Regardless of whether Han Qian had arranged for someone to secretly tamper with things, since they encountered along the way the capsized boat transporting Wang Yu’s coffin home on the river beach within Wuling County territory, if Han Daoxun paid no attention to it, that would be too callously indifferent to worldly affairs.
Han Daoxun had nothing to avoid, so he and Han Qian walked off the boat, surrounded by Fan Xicheng, Zhao Kuo, Zhao Wuji, Yang Qin, Tian Cheng, Gao Shao and others, heading toward the river beach ahead.
The black-canopied boat was tilted on the river beach, half the hull submerged underwater and half exposed above the surface. The coffin had been carried to the shore, guarded by six or seven household soldiers and boatmen-looking people. There was also a young woman dressed in white mourning clothes, sitting on the river beach looking quite desperate and dejected.
Seeing Han Daoxun and his group approaching, the young woman didn’t come forward to greet them but instead stood up and retreated to the side. An elderly man dressed as a household soldier with gaunt cheeks came forward and saluted, saying, “The boat is old, broken and leaking. Sailing to Wuling, it took on too much water. We had no choice but to temporarily dock to prevent my master’s coffin from sinking into the river. If we’ve offended you gentlemen, please forgive us.”
“I am Han Daoxun, the newly appointed Prefect of Xuzhou. Is that ahead the coffin of Prefect Wang Yu?” Han Daoxun stepped forward and asked.
“This humble one, Yu Cheng, pays respects to Prefect Han. That over there is indeed my master’s coffin.” the old household soldier replied.
Fan Xicheng studied the young woman who had stepped aside. Though her appearance was quite haggard, dressed in white mourning clothes without powder or cosmetics, the beauty in her features and eyes was still difficult to conceal. He thought to himself that if this woman was Wang Yu’s widow, she shouldn’t be retreating to the side while household soldiers came forward to receive them. But if she wasn’t Wang Yu’s family member, why would she be wearing mourning clothes and accompanying Wang Yu’s coffin on the journey?
Zhao Kuo glanced at Han Qian and saw he showed no confusion but patiently listened to Wang Yu’s old household soldier complain to Han Daoxun about the hardships after Wang Yu’s death from illness. He thought Han Qian must have already learned this woman’s identity through the Secret Bureau’s Left Division intelligence network.
Of course, Fan Xicheng and Zhao Kuo weren’t puzzled for long before they heard the old household soldier beside Wang Yu recount the bitter circumstances of events before and after the funeral.
Before the eighth year of Tianyou’s reign, Wang Yu had been Junior Administrator of the Court of Judicial Review, a position of Upper Fourth Rank.
When Great Chu annexed Yuezhou and other eastern Zhejiang territories, Wang Yu had petitioned Emperor Tianyou along with Marquis of Liyang Yang En and others to show leniency toward the family of the Prince of Yue, Dong Chang. He was demoted by Emperor Tianyou to serve as Prefect of Xuzhou and never returned. As a result, he contracted miasma poison in mid-spring and died in office.
Wang Yu’s eldest son had died in battle without leaving descendants. His second son, Wang Ye, currently served as a clerk in the Yuezhou Prefect’s office. Upon learning of his father Wang Yu’s death, he contracted an acute illness and couldn’t rush to Xuzhou to collect Wang Yu’s remains and bring them home for burial. Wang Ye’s children were all young, so he could only write letters entrusting all matters to the old household soldier Yu Cheng and others to handle.
Wang Yu had been an honest and incorruptible official. After his death he had no remaining wealth, and the household soldiers’ lives were quite impoverished—they couldn’t even scrape together enough money for a coffin.
During Wang Yu’s service as Prefect of Xuzhou, he had offended many local powerful families. At his death, no one dared step forward to raise funds or donate a coffin. In the end, it was Zhou Yourui, the head courtesan of Xuzhou’s Public Office, who remembered Wang Yu’s kindness toward her and funded the purchase of a coffin and hired a black-canopied boat to send Wang Yu’s remains home.
They just hadn’t expected that sailing to Wuling County, this mishap would occur.
In this age, besides the capital establishing a Music Bureau to house the wives and daughters of condemned officials as government courtesans, the various prefectures also established Music Camps, also called Public Offices.
