Chapter 798: Fifteen Coffins Rush to Visit the Sick, the Living Buried to Shatter the Thieves' Courage

When Gao Jiong set out with his men, the sky was just dimly bright.

Fifteen black lacquer coffins were loaded onto five cattle carts, and they rolled eastward out of Tongwan City along the main street; the wheels grinding the Qingshi road surface produced a muffled thud that frightened the early‑rising water‑carriers, who pressed themselves against the walls.

The black lacquer on the coffin lids glimmered with a dim sheen in the morning light, and the sides of the coffins bore a huge "Dian" character in cinnabar, its strokes bold and striking.

Gao Jiong rode his horse, followed by two hundred fully armed Mingjing Embroidered Attire Envoys; the procession was so grand it resembled a state funeral.

Two Physicians who had been summoned at short notice sat on the cattle carts, their faces paler than the coffin boards, clutching their medicine boxes tightly, their knuckles yellowed with fear.

First stop: the residence of County Guard Zhao Xun of Anping County.

When Gao Jiong dismounted, the Damen of Zhao Xun's house was still shut tight.

Two Embroidered Attire Envoys stepped forward, each gripping a door ring on either side; the clash of iron rings against Copper Nails rang sharply in the early‑morning alley.

A crack opened in the door from inside, and a middle‑aged man who looked like a steward stuck out half his head; seeing the line of black‑armored Ti Cavalry on horseback and the coffin carts at the alley mouth, the color drained from his face instantly.

"Y‑you…"

Gao Jiong lifted his Horse Whip and stepped forward, tapping the doorframe twice with the whip head.

"County Guard Zhao Xun submitted a memorial yesterday claiming ill health; my Pillar of the State felt compassion for his Shuyi and sent someone to visit and inquire about his condition,"

He tilted his head and raised his chin toward the cattle cart behind him.

"The Physician is also here, the medicine is prepared; if it can't be cured…"

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, and his Dark Hawk face showed a chilling smile in the morning light.

"The coffins are also brought, so Zhao Xun's family won't have to arrange anything else."

The steward's knees gave way instantly, and with a thud he knelt on the threshold.

"Sir, my master truly caught a sudden chill, it's not…"

Gao Jiong pushed the door open, strode across the threshold, and his boots clattered on the pebble‑strewn path in the courtyard.

"Show the way."

Zhao Xun's bedroom is in the east wing of the rear courtyard.

When Gao Jiong pushed the door open, Zhao Xun was curled under a blanket on the bed, his face coated with a thick layer of rice powder, his lips smeared with an unknown pale concoction, making him look truly mortally ill from a distance.

Gao Jiong walked to the bedside, bent over, and pressed his nose against Zhao Xun's face, sniffing hard twice.

"County Guard Zhao Xun, what powder have you smeared on your face? It smells like rice soup."

Zhao Xun's eyelids twitched, his lips quivered.

"Gao, Gao Changshi, I truly am ill; since last night I've been dizzy, my whole body weak…"

Gao Jiong straightened up and waved to the Physician behind him.

The Physician shuffled forward, placing three fingers on Zhao Xun's wrist.

The entire bedroom fell silent for ten breaths.

The Physician turned his head, his voice tightening.

"Lord Gao, this person's pulse is steady and strong; there is no illness."

Gao Jiong smiled.

He smiled lightly, but Zhao Xun's hair stood on end in unison at the sound.

Gao Jiong turned and raised his hand toward the Embroidered Attire Envoys outside.

"Bring the coffins inside."

Zhao Xun sprang from the bed, the blanket flying to the floor; the rice powder on his face melted into a gray‑white paste from the cold sweat, making him look utterly disheveled.

"Gao Changshi, Gao Changshi! I am no longer ill, I am fine!"

He leapt from the bed barefoot, his feet striking the cold brick floor, his knee cracking with a crisp sound.

"I will return to the county office at once, I'm going now, immediately!"

Gao Jiong crossed his arms and looked down at him.

"The Pillar of the State said that those gravely ill and hard to cure shall be granted a swift death to spare them suffering."

He enunciated the sentence extremely slowly, each word sounding as if he had chiseled it from an ice cellar.

"County Guard Zhao Xun, are you truly ill or recovered?"

Zhao Xun's teeth clattered in his mouth, the fake pallid powder on his lips smeared by sweat into a ridiculous, mottled mess.

"Fine, fine, completely fine; I am stronger than a herd of cattle!"

Gao Jiong nodded.

"Then hurry up; a day's delay in spring plowing will earn you an extra tally from the Pillar of the State."

Zhao Xun scrambled, rolling and crawling into the next room to change into his official uniform; in less than half a cup of tea's time he was on horseback, dashing toward the county office faster than he ever had in his life.

