novelSusiti Chapter 45 First Steps on the Rotation: A Series of Hidden Moves
Chapter 45 First Steps on the Rotation: A Series of Hidden Moves
Li Yan left unwillingly.
On the morning he received the approval, he sat in the Central Protectorate for a full hour. He read the words "Personally inspecting the Southern Regions for one month" on the document no less than ten times.
Fei Guanlai asked what to do, and he said two words: "Do as instructed."
There was no other choice. The imperial edict was written flawlessly—"to conduct an on-site inspection of the military system and matters related to land reclamation"—this was a legitimate mission. To refuse would be to disobey the imperial decree, to accept it meant to leave.
Before leaving, he called Fei Guan to his study, closed the door, and gave him three instructions.
"First, while I'm away, the three of you should visit each other less, so as not to give anyone a handle to use against you. Second, stop all street-related matters for now, and deal with them after things have calmed down. Third—"
He paused.
"Keep a close eye on Ma Su."
Fei Guan asked, puzzled, "Ma Su? The military advisor to the Prime Minister?"
"He's doing a job for His Majesty. I don't know what the job is, but this man is ambitious, impulsive, and prone to making mistakes. Once he slips up, that will be our opportunity."
Li Yan, accompanied by twenty close followers, left the city that afternoon.
The carriage rolled over the stone-paved road at the South Gate, kicking up a thin layer of dust. He lifted the curtain and glanced back; the Chengdu city walls seemed to shrink in the twilight.
When did it start? A seventeen-year-old boy pushed him step by step to this point.
The carriage curtain was lowered.
This was the day Ma Su had been waiting for.
No sooner had Li Yan left the city than he entered the Prime Minister's residence with the rotation list.
Thirty-six people, twelve counties.
Zhuge Liang reviewed them one by one and circled four names.
"These four cannot be touched. Two are from Fei Yi's hometown, and the other two have just finished handling major cases while in office. The people are praising them, and transferring them now would only make them unpopular."
Ma Su nodded and picked up his pen to make the changes.
"There's one more thing," Zhuge Liang said, pushing the list back. "The official documents for the rotation should use the seal of the Ministry of Personnel, not the seal of the Prime Minister's Office."
Ma Su was taken aback, but then he understood—using the seal of the Prime Minister's office would make it seem like Zhuge Liang was purging the gentry of Yizhou. Using the seal of the Ministry of Personnel was a matter of court regulations, and no one could find fault with it.
"Don't worry, Prime Minister, I understand."
The job rotation order was issued quickly.
Eight people were transferred in the first three days. Jianwei Commandery replaced two county magistrates, Guanghan Commandery replaced one chief clerk, and Shu Commandery replaced three county magistrates and two granary clerks.
The replacements were all mid-level officials from Jingzhou. It wasn't a major reshuffle, but it was painful enough.
These positions may seem insignificant, but they are all about practical matters—collecting grain taxes, allocating granaries, and maintaining household registers. By controlling these areas, the gentry would have to think twice before trying to take advantage of them.
Fei Guan couldn't sit still any longer.
Before leaving, Li Yan had said to visit fewer people, but this matter couldn't wait a month. He made up an excuse—saying that his silk shop had an account to settle with Wang Fu—and went to Guanghan.
The two met at Wang Fu's villa.
Before the tea was even brewed, Fei Guan brought up the matter of job rotation.
After listening, Wang Fu spent a long time skimming the foam off the teacup with the lid.
"The two county magistrates of Jianwei, one surnamed Liu and the other surnamed Chen, are both from the Protector-General's faction?"
"County Magistrate Liu is a relative of the Protector-General, and County Magistrate Chen is related to my family by marriage. Replacing these two is tantamount to blocking the grain tax revenue from Jianwei."
"It's similar in Guanghan. My clerk has been doing this job for six years and manages the relationships between superiors and subordinates very well. But we replaced him with a greenhorn from Jingzhou who doesn't know anything but puts on airs."
Fei Guan rubbed his hands together: "So, what do you suggest we do? Should we sign a petition?"
Wang Fu did not answer.
He's more experienced than Fei Guan. A joint petition? Li Yan isn't here, so who's going to lead it? The two of them? They don't carry enough weight. Besides, the rotation order bears the seal of the Ministry of Personnel; pushing it upwards would be questioning the court's system, and pushing it to the Prime Minister would only make things worse.
"Bear with it for now." Wang Fu put down his teacup. "Protector Li will be back in a month. We'll settle this score when he returns."
Fei Guan opened his mouth, but didn't refute. The word "forbearance" carries a knife above it, but it's always easy to say "forbearance" when the knife isn't at your own throat.
