Chapter 122: The New Regime in Danzhou

After a tour of the city, Liu Yixiao selected the Chaotian Palace as his headquarters. The West Detachment set up camp outside the city walls. The old cities in Hainan’s prefectures and counties were mostly small, lacking infrastructure and suffering from poor sanitation, making them unsuitable for development. Therefore, the People’s Committee for Civil Affairs, following the Lingao model, planned to build a new city at a different location. This new city would first serve as an administrative and military center, gradually attracting merchants and evolving into a new urban hub.

Once the Danzhou work team was settled in the Chaotian Palace, Liu Yixiao immediately summoned Yin Chengshi, the Danzhou Registrar who had orchestrated the surrender, to report.

“Your humble servant… your humble servant… Yin Chengshi…” A local servant’s voice announced from the courtyard as he trotted in, presenting a resume.

The resume was a personal resume, providing a basic overview of the individual. Liu Yixiao had learned about them in lectures and knew how to read one. He opened it, cross-referencing the traditional Ganzhi cyclical years with the Gregorian calendar using his conversion manual. The man was fifty-eight years old.

Yin Chengshi’s native place was North Zhili, and his academic title was bagong—an imperial examination graduate selected for special recommendation. It was clear that if he weren’t a bagong, he wouldn’t be so old and stranded at the ends of the earth serving as a minor registrar.

A fifty-eight-year-old man serving as a minor official in a barbaric land far from home. Although he could make some money, the price was the constant risk of leaving his bones there. It was a miserable enough existence. No wonder local officials like Sun Ruiwu had no affection for the Ming dynasty.

“Show Master Yin in.”

Yin Chengshi walked in cautiously. Having sold himself to the new masters, he was determined to show the utmost sincerity. A registrar was an “unranked” official, so his official robes had no rank badge, but they were immaculately washed and worn.

“Your humble servant, Yin Chengshi, kowtows to Your Excellency,” he said, skillfully kneeling and knocking his head on the floor.

Liu Yixiao had grown accustomed to the kowtowing habits of this era’s natives, but he still felt a bit uneasy having such an old man prostrate himself before him. “Get up. We don’t do that here.”

“Yes, yes, thank you, Your Excellency.” Yin Chengshi rose carefully and presented a gift list.

The list detailed a joint gift from the gentry and prominent families of Danzhou: ten pigs, one hundred chickens, one hundred bolts of local cotton cloth, and twenty bolts of silk, plus fifty shi of unhusked rice.

Liu Yixiao nodded and instructed a subordinate to receive the items. He carefully observed this first Ming official to voluntarily surrender. Yin Chengshi looked as old as seventy or eighty, though he was still spry. The natives of this era aged quickly past fifty, but Liu Yixiao hadn’t expected him to be this old.

Yin Chengshi timidly glanced at his new superior. His mind was a complex mix of emotions. He didn’t want to die a martyr for the Ming, but he feared that these new foreign rulers would look down on his surrender. He was even more terrified that they would suspect his allegiance was a sham—a suspicion that would lead to his immediate execution.

He had heard that while these Australians weren’t bloodthirsty, they were ruthless when they did decide to kill.

“Are you the only official left in the city?”

“Yes, Your Excellency.” Hearing him inquire about city affairs, Yin Chengshi felt a little calmer. If they were asking questions, they wouldn’t kill him casually.

Danzhou originally had four officials, but it was rarely fully staffed. After the magistrate’s suicide, he was the only one left. He himself had been the registrar in Danzhou for over five years and was very familiar with the local situation.

Liu Yixiao asked about the local population, taxes, and power structures. Yin Chengshi answered everything in detail, demonstrating a profound knowledge of the area. For every question asked, he provided ten pieces of information, which greatly satisfied Liu Yixiao. If nothing else, his grasp of local governance was far superior to that of an average official.

It seemed this man was a talent. Retaining cooperative local officials, especially before enough new cadres were available to replace them, was an established policy set by Liu Muzhou. It also served as an example for officials in other regions.

“You must have done well for yourself as registrar.”

“This… this…” Yin Chengshi’s face contorted, thinking they were about to squeeze him for his ill-gotten gains. A post like registrar was indeed profitable. “This humble one has indeed made some profit, but I dare not be excessive…” He glanced at Liu Yixiao, wondering how large a gift would be needed to satisfy him. He happened to have a personal gift list in his sleeve, which he quickly produced.

“This is a small token from this humble one. It is not much, but I hope Your Excellency will accept it.”

The most valuable item on the list was one hundred taels of silver, along with bolts of cloth and silk. For a place like Hainan, being able to offer a hundred-tael bribe meant this registrar’s skills at accumulation were not to be underestimated.

“Your talent for acquiring wealth is quite impressive.”

The words struck Yin Chengshi like a thunderbolt, and he went limp. He thought these Australians were about to play the “virtuous official” act and use his head to win the people’s hearts. Terrified, he kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy.

