Ye Suijin strode into the main hall. “Master.”
Ye Suijin looked up and asked, “Well? How did it go?”
Duan Jin replied, “I went and took a look. It’s empty, not even a single mouse.”
The Changping warehouse in Biyang was empty. So empty that even the mice were starving.
Li Er also came back. “Sis.”
Li Er had been sent out to gather information in the streets.
“It’s just as you expected. Biyang hasn’t stopped collecting taxes at all. Everything’s still being collected—tea, salt, seedlings, city repair fees, canal fees, longevity celebration fees, rain praying fees...” He clicked his tongue. “Good heavens, they can think of every fee imaginable, nothing they won’t dare collect.”
The Fifth Young Master they had imprisoned was also under interrogation.
Up until now, almost all those interrogated had been jailed for failing to pay taxes or corvée labor duties.
If you couldn’t hand over the money, you would be jailed.
If you couldn’t perform corvée duties, you could pay to commute it. If you didn’t have money to pay for the commute, you would still be jailed.
The Fifth Young Master came to ask, “Should we release them all?”
Ye Suijin asked, “Have the interrogations finished?”
The Fifth Young Master replied, “Not yet, most but not all have been interrogated.”
“Then wait until the interrogations are complete before deciding,” said Ye Suijin. “Even though we expect they are probably all innocent, we have to wait until all cases have been reviewed before releasing them together. We can't give anyone an opening they could take advantage of.”
Without access to any of the prison records, they could only rely on interrogations. If there were others jailed for different crimes, they would naturally claim they were also jailed for taxes and corvée once they saw the earlier prisoners released.
Although the chances of that were very slim currently. Still, they could not give the impression of sloppiness in the Ye army’s actions.
The younger brothers still needed more tempering and growth.
“Oh!” The Fifth Young Master was enlightened. “Sounds good!”
He hurried off.
Duan Jin watched the Fifth Young Master’s retreating back.
Over the past few months, everyone had actually grown quite a bit. This kind of growth could be tangibly felt by both themselves and others.
He looked back at Ye Suijin again.
She was the only exception.
Duan Jin actually had a strange feeling.
That summer day when the Young Mistress had taught him the backhand saber technique, he had briefly felt as if the relationship between them was somehow different from before. There was an indescribable intimacy, far beyond what they’d had in the past.
But over the past few months, as they had boldly undertaken great deeds, he instead felt that the earlier feeling had perhaps been an illusion.
Of course Ye Suijin’s doting and favoritism towards him had never changed, and was in fact even deeper than before. No one could deny that.
But...
Just now, Duan Jin suddenly realized—
It wasn’t that she had grown distant from him. In fact, she was even more intimate, caring and affectionate towards him and the Ye brothers than before.
It was her herself who had changed.
Sometimes when he looked at her, he would feel she was distant.
Yet she was still her.
How could this be?
On the first day they entered the city, rumors began spreading through the streets:
“Do you know why all the masters have been arrested? Because the new female magistrate demanded ten thousand stones of military provisions right off the bat!”
But rumors never tell just half the story. The second half soon followed: “Split up among all the households, that’s who knows how much money once converted to cash!”
This second half was the real point of the rumors. Sure enough, when the commoners heard the first half they still treated it as entertaining gossip, but upon hearing the second half it struck their own interests and they paled in fright: “What, it still has to be split up? We’ve already paid so much this year! Any more and we won’t be able to eat!”
No one questioned the truth of these rumors, because they had all seen the arrests of the local masters with their own eyes.
Therefore, something completely false is not easily believed, but a mix of truth and lies can easily sway opinion.
Originally, seeing the orderly discipline of the Green Uniform Army, the commoners had gradually let down their guard and dared to go out on the streets again, with life returning to normal. But with these rumors, tensions rose again in the city.
“Inciting public sentiment, of course,” Ye Suijin murmured upon hearing the news.
Duan Jin glanced at her and clearly sensed her disgust at this kind of tactic.
Of course Duan Jin didn’t know Ye Suijin’s perspective was that of the imperial court, and naturally detested any incitement of the commoners to pressure the court.
