To properly support the Secret Bureau’s Left Division, Han Qian had only Fan Dahei, Lin Haizheng, Zhao Wuji, Zhao Ting’er, and a few others available. After they left the Wanhong Pavilion, Han Qian immediately dispatched Lin Haizheng, Fan Dahei, and Zhao Wuji to leave the city first.

The Military Section had enrolled eighty-five men. Besides the household soldiers and sons of household soldiers who had all received strict training, the others were also veteran soldiers carefully selected from among the refugees. However, Lin Haizheng still needed to train them diligently without the slightest negligence so that these eighty-five formidable soldiers could quickly integrate as one unit and be brought under Han Qian’s control.

Han Qian had Zhao Wuji jointly command the Military Section with Lin Haizheng mainly because he intended to train ten to twenty truly elite soldiers from among the eighty-five. In the future, they would accept Zhao Wuji’s command and could hide in the shadows to undertake complex and dangerous tasks such as covert assassinations and independent intelligence gathering.

These people would become the true elite agents controlled by the Secret Bureau’s Left Division.

The Shitang River warehouse also needed to be established as quickly as possible, and nearly forty junior agents needed to be immediately dispersed throughout the city’s major and minor streets. For these matters, Fan Dahei also had to leave the city overnight and begin preparations immediately.

Finally, Han Qian shared a horse with Zhao Ting’er and returned to the residence on Lanting Lane.

Seeing the old steward Han Laoshan standing outside the gate, driving away two beggars in tattered clothing, Han Qian dismounted and, while helping Zhao Ting’er down from the horse, said to Han Laoshan: “Go get two sets of clean clothes, and treat them to a good meal. I just need to exchange the clothes these two are wearing.”

Han Laoshan didn’t understand the reason and thought there was something suspicious about the two beggars cowering in the corner. He peered over to observe them for a moment but couldn’t see any flaws in these two timid beggars who longed for food rewards.

“I have a use for the clothes they’re wearing,” Han Qian urged, then entered the residence with Zhao Ting’er first.

Han Daoxun had already returned from the Academy of Scholarly Worthies by this time. The meal had just been prepared, so Han Qian sat down to drink wine with his father and told him about the three days spent at the manor establishing the Secret Bureau’s Left Division.

A moment later, Han Laoshan brought over two sets of ragged clothes emanating a rancid stench. Han Daoxun frowned and asked: “What are you bringing these in for?”

“I have an important use for them,” Han Qian said with a smile. He called Zhao Ting’er over and instructed: “Take these two sets of clothes and use lime powder and sulfur powder to kill the lice and fleas. Whatever you do, don’t wash them clean.”

Hearing Han Qian say this, Han Daoxun understood what he intended to do and asked: “Are you also going to personally take to the streets to observe all these major and minor happenings?”

All those recruited this time were novices, and moreover, they were all outsiders unfamiliar with the market streets and lanes of Jinling City. To immediately arrange for thirty to forty people to hide throughout the major and minor streets and actually accomplish anything without being detected by the Military Patrol Office and the eyes and agents that several other factions had secretly placed throughout the city would be extremely difficult.

However, there was no time for Han Qian to conduct concentrated training for these people, much less time to gradually set up arrangements step by step.

Han Qian’s envisioned approach was to first arrange all these people throughout the major and minor streets, temporarily doing nothing, mainly adapting to and integrating into the market streets and lanes.

To accelerate this process, he also needed to infiltrate the major and minor streets under an identity others couldn’t detect, secretly observing the concealment situations of these agents. As much as possible, he would find their flaws and quickly make corrections.

More importantly, knowledge gained from books always feels shallow. For how the Secret Bureau’s Left Division’s intelligence gathering could ultimately operate effectively, if Han Qian just sat in his office or residence strategizing, he obviously couldn’t consider all the details thoroughly.

These two sets of beggar’s clothes were what Han Qian had prepared for himself.

Han Qian instructed Zhao Ting’er to quickly take these two sets of clothes to kill the lice and fleas. Later, he would change into them and go out to try this new role-playing.

“The master’s name has already entered the memorial submitted by the Ministry of Personnel. Young master should stay in the residence to celebrate properly instead. Why are you going out again?” Fan Xicheng came in and said.

“Oh, is that so?” Han Qian hadn’t expected that Marquis Xinchang Li Pu’s side had moved just as quickly as he had. In just three days, all the connections had already been smoothed over.

“There’s still one last hurdle to pass. Celebrations are premature,” Han Daoxun said with a smile.

