Xi Shepeng was leading troops across the border bearing an imperial decree. According to protocol, Han Qian needed to receive the decree before he could further learn of the court’s specific disposition regarding the Sizhou popular uprising.

With Feng Liao not in Chenzhong, the positions of Provincial Administrator and Chenzhong County Magistrate were temporarily held by Chief Clerk Zhao Jicheng and Household Section Military Adviser Xi Xunqiao. They rushed to the opposite bank overnight with men, summoning craftsmen to erect a simple large official pavilion beside the post road using bamboo and wood.

The next day before noon, learning that Chenzhou’s rotating battalion elite troops had entered Chenzhong County territory, Han Qian led Gao Shao, Feng Yi, Kong Xirong, Xi Chang, and other provincial administration officials and military officers, boarding boats to cross the Chen River and entering the official pavilion to wait for Xi Shepeng to arrive.

Xi Shepeng didn’t dare slowly advance with his troops, making Han Qian wait long in the official pavilion. Learning that Han Qian had crossed the Chen River, he brought over ten mounted escorts, spurring horses quickly to arrive first and meet Han Qian.

Yang Xingfeng’s son Yang Hu naturally traveled with Xi Shepeng returning to Sizhou, but besides Yang Hu, there were three other men—Jinyun Bureau Right Commander An Jixiang, Fu Gengwen, son of Fu Mo who had served as Langxi County Magistrate after recovering Jinling city, and Han Chengmeng, Han Daoming’s illegitimate son who had formerly served as Secretary in the Hunan Branch Secretariat.

An Jixiang, Fu Gengwen, and Han Chengmeng had rushed back to Chenyang yesterday afternoon with Yang Hu and Cao Xiushi bearing the decree. Since Xi Ying had long prepared in Chenyang to dispatch troops to reinforce Sizhou, and Sizhou’s situation was truly critical, they had set out again from Chenyang at dawn today, following Chenzhou’s rotating battalion elite troops into Xuzhou’s Chenzhong County.

When Han Qian took office as Guangde Army Commissioner, Fu Gengwen, as a representative of Xuanzhou aristocratic family scions, had also served as an official in the Commissioner’s office, subject to deployment. Therefore, they were not strangers to each other.

Last night when Xi Ying sent someone over, he only said his son Xi Shepeng was bearing a decree and leading troops across the border, without mentioning anything else. At this moment, seeing An Jixiang, Fu Gengwen, and Han Chengmeng—these three men appearing before his eyes along with Yang Hu and Xi Shepeng—Han Qian’s face darkened following his initial shock.

Gao Shao, Feng Yi, Kong Xirong, Xi Xunqiao, Zhao Jicheng, and the others all felt shocked in their hearts that something major was amiss.

Not to mention Han Chengmeng—An Jixiang was Jinyun Bureau Right Commander, and Fu Gengwen served as County Magistrate in Guangde Prefecture’s Langxi County. These two men appearing in Xuzhou would absolutely not be without reason.

This meant the entire matter was definitely not simply deploying Chenzhou troops to assist in suppressing the Sizhou popular uprising. It was extremely likely that the court had made major adjustments to military and civilian policies in Chen-Xu, Ye, and Si prefectures—possibly even involving a broader range of Great Chu’s southwestern border regions.

And Xuzhou had no knowledge of this whatsoever.

“I didn’t expect to see the Marquis of Qianyang again so quickly,” An Jixiang said. As a trusted grand eunuch close to Emperor Yanyou, his position was most esteemed. He walked into the crude official pavilion and cupped his hands toward Han Qian in salute.

Seeing Han Qian, Gao Shao, and the others all shocked and grim-faced, An Jixiang felt secretly pleased in his heart.

Han Qian claimed to have withdrawn all his people back to Xuzhou. Not to mention others—even An Jixiang didn’t believe it in his heart. But at this moment, he was certain that Han Qian couldn’t timely grasp court developments.

His purpose in conducting such a surprise move was verification.

Han Qian was dazed for a moment, exchanged a few pleasantries with An Jixiang about worldly matters, then asked: “I wonder what new decree His Majesty has for this Lord An to travel such a great distance to Xuzhou?”

“For the enthronement of Empress Li and the Empress Dowager’s birthday celebration, the Marquis prepared generous gifts which I brought to Jinling. Both the Empress Dowager and Empress Li have reciprocal bestowals. Since the Marquis is a great minister of Great Chu and cannot be slighted, His Majesty ordered me to make this trip again to deliver the Empress Dowager’s and Empress Li’s rewards to you, Marquis,” An Jixiang said lightly. “As for how to handle the Sizhou popular uprising, His Majesty’s decree is in the hand-written edicts held by County Magistrate Yang and General Shepeng.”

