Regardless of how a minority of hot-blooded scholars in court and countryside denounced them, in the following days, not only did most vice ministers of various departments in the capital—Gu Zhilong, Zhang Han, Zhou Bingwu, Zheng Xingxuan, and others—along with directors and vice directors of various bureaus, the Imperial Guard Command’s vice commanders and officials, and civil and military officials of the Privy Council submit memorials, but Zhang Chao residing far away in Langzhou, Zheng Yu and Zheng Chang in Huangzhou, even Yang Zhitang who had withdrawn to Hongzhou along with his son, Yang Fan who had been demoted to Regional Inspector of Raozhou after the disastrous defeat at Fanchuan River, Right Martial Guard Commander Zhao Zhen, as well as most regional inspectors, commanders, and vice commanders who were the principal military and political officers in Jiangxi, Jiangdong, Hunan, Jing-Xiang, and other regions, as well as the Imperial Guards—all successively submitted memorials advocating for the Empress Dowager to marry in a marriage alliance and the unification of Liang and Chu.

Of course, within the Chu court, not all mid and high-ranking officers and officials were willing to yield to the Liang army’s coercion and commit such shameless acts of urging marriage and alliance.

Shen Yang’s health deteriorated day by day. On the twenty-sixth, he barely managed to attend the court assembly, but after hearing Huang Huixiang and Zhou Qinian’s petition, just as the assembly dispersed and he had barely stepped out of Chongwen Hall, he vomited another mouthful of black blood. Fortunately, the imperial physicians rescued him in time and he didn’t die on the spot, but afterward he became completely bedridden, unable even to rise, much less participate in state governance.

Besides Xue Ruogu, Li Tang and Zhang Qian also attended day and night at the prime minister’s residence, at Shen Yang’s bedside, but fearing to agitate Shen Yang, they dared not relay news from outside.

Du Chongtao, Guo Liang, and others also didn’t yield to their own wishes, but still submitted petitions claiming illness, resigning from their positions as Commander and Vice Commander of the Imperial Guard, clearing the way for the marriage alliance and surrender.

After Yang En first advocated the marriage alliance in his memorial, he too fell gravely ill and never appeared in court again.

Since the tone for the marriage alliance and national merger had been set, the tense atmosphere within Jinling City eased accordingly. In the marketplace streets and alleys, people were more interested in the romantic and scandalous affairs between the Lord of Liang and the Empress Dowager of Changxin.

Matters that could previously only be secretly whispered were now openly discussed in teahouses and taverns, becoming increasingly outrageous and fantastical, to the point that rumors claiming the young emperor was an illegitimate child gained widespread circulation. Of course, numerous rumors about how Emperors Tianyou and Yanyou had been suspicious of and framed loyal subjects also spread through the marketplace streets and alleys.

At this point, no one stepped forward wielding the cudgel of “grave disrespect” to strictly prohibit such talk. Great Chu’s foundation quietly crumbled…

…

…

Hanshan Alley was quite dilapidated. A heavy rain had left the alley muddy and impassable, with sewage flowing everywhere. The Shen family teahouse normally only had defeated laborers and servants stop by to rest. Besides tea, they also sold some light refreshments.

Two emaciated old men who seemed to have had their last vitality drained by the years could no longer bear listening to these foul and obscene words circulating in the marketplace. They shuffled out.

Shen Yang, dressed in a gray cloth robe, at this moment couldn’t help but demand of Yang En:

“So Great Chu has completely collapsed like this—are you satisfied now? How do you face the successive ancestors of the Yang clan? Do you still remember you are a subject of Great Chu?”

Yang En tucked his withered hands into his sleeves, his cloudy old eyes glancing at the clear sky.

Though the sun blazed like fire, he felt a chill seeping through his bones. His pale, shriveled lips trembled several times, ultimately transforming into an inaudible soft sigh. Supported by his old servant, he departed without looking back at Shen Yang even once…

…

…

The new court assembly held in Chongwen Hall on the second of June explicitly appointed Cai Chen as acting Grand Palace Steward, Gu Zhilong as acting Commander of the Imperial Guard, and Huang Huixiang as acting Chancellor. These three, along with Zhou Bingwu and Prince Shou’s heir Yang Fan—urgently transferred from his post as Regional Inspector of Raozhou to Vice Administrator of the Privy Council—were jointly appointed as Marriage Alliance Ministers. They would travel by boat to Liyang to negotiate the marriage alliance, the young emperor’s abdication, and the merger of Liang and Chu.

At this stage, the overall situation of peacefully annexing Jiangnan, Lingnan, and other regions had been determined.

