Chapter 471 - Autumn Levy (Part 26)
The Baldies neither killed officials nor rebelled openly. They didn't rampage through killing and burning, but instead continuously offered small favors to win over the common people, the gentry, and the literati, deliberately creating an appearance of peaceful coexistence. This made it even less likely to attract the attention of superiors or the court. After all, from top to bottom, everyone preferred fewer troubles rather than more.
"These Baldies are truly detestable!" Wu Mingjin said in frustration.
"Your Excellency need not fret. The Baldies conduct themselves with some measure of restraint. Whatever they want to do, just let them do it." Wang Zhaomin had no clever ideas to offer and could only resort to an "ostrich policy."
"There's no other way!" Wu Mingjin knew he had three choices: immediately take his own life in a display of principled martyrdom, making himself useless to the Baldies—but he was reluctant to die like this, not to mention his entire family to consider; alternatively, abandon his post and flee, perhaps returning home in secret or going to the prefectural or provincial capital for help—but county magistrates had a duty to defend their territory, and desertion was a serious crime; finally, he could send someone to the provincial capital to request rescue—but this was even more hopeless. He had previously sent someone to Qiongshan for help, and aside from a few inconsequential letters, not a single soldier had come to suppress the bandits. Besides, it had now been over a year since the Baldies had landed. If his superiors began making inquiries, what would he say he'd been doing all this time?
After thinking it over, there was really no alternative but to accept reality.
"What exactly has been changed in the county yamen?" Since he intended to continue his charade, he needed to understand what the other side was doing.
"Besides Chen Minggang, Zhang Shi has also been arrested—" Wang Zhaomin detailed the personnel adjustments the transmigrators had made in the yamen. "In my judgment, the Australians will most likely want Your Excellency to dismiss all these people from their positions."
"Then do as they wish!" Wu Mingjin thought that at this point, there was no other option. The only problem was that without all these experienced hands, how would official business be handled?
"No need to worry about that," Wang Zhaomin said. "Zhou Qi has been installed as Household Clerk—he was Chen Minggang's top apprentice and is just as skilled in the work. The clerks from Personnel, Rites, Works, and Military Affairs are all being retained. As for the three squad chiefs..." Wang Zhaomin felt it barely mattered whether they existed or not at this point.
As for the Punishment Office, this county had few cases to handle anyway. Besides, there were other clerks in the Punishment Office who could fill in. Missing one Zhang Shi wouldn't bring the sky down.
Looking at it this way, the problems weren't too severe.
"Master Xiong said the customary fees for filling clerk vacancies would remain the same—"
Wu Mingjin's eyelid twitched. Whenever a position came vacant, filling it required a tribute payment to the county magistrate—like official appointments themselves, the going rate depended on how lucrative the position was. Now the Baldies had swept up two clerks in one stroke—this was no small windfall! Wu Mingjin suddenly felt a twinge of regret: since they were making arrests, why not arrest all six office clerks? It wasn't as if the previous clerks had been paragons of loyalty anyway.
"...But they've also arrested the warehouse clerk."
Wu Mingjin was startled. "Do the Baldies want to rob the county treasury?"
"Not exactly. They just took the person into custody. He's still in the yamen." Wang Zhaomin lowered his voice. "They've put seals on the warehouse and stationed guards. No other unusual activity."
Lingao was a poor county. The treasury had little of value. But however meager, there were still several hundred taels of silver, over a thousand shi of grain, and various bolts of cloth and miscellaneous goods—not an insignificant sum of wealth. If it was all plundered clean, given Lingao's fiscal situation, the shortfall couldn't be made up in three to five years. When his term ended, Wu Mingjin would have no way to account for it to his successor.
In an empty room within the yamen, the warehouse clerks arrested the previous day were being held, awaiting interrogation.
The person conducting the interrogations was You Guotuan—Zhou Dongtian had already rushed to the "study class" to personally interrogate Chen Minggang's gang. You Guotuan's task was to crack open the warehouse clerks' mouths, discover exactly how much wealth these rats had accumulated to replenish the Planning Committee's coffers, and also to understand the key mechanisms—they would be taking over more prefectures and counties in the future.
"Don't underestimate a few warehouse clerks," Dong Weiwei said. "Do you know who the wealthiest people in Beijing were during the Ming and Qing dynasties?"
"The Emperor? High officials and nobles? Grand corrupt ministers?"
"Ha! Well, those too, I suppose. But it was the warehouse clerks whose wealth was famous throughout the capital."
These warehouse clerks were the clerks who managed the Ministry of Revenue's silver vaults. Their theft and embezzlement to enrich themselves was an open secret in society at the time.
Local yamen warehouses were much the same. Though not as lucrative as the Ministry of Revenue's vaults, they were still sufficient for building a fortune. Within a county yamen, aside from the Household Clerk, the silver and grain warehouse clerks were best positioned to profit. "Managing the storehouse means feeding from the storehouse." Compared to their colleagues in the Ministry of Revenue vaults who mainly resorted to smuggling silver out in their rectums, local yamen warehouse clerks employed far more sophisticated techniques. The tricks of the trade were as numerous as hairs on an ox.
