"GuoFu-ge, for what reason have you come to Lian house?" Ji LanBai asked, absentmindedly running her fingers on her zither that Xiao Lin had handed to her. Although she used to not be interested in any musical instrument, she had grown to love this zither and the smoothness of its body.
Zhang GuoFu felt amused looking at her, his tone soft as he said, "There's a bit of state matter which elder brothers and I have to look into," he glanced at Zhang KongJing and Zhang JunLi, "However now, it seems that it is just another wasted trip... ."
The Crown Prince sighed, "Third Brother is right. We need to discuss this matter with Minister Chao when we get back to the capital."
"It is not totally wasted though," the Second Prince smiled, "We have the luck to have seen Miss Ji and Miss Bai performing so beautifully," He turned his head, nodding at He Shan and Sun Chen, "He-laoshi and Sun-laoshi truly have eyes to find pearls."
He Shan and Sun Chen, despite being some years older than the three princes, obviously could not take credits from a royal prince without humbling themselves. They stood up to bow lightly. He Shan said, "Not at all. Talents have to be nurtured. Especially ones such as this humble one's students,"
One of the two Ji estate guards who were initially guarding the building entrance walked into the room and bowed in salutation,
"Young Master Chao and Young Miss Chao from the Ministry of Finance have requested for an audience,"
The Crown Prince slapped his fan against his thigh, "How could I have forgotten! We saw Minister Chao's son and daughter earlier, didn't we?" He smiled, "A good chance to know their idea about our issue at this time? Surely Minister Chao had at one point discussed about this with Chao HuiBo?"
He waved to the guard, "Let them come in."
Not long after, Chao HuiBo and Chao MeiHua walked inside and greeted the three princes in full bow. After she straightened up, Chao MeiHua then transparently fixated her passionate gaze at Sun Chen which made the latter's back dripping with cold sweat.
The Chao siblings initially only intended to greet the royal princes before heading back to the capital city of Da Lang. As their father was an important figure in the Imperial Court, they had to be courteous to the Imperial Sons, especially when they had seen each other before. Their other friends from lower ranking officials who had come with them were waiting outside Lian house.
"Young Master Chao," The Crown Prince beckoned him to come and patted a cushion across him, "Sit!"
Chao HuiBo stared at the cushion, the floor, then at the perfectly empty chairs by the wall in the room, then at the still smiling Crown Prince. He sighed inwardly and proceeded to sit at the provided spot. This Crown Prince was truly eccentric.
Xiao Lin and Xiao Hui poured some tea for the new guests before retreating behind Ji LanBai and Bai YuLan.
Chao HuiBo looked at the two young girls, one garbed in light violet robe who was undoubtedly one of the qin players before. Her face was now unveiled, revealing the stunning features of a budding young woman. From the way she was conversing quite animatedly with the Yong Prince, Third Prince Zhang GuoFu, she should be General Ji ChanFang's daughter, Ji LanBai. Chao HuiBo retracted his gaze and glanced at the other girl.
Chao HuiBo's eyesight was pretty good. He had caught a glimpse on the girl's facial features when the commotion happened. The very same girl was now wearing a very plain uniform of Lian house' servant. He frowned, "Is she truly the same girl who let out that beautiful ethereal-like voice earlier?"
Chao HuiBo admitted that Ji LanBai was beautiful; but his own sister, Chao MeiHua, was also one of the famous young beauties of Zhang Empire. Chao MeiHua's attractiveness was in no way inferior to Ji LanBai's.
This young girl called Bai YuLan, as he found out from another servant of Lian house earlier when he enquired about the names of the qin players, was fair looking and could be said as attractive. Yet she definitely could only be called plain if compared to the striking features of Ji LanBai or the already blooming seductiveness of Chao MeiHua. She even looked somewhat frail with her downcast eyes and soft features. With his sharp perception, Chao HuiBo also noticed that there was a flaw on her facial feature; it was a thin line on her chin, seemingly a scar from an old wound. The scar was already faint and hardly noticeable; yet now wearing the cheaply made robe, she looked even more obscure.
