Huang Chunyao fell silent instantly. This.. how could anyone play this game?
He suddenly remembered how this Young Master had previously led his men to sweep through the nearby mountain bandits like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
At that time, he was still wondering if this Xi Hua had transferred men from home, otherwise, with only those dozens of retainers in his hands—even if they were refugees he had recruited and organized—how could he have wiped out all the mountain bandits so quickly?
But no matter how much he had tried to investigate at the time, he couldn't find any more information. Now it seemed it wasn't about transferring people at all; the man had simply used firearms.
Moreover, these firearms were not provided by the imperial court; he had brought people to manufacture them.
This also meant that the Young Master held the formula for firearms.
No matter how wide Huang Chunyao's social circle might be, he could never obtain a formula for firearms; let alone a formula, he had never even seen a firearm once.
This thing was certainly enough to sweep away the Sea Bandits.
Huang Chunyao sat there quietly without saying a word.
Zhu Ying said with excitement, "In that case, it would be most appropriate to leave Suzhou Prefecture in your hands, Young Master."
He actually wanted to take over; after all, if one were to be honest, he was still the former Suzhou Prefect's maternal nephew. Regardless of how this identity as a nephew was obtained, at least that Prefect had acknowledged it.
However, like Huang Chunyao, he was qualified, but it was not a stable position.
Rather than handing it over to someone else, it would be better to let this young master take the position directly. If the imperial court were to investigate, his family has connections that could save his life, he could simply follow behind and cheer him on.
Zhu Ci instead said, "The Imperial Court will still send a Prefect here, so things won't descend into chaos just yet. Let's wait a bit longer."
Huang Chunyao, however, said, "We cannot wait. If Young Master still cares for the people, then go straight to the Prefecture City."
Zhu Ci was slightly surprised. "What do you mean?"
Huang Chunyao sighed and said, "Suzhou Prefecture City is already in total chaos now."
Without any supervision from their superiors, the minor officials and clerks below began to act without restraint.
Currently, there is only one Vice Prefect in Suzhou Prefecture, yet this Vice Prefect cannot suppress the minor officials and clerks below him. Many of those minor officials and clerks hail from local powerful clans, they could be described as acting without restraint.
The various categories for tax collection were also quite clever—spring taxes, land taxes, so on. In other words, once the Beginning of Spring arrived, every household had to pay taxes, once spring farming began, taxes had to be paid again, unless you didn't farm at all.
Of course, not farming was illegal; not only would you have to pay money, but you would also be thrown into the great prison.
Besides that, there were taxes on livestock, travel taxes, so on.. there was nothing they couldn't come up with.
Zhu Ci had just gone to great lengths to exempt all the various taxes and levies in the county town, but as it turned out, the Suzhou Prefecture was actually becoming even more rampant.
However, the local powerful clans are deeply interconnected.. truly, cleaning them up won't be an easy task.
He pondered for a long while before saying, "Then we shall make a trip to Suzhou Prefecture."
Huang Chunyao and Zhu Ying exchanged a glance, both very curious about how this Young Master intended to handle this matter.
Based on their interactions, it felt as though this young master carried an aura of "those who follow me shall prosper, those who oppose me shall perish," and might even resort to killing someone when the time came.
If someone were actually killed.. the situation might become much harder to control.
However, everything depends on how things develop.
Huang Chunyao and Zhu Ying were no longer young. Having struggled through so many years of hardship, they were somewhat unwilling to follow a fifteen-year-old youth blindly, always wanting to test his capabilities.
Yes, you have firearms, but you couldn't possibly use firearms directly inside the city, could you? What kind of grudge could there be? At that point, not only would you fail to suppress the situation, but it might even trigger a counterattack.
What disappointed them was that Zhu Ci had not brought many people to the Prefecture City at all; he had only brought about a dozen people and a single carriage, which clearly couldn't hold firearms.
Even so, even a single carriage looked quite imposing; its design was not something an ordinary family could use, Huang Chunyao estimated it followed the regulations of an Earl's Mansion.
His and Zhu Ying's carriages followed behind, looking truly like two attendants.
