Chapter 31: Auction
She emptied a medicine box, put the makeup mirror inside, and took it out to show Han Xing and the others.
This time, they had all learned their lesson and not a single person asked where this treasure came from.
How did the Prince manage to ‘conjure up’ good things every day?
Uh, because Han Xing had quietly told a few squad leaders his guess: with Imperial Secret Guards following and secretly protecting the Prince, the things the Prince took out were gifts from the Secret Guards…
“A royal treasure, the only one of its kind in the world, a double-sided rotating luminous mirror. How much do you think it’s worth?”
Upon hearing this, the soldiers who had been crowding together, craning their necks to look into the mirror and vying to see their own faces, all suddenly took several steps back.
It was as if Jinsui wasn’t holding a makeup mirror, but a bomb.
Han Xing sensed her intention and was even more shocked than when he heard she was planning to lead the main force to eat at the local tyrants’ homes.
“Your Highness, are you planning to sell this treasure?”
Jinsui said as a matter of course, “Yes, this item is of no use to this Prince now. It would be better to exchange it for gold and silver to buy provisions.”
The soldiers were so grateful they were almost in tears. The Prince was doing this all for them! He was even willing to sell a family heirloom.
They all pleaded with her not to sell it, saying it was fine even if they ate beans and peas all the way, and that the Prince’s treasure must not be sold.
Jinsui smiled touchedly and waved her hand gracefully:
“When I said it was a unique treasure in the world, it was to sell it at a high price. In fact, this Prince has plenty of such items.”
Next, Jinsui and the soldiers engaged in a verbal spat, but the result was that she couldn’t convince them.
Especially Han Xing, who felt so guilty he was about to shatter.
He was convinced that his own incompetence had led the Li King to consider selling the treasure.
Jinsui, annoyed, decided not to reason with them anymore and said in one sentence:
“Do you never obey this Prince’s orders? If you obey, take this mirror to the city and sell it. If you don’t, we’ll disband!”
As soon as these words were spoken, all the soldiers knelt on one knee, breaking out in a cold sweat. This was because the Li King had been too amiable on this journey, showing no airs of someone in power.
He ate with them, personally applied medicine to the injured soldiers, washed horses by the river with them, and took them to dig for wild vegetables and pick wild fruit, causing them to almost forget.
This was the Li King! The former Crown Prince!
We can only listen to his words, how can we refute them?
If it were a Prince with a bad temper, they would have already been disciplined with military rods.
Han Xing, feeling even more guilty, quickly said he would obey the Prince’s order and immediately take the mirror to sell.
That’s more like it! Jinsui instantly changed from angry to smiling and told him how to sell it.
Don’t take it directly to a pawnshop, you won’t get much silver that way.
Go to the tallest and most opulent restaurant in the city, bang a gong, and announce that the Li King is selling a treasure, and it will be auctioned.
Jinsui pondered for a moment and said, “Let the starting bid be a thousand taels of silver.”
Jinsui was not yet familiar with the prices of luxury goods in this era, thinking that this mirror only cost a few dozen yuan online.
A thousand taels of silver was equivalent to hundreds of thousands in purchasing power in later generations; at this price, even a mirror belonging to an immortal would be worth it.
She mainly wanted to test the purchasing power of the wealthy in Yandi, so that she could set prices for selling similar ‘treasures’ later.
She specifically instructed Han Xing, “If it doesn’t sell at auction, then find a pawnshop and pawn it.”
She pointed at Hei Hu, “You take the gong and go with Captain Han.”
Hei Hu, however, asked in surprise, “Isn’t the Prince going?”
Han Xing was also nervous, a small captain from the borderlands going to a Great State City to sell an Imperial Prince’s treasure, and by auction at that.
He had never done such a thing, let alone thought of it.
Jinsui put on a disappointed expression, “This Prince will not go, to avoid being ridiculed.”
Han Xing felt even more heartbroken. Such a good Prince, to be bullied so badly by those people in Chang’an?
Hei Hu only grasped one point, “If the Prince isn’t going, then I’m not going either. I need to protect the Prince!”
Han Xing didn’t want him to go either. He stood there like a big black bear and always said foolish things; what would happen if he scared the guests?
