Di Ming

Chapter 105 Stealing the Thief's Treasure

In ancient times, mirrors needed to be polished frequently. If they weren't polished for a while, the mirror would become dull and reflect images unclearly.

Therefore, the magic mirror craftsmen who traveled from house to house were frequent visitors to every household in the village. Although they were of humble status, they were very well-informed.

Zhu Yin wanted to build an intelligence network in the countryside by employing people from all walks of life, such as mirror polishers, bowl makers, peddlers, monks, and Taoists.

They also needed to recruit informants from the brothels in nearby towns.

Cultivating informants is an intelligence agent's core skill and a basic operation.

"Cooperation?" Fang Jian was quite surprised. Looking at Zhu Yin's serious little face, he suddenly recalled the evaluations of the two children by those thugs:
"Zhu Xiao'er and Ning Dajiao are precocious and wicked despite their young age. They are a pair of bad seeds who will bring disaster to Qingqiao Village sooner or later."

Fang Jian had been bullied and extorted by the thugs more than once.

Therefore, he has a favorable impression of whatever the thugs hate.

Someone who can instill fear in scoundrels like Kong Jiulang must be no ordinary person.

"Young master, please just give me any instructions you may have." Fang Jian dared not look down on Zhu Yin just because he was young.

Zhu Yin smiled and said, "Brother Fang, you're too kind. It's nothing really, I just want to ask you about things from time to time. If there's anything related to my family, I can remind you anytime."

“Even if there is nothing important, I will pay three qian of silver every month. If there is any important news, I will pay an extra five qian, one liang, or two liang. If the news is very urgent and timely and plays a big role, I will pay more.”

Fang Jian suddenly became a little excited.

Even without important news, they still pay three qian of silver every month.

He left early and returned late every day, carrying his load from village to village, working so hard, yet he only earned half a tael of silver a month.

If they could cooperate, his monthly income could reach eight qian.

With these extra three coins, my wife and children will have a better life.

"Young Master Zhu, is this really true?" Fang Jian asked anxiously, wiping his clothes with both hands.

Zhu Yin nodded and said, "Really. Let's set a one-year deadline first. It might end after a year. But you have to keep it a secret. If anyone finds out that you regularly inform me of news, our cooperation will naturally cease."

"Alright, I agree!" How could Fang Jian refuse?

"Young master, rest assured, I will not let anyone know about this. If they did, wouldn't they all be wary of me? Even if I were to come to their door to pry the mirror, it wouldn't be convenient."

Zhu Yin nodded upon hearing this; Fang Jian was indeed a smart man.

For a smart person to have fallen to this level, it's clear that he has been politically purged.

In reality, the Longqing Emperor did not deliberately purge the Fang family. Even if his birth mother, Consort Du, had a conflict with Empress Xiaolie, Empress Xiaolie had been dead for many years when he ascended the throne.

What deep-seated hatred could there be?
Emperor Longqing did not issue an edict to punish the Fang family; he merely moved Empress Fang's memorial tablet out of the Shizong Temple and to a side hall.

However, this seemed to send a certain signal, and local officials escalated the situation, amplifying Longqing's intentions to an extreme degree.

Upon arriving at Qingqiao, where the Fang family resided, it transformed into a high-pressure political purge.

The wealthy families in Qingqiao Village united and divided up the land and property of the Empress's family, bringing ruin and destruction to the once illustrious family.

But this was probably not Longqing's original intention.

Fang Jian stood up, cupped his hands, and said, "Young master and young lady, you think too highly of me. I will not accept the money for polishing the mirror this time."

They were surprisingly well-behaved.

"That won't do," Zhu Yin said with a smile. "Not only will you not lose a single penny of your mirror-polishing wages, but you'll also receive the three taels of silver in advance."

Fang Jian's eyes welled up with tears. "I know, it's because you're kind-hearted, young master, and you wanted to help me. I won't thank you."

