A short while later, Xie Xia returned to the dock with her men. She watched from a distance as her third uncle returned looking disheveled, with several wounded soldiers behind him.
The laborers, seeing this, worriedly said, "If even the Xie family can't do anything about it, the pirates on Twin Islands are really formidable."
"No way, it was Twin Islands that launched a sneak attack. General Xie didn't know they had firearms, so he was caught off guard."
"Just wait and see, even if things don't go well, we still have Marshal Xie."
Upon hearing this, Xie Ying said, "We can't always rely on the Marshal. She just finished fighting the Yue Kingdom and hasn't even had a chance to catch her breath yet."
Another group of laborers said, "Marshal Xie is the most valiant and skilled female general in our Southern Central Plains. It's only a matter of time before a mere twin island is taken down."
"Even if things go badly, there is Your Highness. Even if Your Highness doesn't fight, you can still keep the Hu and Xiongnu firmly under control. Now, which country isn't rushing to Tianjing to form an alliance? It's because they're afraid that the Hu and Xiongnu will invade the south and attack them first, leaving them with no one to support them."
“I think Your Highness is more capable. She only made a move, and the Huns suffered huge losses. I haven’t seen any Hun merchants for a long time now.”
"Now that the Hun merchants have such a bad reputation, who would dare to do business with them!"
"There's also the notorious fake leather goods from Luochuan merchants. My boss bought fake goods from Luochuan and cursed the west every day."
"I think the marshal is more capable."
"No, Your Highness is even more amazing."
The two groups of laborers actually started arguing about who was more capable. Xie Ying was sweating profusely. Soon, the supervisor came over with an abacus and scolded the group of roughnecks: "What are you arguing about? His Highness and the Marshal are like two phoenixes singing together, governing the country and ensuring its peace. The Marshal fights on the front lines, while His Highness manages everything in the rear. Each has his own duties, and neither can be missing."
The laborers all gave the foreman a thumbs up: "The foreman is the most educated one."
The person in charge, flattered by the praise, coughed lightly: "You've come to the right place today. If it were a few years ago, I would have just given you a lash with the whip. Now, a mere scratch is enough to send you to the authorities."
Moreover, all the government offices were vying to handle cases, fearing they would miss out on political achievements, which deterred many merchants from acting recklessly. As long as meals and money were provided normally, no one dared to extort money from the merchants. After all, those who tried to cheat and swindle were in the minority.
Seeing the newcomer Xie Ying working diligently, the supervisor specifically called out Xie Ying's name: "Look at the new young man, he's so quick and efficient. You all need to work harder."
"Our boss has no shortage of rice; lunch will be plentiful!"
The laborers immediately became overjoyed.
Xie Ying silently carried a bag of grain. As she passed the port, she saw an old man wandering around with a cane. Xie Ying delivered the grain to the station and turned to look for the old man, but he had disappeared again.
Xie Ying couldn't help but frown.
Meanwhile, Xie Xia returned to his residence, and remembering the loss of two hundred men, he angrily overturned the table. (Liu Dan)
The steward arrived at the mansion just then. He opened his folding fan and said with an elegant air, "General Xie, why take your anger out on the table?"
"The best way right now is to take down Twin Islands so we can avenge our brothers!"
He had heard of Xie's cannons before. Although the Ministry of Works' newer wheeled cannons were more advanced, the old-fashioned cannons were still deadly weapons in the local areas.
Xie Xia held back his anger and said, "Your Highness, my brothers all sacrificed themselves to save your brother!"
"I will remember them without your reminder," the steward said. "I don't want to deal with any compensation afterwards."
“I have just given five thousand taels of compensation to their families, and it has been delivered to each household. Their families will receive preferential treatment when they come to Weidu to do business in the future.”
Xie Xia's anger subsided slightly.
Si Tang said, "General Xie, my second brother cannot die. He is not only my second brother, but also involves the interests of the entire Weidu."
