With the Imperial Guards and prefectural troops from various prefectures—over one hundred thousand cavalry, infantry, and naval forces—besieging Chaozhou city under the command of Li Zhigao, Gao Chengyuan, and others, and with Deputy Privy Council Commissioner and Marquis Xinchang Li Pu personally leading Wei Zhen and other officials to Chuzhou city to supervise the transport of fodder, military equipment, and other supplies, Wang Wenqian, though far away in Yangzhou city two to three hundred li distant, still felt his heart was not at ease.
Scout cavalry had already detected signs that Liang forces were gathering on the northern bank of the Huai River, but for the time being showed no indication of intending to cross the Huai River and move south.
Under such circumstances, as long as the Liang forces did not cross the Huai River to interfere, it meant the Imperial Guards could freely attack Chaozhou.
While the Anning Palace rebel forces were unwilling to abandon Chaozhou, their intent to transfer more elite troops from Huozhou and Shouzhou to reinforce Chaozhou and fight a decisive battle with the main Imperial Guard forces near Chao Lake also did not seem obvious.
If the Imperial Guards suffered heavy losses beneath Chaozhou city, or even if they only recovered Chaozhou with a pyrrhic victory, the situation facing Huaidong would not be urgent. But if the Imperial Guards succeeded in recovering Chaozhou with a great victory, or if the Chaozhou garrison directly surrendered the city, the situation facing Huaidong would be completely different.
Because the more powerful and elite Liang forces could cross the Huai River south at any time, after recovering Chaozhou, the court would most likely not urgently dispatch troops to attack Huozhou and Shouzhou in the short term. But what would inevitably follow was the court doing everything possible to suppress Huaidong’s living space.
Even if the court would not be anxious to immediately revoke the regional authority, they would control the scale of Huaidong’s military forces, compelling Huaidong’s troops to concentrate their defensive direction on the northwest and north, focusing on confrontation with the Anning Palace rebel forces and Liang forces.
Even though during the Jinling conflict a large number of slaves and aristocratic clan descendants had been forcibly relocated from Changzhou, Runzhou, and other places across the river, the total population of Huaidong’s five prefectures was still less than one million.
In fact, even without the court applying pressure, Wang Wenqian already deeply felt that maintaining one hundred twenty thousand troops in Huaidong was already quite an unbearable burden.
For Huaidong to ultimately reduce its total military scale and maintain an elite fighting force of around fifty thousand would be reasonable. More young and strong laborers should be used in agricultural production.
It was just that in all this, pulling one hair moved the whole body—so many things were involved.
If Huaidong proactively reduced its military forces, might it create in the court an illusion that Huaidong was weak and exhausted, and inappropriate voices calling for the revocation of regional authority might emerge in the court?
Or perhaps people like Yang Zhitang and Li Zhigao were sinister enough that after recovering Chaozhou, they would station their main forces in eastern Chuzhou, forcing Huaidong to maintain massive active military preparations, forcing Huaidong to engage in doubled exploitation and oppression internally, thereby causing Huaidong to first descend into internal chaos.
No matter what, Wang Wenqian could predict that after the Imperial Guards recovered Chaozhou, Huaidong would become the target destination of key schemes by Yang Yuanpu and the court officials.
Wang Wenqian had been dealing with official business at the prefecture office all morning, feeling vexed and distracted. After noon, the city became unbearably stuffy. Seeing the sky grow somewhat overcast, he left the city surrounded by his escort, thinking he would hide in the cool Jian Garden to handle official business for the rest of this scorching summer.
Wang Jun’s mother had died of illness long ago. In his early years serving in Chuzhou, Wang Wenqian had two beautiful concubines bestowed by Prince Xin. Over these years, these two beauties had also aged into middle-aged women. They usually lived at Jian Garden and no longer personally attended to Wang Wenqian.
Not long after Wang Wenqian returned to Jian Garden, Prefecture Magistrate Yin Peng came chasing from the city. They also discussed the Imperial Guards’ military campaign at Chaozhou. By dusk, still not seeing any trace of Wang Jun, Wang Wenqian curiously called over the steward of Jian Garden and asked where Wang Jun had run off to today.
“There are some acrobatic performers who apparently fled famine from Guangde Prefecture. These past few days they’ve been performing in Zhuyu Bay below. Miss has had nothing to do these two days and has been strolling around Zhuyu Bay. She should still be down the mountain now,” the steward said.
“Guangde Prefecture ultimately didn’t stir up any trouble.” Wang Wenqian sighed with considerable regret.
During the most tense period, he had fully expected Guangde Prefecture to erupt in large-scale civil unrest, and had even instructed Yin Peng to send some personnel there to fan the flames.
In that case, not only could they vent the anger of being forced back north of the river, more critically, even though the Imperial Guards’ strength at that time was not weak and could suppress civil unrest erupting in Guangde Prefecture, having conflict break out again in such a short time near the capital region would also greatly weaken the vitality of the southern shore and Yang Yuanpu’s foundation.
Of course, large-scale civil unrest erupting in Guangde Prefecture would actually also mean that the suspicion between Yang Yuanpu and Xuzhou would deepen to the point of being utterly irreconcilable.
Who could have imagined that Guangde Prefecture ultimately did not erupt in civil unrest? Instead, Sizhou, right under Xuzhou’s nose, first erupted in slave uprisings, and then Shu forces recklessly provoked military conflict at Qianjiang. This caused Yang Yuanpu and the court officials to rapidly shift their attitude toward Guangde Prefecture from high-pressure suppression to primarily appeasement.
