"There are no beggars in Yunbei."
Zhu Changle, who was drinking tea, choked upon hearing this and pointed at Dingding while coughing uncontrollably.
"I'm more surprised than you, okay?" Dingding scoffed. "You think I was covered in mud earlier just for fun? I was helping with some work and managed to gather some information."
"Hurry up and tell me, don't beat around the bush."
"I looked around the streets but couldn't find anyone, so I went to the outskirts. I saw a group of people and thought there might be something interesting going on, but they were just planting vegetables. I'd never seen those vegetables before, and from what they were saying, they weren't growing them for food. Guess what they were for."
Zhu Changle thought for a moment. "To sell?"
"Guess again."
"Just tell me already." Zhu Changle raised her fist threateningly.
Now Dingding was feeling smug. It was rare for him to have the upper hand, and with Lan Ping not around, this was a golden opportunity. He could...
"Alcohol."
Prompted by Qiuli's hint, a light bulb went off in Zhu Changle's head. She clapped her hands together. "I knew I was missing something! Yunbei is dirt poor, people are barely surviving on chaff and beans, how could they possibly have grain to brew alcohol!"
Dingding looked at Qiuli with difficulty and asked, "How did you know? Have you seen those vegetables before?"
"Guess."
Zhu Changle laughed loudly at Dingding's predicament, slapping the table. "Haha, Dingding, how does it feel to be outplayed!"
With Lan Ping gone and Qiuli here, his little friend truly seemed born to be pampered. Dingding secretly felt happy for her in his heart, then snorted and continued, "It is indeed for brewing alcohol, using the roots and stems of those plants. The only thing Gu'an will buy from Yunbei is this alcohol. Note that they come to buy it. If Yunbei dared to transport and sell it elsewhere, not a single jar would make it past the border between the two counties."
Zhu Changle couldn't laugh anymore. "This is even more shameless than me."
"That's not all. They once tried to steal these plants, but for some reason, no matter how carefully they tended to them in Gu'an, they wouldn't grow well. Only then did they give up and leave this lifeline for Yunbei."
"Some lifeline. It's just letting them barely survive, isn't it?" Zhu Changle sneered. "What's the price?"
"Thirty wen for a ten-jin jar."
"Thirty wen!" Zhu Changle cracked her knuckles. "How long have they been selling it?"
"I didn't ask about that. It could be ten years, twenty years, or even fifty years for all we know."
"Well done. Dingding, help me remember this. Later, we'll ask my brother to help calculate the accounts. We'll use the market price to figure out how much silver Gu'an owes Yunbei before this matter can be considered settled!"
Dingding nodded, "Don't worry, I've got it memorized."
"This is the first time I've seen one county bullying another to death like this." Zhu Changle couldn't wrap her head around it no matter how she thought about it. She paced back and forth with her hands on her hips, getting more and more confused.
"It's simply because the country is weak," Qiuli said casually while playing with his fan, cutting straight to the core of the issue. His voice was no longer as hoarse, but he still didn't like to talk much.
Zhu Changle sighed and sat back down. If the country weren't weak, how could it fail to deal with even water bandits?
Dingding said, "Yunbei now has only one usable dock."
"Right, right, I've been to that dock. They say it's the only one in Yunbei, but Yunbei is on the coast, how can there be only one dock?"
"They destroyed all the other places themselves. I went to one of them and saw that not only had they destroyed it, but they had also used bamboo to create barriers about seventy paces out to sea, preventing ships from coming in."
Zhu Changle understood everything now. They used this method to keep the water bandits out. Putting aside the potential cost they might have paid, the benefits were obvious – Yunbei wouldn't be invaded from multiple directions. The one remaining dock was both for their own needs and left for the water bandits.
The person who made this decision was very clever, and more impressively, they had convinced the locals to follow the plan without feeling that leaving this dock was leaving a door open for the water bandits.
"Do you know whose idea this was?"
"The Deputy Magistrate of Yunbei, Luo Ding."
This answer was truly unexpected. Zhu Changle looked at Dingding for confirmation, and he nodded, "Yes, the current one."
"In my imagination, the Deputy Magistrate was supposed to be the villain, someone my father needed to deal with..."
"You think this is some kind of storybook?" Dingding reflexively retorted. He wouldn't tell his friend that when he first heard it, he also thought he had misheard.
"I've got it!" Zhu Changle stood up, slapping the table. Dingding also stood up, slapping the table, "Tell me, who are we fighting?"
"...You!" Zhu Changle gave him a look and ignored him, turning to talk to Qiuli instead. "Ever since we entered Yunbei, I felt something was off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Now I know."
Qiuli played along, "What is it?"
"Do you remember the old lady at the dock saying there were no bad people?"
Qiuli nodded.
"Sayings like 'poverty breeds cunning' and 'harsh environments produce wicked people' have been passed down through the ages for a reason, and I've seen it myself. But Yunbei is so poor they can barely survive, yet the people here don't have that... that uncomfortable feeling about them. They even seem to trust each other quite a bit. Like that old lady, she didn't worry about danger even though she had no source of income. The first thing she said at the dock was that there were no bad people, and those people were indeed protecting her. They thought she was being bullied when they saw her things being thrown and came running over."
Qiuli nodded again, showing he was listening very attentively as Zhu Changle stared at him.
"I clearly indicated that the silver was for the old lady, but he only took a hundred wen. It's very likely that for him, that was already a very high price, already taking advantage of me as an outsider. Poor but not greedy..." Zhu Changle clapped her hands vigorously. "Father has found some good citizens."
"You've only learned this little bit and you're already jumping to conclusions," Dingding poured cold water on her enthusiasm. "Maybe they recognized you early on, so they didn't dare to be greedy? Or maybe someone is putting on a show for your father?"
"That would be your father too."
"My father, my father. The place is so small, we might have been watched as soon as we entered Yunbei territory."
"What you're saying is not impossible." Zhu Changle thought for a moment. "Did you find out anything else?"
"I only went to those two places this morning. Without beggars to use, I lost my source of information."
"To have no beggars in such a poor place, this Deputy Magistrate is quite remarkable. I wonder how father is getting along with him." Zhu Changle muttered to herself. In the end, she cheered up again. "Dingding, don't you think this place is interesting now?"
Dingding grinned. It was extremely interesting. He couldn't wait to figure out Yunbei and see what the real situation was inside.
"Let's rest and recuperate this afternoon, and we'll take action tonight," Zhu Changle said, patting her body. "I didn't bring a map. Okay, Dingding, you take the south and I'll take the north. Feng Jie will take the west, and Qiuli, you take the east. Let's go explore and see what we can find. Focus on places like kitchens and cellars, and search the wealthy households thoroughly."
Qiuli was completely against the idea, but under Zhu Changle's gaze, he gave an almost imperceptible nod.
