Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 241 That’s it?

When the heavy bronze seal of the Yanmen Prefectural Governor's Office was delivered by fast horse to the Jinyang General's Mansion.

Ding Yuan from Lucheng sat listlessly in the shadows by the window, as if all his energy had been drained away, his eyes sunken and his temples white.

He clutched a secret letter from a trusted confidant of Yanmen tightly in his hand. The letter was crumpled beyond recognition, and the few words on it kept tugging at his nerves.

"Ding Tai's plot has failed, and the evidence of his treason is irrefutable. He has surrendered at Yinguan and been taken to Jinyang... The entire territory of Yanmen has changed hands and is now under Zhang Xian's control... Several trusted families, including the Wang and Xie families, are also likely in danger..."

He grabbed the wine jug on the table, tilted his head back and gulped it down. The spicy wine spilled from the corner of his mouth, soaking his clothes, but it couldn't extinguish the regret and raging fire in his heart!

He regretted it! He regretted not seeing through Zhang Xian when he summoned him to the Yin Pavilion. If he had ordered the wolf cavalry to swarm him then, he might have been able to eliminate this traitor on the same day!

Unfortunately, there is no if!
He hated it! He hated Zhang Xian for his ruthless and cruel methods! The three prefectures of Xihe, Wuyuan, and Yunzhong, and the Qiangyin line... were all conquered by him with unstoppable momentum.

Now even the foundation he built in Yanmen over many years has been uprooted! Ding Tai has also been arrested on charges of "colluding with the enemy"! This is to completely sever Ding Yuan's hopes!

"Zhang Xian! Zhang Zixu!" Ding Yuan's eyes were bloodshot and his teeth were grinding together, as if he wanted to chew the name up and swallow it.

"How dare this scoundrel bully me like this! He has ruined my business and disgraced my family! If I don't avenge this, I, Ding Jianyang, swear I will not be a man!"

However, after the rage of impotence comes a deeper sense of powerlessness.

He looked around the empty and desolate study.

In the bronze mirror in the corner, the ice had long since melted away, leaving only murky, stagnant water.

Zhang Xian! This name haunts Bingzhou like a nightmare.

With the unparalleled merit of recovering lost territories and driving out the barbarians, commanding tens of thousands of fierce and powerful troops, and with geniuses like Xun Yu and Guo Jia providing invaluable assistance, his momentum was already established!
A bone-chilling cold rose from Ding Yuan's spine and instantly spread to his limbs and bones.

He slumped down on the soft couch, as if his bones had been removed.

"No... we can't just sit here and wait to die!"

A hint of struggle and resentment flashed in Ding Yuan's eyes.

“Bingzhou…we absolutely cannot just hand it over like this! Zhang Xian, no matter how deep your roots are in Bingzhou, they can't compare to the centuries-old families in Luoyang!”

A name, like the last straw a drowning man grasps, surfaced in his mind: Yuan Wei! A man who had served as a high-ranking official for four generations, the current head of the Yuan family of Runan, with disciples and former officials all over the country, wielding considerable power in the court! He was also the unsung leader of the literati class!

"The only way... is to serve Lord Yuan!" A morbid light ignited in Ding Yuan's eyes, filled with a desperate madness.

He suddenly stood up, staggered to the desk, spread out the finest brocade, and ground ink with trembling hands.

He had to seize this last chance! He had to set aside all dignity and pride and beg for the protection of the Yuan family!
"Please bear witness, Yuan Gong, I, a guilty official from Jianyang, bow my head in tears..."

The pen fell, carrying with it humiliation and obsequiousness.
Yanmen County.

Inside the prefectural governor's mansion, the former extravagant decorations and stale atmosphere have been swept away, replaced by bustling footsteps.

Chen Ji, the military and political commissioner of Yanmen, sat upright behind a simple desk. Accompanying him to Yanmen were more than twenty officials who had been transferred from Jinyang.

The bamboo slips on the desk were piled up like a mountain, containing land registers, household registers, tax accounts from various counties, records of corvée labor, and detailed inventory of warehouses.

They have been personally reviewing and verifying every document here these past few days.

"My lord." A young clerk dressed in a blue official's uniform respectfully presented a document.

"This is the land allocation list and newly compiled household register of Mayi County after re-verification. Last year, Ding Tai forcibly occupied more than 3,700 mu of farmland under the guise of military settlement. All of it has now been cleared out and allocated to local migrants and landless poor households in accordance with the equal distribution method. 1,237 new hidden households have been added and all have been entered into the register and issued household registration cards."

Chen Ji took it, quickly flipped through it, his gaze lingering for a moment on the key figures for acreage and number of households, before he picked up his pen to make annotations.

