Chapter 605: A War Not Fought in Vain

"Chief Clerk Chen, look — that's Old Iron Mountain. Once you see that mountain, you've reached Liaodong."

The crew kindly warned him the deck was rocking and urged Chen Ping to go inside the cabin, but Chen Ping, standing at the prow, only shook his head. He simply put on a bamboo hat and draped a straw rain cape over himself to keep the seawater from soaking his whole body.

One day after leaving Shamen Island, their fleet burst out of a brief spell of gloomy rain. The moment the clouds parted and the mist scattered, they saw land in the distance.

It was a neat, sharp point — a dark-brown, perilous cliff, like the tip of an unsharpened sword, stretching across the horizon between sea and sky and splitting the sea in two. One half of the water was bluer, the other more yellow. This was the boundary between the Lesser Sea and the Eastern Sea (the Yellow Sea). Two-colored waves surged in from both sides of the cape and converged here, much like the Guanzhong wonder "Jing-Wei Divide."

But the sailors had no leisure to admire the scenery. These waters were also the most treacherous, swiftest channel on the route. Chen Ping could even see, on the narrow white beach below the Old Iron Mountain cliffs, wreckage of sunken ships washed ashore — all of them victims of the fierce currents and razor-sharp hidden reefs!

Fortunately, the captain of this flagship was highly experienced. He carefully skirted the rapids beneath Old Iron Mountain. The stiff sails on the great ship's masts adjusted their angle slightly, leading the dozen-odd deep-draft grain ships behind them. Driven by the south wind, they cut against the invisible ocean current, swept past the Liaodong coast, and continued sailing north.

After bypassing the rapids of Old Iron Mountain, it was already evening. Racing against nightfall, the fleet quickened its pace and reached a marvelous bay, perfectly calm and tranquil. A beacon tower serving as a lighthouse flickered with flame, guiding the fleet to shore to moor for the night...

This was one of the few towns in southern Liao — Dashi, which Heifu had renamed "Lüshun," for ships passing through here enjoyed smooth sailing all the way.

This was also the first stop and inn for Chen Ping and his party in Liaodong.

"Take it slow, Chief Clerk Chen."

In the eyes of the Five-Hundred-Man Commander stationed here by order, a Commandery Chief Clerk was already an enormous official. Upon learning the news, he came in person to receive him and even tried to help Chen Ping disembark, for he looked very frail and scholarly.

Chen Ping refused, however, and nimbly jumped off the gunwale to stand on solid ground.

"Don't judge me by how I look now."

Chen Ping did not put on airs. He raised his wide sleeves and said with a smile to the tower-ship soldiers, "In my youth, before I made anything of myself, I too took off my shirt and helped people row boats on my hometown river to earn a meal. Like you fellows, I also made my living on the water."

These words made the soldiers roar with laughter. Chen Ping might look like a scholar, but his speech was down-to-earth, and the atmosphere became much less awkward.

The grain ships were not only there to welcome Fusu; they also brought supplies — grain, vegetables, and clothing — to every port station and watchtower along the way. The garrison troops therefore welcomed the fleet warmly. The Five-Hundred-Man Commander of Lüshun Port also busied himself arranging a meal and shared the fish and game they had caught with Chen Ping.

The meal was somewhat crude, but after dinner, the Five-Hundred-Man Commander lit a torch and led Chen Ping to open a cramped storehouse.

The moment the door opened, a thick smell of animal fur rushed out, making Chen Ping cover his mouth and nose despite himself.

The Five-Hundred-Man Commander, long accustomed to it, picked up a crudely treated sable tail and said, "By the command of the Commandery Governor, while we garrison this place, we also send men to collect sable and marten pelts from the surrounding island Yi and the Yemaek. I ask the Chief Clerk to inspect and count them."

Chen Ping went in and took a look around. He saw the storehouse piled with sable tails and pelts tied in bundles, numbering in the hundreds, along with bundles of beaver pelts, a few damaged fox pelts, and even rare stoat pelts. These were the few specialties of the several hundred li of land under Lüshun Port's jurisdiction, mostly provided by the local fishing and hunting tribes.

"But these products, common here, can fetch a hundredfold price once shipped to the Central Plains!" Chen Ping's eyes lit up after he finished looking.

The seat of Liaodong Commandery, Xiangping, was over a thousand li away, making it impossible to control the southern Liaodong coast by land. Heifu's cross-sea operation to manage southern Liao and turn it into a county of Jiaodong was already a foregone conclusion. As an aide, Chen Ping naturally had the duty to understand the situation here.

From a few brief words in texts and the observations of merchants, Chen Ping noted one specialty of Liaodong:

"Sable!"

Chen Ping knew that sable pelts and tails were symbols of status and rank in the Central Plains!

In Qin officialdom, military officers wore the "Martial Officer's Cap," the kind worn by Gong Ao, Cao Can, and others. This cap was said to have been introduced from Zhao, with a cicada ornament for the civil and a sable tail for decoration. Qin was founded on martial merit and rank — how many military officers were there across the court and the realm, and how many sable tails did they need?

And the primary tribute source for sable tails was Liaodong, and even farther beyond Liaodong — Joseon, Buyeo, and Sushen.

Among the common people, although explicit laws forbade merchants from wearing silk, brocade, or embroidery, nothing forbade wearing furs! Thus, whether one could afford a sable or fox fur coat became a mark of wealth. In the past, when Su Qin was still unrisen, his family was well-off. To avoid looking like a poor scholar, he specially purchased a "black sable coat" to travel the various states. In the end, the sable coat wore out, he could no longer get by, and only then did he return home dejected, to tie his hair to a beam and prick his thigh.

At present, an ordinary sable fur coat was worth several tens of gold in Xianyang! A fine purple sable coat was worth over a hundred gold!

