The small city of Tangyi had at this time completely transformed into a busy yet orderly military encampment.
Only after entering Tangyi did Han Daoming and his party suddenly realize that the troops in the city far exceeded their imagination.
The main warships of the Xuzhou River Forces couldn’t navigate the shallow, narrow waterways to sail directly beneath Tangyi. Currently, the main naval encampment was located over thirty li away in a river bay called Qingpu Mouth at the southeastern foot of Mount Daci.
Even if no camps were established on the northern side and flanks of Qingpu Mouth bay to station infantry against enemy approach from the north, logically speaking, Tangyi should at most contain only the three thousand Jiangzhou troops under Zhou Dan’s command, plus the thousand-some Guangde troops that Chen Jingzhou had escorted over with grain and supplies two days ago.
However, when Han Daoming and his party entered Tangyi through the east gate, they discovered that the troops garrisoned near the east gate alone exceeded two thousand men. All had excellent armor and military equipment, and over twenty scorpion catapults and mounted crossbows were positioned atop the walls, their massive bolts as thick as a child’s arm gleaming with intimidating cold light in the frigid air.
Of course, the city contained even more refugees fleeing war and famine.
Relief for disaster victims fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance that Han Daoming headed. After the edict on the eighteenth established the Tangyi Field Command, the Ministry of Finance had also dispatched a departmental director with junior officials to cross the river into Tangyi to oversee these matters.
Though they were supposed to oversee everything, with the Ministry of Finance only sending one departmental director with a few petty officials across the river, how could they possibly manage the settlement of tens of thousands of famine refugees?
Ultimately, it was still the Tangyi Field Command that assigned people to operate relief porridge stations and maintain order. The Ministry of Finance officials merely supervised, ensuring there was no false reporting or concealment, then allocating the required relief funds and grain accordingly.
“First Master, Second Master, it’s me, Han Fu!”
Just as Han Daoming and his party entered the city and were about to follow Feng Liao to the original Tangyi county office serving as the field command headquarters, they heard someone from the crowd at the roadside calling out to them in a hoarse, shrill voice.
Han Daoming looked over to see Han Fu, the steward that his second brother Han Daochang had sent north of the river to claim estates. He now stood behind the crowd looking like parched earth meeting timely rain, joyfully standing on tiptoe and waving to signal them.
However, Han Fu and two familiar-looking attendants beside him all bore signs of hunger, their clothing tattered and torn, no different from the refugees in the city—they appeared to have suffered considerably.
Han Daoming and Han Daochang reined in their horses, waiting for Han Fu and the others to approach. They asked in surprise, “How did you end up in this state?”
“That’s a long story!” Han Fu said with a crying tone.
Han Fu was an old household servant who had attended to the old master Han Wenhuan, roughly the same age as Han Daoming, his temples also frosted white.
As the saying goes, even the gatekeeper at a prime minister’s residence holds seventh-rank authority. As a senior, trusted old servant of the Han household who had served both the old master and current family head, even younger generation members like Han Chengmeng had to respectfully address him as “Uncle Fu.” When he went out from the Han estate, plenty of people called him “Master Fu.”
Seeing the First Master and Second Master cross the river, Han Fu felt indescribably wronged, wishing he could pour out all the suffering from these ten-plus days in this moment.
Feng Liao said to Han Daoming, “With refugees congested on the streets, the situation is complex. We should first go to headquarters before discussing further.” He signaled for the guards to provide three horses for Han Fu and the other two, so they could all proceed to the field command headquarters together.
Arriving at headquarters, only Gao Shao, Xi Xunqiao and others were in the main hall handling official business. Han Qian, along with Zhou Dan, Chen Jingzhou, Tian Cheng and others, had left the city before noon to scout the terrain to the north and were not currently in the city.
As field command Chief Administrator, Feng Liao had endless matters demanding attention upon returning to Tangyi. He could only first arrange for Han Daoming, Han Daochang, Han Jun and others to rest temporarily in a courtyard building in the rear residence.
