Chapter 2289: Setting the Stage to Sing Opera
"This lowly one understands!" Zhang Yong knelt and solemnly kowtowed. "I swear on my life."
"Get up. Don't speak of this to anyone. When the time comes, act according to circumstances!" Song Ming said.
Inside Sanheui Camp, Chang Qingyun had recently become a "Red Man."
His rise wasn't difficult to explain. First, Zhao Fengtian had specifically instructed Liu Youwang to treat him well. With this "imperial edict" in hand, when Liu Youwang discovered Qiaoniang hanging dead before his bed, he was scared out of his wits. Even in his rage, he only gave Chang Qingyun a few slaps—unlike the others involved, who received thorough beatings. Second, Chang Qingyun had served in Shogunates for many years; his skill at flattering people and currying favor was refined to perfection. In the captive camp, he had previously maintained some semblance of scholarly dignity—though he didn't dare resist, he refused to wallow in the mire.
But once he resolved to join Yi Haoran's conspiracy, Chang Qingyun realized that getting close to Liu Youwang, the camp's chief, would be enormously beneficial to the overall plan. So he began "enduring humiliation to bear the heavy burden" and fawned on Liu Youwang. Within just a few days, Chang Qingyun had become Liu Youwang's "table companion," entertaining and amusing him daily.
Liu Youwang was utterly unlettered; how could he be a match for Chang Qingyun, this old fox who had spent years navigating official circles? Chang Qingyun had wandered through Shogunates for years and was intimately familiar with every amusement toy of the wealthy and noble. Compared to Liu Youwang, who knew only drinking and debauching women for entertainment, Chang Qingyun opened a "New World's Door" for him.
The greatest pleasure of the rich was naturally to keep household performers and troupes, staging operas for their own amusement. This wasn't entertainment ordinary wealthy people could afford. Since Chang Qingyun wanted to encourage such extravagance, he naturally aimed high.
Under Chang Qingyun's management, performers and musicians capable of singing Kun Opera and local folk opera (the predecessor of Cantonese Opera) were quickly found among the captives and refugees in the Three Headquarters Camp. Knowing Liu Youwang's lecherous nature, Chang Qingyun urged him to search the camp for beautiful women and force them to learn singing. Liu Youwang then spent his days drinking and listening to opera, and his nights forcing the actresses to share his bed. For a time, young women throughout the camp lived in terror. All of Sanheui Camp was filled with complaints. When Chang Qingyun walked the roads, everyone looked at him sideways; everyone spat and cursed behind his back. But no one dared point and scold him to his face. On the contrary, he had rocketed to become the most powerful figure in the camp—any matter that he was willing to put in a word about with Liu Youwang could almost certainly be resolved.
All this news reached Yi Haoran's ears through their inside contacts. Yi Haoran was somewhat baffled. The task he had given Chang Qingyun was to find ways to expand their forces so that when the time came, they could set fires inside the camp, create chaos, and coordinate with Gou Er's bandit gang when they raided Sanheui.
He hadn't expected Chang Qingyun to make such a spectacular spectacle of himself! Though ingratiating himself with Liu Youwang was beneficial for developing their work, such a high profile made Yi Haoran secretly worried—he feared it might trigger some accident. He hurriedly sent someone with a letter, quietly inviting Chang Qingyun out.
Recently, for convenience of contact and to avoid drawing attention from people at the grain shop, Yi Haoran had suggested to Wen Iron Head that he could come help with accounts and other matters every day. Wen Iron Head wished he would come daily and immediately spoke with Luo Yangming. Luo Yangming had no attention to spare for other things and figured that under his uncle-in-law's watch, the man probably couldn't cause trouble. He agreed. So Yi Haoran left the city every morning and worked near the docks until afternoon before returning to continue teaching Qi Liheng to read.
Yi Haoran didn't put on airs and quickly won the porters' goodwill. From time to time, he would also take the initiative to help Wen Iron Head handle various matters, which gave him even more freedom of movement.
"Ruining your reputation like this—what exactly are you planning?" Yi Haoran asked when they met. "These past days, your name has become so infamous it reeks throughout Wuzhou inside and out..."
"I'm ready to throw away my life. Why would I care about my reputation?" Chang Qingyun smiled.
"Even if you don't care about your reputation, you're seducing this Liu Youwang into forming an opera troupe, drowning him in wine and women. I think I understand your meaning—nothing more than wearing down his will and letting anger in the camp boil over so it'll be easier to strike when the time comes. But recently this news has been filtering into the city. What if this Xie Hair decides Liu Youwang has stirred up too much public anger and replaces him? If a new official takes over, he might well use your head to appease the people. And we still need you to take charge of the overall situation inside this camp..."
"You make good points. But in my view, Xie Hair has no time for such things right now," Chang Qingyun spoke with confidence. "The grain transport is his first priority; everything else can wait until the grain is safely warehoused. This Liu Youwang may be worthless, but he's managed the camp until now. He's done plenty of bad things, abusing his position for private gain. But officially, he hasn't made any mistakes. To Xie Hair, Liu Youwang is a capable cadre. He's not stupid enough to change generals before battle just because of 'public anger' from a few captives and refugees."
