The Dragon's Breath

by James Boschert

  There was a muffled cry and the figure fell forward, unconscious, dropping the box and the light with a clatter. Talon snatched up the box and pushed it into his coat pocket. He set the lantern upright and waved to Reza that it was time to leave. He contemplated picking up the intruder and taking him with them, but decided that this might make evading the guards difficult. It was one thing for the two of them to move past the sleepy individuals; it would be tempting fate to have a body hanging over his shoulder as they left, especially if the man woke up and made a fuss.

  It took a few minutes to get past the sentries, who had not moved since they entered the offices, and to make their way down the dark street to where Fang waited for them. He emerged from the shadows, seeming relieved to see them.

  Later, after they had arrived back at the villa and were telling Hsü about the incident, he looked the box over while he listened.

  “Yes, this is without doubt the box that was stolen,” he told them thoughtfully. He showed them the broken seal and the damaged lid. It was empty of the stones he had placed inside.

  “I wonder who it was who sent a Ninja to steal it from Rong,” he mused.

  “What is a Ninja?” Reza asked him.

  “They are people from Nippon who are skilled at gaining entrance to secure places. Rather like you two.” Hsü laughed quietly at their surprise.

  Oh when will autumn moon and spring flowers end?

  How many past events I've known?

  The east wind buffeted my room again last night,

  I cannot bear to remember the bright moon of the old country.

  The marble steps and carved balustrades must still be there,

  The people's rosy cheeks are all that's changed.

  How much sorrow can one man have to bear?

  As much as a river of spring water flowing east.

  —Li Yu

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Factions

  Now that he was back from his visit to the palace, Hsü was kept very busy with the almost constant flow of visitors to his house. The news of his possible appointment had spread far and wide throughout Guangzhou. Some of the visitors pledged cash and produced it to prove their sincerity, while others promised cash but failed to show up with any. All of them kept him informed as to the state of the city. Since his departure his enemies had been busy. Now that he was back, his supporters looked to him for help. Recently the news had been disturbing.

  Some of the merchants who were known to be friendly to him had been harassed in the streets, their palanquins pushed over and the bearers beaten up. In one case there were more serious injuries. To a man they were sure the threats and attacks came from Buwei and his gangs of thugs. The gangs were going to do his bidding and side with whomsoever he told them to, but no one was quite sure who Buwei was supporting; as he did not qualify it had to be someone else.

  The rumor was going around that it was Hua Rong, the Chief of Police, which everyone considered to be an absurd idea. Hsü suspected that they didn’t want to face the nightmarish prospect of a thoroughly corrupt police chief becoming the governor of Guangzhou. Rong was a very ambitious man, but he was also cunning and would pretend to be disinterested in the office while doing all he could to further his aims.

  One blustery wet day Hsü’s brother-in-law, Wong Cheng Kean, came to visit and told of an incident that had occurred in the streets while Hsü had been away.

  “I was in my palanquin when there was a disturbance ahead up the road, and before I knew it I found myself on hands and knees in the dirt with a ruffian standing over me brandishing a cudgel and threatening me!” he whined. “Right in the middle of the city! People only came to my aid when the hoodlums had left!”

  “What did he say?” Hsü asked, his mind’s eye seeing his brother-in-law scrabbling around on the ground in an undignified manner. If it had not been so serious he might have been amused: the man was obsessed with his dignity.

  “He told me that I should not support you, Hsü, that my family would be next.” Kean was wringing his hands. His sister Meilin passed him a cotton cloth with an expression of distaste on her normally impassive face. He wiped his eyes and then looked appealingly to Hsü. “What am I to do?” he all but wailed.

  “You should reconsider what you are doing, Hsü,” he continued. “Things are getting very ugly. Before long there might be loss of life, and then what will we all do?”

  “Did he say anything else?” Hsü asked, barely controlling his disgust. There had already been lives lost.

  “He told me that my family would suffer if anyone found out that I had paid you money towards the position,” Kean bleated. “But it’s too late! I have already done that! You should pull out of the race; it’s too dangerous for us all.”

  Meilin looked startled and then sent a frightened look at Hsü.

  Hsü’s face tightened as he leaned over the table towards his brother-in-law and almost snarled, “You are beginning to disappoint me, Bother-in-law,” He paused to let the insult sink in. “If I do not try for this post, then who will?” He raised his voice an octave. “Tell me that! Who? Any one of your gaggle of fat, opium-smoking merchant friends? I don’t think so! Firstly you come to me all smiles and simper that the post of governor is right for me, and now it’s ‘Oh dear me, it’s much too dangerous, now we have to get out’!” He paused to glare at their white faces.

  “Now let me tell you something. Its too late for that! Rong and his friends, both at the palace and in the gutters of this city, Buwei among them, will control the city even more than they do now! You will all be crawling around on your knees trying to lick the shit off his boots in order not to loose your fortunes and your heads, and your families will be hostages to his whims. It will be a disaster all round,” he continued in a more controlled manner.

