novelSusiti Chapter 316 Out of Control
Chapter 316 Out of Control
Shao Shuyi arrived at Huangtian Port last night.
The main reason was that Wu Heizi was transporting salt back from Qushan, so he was simply told to stay in Matuosha for a while and then return to Suzhou to sell salt in the latter part of the intercalary tenth month, in order to avoid this period of trouble—if the Prince of Zhennan went to Suzhou in the latter part of the intercalary month, that would be a different story.
Before leaving, he also received Hou Sandao, the wandering knight-errant of Muma Xiaosha, and Hou Guan, the village head.
During the suppression of the Huashan bandits, Yangzhou Road exhausted all its resources to supply grain and weapons, leaving its granaries completely empty. Now, with the government imposing additional levies, the people and officials are filled with resentment. Seeing his family's supplies depleted, the horse herder Hou Xiaosha, after much deliberation, decided to travel with his cousin Hou Sandao to Ma Tuo Sha (Horse Carrying Sand) to seek refuge with the rising star Cao Dage, hoping to find a way to avert the tragic end of his family's destruction.
Shao Shuyi comforted them, only agreeing to watch out for each other and helping each other, without making any promises for the time being, because he couldn't spare the time yet and had to wait until the matter of the Prince of Zhennan was over before making any further plans.
"Brother, Hou Sandao's skills are actually limited, his prestige in the village is just average, and he has no ambition whatsoever." Yu Yuan sat down next to Shao Shuyi and said in a low voice, "Why don't we take them in? That way, we'll have another place to stay in the middle of this river."
"Oh?" Shao Shuyi, who was reviewing the list of ships to be acquired, looked up and asked with interest, "Why do you feel that Hou Sandao's prestige and ambition are only so-so?"
"When we were talking yesterday, I could tell that Hou Guan was the one in charge, and San Dao was mostly agreeing with him. It's clear that he's been bullying people in Muma Xiaosha, but he's only doing it because he's relied on the Hou clan. And when faced with the levies imposed by Taixing County, Hou Guan didn't dare to refuse, and just kept making his clan and villagers pay. His power is obvious," Yu Yuan said. "He's only eager to come and join us now because he's been exploited so much that he has no choice but to do so."
"Hmm, that's starting to look promising." Shao Shuyi gave Yu Yuan an approving look and said, "You've mastered the art of reading people, and your post-mortem analysis is quite good. Keep up the good work, because some people will deliberately mislead you, and you'll need to combine the situation, intelligence, and on-the-spot observation to make specific judgments. Alright, let's leave the matter of Mu Ma Xiao Sha for now. What do you think about the boat?"
"Brother, you should take some time to go back to Taicang," Yu Yuan said. "We should buy back the boats as soon as possible, because the transport capacity is quite insufficient now. Sometimes when salt is being distributed in bulk, we have to hire more people and boats. With more boats, there will be more boatmen, porters, and merchants who depend on you, and you'll have more leverage. The government won't dare to have any bad intentions. Besides, last time I went to Shanghai and Taicang in a hurry, I didn't even have time to buy horses. Shi Tou is still asking about them..."
Shao Shuyi nodded slightly.
The boats should indeed be bought, and they won't cost too much. According to Zheng Fan, the spring and autumn transport seasons this year carried a total of over 1.3 million shi of grain, a decrease of more than 10% compared to last year.
The people in Dadu were getting anxious. On one hand, they ordered the grain transport office to reorganize and expand the scale of grain transport. On the other hand, they were forced to order the Wuwei Army to increase the scale of land reclamation to make up for the shortfall in grain transport.
Upon first hearing this news, Shao Shuyi was deeply moved. The Wuwei Army—equivalent to the Imperial Guard—who had enjoyed years of privilege, was now also being forced to cultivate land; the situation was truly deteriorating.
Currently, the amount of grain transported by the Grand Canal is only decreasing year by year. The military farms around Dadu (Beijing) might be able to make up for some of the shortfall, but what if there's a sudden, precipitous drop? It's not the gradual decline that's worrisome; the real danger is a sudden drop from over a million shi (a unit of dry measure) to a mere fraction of that amount in a single year. Military farms alone cannot make up for that. "We'll have to spend some more money this month," Yu Yuan continued. "Our brother grain shop in Yixing has already rented space to store 500 shi of grain, and the estimated expenditure is over 420 ingots."
