Han Qian personally entered this ancient heroic city that had endured tribulations only a month after Bianling City was recovered.

Setting aside the many battles Bianling City had experienced during the middle and late periods before the former dynasty’s fall, after the High Ancestor Emperor established the Great Liang foundation in Bianling, Jin armies had repeatedly crossed the Yu River and attacked beneath Bianling City walls, though they never breached the city.

After the River Shuo upheaval, when Han Yuanqi and Chen Kun led troops to reinforce Bianling and held the city against the Weibo rebel army for over two years, that was the most thorough and tragic devastation Bianling had suffered from warfare in these thirty years.

At its peak prosperity, Bianling had over four hundred thousand civilian households within just the outer wall alone.

Over the past month, Han Yuanqi had ordered the relocation of over sixty thousand captured soldiers and their families to settlements along both banks of the Guo and Ying Rivers, filling the vast uninhabited areas created there by warfare and floods. This ultimately left fewer than three thousand households—twenty thousand people—who had undergone examination and were permitted to continue residing in Bianling City…

Gu Qian, Chen Juezhong, and others who accompanied Han Qian to Bianling all sighed endlessly at the sight of the devastated former capital.

Huangli Palace had originally been a building complex that Zhu Rang had focused on restoring after usurping Bianling, and it had preserved a thread of the city’s former prosperity. But in the end, before the city fell, Zhu Rang had burned it down with fire. The Liang army ultimately cleared over two thousand charred corpses beyond recognition—utterly tragic sights—most of whom were civilian sons and daughters who had been forced to enter the palace in recent years to serve as eunuchs and palace maids.

“Zhu Rang set the fires first, and the soldiers who attacked the city had no time to extinguish them. Only after the city fell did Liang Ren drive over two hundred men, women, elderly and young from his mansion to the rear courtyard and set fire. When the great fire was finally extinguished, over one hundred twenty people were rescued, but half had been choked to death by thick smoke,” Han Yuanqi said, describing the situation of fighting the fires after the city fell, as he watched Han Qian order the imperial carriage to stop before Liang Ren’s mansion, which had been partially burned by the great fire. He asked: “Does Your Majesty wish to have Liang Ren brought here?”

“Over a hundred innocent lives that need not have died were consigned to the sea of fire, including his own wife and children. Why would I want to see such a hard-hearted person?” Han Qian shook his head and said: “If I had not already abolished all cruel punishments, he should be made to taste what it’s like to be burned and roasted by fire. Now he can only be sentenced to death by strangulation, which is getting off easy. As for Zhu Rang, you can choose a place to erect a Tyrant King Stele for him, inscribing all his various vile deeds and evil acts on the stele to warn future generations. Right now Bianling is a complete ruin—it can truly be said that everything needs rebuilding from scratch. The Henan Provincial Administration’s capital is confirmed to be placed in Bianling, so Yuanqi, you’ll have to endure several more years of hardship…”

Rebuilding Bianling City was not a day’s work. This would be one of the key tasks for the Henan Provincial Strategic Commissioner’s Office and Inspector’s Office over the coming years.

In comparison, military operations within Henan territory no longer faced any substantial obstacles.

Using just five days to capture Bianling City, the Second Central Campaign Army then took responsibility for garrisoning Bianling, while Lin Haizheng, Wei Xu, Feng Zhang and others led the Henan Campaign Army to continue pushing eastward along the southern bank of the Yu River.

Han Donghu led the Second Central Campaign Army to remain in Bianling, not because they had suffered any heavy losses attacking Bianling City and needed rest and replenishment, but because the prefecture and county cities east of Bianling were almost surrendering at the sight of the wind, with no strong resistance forces visible. There was no need to dispatch all sixty to seventy thousand troops to rush about ceaselessly across the He-Huai lands.

The Second Central Campaign Army, which had undertaken heavier combat missions in the earlier phase, naturally remained in Bianling to continue recuperating, waiting to participate in the next phase of warfare.

