Old Cheng and Old Niu just hid to the side watching the excitement. The stewards from their households had already departed from Yuezhou to fetch spices. By the time these people hauled the spices back, theirs might already be sold out. When it came to making money, they generally didn’t concern themselves much—they just glanced at the account books at year’s end. The two most carefree people in Chang’an city were these two. Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong still had to discuss things with their families, but these two didn’t care—Yun Ye’s seal could directly withdraw money from their family accounts.
Li Chengqian hemmed and hawed for a long while before saying the Eastern Palace also wanted some spices. Even the dignified Crown Prince wasn’t generous when trying to earn some money.
“Your affairs are none of my business. Two-tenths of the spice ships belong to Qing Que, and two-tenths belong to you. Your spices are still piled up in Lingnan—find people to transport them back yourself. Remember to pay the capital costs clearly; those were all picked by the guards themselves.”
“There’s a share for me?” Li Chengqian asked Yun Ye in a low voice.
“When have I ever left you out in the cold? Qing Que originally wanted to support both you and His Majesty, but now it seems that’s unnecessary. I need to busy myself with distributing the maritime embargo tasks and return to Lingnan to build ships. You can play in Chang’an by yourself. Just take good care of my son and daughter-in-law. From now on, Yan Rong is a person of the Yun family.”
Everything was perfectly satisfactory. Li Er presided over an elders’ question-and-answer meeting in Shandong, finding over a hundred elderly people to discuss the matter of aristocratic families encroaching on land. He dealt heavy-handedly with two or three minor aristocratic families until there were no more bizarre situations like one family’s fields occupying an entire county. Only then did he contentedly board his ship, laden with his minions, and return to the capital along the canal.
That scourge Ma Zhou was left in Shandong to continue clearing and measuring the fields. To the aristocratic clans, this fellow was absolutely a cruel official. One hundred Xuanjia Army soldiers served as Ma Zhou’s guards, helping him deal with any crisis. Li Er was determined to thoroughly dismantle and dissolve the Shandong aristocratic clans, leaving himself no future troubles whatsoever.
The Emperor left, the Crown Prince left, Old Cheng and the others followed along. What they took away wasn’t just victory. Yun Ye looked with anguish at the three giant warships that had been stripped like plucked chickens. In half a month’s time, all the luxurious timber on the three warships had been replaced with ordinary wood. Needless to say, it was all dismantled and taken away by Li Er. Only he could manage to strip furniture from one’s own warships.
“Commander, His Majesty allocated twenty thousand catties of gunpowder to the fleet, so this subordinate agreed to let Yan Song dismantle those luxurious items from the warships.” Liu Renyuan came over specifically to report this matter.
He had long been displeased with having those luxurious items on the warships. He had said before that military vessels shouldn’t be excessively extravagant, as this would cultivate a fondness for luxury among the warriors, which was of no help whatsoever to combat effectiveness. Military vessels should look like military vessels. Taking advantage of the Emperor’s order this time, he removed all the luxurious parts from the ships and replaced them with sturdy, durable timber. The entire warship no longer showed any gold decorations or silver inlays. The luxurious flooring laid on the deck was also pried up piece by piece and packed into boxes. It was said that the Emperor planned to lay it in his sleeping quarters and study.
“Why were even the silver plates taken away? Those were for entertaining distinguished guests,” Yun Ye said to Liu Renyuan without good humor.
“Commander, we have no distinguished guests worthy of respect on the great sea. If Prince Wei doesn’t go to sea, you are the most noble person on the ocean. No one can compare with you.”
Yun Ye was still satisfied with Liu Renyuan’s pride. The Emperor knew to exchange things, which in itself was enormous progress. Being dismantled didn’t matter much. He’d heard that in Ryukyu there was a wood called green sandalwood that was extremely rare. Next time he’d replace it with green sandalwood.
The Lingnan Navy finally caught up slowly. When Yun Ye assembled all the warships on the East Sea, the entire bay was covered with warships. Masts and sails gathered like clouds, creating an extremely grand spectacle. Blocking the Korean Peninsula would depend on them.
A name called Liu Rengui caught Yun Ye’s eye. Smiling, he asked Liu Renyuan: “What relation is this Liu Rengui to you? Your names differ by only one character.”
“No relation whatsoever. Liu is a great surname—those with the same name are countless. If the Commander is so concerned about this person, could it be he’s also a rare tiger general? Only please don’t associate this lowly officer with this person.”
“Liu Renyuan, let me tell you, the person who will replace you in the future will inevitably be this man. Just wait and see if you don’t believe me.”
Seeing Liu Renyuan’s noncommittal attitude, Yun Ye smiled and said no more. Anyone who dared to say this to Li Er, who was extremely fond of hunting: “This subject prostrates himself knowing that the four seasons’ hunts are an eternal code of former kings, yet affairs undergo changes and need not necessarily follow precedent. This year sweet rain came in season, the autumn harvest is extremely abundant, and the yellow and black grain covers the fields—only one or two-tenths have been collected. Doing their utmost to reap and gather, by mid-month they still haven’t completed the work. Poor families lack the strength, and have just begun to plan planting wheat under the grain stalks. Going strictly by the usual requisitions already interferes with the farming families. Now besides supplying hunting affairs, they must also repair bridges and roads. Even greatly simplified, this will easily consume ten or twenty thousand work-days—for what purpose is all this?” Spelling out clearly and plainly the drawbacks of Li Er’s hunting—could someone who ultimately became Prime Minister be an ordinary person?
