The banquet was not a lively one.
After Zhù Ying announced the news, Deputy Magistrate Guan stood and raised his cup: “Why, this is truly wonderful news!”
He and Registrar Mo had always gotten along well, and Registrar Mo had told him everything as soon as he returned to the county town. At this moment, every last trace of surprise on his face was entirely performed. What did it have to do with him, Guan, that Zhù Ying had an adopted son? And what did it have to do with Zhao Su that he had an adoptive father? Only making his superior happy had anything to do with him.
The other officials of Fulu County were mostly of the same mind, or simply going along to be part of the occasion—a banquet to eat was a fine mood to be in.
Gu Weng was suffering inwardly, but had to keep up the face of a kind and upright elder. He said: “Your Excellency is truly settling down in our Fulu County with the intent to stay. Congratulations, Your Excellency, on gaining such an excellent son.”
Zhù Ying said: “Congratulations to all of us.”
Zhao Su took everything in, thinking: these people are just the same as before. He also put on a look of great joy and offered drinks to each of the elders in turn.
The assembled company deliberately laughed and joked very loudly, which only made the warmth feel more hollow. Most of them understood this perfectly well but no one pointed it out. The banquet had barely been going a short while when Gu Weng feigned drunkenness and said: “Getting old, no use anymore—can’t hold my liquor. Tomorrow I still have to oversee the work in the fields.” Several of the gentry who had come with him also made their excuses one after another.
Zhù Ying said: “With age, one does need to pay attention to one’s health. No more drinking the way one did in youth. Do take care on the way home.”
Deputy Magistrate Guan and the others gradually took their leave as well. Zhù Ying noticed Gu Weng’s lukewarmness, and rather than have Zhao Su see the guests out on her behalf, she had Deputy Magistrate Guan and Registrar Mo do it. The two of them accepted the charge and escorted the gentry who were still in town out of the county office compound. At the gate, Gu Weng exchanged a look with Guan and Mo.
They were on familiar terms—Guan had been managing Fulu County before Zhù Ying’s arrival, and the local gentry and the acting county office had long since developed a tacit understanding between them. One look was enough. Deputy Magistrate Guan nodded back.
Guan returned inside and told Zhù Ying: “All seen off, and they all had escorts.” Then, using the pretext of “not wishing to disturb you and your fine son,” he also excused himself and left.
Guan went home, and Gu Weng was already there waiting for him. Others trickled in one after another—Gu Weng, Elder Zhang, and several more, along with Registrar Mo and others. When Zhù Ying had first arrived in Fulu County and set about reorganizing the whole place, the gentry had come to Guan’s home and been rebuffed. Now they had no choice but to return.
Deputy Magistrate Guan was deferential and obedient in front of Zhù Ying, but with these people he was relaxed and at ease, if still polite. He crossed one leg over the other, smiled slightly, and asked: “Gu Weng, can’t sit still?”
Gu Weng was suffering miserably inside, and had no intention of sparing Guan either. Working hard to keep his composure, he spoke, but couldn’t help letting barbs creep in: “You, sir, can sit quite still—life must be so much better for you than before?”
Over this past year and more, life for the people in this room had not improved from what it was before. Fulu County as a whole had improved, and most people’s lives had gotten better—but not necessarily those in this room. Guan had been stripped of his authority, even though that authority had never rightly been his to hold in the first place. When things went smoothly under Zhù Ying, Guan could still endure it and console himself that he didn’t have to worry about things anymore. But once someone brought it up, Guan’s mood soured too.
He said: “Of course.”
Someone nearby quickly moved to smooth things over. Elder Zhang said: “Both of you—both of you, please don’t get worked up. Everyone’s carrying some frustration. Though—and let me be clear—I bear no resentment toward the county magistrate herself! Deputy Magistrate Guan, does our magistrate have some larger plan in the works?” He gestured toward the mountains.
Guan said: “How would I know—”
More people moved to pacify them, each first making their own declarations: “It’s not that I’m dissatisfied with the county magistrate.” “I just can’t make head or tail of things anymore.”