Han Qian impassively led the Chenzhou officials in receiving the hand-written edicts held by Yang Hu and Xi Shepeng.

The content of the hand-written edict was simple: ordering Xi Shepeng to first lead a portion of Chenzhou’s rotating battalion elite troops to enter Sizhou for suppression, ordering troops from Chenzhou and Yezhou to each guard their borders, preventing the possibility of violent people fleeing and wandering, and to provide certain grain fodder and military equipment to ensure supplies consumed in Sizhou’s suppression operations. If the Sizhou popular uprising subsequently remained difficult to control, all matters would be decided by the Hunan Branch Secretariat.

“Subsequent matters to be decided by the Hunan Branch Secretariat—what does this mean?” Han Qian held the decree in his hand, sleeving it behind his back. He didn’t say he would return Emperor Yanyou’s hand-written edict to Yang Hu or Xi Shepeng, but instead asked An Jixiang.

After the vassal reduction campaigns, Emperor Tianyou followed the old system from the previous dynasty, establishing the Branch Secretariat in Tanzhou, appointing Yang Yuanpu as Branch Secretariat Commander, with Shen Yang and Li Pu as Left and Right Vice Commanders, controlling military and civil administration of E, Yue, Tan, and Lang prefectures.

After recovering Jinling and Yang Yuanpu ascending the throne as successor, Shen Yang, Li Pu, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao, and others were transferred to serve as chief ministers participating in central government. Although the Hunan Branch Secretariat hadn’t been abolished, not even one official was left to guard the office. Along with Tanzhou Prefecture, it had become a shell. E, Lang, Yue, and Tan prefectures were all placed under direct central jurisdiction.

The Hunan Branch Secretariat didn’t even have one official remaining to guard it—how could subsequent matters be decided by the Hunan Branch Secretariat?

Gao Shao, Xi Xunqiao, and the others also looked at An Jixiang, truly not knowing what new policies Emperor Yanyou and the court had decided to implement in Hunan’s prefectures in such a short time.

“His Majesty and the chief ministers participating in government petitioned the Empress Dowager for a decision, deciding to commission Huzhou Regional Inspector Huang Hua to serve as Hunan Branch Secretariat Pacification Commissioner and Regional Military Governor, administering military and civilian affairs in Tan, Lang, Yue, and other Hunan prefectures. Wu Zun will serve as Hunan Branch Secretariat Surveillance Commissioner, controlling prison litigation and supervision in all prefectures. Lord Chen Fan will serve as Transport Commissioner, controlling finance and taxes,” An Jixiang said calmly and composedly. “From now on, not only will matters of Yue, Lang, Tan, Shao, and Heng—the directly administered prefectures—as well as Si, Ye, Chen, and Xu—the governed vassal prefectures—be decided by the Hunan Branch Province, but the Left Divine Martial Army garrisoned at Wuzhi Ridge will also be under Pacification Commissioner Huang’s command. Considering that the Sizhou popular uprising involves extremely broad implications, Pacification Commissioner Huang petitioned His Majesty to specially establish a Protectorate Bureau under the Branch Province, with Lord Fu serving as Vice Director, centrally coordinating affairs of Si, Chen, Xu, and Ye governed vassal prefectures—Lord Fu carries a copy of the official decree, and I ask the Marquis to review it…”

Imperial commands were called decrees, usually referring to relatively casual commands that didn’t establish systems. Official decrees were more formal—once issued they became established systems. Besides the imperial seal, they also required the Secretariat seal before being publicly proclaimed to all under heaven to formally take effect.

Fu Gengwen presented the copy of the official decree to demonstrate the specific details of how the Great Chu court was innovating the Hunan Branch Secretariat, with Huang Hua, Wu Zun, Chen Fan, and others separately controlling military and civilian taxation and supervision of prison litigation.

Han Qian clutched in his hand the hand-written edict Yang Hu had carried earlier, then received from Fu Gengwen the copy of the official decree and carefully perused it.

The Qin Dynasty initially implemented the prefecture-county system. During the Han Dynasty, above prefectures and counties, all under heaven was divided into thirteen Regional Inspector Departments, forming three-level management of provinces, prefectures, and counties over localities.

By the Sui and Tang, because provinces were widely established in localities, the territory each province governed seriously shrank, actually equivalent to the former prefectures, so a two-level system of provinces and counties formed in localities.

However, for administrative convenience, in the early and middle periods of the previous dynasty, all provinces under heaven were divided into ten circuits, with surveillance commissioners established, mainly responsible for criminal law, inspection, and other matters in a large region. However, this still hadn’t truly restored the three-level management over localities from the Han Dynasty in a real sense.

