Chapter 473: Three Banquets
The rice birds, having flown from Siberia, had feasted on the soon-to-be-harvested rice in the Pearl River Delta. They were plump with fat, at their most delicious. It was Cummins’ first time eating this “Guangdong delicacy,” and he enjoyed it immensely, eating a dozen in one go, crunching down both meat and bone.
“This meal of ours must have cost tens of thousands… of circulation notes,” Suo Pu said. In another time and space, a single rice bird sold for 200 yuan in a restaurant.
“Is it that expensive?” Xie Peng was a little skeptical. “Centurion Lin said rice birds are everywhere, and they only cost a few dozen cash each at the market.”
Lin Ming just gave a dry laugh and didn’t respond, instead busying himself with serving the dishes. “Come, come, this is steamed egg with nereid worms, it’s the most delicious.”
However, the maggot-like worms solidified in the steamed egg were enough to make Xie Peng and Cummins recoil. Suo Pu, without any hesitation, ate several spoonfuls. A little pepper had been added, and it was delicious and smooth, much better than what he had eaten in another time and space. At least there was a lot more of it.
“It’s a pity there are no water beetles,” Lin Ming said with a hint of regret. “Now is also the season for water beetles.”
“If you brought that out, you’d scare them to death,” Suo Pu smiled. “I see this county magistrate is very polite to you.”
“When we Jinyiwei are on official business, they have to give us this little bit of face. It’s just spending the county’s money to buy some goodwill,” Lin Ming said with considerable pride.
Suo Pu nodded. The Jinyiwei’s nameplate had indeed been quite useful on this journey. He had originally had some concerns about such a high-profile staff trip, but the people from the Foreign Intelligence Bureau had said that for long-distance travel in this time and space, there was no better or safer cover than an official title.
As they were talking, an escort suddenly came in and said that someone else had sent another banquet.
“Which master sent it?” Lin Ming asked.
“The person who came refused to say. He just left the food box and went away,” the escort said. “Should we bring it in?”
“Of course, bring it in,” Suo Pu said. “Let’s see what good things there are.”
The escort immediately brought in the food box and opened it. It was a format of eight large bowls. Lin Ming’s eyelids twitched: official yamen cuisine generally did not use this kind of spread.
“Damn, why is there a bowl of cockroaches!” Cummins exclaimed.
“These are water beetles,” Suo Pu said. “Dip them in soy sauce, twist off the head, and you can eat them. It’s also a Guangdong specialty.”
“I’d rather not eat something of unknown origin,” Xie Peng said cautiously.
Lin Ming, however, picked up a reed from the food box, examined it, and smiled, “It’s not of unknown origin. The banquet we just ate was from the ‘officials,’ and this one is from the ‘bandits’.”
“Bandits?”
“That’s right. This reed is the mark of a water bandit named Tian Biao from Gaoyao County upstream,” Lin Ming said. “His hideout is thirty li upstream from here.”
“Why would he send us a banquet?” Suo Pu asked.
“It’s nothing more than currying favor, asking for future consideration,” Lin Ming put down the reed. “The stolen goods he gets on the West River can’t be sold locally. They all have to be transported to the Foshan area to be converted into silver. If you don’t burn incense at the temple, you’ll be caught and have your head chopped off sooner or later.”
What Lin Ming didn’t say was that he and this Boss Tian also had a “friendly” relationship.
“Truly, officials and bandits are one family,” Cummins said with disdain.
Although this was true, Lin Ming felt a little uncomfortable hearing it. He just smiled and said, “It has always been so. For people like us who receive a little incense and turn a blind eye, we are already considered to have a clear conscience. It’s not unheard of for yamen to collude with water bandits and split the money…”
Suo Pu thought to himself that the social environment here was really complex. It seemed that the Guangdong campaign was far from being solvable by simple military means…
“Is this banquet safe to eat? Could it be poisoned?” Cummins remembered the lesson of the work team that was wiped out.
“No,” Lin Ming said. “You can eat it with confidence. Unless he’s gone mad, why would he poison us?”
Since everyone had already eaten, except for Suo Pu who kept the water beetles as a snack, the rest of the banquet was given to the escorts and boatmen for a feast. Unexpectedly, as soon as the banquet was taken out, the escort reported again: a banquet had been sent by Chen Hongyi, a boat owner from Sanshui County.
“Who is this now?” Looking at the steaming rice birds, steamed egg with nereid worms, and water beetles in the food box, Cummins’ stomach was already feeling a little uncomfortable.
“Manager Chen also sent a gift,” the escort presented a large red visiting card and a gift list.
Lin Ming picked up the large red visiting card, “This is Manager Chen who runs a shipping company. His boats travel on this West River all year round, so he also has to burn incense at the temple.”
Cummins leaned over to look. The items on the gift list were very simple: ten shi of white rice, two jars of fine Lanling wine, some roasted duck and cured meat, and a load of snow pears.
“Rice as a gift?” Cummins was very curious. “You can get this stuff anywhere! Isn’t it heavy to move around?”
“This is a code for a gift,” Suo Pu said. “Ten shi of white rice means ten taels of silver. Right, Centurion Lin?”
“Yes, the chief is right.” Lin Ming gave a dry laugh. Now the ten taels of silver would have to be turned over to the public coffers.
