After drinking wine and bidding farewell to Wang Bin, they stayed for a day at White Horse Manor, then journeyed across cities and prefectures until they arrived back in Longshan Prefecture on the very day of the Laba Festival.
"Brother Yu! I missed you to death!"
Before they had even entered the city, Zhao Yingjie came rushing out to greet them. "Was Mount Tianshan fun? Did you find any Tianshan snow lotuses?"
Ignoring the clownish Zhao Yingjie, Zhao Rong first greeted Wang Yu and his two companions, then cupped his fists toward Yan Xiangxue. "Greetings, Senior Yan!"
Once they entered Longshan Prefecture's jurisdiction, Wang Yu had sent a messenger ahead, so Zhao Rong knew Yan Xiangxue and Ardai were traveling with them.
One was the Snow Mountain Matron revered by the Qiang people like a deity, and the other was the White Qiang King's beloved pearl. Although Wang Yu had not explained in his letter how he had managed to abduct such figures back with him, Zhao Rong had nonetheless seen to it that Guanyun Tower beside the main courtyard was thoroughly cleaned, and had come out of the city in person to welcome them.
Yan Xiangxue said with a beaming smile, "My apologies for troubling you, Steward Zhao."
"Think nothing of it!" Seeing Yan Xiangxue's warm demeanor toward Wang Yu, Zhao Rong temporarily set aside his wariness. Cupping his hands, he replied, "It is an immense honor for our manor that Senior graces us with her stay."
Though Yan Xiangxue was treated as a little girl before Ye Tianlin, strictly speaking, she belonged to the same generation as the founder of the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor. She had sheltered the White Qiang tribe for nearly fifty years; both Zhao Zheng and Zhao Rong were juniors before her.
It was precisely under her influence that the White Qiang tribe had drawn ever closer to the Han lands, avoiding any conflict with the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor for fifty years.
Therefore, despite his lingering caution, Zhao Rong was not truly anxious. Rather, he was thoroughly puzzled, wondering how Wang Yu had gone on a single excursion and somehow brought back such a venerable figure.
Then he heard Zhao Yingjie's relentless questioning as they walked, until the lad finally asked, "Brother Yu, are the barbarian dancers in the Western Regions pretty? Do they all have slender, snakelike waists? Why didn't you bring a few back?"
Sensing three pairs of frigid glares—including one from his own father—the reasonably perceptive Zhao Yingjie finally realized his mouth had run away with him. Straightening up at once, he solemnly reported, "Brother Yu, while managing the ironworks and the glassworks lately, I tweaked several formulas to great effect and earned an extra seven hundred thousand taels of silver for the manor!"
Wang Yu looked him up and down, then shook his head. "I don't believe you."
Zhao Yingjie grew flustered. "It's true!"
Wang Yu scoffed. "In barely over three months, you've gotten an entire size rounder. Tell me, should I believe you?"
Zhao Yingjie widened his eyes. "But I have to put on fat in autumn, and when winter gets this cold, I have to eat more meat!"
Everyone burst into laughter at his defense, and they entered the city together.
Upon returning to the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor, they washed up, rested briefly, and assembled in the front hall for a banquet.
Zhao Rong began by reporting on the Iron Eagle Cavalry's transport of the Loulan treasure.
"The Iron Eagle Cavalry suffered seven killed, five crippled, and twenty-eight wounded in the Western Regions. All pensions and settlements have been properly handled," Zhao Rong stated.
"As for the Loulan treasure brought back by the cavalry, I have inventoried and sorted it into categories, loaded onto fifty-four large carts. Gold coins and ingots form one category, gold jewelry another, and gold utensils a third, with silver similarly categorized. These items make up the bulk of the haul.
"In addition, pearls, agates, jade bi discs, and coral have each been sorted into separate categories, apart from the gold and silver ornaments. Though fewer in number, they possess the highest value.
"After taking stock, I had the manor's accounting clerks make an appraisal. By market value, this hoard is worth roughly eleven million taels."
"Hiss—"
Even Li Yunxiu clicked her tongue slightly. "That King of Loulan truly amassed quite a fortune."