"All departments of Mayi County are hereby ordered to ensure that land deeds and household registration certificates are distributed to the right people without any withholding or delay. Anyone who obstructs or secretly seizes such property, regardless of who it is, shall be reported to the prefectural government immediately!"

"Yes, sir!" The registrar accepted the order with a stern expression.

Another official stepped forward: "Your Excellency, Wang Tao County reports that the former county magistrate Wang Biao and seven of his accomplices have been convicted of twelve crimes, including embezzling military funds, seizing shops, and raping women. The preliminary trial has been completed in accordance with the criminal law, and the prisoners and their files are en route. Please verify this, Your Excellency."

Chen Ji's eyes flashed: "Since the evidence is conclusive, there's no need for further investigation! According to the law, the principal offender, Wang Biao, shall be executed immediately! Accomplices shall be exiled to Shuofang Shangjun or sentenced to ten years of hard labor, depending on the severity of their crimes! The case file shall be immediately submitted to the Jinyang Judicial Office for record-keeping! This judgment, along with a summary of the evidence, shall be publicly distributed to all villages and hamlets throughout Yanmen! As a warning to others!"

"Yes!"

The clerk sensed the murderous intent in Chen Ji's words, his heart tightened, and he quickly agreed.

Chen Ji stood up and walked to the large map of Yanmen County hanging on the wall.

On the map, the areas that Ding Tai and his cronies had originally marked as clan property, private gardens, and hunting grounds have been circled in red ink, with annotations such as "to be surveyed and distributed" next to them.

He pointed heavily to several places around the Yin Pavilion: "Order all officials! Conscript soldiers and convicts from the prefecture and immediately dredge the old canal of the Sanggan River! Drain water to irrigate the newly reclaimed wasteland in the east and south of the city! The deadline is thirty days! Those who delay will be punished according to military law!"

One government decree after another was issued from the Yanmen Prefecture.

Clearing up farmland, verifying household registrations, punishing corruption, repairing water conservancy, and promoting agriculture and sericulture... What Chen Ji brought was the governance model that had already stood the test of time under Zhang Xian's power.

Show no favoritism, show no fear of the powerful, follow only the law, and act only according to facts.

The once bustling scene of carriages and horses filling the gates of the prefectural governor's mansion, where bribery was rampant, has vanished.

Instead, there were specially set up "petition boxes" and "reception officials" who took turns sitting on duty.

The wronged people, the tenant farmers whose land was seized, and the small merchants who suffered all kinds of exploitation... They were initially filled with doubt and fear, but when they saw that the prefectural government was really dealing with those powerful and evil officials who were once high and mighty, their grievances surged up like wildfire.

"Governor Chen has stood up for the people! The ten acres of irrigated land that the Wang family stole have finally been returned!"

An elderly farmer with white hair kowtowed repeatedly at the entrance of the government office, tears streaming down his face.

"That beast Wang Biao has been beheaded! My poor daughter... can finally rest in peace..."

A woman holding her infant child was sobbing uncontrollably in the street, drawing sighs and lamentations from countless onlookers.

"."

The hearts of the people, like a gentle stream, began to converge and flow towards the Prefect's Mansion and the General's Mansion in Jinyang.

Chen Ji's name, along with his tangible achievements such as clearing fields, punishing evil, and repairing canals, quickly spread among the people of Yinguan.

However, in places where the sun doesn't reach, the shadows still linger.

The powerful clans of Yinguan and even the counties and prefectures of Yanmen were now as if they were being roasted over a fire. The fire of the new official was too great, and they were gritting their teeth in anger!

The atmosphere inside the grand hall of the Wang family mansion, with its carved beams and painted rafters, was oppressive.

The patriarch, Wang Mian, a fat man in his fifties who looked like a wealthy old man, had a livid face and slammed his thick palms hard on the low table, making the cups and saucers clatter.

"This is outrageous! This is outrageous!" Wang Mian's voice was sharp with anger.

"Take a land survey? Who does Chen Ji think he is! My Wang family has been building up our land for a hundred years, with fields stretching as far as the eye can see. That's the foundation built up by generations of ancestors! He can just take a land survey and divide it up as he pleases? Is there no law anymore?!"

Several powerful figures, all with equally grim expressions, sat at the lower end of the table.

Xie Gui, the head of the Xie family, also bristled with anger, saying, "It's not just the land! Now our shops are taxed by 30%! The profits from the salt and iron monopoly are all going to the prefecture! My family's mines in Wangtao have also been forcibly occupied by officials under the pretext of rectification!"

"When Lord Ding was alive, he never treated us so harshly!"

