Chapter 815: All Right

Three days had already passed since the unprecedented princely investiture ceremony.

Yet the people of Fengxin City were still talking about what they had seen outside the western gate that day: their own Prince letting the Crown Prince follow behind while he himself picked up the Heir of Prince Jingnan. They were still talking about the three imperial decrees and the depth of His Majesty’s favor toward their Prince; about the former Jingnan Army Garrison Commanders abandoning their posts to come, each iron-blooded soldier calling out his salute to the Young Master and displaying the loyalty of men from the army.

And then there was the grand banquet at the Prince Residence. The Prince had been warm and approachable, asking after everyone’s welfare, and once the guests returned home they all repeated the story to anyone who would listen.

Anyone who had not been there might have assumed the Prince truly clasped the hand of every single guest and spoke to each of them personally. Otherwise, how could every storyteller describe it so vividly, as though his own hand had been the one Prince Pingxi held?

It was also said that Prince Pingxi had drunk and sung with Great Yan’s Acting Chancellor that night, speaking grandly of affairs beneath Heaven as the two plotted a future of peace across the four seas. It was said the Prince had personally instructed the former Fifth Highness, now Fifth Prince, on the hardships of the common people and the need always to remember how difficult their lives were. After listening, the Fifth Prince supposedly sat there stunned for a long while without speaking, as though he had suddenly attained enlightenment.

Where one’s backside sat determined which direction one’s words leaned. The soldiers and civilians of Fengxin City naturally preferred to hear the flattering versions, and when they repeated the stories, they naturally chose the flattering versions too.

As for the deeper meaning buried beneath each of those events, and the undercurrents moving below the surface, none of that mattered to most people. If nothing else, had His Majesty’s three decrees not laid the groundwork in advance for the arrival of the former Jingnan Army commanders, the relationship between eastern Jin and the imperial court might already have been drawn bowstring-tight.

But who cared?

If Heaven wanted rain, it would rain. If a mother wanted to remarry, she would remarry.

The people had enjoyed several peaceful years, but none had forgotten the cold edge of blades, spears, and arrows.

If there was excitement to watch, they watched.

If there was a story to hear, they listened.

If there was some advantage to take, they took it.

And if the Prince raised troops, it did not matter where he intended to fight. Wherever the royal banner pointed, they would hurry after it and get to work.

As for what had happened in the true inner residence of Prince Pingxi’s household, where the Prince had drunk himself senseless, nearly gone on a drunken rampage, and raised cup after cup to this, to that, and finally to a home... naturally, only the people closest to him knew.

...

It was still Welcome Guest Inn.

Still the same private room beside the window on the third floor.

Still several delicate dishes paired with excellent Huadiao wine.

Miao Lin and Lu Xiong still occupied the east and west sides of the table.

But today, there were people seated to the north and south as well.

On the south sat Shopkeeper Xiao, his face haggard with exhaustion. In earlier years, when he moved goods through Zhennan Pass, both sides had turned a blind eye after the proper people were paid. It was inconvenient to travel openly during the day, but at night caravans could pass through with hardly any concealment at all.

Chu troops had even conducted horse deals with Prince Pingxi Residence. The men above ate the meat, the men below drank a little broth, and everyone involved felt comfortable.

This time, however, Shopkeeper Xiao had taken the road through Fan City and into Mount Meng. The route was difficult, troublesome, and long. Not only had he arrived late, his entire body still carried the dust of the journey.

On the north side sat Shopkeeper Fei, a Yan man.

Miao Lin smiled. “Shopkeeper Fei, we all thought you weren’t coming this time.”

A Yan caravan doing business on Yan soil yet needing to be more cautious than foreign caravans was certainly a novel thing.

Shopkeeper Fei smiled and nodded. “I came this time to make the final handover. The businesses and storefronts here are being signed over to the Prince Residence as well.”

“Oh? You’re quitting?” Miao Lin asked curiously. “Could you sign them over to someone else instead?”

Lu Xiong lightly slapped the table and teased him. “Sure. Think your head could be moved somewhere else to hang?”

Small business was small business. A village, a town, a prefecture.

But once trade extended across a commandery, a state, or even several states, it was simply impossible to operate without some real patron standing behind it.

Everyone at the table was an old fox. There was no point performing *Strange Tales* for one another.

Each shopkeeper understood perfectly well that all of them were merely the outer layer wrapped around the true masters standing behind them.

“The Prince Residence will organize its own caravans to move goods west from now on,” Shopkeeper Fei said. “If I meet any of you again, it’ll probably be in Yingdu. I doubt I’ll be coming to eastern Jin very often anymore.”

