Hearing Han Qian explain in detail the rise and fall of old and new powerful clan forces in Shu over recent decades, Feng Yi thought of the Feng family’s destruction and gave a bitter smile, sighing with emotion:
“Alas, in the end my father simply didn’t think things through clearly. Otherwise he wouldn’t have brought such great calamity!”
When the Third Prince first left the palace for his mansion, establishing the Dragonfinch Army, the Xinchang Marquis mansion and Wanhong Pavilion, even exerting all their effort, could only produce forty to fifty thousand strings of money and grain annually. But this was enough to maintain the Dragonfinch Army.
At that time everyone around the Third Prince lived extremely frugally. Han Qian even wished he could split a single copper coin in half to spend.
Fighting for the opportunity to relocate to Deng and Xiang to resist the Liang army, Han Qian had even gone so far as to open money shops in Linjiang Marquis mansion’s name to gather funds, supplementing insufficient military resources. In total he had only raised fifty to sixty thousand strings of cash.
Who could have imagined that besides the Feng family’s hundreds of thousands of mu of grain fields and estate compounds, hundreds of warehouses and shops, and a fleet of three to four hundred ships, their secretly held ready cash—including gold and silver ingots, copper coins, and precious pearls and goods—reached nearly three million strings, fully equal to Great Chu’s court revenue for an entire year?
If at that time the Feng family had placed their bet on the Third Prince and been willing to produce three to five hundred thousand strings of money and grain, once the Third Prince ascended the throne in future, the Feng family’s position would not have been below the Xinchang Marquis mansion.
Of course, that Feng Wenlan didn’t bet on the Third Prince wasn’t to say Feng Wenlan was stingy. At that time truly few people saw any sign the Third Prince would soar to the heavens!
“Do you still harbor resentment in your heart?” Han Qian asked.
“Resentment naturally exists,” with no outsiders in the room, and Kong Xirong apparently sent by Han Qian somewhere to handle affairs, Feng Yi had no need to conceal anything before Han Qian. He sighed with emotion, “But when I mention now the calamity that befell the Feng family, more than anything it’s just an expression of sentiment. I hadn’t imagined the difficulty new noble clans face in accumulating family property and wealth.”
Han Qian laughed heartily and said: “Without engaging in commerce, no matter how much land one occupies, grain still needs time to grow from the earth.”
“Indeed. Among princely clans, a prince controlling one hundred thousand mu of grain fields can collect one hundred thousand shi of grain rent annually—that’s already counting good harvest years. Converting it amounts to only thirty to forty thousand strings of cash. After deducting extravagant expenses, how much surplus remains each year?” Feng Yi smiled. “In the campaign to reduce regional powers, destroying the Ma clan, the Third Prince used the name of purges to plunder the provinces of Heng, Yue, Lang, Shao, and Heng, gathering several million strings of wealth in a short time. This was after all an extremely special case—there’s another very key reason, just as you said earlier: the provinces of Hunan Circuit have experienced countable wars over nearly a hundred years, far fewer than Jingxiang, Sichuan and Shu. However, speaking of the way of commerce, truly speaking, what you’ve done in Xuzhou is what can really be called the way of commerce!”
Seeing that Feng Yi could more or less understand the substance of Xuzhou’s operations, Han Qian secretly felt he had truly changed from the past. He said: “Regarding Xuzhou matters, know them in your heart, but don’t speak much of them outside.”
Han Qian would now prefer that people of the world regard Xuzhou as a remote, barbarous land isolated in one corner, not giving it importance.
Feng Yi nodded, indicating he wasn’t like before—he would know the proper depth and weight of matters.
His Feng family could become Jianghuai magnates fundamentally because from the late previous dynasty, his Feng family ancestor served as Jianghuai Salt and Iron Transport Commissioner. Taking advantage of controlling Jianghuai’s financial networks while also controlling the commercial routes of Jianghuai provinces and counties, with a fleet of three to four hundred ships and over a hundred warehouses as foundation, buying cheap and selling dear, they accumulated such wealth.
Thinking of how Han Qian, based in Xuzhou, initially also exerted all effort first to establish the Xuzhou boat association, making bulk goods from Chen and Xu provinces reach Jinling, Junzhou and other places—fundamentally he walked the same road as the Feng family had in those years, without any fundamental transcendence.