Due to the special nature of Guangde Army territory, informants were extremely difficult to infiltrate. Although Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng had repeatedly sent people to secretly go to Guangde Prefecture, they were still unfamiliar with many specific situations.
Although Wang Wenqian had been deliberately accepting refugees fleeing famine from Chuzhou during this period, Huaidong ultimately was still part of Great Chu. Having landless farmers from Guangde Prefecture cross the river and flee to Yangzhou for refuge was actually quite ordinary.
Wang Wenqian had originally wanted to send someone to summon those acrobatic performers who had fled famine from Guangde Prefecture to Jian Garden to inquire about the situation in Guangde Prefecture. But seeing that evening was approaching and the sky was actually clearing up, with sunset glow spreading magnificently, he invited Yin Peng to go down the mountain together to Zhuyu Bay.
The main peak on the northern foothills of Shugang Hills was only forty to fifty meters high. Walking out of Jian Garden, standing even halfway up the mountain, one could see on the long street of Zhuyu Bay a rope suspended across the street, with a woman lightly performing various movements on the rope that drew continuous gasps of amazement.
With Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng surrounded by over a dozen escorts, descending the mountain and entering the long street of Zhuyu Bay took only the time to burn a stick of incense.
Only then did they notice that the acrobatic rope was tied between the second floors of Wang Er Teahouse and the inn across from it. Hearing the household servant standing guard at the street entrance report that Wang Jun was on the second floor of the teahouse, Wang Wenqian also climbed the stairs with Yin Peng to watch the performers from Guangde Prefecture doing various acrobatic acts in front of the building.
Wang Jun was sitting by the window. Seeing her father and Yin Peng arrive, she drove all the customers on the second floor out and said with dissatisfaction, “You coming here really spoils the mood.”
“What’s spoiled about it? You can just give them a bigger reward later,” Wang Wenqian said with a laugh.
He mainly wanted to learn more about the situation in Guangde Prefecture and had no interest in enjoying entertainment with the common people.
Wang Wenqian invited Yin Peng to sit together at the table by the window. Seeing that one end of the rope was tied to the eave corner outside the window, the young woman on the rope appeared to be only fourteen or fifteen years old, light as a swallow. She was standing on one foot on the thin rope, and when a gust of wind blew over, her body swayed slightly with the thin rope but did not fall. This skill was truly quite impressive.
“You’ve been idly strolling around Zhuyu Bay for two days, so you should already know these acrobatic performers, right? Call two of them over. I have some questions to ask them,” Wang Wenqian said.
“If you want to call them, Father, you call them yourself. I won’t help you call them.” Wang Jun knew that in last year’s turbulent undercurrents in Guangde Prefecture, there were factors of Yangzhou pushing and adding fuel from behind. She also knew that at this time, her father rushing down the mountain to find these refugee acrobatic performers mostly wanted to understand the current situation in Guangde Prefecture. She couldn’t stop it, but she didn’t want to help either.
Wang Wenqian had no way to deal with Wang Jun. The steward at his side walked to the window and shouted to the young woman standing on the rope, telling her to notify the troupe leader to come to the second floor of the teahouse to answer questions.
At that moment they saw a young woman, agile as an ape, borrowing a bamboo pole, and in the next instant lightly stepping onto the thin rope, walking across barefoot through the air.
The young woman’s face looked ordinary, but the pair of jade feet exposed below her trouser legs were snow-white, tender, and beautiful. She even had a pair of silver bells tied to her feet, yet walking on the rope, she made no sound at all.
Yin Peng was standing beside Wang Wenqian, appreciating this pair of incomparably beautiful jade feet, when the next moment he suddenly realized something was wrong. He drew his sword across the window, trying to prevent the woman from barging straight in.
“Lord Yin is truly fierce. The previous moment you wanted this slave to come in, but now you draw your sword against me. Does Lord Yin want this slave to come in or go out?” The woman stepped onto the windowsill with one foot, smiling and asking from her superior position.
“Xi Ren, how could you be in Zhuyu Bay!” Wang Jun exclaimed excitedly.
“Not only am I in Zhuyu Bay, Han Qian is also in Zhuyu Bay. I wonder if Miss Jun wants to see him?” Xi Ren asked with a smile.
“Why would I see him?” Wang Jun said, embarrassed, but then immediately understood. “Han Qian came to see my father?”
“I just don’t know if Lord Wang and Lord Yin have the courage to meet my lord?” Xi Ren asked, standing barefoot by the window, staring at Wang Wenqian whose expression was shifting uncertainly.
“So you are the renowned Lady Xi,” Wang Wenqian said, his expression dark as he sized up Xi Ren twice, then said in a low voice to Yin Peng, “Yangzhou may be poor and cramped, but we still have the magnanimity to invite a few acrobatic performers upstairs for tea.”
No matter how cautious and meticulous he was, he knew that Han Qian and Xi Ren personally appearing in Yangzhou would not be specifically to assassinate him, so he might as well be magnanimous and let Han Qian bring his people upstairs to the teahouse.
Xi Ren didn’t let Yin Peng or the other two guards beside Wang Wenqian go downstairs to notify them. Standing by the window, she turned her head and shouted to the street across the way: “Head of household, the Governor wants to invite you over to receive a reward!”
After a short while, Han Qian, wearing patched clothing, came upstairs accompanied by Kong Xirong and He Liufeng. He walked to the table by the window and sat down, first cupping his hands toward Wang Jun and asking, “Since parting at Fanchang, has everything been well?”
“Ahem!” Wang Wenqian couldn’t help but cough, indicating that if Han Qian had business, he should get to it quickly—there was really no need for such pleasantries…