Chapter 84: Finally Taken the Bait |
Song Shi'an was sleeping soundly in his office chamber when, not even two shichen into his rest, another steward from the Zhang Estate personally arrived at dawn.
Under Song Shi'an's orders, only San Gou stood guard at the entrance.
"This humble one pays respects to Laoye."
The first thing he did upon arrival was kneel in salutation.
"So polite?" Song Shi'an smiled.
"Laoye, please don't tease this humble one." The steward rose but maintained a bowing posture.
So Song Shi'an got straight to the point: "All the grain is to be placed in the courtyard. All the money is to be transported in batches by handcart to the south gate at zi shi (11 PM to 1 AM) tonight, where military officers will be waiting to receive it. Remember—don't bunch up, don't congregate."
"But what if soldiers question us along the way?" the other party asked cautiously.
Song Shi'an then took out a written permit he'd personally drafted, complete with the county magistrate's seal, and handed it to him: "If anyone questions you, show this. Don't say a word."
—Let him pass.
"After using it, return this slip to the officer on duty when leaving the city gate. Remember—absolutely cannot lose it, or you won't be able to leave the city without it," Song Shi'an warned.
"Understood, this one understands."
"Prepare a list of people who will be leaving the city and submit it this morning. Afterward, no additions will be allowed. If anyone leaks information, then not a single person will be allowed to leave the city," Song Shi'an warned sternly once more.
"Yes." The steward nodded, then asked, "Then for the list of those leaving the city, are there any requirements?"
"Family heads and close relatives. Beyond that, not a single person will be approved. Don't try any tricks—I have household registry records here." Song Shi'an said, "As for those who came to the city to visit relatives but aren't registered in Shuofeng's household registry, forget it. I show no favoritism here."
"Then Laoye..."
The steward hesitated.
"What's your name?" Song Shi'an asked.
Quite eagerly, the steward replied: "In reply to Laoye, this humble one is called Sanming."
"Add him to the list, with a note that he's the Zhang Estate's steward," Song Shi'an said casually.
"Thank you, Laoye, thank you, Laoye." Clasping his hands in fists, Sanming bowed repeatedly, absolutely delighted.
"Go back. Keep everything confidential." Pointing at Sanming, Song Shi'an spoke with extreme seriousness: "If there's any leak of information, or if you even mention this Laoye's name, then you won't just be unable to leave the city. I will kill people, you understand."
"Yes! This humble one will remember, will remember!"
After this quite decisive and straightforward communication, Sanming withdrew and left.
Song Shi'an yawned with some fatigue and rubbed his temples. Although less than four hours of sleep was indeed hard to bear, this kind of hardship was nothing to him.
"Back to work."
………
Today during daylight hours, all the noble families' gates were tightly shut.
Everyone was continuously transporting grain from their storehouses.
None of the family heads said a word.
Times had changed.
With someone as formidable as Song Shi'an having arrived, everyone clearly understood that if they annoyed him, no matter how noble you were, you'd still have to dig trenches.
Moreover, no matter how noble you were, could you compare to the meritorious noble Zhao Xiang?
Since Sixth Prince could do things to that extent, his most trusted subordinate Song Shi'an certainly wouldn't show mercy either.
However, grain was grain. If it really came to battle and reached the point of food shortage, even Duke Zhang might not be able to protect it, so they had no intention of "widely stockpiling grain" anyway.
But this money—these shiny copper coins, gleaming silver, and glittering gold—having to hand it all over to bribe that massive corrupt official truly pained their hearts.
You Sheng'an people are truly ruthless!
In the afternoon, after Sanming made another trip to the office chamber and rushed back, he burst directly through the doors of the main hall where Duke Zhang and the younger generation of other noble families were meeting, not even announcing himself first.
Seeing him, everyone grew extremely tense.
"Was the entire list approved?" one person asked urgently.
Sanming looked somewhat distressed as he glanced at Duke Zhang seated in the place of honor and said: "Half the list was crossed out."
Hearing this, the people in the hall exploded.
"We gave so much money, and he won't even allow a few extra people?"
"This Song Shi'an is truly too much!"
"Exactly! Who does he think he is? He's just Sixth Prince's dog!"
As everyone clamored, Duke Zhang suddenly roared: "Shut up!"
This single shout silenced everyone completely.
Extending his hand, Duke Zhang took the list and looked at the crossed-out names, then swept his gaze across the assembled nobles: "Didn't I say that everyone could only add their own close relatives, and only those on Shuofeng's household registry? Every single one of your households added three to five people—are you treating my words as wind passing by your ears?"
This rebuke made everyone lower their heads.
"Duke Zhang, we know we were wrong," one person said. "But to not accommodate at all, isn't this too harsh? This is completely the conduct of a cruel official."
"He has the key to leaving the city. Do you?" Duke Zhang countered.
"But my cousin came to the city to visit relatives... I can't just abandon her alone in the city," one person pleaded in a small voice. "Could we... make a substitution?"
Hearing this, Duke Zhang looked at him with contempt and said with disgust: "Are you planning to substitute your father, your mother, or your brother or sister?"
His face instantly flushed red, and he lowered his head, not daring to speak at all.
