Chapter Twelve: An Analysis of the Various Social Strata in Wuren County

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There were too many people in the city for the bandits to dare strike in broad daylight.

Seven or eight of them gave chase for a while, yet somehow managed to lose him.

“Second Brother! That bastard is slippery as hell!”

“I reckon he’s staying in Tower Ward or Dock Ward outside the city. We can search every inn one by one...”

“There are so many inns. How are you going to search them all? Take the silver back first. Big Brother is waiting for us!”

The second-in-command felt the thick stack of banknotes inside his robe.

The most important purpose of this trip down the mountain had been to dispose of their stolen goods and turn them into cash.

“Leave two men watching the western gate. The rest of you, come back to the stronghold with me.”

Meanwhile,

An Xin carefully confirmed that he had shaken off the bandits. The dagger clenched in his sleeve relaxed slightly in his grip.

Back at Tongfu Inn, An Xin asked the waiter to bring his meal to the room. After eating, he began organizing everything he had learned from his investigation that day.

The Great Yan Dynasty had been founded two hundred years ago. Combined with what he had witnessed since arriving in this world, it was clear that the countryside contained vast numbers of concealed households and hidden fields. The problem of land concentration had already grown extremely severe.

Taxes could not be collected, and the court was short of money.

But were the common people living well?

They were suffering just as badly.

There were too many vested interests in between. A deeply entrenched community of shared interests had long since taken shape. At court, the reformists and conservatives fought without end. The reforms introduced several years earlier had once again been smothered by the conservatives’ counterattack, leaving nothing behind among the people but chaos and ruin.

The clever men in power at the Great Yan court knew that unless the dynasty undertook drastic reforms, it would eventually collapse. Yet with interests so deeply entangled, the knife could not cut through them, and reform could not be pushed forward.

Judging by the lessons of history, Great Yan had already reached the end of the cycle that governed feudal dynasties.

The court was far too distant from Wuren County, yet the decisions made by those eminent officials affected the county in every respect.

Looking back only four years, Wuren County—and indeed the whole of northern Wu Province—had suffered two consecutive years of severe drought. In the third year, the Luo River had flooded three counties of Yuntai Prefecture. Taking advantage of the famine, the gentry and merchants had raised grain prices and bought up land.

The local authorities had also encouraged land consolidation in order to support the court’s policy of “replacing rice with mulberry.”

As a result, countless commoners had been forced to sell their sons and daughters, their homes and their land, until they were driven from their homes and left wandering without shelter.

Fortunately, apart from the large population sustained by the river port in the western part of the city, Wuren County also possessed highly developed handicrafts. These industries absorbed vast numbers of people and barely managed to preserve the livelihoods of the county’s many landless commoners.

“Every person is swept forward by the tide of the times.”

An Xin uncapped his fountain pen and wrote the sentence in his notebook.

“Rural farmers, dockworkers, craftsmen, merchants of every trade, government employees, and others.”

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An Xin listed Wuren County’s principal occupational groups.

Then, in his notebook, he wrote four surnames: Su, Lu, Qian, and Huang. After thinking for a moment, he drew a circle around Huang.

According to the theory of the great leader, the first thing An Xin needed to consider in Wuren County was who could be counted as a friend and who must be treated as an enemy.

A fence needs three stakes; a hero needs three helpers.

That was true of ordinary people, and it was equally true of officials.

One had to learn to borrow the strength of others—to draw one group to one’s side while striking at another.

As Taozi had explained, the Huang family occupied a position apart from the gentry circles of Wuren County. They usually avoided entanglement with the other clans, yet on matters of real importance, they possessed the power to have the final say.

The reason was that a member of the Huang family served at court as a Gentleman of the Ministry of Justice, a fifth-rank official. Translated into the government system of the world An Xin had come from, he would be something like a powerful director of a ministry bureau, holding considerable authority.

Nor was the family’s business confined to Wuren County. It was said that the silk, porcelain, and other goods of the two prefectures of northern Wu all passed through the Huang family on their way overseas.

Once he took office, he would have to make contact with the Huang family early and win them over early.

He then wrote down “porcelain, weaving, and transport.” These were Wuren County’s principal industries, the pillars of its economy.

After taking office, he would need to pay close attention to these sectors as well—continue expanding and strengthening them, create more employment, ensure that the people had enough to eat and warm clothes to wear, and genuinely improve their sense of well-being and satisfaction with life.

His thoughts turned to the main problems Wuren County currently faced.

“First, people in the government office are secretly colluding with the martial arts school. The school’s influence is immense, and its impact is extremely harmful.”

