Chapter 76: Roll Call

Dong Mingdang bowed her head and said, “Yes, thank you, Your Excellency. But please issue a document to allow my mother and me to live in Guangzhou.”

Liu Xiang said, “The Senate has a policy for the families of Ming officials: those who are willing to return to their hometowns will be given travel expenses, and those who are not willing to return to their hometowns will have to find their own way. It is not impossible for you to stay in Guangzhou. After the review is over, you can go wherever you want.”

“Thank you for your grace, Your Excellency,” Dong Mingdang said. “But now that I am an orphan and a widow, I have no livelihood and little support. Please, Your Excellency, show special grace and return a few servants and my mother’s private property.”

“If they are willing to follow you, we will not make things difficult for them. Everyone is free to go or stay. As for your mother’s private property, it needs to be reviewed. In principle, as long as it does not exceed the limit, it can be returned,” Liu Xiang said.

Dong Mingdang knelt down and kowtowed, “Thank you for your grace, Your Excellency!”

Guo Xi’er came out of the office and saw Dong Mingdang’s still calm expression. She couldn’t help but complain, “You almost got me killed today!”

Dong Mingdang took Guo Xi’er’s arm and smiled, “It’s all my fault for being reckless. I’ve troubled you this time, sister.” As she spoke, she stuffed a handkerchief-wrapped package into Guo Xi’er’s hand and said in a low voice,

“Thank you for your help this time, sister. I will never forget it. It’s just a small trinket, not a worthy tribute.”

Guo Xi’er felt as if she had been burned by fire and quickly pushed it back, “No, no, don’t get me into trouble.”

Dong Mingdang thought that she thought it was not valuable because it was too light, so she deliberately lifted a corner of the handkerchief. It turned out to be a gold hairpin with an emerald begonia flower pendant—it was worth at least two or three hundred taels of silver.

Unexpectedly, Guo Xi’er still resolutely refused to accept it. Dong Mingdang was afraid that pushing and shoving too much would attract attention, so she had to take it back and said, “Sister, you are so polite. I really feel bad…”

“Don’t be polite,” although Guo Xi’er was not from a wealthy family, she could still see the luxury and exquisiteness of the jewelry. Although she was tempted, she did not dare to be greedy. Thinking about her pitiful life story, she couldn’t help but feel great sympathy. “My hometown was also in Shandong. I am a fellow villager with your mother. I should help with this little thing.” She sighed, “I didn’t expect your life story to be so miserable. You and your mother don’t even have a man to support the family now. The days ahead will probably not be easy. You should keep it for your living expenses.”

“I will have to ask for your care in the future, sister,” Dong Mingdang curtsied again and then left.

Dong Mingdang returned to her room and roughly told her mother about her meeting with Liu Xiang. She also said, “Now Master Liu has allowed us to take a few servants with us. I am thinking that we only have one personal maid and one maidservant. Even if we take them all, four women cannot support a household…”

Concubine Jiang nodded silently. She was not old, only in her early thirties. She was graceful and charming, and she was even a little more beautiful than her daughter. However, Concubine Jiang was not favored in the Dong family. First, she had no son, and second, Concubine Jiang was dull and had little charm. Master Dong did not come to her room more than a few times a year.

Since she was not favored, her treatment was naturally inferior. Other concubines all had one personal maid and two maidservants, while Concubine Jiang only had one maidservant.

Although the personal maid and the maidservant could be taken away, there was no man in the family after all. It was inevitable that a woman living alone would attract troublemakers. If a widow did not have the support of her husband’s family or her own family, it was common for her to be harassed and molested. There were even people who specialized in abducting and selling widows.

Dong Mingdang pondered, “I think Dong Xiang, who used to serve in the master’s study, is a good person. He is very smart and, more importantly, he is honest. He has never been married. I think Lan’er is also twenty. It’s better to marry her to him. Let them be a couple and support the family outside, and we will preside over it from the inside. Neither of them is a local. Now that there is war and chaos, they will not have the idea of returning to their hometown.”

Concubine Jiang said, “Dang’er, that’s proper. But if we stay in Guangzhou, what about our livelihood in the future?” As she spoke, her brows were tightly furrowed, and she was worried. She naturally could not go to Master Dong’s hometown, and Concubine Jiang had not been in contact with her own family for many years. In these years, there have been constant natural and man-made disasters in the north. I don’t know if they are still alive. Concubine Jiang was not a favored concubine in the Dong family. Besides her monthly allowance, she had no extra income. She had a little savings, jewelry, and antiques, but living off her savings was not a long-term solution.

Dong Mingdang was confident and said, “Mother, Guangzhou is a prosperous place, with silver everywhere. As long as you are willing to spend time to pick it up. From what I have seen, the Australians are very methodical in their actions, and they will surely become a great power in the future. If we follow them, there will be plenty of opportunities. You don’t have to worry about our livelihood in the future. I have my own ways.”

