Chapter 909 – The Truth Office
Zhang Haogu's duties were extensive and complex. In broad terms, the Truth Office's main functions encompassed: establishing the history of the Australian Song and its corresponding scientific, political, social, and cultural development; setting technological boundaries for each department; screening books and films from the Grand Library; and determining the scope of education for natives and their access to materials. The office also compiled related handbooks distributed to transmigrators, standardizing their talking points on various topics. Natives and naturalized citizens were becoming increasingly involved in transmigrator work, and a careless remark from any transmigrator could become the seed of future rumors.
In practical terms, the work divided into two main streams. The first was publication review. Ever since Zhou Dongtian's series of printing equipment and technology initiatives had been largely completed, printing and publishing had advanced by leaps and bounds. Various departments were producing enormous quantities of textbooks, popular science books, and technical pamphlets. Maintaining proper limits on all this material had become one of Zhang Haogu's primary responsibilities.
The second stream involved selecting topics and organizing the writing of "special propaganda materials." Because the number of transmigrators serving in the Grand Library was limited and work was quite demanding, apart from certain "major topics" produced through "collective creation," most materials had to be written by Zhang Haogu himself. He did have the authority to solicit manuscripts from other transmigrators and pay a modest fee for contributions—a practice already established within the Propaganda Department. The transmigrators who responded were rarely motivated by circulation vouchers; they simply wished to satisfy their creative urges.
Technical matters received specific review from the Science and Technology Department. Anything involving dark history, forms of address, or political viewpoints fell under Zhang Haogu's purview.
Writing "black materials" while simultaneously handling manuscript reviews—his workload was obviously immense. And given the highly sensitive nature of the work, he couldn't employ naturalized citizens directly; most tasks had to be performed personally. By comparison, the Grand Library's Historical Research Section could at least employ a few Confucian-background naturalized citizens to help search and transcribe ancient texts.
"Damn it, they're using me as a coolie," Zhang Haogu muttered, rising from his desk and pacing around his office. Beyond the glass windows, the sunshine blazed with oppressive intensity.
This was a corner of the Propaganda Department compound inside Bairren City. It had originally housed the Grand Library. After the Library was relocated to Gaoshan Ridge, the Propaganda Department had taken over the space. The shipping containers that once stored those priceless treasures had been carted away, but traces of the leveling stones used as foundations remained faintly visible.
To conveniently serve the transmigrators, the Grand Library maintained a liaison office in the Propaganda Department compound. Several transmigrators took turns on duty, ready to handle various inquiries at any time.
Besides the Propaganda Department and the Grand Library liaison office, this was also the registered address of the Lingao Times, Gewu Pictorial, the Publishing Guidance Group, and the Truth Office. "Registered address" was apt because there simply weren't enough transmigrators and naturalized citizens to fill all these positions—most cases amounted to "multiple signs, one staff."
Zhang Haogu's Truth Office occupied three rooms in a corner of the compound. One served as his document room, specifically for storing "black materials" he'd collected and received from various departments. One was his workroom. The third was his living quarters. Like many transmigrators, he preferred to sleep in his office so he could work at any hour. His staff consisted only of himself and his maidservant.
His secretary and maidservant heard his footsteps and emerged from the adjoining bedroom. Seeing him sweating, she poured him a cup of chilled tea, then lowered all the Venetian blinds. The office dimmed suddenly but felt considerably cooler.
On his desk sat stacks of book casings—typescripts produced by the printing plant's typists. Every day, Zhang Haogu covered them with ink-pen annotations, frequently using red ink to mark revisions. Naturalized citizens who occasionally glimpsed Zhang Haogu at work invariably assumed he must be a very important leader.
Zhang Haogu picked up the table of contents for the latest batch of "special propaganda" pamphlets. In this timeline's parlance, these were called jietie—posted notices.
In ancient society, jietie served as a kind of handbill, usually anonymous, attacking certain people or events—sometimes even targeting the court and the emperor directly.
Because investigative techniques were insufficient in ancient times, unsigned jietie were generally untraceable and therefore reasonably safe. The disadvantage was that the literate population was simply too small, limiting reach among the lower classes. Thus jietie could influence only officialdom and the educated classes.
Since the Truth Office was working toward the Ming masses, it couldn't completely ignore the historical realities of the time, as other departments sometimes did. It had to attend to certain political issues of the late Ming.
Some groundwork had already been laid in this area, including the compilation of Records of Atrocities and the pamphlets distributed during the Second Counter-Encirclement. But at that time, these had been only sporadic efforts, not deployed as a primary tool. Now they were to be systematically organized as a major line of work.
