After the Immortal Disappeared

Hee Lingchuan and his brother were the exceptions; Hee Chunhua didn’t give them any.

Wu Shaoyi picked up a bamboo tube and shook it. Something solid rustled inside—a good number of small items. "What’s this?"

"Why don’t you open it and see for yourself?"

The men pulled out the stoppers, and a heavy scent of tobacco wafted out.

Wu Shaoyi exclaimed in delight, "Chewing Tobacco?"

He took out a piece, popped it in his mouth, and began to chew slowly, nodding. "Excellent, excellent. This is truly high-quality stuff! Thank you, Sir."

Hee Yue could only watch with envy. "Father, where did this come from?"

"This is a specialty of the Beiga Kingdom, shipped all the way from the north." Hee Chunhua took a piece, not to chew, but to turn over in his hand. "The Da Yuan and Beiga Kingdoms have an agreement. We have to buy a great many things from them every year, and Chewing Tobacco is just one. Now that the border has been pushed back to Xiazhou, the task of sending men to the border markets to receive goods will fall to me. I also learned today that Xiazhou’s Official Post Houses must give priority to Beiga merchants. If a Beiga merchant caravan is robbed, local officials are required to get to the bottom of it."

The main function of the Official Post Houses is still to serve messengers. Without them providing food, water, lodging, and fresh horses, how could there be urgent dispatches covering hundreds of li? Yet, the Yuan Kingdom actually has an agreement with Beiga that the Post Houses cannot refuse lodging to their merchant caravans.

It was a privilege the common folk of their own kingdom couldn’t enjoy.

Zeng Feixiong, who didn’t use tobacco, frowned. "What’s so hard about making Chewing Tobacco? Why don’t we produce our own?" Transporting it over such a great distance wasted time, effort, and money.

"The products from Beiga are the highest quality and the most popular. Look, this tube alone is made from Cyan Jade Bamboo, which is unique to southern Beiga. Its luster is like jade, and it rings like metal when tapped. Some people even use it to make musical instruments. The outer layer is also very thin, so it’s lightweight." He casually weighed the Cyan Jade Bamboo tube in his hand. "Now, look at the packaging and quality of the Chewing Tobacco produced here in the Yuan Kingdom, hmm?"

Zeng Feixiong had nothing more to say.

"I’ve been in Shihuan for the past few days, and I saw that the Nobility all use Beiga’s Chewing Tobacco when socializing. That’s how fashionable it is. The tubes they use are even painted and gilded for them to admire and handle. Wealthy merchants also use Beiga’s Chewing Tobacco to serve guests as a display of their financial standing." Hee Chunhua weighed the tube in his hand. "A small tube like this sells for one tael of silver, and it gets even more expensive the further south you go. For the higher quality product in a gilded tube, the price doubles."

"These tobacco leaves have hardly any impurities. They’re smoked, then roasted, and even soaked in honey. The flavor is incredible!" Wu Shaoyi said, completely enraptured. "What was that dogshit I used to chew before!"

He’d come from a dirt-poor background, after all. What good tobacco could he have possibly afforded?

Hee Lingchuan’s interest was piqued.

’That Cyan Jade Bamboo tube looked very familiar. Wasn’t this the exact same thing he’d received as a military merit award in the Panlong Dream Realm?’

’In Panlong City, some people even specialized in collecting these tubes, refurbishing them, and selling them for a profit.’

’Right, the Chewing Tobacco issued by the Pengcheng Bureau in Panlong City was only slightly different in color and shape from what the men were holding now, but that was a product from over a hundred years ago. It made sense that the crafting process would have improved in all that time.’

’In other words, the Chewing Tobacco that Panlong City issued to its soldiers was also made in Beiga!’

’He coughed. He seemed to recall Hu Min mentioning that Panlong City also did business with the Beiga Kingdom, and the annual trade volume wasn’t small either.’

’Beiga’s foreign trade was remarkably well-developed.’

