Guo Nu’er and He Liufeng led their people at the end of February to escort Cao Gan to Sizhou to meet Sizhou Governor Yang Xingfeng. They also simultaneously represented Han Qian in presenting Xuzhou’s conditions.
On the tenth day of the third month, Sizhou Governor Yang Xingfeng dispatched his son Yang Hu to return with Cao Gan, Guo Nu’er, and He Liufeng to Longya City to see Han Qian.
The conditions Han Qian and the Marquis Changxiang offered were too enticing. Nothing else need be said—just having one hundred thousand dan of Sichuan salt annually pass through Sizhou and enter Qianzhong and southern Hunan meant enormous profits of eighty to ninety thousand strings of cash collected effortlessly each year for Sizhou.
The territory of Sizhou was comparable to Xuzhou and Chenzhou, but even more isolated than Xuzhou and Chenzhou.
From the Sichuan-Chongqing direction, the Qian River flowed into Sizhou, but Wu Man tribal forts stood densely in between, blocking contact between Sizhou and Sichuan-Chongqing.
Several hundred years ago, the Man people were driven out of the Nanzhao region and migrated north to the mountains of southern Sichuan, seizing mountain forests and land from the local indigenous tribal households. The enmity and conflict between Sizhou’s indigenous tribal people and the Wu Man people ran extremely deep.
From the Jing-Xiang direction, the Chen River, a tributary of the Yuan River, originated in the eastern mountains of Sizhou, but the waterway was rapid and narrow with extremely many dangerous shoals in the river channel, unsuitable for boat travel. Only along the north bank of the Chen River was there a treacherous small path that could enter Sizhou’s hinterland.
As for bypassing Sizhou City controlled by the Yang family, the small path along the southern foothills of Wuling Mountain connecting the east bank of the Qian River and the west bank of the Chen River was completely forged by private salt traders.
With Sizhou so isolated, the number of immigrant settlers within its territory was quite limited. Indigenous tribal households comprised ninety percent of the total population. Thus, since the previous dynasty, Sizhou’s military and political authority had been firmly grasped by indigenous great clans. The Yang family’s hereditary control of the position of Sizhou Governor had reached nearly one hundred years by Yang Xingfeng’s time.
Even so, the Yang family of Sizhou was far from comparable to the Ma family that managed Tanzhou.
Sizhou was too impoverished. Even though the Yang family and other great clans had tens of thousands of fort slaves under their command to exploit, they still lived quite frugally. Though called Governor, his prestige didn’t even match the earlier Feng Changyu, Xiang Jianlong, Yang Zaili, and others, let alone compare with Xi Ying who now controlled great power in Chenzhou.
For the Yang family to even maintain a force of two thousand troops in Sizhou was quite strenuous.
Yang Xingfeng’s son accompanying Cao Gan to Longya City and entering the mountain to seek an audience with Han Qian was not only to further implement matters regarding salt profits, but also hoping to purchase military armor and weapons produced by Longya City.
When Zheng Hui led Xuzhou forces to attack Chenzhou, although Sizhou didn’t intervene and chose to stand by and watch, they constantly paid attention to the warfare, or it could be said they were very vigilant about the development of the Han father and son in Xuzhou.
Currently, Han Qian had officially been granted the position of Xuzhou Governor. Although Xuzhou’s strength and cohesion would only grow stronger rather than weaken, from another angle, the Han family in Xuzhou had undoubtedly officially become one of the great clans in southwestern Hunan and the Qianyang region, which also invisibly reduced other indigenous great clans’ vigilance and hostility toward Xuzhou.
What they had worried about more previously was that if land system reform and integration of indigenous and immigrant household registrations spread, as Chen and Xu prefectures were thoroughly incorporated into Great Chu, they would no longer be able to act as local emperors and local despots.
Now seeing that it was merely the Han family replacing the Feng and Xi families as lords of Xuzhou, the threat they felt weakened. In their view, on one hand, Han Qian relying solely on Xuzhou’s strength still couldn’t form a fatal threat to them. On the other hand, once the Chu situation stabilized, even if they formally acknowledged the fact of Han Qian’s control of Xuzhou, they wouldn’t indulge Han Qian in continuing to expand beyond Xuzhou.
This being so, the Yang family’s attitude toward Xuzhou naturally and reasonably changed from vigilant defense to cooperation, especially with such great profits to be gained.