"Go to the yamen again and tell Magistrate Song that we have no objections to the list." Duke Zhang extended the paper.
Sanming took the list and once again left in a great hurry.
Watching these muttering youngsters, Duke Zhang raised his finger and swept it around in a circle: "All of you—if when leaving the city, you add an extra person at the last minute and ruin the plan to leave Shuo, this old man guarantees he'll make sure that person can't get a single bite of food to eat in Liang Prefecture."
They might not fear Song Shi'an and his people, but no one dared provoke Duke Zhang's authority.
Everyone stood and performed a salute together: "Yes."
………
Today, at zi shi.
In batches, all the noble families dispatched household servants to transport all the money loaded in boxes by handcart toward the city gate.
Each time, Sanming, carrying the written permit, led the group.
"Halt! It's curfew. Why are you traveling?"
A patrolling armored soldier blocked the convoy's path.
Although it was wartime now, different from usual, there was still a curfew.
After all the civilian laborers in the city had fulfilled their corvée duties, the period of heightened alert began.
At this time, wandering the streets at will was a capital offense.
The more special the period, the more intense the efforts to catch spies and collaborators would be.
However, a convoy moving 'openly and aboveboard' like this was somewhat different.
Perhaps they were on a mission and wouldn't immediately be branded as Yu traitors.
Seeing this, Sanming, already practiced, directly presented the written permit with both hands.
The soldier took it with one hand, and seeing the writing and seal on it, returned it without a second thought, saying: "Move along."
So the convoy continued forward toward the south gate.
"Song Shi'an's influence is that great?" someone asked quietly when no one was around.
"He's Sixth Prince's trusted subordinate. Right now, all affairs in the city—as long as they have his orders—must be executed unconditionally. His authority long ago surpassed that of an ordinary county magistrate," someone explained.
"Then why doesn't Sixth Prince give him an official position?" someone asked curiously.
"Stop talking, stop talking. Let's hurry."
Being extremely cautious, the convoy moved quickly.
All the way to the south gate.
The south gate was the one that faced completely away from the Chishui River.
These past two days, provisions had mainly been transported through the north gate, with some going through the west gate for distribution. The south gate was barely used.
So the soldiers standing guard there were also fewer compared to the other gates.
Roughly one centurion and fifty armored soldiers.
"Military sir." Sanming respectfully saluted with clasped fists.
Then the centurion inspected the boxes one by one.
Seeing the money, jewelry, gold and silver inside, his expression didn't change.
This was to prevent people from secretly hiding extra people.
After Duke Zhang had threatened them earlier, no one dared take such risks at this moment.
The court killing you still required going through procedures, but here, Duke Zhang killing someone only required a name on a list.
Of course, he didn't kill without reason or indiscriminately.
If someone offended him, he only needed to spread the word about what rule-breaking thing they'd done, and very soon someone would personally bring people over to atone.
Or rather, directly bring the corpse.
As for the naive idea that as long as you had soldiers, you could randomly eliminate aristocratic families and then support another aristocratic family—that was pure childish talk.
Doing such things would only make the other aristocratic families lose their sense of security and flee north.
Didn't the court care about aristocratic families defecting to the enemy?
No—the court cared very much and feared it greatly.
In every era, the most important thing was always population.
Some large aristocratic families could easily take several thousand people, or even close to ten thousand people, and migrate their entire clan to an enemy nation.
If a commandery lost that many people, the Regional Inspector would need at least a dozen heads to explain it to the court.
To aristocratic families, soldiers were just stinking ruffians.
Why were meritorious nobles different?
Because meritorious nobles were super aristocratic families that possessed private armies—they could be called aristocratic families plus.
"All good. Pass through."
After completing the inspection, the centurion accepted all the valuables, while some people were led away separately to the barbican between the two city gates.
Sixty or seventy members of noble families dressed in plain clothes gathered together.
When Duke Zhang saw that among the newcomers there was a young woman dressed in silk, he immediately roared: "Wretched woman! Take it off and change into cloth clothing."
The woman trembled in fright and hurriedly complied.
With several people surrounding her as a screen, she changed out of her clothes.
"I didn't allow you to bring household servants or guards. Once we leave the city, even a band of mountain bandits could slaughter us all." Duke Zhang raged. "Remember—this is fleeing disaster. Anyone who doesn't listen to this old man, you know the consequences."
Several people said in unison: "Kill them together."
The atmosphere fell into extreme oppression.
Everyone's emotions were tense to the extreme.
Just like this, waiting until the last wave of people arrived, they were finally all gathered.
After Sanming returned the written permit, over eighty members of the noble families, after the city gate opened, finally left this place.
After a whole night of bustle, the moon had completely set.
The sky was slightly brightening.
The plainly dressed group walked away from Shuofeng.
In the distance, Zhang Ting stopped in his tracks and looked back at his home, tears flowing as he said reluctantly: "Over a dozen generations of ancestral enterprise..."
Duke Zhang glanced at him and said coldly: "Now, it's time to make Song Shi'an pay."
………
At the top of the city gate, after those people had moved far away, the centurion looked at two short soldiers beside him disguised as common people and said: "Follow them. Don't expose yourselves."
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