“Heh.”

Miao Lin always enjoyed watching trouble.

“You Yan people really are strange.”

A business backed by the Secret Intelligence Department had actually yielded in front of a military domain.

Eastern Jin lay at the meeting point of the snowfields, Yan, Jin, and Chu. Trade already flourished here, and Prince Pingxi Residence itself produced a whole range of goods that never lacked buyers once they were moved elsewhere. Anyone able to stretch even one arm into that circle, or merely brush a toe against its edge, gained a mouthful of profit enough to make others envious.

Shopkeeper Fei glanced at Miao Lin and smiled.

“I’m curious too. When exactly are you Qian people planning to stand upright like men on a battlefield?”

Lu Xiong and Shopkeeper Xiao immediately chimed in.

“Far off. Far off.”

“Difficult. Very difficult.”

It did not matter whether you were Yan, Jin, or Chu. If someone was humiliating Qian, everyone else had to help set the stage.

Miao Lin seemed accustomed to it by now. At least, he showed no anger.

He shrank his shoulders and leaned back.

He had never heard the phrase “a weak country has no diplomacy,” but after years of traveling from north to south, he understood perfectly well the contempt people of other states held for Qian.

It did not matter how much silver you possessed or how fine your clothes were.

An ordinary Yan commoner could learn you were from Qian and smile that particular smile. Even a porter you temporarily hired in Yan, a man waiting for the wage from this job so he could buy rice for his family’s evening pot, would hear that his employer was Qian and grin:

“Oh. Qian, huh?”

He would still do the work.

Still take the money.

And still laugh at you.

Shopkeeper Fei did not continue pressing the wound. He raised his cup.

“Mountains and rivers meet again. Next time any of you have leisure, come find me in Yingdu. I’ll host.”

Behind Shopkeeper Fei stood a merchant guild, and the merchant guild’s true owner, just like Fei himself, was merely another layer of skin.

Strictly speaking, a very long time ago Shopkeeper Fei’s caravan had belonged to the Min Clan. Then it belonged to Sixth Prince. After that, it was transferred to the Ministry of Revenue. Later still, it returned to the hands of Sixth Prince.

Now... it belonged to the Emperor.

Prince Pingxi had once looked down on Sixth Prince and mocked him openly: you’re an imperial prince, you control the Ministry of Revenue, and you still keep running your own private business. Feeding yourself from public stores until you grow fat. There is almost no uglier way to eat.

Later...

Sixth Prince became Emperor.

And suddenly the whole thing became perfectly proper.

There were times when business became harder once it carried an official banner, however. So that layer of merchant skin still needed to be preserved.

The Emperor had always carried a knot in his heart over this matter, especially after learning how Fengxin City’s commercial model actually operated.

He deeply regretted that back when that bastard surnamed Zheng mocked him, he had not grabbed Zheng Fan by the collar and sprayed spit into his face:

“Why don’t you look at yourself? On your own territory, you’ve even arranged how the common people buy their damned coffins!”

“Mountains don’t turn, but rivers do,” Lu Xiong said. “Who knows what’ll happen in the future? We’re not men of the same state, and every one of us has his name written somewhere inside an intelligence yamen back home. But let’s put it like this. If one day any of you brothers can’t keep going where you are, I, Lu Xiong, spit one nail with every mouthful. If you truly put away the tools you carry on your body and come find me, I can at least set you up with three little tiled rooms. Anything beyond that? Nothing. Hahaha.”

The other shopkeepers laughed.

At last, everyone raised their cups together and drank.

The small gathering ended.

Shopkeeper Miao paid the bill.

At the inn entrance, facing the sunlight, he tucked both hands into his sleeves and closed his eyes. His body swayed faintly for a while. Then he opened his eyes again and headed toward his caravan.

Shopkeeper Fei still had to finish signing over the businesses and conduct the final handover with the Prince Residence’s own intelligence men. Unfortunately, his timing was bad today. He had not run into Boss Dai here.

Lu Xiong had drunk the most and would not depart until the next day, so he never left the inn. He simply went back to his room and slept.

Shopkeeper Xiao had only just arrived and had too much business waiting. His men had already brought the carriage around to the entrance.

He climbed in.

The moment he sat down, he saw Dai Li seated inside.

Shopkeeper Xiao neither shouted nor showed surprise. He merely opened the compartment beneath the carriage seat and took out a box filled with gold cakes.

Boss Dai yawned.

“Hard journey?”

“Boss Dai, listen to you. When you’re making silver, how can you possibly call the road hard?”

“Heh.”

