“Move the capital…”
Yang Jinshui’s deduction had been terrifying.
Buying enormous quantities of timber, enclosing large stretches of high, dry land, the imperial commissioner forcing the seizure of sacrificial fields, even digging up an old case from one hundred and seventy years ago. If not for the emperor’s move south, would the imperial court have gone to such lengths?
Master Yang collapsed into the grand chair, both hands gripping the carved armrests so tightly that the flesh had turned red beneath his fingers.
For the better part of half an incense stick, the hall held nothing but the sound of everyone’s breathing.
Then, suddenly, Master Yang moved.
Feeling about, he grabbed the rosewood cane beside him and braced himself against it as he swayed to his feet.
“Master?” The steward hurried over, reaching out to support him.
“Get lost!”
Master Yang shoved the steward away. Without even looking at the heads of the various branches kneeling below the steps, he dragged his feet toward the ancestral hall’s entrance.
“Master!” Yang Gang grew frantic. “Things have come to this—what are we supposed to do? Give us a straight answer!”
Master Yang continued on his own, leaning on his cane as he took one unsteady step after another into the night.
The sound of his cane striking the ground faded into the wind. Only then did everyone in the hall come back to their senses.
“What… what is this supposed to mean?” Yang Gang slapped his thigh. “Disaster is upon us, and he doesn’t even leave us someone to rely on!”
The others exchanged bewildered looks.
By the time the sky had grown fully bright, the main hall of the Yang estate was in chaos.
Yang Gang paced back and forth before the grand chair, rubbing his hands together. His face was covered in sweat, and his eyes were bloodshot from a sleepless night.
Beside him, Yang Jinshui held a teacup. The tea inside had long since gone cold, yet he had not taken a single sip.
Six or seven heads of the direct branches sat slumped in their chairs, their faces ashen. None had slept all night, and exhaustion had left them nearly unrecognizable.
“It’s already past the hour of Chen!” Yang Gang stopped and shouted toward the doorway. “Have you still not found him?”
The curtain was lifted, and the steward hurried in carrying a red-lacquered food box. His face was gray with despair.
“Gentlemen, I searched the entire rear courtyard! The bed in the master’s chamber was cold. No one slept there at all. I searched the study and the greenhouse, even the rear servants’ quarters. There isn’t a shadow of him anywhere!”
Yang Gang stepped forward and seized the steward by the collar, spittle spraying across his face.
“Rubbish! He’s a living man! An old man over sixty! Do you expect me to believe he sprouted wings and flew out of the estate in the middle of the night? Keep searching! Send more men!”
The steward’s eyes bulged as he struggled for air, waving both hands helplessly.
“Third Prince, calm down. Why take your temper out on a servant?” Yang Jingzhi sat in the first round-backed chair on the right, his throat dry and hoarse.
“Seventh Prince, how am I supposed to stay calm?” Yang Gang shoved the steward aside and pointed toward the main gate. “That Xu Youde may already be drafting a memorial, preparing to have our entire family thrown into prison!”
“And Master Yang chose this moment to disappear. If he’s lost his will and taken his own life, who among us can bear the blame?”
At those words, Yang Jingzhi felt his scalp prickle.
The blow from the previous night had been too severe. If the clan head fell, the Yang family would not even have anyone capable of negotiating with the imperial court.
“Yang Jinshui!” Yang Jingzhi rose, forcing down his panic. “Take several dozen able-bodied retainers and search in separate groups! Check beside the ponds and behind the artificial hills. Examine everything carefully. We must find him alive…”
Before he could say the words “or find his corpse,” a steady knocking sound came from outside the main hall’s courtyard gate.
Yang Gang turned toward the courtyard. Yang Jingzhi instinctively rushed two steps forward.
Every branch head in the deathly silent hall rose in unison.
Master Yang.
Yet now he had changed into the dark burgundy silk crane cloak he wore only for New Year’s ancestral rites.
His white hair was neatly secured with a jade hairpin.
