Although Meng Shan needed to rest and recover, He Lingchuan had no shortage of opponents in the Martial Review Hall. Plump or slender—no, tall, short, fat, lean, quick-witted, treacherous—fighters of every stripe could be found there.
Seeing him come every day, anyone itching for a fight would approach him to spar. He had even crossed paths with two soldiers from the Gale Army.
Fortunately, none fought with the lethal ferocity Meng Shan did. Win or lose, He Lingchuan could face six or seven opponents in a single dream.
His strength, technique, and agility all improved by leaps and bounds through actual combat.
Another person who benefited greatly was Skinny. Ever since He Lingchuan started coming to the Martial Review Hall, Skinny's earnings had skyrocketed. Word had it that in just these few days, he had nearly saved enough to cover his nephew's school tuition.
He had struck it rich.
***
The sun hung high in the sky.
He Chunhua happened to pass by the house and stopped in to fetch a few items. The moment he stepped into the side hall, he saw his wife and eldest son sitting at the table eating pastries.
A bite of pastry, a sip of tea, chatting and laughing merrily.
When had the relationship between these two become so harmonious?
Madam Ying spotted her husband as well and stood up in pleasant surprise. "Oh, what brings you back?"
"To pick up two documents. I left them in the study last night." He Chunhua looked over the table, which was neatly laid out with dainty little pastries shaped delightfully. "What are these?"
"Lotus crisps, mint sweetcakes, and this salt-and-pepper cracker is the best of all." Madam Ying was in wonderful spirits. "They're all signature items your son brought over from our restaurant."
He Lingchuan handed a salt-and-pepper cracker to his father. "Otherwise, why call it 'Hesu Restaurant'?"
He Chunhua popped it into his mouth and swallowed. Mmm, not bad. Seeing his son lounging without a shred of proper posture, he could not help remarking, "You're still idling about today?" He and He Yue had been busy to the point where their heels practically kicked the backs of their heads.
In the past, if the eldest son were this indolent, Madam Ying would usually scold him, rather than sitting beside him with a smile like this.
"Ah, I'm waiting for someone."
He Chunhua did not bother asking who he was waiting for. The boy had plenty of people around him lately, coming and going constantly.
"The matter I tasked you with the day before yesterday—you haven't handled it yet, have you?" he reminded his son. "The Section Administrator of Records reminded me again today that Xin Township's bailiff, surnamed Zhou, has been waiting for your grand arrival."
"I'll go."
He Chunhua was not so easily fobbed off. "When?"
If not for all his subordinates running around in circles with genuinely no one to spare, he would never have put this kid to work.
"Dad, your official caused a mess he can't resolve himself, which is why he wants me to step in," He Lingchuan said lazily. "Shouldn't I make some preparations?"
"Keep the situation under control; don't let it blow up," He Chunhua instructed him. "Xin Township produces the highest-quality recruits in the Dunyu area, and there are many meritorious families in the township. We are actively conscripting right now, so do not sour relations with them."
He Lingchuan frowned. "If that's the case, can't we shelve the dispute and deal with it after the war is over?"
"This war won't be over anytime soon."
When He Chunhua said this, Madam Ying could not help letting out a soft sigh as well. Indeed, Xiazhou was still ten thousand miles away from peace.
"Spring is coming soon. If the ownership of those fields isn't determined, it'll be even harder to resolve once crops are planted," He Chunhua said solemnly. "Xin Township is not an isolated case. Everyone else will be watching closely to see how we handle it."
He Lingchuan took a sip of tea. "Understood. I'll get on it as soon as possible."
From the side, Madam Ying asked, "I heard that before we arrived, the treasury was so poor you couldn't find two strings of copper coins. How is it that so much grain and military supplies have been shipped to the front line lately?"
She greatly admired her husband; taking over a dilapidated provincial government, he had managed to run it so splendidly.
He Chunhua chuckled. "Thanks to the local nobility, big and small, from miles around."
