Wang Changxing could throw his weight around among the Fengming Temple’s greeters because his backer was Wang Dang.

Wang Dang could throw his weight around because his backer was the Jizhou Prefecture Vice Magistrate, Li Yaozhi.

Li Yaozhi was not throwing his weight around. He was on the verge of tears.

When Wang Dang had brought his men down from the temple, he had certainly intended to give a thorough beating to this troublemaker.

But first, he couldn’t actually beat him — a few men went in, and without anyone quite seeing how it happened, they were lying on the ground unable to move.

Later, Wang Dang had called for more people, but by then both the Magistrate and Vice Magistrate had arrived, and no one had been able to make a move.

But Wang Dang was thinking: this was actually fine. His backers had both shown up — surely this troublemaker would come to a bad end now?

After watching for a little while, though, Wang Dang could tell things were not straightforward.

Even with his level of intelligence, being able to see that things were not straightforward was itself no straightforward thing.

Magistrate Qu Cheng pulled his wife forward and said with great apparent anger: “This is General Li Chi. How could you be so rude to him?!”

His wife’s face changed color at once, and she felt a small pang of grievance inside.

She knew who Li Chi was. If she hadn’t known who Li Chi was, she would not have come to the Fengming Temple to pray today.

That morning, before her husband left home, he had said he was going to call on Li Chi, to see if he could keep his official post.

She had thought: she should come to the Fengming Temple and pray for blessings — pray that her husband would get through this safely.

Who could have known that she herself would be her husband’s obstacle?

What had been a moderate difficulty had now, through her own efforts, been elevated to extreme difficulty.

Li Chi didn’t seem particularly bothered. He turned to Qu Madam and asked: “Did they also make you pay ten taels of silver to enter the temple?”

Qu Madam was stunned.

How was she supposed to answer that?

Li Chi, seeing she said nothing, nodded slowly: “So it seems they did. To think that a place devoted to Daoist cultivation should be defiled by such worldly things.”

He shook his head: “It seems this temple — I’d do better not to enter. What sort of blessings can one pray for in a temple like this?”

Qu Cheng hastily chimed in: “Yes, yes, yes — a temple that knows only how to cheat people of money should indeed not be allowed to remain.”

Li Chi said: “Magistrate Qu says it should not remain — then it should not remain.”

He looked at Peng Shiqi: “Take your soldiers up the mountain and arrest all these charlatans who have been cheating people of their money. Seize their assets for public use.”

Peng Shiqi immediately grinned: “With pleasure!”

He waved his hand and led Li Chi’s forces up Phoenix Cry Mountain. The Daoists still at the foot of the mountain looked at each other in bewilderment, all deflating, too frightened to know what to do.

Li Chi turned to look at Wang Changxing and asked: “You really are a relative of Vice Magistrate Li?”

Wang Changxing trembled with fright and instinctively looked at Vice Magistrate Li Yaozhi. Li Yaozhi thought to himself: what sort of relative is this? He didn’t recognize the man at all.

Wang Changxing, in his fear, turned things over quickly in his head. He thought: this General Li seemed to retain some degree of deference toward the Vice Magistrate — surely he wouldn’t go too far.

So in that split second, he made his decision: he would cling to the Vice Magistrate’s leg.

He immediately pointed at Wang Dang and said: “Although I am not personally a relative of the Vice Magistrate, my master Wang Dang is a relative of the Vice Magistrate — and as master and disciple are like father and son, I can naturally also be counted as a relative of the Vice Magistrate.”

Li Chi looked at Li Yaozhi with an expression of regret and dissatisfaction: “I never imagined that the mastermind behind this temple was you.”

Li Yaozhi’s eyes went wide, and he dropped to his knees with a thud.

“General, I have no connection with this man whatsoever. He is talking complete nonsense — the General must not believe him.”

Li Chi turned to Wang Dang and asked: “This man is your disciple?”

Wang Dang swallowed. Even a run-of-the-mill idiot in his position ought to have denied it immediately.

But then, if he hadn’t been an idiot, he would never have been expelled from his perfectly good Deputy Constable Chief post to end up at the Fengming Temple.

