Yunnan Province, Corrupt Officials
Even hauling oxcarts loaded to the brim with grain, the journey from Sichuan to Yunnan took no more than a month. The roads between the two provinces were mostly treacherous mountain paths, which was the only reason it took that long; paved highways would have cut the time dramatically.
"Ugh. Makes me want to start a road-building project right now."
Hui-yeom grumbled from his seat in the endlessly rattling carriage.
"At the very least I ought to make some leaf springs—if not full suspensions—and bolt them to the axles. Feeling every single bump through your ass and lower back is just…"
Lee Jinmyeong, seated in the same carriage and flipping through account books, looked up.
"Leaf-spring-what? Plate-axle-something? What is that, Young Master?"
"Homework for Manager Han."
"Ah… ah…"
Jinmyeong's expression turned distant as he stared back toward the Sichuan they had left behind.
Meanwhile Dang Su-jeong kept turning the Hagyeongchong Hui-yeom had gifted her over and over in her hands.
"Do you like the present, Auntie?"
"Mm. It's a bit crude, that's the only flaw. But when I saw that 'bullet' thing fly, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Spinning that fast while it flies…"
Hui-yeom had been impressed when Ye-eun casually noted that the bullet spun; later he was even more shocked to realize that more than a few martial artists in the Dang Family could track the thing with their eyes.
"You're telling me you can see a lump of metal breaking the sound barrier?"
"? A whip breaks the sound barrier too. We watch it, dodge it, and strike with it all the time."
"Ah."
Surprisingly, the first man-made tool to shatter the sound barrier was none other than the whip. The sharp crack when a whip is cracked is the sonic boom created the instant its tip exceeds the speed of sound.
And the Sichuan Dang Family was unmatched under heaven in whip arts such as the Golden Dragon Whip Method and the Eighteen Forms of the Intertwining Dragon Whip. How could anyone claim to practice those techniques if they could not even see the whip they themselves swung?
These murim people aren't even human.
Hui-yeom felt his soul leave his body.
When he looked a little dejected, Su-jeong had laughed and tried to comfort him.
"Still, a whip is long, and you can guess its direction from the wielder's torso and wrist. A gun is different. Hide it in your sleeve, draw it suddenly, and even a Transcendental Peak master would have trouble blocking it. Now that feels like a proper hidden weapon."
Remembering the conversation, Hui-yeom clenched a fist out of sight.
Yunnan has obsidian. I'll grind it into powder, load it into paper shells, and build a double-barrel shotgun. Let's see them track that with the naked eye, you bastards!
In any case, the journey to Yunnan continued in that vein—so uneventful it was almost boring. The Tang Family warriors in their green robes guarded the convoy so tightly that even the infamous Green Forest bandits never dared block the road and demand a toll.
"Is the mountain-road security always this good?"
"Hardly. Even wearing green robes myself, I still run into idiot bandits who pick fights when I travel these paths. It's probably because of the locusts. Look—there's no forest left for cover."
"Ah."
Sitting inside the carriage, he had not fully registered it, but outside the trees were nothing but bare, skeletal branches. The swarm that had marched from Yunnan into Sichuan had left not a single speck of green in its wake.
With no forest, Green Forest bandits had nowhere to hide and wait for a caravan. The caravan would spot them from afar and simply flee, making business extremely inconvenient for the bandits as well.
As Hui-yeom nodded in understanding, Su-jeong added:
"Besides, look how many of our people are wearing Tang Family martial uniforms. Bandits decide whether a target is soft or not by counting heads. With this many, no one will pick a fight."
"I see. Hmm…"
After a moment's thought, Hui-yeom asked,
"Auntie, what if I partnered with the Green Forest, had them open and maintain a road linking Yunnan and Sichuan?"
"Those people~?"
Su-jeong's voice turned sharp with undisguised contempt for bandits.
"Don't even dream of it. People already whisper behind our backs that we use poison and hidden weapons, that we're underhanded and heretical. If we get cozy with the Green Forest, we'll be labeled Black Path overnight. The Emei Sect might stay quiet, but the Qingcheng Sect would jump at the chance to smear us."
"Hmm…"
Realizing that some new business scheme was forming—or nearly forming—in Hui-yeom's head, Ye-eun and Jinmyeong could only watch Su-jeong with silent, desperate encouragement.
In the end Hui-yeom said nothing more.
About half a month after leaving Seongdo, the Tang Family party crossed into Yunnan territory and began passing through villages large and small—only to come face to face with an unexpected catastrophe.
