Setting aside Han Qian’s towering prestige among the former soldiers of the Guangde Army, and setting aside the financial and material support that Xuzhou could provide, Han Donghu, Su Lie, and the other uprising leaders had only been making secret connections in the early stages, hiding from official eyes and ears while covertly preparing everything. They had also considered that launching an uprising directly in Guangde Prefecture would be too difficult and far too dangerous.
When Han Qian proposed his new plan, even though Su Lie personally still harbored some reservations, seeing the barely suppressed excitement on the others’ faces, he clearly understood that accepting Han Qian’s suggestion was the wise choice.
Moreover, from his personal perspective and that of the dozen elite household soldiers who had fled the Shang household with him and were now being hunted by the authorities as rebellious criminals, as well as the over one hundred family members—could there possibly be a better path forward than pledging allegiance to Xuzhou?
Furthermore, while Su Lie was unfamiliar with the guild organization forms that would only gradually emerge in later generations and currently existed only in rudimentary forms, he was quite familiar with organizations like the Way of Great Peace from the late Han dynasty and the Five Pecks of Rice sect from the Southern dynasties, and how historical figures like Zhang Jue and Sun En had borrowed religious and Daoist organizational structures for early preparation and mobilization, then launched large-scale uprisings when conditions were relatively mature.
Even if they ultimately had to take the path of rebellion and uprising, using a guild for early preparation and mobilization was the best and most reliable option available to them.
Even if they still had to rebel in the end, the choice between the Jiangnan heartland where Chu military power was strongest versus the peripheral regions where the Chu court’s control was weak was self-evident.
Weren’t people like Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou originally mountain stronghold leaders living at the borders where the three kingdoms of Liang, Chu, and Shu met?
Once this was settled, Han Qian also felt they could completely use the name Chishan Assembly to organize and gather people, without needing to avoid the inheritance relationship with the Chishan Army.
They could even hint at murky connections with Xuzhou to the outside world—that would be fine too.
In any case, if Xuzhou didn’t acknowledge such things, without concrete evidence, the court had no way to forcibly “frame” Xuzhou for it.
When determining the internal structure of the Chishan Assembly, Han Qian suggested that Su Lie serve as Assembly Chief. Su Lie was still clear about his own capabilities and firmly declined; Han Donghu believed that having made things this serious, his sins were too grave to shoulder such a heavy responsibility.
In the end, after discussion, everyone decided they would honor Han Qian as Assembly Chief, but internally and externally they would claim the position of Assembly Chief was either vacant or nonexistent.
For convenience in maintaining secrecy and preserving confidentiality, beneath the Assembly Chief position, they used the names of the nine peaks of Maoshan to establish Three Hermitages and Six Houses to handle specific affairs, with Han Donghu, Su Lie, Lin Jiang, Lin Sheng, Guo Xiao, Guo Quan, Zhou Zhu, and others each taking responsibility.
The Three Hermitages: Da Mao Hermitage would oversee member recruitment and training, commanding the Chishan Assembly’s armed forces.
Whether from Han Donghu’s introduction or Feng Liao’s previous contact, Su Lie was qualified as a leader of small to medium-scale military organizations.
Having served by Shang Wensheng’s side for many years, Su Lie’s learning and insight were both exceptional. If Shang Wensheng hadn’t harbored resentment and developed murderous intent toward them, he had always been Shang Wensheng’s most relied-upon assistant, his capabilities even far surpassing Shang Wensheng’s eldest son.
To avoid Su Lie developing any sense of alienation and to gather everyone’s strength together as much as possible, Han Qian decided to have Su Lie lead the Chishan Assembly’s armed forces.
Of course, the true core backbone of the Chishan Assembly’s armed forces were all former Chishan Army officers.
Even though Han Qian’s position as Assembly Chief dragon head was nominal, major military actions still required joint decisions by the Three Hermitages and Six Houses.
Xiao Mao Hermitage would oversee members’ economic livelihoods, to be managed by Guo Quan, who was more adept at handling complex affairs. He had previously served as a clerk in Guangde Prefecture’s Revenue Office, was persecuted and imprisoned at year’s end, and finally managed to survive with his life.
Lei Chui Hermitage would oversee assembly rules and regulations as well as intelligence reconnaissance and gathering, headed by Han Donghu.
Below the Three Hermitages were the Six Houses. Two houses were directly subordinate to Da Mao Hermitage—these were the direct departments secretly training and commanding the Chishan Assembly’s armed forces, led respectively by the brothers Lin Jiang and Lin Sheng.
Lin Jiang, Lin Sheng, and their elder brother Lin Xiong were all elite former Chishan Army officers.
After the capture of Langxi, the three brothers were wounded and withdrew from frontline service, being assigned as officers in the county forces.
Lin Xiong in particular had already been a mid to high-level officer at the battalion commander rank when he left the Left Guangde Army.
Only because the Lin family had many uncles and cousins, and there was great controversy over the question of staying or leaving at the time, and because their mother firmly refused to leave her ancestral land, the three Lin brothers did not follow to Xuzhou—by the time Han Qian returned to Xuzhou, Lin Xiong had already been promoted to Guangde County Magistrate.
Unfortunately, under the counterattack of the aristocratic clans, all three Lin brothers suffered in the purge.
Lin Xiong died in prison. Lin Jiang and Lin Sheng were only released from prison after Chen Jingzhou came to serve as Guangde Prefecture Administrator, but upon release they found their mother had died of fright, their sister-in-law had hanged herself, and among their younger nephews and nieces, two children had also died during this period due to illness without means for treatment.
