Chapter 882

When Tuli Hua's cattle and horse herd stepped over that alkaline road at the north entrance of the trade fair, the dust raised hung in the winter light for half an hour before it settled completely.

Zhang Wenqian stood in the supervisor's shed flipping through the registration book, and when he flipped to the last page, his brush stopped.

Gu Yuci came in from outside the curtain, his chest armor stained with alkaline ash.

"Deputy Governor Zhang, two more groups of herdsmen entered the fair today. One group came from the due north as scattered households, bringing sixty horses to trade for houses. The other group claims to be from the Shibo Tribe, and the leader wants to see you."

Zhang Wenqian put down his brush.

"The Shibo Tribe is a vassal tribe directly under the Royal Court, and it's only three days' journey from Yun Geti's main tent. How did they run over here?"

Gu Yuci leaned against the shed pillar.

"The leader is wearing a broken leather robe of a herdsman, but the belt tied around his waist is inlaid with silver, and the buckle is engraved with a variant of the dove pattern. He should be a middle-level manager of the Shibo Tribe."

Zhang Wenqian fished out a thin volume from the hidden drawer in the corner of the desk and flipped to the middle page.

"Last year, the Shibo Tribe had four hundred able-bodied men conscripted by Yun Geti to repair the palace tents of the Royal Court. None of the people conscripted came back, and only the old and weak were left in the tribe. This year, Yun Geti issued a doubled tax collection order again."

He closed the thin volume and gripped it in his hand.

"Let him in."

Gu Yuci turned and walked out.

In less than half a stick of incense's time, a short and sturdy middle-aged man bent his waist and squeezed into the supervisor's shed.

There was a hole the size of a fist on the right shoulder of his leather robe, revealing the gray-yellow sheepskin lining inside, and the wind and sand marks on his face made both sides of his cheekbones shine.

He stood in front of the desk, rubbing his fingers back and forth on the side of his thigh three times.

"Are you the Zhang official who manages the trade fair?"

Zhang Wenqian didn't stand up, flipping the registration book to a new blank page.

"This official is. What is your name?"

The short and sturdy man swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Suhe, leader in charge of herding for the Shibo Tribe."

Zhang Wenqian's brush paused for a beat on the paper surface.

"A leader in charge of herding for the Shibo Tribe running to the Great Zhou trade fair—does your tribe leader know?"

Suhe's fingers accelerated the rubbing motion on his leg.

"He doesn't know."

Zhang Wenqian raised his head to glance at him.

Suhe's voice dropped.

"The tribe leader was summoned to the main tent by the Royal Court before the new year, saying it was to discuss matters. He has been gone for more than a month and hasn't come back. Privately, everyone in the tribe is saying that the tribe leader has been detained by the Royal Court."

Zhang Wenqian put down his brush.

"Detained your tribe leader? Why?"

Suhe's Adam's apple bobbed twice, his voice becoming increasingly broken.

"Because last year's taxes weren't paid in full, missing fifty horses and two hundred sheep. Yun Geti said the tribe leader was incompetent and detained him in the main tent, making him write a letter of confession."

Zhang Wenqian didn't respond.

Suhe leaned forward half a step, his voice lowered to a degree that couldn't be heard outside the curtain.

"Zhang official, I didn't run over here on my own initiative. Several elders in the tribe discussed it for three days and three nights and sent me to scout the path."

Zhang Wenqian's fingers pinched the corner of the registration book.

"Scout what path?"

Suhe's fingers loosened from his thigh and clenched into fists, hanging on both sides of his body.

"We want to move south as a whole tribe."

The curtain was blown open a corner by the wind, and when the cold wind poured in, it carried the smell of alkaline soil.

Zhang Wenqian sat behind the desk for three breaths.

"How many people in the whole tribe?"

Suhe's fists loosened and clenched.

"Including the old, weak, women, and children, over sixteen hundred people. Three hundred able-bodied men, and less than one hundred who can ride horses and fight."

Zhang Wenqian flipped back to the first few pages of the registration book and glanced at the numbers on them.

"How much livestock do you have in your hands?"

Suhe's voice was broken by a notch.

"Don't laugh at me, Zhang official. Less than eighty strong horses, over one hundred if you count the mother horses and old horses, a little over three hundred cattle, and over two thousand sheep. In addition, there are some camels and skins. All added together, it's not much."

Zhang Wenqian's brush drew several lines on the blank page.

