Chapter 254: A Rich Man
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Two days ago, Fang Wenshi had made big promises to the Dragon King and the tribal chiefs of the Great Snowmountain and presented a list of demands to them. Today, he got more than what he had demanded.
The Great Snowmountain offered him a comfortable carriage, 18 guards and 10,000 taels of gold, but he had to go to the capital of Shu-lik to get the money.
Fang Wenshi was quite satisfied with this arrangement, except for one thing: the Dragon King would go to Shu-lik together with him.
He recalled all the legendary stories he had read about counselors but failed to find any historic precedent for a situation like this. Usually, a counselor would go alone to lobby the enemies of his lord and return after achieving success several days later. As no one would be able to know what the counselor did during the several days, the counselor could always brag about his prowess as a lobbyist. As to the financial support offered by the lord, the counselor could spend the money as he wished and even keep part of it for himself. However, with the Dragon King around, Fang Wenshi was pretty sure that he would not be able to earn a lot during this trip.
"Erm, Dragon King, please forgive my bluntness. I think it's not a good idea for you to leave the Great Snowmountain now, since the situation here isn't very stable," Fang Wenshi said to the Dragon King, trying to persuade him to stay behind.
"Counselor, it's not that I want to supervise your activities. It's just that I have to be personally present in the city to withdraw the 10,000 taels of gold," said Gu Shenwei.
Fang Wenshi could not refute such an argument, so he stopped talking. As for the unstable situation in the Great Snowmountain, Gu Shenwei had already thought it over and made arrangements accordingly.
With the help of the giant red-crowned roc and his superb kung fu skills, Gu Shenwei had brought the five tribes of the Great Snowmountain together a few months ago, but he was well aware that the swordsmen from different tribes still held grudges against one another. Once he left, a trivial disagreement among the swordsmen might lead to the restart of tribal wars.
Despite that, Gu Shenwei still decided to leave for Shu-lik, since he had compelling reasons to do so. First of all, no one else could withdraw the 10,000 taels of gold. Secondly, he had to find a way to ensure there would be adequate military supplies for his army. Last but not least, he could not fully trust Fang Wenshi.
He had made up his mind not to trust anyone a few years ago.
Before his departure, he appointed Long Xiaoshi, chief of the Danduo tribe, as temporary Commander-in-Chief. As Danduo Peak had the largest number of swordsmen and was the strongest of all the five tribes, the other tribal chiefs had no objection to this decision. After that, Gu Shenwei designated Long Qinying, chief of the Luoshen tribe, as supervisor of the army and gave him only one task, which was to ensure that the army would stay inside the camp and never go out to fight the Shu-lik army, no matter how the enemy tried to provoke them.
Gu Shenwei also ordered each chief to assign his most important direct descendant to join this trip. These young people would work as his guards, and in the meantime, Gu Shenwei could hold them as hostages. As all of Long Qinying's direct descendants had been killed during the previous tribal wars, he picked a capable young man from his tribe and publicly designated the man as his successor before sending him to accompany the Dragon King on his journey.
Apart from the successors of the trial chiefs, Gu Shenwei asked each tribe to select two children under 10 to follow him to the capital of Shu-lik. "The Golden Roc Fort likes to steal children from the Great Snowmountain and train them to be professional killers. Why can't we train our own killers and let our children fight for the Great Snowmountain?" said Gu Shenwei.
Soon, many children volunteered to receive the killer training. Gu Shenwei selected 10 of them to accompany him.
All in all, there were 18 guards traveling with Fang Wenshi and they consisted of the successors of the five tribal chiefs, 10 future killers, the Dragon King and his two teenage guards. None of them would take orders from Fang Wenshi. Even the coachman was also a fierce-looking swordsman. He spoke little and did nothing for the counselor except driving the horse-drawn carriage.
Everyone on the team had to carry his own food during the journey. Fang Wenshi had to sit beside his food, which was a pile of jerky, inside his carriage. This kind of food was smelly and hard to chew, and he already had enough of it during his stay in the Dragon King's base camp. A few days ago he had still been on the verge of starvation, but after becoming the military counselor of the Great Snowmountain, he immediately had much higher standards for his food.
After losing three battles, Shu-lik was busy amassing new troops and did not have any plan to attack the Great Snowmountain for the moment. Given that, the Dragon King and his team traveled peacefully in the wilderness for two days. On the third day of their trip, when they stepped onto the main road, they had to hide their heavy swords inside the carriage since there were many other travelers on that road.
