Chapter 135: Of Major Vengeance and Minor Grievances, Wherein Lies the Hurt

Descendants of Huaxia and the progeny of Yan and Huang harbor an almost blood-deep obsession with land. Even within the sprawling mansions of Chang'an and Luoyang, people carve out patches of earth wherever possible to cultivate flowers and grass, adding a touch of green to their homes. In this era, land served as the ultimate yardstick of wealth.

Unlike the distant lands of Jiangnanxi Circuit, Mengzhou lay right beside Xiuwu, just across the Yellow River north of Luoyang. Its soil was exceedingly fertile, matching that of Xiuwu. Ten thousand mu of fine farmland over there—even if Ye Chang were exaggerating and the figure was discounted to a few thousand mu—constituted a vast and tremendous fortune.

Madam Fang’s eyes immediately began to dart around. "Can we get our hands on this land?"

Ye Chang chuckled. "Sister-in-law is certainly bold. That belongs to a Great Princess of the Great Tang..."

"When you trace it back, my mother was also a Great Tang princess, making her practically my aunt. Taking it to serve as my dowry property is only natural! It's what the Li family owes me!" Madam Fang gestured wildly, the more she spoke, the more justified she felt. She widened her eyes. "This is ten thousand mu of prime farmland in the Central Plains, Eleventh Brother, not some untamed wilderness down in Jiangnan! I know you have your ways, so figure out how to demand it from her!"

"Hehe, sister-in-law, if you truly want land, Jiangnan and Lingnan have plenty. Never mind ten thousand mu, there are hundreds of thousands or even millions of mu to be had. Go further south past the mountain ranges, and you will find vast plains as wide as entire prefectures and commanderies," Ye Chang said with a smile. "Although it is virgin land at present, precisely because it is virgin, it is easy to acquire. Cultivate it for three to five years, and it becomes fertile fields. Tend to it carefully for another two or three decades, and it will flow with fat and grease like the present Jianghuai region... You pass over these easy choices and instead chase after the lands of Mengzhou. Mengzhou yields only one harvest a year, Jiangnan yields two, while Lingnan and Guangnan yield three a year!"

The more Madam Fang listened, the brighter her eyes shone. "You aren't tricking me, taking advantage of a woman's limited insight, are you?"

"I would dare trick anyone except sister-in-law. And how could sister-in-law possibly have limited insight? If sister-in-law lacked insight, I would not have come to consult with you in the first place."

Madam Fang's heart churned with excitement for a good long while before she ultimately let out a sigh.

"Though those places are fine, they are lands of pestilence and miasma, haunts of beasts, utterly unbearable for human habitation."

Ye Chang knew this was a major issue. Decades later, Han Yu would be demoted to Chaozhou in Lingnan for remonstrating against the reception of a Buddha bone, writing in a poem to his grand-nephew, "Gladly shall you gather my bones by the miasmic river." However, Ye Chang had his own solutions for this. "Sister-in-law is right. I truly lack the time to go to Jiangnan right now. But once our manpower is sufficient and matters here are cleared up, I will go sooner or later. As for the pestilence, sister-in-law may rest assured; I have my own countermeasures."

"If that is the case, you must first cultivate a batch of capable people over the next few years." Seeing that he remained steadfast, and recalling his talk of "dreaming of immortals," Madam Fang assumed the immortals had passed down some method to deal with the pestilence. Thus she said, "There is no need to rush. Didn't Princess Yuzhen lend her estate to you for three years? Use her estate first to nurture talent. Furthermore, you can plant more of our people around your brother-in-law... Within our Wuze Pond Ye clan, there are twenty or thirty suitable youths. Add in other surnames, and we can easily gather forty or fifty men. With your current reputation in the neighborhood, a single cry would bring one or two hundred youths rushing to offer their aid..."

As she meticulously calculated the personnel, counting on her fingers from time to time with intense concentration and intellect, Ye Chang was momentarily dazed. This sister-in-law of his truly resembled those fierce and formidable female merchant magnates of later generations.

After calculating for a while without hearing any response from Ye Chang, Madam Fang looked up and met his blank expression, causing a sudden strange ripple in her heart.

She then reined in her thoughts, scooped up her little daughter, and turned back toward the house.

Having listened to the adults discuss things she could not understand, the little girl was already nodding off to sleep. Realizing he had lost his composure, Ye Chang followed gloomily behind.

Upon reaching the door, he was blocked by a maidservant acting on Madam Fang's unspoken signal.

Ye Chang had no choice but to retreat crestfallen. They had only discussed halfway, and they had yet to figure out the specific steps to take.

Though he worked hard to familiarize himself with local human relations, the village housed several hundred people, and the neighboring villages held thousands more. How could he possibly know everyone individually? All of this required Madam Fang's assistance.

He walked somewhat dejectedly to the center of the courtyard, and at that moment, he heard Madam Fang's voice from within.

"Eleventh Brother, who is usable and who is not—why don't you go ask the clan leader?"