“I will not accept your gift. You’re an old man. Didn’t you come to this remote place to serve as a minor official for a bit of money?” Liu Yixiao said magnanimously.

In truth, he was seething. Liu Yixiao hated corrupt officials with a passion and felt an urge to kill every one he saw. But he understood the basic principle that killing people wouldn’t solve the problem.

At this moment, they needed people, and he couldn’t afford to lose the help of a local official who knew the area so well.

“Yes, yes, this humble servant deserves ten thousand deaths for my crimes…”

“You deserve ten thousand deaths in the eyes of the Ming; that’s not our concern,” Liu Yixiao said. “Our Australian Song regime has always adhered to the principle of ‘one divides into two.’ The crimes you committed in the past were caused by the Ming system. In a way, you are also a victim.”

Yin Chengshi couldn’t fathom how a corrupt official like himself had become a “victim,” but he went along with whatever the Australian said, repeatedly agreeing.

“…But from now on, while you work for the Australian Song, such behavior will not be tolerated. Do you understand!”

“This humble servant understands, I understand!”

“Good. Take your gift back. I don’t want it. I now appoint you as the Chief Liaison Officer of Danzhou and Deputy Director of the Danzhou Rehabilitation Bureau. All dealings with the local natives will go through you. You must handle matters effectively—no extortion or troublemaking is permitted.”

“This humble servant would never dare,” Yin Chengshi said with a pained expression. “I will certainly mend my ways and serve His Majesty of the Australian Song with all my heart!”

“Gather all the yamen runners and clerks who haven’t fled. I have work for them.”

The great seal of the Danzhou prefectural yamen was brought forth. Liu Yixiao immediately ordered a public notice to be issued, assuring the gentry and commoners of the city and surrounding countryside that there was no need for panic and that they should continue their work as usual.

After gathering a basic staff, Liu Yixiao ordered a court session to be held on-site in the courtyard of the Chaotian Palace. Over a hundred people were detained in the Danzhou prison and the detention rooms of the punishment bureau. This group needed to be processed quickly.

He had brought with him several retained personnel from the former Lingao county yamen’s punishment bureau to assist. They began to sort through the detained individuals. The Arbitration Tribunal’s law research office had conducted a special study on how to handle legal cases and prisons after taking over a local government. They had even consulted Wang Zhaomin and the retained punishment bureau staff, gaining a deep understanding of the various intricacies and abuses. This research was compiled into a manual for the use of the takeover personnel.

The manual provided detailed regulations on how to handle cases and prisoners. Typically, when a peasant rebellion or a change of dynasty resulted in the capture of a city, releasing all prisoners was seen as an act of “benevolence.” However, from a modern perspective, this practice was questionable.

No matter how dark a regime or how corrupt its judiciary, a prison would not be filled exclusively with wrongly accused good people. There were bound to be many genuine criminals, some of whom were utterly vicious.

Indiscriminately releasing everyone was a quick and easy way to appear magnanimous, but it would lead to chaos and create significant social instability. There were plenty of examples of this even in the old time-space.

With the help of the retained staff, Liu Yixiao quickly sorted through the case files and the prisoners’ situations.

Those detained for tax or rent arrears, as well as various “witnesses,” were released on the spot. Those confirmed to be criminals were organized into a labor reform team, following the Lingao model. This team would be housed in a new location within the city, as the prison’s environment was too harsh and would only waste precious manpower.

Re-examining cases where people claimed injustice was not difficult either. Almost all wrongful convictions could not be hidden from insiders—even outsiders could often see through them. The main obstacle to overturning them was the entanglement of interests and personal connections. With a change of regime, these connections no longer existed, making it easy to clear up the cases.

In less than a day, the most pressing matter of prison administration was settled. The ancients placed great importance on a local official’s ability to manage legal affairs, considering it a key indicator of their competence. By tackling this issue immediately upon taking power, the work team scored valuable points for its image.

As the mood in Danzhou gradually calmed, Liu Yixiao knew his initial work had been effective. He summoned Yin Chengshi and had him draw up a list of names. Liu Yixiao was about to convene the “First Danzhou Political Consultative Conference.”

“Every village must send a representative. Also, the prominent gentry families in the county must each send one person to attend the meeting,” Liu Yixiao instructed Chief Liaison Officer Yin Chengshi. “The members of the Rehabilitation Bureau will be chosen from the gentry. This is for the benefit of the local community; no one is allowed to be absent.”

“Yes, this humble servant understands!” Yin Chengshi replied with great enthusiasm.

By holding a political consultative conference, they would first establish a “liaison” system at the grassroots village level. Through this system, they would ensure preliminary control over the grassroots and the transmission of government orders.

Conscripting labor, levying grain, and assigning tasks were not simply acts of forced extortion but the most effective methods for rapidly instilling the will of the rulers at the grassroots level. Through these measures, they could quickly gain control of a large portion of the local population and resources for the work team’s use.