Having received Wen Yu’s promise, Zhao Youcai and the others showed wild joy on their faces and hurriedly said, “We will put in one hundred and twenty percent effort to handle this task!”
Wen Yu signaled Xiao Li to untie the ropes on the men. With a flick of his blade tip, all the ropes broke apart, yet not a single scratch was left on the men’s skin.
Zhao Youcai and the others all felt lingering fear and became even more afraid to act rashly. The two small-time thugs removed the rags stuffed in their mouths and also bowed and cupped their fists toward Wen Yu and Xiao Li in an awkward manner.
Wen Yu asked, “Does Qingyun Stronghold currently have government soldiers stationed there?”
Zhao Youcai said, “That remote place—it was only because the chief wanted to guard against government soldiers that he built the base on the mountain. Now that the government has conquered it, everything that could be taken from the stronghold has been plundered by the authorities. What couldn’t be taken was all burned clean with fire. Why would they still station troops there!”
Wen Yu then said, “Good. If you conscript soldiers, take them first and settle them at Qingyun Stronghold. At the latest, two days from now at noon, I will enter the mountains to inspect your conscription results.”
Zhao Youcai repeatedly acknowledged.
She added, “By the way, you men report your names. I need to record them properly later.”
Zhao Youcai quickly said, “This lowly one’s surname is Zhao, called Youcai—the ‘cai’ of wealth and riches.”
The one fat and one thin small-time thug beside him were also eager to say a few words in front of these important people. They had just said the word “I” when Zhao Youcai interrupted, “The fat one is called Zhao Dazhu, and the thin one is called Zhao Deng’er.”
Xiao Li raised his eyes slightly: “You’re all surnamed Zhao?”
Zhao Youcai explained, “Sir doesn’t know—in our Zhao Family Village, everyone is surnamed Zhao.”
Wen Yu returned the money they had handed to Xiao Li earlier: “All right. We still need to continue finding people to handle tasks for our master, so we won’t stay here too long.”
Zhao Youcai received those broken silver pieces with both hands. Hearing that Wen Yu and Xiao Li were going to find more people to handle tasks, he hurriedly said, “This lowly one will search everywhere today for brothers who escaped from the stronghold. There are also some brothers who went to other mountain strongholds. This lowly one will also have them pass word to the chiefs of each stronghold. We will definitely help you two gentlemen recruit manpower from all the major strongholds!”
Wen Yu only slightly lifted the corners of her lips and said, “Then we await your good news.”
—
After dismissing the men, Xiao Li resumed the journey with Wen Yu. After walking some distance, he asked, “You plan to stay in Xinzhou for two days?”
Wen Yu nodded and said, “Relying on just those three petty thieves probably isn’t enough to muddy these waters. I need to make some more preparations.”
Xiao Li then asked, “You already have a plan?”
Wen Yu said, “You’ll know when the time comes.”
Xiao Li furrowed his brows slightly and said, “We can’t stay too long. Pei Song was attacked, but we still don’t know how severe his injuries are. If we don’t take advantage of his eagle dogs not pursuing us closely to reach Pingzhou early, I fear that once he recovers, we’ll be surrounded again.”
But Wen Yu said, “Taking advantage of having the Prefect of Xinzhou as a target, the more chaotic we stir up the southern situation, the safer we’ll be.”
Xiao Li voiced his confusion: “That the Prefect of Xinzhou has Wei Qishan backing him is still just a guess. What if the Prefect of Xinzhou rose up on his own without any support? Before Pei Song sends troops to Xinzhou, will there still be time to muddy the waters?”
Wen Yu adjusted her conical hat and asked, “Even if the Prefect of Xinzhou’s own brain isn’t working well and he still wants to be the bird that stands out against Pei Song when the entire area south of the Wei River has already been pretty much handled by Pei Song—but if you were Wei Qishan, having finally gotten entangled with Pei Song, would you let him easily pacify the southern situation?”
Through this explanation from Wen Yu, Xiao Li understood the entire Great Liang situation more thoroughly. After two breaths of silence, he said, “No.”
Wen Yu looked at him and said, “So, even if Wei Qishan didn’t find the Prefect of Xinzhou before he proclaimed himself king on his own, he will certainly cooperate with the Prefect of Xinzhou now. And Pei Song has always acted ruthlessly. To avoid getting close to where Pei Song has stationed troops, the Prefect of Xinzhou will only first move to annex Pingzhou. Everything I’m doing—the real purpose is only to preserve Pingzhou.”
Xiao Li didn’t understand: “With Southern Chen’s support, the Prefect of Xinzhou won’t be able to conquer Pingzhou for a while. I’ll escort you to Pingzhou first. After you’re completely safe, I’ll send people over to continue stirring things up.”
Wen Yu looked at Xiao Li for quite a while without speaking.
Xiao Li realized something and asked, “Will Southern Chen not easily send troops?”
Wen Yu turned her head to look at the distant forest sea: “It’s that I cannot easily let Southern Chen send troops.”
These words left Xiao Li even more confused.
Wen Yu said, “Since ancient times, marriage alliances have all been an exchange of interests.”
