Chapter 487 - New Land Deeds (Part 1)
Yi Fan understood immediately that Cheng Dong wasn't referring to technical complexity—he meant the human obstacles. Certain high-ranking figures harbored a profound distaste for audits.
"No matter how formidable the department, I will see this audit through to completion." Yi Fan set his jaw with an expression of fearless resolve.
Cheng Dong studied his face for a long, measured moment, as if weighing the substance behind the bravado. Then he gave a curt nod. "Very well. Every endeavor must have an auspicious beginning."
Rising from his chair, he retrieved a file box from the locked cabinet behind him.
"These documents pertain to the financial dealings of various ministries and commissions. I believe you will find them instructive."
Yi Fan accepted the box, noting the blank label.
"Study these materials thoroughly," Cheng Dong said, his voice heavy with implication. "They will prove invaluable to your audit work."
"I understand. Thank you." Yi Fan recognized immediately what this must be—a collection of financial irregularities that the Finance Committee had been quietly accumulating. So Cheng Dong had been building leverage all along. Still, for Yi Fan's purposes, this was a gift: a roadmap to each ministry's vulnerabilities, a guide to where he should focus his investigations.
"These are not blackmail materials," Cheng Dong said, as if reading his thoughts. "These minor irregularities may not amount to much individually, and many were not committed with malice. But the beginning is everything. If we fail to establish proper rules now, we will find the enterprise ungovernable when the scale of operations expands. This audit must nip every bad precedent in the bud."
"You truly think ahead," Yi Fan offered, the flattery calculated.
Cheng Dong permitted himself a thin smile, clearly pleased.
"I suggest you begin with the Divine Society under the Agricultural Committee," he continued. "Wu Nanhai is a reasonable man—honest and forthright. He will certainly support your work."
"That department should be straightforward to audit." Yi Fan found this puzzling. Why start with such an easy target?
"You intend to conduct this audit alone?" Cheng Dong raised an eyebrow. "Your subordinates are all novices."
"Ah—you're right." Yi Fan had nearly forgotten this crucial detail. He had no one working under him. While he could soon draw students from the National School's accounting training program to fill the ranks, beyond rudimentary bookkeeping, they knew nothing of auditing. He would need to teach them everything from the ground up.
Taking students into the field and teaching through practical case studies was the most effective training method available. But that required a gradual progression—easy cases first, to build experience.
"I will lend you several professional accountants to assist," Cheng Dong said. "But only on temporary assignment."
Yi Fan squared his shoulders. "I will ensure these accounts are thoroughly examined."
With the receding floodwaters, the transmigrator group's first major natural disaster finally drew to a close. The work of relief and reconstruction remained arduous, but under the gradually crystallizing modern administrative system, no catastrophic failures occurred. Most losses could be recovered.
Grain collection had reached its final stages before the typhoon struck, sparing this year's grain tax from significant damage. This brought considerable relief to Wu Mingjin—in recent years, petitions for tax reductions due to disaster had met with increasingly harsh rejections from above. Nine times out of ten, such requests were denied. At least now he could fulfill his quota.
Wu De shared this sense of relief—the majority of the season's harvest had been preserved. Had the typhoon arrived even a few days earlier, their grain-tax contracting venture would have plunged into total loss.
Yet the business still operated at a deficit. Between relief grain distributions, exemptions on "reasonable burdens," and covering grain taxes for disaster-stricken households, the transmigrator group absorbed a loss of roughly a thousand shi of brown rice this season. Reconstruction expenses added another considerable sum.
Their original scheme—exploiting the arbitrage between cheap rice and expensive silver in Lingao versus expensive rice and cheap silver in Leizhou during the Liaodong Surcharge collection—had collapsed entirely. After the disaster, rice prices in Lingao skyrocketed. Any hope of profiting from the Liaodong Surcharge through speculation was now dead.
"Our only path forward is to accelerate the land survey and implement the new taxation system by next year," Wu De said. "Once we increase the taxable acreage and reform the system, our situation will improve substantially."
Wen Desi frowned. "But that doesn't solve our immediate problem. What about this extra levy of over ten thousand taels for the Liaodong Surcharge? Are we supposed to absorb that ourselves?"
"Further collection would be difficult," Wu De admitted. "I've spoken with Wang Zhaomin and gathered intelligence from retained Household Office personnel. Collecting the Liaodong Surcharge was already a struggle. With this year's flood, it will be even harder."
"I believe we should pay it," Wu De said firmly. "Give the common people a chance to recover. The group can manage bearing ten thousand taels on their behalf."
"Tremendous loss," Cheng Dong muttered, shaking his head. "Tremendous loss."
"We must approach this as a government, not as merchants," Wu De countered. "A government that seeks only profit while avoiding all loss—treating the people and the nation as business propositions—how can it possibly succeed? A wealthy state with impoverished citizens is the harbinger of a dying dynasty."
Yu Eshui nodded sagely. "The ancients observed long ago: Emperor Wen of Sui and his son pitied their granaries rather than their people. The dynasty perished in the second generation, and all those stores of cloth and grain fell cheaply into the hands of the Li family."
"I agree with the principle," Cheng Dong said, "but we currently lack a proper title. We still wear the Great Ming's hat. If we perform this good deed, I fear the common people will credit the Zhu Emperor, and we'll have gained nothing for our investment."
"Let Ding Ding publicize it extensively," Wu De replied. "The people are reasonable. Besides, Lingao is our base of operations. At critical moments like this, we must demonstrate tangible benefits—that is how we ensure they follow us resolutely."
"We pay this year, but what about the next?" Cheng Dong pressed. "We must maintain this for at least several years. What of the Liaodong Surcharge during that time, and the ever-increasing levies to come?"
"Once we implement the tax reforms and the agricultural promotion plan, extracting these funds from Lingao itself will present no difficulty." Wu De spoke with the confidence of someone who had studied the situation thoroughly. "Consider this a loan to Lingao—restoring its capacity to generate revenue."
After further deliberation, the group adopted Wu De's proposal: the transmigrator group would pay this year's Liaodong Surcharge on behalf of the people. The group possessed silver, certainly, but not in such abundance that parting with this sum came easily. The decision caused no small amount of anguish.
Having committed to this course, Wu De had no path of retreat; the land survey must be completed swiftly and thoroughly. Immediately upon returning to the Grain Collection Bureau, he convened a meeting to accelerate progress, dispatching work teams to conduct field measurements in villages where declarations had concluded. Simultaneously, additional propaganda teams regrouped and launched a fresh campaign.
After completing his self-declaration, Fu Buer received a return receipt. He was informed that field verification and mapping of his declared land would follow, after which new deeds would be issued.
Among the handful of landlord households in Meiyang Village, his declaration had been the most comprehensive. He had omitted not a single fen of land—not from any elevated sense of civic duty, but because he alone had witnessed the full extent of Australian power. He understood their capabilities far better than his neighbors.
The other households had, without exception, employed strategies of partial reporting. Some declared only paddy fields and concealed garden plots. Others reported only parcels with existing deeds while hiding reclaimed land. Still others listed contiguous blocks but omitted fragmented corner plots. As for the village's wealthiest man, Fu Yousan, he had declared only his registered, deed-bearing land, confident that his hidden fields in the mountain hollow remained secure.
Fu Yousan had even dispatched servants bearing daily necessities to the farmstead, instructing his second son and the tenant workers to avoid the village for the time being—to stay clear of any trouble with the Australians.
Ordinary villagers, with their meager holdings or tenant-farmer status, naturally harbored no such concerns.
Into this atmosphere, the survey work team descended upon Meiyang Village.
The scale of the operation exceeded anything the village had witnessed, surpassing even the work teams deployed during the bandit suppression campaigns. Beyond surveying professionals, there were draftsmen—both transmigrators and trainees. Ox carts arrived laden with a full complement of professional equipment, accompanied by assigned security personnel. A formidable contingent exceeding one hundred souls.
Wang Ruixiang commanded this enterprise. Of course, he understood nothing of surveying—it was perfectly normal for leaders to lack expertise in the profession they oversaw. What he possessed was knowledge of mechanics and drafting, considerable combat prowess, a voice loud enough to carry, and the capacity to intimidate the locals through sheer presence. This combination sufficed for leading the work team.
Given the number of personnel and quantity of equipment, the operation would not conclude quickly. The work team established a temporary camp in the open ground beyond the village. Within eight hours, a compound surrounded by barbed wire and equipped with modular guard towers stood complete. The spinning blades of wind generators caught the attention of curious villagers who gathered to gawk.
Such investment was not, of course, devoted solely to Meiyang Village. The team's purview extended to six or seven surrounding villages as well. For this reason, it had been equipped—unusually—with four-wheeled agricultural vehicles for reaching more distant locations.
Once established, the work team immediately commenced field measurements and mapping of each household's land. This process employed the new weights and measures system exclusively. The mu was uniformly calculated at 667 square meters, while all linear measurements used the metric system.
Land verification proved intricate. Beyond confirming the area and location of each household's declared holdings, those with old deeds required cross-referencing to prevent misreporting—though this was hardly the most troublesome aspect. However inaccurate the old documents, they at least provided baseline references. The vast quantities of unregistered, deed-less land presented the true chaos. During field verification, the work team encountered multiple claimants for the same parcel, overlapping boundaries, and property disputes that erupted in tears, accusations, and physical altercations right there in the camp. The team found itself serving as impromptu civil arbitrators, urgently summoning several members from the "Law Club" to assist. Some villagers could not even articulate the precise location of their land, confusing one plot for another; others reported incorrect areas—every conceivable complication presented itself. The camp hummed with ceaseless activity, as raucous as a beehive.
(End of Chapter)