My Family's Silver Mine

His foothold was still shaky, and he had not even reclaimed Su Mei Island. It was better to keep a low profile, so he set the idea aside for now.

Zhan Junru had seen the large stockpile of rice, flour, and supplies in the other tent, but she asked nothing when they went to bed.

Tang Wen knew she was curious. Her silence meant she knew her place, and this was also a test he had set for her.

The next morning, Tang Wen gave Li Quan eight thousand taels of silver and told Zhang Kui to accompany him to a money house in Yanling Commandery to exchange it for gold ingots.

Then the first task he assigned Zhan Dongwen was to build two latrines and several bathing rooms, with separate facilities for men and women.

Fortunately, there were two carpenters among the group, along with a bricklayer and a stonemason.

There were plenty of dry, fallen logs on the mountain. Tang Ling supplied them with sharp axes, saws, and other tools, and Zhan Dongwen assigned people to the work like a responsible steward.

Next, accompanied by Zhan Dongwen, he toured Sumai Lake.

"Dongwen, what do you think we should do next?" Tang Wen asked as they walked.

"Of course, we should gather all the people on Su Mei Island, then show them the official land deed.

"Let them know that this island belongs to you, Master. It isn't ownerless land.

"We can lease the land to them, but we must collect rent.

"The island is so large that if we can attract disaster refugees here to farm, our annual income should be considerable," Zhan Dongwen said.

"They never had to pay rent before, but now we're asking for it. Look, not a single person has come to see us yet. Why do you think that is?" Tang Wen asked.

"They must not want to pay rent," Zhan Dongwen said.

"Exactly. A meal has to be eaten one mouthful at a time.

"Don't gather them all here at once. They would outnumber us, and we'd be forced onto the back foot.

"We need to swallow them up one piece at a time. We still aren't strong enough, so we must find ways to recruit more people and build our strength.

"Otherwise, we'll have a repeat of the last time I went to collect rent and nearly didn't make it back," Tang Wen said.

"If we recruit more people, we'll have more mouths to feed. We haven't collected a single bit of rent yet. What will they eat and wear?" Zhan Dongwen asked with a frown.

"I'll find a way to provide food, clothing, shelter, and supplies. Your task now is to secretly send people out to learn what we're dealing with.

"Not one person has shown his face so far. I wonder whether someone is organizing them to resist us.

"And the descendants of Steward Jiang, who was left here before, haven't appeared either. There are quite a few problems behind all this," Tang Wen said.

"All right. I'll arrange for a few people to mingle with them and investigate," Zhan Dongwen said with a nod.

"Our first step is to find ways to gather manpower and reclaim all the farmland.

"The second is to repair the roads, fill in all the potholes, and widen the roadbeds.

"The third is right here." Tang Wen pointed ahead.

"Isn't that the collapsed section the pirates destroyed? What can we do there?" Zhan Dongwen asked in confusion.

Something had blasted apart the dam beside Crouching Dragon Lake, which the Tang family's ancestors had built.

After the lake water drained away, only a stretch about one li across remained, leaving most of the lakebed exposed.

Now it was overgrown with weeds and had almost turned into woodland.

"There used to be a simple dam here. My ancestors must have hired people to build it.

"That was how Crouching Dragon Lake came into being.

"Our third step is to rebuild the dam, store the water flowing down from the mountain, and form the lake again," Tang Wen said, pointing at the collapsed section.

"Building a dam would take a great deal of manpower and an enormous sum of silver.

"Even though only about one li of water remains at the bottom, it's enough for our needs. Rebuilding it would serve no purpose. Why waste silver on it?

"We'd be better off spending the money on houses. We should at least get ourselves settled first, and that will cost plenty of silver too," Zhan Dongwen said, shaking his head.

"Heh, you don't understand. This lake will be tremendously useful.

"Look, all the farmland on Su Mei Island lies around the area below this lake.

"We won't just rebuild the dam. We'll build it higher than before and make the lake larger.

"Then we can dig ditches and channels to draw the water into the rice paddies for irrigation.

"Look at their fields. The harvests are so poor because of the drought that I doubt they can even fill their bellies.

"How could they be willing to pay rent?

"That's why water matters most.

"Once the fields are fertile, there's water, and the harvests improve, they'll naturally be willing to pay rent.

"Otherwise, if we force them to pay,

"first, we'll inflame the conflict, and they'll fight us to the death just to survive.

