Chapter 131
The bandits had now poured their labor and ingenuity into creating a “production chain.” To make the coal business work, they still needed a “sales chain” through which to sell it.
Shen Yuan was responsible for persuading the county magistrates and prefects to make “allowances” and let the bandits use back channels. But the purchase price of coal would fall sharply, requiring the bandits to profit through “small margins and high volume.”
He would ensure that their profits for each ten-day period exceeded their usual robbery earnings by precisely fivefold, keeping their wild impulses in check and making them willing to toil uncomplainingly as the court’s “coal bosses.”
On Mount Qiantai, Sheng Yiren’s fingers flew over the abacus so fast they almost struck sparks.
Based on the reports sent back by Qianjin Stronghold‘s men, she had to estimate the various costs of workers, mines, and overseers. Then, using local price levels, she calculated appropriate coal purchase prices and market prices.
This required not only exceptional agility with accounts, but thorough knowledge of local living conditions. Fortunately, she had contacted the local Liaozhou Merchants’ Guild and invited many people to help. Xie Chengze had also agreed to share part of the coal business with the guild, helping them revive Liaozhou’s shops in preparation for the “Capital of Ice and Snow” plan to come.
With the guild’s involvement, coal began reaching Liaozhou households at a gratifying speed. News of it also spread elsewhere, drawing the attention of commoners and merchants from other regions.
The craftsmen had long since been released. Working with the guild, they began teaching the counties how to use large Northeastern-style heated brick beds and coal safely, racing against time to prepare for the approaching blizzard.
Yet the bandit problem had not been completely resolved.
The bandits who’d found coal mines were dealt with. Those who hadn’t were not.
A second new law finally arrived.
[Effective immediately, the court shall begin suppressing the bandits of Liaozhou. Those willing to accept amnesty and recruitment shall be entered into military registers as prefectural troops and receive the treatment accorded to standing forces.
Their leaders shall be appointed squad commanders in the standing forces. Each may bring two deputy commanders and command a squad of no more than fifty prefectural troops, accompanying local standing forces to suppress rebels in the mountains.
In its leniency and adherence to humane principles, the court encourages standing forces to spare captured bandits and send them to labor in the coal mines. After twenty days of mining and good behavior, they too may be entered into the registers of prefectural troops, choose the standing force they wish to join, and receive the same monthly pay for serving the court.]
There was one message in all this.
As bandits, they could either accept recruitment at once and form their own standing squads, or mine coal for twenty days before enlisting as ordinary soldiers in someone else’s squad.
Even an idiot would choose the first.
Now, strongholds with coal-bearing mountains could transform themselves directly. They could make a fortune, then form their own standing forces afterward. Naturally, they faced no threat of suppression. Instead, they eyed the bandits on other mountains hungrily.
Outside the mountains, another force was waiting: well-equipped court troops with battle experience. They were simply waiting for some disobedient bandits to stick their necks out, so they could slaughter a stronghold as a warning and send blood flowing over the snowy mountains again.
Some defiant bandits refused to give up their way of life and abandoned their mountains to seek another path. But most considered that accepting recruitment might not be so bad.
Being a soldier was better than being a bandit. Even if money ran short, they could keep doing evil under the cover of their new status, or become bandits again. Either way, they wouldn’t lose out.
Still, better wait and see. It felt like there was a trap in this…
Then, as they watched, something extraordinary happened.
The ever-elusive Black Tiger Stronghold accepted recruitment!
That day, great feathery snowflakes began falling. With a tiger’s roar that shook the mountain, Black Tiger Stronghold’s mysterious “Chief” appeared, wearing a blue-green demon mask and riding a fierce, majestic white tiger. Two tall, burly bandits guarded either side, followed by many of their brothers.
They came before Black Tiger City’s county yamen and loudly announced that they would accept the court’s amnesty and recruitment.
The magistrate who came out to receive them nearly had their jaw hit the ground and their eyes pop out at the sight.
Black Tiger Stronghold’s Chief really did have a white tiger mount?!
