The Rebirth of Han Yuxi

Chapter 0807 Complications (1)

By the time the couple returned to the bedroom, the two children had already disappeared. Yun Qing smiled and asked, "Why did you have the children carried away? The bed is big enough for all four of us."

Yuxi replied, "Zaozao is such a restless sleeper. She kicks me several times every night, so it's better if she sleeps in her own little bed." Yuxi had originally only planned to sleep with Liu-er, but Zaozao had refused and insisted on squeezing in with them no matter what. As it turned out, the little girl was a terrible sleeper and would kick people during the night. She might be young, but she was surprisingly strong, and her kicks genuinely hurt.

Yun Qing could not help laughing and dropped the subject. When he was little, he was an extremely restless sleeper himself. He would fall asleep at the head of the bed only to wake up at the foot of it, and he had even fallen out of bed on several occasions. Only after joining the army did he break that bad habit. However, he certainly did not dare tell Yuxi that, or she would start nagging him again.

After the two of them lay down, Yuxi said, "Herui, horses are goods in very high demand outside our territory at the moment, and fine horses in particular are priced but unavailable on the market..."

Before Yuxi could finish, Yun Qing interrupted her. "No." They had very few fine horses as it was, and he wanted to obtain even more. How could he possibly agree to sell them?

Yuxi was badly startled. She expected Yun Qing to object, but she hadn't anticipated such a vehement reaction.

Yun Qing also realised that his attitude had been too harsh. Yuxi wasn't obsessed with money, so she must have had a reason for suggesting this. Lowering his voice, Yun Qing put an arm around her and asked, "Didn't Yongcheng send over a batch of gold at the beginning of the month? Has it all been used already?" He assumed they were short of money, which was why Yuxi wanted to sell horses to raise funds.

Yuxi replied, "Herui, the horses that Yun Shan brings back from beyond the frontier are obtained by bartering goods for them. All that money comes out of our private accounts. I'm not asking to make a profit, but surely we should at least recover our costs!" Yun Shan's business could not be exposed to the light, so the transactions did not go through the official accounts.

In truth, that was merely an excuse Yuxi had made up. Yun Shan had a monopoly on the trade, so even ordinary goods sold beyond the frontier fetched three or four times their usual price, while scarce commodities could yield profits of up to ten times their cost. Even if they failed to recover the cost of the horses themselves, they still would not make a loss.

Yun Qing shook his head without even thinking. "No. These horses must be sent to the horse farms. Not a single one can be sold." Yun Qing's determination stemmed from his own experiences. In the past, when fighting the Northern Barbarians, many soldiers had died beneath the enemy's iron hooves. This pain remained in the hearts of Yun Qing and countless other soldiers from the border regions. Yun Qing's greatest dream was to build a formidable cavalry force capable of standing up to the Northern Barbarians.

From Yun Qing's attitude, Yuxi could tell that continuing the discussion would be pointless. "Since you don't want to, then forget it."

Yun Qing found Yuxi's attitude rather strange. "Even if we're short of money, things haven't reached the point where we need to sell horses, have they? Besides, how much money could we make from selling horses?" Even if each horse fetched a hundred taels of silver, selling a thousand horses would only bring in a hundred thousand taels. For them, that would be like throwing a cup of water onto a cartload of burning firewood.

Yuxi looked up at Yun Qing. "I just think the caravan's range of goods is too limited. We could add a few more types of merchandise." Throughout the entire year, the trading caravan they had established had earned only a little over a hundred thousand taels of silver. Compared with Wu Kuo's operations, they were still far behind.

Yun Qing said, "Anything else is negotiable, but horses absolutely cannot be sold."

Yuxi smiled. "Anything else really is negotiable? Then what if I sold weapons? Would you agree to that?" Even disregarding the superior armour, each of their better swords and sabres could fetch more than a hundred taels of silver on the market.

Yun Qing had promised to replace the soldiers' weapons and equipment, so he had devoted enormous effort to the matter over the past two years. More than half of the blacksmiths in the northwest had been requisitioned, and he had also cast a net to gather another group of blacksmiths from Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangnan and other regions. The weapons these men forged were a grade better than those issued by the Imperial Court. However, the weapons Yuxi said could sell for a hundred taels each were those made by the craftsmen Ji Xuan had left behind.

These craftsmen were exceptionally skilled, so they were given only the finest materials. Every weapon they produced was superb. The only drawback was the limited quantity; even now, they had produced just a little over two thousand sets.

The people Yun Qing cherished most were the trusted men who had followed him through birth and death. Naturally, they were the first people who came to mind.

When the generals received the armour and weapons Yun Qing sent them, their eyes practically shone green. Within two days, Yun Qing began receiving memorials from all of them asking for more of those weapons. When their requests went unanswered, those stationed nearby, such as Du Zheng and Guan Tai, rushed back to Haocheng to plead with Yun Qing in person. In contrast, those farther away, such as Feng Dajun and Liu Yongnan, sent as many as ten memorials a day to Haocheng.

Yun Qing had originally intended to send all the weapons these craftsmen had forged to Yu City. However, the reaction of those around him made him realise that this action would not be entirely appropriate. While the soldiers in Yu City struggled to withstand the fierce Northern Barbarians, those in the border regions of Tongguan and Linzhou also faced foreign enemies they had to defend against. It would be difficult to justify giving the weapons exclusively to Yu City while leaving the other garrisons without any.

Ultimately, Yun Qing reached a compromise: half of these superior weapons would be sent to Yu City, while the other half would be distributed among the various garrisons. Of course, Yun Qing severely punished Du Zheng and Guan Tai for abandoning their posts without permission. Despite the heavy punishment, however, neither man regretted what he had done.

