In his last life, Ling Zhaowu, unconcerned about those silver ingots, had left the mansion after the residents killed Wang Xiangxin, paying no special attention to the person heading the group of Jiangzhou residents who’d intruded into Zhu You’s abode.
Though somewhat disappointed, Ling Zhang knew the recruitment of talents would take time. Currently, the first priority was to further stabilize the domestic situation and help the people restore their lives. As the imperial court had given people hope, those who had political aspirations would sooner or later recommend themselves one way or another.
When they had finished talking about those silver ingots found in Zhu You’s dwelling, Ling Zhang filled Ling Zhaowu in on what he’d seen and heard in Pingtao City, and showed him the couple of ideas he’d listed.
“Maritime trade is indeed quite lucrative and has huge market potential,” commented Ling Zhaowu after reading the note, “but it’s impossible to achieve success in maritime trade without the support of a powerful prop, and it’s inadvisable to rush into it when you’re not a hundred percent ready. You need to take baby steps. Rest assured, I’ll help you with everything you want to do.”
This would indeed take time. Ling Zhang knew that he was experiencing a carry-over of thrill caused by what he’d seen and heard in Pingtao City. He was so excited that he was only too anxious to immediately make arrangements for a commercial fleet to be built. However, from the vantage point of the present, neither he nor the Ling family was fully prepared to start a business of that scale. It was premature to talk about this matter at this point in time.
“You may well say that, Father. I got a bit carried away,” said Ling Zhang calmly after subduing that urge inside him.
Ling Zhaowu smiled. This was one of the reasons why he was proud of Ling Zhang – Ling Zhang was willing to heed others’ advice and always introspected about his problems when he needed to. Maybe because Ling Zhang had been through a rebirth, he seemed to seldom feel the kind of impulsions that most youngsters on occasions felt and found rather difficult to repress. Before Ling Zhang became the empress, this had struck Ling Zhaowu as faintly regrettable, but after Ling Zhang became the empress, Ling Zhaowu felt lucky that this was the case.
Next the father and son discussed the matter of opening stores. Now that they had plans to establish a chamber of commerce in Shengzhou to gain a foothold there, Ling Zhaowu had made quite some preparations. The necessity of keeping Ling Zhang’s and the Ling family’s involvement in this matter secret had made the task more difficult. Fortunately, Ling Zhaowu was very experienced in this regard. He made full use of those businesses and stewards that Ji Yin had gifted Ling Zhang with, and prepared to recruit his former subordinates. By “former subordinates”, Ling Zhaowu was actually referring to the group of men that he had licked into shape in his last incarnation, all of whom had been absolutely loyal to him. Ling Zhaowu knew each and every one of them like the back of his hand, and was also fully aware of the situation they were presently in. What would take some doing was to recruit them again and have them swear allegiance to him for a second time.
After coming to know about his father’s plans, Ling Zhang naturally brought up the matter that he’d been meaning to get to the bottom of. “Father, what did you do for a living in your last incarnation exactly?”
“I was in business. Haven’t I told you already? I was a merchant. In my last life, the situation in the three countries was quite chaotic, and for a business to thrive, its owner needed to have enough helpers, which was why I had a group of men under my command,” replied Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhang looked at him disbelievingly. “Was it really as simple as that?”
Ling Zhaowu answered, “It was. I had no interest in any other things. Still, although I was uninterested in any other things, there were still a lot of people who tried to rope me in to become an official in the imperial court and work for them, but I turned down them all.”
“Who tried to rope you in?” Ling Zhang’s curiosity was piqued.
“Members of the imperial family, who were still alive at this time in my last life. Um, the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom also made efforts to tempt me to serve them. The three countries were in tangled warfare, and on occasions Yuwen Tong would harass them, so all those people were eager to get more power and wanted to draw everybody who might be of help over to their sides,” responded Ling Zhaowu.
Though Ling Zhaowu had put it this way, Ling Zhang was certain that there was more to it. Why else should the monarchs of all the three countries have offered olive branches to him, if not for some particular skill of his? A common merchant could never have achieved that. However, his father seemed to be fairly unwilling to tell him the whole story in this regard. What was he keeping back?
