After observing conditions within Zezhou territory and confirming that Liang forces’ advantage in cold winter combat was very obvious, Han Bao immediately shifted reconnaissance focus to the Mengwu people to the north, merely dispatching three men to proceed to Luzhou according to the original plan. He himself led Shi Ruhai and others along with the Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin brothers, scaling Taihang Mountains beneath vast accumulated snow, infiltrating into Hebei Old Commandery territory.
Even when controlling Jinyun Tower in earlier times, Han Qian had only considered deploying secret agents in Liang and Shu, mainly because the resources he controlled were too limited.
Only after new warfare between Liang and Jin erupted did Han Qian dispatch secret scouts to infiltrate and reconnoiter the situation in southern Jin. But for the situation in northern Jin’s border regions with the Mengwu people, the Mengwu people’s development over ten-plus years occupying Yun, You, and other prefectures, and the Mengwu people’s reaction to Liang-Jin warfare, he temporarily had not attended to.
Taking Fukou Pass and Jing Pass to scale Taihang Mountains and proceed to You-Ji regions was most convenient, but these two passages were completely blocked by confronting Liang and Jin forces.
Nearby peaks and ridges also dispersed large numbers of scouts and reconnaissance cavalry from both countries.
Han Bao and his men ultimately decided to take Bai Path, passing through Yizhou, penetrating through regions where both countries’ confrontation was relatively relaxed. All the way concealing tracks and hiding movements, over ten days later they arrived within Dingzhou territory in the northern Heshuo region controlled by Jin.
Dingzhou, along with Hengzhou to the south and Cangzhou to the southeast, belonged to Jin’s Chengde Army Regional Commander’s Office defense zone, also serving as Jin’s eastern front war zone defending against Mengwu people’s southern invasion.
Tangyi previously only knew the general situation regarding Jin and various Heshuo garrisons, unable to glimpse the fine details within. This required Han Bao along the route, while concealing his identity, to try every means to inquire about numerous details. When conditions permitted, he also had to arrange for one or two men to remain hidden.
Cross-referencing with previously collected intelligence, as Han Bao and his men infiltrated all the way concealing tracks and hiding forms, they also roughly ascertained the overall situation in the Heshuo region.
Chengde Army Regional Commander Wang Yuankui married his daughter to Jin Crown Prince Shi Chengzu as consort. Very early on he was Crown Prince Shi Chengzu’s direct trusted confidant. Also because of this he was able to be dispatched to garrison Heng, Ding, and other prefectures to resist the Mengwu people’s southern invasion from the eastern front.
However, when Prince of Lu Shi Jiyuan usurped the throne and ascended with support from Empress Dowager Zhang and Bureau of Military Affairs Commissioner Liu Jun, Wang Yuankui did not immediately respond to Shi Chengzu’s orders from distant Shuozhou to raise troops in rebellion. He merely dispatched troops to seal off Jing Path passage, refusing to accept political decrees transmitted from Taiyuan Prefecture by Prince of Lu.
When Liang forces initially invaded southern Jin territory, Liang Emperor Zhu Yu dispatched an envoy to Hengzhou to persuade Wang Yuankui to submit to Liang. But the envoy, just entering Hengzhou City, was executed by Wang Yuankui. Wang Yuankui afterward had the envoy’s head carried back to Bianjing by attendants to demonstrate his resolve not to surrender to Liang.
During Liang forces’ attack on Zezhou, Wang Yuankui even once requested Prince of Lu dispatch troops from Taiyuan to join Chengde Army in attacking Liang forces to relieve Zezhou’s danger, but was not trusted by Prince of Lu. Chengde Army forces also dared not penetrate deeply as an isolated force, even being blocked outside Jing Pass by Luzhou garrison troops at that time.
When Zezhou City fell, Jin’s southern remnant forces retreated back to defend Luzhou City. Wang Yuankui wanted to lead Chengde Army to reinforce Luzhou, but Chengtian Army City inside Jing Pass was seized by Liang forces first.
