Not knowing how many personnel Han Qian had left behind at the inn across the way, Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng remained in the teahouse, not daring to act rashly, not even daring to easily send anyone out, fearing it might cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
After dark, their escorts left behind at Jian Garden finally came looking for them, worried something had happened. Only after there were enough people to thoroughly guard the teahouse did Yin Peng personally lead men to surround the inn across the way, then rush in to conduct a search and arrest.
After a flurry of chaos, Yin Peng returned to the teahouse in exasperation, dragging along a thin man who was tightly bound with rope, saying: “That inn across the way only had this fellow alone. We fell for that treacherous thief Han Qian’s empty fort stratagem!”
Yin Peng didn’t even have the face to say that when they searched the rooms on the second floor of the inn, apart from a few iron-tipped arrows exposed at the window corners, they hadn’t even found a single crossbow. Yet they had been scared into staying at the teahouse across the street for over an hour, not daring to budge.
Wang Wenqian’s expression was also very ugly. With over a dozen guards at their side, they had been intimidated by one man’s bluff and bluster. Moreover, this was in the outskirts of Yangzhou which he governed, with nearly two thousand garrison troops just three or four li away. If word of this got out, wouldn’t everyone laugh their heads off?
“Guo Xiao of the Chishan Assembly greets the Governor.” Although Guo Xiao was tightly bound, he stood there without fear, making an effort to cup his hands in salute to Wang Wenqian.
Hearing the new term “Chishan Assembly,” Wang Wenqian’s mind jolted, but he had no intention of interrogating Guo Xiao at the teahouse. Taking Wang Jun with him, he and Yin Peng headed first toward Jian Garden. In any case, they would escort the bound Guo Xiao up the mountain before discussing other matters.
Wang Wenqian had long predicted that Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan’s more realistic choice would be to first establish a separatist regime in Huaidong. Even before the Jinling incident, he had secretly disposed of the Wang family’s properties remaining in Runzhou, converting them to cash to come to Yangzhou to acquire fields and homesteads.
Besides Jian Garden, over ten thousand mu of fields west of Zhuyu Bay had all been purchased by Wang Wenqian over these past few years. Currently this was where the Wang clan had settled after crossing the river north to Yangzhou to establish themselves.
For now they didn’t alert the garrison, but besides the several dozen guards at Jian Garden, Wang Wenqian also temporarily summoned over a hundred household soldiers from the estates below the mountain, guarding Jian Garden so tightly not even water could leak through.
“Jun’er, tomorrow you’ll move into the city with me.”
Wang Wenqian thought about how today at Zhuyu Bay, his life and fortune had been entirely under Han Qian’s control, and shuddered. He required Wang Jun to move with him into the Governor’s residence in the city first thing tomorrow morning.
Wang Jun was somewhat unwilling, but with Yin Peng present, she was too embarrassed to directly contradict her father.
When Wang Jun didn’t speak, Wang Wenqian took it as her agreement and diverted his attention to think about other matters.
Yin Peng asked: “Should we inform Zhao Zhen?”
Wang Wenqian was Yangzhou Governor, and Yin Peng was the Prefecture Magistrate, in charge of local military and administrative affairs.
However, the prefectural garrison forces Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng could directly mobilize numbered only over four thousand. Beyond the prefectural garrison forces, Yangzhou’s truly elite stationed troops were organized as the Yangzhou Campaign Army directly subordinate to Prince Huai’s regional princelyMansion.
The Yangzhou Campaign Army’s naval forces plus cavalry and infantry totaled over twenty-five thousand. Zhao Zhen served as Campaign Supervisor, only nominally accepting Wang Wenqian’s authority.
Now in pitch darkness, Han Qian had very likely already crossed the Han Canal by boat. Sending people now to ask Zhao Zhen to mobilize troops to intercept Han Qian would be completely too late. But to avoid Prince Xin’s suspicion, Yin Peng felt that for such a critical matter, they should at least send someone to inform Zhao Zhen first.
Wang Wenqian nodded. Walking to his writing desk, he quickly wrote a brief letter, succinctly describing Han Qian’s infiltration into Yangzhou, instructing the Jian Garden steward to immediately send someone to carry the letter into the city to see Zhao Zhen.
Sending someone into the city at this time and waiting for Zhao Zhen’s reply would take at least an hour. Yin Peng sat at the desk, hesitating for a moment before saying: “This Chishan Assembly that Guo Xiao mentioned is probably truly the former Left Guangde Army personnel that Han Qian has gathered…”
Without Yin Peng reminding him, Wang Wenqian could naturally think of this point. What he worried about now was the changes this matter involved and Han Qian’s true intent.
As a counselor deeply trusted by Prince Xin, he couldn’t simply send someone on fast horses to Chuzhou to report this matter. He also needed to provide some specific and clear recommendations for Prince Xin’s consideration.
Previously when Han Qian returned to Xuzhou, his involvement with Guangde Prefecture had been minimal. But now he had not only infiltrated Jianghuai and gathered former Left Guangde Army personnel, but also wanted to secretly communicate with Huaidong. What advice could he give Prince Xin about this?
To avoid the court dealing with Huaidong immediately after the Imperial Guards recovered Chaozhou, should they choose to cooperate with Xuzhou?
With this entire matter developing such changes, what was Han Qian’s fundamental intent?
Could it be that the small corner of the southwest could no longer satisfy Han Qian’s ambitions?
If so, by cooperating with Han Qian and allowing the Chishan Assembly to establish a foothold backed by Yangzhou, wouldn’t Huaidong be nurturing a tiger to become a menace?
