“Is it really appropriate not to explain things clearly to Xue Ruogu and let him go to Yueyang with such resentment?” Zhao Ting’er asked, her belly protruding. Standing on the mountain at this moment, she could still see Xue Ruogu leading his attendants down the mountain in indignation, and she felt somewhat sympathetic.

Han Qian smiled faintly and said, “You all still lack experience in struggle. I need to let Xue Ruogu go to Yueyang with a belly full of grievances to confront heaven and earth! The Dowager Consort is His Highness’s birth mother, Zheng Yu is the Zheng family head, Zheng Chang is a great scholar, and my uncle also holds weighty official authority. Shen Yang’s backbone is hard, but his momentum weakens by three parts in front of them, let alone expecting Zheng Hui and Gao Chengyuan, who have even less seniority, to have the confidence to stand up. Everyone cannot tear off their facades and fight openly right now, and must continue to squeeze under the same roof. Tell me, what kind of person does His Highness need most by his side at this time?”

Jiang Huo thought back to the several times he had sat in on deliberations, realizing that having Shen Yang constantly stand at the forefront to firmly resist the aggressive momentum of the Dowager Consort, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Han Daoming, and others was indeed leaving Shen Yang exhausted and unable to hold up.

In the situation where Han Qian temporarily could not leave the mountain, probably only someone like Xue Ruogu could share some of Shen Yang’s pressure.

Moreover, Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, Qin Wen, and others had the qualifications and prestige of serving as provincial administrators and county magistrates. Serving at His Highness’s side, they could naturally be appointed to some key official positions, preventing His Highness’s side from appearing isolated and alone.

“With Lord Han strategizing for His Highness, Jiang Huo can rest easy. I won’t delay here any longer.” After bowing, Jiang Huo led his guards down the mountain to catch up with Xue Ruogu.

Jiang Huo couldn’t see through the changes in the larger situation, but as long as Han Qian didn’t stand by and watch, he could finally feel somewhat reassured returning, which was the greatest purpose of his trip.

……

……

After Xue Ruogu and Jiang Huo successively descended the mountain, Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, Feng Liao, and others were in no hurry to go down. At this moment, they continued to stand guard behind Han Qian.

Regardless of how Han Qian strategized grand plans for His Highness, what they cared more about was that Xuzhou had officially become its own independent system today.

With Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, Qin Wen, and others leaving Xuzhou to follow Jiang Huo to Yueyang for appointments, there would be no one in Xuzhou who could restrain Han Qian.

They were more concerned with what adjustments Han Qian had for the next steps in Xuzhou’s military and political affairs to respond to the current fragmented and earth-shattering chaos. In this era, information transmission was inconvenient, and they all suspected that major battles might already be occurring in Jinling at this very moment.

“Master Shen Yang recommended that I take over as Xuzhou Governor, ultimately worrying that I harbor too much hostility and calculate too deeply. He thought to first grant my wish, though this is also good. Even if I cannot restore clarity and justice to this world, I can at least protect this region from being stained with blood.” Han Qian stood among the mountain forests, gazing at the clouds and sky for a long while before turning back and saying, “Feng Liao, from now on you shall serve as Provincial Secretary. Write a recommendation letter for me now. Besides you, I also recommend Xi Xunqiao to replace Xue Ruogu as Provincial Administrator and concurrently Linjiang County Magistrate, recommend Zhao Qi as Linjiang County Deputy; recommend Ji Xiyao as Qianyang County Magistrate…”

Since the previous dynasty, from the Three Dukes, Nine Temples, and Five Directorates down to provinces and counties, the secretary who managed documents had greatly diminished in importance and status. However, among local separatist forces, the level of confidentiality involved in letters and correspondence was incomparably higher than official provincial and county documents. The position of secretary could only be held by trusted retainers, its importance even surpassing that of Recording Participant, with some forces only establishing Recording Participant positions without secretaries.

Feng Liao was designated by the late Emperor as a descendant of traitors, demoted to commoner status by the late Emperor. Starting from the low-level official position of Provincial Secretary made him relatively less conspicuous.

Han Qian effectively controlled Xuzhou by hereditary right but still lacked the qualifications to formally establish his own administration. Many private affairs had to be merged with provincial office business. Compared to the Administrator who managed civil affairs separately, Feng Liao as Provincial Secretary served as the connection point between public and private matters, holding sufficiently important status.

