Chapter 190: Instigation

Chapter 190: Instigation

After that, Le Wuya planned to wash his hands of the matter.

When it came to business, Qi Jie had a better handle on it.

This time, Qi Hongzhuang had simply lacked the intel, momentarily unsure of what strategy to adopt.

Facing an opponent's underhanded schemes, if she couldn't even handle whatever came her way, she couldn't even make it out of Tonglu—how could she ever go far?

After finishing the hotpot, Le Wuya returned to the government office.

Under Mu Jiazhi's overt reorganization and Zong Yao's covert cleansing, the Tongzhou government office had become real quiet and orderly.

With the officials each tending to their own duties, he, as the Prefect, found himself with a whole lot of free time.

Actually, things ought to have been this way from the start.

Generally speaking, once an official reached the rank of prefect, there was no need to micromanage everything anymore.

A respectable one would hold court at the prefectural office, not stirring up trouble or making waves, sitting up high like a household god, taking gifts from officials and big shots during holidays.

An unrespectable one would, like Le Wuya in previous days, buzz around like a busybody, networking with friends, forging connections with officials and merchants, and devoting himself to managing relationships for a promotion.

Le Wuya wandered over to Zong Yao's spot and found him looking all gloomy while feeding his pigeons.

He sauntered up, grabbed a handful of pigeon feed, and rubbed it between his fingers, trying to make small talk: "Hey, Wenzhi, how do you mix this feed? Beans, corn, sesame, and this..."

Zong Yao was used to working alone and didn't know how to interact with another Changmen Guard.

Seeing him approach voluntarily, out of politeness, Zong Yao couldn't just ignore him. He turned his head, and just as he was about to speak, his gaze met Le Wuya's face—he lost his cool for a second, and almost chucked the whole handful of feed right in Le Wuya's face.

Seeing that face, he still couldn't keep his heart from racing.

Le Wuya, unaware that he'd nearly been attacked, picked through the feed with his thumb: "What's the red stuff?"

Zong Yao forced himself to steady his nerves: "Red clay, with salt mixed in."

"Nice." Le Wuya smiled. "I can tell you're really into raising pigeons."

He counted: "Six of them. Let two out?"

"They're all here," Zong Yao said. "Two flew off and got lost since they didn't know the area."

Le Wuya crossed his arms: "Expensive?"

Zong Yao answered, all reserved-like: "Good pigeons are expensive."

Le Wuya pinched up another bit of feed: "Later, put the word out that you're into pigeons."

Zong Yao turned his head in surprise, not quite understanding: "...What?"

Le Wuya cupped the feed in his palm and made coaxing sounds, trying to lure a black pigeon in the corner of the cage over: "Don't get it? It's called taking bribes."

Zong Yao's face went red, and his brows scrunched up: "You..."

Le Wuya coaxed the little pigeon the same way he'd coax Er Ya: "Why you giving me the stink eye? If you ask me, this hobby of yours is pretty decent—at least it doesn't bleed the common folk dry. It's not like common folks get to raise good pigeons anyway."

With that, he gave Zong Yao a goofy, carefree grin.

Zong Yao got the feeling there was more to it: "Sir, what do you mean?"

"Just being nice." Le Wuya countered, "You've already ticked some people off, didn't you know?"

Zong Yao raised an eyebrow.

"Zhang Baizhou, Sun Long, Li Shaowei... these people—either they got shipped off to escort prisoners, or they got kicked out on some excuse." Le Wuya smiled, and that smile wasn't friendly—it was straight-up sly. "...Guess why I've kept all these snitches in the yamen? Because snitches are just snitches. The ones pulling their strings, I'd rather not piss off for now."

Zong Yao: "..."

His pale face turned cold and stern: "So you watched me make enemies and only now say something. Guess you've got your own angle, huh?"

Le Wuya shrugged: "How's that my fault? I figured you, Wenzhi, already knew the stakes. But with those people around, passing info would be a real pain in the ass. This is your first time out on a job, and you're all about repaying the emperor's favor—being careful makes sense. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Zong Yao hadn't expected to receive words of comfort. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he just shut up and waited to see how Le Wuya would talk his way around it.