Li Er was actually planting operatives in the Lingnan Navy, but Yun Ye didn’t care. Turning around, he said to Wuli Sima: “I’m handing over the blockade of Goguryeo to you. Liu Renyuan will be the main general, and you’ll be the deputy general. This commander must return to Lingnan to supervise ship construction. His Majesty has said that not even a single plank of Goguryeo wood may go to sea. If you botch this assignment, His Majesty will find trouble with me, and I will definitely come find trouble with you. Don’t think that just because you’re Wuli Sima I won’t chop off your head if you make mistakes.”
He also said to Liu Renyuan: “I’m leaving the Chengqian for you, but not the crew—you transfer people yourself. I’m taking back the Princess and Qing Que. These are actually private property, but now they can’t be distinguished. Dengzhou will become your supply base. That fellow Yuan Dake hasn’t been transferred back to the capital yet, but his official position has solidly risen two levels. Establish good relations with him—there are benefits. As for how to wage war and how to blockade, I trust you have more experience than I do. If there are mistakes, let Wuli Sima take the blame. If there are benefits, brothers can divide more among themselves. Actually, you’ve all misunderstood Wuli Sima.”
“As long as one’s heart is for the country, making small mistakes is no big deal. What’s more, they’re the best scapegoat candidates. His Majesty generally doesn’t chop off the heads of Wuli Sima’s people—this point can be exploited extensively.”
Yun Ye didn’t look at Wuli Sima’s face, which had turned as black as the bottom of a pot, as he taught this secret to Liu Renyuan. Laughing heartily, Liu Renyuan patted Wuli Sima on the shoulder and said: “Old Huang, much obliged, much obliged.”
The big shots had all left. Yun Ye discovered he was now the biggest shot here—this feeling was truly wonderful. He purchased wheat and northern specialties from Dengzhou, and bringing the Princess, the Qing Que, and seven warships from the Lingnan fleet, they set sail together on a distant voyage. The soldiers on the ships were all exhausted to the extreme—a short period of rest couldn’t restore their condition.
The journey home was actually a long-voyage training exercise. Feng Zhiyong had already disembarked from the giant vessel and, leading his own brothers, was operating a warship, constantly performing various maneuvers at sea. Having promised Feng Ang to train them, one couldn’t break one’s word.
All tasks of pursuit, vigilance, and combat along the way were handed over to them. When they encountered pirates, Yun Ye only gave orders—the task of annihilating the pirates had to be completed by them themselves. Even when Feng Zhiyong was forced to flee east and west by those pirates desperate to escape, Yun Ye’s fleet paid no attention, just following distantly from behind. Yun Ye didn’t have excessive time to teach them slowly—he could only continuously temper them through brutal naval battles, making them into qualified maritime warriors.
When the ships reached Zhoushan, after annihilating a large gang of pirates, Yun Ye summoned Feng Zhiyong, who had just finished the sea burial of his brothers, to the Princess and asked: “Today three of your clansmen died in battle. We clearly didn’t need to pay such a price, but I chose to stand by with folded arms. Feng Zhiyong, do you hate me? Let me tell you, I actually did it deliberately. I deliberately exhausted the Feng family’s strength. Do you resent me?”
The hemp cloth on Feng Zhiyong’s shoulder was still seeping blood. After hearing Yun Ye’s words, he shook his head and said: “The Commander is training the Feng family’s sons, not exhausting the Feng family’s strength. If the Commander had this intention, without the pirates acting, the Princess would need only one round of fire arrows and all the Feng family’s sons would be buried in the sea.”
Yun Ye laughed and pointed at Feng Zhiyong, saying: “Not bad, an excellent answer. No matter what you’re thinking in your heart, such an answer is undoubtedly the best. I still have over a year’s time in Lingnan. In this time period, it’s impossible to train all of you completely. I discussed this problem with Zhang Liang. He’s an old commander of the naval forces. I asked him how he got a group of northern men to fight at sea, whether there were any tricks. Guess how he answered me?”
Feng Zhiyong shook his head in confusion. Yun Ye continued: “Zhang Liang told me that only warfare can most quickly enable them to master ship-handling skills. At the beginning, combat losses are inevitably greater, but once they’re trained, they become the best sailors, regardless of whether they’re southerners. Feng Zhiyong, you’re already not unfamiliar with the great sea. What you lack now is practical combat. All along our route, we’ve specifically sought out pirates precisely to let them become your whetstone. When you’re at your most exhausted, I give you the strongest enemies. Only this way can you truly traverse the great seas.”
“The tempering ahead of you hasn’t ended. After replenishing weapons, it will continue. If the casualties on your ship exceed thirty percent, I’ll halt this kind of training and tell Duke Feng that the Feng family people aren’t suited to the sea, and he should seek other methods.”
Feng Zhiyong let out a long breath and said: “This subordinate understands. We will certainly exchange the smallest combat losses for the greatest victory. We will show the Commander that the Feng family’s sons can not only dominate on land—on the sea they’re equally heroic.”
“Dongyu will help you. Study well. His ship-handling skills have been practiced for a lifetime—enough for you all to study for quite a while.” After Gou Zi saw Feng Zhiyong leave, he asked Yun Ye curiously: “My lord, are we really going to train the Feng family people?”
“Gou Zi, don’t be petty. Before a covenant is established, one can act willfully and arbitrarily, but once a covenant is settled, it must be earnestly executed. This is also the foundation of great families. If a family wants to endure long, it must be loyal to covenants—this is the most basic requirement.”