Chapter 1049: Open Killing

By the Zixi River lies Changhua County. There lived a wealthy family, the Xu clan, possessing ten thousand *qing* of land and countless wealth. They were kind to their neighbors and always provided relief to the villagers during famine years; they were truly a virtuous family. However, good times do not last, and a sudden change occurred. On the ninth day of the tenth month, dozens of mountain bandits, cloaked in the night, broke into the residence. Over a hundred people, from the elderly to the young and the servants, all perished...

Once such a heinous incident came to light, Changhua County reacted swiftly, sending a dispatch to the Prefecture Yamen requesting the deployment of elite *Xiangjun* combat troops to suppress the bandits.

Yes, "elite *Xiangjun* combat troops." This term, which was quite excessive when applied to the *Xiangjun*, was spread around like a joke by the wealthy families in attendance after the first official-merchant consultation meeting.

So now, on paper, the synonym for *Xiangjun* became "elite *Xiangjun* combat troops." Of course, the county officials of this prefecture absolutely lacked the guts to mock Wang Yan; the County Magistrate dared not, and the County Prefect dared even less—it was merely fawning over their superior.

Upon receiving the document sent up from the county below and understanding the situation, Wang Yan once again convened a high-level Hangzhou meeting, determining that the current *Xiangjun* were still unfit for battle and in urgent need of military funding.

Thus, more than half a month later, the Prefecture Yamen convened the second official-merchant consultation meeting.

However, because the purpose had already been stated last time, the wealthy families naturally would not give him face, so in the end, only a few dozen people came, and the matter of the "cleaning fee" naturally remained inconclusive.

Wang Yan was not anxious; he very simply dispatched the newly arrived *Xiangjun* commander to suppress the bandits. Unsurprisingly, they returned without success. And during this process, in the far-off Xincheng County, another wealthy family surnamed Sun was wiped out.

With this back and forth, another half month was wasted. Without needing other wealthy families or officials to lodge complaints, Fan Zhongyan and Wang Yan directly submitted a joint memorial, bitterly detailing the scourge of the mountain bandits. The gist was that the bandits did not kill commoners but specifically targeted the wealthy, posing no threat to public order or the people's livelihood, and that once the *Xiangjun* were trained, they would certainly be able to wipe them out.

Just at this time, Wang Yan also dispatched the *Sihu Canjun* (Military Staff Officer) to personally run to the two counties, measuring the fields and counting the population of the two wealthy families, and once again organized an auction, as well as a third official-merchant consultation meeting.

Unsurprisingly, even though the wealthy families had all more or less sensed some connection, they still stubbornly refused to yield. Instead, they began recruiting retainers to protect their family's safety.

As the saying goes, "once and twice, but not three or four times." They might have been thinking this, but unfortunately, Wang Yan was thinking the same.

If the bandits killing two families didn't intimidate the wealthy, then he could no longer act under the guise of bandits; he had to use the power of the government to act directly and kill the ringleaders.

In the official office, Wang Yan flipped through the list in his hand.

This had already been compiled and arranged in order of influence. Furthermore, it was noted on the back what they had said at the first meeting, whether they had attended the second and third meetings, and what they had said to others in private during this recent period.

The wealthy families naturally held gatherings. Wang Yan didn't need to send any spies for this; sending a few clever minor officials out was enough to find out. Because they gathered together to suppress the arrogant and domineering *Zhuangyuan* and Assistant Prefect Wang, who said he would finish off whoever he wanted in Hangzhou. Moreover, they also had to communicate in private to ensure an alliance and firmly resist Wang Yan's attempt to impose additional commercial taxes under the guise of a "cleaning fee."

So during this period, the wealthy families were in close contact, and it was normal for some news to leak out. Wang Yan saw all of this and couldn't be bothered to pay them any mind.

There was also their relatively important background, connections, and, even more importantly, the criminal facts of these people's pasts that had already been suppressed, which the *Sili* (Manager) Zhou had worked himself to death to organize.

That, of course, was not Zhou's doing, but the evil created by previous officials. Earlier, Wang Yan had already offended all the previous officials of Hangzhou, so naturally, he didn't mind dragging them out to torture them a bit now. As for those Zhou participated in, they were naturally treated as unseen; after all, Zhou's reputation among the people now was that of a "Blue Sky" of Hangzhou, a proper pioneer of the rule of law, absolutely impartial and incorruptible.

Looking at the list, Wang Yan pondered for a moment, then placed it on the table and said, "In my view, the top ten families are full of evil, colluding with officials, harming the people, and treating the villagers like fish and meat. They should be arrested and brought to justice immediately."

