With the New Year festival approaching, Songhe Tower became even livelier after nightfall. Drinking tea in a fine location on a snowy night was truly a wonderful enjoyment.
Qin Wen couldn’t linger too long, and the entire matter was too shocking and stimulating—in the short term he found it difficult to calm his inner excitement and properly discuss matters with Feng Liao and Han Daoming.
Carrying emotions of excitement and shock difficult to quell, he first left Songhe Tower, bringing the two old family servants waiting downstairs back to his residence.
In this entire affair, the Han Mansion’s role in the early stage was easiest to play—they only needed to spare no effort supporting whatever decisions Tangyi made, even tilting all directly controllable people and resources toward the direction of “attacking Guanzhong.” But for Secret Office embedded personnel in Jinling, how to spread some seventy-percent-true-thirty-percent-false information from their positions without leaving traces, even creating some inconspicuous illusions to mislead the court ministers—this involved far too many considerations.
The entire matter divided into two stages: the first stage required concealing the true intent of Tangyi elites entering Henan Prefecture, preventing court ministers from becoming alert in advance; the second stage, when the entire matter became fact and was announced publicly, they still had to minimize the shock received by court ministers as much as possible, avoiding complete rupture in relations between Jinling and Tangyi and immediately entering the stage of armed conflict.
Otherwise, not only would the Han Mansion and the Chishan Association, whose main bases were in the Jiang and Huai prefectures, likely be wiped out in one swoop, but the Grand Empress Dowager of Changxin would very likely directly expose his identity—not to mention the subsequent series of troubles.
Of course, Qin Wen hadn’t inquired in detail about Tangyi’s covert troop mobilization progress, but he speculated that if preparing according to the worst-case scenario of relationship rupture, Tangyi’s troop mobilization scale this time would be unprecedented.
Returning to his mansion, Qin Wen hastily ate dinner and sat in his study watching the heavy snow fall, agonizing until midnight. Carefully considering various matters, he discovered that things were truly intricate and complex—one misstep and the situation could completely spiral out of control.
In fact, exactly what to do—the time was still too rushed. Tangyi hadn’t completely thought everything through either, which was why they had Feng Liao personally infiltrate back to Jinling so he could personally formulate a more comprehensive execution plan.
By dawn, Qin Wen barely managed to sleep. When daylight brightened he turned over and rose. Though he hadn’t slept even two hours, his entire person was extremely energized with no sense of fatigue. Thinking carefully, he could only make issues out of the two matters of administrative jurisdiction over Deng and Jun prefectures and sending Empress Dowager Xu, Zhang Xinchun, and others back to Jinling for trial.
These matters were the current focus of court ministers’ attention. Mixing true-and-false-difficult-to-distinguish information between these two matters to hide Tangyi’s true intent could achieve twice the results with half the effort.
After writing some spring couplets and preparing some items for ancestral worship, Qin Wen changed into casual robes and left the mansion to wander about. He found a secluded teahouse and again secretly met with Feng Liao—Han Daoming, as master of the Han Mansion, in fact had no way to freely slip away during these days before the New Year festival.
“Minister Shen still fantasizes that Prince Xin will agree to have Zhao Zhen deploy troops from Wuguan so he’ll have an excuse to make Kong Xirong lead his forces to withdraw from Deng and Jun prefectures,” Qin Wen sat with Feng Liao in a dimly lit corner, speaking in a lowered voice. “If this matter truly has the possibility of occurring, and Tangyi, in order to compete for control of Deng and Jun prefectures, preemptively deploys troops to Guanzhong at this time, this could be considered logical and natural, right? Prince Xin’s heir Yang Cong and Wang Wenqian are temporarily residing in Jinling. I could perhaps incite Zhang Xian and Zhou Qinian to go see Yang Cong together. If Madam Jun’s father is present and Yang Cong shows signs of being moved, the first chess piece in Jinling city can be considered to have entered the game. Once the news that the lord sent the traitorous empress dowager, Zhang Xinchun, and other traitorous eunuchs back to court spreads, Jinling city will inevitably be filled with discussion. To accomplish the great matter, we can only make some issues out of this affair…”
Zhang Xian had previously intended to use the matter of rebels returning to court for trial to create public opinion and highlight Han Qian’s ambitions toward Deng and Jun prefectures. Qin Wen had earlier wanted to secretly find Feng Liao to discuss countermeasures, but now circumstances had changed. If such public opinion spread at this time, it would actually be more beneficial for them to create the illusion that Han Qian was deploying troops to jointly attack Yongzhou with the Liang army.
