Chapter 363
The river channel hadn't even been dug yet, and even if the explosives were ready, there was no use for them. With Zhao Ger handling matters outside, Fang Zichen had thought he could take a few days off—but now there was no chance of that.
The backlog of official memorials had piled up like a mountain. Minor matters the deputy prefect could decide on his own, but for major issues, Fang Zichen had to make the call.
He hadn't even looked at the memorials the deputy prefect had sent over earlier. Zhao Ger had gotten Uncle Tang to keep an eye on him. Fang Zichen wasn't afraid of Uncle Tang—but he was afraid of the old coot tattling on him.
Though Uncle Tang was a servant, he had been sold into the Meng family when he was very young, with no memories of before. He had grown up alongside Meng Ruqing. Meng Ruqing had a good nature and treated him kindly, and the other servants, being good at reading the room, showed Uncle Tang respect as well. Later, when Uncle Tang followed Meng Ruqing to Hengyang—a prosperous region—he used to hear General Qin talk about places where people were starving to death, and he would sigh in pity.
"What era is this? People are still starving to death?"
But then he came to Hezhou. Along the way, everything was bleak and desolate. He saw common folk shivering in rags, their eyes vacant and dull—and only then did Uncle Tang truly understand.
This world! Some people feast on fish and meat, while others struggle just to get by.
He knew exactly what Fang Zichen was trying to do. Now he just wanted him to get things done quickly, so the common people could have enough to eat and stop starving year after year.
Before, Uncle Tang had doted most on Guaizai and the little ones, Gungun and Dandan. But now he didn't even spare them a glance—he left them to Xiao Feng and stood behind Fang Zichen the entire time, supervising him with piercing eyes. Fang Zichen felt like his back was about to catch fire, his nerves wound tight, as if Tang Momo were standing right behind him, ready to jab embroidery needle into his backside the moment he moved.
[Fang Zichen jokingly calls him "Tang Momo" as a playful jab at the infamous Rong Momo (容嬷嬷) from My Fair Princess — a strict, intimidating momo who punished with a needle]
Even when he used to do homework, his parents had never watched him this closely.
The moment Fang Zichen moved, Uncle Tang asked what he was up to. Fang Zichen said he needed to use the latrine—and Uncle Tang followed him every step of the way, not leaving his side for an inch.
Fang Zichen had barely been inside a moment when Uncle Tang called out.
"Master, are you done?"
"...Not yet."
"Master, you've been in there nearly half an incense stick already."
"I've got the runs."
"Master, if you keep this up, when the Zhujun returns, I'll have to tell him."
Fang Zichen: "......"
This old relic—if he were twenty years younger, I'd probably be laid up in bed right now after he'd finished teaching me a lesson.
Fang Zichen pulled up his trousers and came out, forcing himself to patiently review documents for half a shichen (1 hour). Then he kicked up another fuss.
Damn it all.
Out of thirty memorials, twelve were from the magistrate of Shunan County, saying the bandits there were running rampant and asking Fang Zichen to send troops to wipe out their lair.
The memorial spelled it out clearly: this bunch of bandits had swelled to around a hundred men, holed up in Shunan's Xishan Mountain, Longhu Mountain, and the Qiuling Hills. They were active in the area and had earned quite a fearsome reputation from their raids. Many down-and-out men had even gone to join them. If they weren't dealt with soon, they would only grow bolder and become an endless scourge.
Northeast of Shunan bordered the western part of Qinzhou, with only one official road. Merchants had to travel this route often; if they couldn't go through the Xishan area, they'd have to take a long detour.
That wasn't cost-effective.
If these bandits only robbed people of their money, it might still be bearable—they didn't just rob people, they also assaulted women. If anyone resisted, they were killed without mercy.
Previously, a merchant caravan along with its twenty-two armed escorts had all been slaughtered.
One servant who escaped reported the matter to the authorities, and the magistrate had no choice but to submit another memorial.
The magistrate was the highest local administrative official, managing all affairs of an entire county. The troops under him were the armed force, primarily for maintaining public order and defending against external threats.
Every county had at least a hundred to five hundred troops in reserve.
That many?
Were they just eating for nothing?
If a few hundred men couldn't handle barely a hundred bandits—they could drown the bandits just by spitting on them—and they still had the nerve to come crying to him for help? They were practically asking to be chewed out.
Just as he was fuming, the deputy prefect sent another memorial over with his own man.
The messenger, seeing Fang Zichen's sour expression, didn't dare breathe too loudly.
Fang Zichen couldn't even be bothered to write a reply and said directly: "Go back and tell your master to deploy fifty troops to reinforce Shunan. If Yang Chengfeng still can't capture those bandits, he can come see me with his head in a sack."
Yang Chengfeng was the magistrate of Shunan County.
The messenger was practically the deputy prefect's right-hand man and was well aware of the situation. He blurted out urgently: "My lord, sending just fifty men to wipe out that gang of bandits—that's going to be difficult!"
"Difficult?" Fang Zichen gave him a cold look. "Are the troops in Shunan just for show, then?"
"Huh? Shunan's troops?" The man realized the situation. Fang Zichen was a newly arrived official who hadn't even warmed his seat at the yamen before running off to Anhe County the very next day. He probably still didn't know Hezhou's affairs well. "My lord, Shunan has no troops!"
Fang Zichen frowned, wondering whether county magistrates were civil officials, meaning only military officers had the authority to command troops.
Then the man explained: here in Hezhou, the counties had no troops at all. A magistrate only had a few yamen runners under him—usually twenty to thirty for an entire county. There was no standing military reserve whatsoever.
What the hell!!!
They are all prefectures of Da Xia—so how come Shangyang, Xiayang, Hengyang, Yuanzhou, and the rest all have troops, yet Hezhou has none at all.
What's going on?
Then the man explained.
There had been troops before, but the previous prefect had disbanded them.
The former prefect had held absolute power. Since Hezhou was near the northwest, he had initially been afraid of enemies breaking through the defenses and attacking, so he hadn't dared to touch the military. But after more than a decade, though the enemy still harassed the border, the Northwest Army held the line and never let them through—so the prefect relaxed.
These troops were being maintained but never used. Every year, the imperial court sent a huge sum of money for them. If that money were to go into his own pocket instead...
Then three years ago, Da Yuan suddenly launched an invasion, sweeping all the way down to Xihe Town. Da Yuan nearly reached Hezhou's borders, and only then did the prefect get scared. But Da Yuan's rampage lasted only half a year before the Northwest Army drove them back out.
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