Gu Weng said: “What is she after? I understand that an imperial official must bring peace and protect the people—but this…” He sighed heavily. “My family and I, for generations, have been law-abiding and proper in our conduct. Whatever order the magistrate has issued, we have never failed to comply. And yet in the end, we come out behind those who cultivated the Liao people early and ran ahead as their vanguard—and even more behind the Liao people themselves?! They rank higher in the magistrate’s eyes?! Ah, my goodness, my goodness…”
At that point he appeared to have suffered a spell of chest pain, pained expression, leaning back in his chair, clutching at his chest and moaning. Within moments, people were crowding around him with concern. Registrar Mo said: “Gu Weng, Gu Weng—the magistrate has a broad and magnanimous heart! She is someone who thinks things through. Zhao Feng established ties with the Liao people and offered up all those cattle and horses. And as for the rest of you—none of you were stingy with your own livestock either, during spring planting. So that’s…”
Guan said: “If you can’t offer a useful word, just don’t say anything! Gu Weng—if you could read the county magistrate’s mind, you ought to be the county magistrate yourself!”
Gu Weng said: “Even so, she can’t play such favorites. We did everything we were told, and yet that two-faced schemer got the benefit. I can’t make peace with this in my heart.”
Elder Zhang also said: “What’s so wonderful about that young man?”
Registrar Mo said: “Well… the white pheasants were offered by him.”
Elder Zhang said: “But the idea was the county magistrate’s! How can the credit go to a young man still wet behind the ears? The magistrate shows such favoritism—it’s not something anyone can accept calmly.”
It was spring planting season, and everyone was worked to the bone—who had not put in their share? How did it come about that the Liao people had done something worthy, and Zhao Feng had done something worthy, and Zhao Su was so precious? A banquet, even!
Elder Zhao said: “The magistrate has ambitions to build a legacy, and we are more than willing to lend our efforts. But this—the Liao people? What does that young man have? Nothing but a Liao woman for a mother?”
Registrar Mo flinched a little and said: “Shouldn’t we be thinking about encouraging the magistrate not to make enemies of the Liao people? Gu Weng—wasn’t it you yourself who, the moment the magistrate mentioned the Liao people, kept urging her not to antagonize them?”
Gu Weng said: “If she truly wanted to achieve that kind of merit, that would be one thing. But for the sake of some livestock she personally goes to meet the Liao people, and then takes the nephew of a Liao person as her adopted son, showing none of the decisiveness she had last year! We who submitted to her from the very beginning—are we worth less than those who submitted later? Less than those who never submitted to imperial civilization at all?!”
Guan said: “Why are you taking this out on me? If you’ve got something to say, go say it to the magistrate herself.”
“I will!”
Registrar Mo, seeing this, said: “Both of you—please calm down! You absolutely must not rashly offend the county magistrate! Do you know that there was an assassination attempt when they were sealing their oath?”
Everyone forgot their quarrel and stiffened like planks, leaning forward to ask: “What happened?”
Registrar Mo told them about what had occurred during the covenant meeting, and said: “People who would really dare move on her! On the way back, I heard Xiao Wu say—you all know Xiao Wu?”
Guan said: “Who doesn’t know him? Go on!”
“Do you know what the county magistrate’s reputation was in the capital? Just recently—the Duan Zhi affair!”
“Duan Zhi? Good heavens—the man who hired killers to assassinate an imperial official right outside the imperial city?!”
“Do you know who the target was?”
“Who?”
“Our very own county magistrate!”
“My word!” Everyone gave a start.
——
Fulu County was quite far from the capital, and by the time news arrived, some time had passed since the incident. People here had focused more on Duan Zhi than on Zhù Ying. Duan Zhi held a higher rank—a man who already wore crimson robes—going after a sixth-rank petty official, and resorting to hired killers at that! Those not present at the scene, those who were in the capital at the time, had by far given more attention to Duan Zhi. The official gazettes had only reported that the assassination attempt was unsuccessful and the junior official had been seriously wounded.
Zhù Ying’s name, even appearing as the victim in the gazette, was overshadowed by Duan Zhi. Duan Zhi’s clan didn’t have an especially prominent name, but it wasn’t entirely unknown either, and he had reached fifth rank. Any official reading the gazette who saw “fifth rank” and “third rank” immediately understood what that signified and felt the weight of it.
