HUS Chapter 61: The New Estate Head
HUS Chapter 61: The New Estate Head
January 4
Yang Can returned from Phoenix Mountain Manor, bringing with him the Clan Head's final ruling on the Feng'an Estate matter.
Estate Head Zhang Yunyi had failed to control his subordinates effectively, and was thus demoted from Estate Head to Assistant Deputy Estate Head, to aid Second Steward of the eldest branch's main lineage, Yang Can, in his duties.
Yang Can thereby concurrently assumed the position of Feng'an Estate Head.
After this news spread, the Zhang family and all the estate tenants who depended on them breathed a great sigh of relief.
Although they could no longer lord it over others as before, at least this calamity had passed.
They no longer feared for their lives, and their existing property had been preserved.
This greatly stabilized the most powerful faction of estate tenants in Feng'an Estate.
Among them, those stewards who had blood on their hands were personally executed by Zhang Yunyi in accordance with family rules.
This was his "pledge of allegiance," something he had to do.
After this series of actions, his original power base was thoroughly finished.
Only in this way could Yang Can better control him.
The other stewards were allowed to "retain their positions despite their offenses."
This ensured that during the critical time of spring plowing, the estate's production order would not fall into chaos.
At the same time, these people were eager to perform well before the new Estate Head, so they would only work more diligently.
Yang Can merely tightened his grip on the blade handle and personnel evaluation authority, while specific affairs were still handled by Estate Head Zhang.
Feng'an Estate thus completed its "bloodletting," yet seemingly without any earth-shattering changes.
Ever since Yang Can had inspected Feng'an Estate, the other estates had been closely monitoring everything that happened there.
News of Estate Head Zhang Yunyi killing his own uncle, son, and nephew, and of Feng'an Estate's atmosphere greatly changing, spread rapidly.
Estate heads and stewards from various estates were thrown into an uproar upon hearing this.
The six major estates understood each other fairly well, they knew exactly what kind of person Zhang Yunyi was yet this very man, a Longshang fellow who valued family above all else, had actually killed his uncle and son to curry favor with Yang Can.
What methods did Yang Can possess that could make Estate Head Zhang so obedient?
They couldn't find out the details, and without details, they could only wildly speculate.
The more they thought about it, the more panicked they became, because they didn't think their own cunning and tactics were superior to Zhang Yunyi's.
Zhang Yunyi had been beaten into a docile grandson by Yang Can with just a few moves, more obedient than an actual grandson. Could I be his match?
So they immediately followed suit and began self-investigations.
By doing this, they only hoped that when Steward Yang arrived at their territories, their proactive performance would earn them more lenient treatment.
Their demands weren't excessive, just slightly better treatment than Zhang Yunyi received.
As long as they weren't forced to kill their sons and nephews, that would be fine.
There were still some "stubborn" estate heads who wanted to struggle a bit but they soon discovered they couldn't struggle at all.
The stewards under them feared becoming like those stewards at Feng'an Estate, thrown out by their self-preserving Estate Head as scapegoats.
Even those with poor father-son relationships, or relatives whose ties weren't close enough, became wary of their estate heads.
How could they still struggle under these circumstances!
They simply couldn't lead their teams!
Everyone was hiding their thoughts, everyone was collecting dirt on others.
They did this either for self-preservation or to report others for merit, so how could anything be accomplished?
Left with no choice, these estate heads steeled themselves and had to pinch their noses and join the self-investigation team and at this time, Yang Can's people hadn't even arrived at their estates, nor had he issued any directives to their estates.
Tomorrow, Yang Can would officially take over Feng'an Fortress and move in.
Feng'an Fortress would welcome its new master.
Starting from evening, Miss Qingmei had something on her mind.
During dinner, Qingmei ate her rice grain by grain, hesitating to speak several times.
Seeing that Yang Can had almost finished eating, Qingmei finally couldn't hold back and cleared her throat.
"Steward Yang, you're taking over Feng'an Fortress tomorrow. Such a large fortress, who will manage it for you? Don't tell me... you plan to use Zhang Yunyi's people?"
Yang Can secretly chuckled to himself, this little girl finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
Yang Can replied earnestly, "How could that be? All the fortress people must go. As for being short-handed... we're definitely short-handed, I'll figure out another way to recruit more people."
"As for who will manage the fortress for me in the future..."
Yang Can pondered for a moment, then asked, "Qingmei, what do you think of Madam Chen?"
"Ah? Madam Chen?"
"Yes, I've watched her arrange the agricultural encouragement affairs these past few days, and she's performed very well."
Qingmei became anxious upon hearing this. No wonder he didn't discuss it with me, he already had someone in mind.
Madam Chen... what's so good about Madam Chen?
Is she as smooth-skinned as me?
Is her skin as tender as mine?
Such a pretty young lady standing right in front of you, are you blind?
Yang Can continued teasing her, "I see that Madam Chen is steady and prudent, managing everything comprehensively..."
"Who can't be steady? If she's comprehensive, does that mean I'm not comprehensive?"
Qingmei had to volunteer herself, "Steward Yang, I can do it too. I've been by the young mistress's side since childhood, I'm excellent at managing household affairs. I can also keep accounts, manage finances, and supervise servants and subordinates. A household can't do without a reliable manager. You don't know, but as long as the master's attention slips even slightly, servants become lazy and greedy."
Yang Can said hesitantly, "But you... you're so young, can you handle it?"
"I can, definitely can! As long as I'm here, you won't have to worry about anything at all! Whether I'm capable or not, no matter what it is, I'll take care of everything, guaranteed not to make you work hard."
"But... you're the young mistress's personal maid. Would the young mistress be willing to let you go?"
"If you can establish a firm foothold at Feng'an Estate, that's the young mistress's honor. The young mistress will definitely agree."
