Past Prosperity

Wang Wei chuckled heartily. "The Shanjin Plain has quite the reputation abroad, so everyone assumes our Julu Kingdom must be dirt-poor." Pride was written all over his face. More than a hundred and sixty years ago, the land of the Bo Kingdom had been known as the Julu Kingdom. Of course, by the present day, only the name Julu Port had survived, and the territory had shrunk by a third. Door Plank looked around as well. "And what is it really like?" "We used to be poor. In the past, my family couldn't afford meat once in six months. But over these last few years, life has gotten more comfortable with each passing year." Walking down the pier, two figures—one tall, one small—squeezed out from the crowd ahead. The smaller one charged forward the moment she saw Wang Wei, calling out, "Daddy! Daddy!" It was a little girl of five or six with twin buns in her hair. She barreled forward like a small cannonball, knocking Wang Wei back two steps upon impact. The girl was exceptionally sturdy, and scooping her up took Wang Wei some effort. Accompanying her was a boy of about fifteen whose features bore a clear resemblance to Wang Wei's. Seeing Wang Wei, his face lit up with delight as well. "A-Sheng, come here!" Wang Wei waved him over. "This is Mr. He and his squad, good friends I met aboard the ship." Wang Wei then said to He Lingchuan, "These are my two children. The older is A-Sheng—Wang Gesheng—and the little one is Xuanxuan." Both children were well-mannered and greeted He Lingchuan and the others courteously. "Come stay at my house! You must find a place to lodge anyway," Wang Wei invited once again. Unable to turn down such warm hospitality, He Lingchuan had no choice but to agree. The group wove through the streets and alleys toward the Wang residence. All along the way, trades and businesses of every kind flourished: restaurants, eateries, taverns, and hostels. Sundry shops lined the port from end to end, and two marketplaces were fully stocked with goods, showing brisk business on both sides of supply and demand. He Lingchuan and his companions could feel the bustling vitality of the town, thick with the everyday warmth of mortal life. Yet a few of the streets here occupied the exact same locations as in the future, which took He Lingchuan some effort to recognize. The teahouse at the street corner, currently bustling with patrons and humming with lively chatter, would in the future become a dilapidated warehouse frequented only by the sea breeze and rats. This sensation of intertwining eras filled him with a wistful sigh. The Wang residence sat in the eastern part of the port, only six or seven hundred paces from the wharf. Wang Wei's private school was of respectable size. Besides two classrooms—one large and one small—there were seven or eight guest rooms; evidently, he took in boarding students as well. But as it was currently the busy farming season, the rooms were all vacant. They simply needed to be tidied up and furnished to serve as temporary lodgings. He Lingchuan's party of ten took up four rooms. After drifting at sea for seventy or eighty days, everyone could smell the sour stench clinging to their clothes—no wonder little Xuanxuan had kept her distance. The immediate priority, then, was bathing, scrubbing off grime, changing into fresh clothes, shaving, and getting themselves presentable. Wang Wei was also someone who knew how to treat guests well. He summoned several foot-massage masters from a nearby bathhouse to give the men a thorough back massage and rubdown, loosening their sinews and invigorating their bones. By the time the guards emerged from their rooms, they felt like new men, as though their bodies had been lightened by several jin— The accumulated grime of ages had been scrubbed clean away. Food had already been laid out on the table: seven or eight dishes for the ten of them, with fish and meat, all home-cooked fare. He Lingchuan had tasted all kinds of delicacies from land and sea, yet a dish of shredded radish and potato pancakes on the table genuinely surprised him. Countless people knew how to make such things, but no two cooks prepared them the same way. The shredded radish pancakes at Wang Wei's house were vegetarian—aside from eggs, not a trace of meat could be seen—yet the flavor was superb. His comrades had good taste as well; the small mountain of radish pancakes vanished in an instant, prompting Wang Wei to hurriedly call for the cook to pan-fry another stack. Wang Wei beamed as he introduced the dish: "These are white radishes grown by my students. They have great flavor." He Lingchuan recalled that both Shumin Academy and Yuheng Academy had also cleared large plots of land for vegetable gardens known as 'academic fields.' Students were required to take labor classes, and the produce they grew was collected and prepared by the school to serve as school lunches. Door Plank tore off a thick, glistening slice of braised pork belly and stuffed it into a steamed bun. "Master Wang, you're a born businessman. Why don't you do business instead of running a private academy?" "Running an academy is stable. For every student I enroll, the Julu Port authorities give me a small subsidy. With enough students, the basic living expenses for my family are guaranteed at the very least." With a family to support, securing a basic safety net had to come first; only then could he think about earning extra. Hu Min asked in surprise, "You receive subsidies here too?" "Indeed. Our nation was founded not long ago and our foundation is not yet solid, so we need literate people like me to step forward and teach, educating the young and enlightening the populace. Otherwise, if the people of an entire country are illiterate, when could we ever produce pillars of the state?" The men exchanged glances, all feeling amazed. It was often said that it takes ten years to grow trees, but a hundred years to cultivate people. Education was a systematic endeavor requiring hefty investment and yielding slow returns; unless rulers planned for the long haul, they would never expend such effort or spend such money. On the Shanjin Plain, the rise and fall of families and states was the everyday norm. That such a small country possessed such foresight was astonishing. He Lingchuan sighed with feeling. "It is rare to see such a good monarch. The people of Julu are blessed." Having shared a ship with Wang Wei for quite some time, he had learned plenty about Julu Kingdom's past from the man. The Julu Kingdom occupied slightly more territory than the Bo Kingdom of later times. It had been founded just seven