Chapter 56
Blood tastes salty.
Like the sea breeze.
Tang Pu stood on the blood-soaked, blackish-red sand of "Dragon Tooth Island" and took a deep breath.
He smelled blood, rust, burnt wood, and... the unique, nauseating yet exciting smell of roasted human flesh.
He likes this flavor.
This is what war tastes like.
This is... the taste of victory.
Daylight broke.
The sun slowly climbed up from the sea, like a drunkard who had just woken up and had drunk too much, his face flushed.
Golden sunlight shone on this hellish island that had just experienced a bloody massacre.
It illuminates everything clearly.
Those mutilated corpses lying in pools of blood.
Those ships, still belching black smoke, reduced to mere skeletons.
And then there were the pirates kneeling on the beach, a dark mass stretching as far as the eye could see, surrendering.
They were all kneeling, heads bowed, like a pack of docile, toothless dogs with their tendons pulled out.
Tang Pu looked at them, his face expressionless.
Behind him stood his soldiers.
Those battle-hardened warriors who crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
They did not cheer.
They were simply like a pack of blood-soaked, silent wolves, quietly licking the blood from their blades, looking at their former prey with a cold, scrutinizing gaze befitting a victor.
"Iron Face," the pirate's second-in-command who stabbed "Black Shark" in the back at the crucial moment, stepped out from the crowd.
He walked up to Tang Pu, knelt on one knee, and presented him with a curved knife that was still dripping blood and inlaid with shark teeth.
That's Black Shark's knife.
“Your Highness.” The “Iron Face” voice was hoarse and dry, carrying a hint of relief at surviving a calamity, and a deep unease about the future. “Zhang Xuan is dead, and the rest… have all surrendered. Please, Your Highness, decide their fate.”
Tang Pu did not look at the knife.
His gaze passed over the head of "Iron Face" and fell upon the thousands of surrendered soldiers kneeling behind him.
What an enormous force this is.
You can't kill them all.
We can't let it go.
This is a difficult problem.
A colossal problem that could keep the high-ranking officials in the court arguing for three months straight.
But in Tang Pu's eyes, this was not a problem at all.
Because his strategist, his princess, his… Cui Yunshu, had already thought of all the answers for him.
He pulled a roll of parchment from his pocket.
That wasn't an imperial edict, nor was it a military order.
It was covered with dense, incomprehensible text, yet every word seemed to gleam with golden light—strange inscriptions.
He threw the roll of parchment in front of "Iron Face".
"From this day forward, you are no longer pirates." Tang Pu's voice was cold, calm, and devoid of any emotion, as if he were announcing a divine decree.
“You are employees of ‘Donghai Security Company’.”
Donghai Security Company?
employee?
"Iron Face" was stunned. He picked up the roll of parchment and looked at the unfamiliar words on it.
What "labor contract"?
What is "performance appraisal"?
What is this "basic salary plus performance-based bonus"?
The company will provide all full-time employees with standardized accommodation, equipment, and... injury/death benefits.
He was completely dumbfounded.
The pirates behind him were also dumbfounded.
They thought that what awaited them was slaughter, forced labor, and a dark, sunless underwater prison.
But now, this young prince, who is like a demon, is telling them that they can... receive wages?
Looking at their dumbfounded, foolish faces, Tang Pu felt an almost fanatical, utter worship for his strategist.
He himself couldn't understand what was written on it.
But that's not important.
Importantly, he knew that this was his master's "deeper meaning".
What kind of "contract" is this?
This is clearly an attempt to co-opt them!
In a way that none of them could understand, yet they couldn't refuse, they transformed these thousands of vicious pirates, this most powerful maritime violent group that had dominated the East China Sea for decades, into...
What became their "grand enterprise" was their private navy!
"Iron Face, you will be the first general manager of this company." Tang Pu's voice carried an undeniable air of a victor's handout. "You will be employed by the 'Royal Maritime Trading Company' and will be responsible for protecting the safety of the trade routes of my Great Qin."
"Your ships and your weapons will receive the best supplies."
“You will receive ten times more wealth than you did when you robbed them before.”
"And you only need to give up one thing."
Tang Pu's gaze slowly swept over "Iron Mask" and the thousands of faces behind him, from blank stares to doubts, and then to... a flicker of greed and hope.
"loyalty."
“No to me.” Tang Pu shook his head. He reached out and gently stroked the cold gold medal in his arms, engraved with the character “Yun”.
"It is absolute, unconditional, and loyal to this token."
"Iron Face" looked at Tang Pu, then at the "contract" in his hand, which he couldn't understand but made his heart pound.
He knew he had no other choice.
He lowered his head deeply, so deeply, his defiant head.
"Your subordinate... obeys."
...
The good news, like a bird with wings, flew back to the capital at an unprecedented and terrifying speed.
It was not done through official post stations.
It was through the Cui family's nationwide network of commercial carrier pigeons, which was three times faster than the official roads of the imperial court.
