Taiheiki

Chapter 100 Shake
"Zhu An, do you have anyone you can trust on the ship?" Wei Cong suddenly asked.

"I have a nephew traveling with me!" Zhu An answered in confusion.

"Very good. Hand over the matters at hand to your nephew. I will also give you 10,000 yuan. You can give it to him and ask him to bring it to your family!" Wei Cong said in an unquestionable tone: "For the next two months, you will be my guide!"

"Ah!" Zhu An was stunned. The order of this handsome nobleman in front of him was completely beyond his expectations, but he did not dare to refuse.

"That's it! Time is running out! Fifth Ascent!"

"Here!" Diwu Deng said in a deep voice.

"Take this man to collect the money and take care of his affairs at the same time. Don't keep the boat anchored for too long!"

"Here!"

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Bachu.

When Feng Gun arrived at the docks below Baqiu, horns blared from the city walls. Two lines of soldiers lined the path beside the pier, shielding the civilians who gathered to watch the cavalry general's display. They stood erect, their helmets and weapons gleaming coldly in the midday sun.

"It should be said that Wei Mengde has chosen a very good successor for himself!" Ying Feng whispered, "The soldiers are not only strong in body, but also in eyes!"

Feng Gun did not say anything, but he admitted in his heart that Ying Feng was right. Even after losing a founder like Wei Cong, this army still had such strict discipline, which showed that the current commander was a very capable person.

"I am Zhao Yannian, the military commander, and I am here to meet the General of Chariots and Cavalry!" Because he was wearing armor, Zhao Yannian did not kneel down, but just bowed deeply as a greeting.

Feng Gun looked Zhao Yannian up and down. The man in front of him gave him a very familiar smell. When he was an official in Youbeiping and Liaodong, he often smelled it on those veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles and rolled in piles of corpses.

"Wei Cong asked you to temporarily take over as the commander of the rebellion suppression team?" Feng Gun asked.

"Exactly!" Zhao Yannian gritted his teeth. He waved his hand, took the tray from his subordinate, and presented it with both hands: "This is the seal of Wei Xiaowei. He asked me to present it to the general!"

Feng Gun's personal soldiers stepped forward and took the tray. Feng Gun picked up the seal and played with it in his hands for a few times. Zhao Yannian held his breath and dared not look up. Wei Cong entrusted this army to him when he left, but whether he could take over this trust and keep these hundreds of people in his hands depended on now.

"Wei Cong is a very courageous fellow. He even dared to kill a county lieutenant appointed by the imperial court, and even ran away after killing him! But..." Having said that, Feng Gun paused for a moment and looked at the neat rows on both sides: "Forget it, let you continue to serve as the lieutenant in charge of suppressing rebellion!" As he said that, he threw the seal back on the tray, and the personal guards handed the seal back to Zhao Yannian.

"Thank you, General!" Zhao Yannian let out a long sigh and felt a chill on his back. He hurriedly picked up the seal and bowed to Feng Gun.

"Zhao Yannian, remember, this is only a temporary replacement!" Feng Gun's voice had a metallic quality, cold and hard. "Wei Cong was able to become the Rebellion Suppression Captain because of his martial arts. If you want to succeed him, you can only do more and better than him! Otherwise, you won't be able to hold on to this seal for long!"

"I understand!" Zhao Yannian lowered his head so deeply that he could almost see his knees.

"That's it!" Feng Gun jumped on his horse and said, "From now on, you will be the vanguard of the front army, and your target is Changsha!"

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Hanshou, the Wuling barbarian camp.

In the tent, Jingfu and Liu Xin were standing beside the long table, looking intently at the map on it.

"Obviously, retreat is the wisest option!" Liu Xin sighed. "Time and distance are on our side!"

"If we retreat now, the others will immediately defect to the imperial court!" Jingfu said with a wry smile, "Then it will be our turn to be in trouble!"

"So what!" Liu Xin laughed. "Even if the Changsha barbarians surrendered, Feng Gun wouldn't trust them. Their surrender wouldn't only fail to strengthen Feng Gun's power, but would actually become a burden!"

"You're right, but I can't just sit there and do nothing and abandon the other tribes and retreat!" Jingfu said with a wry smile, "This reputation is too bad. I've worked so hard to build this reputation over the years. If I retreat like this, who will trust me in the future? Without trust, what else can I do?"