“Father, didn’t you say that you would tell me everything you’d been through in your last life after Yuwen Tong and I got married and the whirl of chores was over? I want to hear it right now. Would you please tell me?”
Ling Zhaowu’s hand holding a teacup briefly paused and with that he raised his head to looked at the color of the sky and then said, “It’s pretty late. The one in the palace must be looking into the sky with a frown on his face at this moment. He sure as hell would come here to bring you back if you don’t return straight away.”
Ling Zhang, “…”
He looked at the color of the sky as well. Though aware that his father was using it as an excuse, night had indeed fallen already, and it was dinner time. In no hurry to return to the palace as he was, it was inappropriate to force his father to give up having dinner and continue to talk with him.
“You’re definitely keeping something back from me. I’ll let it go for the moment, but you’ll have to tell me the truth the next time I come here.”
Ling Zhang rose to his feet, looking at his father, unhappy.
Ling Zhaowu gave a little cough. “What are you talking about? Why would I keep anything back from you?”
However, Ling Zhang’s gaze gave him a surge of guilt and he avoided Ling Zhang’s eyes.
‘I knew it,’ Ling Zhang inwardly snorted, determined to drag the truth out of his father when he found the time. He said, “I’ll have dinner with you and Grandfather before I go back to the palace. Grandfather and the others may well have taken their seats at the table already. Let’s go.”
Ling Zhaowu rose immediately at these words, as though unable to endure Ling Zhang’s reproving eyes for a single extra moment.
His reaction made Ling Zhang more convinced that his father was concealing something from him. This was his first time seeing his father appearing so manifestly to have a guilty conscience.
What else had happened to his father in his last incarnation exactly? What was it that his father felt he had to keep secret from his own son? Ling Zhang cast around in vain for an answer. Had his father by any chance staged a revolt or tried to usurp the throne or anything like that? No, he couldn’t have. If that were the case, the monarchs of the three countries wouldn’t have raced to recruit him.
Bearing these questions in mind, Ling Zhang decided to have his father answer all of them when he found opportunity. Even if his father had really led a revolt or tried to usurp the throne in his last incarnation… he wouldn’t blame his father, considering how complicated things had been in his last life.
Unaware that his son had inwardly made all kinds of excuses for him, Ling Zhaowu went to join his old man for dinner with his son, feeling rather guilty. After dinner, he walked his son towards the front gates.
“You’ve walked me far enough, Father. Go back.”
The front gates were right ahead, but Ling Zhang told Ling Zhaowu to stop. “Mu Rongfeng has been captured, and an envoy of the Luohai Kingdom will arrive in a couple of days. I might well start getting busy and wouldn’t be able to come back here to see you and Grandfather anytime soon, but… you may do some thinking during this time and figure out how to explain to me… ahem… what I want to know.”
Although the bodyguards he brought with him were all trustworthy, he couldn’t afford to let the matter of his rebirth come to anybody else’s knowledge.
Ling Zhaowu looked at his son for a while before he sighed, “It’s not that I enjoy keeping secrets from you. I’m just worried you’d be unhappy after hearing the truth. Whatever… I’ll be honest with you the next time we meet.”
It was only then that Ling Zhang smiled a happy smile, took leave of Ling Zhaowu and set out to return to the palace.
…
In the following two days Ling Zhang were occupied with all kinds of affairs in the palace. A diplomatic corps of the Luohai Kingdom would soon arrive in the capital city. Yuwen Tong, after conferring with a group of courtiers, decided how to teach the Luohai Kingdom a hard lesson.
Jiang Yu, Ling Zhang’s adviser, had returned to the Jiang family to concentrate on preparing for the next year’s imperial examination, which was also what Zhao Jiusi had been doing. Thus, he had only the twenty-four bodyguards at his service, but they were different from Jiang Yu and Zhao Jiusi – some of the things the latter two could handle properly were beyond their capabilities, which was why Ling Zhang was rushed off his feet.
