Chapter 89

It wasn't as bloody and stormy as the king imagined; the Jiaodong king died young from illness.

".

Baili Qisui Jing: ……

He threw down the sea intestine in his hand, stood up straight and chest out, "My health is great; as long as Youzhou is safe, I won't die. You guys should think about how to resist external enemies; if the city is fine, I can live to 120!"

Wei Shen hearing his words couldn't help but ask: "Saying something unlucky, hearing Your Highness's meaning, you still want to share life and death with Youzhou City? The northern border inevitably sees conflict; the Personal Guard Camp will protect your safety." You idiot, keeping your life and not returning to Chang'an to go to Changzhou would also work.

The king had tears streaming down his face, yet his mouth spoke with righteous vigor: "Of course, I will share life and death with Youzhou!"

After saying that, he felt his heroic spirit soaring to the clouds, arrogantly unbeatable, he turned and instructed the Grand Tutor: "Remember, next time when writing to my father emperor, write it down!"

Grand Tutor: ……

Wei Shen: ……

That night, when the king went together to get the sabre, he also took the opportunity to show off a bit in front of Bai Yang, saying he was going to have fun in Jiaodong Commandery.

Returning to the cabin on the ship, still excited and unable to sleep, "I don't know if Jiaodong Commandery is fun or not; although not as prosperous as Chang'an, it should be fine. Jiaodong Commandery is the northernmost ferry crossing, able to reach Jiankang directly~"

Bai Ze leisurely drank a sip of water and walked back, "Can a feudal lord leave his fief?"

The king was momentarily stuck.

Oh right, he came all the way by fishing from the sea, he forgot that a feudal lord cannot arbitrarily leave his fief! Running off to another commandery for no reason is also not allowed.

The king instantly wilted.

Bai Ze also felt he had been infected by Winnie the Pooh, unable to bear seeing that fellow looking listless.

"Did you bring that set of grey fuzzy clothes? Your face doesn't have the name Bai Jing written on it; who in Jiaodong Commandery would recognize you?"

The king's eyes regained their sparkle: "Exactly, I can sneak out for a stroll! If no one knows it's me, it doesn't count as breaking the taboo!"

Feng Wu carried luggage at Jiaodong's largest ferry, doing odd jobs to make a living. They usually come before dawn to wait for work; if lucky they encounter a big cargo ship, earning over a hundred wen a day is also possible.

The closer it gets to year's end, the fewer jobs he can find; whether wealthy merchants or small traders, they're all starting to rest now, after a busy year hardly anyone is still out selling goods.

The lower classes don't have the privilege to rest early and wait for the New Year; extended families of ten or more still await wages to buy rice and cook. So even if work is scarce, he still comes to the ferry early each day as usual.

Many of his fellow workers are the same; at the crack of dawn, everyone stretches their necks at the ferry, gazing out to sea, hoping a large cargo ship will come so they can earn a bit more and buy a few extra catties of good rice for their children for the New Year.

Feng Wu found a sheltered corner, just about to squat down to warm himself, when he heard a cry from ahead.

He quickly stood up, "What's happening? Is a big ship…… coming…… ancestors, am I frozen stupid?!"

Everyone who came early to get work, each and every one, was frightened by the huge tower ship slowly approaching from the sea, its length endless.

"Is that… a ship?"

"I've been mixing around the Jiaodong ferry for twenty years, and I've never seen such a long ship!"

"Does that ship still have floors on board?"

"... Could it be an immortal envoy from heaven?"

"Should we kneel down?"

The Jiaodong shore became completely lively, some calling friends to look at divine signs, others uncertainly saying it didn't look like their Great Jin's ship; the minor official in charge of the ferry had already nimbly run back to the county office to report.

……

The king was actually quite pleased at this moment; Chen Cang inspected and said the water depth at Jiaodong's ferry was sufficient, they could dock directly, saving the trouble of back-and-forth handling.

"We'll just follow the king's plan: my older cousin is the eldest son of the ship owner's family, I am the second son, Chen Cang will handle the business negotiations, the Grand Tutor and Zhao Bo will assist! My cousin and I will take care of the mascot part, just nodding. Let this ship's fish fetch a good price, I'll trouble you all. Alright, get ready, in a moment we'll bring the samples ashore; our goal is to sell all the fish on board before departure the day after tomorrow."

Upon hearing that, the Grand Tutor said, "Do I have something to do too? I'm not good at business……"

The king absolutely wouldn't let him underestimate himself; when setting out, he hadn't prepared to sell in Jiaodong, he didn't bring either Zhu Ti or He Guang.

"Oh dear, the Grand Tutor is the chief accountant! Just by standing there, he looks like someone who's good at figures and hard to fool~"

Grand Tutor: ……suspecting the student's inner meaning, but the other party is the king.

