Countermeasures

At that moment, inside Old Master Ding's study at the Ding residence. Ding Zhize, the patriarch of the Ding family, was now over seventy years old. His hair was stark white as he reclined on a chaise lounge, his eyes half-closed as though he were asleep. Before him, Ding Daoxiao stood with dutiful deference alongside Demon Suppression Bureau Chiliarch Li Changqing. Once an expert of the fifth realm of martial arts, Ding Zhize had long since suffered a decline in qi and blood due to his advanced age; his muscles had atrophied, and his martial prowess had severely deteriorated. Yet neither Li Changqing nor Ding Daoxiao dared underestimate this helmsman of the Ding family in the slightest. He had once served as Left Vice Minister of War, controlling provisions, troop movements, and the appointment of military officials throughout the empire. Though he had retired only three or four years ago, he still held immense sway in officialdom. For instance, most of the generals in the three northern military garrisons of Lingzhou had been elevated by the very elder who lay before them. Old Master Ding asked, "How was that man captured?" Ding Daoxiao shook his head. "We do not know. That Shenxian Dao heretic should have been in deep hiding. There is no telling how the Wu and Hao families tracked him down." Old Master Ding raised his head and asked with half-opened eyes, "Did he let anything slip?" Li Changqing said, "I questioned him. He made no mention of the Ding family. But just to be safe, he still underwent demonification." Old Master Ding said, "Changqing, you handled it well. Thank you for your trouble. Daoxiao, go to Mount Mei at once. Order all the living corpses mining in the mountains to cease work, and dispose of every last one." Ding Daoxiao frowned. "Is that truly necessary? No one has traced anything to Mount Mei. The losses from halting work for even a single day..." Old Master Ding shook his head and pointed at him. "You... foolish! Do you think everything ends just because a man demonifies and dies? Then you underestimate the Demon Suppression Bureau, and you underestimate His Majesty. A prisoner undergoing demonification and dying during a solitary interrogation... Before long, the higher-ups in the Demon Suppression Bureau will surely send someone down to conduct a thorough investigation. "He Wenyan must quicken his pace, and Changqing, you must cooperate fully with him. Before the Demon Suppression Bureau dispatches more people, you must see to it that he turns up every rotten account hanging over Wu Wei and Hao Wen—their seized lands, embezzled silver, evaded taxes and corvée, bribery ledgers, entangled lawsuits, and sumptuary violations inside and out must all be investigated with absolute clarity. Only then can the Senior Grand Secretary impeach Wu Siqi." Ding Daoxiao nodded in assent, then asked, "And what of Chu Qiguang...?" Old Master Ding waved his hand. "Let the Shenxian Dao people retaliate against him. Not a speck of it must stick to us." Ding Daoxiao asked further, "Wu Wei claims the Grand Secretariat has reached an understanding and is preparing for peace talks and border trade?" "The Grand Secretariat's rescript drafts are merely a show for the Emperor." Old Master Ding closed his eyes and said indifferently, "The current sovereign is too young, inevitably fond of grandiose achievements and prone to heeding slander. Whether border trade opens or not must still be cleared by us, and cleared by the Nine Frontier Military Garrisons. "Smuggling is what feeds and clothes the millions of soldiers and civilians along the nine frontiers. Were it not for us, where would the north get the silver to maintain the imperial army? How could it sustain two martial gods who have entered the Dao? "Now the court wishes to vie with the people for profit. That is a path to harming the state and ruining the people." *** Inside the main hall of the Wu residence, Wu Wei, Hao Wen, Hao Yongtai, and Chu Qiguang sat together. "How could there be such a coincidence? Undergoing demonification right in the middle of an interrogation?" Hao Wen was both shocked and furious. "How much silver did Li Changqing take from the Ding family to dare act so outrageously?!" Wu Wei said, "It is not that simple. Li Changqing would not dare pull such a stunt for silver alone. I fear he is already in the same pair of trousers as He Wenyan and the Ding family." At the thought that the county magistrate, the Demon Suppression Bureau chiliarch, and the local despot Ding family had all joined forces, Wu Wei and Hao Wen were seized with dread. The Demon Suppression Bureau's fierce reputation was simply too terrifying; countless powerful clans, high officials, and titled nobility had fallen by their hand. Previously, Wu Wei and Hao Wen had at most sought a way to drive the Demon Suppression Bureau away; they had never contemplated facing them head-on. Seeing how anxious they were, Chu Qiguang recalled what Qiao Zhi had said and offered encouragement: "When a witness demonifies during interrogation, regulations dictate that the Demon Suppression Bureau will certainly send more people over. Master Wu, you can write a letter to Grand Secretary Wu, urging him to press the matter and ensure that whoever comes next will not favor the Ding family. And it must be done quickly..." Wu Wei and Hao Wen both nodded, but their worry regarding Chiliarch Li Changqing lingered. Just then, the Wu family steward came trotting in, flustered. "Master, disaster! The Demon Suppression Bureau has seized the young master!" "What?!" The steward said, "They claim someone confessed that the young master paid silver to organize the commoners to petition the yamen, and so they took him away." Wu Wei snapped in fury, "Utter nonsense! Bing'er is only twelve years old! What bloody commoners could he organize?!" Yet the bad news over the following days did not end there... Magistrate He continued sending men to survey the lands of both the Wu and Hao families, and tenant farmers began clamoring one after another to sever their ties with the two houses. In particular, certain tenants who had originally changed their names to surrender their land to the Hao family to evade taxes and corvée learned that Magistrate He intended to equalize the burdens. Calculating that the imperial court's taxes would be far lighter than what they were paying now, they immediately scrambled to reclaim their original names and demand that the Wu and Hao families return their lands. The Ding family even took the lead in land restitution. Although they had never owned much land to begin with—concentrating their manpower and wealth in coal mines, shops, and merchant caravans—their gesture only exacerbated the turmoil. Soon the tenants grew unruly, going so far as to besiege the manor houses of the Wu and Hao families. When the two families dispatched guards to drive them away, the Demon Suppression Bureau promptly arrested fifteen people from both households in one fell swoop—young masters, managers, bookkeepers, servants, and the like—taking them in for questioning under the pretext of being connected to the case. Wu Wei and Hao Wen were first summoned by the yamen for questioning, then hauled off by the Demon Suppression Bureau to account for the charges. On top of that, the grain shops, restaurants, teahouses, brokerages, and other businesses owned by the two families throughout the county seat were all subjected to inspections, thrown into complete disarray and rendered unable to conduct business. With pressure from above by the Demon Suppression Bureau, cooperation in the middle by the local magistrate, and the local despot Ding family leading the charge from below, Wu Wei and Hao Wen were run ragged, pushed to their wits' end and utterly powerless to resist. Meanwhile, the demon soldier pay case, which had once caused such an uproar, gradually died down after all its organizers were arrested by the Demon Suppression Bureau. *** When they gathered once again in the Wu family hall, Hao Wen fumed, "Backed by the Demon Suppression Bureau, He Wenyan is simply pushing us past all endurance!" Wu Wei sighed. "When we send men to appease the tenants, they arrest them. The people we dispatched to investigate the Ding family were arrested too. Even the messenger sent to report to Shenjing was seized by Li Changqing's men. They have truly discarded all shame." Targeted at every turn by the Demon Suppression Bureau over the past few days, the Wu and Hao families had been rendered completely helpless, left entirely at their mercy. Off to the side, Hao Wen began to get cold feet. "How about we apologize, yield to Magistrate He, and each return our land?" "It is not out of the question." Wu Wei's stance was no longer as unyielding as before. Deeply troubled, he said, "We can send someone to talk to them first and see where they stand."