Mo Sang – CH 275

Chapter 275. One Chapter Plus Half a Chapter

Ah Ying quickly finished washing and came out. Li Sangrou raised an eyebrow at her.

Her clothes were ill-fitting; the sleeves and trousers were too long. Seeing Ah Ying’s overjoyed expression, Li Sangrou beckoned her to her side, made her squat down, and carefully examined her hair. She then turned to call Da Chang.

“There’s a perfume shop in town. Take her there and have them give her a good wash. Soak her hair in a herbal remedy, then scrub it several times to get rid of all the lice.

Also, these clothes will not do. Go to a tailor shop and buy her a few new outfits,” Li Sangrou instructed.

Ah Ying blushed immediately.

“It’s alright. In our family, everyone except the Boss has had lice.” Da Chang reached out and pressed down on Ah Ying’s head, pushing her towards the springboard.

………………………………

The trial of Magistrate Shi’s case went very smoothly.

Wang Shouji, having been imprisoned for a day and a night, was nearly driven to collapse by the stench of excrement and urine. He was pushed to Magistrate Shi’s table, and a finger-crushing device was thrown in front of him. Before the device could even be put on, he broke down and confessed everything.

Since the head accountant, Wang Shouji, had confessed everything, it did not really matter whether the rest confessed or not.

However, this was not an ordinary case; the key to the trial was the attitude.

Therefore, even though Wang Shouji had confessed to everything, Magistrate Shi still interrogated them meticulously, taking statements and fingerprints one by one.

The number of prisoners was considerable, and everyone spoke readily when questioned. The interrogation continued until dark before it was finally over.

Magistrate Shi and his team cleared out a small inn in town, took the prisoners there, and prepared to set off early the next morning to return to Jiangzhou City.

Meng Yanqing returned to the ship with a thick stack of copied confessions, handed them to Li Sangrou, and explained the general process of the trial and the basic facts of the case.

Li Sangrou listened while flipping through the confessions in her hands.

For nearly ten years, Guangshun Shipyard, backed by the garrison commander’s office, had been extremely profitable.

Before Yang Gan took over, Guangshun Shipyard had a turnover of two hundred sixty thousand taels of silver. After Yang Gan took over, the annual surplus exceeded a hundred thousand taels, totaling over a million taels of surplus at the beginning of this year.

A month ago, Yang Gan and Shan Xian ordered Wang Shouji and others to create a deficit in the accounts, draining the turnover, and using Guangshun Shipyard as collateral to borrow a total of 1.2 million taels of silver from banks in Jiangzhou City and timber merchants who had supplied them for many years.

Of this 1.2 million taels, Yang Gan took two hundred thousand taels. A hundred thousand taels were distributed among the six accountants, and the remaining hundred thousand taels were distributed among the forty-six managers and supervisors in the shipyard.

Wang Shouji received the largest share, fifty thousand taels of silver. The other five accountants each received ten thousand taels, and the forty-six managers received between five thousand and a thousand taels.

Besides these two hundred thousand taels, the remaining two million taels, including a surplus of over a million taels, were all transported to Runzhou annually. The one million taels borrowed were handled by Yang Gan and Master Shan; even Wang Shouji did not know where the silver went.

Yang Gan and Master Shan endured all the torture instruments brought by Magistrate Shi, gritting their teeth and remaining silent.

Li Sangrou, flipping through the confession, listened to Meng Yanqing’s account, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Ah Ying, standing behind Li Sangrou, listened with wide, unblinking eyes.

“Where are Yang Gan and that Master Shan?” Li Sangrou placed the confession on the table and asked Meng Yanqing.

“At the Yanfu Old Inn.”

“Let’s go see them.” Li Sangrou stood up.

Meng Yanqing and Da Chang followed her out. Ah Ying did not react in time; Da Chang grabbed her round hair bun and pushed her forward a step. Ah Ying quickly followed.

………………………………

In the darkness between a pile of timber and a boat on the shore, Ah Ying’s mother, father, and younger brother Ah Zhuang huddled together, watching the brightly lit boat in the distance.

