Yun Ye had been living in the large mansion at Xinghua Ward recently, with only Little Lingdang and seven or eight servants accompanying him. Di Renjie, Xiao Wu, and Shishi also lived here. Their master had been quite busy lately, and it wasn’t appropriate for outsiders to get involved, so only the three of them could help their master. As for Xinyue and Li Anlan, they had long since retreated to the Yun family estate to hibernate for the winter. The most comfortable place in winter was the Yun family estate, bar none—even the imperial palace couldn’t compare with the Yun family’s heating equipment.
On the windowsill sat a long row of pears frozen black. Yun Ye’s internal heat had been too vigorous lately, so he could only eat some of these things to cool it down. Little Lingdang had made a little cover for each pear, looking adorable and well-behaved. Although Yun Ye always wanted to ask why she didn’t just make one large cover to enclose all the pears at once, when the words reached his lips and he saw Little Lingdang frowning as she counted the pears on the windowsill one by one—she had given names to the pears, every single one—he stopped. For example, the pear Yun Ye ate last night was named Little Flower Dog, because after being frozen all night, that pear stubbornly maintained a small yellow patch, hence the name.
Last night, seeing Little Lingdang’s mournful appearance, Yun Ye almost couldn’t bring himself to bite. But after taking one bite, Little Lingdang even let out a shriek, as if he had bitten her. Since he had already bitten it, there was no need to stop. In two or three bites, he gnawed Little Flower Dog clean, leaving only a pear core for Little Lingdang to mourn over.
Today Yun Ye had his eye on Fatty Girl, the largest pear. He instructed Little Lingdang to go give Fatty Girl a bath and strip off her clothes—your husband wanted to swoop down and take a big bite. Last night’s Little Flower Dog was too thin with no meat, not satisfying at all.
Happiness was fleeting. Looking at the effect drawing hanging on the wall, Yun Ye’s head ached terribly. The news coming back was far worse than expected. Not only had the land been bought up, but even the mountains and forests in private hands were being frantically purchased. If the great lake’s water surface didn’t belong to the state, someone would probably buy that too.
Yun Ye pulled out the geographical atlas and marked everything one by one against the large map. The increases in prices sometimes formed a very clear roadmap. Obviously, the highest prices, needless to say, were at Cuiwei Town where the city was originally planned to be built. Guan Tinglong only held less than thirty percent of that town’s land, and hadn’t spent much silver initially. But now, if they wanted to buy up all the remaining seventy percent, the money spent would be an astronomical figure.
Di Renjie brought over a slip of paper and said: “Master, right now the land prices in Cuiwei Town are ridiculously high. If we want to build the city now, we can’t avoid Cuiwei Town no matter what. Only there has enough open space to accommodate the new city. Moreover, when we build the city, we must also consider its functional purpose. It must be a transportation hub, and the terrain must be strategically important—one man guarding the pass against ten thousand. Only Cuiwei Town can provide such strategic terrain. It borders Black Tiger Mountain on the left and Dongting waters on the right. Being adjacent to mountains and water are primary factors for a fortified city. But now it seems we can’t afford to build the city there—it’s too expensive. An acre of wasteland costs fifteen strings of cash. This is highway robbery! Why don’t we just ask the court to requisition it, give a little compensation, and guarantee no one will dare say anything.”
“That won’t work, Xiao Jie. When the court requisitioned land in Guanzhong, it gave appropriate compensation. Where the front cart goes, the rear cart follows. Even if we don’t build this city, the court’s credibility cannot be lost. This is the foundation of a nation’s existence. This foundation needs to be constantly strengthened, absolutely cannot be touched, let alone dug at. Credibility is something that’s very difficult to build up, but can be destroyed in an instant. Throughout the history books, in order to increase the nation’s credibility, countless heroes have died. National credibility, in many cases, is basically dyed red with blood.”
“This disciple understands. But must we abandon Cuiwei Town then?”
“Who said we’re abandoning it? In two months it should be when land prices are highest. Xiao Jie, you set out now and go tell Guan Tinglong to sell all the land in his hands before spring arrives. With such high land prices, if we don’t profit, who will?”
“Does Master truly intend to abandon building the city?” Di Renjie was greatly alarmed. He had devoted much effort to this city these past days, wanting to make it his graduation exam.
“Why is severing one’s own arm praised as a virtue? Knowingly doing what cannot be done is foolishness. We’ll sell all the land and use the money obtained to fill the hole. The three-hundred-thousand-string gap always needs to be filled.”
“Doing this, you can indeed escape unscathed, but what about those common folk who invested money? Won’t they lose everything? As soon as you liquidate your capital, Yue Prefecture will definitely become a living hell. Without doing anything, they’ll be burdened with debt. Selling sons and daughters can be expected. Yue Prefecture will produce refugees!”
Yun Ye wasn’t at all surprised by Zhangsun’s arrival. He lifted the door curtain and invited the Emperor and Empress to come in and sit down. After offering tea, only then did he say: “Your Majesty, a commercial war of this scale isn’t something they should have gotten involved in to begin with. Since they’ve already gotten involved, it means they all prepared to make some money. Doing business and making money has risks—where there’s profit, there will be loss. Even idiots know this principle. There’s no reason they wouldn’t understand. I truly admire them for daring to do such risky business.”
