65. Keep a Close Eye on the Loyal Subject and the Imperial Heir

Zhao Rujian couldn't bring himself to speak up. Even if the imperial court were to make "forced purchases" at half-price, he wouldn't have bothered summoning the gentry of the entire prefecture for a consultation. Leveraging the official standing of the government to buy goods at half-price was no difficult task.

However, the intention of the imperial court was for the local government to raise the funds independently, which, plainly speaking, meant paying nothing at all.

Buying anything without paying was out of the question—unless they went out on the streets to loot. Looting small shops and humble households was one thing, but those large establishments, spanning five or seven bays wide, whether they sold silks, crude medicines, wool yarns, or southern goods—which of them lacked powerful backers?

Loot a large store today, and tomorrow someone in the imperial court would directly submit an impeachment memorial.

"In that case, are we talking about voluntary donations?" If Zhang Xun had worn a pleasant expression at this moment, it would truly have been a rarity.

"The military situation is as urgent as a blazing fire, and state affairs are fraught with peril. I can only hope that you gentlemen will spare no effort in lending your assistance." Zhao Rujian actually left his seat, walked to the middle of the flower-patted hall, and bowed with cupped hands toward the gentry on both sides, pleading repeatedly.

Zhang Xun turned his head away, deliberately leaving Zhao Rujian hanging for a full twenty seconds. It wasn't that he wanted to play the villain; as the titular representative of the local gentry, Zhang Xun simply could not afford to easily bow his head to Zhao Rujian, an itinerant official representing the imperial court.

How could someone hope to be the leader of the local gentry if he didn't spearhead the resistance against the imperial court's additional taxes?

There was no need for veiled hints and riddles anymore; everything was out in the open. He wasn't going to act like Shen Yishi, telling a group of people, "So-and-so gets two catties of pre-Qingming tea this year, while someone else, feeling wronged, gets only one catty of pre-Qingming tea." That was impossible. The imperial court's massive army was about to set out and would arrive in Changzhou within days to demand military supplies.

"What is the total sum?" Zhang Xun finally spoke, though he didn't ask Zhao Rujian, instead exchanging glances with the gentry on either side.

Ah, speaking of the gentry, Yao Yin, who had served as an official in Fujian, was also present. His family was a lineage of chancellors and imperial scholars; his father, Yao Xide, had been enfeoffed as Grand Tutor and Duke of Tongchuan Commandery, a status and reputation no lower than that of Zhang Xun's father, Zhang Xuexi. In fact, it was slightly higher, because Yao Xide served as Co-Administrator of the Bureau of Military Affairs, while Zhang Xuexi served as Vice-Signer of the same bureau.

When the two of them had audience summons from Zhao Qi, Yao Xide stood thirty centimeters closer to Zhao Qi than Zhang Xuexi did.

Yao Yin was currently observing mourning at home, having just finished his mother's funeral rites. Now that his mother had been buried, although he was still in the period of mourning, there were no major matters remaining, so he had been invited along.

Yao Yin nodded slightly. He was approaching forty, but he still possessed the air of a handsome, mature gentleman. His beard was of moderate length and impeccably groomed, and at that moment, he was gently stroking it. His brows were slightly unfurled, giving him a refined and scholarly aura.

As he nodded, Zhang Xun nodded as well, and Chen Zhao, seated slightly behind and to the side, also nodded.

Chen Zhao had formerly served in the headquarters staff of Huainan. After Li Tingzhi was demoted, he lived in retirement at home and had not been re-appointed. In terms of official rank, he was merely a county magistrate, but he was a legitimate imperial scholar. Throughout the Song Dynasty, imperial scholars were exceedingly precious, fine men whose names were proclaimed outside the East Flower Gate. Whenever the gentry faced matters of importance, they invariably put forward an imperial scholar to lead the deliberations.

"The total comes to forty-four thousand strings of cash and odd change." Seeing that the leading figures among the local gentry had all nodded, Zhao Rujian finally let out a smile.

"Thirteen thousand strings then." Zhang Xun beckoned to Chujiu, who was standing by the door, signaling him to go home and fetch thirteen thousand strings of cash.

"Ten thousand." Yao Yin's share was ten thousand; since Zhang Xun had put up money, the rest of them would follow suit and contribute accordingly.

Zhang Xun alone bore about 30% of the apportioned sum, and the remainder had to be shouldered by the others. In terms of family wealth, the Yao family was slightly behind, so contributing ten thousand was quite sufficient.

"Seven thousand." Chen Zhao was a tier lower; he had yet to serve as a circuit surveillance official or prefect, and his official purse was not particularly abundant.

