During the spring and summer of the fourth year of Yanyou, Shao and Heng actively prepared for military operations against Yong and Chen prefectures.

Military operations at the eastern entrance of Tongbai Mountains also shifted from offense to standoff.

After Li Zhigao captured Yiyang City, constrained by the eastern entrance passage of Tongbai Mountains being long neglected and too rugged and narrow, making transport of provisions and military supplies inconvenient and limiting the scale of military operations against Guang and Huo prefectures, he halted military expansion.

Besides focusing on developing Yiyang City, Li Zhigao conscripted over ten thousand laborers to expand the passage from Lishan County through the eastern entrance of Tongbai Mountains to Yiyang, preparing for the next phase of military offensive.

After the great victory at Wujin Ridge, Huaixi entered an especially rare period of tranquility.

Shouzhou Army extensively contracted its eastern flank defensive lines. Tangyi Field Headquarters Commissioner Army took over the new territories and had to train officers and troops, reorganize defensive lines—there were too many matters requiring attention. Internal construction could not be halted, and accumulated casualties from the earlier period were considerable. Attempting to launch large-scale military operations again in the short term would inevitably result in numerous errors and omissions.

Compared to Liang’s main forces besieging Luzhou in southern Jin for over half a year without success, while drought conditions were severe between the Yellow River and Huai River during the spring-summer transition, Great Chu this year could truly be said to enjoy favorable weather and peaceful prosperity throughout the land.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Emperor Yanyou and the Empress Dowager even issued a rare decree opening the four gates of the Imperial City, allowing common people to enter the Imperial City to view lanterns in universal celebration.

The palace had long ago erected a decorated pavilion on the northern bank of Jade Belt River. On Mid-Autumn Festival day, court ministers were also invited to ascend the pavilion to feast and view the moon together with His Majesty, the Empress Dowager, and the palace consorts.

Emperor Yanyou, the Empress Dowager, and palace consorts sat in the central main pavilion, while princes, dukes, high ministers, and various military officials sat in side pavilions on both flanks.

After nightfall, the sky was slightly overcast. Although the full moon was not completely obscured by thin clouds, it appeared as pale as paper cutouts, casting a dim reflection in Jade Belt River.

Apart from the consorts ordinarily confined within the palace who were quite excited seeing the bustling crowds on the southern bank, for many court ministers there was not much enjoyment or interest to speak of.

More people still regarded tonight as a special grand ceremony. The only benefit was that everyone had granted seats and need not stand for half a day as in ordinary ceremonies, when people often fainted from physical exhaustion.

Of course, everyone still conversed harmoniously with those nearby, talking and laughing cheerfully.

During these past three or four years, Great Chu had experienced too much turbulence. Extreme chaos bred longing for order, extreme chaos bred longing for peace. Being able to have tonight’s peaceful and tranquil evening, many present cherished it to some degree.

Not long after the moon-viewing feast began, Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Han Wenhuan, Han Daoming, Zheng Yu, Zhang Chao, and others were summoned to the main pavilion for granted seats at the feast.

Shen Yang and Yang Zhitang led the group ascending the main pavilion to first express gratitude.

After expressing gratitude, as Shen Yang was about to sit, he noticed His Majesty’s expression was somewhat gloomy. Feeling puzzled, as he had previously seen His Majesty in quite good spirits—was it that Yuan Guowei had just stood beside His Majesty saying a few words that spoiled His Majesty’s mood?

What had Yuan Guowei said?

As a chief minister, Shen Yang sat right next to Yang Yuanpu. Seeing Empress Dowager Wang Chan’er turning to speak with the consorts, he lowered his voice and asked Yang Yuanpu, “What troubles His Majesty?”

Yang Yuanpu glanced over with a gloomy expression and said, “Yuan Guowei again raised the matter of retiring due to illness. Truly dampening spirits—does he truly believe I am one who wrongs him?”

Shen Yang’s expression also darkened, understanding what troubled His Majesty.

Zhang Ping, Yuan Guowei, Jiang Huo, and others had overseen Inner Palace affairs even before the Jinling Incident. During the Jinling Incident, the vast majority of eunuch officials in the palace were implicated in the rebellion. After recovering Jinling City, no matter how one looked at it, they could only appoint Zhang Ping, Yuan Guowei, Jiang Huo, and others—those with the most seniority and greatest merit—to control the Inner Court.

However, Shen Yang also knew His Majesty suspected Zhang Ping, Yuan Guowei, Jiang Huo, and others of having close relationships with Han Qian and being too deeply influenced by Han Qian. After ascending the throne, he vigorously promoted An Jixiang, Chen Ruyi, and others to divide the authority of Zhang, Yuan, and Jiang.