The nonsense the magistrate had invented had actually come true?!
Swallowing hard, the magistrate discreetly kept away from the tiger, whose breath steamed white and whose eyes were fierce. Bowing and scraping, they invited this “Chief” into the yamen.
Only once inside did the “Chief” remove the blue-green demon mask.
Beneath it was Xie Zimiao’s honest, innocent face.
The men flanking the white tiger were the real Chief and Second Chief.
As for how Xie Zimiao had become the “Chief,” and why he could command the white tiger, the story began half a month earlier.
After leaving Black Tiger City, Xie Chengze and Xie Zimiao had split into two parties.
Xie Chengze took Hu Lai and Wuji to pose as merchants and be abducted by Qianjin Stronghold‘s bandits. Wuhen followed to establish the stronghold’s exact location, then returned to Black Tiger City to fetch Xie Zimiao and investigate the tiger’s tracks on Black Tiger Mountain.
There must be a reason the tiger had suddenly come down and injured people. They needed to investigate. If it was vicious by nature, they would consider killing it on the spot. If there was another cause, Xie Chengze had already thought of how to handle it.
Thus, Wuhen took Xie Zimiao up Black Tiger Mountain and found the place where the tiger had bitten people that day. The tiger seemed remarkably clever, even knowing to erase its tracks. But Wuhen and Wuji had learned tracking skills, and Wuhen eventually found the tigers hiding in a cave.
One yellow tiger, one white tiger.
Both were in trouble.
The white tiger was pregnant. When Wuhen and Xie Zimiao arrived, she was giving birth, and the delivery was difficult.
The yellow tiger was injured. Liaozhou’s people were tough by nature and would fight to the death when pushed. Presumably, during the struggle with the villagers, those who’d fought back desperately had dealt it some serious blows. It bore many wounds from woodcutting knives and lay dazed on the ground, too weakened by blood loss to resist.
Xie Zimiao pitied it. He also coveted the cubs in the white tiger’s belly, wanting to give them to his second brother as a New Year gift. He untied his little bundle and stingily broke off a tiny piece of old ginseng, asking Wuhen to divide it in half and put a piece into each tiger’s mouth.
Then he rolled up his sleeves and began helping the white tiger deliver.
Xie Zimiao’s uncle, Consort Rou’s elder brother, was Jiang Henan, Yangzhou’s foremost imperial merchant. Highly accomplished in business, he was involved in many industries and was the richest man in Yangzhou.
During the selection of palace women that year, Consort Rou had fallen for the handsome Emperor Jian at first sight and insisted on entering the palace as a consort at any cost. Jiang Henan doted on his sister and used enormous wealth to “buy” her the position of Consort Rou.
Of course, this enormous amount was only a drop in the bucket for Yangzhou’s Jiang family. To let his sister freely leave the palace to visit him, he had even ceded substantial dock profits to the imperial family. Thus, whenever Consort Rou grew bored, she took Xie Zimiao back to her family in Yangzhou.
Jiang Henan had many skills and an avid appetite for learning. To expand his livestock businesses, he even personally learned to assist animals giving birth. With a wicked sense of humor, he would deliberately use his hands, covered in filthy blood, to frighten the young, curious Xie Zimiao.
At first, Xie Zimiao was afraid. But after repeated exposure, he gradually became accustomed to it and learned to assist deliveries from his uncle.
Thus, in the cave, amid the white tiger’s restrained, low groans, Xie Zimiao finally succeeded in drawing out four cubs. Three had yellow-and-black markings, while one had white markings like its mother.
Tigers knew gratitude. Xie Zimiao had saved the tiger couple, and during the white tiger’s weakness after giving birth, he hunted and fed them raw meat. Gradually, both tigers really became big cats. They stopped baring their teeth at him and began licking his fur – no, his fur coat.
They almost licked it bald.
Once the white tiger had recovered from her postpartum weakness, Xie Zimiao received Xie Chengze’s reply, telling him to ride the tiger down the mountain and meet Black Tiger Stronghold outside Black Tiger City’s gates to carry out the recruitment.