In the first two years the Xuzhou boat association’s initial scale seemed considerable, but its foundation ultimately couldn’t compare with the Feng family.
Even so, through the Xuzhou boat association there was an accumulation of three to four thousand strings of cash annually.
Only Han Qian didn’t become a miser. Whenever there was surplus, he either redeemed Xi clan people or supplemented military insufficiencies, while continuously expanding the scale of Five Peaks Mountain’s Yangtan Water Fortress and New Xi Fortress, expanding the weaving workshops and shipyards, building iron smelting facilities.
If Han Qian had limited himself to this, catching up to the Feng family would be extremely difficult.
After all, even monopolizing trade between Chen and Xu provinces and counties in the upper Yuanjiang with the Central Plains, the scale was extremely limited.
Each year twenty to thirty thousand dan of tea and medicinal herbs, over ten thousand barrels of tung oil, forty to fifty thousand shi of grain, and small amounts of Southwest specialties like ivory, Hepu pearls, gold and silver precious metals—the total trade amounted to only one to two hundred thousand strings of cash annually.
What Han Qian did in Xuzhou that truly differed from the Feng family was that over these past two years, besides vigorously developing water conservancy and reclaiming wasteland for cultivation while reforming field taxes, he concentrated on developing weaving, iron smelting, mining, shipbuilding, poultry raising and other industries, such that in just these two years Xuzhou’s locally produced bulk goods alone were worth twenty to thirty thousand strings of cash.
Currently cotton cultivation in Xuzhou already exceeded one hundred thousand mu. After the New Year entering spring, the planting area would double again. Moreover, because Xuzhou purchased cotton seeds at high prices, making provinces like Chen, Jing, Si, and Shao also continuously greatly increase cotton planting area these past two years, all this would promote Xuzhou’s weaving industry to develop at an even faster pace.
Before age twenty Feng Yi had been a debauched wastrel, but after the Feng family met with calamity and he fled with Han Qian to Xuzhou for refuge, his faculties gradually opened. He could thus understand that what Xuzhou had done these two years was what truly surpassed the Feng family. But in the eyes of the world, Xuzhou was perhaps still just a remote barbarous land isolated in one corner?
Without Han Qian saying it, at this moment Feng Yi could also understand that the greatest benefit to Xuzhou of Han Qian assisting Marquis Zhangxiang in coordinating with Sizhou to manage affairs in Banan was opening commercial routes through Sizhou to reach Qianjiang, and thereby reach Sichuan and Shu.
The small road located in Sizhou territory at the southern foot of Wuling Mountain was extremely precipitous and remote, even harder to traverse than the current Xuefeng Mountain post road. Only desperately vicious private salt dealers would dare risk traveling it for enormous profits.
Compared to the road’s remoteness, the fierceness and unruliness of the Wuchuan (Qianjiang) Liao people was an even greater obstacle to this commercial route.
If they could truly drive the Wu Liao people from both banks of Qianjiang or completely subjugate them, this commercial route needn’t be expected to transport three to five hundred thousand shi of grain annually—such massive quantities of supplies. Each year one to two hundred thousand bolts of Qianyang cloth, only about four to five hundred thousand jin, could be carried on human backs or by pack animals. With just several hundred people, this cloth could be carried from Longya City to the Qianjiang riverside for loading onto ships.
This was Han Qian’s way of commerce far surpassing his predecessors, wasn’t it?
Now Marquis Qingjiang’s side thought that by controlling mutual trade between the two countries in their hands, they could force Han Qian to submit. They hadn’t imagined that after Han Qian assisted Marquis Zhangxiang in managing affairs in Banan and opened the small road at Wuling’s southern foot, Xuzhou goods entering Shu would actually depend on the relationship between Han Qian and Marquis Zhangxiang Wang Yong.
Of course, for the Han family to avoid repeating the Feng family’s downfall, fundamentally they still had to grasp Xuzhou in their hands, right?
Thinking to this point, Feng Yi turned back and asked:
“I’ve heard that before you went to Xuzhou to plan the campaign to reduce regional powers, His Majesty and His Highness both promised your Han family hereditary leadership of Xuzhou. Is this indeed true?”
