During the war in Chuansong County, when Liang Ye had quickly resolved matters by replacing officials with his own trusted people, there were refugees, but after peace negotiations, most had been settled and given relief. When Wang Dian escorted grain supplies from Shouyun to Ningming, though there were refugees, they weren’t a major concern. The snowstorm earlier that year had mainly affected the northern counties, and he and Liang Ye had been paying close attention to this from the start.
But Anhan Prefecture, known to all as a prosperous region, had reached the point where people were trading their children for food.
The woman wept with heart-wrenching cries, as if howling at this hellish world.
“…Last year when the Yunshui River in Hexi burst its banks……we had a severe drought here…during autumn harvest there was simply no grain in the fields…” The old man kneeling on the ground had cloudy eyes. He wanted to cry but had no tears left. His hollow and numb gaze looked at the noblemen in fine silk clothes before him, not hoping for rescue, as if merely recounting an ordinary old tale.
“…The taxes got heavier year after year, and last year they tripled them. The county officials said the Grand Empress Dowager was having a birthday banquet… Not a single grain was left from what we had saved for the New Year…”
“The land… is all gone… They forced us to sell at low prices, we dared not refuse. They threw some silver pieces at us but would find ways to take it back after some time…”
“We didn’t dare report the drought… Since last spring when the Emperor suddenly changed his ways and dealt with so many people over the Hexi flood disaster… who would dare to report upwards?”
“We thought having a new magistrate would finally mean we could eat, but then the war started. All the working men in our families were drafted as soldiers. The court demanded grain supplies without caring if we lived or died, they would even strip our skin if they could take it…” The old man lamented. “We tried to go south, but the magistrate’s soldiers chased us back. They were beasts! They killed people on sight, so we didn’t dare go south anymore…”
“Cursed dog emperor—not leaving people even half a way to survive—” Someone in the kneeling crowd finally cried out.
“Noble ones, we were blind to offend you! Please spare us considering we have nowhere to go!” Someone fearfully kowtowed repeatedly.
However, most people were already too hungry to struggle, like walking corpses about to die, completely numb.
Wang Dian had experienced assassination attempts, survived palace upheavals, witnessed war, and seen countless bloody scenes, but these forty or fifty refugees, though neither tragic nor spectacular, left him breathless.
He had briefly lamented the hardships of the world before. At that time, he had already decided to leave, lamenting only about the mess Liang Ye had to deal with, and mostly feeling sorry for Liang Ye’s difficulties.
But now he truly felt what it meant for people to live in hardship, to the extent that one person’s effort or temporary achievement seemed so insignificant.
The people desperately fought over the flatbread and soup that the secret guards took out from the carriage. At first, the secret guards tried to maintain order, but the threat of swords and blades was far less frightening to these people than not getting a mouthful of food.
“Mother, eat, quickly eat!” Someone was trying to feed porridge to an old woman whose eyes were closed, but she had already passed away, still tightly clutching half a piece of flatbread in her hand.
That person pried the bread from her hand, tears flowing into their mouth, and forcefully swallowed the dry bread.
Even those cold-blooded secret guards couldn’t bear to watch anymore.
It turned out that keeping people alive was a thousand times harder than letting them die.
Wang Dian turned to look at Liang Ye, who had no particular expression on his face. Seeing Wang Dian looking at him, he held his hand and said, “Nothing worth seeing, let’s go.”
Indeed, there was nothing worth seeing. The kowtowing and gratitude were the biggest mockery of them.
“When I was young and studying under Imperial Preceptor Wen, he said his greatest wish was for everyone in the world to have enough food to eat… I thought he was joking at the time.” Liang Ye pulled him onto the carriage.
How could it not seem like a joke?
Even though life in the palace was difficult, there had never been a shortage of food or clothing. The newly enthroned young emperor thought everything in the world was his. He didn’t care for fine silks or delicacies, bells and tripods, precious horses and fragrant carriages were all discarded. When Wen Zong said common people in the countryside were so hungry they had to eat tree bark, he could carelessly retort, “Why don’t they eat minced meat instead?”
The disappointment and tears in the old man’s eyes made him feel irritated and embarrassed, so that ruler mercilessly struck his palm. Wen Zong pleaded, “Your Majesty, please open your eyes and look at your subjects,” but Liang Ye felt he was an unwilling emperor, thinking his own life was already difficult and hopeless, so surely the world owed him.
