Section Five

After settling the matters of the trellis, Lin Feng shifted his focus to the war on the southern front. Compared to the previous months, the conflict between the Han and the Qing in the regions of Jiangsu and Anhui had gradually quieted down. Of course, this did not mean the war was nearing its end; in reality, both sides had reached a point where there was no room for compromise and no possibility of peace. The current relative calm was merely a result of both armies being exhausted, forced to pause military operations to catch their breath and prepare for the next phase of large-scale warfare.

Because of his personal expedition against Galdan, Lin Feng had not invested much energy into the southern front during the first half of the year. This logic was easy to understand: compared to Galdan’s tens of thousands of elite cavalry, the hundreds of thousands of battered and ineffective troops the pseudo-Qing maintained in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were truly not worth much concern. Moreover, from a military perspective, even if the Han army were to fail in Anhui, it would not pose a fundamental threat to the foundations of the Great Han Dynasty. Conversely, even if the Qing army were to drive the Han forces out of Anhui and occupy the Huai region, what purpose would it serve? How could a desperate, dying counterattack save a dynasty that had already collapsed?

At the beginning of the year, the pseudo-Qing Prince Jian, Labu, had mustered his remaining strength, gathering nearly eighty thousand troops in Nanjing. He simultaneously incited the remnants of the former Prince An, Yolo, in Jiangxi, attacking Anhui along two routes—one by water and one by land. Labu personally commanded the Jiangsu route, departing from Nanjing and advancing west along the Yangtze, successively capturing key border strongholds such as Hezhou, Taiping Prefecture, and Wuhu. Meanwhile, the mercenary force from Jiangxi advanced north from Duan and Dechang, capturing the cities of Huangmei and Susong within a dozen days, with the intention of invading Anqing.

If viewed from the perspective of military history, the Han army’s subsequent action could be considered the first large-scale amphibious landing operation in Chinese history. In early March 1686, Wang Dahai, the Great Han’s General Who Pacifies Liaodong and acting Governor of Anhui, led his main force of over fourteen thousand troops from the Second Infantry Division out of Liaodong. Under the protection of Admiral Shi Lang’s First Naval Fleet, the army sailed south. After drifting on the vast ocean for a month, they suddenly appeared off the northern coast of Jiangsu. The local garrison was caught off guard, and within a day and a night, the Han army captured Zhudao and the East and West Liandao islands, securing control over Haizhou Bay. The following day, under the cover of naval artillery, the main force launched an assault on Lianyungang in Haizhou Prefecture. In less than two hours, the landing was successful, and all six hundred defenders of Lianyungang surrendered.

Prior to this, the pseudo-Qing Prince Jian had been in high spirits, capturing several towns in Anhui and using superior numbers to assault Liu Lousi’s Third Infantry Division. The two sides clashed for days, but due to the damp spring monsoon, the power of the Han army’s firearms was greatly reduced, and combined with their thin numbers, the Qing army repeatedly gained the upper hand. Liu Lousi’s troops were forced to retreat eastward, engaging in a grueling struggle with Labu’s army near the Xinyu River in Taiping Prefecture. Just then, news of the Han army’s massive reinforcements arrived, and the situation instantly reversed. Sun Sike’s and Zhou Qiu’s forces converged at Taihu, immediately launching an attack on the Jiangxi army. Within five days, they won several consecutive battles, recapturing the crucial town of Susong in southern Anhui and forcing the Jiangxi army into a retreat. Wang Dahai’s "heart-piercing" tactic struck Labu at his core; when news reached the front that the Han army had landed in Jiangsu and that Haizhou Prefecture had fallen, the tens of thousands of Qing troops were thrown into chaos. The locally recruited Green Standard Army traitors collapsed almost overnight, with several guerrilla commanders and regional commanders fleeing with their men under the cover of night. Even Labu’s most trusted Eight Banners troops lost the will to fight. Seeing his army’s morale shattered, Labu had no choice but to dispatch his trusted units to stall Liu Lousi while he led the main force back to Nanjing to intercept Wang Dahai’s sweeping advance.

