[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-overthrowing-han":3,"chapter-overthrowing-han-overthrowing-han-chapter-147":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Overthrowing Han",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1222906,1620,"Chapter 147: Powerless (Part 1)","overthrowing-han-chapter-147",147,"\u003Cp>The reason the case files and prisoners were long delayed was this: after the first reminder went unanswered, Gongsun Xun took Lou Gui and Wei Yue and barged straight into the office of the County Accessory Clerk for Banditry. There they caught Tian Shao and that Accessory Clerk burning papers and bamboo slips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun stood stunned for a long moment before it sank in — so these bastards really were corrupt scoundrels after all, and they actually had the gall to do this right under his nose?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His own mother had written public commendations and posted proclamations for him — did these people truly not know he was someone who chatted and laughed with Wang Fu, a man who shared mutual admiration with Tan Shihuai?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet how was it that someone like him could not even overawe these few petty clerks?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who gave them the nerve?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did they truly think he dared not kill?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Kneel.\" Gongsun Xun gave the order expressionlessly and softly, as if telling a household servant to pour him water.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, by the time he seated himself directly in the Accessory Clerk's rattan chair, these two had indeed obediently knelt down as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's quite bright outside.\" Beyond the door, the breeze was mild and the sun fair. Gongsun Xun pointed at the office's main door and asked in earnest, \"In broad daylight, with me right here in the government hall — tell me the truth, how did you dare to do such a thing?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Yue and Lou Gui exchanged a glance, and each drew his blade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Because we two have clear consciences.\" And as two ringing clangs sounded behind him, Tian Shao's reply was remarkably crisp and swift. \"The case files being burned here have no significant bearing on either of us!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Exactly so,\" the Accessory Clerk added, trembling with fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If they have no bearing on you two, do they have bearing on me?!\" Gongsun Xun flared up at once and barked. \"Do you take me, Gongsun Xun, for a stupid donkey?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"They do indeed have bearing on you, my lord!\" Tian Shao hastily answered in alarm. \"We merely feared putting my lord in an awkward position!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun naturally sneered in disbelief. \"Today is the first time in my life I have set foot in Xiangping City. Explain to me — how could they have bearing on me?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet no sooner had the words left his mouth than his own expression abruptly changed, and he could not help exchanging a wordless glance with Lou Gui opposite him... Yes, something having bearing on him, Gongsun Xun, did not necessarily mean it was trouble he had stirred up himself. This place also housed his family's Anli Trading Company and his distant clan cousin Gongsun Yu!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord is so astute — I imagine you have more or less grasped it by now?\" Tian Shao read his expression, then shuffled forward on his knees, drew close, and said in a low voice, \"To be frank with my lord, although our Xiangping County is the seat of Liaodong, it borders Xuantu Commandery to the north and adjoins Goguryeo to the east. For this reason, quite a number of cases are brought in by Anli from Xuantu and Liaodong.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Stand up,\" Gongsun Xun said, feeling utterly drained. \"Then explain in detail.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At these words, Lou Gui and Wei Yue both sheathed their blades, and Tian Shao hastily rose together with the Accessory Clerk behind him, finally breathing a sigh of relief. \"In truth, by reason and sense, Anli cannot be blamed for this matter... Well, as the young proprietor of Anli, is my lord familiar with the trade in eastern pearls and ginseng?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Naturally,\" Gongsun Xun replied, his headache worsening. He could only urge impatiently, \"Speak plainly.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ginseng and eastern pearls are both special products from beyond the frontier.\" Tian Shao indeed unveiled the mystery directly. \"Anli's development of these goods has truly brought much benefit to the local people. However, these two items are not only easy to carry but also extraordinarily precious, and the ginseng diggers and pearl divers are mostly desperate men. Thus, robberies and murders frequently occur in the wilds and on remote paths...