Chapter 134

Chapter 134

Book 3, Chapter 29 (Part 6)

Duan Ling had thought that once Wu Du had found him, he would give him a huge lecture since he really was too careless, so much so that Wu Du even ended up getting shot because of him.

“I’m sorry,” Duan Ling says, “It was careless of me.”

“Just be more careful next time. It’s my fault for not keeping an eye on you. Good thing you’re alright.”

Hearing Wu Du say that makes Duan Ling feel more guilty than ever; with a moment’s reflection, he leans over and gives Wu Du another kiss. Wu Du on the other hand simply smiles and gives Duan Ling a pat on the head, handing him a bowl of congee. At that very moment, Duan Ling thinks that sometimes Wu Du is so much like his father that it’s uncanny.

“You were riding Benxiao.” Duan Ling says, “Even if it’s just on account of my …”

“Shh.” Wu Du signals for him to speak quieter.

Duan Ling takes a sip of his congee and whispers, “They didn’t help you save me on account of the late emperor’s beloved horse?”

“When I first got into the city I nearly got stabbed. They asked me where I stole the horse from.”

Duan Ling drops his forehead into his hand, entirely speechless.

Wu Du laughs at himself, “All the rumours from before said that I was the one who got the late emperor killed. You can even say my reputation’s basically in the gutter.”

“I’m sorry,” Duan Ling says.

In Duan Ling’s heart, the Northern Command is his father’s former army, so in some sense, they’re also his subordinates as well, and it’s far too rude of them to treat Wu Du this way. Of course, Wu Du is not about to be offended by the likes of those army riffraff, and he waves a hand to let Duan Ling know it’s quite alright.

“What’s it got to do with you?” Wu Du says, “I’ll just have to beat some obedience into them.”

He both rides the late emperor’s horse and mounts the late emperor’s son, so naturally, he’s not going to think very highly of a bunch of army thugs.

Duan Ling finishes three big bowls of congee made with old ginger and tender chicken, and immediately feels much better.

“You full? Want more? I got them to butcher a chicken. Everything’s expensive here so right now all we can afford to eat is chicken. Every household is keeping them.”

“I’m done.” Duan Ling notices that Wu Du has improved in his cooking by leaps and bounds.

Wu Du tells him with a smile, “Zheng Yan taught me how.”

“The renovation on this governor’s estate is rather well done,” Duan Ling says. “Everyone in the city is so poor. Only the estate uses such high-quality wood.”

“There was a mutiny,” Wu Du says. “After the governor was taken by the Mongols, under the leadership of the lieutenants the soldiers stole all the valuables out of the estate. Most everything’s been taken down and sold to pay the army.”

Duan Ling stares at him in stunned silence, thinking to himself, Huang Jian was perfectly correct; Ye really is a den of wolves.

“What do you want to do now that you’re full?” Wu Du says, staring at Duan Ling.

“I want a bath. I got soaked in the rain and it feels gross.”

“Your lord will help you wash up.” Wu Du comes up and wraps his arms around Duan Ling, leaning in to kiss his neck.

Duan Ling immediately flushes crimson; he doesn’t have to think very far to know how Wu Du wants to “wash” him, so he hastens to say, “You’re still injured! Quit messing around!”

“Hurry up and eat something,” Duan Ling adds.

Laughing, Wu Du moves away to get some congee. Duan Ling stares at him from nearby, and when Wu Du catches a glimpse of him without meaning to, he says, “Governor, you look like a little puppy. It’s not even dawn yet. It’ll be a while before anyone will be around to boil water.”

“Oh forget it, I won’t make them go through the trouble.” Duan Ling gets a wet towel to wipe himself down with. Thus Wu Du puts down his bowl and takes off Duan Ling’s clothes for him, and gropes him all over while wiping him down at the same time; the two of them indulge in an intimate, lingering kiss. Quite a bit of time passes this way, and it’s only by Duan Ling’s repeated insistence that Wu Du agrees to hold it and wait until he’s better.

Day breaks, but Duan Ling hasn’t finished putting his mind in order yet. Wu Du is still wounded, and there’s already a gigantic pile of problems right there waiting for him.

