Braving the County Yamen

Yu Qian fell into thought. "All along the way, disaster victims in every county said their grain had been donated by daoist priest Pan Yun of Mount Sanqing. Is Mount Sanqing really that wealthy?"

"Wealthy? Mount Sanqing is poor as can be," the old man said. "Temple Master Wang is famously a squanderer in our Yushan County. His family used to be quite rich, but he drained the family fortune building Sanqing Temple. Later, he had to rely on his son to support him."

Yu Qian asked, "Then where did they get so much grain and medicine?"

"Sanqing Temple has no money, but Temple Attendant Pan does," the old man said. "Not long ago, she went to Japan to kill pirates and avenge the people of Quanzhou."

Yu Qian looked utterly baffled. "So?"

With an expression that plainly said, You really are stupid, the old man replied, "Once she killed the Japanese pirates, everything in their dens naturally belonged to the temple attendant. I reckon she used all the gold, silver, and treasures she seized in Japan for disaster relief."

Yet before setting out, Yu Qian had waited outside the Grand Secretariat for the seals to be affixed. At the time, Chen Liutao and Qu Zhixing had been questioned inside the Grand Secretariat. When the spoils from their trip to Japan came up, both had said that Pan Yun had divided everything she gained among the knight-errants. As a result, she could not even produce the five thousand taels needed to build the port, and in the end, she had exchanged the operating rights to Nanao Port with the Masuda Family.

Yu Qian did not believe Pan Yun could hide valuables from the eyes of the Imperial Guards.

Even if she had, he did not believe that little money could