Taiheiki

Chapter 354 Trouble
A hush fell over the restaurant. Everyone held their breath, waiting for Kuai Sheng's next words. Everyone in Luoyang knew that General Wei Cong was a man destined for great things, but no one knew what those great things were. Now, his trusted confidant, Kuai Sheng, was finally about to reveal that secret.

Kuai Sheng remained silent, leisurely reclining on the brocade couch, gently swirling the wine in his silver cup. Liu Yu, finally unable to contain himself, asked, "Brother Junping, what exactly is the General's intention in doing this?"

"Hehehe!" Kuai Sheng laughed: "How am I supposed to answer this? As subordinates, we can only keep this to ourselves. If we were to say it out loud, we would be at a disadvantage!"

"Brother Kuai is absolutely right!"

"That's right, that's exactly it!"

Everyone in the restaurant nodded in agreement. Then, Young Master He asked, "But if that's the case, what can we do?"

"It's very simple. Support the things the General has done, such as building plazas, relocating refugees, constructing workshops, and prohibiting the felling of trees around Luoyang. The General is perfectly aware of everything you have done!"

"If that's the case, then how about we dine at Brother Kuai's restaurant?" Wang Geng asked.

“Of course it counts!” Kuai Sheng laughed. “Brother Wang’s name is already in the General’s heart!”

"If that's the case, then it's simple!" Wang Geng laughed. "Who, apart from a few old fogies, wouldn't enjoy lying on a couch, holding a beauty, and drinking?"

His words immediately sparked laughter, filling the entire restaurant with a cheerful atmosphere.

As time passed, the banquet descended into drunken revelry, and alcohol gradually took over everyone—except for Kuai Sheng himself, whose wine was diluted with a large amount of honey water, allowing him to remain sober. A servant hurried into the dining room, whispered a few words in his ear, and he stood up and quickly walked out.

As soon as he stepped out of the restaurant, the walls shut out the music and noise, and the quiet eased Kuai Sheng's brow. A minor official hurriedly knelt down: "My lord, an urgent message has arrived from Xuzhou!"

"Give it to me!" Kuai Sheng took the letter from the clerk. Under the Han Dynasty system, the Commandant of the Capital Region was originally responsible for monitoring and impeaching the powerful and wealthy in the capital area, as well as maintaining order in the capital. However, under Wei Cong's rule, due to Kuai Sheng's special relationship with him, as the Commandant of the Capital Region, he not only had the original powers but also the power to investigate and prosecute people in all directions, making it an organization similar to the Embroidered Uniform Guard in later generations.

Kuai Sheng opened the letter, read a few lines, and his expression immediately turned grim: "Where is the messenger? Where is he?"

"Wait outside the mansion!"

"Bring him in quickly!" Kuai Sheng shouted.

A moment later, the messenger was brought in, and Kuai Sheng immediately asked, "Are you sure that the bandit leader is a member of the Cao family of Pei State?"

"Reporting to the captain, my superior has confirmed that the bandit leader's surname is Cao, given name Ren, courtesy name Zixiao, from Qiao County, Pei State, and is a cousin of Young Master Cao."

"Nonsense!" Kuai Sheng retorted sharply, "Young Master Cao is a nobleman of the imperial court, and the Cao family of Pei State is a powerful local clan. How could his cousin become a thief and collude with a traitor like Wu Jing? Are you mistaken?"

"This—" The messenger was speechless, utterly bewildered by Kuai Sheng's outburst. It turned out that a few days earlier, the local official in Xuzhou had discovered the whereabouts of Wu Jing, who had participated in the Lugu Rebellion. Overjoyed, the official immediately led troops to apprehend him, only to find Wu Jing mingling with a group of bandits roaming the Huai and Si rivers. Without much thought, the official ordered an attack, and Wu Jing was beheaded. However, one of the bandits had a rather sensitive identity: Cao Ren, Cao Zixiao, from Qiao County, Pei State, who was Cao Cao's cousin. The official knew of Cao Cao's relationship with Wei Cong and that Wei Cong was a sentimental person, so he was immediately alarmed and hurriedly sent someone to report to Luoyang that very night.

Kuai Sheng paced back and forth a couple of times, calming himself down a bit. He gestured for the messenger to stand up and asked, "I'm going to ask you a few questions now. You must answer them truthfully, or even the Heavenly King himself can't save you!"