Zhù Ying was a different matter. She had a small reputation in the capital, but outside the capital, almost no one knew who she was. The gazette didn’t recount things in detail the way a story would—its reports were brief. The people of Fulu County received news through several layers of retelling, and many important details had been lost along the way.
The same was true of the Tian Pei case—no small affair, even the emperor had been involved. But by the time it filtered down to out-of-the-way places, who knew how many times the story had been passed along. People cared mainly about what Yao Chun and that concubine had done and how they had done it. “Exposed by a passing official” was merely the fifty-character ending of a thousand-character story—a brief moral resolution, the kind that gives people a simple sense of righteous satisfaction. Zhù Ying’s part in it was not large.
The same incident read very differently depending on the identity and circumstances of the reader.
After leaving the capital, Zhù Ying had always tried to keep a low profile, and those who traveled with her, taking their cue from her, dared not brag on her behalf. By the time this group reached Fulu County, the situation was as follows: everyone was mutually incomprehensible in language, with nothing productive to do, and aside from still occupying the county office, the difference between Zhù Ying and Magistrate Wang before her seemed negligible. No one had bothered to cozy up to Xiao Wu and the others to ask about their origins. And even if they had asked, it would have been like chickens talking to ducks.
By the time Zhù Ying showed her hand, Xiao Wu and the others maintained a self-possessed dignity and didn’t say much. It was only recently that Xiao Wu had learned some of the local dialect, and then there was the matter of the assassin—Zhù Ying had drawn her blade. On the road back, Xiao Wu had talked at great length about the assassination attempt in the capital:
“Our magistrate is no ordinary person! She drew her blade right then and charged forward on horseback! One single strike brought the first assassin down, and the rest of the assassins scattered and fled. The magistrate said on the spot, ‘I’ll go capture them myself!’ It happened in the morning—she hadn’t even eaten lunch yet—and she personally caught every one of those assassins herself!”
He talked until foam formed at the corners of his mouth, saying not a word about the fact that he himself had not been at the scene at all—it was Cao Chang who had been there—and saying nothing either about how Zhù Ying had been seriously injured and needed a long period of rest to recover.
Cao Chang, who had been at the scene, was deeply mortified by how he had conducted himself that day, feeling his own performance had been utterly terrible. Since Xiao Wu was now passionately depicting Zhù Ying’s bravery and valor, Cao Chang did not correct the account that she had come through without injury.
Registrar Mo had listened to this version for the entire road back, cross-referencing it with what he had witnessed himself, and believed it down to the last word. In his private conversations with Guan, it had always been Registrar Mo who spoke out in frustration while Guan sat composed and dignified. Now, Registrar Mo had somehow become the calmest and most level-headed person in the whole group.
——
The exaggerated story he had heard from Xiao Wu, passed through this man with some education and given just a touch of embellishment, became a little more distorted again. But the truth of Duan Zhi’s punishment was verifiable—the gazette had indeed carried it. The case had not been small at the time, and the judgment had come swiftly; everyone still had some recollection of it. Registrar Mo had also heard from Xiao Wu things like: “The Wang minister and the others personally escorted our magistrate out of the capital!”
These were things Zhù Ying herself never mentioned, and so almost no one in Fulu County knew them. Now Guan suddenly recalled: “Today! There was a document from the Court of Judicial Review! That’s what it was about! Good heavens—the overdue rents…”
He pushed back down the emotion that had just been stirred up in him and thought: of course. White pheasants are always offered by somebody. Usually the one offering them benefits from it—but to trade white pheasants for the cancellation of overdue rents meant negotiating with the imperial court. That required having connections, a mediator, and standing. Otherwise, who would listen to you bargaining? Heaven’s grace and earth’s wrath are all the emperor’s bestowing—take it or leave it.
Before, when people had been singing her praises, they had only thought: “What a capable magistrate.” They had forgotten that to execute such a plan, if you had no connections, no one to vouch for you, no face to call upon—who would entertain your negotiations?
Gu Weng murmured: “The books from the Imperial Academy…”
And then there was Prefect Lu, Guan thought quietly.
Everyone looked at each other. The same thought passed through them all: not someone to be trifled with.
