Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The Meng and Liu families have no enmity?

Of course, they do, moreover it is one hatred that is unresolved!

That year when Meng Liang died tragically, Meng Zhan conducted the funeral for his son and almost vomited blood. After the grand funeral, he fell gravely sick and became bedridden. He had completed the task with much difficulty as he felt that Meng Liang’s death was rather mysterious.

He understood what Meng Hun was like. Although he was given an opportunity to be raised to the position of county military chief of Meng county, he stayed true to his personality. He is honest and upright and doesn’t possess the ability to scheme and manipulate the situation. Let alone stepping forward to sow discord, he didn’t possess the ability to be “despicable”.

More than that, numerous manpower was required to launch an ambush to seize their grain. When Meng Hun fled Meng county, he brought along many men but those were injured soldiers and defeated generals. Many died along the way or were gravely injured. How could they possess the ability to fight against the elite soldiers of the Meng family, how much more humiliation would they endure in the process?

When Meng Zhan was sickly, he repeatedly aired his grievances. He felt that things were not so simple and that there must be a mastermind behind Meng Hun. Slowly, he recovered then sent men to Hejian to investigate and seek information. But Cangzhou where the Meng family lived is very distant from Hejian, so even with a swift horse, it takes one month to go and return. Exchanging letters was too slow a process.

When Meng Zhan started to suspect Liu She, he was already the head investigation officer in Shangjing, then he gave up his official position as the county chief of Hu county to be honourably promoted as the magistrate of Chongzhou. Shortly after the investigation ended, he was promoted and sent to the borders of Dongqing. He had made big strides across Dongqing’s territory from the south to the north.

As for Meng Hun?

Back then, Meng Hun had already led thousands of troops to Chongzhou to hide from the chaotic situation. At that time, he failed to identify the spy in the Meng family.

Meng Zhan initially wanted to attack the Liu family. He tested Liu She’s reaction, after all he had no evidence in his hands to prove that Liu She instigated Meng Hun to murder Meng Liang. However, the Liu family of Hejian wasn’t the average family, and critically, Liu She was stationed at Chongzhou and his son studied at Langya county.

Coincidentally, the Emperor had already diminished the power of the Count of Zhenbei. Thus, there must be a trustworthy man to assume the military power.

The Mengs’ were the best choice and this incident diverted Meng Zhan’s attention.

Half a year later, Meng Zhan received news that there was a valiant general named Meng Hun within the borders of Fengyi county who had led his troops to conquer Maolin district.

Meng Hun? He was still alive?

Meng Zhan was excited so he hastily sent men to investigate, going back and forth took many days until he finally discovered the truth.

Meng Hun was still the same old person, once the county military chief of Meng county yet he was now vanguard battalion commander under Liu Xi.

Who is Liu Xi? Liu She’s only son. Who is Meng Hun?

The one who murdered Meng Liang, mocked Cangzhou, and the main sinner who gained possession of all the grain by trickery. With those two together, Meng Zhan didn’t need any evidence for him to ascertain that the one who murdered Meng Liang back then was Liu She!

Four to five years had passed but he had never forgotten the idea of revenging his son’s death. Whenever he recalled how his precious son bled to death, the stench of a decomposing corpse lying in that cold coffin, his anger cannot be appeased… Although he and Liu She were both imperfect, how can this person be so cruel as to demand Meng Liang’s life?

What Meng Liang meant to Meng Zhan is no less precious than who Liu Xi is to Liu She! Gaining revenge by killing one’s son is unforgivable!

Meng Zhan originally planned to stay away from the fight between Prince Changshou and the Emperor, but he had placed one foot into this complicated situation. He was prepared to use this as an opportunity to help one side of the camp defeat the other. When that time comes, he’ll make trouble for Liu She’s entire family. Who knows if the Emperor will keep his words or if he’ll be bewitched by his concubines to act otherwise.

