Chapter 97: 095

Huang Zundao's silver wasn't hidden with any great secrecy — just a cellar dug in the rear courtyard.

Inside the cellar was a large wooden chest, its body wrapped in brass sheeting.

Clearly meant to prevent theft, several large iron spikes had been driven through the chest's bottom, hammered deep into the stone slabs of the floor, fixing the entire chest in place.

Moreover, the lid was secured with six locks...

"Tieniu, smash it open!" Zhao Han ordered.

Zhang Tieniu didn't dare use the axe blade, so he battered it with the back of the axe. His arm went numb from the effort before he finally wrecked four of the locks, which only heightened Zhao Han's anticipation for the treasure inside.

Bang!

The last lock smashed off, Zhang Tieniu threw open the lid.

Zhao Han's expression was a sight to behold. He froze for a few seconds, then suddenly cursed: "That son of a bitch, hardly any silver stashed away, but the chest sure was intimidating."

They hauled over the big scale and weighed it — just over 2,700 taels.

Of that, 1,000 taels was the bait Zhao Han himself had tossed out!

No wonder Huang Zundao had been so frantic, ignoring even the spring plowing to press his tenant farmers into work. The silver Zhao Han had casually thrown out already amounted to more than half of the Huang family's savings from several generations.

You truly couldn't expect too much from a country landlord in a remote backwater.

Although Huang Zundao ran an inn in town and had opened a few shops, the flow of customers was meager, and he couldn't earn much in a year.

And how much grease could you squeeze from exploiting peasant tenant farmers?

What's more, Huang Zundao had a son who had already moved to the county seat. Unable to pay his whoring debts, he'd sent his wife back home to get money to ransom him. Yet another expense!

Master Huang's real assets were his land and his ancestral home!

This Huang family ancestral home alone could not have been built without a thousand taels of silver.

Ah well, better than nothing. The Great Unity Society's cash flow had at least grown to over 3,000 taels.

The following days were spent registering the population and surveying all the land in the town.

Whether establishing rules or killing people to instill authority, the land had to be distributed first.

Only once the land was allocated could Zhao Han truly establish his authority!

While the land survey was underway, news of the peasant uprising in Huang Family Town spread rapidly downstream along the Heshui River — upstream lay the great mountains.

Downstream, Maotian Village and Yinkeng Village were still just villages, not even having formed into towns.

In the Ming dynasty, towns and villages were not administrative units; there were no town chiefs or village heads, and no hierarchical relationship existed between the two.

The lijia officers of both villages were terrified. While guarding against peasant uprisings, they also sent men to the county to report to the authorities.

Would reporting to the authorities do any good?

The nearest guard station was in Yongxin County — the Yongxin Defense Chiliarch Station — and they had no jurisdiction over matters in Luling County.

The seat of Luling County was attached to the prefectural city of Ji'an.

"Your Honor, the rioters of Huang Family Town have been incited by a Jishui xiucai named Zhao Yan. We beseech Your Honor to deliver justice for the people, issue a wanted notice for the xiucai Zhao Yan, and dispatch troops to suppress those lawless troublemakers!"

Standing below the hall were two men: one was Huang Yu, an elder of the Luling Huang lineage; the other was Huang Shunli, Huang Zundao's youngest son.

The Huang clan of Huang Family Town was merely a branch of the Luling Huang lineage!

County Magistrate Sun Yanghuai stroked his beard and said, "This county has taken note. I shall report this to His Excellency the Prefect forthwith. You two may return home and wait patiently."

What power could a county magistrate attached to a prefectural city possibly wield?

Did you think everyone was Wang Yangming?

When Wang Yangming left Longchang Relay Station, his first posting was as County Magistrate of Luling. In a mere seven-month term, he had every faction in the county, great and small, brought to heel.

As the same County Magistrate of Luling, Sun Yanghuai had been in office two years and could only manage the single street where the county yamen stood.

He already had enough superiors to deal with, and now suddenly a eunuch had been parachuted in...

The next day, Ji'an Prefect Xu Fusheng received the report from the Luling County Magistrate.

Xu Fusheng was a clan cousin of Xu Xiake, and Xu Fusheng's son-in-law, Wu Jimei, was Xu Xiake's own nephew.

But this fellow was muddle-headed and did no work. When Xu Xiake later traveled to Ji'an, he preferred lodging with strangers rather than troubling this relative. He even complained in The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake, saying Xu Fusheng was utterly irresponsible — supposed to personally preside over the year-end examinations for government students, yet on the day of the exam he suddenly stood them up, greatly disappointing all the xiucai of Ji'an Prefecture.

"Just one small town?"

At this moment, Xu Fusheng received the news of civil unrest, chuckled, and tossed it aside.

In Prefect Xu's view, trouble in one small town — did that even qualify as civil unrest?

