Chapter 135: Making the Most of One's Own Efforts

Da Wang's hunted game, according to the rules, counts as the owner's, so Da Wang won this competition.

Da Wang took the dagger and generously gave the prize he had set to Wu Jian—there's no logic in taking your own prize yourself—and everyone was satisfied with the result.

They kept what they needed to eat, and Da Wang sent people to gather the rest of the game and bring it back to the city; he would not waste a single grain of food. Seeing this, the Marquis of Dongdu also sent back what they couldn't finish to Shangguan Pass. Previously, when they hunted, they only took the skins of what they couldn't eat at first, and only brought back what they hunted on the second day.

Everyone stayed in the camp for two nights, then conducted another two days of encircled hunting.

The animals of Zhi Yan Mountain suffered, and Zhetian awakened its skill to shake people. It knew it couldn't carry off the large ones, so it learned to shake Ling Yin on the way back.

Zhetian circled once in the sky, and the largest game in the mountains was entirely under its grasp.

Da Wang's side kept getting bigger game; though they brought fewer people than the Marquis of Dongdu, they had large game every day to anchor the hunt—deer, wild boar, wolves, everything was available.

Starting the next day, Zhuti sent people to wait at the camp; any excess meat was dragged straight to Youzhou City, sold to the common folk, and the pelts were taken to the cloth shop to be sold.

The three-day encircled hunt was completed perfectly by Da Wang, and all the objectives of this trip were achieved.

Drawing closer to the Marquis of Dongdu showed their stance, they bagged plenty of game with a rich harvest, and even won a prize. If Zhi Yan Mountain couldn't withstand another two days of this scale of encirclement and interception, Da Wang could still hunt here for three more days.

Seeing Da Wang's reluctant little gaze, Wei Shen looked at him, then at Zhetian on his shoulder, and advised: "Give Zhi Yan Mountain a sliver of hope! The land is almost scraped bare—if we keep hunting, the animals will go extinct!"

That's true—if we keep going, what will we hunt next year? Let them rest, let them rest.

Da Wang then turned his head, bade farewell to the Marquis of Dongdu and his party, whipped his horse, and galloped toward Youzhou. After three days out, he was still quite homesick~

The common folk of Youzhou City these past few days all knew Da Wang had taken people on an encircled hunt, and at the stall selling seafood on Zhuque Avenue, these days they could buy cheap meat to eat.

At this time, the common folk had no one disdaining the gamey smell or coarse texture of wild boar meat—after all, it's meat!

Stalls bearing the sign 'Shengping' in Youzhou were symbols of affordability and reliability; moreover, they had no money to buy half a jin or three liang, but the assistants patiently cut it for them, so they didn't have to endure white eyes. Zhuque Avenue, usually quiet in broad daylight, suddenly became lively—this wild game's meat sold for much less than pork butcher shops, and even families who usually couldn't bear to eat meat were willing to spend a few wen to get a taste of that gamey flavor.

Da Wang returned from the north city gate to the prince's mansion, and that very night he went to Fengji Market, where the long-absent stall-holding Da Wang came online.

"Qiao Ge, I'm here~"

"Long time no see—where have you been these past few days? Why haven't you come to set up your stall?"

Da Wang swiftly unfurled his bed curtain, proudly throwing out from the storage that tigress—"Deng deng deng~ Went hunting! My卷云雕 helped me hunt this tiger!"

Qiao Yi stared in amazement, asking if they had no Northeastern tigers there.

Da Wang could only explain to him what kind of existence this tiger was in their lands—basically the top of the mountain, so powerful that even though it was such a formidable beast, his卷云雕 still managed to slash its neck.

Da Wang's proud look was simply a match for Zhetian.

Unfortunately, many people here, like Qiao Yi, don't recognize value.

Those who occasionally asked were all scared off by Da Wang's asking price.

Da Wang didn't mind—this thing won't sell here, so he'll come back tomorrow to sell live tiger cubs; selling the tiger out is also good. Tiger pelts sell well, and tiger bones sell well too.

Da Wang's stall had no customers, so he told Qiao Yi about his encircled hunt. Just as he was speaking, Bai Yang strolled over, and upon seeing the tiger corpse Da Wang had laid out on his stall, he was startled.

"Oh my!"

He circled it once, examining it closely: "Northeastern tiger, wild. In our lands, that would earn you twenty years."

Bai Li·Lawless Wanderer·Peaceful lowered his raised neck and asked, "What earns twenty years?"

"You! In our lands, hunting Northeastern tigers is illegal—Class One offense, gets you twenty years in prison."

Da Wang, feeling guilty, also lowered his little neck: "Why?"

"Because they're nearly extinct—of course we must protect them; they're now national Class One protected animals."

Da Wang couldn't understand this stance—he felt that beasts like tigers eat people, so let them be extinct. When people can't even fill their stomachs and are about to starve, who has the energy to care whether tigers go extinct or not?

