Chapter 133: The Sting of Wasps and Scorpions

Li Tong deliberately let the rain soak him the whole way, hoping to look thoroughly pitiful, but Diwu Lun made him wait outside the residence like a drowned dog for a very long time, until his lips were white from cold and his tall frame seemed ready to collapse at any moment — only then did he have someone summon Li Tong inside.

Before entering, Li Tong ran into Cheng Zhong coming out. Cheng Zhong fixed his eyes on Li Tong; in his gaze, the Li clan was plainly a fat sheep awaiting slaughter. The man's smile was cold and sinister, making Li Tong inwardly curse his bad luck.

Once inside, he saw Zheng Tong standing behind him with a blade in hand, while Diwu Lun sat upright beside the desk. Unlike the previous occasion, when he had worn a tall official's cap and wide sleeves, today Diwu Lun was clad in armor, a sword hanging at his waist, his expression stern and murderous.

Li Tong immediately prostrated himself: "This humble one pays respects to the Grand Master Boyu! Fortunate it is that the Grand Master is unharmed."

Diwu Lun, however, would not let him play the intimacy card: "Ciyuan... no, I should call you Li Tong. This is not a time for pleasantries but for official business. Refrain from using courtesy names — address me only by my office and title."

This strictly business posture made Li Tong's heart tighten. He could only bow again and say: "The Front Brigade has been restless these past few years, bandits running rampant. The Li clan has guarded against thieves day and night, never imagining that outside brigands would be so bold as to raid the Kenubo's party under cover of night. The moment I learned of it, I came at once."

"Even if I had died, it would be a small matter." Diwu Lun gave a cold laugh. "But if the imperial prince and princess were frightened or harmed, that would be a grave affair enough to shock His Majesty!"

Li Tong asked urgently: "Are the imperial prince and princess unharmed?"

Diwu Lun laughed aloud: "Li Tong, you can drop the act now."

"Have you ever heard the saying, 'The thief cries thief'?"

The idiom probably did not yet exist in this age, but the literal meaning was plain enough. Li Tong hastily knocked his head to the ground: "Grand Master, my family is wronged!"

"Even now you dare deceive me!" Diwu Lun flew into a towering rage, gripping his sword. "The attack occurred in West Township, where your family resides. The bandits' hoofprints led toward your family estate, and discarded bows and blades were found in the fields. Constable Cen examined those blades, and guess what? They were forged at the iron workshop the Li clan oversees for the government!"

"And the suspicious characters captured nearby have confessed — they were acting on the Li clan's orders, shadowing the envoy party the entire way. From our journey south to our return north, every move we made was under the Li clan's watch. Li Tong, you've been busy with grand schemes!"

This, however, was Diwu Lun bluffing Li Tong. That man was a death warrior; realizing escape was impossible, he had stabbed himself and died. There was no direct evidence linking him to the Li clan — but so long as Diwu Lun was willing, he could fabricate any story to report and make it stick.

Li Tong's heart was in turmoil, yet his mouth still held firm. He kowtowed like a pestle pounding garlic: "All this evidence is far too contrived. It must be the brigands, seeking to cover their own tracks, deliberately framing my family. I beseech the Kenubo to investigate clearly!"

Diwu Lun knew this perfectly well. Though Li Tong had shown a mediocre side before him, he surely was not this stupid — after all, attacking an envoy party right at his own doorstep brought his family no benefit whatsoever.

The Xin Dynasty's rule was weakening by the day, but a single local magnate still could not oppose the central authority head-on. What they excelled at was infiltrating their clan's influence into the system, seeping into every crack. To attempt open confrontation — even though the Li clan was the foremost great house in the Front Brigade, with dependent retainers numbering two to three thousand and many iron-office bondservants at their service, a force several times stronger than Diwu Lun's — the commandery troops plus the twenty thousand rapid-response soldiers under the Jingzhou Shepherd would suffice to annihilate them.

Unless the magnates joined together in a grand conspiracy to rise up together, only then could the realm change color.

Because of this deterrent, though everywhere across the land there were peasants turning to banditry, magnates who actually rebelled were still few. This was a crisis the Li clan had not faced in a hundred years. If Diwu Lun hardened his heart and joined with Cheng Zhong to nail down the charges, then reported it to the commandery and the court — if the Li family did not revolt, they could only sit and await judgment from the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties. Though their roots ran deep and tangled in Nanyang, and their relations with both the Jingzhou Shepherd and the Front Brigade Grand Governor were quite good, they alone had no influence at court. Their survival hung on a single thought of Wang Mang.

