The He brothers were the exception; He Chunhua gave none to them.
Wu Shaoyi picked up a bamboo cylinder and gave it a shake. Something inside rustled softly—solid, plentiful, and small. "What is this?"
"Why not pop it open and find out?"
The men pulled their stoppers, and a dense, pungent aroma of tobacco drifted out.
Wu Shaoyi exclaimed in surprise, "Chewing tobacco?"
He pulled out a plug, popped it into his mouth to chew slowly, and nodded. "Good, wonderful stuff—truly top-grade! Thank you, my Lord."
He Yue could only look on wistfully. "Father, where did this come from?"
"This is a specialty of the Beijia Kingdom, brought all the way from the north." He Chunhua took out a piece himself. Instead of chewing it, he merely turned it over in his hand. "Great Yuan has a treaty with Beijia, purchasing a vast assortment of goods from them every year, and chewing tobacco is only one of them. Now that our border has been pushed back right against Xiazhou, the duty of dispatching men to receive shipments at the border market falls squarely onto my shoulders. Furthermore, I only learned today that the official post stations in Xiazhou must give priority to merchants from Beijia. If a Beijia caravan is robbed, the local officials are required to investigate the matter thoroughly to the very bottom."
The primary function of the post stations was to serve royal couriers; without them providing water, food, lodging, and fresh horses, how could any urgent dispatch travel hundreds of li a day? Yet the Yuan Kingdom had actually entered into an agreement with Beijia, forbidding post stations from denying lodging to Beijia caravans.
Such a privilege was something the common rabble of their own kingdom could never enjoy.
Zeng Feixiong did not use tobacco. He frowned and asked, "What is so difficult about making chewing tobacco? Why not use our own?" Transporting it over thousands of li took time, labor, and money.
"The goods produced by Beijia are of the highest quality and the most sought after. Look here—even this cylinder is crafted from the green jade bamboo found only in southern Beijia. It has the luster of fine jade and chimes like gold when struck. Some even fashion musical instruments from it. Its outer wall is paper-thin and remarkably light." He lightly tossed the green jade bamboo cylinder in his hand. "Now look at the chewing tobacco produced in the Yuan Kingdom. What kind of containers do they use? What kind of quality is it, eh?"
Zeng Feixiong had no answer to that.
"During my recent days in Shihuan, I noticed that all the nobles and dignitaries offered Beijia chewing tobacco when socializing, which shows just how popular it has become. The bamboo tubes they use are even painted and gilded for display. Wealthy merchants among the common folk also serve Beijia tobacco to their guests to show off their wealth." He Chunhua weighed the cylinder in his palm. "Such a small tube sells for a full liang of silver, and the farther south you go, the steeper the price. If it comes in a gilded tube, the quality is even higher and the price doubles."
"These tobacco leaves have no impurities at all. Smoked first, then cured, and soaked in honey—the flavor is downright divine!" Wu Shaoyi said, thoroughly captivated. "What kind of dog shit was I chewing in the past?"
He had been a mud-stained peasant back then; what right had he had to chew decent tobacco?
A thought stirred in He Lingchuan's mind.
This green jade bamboo cylinder looked remarkably familiar. When he had received his military rewards in the Panlong dreamscape, hadn't he been handed something just like this?
Back in Panlong City, there were people who specifically collected these bamboo cylinders to repurpose and sell them.
Indeed, the chewing tobacco distributed by the Pengcheng Office of Panlong City differed only slightly in color and shape from what everyone held here. But that had been over a century ago; it was entirely natural for craftsmanship to evolve over such a long time.
Which meant that the chewing tobacco Panlong City issued to its soldiers had also come from Beijia!
Well now. He seemed to recall Hu Min mentioning that Panlong City engaged in trade with the Beijia Kingdom as well, and the annual trade volume had been substantial.
That country's foreign commerce truly was remarkably developed.
