Chapter 266: The Autumn Levy (Part 31)

“Pick it up!” Zhou Dongtian reprimanded, dissatisfied. “Your personal identification number, and rank!”

“Yes…” the girl trembled, snapping to attention, her eyes trying to look anywhere else. “He Chun. Political Security NCO cadet, personal code: 1629042749545210.”

“Can’t handle the sight of a naked man? How are you going to do your job in the future? Prepare to take notes, now!”

“Yes!” He Chun sat down, her face flushed with embarrassment, her head bowed, not daring to look at the interrogation scene.

It seems the training at the Political Security training class is still inadequate, Zhou Dongtian thought. For people in this line of work, the enemy has no gender and no age. This awareness must be desensitized.

“Alright,” Zhou Dongtian turned his face to Chen Minggang and said gently, “Speak slowly, don’t rush, but don’t leave anything out.”

“The fish-scale registers, they are, they are…” Chen Minggang’s lips trembled as he revealed the hiding place.

Based on his confession, the fish-scale registers, the account books for grain tax collection over the years, and the ledgers for this year’s extortion of large households under the guise of “land measurement” were recovered from several hidden locations. Most importantly, the crucial “black books” were found. Unlike the fish-scale registers, these account books clearly recorded the amount and location of “hidden land” for many landowning households in Lin’gao. The details of some gentry and large households who had bribed him to alter the fish-scale registers were also recorded. Although Wu De couldn’t understand the terminology at first, the clerks of the Household Office were now under their control, so deciphering the meaning was not difficult.

Of course, Zhou Dongtian was not satisfied with just this. This was only enough to satisfy Wu De; the members of the Planning Committee were all watching eagerly. Chen Minggang’s family had served as household scribes in the county for generations, and the wealth they had accumulated would not be small. It would be a pity not to squeeze it out.

“What about your buried silver?”

“I have no buried—”

Zhou Dongtian nodded, and Chen Minggang’s body immediately began to tremble.

“Just tell me, wealth is an external thing—” he persuaded patiently.

The interrogation lasted for most of the afternoon. Zhou Dongtian had a nurse specially brought in to measure Chen Minggang’s blood pressure and heart rate every hour to prevent the continuous electric shocks from killing him. He had enough data to know how to limit the interrogation to a level that would inflict maximum pain without endangering the prisoner’s life.

“Speak, and it will all be over.”

“You’ve been a household scribe for so many years, how could you only have this much? Who are you trying to fool?”

…

In the end, the Planning Committee’s search team uncovered three caches of treasure. One was in his own residence in the county town, one was in the rural estate where Qiuhong was kept, and the last was in a rural estate under his relative’s name.

From the cache in his own residence, a large amount of silver was found, while the cache at Qiuhong’s estate contained a large quantity of fine valuables.

Nearly forty thousand taels of silver were recovered from the three caches—an astronomical figure for the local area. This was equivalent to three years of Lin’gao County’s fiscal revenue. And this did not include the many unvalued fine goods. The wealth of a “household scribe” was truly astounding.

In addition, a large quantity of various daily necessities was also recovered, including a large amount of grain, cloth, oil, salted meat, salted fish, and wine.

“I really don’t understand,” Zhou Dongtian said, looking at the inventory list from the Planning Committee. “I can understand him hoarding a large amount of silver and valuables, that’s understandable. But what’s the point of storing so much grain and cloth? It will just rot away after a while.”

Du Wen said, “A major characteristic of feudal society is the upper class’s endless accumulation of living materials far exceeding their own needs…”

“It can be used for lending. When the new harvest is not yet in, he can lend out the old, rotten grain, and get new rice back in the autumn,” Yan Ming said, also very happy about this windfall. He had studied the socio-economic conditions of Lin’gao.

“That’s really dark.”

“Not really, just a simple means of capital operation,” Yan Ming shrugged. “The tricks played by modern finance are what’s truly dark. But this shows one thing: there’s great potential for rural micro-credit!”

“Immediately organize the retained personnel of the Household Office. Have them cooperate with our people to translate and compile these account books. Zhou Qi will be in charge,” Wu De issued his orders. “A few of the grain collectors from the study class who have behaved well and have less public resentment can also be recruited to participate. Also,” Wu De thought for a moment, “sort out this year’s grain collection situation within a week, including the collected regular tax, wastage rice, the bribes they received, and the falsely reported land, all of it must be clarified!”

“How should we deal with Chen Minggang?” Zhou Dongtian asked for instructions.

“Secretly execute him after the account books are processed.”

“And his family?”

“Hand them all over to the labor reform team,” Wu De instructed. “Indefinite term.”

“Yes!” Zhou Dongtian remembered. “Should Qiuhong be sent there too?” The implication was that it would be a pity. Lin’gao had a serious gender imbalance, and giving a young woman to a native worker would be a form of welfare.

