As for the ship carrying the birthday tribute that had left ahead of schedule, Zhou Pei had been thinking about it for half the day. Earlier she’d been secretly watching from the second floor of Li Shishi’s courtyard to see what sort of people came to the pleasure house, but after finding nothing particularly scandalous, she’d left the courtyard to wander around, and eventually run into Su Yanping, who had come to deliver a message.
These past few days she’d gotten to know both Su Wenyu and Su Yanping, and knew they were “insiders” the Su family had sent to gain experience by following Ning Yi. Naturally, they’d also been assigned to learn the ropes from Wenren Buer regarding the matter of the birthday tribute. Seeing him hurrying over now to find Ning Yi, she knew something had happened and hurried to stop him and ask. It wasn’t much of a secret anyway, and besides, Su Yanping knew who the girl really was, so once he told her, Zhou Pei shouted, “Follow me!” and rushed excitedly toward Ning Yi, only to discover later that Su Yanping hadn’t managed to keep up.
As it turned out, though the Western Garden itself wasn’t a complicated place, there were quite a lot of people around these past few days, and no one dared stop Zhou Pei as she dashed about excitedly. Su Yanping, however, had accidentally knocked over the son of some official family. Most of the men in the Western Garden at that moment had women accompanying them, and having lost face this way, the man had grabbed hold of Su Yanping to stop him. Zhou Pei, running off in her excitement, hadn’t even noticed. By the time Ning Yi and the others rushed out, Zhou Pei retraced her steps and shot the troublemaker a glare, at which he slunk away. After some questioning, Zhou Pei finally pieced together roughly what had happened.
The water bandits who had made their move on Hongze Lake numbered close to a thousand in total, while the official fleet’s fighting force numbered close to three hundred naval troops — roughly three-fifths of the soldiers accompanying the convoy north. Three hundred against a thousand would ordinarily have meant a hard fight, but the bandits, coming purely to loot, had stormed the main ship in the first wave, only to discover they’d been tricked. The ship’s holds contained nothing but crates filled with rocks and gunpowder, and moments later, an explosion tore through the entire hull.
The bandits themselves were little more than a disorganized mob, and this all-or-nothing gamble to seize the birthday tribute had already put them under enormous pressure. If they’d succeeded, their reputation would have soared and they’d have gained real resources to grow. But once they saw the ship explode and the naval troops charge in shouting “You’ve been tricked!”, the situation turned entirely one-sided.
It wasn’t some especially deep scheme — the key move had simply been swapping out over a hundred manor guards and shop hands that Princess Chengguo’s estate could mobilize for the naval soldiers this time. The five hundred troops Chen Jingui had brought to escort the birthday tribute were, after all, regular naval forces, and against anyone other than the Jin or Liao armies, they still had real fighting strength for domestic matters. The bandits had originally expected to face at most a hundred-odd soldiers, but had badly misjudged the numbers, and once they realized they’d been tricked, their will to fight collapsed swiftly, turning the encounter into a complete rout.
Before Su Yanping had rushed back to report, quite a few of the bandits’ boats had already been smashed apart. Some bandits jumped into the lake trying to escape, only to be scooped up in nets by soldiers in small boats; those who resisted were cut down on the spot. Amid the heavy rain, blood stained Hongze Lake.
Ning Yi wasn’t at all surprised that the battle had been won — what struck him as somewhat odd was that anyone had actually made a move on the birthday tribute at all. Zhou Pei, however, was thoroughly enthralled, and it reminded her of something she’d been worrying about since the day before — that the manor guards and shop hands wouldn’t know how to fight a naval battle at all, and having more of them aboard the ships meant nothing in practice. She’d fretted over it all morning, never expecting that Ning Yi would resolve the whole matter with one simple swap.
Chen Jingui, wanting to find the young lord, needed enough manpower on hand, but the naval soldiers weren’t local to Xuyi — the manor guards and shop hands, by contrast, were far better suited to searching for someone.
As they discussed this excitedly, more news kept arriving from the north. Servants and attendants from various households came running to the Western Garden, reporting the great victory over the bandits at Hongze Lake. The whole atmosphere of the Western Garden immediately grew lively. Though the matter had little to do with most of them personally, being present here made everyone feel as though they’d taken part in it themselves.
Three hundred defeating a thousand — to people of the Wu Dynasty, watching the situation in the north deteriorate while the campaign against Fang La in the south remained deadlocked, this was truly something worth celebrating. Everyone praised the scheme arranged by Deputy Commander Chen with great relish and excitement, remarking that if only the north had a commander like Deputy Commander Chen, things surely wouldn’t have gone so badly — that the whole mess was the fault of incompetent men failing the nation, and so on. With praise like this, Chen Jingui would surely be promoted after this affair.
Ning Yi and the others had parted ways with Li Shishi not long after the news arrived, and once the Western Garden was abuzz with talk, word naturally reached her side as well. She usually associated with many high officials and nobles, who loved discussing current affairs when gathered, and it was clear this matter would have no small impact. She recalled how, when the news first broke, that young man from the Su family and the girl had simply rushed excitedly to tell Ning Yi about it… what could this possibly have to do with him? She pondered it for a while but couldn’t quite work it out.
Ning Yi glanced over at that man named Wang Xian from a distance, several times.
Amid the crowd, the man’s tall, slender build and handsome, refined looks reminded him of someone Yuan Jin’er had once mentioned — a very, very beautiful young man who had, regrettably, later gone to Yangzhou. This man’s looks truly were beautiful to a remarkable degree, a beauty leaning toward the androgynous — not so much that it made him look overly rugged, nor did it tip toward the feminine. In his bearing and speech he was neither servile nor arrogant, responding to everyone appropriately. Several of the officials’ sons nearby clearly regarded him as a close friend.
