Master Liang suddenly stood up, pointing at the merchant in the shipping business and asked: “Are you certain of this? Are you sure the bandits’ numbers exceed fifty thousand? Such wild talk cannot be spoken carelessly.”
“Master Liang, my business depends on everyone for a bowl of rice. How would I dare deceive everyone in such a matter? As you know, my ancestors for generations have made this living. If you say I don’t know two or three water bandit big chiefs, no one would believe it. It truly is so. That associate truly saw fifty or sixty thousand water bandits. It absolutely cannot be the less than twenty thousand that Marquis Yun mentioned.”
Old Master Liang nodded. The Cao Family had indeed been in the water transport business for a long time, with a reputation that had always been excellent. If someone doing water transport business said they didn’t know water bandits, this business couldn’t be conducted long-term. They were all people in business. These channels were very clear to everyone—they just didn’t expose them. As long as you deliver my goods safely, as for how you transported them over, what business is that of mine?
Getting down from the soft couch and putting on his shoes, he intended to go tell Marquis Yun this news, to inform him that his intelligence was wrong. Using just over ten thousand men to besiege fifty thousand was an erroneous idea that must be corrected, otherwise they would suffer great losses.
He had just reached the door when a large group of merchants pulled him back, begging him not to go. With fifty thousand water bandits, if the court wanted to suppress them, it would inevitably be a protracted war. The land and residences Yun Ye wanted to deliver successively next year would turn to bubbles. Once others learned of this, it would immediately create a wave. At that time, the silver they had already handed over to Yun Ye would be withdrawn by others. After all, Yun Ye’s priority for refunding money would certainly be high officials and nobles, not merchants like themselves.
“But won’t the over ten thousand soldiers of the nation be in danger?” Master Liang still couldn’t bear it.
“Master Liang, please be merciful. If the soldiers are in danger, do we not face danger too? Once the business fails, how will we arrange for our families’ old and young? Calculated together, that’s also tens of thousands of people.”
Looking at the merchant crying loudly while hugging his legs at his feet, then looking at his eldest son who had shrunk into the corner wanting to close the door, Master Liang helplessly lowered his head. He seemed to age ten years in an instant. His originally ruddy face was completely ashen gray. He trembled as he said to his eldest son: “Very well. Houde, from now on the Liang Family is entrusted to you. Father is old and useless. You all discuss this. I’m going to rest in the back residence.” Having said this, he staggered toward the back residence.
“But when we initially established the contract, worried that Marquis Yun would go back on his word, we specifically set the compensation high. If Yun Ye wants to renege, he must refund us almost double the silver coins. If we renege, he only needs to return thirty percent of our silver coins. Wouldn’t we lose tremendously this way?”
Eldest Master Liang roared with bloodshot eyes: “Then what else do you want? Wait until the water bandits enter the city and we lose everything, not seeing a single copper coin—would that be better?”
“We could resell the land deeds to others. Perhaps we could reduce some losses. If done well, there might even be profit.”
“Go dream your big dreams. Not counting the small ones, there are fully four large families doing water business on Dongting Lake, and each one has connections with water bandits. The Ke Family of Baling has an extremely close relationship with the Single-Horned Dragon King, the largest band of water bandits on Dongting Lake. Their information might have been known even earlier than ours. While there’s still a chance, hurriedly getting back the thirty percent of silver coins is real.”
“What if the government wins? Wouldn’t doing this be like lifting a rock to drop on our own feet?” A clever merchant quietly voiced his opinion.
Everyone looked at him as if looking at an idiot. The oldest merchant closed his eyes and slowly said: “The government will definitely win. This old one has never doubted that. The court’s strength has greatly increased these years. The military is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Marquis Yun himself is a fierce battlefield general. Defeating the water bandits is no problem. However, we live beside this great marsh. I’ve watched countless scenes of government troops suppressing water bandits. The government troops can mostly win. But have the water bandits been exterminated?”
“No. They merely scatter into pieces and continue to plague this great marsh. Even if Marquis Yun is unclear about military intelligence this time, relying on his elite soldiers and capable generals, breaking out of encirclement is no problem. But the water bandits will take advantage of the momentum to charge over. Right now Yuezhou is the most prosperous place beside the great marsh. They will certainly attack fiercely here.”
“Regardless of whether they capture it or not, Yuezhou will inevitably see lives destroyed and land scorched for thousands of miles. Government troops and water bandits will saw back and forth. You come, I go—warfare without rest. Not to mention much—two years. From preparation to deployment to exterminating the water bandits, the court dispatching a great army for suppression—two years isn’t much, right?”
“But in two years, will there still be people in Yuezhou? Back then, one Gai Jiaotian stirred the great marsh upside down. The court’s current Prince Hejian nearly perished in the great marsh. Didn’t over ten thousand soldiers die here? The floating corpses beside the military review tower were densely packed. We haven’t eaten fish from the great marsh for two years. Everyone here is not young. You still remember the scenes from back then, right? The government troops won in the end, but were there still people in Yuezhou? It took nearly twenty years of recuperation to gradually regain some vitality. This old one is sixty-three this year and truly cannot wait another twenty years. Eldest Master Liang, go. Return our land deeds to Marquis Yun and bring back the thirty percent of silver coins. Consider that seventy percent our contribution to the court’s bandit suppression. After all, the court has treated us well these years.”
