The most painful thing in life is what? Answer: The most painful thing in life is when a person is gone and the money is still there.
Then what is the most, most painful thing in life? Answer: The most, most painful thing in life is when a person is alive and the money is gone.
Now Old Master Hao finally experienced the most, most painful thing in life.
Hao Liangcai, who had been pretending to be dead, finally came back to life. He bowed and cupped his hands, saying, "Reporting to Your Excellency, these are several boxes that your subordinate picked up on the way here. They contain paintings, calligraphy, gold, and jewelry abandoned by unknown individuals. Your subordinate dared not act on his own and therefore brought them here to be handled by Your Excellency and Master Xu."
Hao Liangcai also knew that he had caused a huge problem. To get the prefect of Yanzhou to suppress the matter, Hao Liangcai had to offer several paintings and calligraphy and several boxes of gold and jewelry in addition to the "ice and charcoal gifts."
Wu Zude, however, said with a dark expression, "What, are you trying to bribe this official and Master Xu?"
Hao Liangcai put on an expression of surprise and cried out, "You wrong me! Your subordinate knows that Your Excellency and Master Xu are both incorruptible officials dedicated to the Great Qing and its people. How would your subordinate dare to offer bribes?"
"These items were indeed picked up by your subordinate on the way here. It was difficult to find the owners for a while, and your subordinate was truly at a loss. That's why your subordinate thought to ask Your Excellency and Master Xu for help in dealing with them."
Wu Zude's expression softened somewhat. He sat back in his chair, took a sip of tea, and then turned his gaze to Xu Yaozu, the Yanzhou Military Preparedness Commissioner, saying, "Brother Xu, what do you think of this..."
Xu Yaozu, who had been acting like a transparent person, grunted and said, "County Magistrate Hao voluntarily handing over the paintings, calligraphy, gold, and jewelry he just found for you and me to dispose of can be considered as finding something lost and returning it. What does this have to do with bribery and corruption? Absolutely nothing!"
Upon hearing this, Hao Liangcai nodded his head like a pecking chick.
That, my dear sir, is filial piety! Understand?
Summer is so hot. Without the "ice gifts," how can superiors calmly attend to imperial affairs? Similarly, in winter, it's so cold. Without the "charcoal gifts," do you want superiors to freeze to death?
If you give a superior a painting worth a thousand gold pieces during festivals, and the superior returns two rusty iron nails, isn't this just ordinary courtesy?
If you find the rusty iron nails too sharp to handle, you can always lend the painting to the superior for appreciation. This way, the superior even saves the effort of returning a gift.
Therefore, given that the average official in our Great Qing is honest and dedicated, where does corruption come from!
Looking at Hao Liangcai's appearance, Xu Yaozu couldn't help but smile and continued, "We cannot chill the hearts of good officials like County Magistrate Hao. Those who deserve promotion should be promoted vigorously."
Wu Zude also grunted and stroked his beard, saying, "Brother Xu is right. It's this younger brother who is rather muddled in his thinking. He is far from as clear-sighted as Brother Xu."
Xu Yaozu chuckled and said, "Your Excellency Wu, what are you saying? We are both officials in Yanzhou, so why be so formal?"
"As for Zhu Xiaosong of Yuhuang Mountain..."
"Since this person's surname is Zhu, he might be a remnant of the previous dynasty's royal family. It is perfectly normal for such a person to rebel. When the Military Preparedness Department dispatches troops, they can suppress it before His Majesty ascends Mount Tai."
"After suppressing the rebel Zhu, I will write a letter to my brother-in-law explaining the situation, and then this matter will be over."
Wu Zude laughed heartily and said, "Then thank you, Brother Xu."
After speaking, Wu Zude shouted at Hao Liangcai, "Why don't you quickly thank Master Xu!"
Hao Liangcai quickly bowed to Xu Yaozu and said, "Your subordinate thanks Master Xu! Your subordinate will never forget Your Master's life-saving grace!"
Xu Yaozu also laughed heartily, called for his personal guards, and ordered, "Assemble five hundred soldiers and accompany this Military Preparedness Commissioner to Yuhuang Mountain in Ningyang County to quell the rebellion!"
In Xu Yaozu's opinion, the Yanzhou Military Preparedness Department only needed to dispatch one hundred soldiers to suppress a mere bandit occupying a mountain with only a few dozen men. The reason for dispatching five hundred soldiers was merely out of consideration for the "found" paintings, calligraphy, gold, and jewelry from Hao Liangcai.