"Moving south as a whole tribe of sixteen hundred people—what will you eat on the road? Walking eight days' journey driving cattle and sheep, where will you live after arriving in Xiazhou?"

Suhe's mouth opened.

Zhang Wenqian put down his brush and tapped his fingers on the desk surface twice.

"Suhe, this official will tell you a realistic word."

Suhe stared at him.

"For your sixteen hundred people to settle in Xiazhou, according to the trade fair's conversion price, all the livestock in your hands can trade for over forty houses. But sixteen hundred people living in over forty houses—not to mention whether it's crowded or not—you don't have surplus grain for expenses like eating and clothing. You'll run out of food in the first month."

Suhe's fists clenched, making a sound.

"Then what do you say we should do?"

Zhang Wenqian pulled out a document with two folded marks from the hidden drawer in the corner of the desk and unfolded it in front of Suhe.

"This is the new resettlement regulation approved by Zhuguo. There is another set of rules for herdsmen moving in as a whole tribe."

Suhe lowered his head to look at the document, his lips moving, but he couldn't recognize a single character.

Zhang Wenqian pointed with his finger line by line on the document.

"For those moving in as a whole tribe of over three hundred households, the Xiazhou Governor's Office will uniformly allocate resettlement camps. On that piece of wasteland near the river to the west of the south of the city, each household will be allocated one and two-tenths acres of foundation and three acres of vegetable fields. For the first two years, the government will provide millet subsidies, issuing one shi of millet per household per month."

Suhe's eyeballs jumped back and forth between the handwriting on the document.

"Issuing millet? Issuing it for free?"

Zhang Wenqian's finger paused for a beat on the last line of the document.

"Not for free; it's offset by labor. Your able-bodied men will work for the Xiazhou government—repairing roads, digging canals, and moving goods all count. One day's labor offsets one jin of rice, and working for a full month is enough for the rations of the whole family."

Suhe's mouth pulled.

"Working to trade for food—this is one hundred times better than the Royal Court's conscription order."

Zhang Wenqian took back the document.

"But this official has one condition."

Suhe looked at him.

"After your able-bodied men arrive in Xiazhou, the horses must be handed over to the Xiazhou government for unified management, and your people must be incorporated into the Xiazhou militia sequence. Usually, they will farm and work, and if something happens, the government will mobilize you to go into battle."

Suhe's fingers turned in a circle on his belt.

"Go into battle? Fight for Great Zhou?"

Zhang Wenqian closed the registration book and pressed his palm on the cover.

"Fight for yourselves."

Suhe's mouth opened twice, forming a slit.

Zhang Wenqian continued to speak.

"After you arrive in Xiazhou, you will be Great Zhou's registered commoners. Protecting your own home is a matter of course, and this official isn't asking you to go and fight the Rouran Royal Court."

Suhe stood in front of the desk for eight or nine breaths, his fists loosening once, clenching once, and loosening again.

"I will go back and tell the elders."

He turned to walk toward the outside of the curtain, and when he reached the curtain entrance, his footsteps stopped.

"Zhang official, ask one more thing."

Zhang Wenqian looked at his back.

"Do the officials of your Great Zhou really not lie to people?"

Zhang Wenqian stood up from behind the desk, walked to the curtain entrance, and tapped twice on the flagpole standing outside the curtain cloth.

The flag hanging on the flagpole snapped in the north wind.

"Suhe, among the commoners of the three states in the northwest, not one has said that this official's Zhuguo has lied to anyone."

Suhe's back disappeared in the gap of the curtain cloth.

Gu Yuci flashed out from behind the shed pillar.

"Deputy Governor Zhang, if the Shibo Tribe really moves over as a whole tribe, Yun Geti won't just sit by and watch."

Zhang Wenqian returned behind the desk and sat down.

"Whether he watches or not is Yun Geti's business; whether they come or not is the herdsmen's business."

He picked up his brush and recorded rapidly in the registration book.

"Commander Gu, after today, have the people at the checkpoint pay attention to one thing."

Gu Yuci walked to the desk.

"What thing?"

Zhang Wenqian put down his brush, his voice narrowing.

"More and more people are coming from the grassland. Yun Geti's eyes and ears won't be few. We intercepted two scouts watching the trade fair and released one, but there are others we haven't intercepted."

His fingers tapped once on the cover of the registration book.