The Grand Tutor could only go along with it.

Going ashore they weren't in a hurry; with such a big ship docking at the Jiaodong ferry, not to mention stirring up all of Jiaodong, merchants with some connections nearby could hear about it; anyone who didn't send people to inquire and watch would also be considered odd. Going out a bit later also saved them the trouble of being approached individually.

On board they began organizing the fish samples, moving them to the disembarkation passage.

They held steady, and Yong'an County on the shore of the Jiaodong ferry boiled over.

…………new chapter………………………

………………new chapter…………………

……………………new chapter……………

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Waiting for the fisherman to set up the treasure ship's gangway to the ferry, the shore was packed with onlookers three layers deep inside and three outside; the king and Wei Shen were on the second-floor balcony, surveying the Jiaodong ferry.

"Yong'an County looks much livelier than Youzhou, and there are lots of people too!"

Wei Shen: "If such a big ship came to the outskirts of Changzhou, I'd definitely gallop over to have a look."

That makes sense.

Waiting for Chen Cang and the Grand Tutor to bring the fish catch ashore, the king couldn't sit still either.

"Let's go see how the walls of Yong'an County are built."

"……What's there to see about the walls? Now there are too many people outside, too many eyes mixed up. Let's wait for the crowd to disperse before we talk."

The king sighed with a sorrowful look: "Since being hurt by Youzhou's city walls, I've picked up the habit of caring about city walls wherever I go. Let's go take a look; if they're built well, when Youzhou's city walls are rebuilt later, we'll have a reference to learn from their experience."

Speaking of this, Wei Shen was speechless: "Do you still need to learn from others? I haven't seen any city walls along the way that could compare to your Youwang Manor……"

The king: ……you're right.

Speaking of the You King's Mansion, the king is still a bit proud—humph, humph—there's no mansion in the Great Jin that can compare!

He straightened his small chest, "When I, the king, have saved enough money, I will use walls like the king's mansion to encircle both the inner and outer cities of Youzhou!"

Wei Shen thought a bit about how many bricks and stones would be needed, and he worried for the Great King, "I don't even know if fish prices will get even higher at year's end."

Waiting for Chen Cang and Chen Huai to bring a line of sturdy, dark-skinned fishermen, who lifted some large crates and placed them at the open space of the ferry crossing, the onlookers finally confirmed they were people of Great Jin, and that huge ship, endless in sight and even with two decks, was the vessel they used for fishing.

Because the fishermen had already started hawking, saying they were fishing boats that had come all the way south from Youzhou, now preparing to sell some catch in Jiaodong Commandery before returning home for the New Year. The fresh sea fish just out of the water included many deep-sea varieties unavailable in Jiaodong Commandery; everyone said buying a fish to take home would make for a plump New Year, and so on.

Feng Wu squeezed to the front, and upon seeing them put down the crates, he poked his head inside and exclaimed, "What a big fish!"

Chen Cang turned and smiled at him, "These are all deep-sea catches, definitely bigger than near-shore fish; only a ship our size would venture into the middle of the sea." At that time, besides fishing boats, any other vessels, whether cargo ships or otherwise, stayed along the coast; none dared go into the deep sea.

Feng Wu saw Chen Cang earnestly explaining to him, not ignoring him despite his ragged clothes and inability to afford fish, and his courage grew considerably, "Sir, do you need someone to carry the fish crates?"

Chen Cang nodded, "As long as they sell, we'll definitely need help, and then I'll count you in."

Upon hearing this, Feng Wu became happy—such a big ship meant a big job—he hurriedly made space so those behind could see the big fish, and upon recognizing someone, he'd still call out for them to buy fish.

"Boss Zhang, quickly look, there's a big fish here!"

Chen Huai had already picked up a hairtail over a meter long and palm-wide, "Jiaodong folks will surely recognize quality—this is a fresh-out-of-the-water deep-sea hairtail, tender and flavorful; this specimen ranks as the top-tier sea fish of our waters."

They didn't expect the onlookers to afford the large hairtail; there were also cheaper fish like sea pike and sea carp, and even seaweed—the Great King said eating seaweed treats goiter, so they kept any good-quality specimens they hauled up instead of throwing them back.

Zhao Bao wasn't idle either; he quickly went out and rented a warehouse at the dock, the Great King planning to have a place to transfer and conceal things if sales turned out too low.

Yongan County, possessing the largest ferry crossing in the north and being the premier county of Jiaodong, had urban conditions incomparable to the prosperous southern commanderies, yet compared to Youzhou it was far superior—by hundreds of thousands of miles—and the wealthy merchants and great clans there were certainly not lacking.