Gu Weng gritted his teeth: “Even if we can’t make heads or tails of the magistrate’s deeper strategy, the principles still need to be spoken. The grievances still need to be aired.”
Everyone agreed. Among the gentry, they nominated Gu Weng as their representative; among the officials, they put forward Guan as the mouthpiece. They would find the right moment and have a good, frank airing of their concerns with the county magistrate.
——
But finding the right moment required timing, and after Zhù Ying returned to the county office she was very busy. Between the accumulated official documents she needed to review and the fact that spring planting was not yet complete, there was also the plot of land she herself had outside the city, which she cared about greatly.
The next day, she personally went to check on the county jail.
Fulu County’s jail was empty enough to house mice. Both the male ward and the female ward currently held almost no prisoners. Ordinarily no one came here much. Judged by the single criterion of “prison with no inmates,” this jail could earn Zhù Ying full marks.
When Zhù Ying arrived, the jailer of the male ward was gambling. The female ward jailer, with fewer people to manage, was sitting there sewing and chatting. The stakes in the gambling were not especially high, but someone had lost badly and was in an agitated fury, sweat beading all over him, top garment stripped off, bare back gleaming. Xiao Wu pushed the door open at the lead, but the gamblers paid him no notice. They crowded around a small square table in the ward—the table had been meant for the long benches surrounding it, but not a single bench had anyone sitting on it properly; some had one leg up on the bench, some were standing, all of them shouting at a large coarse-clay bowl and calling out the numbers they’d bet.
Xiao Wu clapped one of the bare backs in front of him: “Hey!”
“Get lost!”
Xiao Wu’s temper flared. He stepped back, leaped up, and kicked the man flat onto the table. Amid the clattering and rattling, the jailers who had been furious at being disturbed leapt up ready to fight—and then saw who had come.
The blazing heat of their bodies was doused like a bucket of ice water poured over them. Cold.
Zhù Ying noticed that someone still had the instinct to quietly pocket their gambling stakes, and pointed a finger: “All of it—confiscated! The dice—burned! Twenty strokes of the plank each!”
They feebly protested: “We only play when there’s nothing to do.” “We don’t gamble for high stakes.” And so on.
Presently cries arose, and those doing the beating put their full strength into every stroke. The rest of the yamen had nothing to do—getting these people punished served everyone’s satisfaction. Out of collegial consideration, they held back just enough not to go too far. The jailers groaned and moaned, crying “I’ll never do it again” and “have mercy!”—with a faint dramatic edge.
Over at the female ward, hearing the commotion, they quickly gathered up their sewing projects and stood carefully at the doorway waiting. Zhù Ying swept a glance around the female ward and said: “Clean everything thoroughly. I’ll be back to look in a few days.”
“Yes.”
Not long after, the twenty strokes outside were completed, and Xiao Wu came to ask: “Your Excellency, what’s to be done with them?”
Twenty strokes, applied without deliberate restraint, meant they’d need time to recover—walking and sitting were already difficult for them. Zhù Ying said: “Aren’t there off-duty shifts? Call in all those resting at home to cover the duty. As for these—” She had their names written down. “If they offend again, every one of them will be dismissed.”
The jailers’ cries for mercy grew louder, then were silenced by a round of sharp shouts from Xiao Wu, Tong Bo, and the others. Zhù Ying said: “From now on, their pay and provisions will be issued in halves only. The other half will be delivered directly to their households: for those with wives, to the wife; for the unmarried, to the parents; for widowers, to the children.”
She cleared everyone out of there, and once the off-duty ones came hurrying in, she told them: “You likely gamble too—you’ve just been lucky enough not to get caught. Since your luck holds, I won’t punish you. But get this place properly cleaned! Pull up every weed!”
Although the incoming convicts were craftsmen the county very much needed, Zhù Ying could not give them the same treatment as the local old farmers—new bedding, for instance. She sent Cao Chang to the county town pawnshops to find whatever usable old bedding was available, then had it aired and readied for when the convicts arrived.
While waiting, she was not idle. She first went out of the city to look over the old garrison compound. It was quite a distance from the county town—twenty or thirty li—and she brought Qi Tai and others along with her. Guan held down the fort inside the county office and sent word to Gu Weng and the others that there would be no opportunity today.
