Qiang Jin Jiu (Author : Tang Jiuqing 唐酒卿)

Chapter 148 : Victory & Defeat

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At the third quarter of the hour of yin, Qiao Tianya lifted the curtain open.

Yao Wenyu was talking in his sleep. The pain in his legs had made him sweat even in his sleep. The bedding was not that thickly padded, and as it was not yet the rainy season in Cizhou, the windows were open, with the bamboo blinds swaying in the wind. Yao Wenyu lay in the embrace of the wind, as if pillowing upon the rain of spring.

Several months ago, the storm of the Imperial College struck the imperial court officials of humble origins right in the face. Kong Qiu and Cen Yu were the first to bear the brunt of it. Even Yao Wenyu was not spared either. After the storm blew over, Yao Wenyu received shelter and protection from Kong Qiu and hardly appeared publicly in Qudu; instead, he accompanied Hai Liangyi on Mount Bodhi every day, until the day his horse carriage was ambushed.

That day, Yao Wenyu met Xue Xiuzhuo.

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Xue Xiuzhuo and Yao Wenyu were fellow students. Long before Hai Liangyi, they had both studied alongside one another in Mister Changzong’s school. Hai Liangyi had been partial to Yao Wenyu initially because of Old Master Yao. At that time, Xue Xiuzhuo had already sent three visiting cards to Hai Liangyi in the hope of being accepted as the latter’s student, but all his attempts were rebuffed by Hai Liangyi.

Yao Wenyu often heard Xi Hongxuan talk about Xue Xiuzhuo, because Xue Xiuzhuo lived in straitened circumstances during his early years in the Xue’s Residence. After the death of his father, the respective cliques within the Xue clan fought tooth and nail with one another over their inheritance of fields and mansions, stirring up such a ruckus that everyone in Qudu came to know about it, and it was for this that the noble clans held them in contempt. The lawful son, Xue Xiuyi, was a pretentious man feigning to be a man of letters; he knew nothing about antiques, yet he was constantly hoodwinked into spending tremendous amounts of silver for them all day long. In just a few years, the Xue clan’s wealth had been squandered away clean. The collateral branches of the Xue clan gradually drifted away from the main branch, hardly bothering to continue sponging off them. Xue Xiuyi spent all day fooling around. He wanted to join the Hanlin Academy, so he had a great number of gifts sent to Hua Siqian, who was then concurrently holding the posts of Hanlin Chancellor and Grand Secretariat’s Grand Secretary; it was all a desperate attempt at sucking up that only resulted in him getting snubbed. Even Marquis of Helian and the Fei clan viewed him with disdain.

Everyone had thought that it was the end of the Xue clan, yet it was at this moment that Xue Xiuzhuo made his breakthrough. His initiation into the Hanlin Academy was legitimate, done through proper channels by passing the examinations. Hai Liangyi was the one who critically reviewed the works back then, and Xue Xiuzhuo’s essays on contemporary politics were outstanding. It was not by chance that his name appeared on the list of those who passed. Yao Wenyu had read all of Xue Xiuzhuo’s essays on contemporary politics. The Xue Xiuzhuo who had been freshly minted into the Hanlin Academy was brimming with drive and energy. One could even see Qi Huilian’s shadow in him. He repeatedly submitted memorials to the emperor to speak on the re-surveyance of fields in the local areas, which was what Qi Huilian had left unfinished back then. Take the eight cities of Qudu as an example: the noble clans gobbled up the commoners’ farms and fields without reporting it to the authorities, thereby canceling out the land tax of ten thousand hectares of fields. This was something that could not be discerned from audits when the Ministry of Revenue was under the control of Wei Huaigu and the rest.

However, Xue Xiuzhuo did not meet someone like the crown prince of the eastern palace who could protect him. His memorials offended not only Hua Siqian, but also the various imperial court officials from the noble clans of that time. He even offended Pan Rugui. All these people were later inextricably tied to the case of the Zhongbo troops’ defeat. They had long formed an alliance between themselves during the end of the reign of Yongyi. Even the seemingly marginalized Marquis Helian and the Fei clan had made moves to encroach on the commoners’ fields in Dancheng. Xue Xiuzhuo was like a baby rabbit caught in a siege, stirring up a storm on the imperial court. The denunciation came hard and fast. Hua Siqian used Xue Xiuzhuo as an excuse to strike against Hai Liangyi – who had promoted Xue Xiuzhuo – as well as the officials from humble backgrounds that Hai Liangyi represented.