gnovel Chapter 188 Methods
Chapter 188 Methods
Chapter 188 Methods
As darkness fell, the west side of the academy remained brightly lit.
Although Professor Wang Pi of the state school was stingy and greedy, today, with the renowned scholar Ni Zan from Wuxi interacting with the students, he lit all the lamps he usually couldn't bear to use, and even decorated the place with lanterns and colorful decorations to welcome Mr. Ni Zan. Ni Zan's wife, Jiang, was from Jiangyin, so every now and then, he would accompany his wife back home to visit her family and meet with the students from Jiangyin.
On the lotus pond to the east of the academy, several figures appeared on both sides, walking towards each other.
Shortly after, Shao Shuyi appeared at Guangfeng Pavilion with a broad smile on his face.
Han De stood inside the Jiyue Pavilion, his face full of gloom.
After standing for a while, the two tacitly dismissed their respective attendants and came to an arched bridge between the two pavilions, standing one step apart.
Han De wore a slightly worn blue cloth robe, and the knife hanging at his waist had been replaced with an ordinary iron ruler.
Clearly, he didn't want to be recognized. The rank of deputy commander in Jiangyin Prefecture wasn't particularly high or low, and it wouldn't look good to be in military uniform in a place like this.
"General Han." Shao Shuyi bowed first.
Han De glanced at him silently, his expression shifting between light and shadow. After a moment, he suddenly laughed and said, "Someone like you dares to negotiate with me? Who exactly are you?"
"General Han is too kind," Shao Shuyi said. "My surname is Cao."
Han De's eyebrows twitched.
He had heard of this name before; he was a salt merchant who had risen to prominence in Jiangyin Prefecture, with many people working for him both inside and outside the city. Moreover, his influence was extensive; recently, he had even rented a piece of land in Huangtian Port and openly started a maritime trade.
A while ago, officials from the Salt Transport Bureau came from Hangzhou to urge the arrest of the Red-Headband Bandit Gang. The prefectural government and the Wanhu Prefecture listed all the salt merchants of a certain size in Jiangyin Prefecture, but this person was not among them, or rather, they had not yet noticed him.
Han De was not a man without knowledge.
No matter the province, salt merchants were not to be trifled with. To put it bluntly, could the soldiers of the Han Army's Wanhu Office really defeat the salt guild's armed forces? Not necessarily.
It could even be said that with equal numbers, they would inevitably be defeated by the opponent; at best, they might try to win when outnumbered.
So he came today.
"Cao She?" Han De hastily cupped his hands in greeting, then asked, "Why did you invite me here?"
""
"General Han is straightforward, so I'll speak frankly," Shao Shuyi said. "Jiangyin has been quite unsettled lately. Wang Zongsan of Chian, Zhao Yangui of Shiqiao, and a few Jiangbei people from Yangzhou Road who have come to interfere have no sense of rules and have been fighting and killing each other, making Jiangyin a chaotic and unsightly place."
He paused briefly at this point and looked at Han De.
"What does this have to do with me?" Han De asked.
"Of course it has nothing to do with you." Shao Shuyi smiled. "What does concern you is something else entirely. Do you really want to hear it?"
After saying that, he took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to Han De.
Han De refused to answer.
"Aren't you going to take a look?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"You go first."
Shao Shuyi withdrew his hand and said, "Then I will speak frankly. In the second year of the Zhizheng era, a shipment of goods, a whole ship, was sent from the Han army and docked at Yangshe Port. You originally thought that the owner of the goods was just an ordinary merchant, but later you found out that the owner was actually the steward of the family of Bierqiebuhua, the Left Chancellor of Jiangzhe Province." Han De's face changed, and his hand was already on the iron ruler.
"Are you trying to scare me?" he asked, staring intently at Shao Shuyi.
"Why would I scare you?" Shao Shuyi shook his head and said, "If I wanted to file a complaint, I wouldn't have come here. General Han, I'm here to make friends."
Han De remained silent.
Shao Shuyi put the letter back into his pocket, placed one hand on the hilt of his sword, and laughed, "General Han, I want to deal with Wang Zongsan. His strength is so-so, I haven't taken him seriously yet, but the problem is that he has someone backing him."
After Zhu Ding's death, Wang Zongsan climbed the ranks of the state's censors. Furthermore, isn't his nephew in your Han Army?
"In the past, I would have killed him without hesitation, but things are different now. I have many more powerful figures at my disposal. If I were to harm him, whether it's the prefectural government or the military governor's office, someone might come after me."
"So you want me—" Han De asked after a moment of silence.
"I'm not asking you to do anything," Shao Shuyi said, "I'm asking you to do absolutely nothing."
Han De stared at him.
"When Wang Zongsan gets into trouble, don't touch your men. I'll handle the rest," Shao Shuyi said. "Of course, if you're interested, I can give you the credit. With a little effort, you might be promoted to commander of a thousand households someday."
"His nephew Wang Dan is a centurion in Hupu," Han De said. "If money is spent, the military government might send troops from Yangshe and Shipai, two thousand-household units, out of consideration for family ties. I can't stop them; there are still thousand-household units above them."
"Does Wang Dan have any powerful backers in the army?" Shao Shuyi asked.
Han De pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "His ancestors used to. Back then, the Han army was a powerful military institution with tens of thousands of households, but that should no longer exist."
"General Han, Wang Dan is much younger than you, yet he's already a centurion. Will he threaten your position in the future? It's hard to say," Shao Shuyi said. "If he finds out about the robbery of the merchant ships back then, it might be more than just losing his post—"
—
Han De's face changed, not from fear, but from anger. The flesh on his cheeks tightened, and veins bulged from his temples all the way to the base of his neck. He gripped the iron ruler so tightly that it creaked.