Ye Chang shared this thought, but he truly lacked confidence in the discernment of the clan leader, Ye Dan.

"They are merely estate managers; the clan leader still has a good eye for that. Besides, distinctions of closeness must be maintained. One's own kinsmen are always more reliable than outsiders."

Ye Chang disagreed inwardly with the latter point, but such was the reality of the times. A kinsman, no matter how incompetent, was always more easily trusted than someone of a different surname. By himself, Ye Chang lacked the strength to stand against the entire clan.

Stepping back outside, he spotted Ye Dan lingering not far away. Upon seeing Ye Chang, Ye Dan greeted him with a smile, "Eleventh Brother!"

Ye Chang felt a trace of curiosity. Ever since suffering a setback in front of Yuan Gonglu, Ye Dan had practically avoided him at all costs. Yet today, he dared to initiate a greeting.

Without dwelling on it, he had too many heavy matters weighing on his mind to spare any thoughts for a man who posed neither threat nor challenge.

Rushing over to Ye Dan's house, Ye Dan was quite excited upon hearing the purpose of his visit. Over the past year, he had watched Ye Chang's reputation skyrocket, far surpassing his own as clan leader. Nowadays, major clan matters were rarely brought to him for consultation; instead, everyone looked to Ye Chang for direction. Though Ye Dan accepted this, a lingering resentment always rankled in his heart.

Now that Ye Chang had come to seek his counsel, he instantly felt that his usefulness had been restored.

"If it's about managing those two estates, it must naturally fall to me. In our Ye family, who else could compare to me?" Hearing that he was to oversee two estates for the Grand Princess, Ye Dan puffed out his chest and recommended himself.

Had Ye Dan not been so advanced in years, Ye Chang might actually have been tempted.

"How could I dare trouble your elder self? They are merely two small estates, and what we will grow is not millet or wheat, but cotton from the barbarian lands. Moreover, barbarians will come to assist us. If one of these barbarians acts impolitely and offends your elder self, it would not do," Ye Chang said, half-joking and half-serious.

Hearing this, though Ye Dan knew it was flattery, he was still greatly pleased. "If we speak of others... there are indeed a few suitable candidates."

He rattled off several names, detailing their personalities and temperaments to Ye Chang, noting that they were honest, willing to endure hardship, and hardworking. Ye Chang committed them to memory one by one; he did not need overly clever people right now.

Without exception, these individuals were all kinsmen of the Ye clan. After finishing the list, when Ye Chang mentioned needing to recruit more laborers, Ye Dan reeled off names off the top of his head, demonstrating complete mastery of the village's roster.

"Uncle Grandfather is remarkable," Ye Chang could not help but exclaim in surprise, never expecting this elder relative to be such a meticulous planner.

"Naturally. In all my life, if there is one person whose character I misjudged, it is only you," Ye Dan said with smug pride.

"Oh? Who?"

"It was you... Eleventh Brother. When I first saw you, I thought you were bound to end up in a Daoist temple sooner or later." At this, Ye Dan burst into loud laughter.

Ye Chang forced out two laughs of his own, though the sound was somewhat dry.

Had he not broken through the void to arrive here, the original Ye Chang, stripped of his property by his own kinsmen, would likely have had no choice but to escape into the Daoist gate to flee the mortal world.

Ye Dan proceeded to strategize extensively for Ye Chang. When it came to farming matters, Ye Chang truly knew far less than Ye Dan—especially regarding how estate managers practiced trickery and how tenants should be handled and driven. Ye Chang cared less about the latter, but the former was crucial. He could not remain stationed in Mengzhou indefinitely, so keeping these estate managers under control was the key to success.

Two estate managers, a chief accountant, and a few secret informants.

"Isn't corruption a systemic issue? Why rely on spy-like informants instead of eradicating corruption with a flawless system?" The thought suddenly popped into Ye Chang's mind.

It drew a muted chuckle from him—the naive, youthful idealism of a university dropout from his previous life. As biological entities, humans possessed an instinctive drive to appropriate survival resources. In other words, corruption was human nature, and no system could completely eradicate that nature.

Even a figure like He Zhizhang, when selecting mourners for the Prince of Qi's funeral, could not escape a bribery scandal, ultimately getting besieged and trapped in his own home, forced to prop up a ladder against his courtyard wall to defend himself.

With a mind full of winding thoughts, Ye Chang set out from Ye Dan's house. By now, he had already selected his candidates—not only those who would follow him to Mengzhou, but also the crew assigned to accompany Liu Kun in building the new kiln.

Stepping out of Ye Dan's residence, before Ye Chang could take a step, he spotted Ye Dan's son, Ye Lian, lurking before his eyes once more.

Even with the dullest perception, Ye Chang realized that his uncle most likely had business with him.

However, since the other party refused to speak, he had no intention of prompting him. Keeping his hands behind his back, he walked away on his own, pretending not to see him.

"Eleventh Brother... What a coincidence, running into you again." Seeing his attitude, Ye Lian could no longer keep up the act and hurried forward.