However, Sizhou forces’ military equipment was too poor. Tribal soldiers, let alone iron armor and sharp blades, even had extremely limited stockpiles of iron arrowheads. Their equipment consisted mainly of rattan armor, rattan shields, short bows, and spears.
Tribal soldiers were warlike, fierce, and unafraid of death—this was their greatest advantage in dominating these mountains and waters throughout successive dynasties. But the inferiority of their equipment was clearly demonstrated when Chenzhou tribal soldiers were beaten like dogs in battles at Jiming Fort, Chenyang City, and elsewhere.
Sizhou needed armor to enhance combat power, and also wanted to test whether Xuzhou truly had intentions to cooperate thoroughly with Sizhou, rather than merely using Sizhou or even harboring malicious intentions toward Sizhou.
Han Qian never refused such requests. Sitting under the bamboo shelter in the mountains, he said to Yang Hu, who was over thirty years old: “Whatever Sizhou requests, we can trade money for goods, goods for goods, or labor for credit—Xuzhou is sparsely populated, and after continuous warfare in recent years with too many able-bodied men killed or injured, whenever we want to accomplish something, we feel the shortage of manpower is too severe. If Sizhou has surplus able-bodied laborers, we can hire them to work here, settling their wages monthly with Sizhou!”
Yang Hu was slightly stunned. Although he was in remote Sizhou, since childhood his father had invited Confucian scholars from outside to enter Sizhou to teach them literature, so his horizons were much broader than ordinary tribal people and households. Yet he hadn’t thought they could use this method to obtain scarce military armor and weapons from Xuzhou.
However, thinking it over carefully, there was nothing wrong with it.
His Yang family alone in Sizhou had over ten thousand fort slaves. Normally, field cultivation could be completed by women and children. Excluding provincial forces and direct retainer guards, they could dispatch roughly two thousand able-bodied men to work and purchase armor.
“May I ask Lord Han, how would labor be calculated?” Facing this youth before him who was six or seven years younger, Yang Hu dared not show the slightest negligence. The Feng family of Xuzhou had been exterminated, and the Xi family of Chenzhou had been killed like dogs. Though other places might have few such stories circulating, Sizhou was close enough to feel the chill of mutual destruction.
“In Qianyang and Linjiang, whether recruiting workers or soldiers, what the treatment is, as well as the selling price of blades, armor, and equipment produced by Longya City—none of this is secret. Young Master Yang surely knows, so why ask unnecessarily?” Han Qian said with a smile.
Yang Hu hesitated for a long moment before saying: “Lord Han treats workers and soldiers too generously, which may make them arrogant and unruly. The fort slaves our Sizhou dispatches can simply obey Lord Han’s commands. For food and clothing, there’s no need to be so generous—could we perhaps convert more into wages?”
Zhao Ting’er sat beside Han Qian. She hadn’t expected that Yang Hu, sending slave laborers over, would not only strip away their wages but actually wanted this side to scrimp on meals so they could exploit even more!
Zhao Ting’er’s pretty face turned slightly cold as she looked toward the clouded forest in the mountains. Her pregnancy was now showing, and she silently recited to herself not to get angry over such small matters, forcibly restraining herself from directly refusing Yang Hu’s unreasonable request on Han Qian’s behalf.
“Young Master Yang’s thinking is correct, but it would be difficult for us to operate that way. How about this instead, Young Master Yang—what do you think?” Han Qian said calmly. “The personnel Sizhou sends over will still be managed by Sizhou’s own people. We’ll simply allocate money and grain according to headcount. At that time, how much food rations these slave laborers receive daily will be entirely up to Sizhou to decide. Sizhou need only ensure these people don’t slack off at work.”
“Excellent!” Yang Hu’s heart raced with excitement.
In his mind, he calculated that sending over two thousand fort slaves, according to Xuzhou’s food supply standards, they could scrimp roughly twenty dan of grain daily—that would be six hundred dan of grain monthly, or 7,200 dan of grain annually.
In Sizhou, this was an enormous sum.
Han Qian established the general scope of cooperation, with more specific matters all to be discussed between Feng Liao, Zhao Jicheng, and Yang Hu.
After Cao Gan facilitated this matter, although he wasn’t the wedding envoy and didn’t need to be responsible for arranging the marriage between Princess Qingyang and Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu, he still had to represent the Marquis Changxiang in going to Yueyang to discuss specific conditions for cooperation between Yuzhou and Yueyang.
