Pursuit of Jade
Chapter 10: Wǔ'ān Tiānxià
The journey from the town to the county yamen was not far. With a brisk pace, one could cover the distance in about half an hour.
Fan Changyu was in luck. She ran into an acquaintance who was also heading to the county seat and hitched a ride on his ox cart. By the time she arrived at the county yamen, the bailiffs were just beginning their shift.
She gave Head Constable Wang’s name to the guard at the entrance, and before long, she was led to the duty room behind the main court.
“…If you run into vagrants or child beggars while patrolling the streets, haul them all back to the yamen jail! With the New Year festival only days away, keep your eyes sharp!”
Head Constable Wang seemed to be lecturing his men inside, so Fan Changyu did not barge in rashly, choosing instead to wait quietly outside the door.
Once Head Constable Wang finished giving his orders, the corner of his eye caught sight of Fan Changyu waiting outside the door. He gave a wave of his hand, and the bailiffs picked up their yamen sidearms, heading out in twos and threes—looking as though they were setting off to patrol the streets.
Only then did Fan Changyu step inside, saying, “Wang Shu seems quite busy today. I apologize for disturbing you.”
The cold outside was heavy, but a charcoal brazier burned inside the room, filling it with toastiness. Before long, a faint layer of mist condensed upon her eyelashes.
Head Constable Wang poured her a cup of ginger tea to ward off the chill, saying, “It’s nothing to speak of. It’s always like this around this time of year. Only this year, I suppose the bandits have been far too brazen, taking many lives. The authorities above are cracking down hard on outsiders—anyone without household registration papers or travel permits gets locked up in the main jail. These past two days, they’ve also been rounding up vagrants and child beggars.”
Hearing this, Fan Changyu recalled that Yan Zheng currently had no household registration, and she could not help but clench her pair of hands, which were flushed red from the cold.
Noticing that she seemed to have a secret trouble she was hesitant to speak of, Head Constable Wang asked, “Did you come today regarding the transfer of ownership for your family’s house and land?”
Fan Changyu nodded.
Head Constable Wang said, “I forgot to tell you earlier, but Fan Da has already submitted his official complaint. Until the lawsuit is settled, this property cannot be transferred. But don’t worry, since you’ve already taken in a live-in husband, even if it goes to court, the county magistrate will surely rule in favor of awarding your parents’ estate to you. It’s just a bit more of a hassle, that’s all.”
Fan Changyu had not expected such a complicated process.
Recalling the basin of water she had splashed over the courtyard wall last night, she asked, “What if, on the day we confront each other in court, my eldest uncle fails to show up?”
Head Constable Wang glanced at her and said, “Then the complaint becomes null and void. What’s more, such an act carries suspicion of flouting the law and disrupting the court. He’d be dealt twenty heavy strokes of the paddle to make an example of him for others!”
At once, Fan Changyu felt a wave of regret. She wished she had splashed that entire vat of cold water outside the wall last night.
Head Constable Wang asked her, “Why do you ask about this?”
Fan Changyu coughed lightly, “Just asking out of curiosity.”
She held the steaming teacup in both hands, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing against its rim, “There’s one more matter I must ask for Wang Shu’s help with.”
Head Constable Wang replied, “Speak freely.”
Only then did Fan Changyu disclose Xie Zheng’s background, “My husband’s money and household registration documents were all taken by bandits. Now that he has married into my family, I wish to re-issue a household registration for him.”
The smile on Head Constable Wang’s face vanished. Only after a long silence did he speak up, “Catching us right at this critical juncture, re-issuing a household registration is truly no easy task.”
However, once Fan Changyu and Fan Da confronted each other in court, since she claimed to have taken in a live-in husband, the magistrate would surely inquire about her husband’s place of origin. If he had no household registration to prove his identity, her husband might very well be imprisoned as well.
When that time came, not only she might lose her property, but her husband would also suffer.
Head Constable Wang paced back and forth in the duty room for two turns. At last, he stomped his foot hard and turned to Fan Changyu, saying, “Follow me.”
The deputy magistrate in charge of household registration in Qingping County was Head Constable Wang’s close friend. Relying on this connection, he managed to help Fan Changyu re-issue a household registration for her husband.
