Tranted by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Wang Chong viewed this first transaction with Hyeg with extreme importance. If there were no hidden schemes in this transaction and everything proceeded smoothly, his own ns could finally be realized.
If Hyeg could bring him one batch of Turkic warhorses, he could definitely bring a second, a third, and even more. Perhaps with the assistance of this number one horse merchant, the Great Tang could obtain an endless stream of high-quality warhorses from the Turkic steppe, filling in the Great Tang’srgest weakness.
"It’s really exciting! Hyeg, I hope that you won’t disappoint me..." Wang Chong muttered.
Outside the window, a wind began to blow!
No one knew that a storm was stirring in the distant Wushang that would gradually sweep across all of the Western Regions.
......
Hyeg was truly as cautious as Wang Chong had predicted. Not long after the first letter, Wang Chong received a second letter from Hyeg. He had even sent a servant disguised as a Hu jewel merchant to enter the City of Steel.
Before conducting this first transaction, Hyeg hoped that he could receive an advance payment of a hundred thousand taels. This aroused quite the quarrel amongst Wang Chong’s subordinates, but in the end, Wang Chong overruled them all and gave the hundred thousand taels to the servant.
One needed the proper demeanor to make big deals, and it was impossible to conduct such deals risk-free. Inparison to the benefits the Great Tang stood to gain in the future, one hundred thousand taels was nothing at all.
With this advance payment, the details of the transaction were quickly worked out. The time was set for two dayster, at night. Once the Zi Period1 had passed, they would meet at a location one hundred li northwest of the City of Steel to make the exchange.
But Hyeg had made an additional request. He hoped that Wang Chong would be there in person.
Time flew by, and two days quickly passed. It was time for the business transaction.
It was a moonless and windy night, the dim starlight serving as the only illumination.
Neat rows of soldiers stood beneath the stars, silently waiting.
After waiting for four hours, Cheng Sanyuan could no longer hold back a question. "Lord Marquis, so much time has passed, so why haven’t the Turks shown up yet? Perhaps they aren’ting?"
"That’s right! The Turks can’t be trusted. He knows that our Great Tang is at war with the Western Turks, so it’s really suspicious that he’s still selling horses to us. Maybe he just did it for the hundred thousand taels of gold. If he really wanted to do the deal, he would have already arrived." Su Shixuan agreed with his fellow officer.
The appointed time for the deal was the end of the Zi Period, but now it was almost daybreak and Hyeg had yet to appear. This made all of Wang Chong’s officers very uneasy.
"Haha, rx. It’s just a hundred thousand taels. Compared to the total value of our contract, it’s like a single hair from nine bulls. It’s not even worth looking at in Hyeg’s eyes."
Wang Chong stood erect, his hands held behind him as his hair was buffeted by the wind. Wang Chong was much moreposed than his subordinates. He had been waiting for four hours now, but there was no hint of annoyance in his bearing.
"The Turks are different from we Tang. They don’t have a strong sense for time. That the appointed time was the Zi Period but they still haven’t shown up ispletely in line with their style. You’ll get used to it after a few times," Wang Chong indifferently said.
When he was justzing around in the capital, he had made acquaintances with many Hu. The Hu had rather rxed personalities and didn’t really have a concept of time. They would often just drink themselves silly until daybreak and then continue drinking into the next day. One would often have to wait two or three days past an appointment for them to arrive.
Moreover, the steppe was vast and endless. One could traverse it freely, and the scenery looked the same wherever one looked. Once one began to live a free and unconstrained life there, it would be far stranger to have a concept of time.
On the contrary, if Hyeg had been right on time, Wang Chong would have begun to suspect that he was nning something.
Gallop!
While they were speaking, the thundering of hooves could be heard in the darkness, immediately attracting everyone’s notice.
"Lord Marquis, look over there!" somebody shouted.
The crowd turned in the direction of the noise and saw a small figure rapidly approaching. As it got closer, they could tell that it was a spirited warhorse, its mane pping in the wind.
Through the posture, movements, and speed of this warhorse, even someone who didn’t understand warhorses would be able to tell that this was a high-quality warhorse.
The warhorse quickly galloped in the direction of the Tang soldiers, but this only made them confused.
Wushang was a barren and remote ce. No masterless warhorse should have appeared here. And on this quiet night, what did it mean that only one warhorse was galloping toward them?
"Haha, Hyeg truly is a trustworthy person. I didn’t make the wrong choice!"
While everyone else was confused and puzzled, Wang Chong had broken into a smile, his ears seeming to hear something.
