“Hey!” Ye Jingkuan couldn’t help feeling his teeth ache a bit. Covering his teeth, he looked at Zhou Weizhao. “This name couldn’t have been given by Little Yi, could it? This is truly rare enough.”
Zhou Weizhao had grown up outside in a Daoist temple and had seen all sorts of things. Seeing Ye Jingkuan make such a fuss, he couldn’t help but smile and shake his head. “Common people below don’t have so many particular rules about naming. This person is usable.” He clearly explained Sun Ergou’s character and capabilities to Ye Jingkuan, then added: “Moreover, what’s rare about this person is that he has both cunning and methods, yet still possesses a measure of conscience. Even when he was forced to become a bandit back then, they very rarely killed the innocent.”
Ye Jingkuan currently had no mind to care about what sort of person Sun Ergou had been before. He only knew that now Sun Ergou had become another adopted son Wang Lun had taken in after Han Zhi, and was highly regarded.
However, there were still some worrying aspects. Ye Jingkuan hesitated for a moment before saying: “But Sun Ergou has been missing for so long. When he returns, who knows if Wang Lun will still recognize him? Don’t let it end up costing him his life instead—that would certainly not be worth it.”
After all, Sun Ergou had disappeared along with Han Zhi for so long. When the time came, if Han Zhi didn’t return but he did, who knew whether the suspicious Wang Lun would become suspicious of him? If he became suspicious, then Sun Ergou’s return would just be going to his death—that would indeed be an unnecessary affair.
Zhou Weizhao simply smiled. “Sun Ergou is a person of great judgment, not an ordinary bandit or common folk. I’ve heard he studied with a teacher in the past and even specifically studied military texts. Such a person handles affairs very thoroughly. Moreover, Little Yi had already considered what to do if Han Zhi died when the time came but Fujian still needed an infiltrator. Since she knows, she must have arrangements for Sun Ergou. Sun Ergou is not a person who easily makes mistakes—you can rest assured.”
Ye Jingkuan breathed a sigh of relief. Since Song Chuyi had already made plans, he indeed had nothing to worry about. After thinking it over, he nodded. “Then when the time comes, I’ll discuss it carefully with Little Yi again.” He then asked Zhou Weizhao: “The investiture ceremony is only ten days away now. How do you feel?”
Although he’d known all along it was in the bag, without having actually gone through the investiture ceremony, it always felt unstable. Prince Zhennan’s manor was already firmly bound together with Zhou Weizhao. Ye Jingkuan was even more worried than Zhou Weizhao that some unforeseen change might arise.
“It’s been brought up so many times before but never came to pass. Now that we’ve reached this point, I don’t have much feeling about it anymore.” Zhou Weizhao spoke honestly, putting down what he was holding and looking back at Ye Jingkuan. “Has there been any more battle reports sent from Xibei?”
He had just returned, and after returning had immediately been notified by Emperor Jianzhang to cooperate with the Ministry of Rites in preparing for the investiture ceremony. There were still many matters he wasn’t very clear about.
Today just happened to coincide with him having free time and Zhou Weizhao also having free time. Ye Jingkuan nodded and told him all about the recent situation in Xibei, then also mentioned that Prince Gong had attempted suicide several times on the road. Half mocking, half ridiculing, he told him: “What a pity—who knows if Heaven won’t let him die, but he stubbornly failed to die.”
How could it be Heaven not letting him die? Clearly he himself didn’t want to die, was afraid of dying.
Zhou Weizhao didn’t want to hear about how Prince Gong was doing. He turned instead to ask about the silver requisitioned from Yangzhou. “The south has abundant grain. I don’t know who from the Ministry of Finance went to handle this errand?”
Ye Jingkuan knew what he was worried about and smiled to reassure him: “Now who doesn’t know that Xibei’s affairs are of utmost importance? For Xibei’s sake, countless officials have already died. Now even if you lent them several doses of courage, no one would dare make any moves with this matter. It concerns a thousand autumns and ten thousand generations—take one wrong step, and in the future they’ll likely be infamously renowned. You can rest assured about this. There’s another sum of silver being used to mobilize southern troops northward. The Three Great Camps and the reserve drill armies of Hebei and Henan are all preparing to be concentrated and transferred to the capital. The anti-pirate armies from Jinling and the south have also been requisitioned. The Tartar soldiers are exhausted of troops and horses. At this point, they’re already at the end of their strength—no need to rush.”
A thousand li away, Marquis Dingyuan said the same thing. His finger pointed at the map as he looked toward Prince Zhennan and Cui Shaoting. “Originally the military forces of Hebei West Circuit and Hebei East Circuit have all been concentrated and transferred to Zijing Pass. For now, Ye Tatars there have no way to take Zijing Pass. We still have time.”
Those remnant forces of Ye and Prince Gong’s side—some small county towns still stubbornly resisting—still had to be taken down one after another first. Otherwise, if they weren’t careful, they could easily suffer covert losses. Only after pacifying Jin territory could they move north to support Zijing Pass.
Cui Shaoting was of the same mind. They were just discussing how to properly allocate tasks with Huang Yiqing when word came from outside that a heavenly envoy had arrived.
Several groups had already come before, all announcing imperial edicts. One time they’d even brought quite a bit of supplies and provisions, as well as edicts of rewards. Everyone knew full well what state the national treasury was in. At this stage, being able to continuously send provisions to Xibei was already the limit. Sure enough, after a few more groups came later, there were no more provisions.
In fact, right now both Marquis Dingyuan and Cui Shaoting were so anxious about provisions that their hair had nearly turned white. They exchanged glances with each other, both somewhat wanting to smile bitterly. The court had reached this point—even if it wanted to allocate provisions down, it probably had more will than strength. This time it might not necessarily be good news.
Who knew this time they were being too pessimistic? They’d thought the heavenly envoy would just come to say a few words of praise as usual, but the heavenly envoy came with a grand gesture. Tao Dinghu had become the provisions transport official and personally led people to escort a full seventy carts of grain, with even dozens of carts of weapons and armor. This was truly an unexpected delight. Marquis Dingyuan’s eyes turned green, and even Prince Zhennan couldn’t help showing pleasure on his face.
Who knew the surprises were far from over? After Tao Dinghu settled in, he took his seal and toured around Taiyuan City. After making the rounds, a few days later Taiyuan City actually managed to raise a full three granaries’ worth of grain, all from the Wang Family grain business.
Originally they’d been worried about lacking supplies and not being able to hold out until Xibei was completely pacified, worried about dragging down Zijing Pass. Who knew such good fortune would fall from the sky? Even Cui Shaoting couldn’t help feeling immensely gratified and pulled Tao Dinghu along to drink quite heartily.
After finishing this drinking session, his whole person felt refreshed and invigorated. Just as he was about to summon people for a council, he heard news from Taiyuan that Han Zhi had died.
Originally they’d planned to keep Han Zhi alive. Cui Shaoting had thought his niece wanted to personally deal with this person, but who knew Sun Ergou said Song Chuyi had specifically instructed that he could be executed on the spot.
He also felt Song Chuyi’s considerations made sense. Having such a venomous snake nearby would indeed easily bite people. Following Sun Ergou’s suggestion, he locked Han Zhi in the hunting ground Prince Gong had used for amusement. Inside were plenty of wolves, tigers, and black bears. He wanted to let Han Zhi taste what fear felt like.
Now it had already been nine days. Han Zhi had actually managed to hold on this long. According to Sun Ergou, Han Zhi had killed two wolves, one tiger, and even killed a small black bear. This could truly be called extremely tenacious.
Such a person—no wonder Song Chuyi wanted him killed.