Chapter 1 Sun Jin and Ye Tao's Negotiation

Sun Jin and Ye Tao's brief exchange ultimately brought Yunzhou a considerably worthwhile deal: five thousand military horses over two years, including thirty thousand third-class horses, twenty thousand second-class horses, and an unspecified number of first-class and special-class horses. At the same time, Ye's Workshop would design a new type of cavalry armor according to the physique and combat needs of the Chunnan cavalry. After the design was finalized, Chunnan guaranteed Ye's Workshop an order of no less than ten thousand sets.

In fact, the condition of "no less than ten thousand sets" was somewhat dispensable. Ye Tao had to consider the possibility of Chunnan producing its own armor to reduce costs, but after seeing the Xuelin Army's (Blood Kirin Army) cavalry armor and the quality and craftsmanship of the new lightweight cavalry armor worn by the tribal cavalry around Ye Tao, Sun Jin was already quite certain: Chunnan wouldn't be able to produce the same quality within five years, and even if they勉强自己造 (mianqiang ziji zao, forced themselves to make it), the price would probably be higher than buying from Dongping.

In addition, there was a secret agreement: Yunzhou would send a small number of cavalry officers to train an elite cavalry in the fiefdom of Juxian Prince, with a force of approximately five thousand men. This clause would be implemented after Ye Tao obtained the consent of State Lord Tan Xiaopei. This sudden opportunity for Dongping to directly intervene in Chunnan's military construction arose because Juxian Prince Chang Hongquan's sense of crisis was growing stronger. Ultimately, it was because the sons and grandsons of the Chunnan State Lord were too useless, while Juxian Prince Chang Hongquan's grandson had been exceptionally clever since childhood, causing the Chunnan Crown Prince to feel threatened by the possibility of being usurped in the future... Chang Hongquan wasn't such an ambitious person, but from a self-preservation perspective, he wouldn't sit idly by. In the long run, if his sons and grandsons had the ambition in the future, or if the situation in Chunnan deteriorated to the point where usurpation was inevitable, having a strong army in hand would be very beneficial.

After discussing these matters in less than a day, and after leading Sun Jin and Chang Huaiyin on a tour of the Grey Goose Winery, they embarked on the road to Ningyuan together.

Ningyuan City was filled with auspicious and festive scenes. If one could look down from above, one might even feel that the entire city was red.

People from all directions gathered in Ningyuan City, waiting for Ye Tao and Dai Yun's wedding. Especially the Xuelin Army; except for a minimal number of duty officers left in Danyang, almost the entire officer corps of the Xuelin Army had arrived. Those who had graduated from the Xuelin Army and were now in the Imperial Guards or local garrison forces, or had left military positions altogether, also came if they could spare the time. Lu Dan, who was unable to get away due to being appointed as the governor of Yicheng, had his wife, Huang Wan, represent him. Grand Commandant Chi Xianping represented the court and the State Lord to attend the ceremony and present gifts, and his son, Chi Yun, represented the Imperial Guards... The high level, deep qualifications, and great potential of the military figures present were astonishing.

The fact that Old Master Qi Zhentao was able to come surprised Ye Tao greatly. Old Master Qi was very busy now, with endless affairs in the Qihai (Seven Seas) Trading Company. The time it would take to travel back and forth to Ningyuan was daunting. When Ye Tao cautiously asked Old Master Qi if there was anything he needed help with, he was sternly reprimanded for looking down on their years of friendship. Facing such a generous person as Old Master Qi, Ye Tao's mood easily improved.

Many other friends, subordinates, and collaborators also came to Yunzhou in person, and even those who couldn't come for various reasons sent envoys and gifts. Most notably, Crown Prince Tan Weiming, since Tan Weiran was already in Yunzhou, he had to obediently busy himself in Danyang, and could only send an envoy with gifts to express his apologies.

In terms of the grandeur of the ceremony, this wedding might not have matched Ye Tao and Tan Weixin's wedding. But in terms of the liveliness, it was in no way inferior to the wedding held at Jiangshan Fort. Perhaps it was because the weather was indeed a bit cold, and everyone tried to warm up by making more noise, which made it even more lively. In the days leading up to the wedding, when guests from all sides had almost all arrived, the population of Ningyuan City had increased by nearly thirty percent compared to normal times. Less than two thousand people were truly qualified to attend the wedding banquet, but they couldn't resist the deployment, guards, and relatives and friends brought by these very prestigious and high-ranking individuals. Fortunately, the Dai and Ye families had the foresight to book all the inns in the city, and many guests had some property in Ningyuan and invited close friends to stay in their own courtyards, which allowed the entire massive accommodation effort to proceed. In any case, Ningyuan, a small border town, was somewhat overwhelmed by the wedding of Ye Tao and Dai Yun, two people who had considerable influence in Dongping and even throughout the Zhongtu (Central Earth) continent, and whose wedding had profound significance and symbolism.