Gu Weng and the others revised their small plan accordingly.
Spring planting had been going on for a while. The wealthy households, having more land and more livestock, always ploughed their own fields first, then rested the animals for a day or two before putting them out for rent. By the count of days, it should now be time to begin freeing up some animals.
But on the day when Zhù Ying returned from her inspection of the old garrison compound, not a single household in the county town environs came forward to report that their animals were now available for rent. At first Zhù Ying didn’t notice. But spring planting was a race against the clock—three days past the original schedule and still no additional livestock had appeared, and Zhù Ying sensed something was not right.
That evening at dinner, Hua Jie said: “Today Aunt Du and I were out buying vegetables, and someone asked us when the livestock would be available for rent. Is something amiss?”
Zhù Ying said: “I’m afraid there might be.”
This time, she couldn’t quite figure out what was behind it. She had a good habit—when she didn’t know, she asked. She sent county officials out separately to call on households and inquire.
Guan knew what was going on inwardly, but still went through the motions and paid a visit to Gu Weng’s home. He told Gu Weng: “The magistrate has asked about it. The matter of the draft oxen was your own proposal, and now you’re going back on it—don’t make a mess of things! Hurry it up, bring the—”
“My own fields aren’t ploughed yet either…” Gu Weng muttered. “Let her precious ‘good son’ go buy her more livestock.”
Guan was somewhere between laughter and tears: “What age are you, sir? The magistrate has treated you well enough on ordinary days—let it go. Give a token gesture, and let it be done. Do you actually want to make an enemy of her? Then don’t drag me into it.”
“Well, whether she’s treated me well—that depends on who I’m compared to.” Even as Gu Weng said this, he had already readied the proper number of draft oxen, and decided he would personally go to the county office the next day, using the delivery of the oxen as his pretext, and have a proper talk with Zhù Ying.
——
Gu Weng had his whole plan worked out, but he didn’t know he had already been beaten by one step.
Zhao Su had arrived at the county office ahead of him.
The gate runners all called out “young master” when they saw him. Their eyes could not exactly be said to be filled with awe, but they were somewhat more restrained than the curious stares of people watching a novelty. Zhao Su nodded to them and asked: “Adoptive Father hasn’t gone out on inspection today?”
Tong Li smiled: “No—right there in the signing room. The convicts are nearly here, and there’s work being arranged for them. They’re expected to start the moment they arrive.”
Zhao Su went to the outer side of the signing room, saw Tong Bo standing outside, and Tong Bo returned his greeting with a clasped-hand salute. Zhao Su gestured to keep it quiet, stepped forward lightly, and asked: “Is Adoptive Father busy right now?”
Tong Bo said: “It’s fine—all the documents have been reviewed.” He turned to announce the visitor.
Zhù Ying heard the sounds outside and still waited for Tong Bo to announce before saying: “Come in.”
Zhao Su entered, gave a bow, and said: “Adoptive Father.”
Zhù Ying looked at him and said: “You’re here—come take a look at this.”
Wang Yunhe was a man of his word. He had said he would sort out a few new essays for her, and he truly found the time to put together a few, sending them through the courier system along with other documents. Zhù Ying had already read through them herself and found deeply resonant understanding—Wang Yunhe, now that he was Chancellor, was probably being worn down by the new challenges of that role just as she was worn down by the new challenges of being a county magistrate. His writing showed a new depth of experience.
She pulled out the first essay and showed Zhao Su only the first page: “Have a look at this.”
Zhao Su accepted it respectfully and, the moment he glanced at it, his eyes fixed to the page. The calligraphy was round and fluid, and the content carried the same thread as several of Zhù Ying’s own lectures at the county school—yet expressed more simply and clearly. He had barely begun to lose himself in it when he reached the bottom of the page.
He returned the sheet to Zhù Ying, and then stole a glance at the other papers on the table. Zhù Ying suddenly asked: “How much of it do you remember?”
Zhao Su opened his mouth, thought back, and said: “Most of it, I believe.”
“Mm. Recite it for me from the beginning.”
Zhao Su opened his mouth again. He had a good memory, though it fell a little short of photographic recall. He recited slowly, gradually stumbled a little here and there, and managed to reproduce roughly seventy or eighty percent. Zhù Ying said: “Not bad. Do you understand what it says?”
