Yang Bonian set down his teacup, picked up the spittoon, and rinsed his mouth once more. The expression on his face had already returned to its usual calm ruthlessness.
“Yang Quan.” He looked up at the steward standing to one side.
“This old servant is here.”
“Go to the storehouse. Take out two pairs of blood-red coral ornaments, each about a foot high, along with the finest ginseng from Liaodong. Divide them into two portions, pack them in red-silk gift boxes, and send them at once to the Chen and Fang families in the southern part of the city.”
The steward froze. Yang Gang, standing nearby, grew anxious as well. “Father, at a time like this, we’re still sending gifts to those two families?”
Yang Bonian ignored his foolish son and continued giving orders. “Deliver the invitations with the gifts. Tell Chen Shichang and Fang Jinhai that Old Master Yang was driven into such desperate straits by that Xu Youde last night that he nearly died of rage. Invite the two of them to honor us with their presence at the Yang ancestral hall tomorrow afternoon, without fail.”
Yang Bonian let out a cold laugh, his expression one of anticipation, as though he were waiting for a good show. “Tell them that the Yang family has made up its mind. Even if it means bankrupting ourselves and fighting the imperial court to the last drop of blood, we will never bow our heads. The three clans shall swear a blood oath and stand together to the end!”
The steward shuddered and hurriedly accepted the order before withdrawing.
More than half an hour later, in the main hall of the Chen residence.
Chen Shichang toyed with the blood-red coral ornament, its entire surface glowing like fire, while he looked at the fine Liaodong ginseng resting on the table. A mocking smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
He casually shoved the coral aside and sneered at the steward delivering the message. “Desperate and without a way out? Fighting to the bitter end? Old Yang is still too timid.”
Chen Shichang straightened his sleeve, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. “Go and deliver my reply. I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon, on time.”
Meanwhile, at the Fang residence, Fatty Fang stared at the lavish gifts with a troubled expression. He rubbed his hands and paced around the room three times.
But after learning that the Chen family had already agreed without hesitation, he accepted the invitation with relief.
The following afternoon, dark clouds filled the sky.
Inside the Yang family’s grand ancestral hall, Yang Bonian was a completely different man from the spirited patriarch his family had seen the day before. His eyes were sunken, his hair disheveled, and even his official robes hung loosely from his body.
To make the act convincing, he had forced Yang Jingzhi to punch him squarely in the chest the previous night.
When the thick-headed Yang Gang heard about it, he had actually rubbed his hands together and cheerfully volunteered to add a little color to the old man’s injuries.
Yang Bonian had been so furious that he grabbed his cane and beat him out of the room.
What was he thinking? With that brute’s strength, one punch from him would have sent these old bones straight to the grave.
Chen Shichang and Fatty Fang arrived.
“Brother Chen! Brother Fang!”
The moment Yang Bonian saw them, he seemed to have spotted a lifeline. He slid out of his armchair and staggered toward them, grabbing Chen Shichang by the sleeve and refusing to let go.
“I… I have no way out anymore!”
With that, Yang Bonian tore open the front of his robe. A large, livid bruise covered the center of his chest, shocking in its vividness.
Chen Shichang sucked in a sharp breath, while Fatty Fang recoiled half a step.
Tears and mucus immediately streamed down Yang Bonian’s face. “That Xu Youde didn’t come to buy land at all! He’s a living devil hiding beneath an official’s robes!”
“He dug up a century-old account involving my Yang family’s ancestors and used it to threaten me. He said that if we refused to hand over the land, he would have my entire clan arrested and our property confiscated! He’s forcing this old man to dig up his own father’s grave!”
Yang Bonian beat his chest and stamped his feet, his face ashen with despair. “If our ancestral graves are destroyed, what face would I have left to live? I would rather smash my head against this altar and die today than let that Xu Youde have his way!”
Before he had even finished speaking, Yang Bonian shook off Chen Shichang and hurled himself toward the corner of the altar table.
Chen Shichang was horrified. He rushed forward and wrapped both arms around Yang Bonian’s waist. “Brother Yang, you mustn’t!”
Fatty Fang also hurriedly lunged forward and seized Yang Bonian by the arm.
Only after exhausting every ounce of their strength did the two men manage to restrain the “man determined to die” and force him back into the grand chair.
A murderous glint surged through Chen Shichang’s eyes.
“What a living devil!”
“Xu Youde is using his position as imperial commissioner to run roughshod over the families and clans of Jiangning Prefecture. If the three of us give way even once, tomorrow he’ll be trampling all over our heads!”
