Tigers Sniff the Rose - Chapter 109

Chapter 109

In Shuzhong, Yan Shang first applied pressure to the major aristocratic families.

In his capacity as an official sent by the central government to inspect the region, he forcefully demanded that these families, who were not lacking in grain or wealth, turn over their stockpiles to provide unconditional disaster relief to the government.

Under normal circumstances, when government granaries were insufficient, officials would request these families to contribute money or resources. Yet, Yan Shang’s demand was truly excessive this time; he wanted them to turn over more than eighty percent of their grain. With such a massive amount of grain taken away, the families’ own day-to-day operations would inevitably be affected.

The families sent people to lobby him, explaining their difficulties and claiming that it was not that they were unwilling to share the burden of the nation, but that the amount of grain demanded by the government was simply too large for them to fulfill.

However, Yan Shang’s attitude was resolute, leaving them no room to argue.

For three consecutive days, different families sent people to find Yan Shang. Finally, they even enlisted a highly respected elder patriarch from the local area, along with two military administrators from the local government offices, to plead with Yan Shang not to be so unreasonable.

That night, the group talked until their throats were dry in Yan Shang’s study. Seeing that the young official sent from the capital was only drinking tea and reviewing official documents, completely ignoring them, they harbored silent rage in their hearts. They thought, who was it that said this official looked young, was easy to fool, and was easy to talk to?

The elder patriarch they had brought along began to cough. The old man’s coughing was earth-shaking, drawing the attention of the page, Yun Shu, who stood beside Yan Shang grinding ink.

Yun Shu went over to invite the old man to sit, serving him tea and water to ease his coughing. His master, Yan Shang, finally lifted his face from the mountain of official documents, looking over with concern: "If you are not feeling well, elder, why not go back early and rest? These are mere trifles, not worth worrying about."

The elder patriarch’s temper flared instantly, and he hammered his walking stick against the floor with a series of heavy thuds: "Mere trifles? Not worth worrying about?!"

Yan Shang replied gently: "Is it not?"

Seeing the other party was refined and elegant, looking like a true scholar, the old man could not help but speak earnestly: "Young Master Yan, we understand. You have come to this place for disaster relief. Otherwise, a high-ranking capital official with a bright future like yourself would never come to such a poor and remote place as ours. Young Master Yan has always served in Chang'an, accustomed to the overwhelming wealth of the capital’s aristocratic families, and naturally, you do not know the hardships of people like us."

Yan Shang made no comment.

Seeing he did not interrupt, the old man felt there was hope and spoke even more emotionally: "To tell you the truth, we claim to be an aristocratic family ourselves, but once outside Yizhou, which of the great families in the world acknowledges us? They all say we are from the local power-broker class with no true foundation. We send our children to study, to learn the classics, to become officials... all just so we can truly stand among the great families.

"So, Young Master Yan may have felt we were wealthy upon first arriving here, but it is not really so. We have honestly stayed in Yizhou for a hundred years, never once oppressing the people or acting as a scourge on the countryside. Perhaps some ignorant commoners have said things to Young Master Yan about us, but that is all false. We and the commoners..."

Yan Shang interrupted: "I have come for disaster relief, not to mediate the conflicts between you and the commoners. You probably don’t need to tell me about these things, do you?"

The elder patriarch froze for a moment. Seeing Yan Shang’s attitude was amicable, he steered the conversation back: "That is true, that is true. Disaster relief is important, disaster relief is important. What I want to say is... Young Master Yan, you think only of the commoners; you are a good official. But you must also leave us a way to survive. If we fall, can we still support Yizhou? Yizhou is very wealthy... but Yizhou is so vast. Our remote little county really cannot be compared to the prefectural capital.

"If Young Master Yan insists on forcefully levying grain, you are forcing us to our deaths! This old man will not leave tonight; I will simply strike my head against the pillar in front of your door to show my determination!"

As he spoke, the old man stood up, trembling, and moved to strike the pillar. The group of young men in the room hurriedly blocked him, repeating, "The Young Master certainly did not mean that." Yan Shang was also startled by this old patriarch and stood up from behind his desk to check on him.

The old patriarch’s face was streamed with tears as he grabbed Yan Shang’s hand, pleading incessantly.