The scrutiny flashed in his mind in no more than an instant and the slightest bit of interest was no longer there. The illusion of the girl's earlier charm was now completely gone.
Chao HuiBo quickly returned his attention to the Crown Prince, only to find the latter looking coldly at him. He thought that he must have lingered his gaze longer than necessary at Young Miss Ji LanBai. Understanding that the Crown Prince was concerned on the Third Prince's behalf, Chao HuiBo coughed lightly,
"What does Your Highness need this humble one for?"
He Shan and Sun Chen tactfully left the room, Chao MeiHua eagerly tailed after them as well. Ji LanBai and Bai YuLan were about to stand up as well to follow suit, but the Third Prince lifted his hand to stop them. Even the Crown Prince mildly said,
"Miss LanBai and Miss YuLan should just stay inside. Especially Miss YuLan who had experienced such an incident before. This Prince does not want Miss to tire herself by walking around."
Chao HuiBo brows slightly furrowed at the obvious caring tone in the Crown Prince's voice. It was one thing when it was the Crown Prince's future sister-in-law; yet, the Crown Prince had also addressed the other girl by her little name, which Chao HuiBo could not help to think as inappropriate.
Whatever Chao HuiBo might be thinking, he did not dare to say it out loud. The Crown Prince also immediately returned his focus on Chao HuiBo; the conversation flowed naturally between the two of them, Zhang JunLi and Zhang GuoFu. Zhen BuFeng kept his silence, content of being an idle background, polishing his spear to probably make it shinier than how it already was.
Ji LanBai leaned her body slightly against YuLan's shoulder, trying to stay awake while listening to, for her, the boring conversation. However, Bai YuLan was listening on the men's conversation with her full attention.
The three royal princes had visited several wheat farmers and merchants for the past few weeks, mostly located around Ming town. Being summer, the wheat farmers had just collected their bi-annual harvests, but they had been meeting difficulties selling their crops lately.
Competition came from the Northern Plains who possessed more land more suited for larger areas of wheat production. A lot of merchants, even those hailing from Zhang Empire, preferred to purchase the Northern harvest as they would receive more crops for cheaper price. They would then sell these to the local restaurants, retailers, or households who need them.
In short, due to the shortage of merchants or distributors purchasing their harvest, Zhang Empire's wheat farmers suffer year after year, while the Northern Plains happily kept selling their abundance of crops to the merchants to reap profit. They could not sell directly to the masses either as people would much prefer buying wheat from the merchants as they were cheaper. The northern terrains were perfect to grow wheat with little to no expense compared to the local Zhang farmers. The harvests they had annually were more than enough for their own use, so they just sold the extra to the merchants at a cheap price.
"Imperial Father has constantly been giving subsidies to our local farmers to assist their livelihood," Second Prince Zhang JunLi said, "But that is not enough if this issue keeps happening year after year."
"The Northern Plains has been getting more fertile for the few past years," Third Prince Zhang GuoFu added, "It is good that they are getting wealthier as territory; after all, our relationship is amiable. But when it is hurting our own people, it has become a problem indeed."
"My father has imposed tax on the wheat purchased outside Zhang Empire," Chao HuiBo replied, "It seems that it is not enough. I wonder if we should increase the tax further."
"Certainly a matter for consideration," Crown Prince Zhang KongJing nodded. He shifted his body to stretch lightly, then he noticed Ji LanBai was soundly sleeping, her head already fell onto YuLan's lap. His lips curled slightly, then he noticed Bai YuLan who did not seem fazed or discomforted at all with how her thighs had been used as pillow.
YuLan was having her head down, her eyes were looking at nothing in particular on the floor. Her cheeks puffed slightly, her soft eyebrows were slightly knotted.