Once the Li clan was executed, it would inevitably become an event that shook the entire Front Brigade, putting every powerful family in the commandery in peril.

To this, Diwu Lun was indifferent either way. The only problem was...

Carving up the Li clan would only fatten the Jingzhou Shepherd and the Front Brigade Grand Governor. Diwu Lun was too far away — he would not get a single sip of the broth.

Pushing the Li clan into the abyss brought him no profit. Conversely, if he pulled the Li clan up, he could seize the chance to extort a hefty sum.

Diwu Lun sighed: "Though I know this matter is far too contrived, clearing the suspicion is truly too difficult."

"A common man is guiltless, but guilt lies in possessing a jade. How many eyes at court are fixed on the Li clan? After all, your father is the Clan Master, a man of the State Preceptor's faction. And now that the Crown Prince is dead, the State Preceptor's position is awkward..."

Showing room for maneuver, then hinting at the gravity and difficulty of the matter — this was reaching out a hand to the Li family for benefits, to see what they could offer.

Li Tong understood at once and immediately broke into a smile: "Though my family is not wealthy, we do have gold, silk, coin, and grain. We are willing to offer them to the Kenubo, to help my family work through this..."

Taking money directly — how dull. Diwu Lun shook his head. He was not particularly short of coin and grain right now, and with Guanzhong and Nanyang so far apart, even if Li Tong wanted to send grain in installments, it would be far too troublesome.

Li Tong added: "In my family there are several sisters, of beautiful appearance..."

Diwu Lun laughed in spite of himself. Marriage alliances — more was not necessarily better. Not every female was to be shoved his way.

Earlier, Li Tong had wanted to play the pig to eat the tiger, but he did not know that what Diwu Lun loved most were tiger-warriors. Had he straightforwardly displayed his intelligence, Diwu Lun might well have been willing to forge this favorable connection.

Now, the one playing the pig had become a real pig, and could only lie flat and take the slaughter.

"Iron."

Diwu Lun reminded Li Tong of his family's most abundant asset: "I have heard that the Li clan inherited the enterprises of the Kong clan of Wan. Your household has over a hundred smelting and casting craftsmen, and also manages the Price-Stabilization Market and the iron workshop for the court."

As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Chu and Han had already exploited Nanyang's iron deposits, giving rise to the saying: "The great iron lances of Wan, cruel as the sting of wasps and scorpions."

After entering the Qin and Han, Nanyang's iron resources were developed even further. The Kong clan of Wan was the most famous, amassing wealth through smelting and casting. By the time of Emperor Wu of Han, the Kong clan was even managing iron-office affairs for him. At the height of Wancheng's smelting industry, the ironware for dozens of commanderies in the west and southwest was all distributed and transported by the Nanyang Iron Office.

After the Kong clan declined, their junior offshoot, the Li clan, inherited their position. The iron workshop — nominally state-run, in reality privately owned — was the greatest pillar upon which the Li clan stood unshaken.

Though Guanzhong was the gathering place of the realm's wealth, its copper and iron resources were not abundant. It too had iron offices, but only four in total: Zheng County in Yiwei Commandery, Xiayang in Shiwei Commandery, Yong in Jingwei Commandery, and finally, Qi County at the far north of Diwu Lun's home base, Liewei Commandery.

For now, Diwu Lun still could not reach into the iron offices. He could only purchase smelted raw and wrought iron through various channels for further processing. But to prepare for the future, the iron-smelting enterprise had to be built up eventually, and built up big, to secure a steady supply of the tools needed for farming and warfare.

So Diwu Lun had also sent his own trade caravans to search for blacksmiths everywhere, but truly skilled smiths were indeed hard to acquire. They were either in workshops controlled by the government or attached to powerful magnates. Skilled workers were strategic resources — training a single apprentice took no less than several years of effort.

Yet in the Li clan's hands, from mining experts to master smelting and casting craftsmen, there were more than could be counted. Many had served his family for generations, as if they were bondservants.

When Li Tong learned that what Diwu Lun demanded was actually ironworking craftsmen, he looked at the Kenubo with considerable astonishment.

Wealth — he did not covet.

Women — he was not beguiled by.

