Ning Chen and the others walked around the place once and then left.

These were people who lived deep inside the palace. They might have heard Ning Chen’s name, but they had never seen him.

Once the house was in order he would meet them all properly.

His Majesty had provided him with a full set of maids and servants.

The important thing was that he did not have to think about any of their wages. It was as sweet an arrangement as he could have asked for.

Next, get Gu Yichun and his men in, send somebody to bring Uncle Chai, and the household could be opened.

After this Ning Chen would have a home of his own.

They had just come out of the gate when they ran into Eunuch Quan.

“Old Quan, what brings you here?”

Eunuch Quan pointed at the plaque two guards were carrying behind him.

“His Majesty’s own hand. He grants you the two words, the Ning Residence!”

Ning Chen said quickly, “Your subject thanks His Majesty for his kindness!”

The Xuan Emperor’s favor to Ning Chen had gone about as far as it could go. Nothing was too small for it.

Under Eunuch Quan’s direction, several guards hung the plaque up.

There was red cloth over the plaque, and it could not come off yet. It came off on the day the household opened.

“Ning the Silver Coat, this eunuch will go back to the palace and report.”

“Old Quan, it was good of you to come!”

Ning Chen went up and quietly pushed a silver note into his hand.

“Young Master Ning, there is truly no need for this between us… It is all His Majesty’s kindness. This eunuch only ran the errand.”

Eunuch Quan pushed it away and would not take it.

Ning Chen smiled. “Running an errand is work too. It’s a little tea money. Or do you think it’s too little?”

Only then would Eunuch Quan take it.

“Then this eunuch will go back to the palace?”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent. “Old Quan, thank His Majesty for me!”

Eunuch Quan nodded and took his men away.

Feng Qizheng came over. “Ning Chen, you’re open-handed these days. A hundred taels, just like that.”

Ning Chen smiled. “It’s called riding a bicycle to a bar. Save where you should save and spend where you should spend.”

Feng Qizheng looked baffled. “What’s a bicycle? And what’s a bar?”

“A bicycle is a thing you ride. When I have time I’ll have one made for you to play with… A bar is a wineshop.”

Feng Qizheng said oh, and pretended he had understood.

Gao Ziping came over. “It’s about time for the midday meal. Let’s find somewhere and get something to eat.”

Ning Chen nodded.

“If you ask me, we should have tried the imperial cooks’ work back there. A chance like that doesn’t come often.”

Feng Qizheng muttered about it the whole way.

Chen Chong smiled. “This is Ning Chen’s house from now on. Are we likely to run short of chances to taste imperial cooking?”

Feng Qizheng nodded. “True enough… Come on, the Heavenly Blessing Tower. I’m buying!”

Ning Chen’s face twitched. He had a shadow over him about the Heavenly Blessing Tower now… The last time there he had eaten until he was sick.

“Never mind. The Heavenly Blessing Tower is too far. Any eating house will do to fill us up.”

In the end they found an eating house at the side of the road, ate and drank their fill, looked at the hour, saw it was nearly time to come off duty, and did not go back.

“Ning Chen, where are you going?”

Ning Chen smiled. “I’m going to the courtesans’ quarter to investigate a case.”

All three of them gave him a look of contempt at the same time.

“Where are you going?”

Feng Qizheng said, “Home, of course.”

Ning Chen turned up his nose at that. The three animals were certainly going to the pleasure houses… because the girls at the courtesans’ quarter would not take Feng Qizheng’s business anymore.

They separated at the corner.

Ning Chen came to the courtesans’ quarter.

“Ning, dear, have some tea!”

Yudie set the freshly made tea on the table in front of Ning Chen, and her eyes never left his face.

Yudie’s eyes were very beautiful, wide and liquid, and when she looked at Ning Chen they were full of feeling.

Ning Chen took a sip of the tea, drew Yudie down to sit beside him, and rubbed her small white hand between his own.

“Yudie, His Majesty has granted me a big house, and written the two words for the Ning Residence in his own hand.”

Yudie’s eyes shone and her face was all happiness. “Ning, dear really is somebody!”

“Yudie, I’m opening the household in a couple of days. I’ll come and fetch you and we’ll celebrate together.”

A smile opened out over Yudie’s pretty little face, bright and lovely.

Ning Chen had asked her, and it made her very happy.