Not a trace of the panic from the previous night could be seen on his deeply wrinkled face. His complexion was ruddy, and the faintest hint of a smile touched his lips.
Everyone stared in shock.
Yang Gang’s mouth hung open. He forgot even to step forward and support the old man.
Yang Jingzhi studied Master Yang for two moments, then his heart gave a sudden lurch.
Something was wrong. Far too wrong.
Master Yang snorted coldly. Ignoring their stunned expressions, he walked straight to the seat of honor.
“What are you staring at? Aren’t you hungry?” He glanced at the food box, then tapped the table with one finger. “Set out breakfast.”
The steward shuddered and hurried over with the food box.
When the lid was lifted, it revealed a bowl of polished-grain porridge, several small dishes of pickled vegetables, and a bowl of braised pork cooked until tender.
Master Yang picked up his chopsticks. He did not touch the porridge, instead taking a large piece of glistening braised pork first.
Everyone in the hall held their breath as they watched him put the fatty, lean-streaked meat into his mouth.
Master Yang ate slowly, chewing every bite thoroughly. His eyes narrowed with pleasure.
After swallowing, he even lifted the tea to rinse his mouth, spat into the spittoon, and wiped his lips with a cloth.
Yang Gang felt a tightness in his chest. He was so stifled he could barely breathe.
“Master…” Yang Gang finally could not hold back. He stepped forward and bent at the waist. “Where did you go last night? Disaster is upon us, and you… have you reached a decision?”
Master Yang tossed the cloth onto the table and leaned back into his chair.
“I have.”
His gaze swept across the more than ten branch heads standing before him.
“I’ve thought it through. Completely.”
Yang Gang was overjoyed and slapped his thigh.
“Excellent! I knew you had iron in your bones, Master! There’s no time to waste. Since it’s still early, I’ll contact the Chen family and the Fang family at once!”
“Now that the three families have sworn an alliance, we should make this as public as possible! We’ll write a petition in the name of the people, pay scholars to join us, and go to Yingtian Prefecture to beat the grievance drum…”
“Fool!”
Those two words cut off the rest of Yang Gang’s speech. His old face flushed red as he choked on the words.
Master Yang sat up straight.
“Bring a complaint? Write a petition in the name of the people? You spent the entire night shouting because you think Xu Youde is abusing his authority and want to preserve the ancestral estate. But did any of you stop to think about who, exactly, is standing opposite us and trying to take the land?”
Everyone froze, exchanging looks.
Master Yang could no longer bear their stupidity. Impatience appeared on his face.
“Is it Xu Youde? Is it the Ministry of Revenue behind him? No! It’s the Son of Heaven! The current emperor of Great Qian! The Supreme One who commands millions of soldiers and holds life and death in his hands!”
“You lot are nothing but frogs in a well, staring at a few acres of rental land! Do you understand what those two words mean? They mean changing the heavens and overturning the earth! They mean moving the entire imperial court—the entire heart of Great Qian—down here to Jiangnan!”
He pointed accusingly at Yang Gang.
“Could a masterstroke of this magnitude, a plan a century in the making, possibly be stopped by a single Jiangnan clan?”
“Forget using an old record to convict you. If His Majesty truly wants to build a palace on this land, he can simply accuse you of plotting rebellion. The soldiers of Yingtian Prefecture could hang every one of your heads from the city gates before the day is over!”
“And you still want to submit a complaint to the emperor? You still want to make a public commotion? Are you trying to make sure the Yang family’s nine degrees of kin are all killed quickly enough, so you can hurry off to the underworld and be reborn?”
Yang Gang trembled from head to toe. Several of the heads of the collateral branches fell to their knees as well.
Yang Jingzhi gritted his teeth and murmured, “So… the reason Xu Youde didn’t bring soldiers… was because he showed us mercy…”
“Seventh Prince, you’re not completely hopeless.”
Master Yang gave a cold laugh and sat down again.