Chengde Army’s passage westward from Jing Pass through Taihang Mountains was sealed off. And Zhao-Yi Circuit Defense Commissioner Zhang Wenli, seeing Liang forces’ military edge extremely sharp, even if he did not immediately surrender to Liang, maintained an ambiguous observational attitude toward developments, not only refusing to dispatch troops to reinforce Luzhou but also refusing to allow Chengde (Zhen-Ji) Army to borrow passage westward through Fukou Pass in his jurisdiction.
Currently, Jin’s two major military garrisons in Hebei were almost in a state of each fending for themselves.
At the end of twelfth month, Han Bao with Shi Ruhai and Zhang Shigui, tracking a convoy with suspicious movements, following a stream valley walked deep into mountain regions in the eastern foothills of Taihang Mountains in western Dingzhou. At the end of an inconspicuous mountain path, the shocking scene before their eyes filled Han Bao and his men with deep astonishment.
The mountain path’s end was a valley several li in circumference with flat and broad terrain. Above, a stream flowed down, gathering into a lake at one corner of the valley, then flowing out through a wide stream below.
Although streams, rivers, and lake were all covered beneath ice and snow, the channel shapes remained there.
In the mountain valley were built hundreds of structures, enclosed by tall palisade walls, with troops strictly guarding them, prohibiting villagers from approaching without cause.
Thousands of laborers in ragged clothing were transporting iron coal and other ores from the mountains into the valley.
If others saw this scene, they might assume this was merely a smelting yard controlled by Chengde Army.
Heshuo and other regions had over a thousand years of history smelting copper and iron. And not only did the central authorities of Liang, Chu, Jin, Shu, and other countries value iron smelting and casting industries, important military garrisons and military prefectures all mastered certain copper and iron smelting and casting capabilities to ensure military needs.
Chengde Army as one of Jin’s five garrisons controlling several iron mine sites and smelting yards was truly quite commonplace.
However, Han Bao, concealed at high ground in the valley, using a bronze telescope to look into the smelting yard, saw that this Chengde Army smelting yard clearly employed the dual-furnace iron smelting method only popularized in Xuzhou in recent years. This truly shocked them.
And several blast furnaces were all built beside the stream. Looking at auxiliary building structures, they clearly connected to the iron smelting furnaces—large-scale water-powered bellows used for blowing air.
Over the following days, Han Bao, Shi Ruhai, and others, aside from infiltrating the smelting yard for close reconnaissance, also captured and interrogated someone at the foreman engineer level, confirming that this smelting yard was established five years ago by Chengde Army Regional Commander’s Office Interior Official Wang Jingrong, who dispatched people to handle it. In earlier years it mined coal, fired lime and green bricks to supply Dingzhou. Two years ago it again used the dual-furnace method to smelt refined iron, forging large quantities of armor and weapons to supply Chengde Army officers and troops.
From the mid-to-late period of the previous dynasty onward, regional commanders as heads of military garrisons using eunuch officials in inner residences had become the norm.
When Shi Chongsi established Jin, his control over various Heshuo garrisons was never strong. To win their hearts, he also consistently acquiesced to Heshuo garrison regional commanders continuing to use eunuch officials in inner residences as a special honor and favor.
Through interrogation, they also learned that Interior Official Wang Jingrong in earlier years served beside Jin Crown Prince Shi Chengzu and was on good terms with Wang Yuankui. In early years, Wang Yuankui in Jin’s military was merely an ordinary general. His ability to gain Jin Crown Prince Shi Chengzu’s trust, serve as Jin Crown Prince’s Guard Commander, marry his daughter to Jin Crown Prince as consort, all the way to serving as Chengde Army Regional Commander—Wang Jingrong plotting strategies behind the scenes rendered meritorious service.
When Wang Yuankui served as Chengde Army Regional Commander, Wang Jingrong followed Wang Yuankui to Heng and Ding. He was also Wang Yuankui’s most trusted direct great eunuch.
After confirming all this was correct, Han Bao had Shi Ruhai snap that captured prisoner’s neck, push him into a mountain ravine to fake an accidental fall death, then silently withdrew to enter a farmhouse outside Dingzhou City. Afterward he wrote what he had seen and heard these days into a secret letter, sending someone to immediately return to Tangyi.
