Though the matter wouldn’t be publicly announced with great fanfare, news that Chuzhou’s secret envoys had proposed the marriage engagement as a condition for negotiating submission, and that Han Qian, bound by filial duty to his father, had no choice but to first return to Xuzhou to observe mourning, quietly began spreading throughout Fanchang City first.

Using such news to explain Han Qian’s departure from Fanchang and return to Xuzhou caused the least disturbance to military morale.

Han Qian’s departure or remaining didn’t just involve the morale of over ten thousand elite soldiers of the Left Guangde Army. Within the Left and Right Vermillion Bird Armies there were still five thousand elite veteran soldiers. These veterans were the backbone of the Left and Right Vermillion Bird Armies, and their families and relatives were under Han Qian’s protection, all currently in Guangde.

Never mind the kind of situation where both sides tore off the mask—now, wanting to minimize the negative impact on the plan to besiege Jinling, they could only make an issue of “filial duty.”

This was also the most unquestionable principle for conducting oneself in the world at this time.

Han Qian had previously mentioned multiple times that after the war he would return to Xuzhou to mourn his late father. Now departing early, with ample justification, there seemed nothing abrupt about it.

Though this whole affair wouldn’t cause much alarm among the middle and lower-ranking soldiers, the shocking waves it stirred in the hearts of Yueyang’s core figures weren’t so easily calmed.

Even though the Left Guangde Army wasn’t the main fighting force attacking Jinling, to ensure absolute safety, they still had to first resolve the Left Guangde Army problem. The recruitment of Chuzhou also had to be confirmed first. The plan to attack Jinling City could only be delayed once again.

For Yueyang, which controlled the vast majority of Jiangnan East Circuit and Jiangnan West Circuit, delay wasn’t entirely a bad thing.

On one hand, the earlier attacks on Jiangchi and other places had caused relatively heavy casualties. Having more time to rest and reorganize was naturally not bad. The newly recruited soldiers also needed time to adapt to the harsh training in the camps and needed time to build more siege weapons.

On the other hand, with Yueyang controlling the overall situation, this time could be used to further deepen control over the various provinces and counties of Jiangdong and Jiangxi, mobilizing more supplies and personnel.

Time belonged to Yueyang.

Before the new year, Yang Yuanpu even replaced the magistrates, vice magistrates, and other officials in Fanchang, Tongling, Nanling, Jing County, Lishui, Jintan, Liyang, and other counties, setting about pacification and agricultural matters.

In the blink of an eye came the New Year festival. Fanchang City still used the late Emperor Tianyou’s reign name for dating. Though there were no common people on the major streets and lanes, various colored lanterns were still hung up.

On New Year’s Day, Yang Yuanpu even specially ordered the city gates opened, allowing military and civilians to enter the city to view the colored lanterns and celebrate the festival.

But by the second day of the new year, Fanchang City resumed its atmosphere of military severity. As the sky darkened, the city gates were about to close when several swift horses galloped from the east.

Riding to the city gate, Yuan Guowei spread his hands to display a command token, indicating the military commanders guarding the city should let them pass. He led people escorting a rider whose head and face were wrapped in a black hood, riding directly along the main street toward Prince Tan’s palace in the city center.

Yang Yuanpu, accompanied by Yang Zhitang and Li Pu, stood anxiously waiting at the side gate of the palace.

When the person Yuan Guowei brought dismounted and removed his hood, revealing a haggard but familiar face, Yang Yuanpu excitedly came forward, greeting in a low voice: “Yuanpu has finally awaited Uncle Marquis’s arrival…”

Only after the attending guards all withdrew to the side did Yang En step forward to pay respects to Yang Yuanpu, Yang Zhitang, Li Pu, and the others.

Yang En was a solitary man. Apart from over ten disabled servants retired from the military with nowhere to go who looked after daily affairs in his mansion, after his elderly wife died of illness and his son also died in battle, he hadn’t remarried or taken concubines even after being enfeoffed as Marquis Liyang.

Though there was nothing in his household to worry about implicating others, his secret departure from Jinling City this time with Yuan Guowei’s assistance to come to Fanchang to see Yang Yuanpu involved far more than just his family.

