Yuan Dake was truly a master of officialdom. After hearing Yun Ye’s words, he smoothed his robes and sat back down. With a wave of his hand, the clerks and advisors who had rushed in immediately receded like a tide. Bowing with cupped hands toward Yun Ye, he said: “Marquis Yun, you’ve witnessed something embarrassing. This official most cannot bear hearing of great bandits harming the common people. My actions just now were somewhat discourteous. I hope Marquis Yun will not take offense.”
“Not at all, not at all. Governor Yuan cares for the people—he is truly one who loves the people. How could Yun Ye take offense? That Human Bear is now within my army. If he wants to survive, he must fight bravely and establish meritorious service. From now on, Governor, you need never be troubled by him again.”
Yuan Dake smiled in agreement, stroking his beard and saying to Yun Ye: “It’s just that in the matter of capturing Human Bear, this official did not fulfill his duties as a local magistrate. This is truly regrettable.”
They say local officials are slippery—Yun Ye had now witnessed it. This fellow actually still wanted to claim credit for capturing the bandit. It was obvious that if Yun Ye didn’t agree, there would be problems with settling those people.
“This marquis captured the bandit on Dengzhou territory. How could it lack the cooperation of Dengzhou Prefecture Office? However, I consider this a trifling matter, not worth reporting. Since the Governor is interested, please take up your brush and memorialize on this marquis’s behalf. When the time comes, I’ll just add my name.”
Yuan Dake’s plump face wrinkled into a chrysanthemum with joy. Yun Ye didn’t care, but he certainly did. Pacifying the region and ensuring stability was his duty to begin with. This way, his record at the Ministry of Personnel would look even better. Bowing with cupped hands, he readily agreed: “Marquis Yun, rest assured. The Great Tang’s laws have always been merciful. Since the chief criminal has been brought to justice, those who merely followed—letting them escape with their lives and giving them a way out is appropriate. This official will immediately order people to survey land for them. In this Dengzhou region, there are now more fishermen than farmers, and there’s still some vacant land available. We’ll measure generously for them. Ever since the marquis taught those fishermen to make salted fish and harvest seaweed, the fishermen by the sea have gained an additional livelihood. Compared to scraping food from the soil, it’s much better! This is a good deed benefiting tens of thousands of people. This official was just about to memorialize on this matter. I only ask that Marquis Yun not blame this official for acting on his own authority!” Facing this mutual flattery of carrying sedan chairs together, Yun Ye and Yuan Dake could only look at each other and laugh heartily.
Leaving the prefecture office in good spirits, Yun Ye galloped all the way back to the main camp. Just as he settled into the commander’s tent, he saw Lai Chuanfeng leading the old man inside.
“Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Liu has finished inspecting the incendiary bombs and is very satisfied with their effectiveness.”
Yun Ye nodded, dismissing Lai Chuanfeng. He walked from behind the desk to stand before the old man, smiling as he waited for the old man to praise him.
“This old man, Liu Fang, greets Marquis Yun. Marquis Yun is indeed a young hero with meticulous thinking. With those incendiary bombs, Dahei Mountain will certainly become a sea of fire, and Bisha City will fall without attack. This old man admires you, admires you—I lose with complete conviction.” The old man, Liu Fang, also smiled and bowed with cupped hands to Yun Ye, conceding defeat.
Yun Ye swallowed hard and asked with difficulty: “May I ask—are you the Liu Fang, Liu Yunshan, who marched ten thousand li and greatly defeated Linyi, pacifying Lingnan?”
The old man chuckled and said: “Indeed this old man. Are you surprised to see me? The world’s rumors say that after conquering Linyi, this old man died of foot disease in the army. Now seeing me, do you have doubts?”
“You must have a letter from Teacher Li on your person. I have more confidence in that old gentleman than in myself. If he says you are Liu Fang, Liu Yunshan, then you certainly are. The Duke of Lu from the former Sui—how would this junior dare be disrespectful?”
Words aside, identity still needed confirmation. Liu Fang pulled a letter from his bosom and handed it over. Yun Ye wasn’t pretentious—he opened it and read from beginning to end, paying attention to the secret seal that Li Gang generally didn’t use when writing letters. This was indeed Li Gang’s personal letter.
“Mr. Liu, you’ve harmed this youngster terribly!” Looking at Liu Fang, Yun Ye still couldn’t help letting out a sigh of lament.
“Why is this? This old man met you today for what must be the first time. Marquis Yun, what do you mean by this?” Liu Fang couldn’t understand why Yun Ye would say such a thing.
“You led your army rampaging through Lingnan for a full six months, then returned laden with spoils. Less than forty years after you conquered Linyi, this junior also led an army to Annan. You had already plundered all the good things forty years earlier. This junior scraped and scoured for treasures in Annan but found few worth looking at. The natives all said that several hundred years’ worth of accumulation had been taken by you, and even if I killed them they couldn’t produce any treasures.”
“This junior made the trip almost empty-handed and nearly couldn’t account to the court officials. At that time, I even considered digging up and bringing back the bronze pillar landmark that Ma Yuan had erected there. This junior suffered so miserably—can’t I even complain a bit?”
Liu Fang laughed so hard he swayed back and forth, pointing at Yun Ye and saying: “You youngster! Do you think this old man doesn’t know about your affairs in Annan? The wealth you brought back nearly filled Chang’an’s national treasury, not to mention the grain for relieving the Hebei disaster. Now that place has become the Great Tang’s feng shui treasure land for supplementing surplus grain. Still not satisfied?”