With the swords placed inside, the free space inside the carriage became much lesser. Fang Wenshi had to sit still to avoid being wounded by the weapons.
When they arrived at a town, Gu Shenwei hired two carriages to transport the ten children. Beyond his expectations, this caused a little trouble for him. The children from the Great Snowmountain were ashamed of traveling by coaches and insisted on walking by themselves. In the end, it was the five future tribe leaders who persuaded them using all possible means and finally got all of them into the carriages.
Fang Wenshi, who eagerly looked forward to working as a lobbyist, took all these temporary frustrations as blessings in disguise, except for one thing: the silence in the team. Sometimes, he found it really hard to endure the trip, for he had no one to talk to. The Dragon King was a man of few words, and so were his swordsmen. They could travel for a whole day without saying a word. Only Tie Linglong, a lively girl, often chatted with the military counsellor, but a little girl like her could not understand Fang Wenshi's political and military analysis. As she was more interested in the roadside flowers, Fang Wenshi searched his memory for quaint names and made up many stories about them to intrigue the girl. Apart from talking to Tie Linglong, he could only keep his mouth busy by chewing on his jerky.
On the 13th day of their trip, the team finally saw the capital of Shu-lik in distance. After finishing eating his last piece of jerky, Fang Wenshi said to his lord, "Dragon King, please forgive me for being so blunt, but we really can't enter the city like this."
"Why?" asked Gu Shenwei.
"Look at all these people, excluding you, of course. Everyone can tell at a glance that they're from the Great Snowmountain. I'm afraid that we'll be put into prison before we meet any powerful people in this country."
"Don't worry. I've prepared for such a situation."
Upon hearing that, Fang Wenshi could not ask any further questions regarding this situation, but he still doubted that his young lord had got everything ready beforehand.
That day, the team did not enter the city. Instead, they went to a secluded manor in the suburbs. Before they arrived at the manor, the servants there had already prepared new clothes and a rich banquet for them.
The team members took a bath and then put on their new clothes. People from the Great Snowmountain looked very uncomfortable in these clothes since they were not used to wearing these soft cotton clothes. They kept rubbing their bare necks or pulling the corners of their garments, feeling that this kind of fabric was not so good as felt and leather.
Only Fang Wen felt much better after changing into his new clothes. He thought that now he finally looked like a professional counsellor. He had new clothes, new shoes, and a feather fan. He also enjoyed the banquet very much. In his eyes, the dishes served during the banquet were far more tasty than jerky. However, he did not get carried away in the moment. After the banquet, he immediately went back into his own room to practice his debating skills and body language in front of a mirror, for he had not debated with anyone for a long time.
In the evening, he went to meet with the Dragon King and a famous merchant who would provide him 10,000 taels of gold.
That merchant was Xu Xiaoyi, who had come to the capital of Shu-lik two years ago. He frequently used his original name Xu Yi now, and had become a tycoon in the city.
Even though he was a tycoon now, he was still tiny. In order to make himself look more mature, he grew a mustache, but his small figure still clearly indicated that he was a young man. Fooled by his appearance, many people believed that they could easily deceive this youth, but they always ended up losing money to him.
Xu Xiaoyi had known who were in this team beforehand and prepared presents for everyone. He especially prepared more gifts for the military counsellor to show his respect, however, when the counsellor asked him for the 10,000 taels of gold, he frowned and looked hesitant. "There's a slight problem. We've spent a lot on the military supplies, and we still need money to bribe the guards at the city gates. The furs and herbal medicines from the Great Snowmountain aren't worth very much. If we take that much money out of our account, Brother Huan, we won't have enough money to do business."
Fang Wenshi had expected the merchant to be reluctant to accede to such a request. After all, 10,000 taels of gold was a staggering sum of money for any merchant. He had prepared himself for this situation and figured out a way to persuade the wealthy man beforehand. "From a business perspective, fighting for regional hegemony is also a profitable business. If we invested 10,000 taels of gold in it now, we'll possibly earn 20,000 or even 100,000 taels of gold the next year."
"I'm sure we can earn 15,000 tales of gold if we invest the money in my business. We can use it to buy some spices and jade, and then we can transport them to the Central Plain to be sold. After that we can use the money to buy silks in the Central Plain and bring them back here to sell," said Xu Xiaoyi. Now, he was a shrewd businessman who was adept at controlling risks and had no interests in the things that could "possibly" happen.