There were many monks, but too little meat. Only around a hundred sets of weapons were released from storage each time, meaning that once they were divided up, each garrison received only a few sets. Thus, whenever the weapons were distributed, everyone watched closely, terrified that they might suffer a loss and receive fewer than the others.

Yun Qing laughed. "I won't stop you, so long as you're not afraid of those thick-skinned fellows pestering you about it." If the men under his command discovered that Yuxi was selling weapons, there was no telling how much resentment they would harbour. Of course, Yun Qing only said this because he knew Yuxi was joking.

How could Yuxi not know what Yun Qing was thinking? She cheekily suggested, "When the weapons leave the storehouse, we can just report a few fewer sets. They would never know." What she had said earlier was truly a joke. The prospect of getting a good price was not the main reason she had considered selling horses. As for weapons and military equipment, those were absolutely out of the question. This was particularly true of the weapons made by that group of craftsmen; they already felt they had too few for their own needs, so how could they possibly have any to sell?

Yun Qing kissed Yuxi and said, "Let's sleep." He had set out before dawn and travelled all day, so he was exhausted.

Seeing how tired Yun Qing was, Yuxi nodded. "All right, let's sleep."

The following day was New Year's Eve. During lunch, Yun Qing told Yuxi, "I've been so busy that I completely forgot to invite Biaodi to spend the New Year with us." Jiang Hongfu was stationed far from home, so New Year's Eve would surely be cold, quiet and desolate for him.

Yuxi responded with amusement, "I wrote him a letter at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month and sent someone to invite him again towards the end of the month. But he said he had too much work and couldn't get away. Since he doesn't want to come, I'm not going to force him." Yuxi had never made mistakes when it came to matters of proper form and outward propriety. Even if she forgot something herself, the people around her would remind her.

Yun Qing said, "It would be good if Biaodi's wife could bring the children here." With his family beside him, at least Jiang Hongfu wouldn't be all alone.

Yuxi smiled. "Biaodi has plenty of people around him, so he won't be lonely. Besides, we're going to the Han residence for New Year's Eve dinner tonight." With so many attendants and advisers around Jiang Hongfu, how could it possibly be quiet and desolate?

That evening, Yuxi and Yun Qing took the two children to the Han residence. Han Jianming had gone to Xihai and hadn't returned yet, while Dasao Ye was still confined to bed with illness. Only when Yuxi arrived at the Han residence did she truly understand what a quiet New Year felt like.

Qiu Shi didn't say much about Han Jianming being away from home for the New Year, mainly because she had grown accustomed to it. In the past, whenever Han Jianming went elsewhere on official business, she would always have her heart raised and her gallbladder hanging, because conditions outside were so chaotic. Now that public order in the northwest was very good and Han Jianming had taken many guards with him, Qiu Shi no longer worried as much.

After finishing their New Year's Eve dinner, the family prepared to leave. Qiu Shi spoke, "Yuxi, stay for a moment. There's something I want to discuss with you."

Yun Qing took Zaozao and Liu-er back to the Yun residence first. Yuxi accompanied Qiu Shi into the inner hall and asked, "Mom, what's so important that it has to be discussed today?"

Qiu Shi sat on the cushioned couch, took Yuxi's hand and revealed, "Ye Shi is pregnant. She's about a month along." When Qiu Shi learned the news two days earlier, she was deeply shaken. She had wanted to summon Yuxi immediately, but Mama Li had persuaded her not to, so she had held herself back until today.

Yuxi's eyes widened. "Dasao is pregnant? Didn't Imperial Physician Yue say before that she would never be able to have another child?" This was truly unexpected. But it was not a pleasant surprise; it was frightening.

Qiu Shi glanced at Yuxi and pursed her lips. "That miraculous medicine you gave me—I gave it to your Dage. He has always felt guilty towards your Dasao, so he gave her the medicine. I only found out about it the day before yesterday." After receiving the medicine from Yuxi, Qiu Shi had given it to Han Jianming to prepare for an unexpected need. She had never imagined that her son would give it to Ye Shi. Even more unexpectedly, the medicine proved so effective that it not only restored Ye Shi's health but also enabled her to become pregnant.

Yuxi hurriedly asked, "Has a physician confirmed it?"

Qiu Shi shook her head. "We haven't called a physician. But judging from her condition, she is almost certainly pregnant." Two days earlier, while Ye Shi was attending Qiu Shi during a meal, she suddenly started to retch. At the time, Qiu Shi had not considered the possibility of pregnancy, but she had immediately called for a physician, whom Ye Shi refused with a pale face. After some questioning, Ye Shi eventually admitted that she was most likely pregnant. She might have been able to conceal it from outsiders, but there was no way she could hide it from Qiu Shi.

Upon hearing this, Yuxi said with a headache, "Mom, Dage hasn't even finished observing the mourning period yet."

Qiu Shi sighed. At the time, Imperial Physician Yue had said Ye Shi could no longer bear children, so the husband and wife had not taken any precautions when they slept together. Who could have imagined that Ye Shi would actually become pregnant after taking the medicine Yuxi had given them? With a troubled expression, Qiu Shi added, "I tried to persuade your Dasao to terminate the pregnancy, but she absolutely refused. She even knelt on the floor and begged me to allow her to give birth to the child." Qiu Shi was soft-hearted. When she saw Ye Shi crying so hard that she fainted, how could she possibly continue to force her to terminate the pregnancy? If her pressure resulted in one corpse and two lost lives, then she would truly have committed a grave sin.

Yuxi fell silent. It was entirely understandable that Ye Shi did not want to end the pregnancy, because this might well be the last child she would ever have. Yuxi suggested, "Let's wait until Dage returns and let him decide what to do." As a daughter who had married out of the family, she would not interfere in the domestic affairs of her maiden household.