Chapter 349
Chapter 349: Palace Treasury Strike
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Smack, smack, smack, smack . The sounds were very crisp, unlike the muffled sounds when the Imperial Censorate was struck outside the Royal Palace in Jingdou . On the contrary, it sounded like someone was keeping time for a piece of music with a strong beat .
After the paddle landed 10 times, it stopped . The three workshop masters did not end like brother Baoyu with a breath in but no breath out . They also didn't faint like Second Fan .
Fan Xian watched the scene with great interest . He couldn't help feeling a bit surprised at how hardy the three masters were . After suffering 10 strikes, they did not even make a single sound . He knew his subordinates' style . Since he had ordered a beating, no one would hold back .
Looking unbelievably miserable, they had suffered a great humiliation today and forced themselves not to make any sounds . However, the strikes on the body still hurt, particularly since the pain also carried the humiliation of being stripped . It caused tears to swell in the eyes of these middle-aged men, along with some hatred, like pitiful little dogs .
Fan Xian clapped his hands and said, "Take them away . "
"Yes," his subordinates replied in unison . They helped the three masters up and headed out of the yamen .
Behind these three masters, who had long reached their limit for pain and humiliation, Fan Xian didn't forget to call out like a merchant, "Three days! Three days! Don't you forget!"
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The yamen immediately fell into silence . The officials looked at Fan Xian with slight fear in their gazes . Everyone knew of Fan Xian's reputation . They were not from Jingdou, so they had never personally experienced the chill within Fan Xian's clean and literary reputation . They didn't know as clearly as the pain felt by the Second Prince's officials .
Finally today everyone saw, and felt secret fear, but they could also not help smiling coldly in secret . He can beat them if he wanted to . Was his beating of the treasurers not for us officials to see? However, no matter how learned Sir Fan was, he was still blind when it came to the matters of the palace treasury . Now that he had badly offended the masters of the three workshops, we'll just see how you clean up this mess .
Perhaps Fan Xian did not know about his subordinate officials' intention to watch the trouble in three days, or perhaps he just didn't care about this . He said a few more words before ordering them to repay the missing wages in three days . If there were any illegal actions, they were to check themselves . He then released them from the yamen .
He kept behind the Ye family general and his close helper, the deputy of the transport company . If he wanted to do things done in three days, he still needed their help .
No one knew what he said to the two officials in the back garden, but their faces became more and more serious until they finally nodded slowly . They saluted Fan Xian respectfully and then left .
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"Sir . " Su Wenmao handed over the summarized intelligence report from the Overwatch Council . Fan Xian received it smoothly and nodded slightly as he read . It seemed like the people of the Fourth Bureau had some uses . They had apparently been suppressed by the Eldest Princess and treasurers and never had a chance to showcase their skills .
Su Wenmao watched as he sank into the scroll and thought about the scene earlier . He couldn't help but furrow his brows . He gathered the courage to quietly say, "The three masters of the workshop could be killed . "
Fan Xian raised his head to look at him . He couldn't resist smiling . "Of course they could be killed . However, killing people isn't like cooking . What can be eaten should be ate, but those who could be killed do not need to be killed in a rush . "
"Sir was too kind before . " Su Wenmao was from the First Bureau of the Overwatch Council and ruthless when it came to controlling officials . He felt that Fan Xian had been too soft in his earlier decision . Three mere masters . If he wanted to kill them, then kill them . Since it was to establish power, some extra thunder would not go amiss . What sense was there in talking for a long time and only giving out 10 strikes?
Unsatisfied, he said, "Sir just gave them 10 strikes earlier . It was too light . I'm afraid it won't make them submit . "
Fan Xian waved the Overwatch Council report . "With the evidence in my hands, I could chop their three heads off with one stroke and no one would dare say anything . "
Su Wenmao paused and reflected that since it was so, then why was it thunder and no rain earlier? Why were the three who had no respect for the law in their eyes released?