Even though the entire affair would be disadvantageous to Tangyi’s reputation, when choices must be made, even if some things were temporarily disadvantageous to Tangyi’s reputation they must be utilized—Qin Wen hadn’t been sparing in saying “bad things” about Tangyi behind the scenes.
Feng Liao nodded. To deceive the world, first they had to make court ministers believe that Tangyi truly had the motive and reason to hastily deploy troops to Guanzhong at this time. Only then would Jinling not have any excessive reactions to Tangyi’s subsequent troop deployments and assignments.
Qin Wen invited Zhang Xian and Zhou Qinian to persuade Yang Cong, but for Yang Cong to show signs of being moved, or at least make Zhang Xian and Zhou Qinian believe Yang Cong was moved and possibly influence Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan’s decision-making, required Qin Wen and his group to do some extra groundwork before directly calling at his door.
The two secretly discussed at length in the teahouse corner before finally working out some details. Finally, Feng Liao asked: “Sometimes we must make preparations to tear off all pretense and fight if necessary to ultimately achieve the possibility of stopping war, but in this process, people remaining in Jinling may suffer persecution. Before the news ultimately reaches Jinling, we’ll rush to arrange for some people to cross the river to the north bank. Draft me a list of which people from your household absolutely must evacuate with you.”
“Will the Old Master, Minister, and Observer Yun cross the river?” Qin Wen asked.
“The Old Master, Minister, and Observer Yun—these three won’t leave. After all, ultimately it’s still to avoid fighting. But Han Daochang, Han Duan, and others will cross to the north bank in advance under the pretext of assisting in preparing military resources…” Feng Liao said.
“Then there’s no need to consider me either,” Qin Wen said resolutely.
—
“His Majesty’s complexion is poor, seeming like initial signs of wind rash, though the situation isn’t serious. This minister saw Prince Fu before noon—his condition was slightly more serious…”
The new emperor Yang Bin still lived in Changxin Palace with Princess Qing Yang. On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month, just because a palace attendant serving the new emperor casually mentioned that the new emperor had coughed a couple extra times that morning, Princess Qing Yang summoned Hu Yifeng from the Imperial Medical Bureau. After Hu Yifeng’s diagnosis and treatment, he prescribed a medicinal formula to be prepared and decocted.
Qing Yang’s protection of the new emperor Yang Bin verged somewhat on seeing danger in every sound. All procurement and preparation of medicinal soups and food had to have people supervising, with dedicated personnel testing the food before her eyes. For any signs of illness, she required Imperial Medical Bureau physicians to be available for summoning at any time.
However, in the current palace precincts with danger lurking everywhere, no amount of excessive caution was unnecessary.
This diagnosis was originally an utterly unremarkable routine matter at Changxin Palace, but transmitted by interested parties to Prince Xin’s mansion, the rumor became that new emperor Yang Bin and Prince Fu Yang Lin had simultaneously contracted epidemic disease, making the Imperial Medical Bureau treat it as a major crisis even over the New Year.
Messages transmitted from the Imperial Medical Bureau indeed confirmed that all imperial physicians had cancelled their rest, and people were specifically dispatched to rush to Liyang Physicians’ Academy to obtain the latest epidemic medicines and bring them back to test on epidemic cases in the city.
Though the matter of establishing an Imperial Younger Brother hadn’t been raised again for now, new emperor Yang Bin would only be eight years old after the New Year. Before Yang Bin had heirs, the Third Prince Yang Lin, just established as Prince Fu, was naturally the throne’s first successor. If Prince Fu Yang Lin also fell ill, then Prince Xin’s heir Yang Cong, who had reached twenty years of age, would actually be more easily accepted by court ministers than Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan himself.
Yang Cong bringing his wives and concubines to live in Prince Xin’s mansion in Jinling city, which had been vacant for many years, was a symbol of Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan’s submission to the court or rather a hostage. Court ministers all deliberately kept their distance from him, but Yang Cong still had the currently few administrative staff and advisors of the prince’s mansion make friends with mid- and lower-ranking officers and ministers as much as possible. The New Year festival was the time of most frequent contact.
