Seeing the two thoughtful people beside him, Yun Ye wouldn’t tell them that the golden city Qiu He spoke of didn’t exist at all. Jiaozhou produced savages in abundance, but not gold. Expecting a group of savages eating wild fruits to build a golden city?

The existing civilization here was all transmitted from the Central Plains. Only after the First Emperor of Qin drove his long chariot to break through Lingnan, with three hundred thousand Qin soldiers entering this wild and barbarous land, did true civilization arrive here. The various civilizations that appeared in later generations were merely continuations of Han civilization. Combined with the erosion of Indian Buddhism and Islam moving south, this formed the subcontinent’s deformed cultural prosperity.

Qiu He would stop at nothing—even deceiving if necessary—to get Great Tang’s army to eliminate Linyi for him, a small nation with Han people as its main body, and incidentally eliminate Li Jiao as well. This way, the entire mountain forest could be controlled by him alone.

Even if exposed later, it wouldn’t be a big deal. At most, the Tang army would plunder his jurisdiction a bit more. Put plainly, it was just some grain, gemstones, and such—he didn’t care about these.

From the beginning, Yun Ye didn’t believe his nonsense—never believed it. His own goal was grain. After finding it, he was satisfied. Transporting it back to Chang’an was victory. Why create unnecessary complications?

Take too many gemstones, and they wouldn’t be valuable upon returning to Chang’an. Even the gold artifacts and gemstones he had now, Yun Ye felt were too many. With so many good things suddenly appearing, didn’t one have to consider the market’s capacity?

A hungry market was a good market. Once all the women in Chang’an had their heads full of gemstones, would they still be called gemstones? They’d just be some glowing rocks.

At this time, grain was more useful than gemstones. Unfortunately, the poverty-maddened Sun Rengshi didn’t understand, nor did the ambitious Liu Renyuan. They still got themselves many stones.

The bay he was now crossing was the famous Beibu Gulf of later generations, with excellent natural harbors and abundant fishing grounds. Many rivers emptied into the sea here, creating diverse fishery resources. This should have been a land of fish and rice, but unfortunately there were too few people.

Such a waste—this was a waste of nature’s gifts. Yun Ye gazed from afar at the naked savages paddling dugout canoes and spearing fish with bamboo spears, feeling waves of sadness. The poor Guanzhong land had been cultivated for thousands of years, and the soil had long become barren. Stubborn attachment to homeland made those diligent people continue day after day to demand harvests from that land.

Great Tang’s eyes had always been fixed on both sides of the great river, not knowing that the violent river had long been full of hostility toward humanity. Great Tang would be the last dynasty it would nourish. When the next dynasty began, it would open its bloody maw and start devouring lives…

Yun Ye sat at the bow and set up a small barbecue stove. The fish shouldn’t be too large. He repeatedly brushed the crimson fish meat with soybean oil, sprinkled fine salt, then applied a layer of red chili oil. No other spices—Yun Ye had little love for spices, even some aversion. The food itself was already extremely delicious now. If not for fear of parasites, he would definitely love Great Tang’s raw fish dishes.

The fish meat was cooked, rich fragrance overflowing. Even Sun Rengshi, born of a prestigious family, salivated. Yun Ye took a bite, found the taste wasn’t good, and stopped eating. He pointed at Liu Jinbao, indicating he could eat it.

Sun Rengshi naturally couldn’t eat leftover food, but Liu Jinbao and Dongyu had no such reservations. Each taking one fish, they thoroughly enjoyed the happiness their low status brought them.

Giving Sun Rengshi a cup of wine, the two leaned on the ship’s rail and conversed casually.

“Marquis, we clearly still had five days we could have used. Why did you abandon the attack on Linyi? You must know that small nation—under our attack it couldn’t have lasted an hour. This subordinate can’t understand why you would abandon such a tempting target.”

“General Sun, overly tempting targets are generally false. Calm down and think carefully—do you really believe such a realm exists in the jungle? If it did, with Feng Ang in Lingnan for so many years, how could he not know? How would it be our turn? You don’t think Feng Ang couldn’t conquer such a small nation, do you?”

“Qiu He dares to deceive us—he’s tired of living!” After brushing away the gold obscuring his eyes, Sun Rengshi was still a man of wisdom. In an instant, he understood all the connections within.

“Old Sun, you’re a general of Great Tang. This time we came to procure grain, not to wage war. Though we could eliminate Linyi in complete silence, what then? Let Qiu He dominate alone? You’ve seen with your own eyes how prosperous this place is. The grain we took away—within two years, he’ll have this much grain again.”

“He deceived us—what can we do to him? At most exploit him a bit. Killing him is impossible. His Majesty won’t allow us to do this unless His Majesty sends officials to govern this region. Only then can you confidently eliminate Linyi.”

“Such a prosperous land—with its existence, our Great Tang’s national power would immediately multiply. Without worries about provisions, the army could fight to the ends of the earth.”

Generals always only considered things from a military angle. With grain, the first thought was it could serve as military provisions. Establishing merit and career was the important matter. As for what to do with conquered lands—that was a civil official’s problem, not within their consideration.