His mind did work through the problem, though — he decided he could not implicate his brother-in-law.

So he bowed and said: “In… in answer to the General — Wang Changxing may indeed be my disciple, but what does that have to do with my brother-in-law? It has not the slightest connection.”

Li Chi said: “Ah… so he is your brother-in-law.”

Li Yaozhi’s desire to kill Wang Dang in that moment was complete.

“This matter,” Li Chi looked at Li Yaozhi, “it seems the Vice Magistrate will need to explain himself.”

He waved a hand: “Take him into custody and question him thoroughly — find out how much money he has swindled through this temple.”

Zhang Yuxu cleared his throat and said: “His home is likely hiding a great deal of this dirty silver. A search of the household is warranted.”

Li Chi calculated the timing and said: “By now… it should be done.”

Zhang Yuxu hadn’t been privy to the earlier conversation between Li Chi and Tang Pidi, and was momentarily puzzled by this.

He quietly asked Li Chi: “You raided it in advance?”

Li Chi said with perfect solemnity and a show of deep indignation: “I knew from the start that he was this sort of man, so I had his home searched in advance.”

Zhang Yuxu cast about for what he ought to say, but found himself at a loss for words. Flattery of this particular variety was simply not possible.

What was there to say? “Chief, you truly are shameless to the bone”?

Li Chi said: “Since we’ve come this far, we may as well finish it all. Zhang Yuxu — as a lineage heir of Dragon-Tiger Mountain, these charlatans who have cheated and wronged the people are by rights a matter of the Daoist faith. I leave the Fengming Temple in your hands to investigate. Stay here and conduct a thorough inquiry.”

“Furthermore — post notices throughout the city informing the people that a direct disciple of the True Master of Dragon-Tiger Mountain has arrived at the Fengming Temple.”

“Upon the arrival of the Dragon-Tiger Mountain disciple, it was discovered that the Fengming Temple’s Daoists were all impostors, and the disciple has purged them.”

“Inform the people of the entire city: anyone who has been cheated by the Fengming Temple may come to the temple to see Dragon-Tiger Mountain’s disciple Zhang Yuxu, who will seek justice on their behalf.”

Having said all this, Li Chi turned to leave: “Right, that’s how it’s to be handled. I came here to offer incense and pray, and instead I’ve been bullied — quite a spoiled mood.”

He sighed: “I may as well go home and sleep!”

The next day. Evening.

Tang Pidi returned from outside, finding Li Chi practicing martial arts in the courtyard of the Military Governor’s residence. He walked over, speaking as he went: “I just went outside the city for a look.”

Li Chi said: “To look at the militia recruits?”

Tang Pidi said: “Mister Yan is truly remarkable. In just these few short days, the people’s orderliness has already improved considerably, and a fair number of strong young men have already been selected.”

Li Chi said: “I’ll mention to Mister Yan when I get a chance — tell him you praised him, tell him: the moment you got back, you said Mister Yan really knows how to pick his men.”

Tang Pidi: “…”

Li Chi smiled: “Did you see our Jizhou Magistrate Qu Cheng and the others?”

Tang Pidi nodded: “I did. You’ve sent them all to work in the fields.”

Li Chi said: “Magistrate Qu and the others said they were willing to offer up their family assets to relieve my burdens and benefit the people, and willing to assist me. I thought: since they are so earnest in their desire to work, I should let them. Right now the most pressing thing is bringing in the harvest, so I’ve had people take them out of the city to help with the grain collection. I’ve also told our men to treat everyone the same — just because they used to be officials doesn’t mean they get extra grain. However much work they do is how much grain they receive, in proportion.”

Tang Pidi laughed and shook his head. He sat down nearby, glanced around, and said: “You really are fair… is there anything to eat?”

Li Chi said: “Food will be ready soon — hold on.”

Tang Pidi said: “Haven’t seen Yu Jiuling all day. Where did he get to?”

Li Chi said: “So many households — how would he finish in a day or two?”

Tang Pidi sighed: “You intend to offend every notable person in all of Jizhou City — leave not a single one.”