…
After yet another day, the diplomatic corps of the Luohai Kingdom arrived. As Yuwen Tong had caught Mu Rongfeng red-handed in Haizhou, the Luohai Kingdom was utterly unable to cover up the fact that the Luohai Kingdom had covertly played a part in the Jiangzhou revolt. This time around Yuwen Tong had got the goods on the Luohai Kingdom, so members of the diplomatic corps were all harassed-looking. Though infuriated by the conditions Yuwen Tong demanded, they had no alternative but to subdue their anger with gritted teeth, for they were in the wrong, and even their crown prince had fallen into Yuwen Tong’s hands. They had to swallow it all, no matter how angry they were.
However, even if the Luohai diplomatic corps were here to make a sincere apology, which they were not, in no circumstances would they accept all Yuwen Tong’s terms, so there was inevitable haggling which seemed as though it would never end.
At first Yuwen Tong was willing to show them some respect, but after some time, his face darkened. Jiang Ke and Jiang Xi were standing on his left and right respectively, emanating such brooding air that the dean of the diplomatic corps blanched and stammered, and it took him quite a while to finish his sentence.
Yuwen Tong had made it very clear that he would make sure Mu Rongfeng never made it back to the Luohai Kingdom if the envoy didn’t accept his conditions right away. The Great Wen was not afraid of fighting another war. Although the Great Wen needed time to rebuild strength, the North-western Army would prove themselves the strongest force once again if another war came, so the Great Wen was not frightened of the Luohai Kingdom at all.
The Luohai Kingdom didn’t want another war either. The Great Wen hadn’t descended into civil strife. Instead, its domestic situation was getting more and more stable. The Luohai Kingdom had never got one over on the Great Wen during any of the previous wars, and now, given that the Wan Kingdom was taking a wait-and-see attitude, the Luohai Kingdom would no doubt be making a rod for its own back if it fought Yuwen Tong single-handed. Besides, their crown prince’s life was still in Yuwen Tong’s hands!
Scared by Yuwen Tong’s words, the dean of the diplomatic corps didn’t dare make another attempt to bargain over the terms and, teeth clenched, signed a new treaty with the Great Wen.
After signing the treaty, the dean’s back was covered with cold sweat, his clothes soaking wet.
The weather had been getting increasingly cold in the past couple of days, and everybody was wearing thick clothes, but the dean had still broken out in such a sweat, which suggested how great pressure he’d been under.
…
Mu Rongfeng was returned to the Luohai diplomatic corps as the Luohai Kingdom met all the conditions set by the Great Wen. Mu Rongfeng had a quite ugly look on his face when he was released. Apart from anything else, this was the greatest possible humiliation for a crown prince.
“Your Highness are more than welcome to stay in the Great Wen if you don’t feel like going back, but I’m afraid General-in-chief Nian and Prime Minister Dugu might well rejoice if you really decide to stay,” jibed Chu Liangyan who was also present.
Mu Rongfeng was infuriated to such an extent that for an instant he was on the verge of spitting out a mouthful of blood. He shot Chu Liangyan a malevolent glance and blustered, “Sooner or later the Great Wen will pay for this.”
Chu Liangyan smiled, “The Great Wen will always be here. Whatever it is Your Highness are planning to do, the Great Wen will never flinch from facing up to it.”
Mu Rongfeng coldly withdrew his eyes and stormed off without a backward glance.
There was intense partisan wrangle in the royal court of the Luohai Kingdom. He was the crown prince, but both Nian Feng, the general-in-chief who had most of the troops under his command, and Prime Minister Dugu, who was kin to the queen consort, had long coveted the throne. If he didn’t return, there would no doubt be great political upheavals in the Luohai Kingdom. Consumed with rage and resentment as Mu Rongfeng was, he had no alternative but to swallow it.
…
The matter of the Luohai Kingdom settled, what Yuwen Tong needed to do next was appoint a new commander of Jiangzhou garrison and a new Jiangzhou governor. Jiangzhou needed a capable governor as well as a competent commander able to regroup the garrison.
