reputation in the battles of Jingxiang and Tanzhou, he felt unconvinced in his heart and deliberately sought an opportunity to get close to Lord Han. If Lord Han holds a grudge, this marquis apologizes to Lord Han again on behalf of my fourth brother,” Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong said with a smile.
Hearing her elder brother speak thus, Princess Qing Yang thought again—perhaps Han Qian hadn’t actually seen through anything and was merely using words to trick them?
They had discussed many times privately whether Han Qian was trustworthy or not. Compared to his father Han Daoxun’s inscrutable and grand strategies, in their view, Han Qian’s schemes were mostly conspiracies and ruthless decisions. The Han Qian who was harsh in commanding subordinates was also a cold-hearted, narrow-minded person.
By common reasoning, once she married Yang Yuanpu, Han Qian would always have to be wary of her and wouldn’t dare harm her elder brother. However, the problem was that during the Jingxiang campaign, the unscrupulous Han Qian had dared to risk Yang Yuanpu’s life to strive for extraordinary merit. How much wariness did he truly have of her in his heart?
If not considering her factor, then Han Qian’s most core objective for this trip was to smoothly escort her back to Great Chu. Who was the greatest obstacle to overcome in the Shu state, and who would he choose to cooperate with?
Thinking of this, Qing Yang secretly felt that her elder brother’s caution was correct. This Han Qian was not worthy of trust.
Han Qian sat sideways by the wooden pavilion railing, taking in all of Princess Qing Yang’s alarm and suspicion reflected in the pond. Inwardly, he also felt rather bitter. He could see that although Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and Princess Qing Yang had some misunderstandings about him and his father, their understanding of his own situation was obviously much more extensive than he had imagined.
Could it be that someone within Xinchang Marquis’s household and Wanhong Tower was secretly passing information to them?
This was really damned interesting!
Seeing that after casting out so many fishing hooks, the little turtle Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong wouldn’t bite, Han Qian stretched lazily and stood up, saying, “Since the Marquis says so, then Han will not impose further—this time on the mission to Shu, Han privately brought quite a lot of goods. Perhaps at this very moment, someone is already at the Southern Garden of Jinhua Tower, seeking to purchase them for a high price!”
The large quantity of precious goods Han Qian secretly carried actually amounted to just a few dozen small boxes, known only to a very few people around him. However, the thousands of bolts of Qianyang cloth, tea, medicine, and other bulk goods that filled the bottom holds of the four ships were visible to everyone.
As he spoke of hurrying back to the Southern Garden of Jinhua Tower to sell goods, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong’s expression became somewhat unsustainable.
If someone came to the door at this time seeking to purchase this batch of goods for a high price, it would inevitably be someone sent by the Qingjiang Marquis.
The meaning in Han Qian’s words was also very clear. The marriage matter had reached this point—if the Qingjiang Marquis insisted on sabotaging it, the consequences would be extraordinarily severe. The Qingjiang Marquis’s purpose was nothing more than trying to prevent him from gaining benefits from this marriage. Rather than making everything fall apart and creating chaos everywhere, the Qingjiang Marquis colluding and cooperating with Han Qian, Yang Yuanpu’s most trusted close minister, was undoubtedly the most convenient shortcut. He could even conveniently claim the political achievement of facilitating the alliance, not to mention that among the state gifts Han Qian presented this time were the designs for whirlwind catapults!
“How many goods did Lord Han bring this time? Although this marquis’s residence has fallen into decline, we can still scrape together some money and treasures to purchase Lord Han’s goods,” Long Xiang Marquis Consort Liang Wan couldn’t restrain herself first and spoke up.
Han Qian glanced at the Long Xiang Marquis Consort, then looked at Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and smiled, “The Marquis should know that what I’m talking about doesn’t refer to just this one transaction.”
Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong gave a bitter smile. Wan’er had already exposed his side’s bottom line first, making it truly difficult to respond next.
This batch of goods was worth at most one to two hundred thousand strings of cash.
Once Yang Yuanpu ascended the throne, the Han father and son, as ministers who had supported the emperor’s rise, would wield enormous power. No matter how shallow their vision, they wouldn’t care about one to two hundred thousand strings of cash. What he wanted was annual trade worth hundreds of thousands, even millions of strings of cash—massive profits of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of strings annually.
If the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence didn’t secretly control a certain number of warehouses and shops for distributing goods, how could they undertake such enormous volumes of goods from Han Qian every year?