"Second stop, third stop, fourth stop."

Gao Jiong led his coffin carts and the Physician, visiting the residences of the fifteen officials who reported illness one by one, using the same method each time.

He placed a coffin at the doorway, the Physician took the pulse, and the Oral Order "grant a swift death" was spoken; even the toughest bone would instantly turn to mush.

By the seventh household, the news had already spread throughout the entire East District.

The official of the eighth household had already ridden back to the office before Gao Jiong arrived, his official hat askew, and he tripped over the threshold, chipping off half a front tooth.

"Ninth house, tenth house, eleventh house."

After a single breath of "curing" eleven critical patients, Gao Jiong still had four coffins left on his cattle cart.

Twelfth stop: the residence of County Magistrate Liu Jin of Yongfeng County.

This mansion was larger than the previous eleven combined; the Zhuqi Daimen was studded with four rows of Copper Nails, and a plaque reading "House of Accumulated Kindness" hung on the lintel.

Gao Jiong tightened his reins and glanced up at the plaque.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

The Damen remained shut, and from within came several heavy footfalls and metallic clangs; through the crack one could vaguely see someone moving back and forth.

Gao Jiong dismounted, walked to the door, raised his hand and gave two slaps.

No one opened the door.

Gao Jiong turned his head and glanced at the embroidered‑uniform emissary behind him.

Bang.

Two iron‑wrapped rods struck the wood and were lifted up.

Boom! The door latch emitted a painful moan from the inside, but it did not break.

Boom! On the second strike, the door panel collapsed inward by half, revealing the courtyard scene.

Liu Jin stood on the steps of the main hall, dressed in a tidy official uniform, a Standard Issue Single Sword at his waist, with a dozen or so household retainers wielding sticks behind him, shielding him in the center.

His complexion shifted between pallor and a bluish hue, the flesh on his jaw trembled slightly from tension, yet his lips were pressed into a thin line, stubbornly refusing to kneel.

Gao Jiong stepped over the broken door panel, treading on splintered wood and copper nails as he entered the courtyard.

"Liu County Magistrate's spirit and vigor look fine; he doesn't seem ill."

Liu Jin forced a coarse breath out of his nostrils.

"Gao Jiong, don't abuse your power."

His voice trembled, yet he forced it to a still relatively loud pitch.

"I am a seventh‑rank county magistrate officially appointed by the Great Zhou Court, with achievements and protected by law. You, Chen Yan, may dismiss me, but you must follow the formal impeachment procedure, report to the Court, have the Imperial Censorate and Ministry of Personnel review jointly. It is not that you, a local pillar‑state, can order a death on a whim!"

Gao Jiong halted his steps.

He tilted his head, stared at Liu Jin for two breaths, and in those Dark Hawk eyes swirled something that made one's rationality feel uneasy.

Then he smiled.

"Liu County Magistrate is right; the pillar‑state also speaks reason."

He reached into his chest, took out a roll of Bamboo Silk Scroll, unfolded it between his fingers, and held it before Liu Jin.

"This is your account book for the past three years; the people of the Mirror Office have tallied it carefully for you."

His finger tapped a line of characters on the scroll.

"Yongfeng County Treasury: a deficit of four thousand three hundred taels of silver over three years."

Liu Jin's complexion changed.

Gao Jiong's finger moved down one line.

"Your land holdings, from 120 mu before you took office, swelled to 700 mu over three years, an excess of 580 mu; 200 mu were forcibly bought from Liuren at a price ten times below market, and another 380 mu were not even purchased, the names simply altered on the Land Deed."

Liu Jin's lips began to tremble uncontrollably.

Gao Jiong folded the scroll and slipped it back into his chest.

"Liu County Magistrate, you just said you would follow the formal process, the impeachment, the Imperial Censorate and the Ministry of Personnel."

He took a step forward, his voice dropping half a tone.

"Then what do you think the Imperial Censorate will decide about you after these are sent to the Court?"

Liu Jin's face shifted from white to gray, sweat beads on his forehead streaming along his temples into his collar.

The retainers behind him, wielding sticks, began to retreat, and two younger ones even quietly dropped their sticks to the ground.

Gao Jiong turned, lifted his chin toward the herd of cattle cart outside the courtyard gate.

"Coffin, bring it in."

The black‑lacquered coffin was carried in by two embroidered‑uniform emissaries, heftily placed on the Shiban floor before the main hall, the coffin's impact on the stone emitting a muffled, thunderous clang.

Gao Jiong walked to the coffin, tapped the lid twice with his knuckles.

"The pillar‑state has decreed that those gravely ill and unlikely to recover shall be granted a swift death."

He lifted his head, looking at the Liu Jin on the steps who was already trembling all over.

"Liu County Magistrate, would you like to try the size of this coffin?"