Although the enemy had not yet been wiped out, the situation in Anhui had long since turned from danger to safety. Now, the General Staff of the Han army was in the midst of a dispute over the next phase of the war. Some of the more cautious and steady officers advocated for maintaining the status quo in Anhui, arguing that the Han army should concentrate its efforts on thoroughly resolving the Shandong issue. This would open up the Grand Canal, connecting the north and south. Furthermore, Shandong was wealthy, peaceful, and possessed excellent ports, while also posing a direct threat to the capital, Beijing; it was, in effect, a massive hidden danger at the Han army’s side that should be resolved as soon as possible. On the other hand, the young, radical faction—mostly graduates of the Mazhuang Military Academy—believed that Labu’s audacity in "offending the tiger's might of the Han King" by invading Anhui was intolerable. For the sake of the imperial court’s prestige, they argued that forces in Anhui should be immediately reinforced to crush Jiangsu. By doing so, they claimed, the world would be awestruck and the vassals terrified, ensuring that Shandong would surrender without a fight, while the over one hundred thousand remaining traitorous troops in Jiangxi and Hubei would also submit to the Han army’s might. Once that was achieved, aside from the bandits in Henan, the fertile lands of the Central Plains and Jiangnan would all belong to the Great Han. Looking across the world, who would dare to challenge them?

After careful deliberation, Lin Feng remained somewhat undecided. To be honest, he really did not want to use military means to resolve the Shandong issue. Shandong was currently the only major province where there was no fighting, and the common people were living reasonably well. If he were to send hundreds of thousands of troops in, even if he succeeded, it would certainly leave the region in ruins. Therefore, from both a moral and economic perspective, it was inappropriate. However, he also did not believe in the radical faction’s "deterrence theory." The Shandong Qing army was fundamentally different from the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Standard Army. The provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu were barren and had been ravaged by war for decades since the end of the Ming Dynasty, leaving the people in poverty. That army had relied on the Kangxi government for thousands of miles of life-sustaining supplies; thus, when Lin Feng toppled the Qing court, they were forced by survival to defect. The Shandong troops, however, faced no such difficulty. Relying on the wealth of their region, they could be entirely self-sufficient in military supplies. It was entirely possible that even after the Han army crushed Labu’s forces in Jiangxi, they would still stubbornly refuse to surrender.

When he first returned to the capital, he had received an envoy from the pseudo-Qing Governor of Shandong, Zhao Shenqiao, and had read his personal letter. Honestly, Lin Feng still did not know what Zhao Shenqiao was planning. The envoy said nothing but repeated platitudes about congratulating the Han army for "pacifying the northern borders and protecting the people." Zhao Shenqiao’s personal letter was even more bizarre; it contained not a single word about military or political affairs, instead filled entirely with flattery toward Lin Feng, along with personal opinions extracted from the Four Books and Five Classics. These opinions were strictly limited to the realm of Confucian scholarship, leaving Lin Feng truly puzzled as to what he was actually thinking.

It is easy to imagine what kind of trouble the Jin-Hui Consortium had stirred up. Despite their wealth and power within the Great Han, they had been unable to suppress the public’s fury, which had been presented to Lin Feng by numerous "highly respected" Confucian scholars, leaving the Prince of Han feeling somewhat amused yet troubled.

Of course, the actions of the Jin-Hui Consortium were certainly progressive, and Lin Feng felt he had an obligation to resolve this trouble for them. After deep reflection, Lin Feng personally met with several of these scholars to discuss the matter.

"Your Highness, the treacherous merchants of the Jin-Hui Chamber of Commerce are corrupting our public morals and harming the spirit of our Great Han. Their crimes are heinous! The scholars and commoners in the Tianjin and Baoding areas are furious. If the court does not take decisive action, we fear there will be grave consequences!" The lead old man, with his impressive beard and hair, spoke with indignant fervor. As he spoke, the group of old men behind him nodded in agreement. "We implore the King to make a swift decision!"

"Excellent, truly excellent! Your insight is profound, old sir; you are indeed a leader among the literati! From you, I can see that the customs under our Great Han are simple and honest, and the spirit of learning is growing daily—truly gratifying!" Lin Feng nodded with a smile, and the scholars looked pleased with themselves, though they continued to offer humble refusals. "Originally, when I read your petition that day, I was so furious that I wanted to immediately order troops to arrest those merchants who corrupted our customs. I wanted to have the leaders dismembered, the accomplices executed at the waist, and then have their homes raided and families wiped out..."

