“Crack!”
An inkstone smashed onto the stone-paved ground of the courtyard, shattering into pieces.
Everyone was startled, watching in dead silence as Han Qian stood under the corridor with an ashen face. They hadn’t expected that after receiving the intelligence report, Han Qian would be so unable to contain his rage.
“My father suffered cruel torture, yet in his heart he thought of the people suffering in the flames of war. I’ve gone through countless hardships, not hesitating to risk my own life, all to prevent the flames of war from spreading too widely. And what about them? One by one, they easily seized the realm. I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t appreciate me at all, but they fan the flames and stop at nothing. Do they truly not fear that when the great fire blazes up, it will only burn them until not a shred of armor remains, until they’re all turned to ashes?”
The more Han Qian thought about it, the more he hated it, the more furious he became. Smashing one inkstone was far from enough to vent his anger—he violently kicked the table used for practicing calligraphy under the corridor down the steps.
“A perfectly good table that hasn’t offended you—why are you venting such rage at it?” Zhao Ting’er gently urged Han Qian not to lose his temper so badly over all the matters happening in Jinling. “Perhaps someone wants to muddy the waters, but among all those princes and great ministers in Jinling, they can’t all be ignorant of what’s urgent and what’s not—aren’t Shen Yang and Yang En strongly advocating for Xue Ruogu to replace Shang Wensheng to oversee Guangde Prefecture, precisely because they fear someone will cause trouble in Guangde Prefecture?”
“What use is it that only Shen Yang, Yang En, and Xue Ruogu—three to five people—understand what’s urgent and what’s not? In the court there’s Zheng Yu, Yang Zhitang, Li Pu, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao, Huang Hua, Fu Mo, Han Daoming, Han Daochang—and in the prefectures and counties there’s Wei Zhen, Fu Gengwen and their ilk. Count them one by one—which isn’t a clever person? But what do one to two hundred thousand common women and children count for in their eyes? If these women and children aren’t willing to become lowborn wretches for them to trample and knead at will, which of them doesn’t want to hate them and eliminate them quickly?”
Han Qian was so angry his hands trembled slightly as he said:
“Over a hundred rebellious slaves, more than half are infirm old, weak, women and children. Through what places did they pass when fleeing, where did they ultimately flee to—never mind that the Bureau of Operations and Jinyun Bureau both have eyes watching Guangde Prefecture. Could all those bailiffs and informants in Lishui, Nanling, Langxi, Xuancheng and other counties have gone blind and seen not a trace? In the end, vaguely saying they might have fled to Guangde Prefecture—isn’t this just because the waters of Guangde Prefecture aren’t muddy enough? Isn’t it because they want to stir up Guangde Prefecture until chickens fly and eggs shatter, then find an excuse to completely dismantle and erase Guangde Prefecture—only then will they feel satisfied, only then will they not find it so offensive to the eye? Don’t these fools just think that Jinling has heavy troops stationed there, don’t they just fearlessly and presumptuously think that even if Guangde Prefecture erupts in civil unrest, they have the confidence to suppress it?”
“Some people’s goal is to stir up civil unrest in Guangde Prefecture?” Gao Shao, seeing Han Qian speculate the situation would become this serious, also asked in shock.
“His Majesty perhaps also wants to go with the flow and stir up some waves in Guangde Prefecture, but wouldn’t wish to see Guangde Prefecture erupt in great chaos. I think His Majesty’s calculation should be to intervene at the critical moment to contain the deteriorating momentum and use this to suppress the power of the aristocratic faction in the court.” Feng Liao said.
Feng Liao could more or less understand Han Qian’s current exasperation. It wasn’t that he himself was being suspected and targeted, but that he worried that after great chaos in Guangde Prefecture, the situation in Jiangnan that had been pacified with such difficulty would again see flames of war. At that time, hundreds of thousands more would be killed or wounded, making the overall situation that had finally stabilized become a complete mess again—this would turn all the efforts his father and son had risked their lives for, even paying with their lives, into ashes.