Without complete certainty, he would never dare expose his movements.

Yang Yuanpu also didn’t make a show of it, merely bringing Yang Zhitang and Li Pu to receive Yang En at the side gate and enter the palace to secretly discuss major affairs.

Passing through halls and courtyards, inside the secret chamber only Zhang Ping and Jiang Huo were patiently waiting.

Yang En first gave Yang Yuanpu a simple report on the situation within Jinling City and the news that Crown Prince Yang Yuanwo’s illness had worsened.

After the Jinling incident, Yang En resolutely refused to accept the official position bestowed by the Crown Prince. But he had extremely high prestige within the imperial clan, so Anning Palace hadn’t harmed him either.

Without official position, he severed contact with Minister of the Imperial Clan Yang Tai and other princes and high ministers who had pledged loyalty to Anning Palace, spending his days drinking heavily and listening to music. Thus Anning Palace didn’t assign people to closely monitor him.

However, in reality, from when Yueyang troops set out to attack Jiangzhou, Yuan Guowei had sent people to contact Yang En, hoping to use Yang En and all other channels and means available to disintegrate and divide the defending troops and civil and military ministers within Jinling City from the inside.

Apart from Wen Muqiao, father and son Wen Bo, Niu Gengru, and other factional forces who were relatively determined to follow Anning Palace and the Xu clan to the bitter end, more people within Jinling City—quite a number still holding real power—were fence-sitters watching which way the wind blew.

Even Minister of the Imperial Clan Yang Tai had initially been forced to serve Anning Palace out of fear that the imperial clan would be massacred. Now seeing the overall situation had completely tilted toward Yueyang, with an opportunity to choose anew before him, could he really follow Anning Palace to the bitter end?

It was just that the troops in Jinling City and the Imperial City were all under the control of Anning Palace and the Xu clan’s direct lineage. Even if people within the city already harbored different intentions, for now they didn’t dare act rashly, fearing they might fall in pools of blood at dawn—that would be truly foolish.

Therefore any action within the city would have to be coordinated with Yueyang troops formally launching a major attack on the city.

“Where are Shen Yang and Han Qian?” Yang En’s information in Jinling City was limited. He still didn’t know about the changes in Fanchang City. Entering the palace and not seeing Shen Yang and Han Qian present, he felt strange. After introducing the situation within Jinling City, he directly asked about this matter.

Though the matter had already passed for ten days, hearing Yang En ask about it now, Yang Yuanpu still felt the scab on his heart being cruelly torn off, and the corner of his eye twitched slightly.

“When Prince Xin’s secret envoys came to Fanchang, they wanted Han Qian to marry Wang Jixiong’s granddaughter as a condition for pledging allegiance to His Highness. Han Qian, not wanting to make things difficult for His Highness, has already returned to Xuzhou to observe mourning—Master Shen has gone to Guangde to take command, supervising the westward movement of grain and fodder from Jiangdong,” Li Pu said matter-of-factly, as if nothing significant had happened.

How could Yang En be so easily fooled? But just as most people were born without freedom over their own circumstances, at this moment Yang En was thinking about overthrowing Anning Palace, ending the war as soon as possible to prevent Great Chu’s realm from being torn apart and return peace to the Jianghuai region. Apart from supporting Yang Yuanpu and doing his utmost to help Yueyang troops take Jinling City at the smallest cost, what other choice could he make?

Why exactly Han Qian and Shen Yang had parted ways with Yang Yuanpu due to conflicts, he wouldn’t think carefully about at this time, nor would he investigate deeply. In any case, however foolish he might be, he wouldn’t believe things were really as understated as Li Pu described.

What concerned him more now was whether Yueyang’s situation would be significantly affected after Han Qian and Shen Yang were excluded from the center of power.

Even if there were some things he wanted to use his personal efforts to remedy, that would have to wait until after the war.

Yang Yuanpu quickly adjusted his mindset, but still had Li Pu explain to Yang En some of the changes around Jinling over these past days.