"Yes, yes, I will answer truthfully!" the messenger hurriedly replied.

"When you surrounded that group of thieves, did you attack immediately, or did you first identify yourself, demand that they hand over Wu Jing, and tell them why you wanted to capture that scoundrel?"

The messenger was taken aback for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he replied, "At that time, we immediately revealed our identities and told the gang of thieves that as long as they handed over the wanted criminal Wu Jing, they would not cause them any more trouble!"

"So what was their response?"

"Those thieves ignored our warnings and continued to mock and curse us!"

"Hmm!" Kuai Sheng nodded: "So what did you do next?"

The messenger glanced at Kuai Sheng's expression and cautiously replied, "My superiors repeatedly explained the consequences to us, but the band of thieves only became more arrogant, using foul language and even shooting at us with crossbows. Enraged, my superiors ordered an attack, wiping out all the bandits and beheading Wu Jing!"

"I see!" Kuai Sheng's expression softened slightly: "So, Cao Ren already knew beforehand that Wu Jing was a wanted criminal by the imperial court, yet he still dared to harbor him and resist the government troops?"

"That's true!" The messenger was secretly delighted upon hearing this and quickly added, "There are confessions from prisoners to prove it!"

“Hmm, harboring a wanted criminal is the same crime as harboring a wanted criminal!” Kuai Sheng suddenly asked, “You only took Wu Jing’s head, and that’s it?”

"This—" The messenger was stumped, wondering to himself what Kuai Sheng meant. Did he intend to pursue this further? What if it involved the General's old friend? Who could bear the consequences if a word came down from above?

"Are you afraid of implicating Young Master Cao, so you dare not investigate further? Are you trying to just brush this off?" Kuai Sheng asked. He sneered, "You've already killed people; do you think you can just cover this up?"

The messenger's legs went weak, and he knelt down again: "The captain is right, we were indeed confused!" "Hmph!" Kuai Sheng snorted coldly: "This kind of thing can't be hidden. Such a big living person is dead, sooner or later Young Master Cao will find out. He sent a letter to Luoyang, who can speak for you? This kind of case will only have a way out if everything is nailed down!"

"You mean—?"

"Go and investigate. Is that Cao Ren? Find out everything about him. Investigate whatever our General hates the most. Besides him, find out everything about everyone connected to him. Only in this way will you have a chance to survive!"

"Thank you for your guidance, Captain. I understand!"

After the messenger left, Kuai Sheng read the letter again, casually lit it by the candlelight, and said to the clerk, "You haven't been here tonight, remember that?"

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All travelers exiting from the valley gate of Luoyang City would traverse the Mangshan Mountains along the official road, then proceed to the southern city of Mengjin. From there, they would cross the Yellow River via a pontoon bridge to the north bank, reaching Heyang. From there, they would either continue north along the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains to Jizhou, or travel through the Taihang Pass or Zhiguan Pass to Bingzhou. Unlike before, travelers would find the roads beneath their feet drastically different—no longer the dusty, muddy rammed earth roads of sunny days and rainy days, but smooth, polished stone slab roads, or rather, cement roads. Merchants and travelers disembarking from the ferry were all amazed by the novel roads before them, considering them a miracle bestowed upon the Han Dynasty by the gods.

This stretch of road, approximately thirty kilometers long, was actually less than half completed—the finished road should have been wide enough for two four-wheeled carriages to travel side-by-side in each direction, but currently only one carriage could pass at a time in each direction. For safety reasons, pedestrians, oxcarts, and riders were prohibited from using the road itself, and were only allowed to use the existing dirt road on the right. Pedestrians watching the four-wheeled carriages speeding past on their left were practically bursting with envy.

"Why can't we go along too? If we have to pay, we'll pay!"

"Yes, just tell me how much it costs. I'm not a stingy person!"

"Yeah, why can't we travel? Are they bullying us outsiders?"

The minor official guarding the dock was surrounded by passengers who had just disembarked, many of whom were from Youzhou and Bingzhou. These border people were known for their tempers, and as they talked, some of them reached for the hilts of their swords. Upon seeing this, the minor official quickly waved his hands and said, "Hey, I'm not trying to bully you. This is all the General's order, for your own good!"

"Stop talking nonsense! Don't try to scare us with the General. Would the General issue an edict for such a trivial matter?" A burly man stepped forward and sneered, "Do you think we're three-year-olds?"