Seeing Wang Wenqian silent for quite a while, Yin Peng asked: “Is Your Excellency worried that cooperating with Xuzhou would be nurturing a tiger to become a menace?”
Wang Wenqian nodded, thinking Yin Peng still understood his thoughts.
“It seems there’s no way to refuse,” Wang Jun said, standing to the side. “If Xuzhou truly has some new salt-drying method to献 to the court, Huaidong will truly become very passive.”
The Salt and Iron Commission had established salt fields along Huaidong’s coastal tidal flats, organizing over forty thousand households to boil seawater for salt, producing one million dan of sea salt annually for distribution throughout Jianghuai and Jingxiang.
After deducting the massive expenses of the Salt and Iron Commission and salt officials, salt workers, and salt troops everywhere, each year they could still obtain over six hundred thousand strings of salt profit, which was an important foundation for sustaining the Great Chu Empire.
Yang Yuanpu had permitted Prince Xin to establish a separatist regime in Huaidong, making concessions in many areas, but on the issue of Huaidong’s salt fields, he wouldn’t yield an inch.
This showed the importance of Huaidong’s salt fields to Great Chu.
To raise funds for repairing Jinling city and maintaining the Imperial Guards, the Salt and Iron Commission had twice substantially raised salt prices over the past year, ensuring annual salt profits increased to one million strings.
If Han Qian truly had some new method that could enable Huaidong’s salt fields to produce an additional three to five hundred thousand dan of sea salt annually, and could additionally save five to six thousand able-bodied men to be organized into elite salt troops, Wang Wenqian could figure out with his toes that Yang Yuanpu and the court officials would definitely ensure the new method could be implemented immediately.
Besides the financial resources of Huaidong and the court growing and declining in inverse proportion, once Huaidong’s salt fields were reformed according to the new method, the system would become more rigorous, and the salt troop forces searching for illegal salt would become larger and more elite. All this would make Huaidong’s situation even more difficult.
At that time, besides having to increase corresponding military deployments on the eastern front, Huaidong would also be unable to obtain sufficient illegal salt, forcing them to pay large sums of money and grain to guarantee salt supply within their territory.
This would in turn make Huaidong’s finances even more stretched thin, making the people of Huaidong even more impoverished…
“Since the previous dynasty, it’s not as if no one has tried sun-drying brine to make salt, but the drawbacks are numerous—it’s not as good as boiling seawater and simmering brine…” Yin Peng still brooded over falling for Han Qian’s empty fort stratagem at Zhuyu Bay. He suspected Han Qian’s mention of a new salt-drying method with bluff and bluster was just another form of empty fort stratagem, meant to lure them into the trap.
“Han Qian isn’t afraid of exposing such a major secret as the Chishan Assembly for us to know about. The salt-drying method is truly hard to say is him bluffing,” Wang Wenqian said with furrowed brows.
Since Han Qian had already begun gathering former Left Guangde Army personnel, if they informed Yang Yuanpu at this time, the Jinyun Department would be able to find some traces no matter what. But Han Qian wasn’t afraid of this, indicating he still had something to rely on.
If this matter truly ended in complete breakdown, Han Qian’s intent to regroup former Left Guangde Army personnel would naturally suffer a severe blow. But Han Qian could still retreat to Xuzhou to maintain autonomy, slowly developing the southwestern Hunan region, while Huaidong’s days would become even harder to endure.
“Then we truly have to cooperate with Han Qian, tolerating this so-called Chishan Assembly establishing a foothold under Yangzhou’s very nose?” Yin Peng asked.
Wang Wenqian spread out the Jianghuai situation map and asked Wang Jun: “Jun’er, you said Han Qian’s intent is that the former Left Guangde Army personnel need to rely on Yangzhou to establish a foothold. Where do you think it would be?”
“Such a simple question—why must Father test me on it?” Wang Jun said.
“When civil unrest erupted in Sizhou, the court dispatched Chen Jingzhou to serve as Guangde Prefecture Administrator to stabilize the situation there. But before Chen Jingzhou arrived, four to five hundred former Left Guangde Army personnel had already been wrongly imprisoned, with over a hundred dying or being maimed from torture in prison. Additionally, nearly three thousand more households had their fields and homesteads seized—presumably these people are the former personnel Han Qian gathered on this trip out of Xuzhou,” Wang Wenqian said. “So many people, dragging children and daughters along, finding a place to establish a foothold is no easy matter. The places near Yangzhou where they could establish a foothold are extremely limited in choice. Even if that Guo Xiao doesn’t speak, if I send people to infiltrate eastern Chuzhou now, we should also very easily find traces.”
“Wei Zhen is Chuzhou’s new Governor and is particularly hateful toward former Left Guangde Army personnel. Han Qian wouldn’t settle them right under his nose. Only Shiliang County nominally belongs to Chuzhou, but the situation is intricate and complex. Huaidong, Anning Palace, and the Imperial Guards all have mutual concerns—no one can control that area in the short term. If the former Left Guangde Army personnel can obtain necessary material supplies from Huaidong, they could indeed establish a foothold there,” Wang Jun said. “Even if the matter is exposed in the future, the court shouldn’t pursue them to utter destruction, right?”
Wang Wenqian’s gaze moved to the location of Shiliang County on the topographical map. After looking for a while, he nodded and said: “Even if only to preserve that bit of his father’s hollow reputation, Han Qian won’t easily rebel. Choosing Shiliang County shows there’s more calculation in his thinking.” He then said to Yin Peng: “You personally make a trip to Chuzhou and report this matter to His Highness. Let His Highness make all the decisions…”