"This is… bad."
The timing could not have been worse. The locusts were one thing, but this was also the height of the lean season before the barley harvest. What little grain remained would not last, and with no barley to reap the villages were steeped in despair.
Dust swirled across fields turned to bare earth. Dead locusts floated in waterlogged paddies, filling the air with the stench of decay. Along the roadside, more locust corpses lay where they had fallen, turning the ground into a slippery mess of slime and fragments that fouled every boot sole.
People who had been sitting like refugees of a fallen nation looked up with round eyes when they saw the Tang Family carts piled high with rice and grain.
"G-grain!"
"Please share some with us!"
"If you won't give it free, at least sell it to us—please!"
"We don't even have seed rice left for next year!"
As the crowd surged forward, Hui-yeom ordered at once,
"Push them back."
"What? But—"
"If we start distributing relief on our own authority, we overstep the Yunnan Provincial Administration Commission. They can make trouble for us later. Even when we give relief, we cannot simply ignore the local yamen. It's regrettable, but there's nothing we can do right now."
The Tang Family martial artists reluctantly forced the people back.
"Do not worry! Every grain of this is meant to help Yunnan. The Yunnan Provincial Administration will bring it back to you in a few days."
Some still refused to accept the explanation and raised a clamor, but when the Tang warriors glared, they finally turned away in defeat.
Ye-eun asked Hui-yeom carefully,
"Won't this throw our calculations off a little?"
"What do you mean?"
"We came to secure a monopoly on Yunnan tea… yet looking at this, the locusts have gone completely mad and stripped both tea plantations and grain fields alike. Is there even any tea left to sell?"
"Ah."
Hui-yeom smiled thinly.
"Don't worry. This year's crop is ruined, yes—but Pu'er is a fermented tea. The cakes that have been aging for years are still sitting in the warehouses."
"Ah, of course."
"Still, it's a pity. I wonder if we'll be able to get any leaf teas like Iron Goddess of Mercy or Biluochun."
After passing several more villages, the party finally reached Kunming.
Kunming, capital of the province just as Seongdo was capital of Sichuan, was normally a bustling city at the starting point of the Silk Road. The Kunming they saw today, however, retained none of that prosperity.
"Like a house of mourning."
That was Hui-yeom's first impression. Gloom dripped from every eave of the great, historic commercial city.
Merchants from outside the province sat in taverns, bewildered by the atmosphere, and talked among themselves without pause.
"They won't buy anything?"
"No. Not pepper, not glassware, not myrrh, not cloves or carpets—nothing. They say the only thing they need is food."
"We came to Yunnan to buy food. What are you talking about?"
"Look at the city—it's wrecked. The locusts swept through. Once the stored rice runs out, people will start starving to death by late autumn. So food comes first. Every tael the province has is going into securing grain; they have no money left for anything else for a while."
"Damn it. What do we do?"
Merchants who looked as though they had come from the Western Regions fretted in fluent Central Plains speech.
…Pepper, glassware. At this point in history, maybe I can even find coffee.
Hui-yeom filed their conversation away in a corner of his mind and headed for the Provincial Administration Commission yamen.
When they arrived at the Yunnan Provincial Administration Commission, a local clerk came out to greet them.
But—
"His Excellency the Provincial Administrator is occupied with official business and cannot receive you at present."
"What?"
"Please rest from your journey. He will invite you to dinner later."
It was the lean season. The rice that should have been harvested was gone. Famine loomed right in front of them. They had brought relief grain, and the man could not even run out barefoot to meet them?
They had already sent a letter in the name of the Sichuan Provincial Administrator.
…
Hui-yeom's expression cooled slightly. He said he understood, then allowed the clerk to show them around the yamen.
Gold-leafed pillars, furniture of purple sandalwood, expensive celadon, marble statues imported from the West—watching these things fill a government office, Hui-yeom's face grew darker and darker.
When he finally saw the dog tied in front of the Administrator's official residence eating from a bowl lacquered bright red and filled with chunks of meat, he let out a hollow laugh.
"Even if the luxurious residence was built with wealth already accumulated… with famine staring us in the face… Looking at this, any grain he obtains will never go to the common people…"
"Pardon?"
"It's nothing."
Hui-yeom thought,
Judging by the yamen, this is a classic, long-time corrupt official. Famine is coming and he's still putting meat in the dog's bowl? This might be even more rotten than I expected.