Manager Zhou's eyes darted around as the list in his mind flashed by. After all, he had contributed significantly to this list, so he basically had an impression of everyone on it, and he was naturally even clearer about those at the top of the rankings.

He hesitated and said, "Assistant Prefect, these people are not easy to deal with. There are members of the imperial clan and high-ranking officials in the imperial court; one or two families would be fine, but ten families together—I fear it will be difficult for you and Master Fan to explain this to Bianjing."

"Then do the job well. Do not leave people any handle to use against us. If there are problems, find them; if there are no problems, find them even more. Solidly and steadily send them all to the border for me. Commander Li, no problem, right?"

"The Assistant Prefect is well-versed in military affairs and has been highly effective in training troops. Now, these one thousand garrison soldiers are just waiting to taste blood to become a real army. This subordinate will certainly not fail your expectations and will suppress any changes of disloyalty from the great families."

This was the newly dispatched garrison commander. This man could not be called a fool, but he did not have much ability either. However, he had one good point: as soon as he arrived in Hangzhou, he made his stance clear that he would definitely do his work well under the instructions of Assistant Prefect Wang. This was very pleasing.

"Do your work well, and this official will certainly not treat you unfairly." Wang Yan nodded with satisfaction, waved his hand at the two of them, and said, "Go, act now."

The words of this new Commander Li were definitely lies; training troops was not a matter of a month or two. Up to now, there had only been an increase in physical fitness and strength, which stemmed from the good food and drink making up for the body's deficiencies. Another achievement was that they had learned formations and the most basic use of weapons.

Having reached this step, they certainly could not defeat a regular army, but it was enough to run rampant within Hangzhou. After all, they knew how to stand in formation and use basic weapons. If a real fight broke out, they just needed to stand in a row and keep stabbing. Because they were fully equipped with armor, it was difficult for the enemy to easily break their defense, while they held long spears that would leave a hole with every thrust.

This was why Wang Yan was not afraid of the great families inciting the common people to revolt; the newly organized troops really had no combat effectiveness, and one thousand garrison soldiers could kill them ten times over. Not to mention they also had bows and arrows and the like; a single round of volley fire could solve the problem.

More importantly, Hangzhou now enjoyed clean and honest governance. Matters closely related to the common people, such as criminal sentencing and litigation, were basically handled without issue in Qiantang County, and they could generally achieve fair treatment. In other counties, even if it was still inevitable that some officials colluded with great families, they did not dare to go too far, and the money was still being spent quite generously. This was because Wang Yan had sent people to inspect various places, and any problems discovered were dealt with immediately.

Officials could be spared from corporal punishment and basically did not have to die, but their outcomes were still not good. As for the minor clerks, they were miserable; Wang Yan would root them out from the local area, the women would be assigned to officials as wives, and the men would all be sent to Western Xia. As for the families of the landlords who committed crimes, their fates naturally went without saying.

It was precisely because of this that since Wang Yan seized power, the local great families had been very honest. If it were not for the fact that Wang Yan wanted to increase commercial taxes this time and fix it as a rule for Hangzhou, they would absolutely not have caused trouble for Wang Yan.

On the other hand, although Wang Yan spent his days studying how to deal with the local great families, he had never stopped working on the affairs of the prefecture. Dredging water systems, repairing roads and building bridges, the Xihu, and the academy—these projects were all underway, employing a large number of common people for construction, and the treatment was still considered acceptable. They certainly could not eat their fill or earn much, but it was definitely better than before.

Furthermore, Wang Yan's industries had already spread across Hangzhou: medical clinics selling medicine, grain and oil shops selling daily necessities, etc., and the prices were all quite good and fair. Moreover, among the population left behind by the several Qiantang great families he had wiped out, he began distributing chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs, and brought people over from Yangzhou to guide them in raising them to avoid various epidemics.

This caused Wang Yan's reputation to begin to rise slowly over the past two months, and how wealthy Wang Manor in Yangzhou was had also begun to spread. It was precisely because the common people had beautiful aspirations and hoped that Assistant Prefect Wang would also lead them to prosperity that Wang Yan's name had once again become famous among the local common people.

With the support of such one-by-one events, even if the great families could incite people to make trouble, they did not have the ability to stir up large-scale civil unrest. In a stable social environment, even he, Wang Mou, was restricted, so how could the great families be an exception? Even the most foolish people knew that living stably was better than losing their lives.

If a real fight broke out, a round of arrow rain would knock down a whole area, and a round of spear thrusts would knock down a whole row; once the hot blood in their heads faded, they would definitely run faster than anyone else.

