What Emperor Zhu Won't Give You, I Will

The Teng County yamen.

Magistrate Li Yi set down his documents and picked up his teacup. Raising his head slightly, he glanced at Huang Lin, the county police registrar standing below the dais, and asked gravely, "You served as a clerk under the Yuan Court, didn't you?"

Huang Lin's expression remained unchanged as he answered calmly, "Your Honor, I served as a clerk under the Yuan Court for only three years."

Li Yi blew across his tea. "You ought to know that the new dynasty is very different from the old. Under the Yuan, clerks governed the realm. Our Great Ming, however, governs through Confucian scholars!"

Huang Lin nodded slightly.

Indeed, although the Yuan Dynasty had issued a few law codes and loudly proclaimed that it governed through Confucian scholars, in practice it had governed entirely through clerks. Vast amounts of administrative work, judicial matters, official correspondence, criminal law, and so forth were handled not by officials, but by their clerks.

The Yuan Dynasty's rulers approached governing the realm the same way they approached herding sheep:

The sheep couldn't escape their pen. When it was time to shear them, shear them. A few deaths didn't matter, so long as the flock didn't rise up and smash through the fence.

Officials, clerks-who cared? So long as I get my quota of wool and the pen is still standing, you can do whatever you please.

Yuan laws were exceedingly cumbersome, and the regulations governing official documents were exhaustively detailed. An official entrusted with the seal would probably have needed a year or two of reading to understand them.

But who were those seal-holding officials under the Yuan Dynasty? Mongols, the highest of the four classes of subjects. I have privileges! You want me to pore over books? Not a chance!

Give me my wool. You clerks can sort out everything else yourselves.

Li Yi set down his teacup and fixed Huang Lin with a sharp gaze. "Yuan clerks were adept at manipulating matters from both ends. Now that you are a police registrar, you are an official of the Great Ming. Have your old habits proved too deeply rooted to change? Are you still up to your old tricks?"

Within a county yamen, the police registrar oversaw arrests and prisons and served as one of the magistrate's subordinate functionaries. The post carried no official rank, belonging to what people commonly called the "unranked," below even the ninth rank.

Though unranked, a police registrar's role and standing could not be overlooked. When the posts of county deputy or chief clerk were vacant, the police registrar handled the actual business. Thus, police registrars were selected by the Ministry of Personnel and appointed with the emperor's signed approval, placing them among the court's appointed officials.

Huang Lin looked in surprise at the blunt-speaking magistrate and hastily replied, "Your Honor, since submitting to the new dynasty, I have worked conscientiously and never dared forget my duties. Surely I deserve some credit for the peace Teng County enjoys today. How can you accuse me of manipulating matters or clinging to old habits?"

Li Yi acknowledged Huang Lin's contributions.

Shandong had been conquered late, and considerable disorder remained in the early years of the Great Ming. Roaming bandits and local brigands were plentiful, and the police registrar and his men had indeed arrested some of them.

But having merit did not mean being without fault.

Seeing that Huang Lin refused to admit it, Li Yi produced a register and tossed it over. "Then tell me how Gu Pei's name was added to this."

Huang Lin picked up the register, looked it over, and shook his head. "Your Honor, Gu Pei did die away from home. It was only proper to record him in the register."

"Registrar Huang, look closely at the handwriting. Gu Pei's name was certainly not written by the same hand as the other names. Besides, this is not the only copy of the register. If we insist on investigating, we can find another in Rencheng!"

Li Yi rose to his feet, his face stern and imposing.

Huang Lin's brows creased slightly, and his eyes shifted. "Then this is beyond my knowledge. I have nothing to do with such paperwork."

Li Yi clapped his hands.

County Deputy Jin Dache approached, escorting the clerk Cao Su, a man past fifty. Once they drew near, he shoved Cao Su forward. Cao Su dropped to his knees in terror and hurriedly kowtowed, begging for mercy. "Spare me, Your Honor! Registrar Huang ordered it all. He told me to imitate the handwriting and add Gu Pei's name."

"Cao Su, you're lying!"

