Planning

"Lord Liu is a capable man who governed Nanyang very well during his tenure. The officials in the yamen and the village heads all trust him, and he is quite prestigious in Nanyang. However, he is about to retire, and his two sons, one a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial-level imperial examination) and the other a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the county-level imperial examination), have both failed the imperial examinations repeatedly. Seeing that he was about to retire, three years ago he appointed his eldest son, the Juren, as the instructor of Nanyang."

"If Lord Cai takes over his position, his son will still have to work for Lord Cai. So he's being quite accommodating to Lord Cai now. As long as it doesn't affect his interests, he turns a blind eye."

"Lord Cai, relying on the Crown Prince's influence, believes that the position of Prefect of Nanyang is his for the taking, and even Lord Wu cannot stop him. Therefore, he is becoming increasingly powerful, and he has been keeping the lucrative positions of salt and grain under his control. It will probably not be easy for you, young lady, to obtain either of these positions from him."

Zhao Ruxi then asked, "What is Lord Cai's reputation as an official? And what is the actual situation?"

"With Lord Liu in the lead, Lord Cai's reputation is not prominent. However, now that Lord Liu is willing to step down, it is estimated that Lord Cai will definitely build up his good name in the next two years. In private, he is very greedy. The reason he is so fixated on the salt and grain sectors is that he has made a lot of money from them. I privately suspect that most of his wealth is used as tribute to the Crown Prince. And his desire to become the head of a prefecture is also to seize power and resources for the Crown Prince."

Having served Zhao Ruxi for two years, Zhou Chun's perspective has broadened to the point where he shares similarities with the Old Madam and Lady Zhu, a significant change from before. He now considers issues from a deeper level rather than focusing on superficial appearances.

Zhao Ruxi frowned involuntarily.

She wasn't particularly power-hungry; she came to serve as an official in the local area simply to gain a deeper understanding of the local economy and to contribute her modest efforts to improving the lives of the local people.

Therefore, if Cai Yaozong is a good official and doesn't intend to bully her, she doesn't plan to engage in political struggle with him.

Now that she has sided with the Second and Fifth Prince, she feels she cannot get along peacefully with the Crown Prince's followers. Right under her nose, Cai Yaozong is allowed to embezzle money from salt and grain supplies and send it to the Crown Prince to use against Xiao Lingyan's faction. She feels utterly powerless.

Therefore, even if she wanted to be a Buddha, she could only be a fighting Buddha; she had no other choice.

She asked, "What are Cai Yaozong's weaknesses? What's the family situation of Chen Kang, the official in charge of the civil affairs department whom I asked you to inquire about?"

Zhou Chun said with difficulty, "I haven't found any weaknesses in Cai Yaozong. As for Chen Kang, he's just fifty years old this year, has three children, his daughter is married, and his son is still alive, currently working as a clerk in the household registration office. His nephew owns a restaurant, and Chen Kang Family should have a large share. Although the family isn't rich, they're comfortably well-off. However, the young lady hinted that this Chen Kang has connections in both the legitimate and underworld circles. I've only found out these obvious things; I haven't found out anything about his secret dealings. I'm afraid of alerting him, so I dare not inquire further."

"You did a good job," Zhao Ruxi praised.

This was also what Zhou Chun had instructed her to do when she came.

Chen Kang is the kind of person with incredibly sharp ears and eyes. If someone makes even a small inquiry, the news will reach his ears. And regardless of whether your intentions are good or bad, investigating others without cause is an act that offends people in itself.

She's new here, and before she's even done anything, she's already offended the local bullies. That's definitely a very unwise move.

Zhou Chun was an ordinary person and a complete stranger, so he could only rely on hearsay and rumors; he couldn't openly ask anyone for information. Who knew if the waiter at the restaurant or the beggar at the city gate were Chen Kang's men?

She didn't want to do anything to Chen Kang, so there was no need for her to cause trouble. Besides, Xiao Lingyan had already given her quite detailed information, so Zhou Chun would naturally try to find out as much as she could.

"Chen Kang is fifty this year. He should have grandsons by now, right? How old are his grandsons?" Zhao Ruxi asked.

"He has three grandsons, the oldest is sixteen and the youngest is seven. Chen Kang is worried about his grandsons' future," Zhou Chun said.

The officialdom rules of the Great Jin were very similar to those of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Officials and clerks were clearly distinguished. The status of clerks was equivalent to that of servants, so clerks and their descendants were not allowed to participate in the imperial examinations.

In other words, even though Chen Kang was a powerful figure who had connections in both the legitimate and criminal worlds in Nanyang, and was a local tyrant whom officials dared not ignore and needed his support to gain a foothold in Nanyang, no matter how much trouble he and his descendants caused, they could not escape the constraints of his social status.

Chen Kang was a clerk, his son was a clerk, and his grandson had no other way out but to become a clerk.

But everything has its rise and fall. If the Chen family wants to maintain control of the government office for generations, then each generation would have to be a powerful figure. But that's rare.

A powerful father might be too domineering in raising his son, resulting in a son who is timid and incapable of standing up for himself. His grandson might even become a spoiled brat who only knows how to eat, drink, and have fun. People say "wealth doesn't last three generations," and that's the reason.

With Chen Kang's protection, his son can still stay in the government office. But when Chen Kang gets old or passes away, his son will be unable to make a name for himself, and his grandson will be even more useless. The people Chen Kang offended back then will take advantage of the Chen family's misfortune. At that time, it will be difficult for the Chen family not to decline.

Zhao Ruxi asked Zhou Chun to inquire about Chen Kang's situation, intending to start from there.

She said, "It's very difficult to cultivate someone as capable as Chen Kang. It requires not only talent but also a suitable environment for growth. However, it's not difficult to cultivate a master of mathematics or a painter. Although talent is also involved, even without talent, as long as one is willing to work hard, it's still possible to surpass the average person in that field."

Zhou Chun's eyes lit up.

Although Cai Yaozong was assigned to manage salt and grain affairs, he was, after all, an official sent from another region. All these tasks had to be delegated to clerks and lower-level personnel. Without the cooperation of his subordinates, Cai Yaozong was nothing more than a figurehead commander, completely ineffective.

Therefore, if Cai Yaozong wanted to take control of these affairs, he had to win over Chen Kang. Chen Kang was the head of all the clerks and runners, and he secretly controlled them all.

If Zhao Ruxi wanted to seize power from Cai Yaozong, she didn't need to fight Cai Yaozong; she could simply cut off his supply lines and take over the power she coveted.

Cai Yaozong had been in Nanyang for many years and was naturally in cahoots with Chen Kang. The two were bound to have intertwined interests and collude with each other. It would not be easy to get Chen Kang to abandon Cai Yaozong, who was about to become the prefect of Nanyang, and cooperate with Zhao Ruxi.

But what if we're thinking about our descendants?