After Deng and Jun prefectures were occupied by Tangyi forces, intelligence that the approximately twelve thousand robust able-bodied men previously migrated by Emperor Tianyou to fill the two prefectures as military households were still well-trained, and that besides Deng and Jun prefectures, Tangyi forces’ hasty westward advance also targeted these ten-thousand-plus robust able-bodied men—this intelligence was perfectly timed to reach the ears of Prince Xin’s mansion staff from a certain Ministry of War official.
Another piece of news inadvertently transmitted into Prince Xin’s mansion was that Li Xiu, having received Han Qian’s instructions, sent family members to see Li Qi in Huayang before the New Year, but Li Qi was arrogant and discourteous, with words quite disrespectful toward Han Qian.
Of course, the matter of traitorous Empress Dowager Xu, Emperor Tianyou’s grandson Yang Fen, Zhang Xinchun, and other criminals being sent through Tangyi back to Jinling for trial was at this time also spreading throughout Jinling city with much discussion.
On the third day of the New Year, Qin Wen invited Zhang Xian and Zhou Qinian to visit Prince Xin’s mansion, mainly to openly and properly persuade Prince Xin’s heir Yang Cong.
Due to mutual avoidance of suspicion, Yang Cong couldn’t meet with ministers at the Vice Grand Councilor level at this time, but though the three—Qin Wen, Zhang Xian, and Zhou Qinian—weren’t among the great ministers, their positions in the capital were absolutely pivotal.
Yang Cong showed utmost enthusiasm and courtesy for these three’s arrival.
Since they were persuading Prince Xin’s mansion to agree to Zhao Zhen leading forces out of Wuguan so they’d have an excuse to drive Tangyi forces out of Deng and Jun prefectures, Qin Wen naturally spoke at length about the benefits that Zhao Zhen deploying troops would bring to Prince Xin’s faction.
Qin Wen spoke extensively about Emperor Tianyou’s early years of migrating people to solidify the borders, not avoiding explicitly stating that for the court to directly grasp Deng and Jun prefectures into its hands, the first essential point was to follow Emperor Tianyou’s policies of that time, migrating refugees and disaster victims from the interior to fill Deng and Jun prefectures, even accepting refugees migrating south from Liang territories.
This would also facilitate locally recruiting troops to supplement the insufficient forces for deploying from Wuguan to attack Guanzhong.
At this time, Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng still hadn’t directly separated from Prince Xin’s faction, but currently serving as instructor and guest, they accompanied Yang Cong residing at Prince Xin’s mansion. Usually they were idle clouds and wild cranes reading books and wandering about, not managing any duties.
This time when Qin Wen, Zhang Xian, and Zhou Qinian called at the door, to show courtesy, Yang Cong specifically brought out these two heavyweight idle clouds and wild cranes whose reputation could be said to compare with court ministers and veteran generals—Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng—to keep them company.
Hearing Qin Wen speak grandly, with concentrated messages transmitted into the prince’s mansion these past two days stirring up unsettled hearts, Wang Wenqian felt somewhat strange, but who could imagine such twists and turns behind it all?
Wang Wenqian was “holding a sinecure while doing nothing,” and Yang Cong had no advisors at his side who could truly judge the situation. How could they imagine there was such a net enveloping him? He filled his mind calculating the pros and cons of Zhao Zhen deploying from Wuguan.
Having Zhao Zhen lead forces out of Wuguan at this time to shoulder the heavy responsibility of restraining Guanzhong enemy forces and alleviating pressure on the Liang army in the He and Luo regions—Chuzhou’s direct troops might well have to bear extremely heavy casualties.
However, if considering that Deng and Jun prefectures currently had just over twelve thousand elite troops available for recruitment and supplementation, with more civilian households to be migrated over subsequently to solidify the borders, even having to bear extremely heavy casualties seemed not unendurable.
At this time, Li Qi led two thousand remnant troops remaining in Shangluo (Huayang). Even if they didn’t hope to win Li Qi over, the families of officers and soldiers under Li Qi’s command mostly remained at Taowu Ji garrison military prefecture in the capital region. If Zhao Zhen truly led forces into Shangluo, with court edicts at that time, they could completely directly relieve Li Qi of military authority and incorporate these elite officers and soldiers under Zhao Zhen’s command.