"Second, if they can't beat us, they'll flee Su Mei Island.

"What use would an uninhabited island be to us then?" Tang Wen said with a smile.

"Master, you've thought of everything. But this will be terribly difficult to carry out. How much silver would it take?" Zhan Dongwen asked, his face full of admiration.

"I told you not to worry about the silver. I'll find a way.

"And starting tomorrow, we'll set up pots and distribute porridge.

"That will attract the disaster refugees who don't have enough to eat and are on the verge of starvation.

"Once we do that, as long as we feed them, they'll surely be willing to join the Tang household.

"We'll gradually chip away at their ranks. Our people will grow more numerous, while theirs grow fewer.

"When we outnumber them, we can consider reclaiming all the farmland," Tang Wen said.

"A fine plan. I'll arrange for them to get started," Zhan Dongwen said, nodding excitedly.

Just then, Sun Ping ran over and reported that while sawing timber on the mountain, they had discovered a cave on the slope behind the houses.

It seemed to have been dug by human hands. Tang Wen and Zhan Dongwen hurried around to the back.

They found that Sun Ping and the others had already cleared away the grass and trees, exposing a cave entrance.

"Vines, weeds, and trees originally covered the cave. We only discovered it because Li Si accidentally fell in.

"When we took a look, we found it had even been blocked with stones.

"We got curious, so we pried them loose and went inside. It turned out there was actually a cave in there," Sun Ping said.

"Li Si, tell me exactly what happened," Tang Ling said.

"There was soil over the cave too, with weeds, trees, and vines growing on it.

"I thought it was strange, as though someone had tried to hide the cave.

"But we didn't find anything when we went inside.

"Just some broken stones. Could it have been used to hide treasure?" Li Si said.

"Let's go in and look." Tang Wen nodded, and they lit torches and entered the cave.

They found that the passage was quite large, wide enough for three horse-drawn carriages abreast and about fifteen feet high.

It had clearly been excavated by hand. After extending roughly one li into the mountain, the passage ended.

At its end, however, lay an enormous cavern, more than two hundred feet high and about three li wide.

Tang Wen held his torch up to the rocks, then picked up some loose fragments from the ground to examine them.

He immediately understood what he was looking at. Taking a few stones, he returned to the tent.

He called Zhan Dongwen inside, then shone a powerful flashlight on the stones.

"Hm? Why are they sparkling?" Zhan Dongwen's mouth fell open in surprise.

Tang Wen picked up an axe, split a stone open, and shone the light on the exposed cross section.

Zhan Dongwen's mouth opened even wider, for it looked as though countless little stars were twinkling inside.

"Dongwen, take a look. Doesn't it resemble this?" Tang Wen took out a silver ingot and handed it to him. "Compare them carefully, then shine this flashlight on them."

"They're similar, only it isn't as bright as the silver ingot. Could there be silver inside?" Zhan Dongwen asked.

"This is a silver mine. Someone was secretly mining my family's silver. But toward the end, they probably abandoned it because the silver content was too low, or because they had already exhausted the deposit," Tang Wen said.

"Who did it? If they were mining it back then, weren't there plenty of servants in the Tang household? How could they mine it in secret? Getting caught would have cost them their lives," Zhan Dongwen said.

"Exactly. How could they mine it without the Tang household discovering them? That's why these Tang family residences were burned down and reduced to ruins." Tang Wen's expression grew cold.

"Someone did it deliberately?" Zhan Dongwen's mouth fell open in shock.

"No wonder Steward Jiang never sent anyone back to report to the Tang family all these years," Tang Wen said with a snort.

"You mean Jiang Chang did it because he wanted to pocket the Tang family's silver mine?" Zhan Dongwen asked.

"He's the prime suspect. And look, if pirates were involved, then he must have colluded with them too.

"The pirates came out to rob and kill, frightening all the island's inhabitants away.

"Once the people were gone, they could brazenly mine the silver in secret," Tang Wen said.

"Damn him! He's worse than a beast," Zhan Dongwen cursed.

At one in the afternoon, Li Quan and Zhang Kui returned from Yanling City and handed Tang Wen the eight hundred taels of gold they had exchanged.

In truth, for the people of Great Chu, gold was inconvenient for everyday use apart from being made into jewelry.

It was simply too valuable. If you bought a meal or visited a brothel, they couldn't make change for it.