Yan Shang sighed and asked: "Can you truly not afford this amount of grain?"

Everyone replied: "We truly cannot afford it! If we could afford it at all, we would clench our teeth and pay it; how would we dare to come find the Young Master again and again to beg for flexibility?"

Yan Shang said quietly: "And yet, I heard that the disaster did not affect you. Supposedly, you all own countless acres of fertile land; how could you not be affected..."

Everyone exclaimed excitedly: "Who said that?! Of course we were affected! The disaster was so sudden that our household food reserves were exhausted long ago! If not for the sake of face, we would have already sent people to the government offices to collect disaster relief grain!"

Yan Shang remained indifferent: "If you were truly short of grain, you would have gone to the government offices to collect it long ago. Since I am still able to shave off a portion of grain from you now, it shows you are not lacking... I am very curious, why is it that you are not lacking?"

Just as everyone was about to explain in a jumble of voices, the elderly patriarch waved his hand to make everyone shut up. He looked deeply at Yan Shang, and Yan Shang smiled gently at him. By this time, the elder patriarch was deep in thought, having likely realized what it was that this young gentleman truly wanted.

The old patriarch weighed his words: "The reason we have been able to hold on until now is that we bought grain from local wealthy merchants. Although we spent three times the market price, we managed to buy grain..."

Yan Shang’s voice grew cold: "If none of you have grain, how could the wealthy merchants have any? Even if merchants hoard some goods, the disaster has been going on for several months; the stockpiled grain should have been used up long ago. How could they still have any? Where did that grain come from?"

The old patriarch replied cautiously: "Some of them hoarded grain long ago; merchants travel north and south and have more foresight than we do..."

Yan Shang laughed and said: "The disaster happened suddenly, yet the merchants had a faster reaction than everyone else? If they truly had such great ability, why go into business? I would recommend them to the Ministry of Revenue without hesitation."

The old patriarch sighed.

Having reached this point, he roughly understood the meaning behind this imperial official’s words.

The old patriarch said helplessly: "Then Young Master, how do you want us to cooperate with you? If we cooperate, can the grain we are supposed to turn over be reduced?"

Yan Shang: "I only need you to personally identify which merchants are still daring to inflate grain prices to this day. I will naturally pay a visit personally to ask how they came to have such foresight in their business dealings." —

Through the hands of the aristocratic families, he would root out the merchants who were getting rich in this place.

The merchants knew their actions could not be conspicuous and acted very secretly. If Yan Shang had not pushed those aristocratic families to the edge of ruin, they would never have bitten back at these merchants. When Yan Shang received the list, he saw that the largest among these merchants was, in fact, the richest man in Yizhou.

Even the richest man was profiting from this national disaster!

What more was there to say? He naturally had to take the evidence and go to their door for questioning.

This richest man’s surname was Chen, known as Master Chen. He usually maintained a good reputation. When Yan Shang visited his mansion at night, he was not in the least bit flustered, having been prepared long ago.

Master Chen invited Yan Shang to take the seat of honor and had his steward bring the account books for Yan Shang to look at: "Young Master, look, I have been doing business honestly from beginning to end. The grain was bought by me, not stolen. Selling it was mutually satisfactory; even if the price is a bit high, given the current situation in Yizhou, isn’t it only natural for it to be a bit expensive? If it were cheaper, my mansion would have long since been emptied by those commoners.

"I am willing to sell, and others are willing to buy. What fault is there in that?"

Yan Shang scanned the account book he submitted and said: "A month before the disaster began, you started stockpiling grain? What kind of grain were you stockpiling back then?"

Master Chen’s expression remained unchanged: "Just a merchant’s intuition. Young Master, you have never been in business, so naturally, you don’t understand."

Yan Shang made no comment. In truth, he actually understood quite a bit about trade routes.

One reason was that he was now in the Ministry of Revenue and would more or less see some of the methods merchants used; another reason was his younger third brother, who had refused to study properly since he was a child.

His third brother had liked to tinker with these things since he was a child, earning a little money. One could even say that because Yan Shang’s father was not skilled in management, the Yan family’s appearance of being well-off in Lingnan was all thanks to the tinkering of the Third Young Master Yan. Perhaps, had commerce not been seen as a lowly path that could hinder a family’s path through scholarship, his third brother would have abandoned literature for business long ago.