After Huaidong voluntarily requested vassal abolition, the subsequent focus was no longer the struggle for cities and territories but more about cultivating prestige. If Zhao Zhen could establish a firm foothold in Shangluo, to what heights would Prince Xin’s mansion’s momentum rise?
With the new emperor and Prince Fu young and small, seemingly truly susceptible to contracting epidemics and dying young, how could it not move hearts?
Furthermore, Yang Cong wasn’t willing to be purely a hostage, secluded in Prince Xin’s mansion. His heart also longed for moments of brilliant performance.
He thought himself composed and restrained before Qin Wen, Zhang Xian, and Zhou Qinian, but after the three departed, he couldn’t wait to invite Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng into a private chamber, respectfully serving tea and saying: “Sir’s loyalty to Father King is unwavering, yet Father King cannot fully trust Sir’s words—I deeply regret this. I wonder if Sir has any methods to help me persuade Father King to have Commander Zhao deploy troops to Shangluo?”
Wang Wenqian replied noncommittally and calmly: “The Heir Prince is wise and discerning. If deploying troops from Wuguan truly has all those benefits Qin Wen mentioned, the Prince won’t fail to see them—there’s no need for the Heir Prince to painstakingly persuade him…”
Wang Wenqian’s answer naturally couldn’t satisfy Yang Cong, but there was nothing he could do about Wang Wenqian either.
Wang Wenqian and Yin Peng took their leave, returning to the western courtyard where they resided.
Besides his concubine Xu Shi, over ten family servants and maidservants, and Xu Shi’s son, the young twelve-year-old Wang Liuyun, Wang Wenqian hadn’t brought any other Wang family nephews to migrate into Jinling with him. Yin Peng, however, brought his whole household of over ten people into Jinling. Including servants and maids, the western courtyard’s thirty-plus chambers were filled to capacity, quite crowded.
Xu Shi was sitting under the rear courtyard eaves with two attending maids, personally making decorative lanterns for use at the Lantern Festival.
Wang Wenqian, with nothing to do, sat under the eaves and picked up bamboo strips to make rabbit lanterns.
“Have you found a suitable mansion in the city? You’ve been dawdling for half a year—why still no movement?” Prince Xin’s mansion’s western courtyard was cramped. Xu Shi had set her heart on moving out to live, but Wang Wenqian didn’t want to, and whenever she caught an opportunity she’d nag a couple sentences, saying: “Wang Yuan ran off to East Lake before the New Year. What suspicion do you still need to avoid? Some suspicions—if you want to avoid them, can you avoid them? The way I see it, might as well simply move to East Lake to live!”
Wang Wenqian’s mind was leisurely making rabbit lanterns, as if not hearing Xu Shi’s words. Yin Peng sat to the side without making a sound—it wasn’t appropriate to casually join the conversation.
Though the lord had long made up his mind never to enter government service again in this lifetime, he knew Madam Xu still had to think about the young lord’s future prospects.
Besides Wang Jun, Tangyi had no restrictions on children entering government service. Yin Peng also knew this should be a key reason Madam Xu wanted to go to Tangyi.
Outside of Tangyi, because of her background, Madam Xu couldn’t formally remarry to become a principal wife—though in Great Chu this wasn’t impossible as a special exception. There were several cases of women of concubine origin being granted noble titles, for instance Su Hongyu previously came from base registry, but as a child of the Wanhong Tower, before the palace upheaval she was still granted noble title. However, without the lord having any intention to reenter service, he lacked this capability. This also resulted in the young lord, only twelve years old, always being a concubine-born son. Not to mention inheriting grace and favor—in the future he wouldn’t even have opportunities for recommendation to government service.
Seeing Wang Wenqian again playing deaf and dumb, Xu Shi resentfully threw down her work and led the maidservants inside.
Yin Peng squatted before the stone steps, watching the thin ice in the shallow pool seemingly showing signs of melting under the sun’s illumination. Turning his head to see Wang Wenqian’s hands stopped there, his thoughts seemingly diverted elsewhere, he asked: “Is the lord thinking about Deng and Jun prefectures?”
“That’s not for me to worry about,” Wang Wenqian said.
“Tangyi sending the traitorous empress dowager and Zhang Xinchun back to court for trial is quite unexpected. Once the news spread, Jinling city has been filled with discussion…” Yin Peng said.
