The next morning, the wind and snow had only just stopped in Jinling, yet the city was already roiling with undercurrents.
The main hall on the first floor of the Moonview Teahouse was packed to bursting.
At the two square tables nearest the entrance sat several sturdy men dressed in gray cotton robes and melon-shaped caps. The only thing on their tables was the cheapest tea, yet their eyes kept darting over the other patrons.
In the brightest private booth by the window sat several neatly dressed women. Their hair was arranged in tidy rounded buns, each adorned with a fine silver hairpin. Before them sat premium Biluochun tea and several plates of delicate pastries.
They were, as it turned out, the forewomen of several of the major workshops south of the city.
On the raised platform in the center of the hall, the storyteller had abandoned his usual folding fan. Instead, he shook open a sheet of paper densely covered in handwriting.
“Bang!”
The striking block silenced the din throughout the teahouse.
“Honored patrons! Today, this old man won’t be telling one of those usual tales!”
The storyteller cleared his throat, then launched into a performance filled with gritted teeth and righteous indignation.
“Today, we’re going to speak of a new Living Yama who has appeared in our very own city of Jinling!”
The patrons below began whispering among themselves, all turning toward him with puzzled expressions.
“This villain is named Xu Youde! He wears the official hat of the Minister of Revenue and waves the banner of an imperial construction project, yet what he really does is dig up people’s ancestral graves and cut off their livelihoods!”
The entire teahouse fell deathly silent.
The storyteller caught the eye of the Chen family steward in the corner. Though he was making these accusations, fear lingered deep in his heart.
After all, the man was a minister!
But when he thought of the generous payment, his tone grew even more impassioned.
“Listen closely, everyone! The two thousand three hundred mu of fertile land south of the city is the ancestral sacrificial land belonging to a Jiangnan family that has stood for centuries!”
“And this Xu Youde colluded with vile merchants from the lowest ranks of society and tried to seize the land by force without asking right from wrong! Refuse to sell? Then he sends troops to surround their gates! He even plans to dig up the graves of six generations of their ancestors and grind the bones to dust!”
“That corrupt official snatched up the land at rock-bottom prices, then turned around and sold it at a high price. Every bit of that ill-gotten fortune went straight into his private coffers!”
The moment those words were spoken, the entire teahouse erupted.
Several old patrons angrily slapped their thighs, splashing tea across the tables.
“This… this bastard! He even dares to dig up ancestral graves? Is he even human?”
“No wonder the south of the city was in such chaos these past few days. All those prominent families were selling their land to redeem their deeds. So it was that corrupt official extorting them!”
One of the forewomen, however, frowned, clearly displeased.
“Buying low and selling high? The Tong’an Bank sent out cash notes the other day, paying twice the market price. How can that be called forcible seizure?”
A round-faced shopkeeper beside her curled his lips.
“Who knows? But with such a commotion, do you really believe Minister Xu actually embezzled anything?”
“I’m skeptical,” said another woman, an older weaver, shaking her head. “Those great families aren’t exactly innocent either. They usually squeeze interest from our workshops through usurious loans. Their hearts are black as night.”
“Now that the two sides are tearing into each other, we might as well watch the show. When immortals fight, ordinary people should keep their distance.”
The forewomen whispered among themselves and watched from the sidelines.
At the other end of the hall, however, a young candidate suddenly smashed the cup in his hand and shot to his feet.
His name was Zhang Qing. On ordinary days, he helped with the detailed accounts at the Jiangning Weaving Bureau.
His face had turned livid as he shoved aside the long bench in front of him.
“What do you mean, buying low and selling high? What do you mean, seizing the people’s land by force?”
Zhang Qing simply could not believe that the Xu family would do such a thing.
He immediately pointed at the storyteller on the platform and demanded, “Every payment was settled on the spot with official notes! And they paid twice the market price! The documents were in black and white and stamped with seals!”
Zhang Qing swept his gaze over the furious patrons. His neck flushed red as he shouted, “The money was paid in real gold and silver! If even that is called robbery, then what is!?”
“Hmph! Then what do you call the way those great families usually force tenants to their deaths and seize their land?”
The entire hall fell silent.
Then a mocking laugh came from the staircase leading down from the private rooms on the second floor.
“I wondered who was spouting such nonsense. So it’s some lowborn wretch who spends his days at the Weaving Bureau doing accounts with a bunch of women.”
