“Upon hearing that Lord Han and Princess Qingyang had gone missing, the Marquis was deeply anxious, worried that Lord Han and the Princess had been abducted by bandits, and also concerned that someone among Lord Han’s subordinates harbored disloyal intentions and might hand Lord Han over to the Traitorous Empress Dowager Xu Hui for reward. He dispatched imperial cavalry everywhere to search for Lord Han’s whereabouts, which resulted in detaining quite a few of Lord Han’s subordinates. Upon learning that Lord Han had already returned to Xuzhou, the Marquis realized it was a false alarm. He has now arranged for ships to send Lord Han’s subordinates along with Director Guo and Colonel Zhou to Yiling, and specially ordered Cao Gan to come to Xuzhou first to inform Lord Han…”
Han Qian was keeping vigil and mourning at the mountain grave. After Yuzhou Judicial Participant Cao Gan arrived at Longya City, he could only climb the mountain to see Han Qian.
When Han Qian was in the Shu capital, he had met Cao Gan twice. At that time, Cao Gan served in the Marquis Changxiang’s residence without making much of a show, but in fact he was one of the core remaining figures of the Divine Tomb Bureau in Shu territory. The Marquis Changxiang’s communications with Jing Qiongwen and others, as well as the personnel secretly cultivated by the Marquis’s residence, were mainly all handled by Cao Gan.
Cao Gan was nearly fifty years old. On his gaunt face, a pair of triangular eyes were bright and spirited. He also appeared energetic, showing no signs of old age—this was the result of long-term practice of martial arts and body conditioning. At this moment, standing before Han Qian, he casually explained the matter of Yuzhou detaining the marriage escort delegation, as if it truly was just a misunderstanding caused by strong concern for Han Qian’s personal safety, and as if all those people really had been detained by personnel dispatched from Yuzhou.
Behind Cao Gan were two people. One was his son Cao Zhe, wearing plain robes but appearing like a sharp sword concealed in its sheath, with only faint hints of its edge showing through. The other was his disciple Jiang Lian, who had followed Cao Gan serving in the Marquis Changxiang’s residence for many years. Their accompanying Cao Gan to Xuzhou was not as simple as being escort guards.
Xiazhou Yiling bordered Jingzhou, both located east of Wu Mountain, west of the Han River, and north of the Yangtze River. Even if Zhang Xiang’s attitude in Jingzhou was still unclear, the most direct method to send Guo Rong, Zhou Chu, and others back to Xuzhou was to simply send them to Yueyang or Langzhou.
The more thorny and difficult matter to handle was Guo Rong.
Guo Rong was a eunuch official from the Anning Palace faction, while Han Daoxun had suffered cruel harm at the hands of Anning Palace. According to the Marquis Changxiang’s thinking, Cao Gan should just send Guo Rong together with Zhou Chu and others directly to Yueyang.
In the end, it was only under Zhou Chu and the others’ strong insistence that Cao Gan decided to first come to Xuzhou to see Han Qian before deciding Guo Rong’s fate.
Han Qian sat under the bamboo shelter, wind blowing from all sides, and said: “Guo Rong may go or stay as he wishes. Everyone else should return directly to Xuzhou!”
Without going through Yueyang or Langzhou, Zhou Chu and the others could cross the river directly from Yiling, proceed south along the western foothills of Wuling Mountain, reach the banks of the Yuan River, then take boats back to Xuzhou. He could even directly dispatch ships to wait at the river bank west of Wuling County to bring Zhou Chu and the others back.
As for Guo Rong, although he was a eunuch official from the Anning Palace faction, he ultimately had no record of harming others, and had even exerted effort to cover for their successful escape from Shu territory.
Han Qian neither harbored thoughts of killing Guo Rong to vent his anger, nor intended to hand him over to Yueyang for disposal.
“When I crossed the river from Yiling to come to Xuzhou, Director Guo spoke with me. He seems to also have intentions of coming to Xuzhou,” Cao Gan rubbed his nose and looked at Han Qian as he spoke.
“Since Director Guo wishes to come to Xuzhou, that’s also up to him. Xuzhou is not some forbidden realm that prohibits people from entering or leaving,” Han Qian said noncommittally.
