All local officials in Jing Dynasty, as long as they were ‘sensible’, knew what it meant to step into the threshold of the Pang Manor.
The most powerful man in the dynasty besides the Emperor was the Chief Minister, Pang Shao. Even the Emperor listened to Pang Shao’s counsel. Sometimes, the Chief Minister’s ideas would turn into His Majesty’s.
Therefore, as long as they found a way, obtained qualifications and sent the silver to the minister’s manor, ascending to heaven wouldn’t be too difficult.
People who went in and out of the Pang Manor were all satisfied. After all, there was no more efficient Bodhisattva under the heavens.
Nothing mattered more than impressing the Chief Minister with money and making him willing to speak for them.
That night, Pang Manor was brightly lit, and a carriage stopped at the door. It looked very simple and ordinary in design.
It was not until the third watch that a man came out of the manor and happily boarded the carriage.
Another man in the carriage hurriedly asked, “How did it go?”
The man narrowed his eyes with a smile: “It’s done.”
The man in the carriage was astonished, and then revealed an ecstatic expression. He said in delight, “Is it done?… This is a great crime punishable by beheading the entire clan, yet the Chief Minister is willing to do it?”
The man laughed.
“We were lucky enough to catch up,” he remarked.
“Catch up with what?”
“Haven’t you heard? A few days ago, His Majesty seemed to have some disagreements with Pang-daren.” He said, “These days, I’m not sure whether Pang-daren wants to please His Majesty or find a way back for himself. In short, he is short of money, and he almost refuses nobody. The amount I gave this time is sufficient, and Pang-daren is pleased. Not only did he exempt me from my crime, but also gave me a cushy job.”
“What cushy job?”
The man smiled unfathomably and pointed to the southwest.
“In three years, I’ll be able to double the money I gave away today and earn it back,” he said.
The man in the carriage exclaimed, “But isn’t that General Lou Yue’s territory? I fear it won’t be easy to take action.”
“Pang-daren said that in about a year after Lou Yue’s return to the capital, he won’t be able to go back there.” The man said, “What’s more, Pang-daren also said that it is unknown whether he’ll stay alive in the capital for a few more years.”
“It turns out that Pang-daren is going to…”
“Pang-daren has his own plans,” The man interrupted. “It’s not our business either. But just in case, after taking office, we’ll have to be prepared for any contingencies, and better yet, make more money. After all, no one can say for sure what will happen to today’s dynasty, right? Besides, if we want to sit firmly in our position, we must give Pang-daren exorbitant offerings every year. All in all, that place is rich, so we need to pay more special attention to it.”
When speaking of this matter, the two both laughed knowingly.
The carriage departed with the rattling of its wheels and gradually disappeared into the night.
No one knew that on this shabby carriage sat the magistrate of Suzhou who embezzled 200,000 taels of silver in his three years in office. This person embezzled such a large fortune that the Ministry of Revenue took notice of him early on. He was already put on file, just waiting to arrest him.
It was this man who heard the news and rushed to Lin’an with silver overnight and knocked on Pang Shao’s door.
For such a huge fortune, Pang Shao wouldn’t shelter him if it were ordinary times. For him, accepting his silver meant looking for trouble for himself. This person was better killed, replaced by a more secure cohort, and thereafter would be able to pay tribute every year. He would have nothing to lose.
This man was nothing more than a dying horse desperately trying to live. Unexpectedly, he lived well and was actually healed.
Within a few days, the court issued a transfer order for the magistrate of Suzhou.
No matter how large the sums of money he embezzled were, it was all written off. This person was explicitly demoted and secretly promoted, and was reassigned to be the Magistrate of Lingnan.
No one knew that the new Lingnan Magistrate traveled south that day, passed by Lin’an, and received money from Pang Shao.
It was several times more than what he sent to the Pang Manor that day.
However, this money wasn’t a reward from Pang-daren but was given to him… it was given to him to carry out an important matter for Pang-daren.
Although Lou Yue wasn’t a person who looked down on civil officials, he had never saved face for ministers like Pang Shao.
With soldiers under his command, he was tough and had no qualms about going against heaven and earth. Thereby, in recent days, he stirred quite a mess in court.
Pang Shao suffered from his provocation several times in a row. Coupled with Ji Hongcheng who kept fueling the fire on his side, clashes between the two were bound to happen in court during the Grand Court Assembly.
Pang Shao wasn’t as fiery or as frank as Lou Yue, so he was always defeated.
On top of that, whenever Qi Min sometimes could not put up with them any longer, he would step in to mediate with a couple of sentences. However, he too would be scolded by Lou Yue to his face. A few days later, the officials from Pang’s party and the ministers led by Qi Min, who initially stood on opposite sides, were much more harmonious than before. When they met, they could even barely greet each other.
Sure enough, conflicts between military generals and civil officials were much deeper than the contradiction between the civil officials themselves.
However, Lou Yue brushed them off.
Every time he attended the Grand Court Assembly, all he did was hold his head high and blow off some steam. Only then could the suffocation in his heart dissipate a little.
This day, he even got off the carriage at the end of the street, and went to the marketplace to find some wine to cheer himself up.
He was unaccustomed to the fine wine that was served in the house, and preferred to drink grainy spirits distilled from sorghum. This kind of sorghum wine was common in Jiangbei, but now that he had returned to Jiangnan, he had a hard time finding a restaurant that specialized in Northwest cuisine, where their sorghum wine was most potent.
He dismissed his subordinates and went straight to a pavilion.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the door, someone bumped against his shoulder before he could find a seat to settle down.
He turned his head and discovered a tall young brawny man, but with a particularly unappealing complexion.
He coldly said, “General Lou, someone upstairs asked you to go up for a chat.
Who could it be?
Lou Yue had provoked a lot of people recently, so he didn’t know where his enemies were. However, regardless of their location, this visitor definitely was up to no good, yet he was never afraid of that.
Seeing the man in such a state, Lou Yue temporarily forgot about drinking, sneered and waved his hand: “Lead the way.”
He followed the man upstairs.
Who else could it be? They’d either be Pang Shao’s gang of snakes and rats, or the poor and pedantic literati who championed Qi Min.
Lou Yue’s back remained ramrod straight. He was totally undaunted. When he was taken to the entrance of the humble room, he aggressively kicked the door open.
But the next moment, he froze.
The round table inside was filled with northwest dishes he used to eat in his early years, plus two large jars of sorghum wine. Sitting alone at the table, with an upright back and sharp sword-like eyebrows was someone whose silhouette overlapped with his old friend.
It was just that he was younger, more handsome, and more refined. He must have taken after his mother.
Lou Yue’s eyes burned.
“Wujiu, is that you?”