Prince An, Tang Pu, joined forces with the righteous warrior "Iron Face" from the East China Sea, working together from within and without, and in the battle of "Dragon Tooth Island," they decisively defeated the pirate "Black Shark"!
He killed "Black Shark" himself!
More than 3,000 pirates were wiped out!
Several thousand soldiers were captured and surrendered!
The amount of gold and silver treasures seized was countless!
The entire capital city went mad.
Those gamblers who had bet on the Duke of England to win in the gambling den cried and wailed, going bankrupt on the spot.
The storytellers, spittle flying from their lips, embellished the tale of "chasing the waves of the East Sea to win a beauty" into something almost mythical. Tang Pu became the one and only God of War in the hearts of all the young men and women of the Qin Dynasty.
The Duke of England's mansion was locked, its gates tightly shut, a somber atmosphere hanging in the air. Upon hearing the news, the Duke himself coughed up blood, fell ill on the spot, and was confined to his bed.
The Second Prince's residence was deathly still. Tang Jingming smashed everything he could in his study, and for the first time, genuine fear appeared on his usually gloomy face.
And the Eastern Palace.
Crown Prince Tang Jingcheng looked at the victory report in his hand and laughed loudly, feeling extremely happy.
"Well done! Well done, Tang Pu! Well done... Fourth Miss Cui!"
He looked at Cui Yuanjue, who was standing to the side with a mixture of excitement and pride on his face, and patted him heavily on the shoulder.
"Yuan Jue, your younger sister is truly... a rare talent in our Great Qin!"
The entire capital city was abuzz with excitement over this incredible, dramatic victory.
And at the heart of this storm.
Cui Mansion.
But it was a deathly silence.
Cui Yunshu sat in her study, holding a copy of the good news that had just been sent back from the East China Sea.
It was a private letter written to her by Tang Pu.
The letter did not mention those cold, hard results of the battle.
Throughout the entire piece, his calligraphy is bold and unrestrained, carrying a unique, flamboyant style characteristic of a young man.
"Master strategist, I have won."
"I won this boring competition for you."
"Your plan is flawless. I finally understand what it means to 'subdue the enemy without fighting'."
"'Donghai Security Company' has been established, and 'Iron Face' has won over the hearts of the people. From now on, our 'great cause' has the sharpest fangs."
"Beijing, wait for me."
"Wait for me to come back, and I will marry you."
As Cui Yunshu looked at the last five words, a complex expression finally appeared on her usually calm face, an expression that was hard to tell whether it was a cry or a laugh.
We won.
Yes, we won.
She finally got rid of her fiancé from the British Duke's mansion, whom she had never even met.
She was finally free from marrying a stranger and living that filthy, maddening life in the inner quarters of the mansion.
But why...?
She can't be happy at all.
She looked out the window at the gray, oppressive sky.
She felt as if she hadn't escaped from a cage.
She simply traded an ordinary little birdcage for a larger, more magnificent, and more sturdy one, meticulously crafted with the love of her "great cause" and "allies"...
Golden cage.
I'm too lazy to think about it.
Just then.
A familiar, chilling, high-pitched voice came again from the front yard.
"Imperial edict has arrived!"
Cui Yunshu's heart sank suddenly.
She slowly stood up.
Step by step, she walked toward the trial ground that would ultimately determine her fate.
This time, she did not make anyone kneel down.
She simply stood there quietly, watching the old eunuch, his face plastered with a fawning smile, unfold the roll of bright yellow silk that seemed to offer no escape.
"...Prince Tang Pu of Anjun was exceptionally brave and heroic, eliminating a scourge for the country and making great contributions to the nation..."
"...Cui's fourth daughter, Yun Shu, offered advice and strategies, accomplishing a remarkable feat, worthy of being called a female Yao and Shun..."
"...I, the Emperor, am a man of my word, and my promise is as good as gold. Today, I am deeply pleased and hereby fulfill my promise to bestow a marriage upon Prince An, Tang Pu, and Cui Yunshu, the fourth daughter of the Cui family!"
"We'll choose an auspicious day, the eighth day of next month, for the wedding!"
So be it!
The imperial edict has been read aloud.
With a beaming smile, the old eunuch presented the heavy roll of silk to her.
"Miss Cui, no, the future Princess Consort of Anjun, please accept the imperial decree! This is an incredibly joyous occasion!"
Cui Yunshu looked at the imperial edict.
Looking at it, there were cold, square characters personally annotated with cinnabar by the emperor.
She reached out her hand.
Those hands were very steady.
She was so composed, unlike anything she'd ever done.
She accepted the imperial edict, a symbol of her "victory."
It was cold to the touch.
The touch of silk is like a cold, slippery serpent woven from the sweetest lies and the most desperate realities.
It gripped her wrists tightly, her heart, her... soul.
She won.
She could finally marry her ally, who was wholeheartedly determined to "rebel" with her.
She looked out the window at the gray, oppressive sky that made her want to die.
Suddenly I felt like crying.
Yet, not a single tear could be shed.
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