This time, the Great Chu court formally added Pacification Commissioners, Surveillance Commissioners, and Transport Commissioners under the Hunan Branch Province, separately controlling military and civilian administration, criminal law supervision, and finance and taxation.

This actually amounted to implementing three-level management of branch province, prefecture, and county in the Hunan region.

At the branch province level, Pacification Commissioners, Surveillance Commissioners, and Transport Commissioners divided power and mutually checked each other.

In other words, Chen, Xu, Ye, Si, and the even more remote governed vassal prefectures in Qianzhong—jurisdiction fell to the Hunan Branch Province. The Hunan Branch Province even specially imitated the previous dynasty’s Protectorate-General system to newly establish a Protectorate Bureau to handle related affairs.

The Hunan Branch Province’s seat of government would relocate back to Tanzhou to conveniently strengthen military defenses on the southern line. From Tanzhou, whether traveling through Shaozhou over the Xuefeng Mountain post road, or through Langzhou passing through Chenzhou territory, the distance to reach Xuzhou would save one or two days of journey.

Although the Hunan Branch Province’s reactivation meant that Chai Jian, who commanded the Left Divine Martial Army garrisoned at Shaozhou and Wuzhi Ridge, now wore a golden headband, it was mainly still targeting Xuzhou.

Compared to before, when Chen-Xu prefectures had matters and sent envoys to Jinling for decisions, the journey would waste roughly one or two months. Many matters fermented and erupted extremely quickly. With such delays, Jinling could hardly timely contain the deterioration of situations.

For instance, this Sizhou popular uprising—two months had already passed since Yang Hu last traveled through Chenzhong. Reactivating the Hunan Branch Province and devolving jurisdiction to the branch province meant that when Chenzhou had matters, within three days documents could be delivered before the Pacification Commissioner’s desk. Naturally efficiency would improve tremendously.

At this time, Huang Hua, Wu Zun, Chen Fan, and the others were all still en route. Fu Gengwen, along with Han Chengmeng who served as a subordinate official of the Hunan Branch Province, had arrived in Xuzhou ahead of schedule with Yang Hu to represent the Hunan Branch Province in supervising the suppression campaign against the Sizhou popular uprising.

And although An Jixiang nominally bore an edict to deliver the Empress Dowager’s and Empress’s bestowed gifts to Xuzhou, his more fundamental purpose was nothing other than monitoring whether the Hunan Branch Province and Protectorate Bureau’s supervision could be effectively implemented in Chen, Xu, Ye, and Si governed vassal prefectures…

Gao Shao, Xi Xunqiao, Feng Yi, Kong Xirong, and the others’ faces looked quite ugly.

Such an important administrative system adjustment by the Great Chu court—Xuzhou hadn’t heard even half a whisper of wind about it, yet it had suddenly been implemented. Even ghosts knew this was targeting Xuzhou.

An Jixiang didn’t care whether Xuzhou people’s faces looked good or not. He cupped his hands and said: “General Shepeng still needs to lead his troops into Hujian Pass before nightfall. I’ll accompany the Marquis to Chenzhong County and won’t delay them from leading troops to suppress the bandits.”

From Chenyang city to Hujian Pass, traveling the northern bank post road of the Chen River was one hundred twenty li. Infantry battalion forces normally needed two days of marching, but the rotating battalion elite troops were fierce as tigers and wolves—rushing to Hujian Pass in a forced march within one day was not difficult.

An Jixiang thought in his heart that as long as he personally watched at Han Qian’s side, not allowing Xuzhou any opportunity to play tricks, once Xi Shepeng led his troops into Jinhe County and won one or two battles, stabilizing the overall situation in Sizhou, he could rest easy.

Only then did Han Qian separately return the hand-written edict and official decree to Yang Hu and Fu Gengwen. His expression cleared slightly as he said: “Most unfortunately, there’s been a bit of a mishap with the river dam at Crow Ridge. The newly built river dam is in precarious condition and could collapse at any time. If Chenzhou’s rotating battalion still advances westward today along the established route, there’s a risk of being struck by flood waters. If Chenzhou had sent someone over a day earlier to report, I could have transferred over a dozen warships from Qianyang to send General Shepeng’s troops directly to land at Gaoyiyu—as things stand now, we might be delayed two days!”

“How could there be such a coincidence?” Yang Hu said urgently.

“If the young lord doesn’t believe my words, Crow Ridge is just twenty li ahead. The young lord can ask Lord An and Lord Fu to go take a look,” Han Qian said with hands sleeved. “To tell the truth, if Lord An and Lord Fu hadn’t come, I would still worry that with such a coincidental occurrence happening, Xuzhou would find it difficult to defend itself. Now instead I’m at ease.”