"Ahem... ahem... The Han King truly possesses the style of the ancients..." The old man shuddered, staring blankly. "However, while this matter is serious, wouldn't such punishment be too severe?"

"That is where you are wrong. They violated the teachings of the Sages, which by all accounts is a heinous crime. You know that I respect Confucius most of all in this life; anyone who violates his teachings is going against me and against the tens of millions of people of the Great Han!" Lin Feng said solemnly. "Therefore, we cannot let them go just because it is a 'small matter.' We must punish them severely to make an example of them and warn the hearts of the people!"

"That is... that is true..." The old man broke into a cold sweat, nodding repeatedly.

"Indeed. At that time, I suddenly remembered something. It was said that in your Baoding Prefecture, a filial woman’s husband died, leaving her to care for her mother-in-law. The family was so poor they could not survive, and though others urged her to remarry, she stubbornly followed the teachings of the Sages and refused, eventually starving to death along with her mother-in-law!" Lin Feng looked away, his expression heavy. "The local official sent me a memorial requesting a memorial arch of chastity for her—would you say that is a true story?"

"That is indeed true. My fellow gentry and I even co-signed the memorial to your Highness!" The old man nodded proudly, stroking his beard. "The chastity and filial piety of Lady Zhang are truly rare and deserve to be honored!"

"Yes, and that is why I suddenly thought: if this filial woman had gone to a factory to earn money, wouldn't she have been able to support her mother-in-law, preventing them both from starving to death?"

The gentry looked at each other in confusion. The lead old man said, stunned, "This... this... Your Highness, I fear your logic is misguided. How can these two things be compared?"

"Oh, so my logic is misguided, and yours is correct?" Lin Feng smiled.

"No, no, no... How would this commoner dare? ... Your Highness, please forgive me!" The old man was startled, terrified, his legs going weak as he knelt on the floor. "This commoner has spoken out of turn before the throne. Please, King of Han, forgive me!"

"Oh! Look at you, what is the meaning of this? Do I look like a tyrannical ruler?" Lin Feng smiled as he helped him up. "People say that even a wise man makes a mistake in a thousand thoughts, and even a fool finds one gain in a thousand ponderings. Even if I were wrong, it would be no big deal!"

"Yes, yes! ... Thank you, King of Han, for your mercy!" The old man wiped away his cold sweat and climbed up, trembling.

"Oh, where were we? Right, we were talking about the filial woman working!" Lin Feng smiled. "So I thought and thought, and I wondered: is there any way to allow everyone to follow the teachings of the Sages while also allowing these filial women to fulfill their filial duties?"

"And... did your Highness find a way?"

"Heaven be praised, I racked my brain and finally came up with a compromise!" Lin Feng coughed to clear his throat. "It is not impossible for these factories to hire female workers, but we must strictly regulate them according to the teachings of the Sages!"

The old scholars were dazed, stammering, "...This... we ask your Highness to clarify!"

"It is quite simple, actually. We can build the factories to look like prisons! Once the factories are built, we will have the local gentry dispatch respected individuals to supervise them. Naturally, these supervisors must be elders of the clans, preferably seventy or eighty years old, for instance... for instance..." Lin Feng tilted his head toward the group. "For instance, you esteemed gentlemen could do it!"

"..."

"Of course, since you are all highly respected, I would not have you standing guard at the gates. You would merely need to serve as a warning and deterrent to the petty-minded. I will instruct those merchants to hire robust women to maintain strict security. If anyone dares to sneak into the women's factory to engage in immoral behavior, you can report them to the officials and have the bailiffs drag these scoundrels through the streets for all to see! — What do you think?" Lin Feng looked at the group of scholars, his smile fading into a serious expression.

"This..." Although the gentry were greatly surprised, they felt this method was not entirely unfeasible. They exchanged glances; it seemed that the Han King was advancing by retreating, and given his painstaking efforts, he was clearly determined to back those merchants. With no other choice, the lead old man smiled bitterly, "In that case... in that case, we shall humbly obey the King's command!"