To save Yao Xishui and the others from having to learn everything through Li Zhigao and Su Hongyu’s retellings after returning, Han Qian simply had Xi Ren sit down and explained in detail to the two women everything that had happened in Xuzhou.
Han Qian drank his tea while secretly observing. Seeing Yao Xishui and Spring Thirteenth Mistress now examining Xi Ren with a kind of sudden realization and relief, and recalling Spring Thirteenth Mistress pulling Xi Ren into conversation when he had first entered the courtyard, he confirmed they had already known Xi Ren’s identity beforehand—they just hadn’t been certain that his purpose in keeping Xi Ren by his side was to rally the remnants of the Xi clan.
In the letters Han Qian had previously sent to Jinling, he had merely mentioned that Xi Ren was Feng Changyu’s ninth concubine who had been tossed over to him like a hot potato by Feng Changyu because of the assassination incident.
Although he had just revealed Xi Ren’s background at the Third Prince’s residence at the Marquis of Linjiang, clearly Yao Xishui and Spring Thirteenth Mistress couldn’t have learned these details from Li Zhigao, Chai Jian and the others so quickly.
Judging from Yao Xishui and Spring Thirteenth Mistress’s reactions, it could only prove his earlier speculation—that Wanhong Tower had already impatiently dispatched personnel to Xuzhou to monitor every move he and his father made there.
Han Qian sighed softly in his heart, but he didn’t dwell on this matter and instead inquired about the rouge shop’s progress.
Although Spring Thirteenth Mistress couldn’t conveniently appear publicly, after Han Qian left Jinling he had handed the rouge shop over to her to manage secretly, and had also entrusted to her the training of the twenty-some female dependents recruited from the Garrison Military Office.
Regardless, since Spring Thirteenth Mistress had been incorporated into the Left Bureau under Han Qian’s jurisdiction, she didn’t dare be careless about the tasks Han Qian assigned. She immediately recounted to Han Qian everything she had done over the past four months.
During that day’s chaos, Spring Thirteenth Mistress had set fire to and destroyed considerable goods at Ningxiang Tower’s rouge shop. Afterward, the shop’s owner had also been hauled in for questioning by the Bureau of Operations under some pretext.
Although Yao Xishui and the others had acted a step ahead, detaining the shop assistants and female manager who had contact with them that day and making them into missing persons—causing the Bureau of Operations’ subsequent investigation to make no progress—Ningxiang Tower’s owner had still expended vast sums of money to extricate himself. Having no heart to continue operating Ningxiang Tower afterward, Spring Thirteenth Mistress had arranged for someone to take over Ningxiang Tower and completely refurbish it, reopening for business a month ago.
Under Spring Thirteenth Mistress’s secret management, over ten of the female dependents recruited from the Garrison Military Office—women from backgrounds as matchmakers and go-betweens—now fully handled Ningxiang Tower rouge shop’s operations.
The only problem was that when Han Qian left Jinling, he had left Fan Dahei and Lin Haizheng extremely limited funds. Although the lime kiln could continuously generate money each month, building warehouses, building brick kilns, and opening coal yards all required continuous investment of money and grain. Additionally, the construction of the investigation offices and the barracks, plus over twenty elite scouts remaining in Jinling under Lin Haizheng and Fan Dahei’s command—every aspect required enormous expenditure. During this period, the Military Office’s Finance Section had only allocated one million cash to Lin Haizheng and Fan Dahei.
Honestly, that Lin Haizheng and Fan Dahei had managed to hold out until Han Qian’s return while still accomplishing quite a bit was already quite remarkable. Taking over Ningxiang Tower meant Spring Thirteenth Mistress’s side had to advance over 1.2 million cash first.
Currently, since Han Qian wanted to create a Left Bureau system dominated by him for the Third Prince, this money and grain naturally couldn’t continue to be subsidized by Wanhong Tower or the Marquis Xinchang residence. Spring Thirteenth Mistress even less could possibly advance this money herself.
“This is the private money this humble one has saved up from selling smiles all these years. Surely Minister won’t have the heart to embezzle this humble one’s private money?” Spring Thirteenth Mistress’s spring-like eyes glanced over with rippling waves, as if very much encouraging Han Qian to embezzle her money.