What remained to be negotiated were the placement of the Chu court’s ruler and ministers as well as the over two hundred fifty thousand troops of the Imperial Guard and palace guards, the implementation of New Policies, new administrative regional divisions, and other matters. This of course also included details of the young emperor’s abdication and the grand wedding ceremony welcoming Han Qian into Jinling to marry the Empress Dowager of Changxin.

Even though Gu Zhilong, Huang Huixiang, Zhou Bingwu, Yang Fan, and others had thrown away their dignity and appeared even more humble before Liang’s ruler and ministers, when it came to competing for benefits, they still fought for every inch of advantage.

Of course, they wouldn’t brazenly seek benefits directly for themselves. First, they proposed that Han Qian inherit the Chu imperial throne, that the new dynasty take Chu as its national title, and establish the capital at Jinling.

Their reasoning was quite appropriate. The Sichuan-Shu region was narrow and had always been a place where “when the realm is not yet in chaos, Shu falls into chaos first; when the realm is already settled, Shu remains unsettled.” It rarely had the capacity to truly interfere with the overall situation of the realm. However, how to govern Jiangnan in the future would be the new dynasty’s highest priority.

Moving the new capital to Jinling would undoubtedly greatly strengthen the new dynasty’s rule over Jiangnan and better and more quickly integrate Jiangnan’s gentry and common people into the new dynasty.

Furthermore, Han Qian had originally been a Chu subject and had risen to prominence along the Yangtze River. Many of Liang’s important ministers and veteran generals had quite a number who originated from the Jiang-Huai region, with their foundations in Jiang-Huai.

The new dynasty’s future economic construction and development had greater potential for development along the Yangtze River.

Han Qian inheriting the Chu imperial throne, the new dynasty taking Chu as its national title and establishing the capital at Jinling—no matter how one looked at it, the reasoning was quite sufficient.

However, whether the new dynasty’s imperial capital was chosen in the south or north had fundamental impact on the regional interests of both north and south.

Gu Qian and Zhu Juezhong didn’t have much concern or entanglement over the dispute about the national title, but they firmly opposed abandoning Luoyang to relocate the capital to Jinling.

“Over the past century, the North has been destroyed by warfare particularly severely, and the climate is often bitterly cold with barren land. The people’s livelihood is difficult, far less prosperous than Jiangnan,” Han Qian said. Seeing that in the first two rounds of secret talks both sides were still debating this matter, and seeing that Feng Liao and others were wavering, he stepped forward to make the final decision with a hammer blow, avoiding further entanglement on this issue. “All matters must consider the balanced development of people’s livelihood in both north and south. There’s no need to discuss capital relocation further, but Jinling can be separated out as a directly-administered prefecture to ensure Jinling’s economic and political status isn’t weakened to a certain degree…”

“Directly-administered prefecture?” Gu Zhilong and Huang Huixiang were somewhat puzzled.

Han Qian had discussed with Feng Liao and Gu Qian for a long time about how to govern Jiangnan in the future.

If they merged the Chu Metropolitan Prefecture with Jiangdong territory to establish Jiangdong Province, judging solely by the vastness of occupied territory, it wouldn’t be particularly large. But this Jiangdong Province’s administered population would exceed seven million, accounting for one-fifth of the new dynasty—this was too terrifying.

And Jiangdong had always been prosperous, occupying the most core water network system of the Yangtze River and Lake Tai.

If Jiangdong’s economic, political, and cultural center continued to remain in Jinling, in the future a southeastern political and economic bloc formed with Jinling as its core would inevitably stand distinctively alone in the new dynasty, even becoming too powerful to control, which would be extremely unfavorable to the new dynasty’s rule over Jiangnan.

Han Qian’s proposed solution was to partition Jiangdong.

Jinling City and the original Chu Metropolitan Prefecture region would become a directly-administered prefecture, administratively equivalent to a province, in order to maintain separation from the rest of Jiangdong. Apart from Jinling, the prefectures of Su, Run, and Chang north of Lake Tai, along with Yang, Tai, and Chu north of the river as well as Xu, Si, and Hai north of the Huai River, would separately form Huaihai Province, with a new Chongzhou Prefecture established on the northern shore of the Yangtze’s mouth to serve as Huaihai Province’s capital.

The prefectures and counties south of Lake Tai would form the new Zhenan Province, with Mingzhou Prefecture as its capital.

In other words, Jiangdong’s regional forces would be divided into three large blocks to rule separately.

Additionally, following regional divisions: Jiangxi Province, Jing-Xiang Province, Hunan Province, Lingnan Province, Fujian-East Province, and with Xuzhou as capital, the Chen-Xu-Si-Ye and Qianzhong vassal prefectures would form the new Qianzhong Province.

The placement of the Imperial Guard and palace guards was relatively easy.

