The Most Powerful Young Master of the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 24: The Situation Takes a Sudden Turn for the Worse

Come to think of it, Old Chen was a man of great fortune and resilience—after all, he managed to escape that night without being mauled to death by wild wolves? He did survive, but his ear was left behind at Lanruo Temple to be eaten by a centipede, earning him the nickname “One-Ear.” Moreover, Old Chen was a man with a keen sense of foreboding; he didn’t dare report to the authorities that Bai Yutang had cut off one of his ears. When someone is ruthless enough, they have no enemies. If Chen Jiaohu had reported the incident, Sima Shengren would certainly have opened a case and issued a nationwide warrant for her arrest—yet Bai Yutang’s crime wasn’t punishable by death. She hated nothing more than those who broke their word. At the time, that fierce woman had asked Old Chen, “Do you feel wronged? Do you accept this?” Old Chen chose to remain silent, which meant he accepted Bai Yutang’s “verdict.” If he were to stab her in the back afterward, in Bai Yutang’s eyes, that would be a betrayal. That feisty girl was that ruthless even toward herself. Old Chen would never dare to test the patience of a “female bachelor” like Bai Yutang. Aside from worrying about the female tyrant, Old Chen was also deeply concerned about Wang Bang’s retaliation—because he’d tried to pry into the secret formula, then stood by and did nothing when danger struck, and finally ran away after the giant centipede appeared. Fortunately, after living in constant fear for a while, Wang Bang didn’t come looking for trouble. He was merely visited by a gang of low-level thugs who demanded protection money. One of them, a thug named Ma Jinsi, even claimed, “We work for Wang Bang—pay the protection money, and you’ll be under the Wang family’s protection.” Old Chen obediently paid up. Old Chen didn’t pay the protection money to get protection; he did it to make Wang Bang see reason. As it turned out, hehe, Old Chen got a pleasant surprise. Most notably, once he hung the token representing Wang Bang—that small abacus with three rows of beads—above the shop entrance, the constables who used to come by every day for their “patrols” never came back to collect money again… The situation took a sudden turn for the worse, and the politics of the Song Dynasty abruptly entered a turbulent period. Beggars occupied many derelict properties owned by the government. Why not take what belongs to the government? It didn’t incur the people’s hatred, and since Sima Guang sympathized with them, he tacitly approved the beggars’ actions. Under the rule of corrupt officials, the government wouldn’t have so many idle assets—they’d already been sold off. These assets typically came from the confiscated estates of convicted criminals. The standard practice was to set a low price at auction so that an agent could buy them up; there were far too many who did this. This is the origin of the sayings “a county magistrate who ruins a family” and “a prefect who brings ruin to his entire clan”—all caused by real estate. However, Sima Guang was an honest official. To avoid criticism, he simply refused to sell these properties; for two consecutive years, when updating Shuzhou’s “balance sheet,” these assets were listed on it. Consequently, Zhang Fangping, the Minister of Finance and head of the Three Departments, came to hate Sima Guang the most. He issued several official letters furiously berating Sima: “Have you got your head stuck in a door? With the situation in Guangnan so critical and the imperial court in urgent need of money and grain, why are you holding onto so many assets without putting them to use?” But Sima Guang replied to Zhang Fangping with utter nonchalance: “Why don’t you just come to Shuzhou yourself? As long as I’m in charge here, I won’t sell them.” At the same time, Sima Guang also wrote to Chancellor Pang Ji to slander Zhang Fangping, and so a full-blown feud erupted between them. With the situation in Guangnan looking dire and Di Qing stepping up to lead the troops in this time of crisis, Zhang Fangping and Pang Ji were now at each other’s throats in the imperial court as well. This was inevitable, as Sima Guang was the protégé whom Chancellor Pang Ji cherished most. To fund Di Qing’s decisive battle, Wang Anshi had seized all the revenue from official farmlands across Huaixi. Consequently, Wang had long been at odds with Sima Guang and confronted him: “Why not sell those derelict estates and assets that the government has no use for? What’s the point of keeping them? They’ve fallen into disrepair over the years and are losing value by the day. Do you really want to let them become like that Lanruo Temple?” Sima Guang’s reply to Wang Anshi was: “I am in charge of Shuzhou; how I manage it is none of your business.” Thus, the political conflict between the “Great Demon King” and Sima Shengren reached a fever pitch over this issue. It was at this very moment that Ma Jinsi stepped in on behalf of the Egg Gang and clashed with members of the Beggars’ Guild’s branch. The cause was “beggar’s chicken.” Beggars in the Great Song Dynasty were known for stealing chickens, and several had been stolen from Old Chen’s establishment. In the past, officials would never investigate such matters; one had to resolve them on one’s own. However, as long as the Beggars’ Guild didn’t cross a certain threshold, the Egg Gang wouldn’t go to war over just a few chickens. So it was essentially a form of protection money paid to the Beggars’ Guild. This time, however, the Beggars’ Guild wasn’t so lucky. Ma Jinsi, eager to draw his knife and assert his authority, saw the group of beggars as a challenge to the authority of the “young masters.” In truth, the people who knew the ins and outs of the streets best were thugs like Ma Jinsi. They were well-versed in the shady dealings of nearly every gang—and the Beggars’ Guild was no exception. Stealing chickens isn’t a particularly serious crime, but Ma Jinsi knew that the Beggars’ Guild’s most heinous practice was kidnapping children from poor families in other regions, maiming them, and dumping them in the marketplace to beg—that was the darkest side of the Beggars’ Guild. Old Master Sima was well-versed in the Four Books and Five Classics, yet he knew next to nothing about these matters. In Sima’s eyes, every time he went on patrol, he saw many pitiful, disabled little beggars, so he felt great sympathy for them. The reason Ma Jinsi and his men attacked the Beggars’ Guild’s branch this time wasn’t because they’d stolen a chicken. Rather, Ma Jinsi knew they’d just kidnapped a child from another region—one they hadn’t yet had time to maim, and who could still speak. So Ma Jinsi rounded up two hundred thugs and stormed the place. Eventually, someone reported seeing a brawl while passing by, noting that it might escalate into a violent clash. The Prefect, Sima Guang, was furious and ordered Chief Constable Huang to lead a raid on the Beggars’ Guild branch. In the end, they were all captured. The child—who had not yet been maimed or brainwashed—said with tears in his eyes that he missed home and had been kidnapped. This caused an uproar. Sima Guang felt the deepest sympathy for the child. The Beggars’ Guild’s two Seventh-Bag Elders have now been thrown into prison. Sima Guang dispatched Chief Constable Huang personally to travel to Guangzhou to cross-reference information on missing children, in hopes of solving the case. Once the allegations are substantiated, those elders of the Beggars’ Guild will face the death penalty, while the other key members will undoubtedly be exiled to serve under Di Qing, who will take them to the front lines to block Nong Zhigao’s arrows. This is standard procedure.