But on the day a household opened, the people coming to celebrate would all be of high standing… A girl of the courtesans’ quarter had no business in a gathering like that. It would cost Ning Chen face.

“Yes, I’d love to!”

Yudie had meant to refuse outright, but she was afraid of making Ning Chen unhappy, so she agreed for now… On the day itself she would send Xiaoxing with a gift. There would be so many people, and Ning, dear was the host and would be busy, and he would not notice that she had not come.

“Yudie, would you like to have your free standing back?”

Yudie’s eyes brightened, and there was nothing in them but hope, and she nodded a little. She had dreamed of it.

Ning Chen hesitated, and then asked, “And if the price of being free were losing me, would you still want it?”

The alarm came into Yudie’s face all at once. She looked at Ning Chen, tense. “Has Ning, dear tired of this girl?”

Ning Chen shook his head and gathered her into his arms.

“I meant to ask His Majesty to pardon you off the slave register and give you your freedom… but His Majesty would not agree.”

The light went out of Yudie’s eyes.

“This girl is the daughter of a convicted official. Getting her free standing back is a great deal harder for her than for an ordinary girl.”

Ning Chen sighed. “The trouble isn’t there… It’s the Ninth Princess.”

Yudie looked at him, not following.

“His Majesty wants to marry me to the Ninth Princess.”

Yudie’s body went rigid, the color went out of her little face, and the light went out of her eyes.

If Ning Chen married a princess, he could never again have anything to do with a woman as low-born as she was.

She saw Ning Chen’s brows drawn together and it hurt her, and she got a smile out somehow. “To marry a princess is a piece of good fortune more men beg for than ever get… This girl congratulates Ning, dear.”

“You don’t need to worry about me. Yudie will do very well on her own… It has only been a few months with Ning, dear, but this girl has more than enough to be content with.”

Ning Chen looked at her. “Do you mean that from the heart?”

Yudie’s eyes were red at the rims, and she smiled through the tears, and made a small sound of assent.

“To have known Ning, dear at all makes this girl luckier than any woman under heaven… Ning, dear is to marry a princess, and this girl is happy for him with all her heart!”

As she said it, the bright tears came sliding down her cheeks in spite of her.

Yudie wiped at them, flustered, and however much she wiped there were more.

Ning Chen held her tightly, and it hurt him.

“I refused His Majesty’s match.”

Yudie was stopped where she sat. She stared at Ning Chen, and then the alarm got worse. “How could Ning, dear dare refuse His Majesty? This is your whole future. Ning, dear must not be willful about it.”

Ning Chen made a sound. “A future with power holding the reins on it is no future I want… And I did not only refuse. I have refused several times over.”

“The awkward part now is that if I do not marry the princess, His Majesty will not pardon you.”

“And if I do marry the princess, I have no way to give you a name… Yudie, will you be my concubine?”

Yudie’s eyes went wide. “A concubine?”

Ning Chen sighed. “I know how badly it uses you, but I truly cannot think of anything better… Making the Ninth Princess my concubine is even less possible.”

“Ning, dear, a man who marries a princess cannot take a concubine.”

Ning Chen smiled. “Rules are dead things and people are alive… I can marry the princess, but you have to come in through the door of the Ning house. That is where I stop… If the princess will not have it, then I will never marry at all, and when you are old enough and have your free standing back, I will marry you then.”

Yudie looked at Ning Chen, and the tears came pouring down and however much she wiped there were more, and she wept so that it hurt to look at her.

Ning Chen wiped her eyes for her, and it hurt him. Women really are made out of water.

“There now, don’t cry… If you don’t want to be a concubine, I will never force you to it.”

“That isn’t it. This girl is willing… Ning, dear is too good to this girl, and this girl cannot help crying. So long as this girl can be beside Ning, dear, she is willing to come as slave or servant.”

Ning Chen’s face was all astonishment. “You are willing to be a concubine?”

“This girl is willing, this girl is willing…”

Yudie said it over and over.

Her birth was low, and to be a concubine already satisfied her… She had never once thought of being Ning Chen’s principal wife.

“It uses you badly. I’ll make it up to you properly afterward.”

Ning Chen ached for the foolish girl. There is nothing harder in the world than to fail a woman who loves you.

Yudie shook her head over and over. “It doesn’t use me badly. It doesn’t use me badly at all… So long as Ning, dear does not tire of this girl, she would stay at the courtesans’ quarter all her life if she had to.”

