Chapter 482 - Eliminating Abuses
"I wouldn't dare." Fu Xi unconsciously smoothed the hair by her temples. "Once you leave, I can go back to the National School. The busy season break is almost over. The Mistress insists I can't leave until you do."
"Soon. I'll leave after I teach them how to store grain." Wan Lihui said. "You really like going to school?"
"Mm!" Fu Xi nodded. "School is a hundred times more interesting than here!" She suddenly lowered her voice. "I really don't want to come back."
The knowledge the National School taught her, the concepts it instilled, had influenced her living habits. The indigenous children were already being subtly changed through assimilation. This is the power of education, Wan Lihui thought. We're starting to cultivate a new generation of people who belong neither to the seventeenth century nor the twenty-first.
"Not wanting to come back is easy. Just find me when the time comes." Wan Lihui said casually. The National School was training them for their own use, not to keep accounts for local rich farmers. This girl was probably being groomed for agricultural work in the same department as himself. A word to Wu Nanhai could get her placed at a farm.
"Really?"
"Of course." Wan Lihui found this strange. Seeing the girl staring intently at him, her cheeks flushed, he secretly sensed something was amiss. This girl was only fourteen—fourteen! Wan Lihui constantly reminded himself to stay resolute.
Fu Xi gazed at him silently for several seconds, then suddenly ran off. Wan Lihui watched her braids bouncing away, his heart somewhat confused.
A few days later, Wan Lihui departed Meiyang Village. Compared to when he first arrived months ago, the Divine Society had become a mythical organization capable of bringing wealth. Families in the village with substantial land were all calculating how to join—all except Fu Yousan. The old man continued responding to all changes with unchanging stubbornness.
The Grain Collection Bureau's notices also reached Meiyang Village. When Chen Minggang had played his "land survey" tricks, Meiyang Village hadn't experienced much turmoil since there were no major grain households there—but the tribute rice burden here was already a heavy five-plus dou, quite onerous.
When the new grain notices were distributed, everyone was surprised to see that tribute rice had been reduced to three dou per shi. For people who had been suffocating under the weight of taxes and extra levies, this was like lifting a stone from their backs, allowing everyone to breathe easier.
"Life has gotten a bit easier since the Australians arrived." Fu Buer sighed. As a small landlord without power or influence, his tax burden had been crushing.
Not only in Meiyang Village but throughout the county, many villagers shared this sentiment. The area was peaceful; going out, people no longer had to fear encountering bandits or pirates. After harvesting grain, there was no need to worry about raids. They could work and rest in peace. Even those without a scrap of land could find work with the Australians to make a living.
With life stable and the newly-established Grain Collection Bureau having standardized the county's "tribute rice" levy while greatly reducing the burden on the people, the autumn grain collection progressed very smoothly. Not only that—grain households who had already paid excess tribute rice received notices that they could collect refunds of their overpayments.
This news quickly caused a sensation throughout the county—no one had ever heard of grain that had reached the government's hands being returned! The sun was truly rising in the west.
Wu Ya had strongly advised Wu De against returning the excess tribute rice.
"Tribute rice has always been uneven—some pay more, some less. What's already been collected doesn't need to be returned." Wu Ya also reminded him: standardizing tribute rice at three dou was certainly beneficial to the people, but the total tribute collected would probably decrease. Various expenses might then fall short—they might even have to make up the difference out of pocket.
Yet Wu De insisted on treating everyone equally to ensure "fairness."
"Even if we have to subsidize it, that's fine. What we want is precisely the word 'equalization'!" Wu De said, unconcerned. In fact, the Planning Committee had already run a simple calculation. As long as every grain household paid according to the three-dou standard, the total tribute rice wouldn't be less than previous years. Even if some subsidy was needed, the cost would be limited.
Grain households who had already paid could bring their grain tallies to the Grain Collection Bureau to complete some paperwork, then take the voucher to Delong to reclaim the excess tribute rice the Household Office had previously over-collected. This was when Wu De once again experienced the chaos of ancient administrative systems.
Quite a few grain households came to the Grain Collection Bureau weeping that they had paid their grain but never received tallies. Upon inquiry, it turned out many small grain households had never received tallies at all. Wu De hurriedly had someone check the records—the figures in the official collection ledgers didn't match what the grain households claimed at all—they were much lower. Only after checking Chen Minggang's working ledgers did they learn the actual figures. The grain households hadn't lied. The Household Clerk's trick was to collect more than recorded, which naturally meant no tallies were issued.
"For everyone who comes to verify, we must help them check thoroughly. Give them refund vouchers according to the ledgers." Wu De thought that if they hadn't cleanly seized all of Chen Minggang's working ledgers and had the help of Zhou Qi, who had defected to their side, these muddled accounts would have been impossible for anyone to sort out.
