Ning Chen gave a slight smile. “Governor of Lingzhou, and your robe is worn out and your boots have lost their shape. Have you had them a long time?”

“Isn’t General Ning afraid this lowly official dresses this way on purpose?”

Ning Chen stepped up and took him by the wrist. “Clothes can be faked. This hand can’t… The skin is cracked and rough, and there’s still dirt under your nails. That comes from years of work, and it doesn’t wash out in a day.”

Jiang Zhengyang bowed. “General Ning misses nothing, just as they say. This lowly official admires it.”

“This lowly official presumes to ask one question. Has General Ning really come here to put down bandits?”

Ning Chen said nothing. He only nodded.

Jiang Zhengyang bowed a second time. “General Ning. Then this lowly official will take the gamble.”

“From this lowly official’s own quiet inquiries, the hill bandits in Yang’an County came up out of nowhere… And they are not like ordinary hill bandits. They seem to have some purpose in it. They plunder nothing but Changshou Village in Yang’an County.”

“The authorities have sent men out to clear them several times with very little to show for it… But the silver spent has been no small amount.”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes a little. “You’re saying they’re keeping the bandits fat to fatten themselves?”

“Lord Ning, putting down bandits costs silver… And where is that silver to come from? Out of the common people, naturally. Every county in Lingzhou has a new item on the books now. They call it the bandit tax.”

“Yang’an County alone took in tens of thousands of taels of bandit tax this past month… And there is no clear record of where any of it went. They only say it was spent putting down bandits.”

Ning Chen’s brows drew together. “And the common people don’t complain?”

Jiang Zhengyang smiled bitterly. “What good would complaining do them?”

“Why not report it to the court?”

Indignation filled Jiang Zhengyang’s face. “I have sent the court memorial after memorial. Every one of them sank like a stone into the sea.”

“You have the right to appear before His Majesty. Why not go up to the capital and do it yourself?”

Jiang Zhengyang shook his head. “General Ning, this lowly official has no fear of dying… But there are old ones above me and young ones below me.”

Ning Chen let out a breath. “I understand the bind you’re in.”

“General Ning, this lowly official has also learned that they are hunting a man… His name is Wu Tiezhu. They say he killed a constable and ran. He comes from Changshou Village, and this lowly official suspects he knows something.”

“Wu Tiezhu?”

Jiang Zhengyang nodded.

Ning Chen said, low, “Is his father named Wu Dashan?”

Jiang Zhengyang was startled. “General Ning knows the man?”

Ning Chen inclined his head a little. There was a look of old memory in his eyes, and he said quietly:

“My mother died early. Uncle Wu’s family looked after me more than a little.”

“This Wu Tiezhu you’re talking about, I called him Brother Zhuzi. He’s a few years older than me. When we were small he was always taking me up trees after birds’ nests and down to the river after fish, running all over the hills and the fields.”

“I have to go to Changshou Village… When Lord Jiang goes back, tell those colleagues of mine to stay in Lingzhou these next few days. If anyone finds Wu Tiezhu, they are to keep the man alive for me whatever it costs them.”

Ning Chen finished and started away with long strides.

“General Ning, wait!”

Ning Chen looked back at him.

Jiang Zhengyang’s eyes flickered. He had the look of a man who had something to say and had stopped himself.

Ning Chen’s brows drew together. “Is there something else Lord Jiang is keeping from me?”

Jiang Zhengyang set his teeth. “Wu Tiezhu is at this lowly official’s residence.”

Ning Chen started violently.

Then all at once he darted over, took hold of Jiang Zhengyang and pulled him in behind the tree.

“General Ning. General Ning…”

A voice went up.

It was Zhang Yuancang.

He had seen that Ning Chen was a long time coming back, and had come out to look for him.

Zhang Yuancang came to the privy door and called out, “General Ning, are you in there?”

All at once he felt a wind at his back.

Before he could turn to look there was a thud, a hand came down on his neck, and he pitched straight forward onto the ground and passed out cold.