“Just watch, this is the next step,” Ye Suijin said derisively. “I predict they’ll call for a market strike next.”
On the fifth day, a market strike was called in Biyang City.
The major shops and businesses closed their doors to customers. The commoners were thrown into confusion.
The young masters were shocked when they returned from the streets and asked Ye Suijin directly, “Sis, how did you know they would strike the market?”
They all looked to Ye Suijin with admiration in their eyes.
Their sister had predicted it all.
Because I’ve experienced it all before!
Of course not in Biyang, but elsewhere. Yet very similar situations, with the entrenched local elite.
Their methods were just those methods.
Once you’ve lived through it all, seen it all, and learned your lesson, looking back now it’s no longer surprising, and you can even predict their next moves.
“In total there are only so many tactics,” said Ye Suijin. “The areas surrounding Biyang have already been cleared out by us, cutting them off from outside support.”
“If we had marched straight into Biyang without first sweeping through the surroundings, it’s most likely they would have colluded with Du Jingzhong like Ma Jinhui did. But that route is blocked now.”
“That leaves only internal means. Without external forces, they can only rely on internal strength. And what is internal strength? Naturally, it’s the commoners.”
A ferocious light flashed in Ye Suijin’s eyes.
“Remember, anything else may be forgiven.” She continued, “But never spare those who incite the commoners or use public sentiment to coerce the court.”
The brothers subconsciously responded in unison, “Yes!”
Li Er was briefly confused, almost thinking they were the imperial court already. Then he came back to himself and rubbed his head sheepishly.
He looked at the Young Mistress again.
Perhaps his vision wasn’t as great as the Young Mistress’s.
And Duan Jin again had that feeling—
that feeling she was very distant.
That feeling was especially strong in this moment.
For an instant in Duan Jin’s eyes, Ye Suijin even seemed somewhat ethereal.
Why was this happening?
Li Er asked, “Should I send someone back to hurry along my father?”
Ye Suijin nodded. “Tell Fourth Uncle Ye and Jiang Yinyu to move faster. With things like this, the longer the delay, the more panicked the commoners become. The more panicked the commoners, the more their sentiments can be twisted into a rope.”
The Tenth Young Master didn’t quite understand. “It’s just closing shops and not selling things, right?”
He couldn’t grasp why Ye Suijin spoke of panic.
Ye Suijin explained, “Because this is the city, not the countryside.”
Moreover, this wasn’t even a county seat, but a major metropolitan regional seat. The lifestyles here were completely different from the countryside.
In the countryside, most people were self-sufficient, only occasionally going to the markets to buy things. Or if they needed something special, they would purposely make a trip to the market or even the county seat to purchase it.
Their main livelihood was farming. Their main source of grain was their own fields.
But the big cities were different.
The commoners all had their own means of living. When busy, without time to make meals, they could buy food from the streetside shops.
Yang’s meat pies, Xu’s fried cakes, Sun’s soup balls...in short, money flowed more frequently here compared to the countryside.
And the key difference from rural folk was, city households didn’t store as much grain.
With thriving commercial business and convenient shopping in the city, there was no need to buy in bulk and store at home when the grain shops were right there—just buy more when the stores at home ran out.
With limited income in a household, money had to be spent in many places, it couldn’t all be sunk into grain.
Therefore, when a strike made non-essential goods like cloth and paper unavailable for purchase, people would only complain.
But when the flour jars and rice bins at home emptied out, and the grain shops shut their doors, the salt crocks ran out but the salt shops locked up—that was when the commoners panicked.
Some individual small shops still opened, but prices shot up tenfold overnight.
That made the commoners even more frantic.
Unable to buy grain in the city, they couldn’t very well starve to death. Once they exhausted borrowing from their neighbors as well, they had no choice but to shoulder carrying-poles and leave the city for the countryside to buy grain there.
And they couldn’t keep their mouths shut, directly bringing news of the city situations to the countryside. The rural folk weren’t stupid either, once they figured out what was going on, they would either hide and hoard their grain or jack up prices.
A chain reaction thus rippled out from the city to the surrounding regions.
The compliance of the common people rested on the premise of full bellies. If they went hungry, how could there not be chaos? In just a few days, turmoil spread through Biyang City.
