The harm done by aristocratic clans was even worse than that of rebels.
The latter blazed fiercely like fire, but there were always ways to put them out.
The former had existed since ancient times. Everyone could see the great clans digging away at a dynasty's foundations, yet there were rarely any means to restrain them.
Zhou Yi slowly shook his head. "You are not the first to say this, nor will you be the last. The great clans' evils run deep, but that is no reason to become a corrupt official."
"Cough, cough, cough. Easy for you to say!"
After naming the Lu Family, the prisoner seemed to have completely let go.
"This official... My parents starved to death because officials embezzled the disaster relief grain. Back then, I swore that once I passed the imperial examination with high honors, I would cleanse the court and purge the whole realm!"
Zhou Yi showed a little more interest. "Tell me about your supposedly bitter and tragic, but actually cliché, past."
"..."
The prisoner was rather helpless. But with death not far off, this was probably the last time he would speak with anyone before his execution.
"After ten years of grinding away at my books, I passed the jinshi examination and became the magistrate of a region. I had thought I could finally display my ambitions. Yet the clerks in the yamen were all controlled by local powerful clans. Orders never left the hall, and commands could not enter the villages."
The prisoner glanced at Zhou Yi. "The most difficult ones to deal with were lowborn clerks like you."
Zhou Yi nodded slightly. Imperial power and clerks ruled the realm together—how could that merely be empty talk?
"After being shunted through several counties, not only did I fail to accomplish anything, I became the laughingstock of my fellow graduates. Every year, I received a middling-low evaluation!"
The prisoner muttered, "After wasting my years like that, what lofty ambition could possibly remain? So I simply let them have their way. Every day, I read and wrote a little, while ignoring all yamen affairs."
His ideals and future had been ground away by reality, turning him into a muddleheaded official.
Zhou Yi asked, "What does this have to do with the Lu Family?"
"In the sixth or seventh year of Hongchang, I took up my post in Changfeng County, just as floods struck... Rivers burst their banks, and people became fish and turtles."
The prisoner recalled, "As usual, I submitted a memorial asking the Ministry of Revenue to allocate silver and grain for disaster relief. According to procedure, the court first had to send people to inspect the disaster, then draft a relief plan. The back-and-forth dragged on for a long time."
"By the time a major disaster was handled, most people were already dead, so less silver needed to be allocated. A minor disaster would pass on its own, so there was no need to save anyone."
"Who would have thought that the court would swiftly issue orders to transport grain from several neighboring counties and allocate another three hundred thousand taels of disaster relief silver?"
"With relief efforts on such a scale, Changfeng County would surely weather the floods with ease. I could barely sleep night or day. After idling away ten years, I could finally do something for the people and fulfill my parents' dying wish!"
At this point, the prisoner paused. "During that famine, my parents told me on their deathbeds: in the future, be a good official and save the people from fire and water!"
Zhou Yi straightened his posture. This criminal official truly was somewhat different from the others.
The Heavenly Prison was packed with corrupt officials. Zhou Yi had listened to their reasons for lining their pockets. Though they appeared strange and varied, in the end it was simply desire for pleasure at work.
"Just as I was overjoyedly preparing to provide relief, people from the Lu Family arrived."
The prisoner said bitterly, "A lowly gatekeeper pointed at an imperial graduate and cursed me out. He said the grain and silver had been requested from the court by the Lu Family, so why should they be distributed to commoners?"
"Only then did I understand why the court had allocated money and grain that had nothing to do with my memorial!"
Zhou Yi said, "In the end, the disaster relief grain and silver were delivered to the Lu Family?"
"What else could I do?"
The prisoner said, "Changfeng County belonged to Luyang Prefecture. The Lu Family had entrenched itself there for a thousand years. If I dared say no, I would embezzle the grain and silver that very day, then commit suicide out of fear of punishment!"
"And after that?"
Zhou Yi did not truly need to ask. He could already guess what followed.
"The grain and silver were delivered to the Lu Family, while the people of Changfeng County suffered dreadful casualties and could only sell their sons and daughters to survive..."
The prisoner sighed. "That year, I was rated first-class. The censor praised me for loving the people as my own children and rendering meritorious disaster relief. A year later, I was transferred to Luyang Prefecture as Vice Prefect!"
A vice prefect of a local prefecture was also seventh rank, but crossing from a county to a prefecture in one step counted as a promotion.