“I have never encountered such a fine piece of writing. I find it profound and exact, yet also returning to the pure and essential—much like what Adoptive Father spoke of in the county school. I wonder, which great scholar wrote this?”
“Wang Yunhe,” said Zhù Ying.
Zhao Su gave a visible shudder: “Wang—Wang—Wang the Chancellor?”
“After the holiday, when school resumes, I’ll be teaching these essays in the county school. How much you each manage to learn will depend on your own abilities.”
“Yes!” That “yes” from Zhao Su was particularly sincere.
Zhù Ying said: “If you can’t recite the Five Classics fluently, you won’t be able to understand him. Just reading and memorizing by rote, without truly absorbing it—you’ll understand even less.”
Zhao Su genuinely felt that taking this person as his adoptive father had been worth it! He regretted not having made the request when he first brought in the white pheasants. That would have been the perfect time—he might even have earned a reputation for being “simple and sincere.” Now he must seem thoroughly calculating.
He quickly added: “Adoptive Father, we have managed to free up some livestock too—the county still needs them, I imagine.”
Zhù Ying’s brow lifted slightly. Zhao Su had originally come to plant doubts about Gu Weng and the others. At the banquet that day, they had been unable to say anything directly to Zhù Ying, but they had been far from warm toward Zhao Su. He had been sensitive to such things since childhood, and he had quietly noted it. With the county school on holiday, he had time to keep an eye on Gu Weng and the others, and once he had a clear enough picture he planned to inform his adoptive father—the local gentry were starting to make trouble.
But after Zhù Ying showed him the essay, he thought: I need to appear magnanimous, to make a good impression on Adoptive Father.
He swallowed his complaint and said only that he was willing to find a way to ease his adoptive father’s difficulties.
Zhù Ying said: “So you’ve noticed?”
Zhao Su said: “It is I who was obtuse. I could see it, and if I could see it, how could Adoptive Father not know? I was just worried that you had already made your commitments, and with insufficient draft animals, you might not be able to keep your word to the people.”
Zhù Ying had not been entirely certain what Gu Weng and the others were up to, but with Zhao Su saying this, she thought of something she hadn’t considered before. Could it be that Gu Weng was displeased because she had taken in Zhao Su as an adopted son?
Before she had made contact with Zhao Su’s family up the mountain, she had already thought through the issue of the local gentry while planning how to deal with the mountain communities. Her plan had a strategy for handling them as well, but because of spring planting, she could not put it into motion right now—she had intended to wait until after planting was done. She had not expected the matter to come to a head this quickly.
She thought: Gu Weng has behaved in a thoroughly reasonable manner all this time—and yet he picks now, of all times, to sulk! The old fox, with a nose that sharp.
Zhù Ying said: “Like a big child.”
Zhao Su made a sound of disdain: “Less sense than an actual child. Since Adoptive Father doesn’t look upset, I’ll go on—” He continued: “I’ve known since I was little. Son of a Liao woman, after all. Even though I’m also the son of a gentry family, I’ve always counted as only half one of them. Even my own father—who has exactly the same bloodline as they do—they still never quite warmed to him. West Township is out of the way to begin with, close to the Liao people’s territory; of course we have to deal with them. They rest comfortably in the county town—what do they know about how we manage things in West Township? They grumble that we don’t know proper conduct, don’t follow orders, don’t come into the county town. If we all moved away, who would they leave West Township to? We would be more than glad to swap with them, but they won’t do it.”
Zhù Ying said: “What nonsense is this? Have all those books been read for nothing? What does it mean when it is said that ‘valor and nobility—are these reserved by birth’? People aren’t horses or dogs to be bred for purity. What purity?”
Zhao Su lowered his head, embarrassed: “I spoke without thinking.”
“You certainly do talk a lot,” Zhù Ying said. “But stop talking and start doing. While you have no coursework to occupy you, write down everything you know in detail. Everyone keeps saying ‘Liao people, Liao people’—don’t those people have names of their own? If you don’t establish their names properly, who will know who they are? Can you blame others for calling them whatever comes to mind?”