Honestly, as long as the terms were right, Hui-yeom did not care whether the other party was a corrupt official or a demon from hell. There was one type of person he still preferred to avoid, however: a thoroughly rotten politician.
Politicians always cross the line. Deals only last when both sides respect boundaries, but the moment you treat them well they start overreaching—that's just how they are. From everything I've seen on the road, even if Yunnan's people start starving to death, this man will never give up his corruption… Can I even secure the Yunnan tea monopoly from someone like him?
While Hui-yeom turned the problem over in his mind, evening arrived and the Provincial Administrator sent word inviting Hui-yeom and Dang Su-jeong to dinner.
"So. You are the messenger sent by the Sichuan Provincial Administrator?"
The catfish-faced Yunnan Provincial Administrator stroked his bulging belly as he asked the question.
"I am Dang Hui-yeom, arrived from Sichuan. I carry a letter from His Excellency the Sichuan Provincial Administrator."
Hui-yeom respectfully offered the letter. The Yunnan Administrator accepted it, read it, then made an expression that could have been a frown or a smile.
"Ho… Sichuan suffered so little damage… Heaven's fortune indeed."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
"The letter is clear and orderly. The Sichuan Dang Family… I have heard of your reputation, and it is truly impressive. If only our Yunnan had talents like yours…"
He clicked his tongue and poked at a fatty steamed perch with ivory chopsticks.
Outside, the common people fretted that they would starve through autumn and winter and had no seed grain left for next year, while a high official sat down to a luxurious meal. The sight was hardly pleasant, yet Hui-yeom only smiled brightly.
"You flatter us."
"I am sorry to a guest who has come so far, but this is no time for banquets. May we discuss the relief grain at once?"
"Of course."
"Good. I hear all the relief rice has been moved into the warehouses, yet the amount was smaller than expected. Is that everything?"
Instead of snapping back with "Did you leave it in our care?" Hui-yeom simply nodded.
"As stated in the letter, the Sichuan Provincial Administration Commission has little grain in reserve. They are still paying the Dang Family in grain as deferred payment for the construction of the State-run Ironworks."
By pinning Sichuan's inability to send more relief rice on a "debt" to the Dang Family, Hui-yeom made the Administrator's already narrow eyes grow narrower still.
"So it seems. According to the Sichuan Administrator's letter, your family holds most of Sichuan's grain stores. Hand that grain over to Yunnan. Time is short."
"Of course we will provide it. That is exactly why I came—to conclude a contract."
"A contract?"
The Administrator's eyebrows twitched. He set his chopsticks down with a sharp click, fixed Hui-yeom with a slightly sour look, and said,
"How dare a lowly merchant speak of contracts to me, a Provincial Administrator?"
At the insulting words and the man's displeased face, Su-jeong's eyes turned dangerous. Hui-yeom, however, did not rise to the bait; he only opened his eyes wide in apparent surprise.
"Pardon? What do you mean, Your Excellency? Are you saying we should hand over the grain for free? That is impossible."
"This is a national disaster. The lives of Yunnan's people hang in the balance, and you would throw away righteousness for petty profit? It is the natural duty of subjects to devote themselves to the state! If your family are subjects of the Great Capital, you ought to empty your granaries and save the people."
I never expected him to come out like this.
Deals and all that are out the window—the man is simply not right in the head.
Requisitioning from private citizens who were not even under his jurisdiction, who belonged to another province entirely?
He's beyond saving.
Even a corrupt official could be worked with if he at least understood the basics of a transaction. This went past incompetence or mediocrity into the realm of sheer shamelessness.
Men like this will make a deal and then later act as if nothing happened—"When did I ever say that?"
Hui-yeom reached a swift conclusion.
"In that case, there seems little more to discuss. The grain brought by the Sichuan Provincial Administration was intended for the relief of Yunnan's people, so we will leave it. We ourselves, however, will take our leave."
"You insolent dog! Did you not hear this official's words? I know full well that your lowly family sits on mountains of grain, and you dare try to run away? If you do not immediately surrender every last grain you possess, I will report this to His Majesty and bring ruin upon your insignificant house!"
At first he had at least pretended to observe formal courtesy. Now the Yunnan Provincial Administrator had cast off the mask completely.
Hui-yeom remained unmoved and answered with perfect calm.
"Relief is originally the duty of the state toward its people. Yes, as a great family we may open our warehouses out of a sense of social responsibility. But that is something we do of our own will; no one may force it. Even His Majesty the Emperor does not casually seize the property of the innocent. By what authority, then, does Your Excellency demand that we hand over our assets?"
