Han Qian personally led Gao Shao, Zhao Wuji, Yang Qin, Han Donghu, Ji Xiyao, Du Yijun, Zhao Jicheng, and other Tangyi military officials out the eastern gate of Liyang City to welcome Yuan Guowei’s arrival to assume office.
The group did not linger in Liyang City, directly passing through the city and taking the wide post road toward East Lake New City.
After another year of construction, East Lake New City could presently be considered initially taking shape. New port wharves, warehouses, and workshop districts were constructed along the lake embankment, occupying approximately four li square. Of course, outside the dock harbor, certain land reclaimed from the lake was still reserved as space for the subsequent westward extension of the lakeside workshop district.
East of the workshops was the residential district, currently comprising over a thousand constructed residential compounds distributed like scattered stars on both sides of over ten crisscrossing streets and alleys.
The residential district’s current scale was not yet large, but the eastern side reserved approximately six li of depth in planned land.
On the northern and southern sides of the residential district, areas were mainly planned for workshop districts equipped with hydraulic machinery, and tung oil tree and medicinal herb planting zones.
In the southern and northern mountain and lakeside workshop districts, there were currently not many completed workshops.
Before the great victory at Wujin Ridge, recruited craftsmen mainly engaged in infrastructure construction. The Field Headquarters initially raised a portion of funds and grain to construct weaving bureaus, smelting yards, shipyards, and a limited dozen or so workshops for armor and weapons, military clothing, soap-making, etc., mainly to satisfy military use.
After the great victory at Wujin Ridge, the Qiao, Chen, Xiang, Yang, and other families invested substantial funds and grain on a larger scale to establish new workshops, but these still urgently required continuous expansion.
The administrative offices and garrison camp were located in the northwest corner, occupying five hundred paces square, and were also the only area in East Lake New City enclosed by city walls. Between the administrative offices and residential district, a marketplace was also built, with over a hundred shops, inns, and traditional workshops standing among them.
Between Liyang City and East Lake New City, the larger scale of land was still reclaimed as farmland, planting beans, wheat, and other crops, with over a hundred villages and forts distributed like scattered stars—in this era, agriculture remained fundamental.
In the past year and a half, East Lake County, aside from the thirty thousand relocated residents and garrison troops, also had over ten thousand craftsmen who answered recruitment from Xuzhou, Jiangzhou, Guangde, and other places. In terms of prosperity, it already compared to ordinary prefectural seat cities.
Seeing all these circumstances, after years of contact, Yuan Guowei was also deeply moved. Han Qian was still strongest in governance, and all this was the foundation for his various unpredictable schemes and calculations. And all before his eyes was merely the foundation—Tangyi had even more expansive space than Xuzhou, giving Han Qian free rein to fully display his abilities.
Yuan Guowei this time received the imperial order to serve as Military Supervisor. Coming all the way from Liyang City, along the route, Han Qian also gave a detailed introduction to the organizational situation of Tangyi Field Headquarters Commissioner Army.
Tangyi Field Headquarters Commissioner Army completed its expansion before autumn. To adapt to defensive lines that had extended in depth by more than double after the great victory at Wujin Ridge, and to facilitate command and troop assembly and deployment defense needs, Han Qian added the brigade level military organization below the garrison army.
Garrison armies had Commander-in-Chief as chief commander, with left and right armies each organizing ten thousand eight hundred regular troops.
The left and right armies, aside from directly commanding one cavalry unit organizing one thousand two hundred cavalry each, commanded three infantry brigades.
Infantry brigades had Duty Commander as chief commander. Each brigade organized three thousand two hundred regular troops. Apart from the guard battalion organizing two hundred cavalry, each brigade commanded three regiments.
Each regiment organized one thousand regular troops, with Assistant Commander as chief commander. Each regiment commanded three battalions.
Each battalion organized four hundred regular troops, with Battalion Commander as chief commander.
In this way, Han Qian could use brigades as military units responsible for larger defense zones.
The Left Army had Lin Haizheng as Commander-in-Chief, Feng Xuan as Vice Commander-in-Chief, with Zhou Chu, Zhao Qi, and Tan Xiuqun as Duty Commanders, respectively garrisoning Chu City, Tangyi, and Shiquan, responsible for eastern front defense. The Right Army had Tian Cheng as Commander-in-Chief, Kong Xirong as Vice Commander-in-Chief, with He Liufeng, Su Lie, and Dou Rong as Duty Commanders, respectively garrisoning Wujin Ridge, Chaozhou City, and Jinniu Fort located fifty li west of Chaozhou City at the western foothills of Zipeng Mountain.