This was also why Wang Yan had been in office for half a year before he began to swing the butcher's knife at the great families...

Having received Wang Yan's order, Manager Zhou and Commander Li, leading the yamen runners at both the prefecture and county levels, as well as all the garrison soldiers except those guarding the city gates, began a full-scale arrest, fully armed.

All ten great families were in Qiantang, and Wang Yan also intended to clean them out, so Qiantang was once again in an uproar.

However, compared to the previous few incidents, this time the people of Qiantang were not panicked at all, smiling and pointing at the neatly lined-up garrison soldiers running past.

The specific arrest operations were very complex; after all, they were all large families, some in the city and some outside, and they were widely dispersed. Ensuring that not too many people escaped was still very particular.

Of course, this work was not for Wang Yan; he still had capable people under his command. Even if the work was not done well and people escaped, it would not be a problem. Just the two items of measuring land and counting the population were enough to satisfy the capital, and no one could say anything wrong about it. He was raising money for the Great Song court and cracking down on criminals who were undermining the foundation; he was standing on the high ground, which was absolute political correctness.

It was just that Wang Yan did not want to let too many people go; even if the people who escaped would not have an easy life later, it was never as satisfying as definitely sending them to be tattooed and exiled to the border...

Since the task had already been assigned, the rest just required waiting for the results. Wang Yan, having nothing to do, swayed out of the city and found Fan Zhongyan, who was supervising the various construction projects on-site.

Fan Zhongyan was wearing a heavy coat, sitting under a newly built pavilion, talking to several people dressed as merchants, while an old servant was tending to a stove on the side to boil water and tea.

This newly built pavilion was particular because its name was "Yueyang Pavilion," and the characters on the pavilion were written by Wang Yan. It was naturally fitting for Fan Zhongyan's famous essay that would be passed down through the ages. It was mainly because it was not easy to name it after a living person; otherwise, Wang Yan would have named this pavilion "Fan Gong Pavilion."

Fan Zhongyan was naturally very unwilling, but Wang Yan acted decisively and had long since had the craftsmen carve it up. Fan Zhongyan could not make people waste their hard work, so he had no choice but to let it be.

Seeing Wang Yan come over, several merchants bowed to him repeatedly, chatted a little, and then tactfully walked away.

"The weather is cold, Master Fan should not stay outside for too long; it is detrimental to your health."

"Thick clothes, a stove, hot tea—how can the cold hinder me? It is these common people who are still not at leisure, and some are even working underwater, sigh..."

Those who could leave their names in history were relatively ruthless people, and they basically ignored such small sacrifices of the common people. That Fan Zhongyan was like this was probably because he was old and inevitably began to feel sentimental about the passing of time.

Wang Yan smiled and said, "Master Fan worries about the common people, but for the common people, having work to do, food to eat, and money to earn, I fear they would not be willing to leave. Moreover, they take turns going underwater, and the wages are also higher."

"How could this old man not know?" Fan Zhongyan glanced at Wang Yan, then sighed, "Thanks to your various actions as Assistant Prefect Wang, otherwise Hangzhou would likely be filled with refugees and starving people everywhere by now."

"This is all Master Fan's capability; this student only has a little credit, so how is it worth mentioning? There is a famine in the two Zhejiang circuits this year, and our Hangzhou is even worse. If it were not for Master Fan purchasing grain at high prices, causing grain merchants from all over to transport grain here, and grain prices to plummet, where would our Hangzhou have such a lively scene? I fear they would have long since been starved to skin and bones and unable to move a stone slab."

"You, you are just too humble." Fan Zhongyan shook his head and smiled, "It was you, Assistant Prefect Wang, who first used the Ever-Normal Granary as a raft, and then strictly investigated the situation in the counties within the prefecture, raiding many great families, which both filled the granaries and obtained a lot of money, only then supporting the initial situation. If it were not for this, I do not know how many common people would have died."

Just as mentioned in their conversation, it was currently the time of the great famine in the two Zhejiang circuits. Because of Wang Yan's series of tossing and turning earlier, he obtained money and grain, and because of the start of projects such as the academy, Xihu, water systems, and land routes, he provided work-relief to the disaster-stricken common people, both launching various major projects and solving the food problem for the common people.

Coupled with Fan Zhongyan's operations, this resulted in Hangzhou now having abundant grain. Wang Yan was even generous enough to use prices higher than previous years' grain prices to buy a lot of grain to fill the already empty Ever-Normal Granary. This was Fan Zhongyan's famous economic operation, and Wang Yan could be considered a participant.