“What foolishness is that? I will find a way to get your free standing back.”

Yudie had just been crying and her voice was thick and soft. “I thought Ning, dear didn’t want this girl anymore.”

“How could that be?”

Who would give up a girl gentle and good and quick to understand him and easy to be with… unless there were something the matter with his head.

Yudie was willing to be a concubine. That left the Ninth Princess to be settled.

He would sound the Ninth Princess out first and see whether she could accept his taking a concubine. And if she could not… she could go as far away as she liked. He was not going to wait on her.

“Yudie, it’s late. Let’s go to bed.”

Yudie made a small sound of assent. “Then this girl will wait on Ning, dear at his bath.”

Another night with no shame between them.

The next day Ning Chen came out of the courtesans’ quarter and rode to the Cloud Wind Inn.

“This small man greets Young Master Ning!”

Gu Yichun saw Ning Chen and bowed.

Ning Chen came straight to the point. “Have you finished with everything in hand?”

Gu Yichun said quickly, “It is all more or less settled!”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent. “Tomorrow morning, bring that band of brothers of yours and come and find me at the Ning residence… It is the old Left Chancellor’s residence. Do you know where it is?”

Gu Yichun nodded. “I do!”

Ning Chen nodded slightly, then changed tack. “You run this inn. You must be very good at business.”

Gu Yichun was taken aback, then shook his head, embarrassed. “This small man knows nothing about business. On the face of it I am the manager, but everything in the place is run by one of this small man’s brothers.”

Ning Chen made a sound. “Who is he? Is he reliable?”

“His name is Jin Qingsheng. He was one of the men who guarded the young master in secret at Changshou Village, and Lord Ning saved his life too. Absolutely reliable!”

Ning Chen thought for a moment. “How is he at business?”

Gu Yichun said, “His family were a great house once, with a very large business. Then they were caught trading salt without a license, and the court sentenced the entire household to the sword. He got out, and had no choice left but the jianghu.”

Ning Chen nodded slightly. “Go and bring him to me.”

“Yes! If the young master will wait a moment!”

Gu Yichun went out.

After a little while he came back in with a capable-looking middle-aged man.

“This small man is Jin Qingsheng. He greets Young Master Ning.”

Ning Chen looked him over and said mildly, “No need for ceremony. Gu Yichun tells me you know your way around a business?”

“In answer to the young master, this small man’s family were in business once, so he knows a little of the surface of it.”

Ning Chen smiled. “If I set you to running a business now, would you be willing?”

Jin Qingsheng said quickly, “Whatever the young master tells this small man to do, this small man will do.”

Ning Chen nodded, satisfied.

“Good. From now on you will quietly buy up the larger breweries in the capital for me… I mean to make a wine unlike anything on the market.”

As he spoke, Ning Chen brought out a drawing that set down the whole process for making distilled liquor in detail!

Then, with no preliminaries at all, he handed Jin Qingsheng two hundred thousand taels in silver notes.

Jin Qingsheng froze.

Two hundred thousand taels in silver notes — is Ning Chen not afraid I will take it and run?

Ning Chen smiled. “Jin Qingsheng, you guarded me in secret at Changshou Village. That makes you family to me, and I trust you without conditions.”

“Do this well and I promise you wealth and rank for the rest of your life, more than you could spend!”

Naturally it was not Jin Qingsheng that Ning Chen trusted. It was the power in his own hands.

If the Inspectorate set its mind on finding a man, it would find him if he hid at the far corners of the earth.

Ning Chen had dared to hand it over, so he was not worried about the man running off with the silver.

Jin Qingsheng was moved past anything he could say. He dropped to his knees with a thud. “Thank you for the young master’s trust. This small man will not fail what the young master has put in his hands.”

Ning Chen raised him up. “I trust you, and I believe you will do it well… Jin Qingsheng, my position is too sensitive, so this has to be done in your name and nobody else’s.”

Jin Qingsheng said quickly, “This small man understands!”

Ning Chen nodded slightly. “If the silver runs short, come straight to me.”

“The brewing method is written down on the paper. Just follow it… Everything you brew goes into the cellars. Without an order from me, none of it appears on the market.”

“I am giving you half a year. For those six months, brew without holding back. As much as you can make.”

Jin Qingsheng bowed. “Yes. This small man obeys!”

Ning Chen came out of the inn and rode back to the Inspectorate to sign in.

He found Feng Qizheng. “Do something for me tomorrow.”

