“By the official road, with people and carts coming and going, you should come sit here to talk,” Han Qian gestured for Han Donghu to sit before the tea stall, then said with a smile to Feng Liao, “I knew these hands would be the flaw. Indeed, no matter how well burn scars are disguised, they still don’t resemble an old man’s hands.”
“Your Lordship’s status is noble, and you’re currently under Emperor Yanyou’s suspicion—how can you lightly venture into dangerous territory?” Han Donghu sat before the tea stall, still unable to control his agitated emotions. Compared to overturning the case, he was more worried about Han Qian’s current predicament.
Even without being under suspicion, Han Qian, as Regional Commander of Xuzhou, secretly sneaking back to the imperial capital was a grave crime.
“What nobility or not? If I had truly feared to do anything all these years, then I truly wouldn’t have accomplished anything at all.” Han Qian smiled slightly, seeming to have no awareness whatsoever about being in a dangerous situation.
Going alone to Wanhong Pavilion back then—wasn’t that dangerous?
Persuading Yang Yuanpu to go defend Xichuan city together—wasn’t that dangerous?
Leading over a hundred men back to Jinling to seize military authority from Marquis Xinchang Li Pu—wasn’t that dangerous?
After the Jingxiang campaign, Zhu Yu dared to penetrate deep into Chu territory. How could he be inferior even to Zhu Yu?
Han Qian had initially thought it sufficient to secretly dispatch Feng Liao to Jinling to handle various matters, but after learning in Xuzhou the specific circumstances of how the great clans had counterattacked with connected prosecutions in Guangde Prefecture, he decided he must make this trip personally.
Over twenty people executed, over forty maimed—those were still the numbers from Guangde Prefecture authorities’ massive miscarriage of justice. Including Anji, Guangde, and Langxi counties, these numbers needed to be multiplied by two.
Beyond the large number of innocents subjected to connected prosecution, the great clans and landlords large and small who had previously fled Anji, Guangde, and Langxi all returned to the three counties using the turmoil stirred up by the assassination case. They overturned the land and property exchange plan he had established when setting up the Guangde Military Commission Office. Holding old land deeds and property titles, with the support of prefecture and county officials, they seized back the land, causing large numbers of former Guangde Army families to lose their land again.
Although the situation eased somewhat after Chen Jingzhou assumed the position of Guangde Prefect, the chaos of the preceding months had already subjected tens of thousands of innocents to connected prosecution, placing them in a precarious situation where they could barely survive from day to day.
According to Feng Liao’s previous plan, even if Xue Ruogu stood up to overturn the case at the risk of his own life and his family’s lives, he could only say it would allow the truth of the matter to spread within a small circle, letting the ministers in court know about this affair and that the truth of the assassination case was not as the Ministry of Justice and Jingzhao Prefecture had previously stated.
But could the case truly be overturned?
Impossible.
The great clans’ massive counterattack and connected prosecutions in Guangde Prefecture had all actually proceeded under Yang Yuanpu’s tacit approval.
Not only were representatives of the great clans in court involved—would Yang Yuanpu overturn his own case?
Feng Liao’s previous thinking had mainly been trying to preserve Xuzhou’s interests as much as possible, thinking that as long as the truth of the assassination case could be revealed within a small circle, dividing the court ministers’ attitudes toward Xuzhou, that would count as achieving the objective.
Feng Liao was still accustomed to thinking of using the assassination case as leverage, thinking of using people like Han Donghu as chess pieces, then employing some small tactics to recruit people like Han Donghu and establish Xuzhou’s intelligence network in Jinling.
Han Qian couldn’t blame Feng Liao, but what Feng Liao was doing was still far from enough, and might even very likely cause Xue Ruogu and his entire family to lose their lives.
After Han Donghu’s emotions stabilized somewhat, Han Qian said to him: “I was not wrong in this matter, and you were not wrong either. The great clans want to exploit bond-servants, bond-servants want to resist—this is a life-or-death struggle. Did you really think that without paying any price at all, the great clans would obediently agree to abolish the old system of base-born bond-servants? Now, this matter involves the war between Liang, Guo, Shu, Jin, and the Mongols—things will become doubly complicated and entangled. All we can do is proceed step by step, not easily doubting ourselves or negating ourselves…”
“I…” Han Donghu, seeing tragic cases of widespread connected prosecution occurring repeatedly, had always been caught in inner contradiction and conflict. Many principles were beyond his ability to distinguish. At this moment, hearing Han Qian’s words, though he gained some understanding, it was still difficult to say it was thorough. His heart swayed so much he couldn’t speak.
“You should first assist Xue Ruogu in investigating the truth of the assassination case as much as possible in secret. After Xue Ruogu has some witness and material evidence, I’ll meet with Xue Ruogu once more to persuade him not to act rashly…” Han Qian said.