Three or four young masters dressed in expensive lake-silk brocade descended the stairs at an unhurried pace.
The man at their head held a gold-trimmed folding fan, his eyes full of contempt.
This was the young master of a Chen collateral branch, Chen Wenhan.
Chen Wenhan walked up to Zhang Qing and prodded him on the shoulder with the spine of his fan.
“How much did Xu Youde pay you? Enough to make you throw away all shame and defend a mad dog in front of everyone?”
The jab made Zhang Qing stagger back two steps. Gritting his teeth, he retorted, “Nonsense! I’m only stating the facts! Minister Xu did pay twice the market price. How can that be called embezzlement?”
Chen Wenhan kicked over the long bench in front of Zhang Qing and sneered.
“You still dare argue? If Xu Youde truly didn’t embezzle anything, why would the three great Jiangnan clans risk losing their heads to submit a joint memorial against him?”
“You’ve disgraced the entire face of Jiangnan’s scholars. All because of poor wretches like you who will sell their principles for money!”
Several men arranged by the Chen family immediately sprang into action. Rolling up their sleeves, they surrounded Zhang Qing.
“Beat this government lackey!”
“Bribe-taking scum! Get out of the Moonview Teahouse!”
In the ensuing shoving, Zhang Qing took a punch to the head. Before long, even his headcloth had been torn off, and the men dragged him out of the teahouse and threw him through the front door.
Zhang Qing fell into the snow and struggled to his feet.
He glared at the aristocratic young masters inside the teahouse, who were applauding, and at the spectators who knew nothing of the truth. Then he stamped his foot angrily and turned away, disappearing into the bitter wind.
By the window, Liu Sanniang watched the scene and shook her head before lifting her teacup for a sip.
“Look at that. Speak the truth and you can’t even make it out the door,” Liu Sanniang said with a cold laugh. “Those sour old scholars are fighting their little war. Since they have no reason on their side, all they can rely on are their fists and their voices. Let’s finish this pot of tea and get back to the workshop. The city is likely to be in chaos for quite some time.”
Within half an hour, the flames had spread throughout Jinling.
Both walls along Vermilion Bird Street and the notice boards outside the Jiangning County Office—and even the white marble pillars before the provincial examination compound—had somehow been plastered with densely packed broadsheets.
Every one of them was filled with tearful accusations against Xu Youde for forcibly requisitioning ancestral sacrificial land and embezzling vast sums of money.
At the very bottom of each copied memorial, a line of glaring scarlet characters had been written in cinnabar:
“How can the ancestral estates of the great families be allowed to fall into the hands of a corrupt official? The scholars of Jiangnan must rise and defend themselves!”
More and more passersby gathered. Literate scholars read aloud the blood-soaked accusations, word by word, and curses repeatedly erupted from the crowd. The entire street seethed with public fury.
The bookshop district was even more jammed.
The front doors of Shulin Study were only half open, yet the line of students outside stretched all the way across the street.
Behind the counter, the portly shopkeeper’s fingers flew across the abacus. His face was so radiant with delight that his eyes had nearly disappeared.
He had arranged for the contents of the memorial to be carved in movable type overnight. He had also added an essay titled “An Explanation of Xu Youde’s Ten Great Crimes,” portraying Xu Youde as the foremost tyrant and oppressor of the people.
“Don’t push! Don’t push! Money in one hand, books in the other!” the young clerk shouted anxiously.
“Give me two copies! I’m taking them to the Imperial Academy today so I can pass them around to my classmates!” a young student cried, waving his copper coins.
The portly shopkeeper slapped a hand over the coins and narrowed his eyes.
“Five qian of silver per copy. Not a penny less.”
“You’re insane! The Annotated Four Books normally costs only two qian of silver!”
“If you think it’s too expensive, then don’t buy it.” The portly shopkeeper spread his hands. “The whole city is passing it around. This is the only surviving copy with detailed annotations. If you don’t want it, plenty of others are waiting!”
“I’ll buy it! I’ll buy it!”
A scholar at the back of the line immediately shoved over a tael of silver.
Not far away, several young female weavers in blue cotton work clothes, fresh from the workshop, happened to be walking past together.
Watching the scholars with flushed faces frantically snatch up scraps of wastepaper, one of the workers curled her lip in exaggerated disdain.