Li Er frowned without speaking. Zhangsun continued: “For someone like you, doing anything is justified because you have wisdom matching your actions. But the country folk are ignorant. They can only see immediate benefits, can’t see that far. Fighting against you, they’ll be utterly destroyed. You wouldn’t be so heartless, would you?”
Yun Ye sat on the carpet scratching his forehead and said: “Stupidity is justified? Smart people should yield? Look here—is this something a group of ignorant country folk could devise?”
Yun Ye took a report from the Yun family merchant caravan from the table and placed it before Li Er, saying resentfully: “Starting from Cuiwei Town, they organized and systematically purchased land in stages. Before the enormous amount of money, the public lands of all four counties in Yue Prefecture were being sold off. Who’s buying the land? All country folk. Where did they get all that money? After the Yun family caravan secretly investigated, they discovered a merchant called Four Seas Company was manipulating this transaction. As long as the country folk pressed their fingerprints on paper, the company spent money to help them buy land. This subject calculated—Four Seas Company has no profit at all to gain from this matter. Their purpose is simply to prevent me from building the city. Harming others without benefiting themselves to this degree is truly outrageous.”
After saying these words, Yun Ye smiled bitterly and asked the Emperor: “Your Majesty, what was the price they paid to request that you not interfere in Yue Prefecture affairs this time?”
“Chang He.” Regarding Yun Ye’s question, Li Er didn’t seem surprised at all, very calmly stating the reason.
Yun Ye rubbed his hands and circled the room twice before widening his eyes and urgently asking: “Your Majesty, their request was just that you must not interfere with all matters related to building the city in Yue Prefecture, correct?”
Li Er nodded with difficulty. If he didn’t root out Chang He, this hidden threat, and allowed him to continue commanding the inner palace guards, once something happened, it would be an earth-shattering disaster. In comparison, Yue Prefecture was merely a minor ailment.
Zhangsun’s expression was also somewhat unpleasant. She was about to comfort Yun Ye properly when she saw Yun Ye’s face full of joy, rubbing his hands and constantly circling. He glanced at the effect drawing, then looked at the atlas again, and finally laughed loudly without regard for etiquette, laughing with extreme satisfaction. The ice on Li Er’s face also gradually receded, and he laughed together with Yun Ye, as if all the pent-up frustration in their hearts over these days had completely dissipated in their laughter.
“Your Majesty, this fruit is called Little Red Fruit—it’s a name Lingdang gave. It froze on the windowsill all last night, and the ice has just now melted. It’s most delicious to eat now. Please try it.”
Li Er took the blackish fruit and looked at it, peeled off the skin, and took a bite, nodding repeatedly. It seemed this way of eating pears quite suited his taste. Zhangsun also held a pear, looking suspiciously at these sovereign and subject. Just now they were clearly discussing some very troubling problems—especially since this time Yun Ye couldn’t borrow the authority of the government, losing a large portion of his support. The situation in Yue Prefecture was also dire. Without the first move and having lost strong authority, how could he compete with others? Now the two of them seemed to have cast this matter behind them, holding two black pears while eating and commenting on the delicious flavor of frozen pears.
Before she knew it, she had finished eating the pear. Li Er wiped his mouth, patted Yun Ye’s shoulder, lifted the door curtain himself, and walked out first. Zhangsun hurriedly followed, only to discover her husband wasn’t taking the sedan chair but was walking quite fast through the wind and snow with vigorous strides, dignified bearing, and a very straight back. In the blink of an eye, he had left the garden, just like before when he put on armor and took up his sword to meet the enemy. Zhangsun’s eyes moistened. This was her magnificent husband—it had been some years since she’d seen her husband display such spirit. She knew the commanding emperor had returned.
Collecting herself, she also didn’t take the sedan chair but lifted her skirts to quickly chase after her husband. There was a thick layer of snow on the ground, very slippery. The Yun family never swept the snow clean—supposedly Yun Ye most liked to wear shoes and step in the snow.
She nearly slipped on the bluestone slabs when a pair of strong hands supported her. Looking up, she saw the Emperor’s warm gaze fixed upon her. Her face slightly flushed, and after standing up, she quietly asked: “You’re no longer troubled?”
“A general should hope for battles to fight. An emperor should hope for opponents. Yun Ye’s unbridled heroic spirit just now infected me. Those people hope to fight Yun Ye properly and thoroughly. Little do they know, Yun Ye even more hopes to act recklessly and without restraint. Yue Prefecture has now become a place both armies must fight for. Let’s see whose methods are superior. I will observe from the ramparts. As soon as those people are forced by Yun Ye to reveal a flaw, that will be the time for me to take revenge.”
Li Er brushed off the snowflakes from his body, opened his cloak, and embraced Zhangsun as they walked toward the palace.
New Year’s Eve of the ninth year of Zhenguan arrived silently and quietly on such a day of wind and snow. When the evening bell rang, Zhangsun, Qin Qiong, and others who should have passed away this year would raise their cups at their family banquets to celebrate the new spring. Meanwhile, Yun Ye shut himself in his room, lighting a stick of incense for all his wishes. Beside Tango’s severed head sat a large basin of fine wine. Yun Ye immersed her head in the fine wine—this must be her favorite way to drink.