Fang Jinhai frantically wiped the cold sweat from his brow, his voice trembling. “Brother Chen, then… what do you suggest we do? The man has an imperial warrant in his hands, and I hear he’s even mobilized troops! Surely we can’t send our household retainers to fight the imperial army?”
Chen Shichang gave a cold snort. “Meeting force with force is the valor of a fool! The Great Qian dynasty is, in the end, a dynasty of scholars. Xu Youde is nothing more than a Minister of Revenue. Does he really think he can silence the entire realm?”
Chen Shichang turned to the other two, his teeth clenched in fury. “The three of our families will join names and draft a petition from the people! We’ll send it straight to the Court of Transmission in the capital by water. We’ll spend a fortune and bring out every juren and imperial academy student in Jiangnan to sign and endorse it!”
“We’ll make this matter as big as possible! We’ll take it all the way to the Son of Heaven and force the imperial court to withdraw its decree!”
Fatty Fang swallowed and muttered hesitantly, “Brother Chen… what if—what if the rumors outside are true? The entire city is being seized for construction, and even those oversized coffin timbers forbidden by regulation have been bought up. If… if the imperial court really intends to undertake a massive construction project in Jiangnan and build an imperial palace…”
Chen Shichang turned and fixed him with a deadly stare.
“Build a traveling palace? What a joke!” Chen Shichang let out a scornful laugh, his face full of disdain. “The Founding Ancestor established the empire in the north, and every imperial tomb since has been built there! A traveling palace here in Jiangnan? Those rumors being spread outside are nothing more than a smokescreen released by Xu Youde under the pretext of this matter so he can line his own pockets!”
Fatty Fang shrank back at the roar and did not dare say another word.
Yang Bonian lowered his head, letting his graying hair fall over his forehead. His drooping eyelids perfectly concealed the calculation in his eyes.
He suddenly coughed twice, then weakly straightened up.
“Brother Chen is absolutely right,” Yang Bonian wheezed. “We must submit this memorial. Not only must we submit it, we must make it thunder loud enough to shake the heavens!”
He raised his head and looked at the other two with bloodshot eyes. Slowly, word by word, he said, “Leave the drafting to me!”
Chen Shichang raised his eyebrows but did not respond.
Yang Bonian pounded heavily on his chest. “Xu Youde and I are now enemies locked in a feud of extermination! I will write this memorial more ruthlessly and forcefully than anyone. Even if the court is enraged and orders someone arrested, I will be the first bird they shoot! So long as the foundations of our Jiangnan clans can be preserved, I am willing to give up even this old life of mine!”
His words rang out with righteous conviction.
Chen Shichang’s heart leaped with delight. Where else could one find such a wonderful opportunity—a man of the highest prestige willing to stand in front and take the thunder for them?
“Excellent!” Chen Shichang clasped his hands and bowed deeply to Yang Bonian. “Brother Yang, your righteousness is admirable! Then I’ll trouble you with the first draft of the memorial. Once it’s finished, the three of our families will affix our seals together!”
That night, at midnight.
Inside the study of the Yang estate, the heated brick bed radiated an intense warmth.
Yang Jingzhi, head of the Seventh Branch, sat before the writing desk, gripping his wolf-hair brush tightly. A fine sheen of sweat covered his forehead.
Yang Bonian wore a crane-cloak and paced back and forth across the room, his steps steady and vigorous. There was not the slightest trace of the frail, deathly appearance he had worn during the day.
“Master, I’ve finished the first draft.” Yang Jingzhi set down his brush and blew gently over the ink that had not yet dried on the rice paper.
Yang Bonian walked over, picked up the paper from the desk, and read it carefully by the candlelight.
Yang Jingzhi had, after all, served as a legal secretary for most of his life, and his prose was exceptionally seasoned. The thousand-odd words were tightly centered on the accusations that Xu Youde had intimidated the great clans, forcibly seized ancestral sacrificial fields, and compelled them to dig up their ancestors’ graves. The entire piece condemned him as a man who had defied Heaven and reason.
As Yang Bonian read, he let out a cold laugh.
“Very well written. Truly enough to make the listener grieve and the reader weep.”
He spread the paper flat on the desk, then casually picked up the imperial-annotation brush beside it, its tip soaked in thick vermilion ink.
With a flick of his wrist, he drew a heavy red line straight across the passages mentioning “the forcible seizure of sacrificial fields” and “the compelled excavation of ancestral graves,” striking them out from beginning to end. The stroke bit deep into the paper.
