Chapter 187: Scheming and Strife (I)

Chapter 187: Scheming and Strife (I)

Just before the new year, Qi Hongzhuang sent Le Wuya five hundred padded cotton coats in assorted sizes.

"They're plain—the outer shell is a paper-cloth made from pressed mulberry bark, warm enough for marching but won't stand up to rough use. The cotton's good this year, though—padded thick. You could take one apart and get enough for two more."

Qi Hongzhuang's breath came out in thick white puffs, but her eyes were as sharp and bright as they'd been for ten years, giving her cool, spare features an extra sharpness: "Don't let my soldiers freeze to death."

Le Wuya accepted with a grin and asked without a shred of shame, "What about mine, then?"

Qi Hongzhuang smiled and gestured at the crates behind her: "I didn't know what style you'd like, so I picked ten bolts of bright silk—have them made however you like."

Then she looked Le Wuya up and down and added almost without thinking, "Dress warmer. All looks and no warmth—freeze to death and nobody'll mourn you."

Even Qi Hongzhuang was startled by her own words for a moment.

The scene felt deeply familiar.

She wasn't usually one to nag.

But back then, when she'd been chasing after that man with bowls of bitter medicine, she'd picked up a whole bunch of folksy sayings about taking care of yourself.

Le Wuya, however, didn't give her much time to linger on the past.

"No one visits the temple without a prayer to offer." Le Wuya said, rifling through the silk patterns, "What brings the County Princess here today?"

Qi Hongzhuang composed herself at once and said bluntly, "Someone's got their sights on me."

Le Wuya looked up at her for a moment, then waved a hand dismissively. Hua Rong stepped forward and, along with Qi Hongzhuang's attendants, took the crates to the storeroom to be logged and inventoried as usual, with the handlers signing and stamping the records.

Ever since Le Wuya had saddled Hua Rong with that "illegal pond-mud dumping" charge last time, he'd given him an extended leave disguised as punishment, along with a sum of silver, and sent him back to his hometown to look for family.

Hua Rong had left in autumn and only came back when the cold set in.

When he came back, he gave everyone a real shock.

In just a few short months, he'd shot up a whole head taller, the baby fat melting away as he stretched out—he already looked like a young man.

Yang Zheng ruffled Hua Rong's hair and laughed, "Ha! The little sprout's turned into a full-grown scallion!"

Hua Rong just smiled and said nothing.

He never said whether he'd found his family, and no one asked.

But since coming back, Hua Rong had become noticeably more mature and steady in how he dealt with people, hiding all his sharp wit behind a polite, considerate smile.

Le Wuya's household was the only home he'd ever know.

Le Wuya led Qi Hongzhuang into the flower hall.

Outside the windows, the winter gloom pressed in; inside, the warm air was cozy and drowsy.

"I've been buying up weaving workshops lately, trying to string my operations together—that's been going well enough." Qi Hongzhuang cut the small talk and got straight to the point. "But the merchant who supplies my indigo suddenly says he's cutting me off after the new year."

Le Wuya turned the snuff bottle he'd wrung out of Zheng Miao over and over in his hands.

He had no use for the thing himself—he just liked the little colored gems set into it.

He arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Qi Hongzhuang said, "My best-selling printed cloth is called 'Tonglu Snow'—I extract blue dye from indigo plants and use a stencil method to print snowflake patterns on the cloth—that's how it got its name. Ever since I started in Tonglu, I've had a contract with the Lin family dye shop in Mi County, Puluo Prefecture. For 'Tonglu Snow's' indigo, I only use theirs."

"Can't you use anyone else's?"

"I've compared over a dozen suppliers—that family's indigo is a different variety from all the others; the color comes out the brightest and sharpest." Qi Hongzhuang said, "This is exactly the time to expand. If I switch to an inferior dye now, my brand is bound to take a hit."

Le Wuya nodded.

Qi Hongzhuang's worries were justified.

If she switched dye suppliers, the cloth would lose that vivid color, and people with ulterior motives would inevitably spread word that the Qi family had turned into shady merchants—that once they expanded, the quality of their fabric had gone downhill.