Personally, Gu Shenwei did not care much about money, but as a leader, he had to take this thing into consideration. "Give Mr. Fang 10,000 taels of gold. I'll find a way to pay you back," said the Dragon King.
Xu Xiaoyi accepted the order without any complaint, but he still felt a little resistant to the idea. Although all his start-up capital was provided by his Brother Huan, he had earned a lot of money with it from his own effort in the past few years. Fang Wenshi noticed that the rich man seemed to be very close to the Dragon King, so he decided to further explain the situation to win the merchant's favor. "Mr. Xu, please rest assured. I'll put the money to good use. Now that the younger brother of the king is the most powerful official in this country, we have to bribe him to get a chance to meet the king. He's a venal and lecherous man. I'm afraid that 10,000 taels of gold is a must."
"Lecherous? Alas, I really wish that my sister was here right now," sighed Xu Xiaoyi, still feeling reluctant to give the counselor 10,000 taels of gold.
Fang Wenshi was not sure if the rich man was just joking, so he made no response.
Suddenly, Xu Xiaoyi patted his own forehead and asked, "Counselor, the younger brother of the king that you mentioned just now is Prime Minister Shi, isn't he?"
"Yes, what I was talking about is Shi Xian, Prime Minister Shi. In Shu-lik, half of the government decrees are his decisions," said Fang Wenshi, assertively, although he had just heard about this thing from others.
Much to the counsellor's relief, Xu Xiaoyi did not continue to talk about Shi Xian, as he thought of another thing. "If it's him, I think 10,000 taels of gold isn't very much. I heard that the Golden Roc Fort sent a team to Shu-lik, and now the team members are living in the Prime Minister's mansion," said Xu Xiaoyi.
"Who are the team members?" asked Gu Shenwei.
"I've not gotten the name list yet, but I'm sure that the Second Young Master Shangguan Tian came here. I also heard that there's another young master, who seems to be called Master Hong. What a coincidence. They came to this city almost at the same time as you guys. They arrived in the city yesterday."
Gu Shenwei was not afraid of Shangguan Tian and Shangguan Hong at all. He cared more about another person. "Is Zhang Ji in that team?" asked Gu Shenwei.
"I don't know, but please rest assured. Some of my people are working on it. I'll get the name list tomorrow morning."
"Is Zhang Ji a skilled killer?" asked Fang Wenshi, worriedly. He was confident in his own ability to talk himself out of trouble at any time except when faced with a ruthless killer, who would never talk to him.
"No, Zhang Ji is also a counselor," replied Gu Shenwei. Back in Golden Roc Fort, Zhang Ji had once taught him many useful things, but now he could not determine whether Zhang Ji was a friend or a foe.
Upon hearing that Zhang Ji was just a counselor, Fang Wenshi felt much relaxed. He patted his chest and said boldly, "Trust me, Dragon King, I'll..."
Before Fang Wenshi finished his sentence, the Dragon King's face changed, and he dashed out of the room, leaving the counselor speaking to empty air.
Xu Xiaoyi, who had undergone similar experiences before, immediately blew out the candle and hid under the table. Compared to his property, he cared more about his own life.
Fang Wenshi, who did not have much jianghu experience, was more curious than afraid at this moment. He sneaked to the door and looked outside.
Surprisingly, he did not see anyone in the yard not even the Dragon King.
He felt bewildered. Suddenly, a person appeared out of nowhere, and what happened subsequently frightened him so much that he did not dare to see the Dragon King fighting anymore.
Gu Shenwei had been hiding behind a potted plant all this while and darted toward the person as soon as that person popped out. He cut off the person's head with one strike, leaving the headless body standing in the place. After a large amount of blood gushed out of the person's neck, the body finally fell down to the ground.
After killing the person in the yard, Gu Shenwei saw Chu Nanping appear on the roof, with a human head in his hand. The boy gave him a nod to confirm that they had already killed all the intruders.
Although neither of the two intruders were kung fu masters, Gu Shenwei still felt great after this fight. He just missed the feeling of killing someone in a fight. Now he felt as if he was a wanderer who was finally returning to his hometown. He was very excited to feel like this again.
"Chief of the Dragons and Leader of the Five Peaks" was just a mask he sometimes wore. Now he was a killer again.