Chapter 2532: Recommendation

"Yan Junyan, you say?" Zhang Xiao stroked his small mustache, drawing upon his previous experience compiling historical materials. Yan Junyan had been an honest man who served as Prefecture Judge in Guangzhou for four years, during which he cultivated close ties with the Chen Zizhuang family. When Yan Junyan presided over the prefectural examination in the early Chongzhen years, he promoted Chen Zizhuang's younger brother, Chen Zisheng, to the top of the list. Many members of the Chen family became his students. Chen Zizhuang later provided detailed commentary on Yan Junyan's Combined Drafts of Mr. Yan Yanshu's Successive Victories and funded its family block printing and publication in Guangdong around 1629. When Surviving Letters of Mengshui Studio was printed, Chen Zizhuang wrote the preface. Other prefacers included Han Rizuan, Minister of Rites; He Wuzou, Grand Secretary of the East Pavilion; Lu Zhaolong, Supervising Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel; Lu Ao, Prefect of Zhaoqing; and Wang Yinghua, Vice Commissioner of Surveillance. Li Le, Supervising Secretary of the Ministries of Personnel and Rites, wrote the introduction.

A pity. In a muddy, turbulent world, I stand alone; of those who truly worry for the country, there are precious few. The corrupt officialdom of the Great Ming had no place for honest men. By now, Yan Junyan had likely been dismissed and sent home, left to plant beans beneath the Southern Mountain.

Still, something nagged at him. He recalled Kuang Lu, a close friend within Chen Zizhuang's circle, who had fled to Guangxi after offending Huang Xiyin. Even Liang Yuanzhu's intercession had proved useless. Given Yan Junyan's ties to the Chen Zizhuang family, his friendship with Kuang Lu could not have been shallow. If Huang Xiyin truly enjoyed such a close friendship with Yan Junyan, he should have shown Kuang Lu some leniency. So this old fox's words were a tangle of truth and falsehood, substance and smoke—best to keep his guard up.

As for Huang Xiyin himself, Zhang Xiao knew the man as well. He had been obscure in history until "persecuting Kuang Lu" thrust him into prominence. The man had served as Magistrate of Nanhai County for many years. If he could be persuaded to surrender, he would prove far more useful than this newly appointed Guangzhou Vice Prefect standing before him.

With this in mind, Zhang Xiao asked, "Was the empty tax exempted in the end?"

"Replying to the Chief: the Prefect originally agreed to petition the Imperial Court for the exemption. However, the timing coincided with Wang Zunde's campaign against Lingao. The shortfall in military funds proved substantial. Not only was the tax not exempted, but several more li were added to the land tax of each county. The burden fell not just on Nanhai County, but spread across the newly generated lands of Xiangshan, Shunde, and other counties." Wei Bifu sighed. "And then that Wang Zunde, ignorant of the Great Song's military might, ended up with the egg broken and the chicken flown—losing his wife and his soldiers both."

Son of a bitch! Zhang Xiao fumed inwardly. So the military funds for Wang Zunde's attack on Lingao came from here. This was all the Senate's money!

A thought struck him. "Huang Xiyin was Magistrate of Nanhai County. Where did he go when Guangzhou was recovered?"

Wei Bifu had been sitting on this matter for quite some time. Why? Because contrary to what most Senators assumed, Huang Xiyin had not "committed suicide." In the official archives, he was merely recorded as "whereabouts unknown."

Huang Xiyin had neither taken his own life nor formally surrendered. Instead, seizing upon the chaos of Guangzhou's early recovery, he quietly slipped away to the countryside, intending to find passage home once things settled down. But with the borders closed and his family in tow, escape proved impossible. After two years of stable Australian rule, with his household eating through their savings and growing desperate, Huang Xiyin began entertaining thoughts of "coming out of retirement."

The trouble was that emerging now would appear suspicious; the Australians would inevitably question his motives. After much deliberation, Huang Xiyin concluded he could only approach Wei Bifu, an old acquaintance. After all, among the original Guangzhou officials who had surrendered, Wei Bifu held the highest rank and was getting along quite well with the Australians. Moreover, their friendship in the old days had been genuine.

Wei Bifu was shocked beyond words when Huang Xiyin appeared before him after more than two years, half-convinced he was seeing a ghost. After their reunion and a long conversation, he finally understood that Magistrate Huang also intended to "change strings and tracks."

"Brother Huang, it's not that I mean to lecture you, but when the grand army entered the city two years ago, you should have simply surrendered to the Senate alongside me! Now that more than two years have passed, for you to surrender again..."

When Liu Xiang first entered the city, he employed all surrendering personnel as long as they bore no major "historical problems." Though they generally received no substantive positions, they were at least granted the title of Councilor and a monthly travel allowance, ensuring their families never wanted for food or drink.

To defect now, setting aside the taint of "opportunism," meant approaching a greatly stabilized Senate rule in Guangdong. Whether they would deign to employ him was anyone's guess.

"I was simply confused for a moment!" Huang Xiyin pleaded. "Please, Elder Brother, intercede on my behalf." With that, he presented a gift.

It was a set of fine gold head ornaments. Wei Bifu found himself unable to part with such exquisite craftsmanship, and remembering his old friendship with Huang Xiyin, he agreed wholeheartedly.

Though he had agreed, the matter was far from simple to arrange. Wei Bifu had been waiting for the right opportunity. Now that the Chief was asking—this was it!

"Master Huang did not commit suicide. He merely feared the chaos of war and took his family to live in seclusion in the Nanhai countryside."

"Hid?"

"Precisely." Wei Bifu smiled. "He was unwilling to flee to the Ming State, so he has spent his days farming and studying in the Nanhai countryside."

"How do you know this?" Zhang Xiao asked suddenly.

