Xiao Rongyan’s business with Xi Liang was just beginning to open up, but for him, it was not a difficult matter.

More importantly, Xiao Rongyan now had shops throughout Jin, transporting goods to other countries and bringing back specialty products from those nations on the return journey—profits could be made on both legs of the trip.

Xiao Rongyan described his business in detail to Dong Shi with great sincerity. Dong Shi smiled and said: “Master Xiao’s business spans all nations—there’s certainly wisdom in that!”

Seeing they had discussed enough, Xiao Rongyan rose to take his leave, making a show of bowing formally toward Bai Qingyan: “The bandit suppression benefits both the common people and merchants like us. If there’s anything the Eldest Miss needs help with, please don’t hesitate to ask—I will do everything in my power to assist.”

Bai Qingyan nodded and had Lu Ping escort Xiao Rongyan out.

Dong Shi watched Xiao Rongyan’s tall, straight figure recede, picked up her teacup, and couldn’t help but feel it was a pity about his merchant status.

In terms of bearing and appearance, Dong Shi felt those who could match Xiao Rongyan were as rare as phoenix feathers or unicorn horns. If not for his merchant background, countless noble families would be willing to marry their daughters to such a man.

Dong Shi had been considering whether to test if Xiao Rongyan would be willing to marry into the Bai family, but thinking of how her daughter’s mind wasn’t on romantic matters and how she had shallow fortune regarding children, she worried about delaying Xiao Rongyan.

Setting down her teacup, Dong Shi saw that Bai Qingyan seemed lost in thought and probed: “A’Bao, what do you think of this Xiao Rongyan?”

“Mother… I have some matters to attend to. I’ll dine with Mother this evening.” After saying this, Bai Qingyan rose and bowed to Dong Shi, then hurriedly left the main hall with Chun Tao, calling for Lu Ping to accompany her.

Dong Shi watched Bai Qingyan’s hurried departure and sighed inwardly, convincing herself to abandon any thoughts of matchmaking between Bai Qingyan and Xiao Rongyan. Her daughter showed not the slightest concern for matters of marriage.

·

Bai Qingyan instructed Lu Ping: “Send reliable people to the southern border to deliver letters separately to Shen Kunyang, Gu Wenchang, Wei Zhaonian, Cheng Yuanzhi, and Shen Liangyu. Tell them… the Emperor intends to deploy troops to the Xi Liang border, so they should act carefully!”

Rather than telling them to act carefully, it was more like… telling Bai Qingjue to be careful, to hide the troops well, and not reveal any flaws.

However, with Shen Kunyang and the others there, as long as they received a warning, they could certainly coordinate to cover for Bai Qingjue.

“Yes!” Lu Ping acknowledged and left.

Bai Qingyan stood by the lakeside, carefully considering the Emperor’s intention to deploy troops at the Xi Liang border.

What Xiao Rongyan had said… that Great Yan sent envoys to Jin bearing tribute to convince the Emperor to deploy troops at the Xi Liang border as deterrence, meant the Emperor had no intention of actually going to war with Xi Liang—it was purely for intimidation.

Xiao Rongyan had calculated clearly: Great Wei had deployed troops at Great Yan’s border but hadn’t acted, simply because they feared Great Yan’s hidden strength these years and couldn’t gauge Great Yan’s true national power. But if they joined with Xi Liang to attack Great Yan, they would have confidence.

However, if Jin now constrained Xi Liang, Xi Liang would certainly not dare to rashly deploy troops. Xi Liang would also fear… that Jin would take advantage of their main forces being entirely committed to Great Yan to seize Xi Liang’s cities and territories.

Xiao Rongyan already held the title of the world’s richest merchant. If his trading caravans entered Xi Liang territory at this time and spread rumors that Jin had deployed troops at Xi Liang’s border… waiting for Xi Liang’s main forces to be trapped in Great Yan before occupying Xi Liang cities, even if Xi Liang had suspicions and sent people to Jin to investigate, they would surely hesitate.