"Zhuguo once said that the bigger the trade fair, the bigger the movement; the bigger the movement, the more fangs it will attract."

Gu Yuci's hand rested on the saber ring on the side of his chest armor.

"Is the Deputy Governor worried that Rouran will send troops?"

Zhang Wenqian didn't answer him directly.

"Zhuguo had me secretly build three hidden trenches on the perimeter of the trade fair three days ago. Your cavalry has been training in the South Valley for two months—how is the training going?"

Gu Yuci's fingers loosened from the saber ring and clenched his fists.

"Three thousand cavalry can be pulled out at any time."

Zhang Wenqian nodded and flipped the registration book to a blank page.

After nightfall, the trade fair closed its stalls, and only a few lanterns on the open ground in front of the wooden sign were swaying in the wind.

The news spread north along a route longer than the trade fair during the same night.

Five days later.

In the Rouran Royal Court, in the very center of the main tent group modeled after the Jinyang Palace, Yun Geti sat on a throne covered with three layers of wolf skin, holding a roasted sheep bone stick in his hand, his face shining with grease from gnawing.

Qiu Sheng Tou stood in the third position on the left side of the main tent, a curved saber with an iron scabbard hanging from his waist, his right hand pressed on the hilt, his expression not having relaxed since the moment he stepped into the main tent.

Yun Geti tore the last piece of meat off the bone stick, chewed it a few times, threw the bone stick into the copper tray next to the attendant, and wiped his hands twice on his leather robe.

"Qiu Sheng Tou, you've been wearing a stiff face since you came in. If you have something to say, say it."

Qiu Sheng Tou took a step forward, his iron boots leaving a deep impression on the fur rug inside the tent.

"Great Khan, something has happened in the south."

Yun Geti hiccuped and picked up his wine bowl to take a gulp.

"What happened in the south? Didn't I send people to keep an eye on that trade fair? Amu'er came back and said it was just a market selling millet and silk; what is there to panic about?"

Qiu Sheng Tou's saber hilt turned half a circle in his palm.

"Great Khan, it's not as simple as selling millet."

He took a roll of cowhide paper from his bosom, unfolded it, and placed it on the low table in front of Yun Geti.

"This is the number collected by the people my subordinate sent out over the past half month."

Yun Geti lowered his head and glanced at it, and his cheeks, which were chewing meat, stopped.

Qiu Sheng Tou's fingers pointed line by line on the cowhide paper.

"Since the trade fair opened thirty-two days ago, over sixty groups of grassland herdsmen have entered the trade fair, and the total number of horses flowing out has exceeded three thousand, with over two thousand cattle and fifteen thousand sheep."

Yun Geti's wine bowl was placed on the low table, the bottom of the bowl making a muffled sound.

Qiu Sheng Tou continued to point.

"What's even more fatal is that the leaders of three tribes have already signed contracts at the trade fair to trade for houses and settle down, folding all their livestock to Great Zhou and taking houses and household registration in Xiazhou."

Yun Geti's mouth pulled down a notch.

"Which three tribes?"

Qiu Sheng Tou reported the names.

"Tuli Hua, leader of the Wolf River Tribe, traded for thirty-three houses. Batu, manager of the Eagle Beak Tribe, traded for fifteen houses. Three scattered herdsman households of the Broken Stone Tribe traded for one house to live in together."

His voice lowered by half.

"That Tuli Hua of the Wolf River Tribe folded all his tribe's strong horses and strong cattle into it and has already settled down in the south of Xiazhou City, even sending his children to Great Zhou's schools."

Yun Geti stood up.

His figure was more than a circle wider than Qiu Sheng Tou's, and when he stood up, the wolf skin mattress behind the throne was dragged down by half.

"He gave all the horses and cattle to Great Zhou? What will he use to pay my taxes?"

Qiu Sheng Tou's chin tightened into a line.

"He isn't paying them anymore, Great Khan."

Yun Geti's wine bowl was grabbed by him and smashed against the tent wall. The pottery bowl exploded into seven or eight pieces, falling onto the fur rug, and the wine liquid flowed out into a dark stain.

"He dares! A Wolf River Tribe the size of a fart, having paid taxes for twenty years, and now saying they won't pay just because they say so?"

Qiu Sheng Tou didn't dodge the fragments of the bowl; a piece of pottery hit his iron chest armor and bounced off.

"Great Khan, the Wolf River Tribe is not an isolated case."

He pushed the cowhide paper toward Yun Geti.