Xie Xia sensed a hidden meaning in the words and asked, "May I ask what position your second brother holds?"
"The treasury," the steward said. "He manages the treasury of Weidu."
Xie Xia found it baffling. If Si Lei was so capable, why didn't he manage things himself? Why did he have to let his second son take charge? And even bypassing the eldest son, wasn't he afraid of turning the two brothers against each other?
He glanced at the magistrate with suspicion.
The steward smiled and said, "There's no need to look at me like that. I am a magnanimous person."
"I have no interest in your family affairs," Xie Xia said. "I plan to organize the navy to retake Sishui and recapture it."
Si Tang said, "Instead of attacking Sishui, it would be faster to just take Twin Islands directly."
Xie Xia did not take his advice. Soon, a messenger arrived at the mansion: "Reporting—General, the Marshal has sent a letter!"
"The express delivery is here!" Xie Xia said, a little excited.
The messenger handed the letter to Xie Xia and quickly left. The magistrate's gaze fell on the letter, then he looked away without making a sound.
Xie Xia opened the letter and read it. His brow furrowed so deeply it looked like a fly was trapped between his eyebrows. He put the letter away and said, "The Marshal ordered me to hold back and to increase the number of troops stationed at the various ports of Weidu."
The magistrate said, "Staying in the center is indeed a solution."
"But being too conservative will cause you to miss the opportunity."
Xie Xia said, "The Marshal has his own methods; I just need to guard the position."
"As for your brother, I will send someone to discuss with the bandits to see if we can ransom him."
The steward said, "Then I, the young master, will have to go and save him myself."
"You'd better not make any rash moves," Xie Xia said. Si Tang said nothing more, simply bowed to him, and left the mansion.
Xie Xia didn't detain him; he still wanted to send someone to find Gou Ying. Another soldier in imperial guard uniform arrived. The soldier walked over and patted Xie Xia on the shoulder. Xie Xia instinctively grabbed the soldier's arm, ready to throw him over his shoulder.
As a result, his gaze went from top to bottom, and then he was turned upside down and thrown to the ground.
The other person was faster than him.
Xie Xia was stunned: "How dare you!"
Her guards helped him up, and she then removed her helmet. Her gentle, smiling eyes, as always, were like a warm breeze: "It's been a year since we last met, and your reactions have become sluggish."
"Marshal!" Xie Xia stood up, rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and then looked on in shock: "Why did you come in person?"
And why was he dressed like that? Why didn't he tell him he was coming?
Xie Lanzhi simply said, "Just let me work by your side for now, don't ask me anything else."
"And who was that young master from just now?"
Xie Xia quickly accepted her disguise: "It's the Crown Prince in charge of the hall, he came specifically for his younger brother."
Xie Lanzhi had heard that Si Lei's second son had been kidnapped by river bandits and his fate was unknown, and the bandits had not come to demand a ransom.
She said, "No news means he is safe."
"Why are you so sure?" Xie Xia said, "Marshal, those pirates now possess firearms stolen from black ships from various countries, and they even have cannons."
"Marshal, that second prince is a real menace."
Xie Lanzhi said, "Aba has no cannons. If he had been on the Red River border, he wouldn't have lost to Aqina."
She came over in person because she felt something was amiss.
Ansan and his new double are both crucial to her killing Aqina's lifeline.
As for Anshan, no one knows his true nature.
"I'll stay by your side for the next few days," Xie Lanzhi said, "as your personal guard."
Five days later, the bandits finally sent their first message to Weidu: "Take fifty million taels and ship it by boat to Sishui."
When Si Lei received the ransom demand, he almost fainted from anger. Putting aside whether he had fifty million taels of silver, even if he did, he had no right to take all the silver from the treasury to ransom his son.
Even his private treasury only held ten million taels.
Instead of directly lowering the price with the bandits, he asked them for a few more days, as he couldn't raise that much money at the moment.