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun let out a long sigh, and even Lou Gui and Wei Yue could not help looking at each other in dismay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Other places might be tolerable, but the eastern region of our Xiangping County is extremely vast yet sparsely populated, and it shares a border of several hundred li with Goguryeo. Therefore, unidentified corpses often appear along the byways there. Such cases can never be traced from start to finish, and based on appearance alone, one cannot tell whether they are Han or Goguryeo people... Of course, the majority are lowly foreign folk... But a human life is still a human life, and the law of the land is strict, so the county can only collect the bodies, open case files, and leave them piled here in the Banditry Office...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I understand,\" Gongsun Xun said, waving his hand at once. \"Then what of the situation over in Xuantu? The ginseng and eastern pearls there should be collectible directly within Xuantu Commandery, shouldn't they?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It is still simply a matter of wealth stirring men's hearts.\" As he spoke, Tian Shao drew a small object from his bosom. \"Does my lord recognize this?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a small silver ingot in the so-called sycee shape, a top-grade precious metal that Anli Trading Company commonly used internally to reward employees and downline agents. Upon seeing this object, Gongsun Xun felt he had not even the strength left to speak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord,\" Tian Shao lowered his voice further and explained, \"Our Great Han has always been short of silver — not only lacking silver mines, but especially lacking fine-quality mines easy to smelt. For this reason, the few famous silver mines within our borders are all directly administered by the Privy Treasurer's envoys, just like gold mines. For instance, right at the border between our Xiangping County and West Ping'an County, there is a rare, excellent silver mine, but the court demands a fixed quota of its output, and no one else can touch it... The reason your family's Anli can possess so many silver ingots is that your family purchases ore from outside our borders. To be specific, it comes from a certain place in Fuyu, directly north of Xuantu Commandery.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I understand what you mean,\" Gongsun Xun pressed on, feeling powerless. \"Just tell me — why not smelt the ore in Xuantu? Why make those transporting the silver ore come to Xiangping instead?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Because smelting requires people to oversee it,\" Tian Shao explained, equally helpless. \"Your esteemed firm's ore purchasing began when your esteemed clansman, Grand Administrator Gongsun Yu, was serving his term in Xuantu. I have even heard it said that this silver mine first caught your firm's eye over a decade ago, when he led troops to aid the Fuyu people against the Goguryeo... Later, when he left office and came to Xiangping to establish his residence and household, your firm's silver smelting site likewise moved from Xuantu to Xiangping.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun was utterly speechless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In truth, my lord need not take it to heart,\" Tian Shao said at last, seeing his expression, by way of consolation. \"Earning money from the Fuyu people and collecting ginseng from Goguryeo — the benefits far outweigh the harms. If these were truly halted, the common people of the commandery would be the ones unwilling... The main issue is simply that our Liaodong is vast in land but sparse in people, and moreover a border commandery, ringed by Goguryeo, Fuyu, Xianbei, Wuhuan, and the Three Han. The wild folk of all these borderlands lack cultivation in virtue, and there are even occasional outbreaks of war and chaos — only then do these disturbances in public order arise.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun nodded slightly in token acknowledgment, then suddenly asked, \"Just how many of these cases are there?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tian Shao turned to look at the Accessory Clerk, who hastily stepped forward and explained, \"The accumulated files of unsolved cases number over a hundred, and there are also five or six prisoners seized on solid evidence.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun could not help breathing a sigh of relief. \"Accumulated over more than ten years, such a number of cases is fairly ordinary...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Accessory Clerk lowered his head and said nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun's heart lurched. He steeled himself and asked again, \"These hundred-odd cases — over exactly how many years have they piled up?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Two and a half years,\" the Accessory Clerk said, head lowered. \"Such cases are always cleared out when each new county magistrate takes office. The previous magistrate happened to hold the seal of this county for exactly two and a half years!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gongsun Xun fell into a speechless silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In that case, should we still burn the case files?\" Tian Shao, seeing this, hastily probed. \"Earlier, I merely feared that my lord, being young and full of spirit, might lose face — that is why I acted on my own authority...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No need to burn them,\" Gongsun Xun said, waving his hand in resignation. \"Bring all these cases — those arising from silver, eastern pearls, and ginseng — to my residence behind the government offices. I will review them slowly tonight!