"Some days ago, I traveled to the countryside and encountered him in Jiujiang Town. I was quite startled myself—I thought I had bumped into a ghost in broad daylight."

"Ha! So that's how it is. I thought he was dead!" Zhang Xiao mused to himself: This is even better! Since he neither committed suicide nor fled north, it's obvious he harbors intentions to "surrender to the Kun." Perhaps he even sought out Councilor Wei specifically to reach me. This is like a pillow arriving just as you're getting sleepy—perfect timing. He said aloud:

"In that case, I'll trouble you to make a trip for me. Tell him I intend to hire him as a Councilor of Guangzhou Prefecture, to advise me in Nanhai."

"The Chief commands; I naturally obey!" Wei Bifu was secretly delighted. He hadn't expected the matter to be resolved so easily! It seemed Chief Zhang truly wished to accomplish something in Nanhai. "I shall set off to handle this tomorrow!"

"Good. Tell him to set aside his concerns. Since he is willing to emerge from seclusion, he should honestly serve the Senate. If he is unwilling, I won't force him—let him remain in the countryside as a law-abiding citizen."

"Yes, yes, I understand."

"However, since he remains in the countryside for now, I must continue to trouble Councilor Wei to explain this word 'Difficult' to me."

Wei Bifu sensed that his response had pleased the new Chief considerably. He stood and began: "Guangdong lies at the intersection of barbarian lands and remote outskirts. Wild bandits run rampant, relying on mountains and the sea as shields, constantly turning to theft. Guangdong has always harbored great bandits, and the atmosphere is far from peaceful. Merchants trading in Guangdong almost invariably end up filling the bellies of brokers—in minor cases they lose their capital, in severe cases their lives. What was once regarded as a land of profit has become a ghost country."

He continued, warming to his subject: "There were once six criminals like Li Yachao who gathered a gang, seized boats, and killed people in broad daylight. They robbed government messengers, murdered three gatekeepers at the tower camp in plain view of all, and looted the assets of seventeen people. These thieves robbed from Qingyuan, sailed down via Sanshui, and no one dared question them until they were finally captured at Shizhou Danxia. The provincial capital is a place where people from all directions mix. Stick-wielding scoundrels from other provinces, identifying themselves by gang names and titles, secretly occupy local areas to cause trouble. Once reported, they scatter like birds and beasts, and the government often cannot touch them. Guangdong's terrain embraces mountains and sea alike; its caves are treacherous beyond measure. The desolate, mist-shrouded lands and sand islands leave traces impossible to follow. For decades, demons have established titles in the mountains while bandits raise flags upon the sea..."

Wei Bifu stopped abruptly. He suddenly realized that the Australians had once been counted among the "great bandits" he described.

"What's wrong? Continue." Zhang Xiao was puzzled by the interruption.

Wei Bifu looked somewhat nervous, stealing a glance at Zhang Xiao's expression. Finding nothing amiss, he continued: "People cannot rest peacefully in their sleep; merchants cannot travel the roads. Circling north through the mountains or following the sea to the south—everywhere pits and moats, everything in chaos."

"In your opinion, what is the root cause?"

"The previous dynasty's sea ban was severe. Provision ships entering or departing had to be inspected at Xiangshan and submit forms to the Municipal Office; there was no tolerance for unauthorized berthing. Yet over a thousand ocean pirates burst into the inland rivers. The local soldiers, sentries, and Municipal Office officials—seeing profit and forgetting consequence—acted in collusion. This is bandits and government as one. Then there are officials who participate in smuggling themselves. Because bandits are so numerous in Guangdong, some use bandit-catching as a pretext to flay the skin and suck the marrow from common folk. They employ Yamen militia to identify and incite bandits, to implicate and blackmail, to harbor criminals only to slaughter them for extortion, to fabricate accusations and deceive—employing every extreme method imaginable."

Wei Bifu drew a breath. "Third, the ranks of bankrupt commoners swell daily, many turning to banditry. Official governance grows more corrupt by the day; the people's livelihood grows harder by the day. Those seeking plaintiffs find them fewer by the day; those hoping to ignore bandits find them more numerous by the day. The cause? Local officials reclassify robbery as theft to avoid punishment, choosing lighter charges to barely escape impeachment. They fail to realize that criminals deserving beheading or strangling who receive only exile will have no scruples whatsoever. No wonder the more they conceal bandits, the more bandits multiply. As for the practice of using bandits to close cases—that is especially cunning. When a robbery occurs, they implicate bandits from several cases to fill it out. When one criminal reaches court, they pile several cases before and after onto him. Either clerks induce confessions, or bailiffs coerce and frighten. To the prisoner, it's death either way; confessing to more or fewer cases adds nothing to his sentence, so he might as well accept several to avoid the whipping. The officials rejoice in their success..."

Wei Bifu's answer satisfied Zhang Xiao. Prefectural and county officials welcomed civil lawsuits because officials and clerks profited from them. But robbery cases were criminal matters—numerous robberies meant poor local security, which damaged an official's reputation and could even lead to impeachment. Hence the paradox: those seeking plaintiffs found them fewer by the day, while those ignoring bandits found them more numerous by the day.

Drawing on the Senate's experience suppressing bandits in Hainan, Zhang Xiao knew they would clarify each bandit group's background through long-term investigation before taking formal action. Before the first county-wide suppression in Lingao, for instance, the Intelligence Committee had mapped out the entire county's bandit situation: thirty-eight gangs of more than fifty people operating long-term, seven with more than one hundred. This did not include the many "home-based bandits" who farmed ordinarily but turned criminal when opportunity arose. Moreover, they strove to eliminate criminal gangs in single decisive strikes, avoiding an endless public security quagmire.

(End of Chapter)