Hee Chunhua sighed again. "Of course, the most important reason is that the Yuan Kingdom has no choice but to buy. The annual quantity and the purchase price are all stipulated in the agreement. With the constant natural disasters and man-made calamities in recent years, we’ve bought less from the Beiga Kingdom, and our payments haven’t been on time. This has greatly displeased them."

’If the real Eldest Young Master Hee were here, he would probably have just asked, "Why do we have to buy it?"’

So, that’s what Hee Lingchuan did.

Hee Chunhua didn’t answer directly. He was silent for a few moments before saying, "Them taking in Nian Zanli, the former Xunzhou Governor, is their way of putting pressure on us."

He coughed again. "When we get to Xiazhou, we’ll face a new and more complex situation. This is just one of our problems. I’m telling you this so you’re prepared. No matter how we fight Nian Zanli, we cannot afford to offend Beiga. All right, now let’s get down to business."

He nodded to his steward, Old Mo, who was standing nearby. Old Mo immediately left and returned a moment later, leading another man into the room. "Master, I’ve brought Steward Qian."

Old Mo then closed the windows securely and stepped outside to stand guard. This was a Post House, after all, and they had to be wary of prying ears.

Hee Chunhua pointed to the newcomer, who was dressed as a merchant. "This is Steward Qian, dispatched by the Zhu Family to manage their business in Dunyu. He has been in Dunyu for twenty years and knows the capital of Xiazhou better than the locals do."

"Chief Steward Hee, you’re too kind." Steward Qian bowed to everyone in the room, his smile perfectly amiable. "I greet you, sirs."

"At my request, Elder Zhu ordered him to rush here from Dunyu to explain the situation in the city to us. This is so that when you enter the city with me, you won’t be in a completely unfamiliar place, with no idea where to begin."

After returning Zhu Xiu’er to Zhu Xiyan, he had established a solid relationship with the Zhu Family. The Zhu Family also did business within Xiazhou and was hoping the new Chief Steward would lend them some support, so they were naturally willing to accommodate his reasonable requests.

He nodded at Steward Qian. "Go on. Tell us about the war on the northern front, and about the situation in Dunyu City."

Steward Qian began to explain in detail.

Hee Lingchuan knew the war on the Yuan Kingdom’s northern front was not going well, but he hadn’t expected it to be going *this* poorly.

The former General of the Northern Expedition, Nian Zanli, had defected to the Northern Demon Kingdom, taking the entire province of Xunzhou with him. As a result, the northern front had abruptly shifted south from Xunzhou to eastern Haozhou. Xunzhou had been the long-standing border, and Haozhou’s soldiers had little experience facing the enemy. Consequently, their resistance was disorganized and was crushed by Nian Zanli in less than a month.

With Nian Zanli’s unstoppable advance, it was no surprise that the battlefield soon shifted to southern Haozhou.

That region was already close to the border between Haozhou and Xiazhou. If Nian Zanli could capture the last three cities in southern Haozhou, the war would spill into Xiazhou—onto Hee Chunhua’s own turf.

Nian Zanli must have heard the news of Hee Chunhua’s transfer to the Northern Realm by now. The former frontier general was likely eager to avenge his son’s death, for he had launched wave after wave of assaults on southern Haozhou.

Currently holding the line in southern Haozhou was Grand General Zhao Pan, dispatched by the Royal Court. He had reportedly traded wins and losses with Nian Zanli, temporarily halting the latter’s southward invasion.

Without a doubt, Zhao Pan needed staunch support from the rear.

And without a doubt, he was facing the same problem as Ke Jihai:

Poor logistics and supply shortages.

Xiazhou was right behind the battlefield and had an undeniable duty to provide a large portion of the military supplies. The Royal Court had issued repeated orders demanding Xiazhou’s full cooperation.

