Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 195: Chapter 191 Brother, I’m fragile, afraid of the hassle!

Yang Zhenshan’s nighttime discussion about the matters in the backyard of the Prefectural Government was discovered after all. The extensive underground space was hard to conceal, especially since the rockery that hid its entrance was shattered by a punch from Yang Zhenshan.

That very night, officials from the government office entered the underground space for inspection and upon discovering the armaments inside, they immediately reported it upwards.

On the following afternoon, Wei Cen rode back to An Yuan City accompanied by Ding San and Ding Si.

After nightfall, Wei Cen visited the Yang family.

In the Guest Hall of the front courtyard, Yang Zhenshan, in casual dress, asked with a look of surprise, “Weren’t you supposed to leave Chongshan Town? Why have you come back to An Yuan City?”

He was asking despite knowing the answer.

The case of collusion had already been handed over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice and the Ministry of Justice for review. Lv Hua had left Chongshan Town for Beiyuan Town ahead of them, and as Ding San left An Yuan City, he mentioned that they would be visiting Beiyuan Town soon.

As for why they returned to An Yuan City, was there any need to explain? Surely it was because of the underground space in the backyard of the Prefecture.

“You don’t know?” Wei Cen looked at Yang Zhenshan with a scrutinizing gaze.

“What should I know?” Yang Zhenshan nonchalantly walked into the hall and sat down in the host’s seat.

With the hall brightly lit by candlelight, Wu Hai and two servants served tea to the two of them before retreating.

“The matter at the Prefectural Government office!” Wei Cen stared at Yang Zhenshan intently, as if trying to discern something from his expression.

Yang Zhenshan grinned, “Alright, no more riddles, just tell me, what happened?”

He was definitely not going to admit anything; he’d deny knowledge even upon death.

What a joke—those were items worth more than two hundred thousand taels. Anyone who knew these items were in his possession would probably harbor crooked thoughts.

Wei Cen might not, but what about Lv Hua?

Although Yang Zhenshan had many dealings with Lv Hua, he actually knew very little about the Deputy Director of the Northern Station.

They hadn’t even had a face-to-face conversation, so Yang Zhenshan found it hard to trust Lv Hua.

Wei Cen paused for a moment before saying, “Beneath the rockery in the backyard of the Prefectural Government office, there is a large underground space!”

“We found three hundred sets of armaments inside, and also signs of a fight.”

Yang Zhenshan widened his eyes, feigning surprise once more.

“An underground space? How big?”

“And armaments? Are they standard military armaments?”

“Did you find out who was involved in the fight? Could it be related to the collusion case?”

He fired off a series of questions, seemingly very surprised and curious about the matter.

Wei Cen patiently answered each one: “You can see for yourself how big it is. As for whether they are standard armaments, they are, but not our military’s standard armaments—they are the standard armaments of the military from another Dynasty!”

“Right now, we haven’t found any other clues or identified who was involved in the fight. Besides some bloodstains, there are no other traces at the scene.”

Yang Zhenshan breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had left in a hurry the previous night, he had still managed to clean up any traces left behind; he even picked up the coins he had thrown.

Before going, Yu Qingyi had considered this for him—people in the worldly society are quite experienced in handling such matters.

It could be said that unless caught red-handed, there was no evidence to prove his involvement.

As for suspicions and conjectures, those were inevitable.

After all, he was in An Yuan City, and he certainly had the capability to do these things.

“Standard military armaments of the other Dynasty!”

Yang Zhenshan narrowed his eyes, “Being able to manufacture armaments indicates that they likely have an armament foundry workshop behind this!”

“By the way, haven’t you checked the source of the Liang family’s goods before?”

Wei Cen calmly replied, “We have checked. We’ve investigated the sources for all goods sold by the Liang family. The food is purchased from various prefectures, the salt is smuggled from the salt gang in one of the regions, and the iron ore is secretly mined by the Liang family at Great East Mountain.”

“As for the other goods, they were acquired from various places.”

“From the perspectives of their sources, the Liang family seems to have no ties with other forces.”

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly; the smuggled goods mainly included food and salt-iron.

Among them, food was the easiest to handle, since the Liang family were rich merchants already engaged in food trading, making buying and selling food quite straightforward.

Salt and iron were much trickier since these were controlled commodities by the court.

However, for salt, because smuggling was rampant within the current Da Rong Dynasty, it was not difficult for the Liang family to procure large quantities of smuggled salt.

Iron was the most troublesome—whether it was iron ore or ironware, large-scale purchasing was not feasible; the only option was illegal mining.

Crucially, the fact that they could forge armaments was definitely not something the Liang family could manage.

Although the Da Rong Dynasty did not forbid weapons like swords, spears, clubs, and halberds—after all, martial arts were popular within Da Rong, and martial artists couldn’t train without weapons—civilian forging of Iron Armor was prohibited.

Furthermore, forging Iron Armor was a very challenging task, much more so than making weapons.

A weaponsmith could forge weapons, differing only in quality.

But Iron Armor was different; its manufacturing process was extremely complex.

A highly skilled blacksmith would need a long time and a great deal of effort to forge a piece of Iron Armor.

Three hundred sets of Iron Armor were certainly not a small number.

In Chongshan Town, most soldiers wore linen armor, and many military officers only wore breastplates; only true generals and elite forces had Iron Armor.

