The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

On the other side, Jinyang!

In Li's study, the candles burned late into the night.

The study was located deep in the east courtyard of the Li family's ancestral home. Three walls were lined with bookshelves, which were filled with account books, land deeds, copies of correspondence, and several scrolls of maps wrapped in oilcloth.

The window faces north and never sees sunlight. A thin layer of dampness condenses on the blue bricks in the corner of the wall, which has not been dried through even after being heated by charcoal fire for half the night.

Li Chongxi sat behind his desk, with several sheets of thin paper spread out in front of him.

The paper was of the finest quality, but when he held it in his hand, it felt like he was weighing several pieces of iron.

Several names were written on it.

Chen Jing'an, Zheng Guan, Lu Zhaoling, Yang Yan.

He wrote each name stroke by stroke in small regular script, very slowly, as if he were determining the position of the flagpole for each flag.

He looked at it once, then again, and then picked up a pen and wrote a few words next to each name.

The annotation for Chen Jing'an is "grain", the annotation for Zheng Guan is "road", the annotation for Lu Zhaoling is "silver", and the annotation for Yang Yan is "ear".

Each character has an additional stroke next to it, indicating the quantity or weight. The characters are so small that they are almost invisible unless you get very close.

After finishing writing, he put the pen back on the pen holder and called out, "Tieshan."

Li Tieshan entered from outside the door.

He stood before the desk, head bowed, the old scars on his face appearing even deeper in the candlelight, like a mark etched into his bones.

Li Chongxi handed over the note without saying much, only instructing, "Send it out to the Chen family, Zheng family, Lu family, and Yang family, one copy each. Tell them that I, Li Chongxi, am asking them for a favor. Let them name their own terms."

Li Tieshan took the note, glanced at it, memorized the four names and the footnotes next to them, then folded the note and put it in his pocket.

He hesitated for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "Master, what if they are unwilling?"

Li Chongxi gave a cold laugh.

The laughter was short, coming out of the nasal cavity like a knife drawn half an inch from its sheath and then pushed back in: "Unwilling? Don't they have anyone in their heavenly prison?"

He stood up, walked around the desk, and went to the window. Outside the window was the courtyard of the Li family's ancestral home. The branches of the old locust tree in the courtyard were silvery white in the moonlight, like an outstretched hand.

With his back to Li Tieshan, his voice was low, but each word seemed carefully crafted before being uttered: "Tell them that today it's the Li family, tomorrow it will be their turn. If they still don't understand, then add one more sentence..."

He tilted his head, his profile silhouetted against the candlelight, revealing a cold, hard edge. "Zhou Qian's blade is already sharpened. Whoever he cuts is beyond my control."

Li Tieshan said no more and turned to leave.

His footsteps echoed for a few steps in the corridor before fading away, like a pebble sinking into deep water.

Three days later, the Chen family's reply arrived first.

Chen Jing'an did not come in person, nor did he send any prominent figures from his clan. He only sent an old servant, whose back was severely hunched, and who walked like an old shrimp bent over by the wind.

He handed over a short message; the envelope was unsigned, but sealed with a small seal from the Chen family bearing two cranes carrying scriptures.

Li Chongxi opened the letter, which contained only one sentence: "The Chen family can't be of much help, but they can prevent others from helping."

The handwriting is Chen Jing'an's own; the strokes are very steady, unlike what one would expect from an elderly person.

After reading the letter, Li Chongxi burned it over a candle flame.

The flames rose from the edge of the letter, swallowing the line of words inch by inch, and the ashes fell into the copper plate on the corner of the table, like a small pinch of black snowflakes.

He looked at the ashes, his sneer turning into a genuine laugh, a slight curve at the corners of his mouth, but his eyes remained devoid of warmth.

He understood what Chen Jing'an meant.

Not helping is the greatest help you can give.

The Chen family did not intervene directly, but they were able to retain several censors who wanted to stand up for Zhou Qian.

