Gao Shao currently also remained in Xuzhou. The affairs of Jinyun Tower were mainly managed by Jiang Huo and Yuan Guowei.

Han Qian took the secret dispatch. Xi Ren also craned her neck to look over, not knowing what had happened in Liang again.

“The Liang Emperor abdicated the throne just twenty days ago and then suddenly died of illness? Isn’t Zhu Yu acting too hastily?” Seeing the intelligence transmitted in the secret dispatch, even Xi Ren couldn’t help but gasp in shock and ask in amazement, “The Liang Emperor abdicated and Zhu Yu has already ascended the throne. Why would he still need to commit regicide and patricide, committing the greatest taboo under heaven?”

Although Zhu Yu announced to the world that the Retired Liang Emperor had died of sudden illness without recovery, secret agents lurking in the Liang capital Bianjing had collected information from multiple sources for verification, confirming that the death of the Retired Liang Emperor contained enormous suspicious circumstances.

However, this made Xi Ren even more perplexed. She looked toward Han Qian questioningly, not knowing what his view on this matter was.

They say one must step outside the chessboard to see the chaos before one’s eyes clearly. Han Qian also tried to do this, but not only did he have very shallow understanding of Jin, the powerful enemy north of Liang, he also knew very little about the details of Prince Yong Zhu Yu’s sudden raising of troops to imprison his father and usurp the throne.

Although after the death of his legitimate eldest son, the Liang Emperor had never established a Crown Prince, Prince Yong’s prestige and authority were above Prince Bo Zhu Gui, Prince He Zhu Rang, and others. For him to so impatiently raise troops to usurp the throne, even first taking the risk of persuading Han Yuanqi to assassinate Han Jian and luring Prince Bo Zhu Gui and eighty thousand elite imperial guards away from the mountain, there must have been changes within the Liang court that forced Zhu Yu to strike first.

Some intelligence was easy to collect and analyze, such as grain supplies and other materials as well as troop assembly and movements, but some information was very difficult to detect any trace of.

At this moment, Han Qian connected many fragmented pieces of information together.

When Prince Yong Zhu Yu raised troops to seize Bianjing, rumor had it that Zhu Yu’s Princess Consort Rong Shi, who remained in the Prince Yong’s residence in Bianjing, was unfortunately struck by a stray arrow, causing this woman to miss the position of Great Liang’s Empress. When Xi Ren and Zhao Ting’er had previously heard this news, they had felt quite sorry for this woman they’d never met.

Now it seemed that Princess Consort Rong Shi of Prince Yong had most likely already died before Zhu Yu raised troops.

Although many matters were currently unclear to the world, as if sealed behind an impenetrable wall, in later generations Emperor Gaozong of Liang had a very poor reputation, with one particularly despicable act that even people of later generations found utterly shameful—he enjoyed violating other men’s wives and daughters, sometimes not even sparing his own daughters-in-law.

The death of Rong Shi in Prince Yong’s residence, Prince Yong Zhu Yu’s raising of troops, and his inability to suppress the resentment in his heart after just twenty days, leading him to commit patricide and even having all the eunuch attendants and palace maids who served Emperor Gaozong’s daily needs in Qiuyang Palace buried with him—there weren’t many reasonable explanations left.

Han Qian looked toward the pale mist among the mountains and said with emotion: “Zhu Yu was originally an extremely formidable opponent. Harboring resentment while committing patricide—I don’t know whether this will make him more difficult to deal with, or will make him weaker!”

“Zhu Yu harbors resentment—do you know what happened within the Liang imperial clan?” Xi Ren asked in confusion.

The warfare in Jing-Xiang that Zhu Yu planned and launched was extremely dangerous, needless to say. After the war, Zhu Yu dared to secretly travel deep into Jing-Xiang territory, even daring to deliberately recruit Han Qian when waiting at Turtle Mountain as Han Qian passed by—all these things left an extremely deep impression on Xi Ren.

She even deeply suspected that once Zhu Yu ascended the throne in Liang, who among the three nations of Chu, Shu, and Jin would be his match?