He angrily stole Wen Zong’s ruler, not knowing this stick had already been constantly hanging over his palm.
“The current situation isn’t one person’s fault,” Wang Dian looked at him and said, “Don’t take everything upon yourself.”
“But Zhen is the emperor.” Liang Ye grinned at him, “Zhen should make sure they have enough to eat.”
Wang Dian was stunned.
Liang Ye had said such things to him many times, with threat and command, domineering and stubborn. Wang Dian was extremely tired of his feudal emperor manner, wanting to hit him every time he heard it. While despising it, he inevitably thought that if anyone else were to be emperor, even if it were him, Wang Dian, they would do better than this neurotic madman Liang Ye.
His belief that Liang Ye could be a good emperor mostly came from his own arrogance, but he had unconsciously, like most people, carried the prejudice that Liang Ye was a madman, so he could try to separate Liang Ye from imperial power without any burden.
Liang Ye was obsessive and domineering, and he was no less so, never truly seeing what Liang Ye really wanted.
But now it seemed that Liang Ye was more suitable than anyone to be the emperor of Northern Liang.
He might not have much empathy or compassion for the common people, but he knew what an emperor should do.
Wang Dian looked at him and said, “There will be such a day.”
Liang Ye raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s that expression for?”
Wang Dian smiled, “Because you were handsome.”
Of all the things Liang Ye had said, none had helped him see this person more clearly than this one.
****
Feng Lan was lying on a beauty’s lap, eating local specialties offered by county officials, contentedly narrowing his eyes.
“Daren, is this pastry that delicious?” The concubine’s jade-like arm softly rested on his shoulder as she coquettishly complained. “Daren won’t even look at me.”
“Of course it’s delicious.” Feng Lan smiled. “Yao’er, you don’t understand the wonder of this pastry. Just one ingredient costs thousands of gold, and it takes three hundred and sixty-five steps to make such a small piece. Even His Majesty can’t taste it.”
“Then this concubine wants to try it too.” The woman made a fuss about wanting to eat.
“Don’t make trouble, this thing has countless benefits, how can I let you eat it carelessly?” Feng Lan embraced the beauty and coaxed her gently, “However, if you can get your younger sister to agree to be my concubine, never mind this small piece of pastry, I’ll give you both those two gardens you were eyeing before, how about that?”
“I don’t want those gardens.” The woman nestling in his arms said coquettishly. “They’re so common. I want the exquisite Ruyi that Daren gave to the madam the other day.”
“Oh you, that was bestowed by the Grand Empress Dowager, how can it be casually given to someone else?” Feng Lan laughed heartily. “Are you so greedy that you want palaces like those of the imperial concubines?”
“This concubine—-”
“Zhen didn’t know my few palace chambers were so worth coveting?” A cold voice suddenly came from outside the door.
Feng Lan was startled, “Who’s out there!?”
Before his words ended, dozens of secret guards simultaneously dropped from the roof beams to the ground, and two sharp swords were clearly held against Feng Lan’s neck. The beauty beside him screamed once before being knocked unconscious by a secret guard’s hand chop.
“Feng Daren,” Liang Ye smiled as he walked in front of him, picking up a pastry from the table in front of him and sniffing it, “So you’re such a connoisseur of fine food?”
Feng Lan’s face turned pale as he looked at Liang Ye before him, trembling as he tried to get down to kneel, but his legs were too weak to move. Li Mu, seeing this, kicked his round belly, “How dare you not bow before His Majesty!”
Feng Lan was kicked to the ground, rolling and crawling to kneel and kowtow, “This… this humble minister Feng Lan… pays… pays respects to Your Majesty!”
Liang Ye stood before him with his hands behind his back, deliberately taking a bite of the pastry, and frowned in disgust, “Too greasy and sweet. Feng Daren, at your advanced age, you should eat less rich food.”
Feng Lan knelt on the ground trembling speechlessly, and soon a foul smell emerged from between his legs – he had actually wet himself from fear.
The bite of pastry suddenly became nauseating. Liang Ye wiped his hands with a handkerchief and looked down at Feng Lan, who was trembling like a sieve on the ground, sneering. “Feng Daren is afraid too soon.”
“Take him away.”
Feng Lan’s mansion was ridiculously large. Wang Dian had walked around for nearly half an hour and hadn’t even finished the front courtyard when he saw Liang Ye come out with a gloomy face. “What’s wrong?”
