Chapter 395: The Scholar-Official's Universal Ultimate Move

The Old Sangyuan was an estate with a long history. The land of this estate mainly produced mulberry leaves and cotton.

In the years before the Jiajing Emperor, the estate had primarily grown rice; after that, the land was gradually converted into mulberry orchards and cotton fields, and no one planted rice anymore.

So the great fire last night directly plunged the estate's tenant farmers into utter despair.

Four plots of mulberry orchard had simultaneously burst into raging flames — in the minds of Ming people, this was originally something impossible. Even in winter, when everything is dry, the mulberry trees in the orchard were hardly dry kindling that would ignite at a single spark; each tree was spaced apart, so how could they all catch fire at the same time?

This bizarre event, the likes of which had never happened before, baffled the tenant farmers who groggily climbed out of bed. Yet soon there was no time for bafflement — the first thing everyone did upon realizing what was happening was to run and fight the fire. The mulberry orchard was their lifeline; without these meticulously tended mulberry trees, wouldn't everyone have to go begging?

But fighting the fire was of no use. A blaze ignited with kerosene — that kind of ferocious flame simply ignored the laws of nature, thoroughly burning through vast swathes of mulberry trees in a short time. Heat waves and fiery debris surged and scattered in all directions, igniting the remaining plants.

By the time people came running with wooden basins, all they saw were tree stumps still spitting sparks.

Unlike those tenant farmers sitting on the ground wailing to the heavens, the steward who managed the estate quickly figured out the whole story.

The steward's surname was Xu, a distant relative of the Xu family. When the great fire broke out, Steward Xu, who had rushed out at the sound of the gong, took one look at the situation, grabbed the manor guard on night watch and questioned him, and knew at once that the fire was man-made.

As for which divine beings had come to set the mulberry orchard ablaze, Steward Xu also had a fair idea — ordinary thieves who prowled at night were all after money; why would they have nothing better to do than run to a mulberry orchard — to pick mulberries and eat them? It was winter now!

So this matter could not escape being the handiwork of those foreign bumpkins from the private port to the south. One had to know that in recent months, Steward Xu had been tasked by the main family with monitoring that private port, and at regular intervals, he had to go to the main family to report.

Therefore, Steward Xu, who was very clear about all the shady dealings between the Xu family and the private port, immediately guessed the culprit from the motive.

"Tomorrow, after I report to the Family Head, we'll see where you villains run!" Steward Xu stood outside the bright blaze, feeling waves of free warm air, and ground his teeth as he stared into the dark night to the south and began to swear.

Yet the affairs of the world are hard to predict... Steward Xu didn't need to catch the villains; early the next morning, the villains came knocking of their own accord.

Just as the sun was rising and the estate's tenant farmers were still dealing with the aftermath, two hundred men from the port construction team arrived from the south.

These men formed a long column, marching in orderly steps, carrying high-priced steel tools produced in the Kiln District on their shoulders. Chanting slogans, they reached the boundary between the port and Xu Village, then began construction work.

What construction work? Damming the river and diverting its flow.

Between the port and the village, two rivers passed through both parties' land, one of which even served as the natural boundary river between them.

Today, the task of these laborers was to cut off the two rivers and divert the water elsewhere. In short, the purpose of the construction was to cut off the water supply to Xu Village... if the ancients had had electricity, they would have cut the electricity off too.

The commotion of several hundred people laboring was of course considerable, a scene of bustling activity, so the tenant farmers quickly figured out the other side's intent.

The furious Steward Xu hurried over, dashed across a wooden bridge over the river, and then found the several overseers on a mound of earth by the riverbank.

Steward Xu, who had long been responsible for monitoring the port, knew very well that these Short Hairs wearing training uniforms were the ones in charge. So after he ran up the mound, he immediately roared at them: "What do you lot intend to do?"

The overseers clearly knew Steward Xu as well. Seeing the steward panting his way up to them to throw a fit, the several men burst out laughing. Then one of them, a brawny man, stepped forward and said in a tone tinged with a bit of Hangzhou local accent: "Do we need to register with you what we gentlemen do?"

"Outrageous!" Steward Xu cursed. "This river is shared by both families — how dare you privately alter the watercourse?"

"This river was laid out by our master — we'll dig however we damn well please!"

"Fine, you sea bandits!" Steward Xu now understood one thing completely: the other side had come today deliberately to stir up trouble. So he extended a finger and pointed at the men opposite him, grinding his teeth as he said: "You did a mighty deed last night, and today you come to cut off the river. Tell that Xiong fellow — having provoked the Xu family, just wait to be sentenced to death by autumn execution!"

"Go to hell with your..." The next moment, a cowhide boot, polished to a bright shine and clearly meticulously cared for, kicked Steward Xu in the stomach.

With an "Ouch!", Steward Xu, amid a chorus of laughter, went tumbling head over heels from the mound into the river.

The winter river was very shallow, so Steward Xu, having rolled into the water, quickly scrambled up. Now covered head to toe in mud and water, standing in the knee-deep river, he shouted as he climbed up with the help of the manor guards: "Rebellion! Rebellion! The sea bandits are rebelling! Call for help, call for help!"

And so, a village armed brawl — the kind that happened almost daily in the Great Ming dynasty — soon unfolded once again.

Upon learning that both the arson and the river-cutting were the handiwork of those people from the private port, all the tenant farmers in the estate were utterly enraged. Several hundred people quickly gathered on the riverbank, hoes and dung forks in hand, and the two sides began trading curses across the river.

