Nah, I'm not convinced this is a good deal. It would undermine the reforms and "an estate where we can raise horses" is something we can get through other ways. Rejecting it will not make us his friend but it doesn't necessarily have to make us his enemy either.
[X] Pull him aside for tea, relax and unbend him before prying out the story, if there is one, of what led to this attempt.
Many of those diplomacy rolls were crazily good, which should help greatly given they were Kuojah's supporters so it can be the start of a relationship with Kiralo. I'll go with the hidden vote for pretty much Veekie's reasoning, as the argument wasn't the best so we're not provided the best information about why he's against it, and it in general hinders the reforms on a large scale. Also the actual bribe doesn't really interest me given Kiralo will be inheriting a great deal of Kuojah's wealth anyway, so if he wants an estate he can get one himself, if he can't in the near future do it himself.
If the above doesn't work, I'm perfectly fine with rejecting the offer.
Hao Ren felt like a cannon shell cast off to the side, about to explode. Tense, nervous, afraid and stumbling through his points. Were the Ulis family lands so poorly tended, or was it that the boy was nervous…
Boy. The young man, no younger than him, at least roughly. "Cs-Hao Ren, would you like to sit down? I have some tea, and we can discuss this." He used his most soothing tone, smiling at the other man, and he was surprised when Hao Ren tensed up a little, shaking and quivering in the hall of the house that Kiralo was only too temporarily staying in.
At every stop, people opened up houses to him, as if it was necessary to sleep there rather than in camp with the rest of his men. So there was a table, for banquets, in this particular room. The style out here was a little different than the warrens of small rooms that he was used to, but a big hall was rather convenient.
"Y-yeah," Hao Ran said, and Kiralo guided him down to take a seat, and then sat on the bench next to him, glancing over at the nervous gentleman.
A servant came, with tea, and another came with a Pipa and began playing a traditional melody.
The woman strummed the strings carefully. With skill, as far as Kiralo could judge it, but not with confidence or verve. But she stepped her feet slightly with the music, her flowing Iritu capturing the light of the lamps.
Kiralo let out a breath, and Hao Ran sipped the tea.
"I want to know what the concerns are," Kiralo said, simply. "What did your father ask of you?"
Hao Ran looked at Kiralo. Nervous, agitated, but without fury or even frustration at the open nature of the question. It was something else. He kept on glancing at Kiralo from different angles, as if he expected to see something else eventually.
"He said I needed to get you to compromise, that we could not afford inter… interference on our traditional lands, and that I was…"
Kiralo sipped his tea carefully, savoring the flavors. It was a richer tea than he normally drank, but quite good. The song was continuing in the way a Pipa song could, with this feeling as if the stringed instrument, whose every sound was light and fast and had its own resonance, was about to start going faster. Each noise was a little patter of sound, and he'd seen the fingers really fly, the notes so fast they seemed to careen towards something, but not powerful enough to hold the kind of weight that made it feel headlong.
"Please, go on," Kiralo said.
"Do whatever it took to convince you to give us this. Anything, he said. Any offer below a certain amount of land or… or goods." Hao Ren hesitated and said, "Please don't tell him I told you, I just…"
"What?" Kiralo asked. This was clearly not proper behavior. Any traditionalist would say that Hao Ran should have never revealed any of his father's plans.
"I think that there's a better way, or, or something. And… and him saying to do anything…"
He trailed off, and Kiralo realized, slowly, what was going on. A person is told to do anything, and comes, stammering, into his presence. Hao Ran reached a hand out, and Kiralo imagined all of the things that could be promised by that hand. "Anything?" Kiralo asked.
"Yes," Hao Ran said breathlessly, and Kiralo wondered. Perhaps the father hadn't even considered that this was one anything that was even likely. He'd been cruel to burden his son with such a task, and Kiralo could read the implied threat, the supposed risks if he failed to obey his father.
Kiralo didn't think there looked to be anything wrong with Hao Ran. He was not a model of Csiritan male beauty, but he looked handsome enough. But Kiralo couldn't even begin to think of him in that way, saw a young man, quivering slightly, some mix of attracted and afraid. Someone vulnerable.
Kiralo reached out and patted his shoulder. "You promised to give me anything?"
"Yes…" Hao Ran said, breathlessly.
Kiralo smiled. "Then talk to me about the pastures. Tell me about why it might work, and why it might not. You have your own mind, and you are a person with value. You run the estates and help the peasants while your elders are in the court acting on politics. So, do you have concerns? Do you have things you want me to know about shepherds and agriculture? If you have expertise, perhaps you can share it."
The young man could have closed up. After all, Kiralo was rejecting him, or at least not noticing his offer.
Instead, he nodded, seeming to relax. "Well, it's… different than you'd think. They don't make it just for themselves, or their own houses. They sell it in town. Commerce," Hao Ran said, waiting for Kiralo to go off on a rant about the evils of tradesmen.
