Chapter 916 - 761: Playing the Game Together in Jiangnan

Morning in Jinling.

The watchtower drums on the city wall began to beat the night watch drum, and the grain barges from Hu-Guang took advantage of the morning tide to enter the inner river.

The fishing boats on the river drew in their nets; fishermen with bamboo baskets on their backs went into the city, rolling up their trouser legs as they hawked fresh crucian carp along the streets, their voices flying over white walls, gray tiles, and narrow alleys.

At this time, more than ten carriages entered the city through Jubao Gate, their wheels grinding along the stone-paved main street as they arrived at the gate of the government office.

The coachmen lifted the carriage curtains with strips of Xiangfei Bamboo, set down the footstools, and helped a gray-haired old man shakily alight, escorting him into the government office.

The yamen runners at the government office cupped their hands politely and said, "The Fang Family’s old master has arrived."

A coachman presented a calling card: "My master wishes to see the Minister of the Ministry of War in the Capital; please be so kind as to announce him."

The runner took the card and headed inside. "Please wait a moment, gentlemen."

Elsewhere, the rumbling of wheels over the ground carried far. Zhang Xia opened her eyes on the bed, put on her clothes, pushed the door open, and called, "San’er?"

Thirty-two came in from outside the courtyard, bright-eyed and spirited. "Lady, what are your orders?"

Zhang Xia was silent; she still wasn’t used to being addressed as "Lady."

The door of the East Wing Room also opened. Mrs. Zhang, fully dressed, stood just inside the threshold. Thirty-two hurriedly cupped his hands and saluted, "Old Lady, Jin An."

Mrs. Zhang was dazed for quite a while herself, clearly not yet accustomed to being called "Old Lady."

Zhang Xia asked, "More than ten carriages arrived at the government office first thing this morning—go find out what business brought them."

Thirty-two turned to leave at once. "You ladies wash up and eat first. By the time you’ve finished breakfast, the news should be out."

He walked straight through the long courtyard. When he reached the main gate, he saw Thirty-seven dozing and immediately gave him a kick. "Up, time to work."

Thirty-seven perked up. "Work? What kind of work?"

Thirty-two said irritably, "You’re the Ti General, I’m the Wind General—what else could it be? Just come with me."

The two of them squeezed out through the crack of the gate and, after circling around a large loop, returned to the vicinity of the government office.

They exchanged a glance. Thirty-seven drifted over toward the more than ten coachmen, while Thirty-two slipped toward the back gate of the government office.

Thirty-seven approached the row of carriages. The coachmen were huddled together, shooting the breeze.

He sized them up for a moment, picked out a coachman with a crafty gleam in his eyes, and said with a squinting smile, "Second Brother, it’s been some days since I last saw you!"

The coachman looked at him, baffled. "Who are you?"

Thirty-seven drew him out of the group by the hand; once they reached a quiet spot, his wrist flicked and a silver ingot flew into the other man’s sleeve. "Second Brother, I want to ask about something."

Feeling the heavy silver ingot in his sleeve, the coachman’s expression turned subtle. "What is it?"

Thirty-seven gripped the coachman’s hand and asked in a low voice, "What are all these gentlemen of the Jiangnan gentry doing coming to the government office so early in the morning?"

The coachman’s face changed; he immediately tried to yank his hand away, but Thirty-seven dragged him back.

Then Thirty-seven flicked his wrist again, and the silver ingot in the coachman’s sleeve actually slipped back into his own, like a magic trick. "Second Brother, ten silver taels—enough to feed and clothe your whole family for a year."

The coachman wavered, staring anxiously at their clasped hands.

Thirty-seven smiled knowingly and shook the silver ingot back into the coachman’s sleeve. "Don’t worry, no one will know it was you who talked."

The coachman gritted his teeth and leaned close to whisper.

A moment later, Thirty-seven turned and headed toward Sanshan Street. On the way, he bought a basket of crab-roe soup dumplings and stood at the stall, dipping them in vinegar as he ate.