Naturally, a large number of ordinary workers and laborers, as well as various merchants providing various necessities, were also indispensable in preparing for such a wedding. At this moment, among the many merchants in Ningyuan, one was acting somewhat abnormally. This Dongping merchant named Xia Bin had made a killing in the preparation for this wedding banquet. He had smuggled a considerable amount of top-quality Chunnan silk to Yunzhou, and the entire batch of goods had been bought by the Dai family, who invested it lavishly in decorating the entire wedding venue. Exquisite and magnificent, yet not at all vulgar... The long-established Dai family and the design team established by Ye Tao in Yunzhou cooperated tacitly, decorating the entire wedding venue very appropriately. For the merchant Xia Bin, although the top-quality silk was used to make silk flowers, exquisite decorations, tablecloths, and napkins, which seemed very extravagant, the result of Xia Bin's trip was more than worth two or three normal trips to Yunzhou, not to mention the even greater benefits of establishing a business relationship with the Dai family for future business.

However, at this moment, Xia Bin was bowing respectfully, even fearfully, covered in cold sweat, trembling as he faced a smiling young man. The young man sat comfortably in a grand armchair, leaning to one side, holding a cup of fine green tea in his hand. He asked Xia Bin in an extremely indifferent tone, "What is the location of your seat at the wedding banquet?"

Xia Bin bowed even lower, and said cautiously, "It's the forty-second seat in the outer area. The others at the table should also be merchants, none of them are important figures."

The young man shook his head and sighed, "That's how it is. No matter how much Ye Tao values merchants, he must first consider the aristocratic families and civil and military officials on this occasion. And you're not really an important figure. If the color and texture of the materials you prepared weren't just right, you would probably have been sent out of Ningyuan to make room for others, let alone have a seat in the outer area. Forty-second seat in the outer area... heh heh, this is going to be difficult."

This young man was Sun Xiaofan, the leading figure among the younger generation of the Daoming Sect who had escaped from Danyang after the failure of the Skyscraper bombing case. The layout in Danyang hadn't been successful; instead, it had exposed a series of layouts by the Daoming Sect and the Eagle Hall in Danyang. It had even ultimately prompted Tan Xiaopei to resolve to eliminate the Daoming Sect's hidden lines around Consort Lian, Chang Ling, which were among the highest-level hidden lines the Daoming Sect had ever laid, and the damage was so great that the Daoming Sect's upper echelons argued incessantly about how to deal with Sun Xiaofan. Although Sun Xiaofan was a disciple of the current Daoming Sect leader, he had indeed deeply damaged the interests of the Daoming Sect.

However, the Daoming Sect was not, after all, a religious organization with a strict organizational system, and the damage suffered by the Eagle Hall, which was attached to the Daoming Sect, couldn't seem to be discussed openly. On the one hand, the Sect Leader doted on Sun Xiaofan, and on the other hand, there was a long-term tacit understanding and exchange of interests between a few of the Daoming Sect's upper echelons. In the end, Sun Xiaofan didn't receive any substantial punishment; he was only required to reflect for half a year.

When Sun Xiaofan wanted to start grasping some power again to serve the Daoming Sect after half a year, he discovered that the Eagle Hall, which had always been obedient to him, didn't want to accept him as a member anymore. Due to the Eagle Hall's important role for the Daoming Sect now, and Sun Xiaofan's previous misdeeds, even the Sect Leader and the Daoming Sect's elders expressed their full understanding of the Eagle Hall's unwillingness to accept someone they couldn't control.

On the one hand, to allow Sun Xiaofan's talent for conspiracy to be fully utilized, and on the other hand, to establish a combat-capable group belonging to the Daoming Sect that could check the power of the Eagle Hall, Sun Xiaofan was ordered to form the "Sheyan" (Snake Eyes). Sun Xiaofan's starting point was very low; he didn't have the martial arts talents from all walks of life that the Eagle Hall had gathered from various sources. But he had a much smaller number of guards who were much stronger in martial arts and had a much stronger experience in the martial world, who had always been hidden behind important figures in the Daoming Sect, and they became his first batch of subordinates. And he also had an advantage that the Eagle Hall couldn't match, which was that he could freely find ways to recruit those religious followers to join in various places. Although Sun Xiaofan wasn't the kind of practicing scholar or Daoist priest who was good at recruiting followers, it was enough for him as long as he could get a list and information of those who were useful from these people. From the bright side, he had grown up in the core of the Daoming Sect, which was, after all, a religious organization, and if he really wanted to recruit someone, he could naturally be extremely persuasive and persuasive. And for those who weren't willing to join his organization, but always had various weaknesses, he naturally had many opportunities to try coercion, deterrence, temptation, and other means... Unlike the Eagle Hall, whose main responsibility was to gather intelligence and protect the organizational system of the Daoming Sect, "Snake Eyes" focused on assassination and sabotage from the beginning, and targeted commercial and technical intelligence gathering was only secondary. And this mission orientation did make Sun Xiaofan feel like a fish in water.

And when "Snake Eyes" had a few footholds in Xiling, Chunnan, and even Dongping, and began to have some usable manpower, he once again came to Yunzhou by chance. After not paying attention to Ye Tao, Tan Weixin, and Dai Yun for a while, Sun Xiaofan was extremely surprised to discover that all three of these people were ranked in the top twenty on the Daoming Sect's Eagle Hall's increasingly instructive assassination list... What an interesting family this is.