23 - Chapter 21
Hang Fo looked aghast at my statement. “You don’t believe that the noble’s will launch an attack against you, do you?” he replied. “That would political suicide. There is no way the royals don’t get involved in that situation.”
“You are assuming a direct confrontation with our heraldry on display.” chuckled Sa Bina in response. “No, what will happen is they will target me and my interests using underhanded means.”
“What do you mean?” asked Hang Fo. “We already know they will try and use political means in the council to push back against our changes.”
“No, that's not all they will do.” replied Sa Bina. It seemed like the minister had never had to face a determined well funded foe. “They will pay off brigands to attack us, pay off common people to complain about our businesses, send spies and assassins to target our assets, both people and places. They might even go as far as having their soldiers pretend to be bandits and target us. They will quickly realise that coming out against us in the open is a losing proposition. So they will resort to every underhanded method they can think of.”
With each statement outlining an attack vector Sa Bina expected to face, Hang Fo’s face became paler and paler. “You realise, if they do any of those things, and get caught, their whole family will be executed for treason and sedition.” he whispered. “Why would they risk it?”
“They will take the risk because they are arrogant.” replied Sa Bina nonchalantly. “They will use those methods, because they have already been using them. If you look at the details of how guilds have been operating, then there are signs of the use of the same practices. They will also target their own operations, to make it look like we are all victims of the same bad actors. That’s one of the ways I anticipate them trying to reduce our access to raw materials, by pretending to have lost them to bandits on route.”
“As for getting caught,” continued Sa Bina. “They will ensure the actors can’t be tied back to them in any way. You know I was rescued from a bandit camp by the army? How many of the bandits do you think survived the attack?”
“What do you mean you were rescued from a bandit camp?” responded a bewildered Hang Fo. “How would I know that?”
“It doesn’t matter for the purposes of this conversation.” replied Sa Bina. “In the raid, led by Han Ji, not a single bandit survived the attack. Nor was there any serious attempt to identify the bandits after the camp was pacified. How would anyone know if they were real bandits, paid off by a noble or members of the army?”
“So, what you are saying is, as long as they can hide their affiliations,” replied Hang Fo. “They can act with impunity.”
“No, it’s actually worse than that.” replied Sa Bina. “They will use their own orchestrated actions as evidence of the failings of kingdom policies and push for a stringent response that will further their own agendas. Anything that will increase their wealth and power.”
“How do you know any of this,” questioned Hang Fo, “How have you been predicting the actions of the guilds, the issues we face, even the laws that exist? You have admitted that you are new to the kingdom, and have never studied our laws or history. So how can you know all of this? Please forgive my impertinence, I don’t doubt your knowledge, you have provided enough evidence previously to assuage that doubt. Are you a seer? An oracle?”
“Nothing like that minister I assure you.” laughed Sa Bina. “When you have seen humans behave in certain ways, in certain situations, and you expect them to behave in the worst ways possible, then you can anticipate the likely actions when their interests are threatened. Essentially, I am just guessing based on what has happened in the past.”
“You are guessing.” responded an incredulous Hang Fo. “You have managed to ‘guess’ all the issues that you have identified and even ‘guessed’ the existence of the laws we found. You must forgive me my lady, but that just beggars belief.”
“In any case, your incredulity at my methods aside,” replied Sa Bina. “I assume you trust my assertions on what we will face?”
“Yes, as outrageous as the suggestions seem to be,” replied Hang Fo, “I would not bet against you. But what actions can we take to counter these dire predictions”
“Well there are several actions.” replied Sa Bina. “First I will need to build up a sizable force to ensure I can protect myself and my interests. If they can get rid of me, everything goes back to how it was before. Secondly, you need to speak to your colleagues who are responsible for security and espionage. You will need to create a new policing unit. I have seen that currently the army provides both the guards and enforcement against the underworld?”
“Yes, the army, though primarily there to guard against the beast threat, also takes action against bandits and guards towns.” replied Hang Fo, “How would this policing unit defer from the army? And why would I need the minister responsible for espionage?”
“The policing unit will not be an enforcement unit.” replied Sa Bina. “You can still use the army for that. The unit will be investigatory in nature, it will need to comprised of scribes, accountants and spies. Their remit will be to find evidence and actionable intelligence. Without concrete evidence the noble’s will likely be able to get away with everything.”
“So we will essentially be investigating the nobles' illicit contacts and actions?” replied Hang Fo. “If that came to light, it would make our life very difficult.”
“So we take a page out of the noble’s playbook.” replied Sa Bina as she had a devious idea. “When is the council next meeting?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“As it happens it will be tomorrow,” replied Hang Fo. “ What are you thinking?”
“That is actually perfect for my plan.” replied Sa Bina. “Don’t tell anyone else that this idea came from me. Feel free to take full credit with your colleagues, then let the ministers responsible for enforcement and espionage present the idea to the council and take full credit in front of the nobles.”
“They will tell the council that there seems to have been an increase in organised crime that is targeting noble interests.” continued Sa Bina laughing at her idea. “They will allude to the fact there have been direct attacks on nobles in neighbouring kingdoms, and that those criminal gangs may be extending their influence into this kingdom. In response they are proposing setting up a taskforce to identify and eliminate the foreign elements. As this is a slight change to their departments, they thought it prudent to bring it up before the council to seek approval before proceeding.”