Ma Su didn't know that Fei Guan had gone to Guanghan. But he knew that Fei Guan couldn't sit still.
On the fifth day after the rotation order was issued, he submitted a report to Liu Shan. It did not describe the progress of the rotation, but rather the observations of the newly arrived officials in Jianwei and Guanghan during their first three days.
On his first day in office, Liu, the magistrate of Jianwei County, was ignored by everyone in the yamen. On the second day, someone threw his bedding into the courtyard. On the third day, he moved a table to the entrance of the yamen to work.
On the day the newly appointed registrar of Guanghan took office, the warehouse ledgers were "accidentally lost." He spent two days re-counting them and found three discrepancies.
After reading it, Liu Shan wrote two words on the memorial: "Remember this."
Nothing else was mentioned.
That afternoon, notices announcing road repairs in the three counties were posted.
Large red paper with big characters was pasted in the most conspicuous place. In Jianwei, Guanghan, and Shujun, it was everywhere—at the city gates, market entrances, and docks.
"Special funds for trade in the south will be used to repair the official road in Yizhou. Laborers will be conscripted, paid daily, and provided with two meals a day."
The wages are generous. It's more profitable than farming.
Not many people signed up on the first day; most were just observing. Dozens showed up on the second day. The third day—
Long queues formed at the registration offices in the three counties.
Interestingly, the folk song "The people of Yizhou plant mulberry trees, and the Yi people enjoy their coolness" is no longer sung.
It's not that it's banned.
I can't bring myself to sing it anymore.
They've already pocketed the money, yet they still criticize Nanzhong Trade. Isn't that like eating from a bowl and then cursing the cook?
Jiang Wan presented Liu Shan with the number of registrations from the first three days.
Liu Shan flipped through the documents: "Is the workload sufficient?"
"I have overstated the budget by 30%. After the official road is repaired, we can also dredge two irrigation canals."
"Then let's dredge it."
As Jiang Wan was leaving, she ran into Dong Yun at the door.
The two nodded to each other and passed by.
Dong Yun entered and first bowed.
"Your Majesty, there are new leads regarding Zhou Cang's matter."
Liu Shan looked up.
"I checked the genealogy of the Zhou family in Fuling and there is indeed no one named 'Zhou Cang'. However, there is an old official in Fuling who recognizes this face—he said that this person was not called Zhou Cang in his early years, but Zhou Ping, and was the son of a small merchant in Fuling."
"Zhou Ping."
"Yes. This Zhou Ping lost both his parents in a fire when he was fourteen. He was then taken in by an old man passing by. He reappeared two years later when he entered the palace to serve, and his name was changed to Zhou Cang."
Liu Shan tapped his fingers twice on the table.
"Where is that old man?"
"We can't find it. The people in Fuling only remember that he was an old man from out of town, and his clothes didn't look like those of an ordinary person. The adoption procedures were handled by the county government, but the county clerk who handled it is dead, and the records can't be found either."
Liu Shan remained silent.
Dong Yun waited a moment, then added, "However, I have discovered something else. Zhou Ping's father was in the jade business."
The tapping on the desk stopped.
Jade business.
Liu Ziyujue.
The two events happening together are both a coincidence and a mismatch—
"Investigate his father's upstream sources. See where those jade stones came from."
"Your subject understands."
Dong Yun left and closed the door behind him.
The room fell silent.
Liu Shan opened the hidden drawer and took out the jade pendant fragment.
The carvings on the fragments are exquisite, not the work of an ordinary craftsman. The late emperor commissioned the carving of these jade pendants, employing the best jade craftsmen in the palace. That craftsman later retired and returned to his hometown, burning all the original designs before he left.
—Except for the two that were given to the late emperor.
One was in his hand. The other—
He put the fragments back into the hidden drawer and locked it.
A few birds chirped outside the window.
The ginkgo tree in the yard was bare; the leaves had been swept away, revealing its grayish-brown branches.
winter is here.
The Northern Expedition is still a long way off. Let's finish the battles in the imperial court first.
He picked up the next booklet. It was an excerpt from the Eastern Wu Gazette, sent by Fei Yi. Sun Quan had recently built a new palace in Jianye, spending a considerable amount of money.
After reading it, Liu Shan wrote a few words in the blank space next to it, then called over a eunuch and asked him to send it to Zhuge Liang.
It is written as follows:
"The ruler of Wu is undertaking large-scale construction projects. We can send spies to investigate the state of his treasury."
Seventeen years old. At this age, some are studying, some are farming, and some have just learned to ride a horse.
He is playing chess.
Playing several games at the same time.
[End of Chapter]