Zhao Su hesitated: “The affairs of the mountains—I cannot claim to know them fully. I would not dare speak recklessly.”
“Write what you know. Write at least the names down. A journey of a thousand li begins with a single step. There has to be a spring before the ice thaws.”
“Yes.”
Zhù Ying said: “Your uncle’s household has likely run into trouble. Tell him: whatever grievances existed between him and others before, there are none between him and me. He is a man of his word—if anything should go badly wrong, he may come to me.”
“Yes. I will.” The assassination attempt on his uncle had happened with Adoptive Father right there, but she had not pressed for details or investigated afterward. She must have already drawn her own conclusions. With this expression of goodwill from Adoptive Father, Zhao Su decided to pass it back to the stronghold. His uncle was likely in need of such support right now.
Though he didn’t know how thick that shield was, or for how long it would hold.
——
It was not until after Zhao Su had finished his quiet conversation at the county office and left that Gu Weng finally arrived.
Gu Weng had prepared thoroughly: he had in his head the exact count of how many draft oxen and horses were currently available from his own household, and how many more could be freed in the coming days. He had also quietly set aside some farming tools—plough-shares and the like—and if the conversation went well, he planned to offer those as well. He knew that poor farming families often lacked even these. Good farmers needed iron tools, and those were not easy to come by.
Gu Weng was received by Zhù Ying, and seeing that she showed not the slightest impatience, Gu Weng wore a look of urgency: “I misjudged it—the more anxious I was, the slower the work went. Finally freed up some draft oxen! I was afraid of causing you trouble, Your Excellency.”
Zhù Ying said: “It’s all right. Early has its advantages; late has its own solutions. Sit down.”
“Your Excellency has so much to attend to, and still takes this to heart—this old man is truly ashamed.”
“The planting is the least of my worries,” Zhù Ying said. “It’s only the misbehaving students who give me a headache!”
Gu Weng quickly asked what had happened.
Zhù Ying said: “I just had two county school students caught—taking advantage of their families being busy with no one to watch over them, the pair of them went off together to a brothel!”
Gu Weng said: “They deserved a good lesson!”
Zhù Ying then suddenly asked: “I’ve heard it said: a wife is not as pleasing as a concubine, a concubine not as pleasing as a maidservant—is that really true?”
Gu Weng’s heart lurched. He answered carefully: “That’s the talk of frivolous young men. Though if a wife is left alone to guard an empty house, she does worry about being displaced by a favored concubine—better to simply request to leave the marriage than that.”
Zhù Ying smiled: “A man who ruins himself.”
The two of them exchanged a look. Zhù Ying remained as before. Gu Weng’s face flooded with shame; tears streamed down, and he wiped his nose: “Your Excellency, this old man has lived seventy years to no purpose, and yet at a critical moment entangled himself in useless matters—I am too ashamed to face you!”
He covered his face and wept.
Zhù Ying said: “What is there to be ashamed of? What’s good about it? The heart is deeper than anything else—treasure those who are willing to show what’s in it.”
“This old man is not an unreasonable person. At first, I couldn’t quite see things clearly. But now—it is as though a fog has lifted.”
Zhù Ying said: “Gu Weng has always been a reasonable and sensible man.”
Gu Weng seized the moment to say: “This old man has also freed up some farming tools.”
“Mm.”
Gu Weng said: “Families with no oxen likely don’t have good ploughs either. Ploughs require a good amount of iron. Everything is in short supply locally—now that the draft oxen are late, they mustn’t also lack decent ploughs.”
He insisted on lending out some ploughs as well—to be returned once spring planting was over. Farm tools weren’t like livestock; if the wood warped, it could be repaired; if the blade dulled, the blacksmith could fix it. Zhù Ying said: “Good. Handle it the same way as the draft oxen.”
She also asked Gu Weng about the local sources of iron. Iron wasn’t something you could plant and harvest; and unlike grain, where if one crop failed you could grow another, there was very little that could substitute for iron. Wanting it wasn’t enough.
Gu Weng said: “Some comes from tools and implements bought from other regions, and some is raw iron hauled in from the northwest, which we smelt and work ourselves.”
“None produced locally?”