"My family is in the textile business in Dunyu, originally specializing in silks and furs. After the war started up north, all the clothiers in Dunyu were tasked with transporting cotton cloth and rushing to produce padded winter clothes, my family included." Steward Qian sighed. "General Zhao was pressing for thirty thousand winter coats before winter set in, but now the spring snow is about to melt, and we’ve only managed to send a little over seven thousand to the front. That’s not even forty percent of what was requested."

Hee Yue frowned. "Surely Xiazhou isn’t responsible for procuring all the war supplies?"

"Xiazhou is the closest to the front, so it’s assigned the heaviest burden. We were tasked with over three thousand of those coats alone. We went to great lengths to complete the order, even paying for the materials and labor out of our own pockets. The government still hasn’t reimbursed us," Steward Qian continued. "A shortage of clothes is one thing, but the grain deficit is the real problem. I heard there was already one mutiny at the front—some soldiers were so hungry they fled to the enemy camp in the middle of the night."

You can’t fight a proper war when morale is unstable.

Mozhe Jingxuan asked him, "But haven’t the last two years in Xiazhou had favorable weather and bountiful harvests?"

"They have. That’s why the Royal Court ordered Xiazhou to send grain from its local supply to the front lines to solve the pressing need. But after three such shipments, the largest granary in Dunyu suddenly went up in flames."

"I heard about that back in Shihuan. Hundreds of thousands of shi of grain, all gone up in smoke," Hee Chunhua said, his face devoid of expression. "When His Majesty the King received the news, he was so furious he smashed two cups and couldn’t sleep the entire night."

Enough grain to feed the front lines for a year and a half, gone in a single fire. Who wouldn’t be distressed by such a loss?

A few frozen autumn pears were soaking in a basin to the side. As Hee Lingchuan casually picked one up, he heard Steward Qian give a dry chuckle. "Hundreds of thousands of shi? Ninety percent of that granary was empty. I have it on good authority that there were at most twenty thousand shi in there originally."

"At most!" He held up two fingers. "No one knows the exact figure, not even the grain official in charge. After that big fire, the books are all balanced."

Zeng Feixiong couldn’t help but ask, "Where did the grain go?"

"The grain in the Dunyu granaries has rarely been touched for years. So, every autumn, after the harvest was brought in, they would just make a false entry in the ledgers and then sell the grain privately. They even swapped out freshly stored new grain with old grain," Steward Qian said. "Last year, no one knew General Nian would commit treason, and no one knew Xiazhou would suddenly become the front line overnight. Much of the grain had been sold off to Xunzhou, leaving the granaries with a massive shortfall."

The generals were furious. "So you’re saying the enemy is eating our grain while killing our men?"

"Who’s the mastermind?" Hee Lingchuan asked, taking a crunchy bite of his pear. "There must be a ringleader. This has been going on for more than a year or two, and it can’t have been the first time, right?"

"Dunyu is the ancestral home of the Minister of War, Lord Li Dushan. His extended family is all here, and their businesses are huge. The local government officials don’t dare to cross them." Steward Qian swallowed hard. "The largest grain business in Xiazhou, Baoxiang, is ostensibly owned by a Master Liu, but the Li Family are the ones really pulling the strings."

"They didn’t dare to be too brazen at first. The doctored ledgers and grain-swapping were all done on a small scale. But after years of getting away with it, other families grew envious and started copying them. Once everyone was doing it, the accounts became a complete mess, and the granary’s reserves kept shrinking."

"That grain official deserves to be executed," Wu Shaoyi said, his voice chilling. "Heh heh, same old schemes, same old stench."

He used to serve under Hong Xiangqian. Hadn’t the Rebel Army risen up precisely because of years of floods and droughts in the south, followed by the Royal Court’s extortionate taxes? This sort of chaos, these schemes, these dirty tricks—they had seen more than enough of it in the south.

Now, he had changed sides to become part of the Official Army, yet the corruption he faced was exactly the same.

Hee Chunhua nodded.

As the saying goes, you can tell which way the wind is blowing from a single straw. And in Dunyu, the long-festering corruption in the books had already become a gaping wound.