Ji Gang asked, “Why should I believe you?”
Bandit chief Chen Xuan said, “If we truly wanted to harm the Embroidered Uniform Guards, there were opportunities everywhere yesterday. We could have tampered with the food and drinks, or set fire to the post station in the middle of the night while you were fast asleep. Would you still have had a chance to live?”
No.
The Embroidered Uniform Guards were accustomed to being imposing in the capital, where officials large and small feared them. Their investigations relied mainly on beatings and intimidation, and they could trip up even a prime minister without effort. But when far from the capital’s center of power, arriving at this frontier land of poor mountains and evil waters, the Embroidered Uniform Guards’ weakness of arrogance and complacency was fully exposed, played around with by a group of bandits.
Apart from cooperation, what other options did Ji Gang have?
Ji Gang said, “Before cooperating, I need to know your background. You speak the official dialect of Jinling, and judging from your manner of speech, you weren’t born in the wilderness, were you?”
Chen Xuan sighed, “Commander Ji has keen insight. It’s a long story…”
It turned out Chen Xuan came from a military family. His father had once been Assistant Regional Military Commissioner of Chengdu, a third-rank military official. But early this year, in Prime Minister Hu Weiyong’s treason case, over a thousand court officials were implicated. Chen’s father lost his head, and the entire family was exiled to the northwest. His mother followed his father in death – the family was destroyed.
During the exile journey, Chen Xuan couldn’t bear the humiliation and beatings from the escorting soldiers, so he simply killed the soldiers in retaliation and became a bandit in Zhouzhi County. With his military family background providing martial skills and wisdom, Chen Xuan became chief of the eighteen strongholds within half a year.
In these times, being a bandit was difficult, and being a good bandit was even more difficult.
Chen Xuan found an alternative path – he opened escort agencies in various major cities in Shaanxi Province, profiting by protecting merchant caravans. Any caravan escorted by his agency was absolutely safe and wouldn’t be robbed – he could hardly rob himself.
So the escort business grew better and better. The existence of the eighteen strongholds wasn’t to harass civilians, but to deliberately frighten merchant caravans for the sake of the escort business. Therefore, the court wasn’t enthusiastic about bandit suppression, maintaining a delicate balance.
But the mysterious disappearance of Liu Siyan’s group on the mountain roads of Zhouzhi County had pushed the eighteen strongholds into a fire pit.
Chen Xuan’s father had been caught up in Hu Weiyong’s treason case and had his family destroyed by the Embroidered Uniform Guards. He knew how powerful imperial authority was – destroying the eighteen strongholds and following the trail to eliminate the escort agencies would be a small matter.
Therefore, Chen Xuan was even more anxious than Ji Gang, because Ji Gang would at most lose his position, while his eighteen strongholds would lose their lives. Through his escort agency’s business connections, he had obtained five hundred sets of Ming Dynasty military uniforms and even forged Prince Qin’s banners.
Ji Gang’s wisdom was limited. The officials implicated in Hu Weiyong’s case were simply too numerous – he really couldn’t remember there being a Chen-surnamed assistant regional military commissioner from Chengdu.
However, he felt Chen Xuan was quite sensible, knowing that the Embroidered Uniform Guards were a group who would absolutely never let things rest, so he compromised first.
Ji Gang cleared his throat lightly and put on official airs, saying, “As long as you can help find the real culprit behind Liu Siyan’s group’s disappearance, it will count as merit offsetting your crimes, and the Embroidered Uniform Guards will plead for you. But right now, the urgent priority is finding Bureau Chief Hu. Eight hundred men couldn’t protect one woman – this would be a laughingstock if word got out.”
Chen Xuan said, “Naturally. I’ve already sent my brothers with hunting dogs to search the mountains.”
Eight hundred men searched the mountains for a whole day without finding even a strand of hair.
That evening when Ji Gang went to bed, he felt something uncomfortable against his back in the bedding. Oh no, a hidden weapon!
Ji Gang rolled out of bed and lifted the blankets, discovering it was a letter. The handwriting looked familiar, and it bore Hu Shanwei’s small seal.
Ji Gang opened the envelope, read the letter, then burned it immediately after reading, throwing it into the brazier and muttering, “Indeed, the more beautiful a woman is, the more cunning she is.”
Meanwhile, Hu Shanwei watched the battle from the cave. The fighting inside and outside the post station stopped within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. It seemed Shi Baihu’s words were credible – this group really were bandits. But why had the fighting stopped?
It was truly bewildering.
Hu Shanwei thought of countermeasures. Rather than being tangled in a thousand threads and confused mess here, it would be better to go to the source of the problem – Prince Qin’s manor in Xi’an – and observe secretly.
So Hu Shanwei wrote a letter, had Shi Baihu infiltrate the post station to deliver it to Ji Gang, then disguised herself as a man and became a member of the merchant caravan, heading toward Xi’an city.
In her letter, Hu Shanwei instructed Ji Gang to definitely pretend not to know her whereabouts, never reveal her location, or mention that Mu Chun had sent eight bandit hundred-household commanders to protect her. With him in the open and her in the shadows, working together, they would certainly discover Liu Siyan’s group’s whereabouts.