Yang Jingzhi jumped in alarm. “Master! What are you doing? We’re accusing Xu Youde! These sacrificial fields and ancestral graves are our strongest grounds for complaint. If you strike them out, what justification will we have left?”
Yang Bonian tossed aside the vermilion brush and pulled over a grand chair before sitting down.
“Old Seventh, you’ve spent your entire life handling legal cases. How can you still fail to see this dead end in officialdom?”
Yang Bonian lowered his voice, and a chilling menace seeped through it. “Sacrificial fields? Do you dare write those two words into the memorial and deliver it to the Office of Transmission with gongs and fanfare?”
“Once the court accepts the memorial and sends an investigating censor here, what do you think they’ll discover about the land records beneath those sacrificial fields? That they were government lands reclassified as wasteland!”
Yang Bonian crooked a finger and rapped heavily on the rosewood desk.
“One hundred and seventy years ago, how did we alter the land registers? Xu Youde is holding ironclad evidence in his hands! If you expose the sacrificial fields, you’ll be sticking your own neck beneath the executioner’s blade. Then it won’t be us accusing Xu Youde. Xu Youde will have every legal justification to follow the trail and wipe out our three families—the Yangs, the Chens, and the Fangs—condemning us all to execution!”
Only then did Yang Jingzhi understand. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, and when a chill breeze swept through the room, he could not help shivering.
“Then… how should the memorial be written?”
Yang Bonian leaned back against the chair. “Delete it all. Every word related to land records, sacrificial fields, or ancestral property—remove every last one.”
“Redirect the entire attack. Aim it all at Xu Youde personally!”
Yang Bonian’s fingers tapped lightly against his leg in a steady rhythm, his speech coming rapidly. “Write that Xu Youde is using the authority of an imperial envoy as a pretext, hiding behind the court’s construction project to pursue personal gain under the guise of public duty.”
“Write that he has overstepped regulations by enclosing and seizing farmland, buying and selling Jiangnan’s fertile fields at artificially low prices. Write that he is endlessly corrupt and embezzles public funds to line his own pockets!”
Yang Jingzhi did not dare delay. He quickly spread out a fresh sheet of rice paper and began recording the words at top speed.
“Finally…” Yang Bonian opened his eyes, his gaze as sharp as a blade steeped in poison. “At the end of these charges, add this sentence: ‘This monstrous corrupt official, this parasite who endangers the state—Your Majesty is humbly urged to have him shackled, arrested, and his property confiscated, so that the law of the land may be upheld.’”
“Add that word—‘death’—in its entirety!”
The tip of the brush came to an abrupt halt, and a glaring black blot of ink spread across the rice paper.
Yang Jingzhi raised his head. His lips trembled violently as he drew in a sharp breath.
At last, he understood everything.
Once this memorial was submitted, it would make no mention whatsoever of resisting the land seizure. Instead, it would direct all accusations at Xu Youde’s corruption, perfectly sidestepping the truth behind the emperor’s grand plan to move the capital.
But Xu Youde was carrying out an imperial order. He had not been corrupt at all! Every last coin had been used to acquire land for the emperor!
As soon as the court accepted the memorial and investigated, they would inevitably find no evidence.
When that happened, the Chen and Fang families would be branded with the monstrous crime of falsely accusing a high-ranking court official and obstructing a major national policy. The charge would be nailed to their heads so firmly that even the gods could not save them!
Yang Jingzhi swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “Master... you intend to send the Chen and Fang families to their deaths!”
Yang Bonian gave a sinister smile. “I’m not harming them. I’m simply granting their wishes and laying out a broad road for them to fight the imperial court to the bitter end.”
“Don’t they value those few hundred mu of land more than their own lives? Aren’t they determined to defend their ancestral graves to the death?”
“Very well. Then I’ll let them defend them to their hearts’ content.” Yang Bonian lifted his teacup and gently blew away the foam. “They can use the heads of their entire clans to guard them.”
Three days later. The main hall of the Yang residence.
Chen Shichang and Fang Jinhai sat in the guest seats, holding the copy of the memorial that Yang Jingzhi had rewritten. Attached to it were the signatures of a large number of Jiangnan scholars who knew nothing of the truth.
Chen Shichang read the memorial from beginning to end, then slapped his thigh.
“Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!” he cried three times, his face flushed with excitement. “Brother Yang, your words carry the weight of a thousand jun! Every sentence cuts straight to the heart!”
He pointed at a passage, his finger trembling with enthusiasm. “Especially these lines: using public office for private gain, lining one’s own pockets! That’s exactly how it should be written! Only by pinning the charge of corruption on him will the court’s censors pounce like wolves who have caught the scent of blood and tear that dog official Xu Youde to pieces!”
