“What do you say—is Yun He’s condition alright?”

Seeing the traveling imperial physician Gu Zitong emerge from the inner chamber, Chen Youjian leaned forward and couldn’t help asking nervously.

“Whether there’s a problem or not depends on how you look at it—I just don’t know whether I should congratulate Marquis Chen or help Marquis Chen conceal this matter somewhat?” Gu Zitong cupped his hands with a smile.

Yun He was Chen Youjian’s granddaughter. She didn’t even have an official title yet but had already become pregnant. Chen Youjian was indeed somewhat embarrassed.

Gu Qian and Zhu Juezhong exchanged glances, their clever plan having succeeded. They chuckled to avoid making Chen Youjian uncomfortable, and said to Gu Zitong: “Princess Yun He is not acclimated to the local climate and feels somewhat unwell. Physician Gu must prescribe a couple of good medicinal formulas to help regulate her condition…”

“This is Zitong’s duty,” Gu Zitong cupped his hands and said. “The Princess should eat lightly. Otherwise there’s no problem. She should also avoid excessive travel by carriage and horse, and shouldn’t be too diligent in attending His Majesty…”

“Cough!” Hearing these words from the inner chamber, Han Qian coughed. Let these people worry less about his private life. His experience in caring for pregnant women was not necessarily inferior—in any case, after enduring the first three months there wouldn’t be any major problems.

Hearing Han Qian’s dissatisfied coughing, Gu Zitong shivered. He cupped his hands toward the various ministers sitting in the outer chamber and took his leave first.

“You all come in to speak,” Han Qian said from the inner chamber.

Just as Gu Qian, Zhu Juezhong, Chen Youjian and others were about to stand up, they heard Yun He whispering to Han Qian in the inner chamber: “No, you go out and discuss matters with the ministers. I’ve already lost all face…” Everyone thought Yun He was probably too embarrassed. Smiling inwardly, they sat down again in the outer chamber, waiting for Han Qian to come out.

Han Qian was reluctantly pushed by Yun He to the outer chamber to discuss with the ministers how to handle this matter’s aftermath.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Juezhong said: “The Duke of Luo must have anticipated that Yun He’s condition might be unwell, but should we first send someone to inform the two consorts?”

What Zhu Juezhong meant was that Zhu Zhen had long known his sister had become involved with Han Qian, but Wang Jun and Zhao Ting’er were not easy to deal with. If these few people with deep schemes matchmade this affair and the two consorts bore grudges, they might encounter some bad luck at some point. He felt it would be better to inform the two consorts before determining the title.

“Jun’er and Ting’er already know that Yun He serves at my side. Originally in Luoyang we wanted to settle this matter, but we didn’t expect Bianling to fall so quickly. In our haste, we rushed to Bianling first. Regarding Yun He’s pregnancy, I’ve just written a letter that will be sent to Luoyang shortly…” Han Qian said.

“Your Majesty is not eager to proclaim yourself emperor, yet the matter of conferring Lady Jun and Lady Ting as Queen and Noble Consort can proceed first, while Yun He can be conferred as Virtuous Consort—national affairs are pressing, and Your Majesty, mindful that the people of the realm still suffer in fire and water and wishing to rescue them first, can simply draft an edict and announce it to the realm. All ceremonies can be simplified,” Zhu Juezhong said.

“The ceremonies should indeed be simplified, and Yun He shall also be conferred as Noble Consort,” Han Qian was not accustomed to lavishly conducting grand ceremonies and said.

Moreover, although he was not someone who lacked desires, and Yun He had ultimately made him unable to control his feelings, this was also because after spending so much time together his feelings became irrepressible. He would never widely accept a harem without any feelings.

Therefore, he didn’t want to create distinctions with titles like noble, virtuous, virtuous and wise, turning his private life into something like a small imperial court.

Though Zhu Juezhong and the others were more inclined toward conservatism and tradition, they were also deeply influenced by new learning and new governance. They wouldn’t quibble over inconsequential title matters. Moreover, having Yun He honored as Noble Consort was something they were happy to see. They asked again: “What about Lady Xi?”

The implication was that they should take this opportunity to expose the matter between Han Qian and Xi Ren directly, to save everyone the exhaustion of constantly acting.

“When the realm is unified, Xi Ren’s merit, together with Jun’er and Ting’er’s, will be no less than that of all you ministers. At that time, she will be enfeoffed according to merit,” Han Qian said. Beyond his affection for Xi Ren, he also held some respect for her. Moreover, Xi Ren herself was unwilling to be conferred as an imperial consort.

Furthermore, currently Great Liang, aside from textile and other industries that already extensively employed female workers, as social productive forces further developed and women possessed more independent economic status and capability, they would inevitably also strive for more independent social status.

At present, unifying the Central Plains no longer faced any substantial obstacles. What Han Qian considered was how to sustain the subsequent development of social productive forces, avoiding the predicament of pursuing stability alone, becoming set in one’s ways, and allowing society to stagnate. Otherwise, no matter how perfectly designed a system was, it couldn’t prevent the empire from eventually collapsing under the combined assault of internal troubles and external difficulties.

This necessarily required gradually loosening restrictions on women.

Besides currently promoting the appointment of female officials, Han Qian also planned to enfeoff Xi Ren according to merit at an appropriate time, slightly accelerating the arrival of this trend—or rather, when court and countryside had no choice but to acknowledge this trend, Great Liang could have fewer disputes and internal friction.

