Hot flashes

When the Cui family's fortified village outside Suzhou was seized, the official in charge was Chen Jing, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

He stood in front of the gate of the fortified village, looking up at the stone wall that was more than ten feet high. The top of the wall was covered with withered grass, shivering in the cold winter wind.

He had heard of this fortified village for many years. In the Ministry of Revenue's records, it was marked as "abandoned"—the walls were crumbling, the houses were collapsed, and it was unusable.

The Ministry of Works came to survey the area three years ago and wrote a long report describing the dilapidated state of the fortified village in vivid detail, as if it could be reduced to rubble in the next storm.

But when Chen Jing stood here, he didn't see crumbling walls or collapsed houses.

The stone walls were built so tightly that even a knife blade couldn't be inserted; on the crenellations at the four corners of the watchtower, the snow had been blown by the wind into neat ridges, as if someone had measured them with a ruler.

The gate was made of iron sheet covered with wood, and the door nails were as big as fists. Each nail was cast with the Cui family's emblem—a seal script character "Cui," which had been polished to a shine by the years and gleamed with a dark light in the winter sun.

The Imperial Guard captain behind him grew impatient and urged, "Lord Chen, open the door."

Chen Jing snapped out of his daze and nodded.

The captain waved his hand, and several imperial guards rushed forward carrying a battering ram, once, twice, three times.

The tin-clad wooden gate cracked on the third knock, the sound of the hinge breaking carrying far across the open fields. It startled a flock of crows perched on distant treetops, which took flight and circled a few times in the gray sky before fading into the twilight.

The door opened.

The sight inside made everyone pause for a moment.

The drill ground was as smooth as a mirror. The snow had been swept clean, revealing the compacted yellow soil underneath, which felt hard underfoot, like stepping on a stone slab.

The drill ground was surrounded by rows of neat barracks, with blue bricks and gray tiles, complete with doors and windows. Each barracks was numbered, from A1 to A30, and from B1 to B30, standing straight in all directions, like an army waiting to be inspected.

The beds in the barracks were folded with blankets, the edges of which were clearly defined. Underneath the beds were hidden knives and guns, the oil on the scabbards still wet.

The granary was behind the barracks, consisting of three large rooms, each about half the size of a football field, filled with sacks bearing the official granary markings—marks that should only appear in the imperial granaries.

Chen Jing had someone open a granary, went inside, grabbed a handful of grain, and rubbed it in his palm.

It was last year's new rice, each grain plump and carrying the fresh fragrance of husks. He put the rice back into the sack, dusted off his hands, turned and walked out, saying to the clerk beside him, "Register it, make sure not a single grain is missing."

The clerk acknowledged, spread out paper and pen, and began to record things one by one. Chen Jing stood in the center of the drill ground, watching the imperial guards come and go, carrying weapons out of the barracks and stacking them in bundles on the drill ground.

The sheer variety and quantity of knives, spears, swords, halberds, bows, crossbows, armor, and shields caused the Ministry of War official in charge of registration to grow increasingly pale, his hand trembling as he held the pen.

He walked up to Chen Jing and said in a low voice, "Lord Chen, these things are enough to equip three thousand men."

Chen Jing did not respond.

He turned around and looked at the farms, shops, and banks that were being seized in the distance, at the managers, accountants, and employees being escorted out, and at the farmhands and tenants kneeling in the snow, shivering.

The Cui family had built up their wealth and influence in Jiangnan over generations, but all of that wealth and influence vanished in an instant.

When the Lu family's estate in Huzhou was seized, the scene was even more chaotic than that of the Cui family.

The Lu family's steward was more astute than the Cui family's; he had heard rumors a few days earlier and attempted to transfer assets.

They loaded the grain from the granaries onto ships overnight, intending to transport it to Jiangbei via the canal. However, the ships were intercepted by the naval forces that Han Zhang had previously deployed along the waterway.

The sailors boarded the ship for inspection. They lifted the deck and found it piled high with sacks. The sacks were marked with the Lu family's grain store logo, which was completely different from the official granary logo. However, when they opened them, they found that the grain inside was exactly the same as the new rice in the official granary.