“What qualifications does that youngster have to play open schemes?” At this moment, Han Qian was also confused with anger and utterly disappointed in Yang Yuanpu. He said: “I left him such a good bargaining chip, but he doesn’t dare accept it. Instead, his mind is full of thoughts about whether I’ve done anything underhanded in Guangde Prefecture. When others pushed Shang Wensheng to go to Guangde Prefecture wanting to cause trouble, he acquiesced. Wasn’t it also because he wanted to see Shang Wensheng cause some trouble in Guangde Prefecture so he could see clearly whether I’ve done anything underhanded? What makes him think he can control the development of the situation in Guangde Prefecture just right? If he had any understanding of what’s urgent and what’s not, even if he desperately wanted to eliminate me in his heart, he shouldn’t be playing with fire in Guangde Prefecture at this time. When this fire starts burning, does he know how many people are hoping this fire will burn bigger and bigger? Does he know how many people will hold down his hand at that time, not letting him put out the fire?”
“This matter is my fault for thinking too simply. At the time I just thought about covering up Han Donghu’s unauthorized departure. I didn’t expect so many people were hoping to implicate Xuzhou in this,” Feng Yi said quite regretfully. “If I had simply exposed Han Donghu’s departure at the time, it wouldn’t have given them the opportunity to make an issue of it.”
“This matter has nothing to do with you. The tree wants to be still but the wind won’t stop,” Han Qian exhaled a long breath and sat down hard on the steps, saying: “Everyone is determined to cause trouble and muddy the waters. No matter how we try to avoid it, we can’t—”
“Should I personally make a trip to Jinling to investigate exactly what’s happening?” Feng Liao asked.
Han Qian had withdrawn almost all his personnel from Jinling. Currently they could only rely on the relay stations set up in prefectures and counties and merchants passing through Xuzhou to collect some necessary information.
Feng Liao thought that rather than making groundless speculations in Xuzhou, it would be better to send personnel over again so they could keep abreast of developments in Guangde Prefecture and Jinling at all times.
“That old servant of the Shang family should have known some details, but was tortured to death by Wei Zhen. Even if we investigate clearly what exactly happened, it won’t help matters.” Han Qian shook his head. At this moment, he saw even more clearly the stubborn foolishness of the aristocratic families.
The aristocratic families weren’t without clever people. Sometimes there were precisely too many clever people who saw too clearly their own gains and losses, yet became even more stubborn and foolish.
Han Qian didn’t think Feng Liao personally going there now would be of any use.
Mainly because information transmission efficiency in this era was too slow.
Even if Xuzhou had personnel lurking in Jinling and Guangde Prefecture, transmitting news back to Xuzhou would take about a month—Han Qian previously didn’t want to consume Xuzhou’s limited resources on building a massive and relatively efficient intelligence network. The cost was too high.
If Feng Liao rushed to Jinling now, by the time he investigated clearly what had happened and sent word back to Xuzhou, and Xuzhou then made corresponding arrangements, wouldn’t the opportunity have long passed?
Han Qian walked down the steps and lifted up the table he had just kicked down. Fortunately, the table was made of sandalwood and quite sturdy—it hadn’t been kicked apart.
Feng Liao, Gao Shao, and Xi Xunqiao wanted to come help, but Han Qian wouldn’t let them, saying: “I made the mess, I’ll clean it up myself.”
Feng Liao, Gao Shao, and Xi Xunqiao smiled awkwardly and stood aside with folded hands, watching as Zhao Ting’er and Xi Ren walked over to help Han Qian pick up the brush holder, paperweight, seal, and other items that hadn’t been broken.
“Old Guo, have you thought of some plan?” Feng Yi saw Guo Rong reaching up to stroke a non-existent beard, poked him in the waist, and asked quietly.
“We still don’t even know clearly what exactly happened. How could there be a response strategy?” Guo Rong said.
Han Qian moved the table back under the corridor and unfolded again the court gazette publicly circulated to prefectures and counties through the relay system, wanting to interpret more hidden information from it.
At this moment, a guard walked into the courtyard to report: “Cavalry Battalion Commander Han Bao requests an audience with Your Lordship.”
“What’s he coming here for?” Feng Yi asked puzzled.
After Feng Yi and Han Dong returned regarding Han Donghu’s unauthorized departure, Han Qian at the time could only temporarily shelve the matter without handling it. Han Bao’s position in the cavalry battalion was completely unaffected—everything continued as before.
Although the situation now had new developments, they had only just seen the latest court gazette. Han Bao shouldn’t know anything yet, right?
“Let him in.” Han Qian signaled the guard to bring Han Bao in.
The current Han Bao was no longer a blockheaded country youth. After arriving in Xuzhou, he had undergone four months of special training and had only recently returned to the cavalry battalion as a squad leader. Now wearing armor with a saber at his waist, tall and robust in build, he appeared confident and full of martial spirit.