If one factored in the thirty percent taken by the Shuntian Army, the King of Loulan, reaping profits from the trade routes, had hoarded a family fortune of nearly fifteen million taels.
One had to realize that the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor had operated for nearly forty years, holding three northwestern prefectures and straddling the Northwest trade route. Yet when Li Yunxiu took over the manor's governance early this year, the entire treasury held less than a million taels.
Even though Wang Yu had made perfume, built blast furnaces, fired glassware, and opened numerous revenue streams over the past half year or so, time had been limited, and many ventures were only just beginning to expand. By the time they departed west through Yumen Pass, the manor's internal treasury had only just surpassed two million taels.
Well, of course, it would only grow from here on out.
Nonetheless, eleven million taels of silver was by no means a petty sum; even the imperial court would struggle to produce that much in one go.
Zhao Yingjie curled his lip. "The Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions are truly loaded. What a pity that the new dynasty was incompetent and withdrew the Protectorate. Though the thirty-six kingdoms still revere the imperial court in name, apart from sending tribute every few years, they're essentially autonomous."
"Cough, cough!" Zhao Rong pointed at the dishes on the table. "Not even all the beasts and fowl spread out here can shut that mouth of yours."
"Heh heh!" Zhao Yingjie chuckled, then turned to Wang Yu with glinting eyes. "Brother Yu, with this much money, are we really giving it all to that Emperor in the Golden Chime Hall?"
Zhao Rong kept silent, picking up a piece of fish with his chopsticks and focusing on picking out the bones.
Yan Xiangxue beamed as she ate the winter bamboo shoots and Chinese cabbage Ardai had picked out for her.
Ardai was chatting with Yuan Feifei, who accompanied them at the table. One genuinely didn't care about the matter, merely glancing at Wang Yu from time to time, while the other kept chatting away even as she pricked up her ears.
Qianqian offered an enigmatic smile and poured a cup of wine for Wang Yu.
Wang Yu nodded. "Of course we'll send it. Why wouldn't we? The Emperor issued a secret edict specifically counting on this treasure for his urgent needs. If we don't give it to him, wouldn't he go mad?"
Zhao Yingjie blinked his small eyes. "Even if he goes mad, what can he do?"
"If he goes mad, we're the ones who will suffer," Wang Yu said, taking a sip of wine. "Everything is turning in our favor now, and we're not strapped for cash, so there's no need to invite misery upon ourselves. Besides, the Loulan treasure carries an unsavory reputation. Keeping it makes it easy to be branded as scavengers who prey on the fallen, inviting ridicule from all sides. If we send it to the Emperor, let him shoulder that stigma instead."
Zhao Yingjie smacked his lips. He knew Wang Yu had a point—they now held near-monopolies over perfume, efficient smelting, and luxury glassmaking, so their wealth would only grow—yet this was an enormous fortune already resting inside the Prince of Zhenxi's treasury. Parting with it made his heart ache!
Zhao Yingjie cautiously glanced toward Li Yunxiu.
Li Yunxiu smiled faintly. "We must still give him something, but there is no need to hand over every last coin. His Majesty has no idea how much the Loulan treasure actually amounts to. Our Prince of Zhenxi's Manor ventured deep into the Western Regions and was besieged by the Black Qiang, with my husband escaping death by a hair's breadth. How could we walk away without compensation?"
"Oh?" Zhao Yingjie looked at Li Yunxiu, his eyes lighting up. "What does the princess consort mean?"
Li Yunxiu chuckled. "Before going to Loulan, my own estimate of the treasure was merely six or seven million taels."
Loulan ranked only upper-middle among the Thirty-Six Kingdoms of the Western Regions, but it sat astride crucial trade routes and lay close to the Central Plains, rarely embroiling itself in regional conflicts, which naturally made it wealthier than most. Yet running a state still required funds, and the Kingdom of Loulan had no native commodities of its own, relying entirely on transit tolls. Li Yunxiu had thought seven or eight million taels in their royal treasury would be the absolute limit; she had never imagined they had hoarded double her expectations.
This alone showed the King of Loulan's rapacity, and it was no wonder their dynasty had been overthrown.