He Lingchuan answered for him: "A few days ago, when rumors were running wild, even the Four Great Clans were wavering, believing the Xunzhou army was sweeping through everything and would march on Dunyu any day now. Dad must have taken advantage of that window to get things done."
In truth, Ding Zuodong had already reported the abnormal developments in the city to him.
"Back then, when fear hung heavy in the air, I lobbied those prominent clans and local gentry, telling them we were all grasshoppers tied to the same string. If Xiazhou ran out of weapons and grain, Nian Zanli would slaughter them like fat pigs upon arrival, so they shouldn't harbor any wishful thinking." He Chunhua smiled faintly. "They found my words most reasonable, so they voluntarily lent money and made up the grain for the provincial office to resist the enemy."
He emphasized the words "made up."
Though he spoke lightly, Madam Ying knew full well that her husband had been leaving early and returning late, having grown noticeably thinner from exhaustion. These matters were certainly far from easy to handle, undoubtedly fraught with endless squabbling, buck-passing, tugs-of-war, and power struggles.
He Lingchuan was curious as well. "What do you mean by 'made up'?"
"Remember the rotten accounts accumulated in the provincial granaries before I assumed office?"
"Led by the Four Great Clans, they swapped out grain from the granaries and put it on empty credit. Yes, I remember."
"I had Yue'er sort out the general ledger, then invited those wealthy gentry to deliver grain to the granaries to settle the deficits," He Chunhua explained. "The deficit was enormous and couldn't be balanced all at once, but the grain delivered is enough to last us for the short term."
He Lingchuan slapped the table. "Dad, you're truly incredible. You actually made them cough up what they'd already swallowed."
The phrasing was utterly crude, and both He Chunhua and his wife gave him looks of disdain.
"Why didn't they just relocate?"
"Without the official seal on their household registers and travel permits, ordinary civilians moving on their own are considered runaways, which is a major crime." In principle, household registration management was strict; commoners required certificates issued by their home registry to relocate.
In the Yuan Kingdom today, however, household registers were in disarray in some regions, and control over permanent residents had loosened.
A major clan like the Zhan clan had secured travel permits from the provincial office long before He Chunhua took office, allowing them to move elsewhere. Commoners fleeing alongside them could never obtain travel permits; they merely tagged along at the tail end of the Zhan clan's convoy, hoping the Zhans would show mercy and take them in once they reached a new destination.
"Besides, their foundations are all here. Uprooting them breaks bones and tears sinews. Unless pressed to the absolute brink, they cannot leave," He Chunhua said. "Look at the Zhan clan. They left too early and made the wrong move, so properties built up over thirty or forty years had to be sold off for pennies to new owners. Their vitality has been severely drained this time. Barring some fortunate turn of fate, the Zhan clan won't be getting back on its feet for the next decade or two."
Speaking of which, He Lingchuan felt rather pleased with himself. Through Ding Zuodong's dealings, he too had claimed a share of the windfall from the Zhan clan's fire sale.
And what he had seized was merely the smaller cut—the one that profited the most was likely the provincial office itself!
Indeed, using funds from the treasury—which were silver borrowed from the local nobility—He Chunhua had entered the market himself to sweep up assets at rock-bottom prices when the entire city was gripped by panic and the Zhan clan was retreating in disarray!
These properties went from private hands straight to state—or rather, provincial—ownership.
When one Zhan clan bled and fell, the other players ate halfway to full.
He Lingchuan smiled. "The provincial office must have written a whole bunch of IOUs again, right?"
"Yes, what else could I do?" He Chunhua scratched his head, a rare gesture for him. "With great effort, I got the Li clan to forgive a debt of one hundred fifty thousand taels of silver, and the Shu clan wiped out thirty thousand taels, while others followed suit. And yet, the moment I turned around, I borrowed even more."
For years, the Xiazhou provincial office had spent far beyond its means, living on borrowed money. It had taken loans and issued IOUs to every noble family in Dunyu, large and small, accumulating a total debt exceeding nine hundred thousand taels.
