Chapter 240: The Autumn Levy (Part 5)

“Third Uncle! This must be another new extortion scheme cooked up by Old Eighth!” his nephew, Liu Guangbiao, blurted out impatiently.

Liu Guangbiao had learned business in the prefectural city. He could use an abacus, keep accounts, and understood various commercial tricks. In Lingao, this made him a remarkable talent. Thus, the Liu family had simply asked him to return and serve as their chief accountant, managing the family’s properties.

Liu Youren remained silent. It went without saying that Chen Minggang was using this as an opportunity to extort them. The question was: did the Australians actually intend to survey the land? Was this just a tactic to intimidate them into paying a few more shi of “reasonable burden,” or did they genuinely want to clarify the county’s land ownership and start anew, like a dynastic change?

The difference was huge. If it was just intimidation, the countermeasure was easy: offer more benefits to bribe Chen Minggang, have him report another hundred mu or so of land, and pay the extra tax. But if it was the latter, things would be much more troublesome.

Liu Youren had always been a man of firm opinions, but now he was in a state of indecision. The Australians were not like the government. They were a more efficient, decisive, and daring group. He had seen this clearly for a long time. Even a relatively “good official” like Wu Mingjin had failed to accomplish anything significant in the county. But when the Australians came, they did what they said they would do, handling many difficult matters one by one. It wouldn’t be surprising if they really wanted to conduct a thorough county-wide land survey and household registration.

The old ways of dealing with officials and bandits would be useless against them. If they tried to be tough, the Australians were not afraid of massacres and would probably be happy for the opportunity. If they tried to be soft, the Australians were surprisingly incorruptible; monetary bribes were useless.

What did the Australians really want? Liu Youren thought. If they were truly going to survey the land, perhaps the best choice was to honestly report his family’s land holdings. As for the land fraudulently entrusted to his family’s name, he could wait on that. But if this was just a bluff, and he was so honest, he would only be enriching a bunch of yamen clerks and becoming a laughingstock—a loss of face he could not afford.

“What does Master Zhang say?” he asked. “Master Zhang” referred to the intermediary, Zhang Youfu.

“He said he went, but the Chief Wu in charge of this matter is not at home. The others are not involved and don’t know anything.”

“Not at home.” Liu Youren chewed on the meaning of these words. “Really not at home?” he muttered to himself. This group was truly inscrutable.

“That agricultural… agricultural… from the Heaven and Earth Society?”

“Agronomist,” Liu Guangbiao supplied.

“Right, has Master Xun come?” The “Master Xun” was Xun Suji. Because agricultural professionals were scarce, and he was skilled at growing vegetables, he had been hired by the Heaven and Earth Society as a part-time agronomist, after undergoing special training, of course. The people of the Heaven and Earth Society now had a mysterious aura in the eyes of the Lingao populace, which was why Ye Yuming preferred to use half-baked transmigrators rather than native agronomists for the time being. It was like in the early days of reform and opening up, when everyone had a special trust in foreign goods.

“He only comes on the third day of every ten-day cycle.”

Liu Youren calculated that it would be another seven or eight days before he came, and he couldn’t help but feel disappointed. If this Xun Suji were here, he could try to get some information about their internal situation—even a hint would be good.

Unfortunately, they weren’t interested in ordinary benefits. Liu Youren once again sighed at the transmigrators’ incorruptible spirit. He really wasn’t used to officials with power who didn’t accept bribes.

Liu Guangbiao was very clever and knew his master was troubled by this matter. He had had an idea for a while, and now he felt the time was right.

“Third Uncle!” Liu Guangbiao said carefully. “Meilan from the fourth branch is not young anymore. She’s tall and big-boned and has had trouble finding a suitable husband—” He watched Liu Youren’s face as he spoke.

“Oh!” Liu Youren knew what his nephew was getting at. The path of money was blocked; perhaps the path of women would work. He had long heard that there were very few women among the Australians, and many of them had no outlet for their desires other than watching “secret films”…

Liu Youren had previously considered giving a maid or some other woman to Xun Suji as a reward. But the maids of Liu Family Village were not like the maids of the large households in the city. They were from farming families and worked tirelessly all day, with rough hands and feet and dark skin. Chief Xun had never shown the slightest interest in them.

In comparison, it would be better to marry a girl from their own clan to him. A maid was ultimately an outsider, and if she married, she would be a servant with no status and wouldn’t be taken seriously. If they could really form a marriage alliance with Xun Suji, he would have to look after his wife’s family.

Liu Meilan was a girl from the fourth branch. Because she was tall and strong, she had always been laughed at—not looking like a girl at all. In the blink of an eye, she was nineteen and still without a husband. This grandniece was a possibility. Her family’s status in the clan was not high; even if they were unwilling, they wouldn’t dare to object.

Liu Youren nodded. The cost was small, he thought. Meilan’s family was a distant branch. Even if the Australians were defeated by the government later, it wouldn’t implicate his own family too much. She was a disposable pawn.

“Good. Go and talk to her father!” Liu Youren made his decision.