If not for Han Qian personally intervening, with merely Feng Liao coming over, it would have been very difficult to persuade them to choose forbearance rather than directly launching an uprising.
One house was directly subordinate to Lei Chui Hermitage, led by Guo Xiao, specializing in intelligence reconnaissance and gathering. This way, Xuzhou no longer needed to establish a separate intelligence network in Jinling—it could be merged into this house’s responsibility.
The largest in scale, and what would eventually have the most people, were the three houses that would be directly subordinate to Xiao Mao Hermitage, primarily dedicated to members’ economic livelihoods. After all, as a semi-military armed guild organization, the livelihood of large numbers of members was truly the most core and most urgent problem to solve.
Currently everyone remained at Dingjia Gully, temporarily establishing Dingjia Gully as the General Hall.
Dingjia Gully was right next to the shores of Lake Tai, but located deep in the mountains and old forests, with narrow and hidden access roads.
Although this area bordered Changxing County in Huzhou, it was the region with the best foundation of former Chishan Army and Left Guangde Army personnel, making it very difficult for official eyes and ears and the Jinyun Department to infiltrate.
Even if Han Donghu, Su Lie, and the others moved about openly in the lake and mountain areas, they didn’t need to worry much about their whereabouts being leaked.
Additionally, when Han Qian had initially settled over a thousand people in Dingjia Gully and the other five villages, he had explicitly designated that these five villages would make their living from catching fish and shrimp in Lake Tai as well as water transport.
The five villages banded together and had already become a rather formidable water village force in the Lake Tai waters.
This provided the necessary foundation for the Chishan Assembly to rapidly expand from land operations to large-scale waterway development in the short term.
Their temporary establishment of the Chishan Assembly’s General Hall at Dingjia Gully would not only allow them to gather the fishing village forces in the surrounding area and directly transfer those troops and family members who had already been gathering deep in the northern foothills of Fuyu Mountain, but would also allow them to acquire boats of all sizes in the name of Dingjia Gully and other fishing villages, expanding their business operations.
As a quasi-military armed guild, the Chishan Assembly needed to avoid conflict with the court and local authorities. Not to mention future development and expansion—in the short term alone, they needed to accept the fourteen or fifteen thousand elderly, weak, women, and children from Guangde Prefecture who had lost their fields and homesteads and were struggling on the edge of survival as assembly members. The pressure on their livelihoods was still extremely great.
In a short time, they needed to maximize the expansion of their Lake Tai fishing fleet, undertake the transport and sale of grain and commercial goods from surrounding prefectures and counties, and directly arrange for some people to shift from land to making their living on boats.
Most critically in all this, they needed to infiltrate the towns and ports along the waterways connecting Lake Tai to the Yangtze River as quickly and purposefully as possible.
This was key to subsequently allowing the main Chishan Assembly forces to transfer silently from Guangde Prefecture and the Lake Tai waters to the Yangtze River and then to eastern Chuzhou.
Without support and cover along the way, moving tens of thousands of people via waterways from the Lake Tai region to the Yangtze River without being discovered by official eyes and ears would have too small a probability and would rely too much on luck.
Of course, although Xuzhou merchant vessels and personnel and cargo currently faced strict surveillance and inspection when passing through the Yuan River into Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River, before the checkpoints had tightened, Xuzhou had still managed to covertly station some personnel in the various prefectures of Hunan and secretly retained some vessels.
Not to mention that the Xuzhou boat guilds had maintained close relations with water village forces in Jingxiang since early on.
With Xuzhou’s support and former Chishan Army officers as the backbone, it would be no difficult matter for the Chishan Assembly to develop considerable strength in secret within a short time.
At this time they also needed to immediately organize a group of people to cross the river to the lake and marsh areas of eastern Chuzhou under the guise of fleeing famine and establish a foothold.
Currently Li Zhigao and Gao Chengyuan were leading cavalry, infantry, and naval forces to press upon Chaozhou city, but had not yet launched a true assault to seize the city. The court had also just dispatched officials like Wei Zhen to take over the areas along the Chu River west of Chaozhou. Eastern Chuzhou was in complete chaos, with large numbers of refugees from the Chaozhou and western Chuzhou conflict zones already stranded there.
Landless farmers from Guangde Prefecture crossing the river north to flee famine could completely be described as fishing in troubled waters.
The court even hoped that more famine refugees from various Jiangnan locations could migrate to the northern shore at this time, so they could better manage Chuzhou subsequently and use it as a bridgehead for later recovery of Shouzhou, Haozhou, Huozhou and other places, and even for削藩 the削藩 削藩 of Huaidong.
Han Qian remained at Dingjia Gully for half a month. During this half month, various tasks developed rapidly, and over three hundred people successively gathered directly at Dingjia Gully to expand the General Hall’s forces.
Han Qian also secretly met with some of the core members who could definitely be trusted.
Considering that Han Donghu, Su Lie, and the others lacked sufficient experience, before leaving Dingjia Gully, Han Qian ordered Dou Rong to remain behind. Besides being responsible for central liaison, he would also assist them in handling some matters related to early preparations and the evacuation and dispersal of the displaced population fleeing famine.
As a former high-ranking general of the Chishan Army and Left Guangde Army, Dou Rong also commanded sufficient prestige among uprising leaders like Lin Jiang, Lin Sheng, Guo Xiao, and Guo Quan, and could coordinate them in making potentially controversial decisions.
Once preparations here were more or less complete, and even the first batch of vessels sailing from Ezhou and Huangzhou had already docked at the lakeshore outside Dingjia Gully, Han Qian took Guo Rong, Xi Ren, Feng Liao, and others aboard a small boat to cross Lake Tai and sail north toward Yangzhou…