As Yan Shang flipped through these account books, he could think of the times his third brother had nagged him about how to make money. Yan Shang said: "In one month’s time, it is impossible for you to stockpile so much grain. Even if you opened trade routes to transport grain from other prefectures and counties, one month is not enough time. Furthermore, the price you bought it at was far lower than the market price. If you did all this in one month, I will temporarily believe you have a way with business, worthy of your name as the richest man in Yizhou. But the amount is too large; relying on you alone, it is impossible."

Yan Shang lowered his eyes, calculating the figures in his heart.

Master Chen was unconvinced: "Young Master cannot say I cannot do it just because you cannot do it yourself."

Yan Shang: "That is to say, the amount of money you spent matches exactly the amount of grain you bought. All these figures add up?"

Master Chen said proudly: "Yes! The account books all match, not a single penny off! Even if you investigate, Young Master, I am innocent!"

Yan Shang raised his eyelids: "The only possibility for you to have done this is that one month before the disaster began, someone secretly notified you... Outside of the Shu Prefecture, transportation to all the counties in Yizhou is blocked. Even if you found a buyer, you could not have transported the grain in perfectly intact. Don’t you need to reward all the local snakes along the way? Didn’t you encounter a single bandit along the way? Did the grain transporters not eat a single bite of food, starving for thirty days, to deliver the grain to you perfectly intact?"

Master Chen was stunned and wanted to argue for a moment, but sweat broke out on his forehead, realizing he had made a mistake—he had made his accounts too perfect!

Yan Shang threw the account book down, stood up, and his anger flickered: "The only possibility is that one month before the disaster, you bought the grain from the government! You made use of the government warehouses! The grain in the warehouse was sold off long ago, the figures didn't match long ago, so now you are mixing it with water and debris... you are just fooling everyone, looking for mutual convenience!

"You—you have such audacity! You knew a month before the disaster... yet you didn't report it to the Imperial Court, but instead did business privately?! Where do you place the law of the land? Do you have the central government in your eyes? One month before the disaster began! Instead of preparing how to stop the disaster, you were pondering how to profit from a national crisis? The ten thousand households of Yizhou—are they like a child’s game in your eyes? Do they deserve to die?"

With such a grave accusation thrown at him, Master Chen was immediately covered in cold sweat, his fat body trembling.

He knelt down with a heavy thud, weeping miserably: "Young Master, Young Master! I was unaware of all that; it has nothing to do with me... I am just a businessman. If someone wants to sell, I buy. If someone wants to buy, I sell! I just earn the price difference in the middle!

"I—I have also donated money! The grain the government is now using for disaster relief also includes my donations! I took the lead in getting other merchants to donate together."

Yan Shang closed his eyes, forcing himself to hold back.

He told himself this was only a merchant, and he hadn't reached the bigger fish yet...

He said: "Turn over all your remaining grain!"

Master Chen looked up blankly, not expecting Yan Shang to let them off so lightly: "Young Master... wants to buy grain from us?"

Yan Shang looked at him.

Master Chen suddenly realized the other party did not want to buy grain, but to requisition it for free. Cold sweat broke out all over him; how could they dare do such a big thing?

He stuttered: "Young Master, you are cutting off our path to survival! If we turn it over, we don’t know how many of us will have our families destroyed because we cannot keep up with our finances... Young Master, you cannot tell us to die! We are only doing business; you cannot force us to die! Why can’t you think from our perspective?"

Thinking of this, he began to wail while he spoke: "Normally, we are looked down upon by the world, told we only have eyes for money. Now that we’ve finally managed to earn a little money, the Young Master wants to empty us out... We worked so hard to earn this money! We are not the ones who exploited the commoners! We didn't do evil deeds! It was just business! Business is not a crime! We didn't harm anyone else’s interests; we just earned our own profit. Is that not allowed? Young Master, why won’t you think for us?"

Yan Shang lowered his head, looking at the fat man clutching his legs and weeping with snot and tears all over his face. For the first time, he felt a sense of disgust, saying coldly: "You harmed the interests of the commoners! Yes, from beginning to end, your business was done with the aristocratic families. However, you inflated grain prices; wouldn't other prices fluctuate along with them? And the grain you had at the beginning was bought from the government... The fact that there isn't enough disaster relief grain now—does it have nothing to do with your initial business dealings? Even if you sell the grain to the commoners now... how many can afford it!