Reluctantly, Meng Zhan could only change his loyalties and abandon the Emperor to join hands with Prince Changshou. By killing his son, he has been provoked and he wants to exterminate the entire Liu family…

An innocent Liu She had to bear the consequences for Jiang Pengji. Yet the Meng family aren’t the only ones harmed by Jiang Pengji.

At the north border far away, another disaster is brewing.

The King of the royal family indeed lives up to his name. He fought and left a bloody trail, elevating himself from being part of the imperial family to being enthroned as the King of the north borders, he still has it in him.

The losses at the horse stables cannot be salvaged. Numerous warhorses that died left one’s heart bleeding in excruciating pain. Presently it is imperative to find a solution to stabilise the situation, to minimise the loss for every herdsman and every tribe. The compensation naturally involves money. Speaking of money, the faces of the merchants at the north borders have increasingly turned pale.

In order to resist the foreign merchants and protect the incentives for the locals, the King of the royal family ordered all the different businesses to be consolidated as one based on the “sage” Wu Liba’s suggestion. Thus the business association was formed and they could support each other and increase competitiveness amongst the local businessmen.

Nonetheless, since there are advantages for the merchants to form an association, naturally there are disadvantages also.

They saw the value of this “coloured glass of the heavenly palace”. After observing for a while, they joined forces to take over the goods in Gu Xin’s treasure house. They were prepared to adopt Gu Xin’s business strategies of “selling at the opportune moment” and “making their customers hungry”. Except they had only began earning some money when the horse plague happened. Thereafter, the deaths of countless warhorses occurred and the horse stables suffered huge losses.

This meant that gold and silver ingots were required to fill the black hole and they were astounded when they discovered their cash flow of gold and silver coins was not even one quarter of the usual amount.

The merchants in the north borderlines were indeed affluent. But their assets lay in the various businesses they had, the horse stables, warhorses, horse breeding, businesses on the go, precious commodities. These things had worth equivalent to gold and silver and of course the business association in the north borders are rich enough to compete with countries, but speaking of the money in their hands…

Clap,clap,clap —

“Where’s the money? Did you use it for your own agenda?”

The chief storekeeper smacked the table, he was madly infuriated.

The young manager trembled as he chattered in fear. “Even if you gave me courage, I wouldn’t dare do this…”

The chief storekeeper was raging mad; he grabbed the accounts handed to him and read through them speedily.

The accounts tallied, but where did the money earned by the business association go? When he reached the end of the accounts, the chief storekeeper’s face turned pale white and he said helplessly, “Think of how to sell off all the ‘the coloured glass of the heavenly palace’…”

The young manager anxiously said, “But —”

The head storekeeper interrupted saying, “There is no but, the crucial thing now is to raise the sum of money which our leaders require.”

Everyone knew that “the coloured glass of the heavenly palace” was invaluable, the gold and precious stones dared not compete with it. If given another few years, their worth will rise. Since they used 30% of the value to defraud Gu Xin, even if they were sold at the original market price, they would only make a profit and not a loss.

They won’t have to make any refunds; they could even earn a huge sum of cash. They all understood this logic. Unfortunately, there’s not much time, they cannot wait anymore. There was nothing they could do except to hard sell this “coloured glass of the heavenly palace’” to exchange for gold and silver.

At that moment, they discovered an extremely awkward matter.

Most of the wealthy women in the north borders hailede from noble families. Most of the business establishments were also owned by these women’s families. They were not required to pay using precious silver and jewellery when they purchased the “coloured glass of the heavenly palace”. Instead it was recorded as “charged to an account”, “owed” or “goods have been taken”. There was a minority who used money from the business establishment to pay for their goods though they were deem edto have paid with cash. How was there any transfer of cashflow to speak of?

Amongst them, Madam Wu Liba is the most generous; she purchased 10 sets of hair accessories in one sitting.

However, the business establishment didn’t receive even a single cent, instead they got a stack of “owed” slips…

From a rich lady’s perspective, the business establishment was started by her family which was then deemed as her source of money. Why would she need to pay when purchasing something?