Le Wuya poured the feed back from his palm and carefully picked out whole corn kernels, still dead set on luring that jumpy little black pigeon over: "I've been in Tongzhou for half a year now. I took down one Wei Yixian—that was already a big move. It's not a good time to make another move. This year is a bountiful harvest, and bountiful years are rare. The bigwigs up top are always fighting, but in the end, it's the common folks who suffer. Let's get through this year first, then we'll talk."

"After the new year, I've got stuff to do. I'm afraid we won't have many quiet days from here on out. Assistant Prefect Mu—he's a stubborn old mule, set in his ways from day one. Even if he wanted to play along with them, he couldn't fake it. So, you do it. You're the best man for the job."

He kept that same laid-back, slacker attitude the whole time: "Between the Prefect, the Vice-Prefect, and the Assistant Prefect, at least one of us has to be someone the gentry see as 'one of their own,' right?"

Zong Yao: "You..."

"Now, Assistant Prefect Zong has already made an impression on the powerful clans of Tongzhou by clearing out those snitches from the yamen. To get things done, you either use courtesy before force, or force before courtesy. If you have no backup plan and just kicked their snitches out of the yamen, then you've definitely offended them. But if you show that you want something from them, they'll feel at ease—and that's the perfect time for you to win people over."

Le Wuya fixed his gaze on Zong Yao: "Spread the word. Tell them you like pigeons. Before long, someone will send you good ones. And with good pigeons, wouldn't passing info be all the easier?"

Zong Yao had previously been a compiler at the Hanlin Academy—a position with no graft to be had. He'd devoted himself solely to spying on others, and no one paid him any mind. He'd rarely been involved in official dealings, bribery, or solicitation.

Hearing Le Wuya's suggestion, his mind flooded with images of corrupt officials throughout history, and even his elder brother's face flashed before his eyes.

A wave of genuine revulsion rose in him.

He said coldly, "Sir, how am I supposed to spread this word?"

"Isn't it simple?" Le Wuya said. "Just tell those Postmasters you're short on pigeons. Before long, local gentry will reach out to you on their own."

This time, Zong Yao caught the hidden meaning.

His face went pale: "Sir, these postmasters have been a branch of the Changmen Guard since they took office—"

"You think you're still in the capital?" Le Wuya, still failing to lure the little black pigeon, sounded somewhat frustrated. "You're in Tongzhou now! Do you know what 'the sky is high and the emperor is far away' means? Do you know what 'the general in the field is not bound by the sovereign's orders' means?"

Zong Yao raised his voice: "Sir, mind your words!"

Le Wuya knew exactly why he was reacting this way.

The Old Emperor had summoned Zong Yao to comfort him at his most helpless moment, then entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of the Changmen Guard. Naturally, he felt gratitude for the Old Emperor's patronage.

He'd developed both affection and an obsession, and couldn't bear to hear a single word against the Old Geezer.

Le Wuya: "That's just how it is. Working for the court, these people can take a cut. Working for the local gentry, the price is negotiated separately. Second Young Master Zong, you've been in the Changmen Guard for years—surely you can do the math on this ledger of human hearts?"

Zong Yao understood his meaning perfectly well.

But those four words—"Second Young Master Zong"—still struck him right in the gut.

He didn't dare think about the first half of his life. He shot back coldly, "Are you trying to get me to screw up here in Tongzhou, to get down in the dirt with those lowlifes, so you've got something on me?"

Le Wuya let out a scornful laugh, turned around, and cursed openly: "What's with this high-and-mighty scholar act with me? Do you even have that in you? If you were truly a man of restraint, why would you have become a Changmen Guard?"

These words stripped Zong Yao bare, exposing him completely.

Zong Yao froze, his face turning red: "You... you..."

Le Wuya continued without pause: "How much evil have your uncle and brother done behind the scenes—buying and selling official posts, bleeding the people dry—just to raise a fine gentleman like you, Zong Wenzhi? And here you are, pretending to be pure and unsullied?"