“What?”

“Do you know where Uncle Chai’s house is?”

“That old servant you used to have?”

Ning Chen nodded.

“I do. I went there when they had their trouble.”

Ning Chen said, “Then take a few men out there tomorrow morning and bring him to the new house for me… I’ll wait for you there.”

Feng Qizheng nodded. “No trouble at all!”

Ning Chen talked idly with Feng Qizheng and the others for a while, then left the Inspectorate again and rode all the way to the Ministry of War.

He felt like a top that never stopped spinning.

Ning Chen and the Minister of War were old acquaintances by now.

At the Ministry of War he handed over the drawings, talked for a while, and then found an excuse and left… because the man was always trying to get his poems for free.

Freeloading is shameful. Except when I do it, Ning Chen said inwardly.

Out of the Ministry of War, Ning Chen went straight on to the palace without a pause.

He saw the Xuan Emperor in the Hall of Cultivated Heart.

“Your subject, presenting himself to Your Majesty!”

The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen. “You have business with this emperor?”

Ning Chen said, “Your Majesty, your subject turned it over all last night, and he is certain of it — we have to build a unit of special forces!”

The Xuan Emperor did not follow at all. “What are special troops?”

“Your Majesty, special troops are the aces among soldiers… There is no need for many of them, but every one of them is good at everything. Pull any one of them out and he can hold a front on his own.”

“Your subject wishes to train a body of such men. Every one of them expert with the musket, in hand-to-hand fighting, in assassination, in gathering intelligence, and the rest of it… In short, able to fight at extraordinary strength under any conditions at all.”

“Your Majesty, when we go to war with Nanyue next year, your subject will need an army of this kind… Your subject is confident he can train them. One against a hundred may be too much to claim, but one against ten would be nothing at all.”

Ning Chen rattled on at length about everything special troops were good for.

A light came into the Xuan Emperor’s eyes.

If such an army really existed, nothing would stand in front of them.

And he trusted Ning Chen without conditions… Ning Chen had never once disappointed him in anything he undertook.

“How many men do you need?”

Ning Chen bowed. “Your subject would like two thousand to begin with. If it works well, more can be added later.”

The Xuan Emperor nodded slightly. “Good. This emperor is behind you! Ning Chen, forge this emperor a peerless blade.”

“Yes! Your subject obeys!”

The Xuan Emperor thought a moment. “Have you settled on who the two thousand are to be?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Your subject would like to pick them out of the Dragon Guard. Will Your Majesty grant it?”

The Xuan Emperor nodded. “Very well. This emperor grants it!”

“Thank you, Your Majesty! Your subject has one more request he has no right to make…”

The Xuan Emperor smiled. “Say it.”

Ning Chen said, a little shamefaced, “Your subject needs silver… Special troops train several times as hard as ordinary soldiers, so the nutrition has to keep up and they have to eat and drink well… And their pay has to be several times an ordinary soldier’s too.”

“Your subject also wants to give them new weapons, able to handle any kind of fighting.”

The Xuan Emperor did not hesitate. He nodded slightly. “Go on. How much silver do you need?”

Ning Chen said, “It would take a hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand taels at the very least.”

The Xuan Emperor gave a start. “Two thousand men need that much silver?”

“Your Majesty, these are not two thousand ordinary men… When your subject has them trained, Your Majesty will think the silver very well spent!”

The Xuan Emperor nodded slightly.

“As it happens, Beloved Minister Li and Beloved Minister Shen have just presented this emperor with that million taels… The money was always meant for military supply, so this emperor will give you three hundred thousand to begin with.”

Ning Chen’s heart broke into flower. “Thank you, Your Majesty!”

Ning Chen came out of the palace with three hundred thousand taels of silver tucked away, thoroughly pleased with himself.

Raising a private army on the Xuan Emperor’s people and silver — it doesn’t get better than that!

He had meant to go to the courtesans’ quarter, but it came to him that it had been a long time since he had gone to see Old General Chen… The old man’s house was on his way, so he could look in on him, and invite him to the celebration of the move at the same time, which would do the front of the house no harm either.

Ning Chen found a wineshop, took two jars of good wine, and came to the general’s residence.

There was a handsome carriage standing outside the general’s residence.

Ning Chen knew it at a glance for the crown prince’s carriage… and wondered what the crown prince was doing at the general’s residence.

(End of Chapter 198)