Chapter 574: Thoughts
Cui Zhi loathed Qi Haoran, who had confiscated more than half of the Cui family’s assets, but he hated the people who schemed against the Cui family behind their backs even more.
Just as Cui Zhong had said, since Dongting County was the Cui family’s territory, it was easy for them to find out Qi Haoran’s whereabouts. After the incident, he got someone to investigate. Naturally, he knew that Qi Haoran’s army had not even entered the county gate at the time. Instead, they were stationed ten miles away from the county and planned to continue their journey the next day. Just like in the past, as long as there were no bandits in that area, he would just pass by and not enter to avoid causing trouble for the people.
He also quickly received concrete news that at the time, Qi Haoran had brought his men into the city in order to buy gifts for his wife and children. It could be said that if someone hadn’t set up for Qi Haoran to coincidentally overhear Cui Zhong’s conversation with the others, making him suspect that the Cui family was plotting a rebellion, nothing would have happened.
Qi Haoran would have returned to the Imperial Court the next morning, and things in Dongting County would have remained status quo.
Cui Zhi could not do anything to Qi Haoran now, but he would not let go of the people who were plotting against the Cui family. Hence, he urgently needed to know who was behind this.
After Cui Zhi finished interrogating Cui Zhong, he went to interrogate Huang Hu.
Huang Hu’s situation was much worse than Cui Zhong’s. Covered in injuries, he had clearly been tortured. This made Cui Zhi believe that Huang Hu must be the one who had instigated a conflict between Qi Haoran and the Cui family.
Huang Hu was about to die of grievance. After he was caught, he was gagged and locked up that night. The next morning, he was suddenly dragged out to be tortured. The person who tortured him did not say a word. He only beat him and did not interrogate him. After beating him until he was covered in bruises, he dragged him and the other two to the Cui family’s manor.
For the past three days, he had been locked up alone and could only speak freely when he ate every day. He wanted to commit suicide, but there were always people guarding him. There was once when he finally made up his mind to bite his tongue, but his jaw was quickly dislocated. Although the attempt to bite his tongue resulted in a mouthful of blood, it was not serious and the other party did not even give him medicine. Instead, they kept an even tighter watch on him. Six people took turns to watch him 24 hours a day, making him unable to find any chances.
He clearly didn’t reveal a word, but Cui Zhi kept interrogating him about what he said to Qi Haoran and who instructed him.
The Cui family had stood strong for more than 600 years, and their interrogation methods were even more cruel. Huang Hu couldn’t take the torture and told them about the mastermind behind the scenes. However, he really couldn’t answer the first question.
In the end, seeing Cui Zhi’s perseverance, Huang Hu could only make up nonsense. In short, he simply went along with Cui Zhi’s words. To be able to be the person who framed them, the ability to observe people’s expressions was the most basic requirement. Therefore, in the end, Cui Zhi placed most of his hatred on the family masterminding this.
Recalling what Qi Haoran said before he left, Cui Zhi had the thought of cooperating with him.
Those who could scheme and have the guts to scheme against the Cui family were naturally from aristocratic families.
In Cui Zhi’s opinion, the Cui family was already on the decline. Most of their assets had been plundered by Qi Haoran, and the most important fields had been transferred to the hidden households who had left. It was impossible to get those things back, at least not for the next 20 years.
Instead of being suppressed by other aristocratic families, it was better to let all the entire aristocratic families land in the same state. At that time, everyone’s starting point would be the same again, and the Cui family might be able to be the leader once more.
Being from an aristocratic family, Cui Zhi knew better than anyone else about the infighting among aristocratic families. If the Cui family declined, it would only end up being annexed by other aristocratic families. This was not the first time such a thing had happened.
These days, who still knew about the Wang and Xie families of the Jin Dynasty?
It was all because the resources of the two families had long been annexed by the other aristocratic families. Now, the direct descendants of the two families could only barely support their clansmen to study, and could not fork out any more resources.
Cui Zhi did not want the Cui family to land in such a state in his hands. Hence, he could only work with Qi Haoran to pull down the other aristocratic families before the other aristocratic families started to annex him. Anyway, the Qi brothers wanted to clean up the hidden household situation, right?
Qi Haoran, who was rushing to Lin’an City excitedly, did not know what Cui Zhi was thinking. At this moment, he was only focused on going home to see his wife and child.
Behind General Qi’s team, a few bandit chiefs were also talking about Qi Haoran.
The few of them looked at the supplies behind them with complicated expressions and clicked their tongues. “Bandits, bandits. Otherwise, why would they say that soldiers are bandits? Look at the Qi Family’s army. They’re even more ruthless than us bandits. At the very least, we only snatch some grains, gold, and silver. I heard that they moved a lot of silver and grains and even distributed more than half of the Cuis’ land. Yet, there was actually no conflict at all. If it were us, we would have started fighting among ourselves long ago.”
“See, that’s why you can only be a bandit while those people can be soldiers.”
“I, too, can be a soldier now. I’ll be an official when I go back.”
“Hmph, keep bragging. It’s already good enough if they don’t chop off your head. If you ask me, the Cui family deserves it. We’re so poor because of the aristocratic families and wealthy landlords. If they hadn’t raised so many hidden households and embezzled the country’s taxes, perhaps the tax wouldn’t have been so high. We wouldn’t have had to rebel and needn’t live in fear now.”
“Forget it. Even without these aristocratic families and wealthy landlords, there was still the muddle-headed Emperor who splurged on building extravagant palaces and taking concubines. We’d still have to pay high taxes and eat less. In the end, we’d still have to rebel.”
“Actually, I don’t think there’s anything bad about rebelling. As long as we behave ourselves after entering the capital, an official position is inevitable. It’s better than being a bumpkin for the rest of our lives, right?”
“Hmph, you only see these benefits, but don’t you see how many people have died? We’ve been bandits for seven to eight years. Look at how many people have died along the way. How many of the original gang are still alive? I’d rather the country be peaceful and the people be safe. If so, I’m even willing to be a bumpkin. At least my family will still be alive.”
The atmosphere instantly froze. Amongst the people present, they more or less had lost their families in the war, and some were even all alone now.
After a long silence, someone broke the silence in a low voice. “I wonder if it will be peaceful this time. Forget about a prosperous era. It’s fine as long as they don’t force the people too much like the previous Great Zhou.”
“No way. The general is not bad. I heard that he loved the people when he was in the north. Not only is there no chaos there, but at least the people won’t starve to death.”
Someone snorted. “Would you know if anyone starves to death there? Considering there are even people who starve to death in Jiangnan, I don’t believe that there are no such cases in the north. It’s just being kept under wraps…”
The back was noisy, but the front was filled with joy. A scout ran over and reported, “General, Lin’an City is just 25 miles ahead. The general sent a guard to report that he wants to personally lead the officials to welcome you back to the capital.”
Overjoyed, Qi Haoran laughed loudly and instructed, “Get everyone to speed up. We must make it to the capital today.”
The smile on the scout’s face froze for a moment before he said in a low voice, “General, the general said that you should set up camp in the temple ten miles away first before officially entering the capital tomorrow. By the time you enter the city today, it will be very late…”
In the past, it had always been important to pay attention to the time when one returned to the court. Generally speaking, one could officially enter the city after the sun rose, and it would be best if they could finish entering the city before noon. If they rushed to enter the city today, who would welcome them when the sky was dark?