He suddenly remembered the Fang family's secret. It was a secret left behind by Empress Xiaolie, and it was of great importance. Unfortunately, he had to keep it a secret and remain silent about it all these years.

If this young master Zhu is truly capable and reliable, then is there a chance he will reveal this secret?
Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei felt some sympathy for Fang Jian.

This man was only around twenty years old. By the time he was born, the Fang family had already been wiped out. He never enjoyed a single day of the Fang family's wealth and glory, yet he had to bear the consequences of their actions.

What an honor it was when an empress emerged from Qingqiao Village!

The village roads are so wide and long, paved with whole pieces of bluestone, and the post station extends to the village entrance. Isn't this all thanks to Empress Fang's grace?

This wide village road alone will make it much easier for Ning Caiwei's candy factory to transport goods in the future.

At that moment, Zhu Yin invited Fang Jian into the courtyard to polish the mirror, and also ordered tea to be served, along with a plate of autumn pears and a plate of mooncakes.

Fang Jian was deeply moved. It was the first time he had ever received such treatment in a guest's home.

Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei also sat on small stools, watching Fang Jian polish the mirror while inquiring about things in the village.

In reality, Zhu Yin and the others had only been in the village for about half a month, so they didn't know much about the local situation and were just taking a cursory look.

If you only look at the official household registers, there are only about four hundred households in the four li of Qingqiao.

But that was ancient history from the early days of the dynasty, yet the government still uses it today, which is clearly not because they are stupid.

As Fang Jian spoke more and more, Zhu Yin gained a deeper understanding of the local area.

Over the past two hundred years, Qingqiaoli has grown to a population of over a thousand households and more than six thousand people, making it a well-known and prosperous village on the outskirts of Nanjing.

These large villages, with their deeply entrenched power structures and numerous powerful clans and factions, are miniature complex worlds.

As an outsider, Zhu Yin's rise in the village inevitably faces exclusion and suppression from local forces.

Unless he can honestly be an inconspicuous villager, obey the existing order of the village, and not cause any trouble.

Is that possible?

Fang Jian's introduction was much more detailed than Zhao Chan'er's last one.

He knew many things that Zhao Chan'er didn't.

Qingqiao Village is a large village and the center of Chunhua Township. It has temples, Taoist temples, and nunneries. Many things are related to these monks and nuns.

For example, the eldest son of the Zhang family might have an affair with a nun at Jingxiang Nunnery, a wandering Taoist priest might have just arrived at Qingyun Temple, and female pilgrims might be allowed to stay overnight at Dongshan Temple, etc.

What Fang Jian said was mostly filthy and scandalous stuff.

For example, the old scholar Song from the village school, who loved wine so much that he asked the students to bring him wine to drink.

The Liu family invited an Indian monk who sold potent venomous drugs and treated him like an honored guest.

Last night, someone in the east neighborhood was caught having an affair at the mill. The adulterer then became violent and beat the victim to death.

Zhu Yin didn't care much about these trivial matters.

However, Zhu Yin was speechless when he heard the word "nun".

Because the Ming Dynasty strictly controlled women's right to become nuns. From the early Ming Dynasty to the Jiajing reign, successive emperors repeatedly prohibited women from becoming nuns.

The Jiajing Emperor even issued several orders for nuns to remarry and return to secular life, strictly prohibiting it.

The conditions for women to become nuns were extremely strict, tantamount to a complete prohibition, which was an established national policy of the Ming Dynasty.

However, in the countryside outside Nanjing, the former capital, a nunnery existed openly and brazenly.

This is enough to show that the imperial power had long lost control over the grassroots.

Imperial power can no longer shake the grassroots order. You issue your imperial edicts, and I'll become a nun.

As for the powerful gentry class who could control the grassroots, they outwardly obeyed but inwardly defied the imperial authority.

Otherwise, if powerful families like Zhang, Liu, and Wang abided by the law, where would there be nunneries in this area?
This shows that those who benefited from imperial power had already stood on the opposite side of imperial power.

