At those words, the several Jiangnan officials who had been preparing to remonstrate unto death stood frozen in place.
The Vice Minister of Revenue from the direct line of the Cui family’s main branch felt his pupils contract sharply.
He was calculating.
If there truly were mountains of silver overseas with no owner, then all Da Qian had to do was lift the maritime ban, build a few great ships, and send them out to sea.
Even if the winds and waves were treacherous, even if only one ship returned out of ten, the silver it brought back…
How much profit would that represent? A hundredfold? A thousandfold?
No. It would be a heaven-shaking fortune capable of buying half the empire!
Xie Miheng, the eldest son of the Xie family, was breathing heavily as well.
The old fox’s gaze darted rapidly over Xu Qinghuan.
He had keenly grasped the crux of the matter.
If the imperial court wanted to venture overseas in search of treasure, it would inevitably need to build enormous ocean-going ships and gather large numbers of sailors and merchants familiar with the sea.
And in all of Da Qian, where could such foundations be found?
Jiangnan!
Only Jiangnan!
Only the great clans that controlled the waterways and shipyards of Jiangnan possessed such resources!
Hahahaha!
Xu Qinghuan wasn’t offering the old emperor a strategy to save her own life at all!
She was clearly showing the Jiangnan clans a ladder leading straight to boundless wealth!
Meanwhile, the third prince, Xiao Jingyan, standing just below the dragon throne, wore an expression that shifted unpredictably.
He had originally thought that the Xu family was doomed today and that his investment would be lost beyond recovery. Who could have imagined that Xu Qinghuan would forcefully carve out a way to survive?
As he looked at Xu Qinghuan, a fervor appeared in his eyes—one he himself had not even noticed.
The eldest prince, however, had turned livid.
If the Jiangnan clans truly gained the advantage in overseas trade, they would become even more difficult to control.
After all, his own faction… seemed to have far too few ties to Jiangnan!
Xu Qinghuan! You’ve ruined me!
…
The tempting bait the Xu family had thrown out had already, without anyone noticing, shattered the factions and alliances that had previously existed in the imperial court.
The officials in the great hall now looked at Xu Qinghuan in an entirely different light.
The contempt, wariness, and murderous intent they had shown before had all vanished.
And now?
Xu Qinghuan was a walking mountain of gold.
No one was thinking about moving the capital anymore. No one cared about ancestral precedents.
Before overwhelming profits, so-called allies could instantly become political enemies!
Emperor Tiansheng took in every expression below him. A coldness that was impossible to decipher flickered deep in his eyes.
Xu Qinghuan’s talk of “mountains of silver overseas” had indeed spoken to the deepest desire in his heart.
Da Qian lacked money. It lacked grain.
If such a treasure land truly existed, then there would be no need to argue over relocating the capital or dividing the empire between north and south.
But the old emperor had clawed his way to the throne through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. The suspicion ingrained in his bones instantly overwhelmed his excitement.
He narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly spoke, breaking the brief silence.
“Xu Qinghuan.”
At once, the great hall fell utterly silent. One could hear a pin drop.
“The grand vision you have described is indeed enough to astound the ages.”
“Mountains of silver overseas, divine grain from the immortals—just hearing of them is enough to stir the blood.”
His tone suddenly changed.
“But you have repeatedly cited ancient texts and used some nameless old soldier from Quanzhou as your witness.”
“On the strength of nothing but words, you expect Da Qian to spend the resources of the entire empire building ships and venturing out to sea?”
The old emperor’s eyes now gleamed with killing intent.
“I ask you once more! If you have no tangible proof, then every word you have spoken today in this Hall of Fengtian is nothing more than demonic falsehood designed to mislead the people—a brazen deception of the emperor! For such crimes, even the extermination of your entire Xu clan would not be punishment enough!”
The killing intent descended abruptly, and an oppressive force enveloped the entire hall.
When Xu Zhan heard the words “extermination of your entire clan,” cold sweat broke out all over his body. He was about to step out of formation and argue his case.
At that very instant, Xu Qinghuan moved half a step ahead of him.
She held her left hand behind her back and pressed it downward by half an inch in Xu Zhan’s direction.
Xu Zhan clenched his teeth and stopped.
Xiao Jingyan’s palms were drenched in sweat, and his back had long since been soaked through with cold perspiration.
The Xu family absolutely could not retreat at this critical moment.
