White-robed Minister

Chapter 154 0152 [The tree hasn't fallen, but the monkeys have scattered]

Gao Shiqian wrapped a small wooden box in layers of silk cloth, and even used a waterproof cloth for the innermost layer.

There were a few coins in the wooden box.

"Flying money," also known as "convenient money," can be understood as a bill of exchange.

The money he and Yuan Fang amassed was all converted into cash in Yingtian Prefecture, which they could withdraw directly upon returning to Tokyo. The only loss would be some transaction fees.

Gao Shiqian had already received word that the Emperor was about to order a thorough investigation of Hongqing Palace. He didn't need to wait for the handover; he could simply pack his belongings and return to the capital. His sister had written to urge him to leave immediately.

Gao Shiqian placed the small wooden box beside his pillow, blew out the lamp, and lay down on the bed.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, he was suddenly awakened by a shout.

"Fire! Fire!"

"Come put out the fire!"

Gao Shiqian opened his eyes groggily, then woke up completely, clutching the small wooden box and running out in a panic to check.

He had just stepped out when he bumped into his two personal attendants.

The three continued their journey towards the fire. Halfway there, they encountered a Taoist priest. Gao Shiqian quickly asked, "Where is the fire? Are the Divine Palace and the Imperial Palace damaged?"

"The fire started in the warehouse," the Taoist priest replied.

Gao Shiqian felt somewhat relieved. The Divine Palace enshrined the spirit tablet of Zhao Kuangyin's father, while the Imperial Portrait Palace enshrined the spirit tablets of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong.

A portrait of Emperor Shinzong. As long as these places weren't burned down, that's fine.

Gao Shiqian, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, suddenly realized something was wrong: "You said the warehouse is on fire?"

The Taoist priest said, "Yes, the storeroom is on fire. The accounting room and courtyard are also on fire."

Gao Shiqian flew into a rage: "Luo Jixin, I curse your ancestors!"

He cursed and ran frantically toward the fire.

Forty-four years ago, Hongqing Palace caught fire.

Twenty-six years ago, Hongqing Palace caught fire again.

Judging by the timeline, it should catch fire again soon; it burns on average once every twenty years.

Luo Jixin, the abbot of the temple, was directing the firefighting efforts outside the fire site. He was shouting himself hoarse, looking more anxious than anyone else, and it didn't seem like he had started the fire.

"I'll beat you to death, you stinking Taoist priest!"

Gao Shiqian kicked out, hitting Luo Jixin squarely in the lower back.

The old Taoist priest was over sixty years old; how could he withstand such a kick? He immediately fell forward, landing face-first in the dirt, completely disoriented and unable to recover.

Gao Shiqian grabbed the old Taoist priest's collar, his face contorted with murderous intent: "Grandpa, I'm leaving tomorrow. Even if you're going to set fire to the place, why not do it tomorrow? Are you trying to drag me down with you?"

Luo Jixin, still groggy from the fall, asked, "Who—who set the fire?"

"You're still pretending!"

Gao Shiqian threw a punch at him.

At this moment, the eunuch Yuan Fang arrived and hurriedly reminded him, "Don't kill him! If you kill him, we will be held fully responsible."

Gao Shiqian then released the old Taoist priest and turned to ask Yuan Fang, "What should we do now?"

"Report the facts truthfully," Yuan Fang said.

Looking at the ever-growing fire, Gao Shiqian pounded his chest in frustration, saying, "Why am I so unlucky!"

Yuan Fang began directing the Taoist priests to continue fighting the fire, mainly to create a firebreak to prevent nearby buildings from catching fire as well.

"What's the point of saving anything? Everything that needed to be burned has already been burned," Gao Shiqian sighed.

Yuan Fang leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Don't cause any more trouble. These Taoist priests are desperate. Don't be fooled by their usual respectful attitude and the way they treat us like royalty. We're still outsiders. If we anger this old Taoist priest any further, he might just push us into a fire and burn us to death, then report it as if we died trying to put out a fire!"