Dai Li nodded, reached out, and pressed the lid of the box closed.

“Boss Dai, don’t worry. Tonight there’s still...”

“Someone wants to see you.”

“Oh.”

Shopkeeper Xiao immediately put the box away.

Anyone capable of making Boss Dai personally come collect him had to hold an extraordinary position inside the Prince Residence.

He did not ask further.

He simply sat quietly.

After the carriage entered Front Street, it made another half-circle. In the end, instead of heading toward the Prince Residence, it turned into an ordinary private residence.

Dai Li dismounted first and stood there respectfully.

There were several “Misters” inside the Prince Residence. Dai Li’s immediate superior was Third Master. Third Master possessed endless methods and could torment a man in ways so vicious they were difficult to imagine.

But Third Master was at least a man of genuine temperament.

He could be coaxed.

Only before the Mister waiting here did the intelligence men under the Residence scarcely dare breathe too loudly.

The Blind Man sat at a stone table in the courtyard, drinking tea.

Shopkeeper Xiao looked at Dai Li, then at the Blind Man.

He walked over and knelt.

“This slave greets Mister.”

The Chu Emperor had been suppressing Chu’s nobles on a massive scale, but the habits of an entire state could not be changed so easily.

Besides, to Chu people, words like “this slave,” “this subordinate official,” and “this lowly one” did not carry especially different meanings.

“Drink well?”

The Blind Man spoke.

“Reporting to Mister, this slave drank well.”

Jianghu rumor claimed there was a warrior beneath Prince Pingxi who possessed immense strength, astonishing agility, and also happened to be blind.

Shopkeeper Xiao had traveled enough and knew more about Fengxin City than most. He therefore understood that the man before him was probably Prince Pingxi’s foremost strategist.

“Hard road.”

“This slave is not tired. Not tired at all.”

“How is the old master of the Xie Clan?”

“...” Shopkeeper Xiao.

The Blind Man set down his teacup and shifted his sitting position.

“Of Great Chu’s Four Great Noble Houses, the Qu Clan is destroyed, the Shi Clan has fallen, the Dugu Clan has declined, and only the Xie Clan remains intact because its ancestral fief lies in southern Chu. Now your Emperor has placed the head of the Xie Clan on the Wei River. It seems he has finally taken the last treasure from the bottom of the chest.”

“Mister, this slave is only a small manager who runs errands for his employer and earns a little silver. This slave...”

“Don’t be afraid. I know your identity better than you do. Because of the war, the mountain roads into Chu were cut off. The Fan City route only just opened. Why do you think you were the first merchant allowed to squeeze through?”

“Was... was that arranged by Mister?”

The Blind Man nodded.

“My temper used to be fairly mild. But after spending so long with my Master, I’ve gradually lost patience for circling around things too. First, I don’t want you to defect. Second, I don’t need you to betray your own household. At most, I want you to carry a letter and a few words back to your master. So sit down and let’s speak properly. If you truly irritate me, then I’ll have no choice but to let you die. Wouldn’t dying like that be terribly pointless?”

“Yes. This slave understands. This slave understands.”

“Sit.”

“Thank you, Mister.”

Shopkeeper Xiao sat down gingerly, his posture obedient.

“Did Shopkeeper Fei tell you he was withdrawing?”

“Yes. He said he’ll sign over all his businesses in Fengxin City and stay in Yingdu from now on. He won’t cross the Wang River.”

“What do you think that means?” the Blind Man asked.

“This slave believes the Secret Intelligence Department behind Shopkeeper Fei does not wish to offend the Prince Residence, so...”

“Too shallow. Behind Shopkeeper Fei is not merely the Secret Intelligence Department. It is Great Yan’s Ministry of Revenue.”

“The Ministry of Revenue?”

Shopkeeper Xiao’s eyes widened.

Yan’s Ministry of Revenue was different from the equivalent office in other states. It had always been the Yan Emperor’s private preserve.

Which meant...

“Keep going,” the Blind Man urged.

“This slave believes... the court. The Yan court itself does not intend to compete with the Prince Residence for profit. It is yielding profit to the Residence.”

The Blind Man nodded.

Prince Pingxi Residence monopolized the distribution channels throughout this region. One could almost call it the primary wholesaler. Beneath it, different agents handled different routes.

The snowfields were harsh. Aside from a few great tribes worth the Residence organizing caravans to visit personally, the countless medium and small tribes were better served through Savage caravans of their own. Tribes like the Hailan Tribe, which bordered Snow Sea Pass and had submitted early, made ideal agents.