“Leave not a single one — that is true. As for giving offense… I don’t really care much.”

Li Chi said: “After the autumn harvest is done, I’ve already thought it through — I’ve taken people’s property, so I can’t very well eliminate them entirely. I’ll give them travel funds and send them off to Yuzhou.”

“Yuzhou?”

Tang Pidi paused.

After a moment’s contemplation: “These people have nowhere to turn. If they actually end up in Yuzhou, the people left behind by Prince Wu will quickly learn that Jizhou’s military strength is thin — only these few thousand troops.”

Li Chi smiled: “Otherwise — why would I bother personally playing the shameless party over a few Daoists in the Fengming Temple, over a bit of money?”

Tang Pidi laughed: “What — now that you’re shameless, you’re getting selective about which varieties you’ll stoop to?”

Li Chi said: “Of course. My station has changed — ordinary shamelessness you lot can handle.”

Tang Pidi said: “This move of yours is both vicious and cunning.”

Li Chi said: “Compliment me.”

Tang Pidi: “Pfft.”

Li Chi smiled and said: “My one-stone-several-birds stratagem, and you’re still being stingy with your words.”

Tang Pidi said: “It truly is one stone several birds. Only someone rotten to the marrow could think up a scheme this vicious and cunning.”

Li Chi’s apparently reckless and carefree conduct was, in truth, aimed at something else entirely.

What he planned to confiscate was not merely the assets of Magistrate Qu Cheng and the other officials. Every household in the city that had lorded over others for years — not one would be left out.

That was not a matter of ten or twenty households. At minimum there would be a hundred, perhaps as many as two hundred.

Li Chi would have every one of these households stripped bare, give them travel funds, and drive them all toward Yuzhou.

When this great mass of refugees arrived in Yuzhou, they would naturally seek out people to attach themselves to — men of their supposed great houses and distinguished families would have no trouble finding a footing.

The connections between these families were intricate and deeply intertwined.

Once they arrived in Yuzhou, it would not be long before the people holding the fort there would come to understand the situation in Jizhou with perfect clarity.

And those people held the all-conquering Left Vanguard Guard. Even if it wasn’t the full elite force, Prince Wu had left behind at least twenty or thirty thousand men. Add in the newly recruited troops, garrison forces, and militia from Yuzhou, and that side could credibly claim a force of one hundred thousand.

Li Chi said: “First — by confiscating the assets of these people, we come into a great fortune, filling the treasury. Hereafter we can buy horses from the steppe, and outfit the new troops with armor and weapons.”

“Second — when people know I dared to deal with every single official, and that I’m distributing grain to the common people, the people of Jizhou will understand that they can rely on me.”

“Third — if the forces Prince Wu left in Yuzhou think there’s an opportunity here and march on Jizhou… we’ll save ourselves the money we were going to spend on weapons and armor…”

Li Chi sighed: “I truly am a splendidly capable miser.”

Tang Pidi said: “I have heard that in the Western Regions, the silver currency they use is not cast into ingots as in the Central Plains — it is struck into coins.”

Li Chi said: “Why mention that all of a sudden?”

He had thought Tang Pidi was about to suggest following the Western Regions and minting silver coins, which did seem more precise.

Tang Pidi said: “I’ve also heard that the earliest of these coins were of full weight and pure silver.”

“As time went on, corners were cut — the coins struck were no longer pure, so people preferred the earliest coins.”

Li Chi was increasingly puzzled: “What exactly are you trying to say?”

Tang Pidi said: “The older the coin, the brighter it shone. The newer coins, filled with too many impurities, were dark in color and unpleasant to look at.”

Tang Pidi gave Li Chi a glance and continued: “Because the oldest coins were the purest, people in the Western Regions use this to praise fine things.”

He looked at Li Chi and said solemnly: “By the Western Regions manner of praising others, you are truly a well-aged coin.”

Li Chi: “…”

He curled his lip: “The moment I said it, you understood immediately — you’re no newer-minted coin yourself.”

Tang Pidi said: “Did someone not just a moment ago beg to be complimented?”

—