“Mother!” Ah Zhuang, who was squatting at the front, hurriedly pointed and called out as he saw people coming out of the cabin.

“Shh!” Ah Ying’s mother covered her son’s mouth with her hand, her eyes wide as she anxiously watched the group of people emerge from the cabin. When she saw Ah Ying, her gaze was fixed on her, watching her disembark and head towards the town until she could no longer see anything.

“Mother! Eldest Sister is wearing new clothes!” “Ah Zhuang pried his mother’s hands away, filled with envy.

He had never worn new clothes, not even once!

“Stop looking; let’s go back. We have to get up early to work tomorrow.” Ah Ying’s mother sighed deeply, stood up, grabbed her son, and pushed Ah Ying’s father, who was still looking towards the town, back towards the small wooden house.

After walking a few steps, Ah Ying’s mother wiped away her tears.

“Why are you crying?” Ah Ying’s father glared at Ah Ying’s mother, displeased. “The child is enjoying a good life; why are you crying?”

“I am happy. Ah Ying is such a lucky child.” Ah Ying’s mother wiped away her tears again, reaching out to hug Ah Zhuang. “Our Ah Zhuang is blessed too.”

“Big sister’s new clothes are so beautiful!” Ah Zhuang still envied his older sister’s new clothes.

………………………………

Li Sangrou and her entourage entered the inn and randomly found an empty room. Meng Yanqing went to greet Magistrate Shi, while Hei Ma, accompanied by two men, brought in Yang Gan and Master Shan.

Li Sangrou sat in a chair, while Ah Ying stood behind her, her lips tightly pressed together, glaring at Yang Gan and Master Shan as they were pushed in by Hei Ma and the others.

Both Yang Gan and Master Shan reeked of foul odors, their hands swollen and bruised, resembling two large, purplish-red steamed buns.

Ah Ying had seen Master Yang and Master Shan two or three times, always from afar, watching them followed by a throng of servants and attendants, surrounded by high-ranking stewards.

Compared to her, Master Yang and Master Shan were people standing on clouds.

Seeing Master Yang and Master Shan before her filled Ah Ying with a strange sense of melancholy and panic. She remembered a saying her mother often used:

“Thirty years east of the river, then west of the river.”

“I went to Runzhou City myself. I met your Old Master Yang; he’s a formidable and ruthless man, and so are you,” Li Sangrou said, carefully scrutinizing Yang Gan.

Yang Gan looked at Li Sangrou and grinned.

“Now, it seems your Old Master Yang is even more ruthless than I was when I first saw him.

You amassed over two million from the shipyard. Your other businesses must have done similar things, amassing a considerable amount of silver. The total amount must be over ten million.

This Master Shan certainly does not know where this money is, and perhaps you do not either, but Old Master Yang definitely knows, and there are certainly a few others in your Yang family who do.

Your Yang family already has a scholar who passed the imperial examination. I’ve met him; he’s handsome and very young. I’ve heard he’s exceptionally talented in literature, and passing the imperial examination should be a piece of cake for him.

I’ve heard that besides this scholar, there are seven or eight other young and handsome scholars, all exceptionally talented. And among the younger ones, there are even more promising talents.

With this money, these talents will be even more powerful. In the next ten or eight years, your Yang family will rise to prominence as expected and quickly soar to great heights!

This is the plan of your patriarch and all of you, is it not?

Even if a few, a dozen, are sacrificed, it is worth it. Is that not right?” Li Sangrou looked at Yang Gan, speaking slowly and deliberately.

Yang Gan smiled but did not speak.

“This mindset, this perseverance, is admirable,” Li Sangrou sincerely praised.

“But this enormous fortune was initially forcibly seized from the Meng family by your Yang family. What is that called? Taking advantage of someone who has no family to rely on, is it not?

The law has ten unforgivable crimes. If there were a list of the ten most immoral acts, where would robbing someone of their family’s inheritance rank?