Fan Xian smiled and explained, "Thunder and rain are both heavenly favors . If I had punished harshly earlier, although the officials and the various treasurers would not submit in their hearts and even develop hatred because of their fear, they could only accept it . Furthermore, fearing the sharp edge of the beheading sword, they would settle down . This three-day limit then…in probably just one day the officials will have filled in the debt and the treasurers will send silver like crazy to the yamen . "
"Isn't this the scene you want to see?" Su Wenmao was more and more confused .
Fan Xian waved his hand . "Wrong, it will steady the situation for a time . However, only killing three masters of the workshops, what kind of root changes would that mean for the palace treasury? It's the same as hunting monkeys in the mountain . If you kill the king monkey, then the other monkeys will spread out . You know, I cannot, and have no wish to, remain with the palace treasury for a long time . What will happen when I leave? Those monkeys will run out of the mountain again and steal our corn to eat . "
Su Wenmao turned it over in his mind and understood some things . The monkeys in the commissioner's example were the many treasurers in the three workshops . If he had decapitated the three masters today, then the treasurers would, naturally, spit out their silver honestly and return the wages owed to the workers . However, in that case, the commissioner would be missing another chance to wield the butcher's knife . When the commissioner leaves the North of Min and returns to Hangzhou, the mountains were south and the roads were far . Those treasurers would probably become enlivened again, and the workers in the three workshops would have to welcome even more misery as revenge .
"This is like popping a pustule . " Fan Xian smiled . "Your face appears to be calm, but the pus is still inside . So, we are not going to rush and rub it . On the contrary, we are going to expand the pore to squeeze out all of the pus . "
Su Wenmao paused . It was clear he had never taken a beauty class, but he understood enough to know what Fan Xian meant . Smiling he said, "You said it was complicated . Isn't it just luring the snake out of its hole?"
"What luring? This is called hitting the snake to startle the snake . " Fan Xian touched his neat and smooth hair . He found this description was not very fitting, but he couldn't help smiling . "Anyway, with the three-day limit and the 10 humiliating strikes on the masters, the treasurers used to being spoiled probably would not be able to endure this at all . "
"What if someone returned the silver? Then what?" Su Wenmao asked with misgivings . He was afraid that after the shock by the commissioner, those little monkeys wouldn't have the daring to jump out .
"Punishing those who came before to prevent others from following later, curing the disease and saving people," Fan Xian said with seriousness . "The treasurers who have not broken any Qing laws need only return all the silver, and I will naturally give them another opportunity . I am here to manage the palace treasury, not to break it . "
"Understood . "
"When dealing with enemies, we must divide them internally, proceed to order them, and then treat them separately . Group together what can be grouped…we'll see who jumps out in three days, and then we will know who has rejected my kindness . " Fan Xian smiled slightly . "It is not only targeting the treasurers . I believe the Eldest Princess left trusted aides here in the palace treasury . They will not pass up such a good opportunity . From Xinyang's perspective, we have offended all of the treasurers, and the palace treasury will naturally grind to a standstill . At this moment, they will be sure to jump out . Have the people of the Fourth Bureau keep a close watch and write a list of names . I will ask these unstable elements to leave . "
Su Wenmao finally understood everything . The commissioner wanted to do a complete clean out . They arrived again at the front garden and he carefully asked, "Only…Sir, the deputy is of Ren Qi'an's family and can be considered trustworthy, but the Ye family?"
Fan Xian understood what he was worried about . According to the news from Jingdou, days after the Great Prince married the Great Princess of Northern Qi, Ye Ling'er finally married the Second Prince, who used this opportunity with the empress dowager coming forward to be released from his house arrest .
"Don't worry about it . I didn't say too much . I just asked General Ye to pay attention to the routes out of the treasury . I'm not arrogant and conceited enough to think I could use a few words to win over someone of the Ye family . "
Fan Xian smiled . What he asked General Ye to do was to prevent the treasurers from taking advantage of their home advantage and secretly shipping out the silver they had taken these years . Although most of their dirty silver would have been used in buying land, the deeds to the land, as determined by their personality, could only be in their home .