Money and grain, money and grain!
Han Qian went mad whenever he heard these two words.
He had obtained five hundred gold cakes from Tanzhou, but Ji Xiyao, Yang Qin’s wife Zhou Rong, and some of their subordinates needed to remain in Xuzhou to rebuild the Yang-Tan Water Fort. Building the shipyard, building warehouses, building the weaving compound, reclaiming farmland—which aspect didn’t require money to flow out like water?
Han Qian, considering that Feng Xuan and Gao Bao needed to secretly redeem Xi clan members, as well as necessary emergency funds, had left two hundred gold cakes for the Xuzhou side.
However, these two hundred gold cakes would only be enough to support the Xuzhou side until after the new year. Moreover, he had brazenly defaulted on this year’s share of the three million cash annual dividend owed to his father’s side.
The remaining portion, Han Qian had all exchanged for tea leaves, medicinal herbs, cinnabar, tung oil, gold and silver wares, jade, ivory, rhinoceros horn and other goods to transport back to Jinling.
Even if this batch of goods sold smoothly in Jinling and Han Qian could recover five to six million cash, he had just promised the Third Prince to subsidize the Garrison Military Office with grain, cured meat, homespun cloth, iron materials, leather and other goods worth four million cash.
However, the grain, cured meat, iron materials, leather and other goods were mainly transported into Jinling by the Four Clans. Han Qian naturally had to contribute corresponding funds to take these goods and subsidize them to the Garrison Military Office.
He had no choice but to do this.
If he didn’t take most of the money and grain obtained from private dealings with Tanzhou and directly subsidize it to the Garrison Military Office, why would the Third Prince and Li Zhigao support him? Why would Marquis Xinchang Li Pu, Chen De, Chai Jian, and Li Chong acknowledge this matter?
In other words, if everything went smoothly, after returning this time Han Qian would at most be able to maneuver just under two million cash in spare funds.
He hadn’t expected that on Spring Thirteenth Mistress’s side, there was now a deficit of 1.2 million cash waiting for him to fill.
And Spring Thirteenth Mistress, besides having entanglements with Kong Zhou, also had connections with Feng Yi and Kong Xirong. She had no bottom line in many matters. Han Qian really didn’t want to embezzle her money.
“I’m being serious. If I let you move into this residence, how much dowry could you bring?” Han Qian stared at Yao Xishui and asked.
But Yao Xishui had no intention of joking with Han Qian. Her face cold as frost, she glanced at him icily.
Seeing that Yao Xishui had become so humorless upon his return, Han Qian stopped joking with her. He took out a ledger from his breast and handed it to Spring Thirteenth Mistress and Yao Xishui, saying: “Apart from Thirteenth Mistress’s portion, in the next few days I need to scrape together four million cash for the Four Clans before I can subsidize the grain they transported to the Garrison Military Office, but I have no way to conjure up money. Currently the only assets the Left Bureau can produce are this batch of goods I transported back from Xuzhou. You take goods worth 1.2 million cash from here and we’ll call it even. For the rest, I’ll have to think of another way.”
“Then this humble one will take these twenty ivory tusks!” Spring Thirteenth Mistress read through the cargo manifest from beginning to end, but showed no courtesy, wanting to take away the twenty ivory tusks—the most valuable items in the batch of goods Han Qian had transported back to Jinling.
“Ten ivory tusks are already worth 1.2 million cash in Jinling.”
In the present age, elephants in the Wuling and Xuefeng mountain regions had nearly gone extinct. One needed to venture south deep into jungles a thousand li away to hunt elephants. Throughout successive dynasties, only small quantities flowed into the Jianghuai and Central Plains regions as tribute from southern tribal peoples.
Now that the Jianghuai situation showed general trends toward stabilization, precious items like coral and ivory were increasingly pursued by the powerful and noble. Han Qian had spent one million cash purchasing these twenty ivory tusks in Xuzhou. He didn’t want to transfer them to Spring Thirteenth Mistress at only a twenty percent markup.
