Chapter 65: The Visitor

"Tasty?"

Sun Tianxiu held a shayong in both hands, her lips pressed together in a sweet smile as she nodded vigorously.

The two of them sat under the eaves behind the Fast Squad room, facing the horse stable — there was a whiff of horse dung, but it was quieter than the corridor side. Sun Tianxiu came from a farming family and naturally didn't mind such conditions, while Pang Yu simply didn't care.

Pang Yu picked up a shayong too and took a bite. He always kept some of these in the duty room — perfect for a snack. Normally he didn't find them particularly good, but right now he was eating with real relish.

"Did that tax register clerk give you any trouble afterward?"

"No." Sun Tianxiu kept her head down. "He's a kind man, actually. A few days ago he even let us keep more of the harvest — that's how we got this new rice."

Pang Yu nodded. The clerk must have heard that Pang Yu had become the Fast Squad Head. The clerk spent a lot of time at the yamen and could never be sure when he might fall into the Fast Squad's hands; he dealt with the Household Office even more often. That was why he'd gone out of his way to curry favor with Pang Yu. Otherwise, given his greed, he would never have yielded a single benefit to a young girl.

"And your father's illness — how is it?"

Sun Tianxiu gave a soft hum. "He's doing well."

Pang Yu tilted his head and studied Sun Tianxiu carefully. Her eyes were red. After a long pause, she finally said, "He can't get out of bed anymore."

"Do you have enough silver for his medicine?"

"Enough." Sun Tianxiu lifted the shayong and took the tiniest nibble with her lips — the shayong barely diminished. She was just savoring the sweetness.

Seeing how reluctant she was to eat it, Pang Yu quickly smiled and said, "Go on, eat up. Uncle has plenty here. I'll send you home with a big bag later."

Only then did Sun Tianxiu take a small bite, cradling the shayong as if it were a priceless delicacy.

Pang Yu patted her little head and smiled. "Can you manage all the work in the fields?"

"I'm strong. If I work slowly, I just spend more time at it. I built all the grass shelters at home myself — they'll last through the winter. My little brother can gather firewood and cook now, and my uncle helps out. As long as we have food, the family is still here."

Pang Yu watched the happy look in Sun Tianxiu's eyes and smiled. "The most important thing for a family is to be together, whole and sound."

Sun Tianxiu, of course, had no idea this was a reference to anything — she just smiled blankly.

Pang Yu's gaze flicked to Sun Tianxiu's feet — still bare. He couldn't help asking, "What about the futou shoes I bought you last time? Why aren't you wearing them?"

At the mention of the futou shoes, the corners of Sun Tianxiu's mouth curled up slightly, a trace of a smile emerging. "I'm working every day — no time to wear them."

"What do you need free time for just to put on shoes? As long as you're not sleeping, you can wear shoes — working or not makes no difference. If they wear out, I'll just buy you another pair. Remember that?"

"I'll remember."

Sun Tianxiu looked up at the sky, then lowered her head again. "I should go back now. Next time I harvest a batch of vegetables, I'll bring some for you, Uncle."

Pang Yu picked up the large bag of shayong beside him and placed it in Sun Tianxiu's back-basket. "For your little brother."

With that, he reached into his robe and pulled out a silver ingot to give to Sun Tianxiu — the very same dirty silver that Old Zheng had mentioned, dug up from beneath the wall at Yue Injury An.

"I can't take any more of Uncle's silver. If I owe too much, my family won't be able to repay it. Take care, Uncle." Not daring to push Pang Yu's hand away, Sun Tianxiu simply knelt down on her own, kowtowed once to Pang Yu, then rose, grabbed her back-basket, and fled from the county yamen as if flying.

Pang Yu followed to the gate and watched the thin little figure hurry across County Front Street. He smiled and shook his head.

Behind him, Ruan Jin's ingratiating voice sounded: "Squad Leader, His Honor wants you at Tuisi Hall."

Pang Yu put away his smile and said flatly, "Understood."