"Hah! You foolish, ignorant boy. Do you know who stands behind me that you dare wag your tongue so freely? The Thousand-Household of the Criminal Justice Office of the Dongchang is my adoptive father. One word from me and your pitiful family will be wiped out overnight!"
Oh? So he has a backer.
And the Dongchang, no less—one of the most terrifying monsters even in the hellscape of the imperial court. No wonder the Yunnan Administrator could strut around with his neck so stiff.
Even so, the Dongchang cannot casually attack the Sichuan Dang Family, one of the Nine Great Noble Families. And there is no way the entire Dongchang would risk the principle of non-interference between officials and martial artists just because of this idiot's tantrum…
"What? You think the Dongchang will not move? How stupid! When famine comes to Yunnan and people begin to starve, I will report that the Dang Family of Sichuan piled grain to the rafters yet refused to use it for relief, and that they mocked me even when I, the Administrator of Yunnan, begged them! If the Thousand-Household of the Criminal Justice Office then exerts a little effort, do you truly believe the Dongchang will stay idle?"
"……"
Hui-yeom had taken him for a complete dung-brained fool, yet the man still had enough cunning to covet other people's property. That only made him more disgusting.
"What is that look in your eyes? Do you need to see the Dongchang before you come to your senses—!"
"Relief is fine. Then let me ask you this, Your Excellency. Since arriving I have noticed that the pillars of your residence are gilded, that expensive purple sandalwood and marble ornaments lie about everywhere, and that even the dog's bowl is a fine lacquered vessel. Outside, people say they have no rice for tomorrow and starved oxen and horses are dropping dead because there is not a blade of grass left—yet your dog's bowl still has chunks of meat growing cold in it. You live so comfortably; how is it that the provincial warehouses are empty? Why have you not first emptied your private fortune to relieve the people, and instead demand the assets of the Sichuan Dang Family—people of a neighboring province who have no connection to Yunnan whatsoever? Do you not find that a little shameless?"
The Administrator's face turned as red as a ripe persimmon—not from shame, but from rage.
"You little—!!"
His furious roar shook the room, yet Hui-yeom did not so much as flinch. Instead his eyes turned cold.
This is not the twenty-first century; this is the Central Plains. With the knowledge I possess I can accomplish almost anything. At the same time, because this is the Central Plains, outrageous nonsense like this is also possible.
Ridiculous as it was, the Yunnan Administrator's threat contained just enough logic to be dangerous. That was the problem.
If things go the way he says, it becomes a nuisance. Of course we have Lord Bang Un and the Legal Affairs Department on our side, connections with high officials in Sichuan, and the reputation we have built. Our family will never be destroyed the way this man is threatening. Still, if a man with the Dongchang's Thousand-Household of the Criminal Justice Office as his adoptive father foams at the mouth and digs in, it will definitely be troublesome. Therefore…
"I suppose I'll just have to flip the whole board."
"What? What did you just say?"
Hui-yeom took a short breath.
Then—
"I said your ears are so clogged with fat you can't hear properly. Looking at the dirty money you've piled up makes me want to vomit. Why?"
"Y-you little—?!"
Even Su-jeong, who had already been seething at the Administrator's insults, stared at Hui-yeom with shaken pupils, startled by the sudden escalation.
Hui-yeom only smiled with perfect composure and kept scratching the man's insides.
"What, does hearing the truth to your face piss you off, you fat pig?"
"You—little—!!"
The Administrator finally exploded. He overturned the dishes of steamed perch and Peking duck as he bellowed,
"Throw this insolent dog in prison!!"
"Th-thwow this intholent dog in prithon!!"
Hui-yeom mimicked him, refusing to stop the mockery. At the raised voices, officers and constables waiting outside rushed in.
"Lock that one up at once! And you, girl! Go straight back to that pitiful family of yours and deliver my words! If they do not bring the grain immediately, I will cripple this one!"
Soldiers swarmed around Hui-yeom and Su-jeong. Fury flashed in Su-jeong's phoenix eyes and her hand slipped into her sleeve.
At that moment Hui-yeom sent her a sound transmission.
Auntie, hold on. For now we do exactly as these people say.
Hui-yeom, but—!
We came to make a deal, yet they are acting like thugs. What choice do we have? We'll just have to become thugs ourselves and flip the board.
Even after his words, Su-jeong could not hide the unease in her eyes. Hui-yeom only smiled, utterly unperturbed.
Don't worry. I have a plan.