Qingmei thought to herself, my mistress already said to have me take care of you on her behalf. However, at that time my mistress didn't know you would be staying long-term at Feng'an Fortress.
That doesn't matter though. I'll tell my mistress that all the young ladies and young wives at Feng'an Estate are drooling over you.
When my mistress hears that, she'll definitely agree to let me come watch over you!
Yang Can smiled and said, "Alright then, since that's the case, you'll accompany me to take over Feng'an Fortress tomorrow. From now on... all the inner household affairs of Feng'an Fortress will be your responsibility."
"Great!" Qingmei beamed with joy, her appetite suddenly increasing.
...
Three days to move out of an old residence was quite easy for ordinary people with no surplus wealth but for Estate Head Zhang, who had been operating here for decades, it was very troublesome.
Even if he summoned all the village people to help, three days might not be enough. However, ever since Zhang Yunyi "killed his son to prove his way," his entire person seemed to suddenly become enlightened.
There no longer seemed to be any person or thing in the world that he particularly cared about.
Early on the third morning, he came to request an audience with Yang Can, bringing Butler Wan Tai.
"Estate Head, Zhang has moved his belongings from Feng'an Fortress and can formally hand it over."
Thus, Yang Can brought Leopard Head Cheng Dakuan and Xiao Qingmei, and followed Zhang Yunyi and Butler Wan to receive Feng'an Fortress.
Walking through it, Yang Can felt that Feng'an Fortress was almost no different from usual.
Not only was there insufficient time for moving, but Zhang Xiaomi's three-courtyard residence couldn't hold everything.
Moreover, this was likely also Zhang Yunyi's deliberate attempt to curry favor with Yang Can.
Therefore, a large amount of property had been left behind.
The estate's furniture and furnishings, murals and wallpaper...
Even the person-high large vase in the reception hall was still placed there.
Zhang Yunyi had probably only taken away some gold, silver, and valuables, along with some personal items the Zhang family was accustomed to using.
When Yang Can went to receive the storehouses, he discovered that many storehouses contained large amounts of convertible assets, all categorized and placed there untouched.
In one storehouse, upon entering there was fine sand covering the floor, and buried in this sand were complete sets of high-quality porcelain of considerable value.
When wealthy families ordered porcelain, they went directly to porcelain factories for custom orders.
The porcelain ordered by Feng'an Fortress all had the characters "Feng'an" fired onto them.
Moreover, each type of porcelain was ordered in sets of ten.
This way, if a piece from a set of porcelain, such as wine cups or teacups, accidentally broke, one could simply take out another piece from the set of porcelain.
Families that cared about appearances would never use a mismatched porcelain cup to make up the set.
This porcelain would be stored in fine sand upon arrival.
This way, not only could chipping and damage be prevented, even earthquakes wouldn't break them.
Furthermore, by isolating them from air, oxidation was prevented. When needed, they could be taken from the fine sand, unwrapped, rinsed with water, and would look as new as if just out of the kiln.
Qingmei's mindset transition was very smooth, she had already assumed the attitude of Feng'an Fortress's inner household manager.
More accurately, it seemed more like the mindset of the mistress.
During the handover, she was even more attentive than Yang Can.
Yang Can, accompanied by Zhang Yunyi, walked through inside and out, with Qingmei "speed-recording" the entire time.
Yang Can couldn't make sense of what cryptic symbols she was writing, but she could understand them herself.
"Good, that's it then."
Having walked through everything, Yang Can nodded with satisfaction.
Zhang Yunyi said calmly, "Then this subordinate takes his leave."
Ever since personally killing his son, Zhang Yunyi had maintained this emotionless expression.
As if nothing in this world could stir his emotions anymore.
Walking out of Feng'an Fortress and standing on the drawbridge over the moat, Wan Tai said resentfully, "This Yang Can is too overbearing."
Thinking of all the property they couldn't transport away, Wan Tai said with heartache, "Master, we actually could have moved more out, such as silk and fabric..."
Zhang Yunyi said indifferently, "Soon we'll be back. Wouldn't moving things back and forth be troublesome?"
Having said this, he slowly turned around and gazed deeply at Feng'an Fortress.
That was the home he had built with his own hands.
...
At this moment, four double-shafted horse carriages were traveling slowly from east to west, three hundred li away from Feng'an Estate.
The sound of wheels rumbled, there weren't many travelers on the road, which was overgrown with weeds.
Before and behind the carriages, over twenty riders accompanied them.
They wore gray-blue robes and were extremely burly in build.
Their sabers had a greater curve than commonly seen ring-pommel sabers.
The blade bodies had more obvious curvature, clearly suitable for slashing, more appropriate for mounted combat.
Additionally, they carried bows and quivers.
On one side of their saddles hung leather-covered wicker round shields.
With such a full set of equipment, ordinary roadside bandits would know at a glance that these targets were tough and wouldn't dare provoke them lightly.
In many people's eyes, they might be mistaken for martial masters escorting goods for wealthy families but people in the jianghu world could tell at a glance that they were "mountain goods runners."
This way, those bandits who scouted and gathered intelligence wouldn't target them.
Because the so-called "mountain goods runners" were actually smugglers, belonging to the same underworld as the bandits.
Everyone made their living by the blade, and "mountain goods runners" were even more ruthless.
Moreover, bandits rarely captured cash or grain, what they got their hands on was mostly goods and they had no way to dispose of these goods themselves.
At such times, they had to seek help from "mountain goods runners" to convert them to cash.
Therefore, even bandits had reached a peculiar harmonious relationship with "mountain goods runners."
Like the cleaner fish and moray eel that exist in a cleaner-client relationship.
The carriages passed by, leaving deep wheel ruts.
It seemed this batch of "mountain goods" was particularly substantial.
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