Damaged Goods

I turned over the letter in my hand, then tossed it into the pile of letters angrily. "Hmph!" I snorted. "What's wrong?" Qiu Ci, who had accompanied me to the office today, asked. "Another of the carriages carrying our supplies has been attacked. All the goods are either damaged or missing now." I said.

"Well, Young Miss, we just have to report them to the County Lord of the county it happened in." she said helpfully. "What could those old men do? We've reported probably 20 such incidents to them in the past year already, and all they could do was send more soldiers out to patrol." I scoffed.

This era was terrible. No insurance. No proper distribution channels. It was truly every man for himself. I was aware that since Luna Marche was a very big business, and imported most of its supplies, it was inevitable we would incur more losses as well. But this was terrible and impeded my expansion plans.

I had already bought land in the next 3 cities and gotten the contractors. How would I build more shops now knowing we wouldn't have peace of mind transporting goods back and forth? Luna Marche had a small fleet of carriages and logistics personnel we used for ferrying clients and supplies back and forth, and we hadn't had much issue with those... possibly because my name was on Luna Marche... but with the scale of our business expanding so quickly, we usually used rented carriages.

"More tea, Young Miss?" Qiu Ci asked as she returned with a new pot of tea. I smiled. "Thanks. That helps." I said. Seeing my sour mood, she had long retreated to let me have some time to myself. I took a sip of tea and sprawled over the desk, absentmindedly doodling (poorly) horses and carriages... horses and carriages and bandits...

We couldn't do anything about bandits. The law enforcement here when it came to transit was a meagre effort at best, and there were no immediate plans to do better. I couldn't hire my own men to threaten and beat up the bandits... well, I could, but they would just keep coming.

Carriages... what if I got more carriages and transported my own things? I called Hua Ling into my office to discuss. "Well, what do you think?" I asked, after explaining to her. She frowned. "I have been thinking about this issue too... though I haven't thought how to solve it. It's always kind of been a way of life." she said.

That was reasonable. I forgot the people of this era were inhibited. I was used to the high standards of the modern world... not that I would ever get my high standards of living back... was it too much to ask for quality and secure service? "Where do they usually get ambushed?" I asked. "The route to Hui' An." she said promptly.

We sat there in silence for a few more moments, helplessly before she spoke up. "Actually. It may be possible. How about we send out some of our men on the next couple carriages there. They can disguise themselves as merchants and they can threaten the bandits to find out their motivations. Then we have a clearer idea of what stops them." Hua Ling said.

I gasped. "Great idea! When's our next carriage? We can do it right away." I said.

Hua Ling arranged everything. The next carriage was in 2 days. In the meantime, I arranged my own plans, drawing out a mindmap of things that needed to be done if it was like what we thought. There were many things to be considered.

I had a good relationship with the county lords of these 3 cities, but moving the construction crew was probably going to be a bigger hassle. We also had to manufacture company vehicles (carriages) and train people from scratch, since logistics was entirely different. Nevertheless, since we were only doing very simple logistics, it shouldn't be too different from what people of this era were used to, only more coordinated.

2 days later, the report came back. Hua Ling and I were chatting in my office when the men came back. "I see, they didn't dare to offend Luna Marche, so if we use our own carriages instead of contracted carriages it would be fine?" I asked. The leader of the men we sent out, who was reporting nodded.

"What did you guys do to the bandits you caught?" Hua Ling asked, curious. "We didn't have specific instructions so we tied them up and gagged them. They're in the back now." he said. I scoffed hearing that, having images of the angry and confused bandits tied up pop into my mind.

Hua Ling glanced at me. "What should we do with them?" she asked. "Which group do they work for? Will we face any trouble if we keep them?" I asked the man. "The... The White Fangs Group, Noble Concubine." he said. "White Fangs... That's a medium sized group, isn't it?" Hua Ling said in realisation. I just nodded along with her. I wasn't too familiar with this era yet. "Get them to work for us as double agents. I want information about the whole bandit structure, their routes and faces." I said. The two of them stared at me.

"It's a bit difficult to do that, Noble Concubine. Bandits usually have no real attachment to the civilian world, that's why they can go out and commit crimes." the man said truthfully. "Food, lodging, and allowance for a year." "What?"

"Give them the normal employee perks. We have a couple empty dormitories on the outskirts of the capital. We'll just refurbish one to give to the bandits. I don't believe I can't pay them better than what they earn. They'll be free to carry out their usual jobs as long as they remain loyal to us." I said.

"This... will the bandits agree?" Hua Ling asked doubtfully. No one had probably thought of treating bandits in a civil way before. But I knew to ask them to act as double agents, we had to offer some perks. To people with likely no family, it was a feat to find anything to threaten them with. And it was not like I was afraid to spend some taels on them. I had so many taels I didn't know what to do with them.

"Let's find out. Bring us to the bandits." I said.