Fatty Fang chimed in as well. “Brother Yang truly deserves his reputation as Jiangning Prefecture’s foremost benefactor. Once this memorial is submitted, even a hundred heads wouldn’t be enough to save Xu Youde!”
The two men were completely lost in their feverish anticipation of bringing down a powerful official. They failed to notice that throughout the entire memorial, the phrases they cared about most, such as “forcibly seizing sacrificial fields” and “defending the family’s ancestral property,” had been quietly altered beyond recognition.
All that remained was the capital charge of embezzlement against Xu Youde.
Yang Bonian sat in the seat of honor, his face pale as he coughed. He managed to force out a frail smile.
“If Brother Chen and Brother Fang believe it will work, then this memorial is finalized!”
“Tonight, each of our three families will prepare our clan seals.”
“Tomorrow morning, we’ll affix them together and send the memorial to the capital at once.”
Chen Shichang rose with a hearty laugh. “Good! I’ll personally bring our seal tomorrow morning!”
However, plans could not keep pace with events.
That very night, during the second watch, a miserable cry suddenly rang out from the rear courtyard of the Yang residence.
The entire Yang household descended into chaos. Lanterns swung wildly as servants ran about, shouting in panic.
The news soon reached the Chen and Fang residences.
Yang Bonian, patriarch of the Yang family, had spent day after day laboring over matters in his study. He suddenly coughed up blood, collapsed, and lost consciousness!
Chen Shichang and Fatty Fang were scared out of their wits. They hurried through the night by carriage to the Yang residence.
Inside the Yang family’s bedroom, the heavy smell of bitter medicine stung the nose.
The household physician wiped sweat from his brow and repeatedly shook his head at Yang Gang and the others. “He has overstrained himself with worry. On top of that, he suffered a serious injury to the chest earlier. Now the excess internal heat has attacked his heart, and his emotions have become deeply trapped within.”
“The old master’s life is hanging by a thread. He must not exert his mind in the slightest. Otherwise, even the immortals would be powerless to save him!”
Chen Shichang pushed through the crowd and entered the room.
On the canopy bed, Yang Bonian’s old face was yellow and waxen, like a sheet of gold paper. His lips were utterly bloodless, and his chest barely rose and fell.
When he saw Chen Shichang enter, Yang Bonian’s fingers twitched faintly.
“Brother Chen...” Yang Bonian’s voice was as soft as the hum of a mosquito.
Chen Shichang hurried to the bedside, bent down, and clasped that icy hand. “Brother Yang, don’t speak. Focus on recovering!”
As if using the last of his strength, Yang Bonian seized Chen Shichang’s wrist.
“The memorial... the petition...” Yang Bonian’s eyes reddened, and tears slid from their corners into the pillow. “It can’t wait... The longer we delay, the more likely something will go wrong... I don’t care if this old life of mine is lost... Cough, cough!”
He retched again, and a shocking thread of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Yang Bonian stared at Chen Shichang, his breathing growing more and more labored. “You... submit it... in my place... protect... Jiang...”
Before he could finish, Yang Bonian’s eyes closed and his head rolled toward the inside of the bed.
He fainted completely. No matter how loudly Chen Shichang called to him, there was no response.
“Rest easy, Brother Yang!” Chen Shichang gritted his teeth and swore. “You focus on recovering. We’ll submit the memorial for you! We’ll take care of everything tonight!”
Half an hour later, in the study of the Yang residence’s outer courtyard.
Chen Shichang and Fang Jinhai solemnly pressed the Chen and Fang family seals and private seals onto the end of the thick memorial.
Fang Jinhai looked up at Yang Jingzhi, who stood nearby. “Seventh Master, Brother Yang still hasn’t woken up. Where is the Yang family seal? Bring it out quickly and stamp it, so we can send the memorial off tonight!”
Yang Jingzhi sighed heavily, his face filled with grief. “To be frank with you both, the clan seal has always been kept on the old master’s person. The key to the seal hangs inside his undergarment. Now the old master has his teeth clenched and is unconscious, while the physician is inside using acupuncture to save him. At a time like this, who would dare search through his clothing?”
“This…” Fang Jinhai was stunned. “If the memorial doesn’t bear the Yang family seal, then its weight—”
“There’s no time to wait!” Chen Shichang gritted his teeth and cut him off sharply. “That dog official Xu Youde may mobilize troops first thing tomorrow morning! The longer we delay, the more things can go wrong! Brother Yang has nearly sacrificed his life for the greater good. What are we still hesitating over?”