A cold smile appeared at the corner of the eldest prince’s mouth.
There was no evidence. What Father wanted was something solid and real.
How could a few absurd rumors about lands overseas deceive him?
Xu Qinghuan not only failed to kneel and plead guilty, she straightened her back and stepped forward another half-step.
“Since I dared to swear an oath before Your Majesty, staking the lives of my entire family, I naturally would not dare deceive my sovereign with empty words.”
Xu Qinghuan remained composed, her face inscrutable.
“I have proof. I brought it with me.”
The moment those words were spoken, a wave of sharp inhales swept through the hall.
Xu Qinghuan turned toward Eunuch Li, who was standing beside the imperial steps.
“Eunuch Li.”
“Before entering the palace, the guards at the gates conducted a strict inspection. Following the rules, I left my belongings at the gatehouse outside Duanmen.”
“In that luggage is a scroll tube three inches long. I humbly request that you retrieve it for me.”
Eunuch Li’s body jerked, and he did not dare answer. He immediately turned to look at the old emperor.
The old emperor narrowed his eyes. His gaze swept back and forth across Xu Qinghuan’s face for a full three breaths.
“Go and get it,” the old emperor said.
“This servant obeys.”
Eunuch Li bowed and retreated three steps before hurrying down the imperial stairs and running out of the hall.
During the time it took half an incense stick to burn, the atmosphere in the Hall of Fengtian grew unbearably oppressive.
Xu Jie kept his eyes closed.
He had studied the secret archives of every dynasty in Da Qian. There had never been a single record of mountains of silver overseas. So how had Xu Qinghuan learned of such a thing?
For the first time, Xu Jie felt that he had been outmatched by a member of the younger generation.
Xu Qinghuan… You must not disappoint me.
A burst of hurried footsteps shattered the silence.
Eunuch Li came running into the hall, panting, both hands holding a long, cylindrical scroll case.
He went straight up the imperial steps, knelt beside the imperial desk, and raised the scroll case high above his head.
The old emperor reached out and took the bronze case himself.
Green rust covered its surface, and its edges bore obvious signs of wear.
The old emperor pulled off the cap and drew out a yellowed, mottled piece of parchment.
“What is this?” the old emperor asked.
“This is the ancestral fragment passed down by that old soldier from Quanzhou,” Xu Qinghuan replied loudly. “I purchased it at great expense, then spent the entire night consulting the Record of Strange Tales from the Four Seas, filling in and marking each of its missing sections.”
“This map is called the Illustrated Gazetteer of the Ten Thousand Nations Beyond the Four Seas.”
“Unroll it,” the old emperor commanded.
Two young eunuchs hurried forward and carefully began unfolding the parchment.
The old emperor rose and looked down upon it.
With a single glance, his eyes flew wide.
The method of drawing used on this map was entirely different from every territorial map Da Qian had produced over the past three hundred years.
Maps of Da Qian had always placed the capital at the center, with mountains and rivers drawn all around it. Beyond the borders lay nothing but blank space, labeled with the single word “barbarians.”
But on this map, Da Qian’s territory had been squeezed into the upper-left corner, occupying less than one-tenth of the entire parchment.
“This… How is this possible?”
The old emperor murmured in disbelief.
Da Qian, the great celestial empire, vast and rich in resources, appeared astonishingly cramped on this map.
His gaze followed the eastern coastline of Da Qian outward.
There lay a broad expanse covered in painted waves and water patterns, labeled “The Great Ocean.”
Beyond the ocean were countless scattered islands. Farther east, there was even a vast landmass whose area was in no way inferior to that of Da Qian.
The parchment was densely marked with all kinds of strange place-names.
The old emperor’s eyes fell upon several locations specially circled in bright red cinnabar.
On a long, narrow island in the seas east of Great Qian, a striking note had been written in vermilion ink:
“Iwami Silver Mountain. Open-pit silver mine. Reserves: tens of billions upon tens of billions of taels!”
Farther south, over a vast stretch of islands, there was another enormous red circle. Beside it, someone had written:
“The Nanfàn Islands. Rich in sweet potatoes and potatoes, with yields of dozens of dan per mu. The natives rely on them for food.”
On the immense landmass even farther away, several marks shaped like gold ingots and silver bars had been drawn, accompanied by the words:
“Unclaimed mines. Gold and silver everywhere.”
The old emperor’s face was filled with astonishment.
The map had been drawn with incredible precision.
