Chapter 6: Shi Stone Stronghold

  Zhang Shisan turned his head and saw Xia Chou's face pale, his teeth clenched, and his legs trembling slightly. If he hadn't been holding onto the wall, he would have probably fallen to the ground already. It turned out that he wasn't fearless, but was just barely holding on. Unbeknownst to himself, he smiled wryly at his own excessive caution, and then said calmly: "The dead are ignorant and unknowing, what's there to be afraid of? The truly frightening thing isn't death, but a life worse than death."

  Do you know what it's like to have hot water poured onto your body, bit by bit? He would let out a mournful scream, like an evil spirit, and even after three days and nights had passed, the sound of his terrifying voice would still echo in your ears, whether you were awake or asleep. The boiling water was poured over him, and then an iron brush was used to scrape off the rotten flesh, layer by layer, mixed with blood and water, until his bare white bones were exposed, a scene that resembled hell itself.

  There's also the iron hook, a very interesting form of punishment. You need to use an iron hook and have extremely high skill to be able to hook out a person's intestines from their lower body. The criminal is bound there, unable to do anything but watch as part of their own body gets further and further away, feeling their belly gradually emptying, their abdominal skin slowly caving in...

  However, I don't like such complicated punishments. When I was 13 years old, I succeeded my father's position in the Jin Yiwei and served under the command of Commander Jiang Zhen. Later... actually, the simpler the punishment is, the more refreshing it is to use. When punishing a criminal, all I need is an iron rod. First, insert it into the stove and heat it until it's red-hot, then strip the criminal naked and tie him to the torture bed. No fancy moves are needed, just take that red-hot iron rod and thrust it fiercely into the criminal's fleshy parts. The iron rod will enter with a clang, and he won't be able to struggle. However, every piece of flesh on his body will jump frantically, and he'll use all his strength to let out a mournful scream. A wisp of smoke will rise from the wound, and blood and oil will flow out of the wound... Heh heh...

  Zhang Shisan smiled nervously: "Our Embroidered Uniform Guard is divided into South and North Towns, the North Town faces outward, the South Town inward. For those Embroidered Uniform Guards who have committed crimes or disobeyed orders, the penal code of the South Town's Fu Si is just as wonderful as that of the North Town's... You don't need to be afraid, as long as you listen obediently to my instructions, you will be guiltless and won't have the chance to experience the Embroidered Uniform Guard's great punishment."

  Xia Liu's eyes twitched suddenly, but quickly returned to calmness.

  Zhang Thirteen carried the corpse out, saying nonchalantly: "This woman is called Ting Xiang, she was bought by Yang Wenxuan from Cuīyān Building in Tai'an Prefecture for 200 taels of silver. When Yang Wenxuan was stabbed, she was right next to him and witnessed everything, so I killed her. Since 'Yang Wenxuan' is safe and sound, Ting Xiang's death needs a reasonable explanation, so I brought her here..."

  The body was carried by two people to the edge of the turbulent river, Zhang Shisan looked at Xia Jun with a worried expression and asked: "Do you remember what I just taught you?"

  Xia Fu nodded heavily and Zhang Thirteen smiled: "Very good, be clever, follow the plan."

  He turned back and took two steps away, then suddenly thought of something and asked: "Do you know how to swim?"

  Few people in Jiangnan do not know how to swim, let alone when they first met, Xia Xun was holding a string of fish caught with his bare hands, so he did not hide this point and replied frankly: "I understand, my swimming skills are very good, I can catch fish with my bare hands."

  Zhang Thirteen slightly shook his head and said, "But Yang Xu doesn't understand water properties, he's completely a landlubber. You must remember this point, don't reveal any weaknesses after falling into the water. From today on, in front of people familiar with Yang Wenxuan, you must be careful, pretend that you don't know how to swim."

  "Yes!"

  Zhang Shisan suddenly thought of something and asked: "Can you ride a horse?"

  Xia Liu shook his head, and Zhang Thirteen sighed: "Yang Xu actually knows how to ride a horse, and he's very good at it. It seems that after arriving at Xieshi Mountain, you have one more thing to learn."

  Xia Liu watched as Zhang Thirteen's figure disappeared into the distance, until he was completely gone from view, before crouching down beside Xiangxiang's corpse.

  He gently lifted up Tingxiang's head, the girl's neck was soft and her skin felt icy to the touch. Even though she had become a corpse, her beautiful face and captivating body still held considerable allure for men. It could be imagined that when she was alive, she must have been an enchanting creature.

  Xia Liu lightly sighed: "Listen, Xiang girl, when you're reincarnated, take a good look... find a good family in your next life..."

  He gently wiped the eyelids of Tingxiang girl, but those eyes were still wide open. Xia Xun gazed at those heart-pounding eyes for a long time before speaking in a low voice: "Girl, you have an unlucky fate, and I also have an unlucky fate. We can be said to be sympathizing with each other's misfortunes. I know that if you are still in spirit, please bless me."