He had just started on his second when Thirty-two came up beside him, reached into the steamer basket, grabbed a dumpling, tipped his head back and popped it into his mouth, mumbling, "Anti-Japanese Army?"

Thirty-seven grunted in assent.

Cross-checking their information, they confirmed the news was accurate. After a few bites, they finished the dumplings. Thirty-seven tossed the steamer basket onto the table and took a roundabout route back to the Qing Mansion.

Thirty-two went straight to the back hall and reported what he had found out to Zhang Xia in full detail: "The night before last, more than two hundred and sixty pirates launched a surprise attack on Jingjiang County. Just over two hundred men of the Anti-Japanese Army blocked them inside Jingjiang County and killed them all."

Zhang Xia, sitting by the stone table, asked in puzzlement, "The Anti-Japanese Army? That Lü Kejian’s Anti-Japanese Army?"

Thirty-two said with a smile, "That’s right, Lü Kejian is precisely the General of this Anti-Japanese Army."

Zhang Xia seemed lost in thought: "If I remember correctly, this man was originally a Commander at the Jinling Central Army Governor’s Mansion. In the Jianing 27th Year, because he offended the Minister of the Ministry of War in the Capital, he was exiled to the Anti-Japanese Army—with no weapons, no provisions, told to raise and fund his own troops."

Thirty-two stood to the side with his hands tucked into his sleeves: "Exactly. The Anti-Japanese Army was nominally organized as a garrison of six thousand troops, but after years of hard work he barely scraped together three hundred old and weak men. Later, when Wang Zhi slaughtered the Yu Yao Xie Family, the Yingtian Prefecture allowed the Anti-Japanese Army infantry to be exempted from corvée and taxes; only then did he recruit another eight hundred or so. But even these eight hundred he could barely support, so he went around every day begging alms from the scholars."

Zhang Xia tapped her fingers on the stone table: "Eight hundred men, not even a fraction of the pirates’ number. How did two hundred-odd old, weak, and wounded soldiers manage to surround and annihilate the pirates?"

Thirty-two said, still smiling, "They don’t know either. They only said that the pirates’ heads were piled up like a mountain under the city gate arch, each head shaved into a topknot, and they seized more than two hundred Japanese Swords and a suit of the Japanese Chief’s armor. There’s no mistake about it."

Zhang Xia looked up at Thirty-two: "Then what are these scholars doing coming to Jinling?"

Thirty-two explained, "The civil servants in the government office say that these scholars’ sons joined the Anti-Japanese Army and helped defeat the pirates, so they’ve brought documents to have the Ministry of War verify their military merits. Two hundred sixty-one heads can be split into twenty-six Common Households—this sort of thing has never happened before in Jiangnan, and the Ministry of War is having a headache over it. Originally, the Ministry of War did not recognize the Anti-Japanese Army’s military merits, but this time Mr. Fang himself has come; it seems they can’t very well refuse."

"Mr. Fang?" Zhang Xia guessed, "The Minister of the Imperial Sacrificial Worship in the third year of Jia Ning, Fang Zhongqing?"

Thirty-two said in admiration, "Lady, your memory truly misses nothing. It’s him. After offending the Liu Family, he retired from office and has been living in Guangling County, managing the family academy. The current Minister of the Ministry of War in the Capital was his fellow scholar of the same examination year, both in the third class. They’re in the government office right now discussing matters. It’s said that these twenty-six families of scholars will each donate 1,800 taels to the court every year, and if so, the matter will be settled... How much they’ll give the Minister of War under the table—no one can find out."

Zhang Xia asked in return, "What else have they not settled?"

Thirty-two lowered his voice: "For such a great achievement, merely promoting those scholars’ sons to Common Households isn’t enough. If they’re to recognize the military merits of these twenty-six scholars’ sons, they must also recognize the merits of the Anti-Japanese Army’s leader. It wouldn’t do for the pawns to be promoted to Common Households while the leader remains unmoved... Yet they’re unwilling to promote that Zheng Jiye, so the matter is stuck."