Seeing so many people in the courtyard, Han Bao was only slightly stunned before stepping forward to report: “Cavalry Battalion’s Han Bao pays respects to Your Lordship—yesterday my mother and younger sister were at home when someone pushed a letter through the door from outside. I thought Your Lordship should know about it…”
“Has that bastard Han Donghu got the face to return to Xuzhou?” Feng Yi asked curiously. “If he’s already fled back, why doesn’t he have the guts to show his face? I haven’t even beaten him.”
Han Qian took the letter and looked it over for a moment, then passed it to Feng Yi and the others to read.
Only after reading the letter did Feng Yi learn that Han Donghu hadn’t returned, but had someone else deliver the letter back to Xuzhou. As for who that person was, they didn’t show themselves—they pushed the letter into the Han residence and ran off. It should also be a house soldier who had escaped from the Shang family.
Feng Liao frowned deeply, finding the matter very troublesome: “Indeed, too many people are desperately blowing the wind toward Guangde Prefecture!”
In the letter Han Donghu sent back, he wrote down all the details he knew about the assassination case and all the suspicious points he could see and think of.
This also verified most of Xuzhou’s previous speculations and allowed them to deduce even deeper surging waves and killing intent based on the letter. But even so, they were still helpless.
“Should we summon Tian Cheng and the others here to discuss countermeasures?” Gao Shao asked.
Tian Cheng, Zhao Wuji, Zhou Chu, Lin Haizheng, Zhao Qi and others all managed various counties or led troops stationed in Zhijiang, Quyang, Qianyang and other places. Currently only Feng Liao, Gao Shao, Xi Xunqiao, Feng Yi and others remained in Chenzhong County to assist Han Qian in handling prefectural office affairs.
“Send people to inform them about this matter. Not everyone necessarily needs to rush over.” Han Qian said, not thinking gathering everyone together to stare at each other with wide eyes would be any help.
The most painful thing right now was that even knowing a tremendous crisis was brewing in Guangde Prefecture, if he directly sent people to interfere, it would very likely make the situation even worse.
However, even having only fought side by side together once, even having only once made promises to the women and children of Guangde Prefecture, he couldn’t just watch as the current crisis in Guangde Prefecture ultimately evolved into uncontrollable civil unrest, giving those people an excuse for bloody suppression.
Even setting aside the lives of one to two hundred thousand women and children, if Guangde Prefecture erupted in civil unrest and was ultimately suppressed, it would also severely damage the vitality of the Jianghuai region, turning all the efforts of his father and himself into ashes.
But what should he do now, and what could he do?
Seeing Han Qian sit down hard on the steps, Feng Yi quietly asked his brother: “Could we send someone to find Han Donghu? The trouble was started by that bastard, and now he’s indeed together with Su Lie and the others…”
Feng Liao saw that Han Qian didn’t even raise his head to look over, so he knew Han Qian didn’t approve of this approach. Thinking about it, even if they sent someone to contact Han Donghu, what could they do?
That Han Donghu could send someone to deliver a letter back explaining everything that happened showed he remembered Xuzhou’s kindness to him. But they couldn’t expect too much.
Could Xuzhou at this time still order Han Donghu and all those Shang family rebellious slaves to turn themselves in with over a hundred family members? Make them willingly exchange over a hundred heads to resolve the Guangde Prefecture crisis?
Feng Liao discussed quietly with Gao Shao, Xi Xunqiao, Feng Yi, and Xi Ren on the side. But after discussing back and forth, they discovered that all the methods they could think of might not be able to control the deteriorating situation.
The so-called “whip is too short to reach”—nothing could be more apt than this.
“Actually, Your Lordship has one strategy available, but Your Lordship simply hasn’t made up your mind!” Even Guo Rong, who after joining Xuzhou always maintained a certain distance from others and didn’t interact very closely, now stood aside and said.
Hearing him say this, the others all turned their heads, not understanding what Guo Rong meant.
Han Qian raised his head to glance at Guo Rong, patted his backside and stood up. The others all looked over full of questions, unable to guess what strategy could be used.
“Let me think about it.” Han Qian hesitated for a long while but still found it difficult to decide. He gestured for the others to leave first, saying he had some matters that required deeper weighing of pros and cons.
Then Han Qian walked into the room, no longer paying attention to everyone.
