In this year of famine, though the great households distributing porridge in Xiaoyi County were led by the Guo family, the Guo household was by no means the only one actually serving relief. Within Xiaoyi County, several other households would occasionally, out of charity, come forward to distribute porridge as well — and this included relief efforts organized by the government itself. Following this disaster, though the surplus grain everywhere was scarce, the government always had to ensure that at least some people survived — which happened to align with the interests of the wealthy gentry and great households as well.
But this kind of relief could never be allowed to be too generous or too filling — some people still had to be made to abandon their dignity, forced to beg or scramble desperately just to survive. This way, those who still had land, unwilling to endure too much hardship, would be forced to sell off their household belongings instead, allowing the wealthy gentry and great households to complete their accumulation of land and capital through this process.
In a certain sense, this kind of thinking — valuing only self-interest and survival, with no regard for dignity — is something seen far more often in people after the rise of modern capitalism. In ancient times, especially in villages with low productivity, people still possessed a fair amount of backbone. Of course, that backbone tended to express itself in fairly simple ways: as long as there was still a mouthful of food at home, people wouldn’t go around excessively begging others for help, and those with even a modest amount of property tended to care more about saving face than ordinary people did.
For this reason, when famine struck, most people would first turn to their own stored grain, then borrow from relatives and friends, and only once everyone alike had nothing left would they resort to selling off land and property. Only after all of that would they, as a last resort, finally abandon their dignity and beg for charity.
Normally, when the Guo family distributed porridge on the small plaza outside their gate, since the space there was fairly large and drew large crowds, the government would occasionally set up its own porridge stalls there as well. In addition, two carriages would sometimes come by to distribute porridge and coarse wheat buns — said to belong to charitable benefactors from out of town who, moved by pity at the sight of the cold and starving, had come to offer relief.
The Guo family welcomed all of this, since it was happening on their own plaza — afterward, whenever people spoke of it, they would only credit the Guo family’s benevolence. And so today, as he prepared to incite the crowd, Guo Mingyi had also had people bribe some of the local constables assigned to prevent unrest in the area. Having confirmed that the government hadn’t been paying particularly close attention here, he began his announcement — only for someone in the crowd to suddenly shout, the moment he finished speaking: “He’s lying!”
The voice that rang out was loud and carried across the entire crowd. Guo Mingyi immediately sensed something was wrong and shouted at once, “Who are you? You’re that corrupt official’s lackey—”
He shouted himself hoarse, and at once someone in the crowd echoed, “Drag him out!” But the man’s next words followed right on their heels: “Fellow villagers, he’s deceiving you! The Guo family has been hoarding grain, deliberately driving up prices, and they’ve been caught! Today he’s trying to incite you into attacking the government — that’s treason, punishable by the extermination of nine generations! The soldiers are already on their way, they’ll be here within the time it takes an incense stick to burn! Whoever believes his words will share in the Guo family’s crime!”
The man threw open a tattered garment he wore, revealing a tall, broad-shouldered frame and a shaved head — though he was clearly no monk. Some recognized him: he was the one who usually accompanied those two carriages that came to distribute porridge. Fearsome as his build looked, when it came to serving porridge and food, he wore a kindly, gentle expression, and had often tended to the sick and injured among the crowd, having grown familiar to many by now. At this moment, the moment he opened his mouth with words like “treason,” “extermination of nine generations,” and “soldiers on the way,” true or not, it landed on Guo Mingyi like a sudden blow to the head, and doused the crowd with a basin of cold water.
Guo Mingyi tried to shout him down, still bellowing, “This is that corrupt official’s man! Everyone, when they want to frame you, do they ever lack an excuse? These corrupt dogs are insatiably greedy — seeing that my Guo family has grain, they’ve come to extort us…”
Someone in the crowd shouted, “But Master Guo is a good man!”
Guo Mingyi had, after all, spent years doing charitable deeds, and it carried real weight. Another voice chimed in, “Master Guo saved my very life.”
