Han Qian followed everyone out of Yao Xishui’s courtyard, walking through the corridor toward the wooden building in the depths of Evening Red Tower. He guessed that Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and the black-veiled woman should be waiting for them there, wondering what matters still needed discussion with the year’s end approaching.
The corridor was dim. Though inside Evening Red Tower, Han Qian could hear the glamorous revelry ahead—drunken extravagance and intoxicated prosperity—yet no one barged in randomly. He wondered how Su Hongyu, Yao Xishui, and the others secretly controlled Evening Red Tower.
Han Qian’s thoughts wandered. Inadvertently looking back, he saw Su Hongyu walking shoulder to shoulder with Li Zhigao, the two whispering about something. But seeing Su Hongyu’s delighted eyes and brows in the dim lamplight, she seemed particularly intimate with Li Zhigao, perhaps concealing undisclosed feelings beneath the hidden currents.
Han Qian became increasingly certain that Marquis Xinchang Li Pu should have been a member of Evening Red Tower in his early years, and over these years had accumulated military merit with Evening Red Tower’s support, climbing to such a high position. Perhaps Prince of Eastern Zhe Li Yu could become a famous general standing alongside Xu Mingzhen and others also thanks to Evening Red Tower’s contributions, but unfortunately Li Yu wasn’t under Evening Red Tower’s control.
The Marquis Xinchang and the black-veiled woman were indeed already waiting in the wooden building. Only after Yang Yuanpu, Han Qian, and the others arrived did they truly begin discussing matters, though what they discussed was mainly the gains and losses from the Dragon Sparrow Army’s formation over this past month.
Yang Yuanpu was indeed freer than before, but ultimately he was still an imperial prince not yet fourteen years old. His movements couldn’t possibly be as unrestricted as Han Qian and the others.
Not to mention Guo Rong and Song Xin blocking him—even Marquis Xinchang Li Pu didn’t dare risk having Yang Yuanpu make a trip to the garrison military headquarters full of epidemic-stricken famine victims. Furthermore, many matters had to be concealed from Guo Rong and Song Xin without alarming Anning Palace, so the vast majority of things couldn’t possibly let Yang Yuanpu directly contact them.
Even for matters requiring detailed reports, finding a time when Guo Rong, Song Xin, or other people who couldn’t be absolutely trusted were all absent was extremely difficult.
Yang Yuanpu was also extremely diligent. At this moment, while listening to Marquis Xinchang Li Pu detail the Dragon Sparrow Army’s formation situation over this past month, he interjected with many questions, tirelessly asking about details he didn’t understand at the moment until they were clear.
This past month could be called a great success, but the difficulties facing them in the coming year were as Han Qian had predicted—even Marquis Xinchang’s residence and Evening Red Tower couldn’t sustain such consumption long-term. They still needed to争 to争 争 strive争 still needed to strive as much as possible for Emperor Tianyou to allocate resources toward them, striving to enable the Dragon Sparrow Army to form combat effectiveness as quickly as possible.
However, with both internal and external civil and military officials plus hundreds of thousands of troops needing support, state finances were already stretched thin. Even without obstruction from Anning Palace and the Crown Prince’s faction, the additional money and grain that could be squeezed out for the Dragon Sparrow Army would still be quite limited.
“Regarding money and grain, Assistant Han, do you have any excellent strategies?” Marquis Xinchang Li Pu asked.
Han Qian endured his heartache as he pulled out from his breast the brocade pouch containing ten Hepu pearls, respectfully presenting it before Yang Yuanpu, saying, “What the Consort bestowed, Han Qian keeps in his heart. At this time, he is willing to offer the Consort’s generous reward to fund Your Highness’s military provisions.”
“Merit should be rewarded. This was what my mother consort bestowed…” Yang Yuanpu hadn’t expected Han Qian would offer up the Hepu pearls. He said somewhat unexpectedly, while also wanting to appear generous and unwilling to take back rewards already given.
“Times are difficult now. How can Han Qian alone enjoy precious things? When the great undertaking succeeds in the future, if Your Highness doesn’t forget Han Qian’s merit, rewarding Han Qian with more fields and residences then will suffice.” Han Qian suppressed his nausea and declared his loyalty.
Ten Hepu pearls could equal his father Han Daoxun’s official salary for two years. In anyone’s eyes, this couldn’t be considered small money.
When the Consort had Li Zhigao give him the ten Hepu pearls as a generous reward, if he truly kept the ten Hepu pearls in his own pocket without a sound, would the Consort really have no opinion about it at all?
Han Qian deeply doubted this.
Confined within the palace precincts and struggling for years under Anning Palace’s shadow, such people most easily became petty and found it difficult to show great magnanimity. Han Qian endured his heartache and handed over the ten Hepu pearls, so no one could say he was stingy and greedy for wealth.
As for strategies for money and grain—if this old man could really think of methods to raise money, would he easily benefit Marquis Xinchang’s residence and Evening Red Tower, you people?
Yang Yuanpu couldn’t stay outside too long. After discussing matters here, Li Zhigao and Chai Jian escorted him back to Marquis Linjiang’s residence. Han Qian saw that Feng Yi, Kong Xirong, and Chen De were still gambling in the front courtyard, playing quite happily. He had no interest, so he left first with Zhao Kuo, Zhao Wuji, Fan Dahei, and Lin Haizheng who had been waiting for quite some time.