When he saw the Iron Armor in the underground space previously, Yang Zhenshan knew this was something he should not touch, so he took everything else but left the armaments behind.

“So there are others behind the scenes!” Yang Zhenshan’s expression grew solemn.

This was obvious.

“That’s right, I’ve already reported this matter to the Director. The Director should continue investigating this case!” Wei Cen said.

Yang Zhenshan stroked his beard, “I suppose there’s no need for my help then?”

Wei Cen looked somewhat helpless, “There should be no need for your help!”

“That’s good, that’s good! Hahaha~~”

Yang Zhenshan laughed heartily, “Brother Wei, it’s not that I’m being unreasonable, if you’re bringing the brothers over for a drink, I’d welcome it wholeheartedly. But if it’s for official business of the Secret Martial Guards, I must say I’m weak and can’t handle the trouble!”

He really didn’t want to get too involved with the Secret Martial Guards. It was unavoidable before, but now he would rather stay as far away from them as possible.

Of course, he was also willing to be on good terms with Wei Cen, Ding San, and others. Having a few friends in the Secret Martial Guards is better than having a few enemies there.

Wei Cen knew Yang Zhenshan’s thoughts, but he didn’t mind.

Yang Zhenshan’s attitude was not unique. Many officials in the court maintained a respectful distance from the Secret Martial Guards, with some even regarding them as mortal enemies.

Yang Zhenshan simply disliked being involved with the Secret Martial Guards, which was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not yet!”

“Haha, I’ll treat you to a drink!”

Yang Zhenshan said with a smile, then asked Wu Hai to prepare food and drink.

…

Wei Cen and his group came quickly and left quickly.

They only stayed in An Yuan City for a day and left because there was nothing left to investigate in An Yuan City.

Yi Shan and Liang Rong had already been captured, and the last underground space had been exposed; They could find no more clues even if they wanted to.

So, they went to Chongshan Pass to interrogate Yi Shan, Liang Rong, and others again.

But these things no longer concerned Yang Zhenshan.

Twenty-sixth year of Chengping, late June.

Luo Feiyu joined Wang Bin’s Rescue Camp under the Deputy Thousand Households rank and took up the position of Bazong.

Being recommended by Yang Zhenshan, Luo Feiyu was highly valued by Wang Bin.

In fact, it was expected that Wang Bin would value Luo Feiyu, as he was indeed talented, capable, and apart from being young and inexperienced, he had almost no other shortcomings.

Besides, Luo Feiyu’s background was clear; he was from the Sky Blue Sword Sect, and his family had been in Yuanhe County for three generations.

As for his relationship with Yang Zhenshan, it wasn’t a significant issue.

Be it kinship or the favor of a recommendation, these were common practices in the military.

You can’t neglect someone just because they were recommended by someone.

Trust needs to be cultivated, as does loyalty.

Whether Luo Feiyu could gain Wang Bin’s trust in the future depended on his own performance.

On this matter, Yang Zhenshan could offer no help.

After all, he couldn’t make decisions for Wang Bin.

June 8th.

Ding San’s father, Zhu Shanghe, arrived in An Yuan City with his family.

This old soldier was slightly thin, with a slightly sallow complexion, but the sharpness in his bones was unmistakable.

Compared to him, the original body was much worse.

It was normal, during the battle at Black Cloud Mountain, the original body was only fifteen years old, having been enlisted for just a year, while Zhu Shanghe was already a Postnatal Martial Artist and served as a Bazong of Hundred Households at that time.

If Zhu Shanghe had not been injured, he would at least be a city garrison by now.

“Zhu has seen Master Yang!”

In the main hall of the office, Zhu Shanghe greeted Yang Zhenshan with a fist and palm salute.

Behind him followed an old woman and a little girl.

The old woman was Zhu’s wife, Ms. Wang, Ding San’s mother, and the little girl was Ding San’s sister, Zhu Yu, who was only ten years old.

“Brother Zhu, no need for such formalities, haha, please have a seat!”

“Serve the tea, Han Fei!”

Yang Zhenshan warmly called out.

Han Fei was a clever person; seeing there was a little girl, he also served some pastries along with the tea.

“Brother Zhu, speaking of which, we are comrades!”

“That year I was fifteen, I was in the Camp!”

“But I was luckier than you, I survived intact.”

“I have a brother, who lost a leg, alas~~”

Yang Zhenshan intentionally brought up the battle of Black Cloud Mountain, aiming to enhance their relationship.

Indeed, hearing Yang Zhenshan say this, Zhu Shanghe relaxed a lot.

Being wounded soldiers from the battle of Black Cloud Mountain, they had a common topic.

To this end, Yang Zhenshan also deliberately mentioned Lu Zhou.

The two chatted for about half an hour until Wu Hai came over to report, “Master, everything is ready!”

“Good!” Yang Zhenshan nodded and smiled at Zhu Shanghe, “Brother Zhu, settle down for now, we can talk about other matters tomorrow!”

“Then this old man thanks Master Yang for his care!”

Zhu Shanghe thanked him with a salute.

Yang Zhenshan cheerfully nodded, and Wu Hai stepped forward to lead them away.

Zhu Shanghe was not a servant or a long-term worker of the Yang family, he was more like a client of Yang Zhenshan.

Thus, Yang Zhenshan not only had to arrange a place for him to live, but also had to provide him with a salary, and this salary couldn’t be too low.