“That’s right, the government must have made some mistake…”
“Master Guo isn’t a bad man…”
Voices rose from every direction in the crowd, but because of what the shaved-headed man had said, no one dared act rashly. Only those who were already Guo Mingyi’s own people tried to stir the crowd into action: “Seize that corrupt official’s man… drag him out…” Some pushed their way through the crowd, wielding clubs and ropes, ready to seize him — but the big man grabbed hold of a rope and gave it a casual swing, letting out a single roaring shout: “Who dares try anything!” The rope snapped apart in midair, and the household guards trying to grab him were sent tumbling several yards across the ground.
“Everyone, don’t be swayed by this old man’s incitement. The rise in grain prices here in Xiaoyi County is entirely the doing of people like him. It’s not that there’s no grain right now — it’s that they’ve got it locked up tight and refuse to release it! The newly arrived Lord Li from Hedong will be here any moment, and he’ll give you all justice. There are also several thousand piculs of relief grain the court has prepared, sitting right outside the city walls as we speak. Just because the Guo family stops serving porridge doesn’t mean the government will abandon you—”
The greatest challenge in inciting starving refugees to riot is speed — once even a portion of the crowd loses reason and takes extreme action, the rest inevitably get swept along, unable to turn back. But this shaved-headed man’s response had been in place from the very first moment. No one else could say how much of what he said was true, but his simple words had already succeeded in checking the crowd’s momentum. Guo Mingyi’s vision instantly went dark — he understood at once that for the other side to suppress the unrest with such speed and precision, they must have been preparing for this days in advance. He truly hadn’t expected that the very moment his side made its move, it would be met with a thunderbolt strike like this.
He collapsed on the spot in front of the crowd. Once carried back home, he immediately summoned the son he valued most and told him to rush to the Zuo family at once to warn them and seek protection.
“That Lord Li was already fully prepared for this. Now that our plan has failed, our family faces utter ruin. Go quickly to the Zuo family, tell the third young master, tell him that I, Guo Mingyi, swear I will never break under pressure — have him find some way to save our Guo family… Go now! There’s no time…”
The son turned at once to leave, but the old man suddenly opened his eyes wide and seized his hand in a tight grip. “Wait — wait. Don’t go to the Zuo family yourself. Send a servant to deliver the message instead. Find somewhere to hide yourself properly. If — if our Guo family cannot survive this, at least let there be one seed of our line left…”
The old man was lucid — he understood that with the plan having failed, the Guo family’s situation had reached a dead end. He hadn’t thought this through so carefully before acting, but the instant that shaved-headed man had interrupted him, it all became clear. That Lord Li’s methods were sharp and merciless — he had walked right into a trap of his own making. And indeed, not long after his son departed, the first wave of men arrived and surrounded every gate of the Guo estate, front and back. Half an hour later, a garrison stationed outside the city came charging in. Li Pin led his troops straight through the front gate, all the way to Guo Mingyi’s bedside.
“Master Guo, this wasn’t a wise move on your part.”
Guo Mingyi was already weeping, tears streaming down his aged face. “Lord Li, this humble old man admits defeat. This humble old man was momentarily possessed by some demon of folly.”
“So then… will you release the grain?”
“Lord Li, you have such a merciful heart — if we release the grain, the entire Guo family will die out completely. This humble old man’s own death means nothing, but I beg you, spare the Guo family a path to survive.” Even as he wept, he lowered his voice. “Lord Li, Lord Li, I have fifty thousand taels of silver and jewels — the family’s reserve funds for protecting the estate. You won’t be able to find it in a search. I’m willing to offer it all to you, Lord Li, I beg you…”
He was still speaking when Li Pin, who had been leaning forward listening, straightened up with an expressionless face and waved a hand behind him.
“Seal it off.”
…
Li Pin’s move against the Guo family could only be described as swift and decisive — immediate imprisonment, sealing off the estate, confiscating the property, and pacifying the disaster victims, all executed at once. But behind the scenes, orchestrating the conspiracy side of things, was Cheng Zhouhai.
Not only that — five days after Guo Mingyi’s entire family had been thrown in prison, Cheng Zhouhai successfully worked his way through the old man’s weakening defenses. Five days of imprisonment had worn down Guo Mingyi’s resolve, and in truth, on the very day Guo Mingyi had sent his son away, the Secret Investigation Bureau had already been tailing him. At the time, when the son was persuading Guo Mingyi, Li Pin had deliberately feigned ignorance, only revealing what he knew five days later. Shortly after, the two sides struck a deal.