A wealthy man surnamed Zhang beat his chest and stamped his feet in frustration.

"Now look what's happened! Wang Biao kills people without hesitation, including Ding Taishou's relatives by marriage! Chen Ji and Zhang Xian from Jinyang have no respect for us gentry!"
A sinister glint flashed in Wang Mian's eyes as he lowered his voice: "They are digging their own graves! Yanmen is not Zhang Xian's Jinyang! Nor is it clay that Chen Ji can mold as he pleases! Ding Gong informed me in a secret letter that Yuan Gong of Runan has been accepted by the current Minister of Works! We... are not without backers!"

"What does Your Highness mean...?" Everyone looked intently at Wang Mian.

Wang Mian's fat face twitched, revealing a sinister smile.

"Chen Ji wants to investigate land, taxes, and corvée labor? Fine! We'll give him a push! Pass down the word: in all counties and townships, all Wang family members... as well as the tenants, shop assistants, and miners present here... from this day forward, all land rent, interest, and wages will be increased by 30%!"
"Just say it's a new 'bandit suppression levy' and 'people's pacification tax' imposed by the prefectural government! Want to start a fire? Then let's direct the fire at Chen Ji and Zhang Xian! I want to see if their knives are faster, or if the resentment of the hundreds of thousands of people in Yanmen is greater!"

"Brilliant!" Xie Gui clapped his hands and chuckled sinisterly.

"When public resentment boils over, we will jointly petition Luoyang again to impeach Chen Ji for his oppressive rule and cruel treatment of the people! At that time, Lord Yuan will exert his influence in the court, launching a pincer attack from both inside and outside! Let's see how long Zhang Xian can remain arrogant!"

"Yes! Just do it!"
-
The former general's residence in Jinyang.

In the study, a little master now sits beside the desk.

The cradle was covered with a soft brocade quilt, and a tiny figure was fast asleep, wrapped in a plain swaddling cloth. This was Zhang Xian's youngest son.

The little one was sleeping peacefully, breathing evenly.

Zhang Xian had just finished reviewing a detailed report from Chen Ji of Yanmen.

He put down his pen, rubbed his temples, and showed little joy on his face.

Chen Ji was well aware of the swift and decisive actions and initial results achieved in Yanmen.

But another secret report about the countryside of Yanmen, which had just been delivered by a spy, made his eyes turn cold.

"A 30% rent increase? A 'bandit suppression tax'? A 'people's pacification tax'?"

Zhang Xian sneered, tapping the secret report with his fingertips.

"What a clever way to shift the blame! These parasites won't learn their lesson until they're faced with the consequences! It's the same everywhere!"

He got up, walked to the cradle, and leaned down to gaze at his sleeping son.

"Somebody come!"

Xiahou Lan appeared at the door, clasping his hands in a fist salute: "Brother Xian!"

"Summon Zhao Shi, the judicial clerk, to come before me immediately!"

"promise!"

"Xiao Yun".

"General."

The maid, who was always ready to take care of the little one, quickly stepped forward.

Zhang Xian pointed to the cradle and said, "Send it to Madam."

"Yes, General."

Xiao Yun gave a slight bow and then pushed the cradle outside. The cradle was made by Zhang Xian himself and had wheels, making it very convenient to push, although it was a little difficult to cross the threshold.

After seeing his son off, he returned to his seat.

A moment later, a young figure stepped into the study with steady steps.

The newcomer was only twenty-one or twenty-two years old, with a tall and straight figure. He was dressed in a neat black official's uniform, with a leather belt around his waist and a ring-pommel sword hanging from it.

It was Zhao Shi, the judicial clerk of Bingzhou, known as "Iron-faced Zhao the Impartial"!

"Your subordinate Zhao Shi greets Your Lordship!" Zhao Shi clasped his hands in a salute, his voice clear and his back ramrod straight.

Zhang Xian looked at the young man in front of him who had followed him from a small mountain village in Changshan and had grown up in the village, and a hint of approval flashed in his eyes.

Zhao Shi was someone he personally trained from a mountain dweller into the law enforcer he is today.

Back in Yangqu, facing the deeply entrenched power of local tyrants, it was this then-slightly green young man who withstood immense pressure, upheld the law impartially, and brought the most notorious scoundrel of Yangqu to justice, thus establishing the formidable reputation of the Judicial Officer!

"check it out."

Zhang Xian presented him with files detailing the Yanmen clans' plot to raise rents and incite unrest, as well as several rudimentary pieces of evidence of illegal activities gathered by his spies.

Zhao Shi took it with both hands and began to read it quickly and attentively.

He read very quickly, scanning lines of text and cold chains of evidence.