  His hand gently stroked again, and it was unclear whether Xiang's stiff muscles had begun to relax or if her unwilling soul had really understood Xia Zuo's words. Those eyes that made one's heart skip a beat finally closed.

  Xia Fu gently lifted her body and pushed it into the river, watching as she floated away until her figure completely disappeared. Only then did he remove his outer garments, wearing only a pair of underpants, and jumped into the water. He soaked himself thoroughly, wiped the water from his face, and suddenly let out a loud cry: "Help! Save me...!"

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  Two miles down the river is a village called Linjiazhuang, and the local guardian of Linjiazhuang is called Lin Wudou.

  Xia Fu, who was struggling in the water, was pulled ashore by Zhang Shisan and others. They then rushed to Linjiazhuang Village, where they found the local security officer with the help of the villagers. They explained that they were traveling with their wives and had stopped by the river to cool off when a concubine accidentally fell into the water. They asked for the officer's assistance in searching for her and offered five taels of silver as a thank-you gift.

  Xian Xia's generous move made Old Man Lin smile, and he immediately collected the five taels of silver. He beat the drum to gather all the villagers, young and old, to search along the river downstream. After more than two hours, the villagers found Xiangxiang's body at a fork in the river where the current was slower and the water shallower, with her clothes caught on a jagged rock.

  Ting Xiang was a concubine bought back by Xia Liu for 200 taels of silver from the brothel. Her life and death would not have attracted much attention, and with the testimony of the local security guards and many villagers that she had drowned, the county government only made a simple record, and Ting Xiang's death was naturally defined as a very ordinary accidental drowning case.

  It's an old saying that if the people don't report it, the officials won't investigate. What's more, if a case occurs in their own jurisdiction, even if they crack it later, they'll still get a poor evaluation for failing to keep their territory peaceful, which will be very detrimental to the county magistrate's future promotion prospects. Since everyone says he slipped and fell into the water and drowned, then that's what happened.

  Zhang Shisan bought a thin coffin, put the fragrant corpse in it, and spent money to ask local villagers to bury her casually in the nearby green hills. The group continued on their way, and a life was gone so easily.

  In the late afternoon, they arrived at Xiashishan Village.

  Xieshishan Village is located at the foot of the northern mountain ridge of Xieshi Mountain, while Xiajiao's quarry was built at the foot of the eastern ridge, only a dozen miles away from the village.

  The mountain is steep and rocky, with peaks overlapping each other, the mountains are connected to each other, ridge after ridge, extremely difficult to climb.

  The most abundant natural resource here is stone.

  Yang Xu built a quarry here at the beginning of the year, not just a temporary enthusiasm. The fundamental reason is that King Qi wants to rebuild his palace. King Qi has been in Qingzhou for only 14 years, and it can be said that the palace was newly built and didn't need repairs, let alone rebuilding. However, after returning from a trip to Beiping, King Qi Zhu had the idea of rebuilding the palace.

  Among the princes, they adhered to the policy of "the king does not see the king", unless they entered the court for an audience or when the imperial family gathered together. Generally, there was no opportunity to meet each other, but there were exceptions, that is, when they received a royal order. Qi Wang Zhu Yan once received an edict to lead troops from Shandong to coordinate with Yan Wang Zhu Di to attack the Northern Yuan, and thus had the opportunity to enter Beiping and see his fourth brother Zhu Di's palace of the Prince of Yan.

  The Yanwang Mansion was built on the foundation of the imperial palace in Dadu, Yuan Dynasty. It is grand in scale and majestic in momentum. Among all the princes of the Ming Dynasty, the Yanwang Mansion is the most magnificent. When Zhu Liangui saw his fourth brother's mansion for the first time, he felt like a rural old rich man who had just entered the city and seen the style of a large family in the city, and suddenly became envious. When he returned to Qingzhou and looked at his own mansion again, it was somewhat similar to the Lingxiao Hall of the Jade Emperor and the Temple of Land, but no matter how he looked at it, it didn't feel right.

  At that time, Yang Xu, who had been reused by him, was instructed by Feng Zongqi to take the opportunity to persuade him to rebuild the Qi Wangfu. The King of Qi had already moved, and under Yang Xu's instigation, he petitioned the emperor to rebuild the palace. Zhu Yuanzhang initially refused on the grounds that the imperial court's finances were tight, and also wrote a letter warning his son: "Greed is like a raging fire; if not controlled, it will spread everywhere. Desire is like a flood; if not controlled, it will overflow the sky. The wellspring at the bottom of the well may not be full, but it can be used every day. Greed and extravagance without limit will inevitably lead to unrest throughout the land. As a prince, you must cultivate your virtues and set an example for the world."

  King Zhu of Qi was a very stubborn person, once he made up his mind, nothing could change it. After seeing the letter from his father, the emperor, he didn't waver at all and immediately wrote back to pour out his grievances. He talked about how many people were in the palace, how simple and cramped the new palace built on the site of the old Longxing Temple was, and how inconvenient it was to live there. He also promised that the court didn't have to pay the funds all at once, he could use his own salary to advance the expenses first, etc. His words were extremely clever and sincere.

