After the Lantern Festival, government offices opened their seals and resumed work. The first official document Fang Xuanling saw wasn’t about the Yue Prefecture new city matter that had been causing such an uproar in Chang’an, even though he had already prepared to rack his brains over this matter. Yun Ye’s difficult nature was famous. However, aside from submitting a New Year congratulatory memorial to the Emperor, the strangest petition was the one requesting to purchase the sandbar at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Regarding Yue Prefecture affairs, Yun Ye didn’t mention a single word.
Guan Tinglong in Yue Prefecture was already utterly disheartened. To make up for the enormous hole of three hundred thousand strings of cash owed by Yue Prefecture, he reluctantly sold the tens of thousands of acres of land in his hands at Cuiwei Town, obtaining a total of over four hundred thousand strings. This was the most expensive land transaction in Great Tang history. After paying sufficient taxes and fees, the remaining three hundred forty thousand strings could only be watched helplessly as they were taken away by the bank’s manager, who only gave him a cancelled promissory note. Yue Prefecture was bankrupt.
Everything had returned to the starting point. It was said that Guan Tinglong had retreated into the government office and wouldn’t come out. All public affairs were being handled by a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child. That round-faced boy was supposedly Yun Ye’s disciple. The first thing he did upon arriving in Yue Prefecture was sell land to repay debts. Large amounts of idle money had gathered on this sparsely populated land. As soon as anyone sold land in Cuiwei Town, someone would immediately take it over, all at high prices.
At first, when a little was sold, people watched with the mentality of spectators. The government naturally couldn’t do business—failure was expected. But selling all the land in one go was suspicious. If sold gradually, it could fetch at least six hundred thousand strings. But this rapid sale, completely disregarding that doing so would drive land prices down, like a frantic clearance sale as if fleeing for one’s life, was terrifying. Land prices kept falling until the final twelve hundred acres even reached Great Tang’s original prices.
After finishing this task, Di Renjie began packing his luggage. He bought some local products in Yue Prefecture and was about to return to Chang’an. He didn’t even glance at the prepared city construction site. Before leaving, he did one very strange thing—at the highest military review tower outside Yue Prefecture’s west gate, he ordered a table of food and wine. A white hemp cloth hung down from above with eight large characters written on it: “You win, this old master won’t play anymore.”
Di Renjie sat woodenly from morning until afternoon. Seeing no movement and not having touched the food and wine at all, he went downstairs, directly boarded a great vessel of the Lingnan Navy, and sailed away.
Seeing the intelligence report, Fang Xuanling also let out a long breath. This was good—the court suffered no losses. Yue Prefecture’s bankruptcy really couldn’t be considered a significant matter. After all, Yue Prefecture had never been wealthy. But thinking about the tens of thousands of disaster refugees that would soon appear there, Fang Xuanling could only order the Jiangnan West Circuit to prepare for refugee relief. The refugees had actually brought this upon themselves. If they hadn’t coveted that money and had properly sold their land to Guan Tinglong and worked during the new city’s construction, they could not only have fed their entire families through their own efforts but could even have accumulated substantial savings to naturally become residents of the new city once it was built.
A great city couldn’t exist without several major livelihoods to support it. Yun Ye had even negotiated with Chang’an merchants, preparing to plant tea on a large scale there. For Junshan in Dongting Lake, the Yun family even sent a manager there, preparing to plant tea trees all over Junshan. Now it was all ruined. The Yue Prefecture people had destroyed their own livelihoods, destroyed their own future. The development of the Two Lakes region didn’t necessarily require building the city there—changing locations wouldn’t be much worse. Regarding Yun Ye’s cold ruthlessness in severing his own arm, Fang Xuanling’s heart went numb.
But why did he want a sandbar? Why so urgently? One hundred strings of cash per acre? How could that small island that couldn’t even be found on maps be worth so much? Even if there was gold inside, it wouldn’t be worth this price. No, this island was only about a dozen acres in circumference. The court didn’t lack the thousand-plus strings of cash, but he’d better investigate clearly first.
At this moment, Yun Ye was sitting in the great hall listening to Di Renjie speak about Yue Prefecture affairs. When Di Renjie mentioned that when he left, a dense mass of people stood on the shore, with some even pleading for him not to leave, saying they were willing to sell their land to him at current prices, he laughed with extreme satisfaction.
“Master, if this disciple now goes to purchase land there, is it possible to buy Cuiwei Town at the official prices of other places? This disciple has calculated—thirty thousand strings would be sufficient. That place is indeed quite good. As long as we connect it with Yue Prefecture’s prefectural city, it can produce twice the result with half the effort.”
Yun Ye affectionately touched Di Renjie’s small face. Seeing him turn his head away to avoid the touch, he smiled and said: “Impossible. As soon as you start purchasing land now, those people will immediately drive the prices up to the sky again. We’re just waiting now. Building a city takes a long time anyway. As long as we don’t start, we have no losses. Every day those people’s money is tied up in Cuiwei Town, they lose for a day. From calculations, we know Four Seas Company has over five hundred thousand strings of capital tied up in Cuiwei Town. There are also some wealthy Jiangnan merchants—they also have two to three hundred thousand strings tied up in Cuiwei Town. Those country folk who first sold at low prices then bought back at high prices will become refugees this time. The court issued an edict a month ago that Great Tang must not buy and sell children, so the Jiangnan West Circuit will give them food to eat. They will be the first batch of residents in the newly built city in the future. Good things come with difficulties. They just need to endure a little while longer. Your master guarantees that next time, even if you beat them to death, they won’t sell the land they depend on for survival.”