"You—!" Liu Xin shook his head, his face filled with disappointment. "Your good point is that you've read Han Chinese books, but your bad point is that you take everything they say seriously. Haven't you heard that it's better to have no books than to believe everything in them? Having a good reputation for trustworthiness is certainly important; it makes it easier to recruit others and expand your power. But you have to understand that achieving great things ultimately depends not on trustworthiness but on strength. The tyrannical Qin was a nation of tigers and wolves, and they never talked about trustworthiness. Yet, wasn't it they who ultimately destroyed the six kingdoms and unified the world?"

"Tyrannical Qin?" Jingfu was stunned. In the political discourse of the Han Dynasty, using Qin as a metaphor wasn't a good thing. It was even worse than Xia Jie and Shang Zhou. After all, no one denied that the Xia and Shang dynasties had once ruled the world. In Han folk custom, Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were revered as fierce and brave gods (even if they were inferior, they were still gods). But Qin was different. The Han Dynasty directly claimed to be the successor of Zhou, skipping the Qin Dynasty and calling Qin Shi Huang the King of Qin, completely refusing to acknowledge Qin's rule over the world. These Jingfu knew this, and their faces suddenly turned grim.

"You think the tyrannical Qin was bad? But do you know? Before Shang Yang, the tyrannical Qin was very trustworthy. On the contrary, it was the princes of the Three Jins and the Central Plains who were cunning and fickle!" Liu Xin sneered, "I just told you that it is important to be trustworthy and have a good reputation, but it is more important to sell that reputation well and turn it into real strength! And now is the time!"

"what do you mean--"

"Use delaying tactics and drag out the war. Don't engage the Han army. What determines victory or defeat is not those who are besieging Changsha, but the strength in your hands. The Han treasury is empty, the emperor is sick and childless, the ministers have different ambitions, the literati are disloyal, and the people are suffering. This is definitely not a good time to use foreign troops. Although Feng Gun is a good general, it is difficult for him to save this crisis on his own. As long as you drag it out, you will have a chance!" "I have heard what you said before, but even if a centipede dies, it will not be cut into pieces. No matter how weak the Han is, its strength is far greater than mine. If I retreat south step by step, then Feng Gun will lead his troops to advance step by step and attack my nest directly. What should I do then?"

"Then Jingzhou will definitely undergo a major change, leaving him unable to take care of both ends!"

"Ah!" Jingfu was surprised, and then he understood: "You mean you can--"

"That's right, so you don't have to worry!" Liu Xin said.

"Alright! Let's do as the Immortal says!" Jingfu pondered for a long time, then gritted his teeth, drew his sword, and cut off the corner of the table. "The army will retreat to the southwest and wait for the right time! Those who disobey my orders will be punished like this!"

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Yuzhang, somewhere on the Pojiang River.

The river, freed from the mountains on either side, flowed into the broad valley, its current suddenly becoming gentle. The broad river stretched for nearly thirty miles before narrowing again, becoming more like a long, narrow lake than a river. Four or five sailboats floated on the river, slowly drifting downstream. From a distance, the people on board were bustling about, as if they were fishing.

"I really don't know what that Jiangyi General is up to! He makes us play with ropes in this godforsaken place every day! Qiantou, is he planning to become a leader of the Shanyue here?"

"Shut up!" Qian Wen saw two crimson-robed soldiers approaching from the corner of his eye. He quickly scolded his companions in a low voice, and shouted loudly: "Push harder! Haven't you eaten yet? Push harder!"

As the sailors shouted, the ropes tightened, pulling a plow-like frame from the water. Atop it were a dozen magnets, covered in black sand and gravel. Qian Wen quickly used a bristle brush to sweep the black sand and gravel off the magnets and placed it in a rattan box. Once the cleaning was complete, the sailors lowered the plow-shaped frame back into the water. Once it sank to the bottom, the boat began to slowly move forward.

"Qiantou, you are knowledgeable, do you know what this sand and gravel is? It seems that the general in crimson clothes is here for this stuff!" asked the companion next to him.

"Like you, I don't know either!" Qian Wen shook his head. About a month ago, Wei Cong's fleet arrived in these waters and occupied a riverside village as a foothold. Then, they began a massive construction project, first felling trees to build houses, digging trenches, and constructing kilns to make bricks, as if they were planning a long-term plan. Over time, people's hearts wavered. They followed Wei Cong for food and clothing, and for the land, not to become mountaineers in this desolate place. But for now, the army still had sufficient rations, and the surrounding area was surrounded by endless forests, rivers, and lakes. It was hard to tell where to run, so few people fled for a while.