“How did you end up like this?” Only after sitting down in the courtyard’s small hall did Han Daochang have time to ask Han Fu about their recent situation.
“Seventh Young Master arrived in Tangyi twenty days ago. All houses, grain, able-bodied men, and even spare padded garments in the city were ordered forcibly requisitioned, with severe punishment for those who dared conceal items or resist orders. Han Tong recognized Seventh Young Master early on and tried to beg him for mercy to preserve the Han family residences in the city, but unexpectedly Seventh Young Master ordered right there on the street that Han Tong receive ten heavy strikes of the rod and be thrown out to dig city moats and canals. Han Tong only returned to the city to rest two days ago after coughing blood from exhaustion while digging moats the day before,” Han Fu tearfully complained. “Being old and weak myself, after digging canals for two days I collapsed from exhaustion. Only because Seventh Young Master’s subordinates couldn’t bear to watch did they show extra mercy, arranging for Little Three and Little Five to escort me back to the city to rest. But all other personnel were scattered and assigned to civilian work units as laborers. Our family’s several previously purchased courtyards in the city were all requisitioned. The three of us can only squeeze into one horse stable with over ten other refugees to barely spend the nights, getting two bowls of thin porridge daily at the relief station just enough to not die—First Master, Second Master, this city is truly no place for humans to live!”
Han Daoming and Han Daochang sat in the hall looking at each other in bewilderment. Han Qian’s memorial stated he had only arrived at Tangyi with the Xuzhou River Forces on the twelfth, but according to Han Fu’s account, Han Qian had clearly already been in Tangyi on the second or third of the twelfth month.
This timing aligned with when Zhou Dan had taken control and sealed off all of Tangyi.
It was quite possible that Han Qian had already contacted Chen Jingzhou then, mobilizing and summoning former Left Guangde Army members to move north, which was why the city’s garrison now significantly exceeded expectations.
Of course, these matters were already insignificant details.
Just as when Han Qian had previously infiltrated Jinling and directly seized military authority from Li Pu—ultimately this could only be described as Han Qian being decisive in planning and flexible in adapting, not dragging his feet. Could he really be prosecuted under law for unauthorized seizure of military authority?
Enemy cavalry had annihilated the Right Divine Martial Army and captured Zhongli on the fourth of the twelfth month, but afterward those twenty thousand enemy cavalry hadn’t dared rashly advance south. Even now they had only dispatched three thousand-plus cavalry to monitor Chuzhou from the flank without launching a strong attack—perhaps precisely because seeing Tangyi’s tight defenses, they hadn’t acted rashly.
All of this could even be said to result from Han Qian’s decisive advance into Tangyi to join with Zhou Dan, thereby securing extremely precious time for the court to reorganize northern bank defenses.
Although the court’s final decision allocated supplies according to an authorized strength of twenty thousand regular troops, with materials continuously transported from the southern bank these days, besides the first batch of warships, three more merchant ship convoys had subsequently delivered over a hundred vessels carrying nearly one hundred thousand shi of supplies into Tangyi.
Because Han Qian controlled large quantities of grain and supplies not subject to court supervision, how he ultimately constructed the Tangyi defense line required no detailed reporting to the court.
From Han Fu’s tone, Han Qian clearly wanted to complete digging a canal capable of passing main warships between Tangyi and the Yangtze’s main channel before spring, so he was now extracting the absolute limit from available able-bodied men—to the point where even someone like Han Fu, nearly sixty years old, was conscripted to leave the city for heavy labor like excavating riverbeds.
Han Daoming and his party had crossed the river this time under the pretext of comforting troops—they had come to reconcile, not to demand accountability. Their questioning of Han Fu now was to consider what support and coordination they should provide at court that would satisfy Han Qian.
