Wang Dashi looked at him with a strange expression and said lightly, "If soft approaches fail to bring the eunuch around, it’s time to resort to forceful measures..."
Wei Heng suddenly furrowed his brows and then chuckled, "Oh? Then I would indeed like to see what kind of forceful methods you’re talking about!"
Wang Dashi greeted him with a smile, then quite unexpectedly said, "Could it be that you’ve forgotten? Even someone as formidable as Lu Ting was not spared from being schemed against... How do you compare to Lu Ting?"
Wei Heng gave him a glance and his smile turned cold, "Don’t try to scare me with empty threats. I know exactly what kind of person Yang Erlang is—better than you do. A bunch of desperate curs still revealing their tails—do you think they are fit to be mentioned in the same breath as him? Since I dared to come here, fear wasn’t part of the equation!"
"Adversity reveals true heroes indeed!"
Wang Dashi bowed with his hands clasped and for the first time, his face showed a neutral smile devoid of any emotion, "If you aren’t afraid of open attacks and hidden threats, I do have a plan that might just catch the tails of those scoundrels!"
Wei Heng waved his hand dismissively, "Speak your mind!"
Standing up, Wang Dashi went back to the desk where he had been working and took a ledger from the desk’s surface, handing it over to Wei Heng with both hands, "Please have a look, Wei!"
Wei Heng, not understanding, briefly flipped through the ledger filled with dense listings of names and places, "These people are..."
Wang Dashi said, "These are the poor people in Hangzhou Prefecture... those who can’t afford to pay their taxes—just in Hangzhou Prefecture!"
Wei Heng closed the ledger, looking up at him, "What are you intending to do?"
Wang Dashi replied, "Creating something out of nothing—to trap the enemy by pretending to be one!"
Wei Heng inquired, "What do you mean?"
After a brief pause, Wang Dashi answered, "Not to deceive you, Wei, but when I was at Yuelai Inn to request a plaque bearing ’Fair and Just’, Lord Yang especially instructed me to pay close attention to the methods of tax collection. He said that under no circumstances should there be any more incidents where the taxes ’devour’ the people. I readily agreed, full of confidence on my journey down to Jiangnan, believing that as long as I handled affairs impartially, I would not only stay true to my conscience but also live up to the trust Lord Yang had placed in me!"
"Little did I expect that upon arriving in Jiangzhe and actually getting down to work, I realized just how tough the common folk’s life really is—barely scraping by. Though the new policies are well-intended, the burden remains immense on them... If we were to enforce tax collection according to this ledger in your hands, half the population would die, and the other half would end up selling themselves into servitude."
As he said this, Wei Heng suddenly felt the seemingly lightweight ledger in his hand as if it weighed a ton!
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To say he felt completely empathetic might be an overstatement... but he himself had once been sold into servitude.
Watching the changes in his expression, Wang Dashi continued, "I had been troubled about how to deal with these poor people. To collect taxes would mean driving them to ruin, selling their sons and daughters. Yet, to not collect would fear opportunists exploiting the situation, threatening the tax reform efforts..."
"Your arrival is most timely. We could use these poor people as bait, announcing Lord Yang’s sympathy for the populace’s plight and his petition to the Emperor to waive their taxes for this year..."
"In this way..."
"The Emperor and Lord Yang would gain renown, these poor people would benefit, the tax reform would have a positive start, and all without costing the treasury a single coin—it would be killing four birds with one stone!"
"Once this news gets out, no matter if that group of schemers are targeting the Prime Minister, Lord Yang, the new policies, or the court itself..."
"They would never sit back and watch us succeed in this matter!"
"Such targeted and broad tax exemptions give our opponents room to plot from the shadows without them confronting us head-on!"
"As soon as they make a move, we’ll have the chance to capture their foxtails..."
Wei Heng stroked his short beard, listening intently. After a while, it dawned on him that this operation sounded eerily familiar. On a closer recollection... eh, isn’t this exactly what Yang Erlang did in Hangzhou back in the day?
He couldn’t help but snort in amusement, "Your plan doesn’t seem to be ’creating something out of nothing.’ It’s more like a feint within a feint, right? Back when Yang Erlang went on a killing spree in Hangzhou with an imperial sword, I was the imperial envoy and the guard commander. Your little tricks might fool others, but not me!"
Wang Dashi thought to himself, ’How could I have forgotten that?’
"It’s all the same, it’s all the same!"
Attempting to breeze past the point with a laugh, he said, "As long as we can drag those scoundrels out of their rat holes, our goal will be reached regardless of whether these poor people’s taxes are eventually reduced, right?"
"It’s not the same..."
Wei scoffed coldly, "What you’re proposing is tantamount to forging imperial edicts—a misstep could cost you your head! All you clever people love to treat everyone else like fools!"
Wang Dashi hurriedly replied with clasped hands, "You worry too much, Wei. I have no such intention. This plan simply involves releasing a half-true, half-false piece of news to lure those scoundrels out of hiding. As for whether to exempt the poor people’s taxes, that can be petitioned to the Emperor afterward..."
"Heh heh!"
Wei gave a dry laugh. He couldn’t be bothered to poke holes in his slight cunning... you’ve invoked Yang Erlang’s authority like a tiger’s skin to flaunt as a banner; can the Emperor really say ’no’?
Having pondered the matter over his tea, Wei finally slapped the table and decided, "Let’s proceed as you’ve suggested. You can command everyone I brought. I have only one condition—that we must act swiftly, we must root out these scoundrels before they slip away and drown them all in the cesspit!"
Wang Dashi raised his eyebrows, suppressing his elation, "With this move, you’re practically Buddha to thousands of families..."
Wei Heng snorted disdainfully.
When it comes to spinning tales, you’re far behind Yang Erlang!
...
"Creak..."