  “Did you see the smoke yesterday? Yet another godown has gone up in flames in the dockyard. I suspect it was Rong’s doing, because the Arabs will now be desperate to sell off their cargoes at a loss, and they will be eager to get out of Guangzhou as soon as they can. It is short-sighted and stupid to treat them so, for the word will go out and they will cease to come here. Then what will we do?” He raised his voice. “I am resolved to change that if I am made governor. Rong is leaving his mark on everything he touches, and it stinks of shit!”

  Kean drank down his rice wine in one gulp. “There’s no need to be vulgar,” he objected feebly. “How can we protect ourselves in the meantime?” he asked. “The gangs on the streets are harassing anyone they think might be associated with you.” His tone becoming just a shade truculent; he had drunk too much wine.

  Hsü sighed and sipped his own drink to allow himself a few moments to calm down. “I can talk to some friends of mine who will provide you with an escort. Give me a day, and they will come to your house. They will bear a letter from me. Don’t let anyone in unless they produce this letter. They are expert swords men and will be able to deal with any of the thugs out there harassing you and the other merchants. You can’t trust many people these days, but these you can.”

  He continued with words of encouragement and promised that he would remember favors done and support offered, should he gain the position. Kean left not long afterwards in his palanquin, too drunk to think.

  Meilin watched her brother go out the door, then asked Hsü, “Do you really think you can win against these odds, Husband? You know what they will do to us if you fail?” She was ashen with fear.

  Hsü shook his head. “I do not know if I can win, and don’t remind me of the penalty of failure, Meilin. The stones are now on the board. There is no going back.” He felt a mild disgust at his wife and her brother. They had been eager enough before when their greed drove them, not taking into account the high stakes of the game. Now that they were being intimidated, their thin veneer of courage had deserted them. Suddenly he felt very tired and longed to be in Lihua’s arms.

  *****

  Hua Rong and Buwei were seated upstairs in a priva
te room, away from the clamor and noise of the clientele on the ground floor. They had started with fish, Hero’s Three in One: fried sea bass with finely shredded ham, white radishes, and a mixture of soy and garlic, with hot bean paste on top, which was a favorite of Buwei’s. They were drinking wine while they waited for Prefect Wu po-ku to join them. Rong had been drinking heavily. Buwei tucked into the food to the point where it precluded any kind of conversation until he had finished.

  Rong gulped another bowlful of the fierce Moa-T'ai, a flavored rice wine with a kick to it. It was a favorite of the upper classes. He poured himself yet another as he watched Buwei slobbering over the food on the low table. Buwei’s big nose seemed to be sniffing the food before he snapped it up with his busy chop sticks. The spectacle, coupled with the leaden ache in his gut, took Rong’s appetite away.

  Buwei spoke with his mouth full of fish. “So, your attempt to get the treasure, if that is what it was, failed. Is that what you are telling me?” he grumped, then opened his mouth to take in yet more food. Rong thought he was going to be sick.

  “Well, yes. They did get in and out with a box.” He wasn’t going to mention the man who died and had subsequently shown up in the Pearl River. “However, they got hold of the wrong item, which is embarrassing,” he muttered. Rong hated having to lose face like this, but he now desperately needed Buwei’s help. He knew Buwei would make him pay for it.

  Buwei gave Rong a speculative look. He knew all about the ‘box’ that had rattled, presumably with the gems inside. He had sent his man to Rong’s office on the assumption that the treasure would be in the box. The man had reported back with a big gash on his head, and the box he had found in a cupboard had vanished by the time he woke up and escaped. Buwei had not been pleased. At this moment, he was as frustrated as Rong. He took a long swig of his wine.

  “Are you saying that your people did not obtain the right container?” His look was incredulous and withering at the same time.

  Rong looked as though he was going to choke with embarrassment. “It was a box with some ancestral stones inside.”

  “I hope you got rid of those incompetents,” Buwei grunted through a mouth full of boiled clams with soy sauce, some of which dribbled down his chin.

  Rong nodded, averting his eyes. Lin had taken care of the second man. He, too, would show up in the river, but further down stream, well away from the port itself. No one would be the wiser.

  “That’s a great pity,” Buwei mused. “We needed it to finance our little endeavor. Your paper money won’t be any use if Hsü gets in with his gems. His merchant friends will help him with silver, and bribes will talk, if they are real and not paper. This will set the slimy administrators thinking badly of you. What exactly is this ‘treasure’ of Hsü’s, anyway?” he demanded as he took a swig of Moa-T’ai. “It is gems and things like that, isn’t it?”

  “The servant who told me about it said that one of the maids had caught a glimpse of it: a box full of sapphires and rubies. Maybe even some diamonds,” Rong told him. Where was that man, Kee? He had disappeared off the face of the earth. Lin could tell Rong nothing.

  Buwei was very thoughtful after that. Then he said, “You know that Hsü has been to the palace in Hangzhou, but did you know that he was a very busy man while there?”

  Rong nodded. “I know. Curse his ancestors, he was buying votes.”

  “Not all,” Buwei said. “In fact, I have spent quite a bit of silver on one of the Administrators, who is wavering. He told me he would reconsider, but also suggested that one way to get Hsü out of the picture is to have him sent on another mission.”

  Rong stared at him with slightly bleary eyes. “A mission?” he enquired.

