Chapter 991

China's coastline is long; no matter how powerful the Great Ming navy is, it cannot guard every inlet—so long as one is determined, going to sea isn't hard, but surviving the vast ocean and returning is.

The landlord is clearly a shrewd character.

Before he arrived, Pan Yun had already dug up his entire family lineage.

When the landlord and his younger brother brought up the grilled fish, everyone subtly changed the subject.

But what's there to talk about in Chaozhou?

Pan Yun and Xue Shao steered the conversation, and everyone spilled out everything they'd seen, heard, or even guessed—about this family, that household.

The people living in this courtyard worked as porters for shops, carried goods for officials and gentry, or took short-term jobs for landlords…

One even had a mother who worked as a wet nurse in the Vice Prefect's household; after finishing the farm work, he came to the city hoping she'd arrange a long-term job for him.

But the Vice Prefect's family was modest and didn't want another long-term servant, so he could only rent a room in this courtyard and join everyone else looking for short-term work in the city.

"I'll work until the twelfth month, then go home. My mother says these days, being a long-term servant is worse than farming at home—tend your land well, and it's better than risking your life under a master's whim. I think she's right, but I need to marry a wife and raise children later, so I must earn more while I'm young."

Pan Yun picked off a piece of fish belly meat and asked with a smile, "Besides marrying a wife and raising children, haven't you thought of anything else?"

"What else is there to think about besides marrying a wife and raising children?"

Pan Yun: "After you raise your children, what then? Nothing left to aim for?"

"Save money for them so they can marry and have children."

Pan Yun paused her chopsticks and pressed, "And when your son has children?"

His dark face brightened into a cheerful grin. "If I'm still alive then, I'll hand over the farming to my son and come back to the city to do short-term work, saving money so my grandson can marry and have children."

Pan Yun looked at his beaming face, her eyes suddenly stinging. She suppressed her sorrow, nodded slightly, and placed the piece of fish she'd set aside into his bowl. "Eat. Have more."

He happily ate: "Miss Pan, what were you asking about just now?"

"The Feng family—have you heard of them?"

"Of course. Who in this city hasn't? Half the land in Chaozhou belongs to the Feng family."

The landlord, who had just returned from delivering the last of the grilled fish, snorted: "What do you mean 'Feng family's'? That's the Emperor's land—just borrowed by the Fengs."

The laborers stared blankly, incredulous: "What? The Emperor's? But the Emperor doesn't care? He just lets old man Feng take it?"

"The Feng elder and the Emperor must be close friends…"

"Close? Pfft," said the landlord. "Does the Emperor even know who the Fengs are? He probably never heard the name."

The laborers grew anxious: "If the Emperor doesn't know him, isn't that theft? All that land—and the Emperor just ignores it?"

The landlord: "The Emperor's estate is vast. To us common folk, that land seems enormous—but to him, it's a single hair on a nine-headed ox. Not worth mentioning."

The laborers sighed: "That's such a waste. Is the Emperor getting senile?"

Pan Yun couldn't help saying: "The Emperor isn't old—he hasn't even reached adulthood."

The laborers: "Another child emperor? Will he, like the last one, have eunuchs surrounding him?"

The landlord waved dismissively: "All emperors have eunuchs. This one's the younger brother of the last—definitely even younger."

"Wasn't the last one a child emperor for ages? Ten or more years ago they said he was young—hasn't he grown old by now?"

Only the common folk near Jingcheng had a rough sense of the Emperor's age. The rest of the populace, especially those southward or into the mountains, couldn't read, barely remembered the reign titles, let alone the Emperor's age.

If not for the local officials forcing village heads and patrol leaders to ring bells and beat drums to announce each new Emperor—ordering households to replace red decorations with white hemp—they wouldn't even know the Emperor had changed.

Some didn't even know the previous Emperor died on the battlefield.

Only ordinary folk in the north, central plains, and Jiangnan knew—because they lived closer to the center, and because their economies were advanced, information flowed faster.

Beyond Fujian—no, after Quanzhou—the farther south you went, the more isolated the common folk became. Without official announcements, they were cut off from the world, ignorant of everything.

Official information reached scholars and gentry, and people like the landlord who knew travelers from north and south—but laborers like these? They knew nothing.

Beyond them lived countless farmers in mountain villages, some of whom had never left their homes in their lives. In their memories, the Emperor was still Hongwu—the mighty emperor who rescued the Han people from fire and water.

They didn't know the throne had changed hands again and again, and that the current ruler was Hongwu's great-great-grandson.

Tonight's grilled fish feast became an informal information exchange.

Pan Yun and Xue Shao learned from them that Feng Ban Cheng's land consisted of half military farmland and half acquired, seized, or encroached upon farmland, official land, and military plots.

They also learned that nearly all soldiers of the Chaozhou Garrison had become Feng Ban Cheng's private troops.

One laborer clucked: "My village is at Xian Long Bay. My father said, before, all the land east of the bay belonged to our village—then Feng Ban Cheng marched in with soldiers, fenced it off, claimed the garrison needed to train there, tied ropes, put up fences—and suddenly over a hundred mu became the Feng family's."

"That much land, no village, only people coming for spring planting and autumn harvest—thin as sticks. Whole families work for Feng Ban Cheng. I asked, the head of the household was a military household. I know his son—he's called Da Chun. He said he needs to marry a fertile wife, have many sons, so only one can join the army, the rest sent off to other work. Otherwise, like his father, who only had one son, he'd be stuck waiting to inherit the duty—spending his whole life farming for Feng Ban Cheng. He's worse off than me."

Xue Shao: "When Feng Ban Cheng seized your village's best land, didn't your village protest?"

"We did protest. So the county office compensated us with land north of Xian Long Bay. That land's much worse—but if we kept protesting, we'd get nothing. My father and the others gave up."

Xue Shao narrowed his eyes, instantly understanding: "That northern land was official land, wasn't it?"

"Yes! How did you know?"

Pan Yun clucked: "So now, is Feng's crime encroaching on civilian land or official land? In the end, it's all a muddy mess."