Chapter 8- The Red Plume General

Tian needed to sit down after the Elder’s revelations. He wasn’t going to get a chance to.

“We are not in a position to completely dismantle the salt trade in the Broad Sky Kingdom, even if we were to disregard the familial interests of our disciples, but this is unendurable. Junior Wang?”

“Trade with other salt producing nations. The Green Dragon kingdom has oceans, and we share a border on the Northeast. Alternatively find new salt mines domestically that can be exploited more cheaply than the imported salt from Black Iron Gorge.”

“Might as well wish for magically appearing salt in every warehouse. If mines were so easy to find, we would have them already, no?” Elder Feng sounded distinctly cool. “And do you really want to put the noose around the Kingdom’s neck into the hand of another?”

“Better a peer kingdom than heretics, Elder. And mines are hard to find for mortals, but hardly impossible. A heavily funded geological survey of the kingdom would have many benefits, not the least of which is identifying new salt mines. It’s not like boiling brine requires any hidden arts either. Brine springs can be found in the Broad Sky Kingdom even more easily than mines. Once they have been found, it’s just a question of expanding scale and reducing cost to the point where it’s competitive with what Black Iron Gorge is producing.”

“And the social consequences?”

“Temporary, and not our problem. Arguably a net positive if we can increase domestic production.” Wang shook his head. Elder Feng frowned slightly.

“I just told you that the Mountain is one of the Gorge’s biggest customers through the disciples’ family businesses. How is it not our problem?”

“Since when do Monastery rules bend in favor of supporting vice?” Wang’s words were barbed. They all knew a high degree of discretion was employed by the disciplinary squad. A squad made up entirely of hereditary disciples. Who almost all had ties to mortal merchant houses.

“Brother Wang really knows how to stick a knife in from an unexpected direction.” Tian reflected. “It seems he doesn’t like the squad much.”

That got a sniff from Elder Feng. “Juniors Tian, Hong, Su?”

The three shared a look. Hong shook her head. “Brother Wang’s plan sounds better than anything I can think of off the top of my head. Though I will say that there is a serious risk of the country collapsing if we cut off the salt supply too quickly.”

That got her odd looks. “Broad Sky Kingdom is hot, and a lot of it is very humid. Preserving food is hard. We can’t possibly import enough ice for every peasant to use. Without salt, there is a real risk of famine.” She shrugged awkwardly.

“A good point. Junior Su?”

“I would need time to research an answer too. Without sufficient data, we cannot calculate the necessary statistics needed to find the optimal solution. Brother Wang’s plan does provide a starting point, however, and I would assume the kingdom has salt consumption statistics somewhere.”

“Junior Tian?” The Elder’s eyes, and intent, settled on him. Tian thought the air got slightly thinner when she did. Perhaps it was just his imagination.

How to solve this problem? He had absolutely no idea. Nothing in his life or his training had ever prepared him for a question like this, and nothing he read seemed relevant. All he could think of was…

“Poison.” He cupped his hands and slightly bowed.

That brought the room to a halt. “Pardon?”

“Poison, Elder. The salt is poison.”

There were discreet looks of confusion shared around the room.

“Elaborate.”

“New methods of producing salt or trading for salt are good, but it will take a long time and I’m guessing it will be expensive. But we all know the Gorge is the home of heretics, and heretics love their curses and poison arts.” It was one of the stratagems used by the Virtuous Minister Jin of Wu. Brother Fu made him read the biography. “We make everyone think the salt is a slow acting curse, or poison, or both.”

“How do we do that?”

“Hush it up, Elder.”

Now everyone was openly staring at him. Tian felt incredibly awkward and pulled out the book.

“The minister needed to clear the land for a new summer palace for the king, so he convinced the nearby villagers there was a plague. A little laxative in the wells, combined with hastily carting the poorly covered bodies of executed prisoners through the village, set the idea of illness in their mind. The villagers heard the public proclamations that there was no plague in the area, saw how the magistrate was harshly punishing anyone who suggested otherwise, and figured that was as good a proof of plague as there could be. Once the magistrate boarded up his house, and fled in the middle of the night with his three favorite concubines and eldest legitimate son, the villagers couldn’t clear out fast enough.”

Tian flipped to the next page. “The minister got a promotion for that, as well as a reward of new brushes and ink from the palace chamberlain.”

“You wish to perpetrate a huge fraud on the whole of the Broad Sky Kingdom.”

“Not a fraud elder. It’s a teaching lie. The salt has weakened the ability of the kingdom to resist the heretics and harmed the Ancient Crane Monastery. Sounds like a curse or a poison to me.” Tian nodded seriously. He was putting a lot of effort into getting better at metaphors, and his efforts were finally paying off.

“Or, well, there is a simpler option than all those things, but I don’t think the Monastery would go for it.” Tian shrugged helplessly.

“You think it’s less appealing than deceiving a nation of nearly a billion people, causing enormous social panic and devastating who knows how many families in the process?” Elder Feng was giving him a very odd look now, which Tian thought was quite rich coming from an Elder of the Ancient Crane Monastery.

“Yes, Elder.”

“Go on.”

“We do have those big crates of preservation talismans in the Depot. How hard would it be to set up a few workshops and start selling them to mortals?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

That did have her rocking back in her seat. Then she frowned. “You really don’t see a problem with that?”

“Everyone has qi. How much could activating an incredibly basic talisman take?” Tian spread his hands.

“You are right. The Monastery would like that idea even less than adding actual poison to the salt. You haven’t really interacted with any mortals since you rang the Dragon Bell, have you?”

“Not really, no, Elder.”

She nodded slightly. “Each of you will receive a little silver and be sent down into Burning Flag City. Investigate the situation there. See how what you find changes your answers.”

Tian blinked. That was it? That was the scope of the instructions? No… definitely do this or definitely don’t do that? Just “Investigate?” What situation needed investigating? Should they do something based on their investigation?