However, there were also things that Zhu Yin cared about.

For example, the Zhang family's merchant fleet added another ship that sold white sugar, which was destined for Japan.

Three days ago, a midwife failed to deliver a baby for one of Zhang's concubines, resulting in the deaths of both mother and child. Then, last night, the midwife's house caught fire, and the entire family perished in the flames.

The newly hired head guard of the Wang family is said to be able to defeat ten men. He is known as Instructor Gong. Fang Jian personally witnessed him in the Wang family compound, where he single-handedly defeated a group of family soldiers without being able to withstand a single blow.

The eldest son of the Liu family has just finished the quarterly examination at the Imperial Academy, and it is said that he achieved excellent results. He will most likely pass the provincial examination next year.

Also, Dongshan Temple is going to sell a batch of ordination certificates.

Zhu Yin was speechless after hearing this.

In the Ming Dynasty, monks who wanted to become monks had to pass an ordination examination. Only after passing the examination would they be issued an ordination certificate; otherwise, they were not allowed to become monks.

The ordination certificate examination was extremely difficult, held only once every ten years, and even more difficult than passing the county-level imperial examination. Furthermore, a monastic registration system was established, stipulating that the number of monks nationwide could not exceed 36,000.

Many of them were Tibetan monks. Indeed, Tibetan monks practicing Tantric Buddhism were also subject to strict supervision during the Ming Dynasty.

Ordination certificates are obtained through examinations, not purchased.

As a result, the three emperors of Chenghua, Hongzhi, and Zhengde were devout Buddhists, and the power of the Buddhist community expanded rapidly. They seized land on a large scale, recruited displaced farmers as tenant farmers, and temple landlords spread throughout the country, making them extremely difficult to govern.

The more far-reaching impact was that the three generations of devout Buddhists led to a surge in the power of Tibetan monks, making it impossible for the Ming Dynasty to control Tibet.

This led later generations to mistakenly believe that the Ming Dynasty never controlled Tibet.

The reason why the Jiajing Emperor favored Taoism was largely due to his desire to support Taoism in order to counterbalance the power of Buddhism.

But now, the ordination certificates that were originally obtained only through rigorous examinations are now openly bought and sold, just like in the Song Dynasty.

Like in the previous dynasty, ordination certificates also became a form of currency.

Moreover, it was considered a hard currency. As "paper money," the ordination certificate was much more stable than the Ming Dynasty's paper money.

According to market prices, each blank ordination certificate was worth six taels of silver during the Longqing era. However, in the seventh year of the Wanli era, Zhang Juzheng prohibited the court from selling ordination certificates, which led to an increase in the value of blank ordination certificates among the people.

Each note has now risen to ten taels of silver. It can certainly be used as a large denomination of currency.

He glanced at Ning Caiwei and noticed that she also seemed to be deep in thought.

"Brother Fang, how many ordination certificates does Dongshan Temple have available for sale?"

As expected, Ning Caiwei took the initiative to ask about Fang Jian. She would never let go of any business opportunity.

She wasn't good at history, but she knew more about ordination certificates than Zhu Yin did.

Because in Chinese history, the ordination certificate was a form of disguised currency, as explained in "A History of Chinese Currency".

Having studied "The History of Chinese Currency," she naturally knew the value of ordination certificates.

This is the most durable paper money in ancient times, serving as currency for a thousand years from the Tang Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty.

Until the early Qianlong period, ordination certificates were still in circulation as currency.

Next, the price of ordination certificates will continue to rise. Ning Caiwei remembers that before the 20th year of the Wanli reign, the price of an ordination certificate would exceed twenty taels!
Next year will be the sixteenth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign.

That means it will double in the next few years!
The reason for the surge was that the people had been waiting for the imperial court to resume selling ordination certificates for a long time. Their patience wore thin, and the price of ordination certificates skyrocketed.

The problem is that no one knows whether the imperial court will resell the ordination certificates, which makes the value trend of the certificates very uncertain.

