Chapter 986

If the Gu family is this way, what about the others?

The hidden fields and hidden households are even more numerous, with no upper limit.

Now the Gu family is cooperating fully with the land survey: not only have they returned all leased lands to their original owners, but they've also registered all lands acquired through purchase or reclamation over the years that were never previously recorded, securing proper land deeds. Other families, nervous and hesitant, could only stand by their fields as the village head and government office runners arrived to measure them.

As they saw the government office runners recording ever-larger figures, they couldn't help but slip money to the village head.

The village head pushed it back and whispered, "I'm not refusing to help—I just can't. The county magistrate has already returned all the money he collected. Clearly, this won't fly. Don't drag me into this."

"Village head, please plead for us one more time. If we go on like this, none of us can survive."

"How can you not survive? Those with only a few mu of land are managing just fine," the village head whispered. "Don't be excessive. This is the Emperor's new policy. If the magistrate returned the money, it means this can't be done—can't be done at all!"

"The Emperor is far away—he probably doesn't even know where Dehua County is. Isn't the magistrate just old and timid?"

Another landowner joined in from the other side, pressing a silver ingot into the village head's hand and whispering, "Please plead for us again. This kind of thing—those with courage thrive, those without starve. The magistrate will serve in our county for years to come. Are you going to live off his meager salary for the rest of your life?"

The village head shook off their hands, irritated: "How can you be so unreasonable? If you keep causing trouble, you can be the village head yourselves!"

The two fell silent.

The village head took a deep breath: "The Emperor may be far, but there are censors and the Embroidered Uniform Guard! Besides, this is just a land survey—it's not asking you to pay back arrears. How many mu of land do each of you have registered under your names? Three or five hundred? And hidden? At least another fifty or a hundred! If you're all screaming now, what about the poor farmers outside who own only two or three mu but must pay double or triple the tax? Are they supposed to starve?"

"Village head, we're not the only ones doing this—you've got hidden land too. And your family has a Provincial Graduate, so you're collecting leased land. All the extra taxes paid by the poor go straight to your family and the Gu family. We won't bear this karmic burden!"

"That's right—we won't bear it!"

"Fine, don't bear it," the village head snapped. "I'll say this once: you will measure these lands—whether you like it or not. And as for the lands you've registered under my name, come collect your deeds later."

The two families were speechless.

But they no longer feared the village head.

They had flattered him only because his family produced a Provincial Graduate who could receive leased land and avoid taxes.

Without that benefit, who would even bother with them?

The three parted on bad terms, and in Dehua County, similar situations were far from rare.

The land survey in Dehua County was carried out with great fervor, and news quickly spread to neighboring Yongtai County and Quanzhou City.

County magistrates also competed with each other.

If Dehua's magistrate reported an unusually large amount of surveyed land while others merely went through the motions, the imperial report would look terrible.

Moreover, rumors whispered that Censor Xue Shao was traveling incognito among the people—who knew where he was hiding, watching them right now?

Xue Shao was anything but straightforward. Unlike other censors who followed procedure, he traveled without guards, gave no notice to any level of the bureaucracy, and wandered alone with only a page boy.

He never revealed himself; no one knew where he had slipped off to.

Last time, he disguised himself as a martial artist and infiltrated a group of righteous warriors, only revealing himself after returning from Japan—everyone then learned he had participated in the Wu Lin Alliance and Tian Shi Fu's joint campaign against pirates.

Last time, he was captured by bandits and forced to work as their merchant accountant—until he led the bandit gang's second and fourth lieutenants into the city and into prison, dismantling the entire hideout. Only then did people learn the censor had infiltrated the bandits and, in less than a month, become their fifth chief.

And last time, only after the Prefect of Jiujiang was arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and his home seized did people realize the foreign scholar the prefect's young master had taken into his household to write essays and do homework was Xue Shao. Had the Embroidered Uniform Guard not arrived in time, he would have taken the young master's place in this year's imperial examination.

Besides that last time, there was another last time.

To local officials, Xue Shao was a dragon whose head appeared but whose tail vanished—sometimes even the Embroidered Uniform Guard couldn't find him.

At least half the time, they could only locate him when he chose to contact them.

Precisely because of this, the Embroidered Uniform Guard had spent the past year reflecting deeply and concluded their civilian intelligence network was still inadequate.