Xi Xunqiao was deeply influenced by Confucian culture. Besides being quite talented himself, he was also a representative figure of the remnant forces of the indigenous great clans. His replacement of Xue Ruogu as Administrator would stabilize people’s hearts while continuing to advance land system reforms and the integration of indigenous and immigrant household registrations.

Zhao Qi had been called a child prodigy since youth. After his father was defeated following the Yue Prince Dong Chang and demoted to official slavery, his belly full of literary talent had no place to be used, so he could only secretly practice martial prowess to protect his family.

As a granted slave assigned to Han Qian’s command, from the Yandang Islet estate period onward, over these two or three years, Zhao Qi mainly led a portion of estate soldiers for Han Qian and managed miscellaneous affairs.

However, his origin as an official slave and status as a member of the Han family retinue left him somewhat lacking in prestige.

No matter how willful and reckless Han Qian acted, he couldn’t completely ignore rules universally recognized by the world. Thus, he had Xi Xunqiao continue to concurrently hold the position of Linjiang County Magistrate, while Zhao Qi assumed the seemingly less important position of County Deputy, actually working together with Ji Xiyao to respectively handle affairs in Linjiang and Qianyang, the two most important counties in Xuzhou.

“Right now is spring plowing season, and we need to put great effort into repairing farmland irrigation and roads. The provincial camp shouldn’t undergo major changes for now—today is already the end of February, so Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong from that side should be sending people to Xuzhou soon, right?” Han Qian looked toward the mountain ranges to the northwest, speaking softly.

To facilitate abducting Princess Qingyang and escaping back to Chu, besides leaving Guo Rong and Zhou Chu in the Shu capital to deal with matters, he had divided his household troops, retainers, naval camp soldiers, and some personnel borrowed from the Yueyang naval camp into more than ten routes as decoys to mislead the Shu army.

Han Qian, together with Yang Qin, Xi Ren, Zhao Wuji, Feng Yi, and Kong Xirong, had successfully abducted Princess Qingyang and returned to Xuzhou, but there were still nearly six hundred people who either continued to hide in Shu territory or, like Guo Rong and Zhou Chu, were detained by the Shu army.

Most of these people who followed Han Qian to Shu for the marriage were grassroots elites.

Han Qian remained in Xuzhou both to observe Wang Chan’er and others jumping around causing trouble in Yueyang, and also to wait for Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong’s new response.

“With Liang and Chu both in great chaos, the Shu Lord Wang Jian will surely not miss this opportunity. The key is whether he will move north to seize Guanzhong or east to seize Jingzhou. What role do you think Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong can play, my lord?” Feng Liao addressed Han Qian as “my lord” without any awkwardness. This was also the first time Han Qian had openly discussed the situation since returning to Xuzhou. Naturally, Feng Liao wouldn’t pass up such a rare opportunity and tried to draw out more of Han Qian’s thoughts so they could have a clearer direction for their subsequent actions.

“What do you all think?” Han Qian turned back to look at Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Feng Liao, throwing the question back at them.

“From my lord’s manner, you don’t seem at all worried that the Shu Lord Wang Jian would have designs on Jing-Xiang. How are we supposed to answer this question?” Tian Cheng said with a bitter smile.

Han Qian hadn’t discussed state affairs for nearly a month, but they didn’t dare relax. They had privately discussed the current situation in Liang and Chu many times, and in their hearts still worried that the Shu army might possibly send troops to seize Jing-Xiang.

At least for the current Shu army, sending troops to seize Guanzhong versus seizing Jing-Xiang each had advantages and disadvantages.

Relatively speaking, Jing-Xiang had fertile land and dense population, and the Shu army had captured Xiazhou (Yiling) and managed it for over ten years. Currently isolated east of Wu Mountain and outside the Chengdu-Chongqing Plain, using Xiazhou as a base to seize Jing-Xiang would give the Shu army a large prosperous territory beyond the narrow Chengdu-Chongqing Plain.

They also wouldn’t think Princess Qingyang could play a particularly critical role in the Shu army’s strategic choices.

However, seeing Han Qian’s attitude, they could clearly see that Han Qian wasn’t at all worried that the Shu army would send troops against Jing-Xiang.

“If the Shu Lord Wang Jian were in his prime with ambitions for the world, under current circumstances, whether he would send troops to seize Guanzhong or Jing-Xiang would truly be difficult to judge,” Han Qian didn’t keep them guessing and said, “But now the lords of both Liang and Chu died through usurpation. Whether the Shu Lord Wang Jian will send troops to seize Guanzhong will become extremely hesitant, and he may very likely miss the opportunity to send troops due to hesitation, let alone come to scheme for Jing-Xiang!”