Chen Shichang gathered up the memorial and said in a deep voice, “The seals of our two families carry enough weight! If anything happens, our two families will bear the consequences!”
With that, Chen Shichang put the memorial into a red-wax-sealed wooden box and handed it to the trusted dead soldier behind him.
“Leave the city tonight and change to fresh horses at the relay station! Eight-hundred-li express! I don’t care how many horses drop dead along the way—you must deliver this box to the Office of Transmission in the capital!”
The dead soldier accepted the box with both hands, turned, and disappeared into the wind and snow.
The two men then offered their condolences, and before long, the sound of their carriage faded into the distance.
In the bedroom at the back of the residence, Yang Bonian, who had seemed to be barely breathing and on the verge of death, suddenly opened his eyes.
There was not the slightest trace of cloudiness or weakness in those old eyes. They were frighteningly bright, filled with the ruthlessness and scheming of an old fox.
He threw off the two thick quilts covering him and sat straight up.
He casually snatched the handkerchief from beside the bed and wiped the fake blood from the corners of his mouth until not a trace remained.
Yang Jingzhi, who had been standing guard by the door all along, hurried over and said in a low voice, “Master, they’re gone. The memorial has also been sent out of the city. The Yang family seal wasn’t stamped on it. It bears only the seals of the other two families, who took the lead.”
Yang Bonian gave a cold snort. He rose and stretched his somewhat stiff limbs.
“What a pair of fools.”
Yang Bonian walked to the window and pushed it open a crack. As the icy wind poured in, his mind grew exceptionally clear.
“Old Seventh.”
“Give the order. First thing tomorrow morning, bring out that Hetian jade Guanyin from the former dynasty in the storeroom. Prepare the most substantial gift we have.”
“This old man will personally pay a visit to Magistrate Xu.”
Yang Jingzhi immediately understood. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Master, shall we prepare the land deeds for our submission as well?”
Yang Bonian walked over to the brazier and held out his hands to warm them, slowly shaking his head.
After a brief pause, an unmistakably ruthless glint appeared in his eyes. “The land deeds must naturally be brought along. But what Xu Youde wants is certainly more than a few acres of land deeds.”
“If he is to carry out this major assignment, he will need a sharp blade at his disposal—one from Jiangnan.”
Yang Bonian turned to Yang Jingzhi and ordered, “Go to the accounts office tonight. First, prepare a detailed register for the transfer of two thousand three hundred mu of land belonging to our entire Yang clan. Not a single coin in payment—we will donate it all to the imperial court!”
His voice carried a hint of excitement. “Second, bring out everything we’ve spent these past few years investigating. Draw up a detailed map of all the other prominent families and wealthy landowners south of the city.”
“Mark the boundaries of each family’s holdings, their secrets and vulnerabilities, and especially the locations of all the ancestral graves buried in prime areas!”
“Mark every last detail clearly for this old man!”
Yang Jingzhi felt a chill run down his back and sucked in a sharp breath.
How ruthless! He intended to sell out every one of his fellow clansmen and allies down to the last detail.
“Master, if we hand this over, we’ll completely alienate everyone in Jiangnan.”
“Alienate them?” Yang Bonian let out a derisive laugh. “By the time this month is over, whether those Jiangnan families are still alive will be another question! His Majesty is heading south. Without a purge, how can he reshuffle the board and take his seat as the new master of the game?!”
Yang Bonian turned to look out the window.
The snow in the courtyard was falling harder and harder, its weight snapping a dead branch from one of the trees.
“Old Seventh.” With both hands clasped behind his back, Yang Bonian’s voice held a note of madness. “Everyone in the world thinks that by pretending to be ill today, this old man has betrayed our alliance.”
He pointed at the wind and snow outside. “Wrong! Completely wrong!”
“Chen Shichang and Fatty Fang—those two fools who have no idea what they’re doing. I haven’t betrayed the alliance. I’m using their blood and bones to build a stairway for the Yang family, one that leads straight into the heavens!”
“Within half a month…”
“Their clan seals will become death warrants, engraved upon a memorial accusing them of slandering an important imperial official and obstructing the great affairs of the state.”
“While my name, and the honor of the entire Yang family, will be written in plain sight in the register of highest merit for His Majesty’s grand project of moving the capital!”
Yang Bonian threw open his arms and burst into wild laughter.
“Hahahahahaha!”
Watching the clan leader descend into madness, Yang Jingzhi instinctively took a step backward.
A tremendous sense of honor welled up within him.
He swept up the hem of his robe and bowed deeply.
“Clan Leader… brilliant.”