“Besides the matter of Director Guo, Colonel Zhou, and the others’ destinations, the Marquis sent Cao Gan to see Lord Han also wanting to ask whether joining forces with Sizhou is feasible,” Cao Gan squinted his seasoned triangular eyes at Han Qian and asked, “I borrowed passage through Wuling to come to Longya City and heard that the Hunan Executive Secretariat has formally commissioned Lord Han to take charge of Xuzhou as Governor. Cao Gan dares to ask one more question: can Xuzhou also send troops to participate in the suppression campaign against the Wu Man people?”
“Joining forces with Sizhou—this requires Lord Cao to personally make a trip to Sizhou. After meeting Sizhou Governor Yang Xingfeng and other Yang family figures, you’ll know. As for whether Xuzhou sends troops or not, if Lord Cao proceeds west along the Chen River and sees how steep and treacherous the small mountain path entering Sizhou from the southern foothills of Wuling Mountain is, you’ll know that expecting Xuzhou to send troops is truly making things difficult,” Han Qian said methodically. “However, after the Qian River waterway is opened, even if we must use laborers to carry supplies over mountains and ridges, Xuzhou can still send tens of thousands of bolts of Qianyang cotton cloth into Shu territory through Sizhou every year…”
Cao Gan was slightly stunned, thinking that while they in Yuzhou joined forces with Sizhou’s Yang Xingfeng to attack the Wu Man people from both sides, Xuzhou wouldn’t send troops or contribute effort, yet still wanted to enjoy the benefits of opening the Qian River waterway?
However, since Han Qian said the small path on the southern foothills of Wuling Mountain was extraordinarily steep and treacherous, unsuitable for large armies to pass through, and he hadn’t personally dispatched people to make the journey himself, he had no grounds to argue at this moment.
Moreover, the main reason they used to persuade Sizhou to send troops was that after opening the Qian River waterway, Xuzhou’s cloth, iron, tea, and medicine, as well as salt, horses, and such from the Yuzhou direction, could be transported to various places through Sizhou, exchanging what they had. Not only would Sizhou become less isolated, but it could also collect enormous profits through levying transit taxes and market taxes.
For Yuzhou, managing southern Ba would not only extend Yuzhou’s controlled hinterland to the central Qian River region, but would also cut off the private salt sources for the mountain Man people of southern Sichuan, laying the foundation for thoroughly quelling the mountain Man people’s rebellion in southern Sichuan, and laying the foundation for the Marquis Changxiang to replace the Marquis Qingjiang.
Whether Xuzhou sent troops or not wasn’t very important. It was more about hoping Xuzhou could show an attitude of active participation.
“Then I must ask Lord Han to dispatch someone to serve as guide,” Cao Gan said.
Cao Gan was truly unfamiliar with the mountain and river terrain of the Chen-Xu area, and also hoped to make the actual journey so he could have more confidence when meeting the Yang family of Sizhou.
At the same time, although Yuzhou and Sizhou were both located on the upper and lower reaches of the Qian River respectively, apart from private salt traders coming and going, there had been no official contact. Cao Gan didn’t think that with just a single letter from the Yuzhou Governor’s office, he could open the doors of the Yang family of Sizhou. Even if Xuzhou didn’t send troops, bringing along people from Xuzhou would add weight to his words.
Sizhou bordered Chenzhou and Xuzhou, and at the same time was nominally affiliated with Great Chu as a tributary prefecture of Great Chu, symbolically sending some tribute goods to Jinling every year and requesting some rewards in return.
“This is naturally so. Since Lord Cao has come, we should provide as much convenience as possible.”
Han Qian didn’t know when the situation might suddenly take a sharp turn for the worse. Xuzhou’s military forces were too limited to handle multiple directions simultaneously, but deploying a small number of guides and scouts to assist Cao Gan and his group was merely a small effort, so he readily agreed.
Moreover, regarding cooperation with the Marquis Changxiang Wang Yong, this side needed to show at least some sincerity.
Han Qian continued speaking.
“Right now Jinling is in chaos with soldiers and horses everywhere. Who knows when the warfare will cease? Jing-Xiang and Jiangnan West Circuit urgently need Sichuan salt to come in. Transporting Sichuan salt by boat along the Yangtze River may be most convenient, but for salt used in the hinterlands of Chen, Xu, Jing, and Shao, even going through Sizhou would be profitable. When Lord Cao meets Governor Yang, you can say that for all Sichuan salt delivered to Laolong Gorge, Xuzhou can purchase it at two thousand coins per dan.”
