A special thank you to all my patrons.
The List of My "Wandering Reader":
-Cain
-Goha21
-Jacob Mooe
-Varun Madhu
-Mp Gaming
-Aziz Makda
-Gonzalo Sumalavia
-Klip
-JWolf
-kevin Williams
-Shadow260802
You can read 50 chapters ahead of everyone on p@treon.
P@TREON - [email protected]/lessaservantofcosmos
(just replace the "@" with "a")
ps: Please support me on P@treon. I can really use your help!
—————————————————————
After reaching a consensus, the next step was to consider the finer details.
No one dared to claim that there would be no mishaps, but preparations could still be made for the worst—especially when transporting such a large quantity of books.
Fei Qian said, "This relocation involves a considerable number of books, so it would be unwise to transport them all at once. We must make some preparations..."
Books were not like gold or silver. Common bandits and petty thieves had little interest in such items, but local powerful clans and scholar-officials coveted them greatly.
Within the Luoyang region, under the prestige of Cai Yong's name, most scholar-officials would not dare to act recklessly. It simply wasn't worth the risk. After all, Cai Yong's reputation was formidable due to his work on the Xiping Stone Classics, not to mention his long-standing lectures at the Imperial Academy, which had earned him the support of many students. If anyone were to seize his books and word got out, it would not be a boon to their family's scholarly legacy—it would instead destroy their clan's hard-earned reputation in an instant.
In comparison, the danger was much higher in Hedong and Pingyang commanderies.
Take Hedong Commandery, for example. Cai Yong and the Wei family of Hedong had once been on good terms, but after Cai Yan was divorced, the relationship between the two families had soured significantly. Moreover, the Wei family had never returned the many books that had been part of Cai Yan's dowry. Given this history, there was no hope that the Wei family would suddenly become accommodating or benevolent.
Additionally, if the books were transported all at once in large quantities, it was inevitable that someone might be tempted to take desperate measures.
Pingyang Commandery was also close to the border. If someone were to stage a robbery under the guise of Qiang or Hu bandits, they could later claim to have "recovered" the books by buying them back or seizing them from the nomads...
Therefore, once they passed through Hedong Commandery, they would need the cooperation of Cui Jun, the governor of Xihe. If Cui Jun could dispatch troops under the pretext of mobilizing against Dong Zhuo, the convoy would be relatively safe.
However, since Cui Jun's forces were also needed to defend against the encroaching Xianbei and Qiang tribes, they could not venture too deep into the Si Li region. At most, they could only go as far as Pingyang Commandery. Any further would risk leaving their own borders undefended, not to mention the logistical strain of transporting supplies deeper into enemy territory.
The original plan was to cross the river at Yanjin or Xiaopingjin, but to maintain the illusion that they were relocating to Chang'an (as Dong Zhuo had ordered), they had to first pass through Mianchi, where some of Dong Zhuo's troops were stationed, before changing direction. If they turned north immediately after leaving Luoyang, they might be discovered, as Mianchi was not far from the capital, and military patrols were frequent.
There was also an advantage to traveling from Luoyang to Mianchi. Since Dong Zhuo's forces were eager to accelerate the relocation process, they would likely provide support and protection to those who appeared to be cooperating willingly—such as Cai Yong. Thus, this leg of the journey would actually be the least risky. A small bribe might even secure them extra assistance...
The most dangerous stretch of the journey was the section from Mianchi northward into Hedong Commandery.
Therefore, the only viable method was to transport the books in batches—and with a clever strategy.
Most of Cai Yong's collection consisted of bamboo scrolls, which could be disassembled and transported in separate shipments. Even if one batch were seized, the scrolls would be incomplete and therefore useless.
This way, each shipment would contain only fragments, and the quantity would be small enough to reduce their appeal to scholar-officials and local clans. It was like how ten thousand left shoes were far less valuable than one thousand complete pairs.
As long as the disassembled scrolls were properly numbered, they could be reassembled upon arrival in Xihe, restoring them to their original condition.
Cai Yong found the idea of dismantling his precious scrolls painful, but after some thought, he conceded that it was better than losing entire volumes. He nodded and said, "Ziyuan's method is unconventional, but it is worth a try."
Cui Hou also remarked, "This way, we can transport them openly without worry." He was sharp enough to grasp Fei Qian's plan immediately. The method of splitting shipments was not unheard of—it just hadn't been applied to transporting books before.
One reason was that few people possessed a collection as vast as Cai Yong's. If it were only a few dozen or a hundred scrolls, a single cart would suffice—why bother splitting them?
Another reason was the deep reverence people of the Han Dynasty held for books. Each scroll was treated as a treasure—no one would dare treat them as mere tools, let alone disassemble and number them for transport like Fei Qian suggested.
××××××××××××
While Fei Qian had found a preliminary solution, Li Jiu was facing a thornier problem.
After the proposal to relocate the capital was announced, many officials in Luoyang—especially lower-ranking ones—had resigned in silent protest, causing administrative operations to grind to a halt.
Li Jiu understood the reason behind this resistance...
The issue was that while there were plenty of men from Liangzhou, most of them were military officers.
These soldiers had no trouble marching into battle. Even when minor difficulties arose, they could handle them without needing to report to Li Jiu. But when it came to assisting with the logistics of relocating the capital, these rough men were only useful for providing brute force. The actual paperwork—organizing documents, compiling records—fell almost entirely on Li Jiu's shoulders.
Moreover, the scholar-official clans of the Luoyang region were opposed to the relocation. If left to them, the process would drag on indefinitely—possibly for years.
But the key to this relocation was speed. If it took years, what strategic advantage would there be?
The most critical aspects of the move were wealth and population—and of the two, population was the more important.
Yet managing the population was also the most complicated task, involving countless interconnected issues...
The root of the problem lay in the fact that rural clans and powerful families had been annexing land for generations, and self-sufficient peasants had willingly attached themselves to these local magnates. These forces had become parasitic growths on the countryside. To relocate the population of the Luoyang region, Li Jiu would have to confront these entrenched rural elites head-on.
The only way to deal with these clans, holed up in their fortified manors, was to smash through their hard shells...
But breaking their defenses was one thing—transporting the people inside to Chang'an was another matter entirely.