……

Inside Tuisi Hall, besides Yang Fangzao, there was a stranger with graying hair whom Pang Yu had never seen before.

But with Fang Kongzhao's prior analysis, Pang Yu was already prepared. By his guess, this man came either from the Grand Coordinator Yamen or from the Circuit Inspector Yamen.

Yang Fangzao, as a county's chief official, belonged to the Grand Coordinator's line of authority, so the likelihood of this man coming from the Grand Coordinator's office was greater.

Sure enough, Yang Fangzao made the introduction: "This is Mr. Ma, from Suzhou."

He did not explicitly say the man came from the Grand Coordinator's office, but the Yingtian Grand Coordinator was stationed in Suzhou — Pang Yu could naturally grasp the implication. He immediately bowed to Mr. Ma in salute.

Mr. Ma inclined his head slightly in return, all the while studying Pang Yu closely.

Yang Fangzao offered no lengthy explanation and got straight to the point: "The detailed report determining the nature of that unrest has been in draft for some days now, yet a final version has never been settled. Mr. Ma is here to expedite the matter. Since Squad Leader Pang is literate and personally experienced the entire pacification, Mr. Ma believes it is most appropriate for Squad Leader Pang to take primary responsibility for drafting the detailed report. I hope Squad Leader Pang will apply himself diligently and complete it within two or three days."

Pang Yu lowered his head slightly, but inwardly his guard went up. Fang Kongzhao had been right — this wretched business had landed squarely on his shoulders alone, and the reasoning was so high-sounding that Pang Yu would find it hard to refuse.

Mr. Ma spoke: "This unrest was triggered by Old Zheng beating Yue Ji to death. Yue Ji was a commoner household, and the majority of those who followed — Huang Wending and the rest — were likewise from commoner households. In my opinion, it is more appropriate to define this as civil unrest. However, Old Zheng, Yin Deng, and their ilk came from gentry households. The Tongcheng gentry's disregard for propriety and law is a long-standing problem, and this was the originating cause of the unrest. The county yamen must not cover this up on their behalf."

Pang Yu acknowledged this. It seemed the Grand Coordinator's office had likewise seen through the Provincial Courier Official's faction's intentions. They had not, as Fang Kongzhao had imagined, maneuvered within narrow margins; instead, they planned to abandon the rural gentry and accept the Provincial Courier Official's proposed characterization — that the gentry's slaves had committed evil.

The Provincial Courier Official's faction's main line of attack was forming cliques. The most important conclusion Pang Yu had drawn from Fang Kongzhao's analysis was that the Emperor was extremely wary of officials forming cliques, which was why the most delicate aspect of the struggle between both sides also lay in the issue of forming cliques.

If Zhang Guowei tried to exonerate the gentry, the subsequent attacks would be relentless — including from the Circuit Inspector's side, part of the assistant official system, who could at any moment swing over to Wen Tiren. If the Circuit Inspector submitted a memorial attacking the rural gentry, it would become a heavy cannonball for Wen Tiren's faction to use in impeaching Zhang Guowei.

Zhang Guowei's side's response, therefore, was to simply accept the charge of slaves committing evil. That way, Wen Tiren's faction would find it hard to press further, and the Grand Coordinator's office would gain ample strategic room.

What remained was how to handle the fury of the Tongcheng gentry. For Zhang Guowei, forming cliques was the fundamental issue; the gentry's anger was merely a side issue. Dealing with these gentry was, after all, easier than dealing with the Emperor's wrath.

Pang Yu raised his eyes to look at Mr. Ma. The man's hair was graying and his face looked aged, but his eyes were extremely keen — he had the look of someone shrewd and quick-witted.

As Zhang Guowei's trusted confidant, his purpose in coming to Tongcheng was to neutralize Wen Tiren's faction's offensive while also confining the Tongcheng gentry's fury to a limited scope, so that it would not spread to the Jiangnan scholarly circles.

