xymnovel Chapter 160 Official Behavior
Chapter 160 Official Behavior
Yang Jin, the Ninth Protector, was hiding in a place far away in Yunting City, which required him to travel from west to east across the entire urban area of Jiangyin.
Shao Shuyi led ten men to find the Liu brothers nearby, boarded the two covered boats, and then traveled along the dense network of waterways, arriving in Yunting City that afternoon, where they docked in the backyard of a house.
When the boat stopped, Liu Bao and Liu Gen looked around strangely, but didn't say anything.
Shao Shuyi and the others stepped onto the shore using stone planks.
Wu Heizi and Gao Daqiang were already the two generals, each leading three or four people, and they dispersed into the bamboo forest, paulownia trees and metasequoia trees, scanning the surroundings.
Surrounded by Tie Niu and Bian Yuanheng, Shao Shuyi had Yang Jin step forward and knock on the door.
At first there was no movement, and everyone waited patiently.
After a long while, a frail old woman opened the back door, squinted at the door, and muttered, "Going to kill someone again." With that, she slowly turned around, went back to her bedroom, lay down, and ignored everything that was happening outside.
Shao Shuyi quickly glanced at the furnishings inside the room.
A faded table, a few broken chairs, and a chipped teapot on the table.
The best piece of furniture in the house was probably the incense table next to the north wall, but it was dedicated to Zhong Kui.
The old woman had just entered the east bedroom. Although it was impolite, Bian Yuanheng still went in and carefully looked around.
Tie Niu then went to the house on the west side, wandered around for a while, and came out without saying anything.
The front door was tightly shut.
Shao Shuyi personally stepped forward, opened it, and took a look around the yard.
There was nothing there, just emptiness and lifelessness.
Wu Heizi, Gao Daqiang, and others walked in one after another.
"The sentry posts have been assigned," the two men said, bowing.
"Go rest on the west side. We'll rotate shifts every hour," Shao Shuyi said. "Go check the kitchen, boil some water, and roast some dry rations." With that, he dragged a chair over and sat down.
Yang Jin sighed inwardly, went to the east room to retrieve the account book and roster, and placed them on the table.
As darkness fell, Tie Niu took a candle from the incense table and lit it.
Shao Shuyi was completely focused, carefully examining the account books.
He didn't look at the operating data in detail; he only looked at the final total.
Zhu Ding would ship goods roughly every two months, and at the same time settle the payment for the previous batch of goods, receiving a little over a thousand ingots each time.
As for the purchase price, it was around seven or eight hundred coins, and each purchase consisted of more than five hundred ingots.
Overall, this guy probably sells a little over 200,000 jin of salt a year, which is quite audacious. You have to understand, this isn't some kind of disguise like salted fish or pickles, but pure white salt, selling it right in front of the government, that's really something.
This also shows the extent to which smuggled salt had become rampant in Jiangyin; Shao Shuyi estimated that it had already devoured at least a third of the market. "How much money does Zhu Ding earn in a year?" Shao Shuyi asked, pointing to the account book.
Yang Jin knew he was being asked a question, so he didn't dare to be negligent and immediately replied, "Around three thousand ingots."
"Where did it all go?"
"Buy land and build houses."
"It costs so much?"
"The Zhu residence in Shipai took two years to complete and cost over five thousand ingots," Yang Jin said. "The rest was spent on buying land and enjoying life. Last year, he went to Jiangning and asked a local opera house to help him find and train singers and actors, spending over two hundred ingots in total. This year, for his mother's birthday, he spent two thousand five hundred ingots to buy land and donate it to the temple..."
Yang Jin talked a lot, and Shao Shuyi listened the whole time. In the end, he could only lament that these people had brought it upon themselves in the historical "chicken-eating contest" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Families like the Yang family of Chepu, the Fei family of Shanghai, and the Ye family of Chongming, who made huge profits through maritime trade, remained unknown.
The Shen Wansan family, which owned vast amounts of land and had shops all over Jiangnan, was forced to become dependent on the warlord Zhang Shicheng.
Although the salt merchants of Lianghuai and Liangzhe were not as wealthy as Shen Wansan, they were much more flamboyant and extravagant, making even the Shen family pale in comparison, and thus they made no ripples in the water.
The Qu family, who had managed the thirty-four salt fields in Zhejiang for generations, was known for their philanthropy. Even if someone came to their door to cheat them out of money, and they were exposed, they would pretend not to know, cultivate good relationships, and in the end, nothing would happen.
It was as if they had been collectively bewitched; they did nothing before or during the chaos, and if they were lucky enough to survive after the chaos ended, they might still be punished by Zhu Yuanzhang, resulting in the destruction of their families.
Zhu Ding didn't have the fortune of these wealthy families, but he had the same bad habit as them. He squandered the money he earned, either spending it on pleasure, donating it, or letting it accumulate in his land and property.
waste!
Shao Shuyi quickly finished reviewing the accounts, then turned to the last page and carefully examined the records of the interactions between Zhu Ding's gang and the officials.
After watching for a while, his expression was quite interesting.
The father of Korigisi, the Darughachi (a fourth-rank official) of Jiangyin Prefecture, passed away at the age of fifty.
Khorigis took a liking to his father's second wife, a Goryeo woman named Kim, and wanted to take her as his heir. Kim refused, so she and her son fled, shaved their heads, and hid in a temple. Zhu Ding personally led men to capture the mother and son, but on the way, he was ordered to drown Kim's son, who was Khorigis's younger brother, pretending that he had accidentally fallen into the water. He then returned Kim to Khorigis, allowing him to take her as his heir.