“Five-tenths of a tael for a dozen pages of worthless paper? What’s wrong with these scholars? Have their brains been flooded?” She weighed the purse in her hand. “Five-tenths of a tael is enough to buy three skeins of the finest Suzhou embroidery gold thread.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Another tall weaver covered her mouth and giggled. “I just heard some sour-faced scholar wailing that someone had dug up his ancestral graves.”
“The living can barely get by, yet they’re worried about the dead occupying good land? Let them make as much noise as they want. We’d better hurry and order the raw silk. It’ll go up in price again if we’re late.”
The weavers quickly walked away.
At the same time, an entirely different scene was unfolding outside the Silk Bureau in the south of the city.
Seven or eight old men dressed in shabby gray scholar’s robes, their faces full of misery, knelt in the snow outside the gates of the Silk Bureau with their families in tow.
They held up a banner bearing four large black-ink characters: “Families Ruined, Lives Destroyed.”
The old man at the head slapped his thigh and wailed bitterly at the onlookers.
“Heaven has no eyes! Ten miserable acres of farmland handed down through my family for generations were simply seized by Magistrate Xu’s men!”
“I never saw a single copper in compensation! Now the rice jar at home is empty, and my old wife starved to death in a ruined temple. We common folk have no way to live anymore!”
The old man wept so piteously that his voice broke. The women behind him joined in with loud cries.
More and more onlookers gathered. Hearing this devastating account, they clenched their fists and began pointing at the gates of the Silk Bureau, cursing furiously.
On the second floor of the Silk Bureau, in the accounting office, Yunniang kept her head lowered. Her left hand rapidly flipped through the ledgers while her right hand clicked away on the abacus.
Hongxiao could no longer stand the wailing outside. Irritated, she strode to the window and flung open the carved wooden panels.
The cold wind rushed in, and the cries outside became even more piercing.
Resting her elbows on the windowsill, Hongxiao looked down for a while. Suddenly, she let out a snort of laughter and turned toward Yunniang.
“Yunniang, come take a look. Which opera troupe did they hire for this performance? They aren’t putting their hearts into it at all.”
Yunniang did not stop working. “What is it now?”
Hongxiao grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and leaned against the window frame as she pointed things out. “Look at that old man leading the wailing. He keeps saying he’s farmed that miserable plot of land for half his life. Now take a look at his hands.”
“The backs are so white they practically shine, and there isn’t even half a callus on his fingertips! Do those look like the hands of someone who handles a hoe? They look like the hands of someone who spends every day cradling a teapot and rolling walnuts between his fingers!”
Hongxiao spat out a sunflower-seed shell, her voice dripping with mockery.
“Now look at that woman beside him, the one crying that she’s starving. When she knelt just now, the hem of that ragged scholar’s robe rode up a little. What was showing underneath? A pair of trousers made from twelve-warp Suzhou tribute satin!”
“I’ve worked in the weaving room for so long that I can recognize that fabric’s weave at a glance. She’s dressed better than most of the spectators in the street!”
Several weavers who had been sorting threads nearby came over to look. They covered their mouths and snickered.
“She really is! They think we’re all blind! Hahahaha!”
Hearing this, Yunniang finally raised her head. She walked over to the window and glanced down, her brows drawing together slightly.
“Soft hands and delicate skin, dressed in silk while pretending to be refugees.”
Yunniang reached out, closed the window, and fastened the wooden latch.
“Let’s not look anymore. Those ignorant commoners see tears and believe everything they hear. We mustn’t get involved in this mess.”
Hongxiao dusted the sunflower-seed crumbs from her hands, curled her lips disdainfully, and returned to the desk.
Outside the window, the uninformed townspeople continued to burn with righteous indignation.
They were afraid, after all—afraid that Xu Youde might do the same thing to them.
…
At the docks south of the city, the cold wind carried dampness from the water and pierced straight through to the bone. A dozen or so laborers had just finished unloading a boatload of goods. They huddled beneath a stack of cargo, out of the wind, warming themselves over a fire.
“Have you heard what’s been going around the city?” asked a dark-faced man, rubbing his hands together. “They say Minister Xu is a real monster. Apparently, he’s even dug up the ancestral graves of wealthy families!”
In the corner, Old Second Sun, who had remained silent until then, gave a cold laugh and took a bite of his coarse black bun.
“You idiots don’t understand a thing.”
