36 - Interlude 2

Xiu Lian was fuming. She had been made a laughing stock by that little girl twice now and she was not going to take that lying down. In her opinion, there was no way that girl was a noble. She had seen her at the tailor’s shop. The girl had nothing in hair, no nail varnish even her shoes were ordinary. No self reflecting noble would wander around looking like that. Hell her secretary had looked more put together than that girl.

The way she acted around the commoners was another sign that she was not of the nobility. And yet she had the temerity to look down on her in public. If she wanted to pretend to be noble, she had not even done a good job of it. Apart from her dress and demeanour, there was the name.

Xiu Lian had been taught the names of all the noble families in the kingdom. She had taken pains to learn of everyone in her age range who she may have come across either at the academy or a social event. No one had even heard of the family of Sa. No one had seen that girl before this week. After the disaster at lunch, Xiu Lian had gone around asking everyone if they had seen her or heard her name at any event that they could recall.

No one had heard anything about her or her family. Then she had the temerity to even fool lady Jia Yun, and get her to agree on a point against her. Of course Lady Jia Yun had been magnanimous and had not really taken sides, but even the mild appearance was enough to drive her mood to a dark place. She had spent the rest of the school day fuming, and had not even gone out with her friends. She had chosen to return home and seethe in her rage until her father came home. She would convince her father to find out what was going on, then she would enjoy watching the commoner pretending to be a noble be whipped in public for her insolence.

Baron Xiu Hu returned back to his estate in a foul mood. The council meeting had been going so well. The agenda was moving in the right direction. His family's coffers were filling up nicely, and their social status had been on the rise. He had even been on reasonably friendly terms with Duke Jia An. His push for the guilds to control more of the raw materials and reduce the payout for government contracts had been going so well.

It had all started with that first item brought up by minister Zhu Jie and minister Yan Zhu. The threat they had described had come across as dangerous to his house interests. If such a bandit group was operating in the cities and could hide anywhere, then of course they had to be rooted out. He could not have competition after all. They were his commoners to exploit and rule, not for some foreign criminals. So he had pushed for the creation of this joint investigation division to root out and deal with the criminals.

He could see where such a force could be used against the merchants to his advantage. A word here, a tip there, and a little nudge would be all it would take to send the investigators after some of the black market merchants that were competing against his interests. After showing what he could do, he could cow the rest into submission. He had been so happy when it had passed unopposed.

Then that damned minister Hao Rong had stood up. He had known it would be trouble the moment he had approached the podium. You would think these ministers would know better than to raise such a minor issue before the council, but apparently that was not the case. He had brought the issue of guild complaints. Of course Xiu Hu had attempted to get the matter shut down, but it hadn’t worked.

Not only had his arguments been rebuffed, that damned Cultivator had to get involved too. Yin Ling had outright threatened everyone who did not agree to a full investigation. Then the Duke had agreed and that had closed any opportunity for him to get the matter dropped. He should have noticed the look in Duke Jia An’s eyes when he had agreed. The Duke had known something was up, but Xia Hu had been too lost in his own plans to pay proper attention.

He had realised too late that the very same investigation unit he had pushed to have implemented, thinking to use it for his own benefit, was now arrayed against him. The new unit had been given the remit to fully investigate the guild matter and report back. With the full backing of the Duke and the minister for war, there would be no easy way to subvert the investigation. Any action taken would have to be at such a remove that the ministry of espionage did not get involved. This had gone from giving him a new tool to use, to an unmitigated disaster.

Oh he could still use the new unit to target his enemies. The problem would come from his links to the guilds. The guild masters were his retainers, and had been giving his businesses exceptional deals, and making up the difference against the commoner owned businesses. He had, of course, ensured that his business partners did not suffer as long as they worked with him, giving him a stranglehold over all the major guild operations. If this investigation found anything, then he would face severe consequences, despite not having broken any laws. That damned cultivator was right, she could spin this as treason against the kingdom by impacting the preparations for the beast wave. All she would have to show is that due to the guilds’ actions preparations had slowed down even a little, and it would be enough. He would need to intercede and hamper or close this investigation. It was the only way.

As he was walking from the carriage to his office, he spoke to his secretary. “Get me the Guild leaders who work for us. I need to see them urgently.” he ordered.

“They are already waiting for you, my lord.” replied his secretary, looking confused. “I thought you had sent for them already.”

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“No I did not.” replied Baron Xiu Hu. He had a very bad feeling about this. “Anyone else waiting for me?”

“Only the Lady Xiu Lian, my lord.” replied the secretary. “She has been pacing outside your office ever since she returned from the academy. It seems that she has returned directly.”