“No, Qiuhong will be given to Zhou Qi.”

“Ah? That kid is really getting a good deal.”

“Not only will we give Qiuhong to him, but we will also hold a grand wedding for them.”

“What’s this for? We don’t need to go to such lengths to win him over.”

“You’ve spread so many rumors about her and Zhou Qi, now we need to make it a reality, so that the whole county knows,” Wu De said with a smile. “Zhou Qi’s crime of betraying his master will be firmly established. From now on, he will have to follow us wholeheartedly.”

With the disposal of Chen Minggang’s property, the cleanup of the county town came to an end. The leadership group convened another meeting.

“Now that the yamen is completely in our hands and we have all the necessary account books, we need to restart the grain collection,” Wu De said.

“We’ve already prepared enough grain reserves. Why don’t we just skip the collection this year and start the new tax system reform directly? A year of tax relief would also give the people a chance to rest.”

“The new tax system is not something that can be established overnight, and stopping the grain collection would be a great loss for us,” Wu De shook his head. He then conveyed the Executive Committee’s opinion: the new tax system reform would begin immediately, but this year’s grain collection would also continue.

Although the Transmigration Group had enough grain reserves to pay in lieu, this was mainly for emergencies. The transmigrators themselves also needed grain, and local resources had to be utilized as soon as possible.

“We will adopt a two-pronged approach, carrying out both tasks simultaneously,” Wu De explained his plan. “One path is to continue collecting grain according to the old system, using the fish-scale registers as the basis.” Wu De said, “I know that the fish-scale registers are far from ideal in essence, but for now, it’s the only thing that everyone recognizes as a basis—at least until our own land registration records are ready, we have to use them.”

In addition to the fish-scale registers, they also had the collection account books, not the official ones for show, but Chen Minggang’s real “bottom books.” With these, they could clearly know who had paid and who had not, and the actual amount paid.

“…With these numbers, we can implement supplementary collections and refunds…”

“Refunds?”

“To implement the principle of fairness, of course we have to refund the over-collected part,” Wu De said. “Since we can’t implement the new tax system right away, we must strive for fairness when using the old system to minimize its drawbacks and win the trust of the people.”

Specifically, the collection would be based on the tax amount registered in the fish-scale registers, with a uniform surplus levy of three dou per shi for the whole county, with no additional charges. Any overpayment would be refunded.

“As for the numerous corrupt practices like ‘flying sprinklings’ and ‘deceptive entrustment,’ they are too complex to be cleared up in a short time, so we won’t deal with them in this year’s grain collection. The focus will be on cleaning up the collection process itself, including the choice of measuring instruments, the practice of ‘heaping,’ and the judgment of rice quality.”

“Aren’t we switching to the metric system?”

“Not for now. Immediately changing the measuring instruments for collection would cause great confusion. I’ve had the carpentry workshop make a batch of standard official dou based on the iron dou stored in the yamen—the official dou used for grain collection are all smaller.”

Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had specially made iron official dou as standard measuring instruments and distributed them to all counties in the empire to eliminate the abuses of using different-sized dou in the collection process—but judging from the current situation in this county, this measure did not have a lasting effect.

Secondly, the practice of “heaping” was prohibited, and of course, the tricks of “kicking the hu” and “sprinkling the tip” would no longer be continued.

Finally, for the quality of the rice, the Agriculture Committee would formulate a standard and produce sample cards to be distributed to the collection personnel.

“It’s already October,” Sun Xiao expressed his concern. “According to Wang Zhaomin, the grain must be ready before November to be paid on time. We’ve been in turmoil for more than ten days… and now we don’t have experienced hands, I’m afraid we won’t make it in time…”

“That’s why we have Vietnamese rice,” Wu De said. “Emergency means emergency. We’ll use the Vietnamese rice to cover it first, so we can handle the grain collection more leisurely.”

“Understood.”

“Don’t keep your eyes fixed on the Vietnamese rice,” Wu De warned them. “Our grain reserves are not abundant. Next year we need to develop the iron ore mines, and immigrants are constantly arriving. These people need to eat and be clothed. The sugar season in Leizhou is about to end.”

Moreover, as they dumped large quantities of sugar into Vietnam to buy rice, the local sugar price fell, while the rice price rose. The exchange rate was no longer as favorable as before.

“The specific collection unit will be Delong.”

Delong Grain Company now had branches in Nanbao and Bopu in addition to its head office in the East Gate Market. Grain could be collected at all three locations, which was very convenient for the grain-paying households—they originally had to come to the county town to pay.

“In addition, we plan to open a branch in the county town,” Yan Ming said. “Since we are acting as the agent for the county treasury, it’s better to be as close as possible to our clients. It’s convenient for everyone.”

“That’s great. The natives still trust the authority of the county town.”

“Also, we need to set up a special agency,” Wu De said. “Let’s call it the Grain Collection Bureau.”