Chapter 464 - Autumn Levy (Part 19)
They noticed that among the Australian column, several figures were particularly tall. Everyone knew these must be the real Baldies. The true Baldies were not only taller but somewhat more heavily built than ordinary people. They saw that these men rode neither sedan chairs nor horses, did not travel in "motor carriages" or "iron horses," but simply walked. The commoners had a favorable impression of this unpretentious manner.
The ten or so militia at the city gate did not dare obstruct them and simply let the column pass into the city. The party headed straight for the county yamen. When they reached the intersection before the yamen, the column split in two. One group went around toward the rear of the yamen; the rest proceeded directly to the main entrance.
The two constables at the yamen gate sensed something was wrong. Their eyes darted nervously toward the "gate steward." Wu Xi, who managed the gate, had dealt with Xiong Buyou on many occasions. Seeing "Master Xiong" accompanied by several official-looking Australians, all with iron expressions and triangular brownish holsters at their waists—containing the powerful Australian hand-cannons, as he knew—he felt his courage falter. Bound by duty, he could only plaster on a smile and step forward.
Master Xiong, who was typically affable, this time projected considerable official authority. Very simply, he stated he wished to see Magistrate Wu. Of course, when they wanted to see Wu Mingjin, he would receive them no matter the hour—even if he was asleep. Wu Xi promptly agreed and went inside to announce them.
Wu Mingjin was currently nursing a headache. This knife-and-arrow affair that had suddenly set the city buzzing was not terribly serious—after all, no lives had been lost and no property stolen. But the matter involved the county's gentry and scholars, and if he failed to resolve it satisfactorily, he would bear responsibility.
He hastily sent for Secretary Wang to discuss the situation.
"This was definitely the work of Chen Minggang's gang," Wang Zhaomin said quietly. "Young Master Huang has been rallying the major households for that petition recently, and Master Liu stepped forward too—it's blocking their money."
"This is all because those Baldy-bandits had to meddle!" Wu Mingjin was quite annoyed. "They had to take on contracting the grain levies and carry out a land survey! Now the whole city is in turmoil! I'd like to see how they plan to wind this up." He glanced at Secretary Wang.
Wang Zhaomin's face reddened. He had been the one who had strenuously persuaded Wu Mingjin, arguing that the Australians were highly capable and had resolved so many intractable county problems, and that this grain levy contract would not present much difficulty.
But this was not the time for regrets. Seeing his master showing signs of washing his hands of the matter, Wang Zhaomin quickly said: "Your Excellency, this isn't something they can simply walk away from..."
Wang Zhaomin's words reminded Wu Mingjin—he was the Great Ming's county magistrate of Lingao, not one of the Australians in Bairren City. If trouble broke out, he would be the one held responsible.
Over the past half-year, Wu Mingjin's awareness of being the county magistrate had been fading steadily. Apart from occasionally receiving lawsuits from commoners, performing the ritual incense offerings at official shrines according to the calendar, and presiding over the routine examinations for students and scholars at the county school, he had done nothing connected to his magisterial duties. Most days were spent drinking tea and playing chess with Secretary Wang, or supervising his children's lessons. Life was exceedingly leisurely.
"Exactly. The Baldies don't understand Central Plains customs and do things haphazardly. They entrusted the wrong person, causing trouble, and now they probably have no idea how to conclude matters." Wu Mingjin nodded gravely. "I always thought Chen Minggang knew the proper limits. How has he become so audacious this time!" He glanced again at Wang Zhaomin.
"Chen Minggang is a minor official who gained the Australians' trust purely through 'profit' as his bait." Wang Zhaomin hastily changed the subject. "The urgent matter is to pacify the gentry and major households..."
The gentry and major households were already complaining bitterly about the grain collection and land survey. Now with these intimidation incidents, if matters were not properly handled and they went to Qiongshan Prefecture or Guangzhou to lodge formal complaints, he would be in serious trouble. At best, he would lose his position. At worst, he might be charged with "collaborating with bandits" and face prosecution.
"What do you suggest?" This was precisely what Wu Mingjin had been worrying about. Solving the case was unnecessary—even three-year-olds in the county knew Chen Minggang's gang had done this. But handling it was tricky.
To satisfy the gentry, Chen Minggang's gang should be severely punished. But this was where Wu Mingjin felt the difficulty. A county magistrate having qualms about dealing with petty clerks might sound absurd, but it had been this way since the Song and Yuan dynasties. Clerks controlled local administration and were often hereditary in their positions, with immense practical experience and mutual support among themselves. If one offended them, a clerk could secretly sabotage and undermine the magistrate. Not only would one fail to profit from one's post, one might even lose it due to administrative failures. Thus local officials typically turned a blind eye to clerks' various misdeeds. Even when incidents occurred, punishments were extremely light—a scolding and dismissal was considered the severest sanction. And dismissal meant nothing to them; whoever replaced them would be their own kin, who would continue controlling local administration.
Now that Chen Minggang brandished the tiger skin of Australian support, moving against him would be even harder.