"My subordinate has checked. The Great Zhou people at the trade fair have now opened a condition: trade cattle and horses for houses and household registration. After hearing this news, many of the small tribes on the grassland who are crushed by taxes until they can't breathe are already privately scraping together livestock, preparing to move south."

Yun Geti grabbed the roll of cowhide paper, held it up to the light of the fire basin, and looked at it twice, his fingers clenching deep wrinkles into the paper surface.

"These things, have they all forgotten their own surnames?"

Qiu Sheng Tou took another half step forward.

"Great Khan, the herdsmen moving south is a superficial problem; the roots underneath are even deeper than this."

Yun Geti glared at him.

Qiu Sheng Tou's voice slowed down, smashing out word by word.

"Horses that run away can be caught again, and cattle and sheep that are gone can be raised again, but once people leave, they don't come back."

His finger pointed to a number at the bottom of the cowhide paper.

"Of the three thousand horses that flowed to Great Zhou's side in these thirty-two days, one thousand two hundred are able-bodied warhorses aged five to eight. Does the Great Khan know what this means?"

Yun Geti's Adam's apple rolled, but he didn't make a sound.

Qiu Sheng Tou's voice sank another notch.

"It means Great Zhou can scrape together a cavalry force without fighting a war."

The main tent was silent for five or six breaths.

The charcoal in the fire basin exploded once, and sparks splashed onto the surface of the low table, burning a black dot.

Yun Geti paced back and forth three times in front of the throne, his leather boots making a muffled friction sound on the fur rug.

"Blockade the border."

Qiu Sheng Tou's eyelids lifted by half.

"Great Khan, I understand the matter of blockading the border, but that border line is thousands of miles long. Even if all the patrol cavalry are sent out, they won't be able to block those who want to run."

Yun Geti stopped his footsteps and turned his head to look at him.

"Then what do you say we should do?"

Qiu Sheng Tou's hand pressed on the hilt of his curved saber, his fingers turning twice.

"Burn it down."

Yun Geti stared at him.

There was no hesitation in Qiu Sheng Tou's voice.

"Great Khan, the trade fair is a tube inserted into our chest. The Great Zhou people are sucking outward from the other end of the tube, sucking away our horses and cattle, our herdsmen, and our lifeline."

His hand loosened from the hilt and spread out in front of him.

"Pull out the tube, burn that trade fair to ashes, and kill all the Great Zhou merchants inside. Those herdsmen who want to move south will know that the road south is a dead end."

Yun Geti stood beside the throne for three or four breaths.

"Send troops? Do you know how many garrison troops Great Zhou has in Xiazhou?"

Qiu Sheng Tou's voice retracted by a notch.

"No need to send troops. My subordinate will take one thousand people over, change into the attire of horse bandits, rush in under the cover of night, burn it, and run. We won't wear the Royal Court's armor, and we won't fly the Royal Court's flag. Even if the Great Zhou people investigate, they won't be able to trace it to the Royal Court."

Yun Geti clapped his hands on the armrests of the throne twice.

"What if you are exposed?"

Qiu Sheng Tou stepped back and bowed.

"If exposed, it's just horse bandits who did it; it has nothing to do with the Royal Court."

Yun Geti sat back on the throne, his buttocks sinking into the wolf skin mattress.

His fingers rubbed back and forth on the armrests several times.

"I didn't promise you."

Qiu Sheng Tou straightened his waist.

"Great Khan."

Yun Geti tapped his fingers on the armrest twice.

"Qiu Sheng Tou, the person managing Xiazhou in Great Zhou in the south is not a simple character. I heard his name is what again?"

Qiu Sheng Tou's voice hardened.

"Chen Yan, Great Zhou's Upper Pillar of State, nineteen years old."

Yun Geti's mouth twisted to the side.

"A nineteen-year-old hairy kid."

He shook his head.

"No matter how capable he is, he's still a hairy kid."

Qiu Sheng Tou didn't respond to this sentence.

Yun Geti took another gulp of wine.

"Qiu Sheng Tou, I'll think about this matter again. You go back and wait first."

Qiu Sheng Tou's iron boots twisted on the fur rug.

"Great Khan, if we keep thinking, more horses will run away."

Yun Geti waved his hand.

"Go down."

When Qiu Sheng Tou exited the main tent, the tent curtain snapped twice.