Zong Yao had been peacefully feeding pigeons, only to be subjected to a scathing rebuke he couldn't refute. He was choked with indignation, and he couldn't even speak.

Le Wuya: "Why do you think the Emperor sent me to Tongzhou? It's to sweep out the Japanese pirates, to let imperial grace reach all corners, and to let the people live in peace! Such is His Majesty's will. Instead of thinking of sharing the Emperor's burdens, your mind is only on leverage and handles. Did you read those sage books for nothing? Have you forgotten the principle that 'the people are the foundation of the state, and when the foundation is firm, the state is at peace'? I'm curious—which blind examiner read your essays and admitted you as a jinshi?"

Le Wuya knew that with a man so fixated on his own concerns, reasoning about anything else would fall on deaf ears. Better to invoke the Emperor he worshipped so devoutly.

After giving Zong Yao a thorough tongue-lashing until he was sweating, Le Wuya let out a long breath and softened his tone: "The Emperor sent you to Tongzhou, of course, to keep an eye on me. But do you know the deeper purpose?"

Since his uncle and brother's fall from grace, no one had so bluntly ripped open Zong Yao's wounds in front of him.

Zong Yao was a decent man. When his close relatives committed such a grave crime, he wasn't implicated and continued to serve as an official. Others, seeing this, naturally wouldn't make things hard for him—after all, it's wise to leave room for future dealings.

Now, caught off guard as Le Wuya ripped away his mask of decency, his mind was filled only with the faces of his guilty uncle, brother, and Le Wuya, overlapping and cycling before his eyes. His ears were ringing. Only when Le Wuya asked did he slowly come back to his senses: "My lord...?"

"Watching your colleagues in the Hanlin Academy, and still watching them here in Tongzhou—what's the point? Is the Emperor such a shallow man? Does he merely want to use you as a handy tool?"

Le Wuya stared at him, eyes bright, pupils a deep purple in the sunlight: "The Emperor wants to use Tongzhou as a whetstone to sharpen you. Sending you out to serve as an official means he doesn't want you trapped in that tiny corner any longer! I know you don't care about 'boundless prospects,' but since the Emperor trusts and values you so much, would you disappoint his expectations again?"

His gaze was intense, his words coaxing: "Assistant Prefect Zong, you can first report this matter to the Emperor, saying the pigeons are insufficient and you need to procure them from the lower-ranked Changmen Guards. His Majesty will get your meaning. In the future, whatever gifts anyone offers you, whatever bribes they slip you, record them faithfully. When the opportunity arises, report them one by one. Then the Emperor will know your unwavering loyalty and sincere devotion. For the sake of eliminating pirates in Tongzhou, what's a temporary stain on your reputation?"

This struck Zong Yao as strangely familiar.

It was like someone who carefully recorded every crime and confession, only to spill them all on his deathbed...

But Le Wuya's performance today had already left him dazzled and his thoughts in disarray.

He didn't think it over and replied numbly: "This subordinate... will follow your lordship's advice."

Le Wuya, seeing he could no longer coax the black pigeon out of hiding, sighed in regret.

Luckily, his coaxing of people had been quite successful, so the trip wasn't a total loss.

He reluctantly set down the pigeon feed and clapped his hands to brush the chaff off his palms, then casually asked: "By the way, what's the going rate for an acre of land these days?"

Zong Yao was still mulling over Le Wuya's words, finding them more and more reasonable. He mustered the energy to answer: "This year's a good harvest. A good acre of land would cost at least ten taels... between ten and fifteen. Poorer land would go for six or seven."

Le Wuya nodded: "Oh."

Zong Yao's mind slowly started working: "My lord, this big plan you mentioned... what is it?"

Le Wuya summed it up in a word: "Making money."

Zong Yao glanced at him, thinking to himself, so that's why you went to eat hot pot with County Princess Qi?

He lowered his eyes, trying not to comment on his private meeting with a widow: "You mentioned last time that commercial taxes would drop next year. Probably a lot of people will go into trade. Are you planning to make money off the merchants?"

Le Wuya smiled: "Whoever's got money, I'll make it mine!"