"Tch." A townsperson who had been browsing in the shop, wanting to buy a few catties of flour, had come in because the Huang family shop was closer. Hearing this, he thought: A merchant lording it over customers? How arrogant.
"Uncle, you can go to the Wang and Ye family shops! They sell grain too."
That's right, that's right—how could he have forgotten about the Wang and Ye families?
If they wouldn't sell here, they'd just go buy from Wang and Ye family shops.
The shop assistant watched the two leave together, unconcerned.
The Wang and Ye families were nothing compared to the Huang family. They were just small merchants. How could they possibly have that much coarse grain in stock? When they couldn't buy any there, they'd come crawling back soon enough.
Huang Zheng sent people to pass word to the Ge, Li, and Jia families, asking them to cooperate by closing their shops. But the next day, the servants returned saying the Ge, Li, and Jia shops were all open! Not closed at all.
What?
Rebellion! All of them — in rebellion!
Huang Zheng was furious and stormed straight to their doors to confront them. Weren't they family friends? He'd only asked them to close up for a while as a favor, and they wouldn't help? Were they looking down on him, Huang Zheng?
The head of the Jia family was still willing to save face, but Huang Zheng's accusatory, interrogating tone rubbed him the wrong way:
"You know we're family friends? Do you know what your son did to my son? My son just told him not to gallop through the streets, and your son made him bark like a dog—threatening to beat him if he didn't. Do you know about that?"
Huang Zheng said nothing.
"You must know. That happened just two years ago. Did you ever bring your son to apologize? Did you ever give my son any closure? And you call us family friends?"
Back then, Huang Zheng had thought it was nothing—like his son slapping a servant. Why should he make his son apologize to a servant?
Sure, they were family friends, but the Ge, Li, and Jia families were smaller businesses than the Huang family. Huang Zheng had never really thought much of them anyway.
The Jia family head knew exactly what he was thinking.
And with that attitude, he still expected the Jia family to go against the official for his sake? He might as well go dream on!
Fight against the official? Were they insane? The prefect had people, he had silver—what did they have to oppose him with?
Could an ant really hope to trip an elephant?
And he thought the prefect was like the magistrate of Anhe County and the deputy prefect, someone he could push around?
"Fine. Remember this, old man." Huang Zheng stormed off in a rage.
Now his only hope was that the Wang and Ye families didn't have enough grain in stock to keep selling.
But half a month passed, and the Wang and Ye shops were still selling coarse grains as usual, as if they hadn't run out.
How was that possible!
These two shops weren't large; business had never been great, and they wouldn't stock huge amounts of grain—it was hard to store, prone to dampness and bugs, and the longer it sat, the older it got, making it harder to sell.
So what was going on this time?
He sent people to investigate again and found out that the two families had been quietly shipping in large quantities of grain from outside for months.
Huang Zheng slumped onto his stool, defeated.
The official had been planning to take down his Huang family for months now!
There'd been no sign of it before—he'd just been waiting for this moment to strike.
With no other choice, Huang Zheng brought gifts and begged for an audience with Fang Zichen, pleading for mercy and asking him to go easy on the Huang family.
Fang Zichen still refused to see him.
What good was keeping such a merchant around?
He'd given Huang Zheng a chance. If Huang Zheng had come to him as soon as he realized what was happening, it would have been one thing. But instead, Huang Zheng tried to turn the tables and intimidate him, showing him no respect at all—how could that be tolerated?
This was a blatant defiance of the authorities.
A mere merchant daring to act this way—he was already arrogant enough to fly to the heavens. If Fang Zichen didn't teach him a lesson, the Huang family would forget who was truly in charge in Hezhou.
This was the price of provoking him.
So what if they were a powerful local gentry clan?
Did they think he couldn't touch them?
The events from over twenty years ago were hard to investigate, and while there was no clear evidence of what Huang Zheng had done back then, some things didn't need evidence. Even if he couldn't be punished with proof, there were other ways to bring him down.
When the deputy prefect heard about this, he was overjoyed. Earlier, when Fang Zichen had made no move, he'd thought Fang Zichen had forgotten about it, or else that after investigating the Huang family, he'd decided they were too tough to touch and let it go. He never expected that Fang Zichen had been waiting for this moment all along.
Now that's what you call a true official!
He didn't act unless he was ready—but when he did... Huang Zheng must be running around in a panic by now!
And indeed, Huang Zheng was frantic.
Without being able to buy any grain, he couldn't ship anything out to sell this year.
The Huang family ran grain shops in Qinzhou, Jizhou, and other places, but they weren't as dominant as the Hezhou shop—not quite reaching the point of monopolizing everything. They were operating on someone else's turf. A small business wouldn't draw attention, but once a business grew too big and started blocking everyone else's way, people were bound to come after it.
A mighty dragon doesn't crush a local snake—those shops had no grain to sell now and had all shut down.
What about shipping grain from outside to sell in Hezhou?
That approach wouldn't work.
Outside, a catty of grain went for over ten copper coins. Even after shipping and labor, it would still cost more than ten copper coins. Who would buy it?
Coarse grain might still sell, but trying to buy in bulk from other regions with no connections? That was impossible.
"Father, what do we do?" Huang Bingzhong asked anxiously.
Huang Zheng had been worrying so much lately that most of his hair had turned white. Hearing his son's question now, a surge of anger shot straight to his head.
What to do?
If he knew what to do, would he still be sitting here?
The son he'd raised was utterly useless—over twenty years old, and when trouble came, he couldn't even come up with a single idea or ease his father's burden. All he could do was ask, "What do we do?"
Huang Bingzhong felt his father's fixed stare and grew uneasy: "Father, why are you looking at me like that? Hurry up and think of something!"
Huang Zheng slapped him across the face. "Useless waste! Get out of my sight!"
Madam Huang quickly signaled her son to leave. "Don't be angry, Master. Xiao Zhong is just worried. Please don't be upset—we still have those fields over in Anhe County, don't we?"
The fields in four villages there all belonged to the Huang family—several hundred mu. This year they'd used chemical fertilizer, and the yield was good; they'd harvested plenty. That could tide them over for a while. Though the shops in other prefectures were closed, the Hezhou locations still had grain to sell and could hold out for a bit. No need to panic yet.
Huang Zheng was about to breathe a sigh of relief when a servant came running in.
"Master! Master! Bad news!"
Huang Zheng hurriedly asked: "What happened?"
The servant said: "Word came from Anhe County—they say, they say..."
Huang Zheng bellowed: "What did they say?!"
The servant broke into a sweat: "The prefect has ordered the people of Pingtian Village and Pingshi Village to go... go open up wasteland."
"What?!" Huang Zheng swayed, barely able to stay upright.
Opening up wasteland—then who would farm his fields?
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