After three rounds of the morning drum, at the drill ground of the Zhenbei City Commander-in-Chief's Manor.
Thirty thousand border troops stood in formation.
Fortunately, having had a meal of meat broth last night, these ruffian soldiers who had been starving for half a year finally looked somewhat human, standing reasonably straight.
Tie Lanshan sat upright in the tiger-skin armchair right in the center of the commander's platform.
This nominal supreme commander of Zhenbei City wore a dark cloak, his hands tucked into his sleeves, and his eyelids half-drooping.
His advisor, Bai Yushu, stood half a step behind him, the feather fan in his hand completely still.
Xu Qinghuan, leading Li Sheng, stood on the right side of the platform.
Today she had changed into a scarlet imperial envoy uniform, with a coral bead embedded in the center of her black gauze hat.
The Emperor's Sword lay horizontally on the desk, its scabbard gleaming with a cold light in the morning sun.
Xu Zhan naturally had to follow the rules, standing directly below, his figure as immovable as an iron tower.
Just after the soldiers had been standing for nearly a quarter of an hour, the sound of cart axles crushing gravel came from the entrance of the drill ground.
Ten large carts filed in one after another.
The leading cart was piled with six black-lacquered wooden chests. The lids were half-open, revealing neatly stacked, gleaming white silver ingots.
On the carts behind, bulging gunny sacks were piled up like small mountains, and the smell of husks from the new grain drifted along the morning breeze.
Thirty thousand pairs of eyes stared in unison at those ten large carts.
A commotion rippled through the formations on the drill ground.
"Silver! That's official silver!"
"There's grain in the back! Mother of god, there must be thousands of shi!"
He Minghu walked at the front of the convoy, wearing a deputy general's armor, trying hard to pull up the corners of his mouth.
He and Ma Jin'an led the soldiers from the deputy general's manor, pushing the ten large carts right in front of the commander's platform and lining them up in a row.
Xu Qinghuan took the document stamped with the imperial envoy's seal from the desk and walked to the front edge of the platform.
She unfolded the document, and her clear, bright voice pierced through the entire drill ground.
"Hereby, Deputy General He Minghu and Army Inspector Censor Ma Jin'an, deeply concerned about the hardships of the border army."
"These two lords have paid out of their own pockets, selling off their family properties in their hometowns to raise one hundred thousand taels of silver and five thousand shi of grain and fodder."
"After going through many twists and turns, they have finally delivered them to Zhenbei City to replenish military supplies and reward all the soldiers of the army!"
Xu Qinghuan emphasized the words "paid out of their own pockets" extremely heavily.
The thirty thousand men below the platform were first met with a deathly silence.
Immediately after, in the vanguard camp formation, Cripple Liu howled at the top of his lungs.
"Thank you, Lord He! Thank you, Lord Ma! Lord Imperial Envoy is a righteous and just official!"
This was the hidden plant that Qian Fugui had arranged last night.
This shout was like a spark falling into boiling oil.
The entire audience instantly boiled over.
"Thank you, Lord He, for giving away all your family wealth!"
"Long live the Lord Imperial Envoy!"
The cheers shook the sky.
The smile on He Minghu's face completely froze, and the muscles around his cheekbones twitched uncontrollably.
Ma Jin'an turned half his body sideways and squeezed a voice through his teeth: "Ah, Lord He, keep smiling. It's best not to let anyone see any clues."
He Minghu clenched his back molars and forced a smile that looked uglier than crying.
He subconsciously looked up, meeting Xu Zhan's gaze from above the steps.
That one-armed man was also looking at him expressionlessly.
A chill ran down He Minghu's neck as the miserable sight of his personal guards from last night—whose jaws were dislocated and limbs broken all over the courtyard—flooded into his mind. He quickly lowered his head, not daring to take another look.
Tie Lanshan opened his eyes on the commander's platform.
This old Commander-in-Chief stood up, walked to the front of the platform, and spoke with a loud voice that overpowered the noise of the entire field.
"Deputy General He and Censor Ma have sacrificed their family wealth to relieve the country's difficulties. Their hearts are tied to the border army, making them true role models for our Zhenbei City!"
"On behalf of the thirty thousand soldiers, I thank you two for your profound friendship and generosity!"
Tie Lanshan turned around and cupped his hands in a salute toward Xu Qinghuan.
"We must also thank the Lord Imperial Envoy for sympathizing with the border pass. If it weren't for Your Excellency's mediation, this money and grain would never have reached Zhenbei City."
Xu Qinghuan stepped aside to avoid half the bow and replied calmly, "Commander Tie is too serious. This official is merely presenting Buddha with borrowed flowers. The distribution of military supplies in Zhenbei City still relies on the Commander-in-Chief's Manor to coordinate."
A flash of sharp light passed through Tie Lanshan's eyes.
This young girl knew the rules.
She had forced out He Minghu's family wealth to establish her authority, but she didn't covet the specific power to distribute the grain, yielding this tangible benefit of winning the army's hearts to the Commander-in-Chief's Manor.
Tie Lanshan immediately turned around and issued an order to the people behind him.
"Director of the Registry Office, Wang Wenyuan!"
"This subordinate is here!"
"Take men to verify the assets! In front of the entire army, distribute this money and grain according to the camps and outposts for me!"
Tie Lanshan raised his voice.
"Today, the Commander-in-Chief's Manor will absolutely not let our brothers return to camp with empty stomachs!"
Wang Wenyuan accepted the order and stepped forward, taking a dozen clerks straight to the large carts.
"Open the chests!"
The first black-lacquered wooden chest was pried open. Wang Wenyuan reached in and picked up a fifty-tael official silver ingot, turning it over to examine the official seal and quality on the bottom.