However, Ning Caiwei knew that the value of ordination certificates had been rising throughout the Wanli period.

For at least the next twenty years, the value of ordination certificates will remain strong. Silver, on the other hand, will depreciate as more silver flows in from overseas.

If she uses all the remaining money she earns from selling candy to invest in certificates, she can earn even more money in three years.

The craftsmanship of the ordination certificate is much better than that of the paper money, and it is not easily damaged.

As of now, there should be over 100,000 blank imperial edicts accumulated during the Ming Dynasty that still exist.

This plate is actually quite small, with a market value of only a little over one million silver dollars.

Even if she only acquires tens of thousands of items, she can still earn 100,000 taels of silver a few years later!
What if there was a way to acquire more licenses?
Only a fool wouldn't do this kind of business!

Fang Jian, not knowing why Ning Caiwei cared about this, replied:

"I don't know, but I estimate there are dozens. Dongshan Temple is considered a large temple."

Ning Caiwei nodded, pondering in her heart.

Nowadays, blank ordination certificates are mainly in the hands of temples, banks, and big merchants.

Large merchants held blank certificates for easy carrying and large payments, similar to banknotes in the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, they will not easily relinquish their ordination certificates.

The main targets for fundraising were temples and money shops.

Fortunately, the shares aren't in the hands of retail investors. It would be much easier for her to accumulate shares if the shares were in the hands of institutions like temples or banks.

But the problem is, she has no money!

The little bit of money she had was the capital to invest in the candy factory, and she couldn't touch it.

Thinking of this, Ning Caiwei couldn't help but start racking her brains.

Seeing Ning Caiwei's expression, Zhu Yin knew exactly what she was thinking.
She must have discovered a business opportunity in the licenses and was worried about the capital.

Zhu Yin suddenly had a thought and asked Fang Jian, "Where is that bandit Green-Headed Monk?"

Fang Jian replied earnestly, "Green-headed Monk was originally a monk, but because of his indulgence in drinking, gambling, and whoring, he killed two women and ended up becoming an outlaw."

Zhu Yin was not surprised at all upon hearing this.

Because many monks in the Ming Dynasty committed evil deeds.

Historical records indicate that during the Chenghua era, many bandits were monks. During the Hongzhi era, many bandits were monks, and "those who committed crimes, evil deeds, and thefts were almost countless."

Ironically, the explosive growth of the Buddhist community in the Ming Dynasty actually led to the decline of Buddhism in that period.

But Fang Jian continued, "Later, he hid in Baohua Mountain, fifty miles away, and gathered a hundred or so desperate men. They roamed the mountains and forests, robbing and plundering, killing people for money."

“The government has repeatedly gone up the mountain to suppress the bandits, but strangely enough, they always escape justice. The bandits have been able to commit evil for more than ten years, and the government can do nothing about it.”

Zhu Yin immediately understood: this was a spy within the government, adept at tipping off the thieves. The moment the government troops moved, the thieves would know; how could they possibly capture them?

Fang Jian added, "It is rumored that the Green-Headed Monk has secret dealings with many powerful and influential men and has done a lot of dirty work for them."

"Over the years, he has probably killed countless people, and the amount of money he has accumulated in his den of thieves is also unknown. He has been indulging in lavish meals and feasts, and people call him Baohua Taisui."

"Young master, young lady, I heard Sun Jiulang mention this name, and I'm afraid it has something to do with you two. We must be careful."

Having said this, he dipped a felt pad in water and drew a line on the stone slab, saying:

"This is Dongshan, less than three miles from here. Dongshan, Qinglongshan, Tangshan, and Baohuashan are connected in a line."

"If the thief is bribed, he can sneak down from Baohua Mountain to Dongshan Mountain and attack the Zhou family's villa at night."

Zhu Yin looked at the mountain range and realized it was indeed treacherous.

"Of course." Fang Jian smiled. "Perhaps I'm overthinking it. Hearing just one name is nothing."