One natural disaster: the Lu Family gained silver and land, the prisoner gained a promotion, and everyone was delighted!
"From then on, I became an official of the Lu Family. I received first-class evaluations every year, and in just over ten years I rose to become Prefect of Luzhou, governing an entire region."
The prisoner gave a derisive grin. "Those fellow graduates who once mocked me became close friends one after another. To curry favor with me, they sent silver, gifted me famous courtesans, composed poems and lyrics, and exhausted every trick of flattery!"
"From then on, whenever there was money, I embezzled it. Whenever there was an office, I sold it. I was utterly unfettered..."
"And lawless besides!"
Zhou Yi snorted coldly. This man had endured frustration and despair, then completely fallen into corruption amid the fear of death.
The prisoner's gaze was distant, his voice ethereal. "What is law? It is the court's method for governing and binding the people! What is Heaven? His Majesty is Heaven, the court is Heaven, and scholars are Heaven!"
Zhou Yi said, "Yet you are about to die."
"The moment I became the Lu Family's dog, I was already dead."
The prisoner's eyes were hollow and lifeless. "What would killing me accomplish? No one can change officialdom, and no one can save the court!"
Zhou Yi said coldly, "Every corrupt official counts. Once caught, they will be flayed and stuffed with straw."
The prisoner said, "Then the replacements will simply be another batch of corrupt officials!"
Zhou Yi asked, "So the court is rotten to the core?"
The prisoner gently shook his head and pointed to his own face. "It is not the court that is rotten, nor are the great clans rotten. It is scholars who are rotten to the core!"
Zhou Yi was slightly stunned. This fellow truly was different from the previous corrupt officials. Curious, he asked, "You were the Lu Family's dog and served as an official in Luyang. How did you end up in the Heavenly Prison?"
"When a master fattens up a dog, naturally he kills it and eats it, lest the dog someday turn around and become the master."
The prisoner said, "That way, the Lu Family not only seized the silver, but also won the people's hearts. The corrupt officials who brought calamity upon the region were captured by the Lu Family's upright lords. The common people clapped and cheered!"
"Looks like you were not the first dog."
"Nor the last."
"Did you never think of resisting?"
"Would it have been useful?"
The prisoner's retort left Zhou Yi stunned for a long while.
A great clan passed down for a thousand years—merely thinking about it was terrifying. Without a golden finger or some cheat, there truly seemed no way to begin.
He left the cell.
Zhou Yi reported the interrogation results to Zhu Xiaowei in full, without concealing a single detail.
"The Lu Family!"
Zhu Xiaowei's eyes widened. "Does that mean we cannot recover it?"
Zhou Yi asked suspiciously, "Old Zhu, something is wrong with you. Why are you so concerned about this?"
"Nothing, nothing! Old Zhou, you get busy. I have something to take care of outside."
Zhu Xiaowei repeatedly denied it, cupped his hands in farewell, and slipped away.
Zhou Yi frowned slightly. Could Old Zhu have latched onto some important figure and be handling matters for them? Several million taels of silver would be enough to raise an army. In the entire Fengyang Kingdom, only a few people could possibly need it!
He was not worried about Zhu Xiaowei's safety. Everyone chose their own path and had to bear the consequences themselves.
Zhou Yi feared being caught in the calamity. If Zhu Xiaowei were implicated in a major case, Zhou Yi, as his usual friend, would inevitably be dragged into it.
His words became prophecy.
The first month of the eighteenth year of Hongchang.
Before the New Year's festive air had fully faded, a shocking case erupted in the Fengyang Kingdom, shaking the court.
Crown Prince Regent Zhao Chi intended to murder the Emperor!
The Brocade Guard caught the imperial chef attempting to poison him on the spot. After interrogating him through the night, they found a dragon robe and the Imperial Jade Seal in the Eastern Palace.
According to testimony from the Eastern Palace eunuchs, the Crown Prince had ordered them to address him as "Your Majesty" in daily life and the Crown Princess as "Her Majesty the Empress," while all other consorts and concubines were assigned places corresponding to the imperial harem.
Faced with irrefutable evidence, Zhao Chi could not refute it. He admitted to colluding with the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation's estate in an attempt at rebellion.
Hongchang was furious!
The Imperial Guards surrounded the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation's estate, while the Brocade Guard searched the entire city for members of the Crown Prince's Faction.
Zhu Xiaowei was one of the little pawns who had only recently thrown himself under the Crown Prince's banner!
Before you continue