Jinsui then pointed at Hei Hu’s good friend, the short soldier,
“Then let him bang the gong. You don’t need to bring too many people, ten is enough.”
Bringing the short soldier was for good luck, because his surname was Hao and his given name was Duojin.
Bringing too many people would be seen as an attempt to extort or rob.
Jinsui also wanted Han Xing to use the Bronze Token as proof, but Han Xing quickly said it wasn’t necessary; everyone in Yandi knew they were here to escort the Li King.
Moreover, once this treasure was revealed, everyone would believe it was a royal treasure.
Han Xing led his team onto their horses, carefully guarding the ‘treasure’ in front of him.
Hao Duojin nervously asked, “Your Highness, what if the people in the city break the treasure?”
Jinsui laughed,
“That would be perfect, to extort… ah, darn it, to have him buy it. If he doesn’t have money to compensate, we’ll just move into the city and not leave.”
Han Xing broke out in a cold sweat again. Ever since he found the Prince, he had been sweating frequently.
He quickly said, “Your Highness, please rest assured, your subordinate will protect the treasure and will not let anyone damage it.”
Just as Han Xing was about to spur his horse, Jinsui thought of something else and quickly shouted,
“After selling it, buy Hei Hu a new set of clothes first!”
Poor Hei Hu, due to his large size, there were no suitable armor and equipment for him in Huai Prefecture City. Everyone else wore new clothes, but he was still in his old ones.
With a height of nearly two meters, he looked at everyone else’s new clothes every day, like a wronged little wife.
Hei Hu was overjoyed and shouted, “I want a red one, Brother Han, buy me a red one.”
After Han Xing and his group left, Jinsui chatted with the other soldiers, some of whose names she still didn’t know.
She asked them with a smile why they joined the army, where their hometowns were, and if they were married.
Perhaps the soldiers had never seen a person in power like the Li King, who was so amiable and approachable. Even the most timid junior soldier dared to step forward and say a few words to the Li King.
Jinsui was mainly inquiring about the situation in Yanzhou. When she heard that Yanzhou was very prosperous, with many passing merchant caravans, and that during festivals, the city was decorated with lanterns and filled with music and dancing, which they could hear even in the border city.
Jinsui heard something amiss, “Border city? Aren’t we going to Yancheng? Where did another border city come from?”
Someone quickly explained, “It’s not really a city, it’s just the camp for the border garrison. Everyone is used to calling it a border city.”
“Our Black Feather Camp is not allowed to enter Yancheng.”
Upon further inquiry, Jinsui learned that there was also ‘bullying’ in the army, a kind of hierarchy. The Imperial Court’s stationed troops looked down on the Yanzhou provincial soldiers.
However, the provincial soldiers were very wealthy, and their military supplies and equipment were the best. There were sixteen provincial soldier units in the entire Yandi, and they also competed with each other.
But they would unite to resist the Imperial Court’s stationed troops. After listening for a long time, she didn’t hear anything about the Black Feather Camp.
When she asked again, all the soldiers felt a bit ashamed, their ears turning red from embarrassment.
Hei Hu was still straightforward, “They all look down on us border troops, saying we’re useless.
Even the Tuntian Soldiers who don’t go to battle look down on us, because we don’t even have fields.”
Jinsui empathized even more deeply with the Li King, feeling he was so pitiful.
Regardless of the truth behind his attempted coup in Chang’an, although the Emperor spared his life, he had all his trusted subordinates killed.
Even Father Ling, a Seventh Rank County Magistrate, was beheaded simply for corresponding with him.
The Li King was sent to the borderlands without a single bodyguard, almost dying in a bandit den.
And the army that was supposedly for the Li King in Yandi was the weakest military branch in the entire Yandi, unable to even enter Yanzhou City, with almost no military supplies.
In the borderlands, with complex power dynamics and frequent incursions by foreign races, this was clearly a setup for the Li King to die in Yandi!
How shameless! They said they spared the Li King’s life out of father-son affection, but in reality, they wanted him to die far away.
Seeing the Li King fall silent for a long time, the soldiers exchanged glances, some worried. Perhaps the Li King also looked down on them and didn’t want them anymore?
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