Lu You cast a sidelong glance at Jin Feng, ignoring him as he turned to Li Zan instead. “What do you think?”
Li Zan pondered for a moment. “We can allow the princess’s people in, but only on the condition that they sell grain along with their other goods.”
Lu You frowned. “Why would Princess Jinyang agree to that?”
He knew very well that Jiang Jin had recently conquered so many commanderies and counties. No matter how much grain she had, it would never be enough. How could she possibly sell any of it to Daqing?
Li Zan smiled. “That is precisely why we want her to refuse.”
It was a simple tactic of advancing by retreating.
But to Princess Jinyang, coming to Daqing to do business was not particularly important. Her true objective went far beyond that.
Lu You understood immediately and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Yet when he thought of the people’s current attitude, his expression darkened, and a hint of bewilderment appeared in his eyes.
Li Zan sighed as well. Would refusing to let the princess’s people do business here really solve everything?
No. Now that the cities on both sides were connected, the more something was forbidden, the more people would crave it. Cheap rice and grain attracted ordinary people struggling to survive, while luxury goods such as glass, paper, and soap appealed to the wealthy.
Jiang Jin had placed restrictions on grain purchases, so the people of Daqing could not buy it.
But there were no such restrictions on glass and the other goods. The wealthy of Daqing would certainly travel to Yushu County, and some would even go to Gefeng to make their purchases.
Li Zan had never been to Gefeng, but he had visited Yushu County. Although the county had not yet been fully completed, it had already begun to take shape, and the sight had shocked him greatly.
They said Gefeng was a hundred or even a thousand times more prosperous than Yushu County.
He did not know what Daqing merchants would experience after arriving in Gefeng, but it would certainly turn their world upside down.
So even he could not say whether it was better to let them come in or to let their own people go out.
Besides, could the goods really be kept out?
No. As long as Jiang Jin relaxed her restrictions even slightly and allowed Daqing merchants to act as distributors, he was certain they would all scramble for the opportunity. The profits were simply too high.
In Shouli County, Jiang Jin looked puzzled. “You mean Qu Zhao has sent envoys to negotiate with me?”
Mu Ning nodded. “Our scouts discovered the Qu Zhao envoys as soon as they entered Ze’a Commandery. We stopped them. Should we let them through?”
Jiang Jin thought for a moment. “Yes. It will be good to see what they are really after. Have them go to Gefeng. I’ll be returning there in a couple of days.”
Mu Ning nodded and hurried off to send the message.
Zhou Sui fell into thought. “Is Qu Zhao trying to negotiate some kind of cooperation with us?”
Jiang Jin smiled. “Perhaps. But Qu Zhao has no bargaining chips.”
Zhou Sui shook his head. “They do. Their cities.”
Jiang Jin paused, then realized he was right.
Xia Chanyi asked curiously, “If Qu Zhao is genuinely willing to exchange cities for a promise of mutual noninterference, would we agree?”
Jiang Jin did not hesitate for long. “No.”
Xia Chanyi was puzzled. “Why not?”
Jiang Jin patiently explained, “Qu Zhao has very few cities left. They certainly would not be willing to give up the large, strategically difficult ones. As for the smaller cities, with our military strength, we can take them without paying too great a price.”
“More importantly, we are a nation that values propriety. Any war we wage must have a just cause. We can attack the cities occupied by the barbarian tribes without hesitation, because those cities originally belonged to our Han lands.”
“But if we negotiate with Qu Zhao over how to divide up the cities, it would mean acknowledging that those Han lands belong to Qu Zhao. If things went badly, we could even be accused of selling out our country.”
Xia Chanyi drew in a sharp breath. The more she thought about it, the more sense it made.
Seeing that she understood, Jiang Jin continued, “When the day comes that we truly reclaim those cities, Qu Zhao will definitely make an issue of this and use it against us. We would end up looking like the villains.”