The simplest and arguably "most honest" method was to divert treasury funds for private lending at interest. Silver and copper could be lent out, and in places like Lingao where the commodity economy was undeveloped, cloth and grain could likewise be used as loans.
Next came substituting inferior goods. The various goods stored in the warehouse—grain, cloth, and the like—naturally suffered deterioration over long storage periods. What deteriorated? How much? The warehouse clerks decided everything. They could either write things off as losses outright, or report that items had deteriorated in storage and request permission to sell them at reduced prices.
Even silver and copper coins, which didn't technically deteriorate, could still be subjected to substitution tricks. High-quality coins could be replaced with low-value small coins like shaqiao or guangpian. Ingots of treasury silver couldn't be casually touched, but scattered fragments collected from taxes but not yet remelted could be swapped out for debased alloys.
All of this was common knowledge within prefectural and county yamen, but local officials rarely dared to reform it. If you blocked their income stream, problems of "accounts not balancing" would emerge at the handover when your term ended—and the official would have to cover the losses. Furthermore, warehouse clerks also paid tribute to local officials. At most, honest officials with integrity would refuse to accept the warehouse clerks' tributes but didn't dare antagonize them. Even when warehouse embezzlement was exposed, they would try to cover it up and let the clerk figure out how to plug the hole themselves. They absolutely couldn't push too hard and back them into a corner. At worst, a warehouse clerk might lose his position, but the official could end up bearing the losses—and might even be dismissed or stripped of office.
If the official was corrupt, then all sorts of under-the-table schemes, falsified accounts, and theft of stored goods became possible. Some magistrates treated the county treasury as their personal ATM, issuing IOUs for direct withdrawals whenever they needed money. Across the realm, virtually no prefecture or county treasury was free of shortfalls.
As for the grain warehouse clerks, their benefits were even greater. Since the warehouse held only grain, there was more room for manipulation and substitution than with silver or miscellaneous goods. Grain also had issues of spoilage and staleness. Each year, some old grain was routinely disposed of—the old grain sold cheaply and replaced with new. This was permitted by granary regulations. Once the magistrate approved, good grain could then be recorded at the price of poor grain. The difference between the book price and the actual price became a substantial "profit."
As for substitution schemes similar to those in the silver vault, they were even easier to carry out in the grain warehouse. Sell off the good grain and bring in equivalent quantities of inferior goods to replace it. As long as the accounts balanced, there was no risk whatsoever.
"These are just the most basic tricks. As for how many methods they actually use in practice, we really have no idea. You'd best get as much information out of them as possible," Dong Weiwei said. "It'll be useful later."
"Don't worry, I'll definitely pry their mouths open." You Guotuan was quite confident.
"OK, but I'm a gentleman who stays out of the kitchen. Enjoy your SM session." Dong Weiwei said with a laugh as she walked away.
"Playing SM with these ugly uncles," You Guotuan muttered, "takes some strong nerves. And I'm the one who has to do it—"
Pulling his thoughts back from his grumbling, You Guotuan entered the room where the warehouse clerks were detained. It consisted of three main rooms. The largest central room served as his interrogation chamber, while the wing rooms served as cells.
The prisoners were brought up. He examined the several men kneeling before him—some managed the silver vault, some the materials depot, and one managed the salt storehouse. Since Lingao produced salt locally, it had this additional storage facility. All were core figures among the warehouse clerks.
To crack them open as quickly as possible, torture was naturally the method of choice.
Unfortunately, not many were willing to learn this very promising craft. The several apprentices Zhou Dongtian was training were all at the study class attending to Chen Minggang's gang. Here, he would have to handle things personally. Fortunately, some experienced torturers from the Constable Squad had been retained and could be put to use.
You Guotuan seated himself grandly in a chair at center, not even glancing at them, and began sipping tea. However pressing and complicated matters might be, there was no rush at this particular moment.
The several men knew the Baldies were using this to cow them, and each shifted about uneasily. Kneeling for so long was uncomfortable. Moreover, since their arrest the previous night, they'd been given only meager food and drink. These men had lived lives of ease and comfort—how could they endure such hardship? In less than ten minutes, someone could no longer hold out and began kowtowing and begging for mercy.
"Chief, please say what you want. This lowly one will obey any instructions."
You Guotuan affected an air of leisurely contentment and said casually, "I hear you fellows are all quite rich."
These words struck like a thunderbolt. All their faces froze. One immediately began kowtowing: "This lowly one is merely a petty runner in the county, barely scraping by. How dare I claim to be rich?" The others quickly echoed in agreement.
You Guotuan frowned. These men were not only greedy but stupid as well. It seemed that working for officialdom too long had adverse effects on intelligence—they believed that whatever they said was the truth, that even bald-faced lies would go unchallenged.
"Someone!" You Guotuan called out. The new Political Security interns supplementing the Constable Squad immediately ran over.
"Reporting, Chief—"
"Not you. Call in the retained men." You Guotuan added, "Have them bring their tools. Besides paddles—hmm, bring the finger presses!"
(End of Chapter)