Before they knew it, the sky had gradually darkened. Just as Han Daoming was about to send someone to ask when Han Qian would return to the city, he heard footsteps beyond the courtyard wall, followed by Han Qian’s loud voice scolding:
“Who told you to bring them here? Others may not know the gravity of the situation or the sinister complications behind it, but how could you be so muddled as to not even understand such an obvious principle?”
“First Uncle crossed the river to comfort the troops with imperial permission—how could I dissuade him?” Feng Liao’s voice came through, seemingly defending himself.
Han Daoming’s heart jumped anxiously, his expression turning ugly as he looked toward his second brother Han Daochang on the veranda. Han Qian was displeased that Feng Liao had brought them across the river?
The three younger generation members Han Jun, Han Duan, and Chen Zhiyong exchanged bewildered looks, unsure whether they should leave in a huff or stay to speak soft words if Han Qian walked in and directly ordered them to leave.
Han Fu, who had been full of resentment when encountering the First and Second Masters that afternoon, now shrank back, not daring to breathe loudly, instinctively sensing the air in the courtyard had inexplicably solidified.
Before they could discuss anything, they saw Han Qian walk in with a gloomy expression.
Han Qian walked to the veranda, his eyes sweeping over Han Fu and the others standing in the courtyard as well as the dozen-plus other guards Han Daoming’s party had brought. He said in a heavy voice, “All of you, get out.”
Han Fu and the other dozen-plus guards all looked toward Han Daoming in shock.
“You all go out first.” Han Daoming remained relatively composed, thinking that if Han Qian truly intended defiant actions, their dozen or so people couldn’t prevent anything anyway. He signaled for Han Fu and the others to leave first.
“Assign people to guard all sides—don’t let anyone approach this courtyard,” Han Qian instructed Han Donghu, then with a gloomy expression invited Han Daoming and his party into the main hall to talk. In a tone suggesting it was already too late for regrets, he said, “First Uncle, Second Uncle, you really should not have crossed the river. Feng Liao was careless, and it’s my fault for not explaining clearly to him—we’ve actually made a tremendous mistake!”
Han Daoming and Han Daochang looked completely bewildered, unable to understand how Han Qian, who still addressed them as elders, could appear as if some great calamity had occurred.
“Why shouldn’t we have crossed the river?” Han Daochang asked.
“Once the Tangyi defense line is stable, I will lead the naval forces back to Xuzhou. Second Uncle, do you still think you should have mobilized in such force to cross the river?” Han Qian asked.
“You’re returning to Xuzhou?” Han Daoming asked in shock. “Why?”
Their “mobilization in force” to cross the river today had actually been premised on Han Qian returning to the central command never to leave again.
But if Han Qian led his troops back to Xuzhou after the war, remembering what happened in Guangde Prefecture last spring and summer, one could imagine how terrifying the situation would be once all the court’s suspicions of Han Qian fell upon their heads.
They had never expected that Han Qian would leave again after coming this time.
“Why?” Han Jun also asked in shocked incomprehension.
He truly couldn’t understand—from now on, Han Qian clearly held military authority, had once again formed an alliance with Li Zhigao, and served under the Empress Dowager. Why would he return after the war to that backwater place of Xuzhou?
“Why?” Han Qian glanced at Han Jun and said, “I came to Jinling under the Empress Dowager’s secret edict, but after the war, one edict from the Empress Dowager ordering me back to Xuzhou—if I dare disobey, the Han family faces the disaster of clan extermination!”
“How is that possible? Even if His Majesty and the Empress Dowager are suspicious of you, they must still consider your reputation among all subjects throughout the realm, unless they completely disregard the safety of the Great Chu state and altars.” Han Daoming asked in shock.
“His Majesty is suspicious of me—you know this. With that alone, His Majesty cannot directly kill me, much less exterminate the entire Han family. But what if someone from the Han family committed incest with the palace, even fathering a bastard child? First Uncle, Second Uncle, tell me—isn’t that grounds for clan extermination? Tell me, how many courage do I have to not follow their orders?” Han Qian asked in a heavy voice.