He Chunhua was the local head of government, while the Li Family was a civilian family. A few of the members of their family might have held office in the capital, but Li Rong himself had no rank or title. On the surface, how could he possibly overrule the authorities?0

Governor-General He was killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. Gentry large and small across Dunyu—and even all of Xia Province—were watching with wide eyes.0

“Before Li Rong went in, several of his sons came to make arrangements. They donated 120,000 kilograms of cornmeal and over sixty thousand kilograms of sorghum flour to the provincial treasury,” Sun Hongye said with a smile. “A man like Li Rong can’t stomach jail. Rather than bribing the jailers, they believed it was smarter to deal with Lord He directly.”0

“Li Shuang’s not a fool.”0

“Sure enough, before Li Rong checked in, the jailers gave the holding cells a full scrub and sprayed pesticides. I hear they killed more than thirty rats, as well as cockroaches and bedbugs that were too many to count. Li Rong’s spot is the largest, right by the door, well lit and...0