The Navy had Yang Qin as Commander-in-Chief, with Lin Zongjing and Feng Zhang as Left and Right Duty Commanders, organizing a total of four thousand eight hundred regular troops.
Beyond this, they organized a Guard Cavalry Army of three thousand six hundred regular troops, with Zhao Wuji as Duty Commander and Han Donghu and Xiao Dahu as Vice Duty Commanders, garrisoning East Lake.
In this way, Tangyi Field Headquarters Commissioner Army used up the quota of thirty thousand regular troops, forming the field combat main force of Tangyi Field Headquarters Commissioner’s Office. Additionally, they organized twenty thousand supply garrison troops, with a portion assigned to the main force army to serve as auxiliary troops, and a portion distributed to various counties to maintain daily public order and defend internal fortified cities.
The Commissioner’s Office’s military logistics, military order promulgation, military discipline and merit rewards, troop registration and recruitment, and even military intelligence collection and analysis were all incorporated under Military Intelligence Staff Department management. Gao Shao commanded the Military Intelligence Staff Department as Vice Commander-in-Chief, with Guo Que and Xi Fa’er serving as Duty Commanders dividing responsibility for these matters.
The Commissioner’s Office separately established the Administrative Affairs Department, headed by Chief Clerk Feng Liao, responsible for civil administration in the jurisdiction. They established the equivalent of the office administrative department called the General Bureau Department, headed by Registrar Guo Rong.
The newly established Huaiyang County (Wujin Ridge), Chaozhou City, Chuzhou City, Tangyi, and Shiquan counties, located on the periphery of Tangyi’s defense zone, all had heavy troop garrisons. Civil administration and jurisdiction over supply garrison troops configured at half the ratio of regular troops were all concurrently handled by garrison chief commanders.
Wushou, Tingshan, Puyang, East Lake, Liyang, and the newly established Longtan counties became the internal heartland of Tangyi’s defense zone, with Gao Bao, Han Chengmeng, Chen Zhiyong, Zhao Jicheng, and others serving as county magistrates.
The Engineering Academy, Martial Studies Academy, and Medical Institute were merged into Liyang Academy. Han Qian personally served as Academy Director, but appointed Chen Jitang as Vice Director to preside over daily affairs.
With Yuan Guowei’s arrival to assume office this time, Han Qian decided to separate military discipline and merit rewards from the Military Intelligence Staff Department, independently establishing the Military Supervision Bureau for Yuan Guowei to command, actually causing the military supervision system to truly be implemented rather than having Yuan Guowei come to Tangyi merely as a nominal “court spy.”
Although East Lake New City had undergone another year of construction and was initially taking shape, administrative office buildings were all still quite simple and crude. Temporarily there were not sufficient resources to construct pavilions, terraces, and towers.
The residences prepared for Yuan Guowei and his attendants, though not large, were quite elegant.
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Temperatures grew colder day by day, feeling even more frigid than this time in previous years. Perhaps entering the eleventh month, the Huai River would be completely frozen across its entire course, and the borders along Chuzhou would again become tense with alarm at every sound.
In mid-third month, taking advantage of Shouzhou Army’s defensive line contraction after its great rout, Huaidong Army occupied Shiliang County, able to fully control the waterway connecting Fan Liang Lake with Hongze Lake.
Erecting palisade walls in the waterway and locking them with iron chains, they blocked the passage for Liang Navy to attack Fan Liang Lake from Hongze Lake. Huaidong Army could concentrate limited naval warships to block Liang Navy’s intrusion on both flanks of Chuzhou.
Although Huaidong never succeeded in wresting control of the main lower Huai River channel from Liang Navy, nor could they launch attacks on territory within Sizhou and Haizhou through tributary streams on the Huai River’s northern bank, they ultimately contained Liang forces’ harassment of the southern bank, greatly improving the situation.
And once the Huai River froze after entering winter, Liang cavalry units penetrating through gaps between fortified cities into the flat plains of Huaidong’s heartland would be even more convenient than the navy. Intercepting and blocking them on this side would become even more difficult.
But no matter what, Huaidong this time had to learn from previous lessons and resolutely intercept enemy forces north of the Huai River, avoiding another severe blow to garrison farming that had been recovered with such difficulty.
Wang Wenqian, transferred to Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan’s side, again served as Secretary. After entering tenth month, he also tirelessly followed Yang Yuanyan rushing about to various border defense forts, supervising war preparations and combat training.