"You have disturbed the entire market into a mess, and now you tell me you were just doing business, just using the price difference to earn money, and that you are innocent? Yes, from your perspective, you are very innocent. But I cannot stand from your perspective!"

Master Chen wailed: "Young Master Yan! Is it that in your eyes there is only public interest, and no private interest? Must you force these little families to their deaths for the sake of everyone else? Are we not commoners? Do you have no feelings at all? Should merchants just go and die?"

Yan Shang pulled his sleeve from the man’s grasp. His heart calmed for a moment, but he quickly told himself not to be influenced by Master Chen.

In the eyes of merchants, they were not at fault. They would even help with disaster relief, providing grain and money... Perhaps Master Chen’s behavior would even be praised as an act of kindness by the commoners outside. And someone like Yan Shang, who forced Master Chen to disperse his wealth to the public, would be cursed as a "dog official."

The commoners are ignorant.

However, as he had said, Yan Shang could not stand in the merchants’ position.

Amidst the wailing of the other man, Yan Shang finally said: "I can give you a path to survive."

Kneeling on the ground, Master Chen immediately looked up with a face full of tears.

Yan Shang said: "I want to hear you identify which officials in Yizhou knew the disaster was about to begin one month before it started. After the disaster began, whether you continued to do business with officials. Which officials were in contact with you..."

Master Chen sat stunned in silence. Suddenly, he scrambled up, intending to strike a nearby pillar.

Yan Shang was quick-handed. When the other party rushed out, he had already been alert. Master Chen did not strike it, but was pulled back by Yan Shang’s palm. Yan Shang groaned in pain, but he gripped the man’s shoulder, his eyes like ice and cold swords.

Yan Shang said quietly: "I know you are afraid, that you don’t dare to speak. But either I wipe out all the merchants in Yizhou, or you listen to me and watch as the officials are brought down one by one..."

Master Chen said in terror: "Many people will die!"

Yan Shang: "Rest assured, I will not do things too excessively. I cannot move the entire Yizhou; I only need to target some of the most typical officials..." —

Through a mixture of threats and inducements, Yan Shang finally made this richest man in Yizhou choose to cooperate with him.

And with Master Chen’s help, when Yan Shang saw which officials knew about the situation, he was almost dizzy and his vision went black.

Because almost—almost the entire Yizhou, all the officials from top to bottom, knew!

Everyone knew! No one reported it to the central government!

Yan Shang gritted his teeth. After pondering for two days, he had to admit that he could not move the entire Yizhou. He could not deal with such a massive vacancy in officials, nor could he fill it. The best course of action at the moment was to start with officials whose offenses were not severe, forcing them to fight each other, dismissing some of the worst offenders, and promoting some lower-level officials who still had a conscience...

Late one night in early August, Yan Shang went to visit a military administrator—

When Yizhou underwent change, the latest topic of discussion in Chang'an was that the Emperor had completely divided the Chang'an military into the South衙 and North衙. The South衙 was still commanded by the previous generals, although the Crown Prince had arranged for a portion of his people to be among them; and the North衙 was reclaimed by the Emperor and placed under the command of a eunuch, standing above all the generals.

Eunuchs had no roots or foundation and could only rely on the Emperor. The Emperor used the eunuchs to intervene in the military, making the previously distinct military no longer Prince Qin’s private domain. Furthermore, this eunuch was personally supported by the Emperor, and Prince Qin’s side did not dare to resist.

The impoverished scholars could not temporarily suppress the aristocratic families, so the Emperor took a unique approach, actually introducing the power of the eunuchs. However, at this time, the power of the eunuchs was equivalent to the Emperor’s power, acting as the Emperor’s eyes and ears in the court. Although these scholars were dissatisfied with working with the eunuchs, they had no other way besides submitting memorials to protest.

Among the eunuchs, the most prominent one today was Liu Wenji. Controlling the North衙 in the capacity of the Imperial Inspector of the Military, with military power in his hands, how many dared not give him face?

"The winds of Chang'an have changed..." This was something court officials often sighed about recently.