The wind made her squint slightly: “I am the bond linking Great Liang and Southern Chen. When Great Liang was strong, Southern Chen needed to depend on Great Liang, and the situation was favorable to me. But Great Liang has already collapsed to this extent. The Wen imperial clan has also been slaughtered until only my niece and I remain. After the marriage alliance, I must use all the bargaining chips in my hand to negotiate with Southern Chen to get them to send troops.”
“Pingzhou is located at the border between Great Liang and Southern Chen. The reason it’s still stable now is because Southern Chen knows that the Prefect of Pingzhou is my father’s man. If I marry into Southern Chen, Pingzhou can also be theirs, so they’re unwilling to waste a single soldier to seize it. And other forces eyeing this fat piece of meat that is Pingzhou also fear the Southern Chen behind it.”
She said coldly, “This balance cannot be broken. If Pingzhou is in trouble and Southern Chen’s army comes under the banner of providing aid, they won’t withdraw. At that time, Pingzhou will no longer be Great Liang’s Pingzhou, and will no longer be a bargaining chip for me to negotiate with them.”
Xiao Li froze. He had originally thought that once he escorted Wen Yu to Southern Chen, she might be safe. But looking at it now, that was clearly also a den of tigers and wolves.
For the first time, he asked her, “In the future, when you return to Great Liang with Southern Chen’s army, execute Pei Song, and drive back Wei Qishan, what plans do you have then?”
Wen Yu only smiled: “It’s still too early to think about these things now.”
She walked forward. Xiao Li watched her retreating figure in silence for a long time.
He suddenly understood what she had meant when she previously wanted to drive him away and told him that this was her only path.
She and Pei Song had a blood feud as deep as the sea. And in this current realm, the only ones who could contend with Pei Song were Wei Qishan and Southern Chen.
Wei Qishan held military power. The benefits a royal princess could bring meant nothing to him. If Wen Yu sought refuge with Wei Qishan, she would probably just be treated as a decorative beauty and confined, then her imperial name would be borrowed to make attacking Pei Song even more justified.
But this would simultaneously give Southern Chen a reason to send troops—the grievance of having one’s wife stolen.
So Wei Qishan would never let himself fall into the predicament of being attacked by both Pei Song and Southern Chen.
Going to Southern Chen for a marriage alliance thus became the only path Wen Yu could take, and also the path of greatest benefit.
—
Probably because the Prefect of Xinzhou had just proclaimed himself king and everything within Xinzhou territory was being rebuilt from scratch, when Wen Yu and Xiao Li passed through a county town, they discovered that although her portrait was still posted at the city gate, the soldiers were no longer inspecting very strictly.
Now disguised as a man, she easily mixed into the city.
Xiao Li originally wanted to find an inn to rest, but Wen Yu suggested staying with the refugees.
Xiao Li feared her body couldn’t endure it and said, “The searches in the city aren’t strict. There’s no need for you to suffer in terms of lodging.”
Wen Yu lightly tugged his sleeve, signaling him to follow the refugees and not let people notice anything unusual: “I want to gather some information. Just listen to me.”
Xiao Li looked at those five fingers pulling at his sleeve—darkened yet still slender—and his heart felt like it had been squeezed. In the end, he lifted his feet and walked along with Wen Yu.
That night they rested in a dilapidated temple with the refugees. The cleverer refugees quickly gleaned quite a bit of information from the mouths of local beggars, such as whether the local government distributed porridge, which merchants also performed charitable acts of distributing porridge, and which merchants plucked feathers from passing geese and absolutely could not be approached for begging.
In just one night, listening to the refugees’ muttered discussions, Wen Yu learned about seventy to eighty percent of the major merchants in this city.
The next day, when Wen Yu and Xiao Li went to the porridge distribution point the beggars had mentioned to wait for porridge, while queuing they heard the locals speak at length about the good and evil deeds of these merchants in the city.
After receiving their porridge, Wen Yu and Xiao Li found a quiet corner to slowly drink it. She asked, “What did you hear?”
Xiao Li didn’t know Wen Yu’s intention, but he understood that everything she did must have its own reasoning. After thinking briefly, he said, “This Squire Jia, though he didn’t show any small acts of charity before, after the refugees entered the city, he set up tents to distribute porridge. Even the local authorities praised him as a benevolent merchant. On the contrary, Squire Liu, who always had a reputation for benevolence, has tightly shut his doors. When beggars come to his door to beg, they’re told his household is also struggling now. But it’s said that the grain piled in his granary is so moldy even pigs won’t eat it—it’s all thrown into the fields to rot for use as fertilizer next year.”
Wen Yu made no comment. After drinking a sip of porridge, she said, “I heard all these wealthy households have farmsteads. Later we’ll go to the farmsteads to look.”
The porridge bowl Xiao Li was bringing to his lips paused as he asked, “What exactly are you trying to do?”
The end of Wen Yu’s eyebrow raised slightly. To look more like a youth, she had deliberately drawn her eyebrows thicker and darker. Making this gesture now only made her look extraordinarily heroic: “Have you heard the saying ‘money makes the devil push the millstone’? To quickly stir up chaos in this situation, I can’t do without getting some silver to carry with me.”