He Chunhua let out another sigh. "Of course, the most critical reason is that the Yuan Kingdom has no choice but to buy it. How much we buy each year and at what price are all stipulated in the treaties. With natural disasters and man-made catastrophes plaguing us these past few years, our purchases from the Beijia Kingdom declined, and payments weren't made on time. Beijia was extremely displeased."
If the real Young Master He were here, he probably would have blurted out, "Why do we have no choice?"
So He Lingchuan did precisely that.
He Chunhua did not give an immediate answer. After several beats of silence, he finally said, "Their taking in Governor of Xunzhou Nian Zanli was meant to give us a hard time."
He cleared his throat. "Once we reach Xiazhou, we will face an even more complicated situation, and this is one of our troubles. I tell you this so you have an idea of what to expect. No matter how the war with Nian Zanli goes, Beijia is not a force we can afford to offend lightly. All right, time for serious business."
He nodded toward the steward, Lao Mo, standing nearby. Lao Mo stepped outside immediately and returned shortly after, escorting a man in. "Master, Manager Qian is here."
Lao Mo then pulled the windows shut and stepped outside to stand guard at the door. After all, this was an official post station, and walls had ears.
He Chunhua gestured to the newcomer, who was dressed as a merchant. "This is Manager Qian, dispatched by the Zhu family to oversee their business in Dunyu. He has lived in Dunyu for twenty years and knows this capital of Xiazhou better than the locals do."
"Governor-General He flatters me." Manager Qian bowed respectfully to everyone around the room, wearing a genial smile. "Greetings, my Lords."
"At my request, Elder Zhu specially instructed him to rush over from Dunyu to brief us on the situation inside the city, lest you arrive with me as complete strangers with nowhere to start."
After returning Zhu Xiu'er to Zhu Xiyan, He Chunhua had established a clean, cordial connection with the Zhu clan. The Zhu family had enterprises in Xiazhou and hoped the new Governor-General would lend them a hand, so they naturally went out of their way to accommodate his reasonable requests.
He nodded to Manager Qian. "Go on. Tell us how the war on the northern front is progressing, and what the situation in Dunyu is like."
Manager Qian recounted the story in detail.
He Lingchuan had already known that the northern campaign was going poorly for the Yuan Kingdom, but he hadn't anticipated it being this dire.
The former General Pacifying the North, Nian Zanli, had defected to the northern demon kingdom along with the entire territory of Xunzhou. As a result, the northern frontline had suddenly shifted south from Xunzhou into eastern Haozhou. Xunzhou had been the frontier border for generations, whereas the troops of Haozhou had little combat experience. Consequently, their resistance was completely ineffective, and in less than a month, Nian Zanli smashed through their defenses.
With Nian Zanli sweeping forward like a split bamboo, the battlefield had inevitably been pushed into southern Haozhou.
That region was now pressing up against the border between Haozhou and Xiazhou. If Nian Zanli captured the final three cities in southern Haozhou, he would bring the fires of war straight into Xiazhou—into He Chunhua's domain.
Nian Zanli had likely learned of He Chunhua's reassignment to the north. That former frontier general was probably burning to avenge his son's death, launching wave after wave of assaults against southern Haozhou.
Currently holding the line in southern Haozhou was General Zhao Pan, dispatched by the royal court. Word had it that both sides traded victories and defeats, but Zhao Pan had managed to halt Nian Zanli's southward advance for the time being.
Without question, Zhao Pan needed the steadfast backing of his rear.
And without question, he faced the exact same problem as Ke Jihai:
Failing logistics and severe supply shortages.
With Xiazhou sitting directly behind the battlefield, it bore an inescapable duty to supply a major portion of the military provisions. The royal court had issued repeated, stern decrees demanding Xiazhou's total cooperation.