Concubine Jiang was a person with no opinion of her own. Seeing that her daughter was speaking with confidence and she could not think of any other way, she agreed with her.

The next morning, Dong Mingdang packed her luggage and set off for the Guangxiao Temple. She had delayed for a few days on purpose. The other family members and servants in the yamen were all gone. The search team of the Planning Institute had already seized Prefect Dong’s hidden silver and only left a few people to check and register the worthless coarse goods. The Dong mother and daughter did not have many things, and with Guo Xi’er coming to take care of them, the inspection was also perfunctory. Dong Mingdang was very perfunctory to Guo Xi’er. She knew that the other party was not willing to accept valuable gifts, so she gave her a Sichuan fan of her own. Guo Xi’er also accepted it.

Liu Xiang naturally had no energy to pay attention to the friendship between his female secretary and Dong Mingdang. He had too many things to do. At this moment, he was receiving the clerks and yamen runners of the three shifts and six rooms of the Guangzhou Prefectural Yamen in the main hall. Today was their first day to “report for duty” at the new Guangzhou Municipal Government.

A basic principle established by the Senate for the takeover of Guangzhou was to “temporarily preserve the old ruling machinery.” The Senate had already established a clean and relatively efficient administrative machine on Hainan Island and had also trained a large number of cadres. But these cadres were far from enough to be used in a large city like Guangzhou. Liu Xiang’s first step was to ensure that the team of clerks and yamen runners of the one prefecture and two counties could work stably and ensure the stability of Guangzhou’s urban order and basic functions. The clerks and yamen runners were at the bottom of society, but they were also responsible for most of the administrative and transactional work of ancient cities. Their familiarity with the city was far greater than that of ordinary people. Although they had always been very harmful, Liu Xiang could not cleanly sweep them out, but had to make use of them.

For this reason, he and Lin Baiguang had roughly determined a basic principle for dealing with the team of clerks in several meetings before entering the city: “strike at the typical, educate and retain the majority.” The retained personnel would adopt the method of “having a position but no power, and making full use of them,” and then gradually eliminate the “non-active elements” among the retained personnel in three to five years. The “active elements” would be converted into official native cadres.

The class of clerks had been known for being “cunning and evil” since the Tang and Song dynasties. No matter whether you were a clean or corrupt official, as long as you were against the clerks, you could not be an official peacefully, let alone have any political achievements.

Although Lin Baiguang was a supporter of the policy of “temporarily preserving the old ruling machinery,” he was also full of vigilance against this group. Although the clerks’ biggest magic weapon to control officials, the “old system,” no longer existed, and the new system did not need their set of “precedents” and “old regulations,” their familiarity with the operating rules of officialdom still gave them the ability to do evil. The new cadres trained by the Senate and even the elders themselves would inevitably fall into their trap if they were not careful.

“If something is done wrong, it can be changed. But it is difficult to win back the lost hearts of the people,” Lin Baiguang reminded Liu Xiang. “You must be especially careful not to be used by them—to do a bad thing with good intentions. There are countless examples in history. In the end, it is the Senate and you who will be scolded!”

Liu Xiang had to make full use of their role without letting them lead him around in circles.

“I have considered this,” Liu Xiang said. “The first thing is to establish authority. As the saying goes, a new official has three fires. I think the first fire should be burned in this yamen. I have looked at the black materials you gave me. There are many. I think we should first ‘eliminate the chief culprits,’ and arrest a few of the people in the three shifts and six rooms who have done evil in the past and have aroused great public indignation and hang them on the lampposts. The people below will naturally understand…”

“Don’t underestimate them. The harm of the clerks has lasted for a thousand years from the Tang and Song dynasties to the Republic of China. During this period, neither clean officials nor wise rulers could do anything about them. I have investigated that many of the clerks’ families have been passed down for several generations, and some have even been clerks since the Song Dynasty. It is a family craft. You not only have to be careful but also meticulous.”

At this moment, Liu Xiang was sitting in his office with his eyes closed, resting. On the table were case files—all of them were black materials. With these black materials, he was going to start a massacre today.

Although this was contrary to the concept of “ruling the country by law” advocated by the Senate, fortunately, he was now the director of the Guangzhou Military Control Commission. According to the back door opened by the Law Society, “military control” was “implementing military law.” He, the director, also served as the chief justice of the Guangzhou Military Court, which was almost “speaking with the authority of heaven.”

He saw a doorman on duty sweating profusely and running over panting, reporting, “Your Excellency! It’s already nine o’clock. Are you going to hold court?”