Hearing Han Qian say this, though Zhu Juezhong, Gu Qian and others were momentarily stunned, fortunately the current era’s customs were relatively open. They had not experienced the hundreds of years of restraint from the Cheng-Zhu school of principle in later generations, and the former dynasty even had precedents of female emperors ruling. They didn’t think Han Qian enfeoffing Xi Ren according to merit was any particularly outrageous action.

Moreover, no matter how outrageous Han Qian’s actions were, everyone could pinch their noses and accept them.

Who could blame Han Qian for establishing a foundation they had never seen before?

Speaking of Xi Ren’s merit in establishing the imperial enterprise, not to mention Gu Qian and Zhu Juezhong, even among the direct-line generals from Tangyi Army origins, few could brazenly compare their accomplishments with Xi Ren’s!

“Then we shall arrange things as Your Majesty says,” Zhu Juezhong and the others responded.

“Then this matter is settled,” Han Qian said.

Gu Qian and Zhu Youjian felt today’s matter was quite important and hadn’t allowed Li Zhigao, Han Yuanqi and other generals to trouble Han Qian with military affairs—this matter was quickly discussed and roughly decided. The edict would be drafted by Gu Qian and Qin Wen. Han Qian ended up with half a day’s leisure. Seeing the weather was fine, he accompanied Yun He to stroll around the old site of Prince Yong’s Palace.

Though the old site of Prince Yong’s Palace had not been burned to ashes and ruins, having experienced warfare and then being abandoned without reconstruction, currently not many palace pavilions and platforms remained intact.

The courtyards were overgrown with weeds. Before Han Qian and Yun He entered, Huo Li insisted on sending guards in first to trample those thriving grass clusters to prevent snakes and insects from hiding within.

Though dilapidated, walking in, Yun He could recall countless memories from the past.

Prince Yong’s Palace certainly needed to be renovated and preserved, but to prevent localities from renovating for renovation’s sake in such urgent financial circumstances, Han Qian required Han Yuanqi to establish Bianling Academy on the old site of Prince Yong’s Palace.

Wanting to immediately popularize universal education throughout the population was quite difficult financially, but establishing one or two comprehensive academies in each province was a priority task that must be guaranteed.

Han Qian stayed in Bianling with Yun He until late April.

During this period, the Liang army had almost recovered all territory south of Yan Mountain and north of the Huai River. Currently, aside from Jingzhao Prefecture (Luoyang), they had also officially established six provinces: Yongzhou, Hedong, He Shuo, Henan, Shandong, and Huainan. With the recovery of He Shuo, northern Jin, and the He-Huai regions, Great Liang’s registered civilian households also officially exceeded twenty million.

Although after the rupture in Liang-Chu relations, border trade between Liang and Chu had actually shrunk by over half, following the Liang army’s series of major military victories in He Shuo, southern Jin, central Jin, northern Jin, and the He-Huai regions, local construction and civilian relief efforts were also quickly initiated. Actual production demand for industrial goods from Huaiyang, Luoyang, East Lake, Xuzhou, Dengjun, Chuzhou and other places continued to expand.

During Han Qian’s time in Bianling, his main focus was also promoting the transfer and development of textile, shipbuilding, mining, metal smelting and casting, cement production and other industries to newly recovered regions, quickly restoring production and civilian livelihood in these areas.

By the end of April, Yun He’s pregnancy was already showing, and her morning sickness was not so severe anymore, so she returned to Luoyang first to nurture the pregnancy.

At this time, the First and Second Central Campaign Armies had also completed rest, replenishment with new soldiers, and departed from Xingyang and Bianling respectively along the Ying and Si Rivers southward, preparing to launch the final campaign to recover the Jiang-Huai region.

The Second Central Campaign Army, after further expansion, totaled over fifty thousand combat troops and auxiliary soldiers. Under Han Donghu’s leadership, they moved south along the Si River, garrisoning in Xuzhou and Sizhou, observing eastern Huai from the northern bank of the lower Huai River.

The First Central Campaign Army and the First Brigade of the Imperial Guard Army, totaling sixty thousand combat troops and auxiliary soldiers, under the leadership of generals Kong Xirong, Feng Zhang, Xiao Dahu, Dou Rong, Huo Li, Lu Ze, Wang Cheng, He Liufeng and others, escorted Han Qian along with ministers Gu Qian, Zhu Juezhong, Li Zhigao, Feng Liao, Feng Yi, Han Daochang, Guo Que, Qiao Weiyan, Qin Wen, Wang Zhe, Yin Peng and others, arriving at East Lake in mid-May to join with the ministers of Huainan Provincial Administration and Huainan Campaign Army: Gao Shao, Yang Qin, Zhao Wuji, Cao Ba, Li Qi and others.

Before this, the Huainan Campaign Army had also successively expanded—infantry and cavalry expanded to over forty thousand, and the navy expanded to over twenty thousand. Sixteen naval warships were converted into new-style gunboats, collectively equipped with one hundred sixty-eight light smoothbore cannons.

The great battle between Liang and Chu was like an arrow on the bowstring, ready to be released at any moment.

Compared to the Liang army’s assembly of one hundred sixty to seventy thousand troops along the Huai River and Yangtze River lines, the Chu army’s forces assembled in eastern Huai and along the southern bank of the Yangtze in various prefectures and Jinling exceeded two hundred fifty thousand.

However, at this moment, no one in the world, including the court and people of the Chu state, believed the Chu army could have much chance of victory in this final decisive battle…