Exchanging from the Deng-Xiang defense zone to the Shao-Heng defense zone would make the situation completely different.

The rebel forces occupying Yong and Chen prefectures seemingly had twenty to thirty thousand troops, but even if the rebels thoroughly colluded with the Jinghai Army occupying various prefectures in Lingnan Circuit to the south, their strength still couldn’t remotely compare with the Liang forces to the north.

Truthfully, the main issue was that Great Chu hadn’t had time to spare since its founding years.

Otherwise, the first to be dealt with next wouldn’t be the Liang army, nor would it be Shu, but rather they would choose one of the two major forces in Lingnan and eastern Fujian to campaign against, expanding Great Chu’s territory.

The Jinghai Army’s ambitions weren’t strong either. Even during the Jinling incident, when the Jinghai Army frequently contacted Yongzhou rebel forces with intentions of taking advantage of Great Chu’s internal turmoil to incorporate Yong and Chen prefectures into their territory, after Emperor Yanyou recovered Jinling and ascended the throne, the Jinghai Army quickly became docile again, eager to distance themselves from the Yongzhou rebels.

For the Zheng clan, if they could recover Yong and Chen prefectures, not only could they establish brilliant merit, but more importantly, after taking down these two prefectures, they could completely operate them as Zheng clan territory.

Not to mention they could subsequently expand their influence through Guizhou southward into the various Lingnan Circuit prefectures occupied by the Jinghai Army…

For the Wanhong Pavilion lineage, the Left Divine Martial Army led by Chai Jian could be said to be a branch split off from Wanhong Pavilion—the Duke of Changguo’s household lineage. With the Duke of Changguo’s household already in decline, relocating the Left Divine Martial Army to Dengzhou and Xiangzhou could strengthen control over it, essentially regathering the remnant forces of the Marquis of Xinchang (Duke of Changguo) household back under Wanhong Pavilion’s banner.

Dividing part of the troops from Shuzhou to relocate to Suizhou, besides transforming the entire five prefectures of Deng, Xiang, Jun, Sui, and Ying in northern Jingxiang into their sphere of influence, could also win over Zhang Xiang who was garrisoning Jingzhou to the southwest.

No wonder Lu Qingxia these past days had shown absolutely no reaction to Tangyi, Huaidong, and Prince Shou’s household reaching an accord.

Ultimately, they had their own wishful calculations.

Their choice to show forbearance toward the accord between Tangyi, Huaidong, and Prince Shou’s household at this time was naturally also hoping that when they pursued their wishful calculations, the Han family and Prince Shou’s household wouldn’t obstruct them arbitrarily. Or perhaps when the timing was appropriate, they might directly approach the Han family and Prince Shou’s household to negotiate this matter as a bargaining chip?

Otherwise, even if the Zheng clan was willing to exchange defense zones, the hope of accomplishing this matter would be extremely slim.

However, would the Marquis of Qianyang Han Qian sit idle and ignore it?

Yun Puzi pondered these matters in his heart. Coming back to his senses and seeing Lu Qingxia still staring at him, he realized Lu Qingxia was still waiting for some return from him, so he said:

“His Majesty is perhaps still impatient. Today I casually spoke a few words about ‘military strength’ with Noble Consort Wang, and His Majesty brought up the Shuzhou memorial matter to me, an irrelevant outsider—speaking of which, it’s also strange. His Majesty doesn’t ask Shen Yang or Yang En about methods to strengthen military forces, yet doesn’t mind this old Daoist’s nonsensical babbling. Truly strange.”

Lu Qingxia’s eyebrows slightly furrowed. Carefully pondering Yun Puzi’s words revealed several layers of meaning within them. This corresponded with information obtained through other channels, but was more detailed and could accurately grasp Yang Yuanpu’s subtle mindset at this time.

“Does Noble Consort Wang have expectations regarding the Marquis of Qianyang?” Lu Qingxia asked.

“…” Yun Puzi smiled without speaking, unwilling to truthfully report Princess Qing Yang’s inner thoughts and ideas.

“Emperor Zhu Yu of Liang rebuilt the old capital. I hear Elm Tree Lane has largely maintained its former appearance. Have you ever thought that in your lifetime you might step into Elm Tree Lane again, holding an oiled paper umbrella on an afternoon of heavy snowfall, encountering a girl panicking under bandit cavalry’s hooves?” Lu Qingxia seemed to sink into indulgence in past events, looking at Yun Puzi’s frost-white temples and asking distantly.

“All past matters are like drifting clouds—why mention these things?” The corners of Yun Puzi’s mouth twitched twice. He sighed, then lifted the carriage curtain in utter embarrassment, indicating for the driver to stop.

Yao Xishui didn’t know the grievances between the older generation of figures. She still didn’t even know what Lady Lu had relied on years ago to make Yun Puzi retire to Maoshan. At this moment she only watched Yun Puzi clumsily climb down from the carriage and walk toward Chongfu Temple through the snow.

***

***

Although Han Qian would directly bring Wang Jun to Liyang city for the wedding ceremony and wouldn’t lavishly hold wedding banquets in Jinling, the Han household at this time was already festively decorated with lanterns and colors to show that a happy occasion was near.

Over ten bright horn lanterns illuminated the courtyard before Mingju Hall as bright as day.

Although Yun Puzi only learned today of the Shuzhou memorial matter, that was because he was at Chongfu Temple inside the Imperial City with blocked information sources. But Han Daoming, as Minister of Finance and Vice Administrator of Government Affairs, had already seen the original memorial yesterday.