You forcibly seized it, only to have it taken back. Instead of the dignity and composure to accept defeat, you resorted to such disgusting methods, this shameless tactic of risking your life—’What can you do to me?’

Originally, I admired you, Old Master Yang, and the others. For the sake of the Yang family, you were willing to lower yourself and lose face; you were quite a character.

Later, I saw how you divided that two hundred thousand and how you treated the accountants, managers, and laborers at the shipyard.

Your lavish treatment of the accountants and managers, even with heavy bribes, is understandable. But you even skimped on a few steamed buns for the laborers who did the work.

So, you, your old master, and you all, this immorality, this bottomless predation of the strong, is innate. This is the true nature of your Old Master Yang, and you, a bunch of ambitious scoundrels like you.

It’s truly disgusting.”

Yang Gan shifted on the ground, making himself more comfortable, and looked at Li Sangrou, smiling with narrowed eyes.

“People like you, utterly lacking in virtue, without any bottom line, unscrupulous and ruthless, if you were allowed to have your way, if your Yang family were to become wealthy and powerful, rising to the top, I always felt it was a bit unfair.

Then I thought, look, you’ve met me; is that not justice?” Li Sangrou squinted at Yang Gan, who was smiling at her.

“Do you know I am a very powerful person?

The power I wield is not enormous, but it is enough to issue an imperial decree to demote your entire Yang clan to the lowest social class, ensuring you cannot escape this status for three to five generations!

I’ve never used this power before, but today I am going to make an exception.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. You’ve taken tens of millions of taels of silver, so you will have to pay a price.”

Li Sangrou looked at Yang Gan, who was squinting at her; he was mocking her.

Li Sangrou looked at Yang Gan for a moment, then turned to Meng Yanqing and asked, “You can write memorials, right? Write one for me.”

Meng Yanqing frowned, then quickly relaxed. “Yes, I can.”

Yang Gan’s lips twitched downwards, his sarcasm deepening.

“Tell Magistrate Shi that the rest of the people should be sentenced as appropriate. Yang Gan is to be sent to Runzhou Prefecture.

I need you to witness your entire Yang clan being reduced to a lowly status; otherwise, I will not be in a good mood,” Li Sangrou said, standing up. “Let’s go.”

Ah Ying followed behind Li Sangrou, her body stiff. She tripped at the threshold and fell forward, but Da Chang grabbed her hair and pulled her over the threshold.

Back on the ship, Meng Yanqing quickly arranged his writing materials, sat up straight, and furrowed his brow as he wrote a memorial.

He had written memorials before, but that was decades ago. Since joining the Yunmeng Guard, he was practically a dead man; why would he need to write memorials anymore? Yet, of all the people on the ship, he was undoubtedly the most skilled at writing memorials.

But the memorial his Boss was about to write, concerning a matter that needed to be presented in a dignified and respectable manner for the country and its people, was extremely difficult.

Meng Yanqing wrote this memorial until late into the night, exhausting all his efforts, but he could only resign himself to it. Ah Ying and Li Sangrou shared a cabin. Li Sangrou slept on the bed, but on a corner of the deck, Ah Ying had laid out new bedding, covered herself with a new blanket, and used a new pillow, yet she could not fall asleep.

Her mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts, a jumbled mess of events from the day. She replayed the day in her mind over and over again, each replay feeling more and more like a dream. She did not know when she finally drifted off to sleep.

A few days later, with two or three days left until the Tengwang Pavilion’s completion ceremony, Li Sangrou roughly arranged things at the Guangshun Shipyard and prepared to set off back to Yuzhang City.

The day before their departure, before dinner, Li Sangrou stood beside Ah Ying, watching her clumsily and forcefully finish writing a line of large characters with her pen. She smiled and said,

“That’s enough for today. We are leaving early tomorrow morning for Yuzhang City. We probably will not be able to come back for a while. Go back and tell your parents and your brother.”

