Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 421 Extinction of the Race (11,000 words)

Zhang Ci wanted to latch onto Song Yan's powerful backer. As for whether the granddaughter who married into the family was Zhang Yan or someone else, Zhang Ci didn't care. They were all his granddaughters anyway, and he had to cater to Song Yan's preferences.

Song Yan had no idea that the old man was plotting against him again.

What he didn't know was that in these people's minds, in addition to being a "Jingguan maniac," he now also had another label attached: a "wife killer" and a "widow enthusiast."

If Song Yan had known, she would have dug three feet into the ground to find the bastard who first spread the rumors and then fought him to the death.

These long-tongued bastards, do they really think he's Cao Cao?

Gao Yang's eyes also showed a hint of surprise. She hadn't expected Song Yan to make such a good arrangement for her. Since she couldn't go back to the governor's mansion for the time being, she couldn't stay in the inn forever. It was inconvenient and lacked security. Staying with the Zhang family for the time being was indeed the best option at the moment.

Although such an arrangement was probably unnecessary for Gao Yang, after all... his gaze toward Song Yan still held a hint of gratitude.

Apart from her father and mother, no one else cared about her so much... Even her former husband, Fang Jun, mostly ignored her affairs.

There was a warm feeling in my chest.

With this matter settled, Song Yan felt somewhat relieved and then asked Zhang Ci about the caravan. The caravan traveling among the Jurchens was entirely entrusted to the Zhang family, with Song Yan holding a 70% share of the responsibility. Zhang Ci might not be very good at other things, but commerce was Old Master Zhang's specialty, and his cloudy eyes seemed to brighten a bit: "Thanks to the Marquis's good fortune, the caravan is doing very well so far."

"After the New Year, when the Marquis went to Dongling City, I prepared the caravan according to his arrangements."

About half a month later, the caravan set off and entered the territory of the Jurchens, braving the wind and snow.

"With the map provided by the Marquis, we deliberately chose a route that bypassed any tribes and went straight to Anchegu. Although it was a bit troublesome, it was safe. In addition, the heavy snow blocked the mountains, so we basically did not encounter any attacks along the way."

Song Yan nodded with satisfaction. Zhang Ci's arrangements in this regard were indeed excellent and meticulous enough.

However, the wind and snow were not easy to deal with.

"Were there any casualties?" Song Yan asked.

"Although some people suffered frostbite and falls, they were lucky enough to survive." Zhang Ci sighed. "However, even though the people following the carriage were all experienced, some carriages and horses still fell into the ravines or plunged into the icy river, causing a lot of unnecessary losses."

Song Yan shook his head slightly: "It's alright, these are all minor matters, no need to worry about them, as long as everyone is alive."

Zhang Ci felt a little strange. In the eyes of people of status and position, human life was probably the least valuable thing. If someone died, they died; they could just hire someone else. In this day and age, there was no shortage of people willing to put in the effort and take the risk for a few taels of silver.

In comparison, the value of a cartload of goods is more than the value of ten human lives.

But in Song Yan's mind, everything seemed to be reversed, and human life had become the most valuable thing.

“As the Marquis said, all we sent to Anchegu this time was grain.” Zhang Ci’s eyes flashed with excitement: “The Marquis also knows about the situation of the Jurchens this year. The snow was too heavy, and we could hardly find any food throughout the winter.”

"Although Anchegu and Wanyan Guangzhi had previously plundered Ningguo and looted a lot of grain, it was still not enough."

"Although Anchegu fought a battle with the Wuji tribe, resulting in the loss of half of the tribe's population, a lot of food was also destroyed and eaten long ago. In addition, this winter has been longer than usual, so the food we sent has become a lifeline. Your Excellency, you don't know, but according to the caravan, when those barbarians of Anchegu saw cartloads of food, their eyes turned red... They were so hungry that they were no longer recognizable as human, like a group of mindless wild beasts."

Song Yan raised an eyebrow; he could probably imagine that scene.

"Didn't those Jurchen barbarians try to rob us?" Song Yan asked curiously. After all, barbarity and plunder were ingrained in their nature.

"Robbing is certainly on our minds." Zhang Ci snorted, his face full of disdain. "But we're not easy to deal with either. The entire caravan, with nearly a hundred carriages, has been guarded by almost a thousand guards, all armed with bows and crossbows and iron knives. Those starving, emaciated barbarians who want to rob us will have to see how many lives they're willing to risk first."

"Moreover, there is a wagon in the caravan that is full of fire oil. If things go wrong, we can immediately pour the fire oil on the grain. There are already people with torches who can burn all the grain in one go, so that it will not be given to those barbarians."

These days, being a businessman isn't easy either.

Every business trip must be undertaken with the courage to face certain death.