He seemed to be very familiar with this Master Chen. He asked, “Does Master Chen have any message?”
“The person who came said that Master Chen was afraid of disturbing official business, so he didn’t dare to come and pay his respects. He also said that if Centurion Lin has any instructions, just let the messenger know.”
Just as Lin Ming was about to say something, Suo Pu said, “This Manager Chen is very generous. It seems he’s a big boat owner.”
“Yes, he is a big boat owner on this West River. His boats go from here in Sanshui all the way to Nanning in Guangxi.”
“He has many boats?”
“About a hundred or so, big and small,” Lin Ming said. “I don’t know the exact number. The boat owners in this province are mostly in Guangzhou and Zhaoqing prefectures. Manager Chen’s business is very large, so he has to pay his respects to both public and private parties.”
Suo Pu thought to himself that this Jinyiwei Centurion Lin was quite a character: officials, bandits, and merchants all gave him face and had to curry favor with him. Was the Jinyiwei’s nameplate really that valuable?
“Since he is sincerely sending a gift, there’s no harm in seeing him,” Suo Pu thought. Since this person was a boat owner, he must be very familiar with the water transport situation on the West River. Talking to him in person would provide more detailed information than what they could see on their journey.
“Yes, yes, since the chief says so, I will ask him to come over for a chat,” Lin Ming said hurriedly.
When the servant returned to report that Centurion Lin had invited him to “come aboard for a meeting,” Chen Hongyi had already gone to bed with his sixth concubine. When he heard in the evening that an official boat had arrived at the wharf, belonging to Centurion Lin of Foshan, he had immediately ordered a banquet and gifts to be sent—it was his custom to pay such respects to any official, big or small, passing through. As a boat owner on the West River, with a hundred or so boats of various sizes and over a thousand boatmen and helmsmen under him, he was considered an “unstable element” in the eyes of the government. Therefore, maintaining good relations with the government was crucial. Moreover, he had had some dealings with Centurion Lin before. When one of his rice boats was impounded, it was Centurion Lin who had helped to sort it out. That was how their friendship had been forged.
However, their friendship was not so deep that Centurion Lin would invite him over just upon seeing his visiting card. So he had not prepared to go out. When the servant came knocking on his door in a panic, saying that Centurion Lin had invited him for a meeting, he quickly got up, his heart pounding.
Chen Hongyi was in his fifties, with a bronze complexion and a body full of sinewy muscles. Even in silk robes, his boatman origins could not be concealed. But his hair was already completely white, and his back was slightly stooped—these were the marks of a life spent on the water. He had started rowing at the age of fourteen, braving the wind and waves of the West River, risking life and limb. He had worked hard to build this family business.
Maintaining this business was even harder. In these years, Manager Chen had made a considerable fortune by transporting rice from Guangxi and salt from Guangdong. With wealth, one inevitably becomes a “fat piece of meat.” To do business on the vast West River, it was not enough to just be good at making money—that would sooner or later lead to becoming a floating corpse in a backwater of Sixianjiao. One also had to have the ability to negotiate and deal with all the various powers.
Lin Ming was not his patron; he didn’t have that kind of status. But as a “friend,” Lin Ming was very useful when he needed help—he was well-connected, knew many people, and had that official title, so he could get a word in anywhere. Therefore, he did his best to curry favor with him.
“Quick, get me my visiting clothes!” he instructed. “And have someone prepare more lanterns!”
His house was just outside the county town of Sanshui, a stone’s throw from the wharf. A dozen or so servants lit lanterns and torches and escorted Chen Hongyi to the boat.
He saw Centurion Lin waiting for him at the bow, which surprised him again. He knew that Lin Ming had a very official air, prone to fawning on his superiors and being arrogant to his inferiors. To a merchant like him, although he was polite on the surface because of their business relationship, he still looked down on him in his heart. In their few meetings, he had never seen him come out to greet him.
Anything out of the ordinary is a bad sign, Chen Hongyi became even more uneasy. After they exchanged greetings, Centurion Lin whispered, “There is a master inside who wants to see you. Be careful with your words.”
Chen Hongyi quickly said, “I understand!” but his heart was pounding. Who was this “master”? For Centurion Lin to personally come out and give him a heads-up, could it be his superior?
Chen Hongyi cursed inwardly: since ancient times, when an official wants to see a merchant, it’s always about one thing: “money.”
However, now that he was here, there was no way he could refuse to go in. He had to brace himself and enter the cabin.
The cabin was brightly lit with Australian kerosene lamps. Chen Hongyi saw a young man in his thirties sitting in the main seat. He had fair skin, no beard, and was dressed in a lake-blue silk robe and a black gauze scholar’s cap. His demeanor was calm and his air was graceful. He couldn’t help but feel suspicious. He quickly stepped forward and bowed deeply, “This humble citizen, Chen Hongyi, a boat owner of Sanshui County, pays his respects.”
“No need for formalities, please sit down,” the young man said in Guangzhou Cantonese. “You must be Manager Chen Hongyi?”
“Yes, I am,” Chen Hongyi said. Although he still didn’t know the other’s identity, seeing Suo Pu’s elegant bearing and demeanor, he knew he was no ordinary person. And since he could command Lin Ming like a limb, he was most likely a noble young master from the provincial capital or the capital city.