“Thinking about these matters now has no meaning!” Han Qian said indifferently. Seeing Feng Yi’s confusion, for now he couldn’t explain too much.
In Han Qian’s heart he more hoped that when he departed to escort Princess Qingyang back to Great Chu, the situation in Jinling could still barely maintain, without earth-shaking changes occurring.
Only, was this possibility there?
……
……
The tall and imposing Chongwen Hall crouched like a giant beast in silent stillness deep within the Imperial City.
Coming out from Chongwen Hall, passing through a corridor sandwiched between thick palace walls with a bit of moss still growing at the edges even after entering winter, walking north over two hundred steps and entering a courtyard with several large scholar trees growing and wisteria trellises in the corners—this was Anning Palace’s main courtyard.
Called a palace, Anning Palace was somewhat taller and more spacious than ordinary buildings, but still couldn’t compare with the three great main halls built on tall platforms.
The Imperial City was ultimately somewhat cramped. More than half its area was occupied by the Three Departments, Six Ministries, Nine Courts, as well as offices like the Bureau of Military Affairs and Military Virtue Bureau handling official business, leaving even less territory for the palace.
During these years since the dynasty’s founding, warfare everywhere had never ceased. National treasury consumption was profligate. Wanting to expand the palace—first there was no money or grain, second the surrounding areas were all residences and mansions built long ago. Wanting to demolish them would create enormous disturbance and also breed public resentment.
The compromise was to take several gardens confiscated from the former Shengzhou Military Commissioner outside the Imperial City, or even outside Jinling city, renovate them, and build them into traveling palaces for enjoying spring and appreciating autumn, where one could go stay for two days every few days to change one’s mood.
However, Empress Dowager Xu had felt physically uncomfortable in recent years. Routinely she remained within the palace, unwilling to move about everywhere. Never mind leaving the Imperial City for traveling palaces to relax—she rarely even walked out of Anning Palace.
Today with rare bright sunshine and weather not so bitterly cold, Empress Dowager Xu walked out to the courtyard, going to the adjacent plum garden to view dozens of wintersweet trees just budding with rice-grain-sized flower buds. The eunuchs and female officials of Anning Palace all felt peculiarly strange, not knowing why Her Ladyship would have such fine elegant mood today.
Zhao Mingting and Niu Gengru came from the Bureau of Military Affairs, entering the palace through a side gate. They saw Crown Prince Eastern Palace Guard Commander Xu Anlan and the sickly-looking Crown Prince Yang Yuanwo already standing quietly in a corner of the plum garden, while Empress Dowager Xu was stepping into the plum garden to break off a plum branch and bring it to her nose to sniff lightly.
Empress Dowager Xu’s face was covered with thick lead powder, as if wanting to grasp from empty space the youthful years that had long disappeared. This only made her face appear more rigid, but from her facial structure one could vaguely discern her magnificent appearance when young.
“We greet Your Ladyship and His Highness the Crown Prince.” Zhao Mingting and Niu Gengru stepped forward to pay respects.
Yang Yuanwo by nature enjoyed wild revelry, was addicted to wine and women, and his body had always been weak. At this moment his face was wax-yellow, his eyes murky and spiritless. Hunched over standing in the garden, he couldn’t help but yawn—not knowing on which woman’s belly he had wasted too much energy last night, causing him to be so exhausted and haggard just after being summoned to the palace.
However, no matter how worthless Yang Yuanwo was, knowing the entire capital was filled with voices calling to depose the heir and establish a new one, during this period he was also frightened out of his wits. Each day he could persist in coming to the palace to pay respects, going to the Bureau of Military Affairs to follow Niu Gengru and Wen Muqiao in learning to handle national governance.
Seeing Zhao Mingting and Niu Gengru walk over, Empress Dowager Xu casually discarded the newly plucked plum branch.
Due to her age, Empress Dowager Xu’s eyes—once beautiful as deep springs—inevitably had become somewhat murky, but instantly revealed a sharp, indescribable aura that inspired awe: “Was there anything fresh today in Chongwen Hall? I just heard someone say Metropolitan Governor Han Daoxun entered the palace early this morning?”