"It doesn't look like they're reclaiming wasteland for farming!" someone whispered. "If they were going to reclaim wasteland for farming, then this large expanse of riverbank land should be reclaimed quickly, with a crop of beans planted first. After the land matures, they can plant corn or something like that next year. Building houses and ditches before could secure the foundation, but what are they doing with all this sand and gravel now?"

"Could there be some treasure in this river?" someone said excitedly, "I heard that Mr. Wei has been taking his men to wander around the surrounding mountains every day these days, calling in the village elders and mountain hikers and questioning them one by one, as if he's looking for something!"

"Yes, I heard from a soldier that their leader knows of a great treasure hidden in this mountain. If they find it, they will be richer than the emperor!"

"Richer than the emperor?" Someone scoffed. "How is that possible, you fool? The emperor is rich in the four seas. Everything within them belongs to him. Even if they find a great treasure, it belongs to the emperor. How can they be richer than the emperor?"

"I think you're the fool! They wouldn't tell anyone if they found the treasure. How would the emperor know there's a treasure in Luoyang Palace?"

"Stop talking and focus on your work! Someone is coming!" Qian Wen shouted in a low voice, and the sailors hurriedly turned the windlass hard to pull the wooden frame out of the water again.

After the soldier left, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. A young man approached Qian Wen and lowered his voice, "Qiantou, do you know Ah Cheng? He's the bald guy who sleeps in the room next door?"

"Are you talking about the guy with the bulbous nose in Haihun County?"

"Yes, that's him!" The young man looked around and whispered, "When I got off the boat yesterday, that guy came up to me and asked if I wanted to escape!"

"Escape, where to escape? In the wilderness!"

"He said we could grab a boat at night and escape overnight. With a boat, whether we were pirates or returning home, it would be better than being a laborer here!"

"Robbery?" Qian Wen's mind moved: "Things are not that simple, you'd better be careful!"

"Qiantou, what do you say!"

"Think about it, if this thing succeeds, you'll definitely lose your head. And to drive away the stolen ship, you'll need at least fifteen or sixteen people, right? The more people there are, the easier it is for news to leak out. If only one person betrays you, you're all doomed. After all, staying here is hard, but you still have enough to eat. Not everyone is willing to risk their lives!"

"Yes! I didn't expect so much!" The young man took a breath and said, "Thank you for the money, but what should I do now?"

"Now that you know about this, if you refuse, they will definitely not let you go. After all, this concerns the lives of all of them!"

"Yeah, then what should I do--" When he said this, the boy's face changed drastically. He lowered his head, avoided Qian Wen's gaze, and left silently. Qian Wen looked at his back and sighed sadly.

As the saying goes, "the more you know, the more troubles you have." Compared to Qian Wen and others on the boat who were confused about their future, Yuan Tian on the shore knew much more and was much more anxious. He loved iron forging since he was a teenager. Although he came from a wealthy family, he often hung out in blacksmith workshops and had good blacksmithing skills. So after fleeing to Yuhan, he hid his identity as a blacksmith. When he first saw the black sand and gravel unloaded from the ship, he recognized that it was extremely high-quality iron ore. After the concentrate was dug out from the mountains, it had to be crushed and screened before it could be obtained. You could just use a simple earthen furnace to smelt it and get the best refined iron. This immediately aroused Yuan Tian's vigilance. Could this guy named Wei Cong be trying to smelt iron privately and gather people to rebel?
Since Emperor Wu of Han, the Han Empire implemented a government-run iron industry. Private iron smelting was punishable by the punishment of "wearing a six-jin iron clamp on the left foot," and the tools and products were confiscated by the government. However, after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Jin Cao, a subordinate of the Grand Marshal, was responsible for salt and iron affairs. Although iron officials were appointed in counties with high iron production, they were managed by the county Jin Cao and were responsible for smelting and collecting taxes, except in a few areas such as Leiyang, private iron smelting was no longer prohibited. During the Yuanhe period (84-86) of Emperor Zhang, due to financial difficulties, the salt and iron industry was temporarily state-run.

(End of this chapter)