Wang Wenqian sighed lightly and said: “Whether Han Qian should rectify his father’s name or poison the traitorous empress dowager and evil eunuchs to vent private hatred—though there would be internal struggle, the final outcome isn’t surprising. What I was just thinking about is that the Heir Prince’s thoughts seem to have become much more active after the New Year, haven’t they?”
“The lord was thinking about this? The Heir Prince entered the capital as hostage—how could he lack resentment in his heart? Now that Political Affairs Hall ministers seek favor from Chuzhou, and the Heir Prince doesn’t want to be confined in the prince’s mansion but wants to accomplish something, it’s natural for his thoughts to become active…” Yin Peng said.
“The messages transmitted into the prince’s mansion before and after the New Year festival these five or six days—aren’t they a bit too concentrated?” Wang Wenqian asked with furrowed brow.
“Is something not right?” Yin Peng thought for a moment and said: “No matter what’s not right, the Heir Prince’s words don’t carry much weight before Prince Xin. Even if someone is deliberately spreading messages in this direction, I’m afraid they won’t be able to exert much effect…”
“How much weight the Heir Prince’s words carry before Prince Xin—this is just each person’s speculation. Or perhaps the intention of whoever’s behind this lies precisely here. Of course, this has nothing to do with us either. Never mind what’s not right—tomorrow we really should go out to look for a mansion. This place is really too cramped, and if we drag it out further, my ears will grow calluses from that woman’s nagging.” Among so many messages, the matter of Li Xiu sending people to see Li Qi made Wang Wenqian most suspicious, but at this moment he only smiled mockingly and had Yin Peng pass him a sheet of red-dyed writing paper, cut out a piece, and used paste to stick it onto the rabbit-shaped bamboo cage…
Under deliberate guidance, when the vast majority of officials were still resting at home peacefully passing the New Year festival, the matter of Prince Xin Yang Yuanyan wanting to have Zhao Zhen deploy troops from Wuguan to force Tangyi forces to withdraw from Deng and Jun prefectures spread like wildfire between various mansions and residences in Jinling Prefecture, as if it were true.
At this time, news that Marquis Qianyang, to scheme for Deng and Jun prefectures so the court could catch him red-handed, even temporarily abandoned his father’s vengeance to send the traitorous empress dowager, Zhang Xinchun, and others into Jinling for trial, also secretly spread.
These two kinds of messages made Jinling city during the New Year festival filled with the sound of danger everywhere and hearts unsettled, worrying that relations between the court and Tangyi would become tense and they couldn’t live peacefully again.
On the tenth day of the first month of the second year of Taihe, Han Qian formally promulgated a mobilization order in Tangyi, having Kong Xirong in Deng and Jun prefectures recruit all able-bodied military households of the two prefectures who had surrendered before the New Year, directly expanding the Northwest Campaign Army from its current twenty thousand to thirty-two thousand troops. He also made Su Lie serve as vanguard general—from the day of receiving the order, he would immediately lead the vanguard army out of Wuguan, enter the Shangluo region, join with Li Qi’s forces and Prince Luo of Liang Zhu Zhen’s forces, strike enemy forces’ defensive forts on Shangzhou’s northern flank, and open a passage for the great army to attack into Weinan from Shangluo and assault Yongzhou.
Besides this, the three elite brigades originally garrisoned at Huaiyang, East Lake, and Tangyi would all be expanded on their previous foundation, absorbing garrison field troops to each expand to eight thousand troops. Besides Zhao Qi and Lin Zongjing’s water and infantry forces continuing to garrison East Lake, Tangyi, and other places, Feng Zhang and He Liufeng’s two force divisions would expand while moving north to Shiliang and Huoqiu, strengthening defense along the Huai River banks.
With Zhou Dan as chief, and Feng Xuan, Wen Bo, and Han Donghu as three vice commanders, forming an advance campaign army of eighteen thousand elite combat troops and two thousand artisan battalion troops, they would travel north through Cai and Ru prefectures into the He and Luo regions, preparing to assist the Liang army in deploying from Huazhou to attack Yongzhou from the eastern flank.
At the same time, Han Qian submitted a memorial to Jinling reporting this troop expansion and deployment to attack Yongzhou, earnestly requesting the court provide this year’s eight hundred thousand shi of grain and fodder in advance to supplement the insufficient military resources for this deployment.
