Chapter 127 Confession
After the meal, Zhou Qianxian sent someone to summon Lin Xin. He obtained a confession from the steward of the Chang family, which was extremely unexpected, yet seemingly reasonable: Prefect Zheng was sent by Prince Qing to the Chang residence, and Chang Rongshi, for some unknown reason, did not refuse and took him in.
Since it involves Prince Qing, Xu Rong can also participate. Not only was she the one who helped capture Prefect Zheng, but among the people in Prince Qing's mansion, she has the most dealings with them right now.
"Didn't the steward of the Chang family give any other instructions?" she asked Zhou Qianxian.
Zhou Qianxian wasn't used to involving his subordinates' wives in official business, but he already knew why Xu Rong had chased him to Pingliang. It was definitely related to Prince Qing. He glanced at Lin Xin again, who looked completely at ease and didn't think there was anything that Xu Rong should avoid. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart: So young, yet so afraid of his wife.
“No,” Zhou Qianxian shook his head with a composed expression. “The steward said that Chang Rongshi only ordered him to keep an eye on Zheng Yuansheng and provide him with two meals a day, and gave him no other instructions.”
"Does Prefect Zheng have a statement regarding this?"
“Yes. He said that after he escaped from the government office, he wanted to leave the city, but the disaster victims blocked all the city gates day and night, and he could not get away. Seeing that the imperial envoy was about to arrive, he had nowhere to go, so he risked his life to go to Prince Qing’s mansion. Prince Qing did not see him, but the eunuch in charge came forward and threw him into a dark room and locked him up for two days. After he was half-dead from hunger, he was released and sent to the Chang family.” Zhou Qianxian detailed, “Until he was arrested today, he did not leave the Chang family. Chang Rongshi came back and saw him once, scolding him to behave himself. However, it was clear that he was in a bad mood and seemed unwilling. Zheng Yuansheng did not dare to ask too many questions, for fear of angering Chang Rongshi and losing this hiding place.”
Xu Rong listened attentively and pondered for a moment.
She tends to believe the testimonies are true.
Some details cannot be fabricated, and the most serious problem for Prefect Zheng is food. He has no reason to lie about these minor details and suffer unnecessary physical pain.
"General Chang and Prince Qing have a private connection," Xu Rong concluded.
This is a seemingly unspoken but actually very serious statement. What is a border general trying to do by secretly contacting a prince in his fiefdom?
Given the emperor's wariness of Prince Qing, this single sentence was enough to ruin Chang Rongshi's future.
Zhou Qianxian's expression turned serious. In fact, this was also his judgment, which was why he had called Lin Xin over again despite his hard work.
"Perhaps it was a transaction, perhaps it was coercion," Xu Rong continued, bringing the nature of the incident back a bit. If it was coercion, then the situation wasn't the worst.
“The two also have something in common,” Lin Xin continued. “Both require leverage.”
The question then becomes: what did Prince Qing use to persuade Chang Rongshi?
Chang Rongshi must have been aware of the risks of taking in Prefect Zheng at this time, yet he still did it, so this thing must have been extremely important to him.
Zhou Qianxian couldn't help but stroke his beard, which was a bit tangled from lack of grooming. Young people are indeed more quick-witted, he thought, and nodded approvingly: "Then tell me, what could it be?"
He was just asking casually. It was already late, and although he had sent someone, the earliest he could bring Chang Rongshi back was tomorrow. For now, he could only analyze the situation based on the testimony.
Lin Xin and Xu Rong exchanged a glance, and although they didn't speak, they seemed to have understood something. Zhou Qianxian quickly straightened up. He, an outsider, couldn't understand the cryptic exchange between the young couple by looking at them: "What's wrong? Speak your mind."
Lin Xin then said, "It is probably related to the past affairs of the late emperor."
Zhou Qianxian was taken aback, not understanding. That was at least twenty years ago. He had not yet entered officialdom and, being of commoner origin, had no way of knowing about the story of how the Duke of Zheng was severely beaten by the old Duke of Zheng for his close association with the Prince of Qing.
Lin Xin saw through his guess and told him, "—This is just my guess, I don't know if it's right or wrong."