“Yes,” Liu Guangbiao said, secretly pleased. He had another, darker motive. Liu Meilan had once offended him over the collection of sacrificial rice, and he had long wanted revenge.

Hmph, this time I’ll throw you into the fire pit to taste the flavor of dripping wax, Liu Guangbiao thought. He had heard from a native in the East Gate Market who had seen the Australians’ “secret films” that the Australians were very depraved in their sexual practices: they liked to tie women up like rice dumplings, subject them to various tortures, and even drip hot wax from candles onto their naked bodies…

Liu Youren was unaware of his nephew’s dark thoughts. He pondered for a moment and said, “Tomorrow, prepare an invitation and ask Zhou Qi to come.”

“Not Clerk Chen?”

“I’m afraid I can’t summon him anymore,” Liu Youren said. “Zhou Qi is his eldest apprentice; his word is just as good.”

“Someone, see Clerk Chen out,” Huang Shoutong called out.

“Please, please, Master Huang, don’t bother—” Chen Minggang said with a broad smile and left with his men.

Huang Shoutong watched them leave the courtyard and called his steward. “Have his men been taken care of?”

“Replying to the Master,” the steward said, “each was given three hundred cash for ‘straw sandal money,’ and they were also treated to a meal and wine.”

“Good, you may go.” Huang Shoutong coughed, and his second son, Huang Bingkun, quickly came to support him. Huang Shoutong’s health had declined ever since he was injured in the counter-attack last year.

“It’s nothing,” he said, then asked, “Why haven’t you been studying at the county school recently?”

“I’m not a salaried student, son. I don’t have to go,” Huang Bingkun replied.

“That won’t do,” Huang Shoutong shook his head. “You are a scholar, after all. You must at least pass the provincial exam to bring honor to our family.”

Huang Bingkun smiled bitterly. “Father, you know as well as I do that in the two hundred years since the founding of the Great Ming, this county hasn’t produced even ten provincial graduates. I doubt I have such great fortune.”

Huang Shoutong shook his head. “Although it’s said that literary talent is not the only thing in the examinations, you shouldn’t be so dejected. Right now, the county is in turmoil because of the Australians, and everyone is in no mood to study. This is precisely when you should work harder on your studies, lest you fall behind…”

Huang Bingkun had thought his father wanted to discuss the matter of the Australian land survey and autumn tax collection. He hadn’t expected a lecture about studying hard. He couldn’t help but wonder if his father was getting senile.

“Father!” he couldn’t help but say. “What do you plan to do about this autumn levy?”

“Hmph, these ‘Kunzei,’ their rebellious intentions are fully exposed,” Huang Shoutong said, slamming the table in anger. “A land survey, conducted by them?!”

“Father, how should we respond?”

“This matter is quite profound,” Huang Shoutong said. “What kind of Australian bewitching potion has that Old Eighth drunk, to be so enthusiastically helping the ‘Kunzei’ torment the landowners?” he snorted. “Does he think the world now belongs to the ‘Kunzei’? There is no justice or law anymore!”

“These yamen runners are just driven by profit. Father, you don’t need to be angry.”

“The land survey is just a feint for Old Eighth,” Huang Shoutong said. “He has no intention of actually surveying any land. He wants to use this as a pretext to extort more grain and taxes from everyone. That way, he can both please the Australians and make a huge profit for himself.”

“Yes, son thinks so too. The ‘Kunzei’ were probably persuaded by Old Eighth, thinking they could collect more grain. From Old Eighth’s words today, it seems he’s very flexible. I was thinking of offering him some more private benefits, and adding a few dozen more shi to the ‘reasonable burden’ assigned to our village…”

“No. Although the land survey is a feint, the matter is not that simple,” Huang Shoutong waved his hand. “What kind of people are the ‘Kunzei’? Would they really be played like a fiddle by Old Eighth?”

“Then what do they want?”

“Money and grain are probably not their main objective,” Huang Bingkun said. “Think about it, how much ‘oil’ can be squeezed from Lingao? Besides, if they wanted to collect grain, they just need to send a word through their liaison officer, and which village would dare not to pay? Why would they go through the trouble of helping Old Eighth get rich? It’s too much effort—their real intentions lie elsewhere.”

“Could it be that they want to take this opportunity to—”

“Kill a chicken to warn the monkeys!” Huang Shoutong’s face was grim. “Use this land survey as an opportunity to establish their authority! I think the small households will have an easy time this time—not only easy, but most will probably get some benefits. For large households like us, this will be a difficult hurdle to cross.”

Huang Bingkun immediately became tense. If one were to say who among the large households in Lingao was most hated by the ‘Kunzei,’ his own family and Liu Dalin’s would be a matching pair. In the past, when dealing with the ‘Kunzei,’ one had provided the strategy, and the other had personally led the fight. The ‘Kunzei’ must have hated them to the bone. But Liu Dalin had the protection of being the “only Jinshi of the county,” with great prestige, and even the ‘Kunzei’ had to give him face. The recent reopening of the Moli Xuan Academy showed that Liu Dalin was a key target for them to win over. In comparison, his own family was an excellent target.