Guo Mingyi would keep his family’s fifty thousand taels of reserve silver, after which the entire family would relocate to Jiangnan and never return to Hedong. In exchange, the Guo family would release all of its grain and possessions to aid the relief effort.
Though Guo Mingyi understood in his heart that once his family turned against them, it would inevitably provoke Zuo Jilan’s fury. On the other hand, if he didn’t turn, the worst he himself would face was execution, with his family exiled. Anyone would weigh these options — but the trouble was, not everyone is a hardened man unafraid of death, and once he saw a glimmer of a way out, he ultimately chose to compromise.
The crack opened up by Guo Mingyi’s side created a real gap in grain prices across the Fenzhou region — first, it increased the grain resources available to the government by roughly eight thousand piculs, and the hidden effects went further still. With one great household having fallen, a small number of minor merchants came to believe that grain prices were bound to drop, and began releasing their own grain to cash in while they could. After this, the fury of the Zuo and Qi families descended just as expected.
Zuo Jilan and Qi Fanghou paid visits far and wide, moving frequently and decisively, and the pressure within official circles surged sharply. Many people sought out Li Pin, outwardly warm and friendly, but secretly urging him: “Leave yourself some room — it’s good to keep on good terms for the future.” And with Zuo and Qi both giving the nod, under the maneuvering of Wang Zhizhen and Xu Mai, the two families poured in enormous sums, and in a short span of time, the grain around Fenzhou was swept up like a whale drawing in water. By this point, the matter was no longer just about grain prices — the two families’ pride was on the line as well. Zuo Jilan declared before others: “I will absolutely see this matter through to the end!”
Merchants with sharp ears sensed the shift in the air, and as the weather grew colder, grain prices rose once more, only to fall again under the government’s continued suppression. Amid this tug-of-war of fluctuations, both sides found themselves locked in stalemate. In the capital, Ning Yi waited for his opportunity, the one that would come after the first snowfall. But for Wang Zhizhen and Xu Mai, as men with deep local roots, the fact that they now found themselves unable to keep pushing prices back up even as the weather turned colder was a serious blow to their pride. As their intelligence efforts intensified, they finally managed to learn the name of the one orchestrating things from the capital.
“The one in the Chancellor’s residence handling the grain prices this time — his name is Ning Yi. Take a look.”
Zuo Jilan handed the intelligence report over to the two of them. Xu Mai frowned. “Ning Liheng?”
Wang Zhizhen glanced at him as well. “The one who writes those excellent lyrics?”
“I don’t care how well he writes lyrics, and I don’t care how impressive he supposedly was against some band of bandits at Liangshan!” Zuo Jilan’s face had gone livid. “I absolutely cannot lose face over this!”
Qi Fanghou said, “I don’t want to lose face over it either.”
Ever since realizing this situation was no simple matter, the moves made by the Zuo and Qi sides had been genuinely impressive — swift and decisive, without the usual dithering of pampered young masters from great households. After a few more words were exchanged, Wang Zhizhen and Xu Mai exchanged a glance. “Third Young Master, Young Master Qi — the key to the grain prices lies in the first snowfall. If we don’t want to lose, we need to move fast. Before the snow falls, whoever accomplishes more will win.”
“I understand that well enough.” Zuo Jilan nodded. “No one is without a weakness. He operates through the market — I’ll operate through the hearts of men. Young Master Qi, my uncle is in the capital. I’ll go to the capital myself and speak with this Ning Yi in person. You hold things down here — how does that sound?”
Qi Fanghou nodded. “My family has some connections in the capital too. I’ll write a few letters for you to carry up with you, Third Young Master. This matter is best handled sooner rather than later. We’ll be waiting for your good news.”
“Hmph.” Zuo Jilan gave a cold laugh. “Once I’ve got that Ning Yi’s weakness in hand, I’ll destroy him!”
With that chilling declaration, their next course of action was settled. The following day, Zuo Jilan left home and set off straight for the capital. At the same time, countless tendrils reaching out from across the north and south, harboring the very same intentions, were also converging on the capital. Even as they found themselves in stalemate on the market front, they still had countless formidable methods they could apply elsewhere — methods that, in years past, had helped them defeat their enemies time and again without fail. And this time looked to be no different…