Bai Qingyan leaned against the soft couch by the window lattice in Boyun Courtyard, reading the message that had just been delivered, then lit the letter on fire.
She squinted as she watched the azure flames devour the paper, remaining silent for a long while.
Sending the epidemic to Great Liang was an idea devised by the Crown Prince and Old Fang, hoping that after Great Liang was infected, they could be made to submit to Jin in exchange for the medicine to treat the plague.
Qin Shangzhi had already gone to the broad river channels to oversee the major canal construction project. Without Qin Shangzhi’s assistance and counsel, the Crown Prince was being led further astray by Old Fang, actually using such a method that damaged moral virtue to force Great Liang’s submission. Wasn’t he afraid that his soldiers would also contract the epidemic?
At the end of the seventh month in the seventeenth year of Xuanjia, Bai Qingyan finally received a letter from her third sister, Bai Jintong, which finally set her worried heart at ease.
Bai Jintong was now traveling in Xiliang under the assumed name Cui Fengnian. She said… she had traveled from Guanping to the seaport, sailed across the ocean, and sold many rare Jin goods to foreign peoples while purchasing their exotic items at low prices to bring back. Who knew she would lose her way at sea and, after groping her way forward, arrive at a place called the Tianfeng Kingdom? Later exploration revealed that the Tianfeng Kingdom was located beyond the impassable snowy mountains behind the Rong territories.
Those snow-capped mountains stretched endlessly, beginning from the very front of the Great Liang-Rong wilderness border and extending to Xiliang’s territorial boundaries. Originally, they had all thought that the great snowy mountains behind the Rong territories marked the end of the world, never imagining that beyond the mountains, after dozens of li of canyons, in the center of the desert lands, there was another kingdom.
The weapons of Tianfeng Kingdom were almost indestructible – the weapons she had brought were no match at all. After inquiring, she learned that… Tianfeng Kingdom had secret methods for forging weapons that required adding something called “ink powder.”
This time, Bai Jintong’s letter also had someone bring back this ink powder and a blacksmith from Tianfeng Kingdom for Bai Qingyan to see if they could be useful. However, they had never encountered Tianfeng Kingdom’s language before and probably couldn’t understand it, so they could only rely on gestures.
Bai Jintong also mentioned in her letter that the items she was selling in Xiliang were very popular because the Xiliang nobles had never seen them before, especially among the nobles of Xiliang’s six great families, who competed to buy them. Through this, Bai Jintong had also made connections with many Xiliang nobles.
She also mentioned in her letter the Xiliang Empress, noting that the Empress’s measures to promote people from humble backgrounds applied not only to civil officials but also to military generals. She had vaguely sensed that the Xiliang Empress seemed to be ordering Yun Poxing to… quietly assemble a force modeled after the Bai family army’s Huying Camp. Though this hadn’t been confirmed yet, surely such news wouldn’t be groundless. She would investigate whether any Huying Camp soldiers had been captured and had surrendered to Xiliang.
Since the last battle at Wengshan between Xiliang and Jin, where Bai Qingyan had burned and killed a hundred thousand elite troops, the originally formidable Xiliang, which could contend with Jin, had been severely damaged. Now, Xiliang was regrouping, with the Xiliang Empress introducing a series of policies vowing to revitalize Xiliang.
Among the new policies issued by the Xiliang Empress was a requirement that men must establish separate households after marriage, because Xiliang, like Jin, conscripted soldiers by household. This way, Xiliang’s military sources expanded, with many young men aged fourteen and above being conscripted. Xiliang was stirring restlessly, clearly wanting to take advantage of the current chaos involving Great Wei and Great Yan, Jin and Great Liang, as well as the Rong territories, to strengthen their military power.
Bai Jintong warned Bai Qingyan that they must guard against this.
Bai Jintong already knew that Jin was embroiled in a great war with Liang and had also guessed that her elder sister probably harbored intentions to destroy Liang. Moreover, with the Great Jin’s imperial family being incompetent and two cities suffering from epidemics, Jin probably couldn’t spare troops to check Xiliang’s growth. Since they couldn’t use war to prevent Xiliang’s expansion, Bai Jintong wanted to emulate Guan Zhong by using commercial methods to constrain Xiliang’s livelihood. However, this could only be attempted and couldn’t be guaranteed to succeed completely. It would require large amounts of silver and Bai Qingyan’s cooperation.