"By the way, my cousin's family has another four thousand." Li Rang had gone to Hangzhou to participate in the Ministry of Rites provincial examinations, and since his younger brother was still young, Zhang Xun had to help pitch in on their behalf.

Before long, following the sequence from ten thousands down to thousands, the negotiations were essentially concluded. Pooling their resources together, they would certainly surpass forty-four thousand strings. This time, Zhao Rujian bowed deeply, hurriedly announcing his desire to host a banquet for the gentry.

Since this was a public matter of the township, nobody was averse to it. Besides, after forking over more than forty thousand strings of cash, what did it matter to enjoy a banquet hosted by Zhao Rujian?

At the banquet, Yao Yin first expressed his gratitude to Zhang Xun and Lady Zhang. Earlier, when his mother passed away, Lady Zhang had specially sent people to deliver condolences in the form of money and gifts. Although he had already thanked them at the time, seeing them now, he felt obliged to express his thanks once more.

Afterward, he chatted idly with Zhang Xun. He recalled that when he was in his teens or twenties and still living in the commandery, Zhang Xun had been an utterly unruly scoundrel in his youth, completely unlike Zhang Cheng, who had been a model youth diligently pursuing his studies.

Later, while serving at his post, he had heard traveling merchants say that there was an incarnation of the Second Lord Deity in Piling Commandery—unmatched in valor and peerless under heaven. He had never imagined that such a figure existed in Changzhou, and when people told him it was the Second Young Master Zhang, he found it utterly hard to believe.

It was only when he returned home to observe mourning and listened to the accounts of his family members that he realized the saying "stray from a scholar for three days and one must look at him with new eyes" was entirely true. His nephew, Yao Yihan, told him that the vicious flood dragon Zhang Xun had beaten to death was twenty-five feet long; had Yao Yin returned a little earlier, he could have seen the vicious flood dragon publicly displayed at the market entrance.

It was a pity that after hanging for a year, the vicious flood dragon had completely dried out, and the townsfolk had dragged it outside the city to dig a pit and bury it.

The elders all said that in their eighty years of life, they had never witnessed such a massive vicious flood dragon, nor had they ever imagined that Zhang Xun could enter the water, battle the vicious flood dragon for a day and a night, and capture it alive.

The Zhang clan of Jinling truly was the foremost noble family of the Three Wus; there were no empty reputations among them.

Zhang Xun did not share all those elaborate thoughts; he simply conversed normally in response to Yao Yin. Now that this elder brother had returned to Changzhou, he was precisely the kind of loyal and righteous man who would rather burn himself to death than ever surrender. Zhang Xun feared that if he took the lead in surrendering, this man would ride over by night to hack people to pieces.

Was there any way to secure an imperial decree compelling him to stay on duty and dispatch him to reinforce Hunan?

He couldn't simply wait until they surrendered in a couple of months and then have all these men who refused to surrender rounded up and their entire families slaughtered. Surrendering alone would leave a notorious reputation that stank for ten thousand years; if he were to slaughter the entire families of loyal subjects on top of that, he would probably end up with an iron kneeling statue of himself in the Changzhou Shrine of Loyalty and Righteousness.

Perhaps, when necessary, he would have to resort to methods like drawing up a roster of names and rounding up all those who were unlikely to surrender under the pretext of recruiting volunteer soldiers to resist the Yuan. Once Zhang Xun took the lead in surrendering, he would first detain them for ten days or half a month.

No, they should be locked up for two or three months. In about two or three months, the imperial court's edict ordering all incumbent prefectural and commandery officials to surrender would be officially promulgated across the realm.

Once they all laid eyes on the imperial court's surrender decree, they would at least have a face-saving way down.

The Great Song had already perished, and the Emperor himself had surrendered—what on earth were they still resisting for? Under what pretext could they possibly continue to resistance?

Wait a minute, Zhao Rujian, the Prefect of Changzhou, was an eighth-generation descendant of Emperor Taizong. What if they chose to enthrall and enthrone Zhao Rujian? That surname Zhao of his was solidly written in the imperial family's genealogy. Even though he was the most distant of distant imperial clansmen, it wasn't entirely impossible to elevate him, honor him as a king, bestow upon him the title of Grand Marshal, and call upon the Three Wus to take up arms in rebellion against the Yuan.

Hmm...

In the future, he would have to assign someone to keep a close eye on Zhao Rujian. Routine official business could proceed unhindered, but the moment there were signs of him colluding with the Changzhou gentry, he had to be notified immediately so that countermeasures could be put in place.