Gao Shiqian was startled and dared not utter another sound, staring blankly at the raging fire.

He and Yuan Fang hadn't left their posts yet, and the fire broke out at this time, so they should both bear the main responsibility.

If we wait until tomorrow to burn it, they will have already left, and the old Taoist priest will be primarily responsible.

Firebreaks have been cleared, and the Taoist priests are on standby with buckets of water. If any sparks are blown by the wind to other buildings, they will be extinguished quickly while the fire is still small.

As for those that have already started burning, we can only watch them slowly burn out.

Yuan Fang pulled Gao Shiqian to a secluded spot and had Gao Shiqian's entourage keep watch: "The problem with Hongqing Palace seems to be bigger than we imagined. Otherwise, these Taoist priests wouldn't have been forced to set fire to it."

"If I had known they were going to set fire, I should have taken all those account books to the government office," Gao Shiqian lamented.

Although they were leaders, they never really managed the accounts; at most, they would just glance at the general accounts.

They weren't even sure how many hidden fields Hongqing Palace had, only that there were definitely quite a few. Because they could get a share of the profits, receiving a large sum every month!

Hongqing Palace not only possesses a vast amount of hidden farmland, but also owns more than ten shops in the prefectural city, the profits from which these shops alone are extremely considerable.

Shops have to pay taxes, so there's no way to hide them.

Yuan Fang said, "Now that I think about it, the account books we saw before must have been forged by those Taoist priests. The hidden fields of Hongqing Palace must be more than ten thousand mu."

Gao Shiqian was shocked and furious upon hearing this.

His anger stemmed not only from the fire, but also from the fact that he had been used as a pawn by the Taoist priests. He had only received a small share, yet he had written to his sister to help the priests stop Xu Laiqingtian.

"We need to come up with a solution," Gao Shiqian said.

Yuan Fang said in a low voice, "The Taoist priests are unrighteous, and we are unjust. We'll enter the city at daybreak and head straight for the Provincial Judicial Commissioner's office. We'll tell them that those Taoist priests set fire to the city out of fear of punishment, and that we were almost killed. We request that the Provincial Judicial Commissioner thoroughly investigate this case."

"Wonderful!" Gao Shiqian exclaimed.

If it was just a fire, the two leaders must take responsibility.

However, the two officials were forced to flee in panic by the Taoist priests and were almost killed by them. This completely changed the nature of the situation, and the fire was no longer of significant concern to them.

The two returned to the fire scene, pretended to give instructions for a while, and then went back to their room to sleep while cursing.

Yuan Fang had no entourage, but Gao Shiqian brought two close attendants from the capital.

"No one followed, right?" Gao Shiqian asked.

The attendant standing guard outside the door said, "No."

Gao Shiqian finally dared to go to sleep, but he tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep at all.

On the other side, the old Taoist priest Luo Jixin also couldn't sleep.

As Xu Lai uncovered more and more hidden plots, and Yuan Fang and Gao Shiqian were also transferred away under unusual circumstances, Luo Jixin felt that disaster was imminent.

He couldn't think of any other way, so he simply burned all the account books.

But now that I think about it carefully, burning the account books doesn't seem to make a difference. Because the hidden lands that were uncovered are right there, and the government can easily find out where the landlords and tenants paid their rent each year through a simple interrogation.

Luo Jixin got up in the middle of the night and summoned Luo Quan, his nephew but actually his son: "Go home tonight and take the whole family away. Don't take any bulky or valuable items, just take the essentials and leave as far away as possible!"

At this time, whether they were monks or Taoists, there were many sects, all of which allowed people to marry and have children.

However, Zhao Kuangyin once issued an order prohibiting monks and Taoists from marrying, and for monks and Taoists who already had families, their families were not allowed to live in temples or monasteries.

Emperor Zhenzong of Song first reiterated Zhao Kuangyin's order, and then strengthened the relevant regulations: if official monks or Taoist priests married, it would be considered adultery, and the punishment would be increased by one degree. (The punishment would be increased by one degree for the crime of adultery.)