"Xu Keyi, get ready. In a few moments, we’ll need to carry out the transaction."
"Yes, Lord Marquis!"
Xu Keyi nced at the many wooden chests of gold next to him and nodded. Although he didn’t understand what had happened, it was a soldier’s duty to follow orders.
No matter what Wang Chong requested, he would absolutely carry it out.
Rumble!
As they were talking, the grass beneath them began to tremble and a low rumbling could be heard. While barely audible at first, it quickly transformed into an earth-shaking shudder.
"Over there! Look! So many warhorses!" Someone began to shout, and everyone quickly realized that a massive herd of warhorses was approaching from the northwest.
The rumbling that they heard was the sound of all these warhorses galloping together.
"Hahaha, Young Master Wang, we finally meet..."
A crudeughter rang out from behind the warhorses. Phweeet!A shrill whistle came from the distance, and the massive wave of galloping warhorses began to slow and even split to the left and right.
In the middle of this dividing herd, several figures on warhorses rode toward Wang Chong. The one leading them was a slightly plump man with two fist-sized objects jostling on his shoulders. As the wind blew through them, they made a sharp sound that sounded much like the crying of ghosts.
Wang Chong immediately recognized this man as the number one Turkic horse merchant, Hyeg.
"Hahaha, I truly made the right choice!"
His eyes brightening and his mind rejoicing, Wang Chong grabbed the reins of a warhorse and mounted it, galloping to greet Hyeg.
"Lord Marquis, be careful!" His subordinates anxiously pursued.
In the distance, two warhorses met as Wang Chong and Hyeg dismounted.
"Hahaha, Young Master Wang, thank you! I truly can’t thank you enough!"
Unexpectedly, the first thing Hyeg did upon dismounting was to give Wang Chong a warm embrace.
"Lord Marquis!"
Before Wang Chong could say anything, his subordinates panicked at the Turk’s sudden action. Chen Bin, Guan Yu, and the other officers subconsciously reached for their weapons.
"Don’t panic. He doesn’t have bad intentions."
Wang Chong extended a hand to stop them, then turned to the overly enthusiastic Hyeg and chuckled.
"Sir Hyeg, just what has happened that has made you thank me so suddenly?"
"It was necessary, necessary. Young Master Wang is truly a god. If not for your reminder, I would truly have been deceived by a lowly person. That bastard. I trusted him so much, let him manage all my property, and this was how he treated me."
Hyeg was in a state of agitation.
Although confused at the start, Wang Chong quickly realized what was going on. Hyeg was probably talking about his steward, Yalug. On his visit to the Western Regions, before leaving, Wang Chong had cautioned Hyeg to keep an eye on this particr steward. It appeared that this move had been effective.
"Young Master, can you tell me? Just how did you know?"
Hyeg raised his head in agitation to Wang Chong.
After Hyeg signed the contract with Wang Chong, he had run all over the steppe gathering ten thousand of the best quality warhorses toplete his transaction with Wang Chong. He had even set up a time to make the transaction.
But unexpectedly, right when he was preparing to leave to conduct the deal yesterday, his extremely trusted steward Yalug had tried to avail himself of the opportunity to run off with Hyeg’s concubine and much of his wealth.
It had to be said that Yalug was by now managing eighty percent of Hyeg’s fortune. This was a fortune that had been built on decades of work and all sorts of risks.
If he had not heeded Wang Chong’s warning and dispatched people to keep a constant eye on Yalug, thus discovering his n beforehand, the consequences would have been simply unthinkable.
This matter was also partially responsible for Hyeg’s tardiness of more than four hours.
Right now, Hyeg felt that he was truly fortunate to have treated Wang Chong’s warning seriously. But when the incident urred, Hyeg suddenly had a question that he found impossible to suppress.
Not even he had been able to predict that his own steward was about to betray him, so how did Wang Chong, a Han, know?
"Heheh, I naturally have my own methods. In addition, Sir Hyeg doesn’t think that only the Western Regions and the steppe have Hu, right? And how did Sir Hyeg think I managed to find you?"
Wang Chong nced at Hyeg, a profound smile on his lips.
He naturally couldn’t tell Hyeg the truth about Yalug, but the effects of his words were evident. Wang Chong could sense that Hyeg’s attitude inparison to their first meeting was like night and day. Not even a deal of tens of thousands of taels of gold could have achieved such an effect.
As long as Hyeg had a good impression of him, Wang Chong had a chance of using him to obtain an endless stream of high-quality warhorses from the Turkic steppe.