Therefore, these various factors combined to cause Hangzhou to basically have no impact today. If it were not for the fact that refugees still came over from time to time, one would not even notice that they were experiencing a severe famine.

Watching Wang Yan smiling and drinking tea, Fan Zhongyan asked, "I saw a team of garrison soldiers drive out of the city earlier; did you take action?"

Wang Yan smiled and nodded, "Master Fan is brilliant; I selected the ten leading great families, and soon there will be another large sum of grain and money coming in."

"There are many refugees in the prefecture right now, so you must be extra careful. You must pay even more attention to your own safety. A dog will jump over a wall when desperate, let alone a human?"

"Master Fan is right, this student will be careful."

This famine was not something the great families could use; anyone who was a newcomer was taken to be bathed and assigned to work at various construction sites. Still the same saying, in the current environment, the great families could not stir up too much trouble; they could be leveled with one hand and wiped out in a day.

It would only work if all the great families in the world moved together; in fact, that was exactly what they were doing, it was just that it would take a longer time...

Wang Yan and Fan Zhongyan drank tea and chatted under the Yueyang Pavilion, from prefecture affairs to national affairs, to diplomatic relations, and then to scholarship. It was mainly Fan Zhongyan asking him about his long-term pragmatism, doing extraordinary things, whether he had gained anything, whether he wanted to write another "Wang Yan Says" to continue perfecting his theories, and so on. Anyway, if they really wanted to chat, they would never finish.

Just when Wang Yan and Fan Zhongyan were chatting, drinking tea, and killing time, the disaster for the great families that Wang Yan had unfortunately pointed out began.

Some were indulging in debauchery in brothels in broad daylight, some were reveling in restaurants, some were meeting friends in teahouses, some were wandering outside, some were participating in scholar gatherings, and some were enjoying blessings at home.

They would not think that someone wanted to seize their land and take their lives. Because they were really awesome; they were either managers of members of the imperial clan outside, or family members of high-ranking officials in the imperial court, or someone's relatives; in short, relying on various marriages, spending money, and making friends, their network of relationships almost covered the entire Great Song.

They really could not imagine that when they had clearly united to resist, when they had already found retainers and guards, and when they had implicitly conveyed the meaning to Wang Yan that "we know you have a relationship with the mountain bandits," and when their relationships were all very strong, Wang Yan actually had the guts to directly send garrison soldiers and yamen runners to take action against them.

When they were knocked down, besides the pain, the first thing they thought of was not their miserable future fate, but rather focusing on Wang Yan's mental state, thinking about whether Wang Yan had become famous at a young age and had never suffered a setback, to the point that he had actually gone crazy and started acting recklessly...

Wang Yan was very grateful for their concern and happily accepted their thousands of words of kind greetings...

This arrest operation lasted for a full ten days, and the final statistics showed that over 1,200 males over the age of twelve were brought to justice. This number included the direct descendants of the great families as well as the collateral branches that shared the same spirit, as well as the resisting retainers, servants, and various shopkeepers, etc.

As for the female family members and boys under the age of twelve, there were even more.

And during these ten days, what happened in Qiantang spread rapidly to the entire prefecture through various channels, and even reached the capital. This was all the credit of the other great families in Qiantang who were not arrested but were trembling with fear.

Wang Yan was arresting people like a madman, and they were spreading news like madmen, connecting with great families, and requesting rescue; for these ten days, no one in the great families of Qiantang could sleep well. Now, ten days later, no one in the great families of all of Hangzhou could sleep well; they were terrified.

And fear inevitably makes people develop some thoughts of seeking death.

This was the fifteenth day of launching the great arrests, and Hangzhou once again welcomed Zhao Zhen and the reprimand from the Secretariat.

Wang Yan, after dealing with the arriving officials and eunuchs, let people take them to see the unpardonable sins of these ten families that had been initially calculated, and returned home to eat lunch, and when he went out of the city as usual to check the progress of the project, the expected change occurred.

Those were more than twenty strong men dressed as caravan guards; they pretended to be transporting supplies into the city, and when they arrived not far from Wang Yan, they took out hand knives from the broken cart. They only said one sentence, "Dog official, pay with your life," and then headed straight for Wang Yan to kill him.

"Master, be careful." Saying this, Xiao Dongliang, who was following Wang Yan, greeted them.

At the same time, the garrison soldiers standing guard at the city gate also discovered the situation immediately and rushed toward this side anxiously...

Wang Yan did not even move, just stood there quietly with his hands behind his back, the corners of his mouth raised in an even greater arc...