After considerable thought, Zhang Haogu had decided to adopt a three-pronged approach to special propaganda—materials tailored to different audiences.
First: creating anonymous jietie and forging dibao (court gazettes). The content would begin with commentary on the Three Great Cases and the Three Great Campaigns, touching on major political events of the mid-to-late Ming, including the "Reverse Case" targeting the Donglin Party during the Tianqi era, Zhang Juzheng's reforms and the reaction after his death, and so on. The emphasis would be on "re-investigation" and "rational analysis" of these political events, offering unconventional viewpoints and materials. On the surface, the pamphlets would oppose incompetent and corrupt officials while supporting the Emperor; the real hidden message would guide "reflection" on the entire Ming political system. This stream targeted the scholar-official class.
Second: using the huaben storytelling format to produce popular illustrated pamphlets. These would be distributed to storytellers throughout the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region and could also circulate privately as popular novels. Their attacks on Ming legitimacy and promotion of the Lingao collective would remain relatively subtle. They could be supplemented with colorful palace anecdotes and even some new scientific knowledge. This stream targeted the urban merchant class.
Third: composing folk songs and children's rhymes targeted at the southern provinces. Though low in technical sophistication and admittedly crude, such material had always possessed tremendous impact. Before every major political upheaval, all manner of veiled nursery rhymes and folk songs would spread everywhere—proof of their power. This stream targeted the peasantry.
Zhang Haogu currently focused his main energy on fabricating jietie and producing huaben storytelling booklets. Both required certain technical skills. First, the true Australian origin must not be revealed, so lithography or lead-type printing couldn't be used; woodblocks or traditional movable type—clay type or wooden type—were necessary, resulting in lower-quality printing. Zhou Dongtian had set up a traditional printing workshop specifically for this purpose.
As for content, some was solicited from other transmigrators. Most transmigrators couldn't write directly in classical Chinese or Ming-era vernacular, so most manuscripts had to be composed by transmigrators in "new speech" and then "translated" by those with that particular ability.
These special propaganda pamphlets were largely compiled according to the principles of sex, politics, and secrets. The content reeked of pulp literature. Still, each issue maintained a certain focus, adjusted according to the current situation and target of attack.
In Zhang Haogu's hand was the table of contents for the latest batch of pamphlets, already approved and ready for printing. It listed twenty titles:
What Three Dying Wishes Did the Wanli Emperor Leave Behind?
Wei Zhongxian Won the Emperor's Favor—But What Didn't He Know Until Death?
The Mastermind Behind the Persecution of the Donglin Party: The Eunuch Clique Expelled from the Capital
Coveted by 6 Emperors for 60 Years: The Most Sought-After Woman of the Great Ming
A Speech by the Chengzu Emperor Before Entering Nanjing
The Truth of the Tumu Crisis: What Did the Ming Army Really Sacrifice For?
Conflict During Reform: Zhang Juzheng Denounced Scholars as "Nation-Wrecking Demons"
Li Chengliang's Debauchery and Fierce Ways in the North
"Femme Fatale" Ren Daidai: The Brothel Dancer Who Was Actually a Pardoned Assassin
Eyewitness Accounts: How the Eunuch Clique and Donglin Party Bungled Everything
The Truth of the Moving-Palace Case
Scandalous Palace Secrets of the "Former Dynasty": The Ten Most Famous Beauties in Ming History
...
These pamphlets typically ranged from ten to twenty thousand characters; even the longest didn't exceed fifty thousand. Each printing comprised only a few hundred to a thousand copies, which were then smuggled to the mainland for distribution. Because the subject matter was novel, the stories gripping, and the language plain, they proved quite popular with the natives. In Guangdong, the special propaganda pamphlets distributed by the Foreign Intelligence Bureau through the Black Dragon Society system had already created a substantial underground-reading market. The originally free pamphlets were even being hoarded for resale, and crudely pirated editions printed with clay movable type and cheap ink had already appeared. Zhou Dongtian had seriously considered whether to officially market these special propaganda pamphlets as popular reading material in the Ming.
Zhang Haogu believed this phenomenon reflected a severe shortage in the Ming's popular-reading market. The Publishing Guidance Group could accomplish much more in this arena. Recently, he'd supervised the revision of Jin Yong's works. Apart from The Deer and the Cauldron and Sword Stained with Royal Blood, all eleven other titles had been revised and were scheduled for gradual publication. Next came other publishing projects requiring revision...
"I'm working myself to death, and who knows if it's even effective?" he thought, placing the pamphlet table of contents on the desk. He retrieved the Truth Office's approval stamp from its box and pressed it onto the document. Seeing the bright red seal on the paper, he exhaled with satisfaction.