At this time, Li Xiu had also led the River Shuo Campaign Army from Yizhou through Jingxing Pass to recover Dingzhou, Hengzhou and other places in the northern River Rebellion territory, then divided forces from Dingzhou and Hengzhou—one part sweeping toward Youzhou, Yanzhou, and Danzhou at the southern foothills of Yan Mountain, another part pushing along the northern bank of the Yu River, recovering cities along the route. Both routes encountered no resistance.

Wen Bo, who had deployed troops from Taiyuan Prefecture after the new year, had also already recovered Xinzhou, Weizhou and other places.

At this rate, by around mid to late April, aside from Yunzhou north of Yan Mountain and the Liaodong region, Great Liang troops would be able to recover nearly all prefectures and counties north of the Huai River.

Gaining the realm on horseback was easy; governing the realm on foot was not.

Currently, Han Qian had clearly decided to comprehensively implement the provincial administration system, further subdividing based on the former dynasty’s ten circuit inspectorates, while also clearly establishing each province’s capital as the economic, political, and cultural center for focused development.

Where a provincial capital was established concerned the core interests of local factional powers. Even though Han Qian’s authority was strong enough, some of his decisions still caused some controversy in court.

For instance, his earlier decision to incorporate all the prefectures including Weibo on the northern bank of the Yu River into the newly established River Shuo Province, while not choosing the relatively prosperous Weizhou, Bozhou or Dingzhou—all located on the main postal road at the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains—as the River Shuo provincial capital. Instead, he required Li Xiu to select a site east of Jizhou in the desolate coastal area to construct a new city as the River Shuo provincial capital seat. This was quite perplexing to many in court.

On this visit to personally inspect the war-recovered Bianling City, Han Qian entered the temporary palace Han Yuanqi had prepared for him and held a banquet to reward the attending ministers, officers and officials of Henan Province, as well as Sima Tan, Sima De uncle and nephew, Xu Sizhao, Xu Jin, Zhou Kun and others who had rushed from Xu-Si and Songzhou to have audience. During the banquet, he proposed separating the region east of Songzhou, south of the Yu River to the Huai River, and establishing it as a separate province.

For this new Shandong Province’s capital, Han Qian did not favor the more prosperous Jizhou or Xuzhou, which were closer to the national capital Luoyang, but was more inclined toward Mizhou, which was tucked in a corner facing the Yellow Sea.

Currently, Zhao Qi had led vanguard troops to garrison Mizhou City. Han Qian intended to have Han Chengmeng rush to Mizhou to serve as Mizhou Prefecture Magistrate, joining with Lin Haizheng, Zhao Qi, Wei Xu and others to quickly arrange the establishment of the provincial administration.

The many ministers at the table were equally quite surprised by this decision.

Although Han Qian also explained at the banquet that subsequently, as maritime technology and ocean trade further developed, Great Liang’s economic and cultural center of gravity would necessarily shift toward the coastal belt, and establishing the newly created Shandong provincial capital in coastal Mizhou at this time would help accelerate this process, in many people’s view, not choosing the more prosperous Xuzhou, which was also at the center of inland waterways, carried more than a little meaning of punishing the Sima clan.

Sima Tan and his nephew Sima De might have thought the same in their hearts, but at this moment they could only cry out that His Majesty was wise and sage.

After the banquet was cleared and the various ministers returned to their lodgings to rest, Han Qian still had no desire to sleep. He sat at his desk reviewing correspondence sent from various places. Yun He pushed the door open and entered, holding a letter, and said to Han Qian: “Luoyang Academy has already recruited a crew and plans to depart from Mengzhou at the end of next month, sailing east along the Yu River out to sea to test the new measurement methods…”

“This is good news. Unfortunately, I may have to go to East Lake next month, otherwise I could go to Mengzhou to receive these crew members and see them off with encouragement,” Han Qian said with some regret.

Using the new heliocentric theory, supplemented by more precise timekeeping tools and star observation positioning instruments to determine longitude and latitude, was key to the future new geographical measurement methods and conducting oceanic navigation away from coastlines.

However, new technologies and methods needed to be verified, calibrated, and perfected through long-distance sea voyages—all extremely adventurous endeavors.

