Chapter 216: New Challenges Ahead

He Lingchuan and his brother were exceptions; He Chunhua didn't give them any.

Wu Shaoyi picked up a bamboo tube and shook it. Something solid inside rustled, quite a lot but small in size. "What's this?"

"Why don't you open it and see?"

Everyone pulled out the stopper, and a strong tobacco scent wafted out.

Wu Shaoyi exclaimed in surprise, "Chewing tobacco?"

He casually took a piece, put it into his mouth, and chewed slowly, nodding as he did so. "Good, good, this is truly a top-grade product! Thank you, Sir."

He Yue could only watch enviously. "Father, where did this come from?"

"This is a specialty of the Beijia Kingdom, shipped all the way from the north," He Chunhua said, taking a piece himself, not to chew but to toy with in his hand. "The Great Yuan and Beijia have an agreement to purchase many goods from them annually, and chewing tobacco is just one of them. The border has now reached Xiazhou, so the task of sending people to the border market to collect goods will fall to me. Furthermore, I only learned today that Xiazhou's official postal stations must also prioritize Beijia merchants. If a Beijia merchant caravan is robbed, local officials must investigate thoroughly until the truth is uncovered."

The primary function of the official postal stations was still to serve messengers; without them providing water, food, lodging, and fresh horses, how could urgent dispatches travel hundreds of miles? Yet, it turns out Yuan had an agreement with Beijia that these stations could not refuse accommodation to Beijia merchant caravans.

Such privileges were not available to ordinary citizens of their own country.

Zeng Feixiong, who didn't use tobacco, frowned. "What's so difficult about making chewing tobacco? Why don't we produce our own? Transporting it thousands of miles like this wastes time, effort, and money."

"Beijia's products are of the best quality and most popular. Look, this bamboo tube alone is made from the unique green jade bamboo found in southern Beijia. Its color is like jade, and it sounds like metal when tapped; some even use it to make musical instruments. The outer skin is also very thin, making it lightweight." He casually weighed the green jade bamboo tube in his hand. "Now, look at the chewing tobacco produced in Yuan. What containers are they stored in, and what is their quality, hmm?"

Zeng Feixiong had nothing to say.

"In Shihuai these past few days, I've seen nobles using Beijia chewing tobacco in their social interactions, which shows its widespread popularity. The bamboo tubes they use are even painted and gilded for enjoyment. Wealthy merchants also use Beijia chewing tobacco to entertain guests, demonstrating their financial status." He Chunhua weighed the bamboo tube. "A small tube like this sells for one tael of silver, and it becomes even more expensive the further south you go. If it's chewing tobacco in a gilded tube, the quality is higher, and the price doubles."

"This tobacco leaf has hardly any impurities; it's first smoked, then roasted, and even soaked in honey. The taste is truly excellent!" Wu Shaoyi was clearly enchanted. "What rubbish I used to chew!"

He used to be a common foot soldier; how could he have afforded good tobacco?

He Lingchuan's heart stirred as he watched.

This green jade bamboo tube looked very familiar. Wasn't this exactly what he received as a military merit reward in the Coiling Dragon Dream?

In Coiling Dragon City, there were even people who specialized in collecting these bamboo tubes, processing them further, and selling them for profit.

Yes, the chewing tobacco distributed by the Pengcheng Bureau in Coiling Dragon City was only slightly different in color and shape from what they held. But that was a product from over a hundred years ago, so it was logical for the manufacturing process to have improved over such a long time.

In other words, the chewing tobacco given to soldiers in Coiling Dragon City was also produced in Beijia!

Hmm, he seemed to recall Hu Min saying that Coiling Dragon City also traded with the Beijia Kingdom, and the annual trade volume was quite substantial.

This country's foreign trade was indeed very developed.

He Chunhua sighed again. "Of course, the most important reason is that Yuan has no choice but to buy. The annual quantity and price are all stipulated in the agreement. With continuous natural disasters and misfortunes in recent years, our purchases from Beijia have decreased, and payments haven't been very timely, leading to great dissatisfaction from Beijia."

If the real Young Master He were here, he might have directly asked, "Why do we have no choice but to buy?"

So He Lingchuan did the same.

He Chunhua didn't answer directly, remaining silent for a few moments before saying, "Their acceptance of Governor Nian Zanli of Xunzhou is a way of creating trouble for us."

He coughed again. "Once we arrive in Xiazhou, we'll face an even more complex new situation, and this is one of the problems. I'm telling you this so you have an understanding. No matter how we fight against Nian Zanli, we cannot easily offend Beijia. All right, now it's time to discuss serious matters."

He nodded to Old Mo, the butler, who was standing nearby. Old Mo immediately left and soon returned with a person. "Master, Steward Qian is here."

Old Mo then closed the windows tightly and stepped outside to guard the door for everyone. After all, this was an inn, and they had to be careful of eavesdroppers.

He Chunhua pointed to the newcomer, who was dressed as a merchant. "This is Steward Qian, assigned by the Zhu family to manage their business in Dunyu. He has been in Dunyu for twenty years and is even more familiar with this Xiazhou capital than the locals."

"Chief Steward He, you flatter me," Steward Qian said, bowing respectfully to everyone around him with a genial smile. "Greetings, esteemed sirs."

"Elder Zhu, at my request, specially ordered him to come from Dunyu to explain the situation in the city to us. This is so you won't be unfamiliar with the place and unable to begin your work once you enter the city with me."

After returning Zhu Xiuer to Zhu Xiyan, he had established a pure friendship with the Zhu family. The Zhu family also had businesses within Xiazhou and hoped the new chief steward would assist them, so they naturally tried their best to fulfill his reasonable requests.