"Who's lying to you? Look at this wooden sign behind you! It's in the General's own handwriting, it can't be faked!" The clerk took a step back and pointed to the wooden sign behind him, shouting loudly. The burly man looked at the sign, and sure enough, it read in strong handwriting, "Ox-carts, pedestrians, and horseback riders are not allowed on the expressway." It was also signed by Wei Cong.

"Is this really General Wei's handwriting?" the burly man asked the person next to him, still somewhat doubtful.

“I’ve heard that General Wei does indeed have beautiful handwriting, and in a place like this, surely no one would dare to forge his calligraphy?” someone replied.

Seeing that the crowd's momentum had subsided somewhat, the minor official secretly breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly said, "You don't understand. These four-wheeled carriages are much faster than ordinary pedestrians or oxcarts on this road. If you were allowed to ride on them, there would be casualties if you couldn't avoid them in time. The General has his reasons for setting this rule. If you want to ride in a four-wheeled carriage, it's not difficult." He pointed with his right hand: "There are ticket booths over there. It only costs thirty coins to rent a seat and ride to the gate of Luoyang Valley. No cheating, young or old, and children get half price!"

Following his pointing finger, everyone saw a stall with a banner that read "Ticket Office." They rushed over, afraid of being left behind.

"A child's annual ration is only twenty coins, but a carriage ride costs thirty coins. Everything in the capital is indeed expensive!" a wiry man said, shaking his head.

"Hey!" the burly man said, "Look at this stone road. I don't know how much money it took to polish it like this. A carriage can only carry a few people, maybe four or five at most. Is it too much to charge you a hundred or so coins for a trip on this road?"

“Brother Yuanqi’s words do make some sense! Very well! Let’s go and take a look first. After all, we’ve come to Luoyang, so we should at least broaden our horizons!”

"That's right!" the burly man laughed. His name was Liu Yuanqi, a native of Zhuojun in Youzhou. He was a descendant of Liu Sheng, the Prince of Zhongshan, son of Emperor Jing of Han. He had brought several members of his clan and relatives to Luoyang to do business, hoping to find an opportunity to make some money. They had just crossed the bridge when they saw the cement road and decided to take a look.

He and several neighbors and relatives arrived at the stall, where a clerk sat behind a desk, collecting money with one hand and handing out bamboo tokens with the other, presumably the tokens for boarding the carriage. Just as Liu Yuanqi was about to look up at the carriage, he heard his fellow villager laugh, "Yuanqi, look at this carriage! It can hold at least twenty or thirty people. You're mistaken!"

Liu Yuanqi looked up and saw a carriage parked under a locust tree by the roadside. Unlike the four-wheeled carriages that sped along the road, this carriage had two sections, each about five or six steps long. It could easily fit twenty or thirty people if squeezed in. However, it was pulled by only four horses. Could they even move it?

"These two carts are so big, and they even have people on them. Can they really be pulled by just four horses?" someone nearby asked.

"You country bumpkin! I'll show you something different later!" Just like in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, the locals seized every opportunity to express their disdain for outsiders. This immediately sparked a heated argument and a barrage of insults. Liu Yuanqi and his clansman exchanged glances, both seeing eager anticipation in each other's eyes.

"Excuse me, two tickets, to the North Gate of Luoyang City!"

The two bought tickets and went to the roadside. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, they heard a bell ring and saw the coachman driving the horse-drawn carriage up the slope. Liu Yuanqi looked at it and laughed, "This carriage isn't even loaded with people yet, and the horses are already struggling so much. Once people are on board, it won't be able to pull it at all. It's just a pity for this beast."

"Yes! These people from Luoyang don't cherish their horses like we people from the border regions do. They're really acting recklessly!"

As the two were talking, the driver had already stopped the carriage by the roadside, got out to collect tickets, and let people board. Liu Yuanqi and his kinsman boarded the carriage and found that there were bamboo poles with handrails and soft reed mats for sitting. He found a spot against the wall and sat down. Just as he settled in, he heard a bell ring outside, followed by someone shouting, "Hold on tight, we're starting!" He then felt the carriage sway slightly before slowly moving forward.

At first, Liu Yuanqi thought the carriage couldn't go very fast, but he soon realized he was wrong. He saw the trees outside the window moving backward faster and faster, but he didn't feel the carriage shaking violently. He stood up in surprise: "Strange, how can this carriage go so fast?"

(End of this chapter)