Having finished speaking, the old man leaned his head against the chair back, tears streaming down his face. It wasn’t that he was heartbroken about the money—he was heartbroken about the vitality Yuezhou had gathered with such difficulty. The painful experiences from years past made the elder’s heart ache to the core.
Seeing the elder weeping, the other merchants also began to wail loudly, except this time it was out of heartache for their own silver coins.
When Eldest Master Liang arrived at the Prefectural Governor’s office again, he discovered the atmosphere throughout the office was very poor. Everyone’s faces were tense. Messenger soldiers came and went. In a short time, Eldest Master Liang saw five or six groups leave.
With difficulty waiting until he could see Yun Ye, only then did he discover Yun Ye’s eyes were bloodshot red, the desk was in complete disarray. Seeing Eldest Master Liang enter, he sighed and said: “Can you not give me a bit more confidence? As long as this commander exterminates the water bandits, the new city will still be executed according to the original schedule. Why demand refunds at this time?”
“Marquis Yun is a famous general. The soldiers under your command are fierce troops. We have never doubted that this battle will surely be a great victory for Your Lordship. But, but once Your Lordship achieves great victory, Yuezhou will be finished. It will become scorched earth. To restore the population will require at least twenty years. We cannot wait.” Eldest Master Liang knelt behind Yun Ye, crying bitterly, because from Yun Ye’s words he already knew that Yun Ye was very clear about what kind of water bandits he faced and already knew the exact numbers of the bandits.
“Qian Sheng, process it for them. Refund at a forty percent rate, because they at least understand that this commander will not fail.” Qian Sheng stood up from the desk behind. Taking the land deeds from Eldest Master Liang’s hands, he led him to the silver vault to collect silver coins.
Eldest Master Liang gratefully returned with forty percent of the silver coins. Yun Ye sat behind the desk for a long time without speaking. Han Cheng also didn’t speak, just accompanying Yun Ye sitting there from dusk straight through sunset. It wasn’t until Qian Sheng came in and lit candles that Yun Ye discovered the moon had already risen.
Thunder rumbled from the distant mountains. In the silent night, the thunder carried very far. To transfer the people in Yuezhou city out, the only place to go was the distant mountains. Only by staying far from the battlefield could they avoid suffering the hardships of war.
Inside the mountains were many wild beasts and poisonous insects—people couldn’t live there. So Gou Zi and Dan Ying were currently playing the mountain god’s drumming. Only this way could they drive poisonous snakes and fierce beasts to even more remote places. The gunpowder brought from Chang’an this time was abundant. The gunpowder manufactured by Qing Que was extremely effective, far stronger by several times than what Yun Ye manufactured himself. So the sounds were also much crisper.
Qian Sheng glanced at the bright moon overhead, then heard another thunderclap. He looked at Yun Ye with an unsettled soul, wanting to ask but forcibly restrained himself. Finally he too fell into silence.
“Old Han, Old Qian, clearly I’ve earned a huge sum of money. Why can’t I feel even the slightest bit of pleasure? My heart feels empty. I’d rather they all be fierce and menacing toward me than see them weeping and begging me piteously. Why is this? Old Qian, you got at least one thing right—I truly am not a good person.”
Hearing Yun Ye’s words, Qian Sheng thumped his big belly, making banging sounds. After several strikes he said: “If you tell me why you believe you can completely annihilate the water bandits in Yuezhou, I’ll give you a sincere evaluation. I only ask you—what gives you such confidence? Don’t tell me nonsense about how brilliant and mighty you are. I want to hear the truth.”
Yun Ye smiled bitterly. Through this period of interaction, these two men were truly two people who could be trusted. Though they had many faults, they were absolutely two good men to whom one could entrust one’s life.
Seeing Han Cheng also pricking up his ears to listen, Yun Ye said quietly: “There’s nothing particularly special about it. The reason I have such confidence is because the water bandits’ chief is my strategist.”
Qian Sheng’s corpulent body shot up from the chair in a flash. Extremely nimble, one hand covered his own mouth while the other hand trembled pointing toward Yun Ye, making muffled sounds. His appearance was extremely terrifying.
Han Cheng was like a deflated leather ball, lying limply in the chair, staring at Yun Ye with horrified eyes. He never imagined that there truly were people in the world who thought three steps ahead with every move, every action having purpose, every sentence having special purpose. Could it be—this is what people call genius? Why couldn’t he do it himself?
Qian Sheng leaned over the desk writing furiously. A moment later he threw down the brush and held the paper before Yun Ye. Written on it was: “Did you send people to gather the water bandits together?”
Yun Ye nodded and said: “Correct. It’s like this. Water bandits always need to be exterminated. But these people scattered here and there in clumps are difficult to deal with. So I gathered them all together, preparing to pacify them in one battle.”
Qian Sheng lit that sheet of paper over the candle and burned it to ash, then threw it in a water basin and stirred it into mush. Only then did he pace two steps, turn back toward Yun Ye and say: “I can now very certainly give you an evaluation. You are a true bastard son of a turtle.” This was a new phrase he learned from Yun Ye’s mouth.