The moment he opened his mouth, he actually wanted Li Tong to send batches of smelting and casting blacksmiths, dozen by dozen, off to Liewei Commandery. Smelt iron for what? It could not be for casting plowshares to farm, could it? This Diwu Lun had grand designs — he never expected a kindred spirit!

But right now, he dared not speak, and he dared not ask.

This was destined to be an unfair transaction. From beginning to end, Diwu Lun never guaranteed the Li family's absolute safety. He only promised to report the matter "truthfully."

Whether the Li family lived or died still rested entirely on the sovereign's whim. When the time came, Diwu Lun would not say half a word extra to implicate himself.

But this transaction, Li Tong could only grit his teeth and make. At the very least, it bought his family time and a chance to survive.

Having talked to this point, Diwu Lun resumed addressing Li Tong by his courtesy name: "Ciyuan, who do you think was behind this attack?"

Li Tong insisted through clenched teeth: "It must be the Greenwood bandits!"

Diwu Lun was amused: "The Greenwood bandits down in Jiangxia to the south have never been fond of roaming far. They keep their backs to the great mountains. With eight hundred li of distance between us, and the Jingzhou Shepherd's twenty-thousand-strong army blocking the way in between, how could they have come all the way to the vicinity of Wancheng?"

"A large band could not, but a small mounted detachment could." Li Tong strove to steer the matter back toward his original scheme.

Diwu Lun tapped his fingers on the desk: "What you say makes sense. But the Greenwood bandits are mostly men of Nan Commandery and Jiangxia, unfamiliar with the Front Brigade. To have penetrated this deep, surely some local magnate must have guided and sheltered them?"

He looked at Li Tong: "Ciyuan, the Li clan must examine itself and actively cooperate with the authorities, striving to clear suspicion as soon as possible. But apart from your family, which powerful house in the Front Brigade might be colluding with Greenwood?"

Li Tong froze. The name Liu Bosheng of Chongling was right on the tip of his tongue, but he recalled the surveillance men saying that Diwu Lun had an old connection with Bosheng's younger brother and had even exchanged jade with him. He swallowed the name back down and only said: "I... do not know either."

This Li Tong was interesting — at a time like this, he still would not bite recklessly. It seemed that beneath the mediocrity he had always feigned lay a truly stout heart. But now, it was no longer up to him.

After Li Tong had withdrawn, Diwu Lun summoned Cheng Zhong: "In my view, it is not only the Li clan that is suspect. Every clan and powerful house in Nanyang — the Yin and Deng of Xinye, even the Liu of Anzhong and the Liu of Chongling — all must be thoroughly investigated!"

What fun was picking them off one by one?

Since they wanted to draw the court's attention southward, to leave Guanzhong empty, then he would simply kick the entire hornet's nest and drag them all into an area-of-effect strike together!

Diwu Lun decided that before this journey ended, he would leave the powerful families of the Forward Division a grand surprise.

The Master of Fates of the Five Majesties might be good for nothing else, but when it came to torturing the innocent into false confessions and driving the hesitant straight into the court's opposition, they never disappointed!

Besides, from what Diwu Lun had seen along the way, many of those powerful clans deserved an X on the list anyway — different roads leading to the same end, it could hardly be called unjust.

In the coming year, the Forward Division was destined for chaos; the powerful families, pushed to desperation by the court, might even stage a dream collaboration with the Greenwood to the south.

Had Li Tong known what Diwu Lun was planning, he would have shuddered. The great iron spear of Wan, venomous as a wasp's sting? This move was the true wasp's-sting poison!

And relying on the Li clan's intelligence network around Wancheng, Cen Peng quickly found the trail of the real culprits who had raided the camp the night before.

"A mounted troop was spotted leaving the western district of Wancheng, fleeing west along a side road — it seems they intend to vanish into Mount Yu in Champion County!"

"Could it be the work of those Mount Yu bandits Cen Junran once mentioned?" Diwu Lun was somewhat baffled. What would the Mount Yu outlaws gain from this? And from Li Tong, he had also learned the name of that "Great Bandit Jia" of Mount Yu.

"That man once served as a salt clerk in Champion County. Later, for reasons unknown, he gathered several hundred followers and became a bandit."

Li Tong was now holding nothing back: "His real name is 'Jia Fu'!"

……

PS: Recommending Changfeng's new book *Silent Warfare*, the third installment in his military fiction series.