Han Bao had limited manpower. Among them, seven or eight people had been left concealed along the route. In the situation where they temporarily had not yet established stable transmission channels within Liang and Jin territories, for a letter to be delivered to Tangyi Commissioner’s Office required dispatching someone to traverse over two thousand li of mountains and rivers across Liang and Jin territories while concealing their identity—extremely difficult.
Unless particularly crucial intelligence information, Han Bao and his men would not separately dispatch someone to rush back to Tangyi to deliver letters…
***
***
The secret letter Han Bao wrote in Dingzhou, transmitted back to Huaiyang, was already early second month of the fifth year of Yanyou.
Along the route with no hidden posts for midway response, no replacement personnel, and needing to think of every method to avoid attracting attention—unable to ride horses, more often having to travel on foot avoiding crowds, when encountering cities and border defenses having to detour through mountains and rivers, also having to cope with mountain bandits and road brigands.
If an ordinary person, perhaps spending half a year still might not necessarily be able to walk back to Tangyi from Dingzhou.
The scouts who went north with Han Bao were all elite strong troops selected from one in a hundred in the military. Even so, rushing for a month and a half to deliver the letter to Tangyi was already extremely fast.
“This Wang Jingrong should also be a former subordinate of the Divine Mausoleum Bureau, and the dual-furnace iron smelting methods should have been secretly transmitted to Dingzhou by Yao Xishui and her people…”
The secret letter Han Bao transmitted, after Xi Ren translated it, was immediately delivered to Han Qian’s desk.
In early second month, Tangyi’s weather was already not so cold.
At midday, Han Qian wore a thin jacket, sitting in the rear residence courtyard of the administrative offices. Sunlight shining on his body was just comfortable.
He took the translated copy, furrowed his brows looking for a while, and said:
“The previous dynasty was destroyed at Liang Emperor Zhu Wen’s hands. Liang forces’ elimination and suppression of the previous dynasty’s remnant forces was most unrelenting. And the three regions of Shu, Chu, and Jin, although occupying and dominating localities before the previous dynasty’s destruction, also consistently revered the previous dynasty’s central authority as orthodox. After the previous dynasty’s destruction, their sorting of remaining forces was all quite restrained and tolerant, not pursuing total extermination—that the Divine Mausoleum Bureau still has foundations within Jin territory is certainly the case. But what currently cannot yet be confirmed is how deeply Chengde Army Regional Commander Wang Yuankui is implicated.”
Not merely the four countries of Liang, Jin, Chu, and Shu—to the south, the Qingyuan Army (Jinghai Regional Commander) Liu clan occupying Lingnan, and the Weiwu Army Regional Commander Wang clan occupying eastern Fujian, were both local separatist forces extending from revering the previous dynasty as orthodox.
Wanhong Tower was once especially urgent to obtain the plague-dispelling wine formula from Han Qian’s hands. Han Qian suspected they still had close connections with Divine Mausoleum Bureau remnant forces inside Jinghai Army or Weiwu Army. Yet he had not expected their connections with Divine Mausoleum Bureau remnant forces in Jin to be even closer, actually directly sending to Dingzhou that portion of the “Compendium of Heavenly Crafts” obtained from him as early as five or six years ago.
And Dingzhou as early as two years ago had been testing the dual-furnace iron smelting method—this was content beyond the “Initial Compendium of Heavenly Crafts,” showing that Wanhong Tower these years had consistently closely monitored Xuzhou’s movements, thereby stealing the dual-furnace iron smelting method very early.
Han Qian did not care much about any of this.
He greatly valued secrecy, but he also would not purely for the sake of secrecy refuse to expand production scale or refuse to promote new technology’s application scope.
Wanhong Tower found it difficult to infiltrate his side, but merely the smelting and iron casting yards in Longya Mountains currently employed nearly two thousand craftsmen working. Han Qian obviously would not manage them all as prisoners under surveillance. At this time, new processes applied on a large scale while also not being particularly complicated being stolen—Han Qian would not be very surprised.
He at this time was more concerned about Chengde Army Regional Commander Wang Yuankui’s entanglement with the Divine Mausoleum Bureau, and what role he would play in the great Liang-Jin war. This could extremely possibly directly relate to the situation’s development in the north and even the entire Central Plains region…