Before they could finish speaking, Wang Xing entered, bowed to the two men, and said, "Shao She, Prefect Zhang has arrived."
Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "Please invite them in."
Yu Yuan beckoned to Jiang Cheng and said, "Go and brew some tea."
"What kind of tea?" Jiang Cheng asked.
"Yixing Purple Bamboo Shoots"
"Yes." Jiang Cheng left.
Ordinary guests used loose tea, while officials from Jiangyin Prefecture used Zisun and Fandianshuai bud tea. Those of higher status would use Longfeng Tuancha, which had already been half-taken here.
The prefect Zhang Yang arrived soon, accompanied by the prefectural judge Ma Yuanchong, the chief clerk Ge Daji, the criminal justice officer Meng Chaodong, the household registration officer Jin Jingli, and the Chengjiang patrol inspector Chen Zi.
The group was dressed in casual clothes, and some even wore hats, seemingly not wanting anyone to know their identities.
"Master Zhang." Shao Shuyi led Yu Yuan forward to pay his respects.
Zhang Yang patiently returned the greeting, and then they each took their seats.
"Ming Gong"
"Cao She"
The two spoke at almost the same time, and then both stopped.
Zhang Yang looked embarrassed, but quickly composed himself and asked, "Has Cao She heard about the events in Changzhou?"
Shao Shuyi nodded.
As far as he knew, the government had mobilized express horses from the post stations and dispatched messengers to travel back and forth between Jiangyin and Changzhou to gather information.
Darughachi Khorijis and Prefect Zhang Yang were stationed at the prefectural government office, inquiring about the situation every half day, showing great importance to the matter.
This morning, because of the civil unrest in Changzhou, Zhang Yang even came to Chengjiangyi to oversee the situation and gather information. Chengjiangyi is not far from Jiangxia City and Huangtiangang, so Zhang Yang's presence here is not surprising.
"You know that much," Zhang Yang sighed. "Shouldn't we stop now? Things have escalated to this point; the Prince of Zhennan should be scared now, right? If he comes to Jiangyin again, he probably won't dare to plunder the area so thoroughly."
Shao Shuyi smiled but remained silent.
You lot are far inferior to the officials in Jiangnan during the late Ming Dynasty. How audacious were they? They could instigate a peasant uprising without hesitation, daring to humiliate the imperial court.
Even without instigating a popular uprising, they can still use scholars and intellectuals as pawns to cause trouble in government offices. They can also invite a few literary leaders to write short essays to expand their influence and make things worse for you.
A major tea-producing county only pays a dozen taels of silver in commercial taxes a year. Isn't that amazing?
Compared to them, the officials of the Yuan Dynasty were too honest. They were skilled at corruption, even surpassing their counterparts in the late Ming Dynasty, but they were too afraid of the iron fist when it came to causing trouble. This may be related to the fact that they did not have many connections in the upper echelons of Dadu.
"My lord, the Prince of Zhennan is still hunting down the assassins," Shao Shuyi said. "This shows he still has spirit and isn't completely afraid. If he gets upset in Changzhou, who knows if he won't become even more aggressive when he comes to Jiangyin? I think we need to give him a harsher punishment and completely crush his courage." "This..." Zhang Yang suddenly stood up, looked at Shao Shuyi quietly for a while, and then slumped back down.
"My lord, have some tea to calm your nerves." Shao Shuyi said with a smile as Jiang Cheng brought over the tea.
Zhang Yang remained silent.
Ma Yuanchong pointed to the table, indicating that the teacup should be put down.
Ge Daji, Meng Chaodong, and Chen Zi stood up, accepted the teacups, and thanked him.
Kim Jung-ri didn't move, and Kang Sung placed the teacup aside.
"Who assassinated the guards of the Prince's Palace?" After a moment, Zhang Yang asked, "Will they cause trouble?"
Upon hearing this, Shao Shuyi hesitated for a moment and said, "It's hard to say."
Zhang Yang didn't ask any more questions.
Local officials frequently interact with local gentry, scholars, powerful figures, and merchants, giving them a deeper understanding of the local landscape compared to censors or officials in the royal court.
Putting everything else aside, the various cases reported by the patrol and inspection department alone were enough for them to get a glimpse of the true nature of the situation.