The memorial also reported that East Lake had already ordered the Chishan Association’s merchant ships distributed everywhere to make every effort to immediately purchase strategic materials urgently needed by Huaixi, then concentrate them at the three locations of East Lake, Tangyi, and Xichuan River mouth to support subsequent war consumption.
Therefore, during the coming period, Chishan Association vessels would be highly concentrated at East Lake, Tangyi, Xichuan, and other locations, and they requested all prefectures and counties provide convenience.
The Lantern Festival hadn’t even passed, the tail end of the Huai River Campaign still hadn’t completely dissipated, and Tangyi’s various forces and troops had just rested for two months after experiencing the Huai River Campaign, yet once again they expanded forces by over one hundred thousand, with fifty thousand elite troops from Wuguan Road and Hangu Road coordinating with the Liang army on two routes to attack Yongzhou—like a huge boulder crashing into a calm lake.
Tangyi, close at hand, conducting such large-scale troop expansion and deployment, especially with Chishan Association merchant ships successively concentrating at Xichuan, East Lake, and Tangyi, various secret reports had already reached Jinling city two days earlier.
Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Yang En, Zheng Yu, Zhang Chao, and others were hesitating whether to first dispatch people urgently to East Lake to demand explanation, or first order all prefectures and counties to strengthen inspection and detention of Chishan Association merchant ships passing through.
At this time, Qin Wen obtained the memorial Tangyi had sent over, walked into the Political Affairs Hall, and “indignantly” vigorously waved the memorial in his hand, saying to everyone in the hall:
“To scheme for Deng and Jun prefectures, Han Qian exploits military strength to such an extent—he truly can be called a warmonger!”
Today on duty at the Political Affairs Hall were the three Vice Grand Councilors Zheng Yu, Huang Huixiang, and Zhang Chao, but Zhang Xian and Zhou Qinian, as Palace Writers, routinely reported to the Political Affairs Hall. Their expressions grave, they took Tangyi’s memorial from Qin Wen’s hand to read.
As Palace Writers, according to regulations, memorials sent directly from localities into the Ministry had to pass through them first. Unimportant matters were distributed to various ministries, departments, and offices for deliberation. Memorials that ministries, departments, and offices couldn’t decide were then handed to Vice Grand Councilors on duty at the Political Affairs Hall to review and give preliminary handling opinions. Finally they were compiled for Shen Yang and the Two Empress Dowagers, while military and state affairs still required convening Privy Council meetings at the Political Affairs Hall for decision.
Zhang Xian believed Qin Wen’s words without doubt, because last night at Prince Xin’s mansion with Yang Zhitang, he had just received news from an inside source saying that this time the Liang army invited Tangyi to assist in attacking Yongzhou, the condition was that Tangyi would help Western Liang forces retake Yongzhou and other Guanzhong heartland areas, while Western Liang forces would cede Caizhou and western Yingzhou regions to Tangyi.
At other times, Tangyi gaining Cai and Ying prefectures wouldn’t have much value, but incorporating Cai and Ying territories into Tangyi would more tightly connect Deng and Jun prefectures with Tangyi.
Various messages assembled together left them unable not to believe.
Once they believed it to be true, watching helplessly as hundreds and thousands of Chishan Association merchant ships and thousands upon thousands of boatmen and sailors assembled at Xichuan, East Lake, and Tangyi, their reaction became hesitant. Shen Yang and Yang Zhitang only ordered all locations to watch Chishan Association’s movements.
In just over ten days, the scale of boatmen and sailors Chishan Association assembled at Xichuan, East Lake, and Tangyi exceeded forty thousand people, with large and small vessels numbering over two thousand.
When this news reached Jinling, Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, and others only then awoke with shock to realize that in just six or seven short years, the Chishan Association had developed to such a scale. They hadn’t imagined that intelligence grasped by the Salt and Iron Transport Commissioner’s Office had long been outdated—they had always thought Chishan Association’s boatmen and sailors numbered only seven or eight thousand.
Since Chishan Association’s cargo ships, boatmen, and sailors were usually dispersed throughout Great Chu’s prefectures and counties’ streams, rivers, lakes, and waterways and numerous large and small wharves transporting commercial goods, no one had noticed this abnormality…