He nodded to Steward Qian. "Tell us, what is the situation with the war on the northern front, and what is it like inside Dunyu City?"

Steward Qian began to elaborate.

He Lingchuan already knew that the war on Yuan's northern front was not going well, but he hadn't expected it to be so disastrous.

Nian Zanli, the former General who Conquered the North, had defected to the northern demon kingdom with all of Xunzhou. Consequently, the northern front immediately shifted south from Xunzhou to eastern Haozhou. It was important to note that Xunzhou had been the long-standing border, and Haozhou's troops had little experience fighting the enemy. As a result, their resistance was ineffective, and Nian Zanli breached their defenses in less than a month.

As Nian Zanli's forces advanced like a broken bamboo, the battlefield predictably pushed into southern Haozhou.

That area was already close to the border between Haozhou and Xiazhou. As soon as Nian Zanli captured the last three cities in southern Haozhou, he could bring the war to Xiazhou, which was He Chunhua's territory.

Nian Zanli likely knew about He Chunhua's reassignment to the northern border. This former border general was probably eager to avenge his son's death, launching wave after wave of offensives against southern Haozhou.

Currently holding the line in southern Haozhou was General Zhao Pan, dispatched by the Royal Court. It was said that he and Nian Zanli had both won and lost battles, and he was temporarily holding back the latter's southern invasion.

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

And without a doubt, he faced the same problems as Ke Jihai:

Weak logistics and a shortage of supplies.

Xiazhou, being directly behind the battlefield, was obligated to provide a significant portion of military supplies. The Royal Court had repeatedly issued strict orders for Xiazhou to cooperate fully.

"My family runs a fabric business in Dunyu, originally dealing mainly in silk and furs. After the fighting began in the north, all fabric shops in Dunyu were required to help transport cotton cloth and urgently produce cotton winter clothes, including my family's," Steward Qian sighed. "General Zhao pressed for 30,000 winter garments before winter, but now spring snow is almost melting, and only just over 7,000 cotton clothes have been gathered for the front line, less than 40 percent of the requirement."

He Yue frowned. "Surely Xiazhou isn't responsible for raising all the war materials?"

"Xiazhou is closest to the front line, so it has been assigned the heaviest tasks. Just for winter clothes, we were allocated over 3,000 pieces. We put in a great deal of effort to complete the task, even paying for the goods and labor out of our own pockets, and the government hasn't reimbursed us yet." Steward Qian continued, "The lack of clothing is one thing, but the food shortage is even greater. I heard that the front line has already experienced a camp mutiny once, with soldiers deserting to the enemy's side at night because they were starving."

With morale unstable, the war could not be fought effectively.

Mo Zhejingxuan asked him, "Didn't Xiazhou have favorable weather and abundant harvests in the past two years?"

"Yes, that's right. So the Royal Court ordered Xiazhou to send grain to the front line immediately to address the urgent need. But after three such deliveries, Dunyu's largest granary suddenly caught fire."

"I heard about that in Shihuai; hundreds of thousands of shi of grain went up in flames," He Chunhua said expressionlessly. "When His Majesty received the news, he was so angry he smashed two cups and couldn't sleep all night."

Grain that could have fed the front lines for a year or even half a year was burned to ashes in a single fire. Who wouldn't feel distressed?

A few frozen autumn pears were soaking in a basin nearby. He Lingchuan casually picked one up, then heard Steward Qian chuckle. "Hundreds of thousands of shi? There was no such amount! Ninety percent of it was empty. I have reliable information that there were originally at most twenty thousand shi inside."

"At most!" He held up two fingers. "No one knows the exact amount, not even the officials in charge of grain. After this big fire, everything was settled."

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

"The grain from the Dunyu granary has rarely been used in recent years, so after the autumn harvest each year, it would only be recorded as a fictitious entry in the granary accounts before being sold off privately. Sometimes, old grain was even used to replace newly stored grain," Steward Qian explained. "Last year, no one knew General Nian would betray the country, nor that Xiazhou would suddenly become the front line. A lot of the grain had been trafficked to Xunzhou, leaving the warehouses severely depleted."

Several generals were furious. "So, you're saying the enemy is eating our rice and killing our people?"

"Who was the mastermind?" He Lingchuan munched on his pear. "There must have been a ringleader, and this didn't happen just once or twice, or for only a year or two, did it?"

"Dunyu is the ancestral home of Lord Li Dushan, the Minister of War. His relatives are all here, and their businesses are extensive, so the local government doesn't dare provoke them," Steward Qian swallowed. "The owner of Baoxiang Granary, Xiazhou's largest grain merchant, is surnamed Liu, but the actual controller is the Li family."

"At first, they didn't dare to act overtly; their methods of recording fictitious transactions and replacing grain were small-scale. However, after doing this safely for several years, other families grew envious and followed suit. As everyone started doing it, the accounts became more and more chaotic, and the stock in the granary dwindled."

"That grain official should be executed," Wu Shaoyi said grimly. "Heh heh, it's the same old tricks, the same old stench."

He had previously served under Hong Xiangqian. Hadn't the rebel army risen up precisely because of years of floods and droughts in the south, coupled with the Royal Court's oppressive taxes and levies? They had witnessed these chaotic situations, these schemes, and these tricks many times in the south.

Now he had transformed into an officer in the official army, but the corruption in reality remained.

He Chunhua nodded.

As the saying goes, one can deduce the whole from a small part, let alone Dunyu's old rotten accounts, which had already festered into a massive hole.