"Fortunately, the Khan of the Anchegu tribe was quite shrewd. He knew that there weren't many caravans willing to come to Haixi at this time of year. If they attacked us, I'm afraid no caravan would be willing to do business with Anchegu again. He appeared in time to stop those barbarians from going crazy."

"The carts were full when we went there, and they were full of twenty carts when we came back." Zhang Ci's beard stood on end. "Because there was such a severe shortage of grain, this batch of grain was sold at a high price."

"Twenty carriages, crammed full of ginseng, lingzhi mushrooms, deer antlers, animal hides, and jade—all high-quality goods. Sending them to Zhao will net us at least this much profit." Zhang Ci held up one finger.
"A million taels of silver."

The State of Zhao was wealthy and had a great fondness for rare and extravagant things.

It's not surprising that such a good product can sell for such a price.

Of the million taels of silver, he could get seven hundred thousand, which was quite a lot.

Considering that this trip took several months from start to finish, and only three or four trips a year, the income was about the same as previously estimated.

"The person leading this trade mission was ruthless. Seeing that the other party was really short of food, he wasn't satisfied with filling twenty carts. He also took three hundred foals from Anchegu, both male and female, which could be used for breeding."

Song Yan's eyes suddenly brightened. He knew that although they had stolen many horses before, they were all castrated. Castrated warhorses were easier to fatten up and had better endurance and stamina. Uncastrated horses were never sold by either the Xiongnu of the Northern Desert or the Jurchens of the Western Seas. In fact, even the pastures where these breeding horses were kept were strictly secret, and most of the tribesmen did not know about them.

Acquiring three hundred stallions would be a tremendous achievement.

“Very good, very good.” Song Yan nodded repeatedly: “In addition to the normal wages, give the shopkeeper an extra thousand taels of silver as a bonus.”

Song Yan was never stingy with his praise for such meritorious individuals.

Zhang Ci nodded, keeping the matter in mind.

To Song Yan, the shopkeeper was just a nobody, and he would probably forget about him after today. It seemed unnecessary to waste money on him... But what if Song Yan remembered him someday? Zhang Ci was a smart man who always did things meticulously and would not leave such a handle. A thousand taels of silver was nothing to him. If he were to affect his impression in Song Yan's mind because of such a small amount of money, it would be undesirable.

"When will the caravan next go to the Jurchens?" Song Yan asked again.
"It will probably be around April," Zhang Ci replied after thinking for a moment.

"As soon as possible." Song Yan pondered for a moment, "The sooner the better, but this time the caravan is only delivering half of the grain."

"Why is that?" Zhang Ci asked, somewhat curious.

Winter will continue for some time in Haixi, and food is scarce right now. Sending grain there now would surely bring in a large profit. Once the ice melts and everything comes back to life, food will no longer be so scarce in Jurchen territory, and it will be unlikely that they can sell it at such high prices again.

Moreover, whether it's ginseng, lingzhi, or bark, Anchegu needs time to prepare, so going there now might not yield many good items.

“It’s alright, just do as I say, we’ll get whatever we can, making money is secondary.” Song Yan smiled and said, “Half of the caravan’s spaces are empty. The military camp just happens to have a batch of retired weapons, longswords, spears and the like, load them all up and sell them to Anchegu.”

Zhang Ci's expression suddenly turned serious.

Smuggling ironware and weapons?
This is a crime punishable by the execution of the entire family.

Has the Marquis gone mad?

Actually, last year, no one cared about this kind of thing. The Huang and Fan families were both involved in this kind of business, and even the Kong family got involved. But since Song Yan took office, all pig iron transactions have been banned, let alone finished weapons.

Could it be that the Marquis is also eyeing the profits and is planning to make a fortune?
The moment the thought crossed Zhang Ci's mind, he shook his head. Impossible. Zhang Ci knew how ruthless this Marquis was to foreign tribes.

Outside Xinhou County, tens of thousands of heads are still piled up there, waiting to be built into a mound of heads.

It's not surprising that someone would betray their country or collude with the enemy, even someone like Zhang Ci, as long as the profit is big enough. But it's impossible for it to happen to a lord like you.

Song Yan just smiled wryly: "By the way, tell Anchegu's people that Wanyan Guangzhi plans to lead his army to conquer the Jurchens after the snow melts."

"I'm not afraid to tell Anchegu that I have a grudge against Wanyan Guangzhi."

"Those weapons are only temporarily lent to them. For every Wuji tribe member's head cut off, a weapon will be given as a gift. If more than that, each head will be worth 100 catties of grain."

hiss.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ci gasped.

The old man instantly understood Song Yan's plan: was he preparing to incite infighting among the Jurchen tribes and cause them to kill each other?
Although simple, it is an extremely useful method.