Han Qian had not directly designated the navy or relevant central agencies to directly organize personnel for substantial long-distance navigation experiments, but instead wanted Luoyang Academy to offer substantial rewards to recruit volunteers. His intention was also to hope to inscribe the spirit of adventurous exploration into the collective will of the nation’s people.

“Your Majesty’s decision today to establish the new provincial capital in Mizhou seems to have left quite a few people rather perplexed,” Yun He said.

“That’s certain. Even though Gu Qian, Feng Liao, and Zhigao can all be said to be exceptional talents of the age, what they primarily consider at this time is still Great Liang’s stability. From that perspective, the selection of capitals for the new River Shuo and Shandong provinces should be laid out around the national capital Luoyang as much as possible. Weizhou and Xuzhou would both be better choices, rather than those coastal wastelands where birds won’t shit and that are often struck by storms. However, what I must consider cannot be limited to just these matters.”

Han Qian said with a smile.

“With Great Liang’s current development of new learning, maintaining a century’s lead over the world poses no problem. This will also drive Great Liang’s national power to potentially continue thriving for a hundred years, fearing no internal troubles or external threats. However, if Great Liang becomes too focused on pursuing stability, it will very likely ultimately result in losing the internal drive to constantly break through and continuously develop. And when Great Liang one day becomes set in its ways and arrogantly self-important, there will eventually come a day when overseas barbarian states develop new learning that surpasses Great Liang. At that time, Great Liang will usher in new calamities. Upon the great ocean, surging waves and towering seas are extremely dangerous—ships can be destroyed and people killed at any moment—but it is precisely this danger that motivates people to constantly explore, to struggle against heaven and struggle against earth, rather than simply struggling against people.”

“…” Yun He propped her cheeks and looked at Han Qian, saying with a smile: “Looking at Uncle Sima Tan and his nephew’s dejected expressions, they’re certainly convinced that Your Majesty intentionally wants to punish them!”

“What they think no longer matters much,” Han Qian said with a smile, gazing at Yun He’s charming countenance under the lamplight—her affectionate beautiful eyes flowing with captivating and tender light, her skin as delicate as a young girl’s.

In the warm interior, Yun He sat with her skirt hem cushioning beneath her hips, pulled taut, outlining her slender yet ample waist and full buttocks that carried no sense of burden whatsoever, like a completely ripened peach that made one want to devour it in one bite.

“It’s so late, we should rest. These past days, being busy discussing matters with the various ministers, you haven’t rested well each day. Today we can retire early!” Han Qian stood up and grasped Yun He’s warm, soft little hand, wanting to unfasten her skirt and garments to thoroughly and completely possess this jade-like beauty once again.

“Ah…” Yun He grabbed Han Qian’s hand and said bashfully: “Yun He fears she cannot serve Your Majesty today.”

“What’s wrong?” Han Qian asked.

“I don’t know why, but these past few days I’ve been feeling nauseous. I have no desire to eat anything. I’m afraid I won’t even be able to accompany Your Majesty south,” Yun He said.

“Ah?” Han Qian reached through her skirt to feel Yun He’s flat, soft lower abdomen, then had her lie in his embrace and asked: “Have you had an imperial physician examine your pulse?”

“How could Yun He have the nerve to go find an imperial physician and tell him Your Majesty took liberties with Yun He?” Yun He reclined comfortably against Han Qian’s thighs but covered her burning face with her hand, not letting Han Qian’s blazing gaze stare at her.

“That’s true. I’ll have Gu Qian and Feng Liao come over to draft an edict!” Han Qian said, slapping his forehead.

“You can’t cause such chaos so late at night with chickens flying and dogs jumping. Let’s wait until tomorrow…” Yun He grabbed Han Qian’s hand and hugged it to her bosom. Lying like this, she felt incomparably at peace. She didn’t know when she had completely fallen for this man who was more imposing than her father and more worthy of her worship. Thinking of when he first couldn’t restrain himself and unfastened her skirts, she had trembled with excitement first…