Seeing Prince Xin rein in his warhorse ahead, Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng, serving as Prince’s Manor Military Advisor, also stopped their horses afterward, not knowing what matter Prince Xin had suddenly thought of.
“What do you think about Han Qian separately establishing a Supervision Bureau in Tangyi for Yuan Guowei to command?” Yang Yuanpu touched his face. Riding horses all along the way, his thick stubble had accumulated a layer of cold white frost.
Wang Wenqian’s current position was even more awkward than Yuan Guowei’s in the palace.
After all, who could have anticipated that Han Qian and Wang Jun would launch a surprise attack on the Huaiyang Mountains with troops on their wedding day and achieve such battle results, thereby completely reversing the offensive-defensive situation in Huaixi in such a short time?
Previously, no matter what, no matter how tenaciously Tangyi forces fought, Han Qian in Tangyi was merely in a defensive posture, and the Chu River and Fucha Mountain defense lines appeared extremely thin no matter how one looked at them. Once broken through by Shouzhou Army or Liang reinforcements, the internal lines Han Qian had developed south of Chu River and Fucha Mountains would suffer catastrophic losses.
At that time, Great Chu’s situation in Huaixi was still mainly dominated by Li Zhigao.
At that time, when Wang Jun married Han Qian, although Wang Wenqian insisted on resigning his position as Prefect of Yangzhou to avoid suspicion, his status in Huaidong was not so awkward.
Others would not think he, Wang Wenqian, harbored thoughts of separating from Huaidong.
But now?
After Tangyi achieved the great victory at Wujin Ridge, the Left Vermilion Bird Army was forced to withdraw from Shuzhou and redeploy to Suizhou. All military affairs throughout Huaixi were fully managed by Han Qian, and Tangyi forces also expanded to fifty thousand troops.
If one counted Xuzhou granted under Han Qian’s command, Tangyi in every aspect could be said to rival Huaidong.
At this time, if he, Wang Wenqian, jumped up and declared he harbored no disloyalty toward Huaidong and was utterly loyal to Prince Xin, how many in Huaidong would believe him?
Once at a banquet, a military general who had drunk too much pointedly said that when Wang Jun married into Tangyi, she brought along many Wang clan youths who gained Han Qian’s trust and were able to serve in Tangyi’s military and civil administration—his Wang family had long planned to hedge their bets on both sides. Wang Wenqian had no way to defend himself.
During this period, he had also become silent in Chuzhou, not attempting to offer strategies and schemes, only striving as much as possible to conscientiously complete affairs assigned under his name. Recently, he had also tried every means to promote establishing a garrison military prefecture system independent from the central authority, ensuring Huaidong’s military officers and troops remained loyal to Prince Xin while still organizing production, reducing grain and fodder supply pressure on Huaidong.
But could doing this win back trust?
Exhausted in mind and spirit, Wang Wenqian had once considered retiring claiming illness, but worried His Highness would suspect him of advancing by retreating and using retirement as a pretext to separate from Huaidong, so he endured without speaking out.
Regarding Prince Xin’s question, Wang Wenqian similarly felt it difficult to answer.
“Han Qian establishing the Military Supervision Bureau in Tangyi for Yuan Guowei to command military discipline and merit rewards, thoroughly implementing the military supervision system—it seems he remains utterly loyal to the court. He should be thinking that one day, Tangyi Army can be brought under the court’s control—Minister Wang, don’t you think so?” Ruan Yan followed from behind, stopped his horse, and looked toward Wang Wenqian to ask.
Wang Wenqian braced himself and said, “I fear matters are not as simple as Minister Ruan suggests—just as with Tangyi accepting the court’s dispatch of Military Supervisors, various garrisons find it inconvenient to refuse, so too with Tangyi Army first implementing the military supervision system, the court also has a pretext to require various garrisons to follow suit—and ultimately whoever can control the court can rely on this point to remotely control various garrisons…”
“According to your words, Han Qian’s ambitions are actually even greater than we imagined?” Yang Yuanyan’s expression shifted uncertainly as he asked.
“That Han Qian could watch the Left and Right Five Fang Armies be annihilated without lifting a finger to help sufficiently proves his overweening ambition. But Great Chu has been established for over twenty years. The Jianghuai region enjoys peaceful prosperity, and hundreds of millions of common people revere His Highness’s Yang clan as orthodox—this is already where popular sentiment lies. Any who harbor disloyal intentions invite their own destruction.” Wang Wenqian braced himself to say.
“Let us hope so.” Yang Yuanyan tossed out this remark, again raising his whip to spur his horse, taking the lead galloping toward the distant border defense fort…