Chapter 83: Seven Generations of Accumulation, All Handed Over |
Song Shi'an felt this statement was too shameless to say outright, so he hesitated slightly. But to his surprise, neither of them understood what he meant.
After they finally grasped his meaning, they were both utterly dumbfounded.
The atmosphere immediately froze.
After a long silence, Wei Wusheng finally couldn't help but ask: "You're going to let them go, and then I go catch them again?"
"Yes."
Song Shi'an confirmed.
"This is what you call having a proper justification?"
Wei Wusheng's brow furrowed because he felt this was a bit too shameless.
But Song Shi'an, who had already thought everything through, said: "We can't plunder Duke Zhang and the other wealthy clans. If we actually did such a thing, we'd be impeached to death by the court ministers. Those soldiers would also worry about being targeted and retaliated against afterward, becoming hesitant and uncertain. But now, they're voluntarily taking out their grain and money. After they leave the city, we divide up the money and collect the grain. When they return to the city, everything will be gone."
"I'll have Duke Zhang and the other wealthy clans move all their grain out and place it in their family courtyards. As for their other assets, everything will be sent to a warehouse at the city gate. After handing over the money, they can leave."
Song Shi'an explained in detail: "When this comes to light, the common people will certainly have complaints. Then, Your Highness will personally investigate."
"The result of the investigation will be..." Xinyue suddenly realized, murmuring: "Duke Zhang and the other wealthy clans bribed the city guard officers and soldiers to leave the city?"
Wei Wusheng instantly understood, standing up excitedly: "We'll then investigate and punish a batch of city guard officers and soldiers, penalizing each person three years' salary. Then, citing that no one may privately leave the city during wartime, we'll dispatch cavalry to persuade the wealthy clans to return and bring them back to the city."
"At that time, all the people will say, 'The Sixth Prince truly enforces the law impartially, treats everyone equally, and cares for the people.'" Song Shi'an said with exaggerated flair. "The people of Shuofeng City will say, 'When the Sixth Prince arrived, Shuofeng's blue sky arrived.'"
"Moreover, throughout this entire process, everything will be recorded in the military logs without the slightest deviation. In fact, it will be witnessed by tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians together." Wei Wusheng now understood the subtlety of this plan. "No one can force Duke Zhang to accept the bribe!"
Why go through all this trouble?
Because in this era, no one could cover the sky with one hand.
Matters conducted in the sunlight were more or less sensitive.
During wartime, forcibly plundering aristocratic families seemed reasonable on the surface.
However, if armies in the future all used wartime status to accumulate wealth and extort aristocratic families, that balance would be broken.
One truly shouldn't underestimate thousand-year-old aristocratic families.
Moreover, Song Shi'an himself came from such a family—there was no need for him to be Huang Chao.
"There's more," Song Shi'an added. "After those wealthy clans return, they won't have any grain or assets. At that point, they'll be no different from common people. If they try to collude and resist again, they'll have no power whatsoever. They can only obediently perform corvée labor."
Still want to talk back?
Talk about your mother's ass.
"They'll only beg us to give them a bite to eat."
Wei Wusheng broke into a smile.
"Today's conversation with Duke Zhang actually gave me some inspiration," Song Shi'an said. "He said that as long as we don't offend the aristocratic families in this battle, when we win, everything will be flawless."
"How so?"
"His Majesty is already using military farming to pressure the aristocratic families, so I think as long as we don't go too far, His Majesty will argue the case for us."
"What counts as not going too far?"
"Not taking their lives arbitrarily—that's the bottom line."
Song Shi'an stated with certainty.
"Good." Wei Wusheng nodded and said to Song Shi'an: "I'm placing this matter entirely in your hands. When you need me to step forward, inform me quickly. Xinyue is also at your disposal—command her as you wish."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Song Shi'an saluted with a military fist-to-palm gesture.
Xinyue was somewhat concerned about which statement he was thanking for...
"Then go rest quickly. Tomorrow we do big things," Wei Wusheng urged.
"Yes."
And so the two of them withdrew from the room.
After walking outside for a while, Xinyue looked at Song Shi'an and spoke with a somewhat subtle tone: "You truly have no greed at all?"
"Although my family's money isn't as much as all these wealthy clans combined—in fact, it might be far less—money is just a number to me at this point," Song Shi'an said nonchalantly.
