Bai Wei’s chest ached faintly with anger. Knowing that arguing would accomplish nothing, he drew a deep breath and forced down the resentment in his heart. He ordered his men to carry over box after box of silver.
His voice came out through clenched teeth. “Count it. If everything’s in order, return our ships at once.”
Fortunately, His Majesty had allocated quite a bit extra. Otherwise, it really wouldn’t have been enough.
As long as they got their ships back, the oarsmen and sailors could sleep aboard them, saving them a considerable sum.
Sizhou had brought five more ships this time, so there was more than enough room.
They had also brought plenty of provisions and could be self-sufficient, without having to be fleeced by the Jinyang Army any longer.
“All right!” Xie Nanxiao was extremely excited. He personally stepped forward to count the silver.
A quarter of an hour later, the money had finally been counted. Xie Nanxiao picked up a small piece of broken silver and handed it to Bai Wei. “Your men weren’t very careful. There’s a little extra.”
As he spoke, he puffed out his chest. “I, the Garlic-Head Hero, have always been fair. I said I’d take exactly this much, so I won’t keep even a little extra.”
Bai Wei clenched the fragment of silver in his hand. Was it even half a liang?
He had swallowed forty thousand liang without batting an eye, yet now he was pretending to return this tiny piece to show how fair he was?!
Bah!
What kind of fairness was that?
He was clearly rubbing salt in Bai Wei’s wound—and slapping His Majesty in the face as well!
But the worst was yet to come.
Looking at the three battered, dilapidated cargo ships in front of him, Bai Wei stared in disbelief. “What do you mean by this? Our ships were warships!”
Xie Nanxiao spread his hands. “Listen to yourself. I, Garlic, conduct my business fairly. I didn’t even charge you for that extra piece of silver. How could I possibly have taken your ships?”
“You must have made a mistake. These are your ships, and I guarantee they’re genuine. Everything is perfectly clear.”
Bai Wei’s vision went dark. “Garlic, don’t push me too far!”
Xie Nanxiao looked puzzled. “How am I pushing you too far? These are your ships!”
He eyed Bai Wei suspiciously from head to toe. “You’re a strange one. You don’t even recognize your own ships?”
“Or are you trying to swindle us?”
“Let me tell you, I, Garlic, may be a fair, impartial, gentle, and handsome hero, but I have a temper too. You won’t get away with trying to cheat me!”
“You—you…” Bai Wei pointed at Xie Nanxiao with one hand and clutched his chest with the other.
He had never seen anyone so shameless in his life!
Xie Nanxiao gently brushed his hand aside. “Are you really a sailor from Sizhou? Your physical condition is terrible. Don’t tell me you’re about to faint.”
Bai Wei angrily drew his saber. “You—you—you’re going too far!”
Xie Nanxiao’s expression turned cold. “What? You can’t swindle us, so now you want to use force? I, Garlic, am no soft persimmon.”
His gaze shifted to the five ships behind Bai Wei. They were warships as well—and very fine ones.
Bai Wei instantly understood what he was looking at.
This man wanted to seize his ships!
His face turned red, then green. After a moment, he shoved his saber back into its sheath and ground his teeth. “I don’t want these ships anymore. Give me back the money.”
Xie Nanxiao frowned. “What do you mean? That money was for the food you consumed, the transportation costs, and the ships’ storage fees. It wasn’t payment for buying the ships. Why would I give it back?”
Bai Wei fell silent.
The reasoning was sound—but these weren’t his original ships!
He glanced at the men behind Xie Nanxiao, who were holding repeating crossbows, and knew that even if he refused to accept this loss, he had no choice but to do so.
After a long while, he finally swallowed his resentment. “Sorry for the trouble. We’ll be on our way.”
With that, he ordered his men to board the three battered merchant ships and sail away.
Seeing that Bai Wei knew when to back down, Xie Nanxiao was somewhat disappointed. “Until we meet again.”
After the fleet had sailed some distance away, Bai Wei looked back at Xie Nanxiao. He saw the man smiling broadly as he directed his subordinates to carry the chests into the ship’s hold.