Han Qian also knew that having reached this step, with the memorial sent before Emperor Tianyou awaiting imperial approval, his father’s name could still possibly be crossed off. After all, the matter of his father causing a great disturbance at the court assembly last year had too “severe” an impact.

Even though Xuzhou was just a remote, miasma-ridden small province, whether Emperor Tianyou would let his father go there was still difficult to say.

……

……

After nightfall, a great wind arose, howling like ghosts and wailing spirits. It blew down over ten roof tiles from the top of Wenying Hall, smashing them to pieces. Shen He didn’t know whether His Majesty had been disturbed, but he had the servant maids dragged out and beaten with rods. Then he had the broken tiles and bricks in front of the hall cleared away and found people to climb ladders up to the hall’s roof. He saw that the hall roof was badly in need of repair, with tiles severely loosened.

The Third Imperial Prince’s wedding was tomorrow. His Majesty, the Empress, and the Imperial Consort would receive the Third Prince and his new bride’s formal bows in Wenying Hall the day after tomorrow. Currently, they could only roughly tidy up the hall roof. Finding craftsmen from the Left Construction Office to come repair it would have to wait until after these matters were completed.

Shen He felt uneasy about this. He found two servants to constantly watch the eaves, guarding against any tiles that might still slide down and injure someone. After busying himself with these matters, he walked into the hall and saw His Majesty sitting at his desk reviewing memorials with a grave expression, seemingly completely undisturbed by their frantic scrambling.

“Are things on Yuanpu’s side all properly prepared?” Yang Mi put down the imperial vermillion brush and asked Shen He.

“Everything major and minor has been properly prepared. This old slave worried something might go wrong, so in the afternoon I checked everything again with Guo Rong,” Shen He said.

“By the way, has there been any activity at the Ministry of Personnel recently?” Yang Mi asked again.

Hearing His Majesty suddenly ask this seemingly random question, Shen He’s heart jumped. He didn’t know what problem had occurred at the Ministry of Personnel to attract His Majesty’s attention. Shen He normally didn’t speak casually to avoid unknowingly offending some faction. At this moment, not understanding the situation, he naturally wouldn’t speak recklessly. He only turned his body slightly to the side and said:

“During this time, this old slave has only heard the various departments discussing the Third Prince’s wedding. As for what activity there’s been at the Ministry of Personnel, this old slave hasn’t noticed.”

“Has Gao Chengyuan come by?” Yang Mi asked again.

“He waited outside for quite a while. Just now when the wind blew down tiles, this old slave was scrambling around cleaning up and forgot to come report,” Shen He said.

Gao Chengyuan had originally been a guard military officer at Wenying Hall. After the “assassination incident” occurred at the beginning of the year, His Majesty had assigned him to the Marquis of Linjiang’s estate to assist Chen De in strengthening the estate’s security. But Shen He understood in his heart that this was His Majesty’s way of telling certain people not to act rashly.

Three days ago, the Third Prince had submitted a memorial recommending Gao Chengyuan to replace Chai Jian and serve as Vice Commander of the Dragon Sparrow Army.

Originally, for military officer appointments and adjustments from the sixth rank and above to below the third rank, the Dragon Sparrow Army should report to the Bureau of Military Affairs, which would then propose a memorial for His Majesty’s vermillion approval. Of course, there was nothing wrong with the Third Prince directly submitting a memorial to recommend someone, but His Majesty should have assigned the Bureau of Military Affairs’ Office of Official Review to conduct an examination.

However, His Majesty hadn’t sent the Third Prince’s memorial to the Bureau of Military Affairs’ Office of Official Review for examination. Instead, he had directly given vermillion approval. In Shen He’s view, besides Gao Chengyuan being someone from His Majesty’s side who deeply enjoyed His Majesty’s trust, there was another layer of meaning—His Majesty probably didn’t like the Bureau of Military Affairs interfering too much with the Dragon Sparrow Army’s officer appointments.

Of course, nobody took the Dragon Sparrow Army seriously anyway. The Great Chu Kingdom had been established single-handedly by His Majesty. If he occasionally acted willfully, who could criticize him?

His Majesty had specifically instructed Gao Chengyuan to come to the palace after taking up his post. Gao Chengyuan had arrived at dusk today. At that time, Shen He had been busy discussing tomorrow’s Third Prince’s wedding with Guo Rong. He had someone else go report it, but didn’t know what His Majesty had been busy with at the time—incredibly, he had forgotten about this matter afterward.

Now seeing His Majesty suddenly think of Gao Chengyuan, Shen He wondered in his heart—could it be that something at the Ministry of Personnel was related to the Third Prince or the Dragon Sparrow Army?

Shen He quickly sent someone to summon Gao Chengyuan, who had been waiting outside for nearly two hours, to come in.

