The people of Taoyuan Town had a fine New Year. Elsewhere, things were not so good—and in some places, far worse.
The emperor's days in the remaining capital were miserable.
Driven from the imperial capital, he had lost not only a city but the hearts of the people.
Years of natural disasters and man-made calamities had built up a smothered rage, and now it all erupted at once.
Uprisings broke out across the land.
More than a dozen had already grown into serious forces.
King Ming seized the capital and proclaimed himself emperor before the new year.
Others looked on and thought: so the court really is finished—they've even chased the emperor away. As the old saying goes, are kings and nobles born to their rank? We're all muddy-footed peasants alike. If King Ming can do it, why can't I?
And so beacon fires blazed across the land of China.
Every man who had seized a patch of territory declared himself emperor, and suddenly there were more than a dozen emperors at once.
The emperor in his rump capital nearly choked on his fury—though terror outweighed it.
This… this was exactly what the end of a dynasty looked like.
The old dynasty's grip on power had fallen to a historic low.
Officials and commanders throughout the realm sat back and watched.
The emperor's flight from the capital the previous year, combined with the fires of rebellion everywhere, had brought the year-end tax collection almost to a standstill. Only one fifth of the prefectures had sent in their tax silver, and most of those had sent very little. The lowest had sent a mere three thousand taels.
Were they tossing coins to a beggar?
Out of more than a hundred prefectures, one fifth had contributed, amounting in total to scarcely over two hundred thousand taels. Of that, Qingjiang Prefecture led with eighty thousand—a full third of the whole sum. Thirty-odd prefectures had together remitted less than two hundred thousand taels, an average of less than ten thousand per prefecture.
What an absolute farce.
Most prefectural cities still exchanged correspondence with the court, but the letters all said much the same thing: internal unrest was unceasing; they were powerless to come to the emperor's aid. As for the tax silver—it could not be delivered to the remaining capital because the roads were unsafe, or it had simply been stolen by bandits.
Truly stolen, or conveniently stolen?
Your Majesty, take a guess.
…
On the second day of the New Year, the Taoyuan Town government was already at work.
Lin Yunxuan knocked at Jinyi's door. "Town Chief, you sent for me."
He glanced up at Jinyi, and a strange light flickered briefly in his eyes before he quickly suppressed it.
"Yunxuan-gege." Jinyuan looked up to greet him, then lowered her head and went on writing.
"You didn't go to Qingjiang Prefecture for the holiday?"
"Mm, I had a few things still unfinished, so I didn't go back."
"Good timing, then. A convoy leaves for Qingjiang Prefecture tomorrow. The plan is to open a branch campus of Taoyuan Primary School there. If you're willing, you'll go to establish it and serve as headmaster."
"You'll also handle affairs over there on the side—Jinxiu has other matters to attend to and won't be going."
"Once the school is running smoothly, the Longcheng development should be at its preliminary stage as well, and you'll be needed there."
"Understood. I'll hand over my current work today and travel with the convoy tomorrow."
Lin Yunxuan gave Jinyi one more glance, then withdrew.
The next day, he set off with the convoy for Qingjiang Prefecture.
"Ha ha! My son has grown taller again—Mother can barely reach the top of your head anymore."
After several months apart, Lin Yunxuan could not pretend he was anything but glad to see his family again.
"Grandfather. Maternal grandfather. Father." He stepped forward and greeted each of them in turn.
Governor-General Wen and Provincial Governor Lin both worked out of Qingjiang Prefecture now; frankly, neither dared be anywhere else. Who knew when some self-proclaimed emperor might come charging into the city with his followers? They might well lose their lives.
Both men lived in their respective residences nearby and did not visit very often. Today they had come together, side by side, because of Lin Yunxuan's return—though truth be told, certain events from before had left a degree of distance between them and their children.
"Xuan'er has grown up. He cuts quite a fine figure."
"He has indeed. Xuan'er is sixteen now—the right age to think about a match. Old Wen, have you any thoughts on the matter?"
Provincial Governor Lin felt that since he was present, he was naturally entitled to arrange his grandson's marriage. Hadn't his own father, still living at the time, been the one to settle his son's match?
Lin Yunxuan jerked his head up. After a brief pause, he said, "Grandfather, I feel I still need more tempering. And the situation is so uncertain—I'd like to wait another couple of years before deciding."
"Wait for what? When you're old enough, you marry. What does an uncertain situation have to do with it? If things stay unsettled for ten or twenty years, what then?"
Lin Xuejin sighed. "Foolish boy. What you cannot have, you mustn't dwell on. You—hah—you are truly not worthy of young Lady Jinyi."
Lin Yunxuan's body stiffened, and he lowered his head.
Old Master Lin—usually so quick with words—also flinched visibly, his face going rather pale.
I don't agree. I absolutely refuse!
Even if the boy were worthy, I still wouldn't agree! Otherwise, who would run the household? Would a houseful of men have to take orders from a slip of a girl?
Impossible. Absolutely out of the question!
Lin Xuejin continued: "Xuan'er, nine times out of ten life doesn't go as we wish. Back in the day, I— er…"
Two glances carrying murderous intent shot toward him.
"A friend of your father's…"
One of those murderous glances disappeared. Lady Lin asked mildly, "Which friend? Tell me—I'll see if I know them."
…
Lin Yunxuan had brought a consignment of supplies—nothing remarkable in that; Taoyuan Town sent a shipment over every month.
What really mattered was the school.
As the people of Qingjiang Prefecture learned more and more about Taoyuan Town, what they envied most was Taoyuan Primary School.
For one thing, in roughly nine months to a year, a student could master a whole system of learning. Yes, the script looked odd, missing strokes here and there, and the numerals were strange—but they were genuinely useful. Anyone who had used them never wanted to go back to the cumbersome traditional number-characters or the abstruse classical written language.
Now that Taoyuan Town was growing and thriving, its culture had seeped into every corner of life. This script and these numerals were finding ever broader application.
Spend a year learning them well, and if hard times ever came, you could survive. And there was always a fallback: if things truly fell apart, you could go to Taoyuan Town for the basic minimum—forty fen a day, a meal at a fast-food shop, a night sleeping on the street, a drink of lake water. You could get by.
This was something that stirred the hearts of nearly every person in the lower and middling ranks of society—and even many a gentleman of modest means thought along the same lines.
But uprooting a whole family to live in Taoyuan Town for a year was far too much to ask, and no one felt easy about sending a child alone.
In the end, Prefect Lin and Jinyi worked it out by letter: Taoyuan Primary School would open a batch of dormitory spots. The prefectural city would begin preparing its own school. Students—better to call them students; some of them were too old to be called children—would spend a month in Taoyuan Town studying, obtain household registration there, and then return to the prefectural city to continue their studies. Passing the examinations would earn them a graduation certificate.
It didn't matter where the studying was done; what counted was having once obtained Taoyuan Town residency.
Those who graduated would all be trained, capable people. Those who joined their family's enterprises would receive a subsidy; those who didn't join any enterprise and stayed in the prefectural city would receive none.
Once the school was built, it would admit only those with Taoyuan Town household registration. Everyone else, regardless of circumstances, would not be accepted.