At this point, Thirty-two suddenly shifted the topic: "Lady, in the coachman’s telling, this is another story altogether. He says all those pirates were killed by the Anti-Japanese Army, and the military merits were bought by the scholars from the Anti-Japanese Army—each head for forty taels."

Beside them, Xiao Man exclaimed in surprise, "Wait, why does that sound so familiar... Isn’t that the rule at Chongli Pass? Who brought the rules of Chongli Pass down to Jiangnan?"

Zhang Xia fell silent, lost in some unknown train of thought.

Thirty-two said with a slight, smiling lilt, "The coachman says that group of scholars originally intended to seize things by trickery, but it turned out the Anti-Japanese Army had a ruthless character among them, young in years yet not even putting a scholar in his eyes. Every other word out of his mouth was about Official Chen and Official Hu; when he spoke of the political situation at court, he could scare people half to death."

Zhang Xia asked calmly, "Who in the Anti-Japanese Army has such insight?"

Thirty-two shook his head: "I’ve never heard of such a person in the Anti-Japanese Army."

The rhythm of Zhang Xia’s tapping on the stone table quickened, but she heard Thirty-two continue, "That young man also promised that once the scholars’ sons were promoted to Common Households, they could recruit their own able-bodied men to stay behind in their respective hometowns to resist the pirates."

Zhang Xia murmured to herself, "That move is brilliant. In the countryside, whichever family has a flourishing male line can walk sideways wherever they go. Even if a peasant family has three or four sons, the neighbors don’t dare provoke them. If the scholars can have dozens of men under arms as their private army, they truly become local bullies in their home districts. This plan strikes precisely at the scholars’ interests; there’s no reason they would refuse... No wonder even Fang Zhongqing rushed anxiously to Jinling."

Thirty-two muttered under his breath, "I’ve no idea which exalted figure, with nothing better to do, would run off to such a poor and remote place to drill an Anti-Japanese Army. If it’s power he’s after, what kind of power is there in an Anti-Japanese Army? If it’s money he wants, with that sort of ability he could earn it anywhere. Neither explanation makes sense."

Zhang Xia fell silent. On this journey south she was weak and isolated, pitted against the entirety of the Jiangnan gentry, with little chance of victory. The situation in Jiangnan felt like a tangled mass of roots and vines; to tease out a single thread seemed near impossible.

She had originally been studying this board of Jiangnan, pondering where to place her next stone, but she had not expected a hand to reach in from behind and gently place a stone on the edge for her first.

This stone did not advance step by step at the Central, but entangled the enemy in slashing fights in the four corners; even the style of play was so familiar... Healing Solitary Swallowing Dragon.

Zhang Xia suddenly said, "It’s Chen Ji."

Xiao Man asked in astonishment, "Has Young Master come to Jiangnan?"

Zhang Xia replied with certainty, "Only he has the strength to encircle and annihilate the pirates, and only he has the audacity to use an Anti-Japanese Army to pry at the entire Jiangnan gentry."

Xiao Man, still doubtful, said, "Could Young Master have known that Sister Axia came to Jiangnan?"

Zhang Xia thought for a moment: "He shouldn’t know. He’s only here to fulfill his own promise."

No profit calculations, no grand ambition.

It was simply that on the day Chen Ji was granted his title, Zhang Zhuo carried Chen Ji out of the palace. The two had once stood shoulder to shoulder outside the Imperial Palace Gate, gazing at the night sky over the Imperial Capital—one in a red official robe, the other’s clothes soaked in blood.

Zhang Zhuo had asked Chen Ji to act as his helper, and Chen Ji had agreed.

That was all.

"Your Young Master has never once let a promise fall to the ground," Zhang Xia’s lips curved slightly as she rose and walked out: "Come, we can’t let him busy himself for nothing. It’s time for us to place our stone."