“So basically forcing the nobles to approve setting up the policing unit.” mused Hang Fo as he thought through the implications of Sa Bina’s proposal. “And if in the future, even if their interests are implicated, they can’t be seen as interfering in operations against criminals and traitors. It will force them to act with more caution, allowing us to both build up better defences and gather more evidence of their misdeeds. Truly a diabolical plan, my lady. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that you are so young.”
“So can I leave you to take the appropriate actions to push this plan forward, minister?” asked Sa Bina. “And I am assuming that you are happy if I add the expense of building up my army to acceptable costs?”
“Yes to both, my lady.” replied Hang Fo. “I can see now that it’s the only prudent course of action.”
They spent a few more minutes ironing out some of the details. Sa Bina agreed that once her army was of a sufficient size, a part of them could be used in enforcement actions in return for the army being fully funded by the new guild. Sa Bina pushed a little further, and asked for the entire enforcement arm of the new guild to be drawn from her army, effectively giving her command of a much larger unit, that would be on rotating secondment to the guild. It would also make it much harder for other nobles to co-opt any of her soldiers for their own schemes as the soldiers would then be committing treason. Once they were both happy with the amended terms, Hang Fo had another revised version of the contract drafted.
Sa Bina was more than happy with the changes, and signed and sealed the new agreement. It was starting to get on in the day, so Sa Bina said her goodbyes and left to return to her estate. What should have been a straightforward morning, had already turned into a complicated political planning session. She still had a lot to achieve today.
Once she returned back to her estate, she changed out of her dusty clothes and freshened up and sat down for lunch with her retainers. This time Han Ji, Be Net and Lou Sie, were joined by Goa Ye. She asked for updates on the morning from both Lou Sie and Be Net.
“All the contracts have been completed, my lady,” replied Lou Sie. “Everyone has taken on the appropriate auxiliary army positions and transferred over to the kingdom of The Rising Dao. Copies of the paperwork for everyone that has joined us so far have been sent to Minister Hang Fo for his records. There have been no issues reported. We are still finalising the results of the census, that report should be with you tomorrow my lady.”
“Excellent work Lou Sie.” replied Sa Bina truly impressed with the efficiency of her secretary.”How was your morning Be Net.”
“We visited the two workshops belonging to our new blacksmiths, my lady.” reported Be Net, “As well as the distillery, the glassmithing workshops, the dairy farm and the alchemists workshop. To me they seemed adequate to start with. I have the paperwork for their purchase ready, including purchasing substantially more land around the farm as my lady requested. All told, the costs will be around 60,000 gold for the workshops and a further 240,000 gold for the farm and surrounding land. I even managed to agree the purchase of the alchemist workshop from the owner.”
“So it will cost me 300,000 gold total.” replied Sa Bina. “What is the size of the farmland that we will be purchasing?”
“It is around 240 qing my lady, perhaps a little larger.” replied Be Net.
So around 4000 acres, give or take. So in metric, around 16 square kilometers or 4000 meters to a side. Sa Bina mused how, no matter which world you were in, nothing really changed. She had paid, or rather the sect had paid, the equivalent of 7.5M gold for her 24 qing estate, and she was getting 10 times the land for around 3% of the price.
“Fine agree the sale Be Net,” replied Sa Bina. “I will write promissory notes for the purchases, unless you have agreed to cash for any of the transactions?”
“I think we will need around 7,000 gold in cash or spirit stones my lady, “ replied Be Net, “The rest can be in the form of promissory notes.”
Sa Bina provided 5 tier 2 spirit stones, 160 tier 1 spirit stones and 400 gold from her storage ring. She would need to go to the bank to withdraw more funds. She then wrote out the promissory notes for the remaining 293,000 gold.
“Let us get all the purchases finalised today.” replied Sa Bina. “Then we can move on to actually starting work on my business plans.”
Sa Bina then proceeded to explain her conversation and changes to the agreement that she had made with minister Hang Fo.
“So you are saying that we will need a full army, with an enforcement unit?” clarified Han Ji. “and our soldiers will also serve as the enforcement unit for the new guild?”
“What new guild?” questioned Gao Ye.
Since everyone had signed and transferred over to her kingdom, she was happy to explain what she had been up to with the ministers.
It took her a while to explain the full depth of changes that she was pushing through the ministry and wider implications for the way trade worked in the kingdom including the likely impact on the nobles and the potential ramifications for targeted actions against them.
Han Ji and to an extent Lou Sie, had been aware of what Sa Bina had been doing, so accepted the explanation with equanimity. The effect on Be Net was a little more pronounced, as he had only been kept informed of the changes peripherally. It did not impact the running of the household substantially, the largest burden would fall on Han Ji followed by Lou Sie.
The only other direct effect on Be Net would be the increased recruitment he would have to undertake.
The effect of the revelations on Gao Ye were something else entirely. Gao Ye had been warned that Sa Bina was recruiting to build out an organisation the likes of which had not been seen in the kingdom in living memory, but the sheer scope of her audacity left him speechless. She wasn't just building out a new organisation, but directly challenging the entire existing political structure. He could not even begin to anticipate the reaction, and subsequent fallout, from the nobles and sect when they realised what she was doing.