After this winter, even the Jurchen barbarians knew the value of food.

Even Liang Guangzong, who was happy, changed his expression slightly. Exchanging the heads of the Wuji tribe for grain... Tsk tsk, it seems that from now on, there will never be a peaceful day on the Haixi Grassland again.

This is really cruel.

How many people are there in the entire Wuji tribe?
One hundred thousand?

That's only about ten million catties of grain.

It sounds like a lot, but it's only about 100,000 shi.

If we could use 100,000 shi of grain, we could completely eliminate the Wuji tribe and Wanyan Guangzhi, which would be a huge profit no matter how you look at it.

"Would Anchegu believe that?" Gao Xingcai frowned.

"Does it matter whether they believe it or not?" Song Yan shrugged. "Even if Anchegu knew I was planning to incite infighting among the Jurchens, did they have any other choice?" No.

The loss of tens of thousands of lives in Anchegu had already sealed their fate, making the feud between them and Wanyan Guangzhi irreconcilable. Their only options were either to resist to the death or to have their entire tribe wiped out by Wanyan Guangzhi. Under these circumstances, accepting Song Yan's help and diligently cutting off one Wuji tribe member after another became their only way out.

This is an open and unsolvable scheme.

“Anchegu is probably no match for the Wuji tribe, right?” Zhang Ci pondered. “The Huang family’s main trading partner was Wanyan Guangzhi, so the Wuji tribe should have quite a few iron weapons. Even if we provide weapons to Anchegu, the tribe will most likely still be wiped out by Wanyan Guangzhi in the end.”

“It’s alright, we can just support another one.” Song Yan shrugged and said lightly, “So, after delivering the weapons to Anchegu this time, we started contacting the Funie tribe. I heard that their relationship with the Wuji tribe is not very good either. It is said that both tribes are targets that Wanyan Guangzhi wants to eliminate. It’s just that Anchegu was unlucky and was chosen first.”

Gudong.

Upon hearing this, many people's expressions changed slightly.

This is clearly a plan to exhaust the entire Jurchen people through internal strife.

Whether it's the Anchegu tribe, the Funie tribe, or even other tribes, in Song Yan's eyes they are all just consumables used to consume Wanyan Guangzhi.

"Should we provide armor?" Zhang Ci took a deep breath and asked in a deep voice.

"No, no, no, weapons are fine, but not a single piece of armor can be sent." Song Yan smiled casually: "After all, the purpose of the plan is to make the Jurchens bleed and die continuously. If they have armor, wouldn't fewer people die?"

These words sent chills down everyone's spines.

Even the smile on Song Yan's face seemed to have a sinister undertone.

In just a few words and a few laughs, the future fate of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of people was decided.

This Marquis of Champion is terrifyingly ruthless.

“If Wanyan Guangzhi wants to unify the Jurchens, then I will constantly set up obstacles on his path to unification, making every step he takes a stumbling one. I will make him leave behind countless corpses with every tribe he conquers, and the benefits he gains from the conquest will be far less than the losses he suffers. By then, even if Wanyan Guangzhi unifies the Jurchens, it will be a desolate and ravaged Jurchen.”

"By then, the Jurchen population will have drastically decreased, and the long-term fighting and conquests will have exhausted the soldiers under their command. At that time, it will be the turn of Pingyang's army to step in." Song Yan's smile grew colder: "In the name of avenging our old friend Anchegu."

Although Luo Tianchu and Luo Tianquan suggested launching an attack during May and June when the warhorses were pregnant, and Mei Wu suggested launching an attack at the end of March when both men and horses were too weak to fight, the Yang family's intervention caused Song Yan to change his original plan. No matter how fast he prepared his troops, he couldn't keep up with the Yang family's speed in transporting supplies. Even if he launched an attack at the end of March, by the time the black-armored soldiers reached the royal court, the Wuji tribe would likely have recovered somewhat, making another fierce battle inevitable.

His men were all fine men from the Central Plains; how could they be sacrificed for something so meaningless?
Following America's approach, don't rush into the fray. Instead, instigate internal strife within the opposing side and wait until both sides are locked in a life-or-death struggle before entering the fray to reap the rewards. This is the best way to maximize your gains.

Most importantly, Song Yan had a vague premonition that the biggest threat to Pingyang was not the Jurchens, but... the northern desert.

They were the Xiongnu.

The northern desert is even colder, and even Mei Wu speculated that the Xiongnu might attack Anzhou Prefecture at the end of April, but Song Yan always felt that this time would come much earlier.

The guest room was completely silent.

No one spoke; only their hearts pounded incessantly.

Incite both sides to fight, then wait until the population is drastically reduced before reaping the benefits?