He walked to the open ground outside the main tent, and the night wind poured in from the northern grassland, blowing his braids behind his shoulders.

A young general wearing iron armor greeted him from the darkness, lowering his voice.

"General, what did the Great Khan say?"

Qiu Sheng Tou pressed his hand back onto the hilt of his curved saber, his fingers turning a full circle on the iron pattern of the hilt.

"The Great Khan didn't say what to do."

The young general's complexion changed.

"Then we just watch like this?"

Qiu Sheng Tou's boots ground on the frozen earth, and the broken ice was crushed into powder by him.

"Who said we're watching?"

He pulled the curved saber out of his waist by two inches and pushed it back in.

"Go and call Haritu and Temur to my tent."

The young general hesitated for a breath.

"General, the Great Khan didn't nod..."

Qiu Sheng Tou turned around and stared at him.

The young general closed his mouth and turned to run into the night.

Qiu Sheng Tou stood on the open ground, raised his head to look at the night sky shining with frost in the north, his lips moved, and his voice was crushed by the wind.

When he turned to walk toward his own tent, the sound of his iron boots stepping on the frozen earth was heavier with every step.

Three days later.

On that alkaline road south of the trade fair, the night soaked everything in a pot of black ink.

One thousand cavalry moved south, sticking tightly to the shadowed side of the low hill. The horses' hooves were wrapped in felt, and stepping on the frozen earth only made a dull, muffled sound.

Everyone's armor had been changed to miscellaneous leather armor; some were wearing old herdsman robes, some were draped in broken felt pieces cut from tents, all banners were retracted, and the tribal marks on the saddles were also smeared with a layer of mud.

Qiu Sheng Tou rode a black dappled horse in the center of the team, his curved saber across the front of the saddle, and a gray-black cloth masked his face.

Haritu, who was beside him, leaned over, his voice only loud enough for the two of them to hear.

"General, three miles ahead is the east checkpoint of the trade fair."

Qiu Sheng Tou's legs clamped the horse's belly, and the black dappled horse accelerated by half a step.

"How many people are at the east checkpoint?"

Haritu's horse followed up.

"The scout reported that the east checkpoint is garrisoned by two squads of Great Zhou infantry, plus one squad of cavalry patrolling. The tents are in a depression two hundred paces behind the checkpoint."

Qiu Sheng Tou stretched out his left hand, and his palm gestured twice toward the cavalry team behind him in the darkness.

The team stopped in the shadow of the low hill, and the hooves of one thousand felt-wrapped horses were nailed into a row on the frozen earth.

Qiu Sheng Tou dismounted, squatted on the ground, and his boot tip drew two lines on the surface of the frozen earth.

Haritu and Temur squatted on his sides.

Qiu Sheng Tou's voice was broken to the ears of the three people.

"Advance in three routes. Temur, take three hundred people and circle from the east to the back of the trade fair, and burn the millet granary and material sheds in the south first."

He drew a second line on the ground.

"Haritu, take four hundred people and charge the north entrance of the trade fair from the front. Smash and burn all those wooden signs and sheds, and kill everyone you see; leave no survivors."

The third line passed through the middle of the first two.

"I will take three hundred people and go the middle route, charging straight at the supervisor's shed in the center of the trade fair. The manager is in there; not one can be allowed to run."

Temur asked in a low voice.

"General, what if the Great Zhou garrison comes out from the city?"

Qiu Sheng Tou stood up and patted the alkaline soil off his knees.

"The trade fair is still over ten miles away from Xiazhou City. We will finish everything from riding to burning to retreating within half an hour. By the time the city defense of Great Zhou reacts, we will already be twenty miles away."

He mounted his horse.

The curved saber was pulled out from the front of the saddle, and the blade showed no luster in the night without moonlight.

"Go."

One thousand cavalry split into three human shadows in the darkness.

The sound of hooves was muffled by the felt, and the sound of the entire team's movement was left with only the fine crunching of the frozen earth breaking.

The east checkpoint of the trade fair had a lonely lantern lit under the night sky three miles away.

The lantern hung on the crossbar of the sentry platform, swaying back and forth in the wind, and the circle of light drew an endlessly swaying ellipse on the frozen ground.

When Qiu Sheng Tou's team was one mile away from the checkpoint, he reined in his horse.

The lantern in the distance swayed twice and went out.

Haritu leaned over from the side.

"The light went out."

Qiu Sheng Tou's hand tightened on the hilt of his curved saber.