Zhu Ci arrived at the prefectural office safely in the carriage, but as soon as he dismounted, he was stopped outside the gates of the office.
He looked at the two guards and let out a laugh. "You're new, aren't you? Go report to your Vice Prefect Gu and tell him the Acting Prefect has arrived."
Acting Prefect? What did he mean by Acting Prefect?
Seeing that he possessed an extraordinary aura and an even more outstanding appearance, noticing that his attendants stood with straight backs and clearly were no ordinary men, the two guards did not act with any condescension. Instead, they said very politely, "Please wait a moment, Master. We shall go in and announce your arrival."
Not long after, an elegant middle-aged man slowly walked out. After a quick glance, he looked somewhat surprised. "Brother Huang? Why didn't you say you were coming, Brother Huang? It has been a long time; I have missed you dearly."
He spoke while walking quickly over to bow to Huang Chunyao.
Huang Chunyao glanced at Zhu Ci and also cupped his hands, saying, "Brother Gu, I trust you have been well. I have come here following Young Master Xi."
After he finished speaking, he said to Zhu Ci, "Young Master Xi, this is Gu Rouqian, courtesy name Gangzhong, he is my close friend."
Zhu Ci stood with his hands behind his back, sizing up Gu Gangzhong, smiled with an enigmatic expression. "Vice Prefect Gu, this is a mandate from the Crown Prince, ordering me to serve as the Acting Prefect of Suzhou."
As he finished speaking, Fu Chunsheng, standing beside him, immediately stepped forward holding a mandate.
Gu Rouqian was indeed stunned for a moment, but he still bowed instinctively: "Receiving the Crown Prince's imperial decree."
The others naturally followed suit and bowed, but only Huang Chunyao's mouth twitched as he bowed.
Another imperial decree from the Crown Prince? Just how many decrees has the Crown Prince issued? Why do they keep appearing one after another? Is this Crown Prince capable of foreseeing the future? Does he just happen to have a decree every single time?
However, just as Zhu Ci had said before, regardless of how this imperial decree came to be, the question was whether it was genuine.
Gu Rouqian had spent a long time navigating the imperial court and understood even more; after carefully scrutinizing it for a long while, he respectfully returned the mandate and said, "Please, Young Master Xi, come inside."
Zhu Ci gave a response and walked into the prefectural office with an extremely aloof demeanor.
Gu Rouqian followed behind, glancing at Huang Chunyao with doubt. Huang Chunyao leaned in and whispered, "This is the young master from the Earl's Mansion I mentioned before."
Gu Rouqian realized the truth. His good friend had mentioned this young master in a letter before; he was indeed an extraordinary person, but.. to have him serve as Prefect at such a young age? What was the Imperial Court thinking? Or was there some trickery involved here?
Although the imperial decree stated he was the Acting Prefect, given enough time, he might even be officially appointed.
After all, two Prefects had already died suddenly.
After Zhu Ci sat down in the main seat of the prefectural office, he glanced at Gu Rouqian and said, "Is Gu Rouqian the only Vice Prefect in the office now?"
In the Ming Dynasty, a Vice Prefect was the primary assistant to the Prefect, responsible for a wide variety of affairs. Everything from patrolling for bandits to regulating the military fell under the Vice Prefect's responsibilities. However, there was no limit on the number of Vice Prefects; there might be only one, or there might be many.
Gu Rouqian said respectfully, "Reporting to the Acting Prefect, there is indeed only one Vice Prefect left now, which is me."
As for how many there were before and why only he remained, Gu Rouqian did not say a word.
Zhu Ci didn't ask either, merely nodding as he said, "I don't care about anything else; just let me review the prefecture's accounts and the status of the bailiffs first."
Demanding the accounts right off the bat.. does this Acting Prefect know something?
Thinking of this, he glanced at Huang Chunyao, Huang Chunyao slowly closed his eyes and nodded to him.
Gu Rouqian immediately said, "Please wait a moment, Prefect."
Zhu Ci gave a response, maintaining his composure as he said, "Just bring it to the Rear Office in a moment. Mr. Huang and Master Zhu must be exhausted from their journey; rest at the Prefecture Office for today."