Seeing this, Shao Shuyi laughed and said, "Why are you so nervous? It's not like I'm asking you to rebel or kill anyone. It's just that there are some things you should turn a blind eye to."
Once I've sorted things out and the salt route in Jiangyin is cleared up, I'll deliver your share to your residence without missing a penny.
This is a steady stream of income, isn't it more satisfying than robbing merchant ships?
Han De slowly loosened his grip.
A breeze blew from the lotus pond, and the copper bells on the corner of the pavilion rang, their sound somewhat hoarse and dull, like a rusty throat coughing.
"Just this once." Han De let out a deep breath and said, "Don't come looking for me again, and I don't want your share of the money."
"As you wish." Shao Shuyi laughed. "General Han, rest assured, I, Cao, always follow the rules. If you help me once, I'll remember it for a lifetime. Well, that's all I have to say. Although it's nighttime, there are still many people around, so I'll take my leave now."
Finally, he looked up at the pavilion and said, "These two pavilions have good names, 'Clear Breeze and Bright Moon.' But where in this world is there such a clean place? We're all just struggling in the mud. Don't take some things so seriously."
After saying this, he bowed and turned to leave.
Han De stood alone on the arched bridge, motionless for a long time.
Suddenly, the water in the lotus pond made a sound, one splash after another, like a fish trapped in the water plants, struggling incessantly.
After a long while, Han De finally came to his senses, swallowed his slightly dry throat, and turned to leave.
After Shao Shuyi and Tie Niu met up, they walked together out of the academy. When they passed a certain place, they quietly stopped.
From inside the window, the voice of a middle-aged man drifted over: "—Mencius said, 'Wealth and honor cannot corrupt me, poverty and hardship cannot sway me, and power and force cannot subdue me.' Everyone has read these words, but everyone thinks they describe someone else. In reality, they describe yourself. Integrity isn't something you just talk about; it's what you do when you're alone, it's the resolute determination in your heart when you want to seek advantage and avoid harm."
Upon hearing this, Shao Shuyi pondered it carefully for a moment, and then smiled.
He crouched down and went to the window, dropped a letter inside, then took Tie Niu and quietly disappeared into the darkness.
A soft "Eh!" rang out from inside the window, and a young scholar with a childlike face peeked out. He looked around, saw no one, and then unfolded the letter in his hand—
"Lin Xuan, the prefect of Jiangyin, was a clerk who received the emperor's favor but instead of repaying it, he committed acts of bestiality."
During the Zhishun era, Lin Xuan, seeing the beauty of Zhou, the wife of tenant Liu Gui, entered her home under the pretense of collecting rent and forcibly raped her. Afterwards, he threatened to collect the rent in rice if Zhou spoke out, saying that he would pursue her for all outstanding debts and send her to the authorities for trial. Zhou endured the shame and humiliation, daring not to tell anyone.
Lin Xuan then made frequent visits to Liu Gui's house, ignoring all the rent and arrears owed by Liu Gui's family, and used this as leverage to occupy the Zhou family's property for many years.
Later, towards the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhou's beauty faded, and Lin Xuan turned against her without mercy, settling all the rent and arrears owed by Liu Gui's family over the years and ordering them to pay them off immediately, without any shortfall.
Liu Gui, a tenant farmer, was unable to repay his debts and lived in constant fear. His son, Liu Xiao'er, seventeen years old, was hot-blooded and enraged. He chased after Lin Xuan with a knife. Lin Xuan escaped by chance, but harbored resentment. He dared not report the matter to the authorities openly, so he secretly hired the thug Zhu Ding, who, on the night of the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, hammered Liu Xiao'er to death under the Chengjiang Bridge.
Xiao Er's death was extremely gruesome; his skull was shattered and his brains splattered out.
Liu Gui cried so much that he almost went blind. Zhou Shi, grieving the loss of her only son, attempted suicide by jumping into a well, but was rescued by a neighbor and has been ill ever since.
"The crimes of Lin Xuan are hereby proclaimed to the public. Lin Xuan, in his capacity as a minor official, committed beastly acts, first seizing another man's wife, then murdering his child. Such acts are intolerable to Heaven and Earth; where is the law? We humbly beseech all officials, gentry, and common people of Jiangyin Prefecture to witness and know this. If the government fails to uphold justice, then Heaven will surely punish him."
The young scholar was furious after reading it, and his hands trembled.
Seeing this, the others became very curious and gradually gathered around to take a look.
A moment later, someone exclaimed, "Is this true? Lin Xuan? Lin, the clerk in charge of documents at the prefectural government?"
"Is it true that Chief Prosecutor Lin is usually serious and upright?"
"Where is he upright? He's been bullying the people for a long time, just because he works in the government office. This is most likely true."
"Lin Xuan acquired sixty mu of new paddy fields at the end of last year. Could he afford it with his salary?"
"How could this scoundrel, who looks so respectable, have become the second-highest official in a prefecture? I heard he passed the three examinations and might be transferred to Hangzhou as an official. It's outrageous!"
"I will definitely go to the government office to ask tomorrow."
The students, caught up in their anger, began shouting.
Ni Zan slowly walked over, stretched out his hand, and the students handed him the letter.
After quietly reading it, Ni Zan put the letter away under everyone's gaze, saying, "Now that I've encountered it, how can I ignore it?"
The reason why a person is a person of renown and is respected is not only because of their own character and talent, but also because they have virtuous and respected people who promote their name.
And many of these people are officials.
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