Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 161: Chapter 157 The benevolent see benevolence, and the wise see wisdom.

Inside Chongshan Pass City, a lavishly decorated hall.

Lv Hua sat on a pear wood Taishi chair in a long gown of moon-white, holding a bronze hand warmer in his hands.

Wei Cen stood in front of him, recounting Yang Zhenshan’s speculations and suggestions.

After listening, Lv Hua calmly said, ”If this matter has nothing to do with Prince Qing Mansion, then everything we’ve done is meaningless. Do you understand?”

His voice was devoid of emotion, carrying a slightly metallic and magnetic quality.

Wei Cen bowed his head, not even daring to breathe too heavily.

How could Wei Cen fail to understand Lv Hua’s meaning? But he dared not understand it.

From the beginning to the end, Lv Hua’s goal was only one: Prince Qing Mansion.

Corrupt officials, smuggling cases—all were minor issues within the Secret Martial Guards. The real major cases were rebellion and treason.

Whether Prince Qing Mansion was rebelling, Wei Cen did not know, but it was clear that Lv Hua wanted Prince Qing Mansion to be marked as traitors.

Simply because Prince Qing Mansion had reason to become traitors, the Secret Martial Guard North Station needed a major case.

”Master, we can’t find any evidence!” Wei Cen said softly.

Secret Martial Guards handling cases required evidence, especially involving the royal family—they needed both witnesses and material proof.

This was their account to the Emperor, as well as the Emperor’s account to the people of the world.

Lv Hua placed the hand warmer on the tea tray, rose from his seat, and walked to the front of the hall, gazing at the somewhat gloomy sky.

”What a pity!”

”A pity about what?” Wei Cen asked, puzzled.

”It’s a pity that we don’t have enough time!” A hint of helplessness surfaced on Lv Hua’s calm face.

They had wasted too much time in An Yuan City. Perhaps he had been wrong from the start, he shouldn’t have focused on An Yuan City, but should have directly targeted Qinghua Prefecture.

Or perhaps, he should not have been looking for evidence from the beginning, but should have directly fabricated it.

Falsification, framing, ascribing guilt—anyway, Prince Qing Mansion should have been pulled down from the horse first.

What a pity that he was not decisive enough, not ruthless enough, not bold enough.

Now he was indeed ready to make a decision, but unfortunately, time did not allow it.

”Prepare for it. Let’s just close the case this way!”

Lv Hua said indifferently.

He could no longer stay in Chongshan Pass. Next, he would go to Beiyuan Town, another border town of Da Rong’s northern territory, located to the southwest of Chongshan Town.

However, Beiyuan Town faced the Wuliang Hu Clan, while Chongshan Town faced the East Sea Hu Clan. Comparatively, the East Sea Hu Clan was far inferior to the Wuliang Hu Clan.

”Understood, Master!” Wei Cen felt a sigh of relief in his heart when he heard the order to close the case.

”Mmm!” Lv Hua nodded slightly, then suddenly changed the topic, asking, ”What do you think of Yang Zhenshan?”

Wei Cen didn’t expect him to suddenly bring up Yang Zhenshan, pausing for a while before saying, ”Master Yang is a good man!”

”Good man!” Lv Hua was surprised by his evaluation.

Actually, his understanding of Yang Zhenshan was limited to written reports.

About Yang Zhenshan’s background, experiences, military achievements, and everything he had done since arriving at Chongshan Town, he had detailed records on hand.

”Hmm, Master Yang has a compassionate heart!” Wei Cen said.

This was his impression of Yang Zhenshan—he knew more about him than Lv Hua did.

He felt a greater sense of identification with all that Yang Zhenshan had done because he himself was born into a military household.

In Yinghe Castle, everything Yang Zhenshan had done, and in An Yuan City, what Yang Zhenshan was doing, all made him feel happy and envious.

He was happy because Yang Zhenshan was sincerely helping the military households.

What he envied was that in his youth, he had not met such an official.

Wei Cen was born in Beiyuan Town—his father was a Hundred Households Castle Officer. He remembered how his father had waited outside the defense officer’s government office for three whole days trying to get cotton clothes for the military households in the garrison. During those three days, his father didn’t manage to get a single piece of cotton clothing.

If the defense officer back then had been Yang Zhenshan, he believed his father would not have had to wait three days.

”Good man!” Lv Hua repeated, then couldn’t help but feel somewhat amused.

Was Yang Zhenshan really a good man?

That seemed to be a point of contention.

At least Lv Hua didn’t think Yang Zhenshan was a good man.

Bestowing kindness is not necessarily due to a compassionate heart; it might also be to achieve certain goals.

Take Yang Zhenshan for example; he indeed did many things in Yinghe Castle that seemed good, but he also allowed the soldiers and civilians of Yinghe Castle to sacrifice hundreds of lives for him.

Were all those things Yang Zhenshan did out of compassion, or were they to win over the hearts of soldiers and the people, so they would lay down their lives for him?

The benevolent see benevolence and the wise see wisdom.

Lv Hua instead thought Yang Zhenshan was a deeply thoughtful person.

But he didn’t dislike such a person.

To him, there were only three kinds of people in this world: the first was the Emperor, his master, not someone he was in a position to evaluate; the second was useful people, those who were of use to him; and the third was the useless, those of no significance.

Yang Zhenshan belonged to the second category.

Lv Hua entered the inner room and took out a sandalwood box.

”Give this to Yang Zhenshan.”

...

At Shaling Castle’s horse farm.

Yang Zhenshan looked at the horse farm under construction, feeling very good.