Liu Jin's lips opened twice, forcing out a sentence as if he were pushing the last breath from the bottom of his throat.

"I am not reporting an illness; I am protesting the New Law. The Da Zhou Law does not forbid officials from submitting memorials, Chen Yan…"

Gao Jiong's patience ran out.

He raised his right hand, pinching his index and middle fingers together, and made an extremely brief gesture toward the two masked interrogators behind him, whose masks revealed only a pair of eyes.

The two understood, stepped forward, and each grasped one of Liu Jin's arms from left and right.

Liu Jin began to struggle, but his half‑a‑lifetime of pampered ease, in the hands of two seasoned executioners, was no different from a fish out of water.

The coffin lid was lifted.

Liu Jin's legs were shoved into the coffin.

His horrendous scream erupted in the courtyard, sharp as a wild cat whose tail had been stepped on, his throat practically ripped.

"I confess, I confess! Gao Changshi, I confess!"

Gao Jiong crouched beside the coffin, looking down from above at Liu Jin, whose body was half‑sunk into it.

"Confess what crime."

Liu Jin's face was smeared with tears and snot, his words spilling out like beans being poured.

"I embezzled treasury silver, seized land, forced Liuren to sell their land at a bargain; all these are my deeds, all my crimes. I beg Gao Changshi for mercy, I beg the pillar‑state for clemency!"

Gao Jiong stood, brushed the coffin paint dust from his hand.

"Nail it."

Two stout iron nails were taken from a tool bag by the embroidered‑uniform emissaries, their points aimed at the rivet holes of the coffin lid.

Liu Jin's wail turned into a howl stripped of any dignity.

"No, don't nail me, I'll say everything, I'll explain everything…"

Gao Jiong bent down, pressed his face to the gap of the coffin.

What the Pillar of the State wants is not your explanation.

His voice sounded as if it seeped up from underground.

What the Pillar of the State wants is your life.

The iron hammer rose.

The nail hammered into the board, emitting a muffled thud that made every Human Head scalp in the courtyard tingle.

The second nail followed, driving in.

The moment the coffin lid closed, Liu Jin let out the most mournful howl of his life from inside, and the coffin boards rang with his pounding from within.

Gao Jiong straightened his back and handed the iron hammer in his hand to the messenger beside him.

"Carry it out, in front of all the city's citizens, and bury it."

The coffin was jointly carried out of the courtyard gate by four embroidered‑cloth messengers, and was hoisted along Yongfeng County's main street all the way to the central square of the city.

The onlookers grew increasingly numerous; some covered their mouths, some clenched their fists, and many simply watched in silence, their eyes so complex that no simple emotion could be read.

The coffin was placed into a large temporary pit that had been dug.

The soil was shovelful by shovelful piled over it.

The pounding inside the coffin shifted from fierce to feeble, from feeble to intermittent, and finally fell into silence.

Gao Jiong stood at the pit's edge, holding in his hand the confession bamboo silk scroll stained with cinnabar and Liu Jin's blood handprint, and loudly read aloud Liu Jin's entire crimes to the gathered crowd.

The news spread across all of Xiazhou within a day.

The remaining three hesitant sick‑reporting officials all recovered their health before that evening, rode their fast horses back to their respective offices, wore their official hats neatly, kept their backs straight, and had all the piled official documents on the An Tou reviewed before nightfall.

In Xiazhou officialdom, no one dared utter the word "illness" again.

On the third day after Liu Jin's coffin was buried, Chen Yan's Shufang received a new document.

The statistical entries of vacant grassroots positions that Zhang Wenqian submitted were listed densely; in fifteen counties, more than thirty officials had been dismissed, had their homes confiscated, or were executed, ranging from county magistrates to clerks, from grain supervisors to storehouse heads, leaving almost every key post without a backbone.

Spring plowing had reached its most critical stage, and governmental affairs could not pause for even a day.

Chen Yan flipped that statistical entry to the last page, and tapped his finger twice on the blank space.

"These positions, Old Zhang, how do you plan to fill them?"

Zhang Wenqian stood before the desk, his hands clasped in front of him.

"Shuyi has organized the existing list of reserve officials within Xiazhou Prefecture, and if the Prefecture's personnel are reallocated downward, we could barely fill seventy percent of the vacancies."

Chen Yan folded the entry and slapped the desk surface.

"If we fill from the Prefecture downwards, who will replenish the Prefecture's staff?"

Zhang Wenqian fell silent for a breath.

"Left short, right lacking, Shuyi also thinks this is a deadlock."

Chen Yan leaned back into the chair, and his finger slowly traced an arc on the armrest.

"Among the two hundred thousand Liuren, are there any who can read?"

Zhang Wenqian's brow twitched.

"What does the Pillar of the State mean?"