He assumes his position today, and every item placed before him is beyond his abilities, each one more preposterous than the last.

The first thing he must do is compensate the commoners for one hundred and twenty heads of cattle.

Secondly, he must guard against Batu and the Mongols, for they may show up at any time to break down his city walls, kill his people, capture their wives, and burn their villages.

Thirdly, he has to gather eighteen thousand taels of silver and pay his father’s former subordinates their salaries, otherwise, they’d overthrow his rule, level the Governor’s Estate, dismantle his roof beams, cart away his pillars, and take the wood to start their fires — they may even carry him off to comfort the soldiers with.

Lastly, he has to prepare fifty-thousand shi of grain2, otherwise, they can’t get through this winter. As soon as refugees start arriving from the north everyone is going to starve to death in the northern wind.

Of course, Duan Ling himself isn’t going to starve to death; Wu Du would steal food for him, and if they ever really run out of food to steal, he can even eat Wu Du …

All eyes are on their new governor and commandant, the one in charge of internal problems and the one in charge of external strife, wondering how on earth they’re going to deal with everything. The treasury is entirely empty, the city walls are in need of urgent repairs, the Mongols have abandoned their camp and their current whereabouts are unknown — presumably out looting and pillaging.

Duan Ling can’t help but feel rather curious as to why Wu Du hasn’t asked any questions about Batu. But when it comes to this, Wu Du is quite clever — he doesn’t really bring up irrelevant people. Perhaps it is exactly because Duan Ling had seldom brought up Batu that Wu Du hasn’t yet started feeling on edge when it comes to him.

Let’s hope Batu doesn’t come back. Duan Ling sighs inwardly — how did things ever turn out like this?

Lin Yunqi and Sun Ting each take a seat to either side of him while the rest are those who came with him from Jiangzhou: Wang Zheng, Yan Di — their own people.

Wu Du, meanwhile, is leaning back languidly on the daybed next to Duan Ling just like the way he used to at the chancellor’s estate, wearing a blue robe open at the chest. He’s watching the rain outside, thinking. Perhaps he’s thinking about how he’s going to punish the Ye army.

Sitting by them, Sun Ting looks at Wu Du, turns his gaze to Duan Ling, and opens his mouth as though he wants to say something, but he can’t seem to figure out where to begin. His eyes are showing obvious worry.

Even if he didn’t quite ask for this particular Governor, this Governor did come here because of him. Can he do a good job? Duan Ling can tell what Sun Ting is worried about — nothing more than finding Duan Ling too young, and that there’s no way he can take care of all the problems Ye has. And yet, governing a city as an official is much like learning and training in the martial arts, each requires its own education, each requires its own set of skills. What someone who becomes an official must do first, and what they must do after, are things that the official must be very well aware of.

Duan Ling begins with his first task. “Wang Zheng, you will go to the Yamen3 and take charge of trials and sentencing. Send the rest of our people to work in the Yamen — go with the certificate of appointment. Go now.”

Though Lin Yunqi is his labour manager when it comes to the allocation of jobs he must still go along with Duan Ling, so he writes this down now. Wang Zheng takes Duan Ling’s orders and heads to his new job.

“Our bookkeep isn’t here yet,” Duan Ling says, “Yunqi, take charge of the treasury for now and make an inventory. Go over the deficits and surpluses over the years.”

Lin Yunqi takes his order and leaves as well.

Duan Ling says to Sun Ting, “Sun Ting, you and I were brought together by fate, thus I’ll leave this estate in your hands. Go pick out ten men to act as bodyguards for the estate.”

Duan Ling glances at Wu Du. Wu Du is still lost in thought, staring out at the rain, but Duan Ling knows he heard; the truth is, with Wu Du around, how many guards they have in the estate doesn’t really matter to him.

Sun Ting says, “My lord, you have no idea what these veteran soldiers are like. Bringing them in here like this, if they ever offended you …”

“It’ll be fine. Go on. There’s an extra monthly salary of two shi for whoever’s willing to come work in the estate.”