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Afraid of losing face, more likely, and planning to burn them himself in secret later, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tian Shao and the Accessory Clerk sneered inwardly, but neither said a word.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However that might be, after this incident, the arrogant swagger Gongsun Xun had displayed upon first arriving was more or less cut down by three parts. All day long, he merely kept his head down and earnestly cleared up the remaining case files and detainees. Over the course of several days, he did no more than seize upon one procedural error to demote that Accessory Clerk to a village bailiff, though he also specially bestowed some goods and money as a conciliatory gesture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How to put it? During these days, his understanding of Han law had indeed deepened somewhat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And a few days later, he paid his scheduled visits to Grand Administrator Gao Yan and that distant clansman of his, Gongsun Yu, who was vastly older than him — both of which went smoothly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The former was indeed as weak as rumor had it; after Gongsun Xun recounted some matters concerning the purge of eunuchs in Luoyang, his face turned ashen and he could barely contain himself. Instead, it was the various prominent clerks of the commandery who came forward one after another to curry favor. As for the latter, he had rather the rough-hewn, forthright manner of a border commandery military officer; moreover, he was genuinely of the same clan and their interests were intertwined, so his speech carried a tone of sweeping assurance and mutual affinity, simply telling Gongsun Xun to seek him out whenever he encountered difficulty!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How to put it? That the two men in this city who outranked him behaved in such a manner was, in itself, purely a good thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only problem lay with Zhang Jian, who taught at the school. For some unknown reason, this former vanguard of the eunuch-purge faction, renowned across the realm, upon receiving the name card Gongsun Xun presented, merely pleaded illness and was unwilling to meet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this, Gongsun Xun, though helpless, was not truly angry — because he understood the man very well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having endured so much, having wandered in exile far from home for so many years, his family destroyed and his household ruined, and having implicated so many others — for this Zhang Jian to have clung to life in disgrace until now, whether his heroic spirit remained undimmed or he had long since been overcome by shame, whatever thoughts he harbored were in fact entirely normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And judging from the fact that the man was still willing to teach at the school his own family had built, this famous scholar likely bore him no ill will. That in itself was already quite good; there was no need to pursue the rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once these three visits were completed, Gongsun Xun had truly finished the normal procedures for a newly appointed official. However, by this time, the autumn harvest was also about to arrive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It must be understood that spring plowing and autumn harvesting were the two most fundamental and momentous affairs of this feudal age. Thus, with no time to dwell on other thoughts, he began leading his clerks on horseback to inspect the various townships and supervise the autumn harvest, finding himself utterly busy for a time... But on one of those days, while Gongsun Xun was on an inspection tour in a certain township under his jurisdiction, he suddenly saw a rider galloping toward him with a report: the family dependents of the county magistrate had already arrived from Liaoxi within the borders of Xiangping, and were even now at the Great Liao River.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid his surprise and delight, Gongsun Xun could not help asking a few more questions... As expected, it was not only Zhao Yun and the others — even his own mother had come in person. Thereupon, he set out at once for the Great Liao River to welcome them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—————— I am the dividing line, the root of all evil ——————\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Goguryeo lies a thousand li east of Liaodong, bordering Chaoxian and Huimo to the south, Woju to the east, and Fuyu to the north. Its territory spans two thousand li, with many great mountains and deep valleys, where people dwell according to the land.\" — Book of the Later Han, Biographies of the Eastern Barbarians\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>PS: Also, new book group 684558115 — everyone please join.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",2297,"2026-06-04T19:42:03.441Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","7f86501a2a749e01132b65169f9972c6dbfdcb0bd6a4689e4d5af0d93c703056","overthrowing-han-chapter-148","overthrowing-han-chapter-146",548,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Foverthrowing-han-cover.jpg"]