Xiao Li’s eyelid twitched slightly: “You want to rob…”
Wen Yu looked at him. Xiao Li unconsciously fell silent.
Wen Yu’s eyes were frank and open: “Punishing unrighteous merchants and eliminating evils for the people—can that be called robbery?”
Xiao Li: “…”
He felt like he was getting to know Wen Yu for the first time. When Wen Yu went to return the bowls, he stared at her retreating figure for a while and smiled silently.
—
That afternoon, Wen Yu and Xiao Li went to several farmsteads belonging to the Jia and Liu families. Wen Yu, under the pretext of asking tenant farmers for water to drink, inquired about their field taxes.
The answers she received were vastly different from what they had heard at the porridge shed.
The tenant farmers complained bitterly about the Jia family, saying the Jia family only treated them like cattle and horses. Regardless of whether it was a good harvest year or disaster year, or how high or low the national taxes were, they had to hand over ninety percent of the field’s yield. Many tenant farmers who farmed for a year ended up starving their entire families to death.
Every time the Jia family’s servants accompanied their masters to the farmsteads, they would collect a round of tribute. If they took a liking to any family’s daughter or wife, forcibly taking them was a common occurrence.
In comparison, the Liu family was a very kind master household. They never indulged their subordinates in oppressing tenant farmers, and were reasonable and understanding. If any family had difficulties, they would help out.
Therefore, even though many farmsteads had changed hands, the local tenant farmers still said Squire Liu was a great benefactor.
Xiao Li asked, “I heard that Squire Liu would rather throw the moldy grain from his own granary into the fields than release grain to distribute porridge. Is this true?”
The tenant farmer he asked immediately spat: “Who’s throwing moldy grain—it’s not Squire Liu! The government ordered merchants to provide military resources. Squire Liu’s family couldn’t produce money anymore and forfeited their farmland to the government. The Jia family turned around and took the land from the government, using their own moldy grain to fertilize the land! That Jia family is the one in cahoots with the government—they’re crooked merchants! Squire Liu’s family didn’t distribute porridge to refugees this year because the Liu family’s own days have become unbearable!”
By the end, the tenant farmer couldn’t stop wiping away tears: “In these times, good people get no good rewards!”
After Wen Yu and Xiao Li bid farewell to that household, they asked several more households and received similar responses.
On the return journey, Xiao Li said with slightly furrowed brows, “I really didn’t expect the truth to be like this.”
But Wen Yu said, “So many times, what the eyes see and the ears hear aren’t necessarily all true—they’re what others want you to see and hear. The methods the Jia family used aren’t particularly brilliant, but using the distribution of porridge to refugees to build momentum for themselves is enough. Even if there are those who understand the truth and speak it, no one will care.”
Xiao Li glanced at her: “Why?”
Both sides of the road were lush bamboo groves. When a bamboo leaf drifted to Wen Yu’s shoulder, she raised her hand to pluck it off: “Those who praise the Jia family do so to continue receiving porridge. Their own sustenance is already a problem—why would they still care whether the Jia family is truly charitable or falsely charitable? Whether the Liu family is wronged or not—what does it have to do with them? Later-arriving refugees who don’t know the truth will only believe even more firmly that the Jia family is a great benefactor.”
Xiao Li said, “The refugees won’t stay here long. When all the refugees leave, those who remain in this place will still be the local common people. Without the Liu family as a benevolent merchant, their days under the hands of the unscrupulous wealthy Jia family will only become harder.”
Wen Yu was rather surprised that Xiao Li had quickly thought of this level.
But she shook her head and said, “Most people won’t think this far ahead. They just muddle through this life in confusion. Morning mushrooms don’t know the waning and waxing of the moon; summer cicadas don’t know spring and autumn. Moreover, if that Squire Jia wants to use this opportunity to have the refugees help him climb to a higher position, even if in the future those people all know he’s not a good person, what can they do to him?”
From these words, Xiao Li heard some other meaning.
The Jia family was using the refugees, exchanging small favors like porridge distribution for their support.
When Pei Song rebelled back then, wasn’t it just like this?
His jet-black eyes looked toward Wen Yu: “That storyteller Old Man Ge said that in ancient Qin times there were already people shouting ‘Do kings, dukes, generals, and ministers have innate nobility?’ Today it’s even more so. Even emperors without virtue can be driven from their positions—how much more so for merchants.”
Hearing that he was comforting her, Wen Yu was slightly stunned for a moment, then smiled lightly: “You’re right. The Grand Tutor also once taught my elder brother that the common people of this realm are like water. In gentle, open places, they are mild and calm, but if they encounter ravines and broken cliffs, they will only become more fierce and ferocious. Therefore, a sovereign must restrain their sharpness and govern the people with magnanimity, rather than oppressing out their ferocity.”
She raised her eyes to look at the distant undulating mountain ranges: “Let’s go, to Qingyun Stronghold. It’s time to continue our plan.”