In southern Ba, drilling wells to extract brine for boiling salt produced well salt, costing only two to three hundred coins per dan. Even traveling south along the Qian River and having people carry and horses transport it along the small mountain paths of southern Wuling Mountain, no matter how difficult, the transport cost per dan of salt would at most be five to six hundred coins. Han Qian’s promise to purchase at two thousand coins per dan at Longya City meant that for every dan of Sichuan salt transported through Sizhou to Xuzhou, Yuzhou and Sizhou could share enormous profits of one thousand two to three hundred coins.
If Yuzhou took a bit less profit from the salt, with fifty to sixty thousand dan of Sichuan salt annually being transported through Sizhou into Xuzhou, that would be enormous profits of seventy to eighty thousand strings of cash. This item alone would probably be enough to make the Yang family of Sizhou’s hearts race with excitement, wouldn’t it?
Although the various prefectures of Tan, Lang, and Yue could collect field and poll taxes totaling several hundred thousand strings of cash annually, those were large prefectures with one hundred thousand qing of taxable land and one hundred thousand registered households. Sizhou had fewer than ten thousand registered households, barren land, and even with the most harsh exploitation, annual rents, taxes, and corvée labor combined could at most reach twenty to thirty thousand strings of cash, and that still had to cover various expenses—it was truly an impoverished backwater.
The Central Plains dynasty often didn’t want to directly incorporate these prefectures and counties under their administration.
To put it bluntly, in these poverty-stricken mountainous areas, the cost of governance was too high while grain tax revenue was low.
Not only could they not expect these prefectures and counties to send grain taxes to the capital, on the contrary they had to subsidize large amounts of money and grain to maintain the operation of the government offices.
Once local disturbances arose, the court also needed to dispatch troops for suppression, which would make the already stretched central finances even more burdened, creating hole after hole.
Thus, maintaining nominal rule while actually having these prefectures and counties each manage their own affairs became the practical choice forced upon rulers of successive dynasties by reality.
Of course, with so much Sichuan salt entering Xuzhou, how Han Qian would dispose of it was no concern of Cao Gan’s. He thought to himself that with Han Qian and his father Han Daoxun successively holding the position of Xuzhou Governor, everything in Xuzhou was decided by Han Qian, and he would surely have ways to extract even more enormous profits from this Sichuan salt.
“As for the marriage between the Princess and Prince Tan, we must ask Lord Han to take extra care,” Cao Gan said.
“The Princess’s bridal escort personnel and ceremonial procession should have also reached Xiazhou by now. After the three-month national mourning period passes, the wedding envoy selected by the Shu Lord should naturally rush to Yueyang to arrange everything. Having delivered the Princess to Yueyang, Han Qian’s responsibility as marriage escort has been fulfilled. At this time, I only want to focus on mourning and keeping vigil at the grave, and truly have no mind to concern myself with worldly affairs,” Han Qian demurred, expressing his attitude that he would not get involved in going to Yueyang at this time.
What the hell, why doesn’t Xuzhou have to do anything? Cao Gan grumbled inwardly, but his squinting triangular eyes seemed full of smiles as he said: “The Princess, newly married into Chu territory, will inevitably be unfamiliar with the people and place. Moreover, having been pampered since childhood in the Shu palace, she’ll inevitably have some temperamental tendencies. Even though our Lord will dispatch several experienced nannies to attend to her, in the short term she’ll probably have difficulty getting along harmoniously with the ministers of Great Chu. At such times, we must ask Lord Han to mediate.”
“That’s easy to say. After all, it was I, Han, who escorted the Princess into Great Chu. I couldn’t truly sit by and watch the Princess be bullied by those ignorant people. Please set Lord Cao’s and the Marquis’s minds at ease,” Han Qian said. Then he stood up to indicate seeing the guest out. He would continue to remain in the mountains keeping vigil, while more detailed negotiations would be left to Feng Liao, Tian Cheng, and the others to handle in contact with Cao Gan.
Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Feng Liao accompanied Cao Gan along with Cao Zhe, Jiang Lian, and others down the mountain first. Zhao Ting’er was pregnant, and fearing the steep mountain paths at night would be slippery and easy to stumble on, she also returned to Longya City first.
Besides Lin Zongjing leading a team of guards, only Xi Ren remained by Han Qian’s side at this moment to attend to his daily needs, and more importantly to help organize manuscripts.
Han Qian stood in the mountains, watching the brilliant red evening glow spread over the peaks of the western mountains. At this moment he saw Guo Nu’er climbing up the mountain, handing over a letter with its seal already broken: “Lord Jiang just received a secret dispatch newly transmitted back from Liang. He had me bring it for you to read, my lord.”