When Wang Yu’s household soldier Yu Cheng said Zhou Yourui was the head courtesan of the Public Office, he meant she was the leading official courtesan of Xuzhou’s Music Camp.
To think that as a prefect, dying in office with empty pockets, and due to obstruction by local powerful families, unable even to gather funds to transport his coffin home—this was truly desolate to the extreme. But thinking that among so many officials in Xuzhou, under the oppression of local powerful families, not one could match the chivalrous spirit of a Music Camp woman—Han Daoxun was filled with emotion and bowed deeply toward Zhou Yourui who had retreated to the side.
Zhou Yourui was somewhat surprised and returned the courtesy from afar.
Han Daoxun then said to the old household soldier Yu Cheng, “Lord Wang was a man of noble character and integrity, an honest and incorruptible official. That he unfortunately died in office—since I have encountered this, I should pay my respects.”
Yu Cheng returned the courtesy and withdrew to prepare.
Han Daoxun stared at Wang Yu’s coffin for a while, then turned his head to ask Han Qian, “Have the people you sent to Xuzhou actually discovered any suspicious points?”
Han Daoxun had considered that there might be problems with Wang Yu’s death from illness, but when he wanted to investigate this matter—that is, when Han Qian was making conditions with Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu—Wang Yu had already been dead for two months. He wasn’t clear whether Han Qian sending people to Xuzhou to investigate could still uncover anything.
Han Qian said in a low voice, “Suspicious points naturally exist, but Xuzhou is remote and mountainous, and the local people are relatively isolated. Even though I sent people to Xuzhou almost a month in advance, they had no opportunity to contact Wang Yu’s household soldiers, much less personally examine Wang Yu’s remains for any abnormalities. The intelligence they could gather was quite limited.”
“Even if you had someone tamper with things and forced the coffin boat to run aground midway, it’s now been over three months since Wang Yu died from illness. Even opening the coffin for autopsy wouldn’t reveal anything,” Han Daoxun stared at his son Han Qian’s eyes hiding craftiness, suddenly understanding. He asked in a low voice, “Your intention isn’t really that you think I can discover anything, but rather to make certain people mistakenly believe I’ve discovered something?”
“Only by beating the grass can one startle the snake, and startle the snake from its hole.” Han Qian smiled slightly, not at all feeling that sending people to sink someone’s coffin boat was unconscionable.
“But if there’s no snake, how can you startle one out?” Han Daoxun asked.
After Wang Yu’s death, so many officials and clerks in Xuzhou hadn’t had anyone step forward to raise funds and donate a coffin to help transport his remains home—there must have been someone interfering behind the scenes. At the same time, it was undoubtedly also meant as a display for him, the newly appointed prefect, to see.
But if Wang Yu truly just died of illness and wasn’t murdered by someone, no matter how much they tampered with things, they couldn’t possibly startle out any snake.
“I asked the Third Prince for three months’ leave, and a month has already passed. I can’t lead the Left Division personnel to guard Father’s side for too long. Even if there are no vipers locally in Xuzhou, Ji Kun, that viper, hasn’t given up his treacherous intentions. It’s better to startle him out early,” Han Qian said. “Perhaps calling this ‘luring the snake from its hole’ would be more accurate.”
Contemporary people’s understanding of miasma and miasma poison was limited, but Han Qian knew that the so-called miasma and miasma poison were actually malignant malaria transmitted through mosquitoes.
Ge Hong had already proposed the key medicinal herb for treating malignant malaria—sweet wormwood—five or six hundred years ago in the “Emergency Formulas to Keep at Hand.” However, the method of decocting sweet wormwood for medicine was improper, which caused sweet wormwood’s effectiveness in treating malignant malaria to be less than ideal.
The high incidence period for malignant malaria in hot and humid regions was always during the scorching season when mosquitoes bred. But Wang Yu died from illness in Xuzhou at the end of the second month, which was mid-spring season when the weather still held some chill.
Without needing to send people to investigate, based on this point alone, Han Qian suspected Wang Yu’s death from illness wasn’t as simple as imagined.
However, Han Qian had no way to state this reasoning explicitly.
