SEHE Chapter 58

Yue Ting

Originally, he had quietly moved to the Chief Overseer’s residence to avoid trouble, worried that Crown Prince Gu Jiuqing would find him again to do various tasks, never allowing him peace. Now that he continued staying here, Tang Xizhui might cause more problems, so Pei Yanci decided to bid farewell the next day.

He didn’t see Tang Xizhui, so he found Huo Cun to say goodbye. Under the man’s expression as if the sky were falling, they left the Chief Overseer’s residence.

The small courtyard Pei Yanci had bought was nearly full, with no room for three people. Pei Yanci let Wushu live in the courtyard’s last room, while he took Wuli to the neighboring inn and requested two upper rooms.

The following days became leisurely. Sometimes he would wander around the theater that was being renovated from the tavern, sometimes he would walk through the small alleys to the courtyard to see what good legal provisions those scholars had discussed, and incidentally point out a few loopholes, asking them to think more about their insights.

“Chief Steward Pei, come with me.”

As another grand court assembly was approaching, one afternoon, Pei Yanci saw Yue Ting, who had locked himself in his room for several days. With an unkempt beard but eyes full of excitement, he approached and said these words. Without waiting for a response, he directly pulled him into the room.

“Ever since you analyzed the shortcomings of the current tax law with me last time, I’ve been pondering solutions after returning,” Yue Ting’s tall, thin frame seemed slightly hunched from long periods of writing at his desk. He picked up a stack of organized papers and solemnly handed them to him. “Take a look, would this work?”

“Weren’t you uninterested in political affairs?” Pei Yanci said teasingly, holding the stack of papers.

“After you explained everything in such detail, how could I continue eating and drinking well without a care?” Yue Ting scratched his hair in frustration. “Ever since returning that day, the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t eat or sleep peacefully. Several ideas kept circling in my mind.”

“You know,” he extended his index finger, continuously making circles in the air, “when you don’t write them down, these thoughts keep swirling in your mind, disturbing your peace. From now on, don’t discuss political matters with me anymore. I’ll just peacefully be my theater owner. Don’t expect me to help you with other work.”

“When did I ever ask you to do this work? I called those scholars, what does it have to do with you?” Pei Yanci laughed, casually flipping through the pages. The neat, upright small script filled dozens of pages. Soon his gaze was drawn to several provisions, and he put away his smile, sat on the edge of the low couch, and began reading seriously.

That day he had only asked about the basic situation of tax law. This person had spoken passionately, seemingly wanting to defend the equal-field system. Pei Yanci had never thought of asking Yue Ting to help draft these legal policies. Now, most of the legal provisions here were even more comprehensive and detailed than those the candidates had given him a few days ago. They also incorporated other related legal provisions from the “Great Yu Legal Code,” ensuring no conflicts when implemented, with quite thorough and careful consideration.

People from aristocratic families not only surpassed the children of commoner scholars in clothing, food, housing, and transportation, but also in learning, knowledge, and vision.

Pei Yanci shook his head.

After he finished reading, Yue Ting said, “What you said makes sense. The current tax law must be changed, absolutely must be changed, but it cannot be completely overhauled. If we administered strong medicine, the entire court and countryside couldn’t withstand it, and the new law would certainly be drowned in the tide of opposition and come to nothing. If we’re going to change it, we must proceed step by step.”

The more he spoke, the brighter his eyes became, and his entire being took on a hint of excited madness. “First, the types of taxes. I’ve studied it – our Great Yu collects all sorts of taxes. Besides the land tax based on the equal-field system, there are household taxes, salt taxes, field rental taxes, corvée labor, and so on. Each additional tax imposed on the common people strips away another layer of their skin. The variety of taxes, without uniformity, makes it easy for local officials to arbitrarily add items and privately collect taxes, using the court’s name to impose excessive levies, undoubtedly increasing the people’s burden. We must unify them.”

“Secondly, the population loss problem caused by inability to pay taxes has its root cause in the separation of people from land. Therefore, based on the current land tax, we should only add a household tax. Apart from household tax and land tax, we should no longer collect miscellaneous corvée and taxes, making it clear and simple, avoiding local government offices from privately adding taxes.”

“As for the current land tax, we should abolish the equal-field system and divide according to the current household registration’s allocated land acreage – more or less, fertile or barren. Those with more wealth pay more taxes, those with less land or poor land pay less taxes. Such standards can be further refined. Implementing this way would at least ensure fairness for most people.”

Yue Ting’s fingers moved continuously through the air as he spoke, his fingertips touching the sunlight inadvertently streaming through the window, his nails sparkling with dazzling light.

He had never experienced this kind of fulfilling feeling before.

He was happy wandering among mountains and rivers, traveling across the land, and could also find contentment living simply in the small confines of the Crown Prince’s mansion. But this current joy was even more heroic, vast, and profound.

Because his heart contained the life and death of the people under heaven, the clothing and food problems of twenty-seven million people.

Just as he had once dreamed as a child of roaming the martial world with a sword, and as a youth had thought of defending his country and killing barbarians to win fame in life and after death, every man’s heart similarly harbored dreams of commanding from the Golden Luan Hall, personally witnessing his ideals and ambitions realized bit by bit, bringing great peace to all generations.

It was only because of too many real-world constraints that he had forgotten that besides political struggle and those dirty scheming methods, standing in the court, one could still realize one’s own value.

That was the dream condensed from over twenty years of holding poetry and books in his hands, the dream that generations of emperors, generals, and ministers had pursued one after another, going mad for half their lives.

How could it not bewitch people’s hearts?

Pei Yanci sat to one side, looking up at him as he eloquently expounded his principles and ideas.

The corner of his mouth carried a slight smile, his gaze kind and tolerant.

“You have many ideas, very good ones, very practical,” Pei Yanci said after he finished. “I thought this day would come in the distant future, or even further away.”

Convincing Yue Ting to serve as theater owner was just one step. His talent far exceeded this, but he was unwilling to enter the court. He wasn’t in a hurry either – someday, this person would serve his purposes.

This was just the beginning, yet he had already given him such a big surprise.

All by himself, just past the age of twenty-five, he had drafted legal provisions that almost encompassed solutions to all current difficult problems.

Truly an invaluable talent.

His original plan was to find the first person who discovered problems with the tax law. He had previously probed Crown Prince Gu Jiuqing indirectly but hadn’t gotten the answer he wanted, so he thought this might be Tang Xizhui’s person.

As for why Tang Xizhui didn’t personally raise objections to the tax law, Pei Yanci thought his status made it inappropriate for him to question imperial authority.

Thinking of Tang Xizhui, he couldn’t help but feel irritated.

He shifted his gaze and saw Yue Ting looking at him with a grave expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing else to say?”

“What else could I say?”

“No more words to refute me?” Yue Ting seemed somewhat incredulous. “With that mouth of yours, I’m starting to fear what you might say.”

“I don’t deliberately argue just to refute you,” Pei Yanci couldn’t help but laugh. “What you spent half a month writing is all very useful. Later, look at the ideas from those candidates downstairs, and you’ll have new insights.”

“Have you seen any good ideas?” Yue Ting asked curiously.

“Some things you can’t see yet. Some of their ideas can be perfectly supplemented, such as taxes on aristocratic families.” Pei Yanci stood up to leave. The room had a stale smell from being closed up, showing that Yue Ting hadn’t stepped out of his room once in recent days. “I’ll organize them in the next couple of days and show you later.”

“Hey, I only applied to be a theater owner. Now that I’ve done extra work, shouldn’t you give me extra pay?” Yue Ting seemed to have figured something out, apparently returning to his former carefree, lazy manner, and began bargaining with him.

Pei Yanci chuckled disdainfully. “This is purely your personal hobby. I haven’t even charged you for the wasted ink and paper.”

“How can you be so heartless,” Yue Ting called out, poking his head out from the doorway.

Though it was meant as a joke, Pei Yanci took it to heart.

Heartless? Wasn’t this exactly his true self?

He had never cared about others’ opinions, as long as he achieved his own goals.

So now he should go to the Chief Overseer’s residence and ask Tang Xizhui about the whereabouts of that person called Xiao Yu.

A faint irritation arose between Pei Yanci’s brows, and he subconsciously suppressed this thought.

Xin Hai heard the commotion upstairs and laughed. “So Chief Steward Pei came today. Perfect timing – several cooks we hired for the soon-to-open theater also arrived today. Let’s have a feast together to taste their skills. How about it, Chief Steward Pei?”

Immediately, several heads peeked out from the corridor windows.

“Brother Xin Hai, will there be meat?” someone called out, followed by a string of laughter.

“Look at you, so promising.”

“What’s wrong with me? I just want to eat some meat. It doesn’t interfere with my studies.”

“You have the nerve to mention it. Meat is so expensive. I’ve only eaten it twice in my whole life, and that was wild game my father accidentally caught in the mountains.”

“Well, I’m better off than you. My father is a hunter. In good years, there are pheasants and rabbits, but it depends on luck. If he doesn’t catch anything, we go hungry.”

“Don’t your families raise pigs? One pig per year is enough for a whole family to eat for most of the year. Well-fed families can eat from this year until next New Year.”

“How do you preserve it?”

“Take it to dry and store it. When you want to eat, cut a small piece of fat and swirl it around the pot a few times. The cooked vegetables will have a meaty flavor. One piece of fat can be used for two days.”

“Also, every year when wild boars come down the mountain and ruin the crops, every family in our village gets a piece of meat. That taste is really precious.”

“You all eat so well…”someone said timidly.

“Alright, as you wish. We’ll eat meat tonight,” Pei Yanci interrupted them in time, calling Xin Hai over. “Go to the butcher and buy two pigs. Cook one tonight first.”

The entire courtyard erupted.

“Chief Steward Pei is generous!”

“Chief Steward Pei, I’ll stay here and never leave. Whatever you say to do, I’ll do.”

“Hahaha…”

Joyful laughter rose and fell. They had no mind to read the sages’ books anymore. They waited left and right until finally they saw Xin Hai bringing people to carry over two pigs. They all walked to the courtyard and corridor edges to watch the cooks skillfully slaughter the pigs, butcher them, chop the pork into satisfactory-sized pieces, keeping the pig ears, pig head, and pig blood, taking everything to the kitchen to season properly.

Having lived for over twenty years, they had never had the chance to eat so much meat at once.

Pei Yanci looked around and noticed one person wasn’t joining in the excitement.

This person had probably never lacked for delicacies, and likely found pork too coarse. But today everyone was happy, and not joining in would be quite disappointing.

Walking to the corner, “In the future, they might enter the court as officials. Now is the time to make connections…”

He stopped mid-sentence.

Yue Ting quietly wiped away tears from the corner of his eyes, withdrew his gaze from those scholars, and smiled at Pei Yanci. “Come on, let’s go look at that pork.”