“Lord Guo, what do you mean by that? Why are you playing riddles with us at a time like this?” Feng Yi wasn’t as reserved as Feng Liao, Gao Shao, and Xi Xunqiao. He was somewhat wary of Han Qian, but had no psychological pressure about directly grabbing Guo Rong, demanding: “Tell us!”
“Don’t His Majesty and those deeply scheming ministers in the court worry precisely about whether Your Lordship has done anything underhanded in Guangde Prefecture? That’s why they’re doing everything possible to cause trouble to flush out the prey, even willing to incite civil unrest, right?” Guo Rong stood in the courtyard and said: “If Your Lordship could make them realize that if Guangde Prefecture truly erupts in civil unrest, ultimately it will only benefit Your Lordship and Xuzhou, then His Majesty and the various ministers’ attitudes will necessarily change…”
“The key is we haven’t done anything underhanded, so how do we make them realize the consequences would benefit Xuzhou?” Feng Yi said dissatisfied. “Besides, didn’t they create all this trouble precisely to find evidence that Xuzhou has done something underhanded in Guangde Prefecture—what kind of plan is this?”
Not long after the Jinling campaign, Han Qian’s influence in Guangde Prefecture was undeniable. If he really sent large numbers of personnel back to Guangde Prefecture to cause trouble, he could definitely cause trouble.
Besides the inherent hatred of the aristocratic families, this was precisely what Emperor Yanyou and many shrewd figures like Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, and Yang Zhitang most feared about Guangde Prefecture.
This could be said to be a deadlock that couldn’t be resolved without completely dismantling Guangde Prefecture.
Currently the Forbidden Army and Imperial Guard were strong. If Xuzhou really admitted to doing something underhanded in Guangde Prefecture and concrete evidence was caught, could the over one hundred thousand troops stationed in Jinling be vegetarians?
No matter how much Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu and others feared Xuzhou, even if suppressing Guangde Prefecture would again damage Great Chu’s vitality and delay the progress of eliminating Shouzhou, they would necessarily prioritize resolving this threat to the heartland.
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if Emperor Yanyou, Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu, Zhang Chao and others couldn’t extinguish the great fire burning in Guangde Prefecture, causing the Jianghuai region to again fall into chaotic warfare, ultimately it would only benefit the Liang army that had just suppressed Prince Bo’s rebellion.
Xuzhou was still too weak and too remote. At least at this time, there was no opportunity to profit from chaos.
If Jianghuai was truly unstable, Yang Yuanpu would only strengthen his control over the Hunan prefectures even more, strengthen restrictions on Xuzhou even more.
Feng Yi, Feng Liao and the others weren’t like Han Daoxun and others who had such lofty idealistic concepts of saving the masses from fire and water. Precisely because they couldn’t see the possibility of profiting from chaos, they had headaches.
Otherwise, they couldn’t be bothered to care so much.
“I understand what Lord Guo means now,” Feng Liao at this moment suddenly comprehended. Looking toward Han Qian’s back as he walked into the room, appearing somewhat lonely, he declared loudly: “The strategy Lord Guo speaks of might be feasible!”
“Xuzhou and Jinling are too far apart. Even if some development were to blow toward Jinling as news, it would be two or three months later. By that time, Guangde Prefecture will mostly have already descended into chaos.” At this moment, Han Qian also deeply felt caught in a dilemma, finding it difficult to decide whether to accept Guo Rong and Feng Liao’s suggestion.
“Regardless of whether time permits, Xuzhou should have fangs.” Feng Liao firmly urged.
“All of you, go out.” Feng Yi, unable to guess what riddle Han Qian, Guo Rong, and his brother were playing, felt truly uncomfortable. He first had Han Bao, Han Dong, and other attendants of insufficient rank to participate in confidential matters go out first.
Feng Liao glanced at Xi Xunqiao and said to Feng Yi: “You, Xirong, and the Bureau Director should also temporarily step aside.”
Feng Yi was about to glare at his brother.
“Xunqiao may stay to discuss matters.” At this time, Han Qian said from inside the room.
At this moment, Xi Xunqiao understood what strategy Guo Rong, Feng Liao, and Han Qian were discussing.
That Feng Liao had just hoped he would temporarily step aside wasn’t because his rank was insufficient, but because his identity as a son of a major local indigenous clan was sensitive!
No matter in whose heart, this kind of sensitive mark of identity couldn’t be completely eliminated so quickly just because of the three or four years of implementing the new policy of merging indigenous and migrant household registrations.