In a flash, his useful little brain turned the corner: "Bai Ge, if you don't allow hunting there, then this tiger must be very rare and valuable, right? Why don't you just buy it! Tiger bone wine and medicine shops sell it very expensively~"

Bai Yang pushed his head: "You're not trying to get me thrown in jail, are you? Buying or catching it also carries guilt. If I take a fresh bone and soak it in liquor, and they catch me saying I bought it as two-thousand-year-old aged stock, would anyone believe me?"

"Ah! Few people recognize value." Da Wang worried.

Bai Yang, a modern businessman, couldn't stand seeing this fun item go unsold.

"Do you also make tiger bone wine where you're from? Like this—I'll get you some high-proof liquor, you find someone to make it into tiger bone wine, then in a year or so you sell the infused liquor back to me."

That's all we can do—this kind of otherworldly strange beast, in a bustling market with people coming and going, few are interested.

Da Wang, having figured out the big thing, now thought of the small one.

He took the tigress back and pulled out a cage from the storage: "Are live ones easy to sell?"

Bai Yang found it very rare—the tiger cub was exactly at the adorable, low-threat stage, and he couldn't put it down as he stroked it: "So cute—why don't you just keep it yourself?"

Da Wang, chin resting on his hands, was smiling and playing cute at passing customers when he heard this; he looked at him strangely: "How could I keep it!? Zhetian killed its mother—it's my enemy's killer, and I'm indirectly the enemy—how could we ever get along after this?"

Bai Yang: ……

You're raising a pet—it's not like choosing a consort, yet you're still preparing to treat it like family!

But when he saw Da Wang's earnest gaze, the child was serious. He lost his temper—Da Wang might truly treat his pet as family.

Fortunately, Da Wang's cute act wasn't in vain—a woman noticed him, then noticed the adorable big cat beside his feet. Da Wang extended his chubby paw and made a three: "If you think the older sister is pretty, just give three hundred!"

The woman laughed as she stroked his baby fat: "You're so cute—I bought it!"

Da Wang instantly widened his big eyes—his mental price was fifty to one hundred, he opened with three hundred waiting for haggling, but it just closed like that?

Feeling like he'd gotten a huge bargain!

"Older sister, won't you rub me one more time!" Da Wang felt uneasy inside.

The woman paid, laughed loudly, and pinched Da Wang's baby fat again: "Young ones really are cute hahaha~"

Da Wang, face dreamy, having earned three hundred ingots, waited until she left, then excitedly grabbed Bai Yang's hand: "Turns out acting cute really works—Bai Yang, please pass on all your selling secrets to me!"

Bai Yang couldn't bear to watch. Thinking of Da Wang growing up, becoming a mature Da Wang Hou, recalling his childhood… he spoke earnestly: "Older brother doesn't claim credit—it's all your own doing well. I hope that when you think of today in the future, you remember this: it's all your own doing well! And it has nothing to do with me, Da Wang!"

Qiao Yi: ……

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The people of Youzhou could barely afford to buy two liang of cotton cloth from the Shengping Cloth Shop even after saving up, and processed furs sent there found no buyers, so Da Wang simply packed up, also purchasing a batch of sheepskin and fox pelts locally, then bundled them together with the high-proof white liquor he had newly acquired and sent them off to a merchant house in Chang'an.

The Fifth Princess in the palace soon received a gift from her younger brother—a fox-fur collar of a dull, yellowish hue.

The little eunuch delivering the items said that the person who brought them in was from Second Prince's entourage, claiming this collar was the finest fur Da Wang had managed to obtain.

Da Wang had imagined the fox-fur collar to be fiery red or pure snow-white without a single杂色, but Zhi Yan Mountain came up short—only yellow foxes were available.

Even so, the Fifth Princess treasured it, planning to wear it at the New Year's Eve palace banquet this year.

Meanwhile, the Youzhou tribute convoy, lagging and straggling, finally arrived in Chang'an; the officials in charge of receiving it stared at the cartloads of coal, utterly embarrassed. Da Wang, thinking outside the box, claimed his fief suffered drought and total crop failure, so he was substituting coal for grain tribute.

This matter was reported layer by layer up to the Grand Minister of Agriculture, and Lord Li simply had no way to deal with Da Wang's slippery, troublesome nature.

Last year he gave no tribute at all, just sent a dragon to fool His Majesty into accepting it. This year is even more outrageous—hauling a few carts of coal, recently trendy in Chang'an, trying to pass it off as tribute. And besides, your quantity isn't enough either—you can't even match one jin for one jin, so how do you calculate that this coal substituting for grain tribute is worth more than what's sold in the Eastern Market?

Lord Li didn't want to bear the blame himself, so the next day he brought it up at the grand court assembly. As expected, Da Wang's classmate received collective censure from all civil and military officials, and finally the emperor issued a stern edict rebuking him.

Da Wang received it in person at the small court assembly; this classmate clearly had no habit of being stubborn or obsessed with face, and after reading it he could even laugh out loud.

