The previous Governor-General of the South River had been stripped of office but retained in service for submitting a memorial that raised the prices of materials. Then, because his mother died, he had gone into mourning in Qiantang. Kang Jitian, the governor-general before him, had been implicated in issues involving grain transport and provisions.
Grain transport and riverworks had "already" been separated, yet not completely. It was like the provincial governor's work of managing riverworks: it seemed to have been separated, yet it also seemed not to have been. Cao Xi was now working with Su Qi, the provincial governor of Jiangsu, to investigate the matter of Huai'an's "tribute grain."
More than twenty years ago, the grain submitted by the people for transport was all good rice. But with the charges for official collection, laborers' exchange, passage through Huai'an, and transport, even after later reforms, the grain-paying households were still extorted. Local officials also illegally imposed extra levies. Transporting one shi of rice required an additional seven or eight dou in payment. Unable to bear the burden, the grain households began substituting inferior rice.
The officials collecting grain wanted to complete the quotas assigned by their superiors as soon as possible, so they accepted both good and bad rice alike. But when it came time for the Banner transport laborers to take delivery, they knew the rice was mixed in quality and demanded to select only the good rice for shipment. This gave them an excuse to extort handling fees, ranging from 230 to 270 taels per boat.
Some people added water to the rice, then used bamboo poles with torches attached to thrust into the pile. Once the raw rice had cooked into rice porridge, it swelled considerably. They then covered it with another layer of rice and concealed