Guan Tinglong stood on Yue Prefecture’s west gate, watching as country folk whose cries shook the heavens were driven out by creditors from the houses they lived in. They could only helplessly head toward Yue Prefecture’s prefectural city. Even now they didn’t understand how they were wealthy people worth considerable sums just a few days ago, yet in an instant became destitute paupers burdened with debt. When they sold themselves into slavery, people disliked them for only being able to eat without having work to do. When driven from their homes, they even had to thank people for forgiving their debts.
Families with beautiful daughters also worried their children would be seized. Who knew the government would be so strict this time—young boys and girls could not become slaves. As for what age counted as young, the court hadn’t officially determined yet, so Guan Tinglong believed anyone unmarried counted. With this provision, those creditors who coveted others’ daughters could only watch helplessly as beauties departed safely with their entire families.
Many people died in Yue Prefecture. Floating corpses appeared daily on Dongting Lake, all from the wealthy classes. Many people ate their fill at the military review tower, settled their accounts, then jumped straight into Dongting Lake.
These days, Yun Ye was busy dealing with people from the Ministry of Revenue, persistently pestering them to pay money to buy that sand island at the mouth of the Yangtze River. He was already somewhat unscrupulous in his methods. Now people from the Ministry of Revenue would hide far away whenever they saw Yun Ye, because these days Yun Ye was extremely enthusiastic, always hoping to invite vice ministers and such officials to dinner, followed by the full treatment at Yanlai Tower, making Yun Ye’s reputation stink throughout the streets.
Without the Chancellor speaking, who dared privately sell this sand island to Yun Ye?
The Lingnan Navy fleet was docked at the sand island, with several tents pitched, driving away all approaching vessels, telling them this was a military restricted area where idle people couldn’t trespass.
“That’s an island that grows larger! It must be a blessed land bestowed upon the mortal realm by the gods. They say it’s related to the Growing Earth.” Local fishermen soon had rumors spreading. Common people most liked their place of residence to be auspicious land.
“Five years ago, this island didn’t exist. This old man personally saw a huge stone fall from the sky into the sea, then a small sandbar appeared on the water surface, just one zhang in size. In five years it’s already grown to its current appearance. Dear heavens, it grows several acres per year! Only the immortals’ Growing Earth has this ability—nothing else can explain it!”
News that Growing Earth had been discovered at the mouth of the Yangtze River immediately spread like wildfire. Yun Ye dispatched troops to guard the island because he was constantly searching for that piece of Growing Earth. With this thing, Jiangnan’s marshlands would quickly become good farmland. This was also why Yun Ye abandoned Cuiwei Town. As long as he had this thing, how much land couldn’t Yun Ye have? Where would he still need to spend huge sums purchasing land?
Yuan Tiangang deliberately or inadvertently mentioned this matter to Yun Ye. Some great monks also came to inquire. Finally, the Empress, unable to restrain herself, also came to ask whether this Growing Earth thing actually existed.
“Complete nonsense! How could such a thing exist in the world? It’s just rumors spreading rumors—it doesn’t count. The reason I stationed troops to guard it is to establish a cargo transfer station on the island to reduce the Navy’s hardships of traveling back and forth.”
Yun Ye’s words were decisive, but that island had grown much larger. Anyone with eyes could certainly discover it. One piece of Growing Earth was one continent. The world was divided into Eastern Superior Divine Continent, Southern Viewing Continent, Western Cattle-Gift Continent, and Northern Kuru Continent—this was fixed. But the Five Elements lacked one element and thus were incomplete, so Heaven again sent down a piece of Growing Earth, hoping to add another continent to complete the Five Elements. Now this Growing Earth was still very small. Once it connected with the earth’s veins, no one could do anything about this Growing Earth. The Growing Earth was slowly moving into the great sea. After not seeing it for a month or two, you’d discover it had moved several zhang further into the sea.
Only fools would believe empty words, but that island was right there at the mouth of the Yangtze River, slowly crawling into the sea. No matter how powerful Yun Ye was, he had no way to stop the clamoring voices, especially since local officials personally went to the island and confirmed that this island was indeed growing larger and indeed moving into the sea. A memorial went up, and all of Chang’an immediately erupted—how could this be acceptable?
Fang Xuanling ran into the palace without even putting on his boots. He saw Yun Ye trying to bewitch the Emperor into selling him this island. The price had already reached one hundred thousand strings. The money had even been delivered to the palace. Just as the Emperor was about to agree and preparing to write the edict, Fang Xuanling shouted loudly: “Wait!” This startled the Emperor so that his hand shook and a drop of ink dripped onto the fine Xuan paper, leaving a large ink blot.
“Your Majesty, the Growing Earth matter has been confirmed. The Prefect of Song Prefecture personally went to the island and discovered that this island is indeed growing larger and moving. Although we cannot confirm it is Growing Earth, this old minister believes this island should not be sold.”