Could it be Yan Qing…
Claiming the surname Wang put him under the same surname as Li Shishi, and since Yan Qing’s nickname was “the Rake,” he’d surely be quite skilled in matters concerning the pleasure quarters — and handsome enough to match, exactly the look most admired in this era — and now heading north with the fleet as well.
“Is it, or isn’t it…”
In the carriage on the way back, Ning Yi looked out at the pouring rain and murmured to himself. Zhou Pei, still savoring their earlier scheme, leaned over when she heard him speak. “What is it, what is it? Master?”
“Nothing… maybe I’m overthinking it…” Ning Yi murmured to himself, then laughed. “Once we get back, I want to switch ships — move to one further back in the line.”
“Huh?”
…
News of the great battle on the lake to the north kept trickling in throughout the afternoon and evening. After the first great victory, the government troops began pursuing along the bandits’ escape routes, meaning to wipe them out entirely — this was Chen Jingui’s order. If the bandits who’d kidnapped the young lord were indeed among this group, only by pressing the attack this way could they hope to rescue him.
As for the bandits captured after the first battle, a separate unit was sent to escort them back, arriving in Xuyi by nightfall. The county wasn’t about to try to claim credit for this affair, though naturally Chen Jingui would share some of the glory with them. As for the ship that had been blown up, in the face of such a great victory, it hardly counted for anything at all.
Wreckage still floated on the lake’s surface, fishing lanterns bobbing here and there as bodies were fished out to serve as proof of merit, the night growing ever darker and deeper beneath the curtain of rain. Not far from Hongze Lake, at an inn crowded with traveling merchants, in one of the rooms, Zhu Wu and the others watched the distant, faintly flickering fishing lights through the window. Amid the inn’s noisy chatter, after a while, a man wrapped in a robe, a fresh bandage on his arm, entered from outside. Zhu Wu turned to look at him. “Brother Zhang, are you all right?”
“Nothing serious, just a small wound. That Qin Weihong recognized me on sight and fought back rather fiercely. Besides, the government’s preparations this time were thorough — a whole row of fishing nets came at us, and I couldn’t dodge them all that well. There were troops on the bank too, so I swam a good distance out into the lake and circled around before I dared come back.”
“Did you manage to kill most of them who needed killing?”
At Zhu Wu’s question, someone laughed. “Brother Zhang Shun’s nickname is ‘White Stripe in the Waves’ — who in the water could possibly escape someone he means to kill? And even if we didn’t get every last one, what could the authorities possibly find out anyway…”
Zhang Shun said, “A few were shot dead by the soldiers right there on the boats. I can’t say for certain how thoroughly it was done.”
Zhu Wu frowned. “Even though we arranged clues to send the authorities down the wrong trail… someone over there clearly knows how to plan things well. I worry they might spot something out of place.”
Someone else said, “That Qin Weihong only knows so many of our people to begin with, but covering it all up completely — I don’t think that’s really possible. Even if they figure out that some of Fang La’s remnants were behind it, how much manpower could they really spare to investigate? As for what Brother Zhu calls skillful planning, I think it’s simple enough — that Qin Weihong crowd are the type who bully the weak and fear the strong. Sending three hundred naval troops along was their one and only trick. If it were me, I’d have done the same.”
Zhu Wu frowned, then laughed and shook his head. “It’s not that simple. Fearing we’d spook them, we didn’t send anyone to scout ahead of time. Qin Weihong’s people, not taking any chances, planted spies among the opera troupe performing at the docks. I hear the deputy commander there got into a loud quarrel with the steward, made quite a scene, and afterward the moving of goods looked entirely convincing too. That’s how Qin Weihong was deceived. He put the gunpowder on that big ship, willing to blow it up at the first opportunity just to make the other side think they’d walked away with nothing — every step planned, every calculation made. But that’s not even the most important part…”
He paused. “The most important part is that this Deputy Commander Chen originally should have had no interest in supporting this scheme — that much is certain. If anything happened to that young lord, he couldn’t bear the consequences; asking him to let go of caution meant asking for his very life. Among officials, what’s most feared is everyone sticking strictly to their own duties, until in the end no one does anything at all. Whoever was behind this managed to persuade him in such a short time and get everyone pulling in the same direction — that’s the truly impressive part. Fighting a battle, honestly, isn’t hard — find the right strategy manual, cover every angle, and press forward. I’d originally expected them to be tangled up in caution and infighting among themselves, so that even a victory would come at great cost. Instead, in the blink of an eye, they turned into a completely unified front. Whoever this person is, their methods are formidable — a true master of war leaves no obvious trace of his brilliance.”
Hearing this, the group fell silent for a moment. Zhang Shun laughed. “If this person really is that impressive, why not think of some way to force him up the mountain and win him a seat at our table…”
“We still don’t even know who it is.”
“Once Xiao Yi finds out, we’ll know then. We’ll see when the time comes…”
“Could it be that Chen Jingui himself is behind all this scheming? At least then there’d be no need to persuade anyone else.”
After some more discussion, Zhu Wu shook his head. “Unlikely. We already made inquiries about Chen Jingui’s temperament before… But this person managed to coordinate both sides and personally made the call to blow up the ship. In my view, this person must hold an exceptional position, and be someone of wealth or noble birth — likely one of those rich young masters aboard the ships, hiding his true skill behind a modest facade. Once Xiao Yi gets aboard, have him look into this angle… Knowing there’s someone like this behind them leaves me uneasy.”