Gao Chengyuan had originally been an orphan. When Yang Mi had served as Military Commissioner of Huainan, he had been selected as a personal guard because of his brave fighting. In recent years, he had consistently served as a guard military officer protecting Wenying Hall. He was just past thirty years old and had married a wife from a minor household. He had no involvement with the various court factions. After the “assassination incident” occurred, he had been sent to the Marquis of Linjiang’s estate.

“Grant him a seat,” Yang Mi said from his elevated dragon throne, gesturing for Shen He to give Gao Chengyuan a seat. “Have you gone to take up your post at the Dragon Sparrow Army these past two days?”

Initially, Gao Chengyuan had been extremely resistant to serving at the Dragon Sparrow Army.

As a mid-to-low-ranking military officer, he had no right to choose factions. But everyone knew the Dragon Sparrow Army’s officers and enlisted households were all plague-infected refugees. Even if one didn’t contract the epidemic disease, commanding barely five hundred sick soldiers at most, this Vice Commander position wouldn’t amount to much. It would be better to remain serving beside the Third Prince.

However, since the Third Prince had ordered him to serve at the Dragon Sparrow Army, and His Majesty had given vermillion approval without the slightest hesitation, Gao Chengyuan naturally didn’t dare show any negligence. Starting yesterday morning, he had left the city early with Li Zhigao, Chai Jian, and Guo Liang, entering the garrison military headquarters to join with Shen Yang, Zhang Qian, and others to inspect the troops, formally taking up his post.

Gao Chengyuan had originally thought the garrison military headquarters gathered thirty to forty thousand plague-infected refugees waiting to die. When bidding his family farewell that morning, his wife had even held him and cried for a while. He had even specially prepared a separate residence to live alone to avoid transmitting the epidemic disease to his wife and children. But upon entering Taowu Market, he discovered the Dragon Sparrow Army’s garrison military headquarters was completely different from what everyone imagined.

“You’re saying Shen Yang’s management of the Dragon Sparrow Army’s garrison military headquarters has completely controlled the epidemic disease?” Yang Mi was also visibly shocked. He leaned forward with great interest, having Gao Chengyuan explain in more detail.

“Whether it’s completely controlled, Chengyuan doesn’t dare say. Yesterday at the garrison for one day, there were still quite a few people with sallow, emaciated faces whose symptoms were quite severe. But most people had no problems working the fields or drilling. Moreover, looking at their calm expressions, they didn’t seem to regard the water parasite plague as a terrible threat,” Gao Chengyuan reported truthfully. “Currently, there are approximately over seven thousand normally trained and enlisted in the Dragon Sparrow Army. Under Chengyuan’s command are three battalions with eighty percent full strength. The soldiers can still be considered robust. When questioning the soldiers, they all said Lord Shen had methods for treating the plague and were extremely grateful for His Majesty’s and the Third Prince’s grace…”

Next, Gao Chengyuan also relayed some things he had inquired about from the soldiers, mainly the strict epidemic control measures Shen Yang had severely implemented when first taking charge of the garrison military headquarters, informing Emperor Tianyou.

Shen He listened in utter shock. According to what Gao Chengyuan said, didn’t this mean that when Marquis Xinchang Li Pu had submitted a memorial at the beginning of the year in the Third Prince’s name to incorporate plague-infected refugees, he had already calculated all this?

The Third Prince so easily and directly controlled a force of seven to eight thousand men in the capital region. If Anning Palace learned of this, wouldn’t they be jumping up and down in anxiety?

After a long moment, Yang Mi had Shen He bring out some rewards and then let Gao Chengyuan leave the palace.

Shen He also couldn’t calm down for a long time from the information Gao Chengyuan had brought. He saw His Majesty sitting at the imperial desk, picking up a memorial he had set aside earlier, frowning in deep thought.

Shen He ingratiatingly moved closer and said: “When Your Majesty initially designated Shen Yang as the Third Prince’s tutor, Shen Yang was reluctant in every way. But seeing the Third Prince young yet with unmistakable brilliance, he ultimately still worked hard to handle matters for the Third Prince.”

Shen He thought it over and concluded this matter should have been planned by Shen Yang for the Third Prince.

Yang Mi looked up at the night outside the great hall, then put his brush to the memorial before him and signed the character “Approved,” then returned it to a pile of documents, having Shen He help him organize them.

This was a memorial from the Ministry of Personnel proposing a new batch of court and provincial official appointments after discussion at the ministerial Privy Council meeting. Shen He was startled to see that the name of Assistant Director of the Imperial Secretariat Han Daoxun was also among them.