"You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, so think hard—is there no other strategy?"
In Hangzhou, at the residence where the tax-reforming imperial envoy stayed, Wei Heng, utterly at a loss, held a tea bowl and spoke to Wang Dashi, who was flipping through the tax records above.
Wang Dashi scrutinized the ledger, remaining silent for a long time.
After waiting for a while and running out of patience, Wei Heng slammed the tea bowl onto the tea table beside him with a "thud," yelling, "Speak!"
Wang Dashi set aside the ledger and chuckled, "What else can I do? The situation is clear now. To win, we can only fight openly and squarely; no one should think of taking shortcuts!"
Wei Heng slowly furrowed his brows and after a moment, he suddenly said, "What if we use the tax silver as bait to set up an ambush?"
"Pointless..."
Wang Dashi shook his head slowly, "Our opponents’ goal has never been silver coins. It’s the new policies, the imperial court, the Senior Grand Secretary, the Marquis of Luting!"
"The success of the tax reform in Jiangzhe has proved the viability of the new policies. Even if that group of treacherous officials succeeds in seizing the tax silver, it cannot shake the new policies nor affect the situation in the imperial court..."
He raised the ledger in his hand, indicating to Wei Heng that the biggest success of this tax inspection in Jiangzhe was not the silver in the treasury but these very ledgers.
"By comparison, even inciting a part of the people in Jiangzhe to rebel under the pretext that the taxes are too burdensome and the people’s livelihood is devastated would have a far deeper impact than seizing the tax silver."
"But is it so easy to incite the people in Jiangzhe to rebel?"
Wei Heng understood and agreed with his reasoning.
However, overseeing the tax inspection in Jiangzhe was Wang Dashi’s duty, not Wei Heng’s!
"So, are we to just end this matter in such an anticlimactic way?"
Wei Heng shouted angrily, "Where does this leave the dignity of the emperor? The authority of the imperial court?"
Wang Dashi bowed slightly, "I must respectfully disagree with Your Excellency. In my opinion, if we can bring this matter to a conclusion in this way, it would already be the best outcome... You must have a rough idea of who those treacherous officials are, even if you don’t have conclusive evidence, right?"
"Since you already have a general direction, why must you insist on winning against them right now, at this critical juncture?"
"Would it not be simple for your secret police to deal with those ignorant, corrupt officials?"
"Unless the secret police intends to take over the Ministry of Punishment or the Dali Temple?"
"With their sh*t piled up like that, you could arbitrarily pin something on them at any time, enough to behead a hundred people and display their heads at the market! Why bother to fight them on this very bone of contention?"
"Those who do not take the whole situation into account are not qualified to plan for one region, Eunuch Wei!"
Wei Heng was stunned for a good ten breaths, then genuinely gave Wang Dashi a thumbs up: "When it comes to ruthlessness, it has to be you scholars!"
"You flatter me..."
Wang Dashi returned the gesture without changing his expression, "I am not any kind of scholar."
"That’s right..."
Wei Heng realized and said, "Your Xie Family is a lineage of butchers!"
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Upon hearing this, the smile on Wang Dashi’s face gradually disappeared as he emotionlessly flipped open the ledger again...
Wei Heng did not feel he had misspoken, and continued to probe shamelessly, "Then, how should the matter with Lu Ting be explained?"
While meticulously checking the ledger and without raising his head, Wang Dashi said, "You just take care of your own responsibilities; it’s not your place to explain anything concerning Lu Ting!"
Wei Heng once again knitted his brows, not because he found the remark rude, but because it seemed to miss the point: "Why am I here doing all these things in Hangzhou? Isn’t it just to secure the position of the Marquis of Luting? If the Marquis himself still needs to act in person, then what was the point of me, Hangzhou, taking this big gamble with you?"
"You want to stand up for the Marquis of Luting?"
Wang Dashi lifted his eyelids and scoffed, "Then go ahead, don’t tell me you don’t know where Bright Summit is? Or shall I send someone to guide you?"
Wei Heng shouted angrily, "Can’t you speak properly?"
Wang Dashi: "I’d be willing to speak properly with you, but can you understand?"
Wei Heng: "If you speak clearly, won’t I understand?"
"All right, I’ll spell it out for you..."
Wang Dashi put down the ledger, looked Wei Heng straight in the eye, and said word by word, "You belong to the emperor, just chop off the heads of all those involved from the imperial family, build a tower as a warning to others, that’s the best explanation for the Marquis of Luting. As for those matters of the jianghu, the affairs of the knights-errant, there’s no need for you to intervene; you can’t manage that much!"
"The Marquis of Luting may seem reckless, but he is clear about debts of gratitude and grievance, knowing full-well whom to hold accountable. He hasn’t made a move simply because it’s not time to settle accounts yet. When the time comes, he will naturally find those people to settle the overall score..."
"Take Sect Hierarch Yang Potian of the Ming Sect, for instance. How long would your secret police need to prepare to kill him? How many people would have to die? Could you handle the aftermath?"
"If hundreds of thousands of Ming Sect followers were to revolt, could you, Wei Heng, bear the consequences of poisoning the nine provinces? Or could your secret police bear it?"
The last glimmer of hope was mercilessly crushed by Wang Dashi, leaving Wei Heng feeling dry-mouthed and at a loss for words.
After a long silence, he finally said in a somewhat hoarse whisper, "When did you ascertain that the people behind this were from the Ming Sect?"
"I had my suspicions early on..."
Wang Dashi replied indifferently, "After all, there are only a handful of people in Jiangzhe who could carry out this affair without a hitch."
"The day your family elder was beaten, it confirmed my suspicion."
"In this world, there are only a few Grandmasters."
...
"Sect Hierarch Yang Potian of the Ming Sect?"
Yang Ge’s eyes flickered for a moment before he unexpectedly chuckled, "I thought I was being paranoid, but it turns out it really was him!"