"Wow～I wrote so many letters to Father Emperor, and this is the first time I've ever received a reply!"

Xue Xiang: ……

"Snap out of it, Da Wang—that's a scolding, not a reply!"

Da Wang ignored it completely, flipping the page directly, clearly implying he wanted to dissolve the court assembly and return to the inner palace to eat his fill, so Xue Xiang had no choice but to speak up to stop him.

"Shouldn't Your Highness give Chang'an a response? If you keep dodging like this, Chang'an might impose further penalties down the line."

Da Wang curiously inquired: "What penalties? Directly削藩?"

Xue Xiang: "That won't happen. Precedents include fines in silver or reductions in fief territory."

Upon hearing this, Da Wang relaxed and said, carefree: "No silver fines. Cut the fief—just cut it. Reducing the outer counties means I'll send less relief grain next time anyway—cut as much as you like, give it to whoever you want."

Xue Xiang: ……

The officials: ……

What a great ally—thinking about it, it's really true: the poor border commandery of Youzhou has put Da Wang in an invincible position. This kind of territory—if you don't use it, you lose it, right? And it saves effort, doesn't it?!

Da Wang has become enlightened.

But they weren't completely unresponsive—Da Wang immediately wrote a reply to his father, pouring out tears and saying he had failed to live up to his father emperor's trust.

The gist was just one idea: the north is suffering a great drought, and Da Wang can do nothing about it. Having received his father's reply, the son feels ashamed and unable to face it; hearing the Chancellor say that those unable to pay tribute face penalties, the most severe being fief reduction—then the son voluntarily offers to surrender a county, perhaps Ning'an County near Yizhou! Or if the court wants other counties returned as well? The son will obey his father's command!

Da Wang presented himself as someone shaking off a hot potato—this letter, tentatively considered a reply, arrived at the Zhongshu Province, and the censors who had been criticizing Da Wang all fell silent.

The various factions that had been flattering Da Wang by praising other princely lords also quieted down.

This Da Wang really doesn't play by the rules!

How can you just say "let go" of the territory in your hands? Shouldn't you hold onto every inch of land?!

Ning'an County? Isn't that a poor county on the northern border? Youzhou has been throwing out such counties—what use is it to take it back? Let Da Wang surrender his territory—it'll only剪除 the dead weight dragging him down; Da Wang might even be happier for it?

Youzhou's land is uneven—big patches here, small there—they don't care, and obviously Da Wang himself doesn't care either.

The only thing is, Da Wang's cheek is made of who-knows-what—who dares call the emperor's reproachful edict a "reply"?!

Da Wang waited a few more days, noticed Chang'an had grown quiet, and thought this matter might just fade away? Clearly, no one in the court expects anything from this barbaric backwater of Youzhou—this is a story for later.

Although this year is just as dry, Da Wang still cries poor, but Youzhou's situation is clearly much better than last year's, even better than in a good harvest year, with more grain stored, and the people no longer as tense as before.

The real severe drought is in neighboring Fanyang, Bingzhou, and Yizhou.

This year Youzhou opened up wasteland to plant potatoes and sweet potatoes; many families bought high-yield seeds from Da Wang, and with the deep wells in Youzhou City, they irrigated during drought—diligent households had decent harvests, at least ensuring Da Wang's tax collection came in as usual, and families short on food still had sweet potatoes to rely on—claiming they'll starve to death this year is pure laziness.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes are excellent varieties; though mostly grown on newly reclaimed wasteland, very few families use good farmland for them, yet diligent households still achieve yields of over three thousand jin per mu—unimaginable in the earlier Jin Dynasty.

Thus, this year Youzhou's tax collection came in remarkably smoothly, without needing soldiers to guard the fields as before, with officials wanting to haul away the grain immediately after harvest.

Da Wang set a deadline allowing gradual payment, and the result was that defaults were nearly nonexistent—even though Youzhou folk are fierce, they still act honestly before the officials.

Once tax revenue came in, Da Wang, seeing the granaries full for the first time, even considered expanding the army immediately—but then thought, it's already year-end, and it's a disaster year, with no movements in the north to exploit as an excuse, so he temporarily shelved the idea.

The people followed officials from the Prince's Household Ministry of Agriculture to learn how to dig cellars for storing napa cabbage and radishes, how to store sweet potatoes, how to dry sweet potato chips and potato shreds, and even how to turn surplus into starch for sale.

So, Youzhou is currently outwardly tense but inwardly relaxed, and the people feel they've had a rare spell of good days—because they have a great Da Wang.

The towering city walls not only gave Da Wang a sense of security, but also reassured the people; capable households in nearby counties began considering moving into Youzhou City to live.

They had never thought of it before.

Previously, they thought Youzhou City was no better than the poor county towns outside, and once the northern barbarians attacked, they could flee into the mountains.

Da Wang isn't worried about food and warmth this winter—he stays home sharpening his knife, on guard against northern enemies.