The courtyard walls had been freshly whitewashed with lime water, and lime powder had been sprinkled around the outer corners of the courtyard walls in preparation for the New Year, giving a feeling of complete renewal—of course, sprinkling lime powder outside the courtyard walls was also something Han Qian had intentionally instructed to show the neighbors.
By this time the night had grown late, yet his father Han Daoxun still hadn’t slept. By a solitary lamp, he sat before the window reading. Han Qian pushed open the door and entered to pay his respects. Looking at the book in his father’s hands, he discovered it was some materials he had racked his brains to compile during his time at the manor to train the household troops’ children.
He needed to stay in the city for a few days during the festival, so he had Qing Yun and Zhao Ting’er bring the manuscripts back first. He hadn’t expected his father to see them.
“What is all this you’ve written? So chaotic and disorderly—I can’t make heads or tails of it.” Han Daoxun returned a stack of manuscripts to Han Qian and asked.
“The other day at the manor, your son was reading ‘The Art of War: Chapter on Employing Spies.’ Though merely a thousand words, chewing them carefully, the flavor seemed boundless. Yet I also felt the Chapter on Employing Spies was too brief. Even if people in the world wanted to put it into practice, they had no way to begin. So I called over Fan Xicheng and the others, asked about military scouts and reconnaissance matters, and casually recorded them, thinking that someday I could write commentary for the Chapter on Employing Spies.” Han Qian said carefully.
“Some are harsh official methods, not common even in the military. For hearsay matters, you should still carefully discern, lest in the future when writing books and establishing theories, you bring harm to the world.” Seeing Han Qian had ambitions to write books and establish theories, Han Daoxun felt quite gratified. But seeing some methods copied in the manuscripts were too harsh and vicious, he couldn’t help offering a few words of warning.
Han Qian’s training of household troops’ children was mainly about eventually being able to cover his escape.
Sometimes, even when unavoidably having to kill people, Han Qian also hoped household troops’ children would try as much as possible not to alert the enemy, either hiding corpses or concealing traces, creating false appearances of sudden illness, death by fire, or drowning. As for gathering information, besides using profit to buy people off, interrogation was inevitably necessary. And if unfortunately falling into enemy hands, one had to withstand enticement and torture during interrogation. How could all these various methods possibly be upright and aboveboard?
Of course, Han Qian had no way to explain at this time why he was training household troops’ children in these directions. He could only find pretexts to deflect.
Han Qian casually flipped through the manuscripts and discovered his father had densely filled the drafts with vermillion pen annotations, pointing out numerous errors and omissions.
Only then did Han Qian suddenly remember his father had once served as a judicial officer in charge of prison litigation in the Chuzhou Army. Since Chuzhou bordered Liang and was also close to Jin, both countries often had scouts infiltrate to gather intelligence. Whenever captured, the vast majority would be handed over to his father for disposal.
Whether so-called “harsh official” methods or employing spies and double agents, what his father knew was far more detailed and precise than his own armchair speculation.
No wonder Fan Xicheng and the others teaching household troops’ children directly seemed somewhat at a loss, but when he personally called Fan Xicheng and the others before him to inquire, he could extract quite a few useful details.
In reality, following his father’s side, Fan Xicheng and the others had unknowingly mastered many methods, only they had never thought of putting them into practice, much less thought of summarizing them to teach others.
“Father once served as judicial officer in the Chuzhou Army and has much experience regarding employing spies. Why not write a book?” Han Qian asked, thinking in his heart that if his father could help him compile this book, besides being twice as effective with half the effort, it could also attract his father’s attention to book compilation.
“Matters of employing spies change in myriad ways and are difficult to fully explain in writing. Sun Tzu spoke of five types of spies. Besides local spies and surviving spies which can be discussed, the three types—inside spies, double agents, and expendable spies—actually teach people to do evil. Knowing their methods to guard against them is acceptable, but writing books to explain their methods may bring harm.” Han Daoxun said.
Han Qian’s heart wanted to roll his eyes upon hearing this. Matters of employing spies naturally use every possible means. He hadn’t expected his father still wanted to maintain moral boundaries in such matters.
However, Han Qian also knew his father’s moral standards were shaped by decades of joyful and sorrowful life experiences—not something he could break with a few words. Flipping through the manuscripts, seeing his father’s annotations were already enough for him to organize for several days, he said, “Then your son will first reorganize the drafts, then have Father review and annotate again…”
Han Daoxun was unwilling to compile such manuscripts, but Han Qian had extraordinary natural talent. Many methods written in the drafts were things he had never heard of, yet thinking carefully he could deeply appreciate their ingenuity. This made him even more worried that Han Qian’s character was unstable and could easily stray onto wrong paths. He nodded and said, “That would be good.”
For leisurely positions like the Vice Director of the Secretariat that Han Daoxun held, as long as no major incidents like the Hongwen Academy burning down occurred, after the New Year they could usually rest until after the Lantern Festival before needing to report for duty at their offices again.
After the remonstration incident occurred, officials who previously had dealings with Han Daoxun also no longer came calling—even Feng Yi and Kong Xirong privately complained to Han Qian that their families had ordered them to come hang around here less often.
In Han Daoxun’s leisure time, he actually had more time to help Han Qian compile and edit the manuscripts.
Comparatively speaking, besides diligently practicing sword and bow, teaching household troops’ children, and having to balance matters at the manor, Han Qian also had to show his face at Marquis Linjiang’s residence every few days. His New Year passed far more busily than his father’s.