Although sables were also common in the northern mountains and forests of the Central Plains, neither in quantity nor in fur quality could they compare to the famous Liaodong purple sable.

What's more, the native barbarians of Liaodong were simple and easily fooled. A little Central Plains cloth or ironware could be traded for a huge bundle of sable pelts...

This was an enormously profitable business. Chen Ping could envision its limitless prospects.

This time, besides supervising grain transport, Chen Ping had also been assigned by Heifu to conduct a field investigation: using Jiaodong as a base to operate overseas, exactly what profits could be gained?

"Not just profit — enormous profit!"

He had only reached the first stop, Lüshun, yet Chen Ping was already this certain.

The Yi tribes near Lüshun alone could trade for so many pelts. If Jiaodong could widely establish strongholds and towns in southern Liao, how much more could be obtained? Not to mention that Joseon, the Vast Sea, and other lands just across the sea also abounded in these products.

On the second day of the sixth month, after leaving Lüshun, the fleet advanced along the sparsely populated coast of southern Liao. Chen Ping saw that the shore to his left front was filled with forests of interwoven pine and cypress. From the woods emerged many lush green round hills, many mounds covered with flourishing flowers, and many sharp-pointed peaks. Now and then he glimpsed milu deer and river deer leaping among the trees.

To his right front was a chain of small islands. In the sea, large groups of seals and "great sea fish" played. The great sea fish were whales, of enormous size — even from several li away, one could see the tall water spouts they blew.

Indeed, just as Xu Fu had said, there were ocean currents here, much like rowing a boat against the current — the ship's speed could not pick up. When they rested on an island called "Long Mountain Island," they saw white seabirds flying against the wind, and a great crowd of plump, round spotted seals sprawled on the beach — a favorite delicacy of the crew.

These seals had rarely seen humans. Even when fully armed soldiers walked up to them, they did not flee, only stared blankly. As a result, they were pierced through by spears, their blood staining the shore red.

Chen Ping watched the crew process the seals. This soft sea beast was all meat. Cut into strips, salted, and roasted over a fire, it became a delicacy. The captain invited Chen Ping to try some; it tasted like rabbit meat.

The seals' thick, fatty blubber also had a wonderful use. With a little refining, it could actually be used directly to light lamps.

"The blubber of the great sea fish is even better," someone told Chen Ping. But whales were too enormous and hard to catch; their whale oil was even more precious, affordable only in the imperial palaces.

By the time they reached Xi'anping, with all he had seen and heard along the way, Chen Ping had gained a thorough general understanding of Liaodong.

This place was cold, more so than Beidi Commandery. Winter was especially dreadful — without fur coats and woolen clothing, one could not endure it. Winter wheat could not survive the winter either. It was not very suitable for living or farming, hence the sparse population.

Yet this bitter, cold land was a paradise for animals. The local products were threefold: the north abounded in Donghu horses; the mountain forests of the east and south held sable and fox; and the coast had vast quantities of fish, seals, and great whales.

Chen Ping immediately began to calculate: "The horses, cattle, and sheep of northern Liaodong can be shipped across the sea to Jiaodong to remedy Jiaodong's shortage of livestock. The sable and fox pelts of the east and south can also serve as goods, shipped by sea into the Central Plains for considerable value. The fish, shrimp, and sea beasts along the coast are more plentiful than in Jiaodong. If we let fishermen pilot large ships here to catch them and return with full holds, it would also allow the people of Jiaodong, every one of them, to have fish to eat..."

"Thinking of it this way, if we can bring southern Liao under Jiaodong's administration and incidentally open up overseas profits, this war will not have been fought in vain."

As Chief Clerk, Chen Ping calculated everything for Heifu and for Jiaodong. The fruits of Heifu's two years governing Jiaodong had all been spent on this campaign — they absolutely could not finish the war and come away with nothing!

He picked up his brush and thought to himself, "I must carefully record what I have seen and heard and my thoughts, so that upon returning to Jiaodong, I can report clearly to my lord..."

But then, Chen Ping stopped his brush and shook his head helplessly: "But even if the gains are many, what use is it? All these profits will be taken away by the imperial court. The sable pelts sent will only warm the noble sons and dignitaries. The wealth created will only enter the Privy Treasurer's purse, then be spent on the mausoleum at Mount Li, the palaces in Guanzhong, and that endless, boundless desire."

It was so frustrating — like spending all one's effort on meticulous sewing, only to make a wedding dress for someone else.

"In the final analysis, no matter how well my lord and we do in Jiaodong, in the end, aren't we just patching holes for the imperial court?"

And could these holes even be fully patched? Heifu had just finished filling the hole of the Tian clan rebellion in Qi, and they immediately punched a big one each in the south and north. The cost of the eastern expedition still had to be borne entirely by Jiaodong.

In Chen Ping's view, though Heifu was a capable official who seemed to turn stone into gold wherever he went, this was like carrying firewood to fight a fire — as long as the fuel is not exhausted, the fire will not be extinguished!

Sometimes Chen Ping wondered: perhaps letting that fire burn out would be the right choice?

"Large rats, large rats, do not eat my millet! Three years I have served you, yet you take no heed of me!"

Rising to his feet, reciting once more this poem he had mentioned to Xiao He, Chen Ping revealed a self-mocking smile.

"My lord, you once said: 'The official is he upon whom the people's lives depend. The Qin official is like a cat, catching rats for the common folk; the Qin official is a heavenly hound, warding off harm for the people of the world!'"

"But the greatest rat in all under heaven, the greatest scourge upon the people of the Nine Provinces — is that not the insatiably greedy First Emperor of Qin!?"

PS: Chapter 2 will be in the evening.

(End of chapter)