Zhang GuoFu had also coincidentally turned to look at his side and noticed the sleeping Ji LanBai. He smiled and draped a thin robe on her body. Then when he saw YuLan in deep thought, he asked in a low whisper, trying not to wake up his sleeping fiancee,
"Does Miss YuLan have an opinion?" Zhang GuoFu did not have any expectation that she would reply, but the discussion was not going anywhere anyway. Whatever that could be discussed had been discussed; in fact, he expected her to request to be excused. After all, how could their topic interest a young maiden?
Hearing her name being mentioned, YuLan lifted her head up to look at Zhang GuoFu, then towards the sleeping Ji LanBai on her lap. She merely chuckled,
"Your Highness does not need to speak so carefully. The Young Miss will not wake up so easily once she has fallen asleep." She then gave a slightly bitter smile, "Believe me. I have tried numerous times."
This made the other princes laugh as well. Chao HuiBo's lips were still drawn in a flat line, "The Royal Princes are awfully casual with this girl. Who is she?"
"Miss YuLan does not need to be so reserved if you have an opinion," Zhang JunLi probed as well, wanting to join in the teasing.
Chao HuiBo was about to open his mouth to intercede. Although he thought the royal princes were just being casual and would not take the girl's opinion seriously, he still thought they should not have given her this much courtesy. YuLan, however, started speaking,
"This lowly one will not stand on ceremony then." She gave a soft smile and said, "My idea is also tax."
Chao HuiBo could not help letting out a displeased snort, "A lady should not dabble in matters for men. Clearly you were not paying --"
"A different kind of tax," YuLan interrupted him as she darted his gaze onto him, still smiling calmly. Chao HuiBo suddenly forgot what he was going to say.
"There are a couple of steps needed for this issue," she continued, "One; is what I would call 'dumping tax'. This should be imposed only during harvest season for wheat bought from any other sources apart from Zhang's local farmers. This tax would ideally be imposed on top of the normal tax."
"But the Emperor should not just impose this new tax without strategy as well. This will just cause dissatisfaction to the trading merchants. What the court should also decide is a quota on the wheat harvest's purchase. The priority of this quota must go to the Zhang farmers. Only after meeting certain quota for their purchase of wheat from the local farmers, then they can obtain wheat from any other sources."
"Failure to meet this quota will incur the earlier 'dumping tax' I mentioned about earlier."
"This would then bring us to the second step: as I believe the Northern Plains and Zhang Empire have been in somewhat harmonious relationship for the past years, limiting their wheat export into Zhang Empire may cause unfavorable feedback on their behalf. What I suggest is to establish a trade agreement between the two territories."
YuLan's lucid gaze shifted onto the Crown Prince,
"For example, in Crown Prince's opinion, what is our Zhang Empire's specialty that the Northern Plains will seek?"
The Crown Prince's eyes brightened. Second Prince Zhang JunLi was also enlightened and replied, "A few things really. One of the most noticeable would be bamboo."
YuLan smiled as she could see that the royal princes had now understood what she was trying to explain. Although she did not know the terrain of the Northern Plains or the Zhang Empire she was currently a citizen in, every country would have their own strengths and weaknesses. She previously did not know that bamboo were in abundance in the Empire, be it wild or cultivated by men. The terrain and weather was perfectly suited for the plants to grow unbridled, some even causing problems as they had the tendency to grow and spread quickly.
Basically, bamboo to Zhang Empire was wheat to the Northern Plains.
Moreover, bamboo was one of the cheapest and most durable material, suitable for a variety of uses; from building materials to small crafts. For the Northern Plains people, bamboo was a preferred material for their mostly nomadic lifestyle. Being lightweight, they could easily be assembled into structures for their housing and also be dismantled in a relatively quick manner.
Even if it was not bamboo, YuLan believed the princes would be able to find whatever would be suitable for the trade arrangement with the Northern Plains. The three princes were already talking to each other in excitement, outlining general plan to be addressed at the next court meeting.
Chao HuiBo blinked his eyes. With some time and proper communications to the lower officials to get this plan more streamlined, he had no doubt that their wheat farmers would be happy while also giving Zhang Empire an additional advantage over the Northern Plains.
Suddenly, he could not shift his eyes off this still-calmly-smiling young girl.