The common folk didn't understand dyeing, but they weren't stupid. As long as they saw the color wasn't the same as before, nine times out of ten they'd believe the Qi family really was cutting corners.

Qi Hongzhuang could, of course, lower her prices to salvage her reputation.

But she had already sunk a great deal of money into this venture. If she cut prices now, capital wouldn't flow back quickly enough; with insufficient cash on hand, she would soon find herself unable to keep going.

It would be nothing short of drinking poison to quench thirst.

"It is a difficult matter." Le Wuya spun the empty snuff bottle beneath his nose. "Isn't the County Princess quite skilled with plants? How did you let yourself get cornered on this?"

Qi Hongzhuang readily admitted her shortcoming: "I've been in the dye business for four years now. I cultivated a field and planted trial crop after trial crop, and managed to grow some madder and perilla of decent quality—colors unique to Tonglu. But those shades aren't for common folk; they can only be sold to officials and degree-holders. The common people have few colors available to them, and 'Tonglu Snow' sells best of all. In four years of trying, I still haven't managed to grow anything that can match the Lin family's indigo.—After all, the Lins have been growing indigo for fifty or sixty years."

Le Wuya offered her a shady suggestion: "Try poaching the Lins' people?"

Qi Hongzhuang shook her head. "Tried it. Every worker from top to bottom is a hereditary bondservant of the Lin family—their deeds are held by the Lins. Can't be poached."

"Offer the Lins more money—they still won't renew the contract?"

Qi Hongzhuang gave a bitter laugh. "...They're asking for the moon."

At that, Le Wuya already understood most of it.

"County Princess Qi came to me—is there something you need me to do?"

Qi Hongzhuang remained composed: "I wanted to learn from you, my lord, what exactly is going on. It's not just the Lin family's indigo—lately, everything I do feels less smooth than it used to."

"Yes." Le Wuya set down the snuff bottle and admitted frankly, "Lord Feng and I have agreed that starting next year, the court will reduce commercial taxes in Tongzhou."

Qi Hongzhuang raised an eyebrow, suddenly enlightened. "No wonder."

Le Wuya smiled amiably. "This news may be the result of private talks between Lord Feng and myself, but since when has there been a wall that the wind can't get through?"

"And yet the wind did get through."

"I've been as tight-lipped as a clam—haven't told a soul since I returned, not even you. So you can be sure the wind didn't leak from my end." Le Wuya shrugged. "The rich play with antiques, the poor save their coins. Lord Feng's spare money goes to antiques—that money didn't just blow in on the wind, now did it, County Princess Qi?"

Qi Hongzhuang knew that the intelligence Le Wuya had just given her was extremely valuable.

Once anyone learned that Tongzhou was about to see a reduction in commercial taxes, they would seize the opportunity to ride that wave and make a killing.

She had already received Le Wuya's private counsel beforehand—first securing the maritime shipping license, then buying up a large number of weaving workshops before the news could spread. She had already seized the first-mover advantage.

The predicament she now faced was simply others catching on and wanting to carve out a share of the pie for themselves.

Because of the Xi family, Tongzhou and the surrounding prefectures had all thrown themselves into developing the textile industry.

In business, it's always the same: every bite you take is one less bite for me.

She'd stuck her neck out, so of course she was gonna get smacked down.

"Well, with you putting it like that, I know what I'm dealing with." Qi Hongzhuang rose and offered a graceful bow. "As for the rest, I'll handle it myself."

"Exactly—aim high, bargain low. Start by talking with the Lin family; whether it works out or not, wait until you've figured out who's pulling the strings behind this before making your move." Le Wuya said casually. "I come from a merchant background myself, so I know no one stirs without profit. You're expanding right now, so it's plausible for the Lin family to hike their prices a bit, but to flat-out refuse renewing the contract and demand a high price for renewal—there's some serious hanky-panky going on here."

Qi Hongzhuang nodded, took the hint, and headed out.

After seeing her off, Le Wuya took the cotton-padded coats and headed straight back to his training ground, handing out every last one of them to the garrison troops.

The garrison soldiers naturally had no idea about his private talk with Qi Hongzhuang.