Besides equalizing tribute rice and refunding over-collections, another major measure was launching the policy of accepting circulation coupons for grain tax payments.
Since the transmigrator collective had begun issuing circulation coupons, they had repeatedly promised that grain circulation coupons could be used directly to offset reasonable burden payments—and they had indeed kept that promise. Now the scope was expanding to formal grain taxes. Nothing could demonstrate the coupons' value better than being able to pay grain taxes with them—especially in this timeline. After all, when the Great Ming government had issued its Great Ming treasure notes and promised they could offset taxes, it had then reneged and demanded copper coins and silver when collecting taxes. In Yan Ming's view, the Great Ming treasure notes couldn't be called currency at all—they were purely a means of government plunder. The government had no intention of maintaining even basic credit, thinking a piece of paper backed by empty words could ensure circulation.
The memory of the Great Ming treasure notes still lingered. In conversations with natives, Yan Ming often heard old people speak of those "paper slips." Counting the years, the treasure notes had ceased circulating at least eighty or ninety years ago, yet their ill effects still hadn't faded.
"Now is our chance to build the circulation coupons' credit." Yan Ming excitedly pointed this out at the Executive Committee's financial work meeting.
That circulation coupons were useful and could buy many things was already an accepted fact among Lingao's people. But the circulation coupon was still just short of being true currency. Once the nation's taxes could be paid with circulation coupons, the resulting increase in credibility would be immeasurable.
After setting this precedent, in the future they could use circulation coupons to push for monetization of tax collection, eliminating the labor-intensive and resource-consuming collection of taxes in kind.
Seeing that these paper slips could actually pay grain taxes made local farmers who had still harbored doubts develop confidence in them. If even the government accepted them, weren't the circulation coupons equivalent to actual grain?
Some who did odd jobs for the transmigrators or traded with them had accumulated substantial quantities of circulation coupons. They didn't even need to deliver grain to Delong. Just bringing a stack of circulation coupons allowed them to pay their grain taxes directly at the counter's posted exchange rate. Both convenient and fast. Delong even opened a dedicated lane for paying taxes with circulation coupons.
"When the Great Ming treasure notes were first issued, they also said they could offset taxes—but the government then broke its word." Wang Zhaomin, who had been closely following the Australians' grain collection activities, sighed. "Now the circulation coupons will stand firm and unshakeable."
The lines of people paying grain soon packed Delong's three branches. Business volumes surged. This excellent situation delighted the Leadership Group members but also brought concerns. The scene of several hundred people queuing daily to pay grain taxes greatly increased the possibility of corruption and fraud. Wu De understood human weakness well. When money was involved, one absolutely couldn't rely on people's self-discipline—strict systems were essential.
As a key enterprise of the transmigrator collective, all of Delong's indigenous employees had been carefully selected and trained. They were not only skilled but also rated highly for loyalty.
"Loyalty doesn't equal integrity. Thinking loyalty will lead to self-discipline is wishful thinking. And don't believe that subscribing to some ideology makes anyone exempt." Yan Ming said. No corrupt official ever failed to wholeheartedly love the system that had promoted them and granted them power. But that love in no way prevented them from massively undermining the system to fill their own pockets—even if doing so would ultimately destroy the system, they didn't care.
He deeply shared Wu De's concerns. He had studied accounting; because of his profession, he felt more strongly than others about using strict systems to regulate behavior. For this reason, he had long ago established a modern accounting system within Delong. This system had ensured that Delong had yet to experience any major internal fraud cases.
Now his system was receiving support from new products developed by the stationery factory. First was carbon paper, which allowed creating multiple copies of documents with identical handwriting. In the past, there had been handwritten multi-copy documents, but since they were written out separately, there was no way to verify whether entries had been made in one sitting or added afterward.
Another important new product was watermark paper. Though primitive watermarking methods had existed in ancient times, the results were poor. The large volume of standardized documents printed for grain collection all used the new watermark paper. This novel paper, which ancient technology absolutely couldn't manufacture, made the document-alteration tricks that had been rampant during grain collection completely impossible. Clerks and secretaries were especially skilled at this craft—cutting out words and phrases from documents and receipts, patching them with paper scraps and paste to appear seamless, then rewriting with brush and ink. Ordinary people could almost never detect it.
Besides Yan Ming strengthening internal monitoring and using various technical means for prevention, Wu De also organized "flying inspections"—unannounced spot checks of the accounts at various branches, verifying the quantities of collected grain and circulation coupons. He also sent people to make covert visits to check whether the fraud techniques that had been ordered prohibited—like large and small measures, heaping, and such—were still being used.
(End of Chapter)