If not for the Green Uniform Army troops patrolling the streets with shining weapons and killing aura, riots would have already erupted.
Ye Suijin asked the Tenth Young Master, “Understand now?”
Seeing it firsthand, the Tenth Young Master finally grasped the severity. “I understand now.”
He complained, “Why hasn’t Fourth Uncle arrived yet?”
Ye Suijin was much calmer. “Soon.”
Because she hadn’t waited until the Biyang families struck the market to come up with countermeasures—she had dispatched orders to Deng Prefecture long before they entered the city.
Ye Suijin's Changping warehouse in Biyang was empty, but Dangzhou's Changping warehouse was full.
She took from Dangzhou, and collected a whole year's worth of money and grain!
The people gathered at the Li's house again.
In the past, discussions of important matters were always held at the prefect's office. With the prefect's office unoccupied, they gathered at the prefect's and acted as if they were the prefect's office.
It gave people a feeling of floating on air.
Li Er regretted it especially.
"Should have surrendered to the new dynasty earlier," he wrung his hands. "Really shouldn't have kept watching. If we had surrendered first, perhaps the position of prefect of Tangzhou would have been my father's. Wouldn't have let a woman snatch the title first."
Was that so?
Some nodded, but some were also confused, feeling something was off.
Thinking carefully, it became clear.
It wasn't about not wanting to surrender, it was not having the ability to surrender!
Going to the capital, what could they say to the Emperor? That they were a prominent family in Biyang?
How many troops did they have, how much land did they occupy?
None, they only had family guards.
Biyang's biggest shortcoming was, they really were all good citizens.
Even the Li family, though they always claimed ancestors from Longxi Lis, it was just "ancestors" after all. They didn't have an ounce of the prestige of Longxi Lis.
The Lis didn't have any martial experts.
The guests they invited were just average. The civilian robust men and family guards trained were barely passable. But when they saw the Azure Clad Army brought by Ye Suijin, they were shocked by the difference between family guards and soldiers.
Miss Ye, cough, though news was not very timely, one could imagine, being granted edicts by the Emperor must mean she had already taken control of Dangzhou.
How could the Lis...blame this on "not taking the lead to surrender"?
After complaining, Li Er listened to servants reporting the panic in the city, and smiled smugly again: "A little girl doesn't know the height of the sky or depth of the earth. Now you know, right, if not for us, the whole city of Biyang would not get by."
"Everyone get ready, in a few days, incite the commoners to cry in front of the prefect's office!"
"Then we'll see if she panics, if she comes to ask us for help!"
The plan was pretty good, who knew the next day, the family guard rushed in panic: "Second master! Not good!"
"Dangzhou! A convoy from Dangzhou is here!"
"A very long convoy!"
Jiang Yinyu lifted the carriage curtain and looked at the city gate, excited.
He was originally just the manager of Ruyun Company's Nanyang branch. Who knew a pie would fall from the sky, Ye Suijin favored him and chose him as the liaison.
He pulled strings through this, connecting Ruyun Company's owner with Dangzhou's new power.
This was already a big step forward in his career.
Unexpectedly, Ye Suijin truly appreciated him, and entrusted such important matters to him as well.
With Ye family's scholarly background, of course there were many who could become generals, but in terms of business affairs, Jiang Yinyu dared to thump his chest and say, even the whole Ye family could not produce someone stronger than him.
As long as he could handle the matters entrusted by the military governor neatly and properly, Jiang Yinyu already sensed vaguely, his future perhaps was not just a store manager.
"Master Ye, shall we enter the city now?" he asked.
The "Master Ye" he called was none other than Fourth Uncle Ye of the Ye family, Deputy Censor-in-Chief of Dangzhou, Vice Military Governor.
Fourth Uncle Ye looked up at Biyang's city wall, just as excited as Jiang Yinyu.
He finally got a chance to go out!
Such a big city, it would be theirs from now on!
Fourth Uncle Ye whipped the horse, high-spirited: "Go! Enter the city!"
The long convoy, under the escort of the Azure Clad Army, marched grandly into Biyang City.
"Go lower the grain prices for the sixth young lady!"
