After Yao Xishui and Ye Feiying departed in their carriage, as the rumbling sound of wheels crushing broken stone slabs faded into the distance, the ruined courtyard once again sank into eerie silence.

“They seem quite guarded against us as well,” the disheveled beggar had been standing in the darkness with other personal guards silently observing the previous conversation. Only now did he emerge from the darkness and speak. “Why didn’t you tell them that Emperor Zhu Yu was struck by several arrows in the Battle of Hejin, and that the arrowheads that struck Zhu Yu were all specially coated with poison?”

“Exactly as you said, they’re deeply guarded. Even if told, they wouldn’t believe it. So what benefit is there in telling them?” The pavilion person drew his cloak around him, gazing at the deep dark night. “Moreover, the imperial physicians around Zhu Yu still have some real ability. If Zhu Yu hadn’t been rushing about ceaselessly for these months without a moment’s rest, these arrow wounds and poison injuries would probably have healed long ago. Furthermore, since we previously didn’t anticipate Zhu Yu would borrow passage through Tangyi to return to Caizhou, whether he’s now truly poisoned to his core, terminally ill, or just pretending to paralyze us—it’s all still an unknown variable…”

“If Li Zhigao doesn’t dare conspire with Zhao Mengji and Wang Xiaoxian for Shu, the trade routes with Tangyi cannot be severed. This could truly become a great trouble for us,” the beggar said. “A figure like Han Qian emerging from nowhere is truly unexpected. In another two years, the large-scale commodity trade and transport in Jianghuai, Sichuan-Shu, Qianzhong, Nanzhao and other regions will all fall under his control, won’t they? Yet I’m afraid few among Chu state’s rulers and ministers can truly recognize that Tangyi alone has actually secretly controlled nearly half the grain and funds Chu state can requisition and mobilize. However, without such a figure, you would probably feel quite lonely, wouldn’t you, sir?”

“I’m not as conceited as you imagine. In terms of governance talent, I’m inferior to this young man. But even so, what is there to fear?” The pavilion person laughed. “Your father the Prince and I know each other as sovereign and minister, mutually understanding. Yet this young man is suspected by everyone in Chu state. Currently, even though he’s already secretly controlled nearly half of Chu state’s usable grain and funds, he’s also that fragile. Any link going wrong, and Huaixi becomes a place with no natural defenses in all four directions. Even if Li Zhigao doesn’t dare plot for Shu, as long as the Chu court suddenly changes at the right moment and Jianghuai descends into chaos again, with enemies surrounding Huaixi on all sides, if cloth, iron, salt, and coal can no longer leave Xuzhou and Huaixi, what can he do? Consider Zhu Yu—also a hero of his generation, yet hasn’t he been exhausted by Weizhou, unable to salvage the situation?”

“Has sir already devised a strategy to cause change in the Chu court?” the beggar asked.

“Although Lu Qingxia and I haven’t met for over twenty years, I know her too well. No matter how many years pass, what’s in her bones will never change. My coming this time is only to select a chess piece that can definitely be used by the Mongols when the time comes,” the pavilion person said.

“Which chess piece has sir already selected?” the beggar asked.

“Still need to choose carefully. After all, when the timing arrives but passes and rivers separate us, the slightest hesitation and the scheme won’t sell. There’s a possibility this person Han Qian will seize every opportunity. Cannot but be careful and more careful, cannot but be cautious and more cautious,” the pavilion person said.

“Indeed so. This person must be chosen very carefully,” the beggar said with feeling.

“Let’s go…” the pavilion person said.

“If we don’t stay the night here, Yao Xishui surely won’t reveal our whereabouts, will she?” the beggar asked.

“Don’t trust anyone. Since our whereabouts are no longer absolutely secret, we must promptly change locations,” the pavilion person said.

…

…

When Jinling received this year’s first snow, it was already early in the eleventh month. Li Zhigao submitted a memorial from Liangzhou recommending Liang-Chu peace negotiations and petitioning to selectively implement new policies in Xiangbei. Wanting to enter the eighth year of Yanyou, he would first survey and measure farmland in prefectures like Sui, Ying, Xiang, and Deng, incorporating poll taxes into land taxes to collect summer and autumn grain together, thereby solving the problem of insufficient military funding.

By this time it was already late in the seventh year of Yanyou. Ten years had passed since Xuzhou implemented the new field tax system, and its enormous benefits were obvious.

Besides simplifying summer and autumn grain collection, the new field tax system of incorporating poll taxes into land assessments could also maximally suppress local gentry, wealthy households, and aristocratic clan forces from concealing farmland and households to evade taxes, thereby increasing prefecture and county tax revenues.

Limiting local gentry, wealthy households, and aristocratic clan forces while transferring taxes to self-farming peasants or tenant farmers could improve the survival conditions of the poorest people at the bottom, increase local capacity to resist disasters, and prevent slight droughts or floods from causing starving people to fill the fields.

After incorporating poll taxes into land measurements, fleeing households and concealing population would no longer be necessary, thereby enriching prefecture and county civilian households. It could also limit slave trading while greatly increasing able-bodied men localities could conscript for military service, construction, and other matters.

In the previous two years, various families might have considered obstruction from local forces and didn’t dare rashly force new policies. But with Tangyi as a shining example before them, and deeply feeling the pressure Tangyi brought, not only did Xiangbei and Huaidong want to follow suit, but Yang Zhitang, Shen Yang, and even Huang Hua, Chen Fan and others all intended to implement these policies in Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan and other areas to solve the problem of increasingly massive military expenditures for Imperial Guards and Imperial Attendant Guards.