However, after all, the Emperor was only testing the waters. For a figure like the Emperor, letting Liu Wenji hold military power was already the limit; it was impossible for eunuchs to intervene in all matters. Therefore, besides sighing, the most they discussed was: "What kind of person is this Liu Wenji, that he could actually control the North衙? Prince Qin must be worried now."

Prince Qin was worried.

But Prince Qin had only just been released from confinement. Even if he was anxious, he was cautious and did not follow the wishes of the world to provoke Liu Wenji and openly challenge his Imperial Father.

Seeing Prince Qin actually not suppressing Liu Wenji, the court officials were somewhat disappointed.

Scholars naturally looked down on eunuchs by nature.

Yet, there were exceptions in the world.

For example, the ritual master, Lord Zhao.

Seeing Liu Wenji now holding military power and watching his influence about to be built up by the Emperor himself, Lord Zhao was moved. Because Lord Zhao was obsessed with climbing higher, yet after so many years, he was still just a ritual master, a sinecure official with no real work.

Now that the power of the eunuchs was rising, it was an opportunity for Lord Zhao.

Because scholars all over the world looked down on eunuchs, no one would attach themselves to them! But if Lord Zhao was the first to do so... if one day Liu Wenji truly held overwhelming power, the Zhao family’s wealth and glory would arrive!

The concern was twofold: first, whether Liu Wenji could truly achieve overwhelming power, or whether, after the Emperor used Liu Wenji to balance Prince Qin, he would make this eunuch step down before he became too big; and second, if a prestigious and pure family like the Zhao family were the first to attach themselves to a eunuch, they would be excluded and looked down upon by all other aristocratic families. In the future, within the aristocratic circles, the Zhao family would likely become a target of attack.

Lord Zhao worried for three days, yet he still made up his mind—so what if he was looked down upon by the aristocratic families? What was most important for the Zhao family now was to first rank among the first-tier aristocratic families! Once the Zhao family had prestige, wouldn't those other aristocratic families want to attach themselves to them?

But now, how was he to pledge his loyalty to Liu Wenji?

Liu Wenji naturally knew that those scholars looked down on him, but he did not know that a Lord Zhao was scratching his head and craning his neck, looking for an opportunity to attach himself to him. Liu Wenji now had to hold onto the North衙 tightly, helping the Emperor completely reclaim the military strength of the North衙.

The Emperor wanted to cut the influence behind Prince Qin, and Liu Wenji naturally had to play the role of the blade in the Emperor’s hand. His one opportunity was not easy to come by; would he retreat just because his reputation was not good?

However, Liu Wenji did not expect that when he first represented the North衙 and met with all the military personnel of Chang'an, he would see someone he did not want to see in the crowd.

The other party also looked at him blankly, obviously not expecting him to have reached his current position.

This person was the current Great General of the Right Guard, Luo Xiu. He was the envoy who had previously openly come to Chang'an for the Wu barbarians, but was actually there for the South barbarians.

This Luo Xiu had traded privately with Liu Wenji, obtaining intelligence on the Great Wei. He had thought he could send it to the King of the South barbarians, but Meng Zai Shi had kept Luo Xiu in Chang'an. Fortunately, Luo Xiu had later met a Wu barbarian named Han Shuxing and entrusted him with the intelligence to deliver to the South barbarians for him.

Luo Xiu himself was in Chang'an, mutually excluded from the Chang'an officialdom. No official took him seriously; as the Great General of the Right Guard, he was merely being kept in Chang'an by the Great Wei under a pretext... Luo Xiu had also not expected that he would see Liu Wenji again one day.

Seeing that the little eunuch from that day now held military power... Luo Xiu felt a stir in his heart, thinking about whether both sides could continue to cooperate and overthrow the Great Wei.

And Liu Wenji, looking at this Luo Xiu, thought only: This person cannot be allowed to live.

If this person lived, his private communications with the South barbarians would be discovered. Only if Luo Xiu died could he be safe.

Among the gathered military men, Luo Xiu gave a friendly smile to the beardless eunuch. Liu Wenji stared at him for a long time, then also revealed a smile and made a friendly gesture—he would get the man over here, and then kill him.