It wasn’t that in Xi Ren’s eyes Han Qian was weak. It was truly that Han Qian remaining in Chu and at the Third Prince’s side faced too many constraining factors.

No matter how divinely brave Han Qian was, with countless people holding onto and entangling his hands and feet, he had no way to fully display his talents and abilities.

For such a person, Xi Ren couldn’t imagine why Zhu Yu would take the disastrous step of regicide and patricide, nor did she understand why Han Qian asserted he harbored resentment.

Han Qian didn’t want to gossip behind people’s backs and turned to other matters: “Zhu Yu has committed patricide. Even if Liang Shixiong receives the edict to come to Bianjing to serve as Chief Military Commissioner, Zhu Yu will find it difficult to stabilize the Liang situation in a short time. This may perhaps allow Xu Mingzhen to relax his steps somewhat. The situation in Jianghuai will become increasingly complex and intricate—”

Xi Ren nodded. Many matters were such that pulling one hair moved the whole body.

Zhu Yu’s patricide meant that even if he eliminated Prince Bo Zhu Gui, it would be difficult to stabilize his position in the short term. Currently they still didn’t know whether Jin and Shu would opportunistically send troops to viciously tear a chunk of flesh from Liang.

This also meant that Great Chu could temporarily have no fear of threats from Liang.

This also meant that not only could Chuzhou forces cross the river southward, but Shouzhou forces and even Du Chongtao’s troops stationed on the Deng-Xiang defense line might all participate in the bloody vortex about to be or already stirred up in Jinling.

Of course, this didn’t rule out that provincial governors and defense commanders holding local military and political authority might use the current chaos, under the pretext of observing, strengthen their local power, actually practicing separatism, or curry favor with multiple sides to seize the maximum benefits favorable to them.

This would also make Great Chu’s situation even more bloody and fragmented.

“What do you think Tanzhou should do in response to the current situation?” Rarely did Han Qian open up to conversation today, so Xi Ren couldn’t help but ask curiously.

“After allying with Shu, maintain the current state with Zhang Xiang, Du Chongtao, and even Yang Zhitang who holds Hongzhou. Be vigilant that the Yongzhou rebels might make peace with the Jinghai Army, then quietly await changes in the situation,” Han Qian said. “However, many matters are not for me to decide. Right now everyone may still have thoughts of observing the situation. Once the situation changes, people’s hearts will change accordingly. For now, we can only do our own work well first.”

……

……

Tian Cheng, Gao Shao, and Feng Liao accompanied Cao Gan down the mountain to stay in Longya City. Early the next morning, Guo Nu’er and He Liufeng led over ten people to accompany Cao Gan along with Cao Zhe and Jiang Lian over mountains and ridges to Sizhou to meet Yang Xingfeng to discuss joining forces.

As for Jiang Huo, after following Xue Ruogu down the mountain, he went directly back to Qianyang City first. Han Qian also didn’t have them meet with Cao Gan who came under orders from the Marquis Changxiang.

Jiang Huo and the others didn’t delay long in Qianyang City. By the third day, Xue Ruogu, Li Tang, and Qin Wen left their letters of resignation, hung up their seals at the provincial office, and with bellies full of grievances, left Xuzhou with Jiang Huo, heading to Yueyang City.

Zhou Chu and the other personnel detained in Shu didn’t cross the river from Yiling until the sixth day of the third month, traveling along the northeastern foothills of Wuling Mountain back to Longya City.

Currently, the Han family’s hereditary control of Xuzhou had become established fact, and the boundary between provincial forces and household troops was the first to be broken down.

Earlier, the Han family’s forces had three hundred household troops. At this time they were temporarily maintained under the organization of a Personal Guard Battalion, with Han Qian appointing Zhao Wuji as Battalion Commander, with Zhou Chu and Kong Xirong as deputies.

Besides Yang Qin leading his troops back to the provincial forces to continue commanding the navy, Han Qian also incorporated Lin Zongjing, Xi Fa’er, and a large batch of elite household troops into the provincial forces.