“Second, there are two major bands of bandits within the county. They severely disrupt trade and the daily lives of the people.”

“Third, the gentry are in league with the government office, the bandits, and the martial arts school, controlling Wuren County’s politics, culture, economy, and every other sphere.”

An Xin had already realized what difficulties he would face first after taking control of the county government.

“I have come to take office alone, but that does not mean I have no advantages.

“My identity as an imperial official is my greatest advantage.

“In name, at least, I am the most powerful man in Wuren County.

“These people of every sort may try to deal with me in three ways: first, by deceiving me from above and below and keeping me in the dark; second, by corrupting me with money and women; third, by threatening me through covert means. But all of these are tricks that must remain hidden. They cannot be brought into the open.”

Those who prepared in advance would succeed; those who failed to prepare would come to ruin.

He had already drawn up a plan for where, and how, to light the first fire of a new official taking office.

Still, he had been in Wuren County for less than two days and had met very few people. A considerable portion of his information had come from prostitutes while he was mingling among the common folk. To gain a comprehensive understanding, he would have to continue investigating and conduct a deeper analysis.

At that point, An Xin set down his pen and closed the notebook.

He pressed the inner corners of his eyes, then pushed open the window. Suddenly, the flowing notes of a zither drifted from the riverbank. He could not recognize the tune, but its melody wound and turned like a sob or a lament, its sorrow filling him with grief.

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“Blue are the heavens, yellow the flowers below; the western wind blows hard, and the northern geese fly south. At dawn, who has stained the frost-bright woods with drunken crimson? None but the tears of those who part...”

The melody entered his heart, and the words sank into his sorrow. An Xin could not help thinking of his former life. Now he was alone, and loneliness had come unbidden. A line of verse flashed through his mind, and he picked up his pen once more. Spreading out a sheet of paper, he dipped the brush in ink and wrote:

“Since ancient days, the tender-hearted have grieved at parting—how much more when autumn is cold and desolate. Where shall I wake from drunkenness tonight? By the willow bank, beneath the morning breeze and fading moon. Years from now, even the finest days and fairest sights will seem empty. And though I possessed a thousand exquisite feelings, with whom could I share them?”

He set down his brush, then closed the window.

Suddenly, someone knocked at the door.

“Sir, there is a Miss Wu outside. She says she is a friend of yours and wishes to see you.”

An Xin opened the door. In the direction indicated by the inn servant, he indeed saw Wu Lijun, dressed in a man’s clothes and wearing a pleated horse-face skirt.

Earlier, Wu Lijun’s face and clothes had been covered in grime. Now that she had washed, she was remarkably beautiful. Her slightly plump, round cheeks gave her a touch of childish charm. Dressed as a man, she carried herself with brisk confidence and possessed a few hints of dashing spirit.

Standing some distance away, she looked a little haggard, with an air of fragile brokenness about her.

Wu Lijun, too, now saw An Xin clearly. His features were sharply defined, his brows and eyes as beautiful as a painting, his teeth white and lips red. Strikingly handsome, he ran toward her and called softly, “Big Brother Zhang!”

“What brings you here?”

After the servant had left, An Xin brought her into the room and poured her a cup of water, still surprised by her arrival.

After all, when he had visited the Wu residence the previous time, Wu Lijun had not come out to see him off, which had lowered his opinion of her somewhat.

But her beautiful appearance allowed this lecher to recover those lost points.

“When I returned home yesterday, Father locked me in my room. He stationed two rough servant women outside the door and forbade me from leaving, so I could not thank you in person for saving my life.

“Fortunately, I found an opportunity today and slipped out in secret.”

Wu Lijun gave an apologetic smile, revealing a pair of small tiger teeth.

“How did you find me?”

An Xin asked curiously.

Wuren County was an upper-grade county with a population of no fewer than one hundred and twenty thousand. Even the county seat contained tens of thousands of people. Finding one particular person was no easy task.

“Big Brother Zhang must have taken lodging somewhere in the county. Most of the inns are concentrated in the western part of the city, and I was lucky. I only had to ask at two before I found you.

“It is fortunate that you had not yet left Wuren County. Otherwise, Lijun would have regretted it and felt guilty for the rest of her life.”

When Wu Lijun finished speaking, she happened to notice the books on the table, along with the half-completed poem.

After reading it, her eyes filled with astonishment.

Remembering the phrase “a sword honed for ten years” that he had written in prison, Wu Lijun felt even more strongly that Big Brother Zhang resembled the dashing, learned martial hero she had admired in the tales she used to read.