That said, taking ten thousand steps back, even if Han Qian hadn’t seen any suspicious points, even if Wang Yu truly died of illness with no local foul play involved, Ji Kun, that fox, had no way to confirm this.
At this moment, as long as they showed signs of having grasped some evidence, even if they couldn’t startle out local vipers in Xuzhou, they could still lure Ji Kun, that viper, to take the bait.
Although they had consecutively thwarted Ji Kun’s schemes twice, Ji Kun bore the heavy responsibility assigned by Zhao Mingting. Without having caught Ji Kun’s vital weakness, Han Qian obviously couldn’t believe Ji Kun had given up and returned to Jinling. Most likely he was still lurking in the shadows, watching their every move.
The overall strength directly controlled by the Ministry of War was naturally far greater than the Secret Bureau’s Left Division, but the problem was that even the Palace of Tranquility didn’t dare openly deploy hundreds or thousands of elite scouts to attack court-appointed officials. The forces Ji Kun could directly use were still extremely limited, perhaps not even matching the personnel Han Qian could readily deploy at this time.
If Ji Kun still wanted to continue executing the “heavy responsibility” Zhao Mingting had assigned him, the feasible method was undoubtedly still to utilize local forces.
What Han Qian needed to do was make Ji Kun believe there was already a mastermind behind the scenes locally whom they had caught with evidence, quickly prompting Ji Kun to contact this mastermind to deal with them.
That way, while he brought this handful of Left Division personnel to Xuzhou, naturally he could make targeted defensive preparations.
If he did nothing at this time and Ji Kun patiently lurked in Xuzhou for another two or three months, while he would inevitably return to Jinling within those two or three months, then when Ji Kun chose to strike after that, he might not be able to manage the situation here.
Therefore, Han Qian’s arrangement for someone to secretly bore holes in the coffin boat, forcing Wang Yu’s coffin to stop at Wuling County, had two purposes. The first was to beat the grass and startle the snake, startling out local vipers in Xuzhou. The second was to lure the snake from its hole—to entice Ji Kun lurking in the shadows to expose his whereabouts once again.
Han Daoxun couldn’t be certain the first point could be achieved, but he understood the second point—his son Han Qian wanting to lure Ji Kun, that viper, from his hole. He also felt that delaying just one more day, this matter was worth doing.
Han Qian at this moment smiled and asked Fan Xicheng, Zhao Kuo, Yang Qin, Tian Cheng, Gao Shao and others beside him, “What method do you think would make Ji Kun, upon seeing it, believe my father intends to make an issue out of Wang Yu’s corpse?”
“We should establish a memorial altar in the city’s courier station and invite Lord Wang Yu’s coffin there for respects.” Fan Xicheng said.
Han Qian had already done things to this point. If Fan Xicheng and the others couldn’t figure out the next specific steps, then all these years truly would have been wasted.
Han Daoxun pondered briefly, then signaled for Fan Xicheng to go discuss with Wang Yu’s old household servant and Zhou Yourui, who had funded the coffin purchase and hired the boat to send Wang Yu’s remains home, about first establishing a memorial altar for respects. Once they funded repairs to the black-canopied boat, they would then set out to transport Wang Yu’s remains to his hometown.
How could Yu Cheng and others imagine that the father and son Han Daoxun and Han Qian had deeper calculations? Wang Yu, as Prefect of Xuzhou, had been so desolate after dying from illness. Yu Cheng deeply felt the callousness of worldly affairs. He hadn’t expected that Han Daoxun not only didn’t avoid this but showed such great courtesy. The bitterness that had accumulated in his heart these past two or three months burst forth all at once. With tears streaming down his aged face, he prostrated himself on the ground, performing formal respects to Han Daoxun.
Zhou Yourui glanced over with some puzzlement, then also knelt in prostration following Yu Cheng and the others.
Having settled this matter, Han Daoxun had Fan Xicheng and Zhao Kuo take his visiting card to see Wuling County officials so they could borrow the city’s courier station to set up a memorial altar to temporarily place Wang Yu’s coffin.
“I’ve been to Wuling County before and know the way. I’ll accompany Manager Fan and Manager Zhao into the city first to present the visiting card.” Yang Qin said quite proactively.