As they cursed and cursed, discovering that the laborers doing the construction work were not getting involved, the estate's tenant farmers let out a unified roar and surged across the river in a mighty wave, splashing through the water.

Then, a volley of white-smoke-spewing firecrackers burst open above the crowd's heads. For the extremely common rural clan violence of this era, a certain power had now accumulated rich experience in dealing with it: capsaicin tear gas shells to lead the charge, followed by a good serving of clubs and staves.

The battle ended very quickly.

Several dozen port "security guards" easily routed and scattered the several hundred tenant farmers, and then the victors, without the slightest courtesy, began "desecrating the corpses" — even an old man who had lost his fighting ability and was lying on the ground coughing was ruthlessly struck twice on the anklebone with a club.

There is a saying: the blow lands on your body, but the pain is felt in my heart.

The agonized howls of several hundred badly injured tenant farmers lying on their beds pierced the clouds, reaching all the way to the Xu Residence thirty li away.

Xu Jin, Master Xu, had not yet had his midday meal when he saw Steward Xu, his head wrapped in white cloth and his face bruised and swollen, galloping in on a fast horse to report.

After clarifying the situation, Master Xu, feeling he had suffered a grave provocation, was so furious his hair rushed to his crown. He immediately deployed the Scholar-Official's universal ultimate move: "Take my visiting card to the County Yamen and have that insolent commoner surnamed Xiong arrested!"

Then the Jiading County Office was put in a tight spot.

To be precise, everyone from Jiading County's chief magistrate Lai Fangwei down to the runners of the Fast Squad was put in a tight spot.

Magistrate Lai had previously had dealings with Xiong Dao, so he had a certain understanding of that person's strength. Although he could not figure out what the deal was with that General's Mansion from Fujian and Guangdong, even the distributors currently backing Xiong Dao were not people Magistrate Lai could afford to offend.

One had to know that among those distributors, there was no shortage of scholarly families. If the Xu family clashed with Xiong Dao, perhaps everyone would find it awkward to intervene due to the circumstances; however, if he, Magistrate Lai, as a third party, issued a warrant and sent men to summon that Xiong fellow, that would be crossing a line, and those people would certainly have something to say about it!

Magistrate Lai had once served a term as county magistrate in Fujian — he was no bureaucratic greenhorn. So when he saw the visiting card sent by the Xu family and asked a few questions of the arrogant servant the Xu family had dispatched, Magistrate Lai sensed that today he would be put in a tight spot: Xiong Dao was essentially not a commoner; he had prominent families and that so-called military general backing him.

And this visiting card from the Xu family ignored that fact, attempting to use the centuries-old inertia of gentry privilege to deal with the commoner Xiong Dao. However, this lowest-cost method could usually only be used against commoners on the street... Magistrate Lai, having figured out the situation, now had a splitting headache, because he was caught between two colossal forces, and if things went even slightly wrong, he would suffer the fallout.

Magistrate Lai had a premonition: no matter what, he would not come out of this well; it was merely a question of how much he would lose.

After inwardly cursing the Xu family to hell for screwing him over, Magistrate Lai ultimately, with no other choice, issued the summons ticket.

There was no helping it. First of all, Magistrate Lai was, after all, a bona fide Scholar-Official. No matter who was backing Xiong Dao, the man was, on the surface, a commoner, and the County Magistrate still had to outwardly uphold the Xu family's side — the Xu family had rolled up their sleeves and personally entered the fray; Magistrate Lai could not simply ignore that visiting card, even if he now hated the Xu family to the bone.

Secondly, although the authorities would not investigate if the people did not report, the incidents of armed brawl and arson had, after all, occurred within the County Magistrate's jurisdiction at Xu Village. Now that they had openly and brazenly filed a complaint at the Public Hall, according to the law, the County Magistrate was required to summon the plaintiff, defendant, and others to the hall for questioning.

Then, next, it was the turn of the Fast Squad's constables to get a headache.

Once the County Magistrate issued the summons ticket, the constables had to execute it. However, the constables had previously privately lent manpower and participated in Xiong Dao's demolition matters; moreover, over the past half year, everyone had become all too familiar with that private port, and every single one of them had received benefits there. So the constables understood even better than the County Magistrate what a terrifying task they were facing.

In the end, Constable Bian, one of the Fast Squad's three chief constables, lost to the other two in a dice throw. Thus, he could only accept his bad luck, muster a few of his trusted men, and the group set out on the road to the port in utter desolation and dread.

Constable Bian did not bring many people this time; he did not bring a single one of the commoner runners: the Master Xiong being summoned had firearms under his command, and bringing too many men could easily lead to misunderstandings.

Yet Constable Bian ultimately still got shot: when the group arrived at the commercial district on the port's outskirts at dusk, they found the empty commercial district intersection already set up with chevaux-de-frise. The next moment, a row of lead bullets from firearms struck the ground at Constable Bian's feet, and then, by sheer bad luck, a ricochet burrowed into his apprentice's leg, causing blood to gush out on the spot.

"Who goes there?"

"Sirs, don't shoot, don't shoot! It's me, it's me — Old Bian from the County Yamen!"

"Old Bian? What are you here for?"

"Well... by order of the County Magistrate, I've come to invite Master Xiong for tea and to appreciate the moon and scenery!"