As though sensing his gaze, Xie Nanxiao turned around, looked over, and waved cheerfully.
Bai Wei’s eyes grew dark and cold. He turned away, deciding that what he couldn’t see couldn’t annoy him.
The sailor standing beside him was filled with indignation. “Those ships weren’t ours at all! Our ships are warships, and they’re much larger than those three merchant ships. How are we supposed to explain this to our superiors?”
Bai Wei was just as unwilling to accept it. But when one was beneath another’s roof, one had to bow one’s head. Garlic was clearly Xie Nanxiao of the Jinyang Army.
He didn’t believe for a second that Xie Nanxiao was merely some younger brother!
Yet the fact that they had concealed it so carelessly only made their attitude even clearer. The Jinyang Army was entirely unafraid of the Sizhou Army and had no qualms about falling out with them.
Under such circumstances, they were on the Jinyang Army’s territory. If they made even one wrong move, they might well be wiped out. Bai Wei believed the Jinyang Army was absolutely capable of doing such a thing.
“All right. Just report the matter truthfully when the time comes. Let the people above us handle the negotiations.” Bai Wei sighed.
Qiu Wu looked back at Bai Wei’s fleet sailing away and snorted. “What do they mean, ‘ships from Sizhou’? Those three ships clearly belonged to Xianglu County. Bah!”
Earlier, when they had confiscated Sun Zheng’s thirty-three ships, most of them had originally belonged to Fengzhou.
Although they were all warships of the Yan Kingdom, each harbor had its own markings. Anyone familiar with them could recognize the difference at a glance.
Xie Nanxiao said nothing. He only gazed out at the calm sea.
After a moment, he spoke. “All right, transport the silver back. I’ll go take a look at Feng’an County first.”
The handover at Feng’an County went smoothly enough. Feeding and housing more than a thousand people for half a month, along with the expenses for dozens of wounded soldiers, cost them roughly another ten thousand liang.
The fifty thousand liang they had brought was gone just like that.
Bai Wei felt a headache coming on.
And they still hadn’t paid Lord Sun’s account in Ge Feng.
Fortunately, His Majesty still wanted to purchase Fengzhou’s grain. Although the funds allocated this time were limited, they had still brought around thirty thousand liang for buying grain. They could only divert part of that money for now.
Just as he was thinking this, Xie Nanxiao walked in.
Bai Wei’s heart lurched. His lips trembled as he asked, “You? Why are you here?”
After paying their “debt,” he had ordered everyone to leave their lodgings and sleep aboard the ships.
Only then had he gone to the Feng’an government office to request an audience with the local naval commander.
He had never expected Xie Nanxiao to be the one who came again!
Then again, it made sense. Xie Nanxiao had been the one to receive them before as well.
“May I ask what brings you here?” Xie Nanxiao inquired with a solemn expression, affecting the manner of a refined gentleman.
Bai Wei: “…”
He pressed his lips together. After a long pause, he finally said, “It’s about our warships. Didn’t General Hua leave seventy or eighty ships in Feng’an County?”
Hua Yuanyi had previously brought five thousand men to Fengzhou. Only a little over three hundred had returned. They had been unable to sail so many ships back, so most of them had been left at the Feng’an dock.
Xie Nanxiao suddenly looked enlightened. “If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten. Your ships have been moored here for over two months, and you never paid the berthing fees. We assumed you didn’t want them anymore, so we didn’t pay much attention to them.”
“Then, some time ago, there was a strong wind, and all your ships were blown away.”
Bai Wei stared at him in astonishment. “What?”
The moment he saw Xie Nanxiao, he had known that getting the ships back would probably cost him dearly. He had expected Xie Nanxiao to demand several hundred thousand liang.
But he had still underestimated him!
What did he mean, “blown away by the wind”?
Those were warships! What kind of wind could possibly blow away a warship?
Besides, the ships at the dock had all been secured with mooring ropes!
Why not just say that the wind had blown away the entire dock while he was at it?
Couldn’t he come up with a more believable excuse?
It was downright insulting!