This time, when Bai Jintong sent her letter, Chen Qingsheng also included a jade pendant to give to Chun Tao, asking Bai Qingyan to pass it along.
After reading Bai Jintong’s letter, Bai Qingyan felt much more at ease.
Bai Jintong wanted to emulate Guan Zhong’s method of dealing with Lu Kingdom back in the day, to gradually weaken Xiliang and constrain and control them.
During Duke Huan of Qi’s reign, Qi’s national strength was far inferior to Lu’s prosperity. Guan Zhong devised a plan… having Duke Huan of Qi wear only clothing and accessories manufactured in Lu. For a time, Qi’s royal family and nobles all followed suit, with everyone in Qi honoring Lu’s silk as supreme. Guan Zhong then ordered that domestic textile weaving and silk production be banned, dispatching numerous merchants to the Lu Kingdom… to buy up all of Lu’s fabrics and textiles, allowing Lu to profit while spreading word among the people that selling Lu silk to Qi could bring great profits.
Seeing this, Lu’s people were moved by the prospect of gain, abandoning their old trades and giving up farming to try to profit from Lu’s silk.
Subsequently, Guan Zhong continued to have people spread messages, leading Lu’s people to abandon farming, causing fertile fields to become wasteland. Then Qi suddenly stopped purchasing Lu’s textiles and fabrics, putting Lu in the embarrassing position of having no grain to eat, forcing them to submit to Qi.
Bai Qingyan’s fingers traced as she lowered her eyes in quiet contemplation…
Now, Bai Jintong’s plan to emulate Guan Zhong was not unfeasible. If Great Yan could stabilize Great Wei, and Jin could destroy Great Liang, when Xiliang needed grain, they could only choose between Jin and Great Yan. Yan was not like Jin with its deep resources – it had only just caught its breath after conquering Nanyan’s fertile lands, so even what it could give to Xiliang wouldn’t be much.
But the current difficulty lay in silver!
If the national treasury had silver, the Crown Prince would prioritize the Emperor’s Nine-Tiered Platform.
This matter needed to be set aside for now, waiting until Bai Jinzhi had thoroughly investigated the situation in Xiliang.
She instructed Nanny Tong: “Nanny, send someone to call Shanru back. I have matters to discuss with him.”
“Yes!” Nanny Tong acknowledged and went out to send someone to summon Zeng Shanru.
Bai Qingyan glanced at the ink powder Bai Jintong had brought back and the formula for smelting iron with ink powder. She had just asked Chun Tao to put away the iron smelting formula when she heard from outside that Lu Ping had arrived and was asking the gatekeeper to announce his visit.
“Chun Tao, go invite Uncle Ping in…” Bai Qingyan straightened her clothes and turned to look out the window lattice.
Soon, Chun Tao brought in Lu Ping, whose steps were swift and urgent. After bowing from behind the gauze screen, Lu Ping said: “Miss, that guard called Yue Shi from Mr. Xiao’s side came alone on horseback and collapsed as soon as he reached the Bai mansion gates, shouting for Physician Hong. This subordinate has already had Yue Shi settled in a side room and asked Physician Hong to examine him!”
Bai Qingyan’s hand, resting on the table, suddenly tightened. Could something have happened to Xiao Rongyan?!
“Is there a way to make Yue Shi temporarily conscious for a moment…” Bai Qingyan stopped mid-sentence and stood up. “I’ll go take a look.”
She had to know what had happened to Xiao Rongyan.
“Miss, you are still ‘ill’ – if you go to the front courtyard now, someone might easily report this to the Crown Prince. Please rest assured, Miss. This subordinate has already instructed Physician Hong that if he learns any news, he should immediately send someone to report!” Lu Ping said hurriedly.
Bai Qingyan’s palms tightened. The news she had received was that Great Yan’s Ninth Prince had achieved a great victory over Xiliang at Longan, forcing the Xiliang army to retreat.