Chapter 337: Chapter 327: Confidence
The conversation between Xie Xun and Lin Helin ended on a sour note. Each stood firmly by their own stance, making agreement impossible. Xie Xun didn’t want to argue with Lin Helin, as such disputes were now meaningless to him. However, Lin Helin seemed determined to bring Xie Jue to Jiaozhou, and Xie Xun couldn’t quite figure out what exactly his motives were.
Lin Helin was calculating and perceptive. He would never utter an extra word about anything he was unwilling to reveal. Xie Xun was well aware of this and refrained from divulging the situation in Ningzhou. Yet, he reasoned that such matters couldn’t be hidden from Lin Helin for long. The gates of Salt City hadn’t been closed—merchants came and went in droves, and cooperation between state mansions remained frequent. The state mansions along the northern line tacitly ignored the matter of Xie Xun’s rebellion against the Yanyang Dynasty, and trade continued as usual. If the Capital City wanted to inquire about anything, they only needed to send someone to Ningzhou.
News from the Capital City couldn’t be concealed from Xie Jue or Xie Xun either.
"If Zhixu is unwilling to pen a letter to Ting Feng, then you, cousin, will have to write it," Lin Helin remarked impatiently. This was not a matter that could afford delays.
"As you wish!" A night had already passed. The eight hundred-li express courier galloped tirelessly, certain to deliver the message to Ningzhou faster than Lin Helin’s letter.
Lin Helin raised an eyebrow slightly, still unable to discern Xie Xun’s true thoughts.
Ever since Xie Xun entered the city, the gates had been shut tight, allowing no one in or out. Except for the signal of peace, Xie Xun had transmitted no other messages. The carrier pigeons within Jiaozhou City were also strictly controlled. Even so, Xie Xun seemed calm and undeterred, refusing to write to Xie Jue, as if he were banking on something. Lin Helin wondered—had he already sent a message outside the city?
"Cousin, I can take full responsibility for everything in Ningzhou. Even if my second brother came, he would make no headway with you. You want to compel us to forget our grievances, station ourselves in Ningzhou to resist the Beiman, and become a foreign-titled king. You want to avoid civil war and maintain peace in the Yanyang Dynasty. Cousin, do you think my second brother and I are ungrateful? That this is the best possible outcome, yet we insist on bloodshed and chaos?" Xie Xun asked in a deep voice.
"Cousin, I cannot avenge you, nor can I avenge Grandfather. I can only weigh the pros and cons and search for a way out within what’s within my power," Lin Helin said calmly. "I do not want a civil war in Yanyang, nor do I want the Emperor to consolidate power and persecute noble families after implementing the new policies. I also don’t want the day to come when the Lin Family is wiped out. I must protect Yushu and Abao. If you’re vying for the throne, what will become of Yushu and Abao? No emperor can tolerate a Crown Prince from the previous dynasty. Even if you’re willing to spare Abao, will your subordinates be willing? Can you control public opinion? Can you suppress the former dynasty’s loyalists seeking to uphold legitimacy? Zhixu, we are all making choices for our loved ones."
The cruelest part of such choices was having to sacrifice some blood relatives to save others. There was no such thing as a perfect solution in this world.
Lin Helin knew this. Xie Xun knew this too. That was why they were destined to be enemies. Lin Helin was making his final attempt, coming to Jiaozhou with the hope of turning swords into plowshares.
Their conversation had reached an impasse.
In truth, Xie Xun did not hate anyone in the Lin Family, nor did he hate Lin Helin. When his maternal grandfather passed away, his regret and grief were no less than losing his parents, siblings, or aunt. Lin Helin had been raised by Grandfather’s own hands, and their bond ran deep. In the face of the great tide of history, they were but tiny drops of water, forced to be swept along.
If he were Lin Helin, would he forsake the Lin Family’s hundred-year prosperity and abandon his sister and his nephew?
No!
He wouldn’t!
Everything Lin Helin had said was true. If one day he vied for the throne and ascended as the Emperor, where would Abao find refuge?
The loyalists of the former dynasty would continue to stir trouble under Abao’s name. He would be caught in a web of hatred and legitimacy, no matter if he sent Abao away from the Capital City to live incognito.
He planned to let Abao live under an assumed name. Lin Helin wished for him and his second brother to live incognito, or to become a foreign-titled king in Ningzhou. What was wrong with that?
"Cousin, in your years of traveling, where did you go?" Xie Xun asked.
"Across Yanyang and Sannan, in truth, I went to Ningzhou—more than once," Lin Helin replied candidly. Relations between Sannan and Yanyang had grown more strained over the past two years, yet trade hadn’t ceased, and intermarriage between the two peoples wasn’t rare either.
"Then, do you think the people’s suffering and displacement, their inability to make a living, are solely due to years of war between the Beiman and Yanyang?"
It was a pointed and sharp question.
Lin Helin was surprised that Xie Xun would even care about the people’s livelihood. Those born into luxury often understood such matters only through books, much like Lin Helin himself before his top imperial examination rankings. Growing up amid wealth, he never knew the price of grain. He didn’t know that the jade pendant he wore could buy a commoner’s family a year’s worth of food, or that a bolt of brocade was a luxury some would never glimpse in their lifetime. A single flower-viewing banquet at home could sustain a family’s expenses for ten, even twenty years.
He had once sat in a well and gazed at the sky, thinking all of Yanyang’s cities were as wealthy as the Capital City. It wasn’t until he journeyed across the land that he learned of the people’s hardships, saw how floods could destroy an entire year’s harvest in Yanyang, witnessed the horrors of famine driving parents to sell their children. He saw how the crushing weight of taxes left the people destitute, so much so that nine out of ten households lay empty.
Was all of this solely caused by war?
No!
The Ningzhou Iron Cavalry was fierce and undefeated. The Marquis Zhenbei Mansion had produced generations of heroes. Though the Beiman were formidable in battle, if the military and administration in Yanyang had been united, if the noble families, imperial power, and cavalry had joined forces, the wars would have ended long ago.
The granaries of the Yanyang Clan were overflowing, occupying the majority of Yanyang’s lands. The ruling elites of the dynasty were all scions of noble families, and the policies they devised naturally benefited these families. Over time, the common people of Yanyang suffered under heavy taxes, border wars, rampant banditry, and a government doing nothing but fostering corruption and collusion.
The Cabinet had made several attempts to reform the bureaucracy but found itself powerless. The colossal entity that was the Yanyang Dynasty was already riddled with decay, its chronic ailments beyond cure.
While Grandfather was alive, he dreamed of the new policies carving out a path of survival for Yanyang.
Lin Helin knew that the people’s suffering and the nation’s turmoil stemmed from flawed governance. It was imperative to amend the laws and implement reforms.
"Peace talks with the Beiman, no wars—just give me ten years, and everything can change," Lin Helin said. "The Cabinet is being rebuilt. Civil examinations are being expanded. The bureaucracy is being cleaned up. The noble families will relinquish power. One day, there will be harmony and order."
"Cousin, don’t you think you’re being overly confident?" Xie Xun couldn’t help but mock. "What Grandfather couldn’t achieve in twenty years, you think you can accomplish in just ten?"