Fan Changyu showered Head Constable Wang with profuse thanks, but Head Constable Wang merely said, “Just make sure you don’t speak of this to outsiders, or I won’t have good fruit to eat either. Years ago, your father saved my life, helping you today can be considered repaying that favor to your father…”
Fan Changyu hurriedly gave her assurance, “You have done me such an immense favor, I couldn’t be more grateful. How could I possibly lack a guard on my mouth and go blabbing outside?”
Head Constable Wang felt a surge of emotion as he recalled his old friend: “Your father was truly a strange fellow. With his martial skill, he could have easily taken a post in the yamen back then, yet he insisted on butchering pigs.”
Fan Changyu said, “In his earlier years, my father worked as an armed escort out on the road, and my mother was constantly plagued by fear. After my father washed his hands in a golden basin to quit the trade, he only wanted to settle into a safe, steady business to set my mother’s heart at ease.”
These were all things she had heard her father and mother speak of in the past.
Head Constable Wang also knew the temperament of his late friend. He let out a sigh and said no more.
After bidding farewell to Head Constable Wang, Fan Changyu went to her younger sister’s favorite sweets shop and bought a package of maltose candies.
Originally, she had thought that after transferring the ownership of their property, she could sell off the few mu of farmland in the countryside to exchange for silver. That way, she could pick up some New Year goods on her way home, and also have the money to purchase pigs and young piglets.
Yet plans could not keep pace with changes. Since the property ownership could not be transferred for the time being, the only coin left in her pouch was the meager registry gift money offered by neighboring friends who came for wedding drinks yesterday—adding up to less than a single tael.
Naturally, she could no longer afford the tonics she had planned to buy for Yan Zheng. Unwilling to go back empty-handed, however, she noticed a roadside peddler selling hair cords, hair ribbons, and the like, and spent a few wen to buy him an dark blue hair ribbon.
Aside from the day of their wedding, he had hardly ever bound his hair.
Fan Changyu guessed it was for lack of a hair ribbon; since the red wedding ribbon was ill-suited for everyday wear, it was better to buy him one anyway.
As Fan Changyu was paying, a raggedly dressed person up ahead came sprinting wildly in her direction. In panic, the runner even knocked over a few street stalls. Several official guards chasing behind shouted as they ran, “Stop!”
How could the runner dare stop? Taking to flight for life’s sake, the fugitive kept tearing ahead while the guards hurried in pursuit.
Fan Changyu originally thought that person had committed some crime, but someone nearby let out a tut of disapproval: “They say a newly appointed official strikes three fires upon taking office. That Military Commissioner who just took over Huizhou is indeed worthy of being a Wei. Under the banner of bandit suppression, he doesn’t send troops to besiege those mountain bandits and outlaws, but instead turns his fire upon the refugees fleeing from the north. How utterly innocent are these refugees who were forced to leave their homes…”
So those official guards were chasing refugees. Recalling Head Constable Wang’s words, Fan Changyu could not help but feel a strange unease in her heart.
She glanced at the speaker. He and the few companions beside him were all wearing long robes of the exact same style—a garment Fan Changyu had also seen Song Yan wear, which served as the uniform for the county school. By the look of it, these men were all scholars from the academy.
His companion sneered mockingly, “The Wei father and son blot out the sun with a single hand while imperial power wanes. This entire Great Yin Dynasty rotted to the core like decayed wood long ago! Now that Huizhou’s military command has also fallen into their hands, as I see it, this Great Yin Dynasty might as well change its surname to Wei!”
Though Fan Changyu had grown up without ever stepping foot outside Qingping County, even she knew who the Wei father and son they spoke of were.
The current Prime Minister, Wei Yan, had risen to power sixteen years ago after the Crown Prince Chengde died while personally leading an expedition to Jinzhou. The old emperor, overcome with grief, also passed away soon afterward. Wei Yan then supported the young child emperor on the throne and has controlled the imperial court for more than a decade. By now, the people of the Great Yin know only the Prime Minister and not the Emperor.
His son, Wei Xuan, is even more brazen, regarding himself as the Crown Prince’s equal. His hands are stained with the blood of countless loyal ministers and valiant generals; to say that he is steeped in evil would hardly be an exaggeration.
Common folk were preoccupied with scraping together a living, and the news that reached their ears was strictly what the authorities deliberately released. The various inside truths were better known by these scholars who studied to pass the civil service exams and analyze the political landscape.
Fan Changyu could not help but prick up her ears to keep listening.
