Zigong Redeems a Slave

Early the next morning, Ming Jing rose early. After washing up, he took Qing Yan and Up to the Daimyo's Mansion to meet the Daimyo. The Daimyo of the Land of Fire did not keep Ming Jing waiting long. After about the time it took to burn an incense stick, someone came to invite him in.

"Good morning, Mr. Ming Jing! Oh, have you had breakfast yet? Would you like some?" The Daimyo sat inside with several small dishes laid out on the low table before him. He looked quite pleased when he saw Ming Jing.

"Thank you, Daimyo, but I have already eaten." Ming Jing cupped his hands in salute and replied neither humbly nor arrogantly.

"Oh, right, right, right—I nearly forgot. The Kurama Clan is the family most skilled at cooking. Very well, then! Please have a seat, sir. I'll be finished shortly." As he spoke, the Daimyo picked up his bowl and gulped down the porridge in a few mouthfuls, then waved to a maid to clear away his breakfast.

"Whew... Eating so much in one bite is rather difficult! Oh ho ho ho..." The Daimyo opened his fan and chuckled.

"Mm... Let's get to the point quickly!... What budget has the Daimyo allocated for disaster relief?" Ming Jing sighed and asked directly.

"There is no budget," the Daimyo said seriously. "After all, there is no spare money left in the treasury."

Ming Jing frowned. No budget, yet they wanted disaster relief? Did the Daimyo think food simply fell from the sky? He could not help asking, "Could the budgets for other projects be transferred over and used for disaster relief first?"

"No," the Daimyo shook his head. "That money is meant for Konoha."

Ming Jing stared at the Daimyo. Seeing no evasiveness in his expression, he felt helpless. He came from Konoha, and in theory, Konoha was his backing. How could he tear down his own support the moment he took office?

After thinking it over, Ming Jing said, "In that case, I ask the Daimyo to permit me to raise funds for disaster relief myself."

"Oh? Raise funds yourself... Very well! But the situation in the disaster area is not optimistic. I can only give you three days to raise the money, Mr. Ming Jing." The Daimyo narrowed his eyes. He had wanted to drive a wedge between Ming Jing and Konoha, but unexpectedly, Ming Jing did not take the bait. Still, it did not matter. There was plenty of time!

"Three days will be enough. Thank you, Daimyo!" Ming Jing bowed slightly, then continued, "The disaster area currently needs a force to maintain order. Does the Daimyo have any suitable troops?"

"Troops? We already have Konoha. Why would we need troops?" the Daimyo asked in return.

"I recall that there are forces in the country responsible for maintaining public order. Please deploy some of them to me," Ming Jing said.

"Oh, you mean the inspectors! That is no problem, but there are not many inspectors in the Land of Fire to begin with. I fear we cannot deploy too many," the Daimyo said with some difficulty.

"We do not need many. Four hundred will be enough," Ming Jing said confidently.

The Daimyo clapped his hands happily. "No problem. I will gather the numbers within three days. Then they will depart with you."

"That could not be better." Ming Jing nodded. This trip had not been in vain after all.

On the way back to their residence, Ming Jing said to Up, "Up, I have a task for you. Before noon, gather a list of merchants in the Royal Capital who trade with the Land of Grass, the Land of Rain, the Land of Rivers, and the Land of Wind. I need to know their primary businesses, net worth, age, and temperament."

"Yes, Young Master!" Up nodded vigorously, then hurried away. Up, Down, Left, and Right were talents the family had raised as shinobi, so gathering such simple intelligence was naturally no challenge.

Then Ming Jing instructed Qing Yan behind him, "When we return, prepare the invitations. We will host these people at a banquet tomorrow night. Oh, and contact the newspapers in the Royal Capital. Tomorrow, we are making big news."

"Tomorrow?" Qing Yan asked worriedly. "Young Master, the Daimyo only gave us three days. If the banquet is tomorrow, we will have no room to negotiate with those merchants."

"We never had room to negotiate from the beginning." Ming Jing shook his head. If necessary, he did not mind using genjutsu to lure them in.

