gnovel Chapter 192 The End and the New Situation
Chapter 192 The End and the New Situation
Chapter 192 The End and the New Situation
On the 16th day of the second month of the fifth year of the Zhizheng era (1345), at night, in Dongshun Township.
Lin Xuan escaped back at dusk.
He left through the back gate of the prefectural government office, changed into old clothes, led a donkey, and took a shortcut to escape to his house in Dongshun Township.
After tying the donkey to the pear tree by the door, his hands trembled as he went to knock on the door.
The old servant Lin Fu opened the door and was startled by his appearance.
"Sir"
"Don't ask anymore, let's go inside and talk."
Lin Xuan entered the courtyard and quickly walked into the main house.
His wife, Li, came forward and looked at him with some confusion.
Lin Xuan waved his hand, opened the cabinet, and took out money, gold, silver, and jewelry, which he then stuffed into his bundle.
"Husband, what's wrong with you—" Li's face turned pale instantly.
"Shut up." Lin Xuan glared at his wife and said, "I don't have time to explain to you. Hurry up and pack your things, and take the child with you."
Before he could finish speaking, there was a sound from outside.
It wasn't the sound of the wind, but the sound of many footsteps coming from the village entrance all the way to the Lin residence.
Lin Xuan's blood congealed.
The footsteps stopped outside the courtyard gate, followed by a knock on the door, neither too loud nor too soft, just like when someone comes to visit on a normal day.
"Lord Lin, are you home?" It was the voice of Chief Lin Bo, and it sounded perfectly normal.
But Lin Xuan was no ordinary person; he immediately sensed something was wrong.
Although Lin Bo also shares the surname Lin, he is no longer related to Lin Xuan's family by more than five degrees of kinship. He usually speaks with a hint of humility and ingratiation, and would never be as calm as he is now.
Just as I was pondering this, the door rang again. This time it wasn't a knock, but a loud banging.
Lin Xuan's teeth started to chatter.
Madam Li also looked anxious and kept asking, "What exactly happened?"
Lin Xuan wasn't in the mood to answer.
There was a noise in the yard; it was the sound of someone climbing over the wall.
One person jumped in, then a second, then a third.
Soon, the half-closed door was kicked open, accompanied by the screams of the servants.
Moonlight streamed in, illuminating Lin Xuan's face. He stood in the bedroom, carrying a bundle, his expression contorted beyond recognition.
Huang Sheng, the patrol inspector of Changjing, stood at the door, followed by several archers carrying knives.
"Lin Xuan, your affair has been exposed. Come with me," Huang Sheng said expressionlessly.
Although Lin Xuan is a clerk and Huang Sheng is an official, it's hard to say who has more or less power.
The former was the "office director" of Jiangyin Prefecture, while the latter was merely the "police station chief" of Dongshun Township. The former clearly held more real power. Considering that there was no clear distinction between officials and clerks in the Yuan Dynasty, and that clerks could also be promoted, the two usually addressed each other as brothers, with Huang Sheng even considering himself inferior.
But today is different. Huang Sheng called him by his first name without giving him any face, which clearly means something big has happened.
Indeed, that was pretty much the case. In the afternoon, a messenger from the prefectural government arrived on horseback, ordering the arrest of Lin Xuan without delay. Huang Sheng didn't even dare to ask the reason; he simply mobilized seven or eight archers to come.
Upon hearing Huang Sheng's words, Lin Xuan felt all his strength vanish instantly, and he collapsed limply to the ground.
"Husband! Husband!" Madam Li panicked and rushed forward to help him up.
Huang Sheng sighed softly, beckoned, and said, "Bring the person up."
Two archers immediately escorted one of them forward.
"Lin Xuan, look closely, isn't this your servant?" Huang Sheng said, "Last night he led Wang Zongsan to Liu Gui's entire family. After arriving at his house, he had a change of heart and hid in the woods. Today he has come forward to report this, and the evidence is irrefutable."
At this point, he took two steps closer to Lin Xuan's side, lowered his voice, and said, "Someone helped Liu Gui write a petition, which has already been submitted. There are also confessions from Wang Zongsan's followers and a joint petition from the clan members and neighbors of Dongshun Township. Your matter is known throughout the city. The Darughachi personally intervened, and the prefect has opened a case. There's no way to overturn it now."
Lin Xuan sat on the ground, motionless.
Huang Sheng glanced at him quietly, then turned around and said to the archers behind him, "Take him away."
Two archers stepped forward and dragged Lin Xuan up from the ground.
His legs were as weak as noodles, and he couldn't stand up at all. He had to be supported to walk outside. When they crossed the threshold, one of his shoes fell off and remained inside the threshold.
"Husband!" Madam Li caught up with him.
"Take her with you too," Huang Sheng instructed, pointing at Li Shi.
Two more archers stepped forward and, ignoring Li's struggles, forced her onto the oxcart, where she was guarded by Lin Xuan.
The wheels creaked and groaned as they rolled on the gravel road, heading towards Jiangyin City through the night.
******
That same night, at the Wang family's residence in Chian.
The government is indeed slow at doing other things, but when it comes to confiscating property, it's incredibly fast.
Perhaps considering that Wang Zongsan was a salt smuggler, Darughachi Korigisi and Prefect Zhang Yang jointly wrote a letter to borrow two hundred soldiers from the Yangshe Thousand-Household Garrison of the Han Army, and surrounded Wang Zongsan's house in the middle of the night.
Their caution was not wrong.
When the village head, accompanied by two ruffians and nameless archers, went up to knock on the door, they were immediately shot down by arrows coming from the top of the wall.