Though there was nothing wrong with employing strategy, and great undertakings often required setting aside minor scruples, there was no need to do so when the cost outweighed the gain.
“If Qu Zhao can offer a sufficiently valuable bargaining chip, then negotiations are not entirely impossible. But we would negotiate a temporary ceasefire, not divide up Han territory. After all, we need time to take possession of the cities we reclaim,” she added.
Still, the possibility was almost nonexistent. Qu Zhao was not foolish. Unless they had some ulterior motive, they would never agree to such terms.
Xia Chanyi felt enlightened. She realized that whenever she considered a problem, her thoughts were always too shallow.
Zhou Sui nodded with a smile. He had discovered that Jiang Jin truly was a ruler who never needed her subordinates to worry on her behalf.
Then he remembered something and asked, “What should we do with Qu Zhao’s strategist, Yu Cheng?”
Qu Zhao had sent someone to negotiate a price, yet they had haggled the ransom down to five catties of gold. Five hundred catties reduced to five—he had never seen anyone bargain like that.
This was not bargaining at all. It was practically cutting off the man’s life. Qu Zhao had never intended to ransom him.
Jiang Jin did not hesitate. “Since we cannot agree on a price, execute him. Choose a date and kill him publicly in front of all the people of Feng’an County.”
Strictly speaking, she had lost money on this deal. Yu Cheng had consumed quite a bit of food during his captivity. Fortunately, executing him would still boost morale and reassure the people, so at least he could serve some purpose.
In Dongcheng County of Ze’a Commandery, a private residence had been converted into a temporary medical ward. Most of the patients inside were wounded soldiers from Sizhou, along with some soldiers from the Jinyang Army.
Hearing the loud banging outside, one of the wounded soldiers from Sizhou craned his neck to look out. “Has someone else arrived in Dongcheng County?”
His name was Li Da. A blade had sliced into his thigh, exposing the bone. At the time, he had thought he was certain to die, but the Jinyang Army’s military doctor had somehow managed to save him.
The wound was five or six inches long, yet the doctor had stitched it closed with something.
Fortunately, Li Da had passed out from blood loss at the time. Otherwise, the sight alone might have frightened him to death. When he woke the next day, the wound had already been stitched and wrapped in clean white gauze.
A wounded soldier from the Jinyang Army in the same ward smiled. “That’s right. As it happens, they came from Sizhou too.”
It was Tian Daguang. Back then, because villagers from his hometown had contracted an epidemic, the powerful clans of Ze’a Commandery had driven them away and forced them to fight Qu Zhao’s army. Later, when Qu Zhao’s army claimed that Gefeng had medicine, they had gone there.
After his family had settled down in Gefeng, he enlisted in the army. He was now a squad leader.
This trip to Ze’a Commandery was, in a sense, a return to his homeland.
Li Da was stunned. “They came from Sizhou?”
Tian Daguang nodded. “That’s right. I heard that many people in Sizhou could no longer survive. Our commander is benevolent, so she brought those people who had been driven to the brink of death to Fengzhou.”
During this period, ship after ship had carried civilians to Ze’a Commandery. Dongcheng County had received quite a number of them, and reconstruction of the city had already begun.
The wounded soldiers from Sizhou fell silent. They knew all too well what taxes were like in Sizhou and how high the price of grain had become. In those lands, being unable to survive was the norm.
Looking at Tian Daguang’s smiling face, they could not help feeling envious.
They had been wounded while capturing Dongcheng County. It had been the first battle in which they fought alongside the Jinyang Army, and their first time witnessing the might of the repeating crossbows.
The care and treatment they received after being wounded had also completely overturned their understanding of the world.
So soldiers really could eat their fill.
So when they were wounded, they could actually drink chicken soup and eat meat.
It was a painfully simple thing to say. Li Da had lived all these years, yet this was the first time he had ever drunk chicken soup—and it had been after he was wounded.
It was truly delicious.
After hesitating for a moment, he asked, “What are the requirements for joining the Jinyang Army?”