“I will see her first.” replied Xiu Hu as he entered his office.

Seeing him arrive, his daughter followed him in.

“Father, I need your help.” said Xiu Lian, clearly struggling to suppress her rage. “Some commoner had the temerity to look down on me. She is pretending to be a noble.”

“Calm down Lian and take a seat.” replied the Baron, now interested in what his daughter had to say. “Start from the beginning, tell me everything.”

“She is calling herself Lady Sa Bina.” started Xiu Lian. “It all started when I went to the tailor yesterday to get some new cheongsam.” Xiu Lina then proceeded to give him a detailed accounting of all their interactions, her impressions, and anything else she could think of.

“So if I am understanding this right.” said the Baron after he had listened to her whole story. “That this girl, dressed as a commoner, was already in the tailor’s when you entered. She berated you and told you she would see you at the academy. Then today she was seen with Lady Jia Yun. She is also exceptionally gifted in economics and mathematics despite being only 13. No one you know has heard of her or seen her before?”

“Yes father.” replied Xiu Lian. “I need you to find out who she really is, so we can get her punished for pretending to be a noble.”

“Let me think about it.” replied the Baron. “Now I have another urgent matter to deal with. Take a seat, and use this opportunity to learn.”

The Baron asked his secretary how many guild masters were waiting for him. He was informed there were eleven of them in the waiting room. All sitting silently.

“So they are not discussing their reasons for being here?” asked the Baron perplexed. It was usual for these men to talk amongst themselves, for them to choose not to do that was concerning.

“No my lord.” replied his secretary. “That was why I had assumed that you had sent for them.”

This day was getting more and more strange. “I think I will see them all together.” replied the Baron. “Make the appropriate arrangements in the library. We will be along presently.”

The secretary left to make the arrangements, while the Baron thought about the reasons they would all come to see him and not behave so strangely. There was no way that the policing unit had already approached them right? No, even if everything had been pre-planned then they could not act so swiftly. The earliest they could act would be tonight, but that would reveal their hand.

“Come Lian.” said the Baron. “I think there is much you will learn today.”

“Yes father.” replied Xiu Lian. She had not seen her father look this worried before. It put her own issues with Sa Bina in perspective.

They made their way to the library, both lost in thought. As they entered, the guild masters stood to greet them.

“Please be seated,” said the Baron as he entered. “I was already informed that you all wanted to see me. I understand that you all have matters to discuss. I have a feeling you are all here for the same reason, so I have decided to see you all together. Now who wants to start?”

All the guild masters looked amongst themselves nervously. No one seemed to want to be the one to start the conversation. The Baron waited patiently.

Finally the guild master of the Blacksmiths guild stood up. For a grown man, he looked like a child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“My lord, we have a problem within the blacksmiths guild.” he started. “We have been pushing the quota on a few of the commoner smiths, as instructed. Several of them came in yesterday and ordered the maximum amount of raw materials we allowed. It was a little surprising as normally they only buy as they use. Since they all paid in coin, no one raised an issue. We delivered the stock to them today. After they had received the supplies, they came in and cancelled their guild memberships. All of them. My lord, without them, and their quotas of government contracts, we will be unable to meet our obligations.”

“They just came in and handed in their memberships.” asked the Baron in a cold voice. “Enough of them to impact our production targets? And they paid cash?”

“Yes my lord.” replied the man, literally shaking in his boots.

“Am I to assume you are all here with the same story.” asked the Baron with cold calculation. Something was definitely not right here.

His question was followed by a murmuring of ascent from all the guild masters in the room. At least 11 guilds, not able to meet contractual obligations. With the impending investigation, this was an unmitigated disaster. Now he knew it was planned and targeted against him.

“How could these businesses hope to work without guild membership?” he mused out loud. The room was silent as he worked through the possibilities. There were only so many possibilities. These businesses could not work without guild support. They must have signed for a guild. But in this kingdom no new guilds could be formed without a royal charter. What did that leave? That left only one option. He had already discarded the option of the businesses working without guild sanction, if they were going to do that they would have done that years ago.

No, they had to be operating under the aegis of a foreign guild. That would require an ambassador to approve the charter and sign a contact on behalf of a foreign kingdom. The option had been seen as so remote, that no one in their little cabal had bothered to investigate the possibility, apart from him. As he thought through the details, his conversation with his daughter clicked into place.

What if the ministries had wanted to break the guilds, then they would need a foreign noble, or a pretend one. One who just so happened to have a little girl too. One that had just joined the academy just today and had run-ins with his daughter. The ministries were working with this so-called house of Sa to set up guilds in opposition to him. He would make them rue the day they decided to challenge him.