This was argued with reason and evidence; Yi Haoran couldn't immediately refute it. He was somewhat puzzled about what this man was really up to. Then Chang Qingyun continued, "I urged him to form an opera troupe—naturally, it will have its uses when the time comes..."
"What uses?"
"No harm in telling you." Chang Qingyun spoke with complete confidence. "This Liu Youwang is very close with Zhu Si, the Wuzhou Battalion Commander, and with the squadron commander and platoon leaders of the 3rd Squadron responsible for guarding the camp. These officers frequently come to the camp. Do you know why they're so intimate with Liu Youwang?"
"Could it be they're just drinking and eating buddies drawn together by shared vices?"
"You're truly an upright gentleman, sir," Chang Qingyun smiled. "Calling them drinking and eating buddies isn't wrong. But Liu Youwang has a terrible temper when he's drunk, and he's a vulgar man—hardly an interesting host. Being drinking buddies with someone like that would be unbearably dull. The reason Zhu Si and the others are willing to be his drinking buddies is, to put it plainly, because wine and women are readily available inside the camp."
Yi Haoran suddenly understood. The camp held not only captives from the Wuzhou battle but also refugees who had been taken in, as well as family dependents of official households who had drifted here... There was no shortage of women—not just ladies from great families, but also demure beauties from humbler homes.
Liu Youwang's rank was low and his position minor, but at Sanheui he wielded power over life and death. No one in the camp dared disobey him. For these rough men who fought all year round with only other men around them, this was practically a gentle paradise. No wonder they wanted to cultivate their friendship with Liu Youwang.
"So that's how it is!" Yi Haoran said. "This Liu Youwang truly is a shameless villain!"
"Shameless he may be, but this is a golden opportunity," Chang Qingyun said. "With this opera troupe, those men will probably come around even more often. When the time comes, we can invite them quite naturally to come watch the opera together..." He smiled. "What do you think?"
Yi Haoran was stunned. He hadn't expected Chang Qingyun to have this trick up his sleeve! The 3rd Squadron had been a constant headache for him. Though the squadron wasn't elite, it had a core of veteran fighters and several dozen Nanyang-style rifles. Whether Gou Er's rabble could defeat them in one stroke, he had no confidence at all.
But if they could use opera-watching as a pretext and lure all these officers into the camp, it would disrupt their command structure. With luck, they might even kill Wuzhou National Army Battalion Commander Zhu Si along with the rest!
Thinking this, Yi Haoran's gaze turned involuntarily to admiration. "Sir, you truly possess great talent!"
"A mere trifling trick—hardly worthy of being called great talent!" Chang Qingyun said leisurely. "But I'm just a scholar. When the time comes, I'm afraid I won't be able to control the entire situation on my own. You'll need to prepare some manpower..."
"To be frank, we do have some comrades inside the camp, but not many. If we want to catch them all in one net during the opera, I'm afraid we won't have the strength..."
"How can there be no way?" Chang Qingyun sneered. "Does Advisor Yi really think dealing with Hair thieves requires facing them saber to saber, spear to spear, in formal combat?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm persuading him to set up a private kitchen. I've already found a cook, but a kitchen always needs helpers..."
Yi Haoran suddenly understood, and secretly felt a twinge of disgust. This Chang Qingyun was an honored Juren, yet all his methods were dirty tricks that couldn't be presented in polite company. No wonder the one who recommended him had come up with the idea of "Burning Wuzhou"!
Dirty or not, this man's work inside the camp had already far exceeded what Yi Haoran had accomplished in all his days of plotting. Yi Haoran had to admit respect. He immediately told Chang Qingyun quietly about the few men they had inside the camp.
"...These people are still reliable. See if you can find a way to bring them in."
"If they're just nameless soldiers, that's easy. If they have any reputation inside the camp, that would actually make it harder."
Just as Chang Qingyun had said, Zhu Si had been frequently finding various excuses to visit Sanheui lately—"inspecting defenses" or "examining training conditions"—when in truth he was chasing wine and women. This path had been introduced to him by the 3rd Squadron's Squadron Commander.
This Squadron Commander, Jiang Yougong, had originally been a Banner General in the Ming Army. He was captured during the Battle of Chengmai. A bachelor and a rogue, he had drifted through the army aimlessly. After his capture, he had stayed with the Fubo Army as a soldier. Jiang Yougong was quite similar to Zhu Si—both were accustomed to the old army's ways. They hadn't quite adapted to the Fubo Army's new system, so they hadn't served long before being cleared out and assigned to a Farm as employees.
Because of his military background, he became a Farm Militia Captain. When the northern campaign began and the Senate launched its great army expansion, Jiang Yougong re-enlisted and became a National Army Squadron Commander.
If his National Army unit had been composed of naturalized citizens, Jiang Yougong wouldn't have dared act too recklessly. But the squadron he commanded was purely newly organized. Apart from the NCOs and a minority of combat veterans who were naturalized citizens, most of his soldiers came from surrendered guards around Guangzhou and Guangdong Garrison Soldiers. They hadn't undergone much reorganization and training—in fact, most of the training only really began after they arrived in Wuzhou. With the 3rd Squadron stationed alone outside the city, free from oversight, Jiang Yougong felt like a fish in water. His boldness grew accordingly.
Next Update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Part 493 (End of Chapter)