Zhou Qianxian was shocked: "This is really true. Chang Rongshi was a son of a duke and marquis, and was ordered to guard the border. However, he not only made contact with the princes, but also got involved in the case of officials reselling the Changping granary. Xuancheng, you don't need to be modest. This is probably the truth. Only if there was a more serious threat than this, and if he did not do it, he would be in greater danger, which would force Chang Rongshi to do this."
Xu Rong lowered her eyes. She also thought about why Lord Xiao would raise Xiao Shan as his own daughter, given his character.
He was likely subjected to the same kind of coercion.
Not only Duke Zheng and Marquis Xiao, but also those who had sided with Prince Qing, Prince Qing probably held incriminating evidence against them, whether it was letters or something else, which must have been very important, so it was still effective to this day.
“When Chang Rongshi arrives tomorrow, I will test him,” Zhou Qianxian decided. “We must not let him truly serve Prince Qing.”
Chang Rongshi was a military general with troops under his command. If he were to make a mistake, Pingliang Prefecture would be thrown into chaos.
Having reached this agreement, there was an even more pressing matter: "Zheng Yuansheng confessed that he had been stealing and selling the grain from the Changping Granary in batches over the years, and that the place of sale was not in Pingliang. Even if he were executed now, he would not be able to produce any grain."
Lin Xin and Xu Rong remained silent; they had already prepared themselves for this outcome.
“However,” Zhou Qianxian changed the subject, “because the arrival of the embezzled silver was so sudden that Zheng Yuansheng did not have time to transfer all the stolen silver. Some of it was hidden in an abandoned well in the back office. I have already sent people to search for it. According to him, there are more than 400 silver ingots and more than 100 gold ingots.”
Xu Rong quickly did the mental calculations. Official silver ingots, commonly known as silver coins, were usually made in sets of fifty taels each. Four hundred of them would amount to twenty thousand taels. Gold ingots, due to their larger face value, were mostly made in sets of ten taels each. At that time, the exchange rate between gold and silver was approximately ten to one. The total amount added up to more than thirty thousand taels.
The official annual salary of a prefect was only 288 shi (a unit of dry measure), equivalent to 144 taels of silver.
"I wonder how their haul is going. Let's go take a look." Zhou Qianxian stood up.
The prefect's rear office was brightly lit.
Brighter than the lamplight were the gold and silver ingots piled up beside the well.
“Sir,” Zhou’s attendant, who was in charge of the salvage operation, reported, “most of them have been salvaged. We’ve also had the ones buried in the mud at the bottom of the well pulled out and counted. The number is about the same as what the convicted official said.”
Zhou Qianxian nodded and sighed, "The people's hard-earned money."
The attendant comforted him, saying, "Sir, there's no need to worry. With this stolen silver, we can get rid of your immediate crisis."
The wealthy grain merchants in Pingliang Prefecture were different from ordinary people. They still had a lot of grain stored at home. However, Zhou Qianxian had already forced them to donate grain once before, using both soft and hard tactics. The government was not a robber and could not always ask people to donate grain for free. Now that they had silver, they could go to the government to buy it.
Zhou Qianxian's expression did not ease much: "The drought in Pingliang has been delayed, and the shortfall is too great. There are already 200,000 disaster victims inside and outside the city. Some families that are still doing well are running out of food every day and will soon be unable to survive. Xuancheng, how much did the soup kitchens cost today?"
Before rushing to the Chang family, Lin Xin was doing this in the yamen. He immediately reported: "Eight hundred and eighteen shi. Based on the previous calculation of half a month, we are still short of about twelve thousand shi of grain."
If the Ever-Normal Granary were operating normally, supplying this amount would not be difficult. However, Prefect Zheng used inedible moldy old grain to impersonate new grain, which meant that all 12,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) had to be sourced from the people. Given the current state of affairs in Gansu, it was likely to prove the old saying: "Even if you have money, there's nowhere to buy it."
Under the lamplight, Zhou Qianxian frowned deeply, and even the pile of gold and silver ingots on the ground beside him seemed cold and hard, not at all endearing.
Xu Rong spoke up: "There should be a place where it is."
Her use of "should" instead of "maybe" conveyed a sense of certainty, and Zhou Qianxian's eyes lit up: "Where are you talking about—?"
He suddenly stopped, because based on his experience as an official, he already knew this place. He slowly said, "The Prince Qing's residence?"