Zhu Yin shook his head. "Brother Fang's information is very important. You didn't think too much about it."

Ning Caiwei stood up, went into the inner courtyard, and quickly came out with a five-tael silver ingot.

"Brother Fang, this five taels of silver is your reward for this."

Ning Caiwei placed a whole ingot of silver in Fang Jian's hand, saying, "Your news is very timely and important."

Fang Jian stared at the five taels of silver, feeling its heavy weight in his hand, and was momentarily stunned.

He had never touched a five-tael silver ingot since he was a child!

He immediately handed over the silver, saying, "This is too much, too much. I dare not accept it. It's just hearsay..."

Zhu Yin immediately pushed the silver back, saying, "Brother Fang, please accept it. Regardless of whether this information is useful or not, your kind reminder to us today is worth far more than a few taels of silver."

"Take the silver back quietly, hide it at home, and don't let it show easily."

Fang Jian's eyes welled up with tears, and he no longer refused. He cupped his hands and said, "Then I will shamelessly accept it."

After he finished polishing the mirror, he casually picked up his load and left the Zhou family's villa with a normal expression.

Zhu Yin and Ning Caiwei did not see them off.

Unbeknownst to anyone, the two parties had reached a cooperative agreement.

Ning Caiwei breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the mirror polisher's retreating figure.

"Although the evidence for this news is insufficient, those scum will most likely incite the Wang family to bribe the bandits to deal with us."

"Little Tiger, you did the right thing. We really need to establish an intelligence network in the village."

She also plans to set up a candy factory in the village and hire villagers as workers. This will inevitably challenge the existing order in the village.

Will the three powerful families of Zhang, Wang, and Liu tolerate the rise of a fourth new force?
Since conflict with the important figures in the village is inevitable, it's only natural to prepare in advance and plan ahead.

Zhu Yin said, "I've wanted to do this for a long time, but I've been too busy lately. Don't worry, we'll keep a tight grip on the intelligence."

By setting up an intelligence network throughout the village beforehand, he can have a thorough understanding of the village's situation, allowing him to plan strategically, respond calmly, and strike decisively when necessary.

Only by becoming a powerful figure in the village can one absorb the village's labor force and provide human resources for the candy factory in the future.

Ning Caiwei said, "I need more funds now. I don't know when your reward will be issued; it might not be until after the New Year, and I can't wait that long."

"But today Fang Jian said that Green-Headed Monk must be rich."

She's trying to steal money!

Zhu Yin laughed as well, “Great minds think alike. Since Green-Headed Monk might be bribed to use against us, let’s just strike first.”

"Don't rush. I need more information about Green-Headed Monk. We absolutely cannot take action without intelligence support."

Ning Caiwei frowned. "But what if they've been bribed and acted first? That would mean they've struck first."

Zhu Yin said, “This is easy to handle. There’s a river on the east side of the mountain with a wooden bridge over it. The thieves can only come down from the east side of the mountain, and they will have to cross the bridge to sneak into the village.”

“They couldn’t possibly have come in by taking the main road; they would have come in along the village road.”

"There's only one path on Dongshan Mountain. The ravine is so deep and several meters wide, they can't fly across it."

"That bridge was a wooden bridge, and it was already rotten and in need of repair. We sent Lancha to pull it down in the middle of the night."

"In this way, it will take at least ten days to half a month to repair the bridge."

"In addition, we are on high alert every night, making it very difficult for them to succeed."

The two discussed it for a while, when suddenly Zhao Chan'er entered the courtyard and said with a smile:

"Just letting you all know, the autumn opera has been scheduled! It's starting tomorrow, and there will be three days of opera performances. Hurry up and go find the village elder to buy some front-row seats!"

The two of them were delighted.

Village opera!

P.S.: That's all for today, Happy Holidays! Sigh, I need to add more subscriptions... Tomorrow's the village opera!
(End of this chapter)