"First chest! Fifty-tael official silver, forty ingots, totaling two thousand taels of silver!"
The sound of gulping saliva echoed across the drill ground.
The second chest was opened.
"Second chest! Fifty-tael official silver, forty ingots, totaling two thousand taels of silver!"
The grain sacks were also opened and inspected, and golden millet poured out onto the ground.
Wang Wenyuan grabbed a handful and brought it under his nose to smell.
"Premium millet, no mildew, no adulteration! Five thousand shi of grain and fodder—in full amount!"
Qian Fugui squatted at the corner of the commander's platform, holding a brush and rapidly recording in a thick ledger.
The fat man stole a glance at He Minghu below the platform. Seeing his face as ashen as death, Qian Fugui quickly lowered his head, suppressing the corners of his mouth again and again.
The clerks from the Registry Office began to carry the silver chests and grain sacks, walking toward the formations of each camp.
With real gold and silver falling into their hands, the atmosphere on the drill ground reached its climax.
"Mighty Lord Commander!"
"Righteous Lord Imperial Envoy!"
The shouts rose and fell in succession.
He Minghu stood beside the empty large carts, listening to these cheers, only feeling a sweet metallic taste rising in his throat.
One hundred thousand taels of silver, five thousand shi of grain and fodder.
This family wealth, accumulated through painstaking effort and careful calculation, was actually given away in public.
From now on, the soldiers of Zhenbei City would only remember the grace of the Imperial Envoy and the coordination of the Commander-in-Chief.
As for him, the deputy general who paid the money, he was nothing more than a squeezed-dry sucker.
...
As the sun leaned to the west, the excitement of rewarding the army gradually dissipated.
Xu Qinghuan returned to the relay station. As soon as the wooden door of the main hall closed, she pulled off her black gauze hat and placed it on the desk.
"Li Sheng."
Li Sheng pushed the door open and entered.
"Pack our luggage, we are moving."
Li Sheng was taken aback for a moment: "Moving where?"
"The relay station is too conspicuous." Xu Qinghuan poured a cup of herbal tea. "The people from the deputy general's manor are watching, and the people from the Commander-in-Chief's manor are also watching. Even how many times we go in and out is counted clearly by others. It's not peaceful living here."
She took out a slip of paper from her sleeve.
"Qian Fugui mentioned the day before yesterday that there is a small courtyard left by a traveling merchant in the West City Ward. It's secluded, the courtyard walls are high, and both the front and back alleys are accessible. Go take a look; if it's habitable, we'll move."
Li Sheng took the slip of paper, turned around, and went out to investigate.
...
At dusk, in the West City Ward.
The small courtyard was hidden at the corner where two narrow alleys intersected, featuring a three-courtyard layout.
The courtyard wall was half a section higher than ordinary houses, with withered vines clinging to the top of the wall.
Facing this scene, Xu Qinghuan suddenly remembered a poem from her middle school days, "Withered vines, old trees, dusk crows, a small bridge..."
Hiss! In a place like this, where would there be any small bridge? Never mind, Xu Qinghuan had to shake her head and look at her new home ahead.
The main entrance was an inconspicuous black-lacquered wooden door, the copper nails on it mottled with rust.
Xu Zhan entered the courtyard first, inspecting it from the front yard to the back yard.
He pushed open the doors one by one to inspect the rooms, tapped the walls in various blind spots with the handle of his mace, and then leaned over to peer deep into the water well in the courtyard for a moment.
"It is habitable," Xu Zhan said, returning from the backyard. "The road in the back alley leads straight to the base of the city wall. If we truly need to make a quick exit, we can just scale the wall and reach the city parapet."
Xu Qinghuan nodded and settled in with Li Sheng and a few of her personal guards.
As soon as the main hall was tidied up, Qian Fugui hurried over.
The plump man arrived sweating profusely, carrying a hefty stack of border market ledgers in his arms. He dropped the items onto the desk and wiped his face with his sleeve.
"My lady, these are all the entry and exit records that have passed through the tax registers for the past three years."
Qian Fugui lowered his voice.
"At the bottom are a few secret account books. They are old files I dug out of the market warehouse. He Minghu's people never quite managed to destroy them completely."
"Leave them there."
Xu Qinghuan took a seat in an old wooden chair in the main hall, flipped open the topmost ledger, and examined it closely, page by page.
As the twilight deepened, Li Sheng lit an oil lamp in the hall.
Suddenly, the faintest sound of footsteps echoed from just outside the courtyard gate.
Li Sheng stepped out to investigate, his hand resting warily on the hilt of his blade. He returned a moment later.
"My lady, a messenger disguised as a merchant delivered a wax-sealed letter. The envelope bears the private seal of the Xu residence."
Xu Qinghuan set down the ledger and accepted the letter.
The wax seal was perfectly intact, and the private seal was unmistakable.
She used a paper knife to break the wax, then drew out the letter and unfolded it.
The handwriting on the paper belonged undeniably to Xu Youde, every stroke so bold and forceful it seemed to pierce through the paper itself.
The letter first gave an update on the recent situation in the capital, mentioning the memorials submitted by several cabinet ministers, as well as the turnover of officials in various government bureaus.
Xu Qinghuan read on, taking in every word and sentence.
At the very last line of the letter, the handwriting suddenly grew small and dense.
"The matter of the autumn imperial examination concerns the very foundation of the nation. My daughter, while you are in the north, you must also remain vigilant."
Xu Qinghuan folded the letter in half and tucked it safely into her sleeve.
She cast her gaze out the window.
The sky had already gone completely dark.
"The autumn examination..."