When Han Qian strategized for Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong about managing affairs in southern Ba in the Shu capital, he exploited the Shu Lord Wang Jian’s suspicion of his legitimate eldest son, Marquis Qingjiang Wang Hongyi. At that time, neither the Anning Palace conspiracy nor Zhu Yu’s imprisonment of his father to seize the throne had yet occurred.

Although these two events stirred Liang and Chu into fragmented chaos and great disorder, seemingly creating a heaven-sent opportunity for Shu to expand opportunistically, they would undoubtedly further intensify the Shu Lord Wang Jian’s suspicion of his legitimate eldest son, Marquis Qingjiang Wang Hongyi, making him worry that such tragedy would replay in the Shu palace.

The Shu Lord Wang Jian was also old now. His former ambition to seize the world was gone. What he most wanted to do now was probably to prevent such tragedy from repeating itself with him.

In this mentality, the Shu Lord Wang Jian would continue to weaken the Crown Prince Marquis Qingjiang’s power while using his second son, Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong, as a counterbalance.

In recent years, the Shu Lord Wang Jian had arranged his direct lineage generals on the northern front to guard against Western Qiang and enemies from the Guanzhong direction, while having the generals of Marquis Qingjiang’s faction be responsible for southern campaigns against the Man people of southern Sichuan.

When the Shu Lord Wang Jian initially made this decision, there was also intent to cultivate his successor.

If the Shu Lord Wang Jian wanted to send troops to seize Jing-Xiang but didn’t dare use his son Marquis Qingjiang and Marquis Qingjiang’s generals, and if Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong currently lacked both the capability and prestige to bear the heavy responsibility of sending troops to attack and seize Jing-Xiang, then his only choice would be to abandon Jing-Xiang and take Guanzhong instead.

In this situation, especially with Princess Qingyang having entered Yueyang and acknowledging his daughter’s marriage to Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu, with Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong as the core, forming a tighter alliance relationship with the Longque Army would temporarily resolve the threat on Shu’s southeastern front while also laying the foundation for sending troops to seize Guanzhong.

“So my lord had already determined early on that Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong would send people to Xuzhou under orders from the Shu Lord Wang Jian, rather than first making a private agreement with the Marquis before persuading the Shu Lord Wang Jian?” Feng Liao said with emotion, realizing he had misunderstood the meaning in Han Qian’s words earlier.

“Whether internally or externally, you must not address me by that title to avoid causing resentment,” Han Qian glanced at the leisurely white clouds outside the mountain and said, “The internal factors behind Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong gaining power are currently known only to us. The Dowager Consort, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, and others should still lack a clear understanding of the relationship between the Shu Lord Wang Jian and his son Marquis Qingjiang Wang Hongyi and Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong. Therefore, the marriage between Princess Qingyang and His Highness won’t drag on too long. This will be one of the three major external factors, besides the battles near Jinling and Runzhou, that will directly affect the balance of power and relative strength of various parties within Yueyang City. Do your work well and wait quietly for changes.”

“Besides the Shu Lord Wang Jian and Liang’s internal chaos, what other major external factors will directly impact Yueyang?” Feng Liao asked curiously.

Han Qian glanced toward the southeast, about to say something, when He Liufeng led two retainers excitedly running up the mountain. Approaching, he reported: “A messenger from Marquis Changxiang has just arrived at Longya City, requesting to see my lord.”

“My lord truly has divine foresight—speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives! My lord, would you like to guess whom Marquis Changxiang sent over?” Feng Liao said.

“I’m not a fortune teller. Even if Wang Yong is short-handed, he still has over a hundred trusted confidants he can use. But if he truly values this side, he might send Cao Gan over!” Han Qian said.

“It really is Yuzhou Judicial Participant Cao Gan—he borrowed passage through Sizhou and came personally!” He Liufeng said in shock.

Han Qian smiled faintly.

For Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong to send someone over, he needed to explain the “misunderstanding” of previously sending troops to search for and capture him, discuss continuing to jointly use troops against the Wu Man people together with Sizhou, and promote the marriage between Princess Qingyang and Yang Yuanpu. All these matters were extremely urgent for Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong.

Limited by the inefficiency of message transmission speed in this era, the Marquis necessarily had to send someone of sufficient weight so both sides could quickly reach consensus on many matters.

Currently, among Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong’s few direct confidants in Yuzhou, only Cao Gan could break away.

There was nothing difficult to deduce about this.