Chapter 195: Strictly Prohibit Certain Foreign Publications

Because Xinzhou is highly likely to target Jizhou with a salt industry crackdown, the Jizhou merchant caravans have all departed early this year.

At the very least, the merchant ships transporting salt have left the ports and wharves ahead of schedule.

If they were any slower, they wouldn't be able to sell at a good price!

As the caravans have left one after another, the once-congested wharves now only have a few small cargo ships moored sporadically.

The hired laborers of the Bai Family are moving cargo crates onto the ships one by one.

A few days ago, the Bai Family's main cargo ships had already departed loaded with goods; the remaining ships, once they finish stocking up, will set sail with the second batch of cargo. Many merchant caravans in Jizhou have departed in two batches this time, with the first batch primarily consisting of salt and the second batch consisting of other goods.

Right now, most caravans have already had their second batch leave Jizhou, but the Bai Family's cargo ships have not yet loaded enough goods; it is said they are still gathering them recently. Having gone through the trouble of making such a long business trip, one cannot simply load half the cargo, right?

On a mountain not far away, someone is watching that direction.

"Young Master Eleven, those over there are the Bai Family's cargo ships. These few ships are all they have left; the others were all forced to be transferred out. I heard that over the past two days, they have been scraping together whatever they can, and they are finally almost done collecting the second batch of goods," an Idler said respectfully.

Before him is a young master of the Du Family, ranked eleventh in this generation, who also holds some power in his hands, so the Idlers act extremely submissive when facing him. The Idler often wanders around the wharf and is quite familiar with the movements here.

In his view, the Bai Family has clearly already fallen, and their fleet is almost completely carved up!

They might be able to keep a few cargo ships this year, but that won't necessarily be the case next year; perhaps in the future, the Bai Family's young masters will end up on the streets, only able to run errands and take odd jobs at the wharf just like them. The Idler thought with schadenfreude, while continuing to say:

"The streets and alleys are all saying the younger generation of the Bai Family is useless, only able to raise the juniors and bring them onto the ships to train and see what their aptitude is like, and there's even a little fatty who actually gets seasick! Truly, each generation is worse than the last!" The Du Family's Young Master Eleven standing beside him, however, kept his gaze fixed on the cargo ships at the wharf.

Du Shiyi asked the Idler a few more questions, then had someone send him away.

With no outsiders left, he asked his attendant: "Are Bai Hang and the others still staying at the Bai Family mansion?"

"Yes, several of the Bai Family's managers have remained at home and have not gone out, saying they are observing mourning. Bai Hang spends all day at home burning incense and praying, copying scriptures, and rarely even goes to look at the fleet. We have inquired, and this young master does not intend to go with the ships," the attendant replied.

Du Shiyi gave an "mm," suppressing the slight suspicion in his heart.

He looked at the cargo ships at the wharf again.

Compared to their former scale, the Bai Family's fleet indeed looks much more desolate now.

But after all, they were one of the former water transport families, so one must always take extra precautions.

Regarding the matter of Master Bai previously, he had also given it a push.

Du Shiyi had once expressed his intentions to Master Bai Zi, inviting him to join, but unfortunately, Master Bai Zi did not take the offer.

Rather than letting the Bai Family grow, it is better to pull them out early!

Under Du Shiyi are water transport merchants who defected to him; they also participated in the subsequent carving up of the Bai Family, scooping up a batch of cargo ships and goods.

There are many merchants in Jizhou, but in the eyes of the Head of the Family of the Du Family, these are merely slaves who can be driven at will. Kill one, and there are others. There are plenty of slaves! So even if they killed the wrong chicken to warn the monkeys, the Head of the Family of the Du Family did not take it too much to heart; after eliminating the threats in the first few days, he stopped paying attention. But those who carved up the Bai Family's fleet are a bit wary of the late Master Bai, so they have been watching the Bai Family for a longer time.

Du Shiyi withdrew his gaze and turned to leave.

He learned of an urgent piece of news from his family today and saw that copy of the Xinzhou Times.

To prevent the powerful and wealthy families of Jizhou from harboring ulterior motives, they must allocate more people to keep watch, so regarding the Bai Family, once it is confirmed there are no other abnormalities, they will withdraw their men and reassign them to guard against others. "Leave one person to watch the Bai Family mansion, and withdraw the rest," Du Shiyi said to his attendant.

On the way back, passing through the bustling streets and alleys, he still heard people making fun of the Bai Family, but they would lower their voices when reaching sensitive points. Du Shiyi, sitting in the carriage, smiled contemptuously.

In this world, as long as one has soldiers in hand, there are actually many things one doesn't need to worry too much about!

Everyone knows that the Du Family's move to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys failed.

If it had truly succeeded, the Du Family would not be acting so subtly and awkwardly.

Because they really couldn't find evidence, and the Bai Family didn't jump up and make trouble when Master Bai Zi passed away, it became inappropriate to take action against the Bai Family openly. Rather than rushing to fabricate "evidence" full of holes, it was better to simply shift the blame and define it as a struggle between those lowly merchants.

Anyway, those who understand, understand; those who don't don't need to know the truth, as their status isn't high enough.

If there are still those who don't know their place and continue to make trouble, then continue killing!

The Du Family subsequently killed a few more who were loose-lipped; there was no need to be subtle about this, they were directly executed in public.

The Du Family guided public opinion, saying they were spies from other provinces, intending to stir up chaos in Jizhou.

The commoners mostly believe whatever they hear. Even if they don't believe it, there's no other way; once they've fled to Jizhou, they basically can't leave anyway.

The evening glow shines down.

At the location of the Bai Family mansion's Kitchen, smoke rises from the chimney.

The person following Young Master Eleven's orders to watch the Bai Family mansion gnaws on the dry rations in his hand, cursing and swearing.