The bandits demanded he prepare within three days, or they would kill him.
Si Lei also bargained, replying to the bandits that he needed to see if his son was still alive before paying the ransom. The bandits agreed, allowing him to send someone to check from the other side of the river.
Si Lei sent a trusted confidant, and when Si Tang learned of this, he volunteered himself.
“No, Hong’er has already fallen into the hands of the bandits. I can’t let you take any more risks,” Si Lei refused. “You stay in Weidu and maintain order.”
Sitang insisted, "Father, those river bandits are extremely cunning. Who knows what tricks they might pull? What if the people we send don't recognize my second brother?"
"You never know, they might pull off a switcheroo. Don't forget that most of the people on Twin Islands are from the martial arts world; simple disguises are a piece of cake for them."
Si Lei hesitated immediately. His eldest son was right. The only people who could tell the difference between the second son and his parents were his older brother or his wet nurse.
He said, "Otherwise, we can send the wet nurse to check."
The magistrate did not try to persuade him further. He said, "Let the wet nurse go first. If that doesn't work, I will go myself."
On the other side, the bandits pushed the second young master Si Hong to the shore in the reeds of Sishui, allowing the wet nurse, who was sitting in a small boat, to come ashore. The wet nurse was terrified of the bandits, and her legs trembled at the sight of the scars on their faces. But when she saw the second young master, she saw his bruised and swollen face and immediately burst into tears.
The second young master pleaded with her in a panic, "It's me, wet nurse! Help me, wet nurse!"
The bandits, annoyed by his loud voice, began punching and kicking him in front of the wet nurse. Terrified, the wet nurse knelt on the boat and pleaded pitifully, "Please, gentlemen, have mercy! Our prince is already raising money. Please don't hurt our second young master!"
"Be smart and be prepared in three days!" The bandits led the second young master into the reeds. Their figures were hidden by the tall reeds, and the second young master's pleas for mercy could be heard from time to time.
The wet nurse returned to the capital by boat and told Si Lei everything that had happened to the second young master. Si Lei felt extremely distressed.
He went to Xie Xia to ask if he could help raise some money, but Xie Xia's money was all military funds, which he could not possibly use.
Xie Xia planned to contribute five thousand taels, but he simply couldn't afford the rest.
Xie Lanzhi then said, "Don't worry about that little bit of money, just take it all out to let him redeem the person."
"But what about the expenses for our 50,000 troops..." Xie Xia swallowed, a little reluctant. Giving it all away would be like throwing good money after bad, with so many men under his command needing to support their families. Lack of money could shake the morale of the army.
Xie Lanzhi said, "If you don't lend a helping hand when your partner is in trouble, don't blame others for standing idly by when you encounter trouble in the future."
Xie Xia sensed that the marshal's words had a hidden meaning. Just as he was about to ask, Xie Lanzhi's eyes darkened, signaling him to ask less.
Xie Xia had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree to lend Si Lei all the military funds, totaling five million taels. Compared to fifty million, it was a drop in the ocean.
"Marshal, the bandits are asking for fifty million, that's outrageous! Can they even afford that much money?"
"Have you considered the possibility that their demand for ransom is just a pretext?"
Xie Lanzhi's rhetorical question left Xie Xia speechless, and even he began to doubt the 50 million ransom. Could it be that the pirates had other motives?
At the end of the Jin Dynasty, most people asked for more grain than money. The bandits living on the island should have asked for grain first, since resources were scarce. Why did they ask for a sum of money that they might not be able to spend?
The Marshal is absolutely right!
When Xie Lanzhi saw that Xie Xia was about to ask more questions, her eyes turned cold again, and Xie Xia had no choice but to shut his mouth.
Has Xie Ying come looking for you?
Xie Xia said, "That child is notoriously stubborn. She didn't even think of contacting me, her uncle, when she fled to Weidu."
He's not some monster; he only takes care of his own family. It's a pity that the kid is just like his second brother—too proud.