“Mr. Liu, how about after matters here are concluded, we make an expedition to Chenla? I hear from merchants returning from distant voyages that it’s extremely prosperous there. One haul equals a year’s worth of the Great Tang’s taxes. What do you think?”
“Marquis Yun, you tell me—why is it that when you led troops deep into Annan, the soldiers didn’t suffer from foot weakness and all returned safely? What’s the reason? You must know that this old man nearly died back then. Of thirty thousand soldiers, forty to fifty percent perished from various diseases.”
Yun Ye didn’t speak but instead pulled out a scroll from the documents, spread it on the desk, and pointing at the map said to Liu Fang: “Mr. Liu, to make a fortune in these places, you must avoid the rainy season and withdraw from Annan before July. Otherwise, the endless heavy rains will not only harm the feet but also damage the creased areas of the lower body. Being constantly in damp conditions causes the skin to fester. Moreover, that’s also when leeches, snakes, and insects are most terrifying. You marched and fought in August when epidemics ran rampant—it’s not surprising at all.”
“When I went to Annan, most of the time the soldiers were on boats with very little walking. I also prepared sufficient medicinal materials. The soldiers fought quickly, collected spoils quickly, so we had no problems in Annan.”
Liu Fang looked at the map and sighed, slapping the table: “His Majesty would rather build dragon boats than construct more warships. How did it come to this?”
These few sentences frightened Yun Ye. He knew the “His Majesty” referred to Emperor Yang of Sui, not Li Er. Now Yun Ye was somewhat worried whether this old fellow would incite him to rebel. Just arriving in Dengzhou, he had heard that the Shu rebellion had been quelled, only the Li people’s heads had been pickled with lime and brought back in one or two hundred carts.
Yun Ye didn’t want his own head pickled with lime one day, placed in a box and shown to Li Er. In the early Tang Dynasty, no matter how formidable you were, as long as you rebelled, you ultimately couldn’t escape this fate.
“Enough, this old man will say no more. The matters of the former Sui have settled into dust. If this old man hadn’t been quick-witted back then, my bones might also have been buried in the viewing mound by the Liao River. Bringing those old friends’ remains home can be considered this old man’s final effort for the former Sui. Let’s not concern ourselves with those matters—we should properly consider how to eliminate the Goguryeo fleet at Sanshan Port.”
“Good, good! Look here—this is the terrain map sent by my family’s merchant fleet. See if anything else is needed. Look here—this is the composition of the Goguryeo fleet at Sanshan Port. Good heavens, a full five hundred warships, though they’re rather small…”
Human Bear led Lai Chuanfeng and fifty other men, disguised as merchants carrying spices unique to the Great Tang side, to Bisha City. As for Dan Ying, Wu She, and Gou Zi—the three had long since gone who knows where. In the army, those three were free men whom no one could or would control.
Every day Yun Ye would go check the ice conditions by the sea. Small boats could shuttle back and forth between Goguryeo and the Great Tang along the edge of the sea ice, but those heavy warships could never make shore.
Early this morning, Yun Ye mounted Wang Cai and galloped toward the sea, his personal guard escorts following closely behind. Yesterday some large chunks of ice had already begun breaking away from the ice shelf—he didn’t know how things were today.
The sea ice formed quickly but also disappeared quickly. When Yun Ye arrived at the seaside, the sea surface was already covered with floating ice, colliding with each other, gradually drifting toward the ocean driven by the waves.
“The sea is opening!” A group of wildly running children ran barefoot across the already softening beach, continuously calling out news of the sea’s opening. By the overturned fishing boats on the beach, fishermen busied themselves, using flexible tree bark and hemp thread to fill the gaps at the boats’ bottoms. The beach was permeated with the rich smell of tung oil.
The women busied themselves weaving and mending nets, their shuttles constantly passing back and forth. Everyone’s face brimmed with joyful spirit. Some early-arriving seagulls had already appeared on the sea surface, searching for fish and shrimp in the gaps between the floating ice. The still somewhat cold sea wind blowing on one’s body would soon make hands and feet ice-cold, yet this still couldn’t conceal the fishermen’s joy at the sea’s opening.
Yun Ye saw many merchant-dressed people constantly having fishermen press their handprints on white paper. After pressing their prints, they would place varying amounts of copper coins in the hands of the grinning fishermen. This was an agreement—when the fishermen caught seafood, they should sell to them first.
Yun Ye in full armor standing among these joyful people was so incongruous. Everyone made wide detours around him, as if approaching would bring bad luck.
Indeed it was so! These were all good people, kind people. Only the horizontal blade at his waist was meant to drink blood. Tomorrow or the day after, the Great Tang’s most terrifying killing weapons would make shore. Ship sides as high as city walls, sails as high as white clouds would soon fill this sea area.
When fierce beasts break from their cages, how can they not devour people? Yun Ye was privately grateful that he was born in an incomparably powerful era. If this were the darkest period of this land, he didn’t know how he would survive.
“Commander-in-Chief, there’s an official document from the Ministry of War. Please return to camp to handle it.” A messenger rode over on a fast horse. Yun Ye turned back to look at the ocean once more. As soon as the sea opened, war would begin. Only, this was his own battle, unrelated to the Great Tang—because all participants were merely pirates.