"Also, do not casually connect the Ye family with the Second Prince and Eldest Princess together," Fan Xian said after some thought . "The Ye and Qin families are equally famous and not as simple as others think . How could they only lean toward one prince? That would be too stupid . Even if they had a bias, before the situation is clear he will still give me some face . He wouldn't fall out with me for a group of treasurers unless Ye Zhong feels the Emperor did not send him far enough away . "
Su Wenmao shivered and didn't say anything more . He took his orders and left .
Fan Xian sat on the chair and sank deep into thought . After a moment he sighed . Ye Ling'er finally got married . What kind of ending will the Second Prince have in the future? He was not a kind person, but he had once said in the teashop outside of Baoyue Brothel that he had wanted to bring the Second Prince down because he wanted to leave him his life . This was partially because of Ye Ling'er, and partially because he, subconsciously, wanted to pit himself against that Emperor that cared about raising his children with iron and blood . We'll see if you know how to play better or I know how to play better!
Over the months, the Ye family was played around by the Emperor . Without any other choice to make, they could only lean closer and closer toward the Second Prince . Thinking of this, Fan Xian felt a dark fire in his belly . It was perhaps true that the Emperor planned far ahead, but as the Emperor it was also true he was a highly suspicious scoundrel—it looked like those sitting in different positions all have their own limitations . For the Emperor sitting on his dragon chair, his limitation was that he was overly suspicious . He used the granting of a marriage as the first test and began to prepare defenses for no reason . Following that was shamelessly bringing false charges and step by step forcing the Ye family to stand in opposition to the Crown Prince .
The Crown Prince? Then why did the Third Prince have to leave the capital with him?
The Emperor truly wasn't a common one . He kept using methods that others could not see the logic of . Fan Xian felt a little vexed . He quickly comforted himself thinking that if he, the little scoundrel, couldn't understand, then perhaps the old scoundrel might not understand either .
As to why Fan Xian was determined to not reconcile with his mother-in-law, it was not because he had suffered as a son-in-law during the dating period . It was also not because of the "look after family property" reason he had once told Haitang . In reality, the reason was if Fan Xian truly joined sides with the Eldest Princess, both parties would increase in power and would become a terrifying force, one that was sufficient to rock the foundations of the Qing Kingdom .
This was something the Qing Emperor would not allow .
For Fan Xian, who did not hold the power under heaven, his current behavior was very much guided by the motto that great intelligence may appear to be stupidity . As long as it was something the Emperor would not allow, he would certainly not do it; unless if someone wanted to kill him .
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In the next two days, Fan Xian took his seven well-dressed maids and investigated the workshops everywhere . He began to gradually become familiar with the process in the palace treasury . He also added a layer of sentimentality to his knowledge of the Ye family . It was difficult to not touch the wooden watermill beside the river and sigh with emotion at the great changes that had happened . Sometimes he would sit with the workers and talk about glassblowing . Unfortunately, his craftsmanship was terrible and its appearance too beautiful . Although he didn't blow it successfully, the texture of the glass was still exquisite .
The workshops closer to the yamen all knew exactly what the new officials looked like . Although they did not dare look directly at the Sir Fan junior of legend, they had carefully stolen many glances . They all said that this noble young master was truly very pretty, but clumsy, and his personality was kind . The seven serving girls beside him were all exquisite . There was only one girl who was not as good . Her actions and walk were rural-like, and she didn't look anything like a girl from a big family .
Meanwhile, the four defensive lines made by the military and the Overwatch Council suddenly tightened their patrols . The patrols of the palace treasury had already been the tightest in the world . The sudden tightening immediately found some prohibited items, although they were not technical secrets of the palace treasury, there were still some heavy things .
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