"Our family runs a textile business in Dunyu, primarily dealing in silks and furs. Once fighting broke out in the north, the city required every fabric shop in Dunyu to assist in transporting cotton cloth and rushing out winter uniforms, and ours was no exception." Manager Qian sighed. "Before winter set in, General Zhao pressed for thirty thousand winter coats. Yet now, when the spring snow is about to thaw, scarcely over seven thousand have been gathered for the front—less than forty percent of the quota."
He Yue frowned. "The war materials can't all be requisitioned from Xiazhou, can they?"
"Xiazhou is closest to the frontline, so it bears the heaviest burden. For winter coats alone, over three thousand were apportioned to us. We exerted immense effort to meet our quota, even advancing the funds for materials and labor out of our own pockets, and the authorities have yet to reimburse us." Manager Qian continued, "A lack of clothing is one thing, but the grain deficit is far worse. I heard there has already been a mutiny at the front; soldiers whose bellies were gnawing with hunger defected to the enemy camp under the cover of night."
When morale crumbled, an army stood no chance of fighting well.
Mozhe Jingxuan asked him, "Hasn't Xiazhou enjoyed favorable weather and bumper harvests for the past two years?"
"Indeed. That was why the royal court ordered Xiazhou to transport grain to the front from nearby to put out the immediate fire. But after just three shipments, the largest granary in Dunyu suddenly caught fire."
"I heard about that back in Shihuan. Hundreds of thousands of dan of grain went up in flames." He Chunhua's face remained devoid of expression. "When the King received the news, he was so enraged he smashed two teacups and couldn't sleep all night."
Enough grain to feed the frontline for six months to a year, reduced to ashes in a single blaze—who wouldn't feel the sting?
In a basin nearby, several frozen autumn pears were soaking in water. He Lingchuan picked one up at random, only to hear Manager Qian let out a dry chuckle.
"Hundreds of thousands of dan? Ninety percent of it was empty! I have it on good authority that there were at most twenty thousand dan in there to begin with."
"At most!" He held up two fingers. "No one knows the exact amount—not even the granary officers themselves. And with that single fire, the books were squared."
Zeng Feixiong couldn't help but ask, "Where did the grain go?"
"For years, the grain in the Dunyu granaries was rarely touched. So every year, after the autumn harvest came in, they merely recorded phantom entries on the ledgers and sold the grain off privately, or even swapped newly stored grain with old grain," Manager Qian explained. "Last year, nobody foresaw that General Nian would commit treason, nor did anyone imagine that Xiazhou would suddenly become the frontline overnight. Much of that grain had been smuggled off to Xunzhou, leaving a massive deficit in the granary."
Several officers flared with anger. "You mean to say the enemy is eating our rice while killing our men?"
"Who was behind it?" He Lingchuan took a crunching bite of the pear. "There has to be a ringleader. They couldn't have pulled this off for just a year or two, or once or twice."
"Dunyu is the ancestral home of Minister of War Lord Li Dushan. His extended clan resides there, and their enterprises are vast; the local magistracy dares not cross them lightly." Manager Qian swallowed hard. "The owner of Baoxiang Grain Store, the largest grain house in Xiazhou, is named Liu, but the true master behind the curtain is the Li family."
"At first, they didn't dare make too much noise. Falsifying ledgers and swapping grain was done on a petty scale. But after getting away with it for years without incident, other families grew envious and followed suit. As everyone joined in, the accounts grew increasingly tangled, and the actual stock in the granaries dwindled more and more."
"That granary officer deserves to be executed," Wu Shaoyi said coldly. "Heh, the same old tricks, the same old stench."
Back when he served under Hong Xiangqian, hadn't the rebel army risen up precisely because the royal court levied extortionate taxes and duties after years of southern floods and droughts? Such chaos, such ploys, such deceit—they had witnessed plenty of it in the south.
Now he had turned around and become an officer of the government forces, yet the reality of corruption remained unchanged.
He Chunhua nodded.
As the saying went, a small clue reveals the greater truth. And here, the rot of Dunyu's longstanding accounts had already festered into a bottomless abyss.
Chapter 211