Chapter 31 How can one pay for taking back what belongs to oneself?

"Old Su, how many warhorses can you acquire in a single largest trade?"
"If we select only fine steeds, up to a hundred at most in a single transaction."
A hundred? That's utterly useless!
Chen Cong persisted, unwilling to give up. "Then tell me, if you had plenty of grain, salt, and iron, could you trade them for ten thousand fine horses all at once?"
"This... the Lord does not understand. The Hu tribes trade horses primarily through individual clans. Even with heavy bribes, a single transaction will rarely exceed two hundred horses, and the price would skyrocket."
Chen Cong nodded thoughtfully.
Hoping for a one-time windfall was out of the question. Could it be that he, the dignified Governor of Bingzhou, actually had to pay money for horses?
Bingzhou was his own territory! To have to shell out cash for things in his own domain?
Wasn't this a direct slap to his face?
Amidst his deliberations, Chen Cong suddenly caught sight of Yufuluo, who was sluggishly shaking off the dirt covering his body.
His eyes suddenly lit up.
The Xianbei raised horses, and the Xiongnu raised horses too!
While the Xianbei traded through tribal networks, the Xiongnu didn't need to go through such cumbersome channels.
Although Yufuluo had been captured, hadn't his younger brother Huchuquan escaped?
As long as they found the Xiongnu Left Virtuous King to spearhead the effort, would they still have to worry about securing a massive deal?
Chen Cong smiled, walked with a stride over to Yufuluo, and casually brushed off a few stubbornly clinging clumps of dirt from him.
He said warmly, "My friend, you have suffered."
Yufuluo's backside twitched with fright, and he dropped straight to his knees. Had his upper body not been bound tightly with ropes so he couldn't bend his waist, he wouldn't even have minded kowtowing to Chen Cong twice.
With trembling lips, he stammered, "Go-, Go-, Governor, sir! I was wrong! Please spare me for the sake of the Eternal Sky."
Not minding the filth on him, Chen Cong reached out and helped him up, saying earnestly, "No, no, no, it is I who was wrong. We used to be such good friends, yet due to differing stances, I have forced you to endure such great hardship. My friend, I hope you do not hold a grudge against me."
Yufuluo was on the verge of tears. He shrank back, shaking his head vigorously.
The last time Chen Cong had been this affectionate with him, he had been thrown into a pit of evil ghosts and chewed on all night long!
"Just kill me! Use my head to wash away the sins the Xiongnu have committed!"
"Don't be like that, my friend. As long as you do me a tiny favor, I will immediately send you off to Luoyang. Trust me, my father-in-law is a very amiable man; he will surely treat you with the utmost hospitality."