And so Sun Ting takes his order and leaves as well.

“Yan Di.” After thinking for a moment, Duan Ling says, “I’ll give you three days to take a look at the walls. We’ll have to reinforce them before autumn comes. The trenches and the anti-cavalry spikes will need an overhaul as well. Aside from those, the archery towers, the areas outside the city gates, the fences, sentry towers — come up with a list as to how to repair them, how much money you need, how many people you’ll need, and give it to Yunqi. As for how many people you’ll need to hire for the construction work and how many days you’ll need them for, make a list and give it to Wu Du.”

Yan Di replies, “Certainly.”

Duan Ling adds, “Go see Yunqi for ten taels of silver. You can buy a round of drinks for the soldiers in the city.”

Yan Di also heads off to his work then, leaving Duan Ling and Wu Du by themselves. For a while, neither of them speak whilst Duan Ling flips through the official diary that the last governor left behind. The diary entries were written by the governor himself or the legal advisor, jotting down what he did every day, how the administrative tasks went and so on. Duan Ling flips through it for a while and something suddenly occurs to him. “Did this former governor have no family?”

“No idea,” Wu Du says, “A married couple are merely birds who flock together. When catastrophe struck each flew its own way, I guess.”

Duan Ling’s a bit lost for words. Wu Du comes back from his thoughts and says, “What are you forming a team of bodyguards for? And you’ll be paying them an extra two shi of rice too.”

“We’re newly appointed and fresh on the job, so nobody outside of the estate is going to know what we’re doing and what we’re saying on a day to day basis. Form a group of ten guards, and they’ll move about in the estate all day long. Once they realise what kind of a person I am, they’ll definitely talk about me when they’re out. News travels fast in a military camp, among army thugs especially. They’ll definitely gossip. This way, they won’t be left guessing.”

Duan Ling knows that if he wants the people of Ye to trust them, the one thing he must do is to let them watch. They’ll only feel assured if they know what he’s doing.

“Yeah. But once there are bodyguards around, I won’t be able to grope you anymore.”

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Duan Ling teases him. “If you really want to grope me in front of the bodyguards, well, first of all, I’m no match for you in a fight. Second, all my bodyguards are no match for you in a fight either — there’s not a single person in this city who’s a match for you in a fight. So if you feel like groping me in front of anyone, isn’t that all up to you anyway?”

Wu Du is in the middle of drinking tea, and at this he does a spit take, his cheeks reddening. He was hoping to tease Duan Ling a bit, but it seems he’s the one who’s been made fun of instead.

Soon enough, Sun Ting comes in with ten people. They bow at Duan Ling and Wu Du, but Wu Du merely sweeps over them with one look without saying anything. Sun Ting assigns them day and night shifts of five at a time, with two keeping watch outside, two on patrol, and one remaining outside the door in case they need someone to run errands. Duan Ling is happy with this arrangement and tells Sun Ting to go get Lin Yunqi, put them on the payroll.

Lin Yunqi returns from making an inventory in the treasury, and it is just as Wu Du expected — there’s not a single copper left in the treasury and the local government even owes the commoners a lot of money. All the valuables in the estate have already been sold, but there’s still a couple of teacups left.

“Was the governor a bachelor?” Duan Ling doesn’t think that’s likely.

“The governor had four concubines,” Lin Yunqi says. “Three eloped with soldiers, one carried off her valuables and left with a bandit. His principal wife is from Qiongzhou, and when she heard that the governor had been lost behind enemy lines, she took her son and had herself escorted back to her parent’s house. She never sent any messages back, so we have no idea what happened to her.”

Duan Ling thinks, wow, it really is like a tree falling in the forest and all the macaques running off. “It seems Lord Lu really milked his people dry while he was governor, huh.”

Lin Yunqi didn’t expect Duan Ling to tell it exactly like it is, and he seems a bit awkward as he says, “Um … Lord Wang … there’s quite a number of receipts here. They’re for money the commoners borrowed from him when Lord Lu was alive … uh no, I meant when he was in office.”