When the two returned to their residence, Asuma came over and asked how things had gone. Ming Jing sighed and told him about what had happened and what he planned to do.

Asuma frowned and said, "The disaster victims are living in harsh conditions. If you temporarily diverted some of the funds allocated to Konoha for disaster relief, the Third Hokage should understand, shouldn't he?"

"Konoha does not belong to the Third Hokage alone. It also belongs to villagers like you and me. Some people may not possess such broad-mindedness or compassion," Ming Jing explained. "Besides, diverting Konoha's funds would lead to wrangling, and persuading merchants to donate would also lead to wrangling. I would rather wrangle with merchants than let people with ulterior motives portray me as a traitor to Konoha."

"Hey, hey, hey, isn't that going a little too far, Ming Jing? What kind of people does Konoha have?" Asuma said with some dissatisfaction.

"Then how does Captain intend to explain Uzumaki Naruto's situation to me?" Ming Jing smiled faintly. After saying that, he turned and left.

After lunch, Up entered with a scroll of information and handed it to Ming Jing. "Young Master, there are thirty-seven merchants in the Royal Capital who trade with the Land of Grass, the Land of Rain, the Land of Rivers, and the Land of Wind. Two have net worths exceeding one hundred million, eleven have net worths in the tens of millions, and the rest have net worths in the millions."

"Good work. Go rest." Ming Jing took the information and opened it. The two with net worths exceeding one hundred million were Masao Kosaka and Fukuda Kō. Masao Kosaka was in the mining business and owned several mines in the Land of Wind. Fukuda Kō was in transportation and owned his own port in the Land of Rivers.

"Mining and transportation. Heaven is helping me!" Ming Jing let out a breath of relief. Those two would be tomorrow's primary targets. The smaller fish could not be spared either; he would squeeze out as much as he could.

"Yuexi, what is the current price of grain outside?" Ming Jing set down the information in his hand and asked.

"Today, one jin of rice costs 1.5 qian, up 0.1 qian from yesterday," Yuexi replied.

Assuming there were fifty thousand disaster victims, an adult's monthly food ration was roughly eighteen jin. Given the hardships in the disaster area, fifteen jin per month would do. For fifty thousand people, one month's rations would cost 1.125 million qian. However, Ming Jing's plan could not possibly be completed within one month. By his conservative estimate, it would take five months. In other words, rations alone would cost at least 5.62 million qian, not including transportation. Add oil, salt, vegetables, meat, medicine, temporary tents, and so on, and a conservative estimate put the required amount at sixty million qian! That was assuming food prices did not rise.

Some young men from Konoha might be ready to criticize him: the money Ming Jing spent on clothes for Hinata alone was nearly one-fifth of that amount. Yet now that disaster relief was needed, the Kurama Clan was being so stingy. How cold-blooded.

In truth, the Kurama Clan had enough wealth to bear the cost. But Ming Jing had his reasons for not doing so. People were naturally lazy. If the Kurama Clan took full responsibility this time, what about next time? The destruction caused by that great tree in the later stages of Shippuden was so immense that even multiplying the Kurama Clan's wealth by ten would not be enough to cover it.

Moreover, China had an essay titled Zigong Redeems a Slave, from Lüshi Chunqiu - Xianshi Lan - Chawei Pian.

It said that the Land of Lu had a law: if citizens of Lu became slaves abroad, anyone who redeemed them could claim reimbursement for the ransom from the state treasury. Once, Confucius's disciple Zigong, Duanmu Ci, redeemed a citizen of Lu abroad. After returning home, he refused to accept the state's compensation. When Confucius learned of it, he said, "Zigong was wrong. From now on, the people of Lu will no longer redeem slaves from other states."

The sage's meaning was simple. A person who used his own money to do a good deed should have been held up as a moral example. But the mistake was that he raised a moral standard everyone could originally attain to a height beyond the reach of most people. This would make many people hesitate before charity. Morality that violated common sense and ran contrary to human nature was the most evil thing in the world.

That was why different positions led to different ways of handling the same problem.