If he undertook this matter, it wasn’t simply admitting that the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence secretly controlled certain forces—he would also have to allow a portion of these forces to surface and interface with the merchant fleet from Xuzhou.
“What is the Marquis hesitating about?” Han Qian stared at Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and asked. “As long as the Marquis demonstrates sufficiently strong capabilities to Han, would Han really forsake what’s near to seek what’s far and go cooperate with the Qingjiang Marquis? Could it be that Han truly has no wariness at all that Princess Qing Yang will win His Highness’s favor? When we passed through Nanjin Pass gorge, we spoke so well about working together to smoothly advance this marriage. How is it that now, when we’ve barely drawn the first stroke of the character, the Marquis has become hesitant?”
At this moment, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong felt as if mountains were pressing down on him. He had never imagined that Han Qian could give him such tremendous pressure.
“Han is not an refined person. The Marquis Consort’s zither skills were taught by Superintendent Jing Qiongwen, weren’t they?” At this moment, Han Qian turned to look at Long Xiang Marquis Consort Liang Wan and asked.
“How do you know?!” Princess Qing Yang asked in shocked disbelief. Turning her thoughts, she said angrily, “You deliberately tricked me. You couldn’t possibly know Superintendent Jing, so how could you possibly discern that Sister Wan’s zither skills were taught by Superintendent Jing?”
Princess Qing Yang couldn’t withstand the deception, and the last trace of doubt in Han Qian’s heart completely dissipated. He smiled mockingly and said, “It’s true that I only arrived at the Shu capital yesterday and have never entered Shu before. Superintendent Jing has been ‘lying low’ in secret in the Two Sichuan Circuits all these years. However, the problem is—who can those broken affairs of the Shenling Bureau really be hidden from? Honestly, I had thought Superintendent Jing would be at the marquis’s residence today to discuss grand plans. I didn’t expect that in the end, you’re insufficient to strategize with—forget it, Han takes his leave!”
Han Qian waved his sleeves and lifted his foot to step out of the wooden pavilion, leading Xi Ren, Kong Xirong, Feng Yi, Yang Qin, and others to leave the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence.
Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong, Princess Qing Yang, and Marquis Consort Liang Wan stood frozen in the wooden pavilion. How could they have imagined that the secrets they had tried by every means to conceal had long been seen through?
Only after Han Qian had walked out of the courtyard did Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong startle awake and call out, “Lord Han, please stay! Lord Han, please stay!”
Han Qian pretended to be mysterious as he looked at a clump of sedge grass on the courtyard wall. Xi Ren looked back to see Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong urgently chasing over and asked in a low voice, “You tricked everything out of them?”
“They think they’re deeply scheming and far-sighted, but they have no experience and have never witnessed the true malice of the human world. What kind of deep scheming is that?” Han Qian said with a satisfied, contemptuous smile, keeping his voice low.
Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong appeared to be seven or eight years older than the Third Prince, but in essence there was no difference. A few more years living like a frightened bird wasn’t enough to make his emotions and wisdom perfect and complete. The truly formidable figure was perhaps Jing Qiongwen, but Jing Qiongwen’s special status of being trusted by the Shu Lord meant they couldn’t meet with him frequently.
Xi Ren shot Han Qian a sidelong glance. At this moment, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong had already caught up, so she couldn’t say much more.
“Please, Master Han, do not begrudge instructing Wang Yong!” Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong bowed deeply to the ground with a long salute.
“These meager skills of mine are merely the superficial aspects learned from my father—I don’t deserve such grand courtesy from the Marquis,” Han Qian said with his mouth, but his hands were tucked behind his back in his sleeves, as if encouraging Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong to call out once more.
“Please, Master Han, do not begrudge instructing Wang Yong!” Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong didn’t rise from his long salute and called out again.
Princess Qing Yang and Marquis Consort Liang Wan followed over. Her elder brother’s manner of addressing Han Qian left her thoroughly displeased, but she thought that since Yang Yuanpu called Han Qian thus, if her elder brother wanted to keep Han Qian to consult on strategy, there seemed to be no more appropriate form of address.
Han Qian thought of how Tanzhou was also a tangled mess—he couldn’t put on too much of an act. Knowing when to stop, he supported Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and said, “The Marquis flatters Han Qian too much. The marquis’s residence may not be without the Qingjiang Marquis’s eyes and ears. Let’s still dismiss others and speak in detail at the wooden pavilion’s quiet place!”
Han Qian had Feng Yi and Yang Qin return to the Southern Garden of Jinhua Tower first, keeping only Xi Ren to accompany him in discussing matters at the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence…