‘Before when there was no war, singing was heard in every pleasure house.
In spring, flowers bloom all the time, spring clothes are blown by the wind.
After Emperor Huai left, there was no sound of chickens and dogs, the emperor returned to bury the beautiful silk cloth.
The twenty-four bridges were empty and quiet, the green evergreen trees were left behind by the flowing old river.’
*[This is a poem “Going through Yangzhou” by Wei Zhuang. He described the atmosphere and the scenery of Yangzhou after the fall of the Sui dynasty, TN]
The courier ship slowly anchored at the port of Yangzhou government post; the weather was filled with the spring breeze of Jiangnan, a bit of coldness blowing through the clothes.
Jinxia carried her baggage, YangYue followed behind Yang ChengWan off the ship. Walking at the forefront was the highest-ranked official of the Assistant Chief, Minister of the Department of Justice Re-examination, Liu Xiangzuo, with his head covered by a black cotton hat. He was wearing a long green purple-colored robe with a white chicken embroidery, flowers and germanium silver were embedded on his belt, and black boots were on his feet. He usually followed all the rules and certainly did not go beyond protocol.
Lu Yi was walking to the right of Liu Xiangzuo, still wearing his Fei Yi Fu [Flying fish uniform], his face expressionless, complementing the bright sky.
At the port dock, all of the Yangzhou government officials had been formally notified: of high or low status, they were all standing there together, counting roughly ten people. Looking at it carefully, the leader had to be the one dressed in a peacock-shaped informal clothing, he was the third highest-ranking in the office.
Jinxia sneered at them; these people certainly did not come to greet her, but quickly turned to Liu Xiangzuo and Lu Yi. Liu Xiangzuo was the Left Assistant Minister of the Judicial Review Department but he was only a fifth-level official, his position wasn’t so great to the point that three high level officials would come and greet him at the port. The ‘special honor’ was naturally for Lu Yi. Although he was only a level seven in JinYiWei Jingli, his father was the supreme leader of JinYiWei, needless to say they would treat him differently.
Seeing Lu Yi politely greet both high and low officials and whisper something to the court judge of the provincial court as well, he doesn’t seem to forget his arrogance either. The court judge nodded his head, then turned around and gave orders to his subordinates: they immediately boarded the ship and, after a short time, eight zhangmu chests were brought down along with Sha Xiuzhu.
How exactly did he plan on dealing with Sha Xiuzhu? Why were they unloading the birthday gifts? Jinxia couldn’t understand at all. Lu Yi’s working style was unpredictable.
Before her eyes, the boxes were being taken away, and she couldn’t seem to figure out where they were being taken. Jinxia poked YangYue, in a low voice she said: “You say, where are they moving the chests?”
YangYue’s mind seemed to be elsewhere. According to the reception, there would usually be a dinner party; there were many famous dishes in Jiangnan, and those officials were wealthy, in his mind he was thinking about where they would hold the banquet.
“Where? Qifen Pavilion is the best, I heard that the cuisine of the pavilion chefs is from the palace. In this season, bamboo shoots are really fresh. Do you remember what I said before, that Jiangnan spring bamboo shoots have golden-coloured skin with red spots? Pork and bamboo shoots are to be boiled together in a pan; after steaming it, the fatty meat part will be gone, the bamboo shoots will absorb all the meat water, making it smooth, tender, fragrant and sticky, the taste will be….” He continued to talk.
Jinxia had completely forgotten her initial question and eagerly asked: “The fattiness part is thrown away? What a waste!”
“Then you can eat that, I will eat the bamboo shoots.” YangYue said easily.
“No, I also want to eat bamboo shoots. I remember you saying: the bamboo shoots are hollow, in the middle they are filled with lard and, after steaming it, the pork fat will be melted… it should be so delicious!”
“Yes, yes…”
They continued to talk, and the more they discussed, the more they became excited.
At that moment, Lu Yi, standing at the front, had already politely refused the banquet from the district official, saying he still had duty to follow based on the Emperor’s orders and would not dare to slack off, since he hoped to start investigating right away. The Left Assistant Minister of the Department of Judicial Review, Liu Xiangzuo, had been seasick for days, his face was pale, white like his teeth and also had no appetite.
Regarding Lu Yi’s welcoming action, the Yangzhou officials thought that ‘not getting the best result is better than making mistakes’, as long as they didn’t offend him or give Lu Yi a reason to harm them when he would go back to the Capital. Seeing both Lu Yi and Liu Xiangzuo refuse the banquet, the officials did not try to persuade them again. Leading them to the horse carriage, two prison officials were ordered to help them with their investigation, then they all left the port.
At that time, Liu Xiangzo’s condition was bad, he was feeling dizzy, his legs were weak, and he really wanted to immediately lay down and sleep peacefully for three days and three nights in a row before he could feel better. When Lu Yi was consulting with him, Liu Xiangzo expressed his willingness to go check the files, while examining the dead body and exploring the location of the case would be done by Lu Yi. The latter had no objection. Liu Xiangzuo immediately told Lu Yi that Yang ChengWan and his two disciples would be willing to help Lu Yi, they could do both rough and dirty work, so he didn’t need to worry.
He called for Yang ChengWan and, after giving orders based on Lu Yi’s instruction, Liu Xiangzuo immediately boarded the horse carriage.
Lu Yi got on another horse carriage while the coachman was preparing the carriage to be ready to leave. Yang ChengWan called his two disciples who were still whispering to each other beside him, and motioned them to ride the horses.
“Master, where are we going to eat?” Jinxia turned around while mounting her horse, asking with excitement.
“Northern Suburbs.” Knowing the nature of those children, Yang ChengWan ignored the word ‘eat’.
YangYue thought about it, then whispered: “I haven’t heard of anything delicious in the Northern Suburbs.”
“It could be that they just opened.” Jinxia happily pressed the belly of the thick and strong horse, “It’s true that in Jiangnan everything is good. You see, even horses are glowing.”
In the Northern Suburbs, new grass buds had appeared, looking fragile like jade carvings that can easily break, birds were flying back and forth in the air.
Near Wushanzhuang, there were no houses and some walls could only be seen in the distance. Jinxia was a bit depressed when looking around, it didn’t seem to be a place to eat. She poked YangYue, hinting him to ask.
“Father, why does it feel like a mass grave here?” YangYue asked, bending over to Yang ChengWan.
Yang ChengWan nodded his head and slowly said: “Zhou Xian has been buried here, Jingli Daren wants to dig his grave and do a new autopsy.”
“There should have been an official autopsy report.”
“Jingli Daren is very careful, he is willing to do the autopsy in person.”
“But… there seems to be a restaurant…Master, are you hungry?”
Jinxia did not give her hope up, even if there was no luxurious food, it was still better than digging graves and corpses.
Yang ChengWan glared at her: “I’m not hungry, you should not be hungry, digging a grave is a job that requires a lot of energy.”
Jinxia dared not to talk back, she turned back to YangYue and sighed while her stomach was growling: “You say, he is JinYiWei Jingli, how come even one subordinate was not brought? He’s trying to control us.”
YangYue took a long breath: “Being a constable for so long, I learned two words and want to share them with Master Xia.”
“What words?”
“Accept fate.”
Jinxia, after hearing that, looked at him with wide round eyes: “This master doesn’t accept it.”
It started to drizzle and the curtains of the carriage moved back and forth. Lu Yi closed his eyes to rest, his face looked calm, his fingers had been gently placed on the edge of the carriage window, the curtains kept moving and the noises outside could be heard very clearly.
They continued to travel straight up to the side of a willow tree, a prison department official led to the stop and got off the horse, alerting the coachman to stop the carriage. He looked into the window and reported: “Jingli Daren, we’ve arrived at Zhou Xian’s burial ground.”
One coachman was busy opening the carriage door curtain while the other one was to cover Lu Yi with the oil paper umbrella. Lu Yi walked out slowly, looked at the grave and without any hesitation, he said: “Dig.”
He did not clarify who should dig. Jinxia was stunned, hoping that the order was implying the prison officer would have had to dig, but Yang ChengWan had already started walking to the location. Looking at the situation, YangYue and she quickly followed behind.
“Father, let me.” YangYue quickly said.
“Master, these hard works, just let us do it, you just stand and watch.”
She took the shovel from the prison officer and did not dare to delay the work, with YangYue shoveling on the other side. One dig after another, the crumbs of the soil were flying back and forth and the people standing next to them had no choice but to move far away.
To bury bodies at these mass graves was generally because they wanted to finish the job quickly, therefore the bodies were not buried very deep. The ones inside coffins were considered to be lucky, since most of the corpses were usually wrapped in bamboo mats and thrown down to be buried. Seeing those two people working so recklessly, Lu Yi couldn’t help but being worried that once found the shovel could split half of Zhou Xian’s head… He was about to open his mouth when he heard Jinxia say ‘Ah’…
“There is something!” As she was talking, her hands picked up an item and brought it close to her nose. She sniffed it, making a careful examination: “It’s a sachet.”
Lu Yi walked over, reached out his hand and took the object to inspect it: the sachet was a fragrance purple bag, on top of which was embroidered two lotus flowers in silk threads, beautiful enough to touch people’s hearts.
“The embroidery work is very well done.” Jinxia poke out her head and said, “If you sell this in the market, it’s at least worth two taels of silvers.”
“You, continue digging, be careful not to hurt the corpse.”
Lu Yi gave his order, then walked to Yang ChengWan with the fragrance bag, he handed it over to him and said: “Senior Yang, take a look at this fragrance bag.”
Yang ChengWan lowered his back, respectfully received the bag, narrowed his eyes to look at it and then sniffed it.
“Judging from the smell, this should be orchid petals, like something used by women…” He raised his head and handed back the fragrance bag, faced Lu Yi and said, “To my knowledge, during his trip, Zhou Xian did not bring his wife or his children, maybe someone dropped it accidentally?”
Lu Yi nodded his head, then he tucked the bag in his sleeve. At that instant, rumbling noises could be heard, they were coming from the shovel hitting the coffin.
“It’s been dug up! Do you want to open it?” Jinxia, leaning on the shovel, shouted at Lu Yi. She was very hungry, so she wanted to finish her work as soon as possible so that she could go home and eat warm food.
Lu Yi raised his head and looked up at the sky, nodding his head: “Open it.”
Zhou Xian, who was in the coffin, had been buried for days, surely the corpse had already started to rot. Jinxia, while complaining about her misfortune in her heart, she took out a piece of handkerchief from her pocket, used it to cover her mouth and nose and afterward she used the tip of the shovel to pry open the coffin.
YangYue also did the same thing, using the shovel to pry the lid of the casket. The two of them looked at each other and at the same time pressed the shovel hard against the casket cover. The coffin lid cracked, several nails were bent and lifted up, then the coffin was finally opened. An awful stench came out.
Despite the fact that her nose and mouth were covered, Jinxia almost vomited due to the strong body smell but her hands and feet were quick to act. She jumped out of the pit with a bitter face and wrinkled eyebrow, trying to push the smell away by waving her hands.
“The inside is rotten…Still want to examine?” She asked Lu Yi again.
Lu Yi gave her a glacial look and said: “Of course, hurry up and open it.”
Looking at Yang ChengWan not far from there, Jinxia took the shovel and jumped back in the pit with YangYue, removing all the nails of the coffin and lifting the casket lid…
Aside from the unpleasant smell, the corpse of a man in an official uniform was lying inside, his face was as pale grey as the gloomy sky.
Jinxia looked around, seeing the maggots coming out of his hand, surely there were holes in the corpse.
Based on her experience, at that time the body should not be moved. The inside was completely putrefied, if they insisted on moving it, blood would gush out, arms and legs could even fall apart. She turned to look at Lu Yi, who was looking at them from above, examining the corpse with a plain face.
Lu Yi had met Zhou Xian before.
Three years ago, when he’d been in the Ministry of Finance, he and Lu Yi had had a chance to meet. At that time, Zhou Xian had been currently working in the Ministry of Finance, a ninth-level official. Despite his position in the Palace Censorship Board, he’d always been a quiet man, careful not to attract attention, making himself look unimportant.
Lu Yi remembered him because of his shoes.
That winter had been very cold. During the time of snowfalls, usually government officials wore either deerskin shoes or goatskin shoes, or at least cotton lining boots. Zhou Xian had been wearing old leather boots with open edges. He’d looked at his boots to check how much snow water had entered his shoes, in silence he’d pressed them against the heating container.
It was a well-known thing that in the Capital those officials were poor. Anyway other officials often had many ways to earn extra from the outside, but being poor as Zhou Xian, well, that was very rare.
‘Before when there was no war, singing was heard in every pleasure house.
In spring, flowers bloom all the time, spring clothes are blown by the wind.
After Emperor Huai left, there was no sound of chickens and dogs, the emperor returned to bury the beautiful silk cloth.
The twenty-four bridges were empty and quiet, the green evergreen trees were left behind by the flowing old river.’
*[This is a poem “Going through Yangzhou” by Wei Zhuang. He described the atmosphere and the scenery of Yangzhou after the fall of the Sui dynasty, TN]
The courier ship slowly anchored at the port of Yangzhou government post; the weather was filled with the spring breeze of Jiangnan, a bit of coldness blowing through the clothes.
Jinxia carried her baggage, YangYue followed behind Yang ChengWan off the ship. Walking at the forefront was the highest-ranked official of the Assistant Chief, Minister of the Department of Justice Re-examination, Liu Xiangzuo, with his head covered by a black cotton hat. He was wearing a long green purple-colored robe with a white chicken embroidery, flowers and germanium silver were embedded on his belt, and black boots were on his feet. He usually followed all the rules and certainly did not go beyond protocol.
Lu Yi was walking to the right of Liu Xiangzuo, still wearing his Fei Yi Fu [Flying fish uniform], his face expressionless, complementing the bright sky.
At the port dock, all of the Yangzhou government officials had been formally notified: of high or low status, they were all standing there together, counting roughly ten people. Looking at it carefully, the leader had to be the one dressed in a peacock-shaped informal clothing, he was the third highest-ranking in the office.
Jinxia sneered at them; these people certainly did not come to greet her, but quickly turned to Liu Xiangzuo and Lu Yi. Liu Xiangzuo was the Left Assistant Minister of the Judicial Review Department but he was only a fifth-level official, his position wasn’t so great to the point that three high level officials would come and greet him at the port. The ‘special honor’ was naturally for Lu Yi. Although he was only a level seven in JinYiWei Jingli, his father was the supreme leader of JinYiWei, needless to say they would treat him differently.
Seeing Lu Yi politely greet both high and low officials and whisper something to the court judge of the provincial court as well, he doesn’t seem to forget his arrogance either. The court judge nodded his head, then turned around and gave orders to his subordinates: they immediately boarded the ship and, after a short time, eight zhangmu chests were brought down along with Sha Xiuzhu.
How exactly did he plan on dealing with Sha Xiuzhu? Why were they unloading the birthday gifts? Jinxia couldn’t understand at all. Lu Yi’s working style was unpredictable.
Before her eyes, the boxes were being taken away, and she couldn’t seem to figure out where they were being taken. Jinxia poked YangYue, in a low voice she said: “You say, where are they moving the chests?”
YangYue’s mind seemed to be elsewhere. According to the reception, there would usually be a dinner party; there were many famous dishes in Jiangnan, and those officials were wealthy, in his mind he was thinking about where they would hold the banquet.
“Where? Qifen Pavilion is the best, I heard that the cuisine of the pavilion chefs is from the palace. In this season, bamboo shoots are really fresh. Do you remember what I said before, that Jiangnan spring bamboo shoots have golden-coloured skin with red spots? Pork and bamboo shoots are to be boiled together in a pan; after steaming it, the fatty meat part will be gone, the bamboo shoots will absorb all the meat water, making it smooth, tender, fragrant and sticky, the taste will be….” He continued to talk.
Jinxia had completely forgotten her initial question and eagerly asked: “The fattiness part is thrown away? What a waste!”
“Then you can eat that, I will eat the bamboo shoots.” YangYue said easily.
“No, I also want to eat bamboo shoots. I remember you saying: the bamboo shoots are hollow, in the middle they are filled with lard and, after steaming it, the pork fat will be melted… it should be so delicious!”
“Yes, yes…”
They continued to talk, and the more they discussed, the more they became excited.
At that moment, Lu Yi, standing at the front, had already politely refused the banquet from the district official, saying he still had duty to follow based on the Emperor’s orders and would not dare to slack off, since he hoped to start investigating right away. The Left Assistant Minister of the Department of Judicial Review, Liu Xiangzuo, had been seasick for days, his face was pale, white like his teeth and also had no appetite.
Regarding Lu Yi’s welcoming action, the Yangzhou officials thought that ‘not getting the best result is better than making mistakes’, as long as they didn’t offend him or give Lu Yi a reason to harm them when he would go back to the Capital. Seeing both Lu Yi and Liu Xiangzuo refuse the banquet, the officials did not try to persuade them again. Leading them to the horse carriage, two prison officials were ordered to help them with their investigation, then they all left the port.
At that time, Liu Xiangzo’s condition was bad, he was feeling dizzy, his legs were weak, and he really wanted to immediately lay down and sleep peacefully for three days and three nights in a row before he could feel better. When Lu Yi was consulting with him, Liu Xiangzo expressed his willingness to go check the files, while examining the dead body and exploring the location of the case would be done by Lu Yi. The latter had no objection. Liu Xiangzuo immediately told Lu Yi that Yang ChengWan and his two disciples would be willing to help Lu Yi, they could do both rough and dirty work, so he didn’t need to worry.
He called for Yang ChengWan and, after giving orders based on Lu Yi’s instruction, Liu Xiangzuo immediately boarded the horse carriage.
Lu Yi got on another horse carriage while the coachman was preparing the carriage to be ready to leave. Yang ChengWan called his two disciples who were still whispering to each other beside him, and motioned them to ride the horses.
“Master, where are we going to eat?” Jinxia turned around while mounting her horse, asking with excitement.
“Northern Suburbs.” Knowing the nature of those children, Yang ChengWan ignored the word ‘eat’.
YangYue thought about it, then whispered: “I haven’t heard of anything delicious in the Northern Suburbs.”
“It could be that they just opened.” Jinxia happily pressed the belly of the thick and strong horse, “It’s true that in Jiangnan everything is good. You see, even horses are glowing.”
In the Northern Suburbs, new grass buds had appeared, looking fragile like jade carvings that can easily break, birds were flying back and forth in the air.
Near Wushanzhuang, there were no houses and some walls could only be seen in the distance. Jinxia was a bit depressed when looking around, it didn’t seem to be a place to eat. She poked YangYue, hinting him to ask.
“Father, why does it feel like a mass grave here?” YangYue asked, bending over to Yang ChengWan.
Yang ChengWan nodded his head and slowly said: “Zhou Xian has been buried here, Jingli Daren wants to dig his grave and do a new autopsy.”
“There should have been an official autopsy report.”
“Jingli Daren is very careful, he is willing to do the autopsy in person.”
“But… there seems to be a restaurant…Master, are you hungry?”
Jinxia did not give her hope up, even if there was no luxurious food, it was still better than digging graves and corpses.
Yang ChengWan glared at her: “I’m not hungry, you should not be hungry, digging a grave is a job that requires a lot of energy.”
Jinxia dared not to talk back, she turned back to YangYue and sighed while her stomach was growling: “You say, he is JinYiWei Jingli, how come even one subordinate was not brought? He’s trying to control us.”
YangYue took a long breath: “Being a constable for so long, I learned two words and want to share them with Master Xia.”
“What words?”
“Accept fate.”
Jinxia, after hearing that, looked at him with wide round eyes: “This master doesn’t accept it.”
It started to drizzle and the curtains of the carriage moved back and forth. Lu Yi closed his eyes to rest, his face looked calm, his fingers had been gently placed on the edge of the carriage window, the curtains kept moving and the noises outside could be heard very clearly.
They continued to travel straight up to the side of a willow tree, a prison department official led to the stop and got off the horse, alerting the coachman to stop the carriage. He looked into the window and reported: “Jingli Daren, we’ve arrived at Zhou Xian’s burial ground.”
One coachman was busy opening the carriage door curtain while the other one was to cover Lu Yi with the oil paper umbrella. Lu Yi walked out slowly, looked at the grave and without any hesitation, he said: “Dig.”
He did not clarify who should dig. Jinxia was stunned, hoping that the order was implying the prison officer would have had to dig, but Yang ChengWan had already started walking to the location. Looking at the situation, YangYue and she quickly followed behind.
“Father, let me.” YangYue quickly said.
“Master, these hard works, just let us do it, you just stand and watch.”
She took the shovel from the prison officer and did not dare to delay the work, with YangYue shoveling on the other side. One dig after another, the crumbs of the soil were flying back and forth and the people standing next to them had no choice but to move far away.
To bury bodies at these mass graves was generally because they wanted to finish the job quickly, therefore the bodies were not buried very deep. The ones inside coffins were considered to be lucky, since most of the corpses were usually wrapped in bamboo mats and thrown down to be buried. Seeing those two people working so recklessly, Lu Yi couldn’t help but being worried that once found the shovel could split half of Zhou Xian’s head… He was about to open his mouth when he heard Jinxia say ‘Ah’…
“There is something!” As she was talking, her hands picked up an item and brought it close to her nose. She sniffed it, making a careful examination: “It’s a sachet.”
Lu Yi walked over, reached out his hand and took the object to inspect it: the sachet was a fragrance purple bag, on top of which was embroidered two lotus flowers in silk threads, beautiful enough to touch people’s hearts.
“The embroidery work is very well done.” Jinxia poke out her head and said, “If you sell this in the market, it’s at least worth two taels of silvers.”
“You, continue digging, be careful not to hurt the corpse.”
Lu Yi gave his order, then walked to Yang ChengWan with the fragrance bag, he handed it over to him and said: “Senior Yang, take a look at this fragrance bag.”
Yang ChengWan lowered his back, respectfully received the bag, narrowed his eyes to look at it and then sniffed it.
“Judging from the smell, this should be orchid petals, like something used by women…” He raised his head and handed back the fragrance bag, faced Lu Yi and said, “To my knowledge, during his trip, Zhou Xian did not bring his wife or his children, maybe someone dropped it accidentally?”
Lu Yi nodded his head, then he tucked the bag in his sleeve. At that instant, rumbling noises could be heard, they were coming from the shovel hitting the coffin.
“It’s been dug up! Do you want to open it?” Jinxia, leaning on the shovel, shouted at Lu Yi. She was very hungry, so she wanted to finish her work as soon as possible so that she could go home and eat warm food.
Lu Yi raised his head and looked up at the sky, nodding his head: “Open it.”
Zhou Xian, who was in the coffin, had been buried for days, surely the corpse had already started to rot. Jinxia, while complaining about her misfortune in her heart, she took out a piece of handkerchief from her pocket, used it to cover her mouth and nose and afterward she used the tip of the shovel to pry open the coffin.
YangYue also did the same thing, using the shovel to pry the lid of the casket. The two of them looked at each other and at the same time pressed the shovel hard against the casket cover. The coffin lid cracked, several nails were bent and lifted up, then the coffin was finally opened. An awful stench came out.
Despite the fact that her nose and mouth were covered, Jinxia almost vomited due to the strong body smell but her hands and feet were quick to act. She jumped out of the pit with a bitter face and wrinkled eyebrow, trying to push the smell away by waving her hands.
“The inside is rotten…Still want to examine?” She asked Lu Yi again.
Lu Yi gave her a glacial look and said: “Of course, hurry up and open it.”
Looking at Yang ChengWan not far from there, Jinxia took the shovel and jumped back in the pit with YangYue, removing all the nails of the coffin and lifting the casket lid…
Aside from the unpleasant smell, the corpse of a man in an official uniform was lying inside, his face was as pale grey as the gloomy sky.
Jinxia looked around, seeing the maggots coming out of his hand, surely there were holes in the corpse.
Based on her experience, at that time the body should not be moved. The inside was completely putrefied, if they insisted on moving it, blood would gush out, arms and legs could even fall apart. She turned to look at Lu Yi, who was looking at them from above, examining the corpse with a plain face.
Lu Yi had met Zhou Xian before.
Three years ago, when he’d been in the Ministry of Finance, he and Lu Yi had had a chance to meet. At that time, Zhou Xian had been currently working in the Ministry of Finance, a ninth-level official. Despite his position in the Palace Censorship Board, he’d always been a quiet man, careful not to attract attention, making himself look unimportant.
Lu Yi remembered him because of his shoes.
That winter had been very cold. During the time of snowfalls, usually government officials wore either deerskin shoes or goatskin shoes, or at least cotton lining boots. Zhou Xian had been wearing old leather boots with open edges. He’d looked at his boots to check how much snow water had entered his shoes, in silence he’d pressed them against the heating container.
It was a well-known thing that in the Capital those officials were poor. Anyway other officials often had many ways to earn extra from the outside, but being poor as Zhou Xian, well, that was very rare.