Put simply, every single one of the Four Great Clans was He Chunhua's creditor!
If not for the impending catastrophe of war, and if not for his leverage over the Li clan, extracting silver from the clenched fists of those misers would have been nearly impossible.
Alas, it was truly a case of borrowing new debt to pay off the old.
He Lingchuan knew his father well. If he said "even more," the borrowed sum had to be staggering. But since He Chunhua didn't name a figure, it wasn't his place to press.
"Dad, you disbanded their private troops, yet they were still willing to lend money. How magnanimous of them."
Following the incident where the Li clan sent armed forces to beat the Zhan clan, He Chunhua seized the opportunity to issue an edict strictly forbidding private armed forces. Any existing forces were to be disbanded on the spot, and each clan was permitted to hire at most one hundred estate guards; violators would face severe penalties.
Even the Zhan clan, one of the Four Great Clans, had been beaten into the dirt by the Li clan's private soldiers. If this unhealthy trend wasn't curbed in time, everyone in Dunyu would feel unsafe, and with the storm clouds of war looming, the practice of maintaining private armies would only spread.
If all able-bodied young men were hoarded by the nobles, who would enlist to fight the war?
Clearly, that ran counter to He Chunhua's goals.
"The Li clan was very cooperative," He Chunhua said mildly. "With that example set, the other clans stopped being stubborn."
He Lingchuan couldn't help chuckling. "Old man Li Zhao died at just the right time."
Had Li Zhao not died, he would undoubtedly have been the most obstinate stumbling block in He Chunhua's way.
Without Li Zhao, the Li clan was as soft as sponge cake before He Chunhua, entirely unable to withstand his maneuvering.
Madam Ying tapped his forehead with a finger. "You child."
He Chunhua's stolen moment of leisure didn't last long. He had barely sat down to drink a second cup of tea and eat a second pastry when a messenger from the provincial office arrived in a hurry:
"Lord Governor-General, an esteemed master from Chuanyun Pavilion requests an audience at the provincial office."
"Chuanyun Pavilion?" He Chunhua was slightly startled. Putting down his tea and pastry, he brushed off his robes and stood up. "I'm off to attend to business. I'll be home for dinner tonight."
Madam Ying agreed with a smile and saw her husband out.
He Lingchuan scratched his head. The name "Chuanyun Pavilion" sounded remarkably familiar.
Thinking it over, it seemed to be the name of a Daoist sect with considerable influence in Xiazhou. He Yue had even suggested that he join Chuanyun Pavilion as a disciple back then, only for his father to use stalling tactics, subtly shooting the idea down.
Since it was a major local sect, He Chunhua, as the newly appointed Governor-General, would inevitably have to interact with them frequently, and future dealings would be unavoidable.
Just then, Butler Lao Mo announced that Ding Zuodong had arrived, though he had entered through the back door.
This man had been frequenting the He residence so often lately that everyone in the household was used to it. As soon as he arrived, He Lingchuan pulled them behind closed doors.
Madam Ying could only shake her head at the sight. Shutting the doors every day to whisper who-knew-what—father and son were cut from the exact same cloth.
Yet half an hour later, someone came from the provincial office again. The moment he rushed in, he delivered an urgent message:
"The Lord Governor-General commands Eldest Young Master He to depart for Xin Township immediately on business! Immediately! It must be settled before sunset—no delays permitted!"
The message was delivered word-for-word, without omitting a single syllable.
He Lingchuan was flushed out by the commotion. "What happened?"
"This lowly one doesn't know."
He Lingchuan wasn't about to be brushed off so easily. "What was happening at the time?"
"His Excellency was having a cordial conversation with Elder Liang of Chuanyun Pavilion. Halfway through, he stepped out to change his robes and instructed me to ride at full gallop to deliver the message. His Excellency also said he would host a grand luncheon for Elder Liang to buy you a little more time."
Chapter 239