Zhao Yingjie roughly understood. "So..."
Li Yunxiu nodded with a smile. "So I imagine His Majesty had similar expectations. Moreover, the Shuntian Army carried off a portion of the hoard. If we deliver five million taels to the court, that will be more than enough to give His Majesty an account."
Though the Emperor had sent a secret decree, though Wang Yu was an impostor, and though Li Yunxiu was widely known as the Emperor's pawn...
The treasure had nonetheless been seized through the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor's blood and sweat. If they surrendered every single copper to the imperial court without keeping a cent, neither Li Yunxiu nor Wang Yu could possibly justify it to their subordinates.
Li Yunxiu had been sent here to gain control of the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor—or at least keep it stable—not to drive it into open rebellion. Wang Yu naturally could not expose his true identity, yet he could not openly defy the Emperor's will either.
Thus, the two of them had settled on this arrangement:
Do not give it all away, thereby avoiding trouble; keep a share, providing a justifiable account.
Li Yunxiu had done the utmost within her power. After all, with Elder Yan dead, she had no means of contacting the Emperor at will; surely the Emperor would appreciate her painstaking efforts.
Sure enough, with Wang Yu's opening stance of giving it all away setting the stage, followed by Li Yunxiu withholding half—turning the dynamic from Wang Yu, who was supposed to be one of their own, offering it up, to Li Yunxiu, the supposed outsider, intercepting a cut for the manor—Zhao Rong and Zhao Yingjie accepted the arrangement immediately. They even felt Li Yunxiu was quite decent. Though sent by the Emperor to infiltrate and sow division, now that she had married into the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor, she prioritized the manor's interests without forgetting where she now stood.
Besides, given the current circumstances, the court still held the greater momentum, and the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor had no desire to rebel. As such, an arrangement where the court provided intelligence, the manor committed manpower and resources, and both sides ultimately split the treasure was quite equitable.
Yan Xiangxue smiled slightly. Though unaware that Wang Yu was a fake, she felt he had handled the matter deftly. Pressure from the imperial court was formidable, and to the north, the Black Qiang were stirring with restless ambition.
Without any intention to rebel, spending wealth to avert disaster, maintaining peace and dignity with the court, and focusing their attention on the voracious Black Qiang tribe was a thoroughly sound choice.
With the disposition of the Loulan treasure settled, the welcome banquet grew relaxed once more. Wang Yu recounted the sword duels atop Mount Tianshan, then brought up how Yan Xiangxue had been ambushed by Shi Mo and had come to Longshan Prefecture to rest and recover from her injuries.
Yan Xiangxue was grievously wounded and could not fight; this could never be hidden from Zhao Rong, nor was it a secret that needed concealing.
"So that was it!" Zhao Rong finally understood, his mind put at ease. "Since Shi Mo was gravely wounded by Sect Leader Ling's sword strike, we can rest easy for at least a year."
At the same time, the look he cast toward Wang Yu brimmed with gratification. He had never expected Wang Yu's aptitude and comprehension to be so extraordinary as to cultivate Flowing Fire Reflection and Flowing Springs of the Icy Mountain simultaneously.
"Whoa! You actually met the Sword Fiend, Ye Tianlin!" Zhao Yingjie's eyes were full of adoration. "What does the venerable elder look like? Is he awe-inspiring and terrifyingly unapproachable?"
If Zhao Ling founding the Prince of Zhenxi's Manor and Zhao Zheng surpassing his predecessors to sweep across the Northwest were legendary tales in these lands, then Ye Tianlin was nothing short of myth.
He had swept across the Central Plains without tasting a single defeat, struck awe across the Western Regions, and intimidated the western barbarians as a Han man. Moreover, the Tianshan Sect was situated on Mount Tianshan's Lingxiao Peak beyond Yumen Pass, desolate and sparsely inhabited, cloaked in an aura of sheer mystery.
Many across the Northwest virtually deified Ye Tianlin, and the title of Sword Fiend was indeed enough to inspire boundless wonder.
Then Zhao Yingjie watched as Wang Yu shook his head. "No, he's just an amiable, plump old man."
Zhao Yingjie: ???
Chapter 90