All two hundred fifty thousand troops would be dismissed and returned to village garrison military offices in their home regions. The garrison military offices widely distributed throughout the Metropolitan Prefecture and various prefectures would directly convert to county and township offices. Military households would convert to civilian households. The military fields previously cultivated by military households would be directly allocated to households, exempting them from previous military service and rent taxes—they need only pay grain and taxes according to the New Policies.

For ordinary Chu army troops, this was all beneficial and would face no resistance.

Mid and high-ranking officers who had submitted marriage-urging memorials would have all past misdeeds and crimes pardoned and no longer investigated, retaining their original salary and benefits. After clan division and household separation, the fields and residences each family occupied that exceeded the equal-field law’s limits could even be given certain standard relaxations. Surplus portions would also have local prefecture offices raise funds to redeem them—no forced confiscation.

Mid and high-ranking officers who hadn’t submitted marriage-urging memorials would first be demoted to commoner status. Fields and residences exceeding the equal-field law’s limits would be directly confiscated, then the Supervisory Bureau would establish a special institution to conduct special investigations into whether they had committed any past misdeeds or evil acts.

Mid and low-ranking officials as well as Imperial Guard and palace guard officers without misdeeds or evil acts would be selected for positions one to two ranks lower. Those not selected would also be settled according to Liang’s retirement and discharge arrangements for active service personnel.

As for specific individuals: Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, and Zhang Chao had already retired and need not be mentioned. Zhou Bingwu, Zhang Xiang, Gu Zhilong, Huang Hua, Huang Huixiang, Zhou Qinian, and others would all successively retire after the transition period. However, Zheng Hui would remain appointed as Vice Pacification Commissioner of Lingnan Province. Zhang Xiang’s son Zhang Feng and Zhou Bingwu’s son Zhou Nan both had military talent. Huang Hua’s son Huang Lü was in his prime and vigorous years and could first serve in the General Staff. Gu Zhilong’s son Gu Xiongchang could serve in the Council of Deliberation. The major military and political officials of Jiangnan’s provinces would be directly appointed by Luoyang.

After the young emperor Yang Bin abdicated, he would be enfeoffed as Duke of Chu. Zhang Ping and others would accompany him to relocate to Luoyang, continuing to attend at his side. The imperial tombs of Emperors Tianyou and Yanyou would be preserved and would continue to be maintained and repaired under the care of Jiang Huo, Li Yao, Empress Dowager Mingcheng, and the Chu palace dowager consorts.

The secret merger negotiations lasted eighteen days before concluding. On this same day, Jing Qiongwen and Cao Gan escorted the Shu Prince’s heir by boat to Liyang, presenting a letter of surrender.

No matter what, Liang and Shu had always been allied nations with extremely close relations throughout, which hadn’t fractured due to various accidents.

Although the large framework for merging Sichuan-Shu followed Chu’s example—for instance, Chengdu Prefecture would be separately designated as a directly-administered prefecture under Luoyang’s direct management while other areas would establish Sichuan-Shu Province, and the direction for disbanding the palace guards, and so forth—apart from the Shu Lord Wang Yong being demoted to Duke of Shu and relocated to Luoyang, Shu ministers received much more generous treatment. Cao Gan and Jing Qiongwen were getting old and both wanted to retire. Han Qian arranged residences for them in both Chengdu Prefecture and Luoyang. Cao Zhe and others would still be heavily employed.

On the twenty-first, the young emperor Yang Bin issued an abdication edict. He himself moved from the Chu Palace into the Linjiang Prince’s mansion where Emperor Yanyou had lived before ascending the throne, still attended by old Chu Palace servants like Zhang Ping.

This day also formally announced that the Great Chu imperial dynasty had completely ended, completely becoming history.

Han Qian directly proclaimed himself emperor at Liyang, with the national title Great Liang. However, Han Qian didn’t change the era name. Instead, he directly issued an edict explicitly using the first year of Taihe as the baseline, determining it as the new Han Calendar’s first year and continuing from there. Everything was about simplifying complexity and facilitating people’s livelihood as the priority—the era name would never be changed again in the future.

Following this, various units of the First and Second Central Campaign Armies successively crossed the river and took over defense duties in Jinling as well as Yang, Tai, Chi, Run, Su, Chang, Xuan, She, Shu, Huang, Jing, Xiang, Fu, Sui, and other prefectures along both banks of the Yangtze.

By the eighteenth of July, the first batch of over two hundred thousand Chu troops, after having their weapons confiscated and undergoing preliminary reorganization, were successively repatriated to their home regions to reunite with their families.

…

…

Han Qian only formally entered Jinling City surrounded by various generals and ministers on the twenty-eighth of July to hold the marriage alliance grand ceremony.