Therefore, the next day, Ji Gang left twenty Embroidered Uniform Guards at Zhouzhi County post station to search the mountains together with the real post master and servants who had been released by Chen Xuan, while he himself led two hundred and eighty men to continue forward to Xi’an Prefecture.
To avoid alerting their quarry, Ji Gang and Chen Xuan agreed that their alliance would remain hidden, while on the surface they maintained the opposing relationship of officials and bandits.
Chen Xuan’s eighteen stronghold bandits, once they left Zhouzhi County, became the legitimate Weifeng Escort Agency. They had a branch in Xi’an for future covert contact.
October 26th, Xi’an Prefecture.
Hu Shanwei’s group of nine entered the city gates in the afternoon.
Snowflakes began falling from the dim sky. The weather was dry and cold, with the north wind also carrying sand and dust – like invisible sandpaper grinding people’s faces.
No wonder people’s faces here generally weren’t as smooth and lustrous as those in Jiangnan.
Hu Shanwei wore a rough sheepskin robe with a wolf fur hat on her head. Having grown up in Jiangnan, she wasn’t adapted to the climate here. Her lips were already cracked, and even dressed like a fat person, she still felt cold.
When merchant caravans entered the city, they first had to pay taxes. Shi Baihu bowed and scraped, leading the city gate clerk to inspect the goods, secretly slipping him a corner of silver, hoping to pay less tax.
The cart carried silk fabrics from Jiangnan – all sought-after goods. The clerk estimated three taels and seven qian of tax silver. After paying the tax, they entered the city.
All along the way, autumn winds had been desolate with barren land and sparse population. But entering Xi’an city, with its dense shops and bustling pedestrians, there was instantly a scene of prosperity. Indeed, this thousand-year-old ancient capital lived up to its reputation, being the first to recover its vitality after years of warfare.
In the third year of Hongwu, fifteen-year-old Second Prince Zhu Xi was enfeoffed as Prince Qin, with his fiefdom established in Xi’an.
Zhu Xi was born on December 6th in the sixteenth year of Zhizheng, while Crown Prince Zhu Biao was born on October 10th. Prince Qin was only a little over a month younger than the Crown Prince.
That year was very crucial for Zhu Yuanzhang’s career of supremacy. In that year, he captured Jiqing and renamed it Yingtian, which is now the capital Nanjing.
Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself King of Wu that year, formally establishing a three-way balance with Zhang Shicheng, another King of Wu based in Suzhou, and Chen Youliang, who had already proclaimed himself King of Han.
Prince Qin was intelligent and brave, born with martial bearing. Therefore, Emperor Hongwu granted Prince Qin this most important frontier city of Xi’an, showing his regard and expectations for his second son. In the year of the enfeoffment, Emperor Hongwu ordered the Ministry of Works to travel to Xi’an to select a site and build Prince Qin’s manor.
In the eleventh year of Hongwu, twenty-three-year-old Prince Qin took up his fiefdom. It had been two years since then.
With the New Year approaching, Xi’an city was orderly and prosperous – it seemed Prince Qin had some ability and governed this place well.
Just as Hu Shanwei’s group arrived at the inn, a crowd of brokers from the trading houses surrounded them, wanting to buy their silk fabrics.
Silk fabrics from Jiangnan had no trouble finding buyers – it was just the journey that was rather arduous and dangerous. Shi Baihu found the prices offered by the brokers too low and politely declined.
Hu Shanwei found a seat with a brazier in the inn’s main hall, took off her hat and gloves, drank a cup of hot tea, and finally felt her soul come back to life.
Her little finger was slightly reddish – already a sign of recurring frostbite. She quickly applied a layer of white ointment to her hands, slowly warming them over the brazier and rubbing to work the medicine into her skin.
This was personally prepared for her by Ru Siyao, who had warned that if she wasn’t careful, frostbite would recur every year. A female official’s hands couldn’t become so rough again.
A trading house broker sat down beside her. Hu Shanwei said, “This table is taken. They’ll be over right away.”
The broker was thick-skinned and shameless, smiling cheerfully as he said, “You’re their young master, right? I see your carts are full of fine silk fabrics. You’re in charge – name a price and sell them to me. From your accent, you’re all from the south. With New Year approaching, take the money and go home for the festivities, right?”
Nothing else to say – this broker truly had good eyesight, seeing through the merchant team’s hierarchy.
Hu Shanwei said, “Don’t try to bully me for being young and ignorant. You’re from a trading house, making money as a middleman earning the difference. You don’t have ready silver – you need to find the next buyer before you can pay us. Our goods are fine, and we’ve worked hard all this way precisely to earn more. We can find our own sales channels without troubling you.”
The broker maintained his smile: “You’re absolutely right – I am from a trading house. But we who eat the broker’s rice rely on having clients and buyers that outsiders simply cannot contact. You outsiders, even if you’re holding incense, don’t know where to worship Buddha. I’ll bring the true Buddha right to you. You eat the meat, and I’ll just sip some soup.”