A single censor, with a defined area of operation, and always working in tandem with them, still managed to slip through their fingers.

Was that reasonable?

So this year, both the Northern and Southern Commanderies had strengthened training for the Embroidered Uniform Guard and raised the difficulty of their evaluations.

This directly affected the selection of Embroidered Uniform Guards in Jingcheng.

Yun Yan had specifically petitioned the Emperor, arguing that the selection process should broaden its channels and introduce more detailed, numerous categories.

It wasn't necessary for Embroidered Uniform Guards to be highly skilled in martial arts or handsome—those assigned to undercover intelligence work could be ordinary-looking and mediocre in combat, as long as they were sharp-minded and had excellent memories.

Of course, all this was later history.

At this moment, fueled by rumors of Xue Shao, Dehua County and surrounding prefectures were on edge: they enforced the imperial court's land survey policy with great vigor, while carefully maintaining local relationships and dealing with all manner of difficult people.

Dehua County's magistrate was lucky: its largest landowner and most powerful official was the Gu family.

The Gu family cooperated willingly, but other counties' magistrates weren't so fortunate.

Among the great landowners and powerful gentry, whose families didn't have relatives serving in the imperial court?

Those with similar or comparable ranks were manageable—but the truly powerful ones? That was another matter.

If magistrates pushed too hard, they feared offending them and making enemies who would make their lives miserable.

If they went easy and faked compliance, and Xue Shao caught them, they wouldn't even wait for the landowners' powerful patrons to retaliate—Xue Shao would strip them of office first.

Thus, they agonized, agonized, and finally chose the path most aligned with their immediate interests.

Xue Shao didn't know his news in Dehua County had spread so quickly—thanks to Pan Yun, their pace had accelerated.

Riding hard southward, they quickly passed Zhangzhou and entered Chaozhou.

Xue Shao didn't stop to investigate every county—because the land survey was an urgent policy, he deliberately focused on major cases while ignoring minor ones, using large-scale enforcement to intimidate the small, a classic "kill the chicken to scare the monkeys" approach.

He hoped that after killing one chicken, the other monkeys would take warning, retract their claws, and proceed cautiously.

But before he caught that chicken, he had already frightened a whole flock of monkeys.

Chaozhou belonged to Guangdong, where fishing was thriving, no worse than Quanzhou.

The three of them entered directly into Haiyang County, the administrative seat of Chaozhou.

As soon as they entered the city, they sensed its culture was utterly different from Quanzhou's.

It was late autumn, yet many wore short jackets, knee-length shorts, and straw sandals or wooden clogs, and many carried palm-leaf fans.

Along the streets, vendors called out their wares; the two on horseback looked down and saw that most stalls sold fish balls and rice noodles.

The smell was quite fragrant.

Pan Yun's stomach growled loudly—she immediately decided to eat by the roadside.

She glanced at Xue Shao: "Eat here?"

Xue Shao nodded: "Fine."

The two dismounted; Xi Jin immediately followed, found a patch of open ground nearby, led the horses over, dropped the reins, and was about to run off when a young man blocked him: "Wait—pay to park your horses."

His imperial court Mandarin was imperfect, but understandable.

Xi Jin blinked. He turned and said: "This is open ground."

"Correct. This open ground is under my watch. Two cash per horse, six for three."

Xi Jin had never encountered this before. He stared at him skeptically: "I've never heard of paying to park horses on roadside open ground."

"Ah, then you've learned something new today. And I'm not charging you for the lesson—consider it a discount."

Xi Jin's chest tightened. He didn't want to pay. But Xue Shao, seated a short distance away, called out loudly: "Xi Jin—when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Pay him."

Xi Jin muttered two curses, then pulled out his money pouch, counted out six cash, and handed them over.

When they sat at the table and learned a bowl of fish balls cost three cash and rice noodles cost five, Xi Jin's heart clenched: "Young Master, that's enough for a bowl of rice noodles and three fish balls!"

Xue Shao smiled and pushed the first bowl of rice noodles toward him: "Enough. I just asked the vendor—here, whether local or outsider, everyone pays to park carts or horses. We paid two cash for our horses; look over there—a cart costs five. It's not just us."

Xi Jin turned and saw a man emerge from the tavern, climb into a cart, and the driver hand five cash to the man standing by the roadside.

He whistled: "Are they really this easy to make money here? Just mark off some open ground and sit there collecting cash?"