Qian and Chu were similar. Because they were foreign states, allowing local snakes to manage the actual routes produced the best value.

But westward lay central Jin, western Jin, and then Yan itself.

There was little difficulty there.

Their own people could handle the trade directly.

At court, groups of ministers loyal to the state might seize any opportunity to band together and attack the Prince Residence out of fear of the military domain.

But in the localities?

Who dared refuse Prince Pingxi Residence face?

The Ministry of Revenue had previously occupied a share of this westward trade.

In practical terms, that meant the Emperor’s own caravans had occupied a share.

Now the Emperor was withdrawing.

Because Little Sixth was the Son of Heaven, it was effectively the Emperor granting the Residence a commercial “tax exemption.”

Of course, in the Blind Man’s view, wool still came from the sheep. With the temperament of this Yan Emperor, after giving up this profit, the money and grain the court transported to the Residence next year, or perhaps even beginning in the middle of this year, would probably be reduced by a corresponding amount.

The Emperor would get the reputation for generosity.

And offset the cost at the same time.

The Blind Man tapped his fingers lightly against the stone table.

“Actually, Shopkeeper Fei arrived a long time ago. He simply never entered the city. Do you know what he was waiting for?”

“This slave...”

“He was waiting for the princely investiture ceremony to end. He was watching the wind.”

The Blind Man did not let Shopkeeper Xiao continue.

“You failed to arrive in time for the ceremony, but you should know what happened there, yes?”

“Yes. Yes. This slave heard. I heard.”

“Good. The former Jingnan Army Garrison Commanders abandoned their posts one after another and came to pay respects to the Heir of Prince Jingnan. Then His Majesty issued three decrees, soothing and striking at once, dissolving the entire affair before it could take form. There are other layers to it too. For example, originally those commanders should have been able to close ranks with my Prince Residence and build momentum. Military domain, army bosses. If men with troops can close ranks tightly enough, they can even shout the old line: the Son of Heaven belongs to whoever has the stronger soldiers and horses. But after those three decrees, the court seized both legal principle and human sentiment. At the same time, those Garrison Commanders, who are now generals stationed across different regions, personally handed the court proof that they abandoned their posts without authorization. The entire situation reversed at once. One can already imagine what comes next. The court will certainly use this as leverage to take back the military authority that once belonged to the old Jingnan Army system.”

As Shopkeeper Xiao listened, cold sweat began running continuously down his body.

Why was this man telling him any of this?

A contest on this level stood impossibly far from someone like him.

“My Prince Residence is loyal to Great Yan. But my Prince did, after all, rise from beneath Prince Jingnan. He remembers old ties and does not wish to watch the Jingnan Army that once shook the world be dismantled like this. So my Prince wishes to cooperate with your master.”

“Cooperate?”

“Yes.”

“After this slave returns, I will report everything to my master.”

“Take everything I said before with you as well.”

“Yes. This slave understands. But Mister, how exactly do you wish to cooperate?”

“Fan City is in my hands. You Chu people won’t dare think about attacking Fan City again in the near future, will you?”

“This slave... this slave...”

“And Mount Meng is difficult country. A great army cannot move through there easily, and supply is troublesome. There is another road that is very easy to travel. Broad, flat, open from end to end. Together with Zhennan Pass, it forms one of the two great passes from Chu into Jin.”

“Mister means South Gate Pass?”

“Yes. South Gate Pass.”

The Blind Man took out a letter and handed it to Shopkeeper Xiao.

“Give this letter to the head of your house.”

Shopkeeper Xiao accepted it.

If all he had to do was carry a letter and repeat a few words, that was manageable.

“Mister may rest assured. This slave will certainly deliver this letter to our Young Master.”

“Good. As for whether anything happens afterward, how it is done, and when it is done, that will depend on your... hm? Young Master?”

“Yes. Young Master.”

“Not Pillar of State Xie?”

“Reporting to Mister, the family head is commanding troops on the Wei River. Household and clan affairs are presently handled by our Young Master. Our Young Master is known as the rare thousand-li colt the Xie Clan has produced only once in a century.”

Business negotiations required elevating your own side. Only then could both parties stand as equals, and only then could there be profit.

Besides, Shopkeeper Xiao was far too nervous before the Blind Man. His mouth had begun moving slower than his thoughts, and instinct was taking over.

Without changing expression, the Blind Man lifted the teapot and refilled his cup.

“Oh? How old is your Young Master?”

“Thirteen.”

The hand holding the Blind Man’s teacup trembled faintly.

He blew across tea that was not remotely hot.

Then nodded.

“All right.”

[End of Chapter 815]