Doing this, on one hand, ensured the provincial forces were loyal to Han Qian, looking only to Han Qian as their leader. On the other hand, it also simultaneously compensated for the shortage of senior military officers in the provincial forces.

After hereditary control of Xuzhou became fact, to avoid the public-private boundary between Longya City and the provincial office becoming confused and chaotic, Feng Liao and the others suggested establishing an Inner Treasury beyond the Revenue Participant and provincial granary.

Normal field taxes, market taxes, and such would as before fall under the Revenue Participant’s jurisdiction, with proceeds going into the provincial granary, responsible for the salaries of provincial and county officials, construction of irrigation works, roads, and schools, as well as maintaining recruitment of provincial forces and internal security and defense. Beyond this, profits from reclaimed polderland, cloth, iron, and shipbuilding would go into the Inner Treasury, responsible for expenditures and consumption not originally encompassed by the provincial office. Han Qian recalled former Wuling County Secretary Zhao Jicheng from Huaxi Fort to be responsible for Inner Treasury affairs.

Whether it was Han Daoxun receiving the edict to go to Jinling to serve as Capital Region Governor, or Han Daoxun suffering torture and dying in Jinling, or Han Qian returning to Xuzhou to live in Longya Mountain mourning and keeping vigil—this entire period lasted over five months.

During this time, not only did Zhao Ting’er, Ji Xiyao, Zhao Qi, and others responsible for Longya City and Five Peaks Mountain affairs advance various matters according to established plans, but under the direction of Xue Ruogu, Tian Cheng, Zheng Tong, and other military officials, the provincial office’s many affairs did not stagnate.

Land system reform, integration of indigenous and immigrant household registrations, and other matters advanced to deeper levels. Over three hundred li of irrigation ditches large and small were newly constructed, several hundred pond reservoirs were built, converting one hundred twenty thousand mu of barren dry land into irrigated fields with doubled annual grain production.

Over the past five months, they also recruited personnel to newly construct over forty li of river embankments on the south bank of the Yuan River, reclaiming over seventy thousand mu of new polderland. To promote the use of hydraulic machinery, Linjiang County and Qianyang County built a batch of water-powered mills.

Coal mines increased to sixteen, and iron foundries also added two new ones. Currently coal and iron were being supplied to Yueyang, Tanzhou, Langzhou, and other places.

The Xuefeng Mountain post road completed its first phase of repairs and widening in early February when Han Qian rushed back to Xuzhou. It could now roughly allow people to lead mules and horses carrying goods traveling between Shao and Xu prefectures, with time greatly shortened. It was no longer like before when Han Qian’s group of one to two hundred people needed seven to eight days to cross Xuefeng Mountain, let alone larger groups.

Because cloth, iron, tea, paper, and other goods currently produced in Xuzhou were already being sold in Shaozhou and Hengzhou, with the Xuefeng Mountain post road as the most convenient passage, there were already many porters active on the Xuefeng Mountain post road, carrying goods over the mountain for merchants and travelers, even using sedan chairs to carry travelers over the mountain.

With this widening of the post road, the twenty-seven tribal forts originally distributed along the post road in Xuefeng Mountain had all been incorporated under Qianyang County’s administration, adding over ten thousand people.

Han Qian entered the mountain to mourn, but Longya City didn’t stop continuing to allocate money and grain, still employing over three thousand able-bodied laborers for the second phase of repairs to the Xuefeng Mountain post road.

At this time they were not only considering erecting more wooden bridges, but also considering drilling holes in steep cliffs to lay plank walkways, making the Xuefeng Mountain post road as straight as possible to ensure large-scale merchant caravans could also cross Xuefeng Mountain within two days.

Of course, the main purpose of Feng Liao, Tian Cheng, and the others advocating for this was that beyond the provincial forces, there were over three thousand able-bodied laborers who could be incorporated into military units at any time, to avoid wasting time recruiting new soldiers if something happened…