Jiang Zhengyang’s mouth hung open. He could not get a word out.

Ning Chen looked over at him. “Come on. Take me to your house.”

Jiang Zhengyang came back to himself and nodded again and again.

But a few steps on he stopped short. “General Ning. Should we stuff him down the cesspit?”

Ning Chen’s forehead filled with black lines… This one’s no prize either.

“You seem to have a special fondness for that cesspit.”

Jiang Zhengyang said, “Down the cesspit is letting him off cheap… If this lowly official had no family, I would have put a blade through him long ago.”

Ning Chen found that funny. “You’re a civil official. Why so violent?”

“Riding and archery are among the six arts of a gentleman. This lowly official can use his fists and feet a little too… If I were not the only seedling left in my family, this lowly official’s dream would be to go to the battlefield and serve as a military officer.”

That amused Ning Chen. “Do you have a grudge against Zhang Yuancang?”

“No. I just can’t stand the sight of him!”

Ning Chen gave him an odd look.

“You hold it against him. Isn’t that because he keeps you down?”

Jiang Zhengyang nodded. “That is part of the reason. But most of the reason is that this lowly official cannot stand the sight of him… Flattering and fawning, greedy for his own comfort. He has seventeen concubines and keeps dozens of singing girls besides, out in the town. All of that costs silver, and his salary does not begin to cover it.”

“Take those dogs up there and behead them one after another, and not a single one would be wronged.”

Ning Chen shook his head with nothing to say. There’s something to this guy.

Talking as they went, the two of them came out of the One Laugh House.

Ning Chen took ten soldiers and followed Jiang Zhengyang to the Governor’s residence.

The Governor’s residence looked large enough, but inside it was very bare.

Jiang Zhengyang brought Ning Chen into the main hall.

“If General Ning will wait, I’ll go and bring the man to you.”

Ning Chen nodded.

Jiang Zhengyang left.

After a while Jiang Zhengyang came back in with a young man with rough skin and a frail build.

“General Ning, here is your man!”

“This humble commoner is Wu Tiezhu, presenting himself to my lord!”

The young man knelt and made his bow.

“Lift your head.”

The young man raised his head, frightened and uneasy.

Ning Chen looked at him a while, then turned to Jiang Zhengyang. “Lord Jiang need not test me. Ask Wu Tiezhu himself and you’ll find that he knows me.”

Jiang Zhengyang was not embarrassed in the least. He looked down, made a small noise of dismay and said, “General Ning must not be angry. Look at these old dim eyes of mine. I’ve brought the wrong man.”

Could you lay it on any thicker? Ning Chen said it inwardly.

“If General Ning will wait, this lowly official will be back directly.”

Jiang Zhengyang was gone longer this time. It was about a quarter of an hour before he came back.

This time he brought in a young man with rough, weathered skin, but strongly built, with good clean features.

The young man looked at Ning Chen, stirred up and a little afraid at the same time.

“This humble commoner is Wu Tiezhu, presenting himself to my lord!”

Ning Chen got to his feet and caught Wu Tiezhu by the arm as he started to kneel.

“Brother Zhuzi. Don’t you know me?”

Wu Tiezhu was uneasy. He nodded. “I know you.”

“Then what did you use to call me?”

“Li— Little Chen.”

Ning Chen began to laugh. “There, that’s right… I’m still the same Little Chen who used to run around at your heels. Not one thing about me has changed.”

“Brother Zhuzi. Sit down and talk.”

A simple, honest smile came onto Wu Tiezhu’s face, but he was still nervous… They stood on different ground now, after all. Ning Chen was no longer the little brat who used to run around at his heels.

Ning Chen looked at him and said, smiling, “Brother Zhuzi, you’ve gotten taller. And better-looking all the time.”

“You— you’ve gotten taller too. I almost didn’t know you just now.”

Wu Tiezhu said it nervously. Ning Chen had been thin and weak before, short, always timid… He was completely changed now.

(End of Chapter 142)