The prefect had no troops at his disposal. He had to wait until things blew up before he had grounds to recruit local militia and pry money from the gentry's pockets.

Ji'an also had a Chiliarch Station, but it was useless — guard-station troops were even less reliable than local militia.

The matter of Zhao Han seizing Huang Family Town lingered in Xu Fusheng's mind for only a few seconds. The prefect strolled leisurely out the main gate of the prefectural yamen, boarded his sedan chair, and went off to listen to opera and watch a play.

If you wanted the prefect to raise troops and suppress you, you'd have to first occupy the entire Xuanhua District!

The Ji'an Prefect was in no hurry, but the Ji'an Tax Eunuch was frantic.

News that the Jinggang Tax Eunuch had been killed and the customs station plundered had long since reached Ji'an Prefecture.

The Ji'an Tax Eunuch was furious, but helpless. All he could do was send men to Nanchang to report to the Jiangxi Garrison Eunuch.

The Jiangxi Garrison Eunuch was also powerless...

The Chongzhen Emperor, while empowering eunuchs, had simultaneously stripped them of many privileges.

Without the Governor's backing, the Jiangxi Garrison Eunuch had no authority to mobilize troops. Even with the Governor's support, he would still have to negotiate with the three Jiangxi provincial offices — by the time the process was complete, it would probably be next year.

Jiangxi Governor Xie Xuelong was busy rebuilding the Pavilion of Prince Teng and paid no attention to anything else — especially eunuch affairs!

Left with no choice, they could only dispatch a new eunuch to Jinggang Town to collect taxes.

At the same time, they issued a wanted order for Jinggang Patrolman Fei Yinggong and sent word to Yanshan Tax Eunuch Wang Heng to join forces with the Yanshan County Magistrate in searching the Fei residence for the wanted criminal.

The Yanshan authorities had not yet received the news, but the Fei family already knew the full details.

Fei Yuanzhen urgently convened a council of the clan elders, struck Fei Yinggong from the family rolls, then gathered the household slaves and prepared to resist the authorities.

If you truly provoke the Fei clan, this year the County Magistrate can forget about collecting any taxes!

……

Let us turn now to Fei Ruhe, who, with Fei Chun, traveled a thousand li to reach Jinggang Town.

He stopped a peasant and asked, "Cousin, which way is the Jinggang Patrol Office?"

The peasant pointed casually. "Over there. No one's living there anymore."

"No one's living there?"

Fei Ruhe said, bewildered, "Is Patrolman Fei not there?"

Probably because eunuchs are so hated, the peasant said with schadenfreude, "Patrolman Fei pulled off something big — he took the silver and ran off long ago."

"Ran off?" Fei Ruhe stared, dumbfounded.

The peasant said, "Patrolman Fei killed a eunuch, robbed the customs post silver, and ran off to who knows where."

Master and servant looked at each other, speechless.

As they walked on, Fei Chun said, "Young master, let's stay the night in town and head back to Yanshan tomorrow."

Fei Ruhe shook his head repeatedly. "I finally got away from home to do something great — how can I go back just because I can't find Fourth Uncle?"

"Then where should we go? And what should we do?" Fei Chun asked.

"Let me think a bit more." Fei Ruhe scratched his head in frustration.

Stranded far from home, not knowing a single soul — what the hell could he do?

After finding an inn in Jinggang Town and settling in, Fei Ruhe racked his brains and suddenly had an idea. "We'll follow the heroes in Water Margin: champion the weak against the strong, rob the rich to feed the poor, and draw our swords whenever we see injustice!"

Fei Chun dared not object, only muttering, "Young master, that's just being a bandit."

Fei Ruhe was thoroughly agitated and said gloomily, "Ah, forget it. Let's fill our bellies first."

The two of them went to the inn's main hall, ordered food and wine, and slumped over the table in a daze.

"Have you heard? The peasants in Huangjia Town have risen up!"

"Really? Then how's anyone supposed to do business?"

"Doesn't get in the way of business. The rebels only kill landlords — they don't touch traveling merchants at all."

"You can't be sure of that."

"Hey, I know all about this. I was in Huangjia Town just two days ago, and I even shared a table and a meal with Scholar Zhao, the one leading the uprising."

"Brother, come sit over here — today's wine is on me."

"Then I shall accept your kind offer with thanks."

"Go on, tell us exactly what happened."

"That Scholar Zhao is a xiucai from Jishui. His surname is Zhao, his given name is Yan, and his courtesy name is Ziyue."

"Zhao Ziyue? That's an interesting name — you can tell at once he comes from a scholarly family. So how did he end up leading a peasant uprising?"

"Ah, it was all forced on him by Squire Huang of the town. This Scholar Zhao put up a thousand taels of silver…"

Zhao Ziyue?

Fei Ruhe and Fei Chun exchanged a glance — both delighted and horrified.

Fei Chun murmured to himself, "Brother Han really did rebel after all."