The Ma family, which operated inns and taverns across Jiaodong, Fuyang, and Huizhou commanderies, was outstanding among them; just now the chief steward hurried into the study, reporting, "Master, the large ship at the ferry crossing said it came from Youzhou as a fishing boat, and it has begun moving fish crates ashore—it looks like it intends to unload cargo in Yongan."

The current head of the Ma family is a middle-aged man in his forties, named Ma Li.

Upon hearing this, he rose and said, "Really? A ship tens of zhang long is just a fishing boat? What about the two-story buildings on top?"

"Absolutely certain—the fish have all been brought up, a whole load of deep-sea giants; Ma Liu'er said he'd never even seen such fish. The person in charge said there are many precious sea fish that Great Jin has never eaten, freshly caught amounting to tens of thousands of catties, as much as you want."

"Have you found out what their background is?"

"The family name is Wei, they come from Youzhou."

"Youzhou? You didn't mishear? What kind of wealthy merchants could there be there to afford a ship of this scale?"

"The master forgot—it was the old Youzhou; nowadays the Prince of You still holds his fief, just like a few figures from the past. But… maybe it's not really Youzhou; the boat owner might not want to tell the truth, using any excuse he finds, and we don't even know which direction the boat came from."

Ma Li nodded, "Are those fish truly rare varieties from the deep sea?"

"Indeed, Ma Liu'er said opening any crate yields fish over a meter long—nothing that big exists onshore—and the fishermen who disembarked are still teaching the onlookers how to prepare the fish they buy. Master, buying them for our tavern would be a signboard; this close to year's end, they'll keep even when frozen solid, and we could also sell them in neighboring Huizhou and Yizhou, or process them into dried fish for sale in Chang'an…"

Ma Li waved his hand, "Have the person in charge come over and bring some goods for me to inspect, then we can talk."

The chief steward showed a troubled expression, "That probably won't work. The person in charge said they'll hold a unified purchasing meeting this afternoon, where bulk buyers can directly subscribe, and they only accept silver ingots. Right now they're selling piecemeal to the onlookers."

In Yongan territory, it's the first time he's seen fishermen who give the Ma family no face at all.

Thinking of the ship's size, "Let's send someone to inquire further about what background the Wei family has."

At the same time, the Great King was already seated in the tavern, chatting with the waiter about several wealthy merchants of Jiaodong.

He and Wei Shen, taking advantage of the crowd watching the big fish by the shore, disembarked, and along the way a small incident occurred.

When Zhang Tu learned that His Highness truly intended to go ashore to play, he was utterly desperate. Princes cannot return to Chang'an without a summons, nor can they arbitrarily leave their own fief for another's—although the King of Jiaodong has been gone for decades.

If his identity were exposed, this matter being discovered would truly be a major issue, hard to explain.

The Great King insisted on going, and Zhang Tu could do nothing; before departure he strained a bit, feeling he couldn't just silently accept his fate.

"Your Highness, when Young Master Wei came to Youzhou, I at once recognized his retinue as coming from the military camp, one basis being their weapons. No matter how they disguise themselves, the Great Jin's standard military sword is easily exposed; nowadays, whether it's a civilian guard or an escort agency, nobody has such swords. And while we protect Your Highness, we cannot go unarmed—what do you think?"

The Great King listened and again wanted to complain about his father emperor—so fearful of unrest he imposed a total ban on iron, making even farming tools a luxury for the populace; now it's already hard to find a blacksmith's shop.

Thus the blacksmith trade vanished entirely, and there were no skilled artisans left to forge good weapons; over time, our swords wouldn't even match those of the neighboring barbarians. Look, they've all taken up curved blades, and this craft is far more difficult than their straight swords. Wait… curved blades?

The Great King had an idea.

"You all wait here."

He himself ran back to his room, emptied one of the three large luggage boxes he had brought aboard the ship, and placed ten curved blades inside.

The Great King pretended to have found what he wanted, then came out calling for people.

"Without Zhao Bao, I can't find anything in my quarters—luckily there's little stuff in the room."

Zhang Tu saw the pile of curved blades exposed at the bottom of the box and gasped in shock, "Your Highness… how could there be such swords…"

The Great King, hands behind his back, said solemnly, "This is one of the weapons of our Xiaoqi cavalry; I had someone make them long ago. This time I brought out ten, just in case—who knew they'd actually be used. Originally I planned to give them first to the ten who performed best in this sortie, letting the cousin's retinue take two, and you would distribute the rest to those who went out, leaving those without swords behind—after all, it's not a dragon's pool or tiger's den requiring so many people."

Neither Wei Shen nor Zhang Tu listened to his chatter; they were both staring at the curved blade.