“Ate something dirty.” Liang Ye had heard Feng Lan describe it so mysteriously, but when he put it in his mouth, it only made him feel sick, making him think of that lump of fat who had wet himself.
Wang Dian twitched his mouth, “Are you a three-year-old? Putting things in your mouth without knowing what they are?”
Liang Ye bared his teeth at him unhappily, but before he could finish, Wang Dian frowned and touched his stomach, “Does it hurt?”
Liang Ye looked at the hand on his stomach, his gaze pausing slightly, and slowly shook his head.
Wang Dian then mercilessly took his hand away and looked at the exquisite landscaping around them, sighing. “If Feng Lan, just an official posted away from the Capital, is this rich, how rich must the Feng family be?”
“Compared to the Tan family, they have more rather than less.” Liang Ye licked his lips and grabbed his hand, putting it back on his stomach.
Wang Dian’s eyes brightened, “All the confiscated property from the Tan family went to military supplies, and your small treasury is half empty again. When we go back, let’s fill it up.”
Liang Ye nodded happily.
“As for Feng Lan’s things… they should go back where they came from.” Wang Dian frowned. “Although the granaries have been opened temporarily, I’m afraid the common people won’t recover quickly, and with officials following the example of their superiors, the officials throughout Anhan Prefecture are all related by blood or marriage. It’s hard to say how much grain will actually reach the people’s hands. Your imperial troops can keep things in check for now, but it’s not a long-term solution. We need to find someone with a strong hand to take charge.”
He wanted to do it himself, but leaving Liang Ye alone to return to the Capital made him uneasy no matter how he thought about it.
“Baili Cheng’an?” Liang Ye pondered for a moment, “But Zhen wants to keep him in the Capital to use.”
“Zeng Jie?” Wang Dian thought for a moment and rejected this suggestion himself, “Zeng Jie is too smooth, probably won’t be able to root out the problem completely.”
Just as the two were troubled about finding a suitable scapegoat to handle the thankless mess in Anhan, Li Mu came to report, “Master, Xu Xiude Daren requests an audience.”
“Xu Xiude?” Liang Ye turned to look at Wang Dian, “Who?”
“That chubby rat with the mustache.” Wang Dian said in a low voice.
Liang Ye suddenly realized, “He’s back from Eastern Chen?”
“Yes.” Li Mu nodded.
Wang Dian said, “This Xu Xiude appears foolish but is actually quite wise.”
Xu Xiude had no wife, no children, no family clan, and his teacher was Yan Ze. Yan Ze and Bian Cang had never gotten along, and because they were previously from the Cui faction, both master and disciple had always been cautious and careful. Although Xu Xiude was smooth, he wasn’t without principles, and he had done well with the several tasks given to him.
A moment later, Xu Xiude came bouncing in with his belly that had become thinner by two circles, his voice arriving before the person, crying out to heaven as if he and Liang Ye were long-lost brothers, “Your Majesty—Your Majesty ah—This old minister has finally lived to see you again!”
He knelt on the ground, his hair having turned notably whiter, with tears in his eyes saying, “This minister Xu Xiude has fortunately not failed your mission, the Emperor of Eastern Chen has agreed to establish trade relations with our Great Liang!”
He deliberately showed off his broken arm tied to his chest, “This minister has been through nine deaths and one life, this minister fears no hardship, this minister—”
“This humble minister pays respects to Your Majesty and the Prince of Danyang.” Wen Yu, meeting Liang Ye’s disgusted gaze, cut off Xu Xiude’s complaints decisively, “Xu Daren slipped and fell when getting off the carriage the day before yesterday, tripped over his own belly unfortunately, and broke his arm.”
Wang Dian turned his head away trying not to laugh, while Xu Xiude gave Liang Ye a sheepish smile and tried to please him. “Yes, yes, thanks to Your Majesty’s protection, this old minister had a close call but fortunately didn’t break the other arm.”
“Xu Daren has worked hard.” Liang Ye took the initiative to help him up.
Xu Xiude was immediately overwhelmed by this honor, shaking his head repeatedly, “Not hard at all, not hard at all! Solving problems for Your Majesty is what this old minister should do!”
“With your words, Zhen is at ease.” Liang Ye grinned at him.
Xu Xiude met his terrifying smile with a sudden shock and looked to Wang Dian for help.
Wang Dian patted his shoulder and said meaningfully, “Although Xu Daren’s pace is slow, he has arrived at just the right time.”
The scapegoat had been found.