“Hold court!” Liu Xiang looked at his watch, stood up abruptly, and ordered, “Tell the gatekeeper to fire the cannon! All the guards will be on duty fully armed!” He was very meticulous. He looked at his hair and the new dark blue tunic suit he had made in the mirror—the tailors in the general office could finally make a decent tunic suit now.

After smoothing out all the wrinkles, he went out and walked slowly to the back of the main hall. Guo Xi’er and two armed guards followed closely behind. The doorman had already come one step ahead and stood at the side door, bowing and waiting.

The main hall was already solemn and crowded. Along the public desk, twenty-four soldiers of the National Army and twenty-four soldiers of the Japanese contingent of the National Army stood in two rows straight to the entrance of the second hall. The soldiers of the National Army all had their rifles with shining bayonets propped on the ground; the Japanese contingent wore bright red iron-fist-patterned jinbaori, with double swords stuck in their waists, standing upright without blinking.

More than a dozen clerks in neat robes and boots stood on the west side of the hall pillar. On the east side were the heads of the three shifts and the yamen runners in bright clothes, standing and waiting for orders. On the left side of the public desk was a chair, where Wei Bifu, a counselor of the Guangzhou Municipal Government, was seated. On the right side was Lu Yizhong, the newly appointed secretary of the Foreign Liaison Department of the Guangzhou Municipal Government.

The clerks and yamen runners were all very nervous when they saw such a formation. Since ancient times, when a new official took office, he would inevitably set a few fires, not to mention that it was now a change of dynasty! How would this Master Liu of the Australians set a fire? Some people knew that their sins were great and were very uneasy in their hearts, but they could not lose this ancestral rice bowl—this was not only a livelihood for eating and getting rich, but also the key to saving their lives: at the beginning of a new dynasty, if they could not get into the system in time and lose their protective umbrella, the new and old hatreds accumulated outside would all break out, and they would be ruined in an instant!

In the main hall, in the courtyard, there were a large number of people standing, but it was surprisingly quiet all around. Suddenly, they heard the sound of the curtain being lifted, and they knew that Chief Liu was coming out. Then they heard three cannon shots, “bang-bang-bang!” The doorman shouted at the top of his lungs:

“The Guangzhou Prefect, Liu Xiang, appointed by the Great Song Senate, is holding court!”

He had come up with this title himself after asking Guo Xi’er. When he shouted, the clerks and yamen runners, who had all been trained, shouted “Oh—” in unison to show their awe. Like puppets on a string, they all took a step back together. Then they heard the sound of Liu Xiang’s footsteps coming from the east back door, and he went straight to the seat and stood at the desk.

“Greetings to Your Excellency!”

Hundreds of people inside and outside the hall all bowed down at the same time, and the sound shook the main hall with a buzzing sound.

“Please rise, everyone.” Liu Xiang’s poker face was expressionless. Even so, everyone was slightly relieved. Wei Bifu and Lu Yizhong bowed to the top, placed their hands on their knees, and sat down. The rest of the people stood with their hands down, and from time to time they would glance at the public seat. Liu Xiang also sat down.

Liu Xiang looked at the large crowd of people standing from under the public desk of the main hall all the way to the outside of the main gate. He couldn’t help but be a little confused. According to the data provided by the Urban Work Department and the roster taken from the archives, the number of people in this yamen was more than that of the county yamen, but the number of “regular clerks” was less than a hundred. Adding the clerks who had food and wages, there were only more than three hundred people.

Although he knew from the materials that each county yamen and prefectural yamen had many “temporary workers” who were not on the books and did not receive wages, there shouldn’t be so many people!

He frowned and said, “Roll call!”

The roll call was quick. There were more than three hundred people in total. After the roll call, twenty-five people were absent. Eight of them had taken long leave, and only seventeen were absent without reason.

“Those who are absent will be removed from the list!” Liu Xiang ordered. Seeing that there were still many people who had not been called, he turned his head and asked Wei Bifu, “There are still many people who have not been called. This…”

“They are all public servants who are not on the books,” Wei Bifu said. “Those who are on the books have a food and wage of three taels and six mace of silver per year. Those who are not on the books only serve without pay.”

Liu Xiang nodded. A food and wage of three taels and six mace of silver per year was a very low salary. As for the many yamen runners who only served without pay, it was needless to say what they lived on.

The work of a yamen runner was essentially a kind of unpaid labor. In the eyes of the designers of this system, it was not improper to not pay the yamen runners or only pay them a symbolic salary, because this was originally a kind of “public service.” This simple system had continued for more than a thousand years, and no court had ever realized the impropriety in it. Besides complaining that “the clerks are as cunning as oil,” the officials had never thought of trying to change it at the source.

Liu Xiang asked again, “How many people are not on the books?”

“This—” Wei Bifu said with difficulty, “I am not sure either. There are probably about one thousand five or six hundred people.”