“Seventh Prince was half right last night. That Old Fox Xu Youde is holding ironclad evidence capable of wiping out our entire family. Why didn’t he simply arrest us?”
“Because he’s afraid too! The grand plan to move the capital south has only just begun. If he starts by uprooting the leading family of Jiangning Prefecture and incites a popular uprising, he’ll ruin the entire assignment.”
“What His Majesty wants is a magnificent relocation of the capital, not to enter the city over the corpses of millions of Jiangnan’s common people!”
Master Yang toyed with the jade thumb ring on his hand.
“So, he came to our door alone yesterday. He’s left us a way out—a godsend.”
He let out a long sigh. “Cash at twice the market price! He’s even giving us ample time to relocate our ancestral tombs with dignity! We can claim new land outside the city and rebuild our ancestral hall! Xu Youde is paying to buy his life—buying the first show of submission from the Yang family!”
“Listen carefully, all of you! This is a tremendous favor!”
A favor? They had lost their ancestral lands, and somehow that was being called a favor?
Yang Gang raised his head, his face blank with confusion.
Yang Bonian regarded him with exasperation.
“Why are your horizons so narrow?” He smacked the armrest. “Being forcibly dispossessed, convicted, and exiled—that would be humiliating! But what if our Yang family takes advantage of the fact that His Majesty’s intentions have yet to be made clear to the world and voluntarily cooperates with the court’s land acquisition?”
The hall fell silent.
After a pause, Yang Bonian lowered his voice.
“His Majesty has come south of the Yangtze, and everything is waiting to be rebuilt! Land disputes, resettling disaster victims, procuring supplies—inside and out, it’s all one tangled mess.”
“Xu Youde can force the matter through, of course, but he needs people to handle the dirty, exhausting work! He needs someone with influence and local connections in Jiangnan to deal with all those stubborn holdouts for him!”
“If our Yang family now presents our land deeds with both hands and helps him remove all the holdouts south of the city, then this won’t be called surrendering our land under duress!”
He spread his arms and laughed heartily.
“It should be called following the will of Heaven! It should be called seeing the greater good! Our Yang family will be the vanguard of His Majesty’s grand undertaking to move the capital! Once the new capital is completed and rewards are handed out, we’ll take this pioneering achievement straight to the throne. We’ll become founding heroes of the Great Qian!”
“We’re a prominent family, but we’re not an aristocratic clan!”
Yang Jingzhi sucked in a breath, his entire body trembling and his face flushed crimson.
Turning disaster into fortune! Seizing the initiative!
“Master Yang is brilliant!” Yang Jingzhi dropped to one knee and clasped his fists. “I am utterly awed by this strategy of turning a passive position into an active one!”
The main hall, which had been lifeless moments ago, suddenly came alive.
The dispirited heads of the various branches jumped to their feet one after another.
“That’s right! We’ll become heroes!”
“With this achievement, what do those few aristocratic clans amount to?”
“We can use the money—twice the price—to buy ten times as much land outside the city! Then we’ll build grand mansions!”
Just as everyone was getting excited, Yang Jinshui of the Sixth Branch remembered something. He stepped forward, rubbing his hands together.
“Master Yang, this plan truly reaches the heavens. But... what about Chen Shichang and that old bastard Fang?”
“Only last night, we swore a blood oath with them in the ancestral hall, promising to advance and retreat together and resist the imperial headquarters’ land acquisition. If we now turn around and hand over our land deeds... wouldn’t that make us traitors to our word?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the warmth in the hall faltered. Everyone looked toward the seat of honor.
Indeed, the news of their alliance had already been spread. If the Yang family suddenly switched sides, their reputation would be utterly ruined.
Yang Bonian lifted his tea and slowly skimmed away the foam.
“Traitors to our word?”
He snorted coldly, then set the teacup down hard on the table, splashing tea everywhere.
“Chen Shichang and Fatty Fang are a pair of fools, narrow-minded enough to cling to a few wretched acres of land. Since they want to stand in His Majesty’s way, then let them go and try.”