"You knew he was planning to rebel?" Fei Ruhe asked.

Fei Chun nodded and said, "It's not just Brother Han — Teacher Pang is going to rebel too. The two of them have been plotting it in secret since last year."

Bang!

Fei Ruhe slammed the table so loudly that every diner in the room turned to stare at him.

"Ahem!"

Fei Ruhe coughed twice and said hastily, "That Squire Huang has gone too far in bullying people."

The diners immediately chimed in. "Exactly — too far! To swindle Scholar Zhao out of a thousand taels of silver!"

Once their attention shifted away, Fei Ruhe muttered his complaint under his breath. "Teacher and Zhao Han, doing something this huge in secret, and they never even told me!"

Fei Chun asked, "Would the young master dare to rebel?"

"Wha… what's there to be afraid of?" Fei Ruhe's voice faltered — he really was a little scared.

Fei Chun urged, "Young master, let's just go home."

"I'm not going back!"

Fei Ruhe said through gritted teeth, "We'll change our names, follow him into rebellion, and give it a try — throw ourselves into it and have a real go!"

Fei Chun's face was full of bitterness. "Young master, why go to such lengths? It's not as if you're short of silver to spend."

Fei Ruhe said, torn, "I just want to do something great. Honestly taking the military exams and becoming an official — that won't let you accomplish anything great. Even if you get to lead troops into battle, you still have to watch the civil officials' faces and grovel like a grandson to the eunuchs. Fourth Uncle said that, and he'd never lie to me."

Fei Chun had no strength left to argue and could only shut his mouth.

Suddenly, someone outside the inn shouted, "The eunuch is back!"

Everyone rushed out of the inn and saw a notice posted at the door, the gist of which was: The tax eunuch is reestablishing the Jinggang customs post and is now recruiting a number of tax clerks and tax guards; those interested should report to the Patrol Office yamen tomorrow.

Fei Ruhe's eyes lit up at once.

He dragged Fei Chun off to gather information. The eunuch had brought only four men with him to take up his post — one was guarding the boat by the river, and the other three had moved into the Patrol Office with the eunuch.

These tax eunuchs have no authorized subordinates and can only recruit their own men on the spot. Even the four attendants he brought were just thugs he'd hired in Luling County.

Fei Ruhe went to the riverbank and paid double the price to buy a small boat from a fisherman.

He said to Fei Chun, "You stay on the boat. Tonight, keep a lantern lit, and the moment I arrive, cast off!"

"What is the young master going to do?" Fei Chun asked.

Fei Ruhe said with a smile, "Follow Fourth Uncle's example — kill a eunuch, and do something great!"

Fei Chun cried out in shock, "Have you gone mad!"

"How can a swallow or sparrow know the ambition of a swan?" Fei Ruhe sneered.

In truth, Fei Ruhe himself did not know what his ambition was; he only hoped to do something grand and earth-shaking.

Leaving Fei Chun to guard the fishing boat, Fei Ruhe took up his blade and bow and headed for the Patrol Office yamen.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Fei Ruhe pounded frantically on the gate.

A eunuch's attendant opened the gate and said impatiently, "His Lordship the Tax Eunuch only arrived today and is exhausted from the journey. If you want to join up, come back tomorrow."

"I'll join up today!" Fei Ruhe kicked the man flat with one foot.

The other attendants swarmed around, but Fei Ruhe did not even draw his blade, merely using the scabbard to beat them all down.

The eunuch, drawn by the noise, arrived just in time to witness this scene and exclaimed in admiration, "A true warrior!"

Fei Ruhe clasped his fists and said, "Zhang Yaonian of Jiujiang, paying respects to His Lordship the Tax Eunuch. I've killed a man in Jiujiang and have a murder charge on me. Does His Lordship dare take me in?"

The eunuch was overjoyed. "Why wouldn't I dare? Ten or even eight killings would be no problem. From now on, stay by my side and serve well!"

The eunuch felt he had recruited a fierce general and need no longer fear being butchered like his predecessor. He immediately sent an attendant to buy wine and food to entertain the newcomer.

"Buying" wine and food, of course, meant taking it without paying.

Fei Ruhe ate and drank his fill, growing all the more tearfully grateful, and volunteered to stand night watch for the eunuch.

That very night, Fei Ruhe crept into the room and hacked the eunuch dead with one stroke.

Carrying the head, the fellow raced straight to the riverbank, leaped onto the fishing boat, and said, "Cast off, quick! Huang Family Town lies upriver!"

The newly appointed eunuch was purely unlucky, running into a reckless fool like Fei Ruhe. Not a tael of silver was taken — all for some damned "great undertaking" — and his head was taken in a muddled daze.

The eunuch was hacked to death in his sleep; when he awoke, it was surely already in the underworld, and even when he saw King Yan, he would not know how to explain the cause of his death.

(End of chapter)