The law certainly cannot control monks and Taoist priests, but its deterrent effect is undeniable.

As the original temple of the imperial family, the Taoist priests at Hongqing Palace dared not openly marry. They all married secretly, at least to maintain a semblance of propriety on the surface.

"Father, aren't you leaving?" Luo Quan asked.

Luo Jixin shook his head and said, "I'm too old to keep traveling around. You can go now."

Without saying a word, Luo Quan knelt down and kowtowed several times before hurriedly leaving.

They didn't expect anyone to dare investigate Hongqing Palace, so they made no preparations to escape at all.

Luo Quan, in the dark, used a ladder to scale the wall and escaped. He ran frantically home and told his mother, brothers, and wife, "Pack the gold and silver and leave quickly. Don't take anything else. Don't ask any questions, just run away!"

The old mother wanted to ask how her father was, but Luo Quan roared in exasperation, "Don't ask! Let's go!"

His family's situation is very special.

The land registered under the household registration only amounted to a mere thirty-odd mu. Yet, they lived in a luxurious mansion in the countryside, and tenants came in droves to pay rent every year.

This is treating the hidden fields of Hongqing Palace as their own private land.

His family is not alone in this situation; almost all the mid- to high-ranking Taoist priests at Hongqing Palace do the same thing. And they don't hide it from anyone; who in the countryside doesn't know what's going on?

He took his son and mother, along with more than a dozen other people, and abandoned their house and property, taking only some gold and silver with them as they fled overnight.

His servants had already been awakened, but were ordered to go back to their rooms and sleep.

The servants only went out to investigate out of curiosity after the family had left.

Some of the more astute servants had already guessed what was going on and quickly began moving valuables into their own homes. One after another, all the servants started to act.

Some servants would even put things on the backs of oxen and then lead the oxen, which were carrying the valuables, away.

At dawn, a Taoist priest went to see the abbot.

The Taoist priest knocked on the door for a long time but no one answered. He couldn't help but push the door open, only to find that Luo Jixin had hanged himself.

"Oh no! The abbot has committed suicide!" the Taoist priest cried out in alarm.

When the other mid- to high-level Taoist priests heard the news, they were all terrified.

Some Taoist priests were bewildered and helpless, foolishly waiting to be investigated by the authorities. Many more rushed home, taking their entire families with them as they fled. A very few even abandoned their families, taking only some gold and silver with them as they ran away alone.

The case was so big that the authorities hadn't even started investigating before the Taoist priests had already dispersed.

The hidden farmland in Hongqing Palace truly exceeded 100,000 mu, equivalent to one-tenth of the total cultivated land in Songcheng County!

Of all the income from the land, the eunuchs and relatives of the emperor could only get a small share; the vast majority was divided up privately by the Taoist priests.

Yuan Fang and Gao Shiqian, who had run away early in the morning, discovered that a Taoist priest was chasing after them.

"They want to kill us to silence us?" Gao Shiqian exclaimed in horror.

Yuan Fang turned around and shouted, "Something's wrong! Those Taoist priests are scattering and fleeing. Something must have happened, and they're trying to escape punishment. We need to report this to the authorities immediately!"

The two ran all the way, so tired that their tongues were sticking out.

At this very moment, Xu Lai was leading his officials out of the city to continue inspecting the fields in the countryside.

The two sides clashed at the city gate.

Gao Shiqian didn't recognize Xu Lai at all. Upon seeing the officials, he immediately shouted, "Arrest him immediately! The Taoist priests from Hongqing Palace are fleeing to escape punishment!"

Xu Lai was taken aback upon hearing this, but quickly recovered and ordered, "Bu Chao, go and inform the Criminal Investigation Department. Chen Xiaoyi, go and inform the Prefectural Government. Tell them to immediately send men to block all land and water routes and search for the criminals. Detain all those with gold and silver, young and old. The rest of you, come with me immediately to arrest the Taoist priests!"