Han Qian left a letter directly pointing to Shen Yang and Wang Lin as suspected Chuzhou spies. Even though this whole matter hadn’t been publicized and Yang Yuanpu had no intention of pursuing it further, quite a few people present had heard about it. Afterward, Shen Yang and Wang Lin could only submit memorials requesting resignation.

Yang Yuanpu didn’t accept Shen Yang’s and Wang Lin’s resignations, so Shen Yang and Wang Lin claimed illness to avoid suspicion.

To prevent this matter from causing many negative impacts, Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu, and others deliberated. They finally decided to transfer Wang Lin to serve as Chief Administrator of Jiangzhou—a position not too low in rank but unable to affect the operation of Yueyang’s entire military and political system. At the same time, they decided to separate the three counties of Guangde, Langxi, and Anji to establish Guangde Prefecture, appointing Shen Yang as Administrator of Guangde Prefecture.

Shen Yang had vigorously promoted children from humble families and commoner clans at Yueyang, and also tended toward reducing burdens on common people, advocating strengthening taxation on aristocratic clans, suppressing slave trading, and cracking down on escaped households evading taxes.

Zheng Yu, Zhang Chao, and others, as representatives of the aristocratic clans, were all very clear in their hearts about the principle that when the nest is overturned no eggs remain intact. To preserve Yueyang’s foundation, some measures were needed to ease the intense conflicts between noble families and humble clans. Therefore when they were at Yueyang, their conflicts with Shen Yang weren’t intense, and they could coexist peacefully.

However, this didn’t mean that after capturing Jinling, both sides wouldn’t become sharply opposed.

After capturing Jinling, would Shen Yang just watch the Zheng clan expand its power in the Jingxiang region? Would he just watch the Zhang clan annex land and maintain clients in Lang, Yue, and other provinces? Would Shen Yang just watch the entire court being filled with children of noble families?

Therefore, Shen Yang’s departure from the center of power now was something many were happy to see.

At this time, the problems Han Qian left behind after returning to Xuzhou were what everyone urgently needed to resolve first.

Thinking it over, Shen Yang was actually a far more suitable candidate than Han Daochang.

Of the over three hundred thousand women and children remaining in Guangde, nearly fifty thousand were the families of Taowu military household soldiers. Speaking of who had the highest prestige among these military household families besides Han Qian, it was Shen Yang.

Shen Yang could also be said to be the best choice for most quickly resolving the settlement problem of so many women and children in Guangde after Han Qian’s departure.

Apart from Kong Xirong, Zhao Wuji, Guo Que, and a few others who led the Guard Cavalry Battalion and followed Han Qian directly with Yang Qin’s naval forces from Fanchang onto the journey back to Xuzhou, two days before the New Year festival, the resignations formally submitted by a large group of Left Guangde Army commanders including Feng Liao, Lin Haizheng, Gao Shao, Lin Zongjing, Zhou Chu, Feng Xuan, Ji Xiyao, Chen Jitang, and officials from the three counties were formally approved. Together with other soldiers and families willing to migrate to Xuzhou, they formed a contingent of over six thousand people. Borrowing passage through Shezhou and Raozhou, they embarked on the journey to Xuzhou.

Apart from nearly a thousand military officers, craftsmen, and clerks that Han Qian had transferred from Xuzhou, the other five thousand plus were slaves who had joined the Chishan Army and their families. Those who could be called elite numbered only thirteen or fourteen hundred. The others were accompanying family members—all elderly, weak, women, and children.

In this age, unless absolutely necessary, unless there was no hope of proper settlement locally, the vast majority of people were unwilling to leave their homeland. Those who truly had the courage to travel thousands of miles to settle in an unfamiliar land reportedly full of miasma and plague were very few.

These people’s hearts turned toward Xuzhou. Yueyang didn’t dare keep them, nor did they dare use thunderous means to purge them for now. Sending them to Xuzhou was perhaps the best choice. At the same time, their numbers didn’t look too large. Even if they all migrated into Xuzhou, they wouldn’t pose much serious threat to the surrounding provinces and counties.

In fact, Han Qian even prohibited Lin Haizheng, Gao Shao, and the others from secretly encouraging more people to go to Xuzhou.