Gu Weng shook his head: “None. If there were, the court would never leave a place like ours to its own devices.”
One sentence made it all clear. Gold, silver, copper, iron, tin—all of them critically important metals. The first three were currency itself; tin had casting uses. Iron was even more essential than the others—it could be forged into weapons. A place with an iron ore deposit would, unless the court lacked the reach, always be brought firmly under imperial control.
Zhù Ying sighed: “Well then. One step at a time. Whatever plans I have—all of it can wait until after spring planting.”
“Yes. My oxen are already in the pen, and the ploughs have been repaired. Please send someone to handle the exchange and handover, Your Excellency.”
Zhù Ying said: “Very well.”
Rather than sending someone, she went herself to look things over—this was her first time handling such a matter, and in Fulu County she had to do many things firsthand. She listened to the others explain what made a good ox or horse, and how animals of the same type were further distinguished by different uses. Locally, water buffaloes were more common than yellow cattle, and their care differed.
Zhù Ying only regretted that the convicts on the road were traveling too slowly—if they had arrived already, she could have learned far more from them.
She did not take the animals away outright. Instead, the county office served as intermediary and guarantor, bringing both parties together. Farming households that had registered to rent came to collect their animals, first verifying them, pressing their handprints, and then leading them away. When the animals were returned, both sides verified them again, and Gu Weng would then lend them to the next household.
Households had no fear that Gu Weng would suddenly raise the price midway through, and Gu Weng had no fear that the farmers would default on payment—the yamen runners were not to be trifled with, and if necessary Zhù Ying could enforce debt collection by authority.
Once the basic framework was running smoothly, Zhù Ying stopped managing every individual rental agreement herself. She still had her own field to look after! The official land had people to manage it; what she needed to see was her small experimental plot. The seasons waited for no one. That land was rather poor, and there was no other way—just work it. Plant whatever needed planting, till thoroughly, then sow, irrigate, weed, fertilize…
She was eagerly waiting for the convicts to arrive sooner—among them were six men convicted in a village brawl that had resulted in deaths, who were to serve as laborers. Village brawls were common, as were deaths from them. A magistrate who took things seriously would arrest people and hand down judgments, but usually in brawls with deaths, most were sentenced to exile rather than execution. The relatively responsible officials opted for exile.
Finally, near the end of spring planting, the convicts arrived!
The escorting runners were exhausted, and the convicts were even more exhausted—some wore neck yokes, and some had their belongings slung from the yoke. Having walked all the way to Fulu County without a single death was a matter of everyone’s good fortune, and of the Court of Judicial Review’s care in selecting people—no elderly, weak, or sick had been sent. The ages ranged roughly from twenty to forty, an extremely suitable range. Of the twenty-four people, twenty were men and four were women.
But when Zhù Ying looked them over, she found that besides the runners, there were twenty-four men and seven women. The extra people wore no yokes or chains, and though they looked haggard, gray with dust, they were dressed in the clothes of ordinary people.
Zhù Ying said to the runners: “It has been a long journey.”
A runner grinned: “Thank you, Your Excellency. We’ve finally delivered our charge! The documents are here.”
He presented the documents; Zhù Ying received them and returned a receipt with her seal. The runner smiled: “Delivery complete.” He gestured toward the people and gave Zhù Ying introductions: “That woman is the veterinarian’s wife—she absolutely had to come along. That one there is the stonemason’s son…”
The extras were family members. Zhù Ying thought: the old garrison compound still hasn’t been repaired—there’s no room for these additional family members.
After a moment’s thought, she did not take the occasion to have the convicts beaten. She verified their identities and had the convicts shut in the jail, then ordered someone to bring the family members to a temple in the county town, so they wouldn’t wander lost around an unfamiliar place trying in vain to find lodgings.
Once that was arranged, she had Xiao Wu see to feeding the runners, and approved five strings of cash for their journey expenses going home.
The runners accepted cheerfully, thanking her repeatedly: “Most generous, Your Excellency.”
“Five strings of cash won’t cover a journey like this—it’s just a little something for tea and water along the way.”
She sent them off, then had the stonemason brought out first. She wanted to get started on the literacy steles project right away. Whatever she intended to accomplish in the future, having capable people at hand was always the most important thing.