Discussing political economics with Sun Rengshi, Yun Ye felt he’d found the wrong person. A general was like a great hammer. His treatment of enemies was like a hammer dealing with nails—if one blow couldn’t drive it in, then two blows, three blows, until it was driven in. After living this way for a long time, everything looked like nails, and consciously or unconsciously one wanted to hammer them. With a hammer in hand, other tools could rest.

When the grain was transported back, Wu She, smiling with wrinkles all over his face, personally went to every ship to look. In the hot weather, he went down into every hold to inspect. As for tonight’s meal, there was no need to prepare any for him, because on every ship he grabbed a handful of grain, rubbed off the husks, and ate it. After tasting all the grain, he’d probably be full.

The ship’s hold wasn’t a good place to store grain. Soaked with water, everything would be ruined. Plus Lingnan’s rainy season was about to arrive. They had to leave here before the rainy season, riding the southeast monsoon blowing from the ocean, slowly sailing along the coastline, circling half of Great Tang to deliver the grain to Shandong, then transport it overland to Jizhou, and along the Grand Canal to Chang’an.

A long journey would inevitably not be peaceful. This voyage had long been meticulously arranged under Sun Rengshi’s planning.

Just thinking about it was sad. Such important material transport, yet the full court of civil and military officials all seemed to turn a blind eye and deaf ear, letting a group of young people muddle through. Wu She’s secret memorial sank like a stone into the sea. Who knew what had happened in Chang’an? The empire’s eyes were all fixed on the grasslands. For the distant south, they all chose to forget.

What wasn’t one’s own didn’t hurt, and there was even some resentment. Li Er had forcibly extracted sixty percent of profits from their hands. Though there was Zhang Liang as a fig leaf, it couldn’t cover the fact that the imperial house was suppressing the aristocratic families’ growth.

“Transport it back, must transport it back!” Li Er’s brief letter made Yun Ye sense the enormous pressure he bore. Li Er probably couldn’t dispatch a capable minister to handle this matter. From the naval forces who came to serve, one could tell—the ships given were as large as possible, the officials dispatched as young as possible, the supplies given to those young colonels as abundant as possible. The entire court was expressing their dissatisfaction to Li Er through this method.

When Li Er ascended the throne, he made a vow with his subordinates to share wealth and glory and never abandon each other. Except for treason, the death penalty wouldn’t be used. Li Er had executed this well these past years. Constant rewards created a new interest class, but with class came their own interests, some even contradicting national interests.

Poor Ma Zhou even now thought his views had been tactfully accepted by the emperor, not knowing this was Li Er using him to release a signal to those insatiably greedy noble families—hoping they would restrain themselves. The result wasn’t good. Ma Zhou became a figure reviled by ten thousand people. This was a figure personally praised by the emperor, yet degraded to such an extent—they no longer cared about the emperor’s face.

This time, even Zhangsun Wuji stood on his opposing side, enraging the isolated emperor to the limit.

Yun Ye’s wandering to Lingnan gave him a glimmer of hope. Perhaps this child could give him a chance to break through. Dou Yanshan’s miraculous appearance made the emperor almost believe Heaven was helping him. Otherwise, there was no way to explain the connections within.

After deep deliberation, Li Er didn’t issue Yun Ye a second decree, but instead wrote a few words in the form of a family letter. He believed Yun Ye would understand his difficulties and would do his utmost to transport the grain back.

Chang’an’s national treasury had been emptied by various irrefutable reasons. Now Li Er was gambling—gambling that Yun Ye could bring back all the wealth and goods to relieve the impoverished treasury.

Zhangsun’s letter was much gentler, only asking Yun Ye to do his utmost to return safely, without mentioning grain and treasures—not a single word. Yet Yun Ye could see burning impatience between the lines.

Xinyue’s letter was simple and straightforward. She said nothing, only including Yun Baobao and Yun Shou’s palm prints and footprints. The tiny marks made Yun Ye’s tears fall like rain. The emperor’s letter and the empress’s letter were immediately cast aside as he carefully examined them against the sunlight—these were the most beautiful patterns in the human world.

“These are Shou’er’s footprints and handprints?” Li Anlan took the letter paper and compared with her hand, saying, “His hands and feet aren’t as big as Rong’er’s. How is Xinyue raising the child? A child raised in the good place of Guanzhong isn’t as robust as the child I’m raising in this place of exile.”

Having said this, she held up her son before Yun Ye to show off. Taking his son, he lifted the child’s chubby arm to look under the armpit, then spread the child’s buttocks to see if there was any skin damage. Lingnan’s damp and sultry conditions caused great harm to children’s skin, especially in skin folds where ulceration easily occurred. Without careful attention, chafing would develop. Without talcum powder, one could only look frequently and bathe frequently.

“They’re all my flesh and blood, all my life. Grow up well. When you go to the capital, you must bring the child. Grandmother has always been talking about wanting to see her eldest grandson. This matter can’t be delayed. Grandmother is advanced in years. My trouble this time might have caused her a very serious blow.”