When he saw Wang Mian, Xie Gui, and others secretly spreading the new tax in the countryside, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"My lord." Zhao Shi closed the dossier, raised his head, and spoke with unwavering resolve.

"Wang Mian, Xie Gui, and their ilk have entrenched themselves in Yanmen, wreaking havoc on the region. Their crimes are undeniable! They harbor treacherous intentions, incite public resentment, oppose the General's Office's new policies, and shake the foundations of Bingzhou! Yanmen will not be at peace until these villains are eliminated! I request that Your Majesty order the Ministry of Justice to immediately proceed to Yanmen to thoroughly investigate this case! They must be severely punished according to the law to serve as a warning to others!"

"Haha."

Zhang Xian smiled upon hearing this and nodded slightly.

"That's exactly what I've been waiting for. Judicial Officer Cao is an expert at handling this kind of thing."

Then I'll tell you the main objective directly.

Neither the Wang nor the Xie families should be spared! Their crimes must be verified and the cases made airtight! As for the remaining associates, depending on the circumstances, they may be dealt with either as a deterrent or by detention! Remember, be swift! Be accurate! Be ruthless! And most importantly, be perfectly justified!

Zhao Shi straightened his back and placed his right hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist.

"The clerk's blade will always remain sharp and impartial!"

"it is good!"

Zhang Xian slammed his hand on the table: "Then go to Yanmen immediately! I'll allow you to act first and report later!"

"promise!"
-
a few days later.

Zhao Shi and his party arrived at the Yinguan in Yanmen.

The first thing he did was not to arrest the person immediately, but to sit in the government office and issue several orders.

The eighty judicial officers who accompanied him, along with the one hundred law enforcement guards directly under the judicial officer's command, were familiar with the route.

The people in the judicial department are already very familiar with these matters.

First, the files were retrieved and sealed.

The prefectural government hereby orders all departments to immediately seal all files related to the Wang and Xie families' properties, including but not limited to land, taxes, lawsuits, and criminal cases, and transfer them to the temporary judicial office immediately! Anyone who dares to conceal or damage such files will be treated as an accomplice!
Then apply eyeliner extensively.

They recruited informants on the spot and ordered all the secret agents to be activated, focusing on monitoring the movements of the core members of the Wang and Xie families and their communication lines with the outside world.

Finally, a reward was offered for information leading to the exposure of the perpetrator.

At the four gates of Yinguan and the main streets, notices bearing the seal of the Judicial Office were posted, stating that anyone who reported evidence of Wang Mian, Xie Gui, and their family members committing crimes and oppressing the good would be rewarded with money, silk, fertile land, and government protection if the report was verified.
These three moves caused an uproar throughout the entire Yin Guan!

The officials of the various departments of the prefecture were terrified and hurriedly sorted and moved the mountain of files to the temporary office of the judicial department.

Officials who were usually close to the Wang and Xie families were ashen-faced and lived in constant fear.

Meanwhile, in the Wangfu and Xiefu mansions.

Wang Mian's composure completely crumbled, cold sweat poured down his obese face, and he paced anxiously in the luxurious hall.

"What do we do? What do we do? It's Zhao Tiemian! It's Zhao Tiemian who completely wiped out the Zhang family in Yangqu! He... he kills without blinking an eye!!"

"What's the panic!" Xie Gui's face was pale, but he still tried to hold on.

"We...we have Lord Yuan in Luoyang! How dare Zhao Shi, a mere clerk, touch us?"

"Yuan Gongyuan is far away in Luoyang! Zhao Shi's sword is right outside the door!" someone roared.

"Reward offered for information leading to their arrest! Those peasants... those lowly people... they'll pounce on us like mad dogs!"

As if to confirm his fear, the threshold of the temporary office of the Judicial Commissioner was almost broken down that afternoon!
Ragged farmers, emaciated women, miners with broken legs, peddlers forced to sell their children... Under the promise of rewards for reporting and protection from the government, they spread like wildfire, burning even more fiercely than before!
Cries, accusations, and curses mingled together.

Zhao Shi personally received the visitors in the main hall, ordering the judicial officials to record every clue and every piece of evidence in detail, categorize them, and cross-reference them with the case files transferred by the prefectural government.

In just two days, a mountain of irrefutable evidence, like a cold noose, was firmly placed around the necks of Wang Mian and Xie Gui!

In the office of the Judicial Bureau, Zhao Shi twisted his slightly stiff neck, making a cracking sound.

Looking at the case files on the table, which were enough to warrant prosecution and confiscation of property, a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth. He uttered the sentence that his brother Xian used to say most often after easily defeating them in a martial arts demonstration.

"That's it?"

(End of this chapter)