On this day, the hottest part of summer and autumn had passed. Though the daytime remained sweltering, after nightfall cool breezes blew, making it quite pleasant.

After a full day of ceremonies, Han Qian felt rather weary after hosting a banquet for his ministers.

Walking into Changxin Palace, he saw the great hall filled with large red celebratory candles. Qing Yang sat on the brocade couch wearing a golden-embroidered scarlet phoenix-patterned bridal robe.

After the ceremony, her phoenix coronet had been covered again with a head veil, plunging her vision into darkness. Like a young maiden, she had no idea what kind of life she would face.

Hearing Han Qian enter and the footsteps of numerous palace maids withdrawing, she inexplicably felt a wave of apprehension. Her breathing tightened several degrees. She straightened herself to appear more composed.

Even after over ten years of separation without seeing each other, Qing Yang still had a maiden’s slender figure, though her bosom and arms appeared more voluptuous, rising and falling with her gradually quickening breath. Her powder-white arms exposed outside her half-sleeve robe were like white jade, complementing perfectly the glimpse of cleavage revealed at her robe’s neckline.

Han Qian didn’t take the golden rod placed on the lacquered tray but directly reached out to lift the head veil. Seeing a trace of panic in Qing Yang’s eyes, he asked with a smile: “During the day you performed the great ceremony and chatted and laughed with ministers as before. Why are you afraid of me now?”

“…”

After the Jinling rebellion, when Han Qian departed from Fanchang City to return to Xuzhou, in fact from that point on, Qing Yang had never seen him again. Counting on her fingers, it had been exactly fifteen years. At Fanchang, she had just turned nineteen.

She worried her memory might be flawed, that she would discover the person standing before her wasn’t the one who would occasionally slip into her dreams, making her body soft, hot, and moist. She feared her heart would inevitably feel disappointed.

Yet at this moment, she discovered the person before her was even more spirited and dashing than she had thought and yearned for these past years, making her heart tighten with burning heat. When his hand gently touched her, she had the impulse to nestle against him, as if surging streams激荡 and secretly flowed deep within her body.

She suddenly became shy again.

“What’s wrong?” In Han Qian’s impression, Qing Yang always carried a touch of aloofness. This moment’s shyness caused her charm to completely emanate. Her beautiful eyes were like a secluded spring pool in springtime, ready to draw one’s very soul inside.

“Let’s extinguish the lamps and rest…” Qing Yang said tenderly.

Though she had spoken many words during the daytime ceremony, none were as soft and tender as this moment…

…

…

The next morning, Han Qian struggled with difficulty to rise from this tender embrace. After taking his meal, he went to Chongwen Hall to handle state affairs. Just as he was preparing to summon Li Zhigao, Feng Liao, and Gu Qian to call in Cao Gan and Jing Qiongwen to finally confirm details of Zhao Qi and Zhu Zhen respectively departing from Liangzhou and Yiling to lead troops to take over Sichuan-Shu defense and the Shu Lord Wang Yong’s relocation to Luoyang, he saw Gu Zhilong, Zhou Bingwu, Yang Fan, Huang Huixiang, and others rush into the great hall after requesting audience.

“What’s happened?” Seeing these people’s complex expressions, Han Qian asked.

“Marquis Yang passed away yesterday…” Huang Huixiang stepped forward to report.

“What? How did he die? Was it illness or accident?” Han Qian stood up in shock, asking.

“It should have been illness.” Huang Huixiang said hesitantly.

“What do you mean ‘should have been’? What exactly happened? Haven’t you figured it out clearly?” Han Qian asked angrily.

“Marquis Yang hanged himself last night. When his old servant pushed open the door this morning, his body had already gone cold.” Yang Fan said, gritting his teeth as he stepped forward.

Han Qian sank dejectedly into the seat behind the imperial desk. He had originally planned to visit Yang En after finishing this business, but ultimately had still been a step too late.

“Should Marquis Yang be recorded in history as dying of illness?” Feng Liao asked hesitantly.

“…” Han Qian shook his head and said, “Record it truthfully in history. Have Feng Yi temporarily set aside other matters and specially manage Marquis Yang’s funeral. I’ll write the funeral oration myself…”

Saying this, Han Qian picked up his brush. Past events vividly came to mind as he wrote Yang En’s life story character by character, sentence by sentence. At the end of the funeral oration, he inscribed a line from an old dynasty poem: “You lot will perish in body and name together, but this will not prevent the rivers from flowing for ten thousand ages.” Seeing Gu Zhilong, Huang Huixiang, Zhou Bingwu, and others crane their necks to look, he said: “You are ‘you lot,’ Marquis Yang is ‘the rivers’!”

(End of Book)