When they saw the thick coats that could almost stand up on their own, their eyes damn near bugged out of their skulls.

Wow!

Cotton coats in winter and dry rice every day—even the damn emperor doesn't have it this good, right?

Tuning out the ruckus below, Le Wuya, dressed in a blue lined jacket, paced briskly along the top of the wall.

When talking to the garrison soldiers, Le Wuya never stood on ceremony, talking straight, no frills: "Men, the New Year should feel like the New Year. Yunliang County has sent five pigs, each two hundred jin (about 260 lbs), for the occasion. The innards are already stewing. Let's all pitch in and wolf 'em down before the New Year. Today, each of you grabs ten jin of meat to take home—whether you stew it, steam it, make sausage, or stuff dumplings—knock yourselves out! What matters is you get your families fed good and full. Soldiers don't get holidays—who knows when those pirate bastards'll show up. Long as you got meat in hand, that's New Year enough."

Nothing got the men fired up more than that. The men's faces went red with excitement, and they clapped till their palms stung.

Le Wuya continued: "I know morale has been shaky in the ranks lately. You're all jealous of Zhang Feng over in Mixi County, ain't ya? He's got land, cash, and men now—all bought with blood and battle. As for you, holed up in my backyard, eating two square meals a day, you're happy chowing down, but deep down you're itchy, like a cat with fleas, right?"

Down below, some soldiers snorted, others just kept their mouths shut.

Yeah, that monthly drill test was a killer.

Not long back, damn near a hundred men got the boot.

And the longer you stuck around, the tougher the tests got.

Instead of sweating bullets about getting shipped home and losing it all, it might be better to follow Zhang Feng's example—earn your stripes through blood and sweat, and keep your own plate full.

Le Wuya nailed it for a lot of them: "Anybody wants out, I ain't stopping you. But fair warning: if I send you back, I got three demands—train soldiers, crush bandits, and kill pirates! If there are bandits, kill them; if there are pirates, slaughter them; if there's neither, then drill your men honestly!"

"I know what's going on down there. When spring comes, you'll be busy with military farming, hoping to grow some grain to share. But in my eyes, that's picking up sesame seeds and losing the watermelon. Do you think I'm paying to keep you because I'm short on hired hands?"

"If you don't want to stay with me, go ahead and leave. If my begging goes well this year, I can allocate you separate pay. But you'd better show me results! Catch thieves and eliminate threats—bring the culprits to me! For drilling, I'll visit each of you and inspect your progress. If you train well, you'll get merit and rewards! But if you can't produce anything worthwhile, don't come begging me for money again! And worse, if anyone dares to kill innocents and claim their heads as bandits'—sorry, but I'll recall everyone on the spot and watch your head hang from the city wall! Don't get any wrong ideas about fooling me. You've dealt with me long enough to know I'm not easy to deceive!"

Le Wuya's plain-spoken speech, blending kindness with authority, proved highly effective.

Many soldiers began seriously weighing whether to stay or return to train those illiterate farming soldiers and chase a chance at promotion.

After finishing his address, Le Wuya returned to the yamen, took a sip of hot tea to quench his dry throat, and summoned Hua Rong: "Fetch Lord Zong for me."

Zong Yao, who stuck to the yamen like a brooding hen and rarely left, came at once: "Sir, you called for me?"

"Sit." Le Wuya said affably. "I want to ask you about some official matters."

Zong Yao sat sideways, perching on just a sliver of the chair, perfectly courteous and proper in every gesture.

Le Wuya: "Lord Zong, you've been here over a month now. Are you familiar with the affairs of this office?"

Zong Yao replied meekly, "I wouldn't dare claim full familiarity, but please, sir, test me."

"Good, then I won't hold back. As Guanzi said, 'When merchants hold court, wealth flows upward.' Commerce is a pillar of state revenue." Le Wuya propped his cheek on his hand, smiling at him. "The Lin family in Mi County, who supply the indigo dye—who've they taken money from lately, that they'd break their agreement with the Qi family?"

Author's note:

Zong Yao: ??? You really don't hold back, do you.