Old Second Sun lowered his voice and pointed up the canal.
“For the past few days, dozens of boats carrying enormous logs from the Jiangning Timber Guild have been unloading over there.”
“Even the shorter logs are four or five zhang long! And there are dozens of cartloads of premium golden-thread nanmu timber for coffins!”
Old Second Sun declared with certainty, “Those eminent families claim Xu Youde is building a private residence. What private residence would use that kind of imperial-grade timber, in violation of regulations? With preparations on this scale, the court is almost certainly coming south to build a grand palace!”
“So what if they’re building a palace?” the dark-faced man retorted, glaring at him. “Does that mean they can seize people’s land and dig up their graves whenever they please?”
“You heartless bastard!”
Old Second Sun sprang to his feet and hurled the half of his bun onto the ground.
“You’ve all listened to the scholars’ nonsense and forgotten how the grain-transport gang used to treat us?”
“For every hundred jin we carried, the gang took seventy as their cut! Anyone who resisted was thrown into the river!”
“If the Xu family hadn’t wiped out those bloodsucking bastards from the grain-transport gang, we wouldn’t even be able to afford these black buns now! Without the Xu family, we’d probably be suffering far worse!”
The dark-faced man had been hit where it hurt. Embarrassed and furious, he shoved Old Second Sun’s shoulder.
“Bullshit! One thing has nothing to do with the other! Did you take a reward from the Xu family and come here to act as a spokesman for that Living Yama who digs up graves?”
Several laborers immediately surrounded him, eyeing Old Second Sun menacingly.
“Beat him up! Teach this government lackey a lesson!”
The shoving grew more violent, and it looked as though a fight was about to break out.
“What are you doing? Planning a rebellion?”
The thickly built foreman charged in, a brass tobacco-pipe bowl raised in his hand. He brought it down on the dark-faced man’s forehead.
“Are you all so full you’ve got nothing better to do? The court’s affairs are not for a bunch of lowly wretches like you to gossip about!”
Just then, a middle-aged man in a blue Hangzhou-silk robe stepped out from behind the cargo stacks.
He was the chief manager in charge of this section of the docks—and the foreman’s immediate superior.
The chief manager clasped his hands behind his back and swept his cold gaze over the laborers. He let out a chilly snort.
“Hmph! Don’t discuss such matters!” A trace of apprehension and hidden meaning flashed in his eyes. “Master Wuyou is coming south.”
The moment those words were spoken, the previously ferocious foreman shuddered violently. His face filled with fear, and the brass tobacco pipe nearly slipped from his hand.
He hurriedly bowed to the chief manager.
The laborers had no idea who this “Young Master Wuyou” was, but seeing the chief manager’s terrified silence, they all shrank their necks in fright. They quickly shouldered their sacks and scattered.
On the street behind the provincial examination compound, in the Hall of Ethical Principles, dozens of candidates from Jiangnan’s prominent clans had packed the assembly hall until there was hardly room to breathe.
Chen Wenhan stood at the highest step, holding aloft a silk petition he had prepared long ago.
“The literary heritage of Jiangnan rests upon its great families. If the great families perish, what will become of that heritage?” Chen Wenhan shouted at the top of his lungs.
“The heads of the Chen, Fang, and Yang families have risked their lives to submit a memorial! We Jiangnan scholars cannot simply sit back and wait for death! This is the Jiangnan Scholars’ Petition of Public Deliberation! I, Chen, will be the first to add my name!”
“Support the great families! Unite against corrupt officials!”
“Sign me up!”
“But why haven’t we seen anyone from the Yang family?”
“You don’t know? Master Yang fell seriously ill the night before last. The entire household is in mourning, rushing about taking care of him!”
“Oh! So that’s how it is. Naturally, they ought to be doing that!”
Dozens of scholars formed a long line, waiting to sign their names one by one on the petition.
Inside the Minglun Hall, the crowd was stirred into a frenzy. They had no idea that they had already become pawns in the struggle between the great families and the imperial court.
The sky gradually darkened, and the snow began falling again.
By evening, outside the Jiangning County government office.
Several hundred scholars wearing square scholar caps, hired tenant farmers, and idle townsfolk who had come to watch the spectacle had packed the space before the government office until not even a gap remained.
