The party had already set foot on the Longchuan trade route. The road was peaceful, and merchants passed by frequently, their expressions looking quite relaxed.
After traveling another half day, they reached a checkpoint.
Other merchant caravans had to wait in line and pay a fee before they were permitted to pass. When He Lingchuan flashed his waist token at the guard, however, the soldier called out, "Grand Commander!" and stepped aside with a low bow to welcome them through, without uttering a single unnecessary word.
By nightfall, this Gale Army detachment had passed three checkpoints, and the exact same scene played out each time.
Lu Xun had observed this for most of the day, and finally gave voice to his curiosity: "Commander He, the checkpoints along this trade route seem rather frequent. Furthermore... the soldiers manning them aren't from the Gale Army, are they?"
Although these soldiers wore uniforms and had tokens hanging from their waists, they exuded the rough air of bandits and slouched carelessly. Only when they caught sight of the Gale Army did they reflexively straighten their posture.
He had heard Panlong City was renowned for its strict military discipline, so how could it have troops like these?
Of course, being a guest from afar, Lu Xun framed his question tactfully.
"They aren't. Your keen eye does you credit, Mr. Lu." He Lingchuan knew exactly what he was asking. "They were originally Longchuan river bandits. After accepting our amnesty, they were kept here to collect road tolls. Passing each checkpoint marks entry into what was originally that gang's sphere of influence."
"This..." Lu Xun was taken aback, having never expected such an answer.
After being amnestied, the river bandits weren't broken up and sent elsewhere for training, but instead remained right here to watch the road? Before, they had to brandish torches and weapons to rob people; now, flying the official banner of Yuheng City, they didn't have to bleed or sweat anymore—they could just sit there and hold out their hands for money?
It could truly be called safe, efficient, and painless.
How could Panlong City, always renowned for clear rewards and punishments, treat river bandits with such lenience?
He Lingchuan explained, "The situation inside Longchuan is complicated. The remnants of the Xiji army that we routed also fled into Longchuan to keep waging guerrilla warfare against us. Moreover, they receive outside support, making this collusion between inside and outside very difficult to eradicate. Therefore, we split the river bandits to clear away resistance."
He added, "The safety of the trade route takes priority over everything else. The other issues can be dealt with gradually."
"Before I came, I heard banditry ran rampant along this Xiji trade route, yet now it is already run in an orderly fashion." Regardless of how they achieved it, public order along the trade route had vastly improved. "I was even hoping to take a page from your book."
"Was hoping" meant he had wanted to originally, but no longer did. The method He Lingchuan had devised was tailored specifically for the Longchuan river bandits; copying it would do others no good.
Everything had to be based on practical realities, after all.
"Does Bailie suffer from banditry as well?"
"Sigh, where doesn't? It's just a matter of degree." A small wild boar darted out from the roadside, startling his mount, and Lu Xun patted the horse's neck to calm it down. "You have river bandits here; we have pirates over there."
"Oh?" He Lingchuan asked, intrigued. "I'd love to hear the details."
Lu Xun had not expected him to be interested in bandits thousands of li away, so he said, "The Yangshan Archipelago lies on the sea twenty li southwest of Blade Harbor, comprised of forty-two islands large and small. The smallest can barely hold a few dozen people, while the largest, the main island of Longji Island, covers more than seventeen hundred qing. It has everything—mountain ranges, rolling hills, karst caves, gorges, even plains and lakes."
He Lingchuan drew a soft breath. Seventeen hundred qing was over one hundred and ten square kilometers; that island was truly massive.
"Although the Yangshan Archipelago is my family's territory, pirates have frequented it for years. Using the scattered islands as their strongholds, they play hide-and-seek with us."
He Lingchuan mused, "Do they raid the coast?"
"Rarely. They mostly plunder passing merchant vessels," Lu Xun explained. "The waters around the Yangshan Archipelago are very broad and lie directly along the required westbound shipping route. Bypassing it entirely adds over two hundred li to the journey. Besides, the open sea has rough winds and waves, so passing through the islands offers much calmer waters."
"Are there civilians on the islands?"
"Very few, apart from a few ports dedicated to resupplying food and fresh water."
He Lingchuan slapped a mosquito dead; its whining buzz in his ear had grown infuriating. "Couldn't you concentrate troops for a few sweeping operations and then station an official garrison on the islands?"
The bandit trouble in Longchuan was hard to eradicate because vast numbers of civilians lived around the waterways. Closely tied to the bandits, they were sometimes indistinguishable from them. Whether it was the previous Xiji regime or Yuheng City now, attempting to suppress the bandits risked collateral damage, and civilian casualties fueled endless rebellion, making it a nightmare to resolve.
The chiefs of Qianjin Stronghold and the Globe Amaranth Gang had dared to negotiate with him precisely because they banked on the Yuheng City Army not daring to charge into Longchuan and slaughter indiscriminately.
Yet the Yangshan Archipelago didn't have that problem. Aside from pirates, hardly anyone lived there, so why were the people of Bailie being polite with them?
"We did try that, but bandits are like weeds—as soon as we relax our guard, they grow right back. Furthermore, stationing a garrison on the Yangshan Archipelago is truly rather difficult."
"Why?" If nothing else, Longji Island was so large; did it lack food and fresh water?
Since they had nothing else to do on the road anyway, chatting helped pass the time. Lu Xun sighed. "A long time ago, our Lu ancestors purchased a vast tract of territory including Blade Harbor and the Yangshan Archipelago. At the time, they thought they got a bargain, but only after buying it did they discover that most islands in the archipelago cannot support human life at all."
"Oh? Why is that?"
"Every seven days, at the midnight hour, yin fiend energy drifts out from the karst caves of the Yangshan Archipelago and blankets the islands. This energy harms neither trees nor plants; in fact, it stimulates their growth. But humans and livestock cannot endure it. Staying on the island for more than a few hours causes people to fall ill, and if they don't leave, they die." Lu Xun shook his head. "We spent considerable effort to discover that beneath the Yangshan Archipelago lies a natural vein of turbid yin fiend!"
He Lingchuan murmured thoughtfully, "An earth fiend?"
"Yes, an earth fiend!"
Between Heaven and Earth existed the two energies of Yin and Yang. Yang energy was clear, pure qi, spiritual energy that nourished all living things. Yin energy was fiendish, turbid qi that withered all things. The two mutually opposed and generated each other. Yang energy floated to the heavens, while yin energy sank into the earth. Just as spiritual energy sinking underground could form mineral veins, so too could yin fiend energy. However, such subterranean veins were exceptionally rare, and those connected to the surface were rarer still.
When the Yuan Kingdom was destroyed, the resentment of millions formed an earth fiend that left the former realm completely barren. But a natural vein of yin fiend was the exact opposite: it spared flora and harmed only fauna.
Not all earth fiends were the same.
"Origin power can't withstand it either?"
"It cannot. The yin fiend is too potent." Origin power had its limits; could the origin power of the Bailie people ever rival the forces of Heaven and Earth? "Near the vent of the turbid yin fiend vein, a person wouldn't survive half an hour.
"What's more, a kind of monster lives on Longji Island called the yin hui. They can enter the water and eat humans." Lu Xun shook his head. "They usually operate within the area shrouded by the yin fiend. Travelers who stray deep into the archipelago are sometimes not killed by the yin fiend, but devoured alive by these beasts."
Chapter 874