Apart from Xuzhou’s currently limited capacity to accommodate people, crossing mountains and rivers for two or three thousand li—even robust men would lose several circles of flesh from the journey. For many elderly people and children with weak constitutions, they might not even be able to persist to the end.

Even though after the Yueyang group captured Jinling, they would very likely further tighten restrictions on Xuzhou and no longer tolerate large-scale population influx into Xuzhou, Han Qian also didn’t want to see large numbers of elderly people and children dying on the journey to Xuzhou.

Of course, there was an overland route connecting Langxi to Qianyang in Xuzhou. Previously through organizing transport teams, roughly two or three thousand people had made a complete round trip on this route. As long as they didn’t completely tear off the mask with Jinling and didn’t entirely sever communication on commercial routes, Han Qian believed that in the future, through waterway trade routes, exchanges of people and materials between Guangde and Xuzhou would continue constantly.

Of course, there was also a group of commanders and military officers selected from among slaves and Vermillion Bird Army deserters who chose to stay.

Particularly a group of military officers who had deserted and returned from the Left and Right Vermillion Bird Armies and then been promoted—they had originally fled back to Jinling resolutely because their parents and families remained in Jinling. Unlike Lin Haizheng and Gao Shao, who had settled in Xuzhou and had definite reasons to return to Xuzhou.

One couldn’t say they were shortsighted. Everyone hoped in their hearts that after the war ended, the Jianghuai region could return to peace. At this time, apart from gratitude and respect for Han Qian, given the opportunity they also more deeply desired to live and work in peace, without further upheaval.

Additionally, the former Xuzhou Ministry of Works Participant Zheng Tong, and nearly a hundred craftsmen whose main families and dependents remained in Jinling, chose to stay and not return to Xuzhou.

Han Qian also agreed to all of this. Even among them, those who had children in Xuzhou who wanted to leave Xuzhou—he didn’t restrain them either.

Apart from Han Qian’s prior promises, the embankment reclamation cultivation and coal-iron mining in the three counties of Guangde also needed some personnel left behind to continue.

Though Han Qian took some people away, this way he also thoroughly handed over the Left Guangde Army. Regarding disposition of the Left Guangde Army, Yang Zhitang and the others also decided to transfer the remaining seven thousand plus soldiers to the periphery of Jinling City for use as reserve troops.

That is to say, when the Left and Right Vermillion Bird Armies, Five Fang Army, Right Guangde Army, and Huzhou troops suffered losses attacking the city, they would break up the Left Guangde Army soldiers and supplement them into those forces. This way they wouldn’t waste this batch of quality soldiers trained by Han Qian’s hand, while also dissolving Han Qian’s influence over the Left Guangde Army into nothingness…

Currently, Huzhou Governor Huang Hua had already recovered Qiuhu Mountain. Huzhou troops stationed their forward camp at Longhua Pier, which also meant the Taowu military household families could gradually be relocated back to their old settlements.

As for Guangde, Langxi, and Anji, there were still large numbers of slave families who had received Han Qian’s kindness, but this wasn’t particularly worrying.

In the eyes of the aristocratic clans, these lowly commoners of slave origins couldn’t recognize a single character, didn’t understand civilization, were ignorant and crude. Given a small plot of land to settle and make a living, they would be overjoyed. How would they know anything about loyalty, faithfulness, benevolence, and righteousness? Perhaps in just three to five years they would forget this person Han Qian.

Furthermore, they would subsequently recruit a group of village elders and community officials who could read and write from the three counties’ original residents—mainly from those small and medium landlords who had been suppressed by Han Qian during this past period. They could even select a batch of officials from among the clan members who had been expelled from the three counties to fill positions in Guangde Prefecture, to educate and manage these people. Then there would be even fewer hidden dangers.

This was the plan of Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu, Li Pu, and the others. After listening, Yang En pondered for a moment and said to Yang Yuanpu: “We must still settle these people as well as possible and make them feel the vastness of imperial grace, then there won’t be any problems.”

“I know all this,” Yang Yuanpu said with slight impatience, changing the subject to inquire in more detail about the thoughts and inclinations of the officials within the city…