"Aren't you an illegitimate son?"
With one sentence, Song Shi'an's pretentious act was cut short. He waved his hand irritably: "Go to sleep. See you tomorrow."
Xinyue, her hand resting on her sword hilt, slowly nodded.
………
At the Zhang Estate, Zhang Ting carried a lamp in his hand while Duke Zhang stood beside him, leaning on his walking stick.
In the pitch-black night, the two walked slowly like this.
They arrived at the storehouse entrance. Zhang Ting took out the key and opened the door.
Inside was a large warehouse full of grain.
Actually, this didn't represent much of the Zhang Estate's stored grain.
Their main grain supply was in the countryside. What was in the city was merely enough for the nearly hundred people in the entire estate—several years' worth of rations and wages, that's all.
As for farmland, just this branch alone owned seven or eight thousand mu.
But it wasn't just that.
"Be careful with the fire, shield the lamp," Duke Zhang said.
"Yes."
Zhang Ting carefully carried the lamp as he walked inside.
Then, reaching the depths, there was a large ceramic jar covered with a wooden lid.
While holding the lamp, Zhang Ting used his elbow to forcefully push the ceramic jar aside.
A different wooden plank appeared on the floor.
After unlocking it with a key, Zhang Ting lifted the wooden plank.
It was a hidden stairway passage.
"Father, go slowly."
Zhang Ting extended his hand to support Duke Zhang as the two slowly entered inside.
This was a damp cellar.
Where the lamplight reached, there were boxes everywhere.
Fully packed—over twenty boxes in total.
Half of the Zhang family's wealth was all here.
The rest was at the old estate in the countryside.
Things like money and grain absolutely couldn't all be kept in one place.
However, this half of their assets still caused such heartache.
Seeing all this, Zhang Ting truly couldn't bear it: "Seven generations of accumulated wealth—we really have to use it to bribe Song Shi'an?"
"As long as I'm still here, as long as the clan members are still here, as long as we still have influence in the court, even if Northern Liang is lost and all those farmlands are gone, after recuperating for a few years, we'll eventually return to wealth and honor." Duke Zhang was very clear that his true foundation was still being the actual nephew of that Regional Inspector.
Even if he got into some trouble this time and needed to be demoted, it wouldn't be a complete fall from grace.
At minimum, he'd still be Senior Second Rank.
His eldest son also currently held a Rank Four position.
As long as they hadn't retired from office, everything would return.
"Song Shi'an has truly gone mad—can he really be that greedy by himself?" Zhang Ting found it hard to believe.
"Of course not." Duke Zhang corrected him. "Would he dare be that greedy alone? Of course he's bringing in several others to divide the money. Perhaps even the Sixth Prince has a share."
"Does the Sixth Prince even need to be corrupt?"
"How naive. There are plenty of corrupt princes. Moreover, Wei Wusheng isn't even a prince yet." Duke Zhang now understood. "It seems they truly came seeking wealth and honor. They want fame, merit, and money too."
This Shuofeng might as well just fall.
Then Wei Wusheng and Song Shi'an's wishful thinking of achieving fame and success after repelling Ji Yuan would come to nothing.
"If we'd left earlier, we could have kept our wealth."
Placing his hand on a box of money, Zhang Ting was too reluctant to part with it.
Actually, every time the city was defended, grain would be uniformly requisitioned.
But money was never violated.
The reasoning was simple—money was the common people's lifeblood, their hope.
If you took their money, you severed their hope.
Moreover, during a city siege, money was basically useless anyway.
"Should we still try to contact cousin?" Zhang Ting wanted to make one last effort. "Have him personally communicate with the Sixth Prince, bypassing everyone else. If it's the Sixth Prince, he'll surely give face. After all, cousin still controls the rear."
"No. We need to leave together with the other wealthy clans," Duke Zhang directly refused.
"Those people have received so much grace from us all this time. Now they want to benefit from our connections, from cousin's connections." Zhang Ting truly couldn't accept it. "Are we too good to them?"
"A single thread doesn't make a rope; a single tree doesn't make a forest."
Slowly turning around, no longer looking at these treasure chests, Duke Zhang showed no reluctance: "The Wei family can only be emperors because of the Great Yu aristocratic families' support. We can only be the local emperors of Northern Liang because of these dependent wealthy clans."