After Shao Shuyi finished reading, he looked up at Yang Jin and found that Yang Jin was looking at him.
"Have you seen these?" Shao Shuyi asked.
Yang Jin nodded.
Shao Shuyi hummed in agreement. This is indeed explosive!
He continued reading the second article.
Lin Xuan, a clerk in Jiangyin Prefecture, saw that his tenant's new wife was very beautiful and took advantage of her, ignoring all rent and arrears.
Years later, the tenant woman's beauty faded, and Lin Xuan demanded the rent and unpaid debts she had accumulated over the years, which the tenant was unable to pay. Enraged, her son chased after Lin Xuan with a knife, but Lin Xuan narrowly escaped with his life. He intended to take revenge but dared not make a sound, so he had Zhu Ding send men to kill the tenant's son with a hammer.
After reading this record, he remained silent for a long time.
Tenant farmers, burdened by rent and debts, forced their wives to serve their masters—a situation already unfortunate. But if it was consensual, it might be somewhat understandable. However, Lin Xuan, after so many years of this, seeing the women's beauty fade, not only did he stop wanting them, but he also attempted to reclaim years of rent and debts—utterly despicable. His final act of hiring a murderer was even more heinous.
Part Three
Fu Jian, a clerk, ran a cloth shop. He happened to see a merchant selling Songjiang blue-and-white cotton cloth, which looked like a painting from a court, with reeds and flowers that were especially exquisite. The cloth did not fade even after being washed for a long time, so he insisted on buying it.
When the merchants refused, Zhu Ding's bodyguards broke into the inn at night and made threats.
The next day, the merchant sold all the blue-and-white cloth to the clerk at a low price and left in a hurry.
Compared to the previous ones, this is actually nothing. A poor business environment has existed in every dynasty.
Part Four
Wang Pi, a professor at the state school, had long monopolized the school's finances, using half of it for his own benefit. He had been a tyrant for a long time and was known as the "academic bully."
Zhu Ding had never done anything for him; they had only met while gambling and had heard of him, so he remembered him.
Fifth article...
It took Shao Shuyi a long time to finish reading it.
At this time, he gained a completely new understanding of the government of the Yuan Dynasty.
Perhaps similar things happened in other dynasties, but none were as prominent as in the Yuan Dynasty. The Southern and Censorate Commissioners were practically useless; the people ridiculed them, saying that "officials were more numerous than bandits," which was entirely true and not an exaggeration.
Of course, there are also good officials.
Perhaps because it was so rare, Zhu Ding couldn't help but write it down: Prefect Cui Chengping refused gambling and invitations to meals, did not take a concubine, lived a simple life, cracked down on wicked monks in temples, ordered them to reduce or exempt tenants from rent, and banned the practice of pawning women in the countryside in order to purify the moral environment.
Perhaps that's why he's been stuck in his position as an outsider, unable to get promoted.
After closing the ledger, Shao Shuyi suddenly laughed and said, "What a fine 'Records of Officials'! Zhu Ding has quite the nerve."
At this point, he turned to Yang Jin and asked, "Did he use this to blackmail officials in the prefecture?"
"No," Yang Jin said. "However, anyone who has been tricked by him knows what's going on and, without needing to be threatened, is naturally willing to work for him." Shao Shuyi grunted and then asked, "Why isn't there anything about the prefect or the judge?"
"We can't get in touch with him." Yang Jin paused for a moment and said, "The Darughachi of this prefecture is a father and son who have inherited the position. Zhu Ding only got in by chance. But he only helped him once, and Khorijis didn't show any appreciation or take any special care of Zhu Ding because of it."
"It's just used as a chamber pot, thrown away after use." Shao Shuyi thought to himself, "It seems that Zhu Ding mainly controls lower and middle-ranking officials and clerks; his network of relationships isn't high enough."
Shao Shuyi had just heard about Zhu Daocun's situation. It seemed that Zhu Ding wanted to take advantage of the other party's new arrival to try and catch this big fish. This fellow was truly blinded by greed and had become excessively arrogant.
However, Shao Shuyi generally affirmed Zhu Ding's operational approach, only that the specific details needed minor adjustments.
If he were smuggling salt in Jiangyin, he would have had the most contact with lower-level officials and clerks.
"Have you visited these people before?" Shao Shuyi asked, shaking the ledger.
"I've visited most of them," Yang Jin replied.
"That's good." Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "I'll give you five days to sort out your own affairs, and then gather all your old cronies and have them come to Xiapu to find me."
Yang Jin hesitated for a moment, then said, "Isn't this too hasty?"
Shao Shuyi chuckled and said, "Time waits for no one."
Yang Jin pondered for a moment, then tentatively asked, "How many brave and daring men does the hero have under his command?"
Shao Shuyi extended one hand, smiling without saying a word.
"Fifty?" Yang Jin exclaimed in surprise, blurting out, "Where did you get so much money?"
Shao Shuyi countered, "What if Zhu Dingruo used the money meant for repairing the house to support people?"
"That's not how you calculate it," Yang Jin said. "If he uses the money to support people, the government will not tolerate it."
“Things are different now,” Shao Shuyi said. “Perhaps Zhu Ding was right before, but if things continue as they are, then it will not be right.” Yang Jin was both surprised and suspicious, but he didn’t say anything.
"Do as I say first." Shao Shuyi stood up and said, "You're already in this state, do you have any other choice?"
Upon hearing this, Yang Jin lowered his head. Indeed, he had no way out.
After dark, Shao Shuyi and the others finished eating and drinking at the house, then took the account books and rosters and left by boat overnight, without any delay.