And these three—Zhang, Yuan, and Jiang—were rarely perceptive and tactful. Although holding positions as Palace Attendants and Junior Supervisors, they ordinarily behaved like idle clouds and wild cranes in the palace, delegating various affairs to Regular Attendants and other executive eunuch officials to handle.

The great victory at Wujin Ridge was delayed over ten days before the intelligence report reached the Bureau of Military Affairs. Clear-sighted people all understood Han Qian’s fundamental intent in doing this—to seize control of the western shore of Chao Lake before the Left Vermilion Bird Army advanced north.

Although afterward no one criticized Han Qian over this matter, Yuan Guowei at that time had been dispatched by imperial order to provide comfort and was right there at Wujin Ridge, yet failed to promptly transmit news back. That he made no effort to conceal wearing the same pants as Han Qian—was this not a self-evident matter?

Shen Yang had assumed His Majesty would find an opportunity to deal with Yuan Guowei, yet unexpectedly His Majesty had rarely endured first, never raising this matter at all, while Yuan Guowei repeatedly claimed illness wanting to return home to retire.

Shen Yang pondered briefly and said, “Minister Yuan is in the prime years of his strength. Perhaps he simply finds managing the tedious affairs of the Inner Court tiresome. Your Majesty might assign him to supervise the military at Tangyi…”

“Prime Minister Shen, what instructions does His Majesty have?” Yang Zhitang curiously leaned over to ask.

Assigning Yuan Guowei to serve as Military Supervisor of Tangyi Field Headquarters would necessarily require deliberation by the Empress Dowager and Political Affairs Hall before final determination. Seeing Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu, and even Han Daoming and others looking over curiously, Shen Yang did not conceal anything and directly informed them.

Yang Zhitang was initially startled, thinking everyone knew Yuan Guowei and the Han family had long worn the same pants. Having Yuan Guowei supervise the military at Tangyi—could this add even half a measure of constraint to Tangyi?

However, on second thought, precisely because Yuan Guowei and Han Qian had such close relations, dispatching Yuan Guowei to supervise Tangyi, neither Han Qian nor Tangyi’s military officials would strongly refuse. This matter initially appeared unable to increase the court’s constraining power over Tangyi much, but at least the military supervision system would be restored.

And as long as the system of Inner Court eunuch officials supervising various garrisons was restored, even if initially more merely symbolic in significance, as the central authority’s strength gradually recovered bit by bit, through the military supervision system and other measures working in concert, constraining power over various garrisons would also strengthen step by step, thereby weakening the hidden danger of regional military governors dominating localities and rivaling the central authority.

Yang Zhitang might not have supported Shen Yang on this point previously, but seeing how Tangyi and Xiangbei after Huaidong were expanding势力 at a somewhat unimaginable pace, he felt Shen Yang’s strategy quite excellent. Exchanging glances with Zheng Yu, Zhang Chao, and others, they all nodded in agreement.

Han Daoming’s expression was gloomy. For people at their level to comprehend the intricacies involved was truly too easy, but precisely because of this, unless Yuan Guowei insisted on not accepting the imperial order, otherwise Tangyi would inevitably have to swallow this hidden loss.

However, Yuan Guowei had previously several times wanted to retire home claiming illness—perhaps he truly was weary of the mutual deception and scheming in court and just wanted to return home to care for his remaining years, living a few comfortable days. But after this matter, if Yuan Guowei still insisted on retiring home claiming illness, in the world’s eyes, would this not appear as though Tangyi and the Han family, in order to resist the court’s restoration of the military supervision system, had secretly forced Yuan Guowei to retire claiming illness?

In that case, no matter how one looked at it, Tangyi and the Han family would appear somewhat ungrateful and wrong both inside and out.

Han Daoming did not take a position on the spot. After all, tonight was merely a moon-viewing feast, and Shen Yang and Yang Zhitang could be said to have raised this casually.

That night he pondered repeatedly, unable to settle on an attitude regarding this matter, so he wrote a letter and sent someone across the river to inform Han Qian of this matter, to see how Han Qian would decide.

Han Qian’s attitude was quite casual. He did not refuse first restoring the military supervision system at Tangyi Field Headquarters Commissioner’s Office, but simultaneously required that all Great Chu’s border garrison forces must restore the military supervision system—it could not target only Tangyi alone.

No matter how one looked at it, Tangyi Field Headquarters Commissioner Army fully implemented the recruitment system and was constrained by the central authority only slightly more tightly than Huaidong. If the military supervision system were fully restored, Li Zhigao, Zheng Hui, Gu Zhilong, and others would surely suffer more.

Han Qian taking the lead in accepting the court’s dispatch of Military Supervisors and simultaneously dispatching Military Supervisors held more symbolic significance for commanders who truly independently controlled military authority, while for those commanders who relied more heavily on the central authority, there was no room for resistance.