Among those censors were Chen's protégés, Chen's relatives by marriage, and a few impoverished scholars who had received favors from the Chen family.

The Chen family doesn't need to lift a finger; they just need to lightly tap next to those people's names, and those people will find their own excuses to back down.

Then, the Zheng family's reply arrived.

Zheng Guan sent a gift list, which listed several precious items.

A white jade Buddha, a pair of jade screens, and two boxes of old ink were presented as a congratulatory gift to the Li family on their move.

At the end of the gift list, a sentence was written in very light ink: "The Zheng family has a batch of winter grain that needs to be transported via the northern route. If the Li family's cavalry can help us deliver it to Yanmen Pass, that would be convenient."

The words were written in such small a size that they were almost impossible to read without a light.

Li Chongxi turned the gift list over and wrote the character "可" on the back with heavy strokes, almost tearing the paper.

He handed the gift list to Li Tieshan and said, "Tell the Zheng family that the cavalry will depart the day after tomorrow, taking the old road through Wild Wolf Gully. I will arrange everything along the way."

The Lu family's approach was more direct.

Lu Zhaoling sent his eldest son, Lu Chengzong, to visit him personally.

Lu Chengzong, in his early thirties, with a fair complexion and no beard, wore a gray sable robe. Upon entering, he first performed a respectful junior's greeting, then handed over a stack of silver notes: "My father said that the Lu family is willing to spend 200,000 taels of silver to help Young Master Li in the capital. The Li family knows better than the Lu family which channels to use and which people to bribe. Just take the money and use it."

Li Chongxi accepted the silver notes, didn't count them, and handed them to the servant behind him to keep safe.

But when he looked at Lu Chengzong, he only said one sentence: "Put the money aside for now. I want someone from the Lu family to submit a memorial to the Censorate, impeaching Qin Wu for abusing his power of private punishment."

Lu Chengzong was taken aback.

He clearly hadn't anticipated this request.

Money is easy to give out, but official documents are hard to deliver.

Submitting a memorial impeaching the commander of the Zhenwu Division was tantamount to directly challenging Zhou Qian.

He hesitated for a moment, but then remembered his father's instructions before he left.

"Give Li Chongxi whatever he wants first."

He bowed in agreement, his expression quickly shifting to a polite smile: "I will discuss it with my father upon my return and submit it within three days."

The Yang family arrived last and were the most vague.

Yang Yan didn't send anything or write anything; he only sent a message through his old servant.

The old servant was older than the one from the Chen family. He leaned on a rattan cane, said those words in the gatehouse, and then left.

He said, "Old Master Yang said that he is old and can't walk anymore, but he can still hear."

After listening, Li Chongxi said to Li Tieshan, "It's enough that you can hear."

He picked up the cold teacup on the table and took a sip. The tea was bitter and astringent, but he didn't even flinch when he swallowed it.

In an instant, the powerful families and clans in the capital and the provinces seemed to have been gently tugged at.

Inside the Censorate, the censors who were originally planning to impeach aristocratic families for violating the law suddenly fell silent.

Someone submitted a memorial to report that they were ill, saying that their old ailment had relapsed, and the physician instructed them to rest.

Some people were transferred to sinecure positions, supposedly because there were new vacancies in the Ministry of Personnel, and they were transferred there to gain experience.

There was also a young censor surnamed Zhou who had already written half of his memorial when he was summoned back to his hometown by an urgent letter from home, saying that his elderly mother was seriously ill and he needed to go back to see her one last time.

When he left, he locked the half-written folded paper in the deepest part of the drawer and never took it out again.

A senior official of the Court of Judicial Review was about to submit a memorial to Zhou Qian to reorganize the finances and grain in the capital region, but he was summoned away by an urgent letter from home, saying that his elderly mother was seriously ill, the exact same reason as that of the censor.

It was even more obvious at the Ministry of Revenue.

Several officials who were originally scheduled to go to various places to survey land suddenly found that their duties had been disrupted and some of them had been temporarily transferred to the Ministry of Rites to revise the classics.

