Neither humans nor animals could outrun the bird that Li Jing gave to Li Yuanying. Dong Xiaoyi quickly got news. It was a rare chance where the young prince could leave the academy and Dong Xiaoyi followed him to Hu County. He is made responsible to set up a library and he brought along a breeding expert and a plantation expert to check what crops were suitable to be cultivated in Hu County.

These are things that benefits the county in culture, education and agriculture so Xu Jingzong’s face is filled with sparkles. He entertained Dong Xiaoyi warmly and allowed him to procure things cheaply. Just let him know what he wants and he will get people anything, from land to manpower.

Dong Xiaoyi is highly regarded by Li Yuanying and is not easily coaxed by Xu Jingzong. He is usually busy with tasks and did not have much free time to participate in banquets or entertainment activities. After inspecting the library grounds, Dong Xiaoyi was taking a break and about to have a meal but he receive an urgent message.

He jumped up and quickly read his master’s instructions and  got to work. He got trusted men trained by Dai Ting to spy on a few areas because everything needs solid evidence to build a case. They were to keep tabs on the government offices to see if there is any form of contact with the Yin Family Village. Another group is to visit the Yin Family Village to see if they house many stateless workers under them.

Many aristocratic and wealthy families have “taxpayers” under them as these people are useful in running errands and providing services. These taxpayers are able to be exempted from official service as long as they have an important role in a community. With that, many wealthy households would do so and put their names under service so that they can avoid official work.

Since these service quotas are taken up by wealthy people who didn’t want to work, there must still be people working on the fields right? And also people running errands? If a big family wants to show off its magnificence, how can they be short-staffed? Therefore these stateless unregistered “hermit households” must exist. Not everyone wants to be Wei Zheng who lives a frugal life despite having money!  

Although Dong Xiaoyi  can already predict the results, he still did as he was told. Since he has a team of experts with him, creating a reason to visit the Yin family village is easy. If he managed to convince them that he is one of them, he might even win their trust enough to figure out how many people actually live in the village.

Yuanying said in his letter to quickly carry out the tasks before the other side had a chance to connect with each other. Dong Xiaoyi cut short his break and quickly inform that he wants to visit Duke Xun Guo.

The grandfather Yin Kaishan moved to Hu County in his early years. After the founding of Tang and his retirement, Yin Kaishan moved back to Hu County for a few years. The village was purchased by Yin and it had fields and the best farmland in the area.

Dong Xiaoyi was a sweet talker. Now that he had an ulterior motive, he made up stories well and made it sound like Li Yuanying was part of the team and in such good relationship that he and the nobles in the county could almost wear the same pants.

Hearing this, the government officials think that this was a good opportunity to please the Yin family. They led Dong Xiaoyi towards his destination.

On the other side, Yuanying has just finished working in Wu Family Village. He wanted to visit Taihe Palace so he did his job hastily. The accompanying officials looked happy as Prince Teng is finally not serious and was going out to play.

They also heard that Prince Teng had a crush on a young lady and insisted that she comes along to Taihe Palace! His behaviour was like someone wanting to attack another person even though they were still mourning over the passing of a family member. Even though she usually don’t go out much, this time she actually wanted to follow!

The whole group and 3 members from the Wu family left the village but the official was not able to get a response from Xu Jingzong. He was a little anxious, hoping that Li Yuanying will leave after having fun and not fall in love with a common farmer girl and create drama!

It was only after the group arrived at the palace did officials receive Xu Jingzong’s response. There was nothing to worry about as they have Wu Zhiyuan’s mother and sister in custody so Wu wouldn’t dare say anything. As for Prince Teng just treat him well and as they have plans for him later.

It’s a piece of cake to handle Wu Zhiyuan. He is the sole male survivor of his family and if he acted rashly who will support the family? The county official sent his nephew to wait outside Wu’s house and when the family members are back, to lock them inside the house. When no one is paying attention then they could deal with the family and silence them forever!  

If there’s someone to blame, it is on Wu Zhiyuan for stirring up a hornet’s nest! Those tenants were living a good life under the Yin but he encourage them to obtain citizenship. Why so? None of the stateless people are literate therefore even if there’s an edict from the Emperor, as long as no one reads it to them, they will farm the land for the rest of their lives. If they obtain citizenship and gets benefits from the government, then what will happen to the owner’s land? Who is going to work?

If this is the army, Wu Zhiyuan’s behavior would shake the morale and cause soldiers to defect. He should die a hundred times!

Wu Zhiyuan’s father and brother were the same. Not only did they not stop him, they supported his decision to marry a refugee girl.  When she died in a disgraceful manner, they helped bury her and even encourage Wu Zhiyuan to complaint to the county magistrate. Is this what commoners should do?

Therefore, Wu Zhiyuan’s family is the culprit and deserves to die!

Of course, it’s okay if they don’t die but the county official did not like this family.

And there is a reason for this dislike.

When the Wu family gave birth to their eldest son, the county official’s family also had a child but she was a daughter; when the Wu family gave birth to a second son, his family too had a second child and it was finally a boy. Too bad that boy grew up ignorant and incompetent while Wu Zhiyuan did well and was able to attend school and have a bright future!

When it was time for a third child, both families also had them at a similar time and both were girls. However, the Wu daughter is beautiful and even the nobles stopped and ask about her! Looking at his own daughter, even he himself finds her shabby.

In short, when there’s comparison someone is bound to get angry and the county officer just hates Wu Zhiyuan’s family. When Magistrate Xu told him to “handle things” he let the Wu father and brother fall into water without blinking an eye. If Magistrate Xu hadn’t said that getting rid of Wu Zhiyuan too was too obvious, he would really had kill him and take his beautiful sister to warm his bed!

Since Magistrate Xu wants to use Wu’s mother and daughter as hostages, what better way than to keep them in his own home? He’ll get to this in a while. After all getting a concubine is not considered as violating the mourning period as concubines are no different than a livestock to the family!

The county official had much thoughts while Li Yuanying visited the palace. Taihe palace was not big and there was nothing too special about it. The Prince only wanted to visit it because it reminded him of his late father. He pretend to separate from Wu Zhiyuan and left with his group while all 3 members of the Wu family escape through a different route and were to be protected as defendants!

After working hard for days, Yuanying and his friends were tired and they returned to the county town to rest. When Xu Jingzong heard that they are back, he immediately send someone to probe if they have discovered anything about Wu Zhiyuan’s family.

The accompanying officials said that Li Yuanying had a great time today and ate melons and rewarded them with lots of money. Finally tired of playing, he returned back to the county for rest and will not work for the time being.

Not everyone knew what happened to the Wu family. When Xu Jingzong  probe like this no one recalled anything special. They only said that Wu Zhiyuan suddenly appeared and cried bitterly and said that he encountered a venomous snake.

Xu Jingzong felt relieved hearing this. The last time Wu Zhiyuan challenge the Yin family, his father and brother lost their lives. This time he did not dare to tell the truth. Although the county official at Wu Family Village had been to hold members of Wu family as hostages, Xu Jingzong still felt that Li Yuanying would cause trouble if he stayed. He thought for a moment and asked someone to spread rumour in Chang’an that Prince Teng is now interested in a peasant girl who is mourning the death of a family member!

You must know that Li Yuanying is Wei Zheng’s future grandson-in-law!

Who is Wei Zheng? Wei Zheng is someone who dares to stand up against the Emperor! He scolded his Majesty when both brothers participated in cock fighting and after that had the Emperor get rid of his favourite rooster and send it to Wei Zheng as chicken stew!

That is how powerful Wei Zheng is!

Notes from the author:

Young Prince: Critical hit! ! ! !