Prince Qing does not engage in the grain business, but given the population, fiefdom, and various incomes of Prince Qing's residence, no grain merchant could possibly hoard more grain than Prince Qing's residence.
Zhou Qianxian fell silent.
The Prince Qing's mansion had grain, and he had silver. It seemed like a matter of course to use silver to buy grain, but he knew it was not that simple.
From the moment he entered Pingliang, he tried to avoid Prince Qing, because his official duty was to provide disaster relief. If he were to have any dealings with a prince and cause unnecessary complications, it would be more harmful than beneficial.
However, all indications suggest that some problems cannot be avoided simply by trying to hide them. Prince Qing sits calmly in his mansion, seemingly not interfering with his actions, but in reality, an invisible hand has already been placed over Pingliang, waiting for the winds to shift before a thunderous change occurs.
Upon hearing Xu Rong's reply of "Yes," Zhou Qianxian smiled wryly. This subordinate's wife was truly audacious. It was already a good thing that Prince Qing didn't cause any trouble, yet she dared to make a move on him.
Xu Rong smiled slightly: "My lord, perhaps General Chang will come tomorrow and have something to teach us."
Zhou Qianxian was stunned.
He suddenly realized it was feasible. Just because Chang Rongshi took in Zheng Yuansheng on behalf of Prince Qing, did that mean he was necessarily Prince Qing's man? No, he was most likely coerced.
Prince Qing holds his weakness. Given the relationship between the Duke of Zheng's mansion and Prince Qing back then, could he also know some of Prince Qing's secrets?
Alternatively, there's no need to keep it a secret; as long as we can tell them more about the inner workings of Prince Qing's mansion, there's something we can do.
After careful consideration, Zhou Qianxian entrusted the task to Lin Xin: "Chang Rongshi is different from Zheng Yuansheng. It is inconvenient for me to use torture on him. I can only question him verbally, which is not enough to know his background. You come from similar backgrounds, so why don't you try to test him? You may find something out."
Lin Xin and Chang Rongshi were actually not familiar with each other at all. When Chang Rongshi obtained his official position through his family's influence, he was still a depressed and arrogant young man. But since he was assigned a task, he would not refuse: "Yes, this humble official will do his best."
After working together for a while, Zhou Qianxian quite admired this subordinate. He was cold-faced and didn't talk much, but he was decisive in his work. What was even more valuable was that he never complained about hardship or fatigue. When he first left the capital and saw him with so many servants, he thought he was a pampered young master.
"Alright, it's so late, you should go and rest. You need to be more alert tomorrow," Zhou Qianxian encouraged gently. "If we can get some grain from Prince Qing's mansion, the crisis in Pingliang will be resolved. I will definitely write a memorial to commend you for your merits."
Lin Xin actually had another secret matter that was closely related to this new job, but he had never let it slip to Zhou Qianxian. At this moment, he didn't say much, bowed, thanked him, and took his leave.
Seeing his composure in the face of both honor and disgrace, and his remarkable demeanor, Zhou Qianxian couldn't help but admire him: truly a rare find.
Just as the thought arose, he suddenly saw Lin Xin's back stagger.
"What's wrong?" The woman beside him quickly reached out to help him up.
"When I went to see you before, I twisted my ankle when I dismounted."
Xu Rong was surprised and a little anxious, and stopped: "Why didn't you say so sooner? How badly did you twist it? Did you hurt any tendons?"
"I don't have time to talk about it. It's not serious. Just soak in hot water when you get home and it'll be fine."
Xu Rong asked worriedly, "Do you have someone to take care of you there?"
Lin Xindao: "No."
Very decisive.
Zhou Qianxian: "..."
What about those household guards? Aren't they considered people?
"I'll stay with you—" Xu Rong said hesitantly, "Can I live with you? Would that be taboo?"
Lin Xin silently turned his head away.
"..." Zhou Qianxian felt a bit of a sore throat and waved his hand helplessly: "It's only natural that you need someone to take care of you since you injured your leg, but this is a one-time exception!"
Seeing the young couple across from him both smile, even Lin Xin's cold face was no exception; the curve of his lips was even wider. Without any attempt to hide it from him, he tightly held his wife's hand and walked away. Zhou Qianxian stood alone under the moon and sighed.
In the sweltering heat of summer, he suddenly felt a little lonely—oh no, he was just cold.
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