  Zhu Yuanzhang was strict with himself and others. He was a very frugal person, even after becoming emperor, he never indulged in extravagance in any aspect of his life. He also required the same from his officials. However, when it came to his son, he had the common weakness of most elderly people - overindulgence and doting love. Seeing his son's pitiful state, his heart ached slightly, so he agreed.

  The construction of the Wangfu Palace required a large amount of stone materials. Yang Wenguang, being close to the water tower, took over this business. However, if he were to purchase the stone materials from elsewhere and transport them to Qingzhou, the cost would be substantial, and his profit would not be significant. Therefore, after inquiring about the abundance of stone materials at Xiaoshi Mountain, Yang Wenguang decided to invest in building a stone material factory here.

  When Xia Jiong arrived at the quarry, a large amount of stone had already been piled up at the foot of the mountain, neatly stacked and ready to be transported to Qingzhou soon. On the cliff and hillside, many bare-chested men were still working. Manager Wang led seven or eight foremen to stand at the foot of the mountain to greet him. As soon as Xia Jiong arrived, he immediately came up with a mouthful of yellow teeth, bowed deeply to the ground, and said: "Your humble servant has seen the master."

  Xia Jiang let Zhang Thirteen lend a hand, jumped down from the car, took a glance at the mountain, and smiled: "Get up, you're very diligent, it's almost dusk, still working."

  Wang said with a bow: "It's only right, it's only right. Since the master trusts me so much, how can I not do my best? The room has been cleaned for you, please come this way."

  Xia Liu came to shed the stone mountain, mainly in order to find a temporary reason to avoid returning to Qingzhou for himself, and at the same time, to make good preparations for impersonating Yang Wenxuan during this period. However, since he was using the pretext of inspecting the quarry, he couldn't ignore the progress of the project here, so as soon as he finished dinner, he immediately met with the managers of the quarry.

  When Xia Fu arrived, it was already after dusk. After dinner, the sky had completely darkened, but the lamps in the hall were not very bright, and the oil lamps were intentionally placed near the managers' positions. Xia Fu sat in the dimly lit upper seat and asked the managers about the recent production situation of the quarry: "Manager Wang, the first batch of stone materials from the quarry must be supplied to the Qi Wangfu without any delay. How is the progress of the quarrying now? Is there enough manpower?"

  The manager, Wang, stood up and said respectfully: "Don't worry, sir. The workers have now gotten into the rhythm of things, and the speed of quarrying has increased by 20% compared to the beginning of the year. There are also enough laborers, as we've recruited over a hundred strong workers in the past two months. As per your instructions, each person is paid one hundred coins per day, which is a generous wage, so naturally no one will slack off. Moreover, the foremen are keeping an eye on them, and if anyone is found to be lazy or deceitful, they'll be fired immediately."

  "Yes, yes, don't worry, Master. Our quarry will definitely not delay the construction of the Wang Mansion. Manager Wang is working diligently and all the brothers are putting in their best efforts."

  As soon as Wang said it, all the workers' heads nodded in agreement, chiming in with their own opinions.

  It turns out that Yang Wenxuan is indeed a generous boss. In this quarry, each worker earns 100 coins per day, which is very fair and generous. To put it into perspective, at that time, the annual salary of a seventh-rank county magistrate was equivalent to only 45 taels of silver, while the annual salary of a groom in the yamen was 40 taels, roughly equivalent to 300,000 yuan in later times, which is almost as much as what the county magistrate earned.

  The county magistrate's 45 taels were net income, his housing, travel, entourage, food and clothing expenses were all paid and subsidized by the imperial court. The stable boy did not have these benefits. Zhu Yuanzhang was born into a poor family and hated corrupt officials. In his view, being an official was not for getting rich, and there should be no huge gap between the income of civil servants and ordinary people.

  Yang Wenxuan, the workers in this quarry may have a hard time, but with one hundred coins per day, their total income for a year is actually not much different from that of the "driver masters" in the government office. Such generous treatment is certainly a valuable opportunity for those farmers, and as long as the management personnel do not pretend to be responsible and manage strictly, in order to keep this job, it is indeed impossible for workers to have any deceitful or lazy people.

  Zhang Thirteen immediately heard the problem and interjected, "Wang, I remember that your village doesn't have many able-bodied laborers, right? At the beginning of the year, when the young master offered a high wage of 100 coins per day to recruit workers, all the available laborers in your village came, but there weren't that many people who responded. How did you suddenly come up with over a hundred able-bodied laborers now? Don't think about taking advantage of the situation for personal gain by bringing in your relatives and friends who are old, weak, sick, or disabled. If I find out that you're not providing the labor as promised or eating into the budget, delaying the young master's important matters, humph!"