This Mr. Ma's strategy was to define the unrest as civil unrest while avoiding direct confrontation with Wen Tiren's faction. Instead, he would go with the flow and accept that the gentry's slaves committing evil was the primary cause of the unrest. The detailed report would be issued by the Tongcheng county yamen, and all of the Grand Coordinator's office's subsequent responses could be deflected onto this report. The gentry's fury would then be concentrated on the Tongcheng county yamen rather than deliberately targeting the Grand Coordinator's office.

Mr. Ma said calmly, "This civil unrest has shaken dozens of prefectures and counties along the river. Though the unrest has been quelled, its causes and consequences must be clearly understood. Squad Leader Pang, by your own strength, exterminated the rebels at Yunji Temple — you destroyed the bandits in the mountains. This detailed report is to slay the bandits in the heart, to serve as a warning for posterity. In terms of importance, it surpasses even the slaying of bandits."

Pang Yu smiled faintly. Mr. Ma was serving up a bowl of motivational rhetoric, but no matter how artfully he packaged it, Pang Yu already knew what he was really going to say. It was nothing more than making the county yamen play the villain, offending all the Tongcheng gentry, so that the Yingtian Grand Coordinator's office could extricate itself from a difficult situation.

Yang Fangzao naturally understood this logic as well, which was why he had arranged for his own advisor to stay away. As an Acting Magistrate, he simply wanted to remove himself from the vortex and let Pang Yu be the fall guy, bearing the brunt of the Tongcheng gentry's fury.

Pang Yu was the hero who had rendered the greatest service in quelling the unrest — having him write the detailed report carried a certain persuasive weight and was a perfectly logical arrangement.

This hero of the pacification was now being set up as the scapegoat by the Grand Coordinator's line. Without Fang Kongzhao's analysis, Pang Yu at this moment would certainly be completely bewildered, submitting the detailed report in a haze of confusion.

But having already seen through Mr. Ma's hand, Pang Yu was not about to fall in line so easily. Even if he had to carry this blame, he would demand a commensurate reward.

He looked at Mr. Ma and said, "But this humble one believes this matter was simply Huang Wending and his gang seeking revenge. Whether household slaves or commoners, it was all a private feud among the people. Among household slaves, there are good and bad, but that has nothing to do with their masters — just as among commoners there are also treacherous and vicious individuals, for which one cannot blame the local officials. Moreover, during the pacification, we relied heavily on the strength of the gentry. A man must not forget his roots. If this detailed report is to implicate the gentry, I beg your pardon, but I cannot comply."

Yang Fangzao and Mr. Ma were both momentarily stunned. They had not expected a mere squad leader to dare refuse their orders.

Without waiting for them to unleash their official authority, Pang Yu continued in a resolute tone: "This humble one is not wavering. Whether before the Ministry of War's Provincial Courier Official, the Branch Surveillance Circuit, or Zhou County Deputy, I will say the same thing — these are my heartfelt words."

This statement was a reminder to Yang Fangzao and Mr. Ma that, with all the various factions currently gathered in Tongcheng, Mr. Ma was far from able to dominate everything — a warning not to try using the Grand Coordinator's office's authority to coerce Pang Yu.

Yang Fangzao felt both annoyed and put in a difficult position. He too was under pressure from Mr. Ma and was full of resentment toward him; pushing this onto Pang Yu had been self-preservation. Now that Pang Yu had made Mr. Ma eat humble pie, Yang Fangzao felt a secret glee — but this detailed report ultimately had to be resolved, and the task would still fall on Pang Yu.

This was also because Pang Yu, in that very first detailed report, had clearly established his identity as the one who rendered the greatest service. That report had already traveled upward through both the chief official and assistant official lines, and might eventually reach the Cabinet and the Emperor. The story of one man slaying over twenty rebels and quelling the unrest single-handedly was highly dramatic and could very well leave a deep impression on the Emperor. So on the matter of determining the nature of the unrest, Pang Yu carried a certain weight.

Mr. Ma's feelings were much the same as Yang Fangzao's. He stared coldly at Pang Yu for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said to Yang Fangzao, "Might I have a few words with Squad Leader Pang in private?"