And Shitang River warehouse could only do first-tier wholesale. Bulk goods like medicinal herbs and tea leaves all had to be sold to tea merchants and medicine shops at relatively low prices to recover funds as quickly as possible. The actual profit obtainable was quite limited.
If Han Qian transferred the twenty ivory tusks to Spring Thirteenth Mistress at a cheap price, he ultimately wouldn’t be able to make ends meet.
However, Spring Thirteenth Mistress wouldn’t think that just because he controlled the Left Bureau he must be tolerated. She said: “If Minister insists on extorting this humble one’s money, this humble one with her thin arms and legs cannot twist against Minister’s thick thighs, nor dare request that Marquis Li or His Highness come out to uphold justice…”
“Fine. Whatever additional conditions you want to propose, don’t beat around the bush anymore.” Han Qian thought that Yao Xishui and Spring Thirteenth Mistress’s visit couldn’t possibly just be about a hundred or eighty taels of gold. There was probably something Marquis Xinchang Li Pu and the others found inconvenient to say in front of the Third Prince, so they sent these women to wait at his residence late at night to reveal it.
“I’ve heard that the miasma-dispelling wine Minister prepared has rather miraculous effects in treating miasma poison?” Spring Thirteenth Mistress asked.
Han Qian’s fingers tapped on the stone table.
The present age didn’t understand that so-called miasma was actually malignant malaria transmitted through mosquitoes, but they had long known it occurred frequently in the hot and humid regions of southern Fujian, southern Hunan, Lingnan and even further south near the equatorial tropical areas. By comparison, in the Jianghuai region which had been fully developed over recent centuries, the spread of malignant malaria was much lighter.
Han Qian had always been speculating about what kind of mysterious organization Wanhong Tower really was, and what secrets were hidden behind the scenes.
If miasma-dispelling wine was currently something quite urgently needed by Wanhong Tower, Han Qian would have to readjust his previous speculations about Wanhong Tower.
Did Wanhong Tower have very strong forces lurking in regions south of Jianghuai?
Or perhaps, Wanhong Tower assisting the Third Prince in the succession struggle through the Marquis Xinchang residence was merely one of their many deployments, and in other separatist forces outside Great Chu there was also Wanhong Tower’s infiltration and penetration?
“I thought it was something major. Earlier at His Highness’s residence, if Marquis Li had asked me about it, I wouldn’t have hedged.” Han Qian smiled slightly and said, “Ge Hong’s ‘Emergency Formulary’ records medicinal formulas for treating miasma poison. When I was young in Chuzhou and contracted a fever, infected with miasma, my master used this formula to cure me.”
“Ge Hong’s Emergency Formulary doesn’t have such miraculous effects…” Spring Thirteenth Mistress blurted out, but then Yao Xishui lightly kicked her under the table. Only then did she realize she had let slip something she shouldn’t have said, and it was too late to change her words.
Han Qian scratched the back of his head, thinking to himself—of the several bottles of miasma-dispelling wine he had sold in Xuzhou, through whose hands had some portion fallen into Wanhong Tower’s hands?
At the time he had thought Tanzhou might notice the miasma-dispelling wine’s effects and arrange for people to contact him, but hadn’t expected that mixed in among them were actually people arranged by Wanhong Tower.
“Yes, my master improved the formula, but since you’ve already obtained the miasma-dispelling wine, by examining its color and taste, you should know the formula isn’t far off.” Han Qian said unhurriedly.
When Han Qian was young accompanying his father in Chuzhou, he had indeed received instruction in Stone Duke Boxing and archery from a wandering Taoist. At this moment he naturally pushed everything about the miasma-dispelling wine onto being taught by an extraordinary person in his youth—Yao Xishui and the others had no choice but to believe it.
Of course, whether Yao Xishui and the others believed it or not, Han Qian wouldn’t easily reveal the true preparation method for miasma-dispelling wine. He said: “The miasma treatment method in the Emergency Formulary—the improved portion is a secret not transmitted outside my master’s school. I’m afraid I cannot transcribe it for you two tonight. But besides the ten ivory tusks, I can transcribe an improved method for high-quality rouge and have Miss Yao and Thirteenth Mistress take it back, hoping it might add a few shades of color to the young ladies of Wanhong Tower…”