“Bisha, Dengzhou, Laizhou, Mingzhou, Hangzhou, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Guangzhou.” Old Cheng’s hand slowly moved following Yun Ye’s brush. After tracing along the vast coastline in a complete circuit, Old Cheng didn’t speak for quite a while. Finally, he placed his thick finger on Yuezhou and struck it hard twice, saying: “This place cannot be abandoned. Going north along the Han River, one can reach the capital in forty days.”

Yun Ye nodded. Old Cheng rolled up that map, held it over the brazier and watched it turn to ash, then crushed it to bits with fire tongs. He then smiled and said to Yun Ye: “Since you’ve come, I’ll leave this mess to you. This old man will go home to rest for a while. Chumo told me I should go to Yushan to recuperate for a bit. I still can’t put my mind at ease about Old Brother Qin. I must have a good drink with him before he departs.”

Having finished speaking, Old Cheng ordered his personal guards to remove his armor. He changed into a padded robe, donned a fur cloak, patted Yun Ye on the shoulder, and walked out. Upon leaving the tent, he saw Wang Cai neighing at him. Happily stroking Wang Cai’s large head, he mounted his own dark horse and rode freely toward the Cheng family estate.

Originally planning to stay at the Left Martial Guard for one day, it ended up taking three days to sort out the matters there. Many people were unwilling to travel far away. After Yun Ye explained clearly the treatment offered there, everyone shut their mouths in unison. Zhou Zhong found it very strange—the closer people were to him, the more distant their assigned locations. He understood Guangzhou and Quanzhou—those were also major metropolitan areas—but going to places like Mingzhou and Bisha made no sense to him.

When he discovered that all those fellows he usually didn’t get along with had been kept in the capital and Luoyang, it seemed he understood. Those who went to remote places were the people the families would truly need in the future. Their promotion speed would definitely be very rapid. As for those guys staying in Chang’an and Luoyang, they could just wait to slowly rot in those two places.

Three days later, Yun Ye appeared before Fang Xuanling carrying documents. Old Fang spread out Yun Ye’s documents and, looking at the densely packed names on them, frowned and said: “So many people all need to be posted externally? The Left Martial Guard is already hard to provoke. Won’t doing this trigger a mutiny? Those killing machines are capable of anything.”

Yun Ye sighed and opened the last document to place beside Fang Xuanling, saying: “Persuade people with reason, entice people with benefits—there will always be some willing to serve by the sea. In the Great Tang now, maritime revenues already account for one-tenth of the national foundation. There should be some people from Chang’an going there to take office. Once local forces gain absolute dominance there, the consequences would be unthinkable and would bring no benefit to the dynasty’s maritime transport. This is also a method of mixing in sand as a last resort.”

Only after carefully deliberating for over half a month did Fang Xuanling send these documents to Li Er’s desk. The opinion he signed was neutral, meaning such arrangements were neither necessary nor harmful, but he didn’t point out what was inappropriate about them.

Princess Dou diligently helped her imperial father grind ink. Li Er was reviewing memorials. When reviewing Yun Ye’s document, he suddenly sighed and said to Princess Dou: “Please ask your mother to come over. Someone needs a beating again.”

After Empress Zhangsun arrived and glanced at the document, she said: “What’s improper about it? If he didn’t do this, that would be worrying. Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, my brother—which of them didn’t do this? They have students throughout the realm. Yun Ye isn’t seeking authority over the interior and exterior regions but is seeking to grasp control over the ocean. Though this approach is novel, there’s nothing strange about it.”

“He’s now Minister of War, which destines him to no longer live as a lone wolf like before. He has quite a large group of people under him. This concubine knew he would arrange things this way, so I sent him one hundred thirty officials eliminated from the Inner Court for him to place. The capable should do more work. Playing this game with us, he’s still too green.”

Li Er chuckled. His hand had just reached out when Empress Zhangsun placed a thick booklet in the Emperor’s hand. Li Er looked through it for a long while, then opened Yun Ye’s document, crossed out some names, added some others, made red notations on Yun Ye’s document, and tossed it aside.

Empress Zhangsun brought Li Er a cup of hot tea and said: “Just mixing in sand. Fortunately, matters at the harbors are all managed by the Lingnan Navy and East Sea Navy and belong to imperial household affairs. Otherwise, this concubine would be overstepping her authority. Tomorrow at morning court, hopefully no censors will accuse this concubine of being a hen crowing at dawn.”

Li Er smiled and said: “Have you noticed or not—that strange quality about Yun Ye seems to be gradually diminishing. Could it be we’ve slowly consumed the immortal spiritual energy from this boy?”

“Whether he’s an immortal or a demon, having come to the Great Tang, he can only conduct himself according to the Great Tang’s rules. Having such changes shows he’s completely become a Tang person, become this concubine’s student, become Your Majesty’s eldest son-in-law. There’s nothing wrong with this. Knowing how to compete for power and profit is a good thing. Everyone in Chang’an is doing this—what’s strange about him being one more?”

“It’s just that he did things a bit crudely. Even an idiot can see what he wants to do—finding some promotion paths for the military in peacetime. Not bad. The Great Tang can’t possibly have so many military achievements for them to compete for.”

Li Er smiled, drank some tea, and pointed at the document saying: “I wonder if seeing the document become like this will diminish his sharp edge? It’s rare that he wants to accomplish something. We shouldn’t excessively discourage him. At least we should leave him some face.”