Seven or eight enormous white banners were held high in the wind and snow. Written across them in bold characters were slogans such as “Severely Punish the Great Corrupt Official Xu Youde!” and “Restore Jiangnan’s Good Name!”
“Ask the county magistrate to hold court! Arrest the corrupt official!”
Behind the gates, Magistrate Wu was pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pan.
“This is the death of me! Why have these living ancestors all come to block my door?” Magistrate Wu was sweating profusely.
The secretary beside him cautiously edged forward. “My lord, the crowd outside is getting too rowdy. Why not send out the three ranks of yamen runners and drive them away with staves?”
“Bah!” Magistrate Wu spat in the secretary’s face. “Those few kneeling in front are all young masters of the Chen and Fang families! Behind them are scholars who’ve passed the examinations—Licentiates and Juren!”
“If you dare use the staves to arrest people today, those scholars will dare strip me of this official robe tomorrow!”
“But we can’t afford to offend Minister Xu either.”
“Isn’t that obvious? Who am I? The county magistrate! Who can I afford to provoke?”
Magistrate Wu drew two deep breaths, then vigorously wiped the sweat from his face. He clenched his fists and pounded himself twice beside the eyes, steeling his resolve.
Those around him watched in terror and swallowed hard. All they could do was give him a thumbs-up behind his back.
“Xu Youde is an imperial commissioner. He absolutely cannot be touched! The Chen and Fang families are local powers. I can’t afford to offend either of them! Open the central gate. Push through!”
With a creak, the main gate opened.
Under the protection of a group of armed constables, Magistrate Wu walked out with the measured steps of an official and slowly came to a stop at the center of the steps.
He gazed sorrowfully at the people below and let out a long sigh.
“Scholars! Good people of the county!” Magistrate Wu’s voice was filled with pain and helplessness, and his eyes reddened as though he were on the verge of tears.
“Seeing you all in such a state breaks my heart! I have already learned of the matters described in this memorial!”
Young Master Chen raised his head from the steps below and demanded loudly, “Since you know of them, why have you not issued an arrest warrant and sent men to the commissioner’s residence to seize him? Are you planning to watch that cur of an official dig up Jiangnan’s literary heritage, inch by inch?”
“Young Master Chen, mind your words!” Magistrate Wu pressed both hands downward, his brows knitted tightly as he put on the bitter, world-weary expression of a seasoned bureaucrat.
“Arrest him? How can we casually arrest a man on the strength of a single complaint?”
Magistrate Wu gave a cold snort and assumed an air of righteous indignation.
“Magistrate Xu is a second-rank Minister of Revenue, a high-ranking official of the imperial court, and he bears the imperial commissioner’s seal personally bestowed by His Majesty!”
“This matter involves several thousand mu of sacrificial fields south of the city, not to mention the livelihoods of countless commoners! The case is tangled beyond measure, and its hidden circumstances have yet to be fully investigated. How could this office dare overstep its authority and act rashly?”
The scholars below erupted in an uproar. Some were already preparing to curse Magistrate Wu for shielding the corrupt official.
Magistrate Wu would never give them the chance. Seizing the moment, he shouted, “This matter has already exceeded the jurisdiction of Jinling Prefecture!”
“But I share the earnest concern in every one of your hearts! That is why, just now, I drafted an official report overnight, recording in full both your demands and the public outrage boiling throughout the city!”
He clasped his hands and bowed deeply toward the north, in the direction of the capital.
“This matter must be submitted to Yingtian Prefecture, which will then send it to the Secretariat for Transmission by express courier under a six-hundred-li emergency dispatch! The imperial court must deliver its own verdict! For now, I ask you all to disperse. Do not let yourselves freeze in this wind and snow.”
“The imperial court is clear-sighted and fair. It will certainly send an official to investigate the matter thoroughly and give everyone a proper judgment!”
Push it off! Push it off as far as possible!
At the back of the crowd, a senior steward of the Chen family stood in a dark street corner, watching Magistrate Wu evade the issue with his empty official rhetoric. A cold smile curled across his lips.
“Push it away. The farther you push it, the bigger this matter will become.”
The steward turned his head toward the north, his eyes filled with ruthless determination.
The fire was already burning fiercely enough.
The joint petition from the Chen, Fang, and Yang families, together with the public outrage boiling throughout the city, had now sprouted wings and was racing toward the capital at a speed of eight hundred li a day.
Xu Youde was finished.