"There are some things that can't be investigated!" This is a common saying among local officials who have been working in the area for many years. When Zhang Yang was first transferred from Hangzhou to take up his post three years ago, he didn't quite understand it, because he had worked in the province for many years and had never dealt with this kind of thing, but now he has some understanding.
To put it bluntly, if he were to order a city-wide search right now, investigating every street in Jiangyin Prefecture, it would definitely cause quite a bit of trouble.
Who knows who lives in that inconspicuous house? Even Cao Luo might not know, let alone him?
The Prince of Zhennan requisitioned dozens of houses, and sure enough, he ran into a brick wall. There's bound to be some trouble ahead.
Thinking of this, Zhang Yang suddenly frowned and asked, "Cao She, you haven't arranged any other backup plans, have you? If someone causes trouble, you can't act recklessly."
"Rest assured, my lord, I have always respected discipline and order. How could I be such a person who is so reckless?" Shao Shuyi said with a serious expression. "We are only trying to prevent the Prince of Zhennan from coming to Jiangyin to plunder. We are not trying to kill him."
Zhang Yang hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.
His biggest worry is that things can get out of control. For example, if you start a fire, can you guarantee that it will only burn within a certain area? What if a sudden wind picks up, and the fire gets fueled by the wind and burns even more fiercely? Those who play with fire are likely to get burned.
But I've already said that, so there's no point in bringing it up again. So I'll just leave it at that.
Seeing this, Ge Daji, the clerk in charge of the case, smiled and smoothed things over, saying, "The people sent by the Prince of Zhennan ahead of him demanded tens of thousands of ingots. When he arrives in person, will it be less than twenty or thirty thousand ingots? If he stays here for a month, two grain merchants and one meat merchant in Jiangyin will go bankrupt. Incidents of people being injured, beaten, threatened, and even having their wives and daughters abducted by galloping horses will likely happen daily. They are truly afraid of this powerful figure. Now that they have learned their lesson in Changzhou, they shouldn't act recklessly. We can also avoid bearing too much infamy, since we are all from the same hometown. We really don't want to over-exploit the people because of this matter. Is that right, Clerk Jin?"
Jin Jingli, the clerk of the Household Department, was surprised that Ge Daji had called his name. He could only go along with him and said, "The Prince of Zhennan has been here for a month. It is estimated that he will spend 30,000 to 40,000 ingots of money and goods, or even more. The government cannot come up with this money, otherwise the autumn tax cannot be paid. Therefore, we can only levy an additional tax on the wealthy households." At this point, he glanced at Shao Shuyi and continued, "Once the additional tax is levied, it may cause trouble."
Shao Shuyi seemed oblivious to the gaze, instead echoing, "Business is tough these days, we really don't have much money left. If we need to increase payments, I'm afraid we'll have to borrow from Han Tuo. The profit from lambs doubles every year, how can we possibly repay that!"
Upon hearing this, everyone's eyelids twitched. Nobody knows how to play the victim better than you!
Furthermore, if additional levies were to be imposed, would the clerks and runners of the yamen dare to come to your door to ask for them?
Footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Fu Jian leading someone in, saying, "Brother, this is a resident who has returned from Changzhou."
The messenger knelt down on one knee before Zhang Yang and handed him a letter.
Zhang Yang's eyes narrowed; it was actually written by Zhao Mingyuan, the deputy commissioner of the Changzhou Road Miscellaneous Works Bureau. He immediately opened it, glanced at it once, and then looked at it carefully a second time.
Everyone waited quietly.
After a long silence, Zhang Yang said with a complicated expression, "Two wealthy men have been arrested in Changzhou. They identified the men who assassinated the guards of the Prince's Palace the day before yesterday as White Lotus Sect traitors. The mentor (a term for a Buddhist guide who leads people into practice) is surnamed Kuang, but his given name is unknown. His accent is mixed, seemingly from Jiangxi, yet also from Huaixi, making it difficult to discern. Judge Li Mao has already mobilized archers to follow the clues and make the arrests."
He didn't mention the killer of the other assassination, because that person was Chen Bao'er, a wealthy man from Benniuba, whose identity had already been identified.
As soon as Zhang Yang finished speaking, the room fell silent.
Shao Shuyi cursed inwardly, "Damn it, things seem to be getting out of control."
Why are there so many demons and monsters hiding in Changzhou?