The broker held up four fingers: “I only take forty percent – this price is very reasonable.”
Hu Shanwei picked up her teacup to dismiss him: “Go find someone else.”
The broker folded down one finger: “Thirty percent. I’ll find you an excellent buyer who pays generously and never defaults. Even if you sell to silk shops, you won’t get a very good price. There are many goods coming from the south now, and all the silk shops are secretly colluding to drive down prices.”
The more persistently the broker pestered, the more uneasy Hu Shanwei felt. She simply stood up to find Shi Baihu, who was at the counter registering their household registration and travel permits for lodging.
The broker hurriedly said, “Really, if you agree, we can trade as early as tomorrow and you can take the silver home for New Year – Prince Qin’s manor has a great celebration today. Prince Qin’s eldest son was born. Prince Qin is twenty-five years old and only now has his first child, and it’s a son too. He’s overjoyed beyond measure. In three days, he’ll hold a grand third-day celebration feast. The manor urgently needs fabrics and silks. I’ll introduce you to Prince Qin’s manor steward – they’ll take all your fabrics. Riding on the joy of the eldest son’s birth, they’ll pay quite readily.”
Upon hearing about Prince Qin’s manor, Hu Shanwei stopped in her tracks, turned around, and held up two fingers: “We’ll give you twenty percent. Take it or leave it.”
Ming Dynasty princes generally married at sixteen. Like Fourth Prince Yan Wang Zhu Di, who was twenty this year – his eighteen-year-old Princess Yan had already borne three children, two daughters and one son, and was currently pregnant with another, likely to give birth around New Year.
Prince Qin was twenty-five and only now holding his first child – one could see how joyful he was today.
The broker clapped his hands: “I just love straightforward people like the young master. Twenty percent it is. Let’s make friends first – when I have good clients in the future, I’ll recommend your goods.”
Hu Shanwei returned to her seat and began fishing for information, asking, “Having a son so late, we can probably ask for higher prices. I wonder what patterns Princess Qin likes in silk fabrics.”
The broker laughed: “One look and I can tell you’re from out of town – you don’t understand Prince Qin’s manor at all. Princess Qin is a Northern Yuan princess, the sister of Northern Yuan Prime Minister Wang Baobao, who married into the Ming Dynasty for a political alliance. She’s never been favored. The one who gave birth to the eldest son today is Prince Qin’s Consort Deng. Don’t be fooled by her being just a consort – Consort Deng is the legitimate eldest daughter of Duke Weiguo Deng Yu, born of noble status and deeply beloved by Prince Qin…”
Actually, Hu Shanwei, being in the palace at the center of imperial power, how could she not know these gossip details the broker was sharing? She knew them even more deeply than the broker.
Prince Qin was only one year younger than Crown Prince Zhu Biao.
But when it came to inheritance rights, let alone one year – even being one day younger meant Prince Qin was destined to have no connection with the crown prince position. According to the Ming Dynasty’s “Imperial Ancestral Instructions,” when there was a legitimate heir, establish the legitimate; when there was no legitimate heir, establish the eldest – these were the succession rules.
But being just one step away, who would be willing to accept it? Moreover, Prince Qin was intelligent and brave in battle, and was dissatisfied with the Crown Prince who was gentle in nature and only knew how to read books.
What a clever person Emperor Hongwu was! He used just one move to make Prince Qin completely abandon any thoughts of the crown prince position.
When the Ming Dynasty’s second northern expedition failed, Emperor Hongwu sought peace and bestowed the marriage of Wang Baobao’s sister – captured during the first northern expedition and nicknamed Guanyin Nu – to Prince Qin.
Wang Baobao was enfeoffed as King of Henan, so his sister Lady Wang was a Northern Yuan princess.
With Prince Qin having a Northern Yuan princess as his consort, first, his future offspring’s bloodline wouldn’t be pure, and second, Princess Qin’s attitude toward her homeland would arouse suspicion and distrust throughout the Ming Dynasty. Thus Prince Qin’s hopes of touching the heir apparent position were completely extinguished.
Of course, Emperor Hongwu knew his second son’s grievance. To compensate, the following year he also bestowed Deng Yu’s legitimate eldest daughter, Lady Deng, to Prince Qin as a consort.
Such arrangements could complete the marriage alliance, bringing temporary peace between the two countries, while preventing Prince Qin from having improper fantasies about the crown prince position, and using the nobly-born Consort Deng to appease Prince Qin and ensure the bloodline of Prince Qin’s manor lineage – achieving three goals with one stroke.
In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, October 26th, Prince Qin’s manor Consort Deng gave birth to the bastard eldest son Zhu Shangbing. Prince Qin was greatly delighted and distributed rice porridge and meat buns at the gate, celebrating with the people.
You should know that even well-off families didn’t have meat buns to eat every day – Prince Qin’s manor was being extremely generous. A long queue formed at Prince Qin’s manor gate. Everyone who received a meat bun had to say a blessing for the eldest son: “May you live a hundred years!”
Hu Shanwei’s group of nine braved the wind and snow, queuing at the manor gate to receive buns.