Chapter 768: Not a Good Person

The Great Jin has been in turmoil for years, a severe drought in the north has reduced grain yields, and now several high-yield crops have been reported from the Northern Border, drawing attention from all quarters.

When it first appeared the year before last, You Prefecture kept a tight watch; the people also treated the seeds as a precious treasure for family survival; the Great King's imperial farm base gave priority to You Prefecture, and only those with household registers could purchase it, yet even so some found their way south.

The yields of sweet potatoes and potatoes are enough to move anyone's heart.

The Great King originally intended to spread the high-yield crops, hoping to see no one starving under heaven.

But this autumn won't do!

Merchant convoys dare not come; instead, large numbers of escort squads are sent to the Northern Border to transport grain southward—this is not the trade flow the Great King wants to see, and if they are coming from rebel-held territories… that amounts to aiding the enemy.

Before the grain was even harvested, they had already arrived in the Northern Border, clearly intent on seizing it.

The Great King himself was still waiting to put this autumn's harvest grain into the pot!

That won't do.

Yang Fang isn't stupid either; after grasping the situation, he specifically urged the Great King not to act rashly, saying everything could be discussed after entering River Gap.

The Great King thumped his chest loudly, promising not to cause trouble—but who knew that as soon as night fell, this person vanished.

Yang Fang hurriedly turned to look for Wei Shen, and sure enough, the two troublemakers had disappeared together.

Yang Fang still has little contact with the Great King; if Xie Tu were here, he certainly wouldn't be so naïve. He ought to know that most of the Great King's promises… are basically worthless.

Where did the Great King go?

Skilled at crouching in the grass thicket.

That fellow, as soon as it got dark, took Wei Shen and Ling Yin and left the team; he couldn't wait, insisting on first interrogating those escort squads to find out where they came from and which power they served.

Although that fellow has ascended the throne, he knows his own mind; he believes he is nowhere near as naïve as Bai Li Jin, thinking that once he sits in that position everything will be stable, with imperial power in hand and all under heaven united.

He knows that natural and man-made disasters never cease; the Great Jin is in chaos now! Not to mention the feudal lords, even places without them see local aristocratic clans acting according to their own inclinations. The private troops of the great clans' manors have reached sizable scale, and since his accession the tense atmosphere has not improved at all.

Since the Jin family's merchant convoy went in and never came out, merchant convoys entering the Northern Border have practically vanished. Now, with so many escort squads masquerading as merchants entering the realm, the Great King suspects they harbor ill intent.

In a short while, Great Hero Ling effortlessly brought the leader of an escort squad to the Great King, then without pause ran off to the next squad. The Great King and Wei Shen crouched in the grass thicket, using the moonlight to analyze the person's appearance.

"Based on my experience traveling south and north, this facial features… resemble someone from Guanzhong." Wei Shen concluded first.

"Nonsense, this clearly looks like a Chu person."

"You're the one spouting nonsense! You've never been to Chu Region, so how would you know what a Chu person looks like?"

"Never been, never even heard? High skull, narrow nose, flat face, height about 165 cm—typical Chu person features!"

These two fellows' analysis was on point, almost causing internal strife, when the escort man Ling Yin had thrown to the ground remained silent. Just as he had gathered his strength and was about to erupt, a rustling sound came from the distant grass thicket, and before they could think much, a fuzzy golden head poked out of the grass…

Little Gold Sir stared at the Great King with his nostrils, then let out a heavy snort.

Hmph~ After running so long, you've only covered this little distance~

Hmph~ Little Gold Sir chased up after just a meal's time~

That escort man only felt the beast's breath blast the back of his neck, his hairs standing on end, and he dared not move a muscle.

Wei Shen nudged the Great King's arm, "What's going on? Didn't you say White Marsh could handle them?"

Great King: ……

The Great King sighed, scratched his face, and said helplessly, "White Marsh only promised to watch for three days. Looking now, it seems to have too much leisure; I expect it will slack off once night falls. I hope the people of River Gap haven't heard the legend of Little Gold Sir and recognize it…" The Great King looked around at higher ground, seeing no shadow that could cover the sky. Good, we'll take them out one by one.