Some were sent to the south to escort a batch of tribute, while others were simply summoned by their superiors for questioning, and upon their return, the matter of land surveying was never mentioned again.

At the same time, grain prices in the capital rose slightly by 10%, and salt prices also increased.

However, the reports submitted by various prefectures all stated that "the weather is favorable," "the people are living in peace and contentment," and "rice prices are stable."

Zhou Qian flipped through these folded books in the imperial study. After flipping through a few, he slammed them onto the table.

The folding paper slid off the table, landed on the edge of the imperial desk, was blocked again, and came to a crooked stop.

He asked Zhao Gao, "Was this the work of the Chen family, or the Zheng family?"

Zhao Gao bowed and lowered his voice: "Your Majesty, it is the Chen family and the Yang family. The Chen family's disciples are holding back grain prices in the local areas, and the Yang family's merchant caravan has stockpiled a batch of salt in the northern route."

"They did it extremely cleanly; not a single official document passed through their hands. The memorials from various prefectures and counties were all submitted according to the old practice, and there were no flaws to be found."

Zhou Qian closed his eyes.

He tapped his fingers three times on the armrest of the dragon throne, each tap slower than the last, as if he were timing something.

Then he opened his eyes and said, "Summon Qin Wu."

When Qin Wu arrived, Zhou Qian only asked one question: "How is the investigation into Li Shaoyuan's case going?"

Qin Wu replied, "The evidence is conclusive, and according to the law, he should be executed. However, in the past few days, someone in prison has sent word that they want to intervene on Li Shaoyuan's behalf."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word carried the crispness unique to the Commander of the Zhenwu Division, like a knife cutting tofu, cutting it in half.

Zhou Qian asked, "Who handed it to me?"

Qin Wu said, "We can't find the source, but the message is very clear: if Li Shaoyuan dies in the Heavenly Prison, no one will dare to come to the Northern Horse Market next spring."

Zhou Qian laughed when he heard the words "Northern Horse Market".

The smile was faint, carrying a hint of coldness and a touch of mockery.

He picked up a folded book from the imperial desk, opened it, looked at it, closed it again, put it back in its place, and then said to Qin Wu, "It seems they've learned to feel pain."

He stood up, walked to the window, looked at the palace walls shrouded in twilight outside, and said in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, "Go back and continue the interrogation. Don't stop, but there's one condition: don't let Li Shaoyuan die in prison. I want him to live and see for himself whether it was the Li family who struck first, or I who struck first."

Qin Wu accepted the order and left.

His footsteps echoed in the outer corridor of the hall for a while before disappearing, like an iron chain being lifted from the ground and then put down again.

Zhou Qian then said to Zhao Gao, "Pass on my message to the eldest prince, and tell him to go to the Ministry of Revenue tomorrow to take over the task of surveying and measuring the land."

He paused for a moment, turned his head to look at Zhao Gao, and said, "Tell him that this time, I will not let him bear the burden alone."

Zhao Gao agreed, bowed, and withdrew.

As he walked along the corridor, his pace quickened compared to when he came, the whisk bobbing gently in his arm.

He was secretly surprised.

This is the first time His Majesty has taken the initiative to put the eldest prince in the open, and it is also the most direct response to the aristocratic families.

In the past, when the eldest prince went to Wenhua Tea House or Mingdao Academy, he was allowed to explore on his own in the shadows, while His Majesty watched from behind, neither intervening nor speaking.

This time, His Majesty sent the eldest prince to the Ministry of Revenue to take on the task of surveying and measuring land, which was tantamount to putting him in the spotlight and under the knife of the powerful families.

Then tell him, "I won't let you shoulder this alone."

Zhao Gao had been in the palace for many years, and he knew the weight of those words.

His Majesty never says "I won't let you shoulder this alone" lightly; when he does, he truly means he's ready to take action.

Outside the Imperial Study, the water clock dripped steadily.

The night was still deep, but the wind in the capital was no longer blowing in just one direction.