Royal Gold Magistrate

A carriage slowly drove from the inner city towards the outer city.

The old man inside furrowed his brows. He held a book in his hands, glancing at it from time to time but then sighing and turning his head away, clearly distracted.

Suddenly feeling the carriage shaking a bit, he slowly lifted the cloth curtain and looked outside, realizing they had already entered the outer city territory. The flat stone-paved road had turned into a dirt path.

Ruffians and idlers were joking around on the roadside.

The old man’s brows furrowed even deeper as he couldn’t help but sigh.

The carriage continued forward. After traveling a while longer, there was a sudden bang. The carriage shaft, along with the horse, jumped up a large amount.

The old man inside suffered unspeakably. The top of his head collided straight into the carriage roof with a thud.

Fortunately, the upward jolt wasn’t too severe, and the carriage didn’t overturn.

Once the carriage stabilized, the driver approached the carriage compartment with an apologetic look and said loudly, “My lord, are you alright? We just hit a big pothole!”

The old man rubbed the top of his head, suppressing the anger in his heart. “It’s fine, be more careful!”

It’s fine! Hearing this, the driver chuckled and went back to driving the carriage.

The carriage began moving forward slowly again, but the road ahead was not easy to traverse. It continued bumping and jolting, and although the magnitude wasn’t large, combined with the pain in his head, it made the old man irritable and upset.

He poked his head out of the carriage and asked the driver, “Where are we now?”

The driver honestly replied, “My lord, this is Pingkang District. Banshan District is not far ahead.”

“Stop! Stop the carriage!”

The carriage pulled over to the side of the road. The old man, holding onto the carriage frame, jumped down and instructed the driver, “You go on to Banshan District first. I will walk there myself!”

The driver didn’t say anything else. Acknowledging with a sound, he drove the carriage towards Banshan District.

The old man walked slowly on the street, a gloomy and dismal expression on his face.

The scene on the roadside was truly an unpleasant sight, a complete mess in short.

Seeing people relieving themselves everywhere, the old man covered his eyes with his sleeve, looking as if he couldn’t bear to watch.

Suddenly, another carriage passed by behind him. Two old men appeared in the carriage window, waving their hands towards the old man, shouting, “Lord Li! Lord Li!”

Li Yansong turned his head to look and saw that it was actually Zheng Qiao and Zhang Dongxiang.

His brows couldn’t help but relax as he blurted out, “Why have you come here?”

Zhang Dongxiang said, “We also met halfway. With the rest day coming up and not having seen the Crown Prince for a while, we were worried and wanted to check on him!”

Zheng Qiao chimed in, “Indeed, indeed!”

The two then directly got off the carriage, and the three old men walked side by side on the road.

Zheng Qiao asked, “Lord Li, why are you here too?”

Li Yansong stroked his beard and chuckled, “Same as you, to see how the Crown Prince is doing. His Majesty didn’t even discuss with us such a big matter as the Crown Prince governing a district.”

“Fang Zheng’s ways are improper. I was uneasy, so I came specifically to take a look.”

Zhang Dongxiang looked resentful, “How could His Majesty be at ease!? The Crown Prince has been misled by a scoundrel. That Fang Zheng with his glib tongue will definitely lead the Crown Prince astray!”

“Not necessarily! His Majesty has been to Taoyuan County and highly praised Fang Zheng, showing that Fang Zheng’s governance abilities are exceptional. I think the Crown Prince might be able to learn something.” Zheng Qiao had a look of not daring to agree.

“Heh, I bet he can only learn his shamelessness at most! Don’t I know what the Crown Prince is like? Birds of a feather!” Zhang Dongxiang said painfully.

Li Yansong hurriedly mediated, “Alright, alright you two. Once we see him in a bit, the truth will be revealed! What’s there to argue about.”

“However, in my opinion, even at its best it will just be like Pingkang District. What achievements can be made in less than a month… Sigh…”

Zheng Qiao said with a smile, “I came to the outer city last year and saw that Banshan District was even worse than Pingkang District. If Fang Zheng and the Crown Prince can govern Banshan to this level, it would already be not bad.”