Complaining is complaining, but in an instant his face shifted to a big grin, and the next moment he pulled out an oil-paper bundle from his bosom.

He loudly presented his treasure: "Little Gold~ take a look~ this is the peanut candy I bought for you~ after a long journey to River Gap, especially, for you, bought~"

Wei Shen loves to see the Great King fall flat on his face, and he egged him on from the side: "Little Gold Sir, flip him over, we don't want him!"

The Great King opened the packet, waved his claws to fan out the peanut candy's aroma, "You smell, you smell—so fragrant and sweet~"

These peanuts are the first yield from the imperial manor's vegetable garden base, shelled, dried, then mixed with cotton candy purchased from White Poplar; upon opening they smell fragrant, and indeed they're not bad. Little Gold Sir obviously isn't very ambitious—he lowered his head and licked, consuming half the peanut candy.

One (￣～￣) chew! This fellow's eyes lit up!

Indeed fragrant~

The Great King gave Wei Shen a smug look. "Look~ I've always believed Little Gold's intellect is on par with a bear's."

The overlooked escort man thought the time had come; he prepared to erupt again, but before the Great King and Wei Shen could react, Little Gold simply swept his leg and kicked him back.

You dare to move?! How come as soon as Little Gold Sir shows up you want to run?!

That fellow placed his stout forelegs on the man's back; the man struggled, but couldn't budge an inch.

He begged in terror: "Please, mighty warrior, spare me! I'm just a small-time merchant from Wing Prefecture, trifling business, and I don't even have any silver on me……"

The Great King crouched beside his head, "Huh? Modest, huh? Since you're in trade, let me ask you~ buying grain in the Northern Border at fifty cash per dan, selling in Chu Region at seventy-five cash per dan, with a twenty percent loss in transit. Listen up, question: if you transport two thousand dan of grain, how much net profit? You claim to be a merchant—answer quickly, you have ten breaths."

The escort man was dumbfounded.

Such a problem sounds complex; even a genuine merchant would need pen and paper to figure it out for half a day—let alone him.

"I, I don't know!"

The Great King gave a cold snort: "Swindler! At this juncture you still dare to pose as a merchant convoy. Looking at your burly build, you're clearly a warrior, not someone who leads a merchant convoy. Drop the act—you know you're an escort squad masquerading as merchants; come clean, or I'll trample you to death and ask someone more sensible instead."

Little Gold snorted, as if about to carry it out. The man screamed in fear, pleading for mercy, then Wei Shen kicked him: "Keep it down! You want to draw everyone here to be trampled to death?!"

He didn't know the Great King hadn't signaled Little Gold by name; the crafty Little Gold would never strike first.

The Great King found him noisy: "Stop yelling, it's useless. I'm sure you've also realized I'm no good person. Dare to lie, heh~! Quickly confess who you are, where you're from, and your purpose. First, a hint: don't lie—accents vary every ten li, your dialect gives you away at once!"

Wei Shen: ……

"We… really are an escort squad, coming from Chen State. We were commissioned to come to Wing Prefecture to purchase a kind of grain called corn, please mighty warrior spare us! We've never heard that escort squads from the Northern Border trading illegally is a crime! Times are tough; we're just risking our lives to make a living, and since someone offered a high price for corn, we dared to sneak in."

Chen State?

Great King: "Sounds familiar—is Chen State pretty wealthy?"

Wei Shen also recalled, "At the Chang'an Pagoda Pavilion Auction, the final lot was the Chen State Crown Prince's purchase."

The Great King crouched, picked up a stone nearby, and knocked on the escort man's head with it, one blow after another: "I'll give you a chance to say it again. Are you Chen State's escort, or Chen King's army? Get it wrong, and I'll send you to the Western Heaven!"

Wei Shen: ……

You really don't look like a good person!