He really doesn't understand what there is to watch at the Bai Family mansion, standing here just blowing in the cold wind!

Wrapping his outer robe tighter, he hid in a wind-sheltered spot and yawned.

Night falls, and everything becomes blurred.

The person watching the Bai residence sees the lights lit up over there, and his sleepiness grows even stronger.

There are lights on, which means there are still people in the Bai Family. No problem!

The Bai Family mansion.

Lai Sha, the guard of Master Bai, finishes tending to the lights in the Kitchen and several rooms, finally kowtows toward the courtyard where Master Bai Zi lived during his lifetime, and leaves silently. After dark, there aren't many people outside, and as for the patrolling Armored Soldiers, Lai Sha is clear on their routes and the times they change shifts.

Avoiding those gazes, he takes a detour to the wharf; by this time, he has changed his clothes into the attire of a laborer, and the faint light from the lantern makes it impossible for anyone to see his appearance clearly. He arrives at the Bai Family cargo ship, familiar with the path.

Inside, several of the managers are already there. Previously, they had hidden inside the cargo crates and boarded the ship one after another.

Upon waiting for Lai Sha, the few members of the Bai Family do not linger any longer.

"Let's go!"

Nowadays, those who remain by their side are trusted people, all with the same destination.

The ship is mostly crewed by experienced sailors; they are too familiar with this stretch of the river, so even if they extinguish the lanterns, and even if the water level has dropped, it does not affect their operations. What's more, the moonlight tonight is quite good, and their night vision is stronger than that of ordinary people, so navigating the ship is not difficult. Once the ship leaves here and leaves the sight of those people, they will light the lanterns again. By then, everyone will just think it is an ordinary cargo ship on the merchant river route. Merchant caravans are naturally active during this season.

Bai Hang stands at the stern of the ship, watching the distant lights of the wharf. He takes a few more looks at the location of the Bai Family mansion.

There isn't really anything to be nostalgic about, though.

His father's coffin is sealed inside the previous batch of cargo ships; when the merchant ship reaches a certain stretch of the river, it will be buried on the spot at the place his father designated. If one day in the future they can return to their hometown, they will come back to bring his father home.

The spirit tablets from the family ancestral hall are all being carried; wherever these descendants go, these spirit tablets will follow.

As for the old servant who betrayed the old master, the Bai Family will certainly not let them have an easy time.

When one betrays, one must be prepared to be retaliated against!

Throw them into the river to feed the fish!

As for the old servant's children outside, they didn't even need to lift a finger; before they had even begun to investigate, the person behind it had already silenced them.

When they went to look, there was only a burnt-down house and two charred corpses.

One wonders if that old servant was naive or harboring a glimmer of hope, expecting those people to show mercy?

Grind the charred corpses to dust and scatter them!

Thinking of reuniting in the afterlife? Impossible!

The Evil Plague has been raging for three years, and there is already a rough understanding of the timing of the mutations.

His father had timed his suicide by poison, not wanting to become neither man nor ghost and face his ancestors.

His father did not die in peace, so how could he let these people die in peace?

The people of the Bai Family left quietly.

Fleeing overnight.

By the time others realized something was wrong, the Bai Family's ships were already far away.

Those watching the Bai Family were furious; they ran to the Bai Family mansion and kicked the door.

Bang!

As the door was kicked open, the connected mechanisms were triggered, and stacks of paper filled with writing were tossed high into the air from all over the Bai mansion. The wind scattered them, and they danced across the sky.

The wind was fierce this season, blowing the papers toward the streets, into other people's courtyards, and even toward another mountain.

Those near the Bai mansion picked up the papers first, and after reading the contents, they let out a series of "What the hell!"

These were the accusations issued by Bai Hang and the other members of the Bai Family, which also excerpted key content from the Xinzhou Times. They had organized the drafts and written many copies. Lacking the means to print, they could only rely on handwriting, which is why they had been "praying for blessings" and "copying scriptures" at home every day.

Their wrists were sore from all the writing!

The part of the paper regarding the Bai Family's private affairs essentially meant:

Our Master Bai was murdered!

They didn't say directly that the Du Family harmed him, only that those who were jealous had joined forces to harm the old master, yet the Du Family could not seek justice for him!

What a grave injustice!

After our old master came to Jizhou, he made so many contributions and brought back so many goods! He was single-mindedly devoted to developing Jizhou, yet he was persecuted by treacherous villains! We, his children, are incompetent and could not even protect the cargo ships the old master left behind; every time we think of it, we weep and feel ashamed before our ancestors! Alas, we can only leave this heartbreaking place! We heard that Xinzhou already has a way to deal with the Evil Plague (excerpted from the original Xinzhou Times), so rather than staying here to be trampled and persecuted, we intend to go to Xinzhou, where there is more security and we can put our skills to use! The old master, with his heart of pure sincerity, was harmed by you; we, his children, cannot do anything else, so we will not stay here to be an eyesore to you! Staying here would only lead to us being harmed too!

The Du Family's subordinates raged: "His heart of pure sincerity is bullshit!"

"It is clearly a premeditated plan!"

"They were just shipping out goods and running away!"

"The Bai Family is definitely suspicious!"

They wanted to pin more labels of "traitor" and "villain" on the Bai Family, but those who saw the content on the paper were not focused on the Bai Family.

The Bai Family fleeing overnight was a big piece of gossip, but what was written in the Xinzhou Times was an explosive shock!

By comparison, everything else became unimportant; naturally, they were first concerned with the authenticity of that latter piece of news.

Because of this, Jizhou began to strictly ban certain incoming publications, claiming they were false propaganda meant to bewitch the public!

Children's picture books from Xinzhou were caught in the crossfire and also became contraband.