  “Yes! Will you stop biting your nails? Is the food so bad that you have to eat yourself?” Buwei snapped, with his mouth so full a spray of food flew onto the table cloth.

  Rong hurriedly put his hand out of sight and reached for the cup instead. Buwei shook his head in disgust and continued. “The annual payment of Tribute? Remember that? It is due, and it is Guangzhou’s turn this year to provide the bulk of the cargo.”

  Rong knew all about the tribute. It was something that he as Chief of Police was expected to organize, with the assistance of the senior officer in charge of the convoy that would go up to the border to meet with the dreaded Mongols.

  “Who is the officer in charge of the convoy this year?” Buwei probed.

  “General Yang Hsün is the man who will lead the military contingent. He is not someone we can bribe. General Hayan Zhuo can’t go, because he is the resident officer in charge of the province. I wish we could get rid of both of them; Zhuo in particular is going to be a nuisance.” Rong considered Buwie’s suggestion.

  “Hsü might never return from the journey, should we be able to get someone into the group who can arrange for an accident,” Rong mused. He wondered if he could possibly find some form of leverage to persuade the general enough to take care of that problem. His spies might be able to find something but it had to be soon. Hsü was leading a charmed life. Lin had confessed that the attempt on the bridge had been thwarted by the damned foreigner. Rong had been ready to strangle his henchman. Lin was now adamant that the foreigner was a danger. The speed of his reactions had surprised him.

  Buwei nodded approval, and then thought for a moment. “In order for us to secure those votes in the palace, we have to have something to back up the paper money. You have made promises with those checks, but we don’t have enough to support them when they are called in, unless we go on a robbing , and the barracudas in the palace would be sure to follow up on that. We have to gain access to Hsü’s gems. Those palace people are insatiable; I’m appalled at how corrupt they are.”

  Rong glanced up. It was difficult to tell when Buwei was making a joke; either way, he was acutely aware of the problem. It was one reason his stomach was aching. He thought he might be coming down with an ulcer, it was so painful. If he could not back the paper with substance it would be considered a crime; he could be charged, and his future would become very precarious. He dabbed his forehead with a fine cotton cloth. “What are you suggesting?”

  “We have to obtain the treasure by whatever means possible. This time I shall send my own men. You should have come to me before, and then perhaps we wouldn’t have had this debacle,” Buwei sneered.

  Rong bit back an angry retort. He needed Buwei more than ever now, and it wouldn’t do to annoy him. Losing face, while grave, was nothing when placed against the big picture, and that did not include Buwei in the final analysis.

  “Word has come to my attention that your men are busy on the streets,” he said to change the subject. Buwei nodded and shoveled more food into his mouth.

  “Yes, you don’t object do you? They are, after all, working for us towards our mutual objective,” Buwei smirked. “A few palanquins tipped over here and there can be very helpful at deterring would-be supporters of Hsü. It is just as important to make sure he has no financial help as it is something those morons in the Palace will watch for. They will be sensitive to the lack of support here in the city once they are made aware of it, and that could sway the Emperor. They don’t like having unpopular officials in high places, nor do they like the idea of unrest. Anything for the sake of tranquility,” he chuckled.

  Rong had been informed that more than just a few palanquins had been tipped over, but he had to agree, Buwei’s methods might prove to be effective. As long as he was not seen to be involved in this overt intimidation, it really didn’t matter.

  They were interrupted by the arrival of Wu po-ku. The Academic Prefect was dressed in the height of official fashion, full, flowing dark silk robes and a small hat of office tied to his greying hair. He minced into the room and bowed just low enough to show respect, but in such a way as to make it plain that he was the chief functionary here.

  They greeted him, and then the discussion came around to the health of the governor.

  “The physicians d
on’t think he will last for another month,” Wu po-ku informed them. “What have you two been discussing?” he enquired with a look of distain at the mess on the table. He accepted a cup of warm wine from the obsequious servant who had been hovering about.

  “We are discussing Lord Meng, who is endangering us with his bid for the governor’s office,” Buwei said through a mouthful of shrimp.

  Rong went on to outline their new scheme to get Hsü taken out of the city. He deliberately left out the plan to obtain the elusive box of jewels. Wu po-ku didn’t need to know about that. Rong noticed that Buwei was watching him with his beady black eyes.

  Wu gave no indication that he knew anything about the treasure and seemed to approve of the plan to get Hsü removed from the city. He sipped his Moa-T'ai and averted his eyes from the battle with the food going on in front of him.

  “We wondered if there might be a chance that the General in charge of the convoy could be bribed to take care of... things,” Rong finished.

  “I don’t think so. General Yang Hsün is from the old school, too locked into the military world with nothing much else in between his ears.” Wu spoke contemptuously. “We will have to find another way. However, I can certainly influence the people in charge of the mission and get them to have Lord Meng assigned.”

  Rong breathed a small sigh of relief. Wu was going to get involved. That meant that Rong might be able to gain some kind of leverage over him, which would be useful in the future. Wu was so much more refined than Buwei, who Rong considered to be somewhat of a loose elephant in a small compound.

  “How do you propose to ensure that he doesn’t come back?” Buwei demanded.