Instead, Kiralo nodded.
"It's an entire economy. We own the pastures, and then give the peasants the right ot use it for a fee. They go there, and the world, or at least the town, follows. Women, you know, go up with instruments and wine and sell their bodies to the shepherds, and the herders too, though the two clash."
Kiralo frowned, "For what? Copper cash?"
"No, wool. The shepherds reach out and cut off a chunk of wool, and the girls take it back down to town, and that's their payment. Wool."
Kiralo shook his head in wonder. You couldn't dam up human desires, they'd just overflow. At most, sometimes, you directed the current. "Huh," he said. The music was coming a little faster now, and Kiralo could picture it. A lazy shepherd, sure his sheep were well, leaning back as the woman played a tune on a bamboo dizi. Like the wind through the pasture. And he drank rice wine, brought to him and sold to him, and after a time he smiled…
It was a nice picture, but perhaps not anything like the reality. "So, you said that dividing the land would be a disaster?"
"Wealth, or what passes for it, comes from who owns the most sheep. If you allow men to own the land to graze the sheep on as well, then the shepherds will just lose station. Some rich person, perhaps even ourselves, will buy and divide it all up, and what was village common will become a battleground."
He shook his head. "It needs to remain in common. Wealth is decided by the number of sheep owned, making land a part of it just confuses the issue. It's about land, but if it becomes all about land, then all will suffer."
He looked different when he was serious. His features weren't any different, but Hao Ran became animated and forceful in a way that had nothing to do with fear and nerves.
"So, we are not going to do that. Let's say that that's the situation. How else can we achieve what we need. You say that they produce for the market already?"
"My father would not approve, but... "
"He's not there," Kiralo said, and the boy nodded.
"I would… take ownership of the land as the Imperial forces, of the specific pasture and area that the sheep can graze on. Then, charge a small fee, low enough that even the poorest shepherd with but one sheep can pay it. It's not much going towards the capital, but perhaps the money will do something."
"And you receive a cut?"
"Yes," Hao Ran said. "Since we will be collecting it."
"That's fair reasoning," Kiralo admitted, looking over at Hao Ran for a moment, and seeing him in a differerent light. At least for the moment. But… now wasn't the time, if there was a time. "If you would like to exchange letters, we could talk more about the details of the matter. But you'll likely be on the agricultural commission in your area, if your knowledge of this is deep. And it seems to be."
"Ah," he said, aware of what Kiralo was saying. It wasn't what his father wanted, but it'd be influence on the shape and direction of reforms, with the added promise that he was being watched. "Thank you, Cs-Kiralo."
"Do not worry about it."
"Is there anything I can…" he began, and he shifted forward a little, reached to his robes as if to try to adjust them for better effect.
"There is a banquet I'm going to hold in Mi-lonu's honor. Will you attend?"
"Yes, of… I mean, I would be honored." He gave a respectful bow, while he remained seating, even.
Kiralo kept from smiling only by a force of will. "Then so would I."
*******
The places were set, the food was ready, and Kiralo only had to manage to make contacts in this event and not fail in his duties as a host. A huge banquet hall had been rented, and servants borrowed for wages had been in and out for hours. The army was parked outside the city, just a week or so away from the capital, and Kiralo made sure everything was going to be ready.
A full banquet, with poems in honor of the God prepared. There was going to be the Rice festival ceremony, the drinking contests, the songs, all of the proper ones, and every guest that could be whipped up. Monks, beggars, lords, holy fools… all in one place. And outside, a giveaway of rice to any beggar bearing the badge of Mi-lonu, dancing and shouting in the streets.
It was expensive, but then all things worthwhile were expensive.
Name one thing that went particularly right during the festival:
[] Kiralo did well in declaiming the poems.
[] There were auspicious signs from the spirits.
[] Kiralo intervened and helped end a debate on theology between two Monks.
[] Hao Ran makes friends.
[] The entertainment impressed the guests as both appropriate for the venue, and very skilled.
Damn, that counter offer really did go well. The concerns were also very valid given the nature of common land.
[X] Kiralo intervened and helped end a debate on theology between two Monks.
The religious debate narrative just interests me more because the Laurant's world building is always fascinating, and of my other favoured options we've had a poetry event during the Winter festival, and we frequently have spirit shenanigens with Aiysitin, so OOC don't feel the need for the narrative to go there.
Well, I guess Kiralo's preference for men is basically common knowledge among the court now. Shouldn't be too much of a problem though, I think. And maybe people won't try to bribe us with women anymore.
Oh dear, I have no idea what to pick. They all seem good.
Ha, it would be funny, but I'm not sure if it's considered appropriate. @The Laurent I guess theology debates through poetry are seen as silly, weird or just plain stupid?