Today when Feng Liao crossed the river representing Han Qian to discuss matters, Han Daoming directly handed him a copy of the Shuzhou memorial to read.

“For Shuzhou to submit such a memorial, they should have already secretly communicated with the Zheng clan, shouldn’t they?” After reading the copy, Feng Liao set it on the corner of the table, speculating to Han Daoming.

His judgment of the entire matter was more direct. After all, he had long been studying the movements of Lu Qingxia, Li Zhigao, and others, and they had even been paying attention to Empress Dowager Wang Chan’er repeatedly summoning Zheng Yu these past days.

As for what conditions Lu Qingxia and her faction could exchange with the Zheng clan, that wasn’t difficult to guess either.

Han Daoming nodded, saying: “For such an important matter, if Lu Qingxia and Li Zhigao hadn’t secretly communicated with the Zheng clan and directly submitted the memorial, it would be tantamount to surrendering the initiative with both hands, very easily falling into extreme passivity.”

“We currently have our own most urgent matters to attend to and have no time to drag down others’ efforts. Moreover, the Marquis has always maintained an attitude and posture of disdaining to drag down others’ efforts,” Feng Liao said.

“This year Xuzhou’s cotton cultivation didn’t continue expanding, but Tangyi here newly reclaimed three hundred thousand mu of cotton fields. Next year, cotton cloth exported will reach as high as six million bolts, ginned cotton reaching over ten million jin. Subsequently, even if Xuzhou and Tangyi’s cotton textile industry maintains this scale externally without further expansion, it can still directly contribute over a million strings of tax revenue annually. Not to mention it can increase even larger-scale financial resources internally for Xuzhou and Tangyi that can be continuously invested to expand production. However, for the common people of Jiangdong, Huaidong, Jiangxi, Jingxiang and other regions to all become familiar with and recognize the benefits of cotton wadding and cotton cloth requires a process—possibly three to five years, possibly requiring even longer. Currently, only the various prefectures of Hunan and counties of Qianzhong have been exposed to cotton cloth slightly longer and have higher acceptance levels. The Marquis’s intention is that beyond Xuzhou and Tangyi, what we need to do is still find every possible way to accelerate this process…”

“What can we accomplish in the court?” Han Daochang asked.

“The Marquis’s meaning is that if the Ministry of Finance can successfully include cotton cloth and cotton wadding alongside hemp and silk into the list of actual goods for autumn tribute collection this year and next, and slightly raise cotton cloth’s exchange rate in conversion with silk and hemp, it will make many subsequent matters relatively easier. At that time, Chishan Association will further lower cotton prices exported to Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other regions. When people locally see opportunities to exploit, they’ll have sufficient motivation driving them to purchase cotton cloth and cotton wadding at low prices to substitute for silk and hemp in paying autumn tribute,” Feng Liao said, explaining the purpose of his crossing the river into Jinling city representing Han Qian.

“Secondly, we need both gentlemen to strive as much as possible in court to have Forbidden Army and Imperial Guard soldiers’ uniforms all changed from the original hemp to cotton cloth and cotton wadding filling. Cotton cloth and cotton wadding’s performance in warmth retention and other aspects far exceeds hemp and grass wadding filling. Both gentlemen can confidently and righteously advocate loudly in the Secretariat-Chancellery and various departments and offices to show consideration for soldiers and advance military uniform and winter clothing reform. When prefectures and counties escort large quantities of cotton cloth and cotton wadding to the capital as goods-in-kind taxes to offset central government annual revenue, the central government should first consider how to utilize this cotton cloth and cotton wadding, rather than stockpiling it in warehouses.”

Han Daochang, serving in the Revenue Commission, nodded in praise: “This strategy is excellent. Over a hundred thousand Forbidden Army and Imperial Guard soldiers requiring several sets of military uniforms, winter clothing and bedding annually would need at minimum over a million bolts of cotton cloth and two to three million jin of cotton wadding. If the court includes cotton cloth in salary bestowals to officials and palace attendants, it could further promote Qianyang cloth exports.”

Feng Liao said: “When I crossed the river, I thought these two matters required gradual progression and couldn’t be rushed. But seeing the Shuzhou memorial, I thought that if Lu Qingxia and Li Zhigao have no dealings with the Zheng clan, so be it. But if there are dealings, Prime Minister and the two gentlemen can take this opportunity to submit memorials raising these two matters. If these two matters can succeed before year’s end, even if merely opening a crack, next year Tangyi’s days will be much easier.”

Not mentioning Xuzhou, with Tangyi’s newly reclaimed three hundred thousand mu of cotton fields, if even half could be successfully exported, it would mean exchanging back for Tangyi various materials equivalent to seven to eight hundred thousand dan of grain, also meaning Tangyi could reclaim even more paddy fields next year.

Xuzhou currently had already formed a relatively mature system: dry fields with cotton, wheat and bean rotation cropping; paddy fields with rice and oil crops alternating with wheat and bean crops.

This year Tangyi prioritized defending the Shu River and Fucha Mountain. Internal abandoned field restoration also mainly focused on higher-elevation dry fields. There simply weren’t surplus funds, grain, or manpower to undertake water conservancy projects like building dikes and canals.

Therefore, fields initially restored to cultivation primarily featured cotton, which feared flooding but tolerated drought. After autumn harvest, they would plant another rotation of wheat and beans, with harvests coming in spring next year.

However, as subsequent construction deepened and embankment building and canal excavation successively unfolded, with surplus capacity to manufacture more waterwheels, reclamation of low-lying areas and paddy fields suitable for rice cultivation was now also gradually expanding in scale…