Commander Yelü Ying was furious and was about to mobilize his troops for a strong attack when he saw the gate of the Wang residence wide open. Seven or eight desperate men, along with a dozen servants, rushed out, wielding weapons and looking menacing.
The soldiers of Yangshe, who were at the front of the line, were caught off guard and were overwhelmed.
In the darkness of night, two burly men charged straight ahead of the horse, one wielding an axe and the other a spear, their plan to capture the leader first.
Yelü Yingben, riding calmly on his horse, was taken aback by the poor performance of his soldiers.
Well, not only were his soldiers incompetent, but even his horses were terrible. When they saw the sharp spears coming at them, they reared up and threw Yelü Ying off their horses.
At the critical moment, several servants rushed forward and fought with the two Wang family henchmen in an attempt to protect their master.
With their respite, the soldiers of Yangshe finally came to their senses, and several brave men stepped forward to fight back desperately.
Deputy Commander Han De was reprimanding the noisy soldiers in the rear when he heard the commotion ahead. He immediately led the twenty men following closely behind him forward, but they were overwhelmed by a few desperate men and collapsed again.
Han De rolled twice on the ground and tumbled into a dry ditch, thus narrowly escaping death.
At this point, the entire battlefield was in complete chaos.
The soldiers of Yangshe, who were barely presentable when lined up in formation, were now in an uproar, with many running around like headless flies and trampling each other in countless ways.
Fortunately, the desperados knew when to stop. After breaking through the government troops' blockade, they vanished into the vast night.
Without them as the backbone, the Wang family's servants were no longer sufficient.
Some were killed in the melee, some took refuge in the nearby bamboo groves and farmland, and others ran back to the Wang residence; in short, it was a scene of chaos.
Han De climbed out of the ditch and loudly called for his soldiers to come closer to him.
After an unknown amount of time, the chaotic battlefield gradually calmed down.
Han De personally went to the commander's side and found him with a face full of pain and his forehead covered with large beads of sweat.
Upon further inquiry, it was discovered that the leg was broken.
Han De didn't know what he was feeling, so he could only take over the command and personally select dozens of men, armed with swords, spears, bows, and shields, to slowly approach the Wang residence.
Fortunately, nothing went wrong this time, and dozens of people successfully "stormed" the Wang residence and began a large-scale arrest operation.
In the midst of the chaos, Han De, taking advantage of a moment when no one was looking, "discovered" a letter in Wang Zongsan's bedroom. Judging from the handwriting, it seemed to be from his nephew Wang Dan. He immediately ordered someone to put it away and seal it.
The ransacking continued until the morning of the 17th.
When the Wang family's valuables were being packed into trucks and their relatives were being taken away, Han De finally had time to take stock of the battle losses from the previous night.
It's truly astonishing what you find when you investigate. Last night, Yangshe Fortress suffered 15 dead and over 30 wounded, yet the victory yielded only a paltry 10 casualties.
For a fleeting moment, Han De felt a chill of fear.
He envisioned a possible absurd outcome: instead of fleeing, about twenty of Wang's followers charged forward and routed two hundred soldiers from Yangshe, with the commander Yelü Ying and his man Han dying in the chaos.
Is it possible? No way—it's impossible.
What's the difference between this and the archers of the patrol office?
Han De was unwilling to believe it, but reason told him that it was not impossible.
******
On that same night, inside Yang's Grain Shop, Shao Shuyi sat facing the three Liu siblings.
"There's still Zhao Yangui left, but I doubt the government will touch him again." Shao Shuyi tapped the table with his index finger and said, "Kolijisi and Zhang Yang aren't stupid. With Zhu Ding, Chen Xianwu, and Wang Zongsan all dead, who benefits the most? It can only be me. Zhao Yangui didn't even get as much benefit as me. The places he's been active in are really a bit out of the loop."
I reckon someone at the prefectural government might want to see me. People like us, though officials avoid us like the plague, are still irresistibly useful. Whether it's making money or doing shady things, we're more handy. If something goes wrong, they'll just abandon us without a second thought.
As he spoke, Shao Shuyi laughed, his expression carrying a hint of mockery.
Liu Ming looked at him admiringly and said, "Shao She, your assessment of government officials is truly accurate. They are exactly like that—falsely noble, falsely moral, falsely loving the people, and falsely loyal. On the surface, they are righteous and stern, but in secret, they are thieves and prostitutes, even more despicable than Zhu Ding and Wang Zongsan."
Shao Shuyi nodded at him and said, "Indeed. But one..."
He thought for a moment, then said, "They're just bad, not stupid. In the current situation, Zhao Yangui has already been granted a reprieve, and the prefectural government probably still wants to use him to keep me in check. Perhaps this will put them at ease."
Liu glanced at him and said, "With your great abilities, who wouldn't want to keep you in check? Especially since you're hiding your true intentions, it's hard to feel at ease. If I were the prefect, I'd probably trust Zhao Yangui, who has bought land and property in Shiqiao, more. He's wealthy and powerful, so he's unlikely to cause trouble, but you might not be so sure."
"Madam is wise," Shao Shuyi said with a smile. "That's the crux of the matter."
"
"Why don't you go with the flow and put their minds at ease?" Liu suggested. "Wouldn't it be better to acquire plenty of land and houses in Jiangyin, get married, and have children?"
Shao Shuyi smiled but didn't say anything.
The real intention was to have him fill Zhu Ding's niche, which was also the way to reassure the officials of Jiangyin Prefecture.
But—am I ready to live a respectable life as a wealthy landowner in Jiangyin?
His background can't withstand scrutiny.