Huang Chunyao and Zhu Ying cupped their hands together and said, "Thank you, Prefect."
Zhu Ci rose and headed toward the Rear Office. By this time, Fu Qiulu had already brought people to tidy up the entire Rear Office. Upon seeing him, she bowed in greeting. "Young Master, the bedroom and the study have both been tidied, all of your books have been put away."
Zhu Ci nodded. "You've worked hard. Let Jiang Xueyan and the others stay to serve, you take the others to rest first."
Fu Qiulu bit her lip and gave an affirmative response.
She knew this meant her Young Master had important matters to attend to and did not want her to know.
Although Jiang Xueyan was much younger than her, it was clear that her young master trusted Jiang Xueyan more.
Jiang Xueyan accompanied another young woman to serve by Zhu Ci's side, upon seeing these two maids, Gu Rouqian couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart.
These two maids were not old, but their posture and the way they walked were different from ordinary maids; their gazes were sharp, they seemed to carry a faint, lingering murderous aura.
-----------------------
Author's Note: Zhu Ci: After a bit of slacking around, he went from being the Crown Prince to becoming a Prefect. A cat pulling at its hem, head held high. jpg
Next update at 6:00 PM~
Chapter 65
Gu Rouqian used the excuse of looking for account books, upon turning around, ran into Huang Chunyao, who was wandering about.
Gu Rouqian grabbed Huang Chunyao's wrist and asked, "Unshheng, what exactly is this young master's background?"
Huang Chunyao looked around and said in a low voice, "Let's find a safe place to talk first."
Gu Rouqian immediately took him to a more secluded place and said with a frown, "This young master is not ordinary."
Huang Chunyao gave a cold snort. "Of course he is not ordinary. You'd better not treat him like some common playboy."
He recounted everything Zhu Ci had done.
Gu Rouqian listened in a daze, standing there and looking up at the sky for a long time to process it all. He looked utterly bewildered: "How was this achieved?"
He wondered why there had been so many fewer cases in Jiading lately. At first, he thought the Magistrate of Jiading had lost his mind, but once he learned that Jiading no longer had a magistrate, it made even more sense that the county yamen was left unattended and cases were no longer being sent up.
So he is being told now that it's because the bandits and sea bandits over there have all been suppressed?
What kind of person could possibly do that? Just by relying on that Young Master and the few men under his command?
Huang Chunyao hesitated for a moment before saying, "He has firearms. Don't provoke him. This Young Master is not a man of easy temperament; you likely don't know how the Magistrate of Jiading died."
The Magistrate of Jiading had promised not to tell outsiders about his death, so he hadn't mentioned a single word even in his correspondence with his close friend. However, now that his friend was going to deal with this god of death, he had to give him a warning.
He didn't want to end up collecting his friend's corpse one day.
Gu Rouqian was stunned again, pointed toward the Rear Office: "Who did this?"
Huang Chunyao nodded silently and then offered an explanation.
Gu Rouqian listened for a long while before finally uttering a single word: "Fine!"
Huang Chunyao immediately poked his head out to look outside, then slapped him on the shoulder: "Keep it down!"
Gu Rouqian rubbed his chin and said, "This young Prefect is quite a man of character, not bad at all."
Huang Chunyao felt a bit of a headache: "Don't be too accommodating to him either. He is young and at an age where he cannot tolerate even a grain of sand in his eyes. If something truly happens, he has people to protect him, but you might not."
Gu Rouqian glanced at him and shook his head. "With the situation in such chaos, one cannot establish a foothold without some decisiveness. He has people and firearms under his command; it is only natural that his temperament is a bit stubborn."
The most important thing was that he did not sound like the type to kill innocents indiscriminately; moreover, he was compassionate, having resettled refugees and taken in orphans, so there was nothing to worry about.
Upon hearing that he had overhauled the miscellaneous taxes and levies of the county yamen, Gu Rouqian laughed even harder: "I shall send the ledgers over immediately; I think those people have had quite enough already."
As a Vice Prefect, his rank was originally higher than those petty officials and clerks, many of whom were not even of any official standing, but what could one do when their families were local bullies?