Yang Mingcheng was becoming more and more efficient by the day. In just a few days, construction of the horse ranch had begun.

Manpower and materials had been fully prepared.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

This all signified the growth of Yang Mingcheng.

”Have all the shops in the city been dealt with?” Yang Zhenshan rode Red Cloud, ambling leisurely along the tumultuous riverside.

The Ying River here was completely different from the one at Yinghe Castle.

The river was wider, the current more rapid.

”There are three more that haven’t been sold!” Yang Mingcheng replied.

”How much silver was made?”

”Three thousand taels!”

Yang Zhenshan turned around, somewhat surprised.

”Hehe, three thousand taels for four shops!” Yang Mingcheng chuckled.

Yang Zhenshan also showed a faint smile.

Originally, he had given Yang Mingcheng 1,500 taels of silver to buy seven shops. Now, having sold only four, not only had they broken even, but they also made a profit of 1,500 taels.

”Now the real estate prices in the city are much higher than before. A small courtyard costs seven to eight hundred taels, and a courtyard like ours could sell for two thousand taels!” Yang Mingcheng explained.

”How can it increase so fast?” Yang Zhenshan was somewhat perplexed.

He had felt that the real estate prices in the city would rise, but he thought they would at most return to the level before the Hu Clan’s entry. He didn’t expect them to far exceed the past prices.

Yang Mingcheng scratched his head and said, ”I’m not really sure, I just feel that the city is much more prosperous now than before, and there are more merchant caravans coming to the city.”

”Dad, you don’t know, the day I went to the city, the line of carriages outside the city gates stretched for seven or eight miles.”

Yang Zhenshan pondered and quickly thought of some reasons.

The economy of Chongshan Pass was a special military economy, mainly catering to the spending of soldiers and officials’ families within the city.

Presently, the families of the officials in the city shouldn’t have changed much, simply having been replaced by new faces; the total number probably wouldn’t have changed significantly.

But it was different for the soldiers. In the past, Chongshan Pass only had the Camp, but now there are also five thousand Yunlong Dragon Guards.

Additionally, the soldiers’ financial situation has changed. Previously, deducting from soldiers’ pay was a common practice, and ordinary soldiers barely had any spare cash, naturally reluctant to spend.

But ever since Lu Chongde and Liang Chu took office, the deductions from soldiers’ pay decreased, and soldiers could receive full provisions and salary, leading to more disposable income and naturally increased spending power.

Furthermore, Lu Chongde and Liang Chu had been busy during this period, replenishing military supplies, fortifying the city walls, repairing garrisons, reclaiming wastelands, and so on, dispensing large sums of silver, naturally attracting a large number of merchant caravans.

This explained the economic rise of the city.

Realizing all this, Yang Zhenshan was quite pleased.

”When is Luo Shang coming over?”

”Should be in the next few days!”

”Hmm, what about Ma San?”

Yang Mingcheng thought for a moment, ”He will bring his family with him, so he may come later.”

Ma San wasn’t a servant of the Yang family; he was more of a long-term worker, so he had his own family.

”When he arrives, give him a raise!” Yang Zhenshan said.

Ma San was a skilled talent, and he was also willing to take apprentices, helping the Yang family train horse handlers. Naturally, Yang Zhenshan would not mistreat such a person.

”How much for the raise?”

”Double it.”

”Alright!”

”Does he have two sons?”

”Yeah, his eldest son is seventeen this year, just got married last year, and the younger son is only ten. He also has a daughter, six years old this year!” Yang Mingcheng, having spent a lot of time with Ma San, was well acquainted with his situation.

”Then let his younger son join Lin Zhan in the academy for schooling!” Yang Zhenshan said.

Rather than a salary increase, Ma San would probably prefer his son to be successful.

Not long ago, Yang Zhenshan had just found an academy in An Yuan City for Lin Zhan, perfectly suited to send Ma San’s son there.

Not just Ma San’s son, Yang Zhenshan always valued education and was willing to send any eligible offspring of his subordinates to study.

Song Dashan’s son had also been sent to school.

”Alright, I’ll make arrangements when he arrives!” Yang Mingcheng responded.

”By the way, we should also hire a few tutors for the house, get a primer tutor for Chengye, and find a governess for Yunxue and Yun Qiao!” Yang Zhenshan said.

Family education must not stop.

For boys, it was simple; they could go to the academy for schooling, needing only basic priming at home.

But it was more troublesome for girls; there were no academies for women here, and if you wanted to educate a girl, there simply was no place to go.

Many official families would hire teachers to give lessons to their daughters at home.

The subjects taught varied widely, starting with the most basic such as proper conduct and etiquette.

Although Yang Zhenshan didn’t care for formalities, the local customs couldn’t be disregarded; he might not care, but he couldn’t let others look down on the children in the family over matters of etiquette.

In addition to etiquette, the curriculum included music, chess, literature, painting, needlework, embroidery, cooking, floriculture, incense burning, and more. Although it wasn’t necessary to master all, a basic understanding of each was expected.

Being a miss of a prominent family wasn’t easy; a clueless dummy would be the laughingstock of others.

”This, I’ll start looking!” Yang Mingcheng felt somewhat at a loss; finding a primer teacher was simple enough, any Scholar would do, but finding the right governess was trickier as he didn’t know where to look.

”No rush on this matter, take your time,” Yang Zhenshan said.

The Yang family has always been transitioning from a peasant family to that of an official one, a process that can’t be completed in just two or three years. It requires a prolonged period and substantial investment of silver.