How can a person be so shameless?
This shows a complete lack of martial ethics, doesn't it?

I thought the Marquis wouldn't be so kind. An Chegu had plundered Pingyang before, so why would the Marquis give him weapons?
So, the Marquis's goal from the very beginning was to wipe out his clan and his race.

Of all people to mess with, Wanyan Guangzhi had to provoke the Marquis; it was truly the most foolish thing he had ever done in his life.

The specific details were discussed again until almost noon before they finished. After having lunch at the Zhang family's house, Song Yan got up to say goodbye.

"Cousin."

But at that moment, Gao Yang suddenly called out to him.

Turning around, I saw Gao Yang with his brows furrowed, as if he had something to say but didn't know how to start.

Song Yan was very patient, so she waited quietly.

After a few breaths, Gao Yang slowly spoke: "In my room, there is a letter that my mother sent to me."

"Could you handle this for me?"

Song Yan raised an eyebrow. This was a nonsensical statement. It was just a letter; did it really need such special explanation?
Although he had some doubts, Song Yan didn't think much of it. Seeing Song Yan nod in agreement, Gao Yang turned around and went back to the Zhang residence.

After leaving the Zhang family, Gao Xingcai and Liang Guangzong followed quietly behind, seemingly still reeling from Song Yan's scheme to wipe out their family line.

"What, do you think my arrangement is too cruel?" Song Yan smiled.

“No, not at all.” Gao Xing shook his head: “Since ancient times, barbarians have feared power but not virtue. When the Central Plains dynasties were prosperous, they feared you, were afraid of you, and paid tribute to you. When the Central Plains dynasties declined, they robbed you, invaded you, slaughtered the people of the Central Plains, and abducted the women and children of the Central Plains. This is a truth proven by countless wars over hundreds of years.”

Song Yan was quite surprised: "I didn't expect you to have such insight. You are much better than those bookworms who have become stupid and keep spouting the Four Books and Five Classics and benevolence and morality no matter what they do."

Gao Xing smiled somewhat awkwardly: "I just think that there is nothing wrong with what you are doing, but transporting weapons to the Jurchens is a violation of the law of the court no matter what. If someone finds a handle against you, it will be quite disadvantageous for you."

"No matter what the Marquis's ambitions may be, his reputation must not be damaged."

In the midst of their conversation, they returned to the governor's mansion.

Gao Xingcai and Liang Guangzong were sent back to the military camp. Song Yan did not make any arrangements for the two of them for the time being. However, the two of them were smart enough to understand that they had passed Song Yan's test.

Yang Siyao and Gu Banxia finally woke up.

But when she saw Song Yan, her face flushed red, probably because she thought of the craziness and indulgence of the previous night.

When the mood strikes, little feet, long white legs, stacked on top of each other—do whatever you want!

But after sleeping and waking up, the intense shame almost shattered the will of both women.

So embarrassing.

What a shame.

They must have gone mad last night, lost their minds, otherwise how could they have done such a thing?

In an instant, her eyes filled with tears. She glanced at Song Yan and ran away as if fleeing. For a short time, even Yang Siyao didn't have much courage to stand in front of Song Yan.

Song Yan simply smiled at the situation and walked towards Gao Yang's bedroom.

Whether it was Gao Yang's strange expression or her indescribable gaze, Song Yan became somewhat interested in the letter she was talking about.

……

Inn.

Six burly, strong, dark-skinned men stood guard at a doorway.

His fierce expression resembled that of a tiger in the mountains or a hungry wolf on the grasslands.

Even when someone occasionally passes by the door, they can feel the intense scrutiny and pressure, and they usually lower their heads, not daring to utter a sound, and just hurry away.

Occasionally, someone would steal a glance, their brows furrowing with suspicion.

Although these people looked remarkably similar to those from the Central Plains, there were subtle differences. Their savage nature made them seem more like barbarians from the grasslands. However, this matter had little to do with them. These people were clearly outlaws, and the inn was mostly frequented by traveling merchants. There was no need to provoke them.

"Woo...Woo..."

Through the doorway, one could vaguely hear suppressed, painful sounds coming from inside.

Upon entering the room, one would find a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl lying on the bed, her wrists tied behind her back, her mouth forcefully gagged, and her wide eyes filled with pain and despair.

Her slender body was covered in wounds.

The scarlet streaks of blood were horrifying to behold.

Right in front of the bed was a tall, slender young man holding a riding whip, which was already stained with specks of crimson.

Because there was a charcoal brazier in the room, it wasn't too cold.

The young man had already taken off his shirt, revealing his hairy chest, where a slightly grotesque tattoo could be seen upon closer inspection.

It's a wolf's head!
(End of this chapter)