The trouble was that the other party was an official and a hostage left behind by the Wu barbarians, so killing him would be somewhat troublesome. He had to think of a secure method—

Inside the Eastern Palace, the Crown Prince received news from the disaster relief in Yizhou.

The news was not sent back by Yan Shang, but rather through the Ministry of Revenue, from the officials of Yizhou requesting—Yan Shang was being too excessive.

The Crown Prince gritted his teeth: "I only sent him to provide disaster relief! Isn't it enough for him to just properly provide relief? Now he wants to move the entire officialdom of Yizhou?"

The Vice Minister of Revenue who brought the news was deeply worried: "Sending Second Young Master Yan to provide disaster relief this time, I am afraid we sent the wrong person. Second Young Master Yan is careful and bold, but his heart is perhaps too careful... I fear that if we let him continue investigating like this, he will uncover an earth-shattering case, and none of us will be able to stay out of it."

The Crown Prince was silent for a long time.

The Crown Prince said slowly: "I am not afraid of the change in Yizhou’s officialdom... I am afraid that this change will affect the Ministry of Revenue. How can we allow the Second Young Master Yan to act recklessly in such an important place as the Ministry of Revenue?"

Vice Minister of Revenue: "Fortunately, September is almost here; once the drought season passes, Second Young Master Yan will have no reason to stay in Yizhou..."

The Crown Prince said quietly: "He has moved Yizhou so much; I fear he won't be able to leave Yizhou alive."

The two fell silent.

However, the Crown Prince whispered again: "No, I cannot pin my hopes on external forces, and I cannot pin my hopes on the possibility that Yan Suchen is willing to stop... I have never dared to underestimate Yan Suchen’s ability. If Yizhou does not swallow Second Young Master Yan, it will be troublesome if Second Young Master Yan turns around to deal with the Ministry of Revenue... The urgent matter is to end the disaster relief, send new officials, and recall Yan Suchen!" —

It rained in Chang'an that day.

The summer heat was oppressive, and even a rainstorm did not do much to alleviate the dryness and heat.

Mu Wanyao was lounging in her Princess mansion, resting. After eating two slices of ice-chilled green melon, she received a notification that the Crown Prince and the Vice Minister of Revenue had come to visit.

Mu Wanyao was stunned, because usually, she was the one who visited the Crown Prince at the Eastern Palace; this was the first time the Crown Prince had come to visit her in person.

The Crown Prince arrived through the rain, his shoulders soaked after entering the chamber. The Vice Minister of Revenue paid his respects to the Princess on the side. The Crown Prince did not even have time to organize his appearance before he handed the memorial sent from Yizhou to Mu Wanyao.

The Crown Prince stared at Mu Wanyao: "Yan Shang must be recalled! The officials of Yizhou are now filled with indignation; if the Second Young Master Yan stays in Yizhou any longer, it is highly likely that he will not survive."

Seeing the memorial, Mu Wanyao’s face turned pale as she saw the dissatisfaction the officials held toward Yan Shang. She was also worried about Yan Shang’s safety... It was only disaster relief; how could he cause such a massive stir? She had heard that many places in Yizhou were difficult to civilize; Yan Shang would be very dangerous there, wouldn't he?

Mu Wanyao’s heart was in torment, and she could not help but ask the Crown Prince: "What is Eldest Brother’s meaning?"

Crown Prince: "I want Yan Shang to come back. But I fear the Secretariat will not issue this decree, as Yan Shang’s teacher is in the Secretariat and will block this part of the process. Master Liu is dedicated to the world and has many students, so he will not care about Suchen’s safety. However, we care... I fear that if I order Yan Shang back, he will not come.

"Then I must hope to borrow your influence, Little Sister.

"Just say that you are severely ill and your life is in danger, and tell Yan Shang to return to Chang'an and not to manage the affairs of Yizhou anymore!

"We are doing this for Yan Shang’s own good! Little Sister, you know what the officialdom is like nowadays; no one is truly clean... Yan Shang cannot continue to investigate!" —

The wind and rain were raging.

In the Shu Prefecture of Yizhou, a number of officials gathered together. Led by the Prefect of Yizhou, they were discussing—

"Yan Shang cannot be kept. If he stays any longer, our Yizhou will have a total change of blood.

"Hire knights-errant and bandits, and do away with him."