Bai Qingyan clenched her fists at her sides. If the goal was merely deterrence without a willingness to fight, some methods wouldn’t require such massive mobilization of provisions and supplies. If she could go to the Jin-Xi Liang border, she might achieve better intimidation. Having once killed a hundred thousand Xi Liang prisoners, she would certainly be feared in the hearts of Xi Liang soldiers. She didn’t believe the Crown Prince and Emperor could think of this.

However, the Bai family army was right at the border, so the Emperor and Crown Prince would rather expend time and effort deploying troops at the border than send Bai Qingyan to the southern frontier.

That afternoon, news from Bai Jinxiu arrived. Her letter described exactly what Bai Qingyan expected—the Emperor and Crown Prince seemed intent on deploying troops to the southern frontier.

Bai Jinxiu’s information was already quite fast, but compared to Xiao Rongyan, who was directly involved, it was naturally somewhat slower.

Bai Qingyan wasn’t afraid of the Emperor deploying troops to the southern frontier. She was simply considering how to use this situation to maximize the Bai family army’s interests.

The soldiers from the northern frontier campaign were all veterans who had fought alongside her in the south. Most had already pledged loyalty to their own general—for instance, Du Sanbao was Wang Xiping’s man.

Such an army going to the southern frontier wouldn’t necessarily obey the commands of Shen Kunyang, Cheng Yuanzhi, and the others.

But if newly recruited soldiers were sent, trained by the Bai family army, in the future, these recruits would very likely serve the Bai family army.

Caged birds long for their old forest, pond fish yearn for their former depths—just as her uncle Dong Qingyue had once trained with the Bai family army, he held different feelings for them in his heart.

The important question was who should persuade the Crown Prince about this matter…

Bai Jinxiu was pregnant, and Bai Qingyan didn’t want to burden her.

Since the Crown Prince hadn’t sent anyone to ask her opinion on this matter, she couldn’t bring it up… otherwise, the Crown Prince would suspect her of constantly monitoring the capital’s situation for ulterior motives.

She thought of Left Chancellor Li Mao, but entrusting this matter to Li Mao would be equivalent to telling him she intended to strengthen the Bai family army’s power.

The breeze stirred the willows, green leaves swayed, and cicadas sang ever louder.

Dappled light filtered through gaps, dancing across Bai Qingyan’s skirt. She turned around, her back to the gently rippling lake water, her eyes calm and composed.

She needed an extremely reasonable excuse to send one of her people back to the capital.

Currently, the only reasonable excuse she had was to capture someone from Prince Liang or the Wang family who had disguised themselves as bandits… to kidnap children, serving as evidence of Prince Liang’s inhuman use of children for alchemy.

But who would be most suitable to return to the capital? Bai Qingyan wanted to go personally, but having her deliver evidence to the capital would be too deliberate.

Yet sending a trusted subordinate to the capital with evidence might not guarantee an audience with the Crown Prince.

After much consideration, only Bai Jinzhi was suitable.

Bai Qingyan had Chun Tao summon Steward Liu.

She instructed Steward Liu to dispatch highly skilled and reliable guards to where those child-kidnapping “bandits” were located. They only needed to capture one alive, then wait at Kongtong Mountain for the Fourth Miss while interrogating him to learn whose orders he had followed in disguising himself as a bandit to capture those children. Once the Fourth Miss Bai Jinzhi arrived, they would go to the capital together.

After Steward Liu left with his orders, Bai Qingyan personally visited Bai Jinzhi’s courtyard.

At that moment, Third Madam Li Shi was in Bai Jinzhi’s courtyard, having just supervised Bai Jinzhi changing into fresh clothes. She was planning to have Bai Jinzhi go play with Dong Tingzhen, having heard that today Dong Tingzhen was teaching Bai Jinzhao and Bai Jinhua incense blending at Shaohua Courtyard. Third Madam Li Shi also wanted Bai Jinzhi to learn this skill.

Dong Tingzhen, the legitimate daughter of the capital’s Dong family, was famous for her incense-blending abilities.

As for Bai Jinzhi, although she wasn’t particularly skilled at such things, she knew Dong Tingzhen was dexterous, and all the incenses blended by her hands were extremely fragrant. She wanted to ask for some.