Having said this, he burst out laughing…

The document quickly returned to Fang Xuanling’s hands. After Old Fang looked at it for a long while, he gave a bitter smile, affixed his seal to it, then ordered a clerk to send it to the Secretariat for review.

Chu Suiliang looked it over with a smiling face, also affixed his seal to it, and had someone urgently deliver the document to Yun Ye’s hands.

Yun Ye stayed behind closed doors at the Ministry of War looking at it all day. When the tea room attendant delivered hot water, he could see Yun Ye’s iron-gray face. The entire Ministry of War remained silent as a grave under the shadow of gloom for the whole day. Even Duan Hu, who had the biggest guts and didn’t care about anything, involuntarily lowered his own booming voice. Everyone could see that the commander was in a very bad mood today—extremely bad.

As soon as the tea attendant left, Yun Ye immediately rubbed his cheeks. Tomorrow he would become a laughingstock. He wanted to place his subordinates, but ended up having the Emperor stuff over a thousand pieces of sand into his own nest. This was the textbook definition of trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice used to lure it.

Bisha? That place could accommodate thirty people, right? Dengzhou? Laizhou? Fifty people. Anyway, those were Hebei territories and didn’t serve much purpose. Give them all to the Empress. Mingzhou? No way. Niu Jianhu had worked so hard to make this place somewhat presentable. Now everything was waiting to be rebuilt—it must be our own people going there. Quanzhou? This absolutely won’t do. This is the Lingnan Navy’s anchorage. Whoever dares enter, I’ll fight them to the death. Hangzhou also won’t work. This is a distribution center for goods and cannot be given away. Zhangzhou—there the winds are fierce and waves high. Just the preliminary land reclamation costs for building a harbor there would be enough to make people collapse. Give it to the Empress. Guangzhou? Feng Ang has operated there for decades. It’s too exhausting for me to deal with alone. Pull the Empress in to form a three-way balance of power—nothing could be better.

Who says I took a loss? I never intended to take down all the empire’s harbors. Having Mingzhou is enough. Only this way can it form a line with Yuezhou. Only an idiot would think of swallowing all the empire’s harbors in one bite—that would choke someone to death. Now I actually get to keep Quanzhou, Hangzhou, and a small part of Guangzhou as well. I’ve gained so much advantage.

When no one was around, Yun Ye really wanted to sing out loud. After spinning around the room over a dozen times, still unable to suppress his joyful feelings, he put on a gloomy face, pushed open the main door, and walked out. Normally when leaving the palace, he would at least greet the gate guards, but today he left the imperial palace without a word.

The gloomy face could fool others but not Wang Cai. Wang Cai could sense Yun Ye’s heart was singing, so he kept rubbing his big head against Yun Ye’s chest, wanting to hear more clearly. Having no choice, Yun Ye led Wang Cai to the West Market. Liu Jinbao and the household guards followed behind trembling with trepidation, not knowing why the Marquis was going to the West Market, only knowing the Marquis was very abnormal today.

He bought everything he saw, whether carpets or dried fruits. Even entering his own perfume shop, he didn’t come out empty-handed. He ruthlessly bought two bottles of the most expensive deceptive perfume and immediately rewarded them to the Hu maiden who smiled so sweetly.

Having bought two full carts of things, Xinyue, Na Rimu, Lingdang, and Xiao Miao rummaged through the pile of goods for quite a while before Xinyue said to Yun Ye: “Husband, you’re in very high spirits today. This concubine has long wanted this chest wrap. It’s rare that you actually dared to enter a ready-made clothing shop that only women go to. Be careful of being impeached by censors tomorrow.”

Good moods truly couldn’t be hidden from one’s own people. Yun Ye smiled with his mouth wide open: “The censors definitely won’t impeach me tomorrow because they think I’m very pitiful. Go call Xiao Wu over and ask if the Di family has any sons who want to enter government service. The opportunity is good now—don’t miss it. Say this to the Cheng family, Qin family, and Yuchi family as well. Forget the Niu family—their lineage is too thin. We also need to arrange things for our own family. Give me a list and we’ll add them all together. Right now the opportunity is rare—no one in the entire court, civil or military, dares to provoke your already-mad husband. Hahahahaha!” Yun Ye laughed wildly.

Arranging only three hundred eighty people, the Emperor actually gave quotas for five hundred! The Empress’s candidates naturally couldn’t be counted. Now with the extra slots, he could openly and properly take care of his old subordinates.

The household became very lively. Madam Cheng rode over on horseback. Yuchi Gong came in person. Having come from humble origins, he had always mixed poorly in court, constantly being marginalized, with many old subordinates in hand who had no placements. Hearing Yun Ye say this was a good opportunity, how could he let it pass? As for the Qin family, the gravely ill Qin Qiong still sent someone to deliver a note. After Yun Ye read it, he burned it in one go. He hadn’t expected Old Qin to still have kept a backup plan.

Yun Ye utilized every last bit of space on the document cleanly. As long as he asked the Emperor to review it once more, he could immediately go to the Ministry of Personnel to receive the appointment certificates, and his own plan would be completely implemented.

As long as this step was taken, the Yun family alliance’s authority to have the final say over the ocean would be unshakeable for fifty years!