Yufuluo raised his head in startled doubt, asking suspiciously, "Really?"
Chen Cong raised four fingers high, looking dead serious. "I swear to the Eternal Sky that every word I say is true."
After a moment of hesitation, Yufuluo gritted his teeth hard. "Fine, tell me."
"You must have a way to help these two subordinates of mine meet Huchuquan, right?"
Yufuluo's heart skipped a beat. His instinctive reaction was to refuse, but upon seeing the smiling glint in Chen Cong's eyes, he tactfully swallowed the refusal back down.
"The Left Virtuous King's tribe operates around Manbo. Every new moon, he summons the leaders of various tribes in the city. If they bring the Left Virtuous King's principal wife into the city on that day, they will be able to see Huchuquan."
Chen Cong blinked.
He had already sent away the bride as a gift; he couldn't possibly run all the way to Luoyang and fish her out from the Rebel Cao's bed...
"Sorry, the Left Virtuous King's wife has already died of illness. You might need to come up with another way."
Yufuluo said, "An concubine, an ordinary concubine will do as well. The leaders of the various Xiongnu tribes all recognize her. If we just claim it was a chance rescue, no one should suspect anything."
Hmm...
Chen Cong rubbed his chin. "I'm truly sorry, my friend, but your concubine has also died of illness. Surely you must have a better way, right?"
Yufuluo froze for a moment, a sudden thought striking him. He quickly lowered his head, not daring to let Chen Cong see his eyes.
Suppressing his joy, he said in a trembling voice, "Then... then you will just have to take me along. My friend, rest assured, I will never run away. Please, you must believe me."
"Oh? Is that so?"
Terrified that Chen Cong wouldn't believe him, Yufuluo gritted his teeth. "I am willing to swear in the name of the Eternal Sky."
"Psh!~ Don't I trust you? But Manbo is rather far after all, and to spare you the fatigue of the journey, perhaps I should just let them bring your ears instead? Or... your arms would work too."
Startled out of his wits, Yufuluo blurted out anxiously, "There's more! There is another way! Huchuquan had old ties with Zhang Cheng, the Master of Records under Wang Ze, the Administrator of Yanmen. If we use him to broker the meeting, we can enter the city and see him. My friend, you swore an oath—if I help you, you will send me to Luoyang."
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry. The Eternal Sky of you Xiongnu has no jurisdiction over Han generals."
Yufuluo: .....
...
The Governor's Mansion, Main Hall.
Chen Qun sat hunched over a desk, processing a mountain of official documents. A faint, cold sneer hung on the corners of his lips, and he did not raise his head once.
Down in the hall.

A young man was plunged into deep despair.
Wang Ling, nephew of the reigning Grand Tutor Wang Yun, and acting head of the Qixian Wang family.
Originally,
when he accompanied the grain transport carts in person to Jinyang this time, he had intended to leverage his connection with Diaochan to get in the good graces of Governor Chen Cong.
After all, regardless of everything else, Diaochan was his uncle Wang Yun's adopted daughter, making her his nominal adoptive sister.
Once Chen Cong took Diaochan in marriage, he would nominally be Chen Cong's brother-in-law.
With this relationship in place,
by crying poverty and putting on a pitiful act, he could at least preserve the very last footing of the Qixian Wang family.
Had it not been for this,
forty thousand hu of grain—even if he were to sell off the ancestral property of the Wang family, he wouldn't be able to scrape it together!
It wasn't that the Wang family's ancestral assets weren't worth forty thousand hu of grain, but rather that when Chen Qun came calling, he had already made it clear he was 'only borrowing grain', giving him zero opportunity to trade physical assets for the grain quota.
During the farming season, the grain reserves held by various households were already meager to begin with.
After Chen Cong crushed Meiji with a hundred horsemen, the aristocratic families around Taiyuan had rushed to release their grain reserves, solely to purchase a virtuous reputation so they could secure official posts in the Governor's Mansion.
Even if he had the heart to liquidate his family estate now, he absolutely could not gather forty thousand hu of grain!
Yet, having traveled all the way to Jinyang, not only had he failed to see Chen Cong, but sitting in the principal seat that rightfully belonged to Governor Chen Cong was none other than Chen Qun—the very man who had personally gone to the Wang family to 'borrow grain'!
"Lord Vice-Governor, even if the Governor is slightly indisposed, as an adopted elder brother, may I at least request an audience with Lady Diaochan?"
"Wang Yanyun, it is a disgrace to your reputation for virtue that you would utter such shameless words. You are an outsider; how could you clandestinely meet with the Governor's inner household? If you show any more disrespect, do not blame me for having people throw you out of the Governor's Mansion."
Wang Ling harbored secret resentment in his heart.
Alas, circumstances were stronger than man; he simply couldn't afford to act tough.
Gritting his teeth, he said, "Please hear me out, Vice-Governor. The Wang family's remaining grain reserves amount to seventy thousand hu, which have already been transported in full to Jinyang. As for the remaining three hundred and thirty thousand, might we be granted a deferral of a few months?"
Chen Qun replied flatly, "Oh? Does the Wang family not wish to honor the Governor as the master of Bingzhou?"