This was also the original purpose of the marriage between Princess Qingyang and Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu.
Although a considerable portion of Sichuan salt would henceforth travel via the Qian River and the small path along the southern foothills of Wuling Mountain into Xuzhou, the Yangtze River remained the main artery for material exchange between Yuzhou and Yueyang. And if Yuzhou now wanted to obtain the high-quality weapons and armor forged by Longya City, currently they could only take the roundabout route via the Yuan River and Yangtze River.
Seeing that Han Qian and Yang Hu had reached agreement and his purpose for returning to Xuzhou was accomplished, Cao Gan asked Han Qian again: “Today marks three full months since Old Lord Han’s murder. Will Lord Han truly not leave the mountain to accompany Cao Gan on a trip to Yueyang?”
“…” Han Qian shook his head. His holing up in Xuzhou at this time must also satisfy Wang Chan’er, Zheng Yu, his uncle, and the others. He hoped those people would think this was a tacit understanding everyone recognized. Now was not yet the time to break this tacit understanding. He said to Cao Gan, “I’ll wait at Longya Mountain to hear of Yuzhou’s victory.”
“I accept Lord Han’s auspicious words,” Cao Gan knew he couldn’t hope to reverse Han Qian’s will and said, “Then I won’t linger here any longer. I’ll descend the mountain and take a boat from Chenyang to Yueyang to pay respects to Prince Tan. Until we meet again, Lord Han.”
“Lord Cao probably doesn’t truly hope to meet me again,” Han Qian said with a smile.
Cao Gan was slightly stunned, thinking it was true. He and Han Qian were respectively ministers of two different countries. Even if he had the opportunity to serve as envoy to Chu in the future, he couldn’t possibly make a detour to Xuzhou. To meet again would mean either Han Qian following Chu forces into Shu territory, or him following Shu forces into Chu territory.
That wouldn’t be a good omen!
Cao Gan laughed awkwardly and said: “Our Lord dispatches Director of the Court of State Ceremonial Wei Qun as wedding envoy to enter Yueyang to preside over the Princess’s marriage to Prince Tan. If Lord Han is unwilling to leave the mountain at this time while I rush to Yueyang, Prince Tan may think my standing is insufficient!”
In ordinary people’s eyes, Wei Qun’s standing was much weightier than Cao Gan’s. Even though Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu and Shen Yang knew Cao Gan represented the Marquis Changxiang, there was no guarantee that Dowager Consort Wang Chan’er and Zheng Yu wouldn’t make an issue of their respective statuses, and no guarantee that Wei Qun wasn’t more closely connected to the Shu Crown Prince, Marquis Qingjiang.
Although he couldn’t openly defy Shu Lord Wang Jian’s decree and sabotage the marriage between Princess Qingyang and Prince Tan Yang Yuanpu, much of the cooperation between Yuzhou and Yueyang couldn’t be made public within Shu, so if he wanted to obstruct matters, he still had methods.
Of course, when Cao Gan said this, he still hoped this side could intervene in these matters.
Han Qian also wanted to open the Qian River passage as soon as possible. He turned and said to Feng Liao: “Feng Liao, you accompany Lord Cao on this trip!”
Han Qian’s words meant using him as his spokesman going to Yueyang. Naturally, Feng Liao would in no way refuse. He readily agreed, saying: “I’ll accompany Lord Cao on this trip to Yueyang. Do you have any other words for me to convey to His Highness?”
“When you see His Highness and Master Shen, tell them the Shu Lord has no heart for eastern schemes—everyone can peacefully attend to their own affairs. Additionally, regarding the Princess’s marriage to His Highness, as Han Qian is in mourning, I cannot personally rush to Yueyang to offer congratulations. Feng Liao, this time prepare sufficient congratulatory gifts, and put extra thought into the gifts prepared separately for Princess Qingyang.”
Having Shu’s hand completely seen through by Han Qian, Cao Gan could only awkwardly touch his nose. Cupping his hands without saying more, he took leave of Han Qian and descended the mountain first together with Yang Hu, Feng Liao, Zhao Jicheng, and others. After Feng Liao prepared sufficient congratulatory gifts in Longya City for Princess Qingyang and Prince Tan’s wedding, they would then take a boat from Jiming Fort rushing to Yueyang.