Consequently, throughout the autumn, the most important matter in Great Chu’s court was dispatching Military Supervisors to various border garrison forces.

Of course, dispatching Military Supervisors, even if merely symbolic in significance, was not as simple as just sending an Inner Court eunuch official to various armies.

They needed to establish channels and systems for Military Supervisors to transmit sealed memorials, the Military Supervisors themselves also needed to be supervised and constrained, and the selection of accompanying eunuch officials also required careful consideration.

Yang Zhitang presided over the Bureau of Military Affairs and this time also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to restore the Bureau of Operations’ system of collecting and transmitting military intelligence at various garrisons. After extensive consultation, after various matters were sorted out, not until late tenth month did Yuan Guowei formally receive the imperial order to cross the river and enter Tangyi to supervise the military.

Another year of bleak northern winds. Yuan Guowei traveled by boat to dock at the western bank wharf of Wanshou River, then changed to carriage and horses, heading toward East Lake.

Along both sides of the post road in the fields, autumn grain harvesting was already complete. Newly planted crops like beans, peppers, and wheat sprouted unremarkable seedlings from the dark brown soil. Many farmers wearing brand new cotton clothing were working in the fields.

“Xuzhou and Tangyi planting cotton and weaving cloth benefits the whole realm, but that farmers in the fields can all wear new clothes—even in eras of great prosperity, such scenes are rarely seen!” Yuan Guowei reined in his horse and spoke to Feng Liao and Han Chengmeng who accompanied him.

Initially, Yuan Guowei and Jiang Huo were assigned by Emperor Tianyou to the Prince of Linjiang’s mansion to assist the Third Imperial Prince, and both openly and secretly oversaw affairs of Jinyun Tower under Han Qian’s command. Over these years, they developed extremely close relations with Tangyi core figures like Lin Haizheng, Tian Cheng, and Gao Shao.

Even worried that Shen Yang, Yang En, and others intended to restore the military supervision system, Tangyi’s people did not reject Yuan Guowei’s appointment in the slightest.

Also worried Yuan Guowei might harbor resentment, when Feng Liao and Han Chengmeng went to Jinling on official business this time, they deliberately stayed in the capital a few extra days, waiting until the day Yuan Guowei formally assumed office to accompany him across the river northward together.

Seeing Yuan Guowei praise that farmers in the fields all wore new clothes, Feng Liao introduced the situation of agricultural recovery in Tangyi over the past two years.

Currently, Tangyi’s entire territory had completed autumn grain harvesting. As of mid-tenth month, cotton and sugar cane planting area throughout the territory was controlled at four hundred thousand mu, without continuing large-scale expansion. However, as dikes, ditches, and other water conservancy facilities were constructed, Tangyi this year had newly added over four hundred thousand mu of irrigated and dry grain fields. Combined with sorting cultivated land in the Huaiyang Mountains heartland and Shouzhou Army garrison fields taken over along both banks of Longtan River, at Chaozhou City and Chuzhou City, by mid-tenth month when autumn grain harvest was complete, Tangyi Field Headquarters Military Commissioner’s Office had total registered field acreage exceeding two million four hundred thousand mu.

Two million four hundred thousand mu of cultivated land, with summer and autumn grain harvests of two million five hundred thousand shi of rice, wheat, beans, peppers, and other crops plus over two hundred thousand dan of cotton seed—distributed across the eleven counties under Tangyi’s jurisdiction, this did not appear particularly remarkable. Average yield per mu was about on par with cultivated land in Jianghuai, with nothing especially outstanding.

And if subsequently the population did not increase on a large scale, Tangyi, constrained by young able-bodied laborers, could not possibly reclaim land on a large scale again.

However, whether Xuzhou or Tangyi, the aristocratic clans and landlord class profiting from the land could be said to be suppressed to the extreme. This also meant that although Tangyi’s total summer and autumn grain harvest this year was not high, when distributed across the three hundred sixty thousand civilian household population, it barely sufficed for subsistence, no longer needing to suffer from famine.

This year, grain prices for purchases and imports from Xuzhou and other places to Tangyi still reached as high as five to six hundred thousand shi, mainly to satisfy military grain supply.

Constrained by the scale of young able-bodied laborers, especially with large numbers of young able-bodied laborers needing to be drafted into military units to maintain standoff with Shouzhou Army, the total scale of fields could hardly increase substantially again. But subsequent agricultural work would be further refined—for instance, introducing more livestock draft power, enabling superior agricultural implements to be utilized over a wider range, continuing to perfect composting, crop rotation, ditch maintenance, and other matters. On the existing population foundation, as long as next year could achieve fifty to sixty thousand shi of grain production increase, initially ensuring military grain supply would not pose any problem.

Moreover, with Xuzhou’s substantial foundation there for support, Tangyi’s most difficult days could be considered endured by this time.