"I don't find it coincidental at all. I have matters to attend to and no time to listen to my uncle's teachings," Ye Chang said indifferently.

"Eleventh Brother... you... you..."

This frigid demeanor, keeping others a thousand miles away, finally provoked a shred of anger in Ye Lian.

Over the past year, having plunged to the lowest trough of his life, he had long forgotten what anger felt like—he possessed no qualification to be angry if he wished to survive in the village.

Swallowing that spark of anger, Ye Lian said with a trace of sorrow, "Eleventh Brother, in the past, I wronged you. But over this past year, you've seen it—I've suffered enough of a lesson... Just let me go."

Ye Chang halted, turned his head to look at him with an expression of utter astonishment, and asked, "What does uncle mean by this?"

"I was wrong. I wronged you. I beg you, let me go." Gritting his teeth, Ye Lian lowered his head.

"I still don't understand what uncle is saying," Ye Chang replied calmly. "If I had not let you go, does uncle believe you could still find shelter here in Xiuwu?"

Hearing these words, Ye Lian froze, then was overcome with joy.

Indeed, had Ye Chang not spared him, given Ye Chang's current influence, driving him out of Xiuwu would have been effortless, and not a single person in the clan would have stood up for someone who had completely lost his footing.

At this thought, a myriad of thoughts surged through his mind.

Over the past year, under Ye Chang's influence, Wuze Pond and the surrounding small villages—such as Little Liu Village, Nie Village, and Mountain Foot Village—had undergone tremendous changes. Simply by teaching the villagers to use human and animal waste to manufacture what he called "organic fertilizer," Ye Chang had raised crop yields by nearly twenty percent.

More importantly, workshops were rising one after another. Previously, the area only had a few pottery kilns, but now, from hydraulic flour mills powered by waterwheels to brick kilns fired with coal, numerous workshops had suddenly sprouted along the hillsides near Wuze Pond.

These were rolling rivers of wealth.

And all of this wealth had been brought by Ye Chang. Those workshops and kiln yards had nearly all been established under his guidance. Even the group of outsiders who had come from Chang'an were now cooperating with Ye Chang to process tea and fire glazed ceramics... Ye Chang had not concealed these matters; on the contrary, he had deliberately publicized them, encouraging the surrounding villages to contribute labor and capital to partner with him.

In an instant, Ye Lian realized that he and Ye Chang were, after all, uncle and nephew. Since Ye Chang could bring those "outsiders" to prosperity, he, as a blood relative and elder, naturally deserved a share of the profit.

At this thought, he coughed. "Since that is the case, Eleventh Brother... I hear you are going to make glazed ceramics... Those people are outsiders after all. Glazed ware is a precious treasure; how can it be lightly entrusted to outsiders? Why don't I manage it for you..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Ye Chang turn and walk away. Ye Lian froze for a second, then immediately gave chase. His feverish heart, as though doused by a bucket of icy water, instantly recalled his true situation.

That greed had ruined him once before, and now it had caused him to utter presumptuous words all over again.

Awakening from his delusion, he no longer dared to speak nonsense, but simply trotted after Ye Chang, muttering, "Eleventh Brother, since you've spared me, why won't you think of our clan ties and leave me a path to survive? I don't ask to manage anything for you—just casually assign me any position..."

Ye Chang stopped dead in his tracks.

Astonished by Ye Lian's greed and shamelessness, as well as his stupidity and selfishness.

Though Ye Chang did not consider himself a good person, Ye Lian's behavior still managed to leave him utterly defeated.

"Why on earth would you think I am magnanimous to such a degree?" Ye Chang asked, halting and fixing him with a cold, piercing glare. "Allowing you to stay in Wuze Pond and pretending you don't exist is already the absolute limit of my tolerance. Yet you dare try to push for an inch after taking a foot?"

"Eleventh Brother, what... what do you mean by this? That Yuan Zai harbored a deep blood grudge against you, yet the moment he arrived in Xiuwu to pick a fight, you didn't hesitate to use your immortal arts to save his wife... Why won't you extend a helping hand to your own clan uncle?"

The conflict between Yuan Zai and Ye Chang was no longer a secret in Wuze Pond. While the assassination attempt outside Chang'an was unknown to Ye Lian, the fact that Yuan Zai had tried to plot against Ye Chang the moment he took office was known to everyone in Wuze Pond, and even throughout Xiuwu County. As Ye Lian brought this up, he wore an aggrieved expression.

Staring at him, Ye Chang demanded in a chilling tone, "How has Yuan Zai harmed me? And where is my elder brother now?"

Ye Lian shuddered all over, suddenly realizing that he was fundamentally different from Yuan Zai.

Although Yuan Zai had made an enemy of Ye Chang, up to this point, he had not inflicted any grave harm upon him. On the contrary, Ye Lian had conspired with Madam Liu to send Ye Shu to his death in Chang'an!

He stood frozen on the spot, watching Ye Chang stride away. His heart plummeted into an abyss, his complexion shifting uncertainly between shades of pale and dark.