Huang Lin's expression changed, and he shouted angrily.

Cao Su had no choice. He hadn't wanted to betray Huang Lin either, but Jin Dache had found his hush money. How could a lowly clerk like him explain where three hundred strings of cash had come from?

If he refused to confess, Jin Dache had threatened to convict him of stealing property entrusted to his care.

Once that charge was proven, he would have to bare his right forearm and have the three characters for "money, grain, goods" tattooed into it. He could endure the pain of tattooing, but three hundred strings of cash were enough to get his head chopped off five times over!

With his life hanging by a thread, who cared who Huang Lin was? Drag down whoever he could. At least he would have company on the way to the grave...

"Your Honor, this man is greedy and deceitful! He is falsely accusing me!"

Huang Lin hurriedly tried to defend himself.

Li Yi looked at Huang Lin and said coldly, "Even now, you still refuse to admit it. Where is the chief clerk?"

Chief Clerk Sun Ang approached, followed by four yamen runners carrying two chests. They flung the lids open with a clatter, revealing copper coins, silver, paintings and calligraphy, antiques, property deeds, farmland deeds...

Huang Lin collapsed onto the floor. A lifetime's painstaking work-all gone, just like that!

Li Yi picked up a silver ingot and weighed it in his hand, then looked at the bloodless Huang Lin. "It seems you are a man who seeks wealth. But Gu Pei should have had little of value. Why did you add his name to the register and create the appearance that he had died away from home?"

Utterly dejected, Huang Lin hurriedly crawled forward on his knees and pleaded, "Your Honor, you can have all these valuables. Just spare my life, and I'll tell you everything!"

"These are the proceeds of corruption and abuse of the law. How could I accept them?"

Li Yi kicked Huang Lin aside, turned, and returned behind his desk. "I have not convened court to hear this case today. I am questioning you here out of consideration for our time as colleagues, to leave you a shred of dignity. If you withhold what you know and conceal the facts, you may still be subjected to torture when the trial begins. Confess truthfully!"

Huang Lin looked at Li Yi in despair. "Your Honor, are you trying to drive us to our deaths?"

"If you had been content with poverty and devoted to the righteous path, how would you have come to this?"

Li Yi barked the question.

Huang Lin got to his feet and shouted, "I've spent my whole life scraping by, either as a dog for the Yuan Court or a dog for the Great Ming! What difference does it make who's emperor? Isn't getting paid all that matters? With money, you can live however you please!"

Li Yi slammed his hand on the desk. "You are an official appointed by the court!"

Huang Lin shot back, "Across every prefecture, subprefecture, and county in the realm, how many officials aren't corrupt? Just look at the salaries Emperor Zhu set. You're Principal Seventh Rank, and your annual salary is eighty shi of grain-not even seven shi a month. Converted into silver or cash, that's a mere three strings. I can get a hundred strings with a wave of my hand. Isn't that a fine life? Let us go, and I'll give you a hundred strings a year. How about it?"

"Have you lost your mind?"

Li Yi's face darkened as he watched Huang Lin spew his outrageous words.

Huang Lin shouted, "What Emperor Zhu won't give you, I will! Let us go, and all this wealth is yours. There are no outsiders here. No one will know!"

Li Yi shook his head and glanced at Jin Dache. "County Deputy Jin, slap his mouth!"

Jin Dache stepped forward and struck him across the face with a sharp smack.

Huang Lin's bluster instantly drained away. Seeing that the magistrate would not relent, he dropped to his knees with a thud and wept bitterly.

Li Yi narrowed his eyes slightly and demanded sternly, "Tell me. Why was Gu Pei's name in the register?"

Huang Lin said miserably, "It-it was Wang Fugui. He gave me two hundred strings of cash to add Gu Pei's name, so the Gu Family would give up hope."

Li Yi shook his head. "You're not telling the truth. Even if Wang Fugui murdered Gu Pei, he could simply have pretended to know nothing. No matter how the Gu Family pursued the matter, they would have found nothing linking it to him. Why would he ask you to add the name? Wouldn't that expose his own tracks?"