“Alright!” Ah Ying hurriedly put down her pen, put away the paper, washed and put away her brush and inkstone, wiped her hands, and looked at Li Sangrou, saying, “Should I go back now?”

“Yes, have dinner back with your parents and your brother,” Li Sangrou said with a smile.

“Then I am off! I will be back after dinner!” Ah Ying forced back her excitement, almost stiffening as she walked out.

Da Chang came in from outside, carrying a large bag full of braised chicken, cooked meat, snacks, and other food in one hand and a small silver ingot in the other, handing them both to Ah Ying.

“Take this back for your younger brother. Here are five taels of silver; the Boss paid you three months’ wages.”

“Thank you, Brother Chang! Thank you, Boss!” Ah Ying took it, her nose tingling with emotion. She quickly bowed to Da Chang, then to Li Sangrou.

“Now learn the second rule: you must be able to control your tongue when you should not say something.” Li Sangrou looked at Ah Ying, her expression serious.

“If you do not know whether something or a word should be said, then you should not say it,” Da Chang instructed.

Ah Ying nodded repeatedly, taking a deep breath. “I understand! I am leaving now; I will be back in a bit!”

………………………………

Meng Yanqing’s painstakingly written memorial was delivered to Jianle City and sent to the Imperial Secretariat a few days later.

The Imperial Secretariat was the most affected by the arrival of Shunfeng; to say it was completely transformed would be a slight exaggeration.

Everyone in the Imperial Secretariat knew about Shunfeng, its two tabloids, and its leader. Even newcomers would invariably have their first task be to hear their seniors introduce Shunfeng, the Morning News, and its leader.

Upon seeing the incongruous cover of the memorial and the even more incongruous signature of Li Sangrou, the duty official immediately reported it and hurriedly presented the memorial, flawed from top to bottom, to Prime Minister Pan, who was in charge of the Imperial Secretariat.

Prime Minister Pan glanced at it and quickly took the memorial to Prime Minister Wu.

Minister Wu looked at the cover of the memorial and smiled wryly, “This is how a formal memorial is written.”

“Not bad for something written like this,” Minister Pan said in a low voice.

“Look at this. The things the Boss writes directly to the Emperor are always passed around like a breeze. This one, however, follows the proper path of a formal memorial and should be written according to the proper rules.” Minister Wu took a paper cutter and opened the memorial.

Minister Wu skimmed through it and handed it to Minister Pan, who finished reading it and raised his eyebrows high.

“It came from Jiangzhou City. Go and see if there are any more memorials from Jiangzhou City. Bring them over immediately. Bring them all, especially those from Hongzhou.” Minister Wu took the cover of the memorial, looked at the delivery seal on the back, and immediately gave the order.

A short while later, a servant brought over the on-duty official carrying the memorial.

Also brought was a memorial from the Prefect of Jiangzhou.

Prime Minister Wu opened and read the memorial, letting out a soft sigh of relief. He handed it to Prime Minister Pan, saying, “Take a look. This is probably the cause of the whole affair. We must see the Emperor immediately.”

Prime Minister Pan glanced at it, hummed in agreement, and, along with Prime Minister Wu, left the room and headed straight for the Xuanyou Gate to request an audience.

Inside the Qingning Palace, Gu Jin read the two memorials, placed them on the table, and instructed Qing-Feng, “Bring that box over.”

Qing-Feng responded, moved the box over, and placed it beside Gu Jin. Gu Jin picked up a key from the table, opened the box, took out a thick, confidential memorial, and handed it to Prime Minister Wu, saying, “Take a look.”

A separate memorial was tucked inside the confidential one. Prime Minister Wu read it and handed it to Prime Minister Pan.

This memorial was delivered a month ago by Prefect Guo of Runzhou.

The smuggled document was a joint petition from Yang Huan, a scholar from Runzhou, along with two other scholars and twenty or thirty other lower-ranking officials, accusing the Great Qi Army of robbing civilians of their property. Their accusations were heart-wrenching and filled with anguish.