“Looks like this is how it worked,” Duan Ling says, “he borrowed money from the commoners, but then he also acted as a loan shark and lent it back out at high interest. Tsk tsk. Quite the business he had going there.”

Lin Yunqi is tactful and smooth, and Duan Ling doesn’t say anything more. He takes the inventory from him and finds it filled with red characters written in cinnabar as well as a bundle of IOU slips.

Lin Yunqi says, “There are more loans than debts so I’m sure there’s enough here to cancel the debts out.”

Duan Ling ponders this for a moment. “The money and grain we brought from Jiangzhou … If we count the official salary by grain that’s more than two thousand shi isn’t it?”

“We didn’t spend much on the road.” Lin Yunqi replies, “You and the commandant are both officials of fourth rank proper, so that’s two thousand two hundred and eighty shi. Converted to silver that’s a thousand and one hundred taels.”

Both Governor and Commandant are positions of fourth rank proper, and Duan Ling is paid a yearly salary of one thousand and one hundred shi in rice. Meanwhile, because Wu Du is a Commandant General, he’s given an extra eighty shi to make up for the repair and replacement of arms and armour, so together it’s converted to one thousand and one hundred taels of silver.

“Draw a thousand taels from the office.” Duan Ling says, “Let’s just repay all of Lord Lu’s debts for now. As for the notes for those loans …”

Duan Ling looks at Wu Du, and Wu Du looks back at Duan Ling. He says bewilderingly, “What are you looking at me for?”

Duan Ling is rather wordless, and he can but say, “Give us a moment.”

He’d just got his bodyguards and he’s already telling them to step outside. Though Duan Ling had decided to leave things open between him and the people, he can only speak behind closed doors for a moment. After a little while, once Duan Ling finishes their discussion, everyone comes back in again.

“Sun Ting,” Wu Du says, “take these loan notes, go to the main street where the market is, gather the commoners and burn the notes in front of them.”

Sun Ting is utterly flabbergasted, but Lin Yunqi has already guessed that’s what Duan LIng would do, and he nods with a smile.

Sun Ting says, “Then what will you eat, My Lord?”

“The master of the house has the final say.” Duan Ling says, “You don’t have to fret on his behalf. Remember to tell them it’s the commandant’s idea.”

Sun Ting says immediately, “General, thank you very much on behalf of everyone in the city!”

After Sun Ting has gone, Lin Yunqi says, “My Lord …”

“Eighty taels a year,” Duan Ling says, “If we’re frugal, that’ll be enough to feed us.”

“No, My Lord, I was merely going to remind you that we still have to think of some way to return the commoners’ bulls.”

I’d almost forgotten all about that, Duan Ling thinks. “I’ll figure out something.”

One head of cattle costs three thousand coppers, so that’s two and an eighth taels of silver. Duan Ling has a slight headache. He’ll have to figure out some other way to compensate them.

Wu Du says, “I was the one who borrowed the bulls, it’s got nothing to do with the governor. When the time comes, I’ll go till the land for them; just call me when they start and loop that plough right over my neck.”

Duan Ling can’t help himself, he laughs so hard his stomach hurts. Lin Yunqi knows Wu Du is only joking. “Lord Commandant, I’m sure you already know what to do about it. I was just reminding you.”

Duan Ling knows Wu Du is annoyed at Lin Yunqi for talking too much and nagging, so he sends him away to get some rest — likely nothing else will need him today.

Wu Du says, “Are we done here?”

“For now. I’ll have to think of something.”

“My turn, then.” Wu Du says, “Hey, you, the one who’s supposed to run errands. Call in those two lieutenants, remind them to make sure they have poultices and medicinal wine for bruises and such handy. If they have some treasured item passed down by their ancestors like a heart shield or some sort of armour, make sure to put all the good stuff on. Get me a couple of trauma doctors, tell them to bring stretchers and wait in the courtyard. I’m not going to beat around the bush here — I’m going to start beating people.”

Duan Ling stares at him in stunned silence.

I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

One shi is about 60 litres. ↩︎

A Yamen was your one-stop-shop local police/judge/jail, often presided by a magistrate. ↩︎