Of course, Huaidong and Xiangbei implementing these policies would greatly strengthen regional military forces. Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Yang En, Huang Hua and others implementing these policies in Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Huaidong and other areas would also strengthen the central treasury’s annual revenue, making further expansion of Imperial Attendant Guards a reality.

However, having the will to do something was one matter, while having the capability to do it was another.

Besides overcoming obstruction from local forces, accurately surveying over one hundred million mu of farmland in Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Huaidong, Hunan, Jing-Xiang and other areas within just two or three years required localities to have large numbers of clerks skilled in surveying and mathematics, while also needing to supervise them to prevent being bribed by local forces to falsify records.

Although Great Chu followed old systems and had civil examination selection systems, the civil examinations held once every three years only symbolically recruited a few people. The vast majority of official appointments relied on local recommendations or hereditary privilege selection.

After Shen Yang became Prime Minister, he vigorously promoted development of the Imperial Academy, but still couldn’t withstand the power of traditional forces. Imperial Academy admission still needed to directly link with hereditary privilege (that is, fathers’ and grandfathers’ official ranks). It was merely an extension of hereditary privilege selection. Currently it only admitted over five hundred sons of officials of sixth rank and above, while subjects taught were limited only to Confucian classics. Legal studies and mathematics were excluded, much less craft studies viewed by the contemporary world as base techniques.

As for local prefecture schools and state schools—currently there was even less to discuss.

After new policy matters passed through court deliberations, currently they could only selectively choose individual prefectures and counties to pilot first.

Shen Yang separately petitioned to add the Four Gates Hall to the Imperial Academy, specially recruiting sons of seventh-rank officials and commoners to teach mathematics, legal studies and other miscellaneous subjects. He recommended Qin Wen to serve as Erudite Director. After the new year, he planned to first recruit five hundred sons of poor commoners with private school foundations from the capital region to cultivate talent for future new policy promotion.

Liang envoy Guo Duoduo concluded peace negotiations and began his northward journey home already at the end of the eleventh month. Jianghuai was also wrapped in silver, frozen for a thousand li.

Although in this season Mongol cavalry could gallop unrestrained across the Hehuai and Wei River plains, in the freezing winter where dripping water turned to ice, besieging cities became even more inconvenient.

Yongzhou and Huazhou in Guanzhong, as well as prefectures like Xu, Ru, Chen, Song between Hehuai and Biangjing City—during this winter they at least need not worry about falling.

In the Yuxi River, besides over ten silt-dredging boats, there were also over a thousand civilian laborers continuing to widen the channel. The canals extending along both banks also became increasingly dense. In higher terrain, large dragon bone water wheels could be seen everywhere erected between canals.

The harvest difference between irrigated fields and dry fields was extremely large. Two able-bodied laborers cultivating fifteen mu of irrigated land, though working somewhat harder, had harvests more than double that of dry fields.

Crop rotation, intercropping and other agricultural techniques in Huaixi were also increasingly widespread. Iron farming tools had already become necessities for ordinary farm households. Looking along the way, Guo Duoduo saw that just along both banks of the Yuxi River, large numbers of households already had surplus grain and energy to raise poultry and livestock. Crop varieties in the fields were also much more diverse.

Although the contemporary world still mainly remained in the agricultural era, even if ordinary households could double their average grain production per household, living conditions couldn’t become much more comfortable or relaxed. But no longer suffering from famine, no longer sallow and emaciated, having conditions for basic medical treatment when ill, or being able to send children to two years of elementary school so they weren’t completely illiterate, after diligently saving for over ten years possibly being able to build brick and tile houses, also being able to raise some poultry or one or two pigs and sheep to improve dietary structure—this was sufficient to be called a prosperous age.

Han Qian was relatively busy. Under the accompaniment of Han Jianji and Han Daochang’s eldest son-in-law Hu E, Guo Duoduo met Han Qian once in Liyang. Afterward, he mainly communicated specific details of subsequent aid with Feng Liao and Wang Zhe.

To limit Mongol cavalry from galloping and raiding unrestrained across the Hehuai plain, Guo Duoduo proposed that the new batch of loaned military equipment before year’s end should include an additional three thousand refined steel great crossbows.

Liang forces once possessed cavalry forces numbering fifty to sixty thousand, an existence that once terrified surrounding Shu, Chu, and Jin states. But these two years of warfare caused losses too severe. The number of warhorses dropped to thirty thousand, cavalry soldiers declined to twenty thousand, and most were trapped in Guanzhong.

Currently Hehuai Liang forces only had ten thousand warhorses organizing six thousand soldiers. They already found it difficult to directly confront Mongol cavalry outside fortified cities.

Infantry mobility was far inferior to cavalry mobility. In close combat compared to cavalry slashing downward from above, the disadvantage was still too great.

To avoid excessive consumption of his elite forces, Emperor Zhu Yu had always exhausted all means to increase the ratio of strong bows and powerful crossbows in his army, achieving the objective of limited killing and suppression when enemy cavalry closed in.

Tangyi had successively established armor and military equipment workshops in Donghu, Huaiyang, and newly recovered Shouchun. After the new year, they would add a new warship construction workshop in Shouchun. Production capacity for armor, military equipment, and warships would increase considerably.

Additionally, to reduce military expenditure currently, active soldiers in Huaixi cavalry, infantry and naval forces were currently controlled at around fifty thousand.

However, Han Qian required the Construction Works Bureau to complete armor and military equipment reserves according to the standard for one hundred thousand elite soldiers within two years. Adding that they also needed to supply Shu forces and the Zheng clan with some armor and military equipment, the production capacity that could be freed up to reinforce Liang forces became limited.

After repeated consideration, Han Qian finally decided to first transfer two thousand great crossbows from existing Tangyi Army reserves to Hehuai Liang forces.