The other document was a detailed account from Prefect Guo:

It detailed the entire affair, how the Yang family rose to prominence, and the legendary origins of their businesses. The elders of Runzhou all said that General Yang Wen of the Yang family was actually a married-in son-in-law of the Meng family.

Furthermore, the day before he received Yang Huan’s petition, someone had already arrived in Runzhou and found the charitable school and estate originally funded by the Yang family. They said the money would continue to be provided, and that a girls’ school would be established. They also approached him, saying they wanted to set up a free clinic.

However, the names of the charitable school and estate would be changed to Dongshan Academy and Xishan Charitable Estate.

And, according to legend, the father of Meng, the wealthy daughter-in-law of the Yang family, called himself Master Dongshan.

Finally, Prefect Guo cautiously stated that he believed the Yang family’s so-called seizure of property was purely a family matter.

The two men quickly finished reading the report, and Minister Wu looked at Gu Jin.

“A total of sixty-nine properties. The two shipyards alone are worth over two million taels of silver. How much will the remaining sixty-seven properties be?” Gu Jin patted the report.

“Definitely over ten million. However, this is the total revenue over the past ten years. The expenses of the Yang family over these ten years, the costs of the charitable schools and estates, are all included. After deducting the expenditures,” Minister Wu clicked his tongue softly. “There’s still quite a bit, four or five million, five or six million taels of silver; it is definitely there.”

“This is truly the first time. No wonder the Boss wrote this report,” Minister Pan said with a dry laugh.

In all these years, this was truly the first time someone had actually managed to snatch silver from the Boss!

“Regarding the matter of Runzhou, the Boss’s actions were to repay the Meng family for surrendering the city and also to fulfill her initial agreement with them. She sacrificed her own reputation but was acting for the greater good of the country and its people.

The Yang family has gone too far, time and again. Such a ruthless family deserves to be reduced to the lowest social class,” Gu Jin stated directly. “Prime Minister Pan, please put in some effort to straighten out this matter; it is just a small thing.”

“Yes,” Prime Minister Pan quickly bowed in agreement.

Gu Jin looked at Li Sangrou’s memorial for a moment, then turned to Prime Minister Wu and Prime Minister Pan, saying, “In the letter the Shizi wrote to me, he mentioned that the Boss wants to build a road from Jianle City directly to Hangzhou City, entirely paved with bluestone, extremely wide, with a central divider, one side for southbound traffic and the other for northbound traffic.”

Minister Wu’s and Minister Pan’s eyes widened in astonishment. This was practically the Imperial Street! How much silver must that cost?

“The Shizi said he asked her where she was going to get so much silver, and the Boss said she planned to build many ships to rob at sea,” Gu Jin continued.

“And this shipyard?” Minister Wu reacted quickly.

“The Boss is truly… honest.” Minister Pan thought about the word “rob” and wanted to say “fierce,” but then realized it was inappropriate and changed it abruptly.

“I originally thought she was going to rob even the ships; Fujian and Guangdong are teeming with pirates,” Gu Jin said slowly.

“Perhaps she thinks the pirates are too poor and their ships too small,” Minister Wu said seriously after a moment’s thought.

“She’s extremely clever.” Gu Jin remained silent for a moment, then sighed softly.

Minister Wu and Minister Pan exchanged a glance; this was a difficult question to answer, and one they could not answer.

Seeing Gu Jin remain silent, the two, sensing his meaning, quickly rose and took their leave.

Watching Minister Wu and Minister Pan leave, Gu Jin selected a piece of paper, then carefully chose a brush. He tested it, wrote the two characters “Guang Shun,” looked at it, put it aside, and wrote again.

After writing it three or four times, he was satisfied and gestured to Qing-Feng, “Bring me my small seal with my clumsy calligraphy.”

Qing-Feng quickly brought the seal. Gu Jin stamped it and instructed, “Send this calligraphy to the Boss in Yuzhang City.”

Qing-Feng agreed, held the calligraphy in both hands, and hurried off to get it framed.