Three months later, Attendant Wu stood outside the city walls, one hand pressed to his aching lower back.
He stared up at the wall towering before him. It was three zhang high and so tightly built that not even a crack showed between the bricks. It looked even sturdier than the walls of the capital.
The soles of his shoes rasped against the paved road with a steady shushing sound. He stamped his feet twice more, then lowered his head to look. Aside from a few scratches, the soles were covered only in a thin layer of dust.
Since entering the southwestern province, he had seen two or three county towns laying cement roads. But they were all so narrow that only a single carriage could pass at a time. Even Songzhou City had roads barely wide enough for two carriages.
The road beneath his feet, however, was more than two zhang wide. Four carriages could pass side by side with room to spare.
As the carriage passed through the outer wall, a broad avenue stretching beyond sight came into view.
The farther they went, the more cement roads they saw—even the narrow country lanes on either side had been paved. Songzhou City had only managed to pave two main roads within its walls.
Attendant Wu leaned against the carriage as though waking from a dream, his gaze fixed straight outside the window.
The rice in the fields had already been harvested, leaving behind nothing but a layer of charred black ash.
In the distance, ditches ran alongside the cement road, water flowing through them.
After half an hour, they were still passing fields and farmhouses. Attendant Wu could not help frowning as he began to question Song Qiming’s abilities.
“There are plenty of commoners and merchants along the road. How is it that there isn’t a proper market anywhere?”
Without shops, where were the people supposed to buy things? Surely they couldn’t produce everything themselves.
And then there were the commercial taxes.
The Song family had once run a small business. Song Qiming couldn’t possibly be ignorant of such basic principles.
“Master, there’s another city wall up ahead!” the eunuch driving the carriage suddenly cried out.
Attendant Wu stuck his head out of the window. Sure enough, another wall stood ahead, though it was somewhat shorter than the first.
“Keep going.”
The young eunuch flicked the reins and urged the carriage onward. Only when they drew near did they finally see rows of shops stretching across the road.
Standing beneath the two-zhang-high wall, Attendant Wu raised his brows in confusion.
“How does Suining City have two walls? And this one is made of bricks.”
A passerby happened to overhear him and looked him up and down.
His voice was soft, and his skin was so pale it seemed translucent. He looked a little effeminate.
“You’re visiting Suining City for the first time?” the man asked.
The young eunuch was just about to step forward and stop him when Attendant Wu held him back.
Attendant Wu took a step forward and nodded at the man. “Yes, it’s our first time here. I never imagined it would be so—” He paused, then said, “It’s truly opened my eyes.”
The passerby grinned, his face glowing with pride as he puffed out his chest.
“Of course. Suining City is even livelier than Songzhou City now.”
He gestured toward the wall. “This is the inner wall. The one outside is the outer wall. It used to be nothing more than a ramshackle earthen wall, but it was rebuilt a few months ago.”
Attendant Wu blinked. “So the area outside used to be a village?”
“That explains why we didn’t see many shops, and why there were so many rice fields.”
The passerby continued walking. “The inner city is livelier than the outer city. Merchants and travelers all stay inside the inner walls.”
“There are plenty of places to eat and plenty of places to have fun. Go in and see for yourselves.”
Attendant Wu and the young eunuch exchanged a glance before climbing back into the carriage and entering the inner city.
Above the southern gate of the inner city, a covert guard stationed in the local government office kept his eyes fixed on the carriage. Only after it entered the inner city did he hurry down from the wall, mount a horse, and gallop to the prefectural office to deliver the news.
“My lord, Attendant Wu, sent by His Majesty, has just entered the inner city. He’s heading toward the prefectural office.”
Song Qiming set down the grain ledger in his hand. This year, the prefectural office had collected ten thousand dan more grain during the autumn harvest than it had the previous year. The grain taxes from the various counties had yet to arrive, and he had no idea how much more they would collect than last year.
“How many people are there in total?”
The covert guard replied, “Four in all. The carriage is being driven by a young eunuch who appears to be close to Attendant Wu. There are also two guards on horseback.”
Ripples spread across the water in the teacup as the table trembled. Song Qiming stopped tapping his index finger against the tabletop and looked toward Yao Ye, who was waiting nearby.
“Are our people at the post station in place?”
Yao Ye nodded. “They arrived yesterday. One woman and three men—two inside and two outside.”