Pan Yun shook her head: "Quite the opposite. This is the hardest place to make money. Do you think anyone can just claim land here and collect fees?"

Xue Shao handed him a pair of chopsticks: "Enough worrying about money. Don't fret—I'll set up a stall and write essays for people once we're settled. Earning won't be hard."

Xi Jin remembered how popular his Young Master's essays always were. His worries lifted, and he brightened, returning the bowl: "Young Master, you eat first?"

"You eat first. You've been running back and forth, arranging everything on this journey—you've worked harder than we have."

Xi Jin passed it to Pan Yun.

Pan Yun said: "You eat first. We barely ate at noon. Xue Shao and I can wait. You cannot."

Xi Jin: "Young Lady, you eat first—I heard thunder in your stomach."

Pan Yun glared at him: "Just eat. Why so much talk? That wasn't hunger—that was craving!"

Xi Jin finally pulled the bowl close and devoured it.

As he slurped the noodles, the broth's fragrance drifted into the air. Pan Yun grew even hungrier.

She pressed her stomach, trying to silence it.

Xue Shao smiled, saw the vendor still slicing noodles, but a large pot of ready fish balls steaming nearby, and said: "Vendor, bring us three bowls of fish balls first."

The little girl helping her parents immediately set out three bowls, dipped a large ladle into the pot, and poured—tilting, jiggling—each bowl filled with exactly ten glistening white fish balls.

A boy, even younger than the girl, carried the bowls over.

Pan Yun turned aside to let him place them on the table, glanced down at his bare feet, and smiled: "How old are you?"

The boy's clothes were clean, his face and fingers washed, but his feet had no sandals—only slapped against the stone slabs. He looked up at Pan Yun, then turned and chattered rapidly in his native tongue.

The girl, adding firewood to the stove, replied in imperfect imperial court Mandarin: "Miss, my brother is six. He doesn't speak imperial court Mandarin yet."

In truth, not just the boy—neither did the vendor nor his wife. Earlier, the girl had translated their order.

Pan Yun looked at the busy girl with curiosity and warmth, then dipped her spoon into the fish balls.

Their fish balls weren't pure white—they held flecks of green and red, one on each side, perfectly symmetrical.

Pan Yun glanced curiously, then bit into one.

The fish ball was springy and firm, with no fishy stink—only a clean, fresh fish aroma. Best of all, inside was a crisp texture, as if wrapped in some filling.

Pan Yun savored it. Xue Shao tasted one, and smiled with delight.

When the rice noodles arrived, they had already finished one bowl of fish balls and were sipping the broth slowly.

It wasn't mealtime, so after serving their three portions, the family fell idle again.

With one bowl of fish balls inside her, Pan Yun's craving eased. She ate her noodles while chatting: "Your fish balls are delicious. What's inside?"

The vendor and his wife looked uneasy, muttered a few words. Pan Yun barely caught the word "scallion."

The girl said: "If the guest likes it, that's enough. Our fish balls are the best on this whole street. Some guests say even the ones from Piao Xiang Lou can't match ours. So we must keep our secret—this is how we'll earn our future."

Pan Yun nodded: "Understood."

She glanced at the girl's parents, then at the girl, and smiled: "You're the only one here who speaks imperial court Mandarin well. Why?"

The girl looked puzzled: "I don't know. I just listened, and I learned. My parents—they just can't learn it."

She was frustrated too, you know?

Pan Yun burst out laughing: "Probably because few people here speak imperial court Mandarin."

After eating, Xue Shao paid, then asked about schools and bookshops.

Again, the girl pointed the way.

Xue Shao thought her clever and bright: "If the imperial court opens community schools widely, you should go. You'll learn imperial court Mandarin—and how to grow your fish ball stall into a shop, into bigger business."

The girl's eyes lit up: "Can girls go to school too?"

"Of course," Xue Shao said. "The imperial court opens community schools without regard to gender."

Pan Yun also liked her wit. She thought a moment, folded a lucky talisman into a triangle, and handed it to her: "This will bring you good fortune. Work hard—perhaps your wishes will come true."

The girl took it, eyes shining, then turned and pointed elsewhere: "Young Master, Young Lady—Piao Xiang Lou is over there. I've heard guests say it holds poetry gatherings. You're scholars—aren't you going to the poetry gathering?"