The scholar who had spoken earlier said, “Without Marquis Wu’an guarding the Northwest Pass, how long this realm can still remain at peace is anybody’s guess. Even if Wei Yan has the ambition, I’m afraid he doesn’t have the stomach to sit on the Dragon Throne!”
The name of Marquis Wu’an, Xie Zheng, is one that resounds throughout the current dynasty, though opinions of him are sharply divided.
His birth father was Xie Linshan, Great General Protector of the Realm, who had accompanied Crown Prince Chengde on the campaign to Jinzhou sixteen years ago. Though pierced by countless arrows, he remained upright, using the army banner as a staff, and died standing.
His maternal uncle was none other than Wei Yan, who had held absolute sway over the imperial court for over a decade.
Such lineage was highly controversial in itself; to make matters worse, he happened to have been raised by his uncle, leading court ministers to universally view him as a member of the Wei Faction.
And Xie Zheng’s methods were indeed every bit as ruthless and brutal as his uncle’s.
At seventeen, he won the battle that made his name by reclaiming Jinzhou. To this day, merely mentioning it was enough to send shivers down people’s spines. It was said that after taking Jinzhou, he ordered the city massacred, sparing not even the youngest children. The armor of the eight hundred elite cavalrymen under his command was completely stained red with blood. From then on, people came to call those eight hundred riders the Blood-Robed Cavalry.
The people of Beijue trembled with fear at the mere mention of his name. The Twelve Counties of Liaodong, which had been seized by Beijue since the previous dynasty, were also reclaimed by him.
With such illustrious military achievements to his name, he was granted the title of Marquis Wu’an upon reaching twenty.
Pacifying the realm through martial prowess—across all dynasties, he was the only person ever bestowed with this title.
It was precisely because Wei Yan held such an unstoppable blade in his hand that he could occupy the prime minister’s seat, reduce the imperial authority into a mere shell, and maintain his grip over the imperial court to this day.
The court ministers denounced Xie Zheng as part of the Wei Faction on one hand, while desperately counting on him to guard the empire’s border on the other.
Some went so far as to declare: should he stand guard at the borders, the world would remain at peace; should his ambitions turn toward the imperial court, the entire realm would fall into turmoil.
At this moment, hearing the scholar abruptly say “without Marquis Wu’an guarding the Northwest Pass”, Fan Changyu felt only strangeness in her heart. Someone beat her to asking, “What happened to Marquis Wu’an?”
The scholar replied, “You still don’t know? After the Battle of Chongzhou, the fate of Marquis Wu’an became unknown. And now Wei Xuan has taken over his military command in Huizhou. I’d say he’s probably already dead.”
A commotion immediately broke out among those present, most of them questioning whether the scholar’s words were true.
Everyone hated Marquis Wu’an for being the blade in Wei Yan’s hands, and feared him for treating human lives as grass and killing without mercy. Yet no one could deny that he was a pillar of the Great Yin’s northwest frontier.
Now that this pillar had fallen, who in the Great Yin could possibly hold up the sky over the northwest?
Bombarded by questions from all sides, the scholar could barely get a word in. In a huff, he said, “If you think what I’m saying is false, then go find out for yourselves. See whether the northwest hasn’t just appointed a new Military Commissioner!”
Having caught an earful of matters concerning the fate of the empire, Fan Changyu felt rather anxious and heavy-hearted on her way home.
Jizhou bordered Chongzhou. If the flames of war spread to Jizhou, she had no idea where she and her younger sister could flee for refuge.
Then she remembered that Yan Zheng had fled from Chongzhou, and thought she could ask him once she got home. Perhaps he knew something about what had happened to Marquis Wu’an on the Chongzhou battlefield.
Chongzhou was nothing more than a rebellion led by a prince in revolt. How did it come to claim even the Great Yin’s God of War?
She was just about to turn the corner and reach the entrance to the alley when she ran into a woman who lived there. Fan Changyu greeted her warmly. “Tao Shen, off to buy groceries?”
The woman nodded, but seemed reluctant to speak. There was something rather strange about her expression.
The title of this chapter is Wǔ'ān tiānxià (武安天下), which can be understood as “Pacifying the Realm through Martial Prowess.” Xie Zheng’s title, Marquis Wu'an (武安侯/Wǔ'ān hóu), is derived from the same phrase: 武安 meaning to pacify the realm through military might, while 天下 refers to the realm or all under Heaven.
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