“If Chen Jingzhou hadn’t arrived to stop the prefecture and counties from reclaiming the newly cultivated slope land and lake fields, even more people would have been implicated. But besides those who died unjustly, fourteen or fifteen thousand people in Guangde Prefecture had their land seized. How should these people be arranged? Please give clear instructions, Your Lordship.” Only then did Han Donghu truly calm down.
Hearing Han Donghu’s words, Feng Liao was truly secretly alarmed, instinctively feeling a chill run straight up from his tailbone.
Before Chen Jingzhou became Guangde Prefect, during three or four months of fierce counterattacks by the great clans, they had brought out old land deeds to seize back properties from the hands of former Guangde Army retired soldiers and their families—involving over ten thousand people. Feng Liao naturally knew about this matter.
However, hearing Han Donghu’s tone at this moment, they had long been secretly organizing connections with former Guangde Army soldiers, planning to do something major.
At this moment, Feng Liao felt even more deeply about what Han Qian had said—that no one was willing to be a chess piece.
Han Donghu had sufficient feelings for Xuzhou, but before Han Qian showed himself, the previous two times he had met Han Donghu, Han Donghu had not revealed any related information whatsoever.
Feng Liao thought about how once Han Donghu, Su Lie, and former Guangde Army military officers jointly stirred up large-scale civil unrest in Guangde Prefecture in the near future, and couldn’t help but shudder.
If at that time Xue Ruogu coincidentally stood up to overturn the assassination case, how could Yang Yuanpu not form associations between these two matters?
Yang Yuanpu was by nature suspicious. If he then discovered that Xue Ruogu’s transfer to Lishui County was secretly pushed along by the Old Master, then the trouble would truly become so great it would pierce the heavens.
Han Qian was also frowning in thought at this moment.
The news that he was currently in Jinling temporarily could not let more people know, much less could he show himself to pacify those over ten thousand former Guangde Army soldiers and families who had suffered connected prosecution and had their land seized. But if the former soldiers and former military officers of Guangde Army had already been secretly organizing for some time, clearly it was not something that Han Donghu standing up alone to dissuade could eliminate this uprising already being secretly organized and implemented in its budding state.
With just this bit of manpower, staging an uprising beside Jinling’s pillow and headboard would be suppressed—even if not a matter of minutes, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Not to mention any talk about harming Great Chu’s vitality.
No wonder Fu Gengwen had given up being Langxi County Magistrate and run off to Hunan to suffer grievances—he had seen this fire couldn’t be suppressed. Even if ultimately suppressed by the court, he would first be burned to ashes.
Feng Liao was also secretly anxious. The vast majority of people were not capable of being rational, especially since the seeds of resistance had long been buried deep in their breasts. Having suffered such widespread connected prosecution and persecution, why should they sacrifice their small selves and consider the overall situation?
“You must stage an uprising, but you cannot remain in Huzhou or Guangde Prefecture. Before the uprising, first prepare as many boats as possible within Lake Tai, coordinate as much as possible with the water stronghold forces in the lake—it would be best to become river bandits north of Runzhou!” Han Qian said. “I’ll find a way to meet with Wang Wenqian…”
Over ten thousand elderly, weak, women, and children—even if three or four thousand among them were able-bodied, but lacking necessary armor and weapons, they fundamentally had no qualification to confront elite Imperial Guards who had experienced several bloody battles and whose combat power was at its peak.
After the uprising, transferring to the Yangtze at maximum speed and leveraging the standoff between the court and Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan might gain them a bit of maneuvering room to survive.
If that didn’t work, submitting to the Huaidong Kingdom—at least most of the elderly, weak, women, and children could survive.
Fleeing into the mountains wouldn’t work either. Once blockaded to death, most of the over ten thousand people would die of starvation.
“How much money and grain can be mobilized in Jinling at present?” Han Qian asked Feng Liao.
“We can mobilize forty or fifty thousand strings of cash,” Feng Liao said.
“Donghu, you take this batch of money and goods to plan matters, but don’t mention me to others—I’m helping you now also hoping you can all survive. You understand my meaning?” Han Qian stared at Han Donghu.
It was truly pitiable and lamentable. Xuzhou could mobilize a batch of money and grain, but had no way to directly use it to provide relief to the former Guangde Army soldiers and families whose properties had been seized. They could only secretly use it to help them stage an uprising—otherwise, forty or fifty thousand strings of cash would be enough for over ten thousand women, children, and elderly to barely sustain themselves for over a year.
“I understand.” Han Donghu nodded. If he truly revealed Han Qian’s existence and support to the several leaders, he wouldn’t need to worry about leaking information, but the other leaders’ expectations would undergo fundamental changes, potentially making the situation even more complicated.
“If there’s any urgent matter, you can send someone to Little Mao Peak or Jingshan Hermitage to contact me—before I go to Yangzhou to see Wang Wenqian, if I’m not at Maoshan, I’ll be at Baohua Mountain.” Han Qian said.
Seeing that Han Qian didn’t conceal his whereabouts from him, Han Donghu emotionally kowtowed once before leaving with two trusted subordinates also disguised as porters…