The three old men continued walking, constantly observing the surroundings as they went.

However, these cabinet elders had clearly spent too much time in the inner city and the palace. In their eyes, the environment of Pingkang District was still dirty, chaotic, and poor.

Especially after walking for this period of time, they saw quite a few people actually relieving themselves on the roadside.

Such a scene was rarely seen in the inner city! And definitely nonexistent in the palace.

Zhang Dongxiang started stomping his feet as he walked, “A precious son should not sit below the hall! Fang Zheng is leading the country astray!”

“Look! Look! What is all this! No sense of shame! Misery!”

The other two glanced at Zhang Dongxiang with disdain. Zheng Qiao joked, “Look at you! Getting all prissy. It’s not like you’ve never seen it before. I didn’t see you being so particular in the past!”

Zhang Dongxiang said haughtily, “The past is the past! Now that the world is at peace, what’s needed is to educate the people. How can the common folk relieving themselves everywhere be tolerated?”

Li Yansong sighed, “It’s truly intolerable… Having the Crown Prince in this kind of environment is really worrying. And Banshan District is supposedly even worse… Who knows how bad it will be!”

As they neared Banshan District, Zheng Qiao suddenly stretched out both arms, blocking Zhang Dongxiang and Li Yansong. He said in a low voice, “You two be careful! The public order in Banshan District is extremely poor, with no shortage of pickpockets and petty thieves. Watch your money, don’t get robbed!”

The two exchanged glances, their expressions grave as they nodded.

………..

Finally entering the territory of Banshan District, the flow of people clearly started increasing.

The ground also appeared cleaner and more even. Small trees were planted in rows on both sides of the road, and the walls were painted white with what seemed to be some characters written on them.

Li Yansong blinked, asking Zheng Qiao doubtfully, “This is… Banshan District?”

Zheng Qiao furrowed his brows… hesitating, “Did we go the wrong way… It wasn’t like this before. And why are there so many people here.”

Suddenly, a squad of officials wearing official uniforms appeared, one hand on the blades at their waists. They walked on the street in neat formation, their leather boots stepping on the ground, making crisp, uniform sounds that inexplicably carried a murderous air.

The scene of commoners seeing such a team and detouring out of the way immediately appeared in Li Yansong’s mind.

In his many years in the capital, whether in the inner or outer city, the appearance of such a team would definitely arouse the vigilance and reverence of the common people.

But the three were instantly surprised to find that the surrounding pedestrians were actually indifferent!

The officials walked quickly and urgently, soon brushing past Li Yansong and the others.

The three were stunned… These were just ordinary officials, when did they become so disciplined?

The people of Banshan District seemed accustomed to this, not minding at all. If this were in the past, they should have already distanced themselves far away… But here it seemed there was nothing unusual.

Li Yansong said curiously, “This place can be called orderly. Could it be we really went the wrong way?”

Zhang Dongxiang, anxious and eager to know, was endlessly curious about this strange phenomenon. He took big strides and walked in, saying, “Who cares! To think there’s such a district in the outer city, let’s go in and have a look first!”

The three began walking in together.

And the further they walked, the more shocked they became.

There didn’t seem to be any ruffians or idlers here. Instead, there were many small vendors, energetically promoting their goods. There were more people than they imagined.

All sorts of banners were put up – selling snacks, handicrafts, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea, everything one could want. Hawking voices were unceasing.

But amazingly, with so many people, order could still be maintained, and not a speck of garbage could be seen on the ground.

This was probably thanks to the large number of officials… But what were those old people with red cloths on their sleeves doing?

This thought simultaneously popped up in the minds of the three.

Afterwards, Zheng Qiao directly found a tea shop and sat down. He asked the waiter point-blank, “Waiter! Is this Banshan District?!”

The waiter saw the three old men staring at him with curiosity-filled eyes and laughed, “Oh! Three lords, did you just come from somewhere else?”

“You came here to take a dump, right?”