"Of course Chen Minggang's gang must be dealt with," Wang Zhaomin replied. He had already thought this through. "Summon Chen Minggang, give him a dressing-down, and order him to produce a few scapegoats to take the fall..."
"This is difficult," Wu Mingjin said, shaking his head. "There's simply no case. You call him in—is he going to admit to anything?"
"Naturally we can't name the crime as terrorizing gentry with knives and arrows. He's not stupid—having such a charge put on paper would create enormous future liability." Wang Zhaomin suggested simply using the charge of "disturbing the locality" during grain collection.
This way, at least they would have done something. Once the gentry's anger was appeased, matters could more or less settle down.
Just as they were deliberating, the gate steward came running in. Without waiting for Wu Mingjin to speak, he blurted out: "Your Excellency! Master Xiong has come to call!"
"Show him in quickly!" Wang Zhaomin did not wait for his employer's response before issuing the order. Wu Mingjin also nodded. "Show him in quickly."
Chen Minggang's leverage was the Australians' support. This matter still required coordination with them. Fortunately, the Australians were not unreasonable people.
But the visitor was not Xiong Buyou alone. Several tall Australians accompanied him, all with unfriendly expressions. After being seated, they said nothing. Xiong Buyou offered no introductions either. As Wu Mingjin was wondering what this meant, a personal servant came running in and whispered a few words in his ear. His face went ashen.
The Australian column had taken control of all entrances to the county yamen! No wonder they had brought thirty or forty men into the city! Wu Mingjin's face turned the color of earth. Could they be preparing to formally raise the banner of rebellion?
At this thought, his legs went weak. If not for already being seated, he might have collapsed to the floor. If the Baldy-bandits committed this great act of treason, he absolutely could not turn traitor! But dying as a martyr was one thing—dragging his wife and children down to their deaths with him...
The thought cut his heart like a knife. He bitterly regretted why, to save a few coins, he had brought his family back from Qiongshan Prefecture to Lingao.
Wang Zhaomin had not heard the servant's report, but seeing Wu Mingjin's face change color, he knew nothing good was afoot, and his own expression changed as well.
Xiong Buyou spoke. "Magistrate Wu! Secretary Wang!" He cupped his hands. "I've heard there was a major incident in the county. Someone threatened the gentry and major households in the city. Even Master Liu's home had an intruder shoot an arrow in warning. The whole county is in an uproar over this."
Wang Zhaomin had originally planned to bring up this matter himself. Since Xiong was raising it voluntarily, he said, "Indeed, that is so. But the situation is quite thorny..."
Xiong Buyou assumed an expression of innocent puzzlement. "What's so thorny about it?"
Wang Zhaomin thought: You know perfectly well but pretend otherwise! But he could not say this directly. His original plan had been "substituting the peach for the plum"—avoiding the issue of intimidation and talking only about "disturbing the locality" to muddle through.
But his good intentions required the Baldies' recognition. He chose his words carefully before speaking slowly: "This matter has no corroborating witnesses. Apart from a few small knives, arrows, and handbills, there's no strong evidence. Proving who was responsible would be quite difficult..."
He did not say "solving the case" but specifically mentioned "proving"—hinting to the Australians: We know who's behind this. We just don't intend to investigate further.
"Not easy to solve the case?" Unexpectedly, Xiong Buyou completely missed the subtlety of his words and launched into a speech about how, since they had settled in this locality, they too were people of Lingao and should contribute to building a "harmonious Lingao"—
Wang Zhaomin smiled bitterly to himself: If all the "people" of this county were like you, who in the world would want to be an official? "Troublemakers" barely described them—they were practically local emperors.
From Wang Zhaomin's experience, whenever the Baldies delivered lofty speeches about "harmony," trouble invariably followed. Sure enough, Xiong Buyou promptly put forward his demand:
"...We Australians have exceptional methods for investigation and case-solving. Since we are now fellow citizens of Lingao, we should help share Your Excellency's burdens. This case shall be handled jointly by our colleague Zhou Dongtian! I won't exaggerate—within three days, the case will be solved!"
Wu Mingjin, having initially heard nothing in his words suggesting they were raising a rebel banner or demanding he accept a puppet position, had relaxed somewhat. Now, suddenly hearing this demand to handle the case, his jaw dropped in astonishment.
Wang Zhaomin was equally shocked. Handle a case? Whether it was bandit suppression, grain collection, road building, or mining operations... he could generally understand the Australians' motives for these activities. But handling a case—what was this about? Certainly, handling cases had benefits, but for the Australians, such benefits seemed too trivial to matter.
Moreover, this was obviously instigated by Chen Minggang. In Wang Zhaomin's thinking, on one side were the gentry, represented by Liu Dalin, whom the Australians were trying to win over; on the other was Chen Minggang, running about collecting grain for them. Logically, the Australians should play deaf and dumb, or adopt a "muddy the waters" approach similar to his own. Why would they go looking for trouble?
"This—" Wu Mingjin did not wait for Wang Zhaomin to speak before stammering, "There is no precedent for this in the Great Ming..."
"If there's no precedent, we create precedent!" Xiong Buyou said carelessly, using a novel phrase. "The matter is settled!"
(End of Chapter)