years ago, and its monarch was surnamed Ran. Not yet forty years of age, he was in the prime of his life. The policies enacted by Julu's ruler were effective. After years of rehabilitation and recovery, Julu Kingdom now enjoyed sound governance and social harmony. Its people's livelihood had revived, and the nation flourished with vibrant vitality. It was not just Wang Wei; He Lingchuan had also chatted with several other voyagers aboard the ship, all of whom praised Julu Kingdom for reviving commerce and restoring people's livelihoods in recent years, making it a rare oasis of peace on the Shanjin Plain. Stepping ashore today and seeing the port, he could tell from this microcosm that the King of Julu had indeed governed this land remarkably well. The people had something to look forward to, commoners had hope, and merchants were willing to come here to do business. With He Lingchuan's present experience, he knew all too well that ruling a country was no easy feat. One could not simply issue a few decrees to lighten corvée and lower taxes, allowing the people to rest, and expect to lead them into a golden age. Which monarch did not want their nation to be wealthy and strong, flourishing and prosperous? Some could achieve it, like the King of Julu; others simply could not, like the future King of Bo. Even the best policies had to be adapted to circumstances and could not be applied mechanically. At the very least, during this era, the people of Julu enjoyed a rare measure of peace. After the group chatted for a while, Wang Wei's eldest son, Wang Gesheng, returned, carrying meat and vegetables in his hands. Seeing that he carried three legs of mutton weighing at least twenty jin, not to mention the other vegetables and fruit, yet carried them effortlessly, He Lingchuan knew the lad possessed cultivation. He asked the youth, "Fancy a drink?" Wang Gesheng had inherited his father's temperament and agreed briskly, "Sure!" He Lingchuan filled a cup and tossed it across. His force was applied with marvelous finesse; the cup glided smoothly through the air as though pushed along a flat plane, drifting unhurriedly before Wang Gesheng. The boy reached out and caught it without spilling a single drop of wine. His gaze turned to He Lingchuan with sudden astonishment, and he tilted back his head to drain it in one gulp. He Lingchuan pointed to the seat beside Wang Wei. "Come sit." His tone was calm, yet carried an authority that brooked no question. Wang Gesheng had never met him before, yet found himself walking over instinctively. Only when he reached the table did he wonder why he was being so obedient. Wang Wei, however, immediately pulled his son down into the seat. He Lingchuan poured him another cup. "You serve in the Julu Port Guard?" "Yes." Wang Wei said proudly, "He was selected last spring. Out of more than twenty strapping young lads back then, the guard only chose two, and A-Sheng was one of them." "Living on government rations is a fine living," Hu Min said, gesturing to the rest of their group. "We all draw rations too." Everyone chuckled. Serving under Commander He, how could they not be living on government rations? Was this a troop of soldiers? The youth asked curiously, "Where do you come from?" "The Panlong Wasteland to the west. Ever heard of it?" Wang Gesheng honestly shook his head. He had never even heard the name. He Lingchuan paid it no mind; the distance from the Panlong Wasteland to the Shanjin Plain was vast indeed. "Have you heard of the Beijia Kingdom?" "I have. It's powerful, wealthy, and formidable." "The Panlong Wasteland is to the west of Beijia," He Lingchuan said with a smile. "We crossed the vast ocean to come to the Shanjin Plain in search of something. Have you heard of Baimao Peak?" Had he not heard that Wang Gesheng served in the port city guard, He Lingchuan would not have agreed to stay at Wang Wei's house. He had come specifically to gather intelligence. The letter Shao Jian had sent to Zhong Shengguang had been written in cipher. Decoded, it read: Bright Lantern Grass grows on Baimao Peak, which is currently the territory of bear demons. Father and son exchanged a glance, and Wang Gesheng asked, "The White Bear King's lair?" "It seems you both know of it." "Baimao Peak got its name precisely because of the White Bear King," Wang Wei chimed in. "No one knows where it came from, but roughly twenty years ago it claimed the mountain as king and made its den on Baimao Peak. The mountain originally had plenty of good resources, and nearby folk used to head up to hunt game and gather wild mushrooms and greens. But ever since it appeared, no living soul has dared approach Baimao Peak. Oh, and there were around forty bears in its den, if I recall." "Father, your information is ancient history—it's way past that number now," Wang Gesheng spoke up immediately. "The White Bear King's lair has over eighty white bears and more than three thousand wolves. On top of that, there are foxes, badgers, leopards, and other beasts, and he has even brought a group of avian demons under his command." "Then it has truly become a great demon of consequence." Even He Lingchuan was surprised by such numbers. "Ruling a mountain as a king, backed by legions of followers." What counted as a great demon of consequence? Zhu Erniang was one. Years ago, when she dwelt in the Panlong Wasteland with swarms of offspring at her command, even General Nan Ke and his army had perished at her hands when they marched into her territory. A great demon capable of threatening a regional government was considered to have truly come into its own. Yet Zhu Erniang's sinister host was comprised entirely of her own progeny, with virtually no other demons among them. This White Bear King, on the other hand, had gathered various demonic species under his banner. Great demons came in all kinds of temperaments. Wang Wei gasped, "Good heavens! That many already? Those white bears and wolf packs often come down the mountain to eat people." Door Plank immediately remarked, "Over eighty bears and three thousand wolves? That's quite a crowd. Baimao Peak can hardly feed so many big appetites." Carnivores typically had their own hunting territories due to limited food. If the bear demon had summoned so many subordinates to defend its lair, Baimao Peak could hardly sustain such a multitude of ferocious beasts. Coming down the mountain to forage became an inevitability. And what prey down below was both plentiful and easy to hunt? Humans, of course. Hu Min interjected, "After all these years, haven't the authorities tried to wipe out the bear demons?"