The direction of the mountain ranges, the winding coastlines, even the islands, reefs, and ocean currents along the route—all had been marked with perfect clarity.
Along the edges were countless densely packed bearings from nautical compasses.
This was absolutely not something an inland subject could have drawn from mere imagination.
It must have been a sea chart accumulated over generations by sailors who had risked their lives on the ocean countless times!
At that moment, the emperor’s deeply rooted understanding of geography completely collapsed.
If this map was real, then there truly was such a vast world beyond Great Qian.
If this map was real, then those silver mountains and divine crops were within reach!
Great Qian was short of everything. Before long, the Ministry of Revenue’s treasury would be so empty that even rats could run through it.
The three northern military routes and five key garrisons needed funding. Flood control in Jiangnan needed money. The imperial court’s expenses needed money.
With this map, the deadlock over money and grain that had plagued Great Qian for a century could be broken with a single stroke.
“Hahaha… hahahahaha…”
Suddenly, the old emperor began to laugh.
The laughter grew louder and louder, until it became a wild roar that shook the entire Fengtian Hall.
“Heaven bless Great Qian!”
“Heaven bless Great Qian! Heaven bless Great Qian!”
He even let out three thunderous cries.
The assembled officials below shuddered in alarm at the emperor’s sudden loss of composure.
Since the late emperor’s death and the current sovereign’s ascension to the throne more than twenty years ago, no one had ever seen the Son of Heaven so excited and unrestrained—not even when he had put down the rebellion of the vassal princes.
Xu Jie gazed toward the imperial steps.
He could not see the details of the map.
But he could see the flushed face of His Majesty, as well as the boundless fervor and ambition in his eyes.
Xu Jie understood.
The map was real. Xu Qinghuan had not lied!
Whether they belonged to the northern aristocratic clans or the southern aristocratic clans, none of the officials could maintain their usual composure and dignity.
They exchanged glances, and each could see the shock on the others’ faces.
But after the shock came something else—an uncontrollable greed.
Vice Minister Cui’s hand clenched tightly into a fist inside his sleeve.
There truly were silver mountains overseas.
The moment the maritime ban was lifted, the several hundred merchant ships sitting idle in the Jiangnan shipyards could immediately set sail.
There would be no need to fight wars or waste the family fortune in that quagmire on the northern frontier.
As long as they could bring back a single shipload of silver from those islands, the Cui family’s wealth could triple.
Vice Minister Cui was not the only one. The breathing of Grand Secretary Xie Miheng of the Xie family had also grown rapid and heavy.
Before this, they had wanted to destroy the Xu family because the Xu family supported the emperor’s relocation of the capital, violating the core interests of the Jiangnan faction.
But now, Xu Qinghuan had thrown before them a heaven-shaking treasure—an overseas mine that was ten, even a hundred times larger than the entire treasury of Great Qian.
What did political enemies matter? What did factional struggles matter?
In the face of such overwhelming profits, even if Xu Qinghuan were the killer of their fathers, they would still wish to step forward and place her on an altar.
Xu Qinghuan stood where she was, taking in every change in the expressions around her.
She knew that this hopeless game had been completely brought back to life.
Once the old emperor had laughed to his heart’s content, he drew several deep breaths and slowly calmed himself.
With great difficulty, he tore his gaze away from the tattered oxhide scroll and looked once more at Xu Qinghuan below.
“Xu Qinghuan.” The killing intent in the old emperor’s voice was gone. In its place were approval and urgency.
Pointing at the oxhide map on the table, the old emperor asked, “Xu Qinghuan, you must tell Me this.”
“According to the map, approximately how many nautical miles is Iwami Silver Mountain from Great Qian’s eastern coast? If we send large ships out to sea, how long would the round trip take?”
Xu Qinghuan clasped her hands and bowed. She answered calmly, “I would not dare claim such credit. However, to answer Your Majesty…”
“With favorable winds and currents, a merchant ship would need only half a month to reach it.”
“If we built three-masted fuchuan ships and returned fully laden with silver, a single round trip would take only three months.”
“Three months.” The old emperor repeated the figure through clenched teeth. “Good. Very good indeed.”
He turned to look at the assembled officials, his gaze blazing.
“Just now, who was it that said everything overseas was nothing but a savage wilderness? Who was it that said Great Qian had no need to venture out to sea?”
The officials lowered their heads.
Not a single one dared to answer.