Wu Zude, however, stopped Xu Yaozu and said with a smile, "Brother Xu, the three inspectors under the Ningyang County have a total of three hundred soldiers. Why not temporarily assign them to your command and let them witness your skills? It could also be considered training soldiers for me, what do you say?"
Xu Yaozu smilingly agreed. Hao Liangcai was overjoyed and repeatedly expressed his gratitude to both Wu Zude and Xu Yaozu.
Although the three hundred soldiers under the three inspectors were essentially useless cannon fodder, there were still the five hundred soldiers from the Military Preparedness Department.
That's a full five hundred soldiers!
No matter how much fanfare Zhu Xiaosong made, it didn't change the fact that he only had a little over a hundred men.
Now that the Military Preparedness Department was willing to dispatch five hundred soldiers, even if Zhu Xiaosong had a thousand or more men, he would certainly be annihilated by the Military Preparedness Department!
As for the lost paintings and money... as long as one holds an official position, those things will eventually return.
As the saying goes, three years as a prefect brings ten thousand taels of silver. If a county magistrate is not corrupt for three years, then twenty or thirty thousand taels of silver is just pocket change, a trivial matter.
...
At the Ningyang County yamen, Zhu Erdan and Zhu Laosan had already distributed all the grain from the granary, with each household receiving fifty catties of grain on average.
Zhu Laosan was somewhat unable to accept this outcome: "Big brother, we distributed a total of fifteen hundred piculs of grain, and the granary is now empty, with only bran and the like left. But Ningyang County's accounts show a stored grain of ten thousand piculs, this..."
Zhu Xiaosong showed no surprise at all.
Zhu Xiaosong sneered and said, "It's enough that the grain is accounted for. As for the grain within the grain, it has naturally turned into silver."
Ningyang County town is not large. There are only about three thousand households in the city. Fifty catties of grain per household is about fifteen hundred piculs, right?
As for the ten thousand piculs of stored grain on the books...
Why would such a small county with only about three thousand households store so much grain? Waiting for mice to eat it, or waiting for a disaster year to open the granaries?
With the Son of Heaven reigning, our Great Qing naturally enjoys peace and prosperity and favorable weather. Where would there be so many natural disasters requiring the opening of granaries?
Even if we take a step back, if Ningyang County were to suffer a natural disaster requiring the opening of granaries, the government would only need to ensure relief for the disaster victims – the gentry and landlords are considered the people, and they should be given grain. Those commoners are nothing. It's good enough to give them some bran.
Therefore, it is very normal for the actual stored grain to be inconsistent with the recorded grain.
Zhu Xiaosong glanced at the more than a dozen headless corpses hanging at the yamen gate. He simply climbed onto the desk and shouted to the people at the yamen gate who had received grain but had not yet left, "Did you all see? Did you all hear?"
"When the grain was being transported earlier, some of you followed it to the granary and personally saw how much grain was in the granary."
"Ningyang County's granary should have ten thousand piculs of stored grain, but now only fifteen hundred piculs remain. Where did the rest of the grain go?"
After giving the people some time to process, Zhu Xiaosong continued to shout loudly, "We work hard to farm, but what do we get in return?"
"We get oppression! We get exploitation! We get usury! The taxes are collected until Qianlong ninety-four years, but it's not even Qianlong forty-nine years yet!"
"This damned government doesn't treat us as human beings at all!"
"If you still have some spirit, follow us up the mountain to rebel and overthrow this damned court!"
"If you don't have the courage, then take your grain home. We won't force you!"
As Zhu Xiaosong's voice fell, the people in front of the yamen began to look at each other again. After a long while, about two hundred people stepped forward to express their willingness to rebel with Zhu Xiaosong, including more than thirty beggars.
Zhu Xiaosong couldn't help but feel disappointed.
Two hundred people, it sounds like a lot, but when placed in the context of the entire Ningyang County, it's really nothing.
It seems that the lives of the people in the county town are still a little better than those in the countryside.
If one thinks deeper, then one can only say how wise the strategy of "encircling the cities from the countryside" proposed by the Great Ancestor was.
Thinking of this, Zhu Xiaosong couldn't help but shake his head and shouted to the people at the yamen gate, "Those who dare not rebel with us can go home now! Those who dare to rebel with us, hand over your grain to your families, and then come to the county yamen to assemble!"
After shouting, Zhu Xiaosong jumped off the table, called over Zhu Laosan and Liu Erniu, and instructed, "When everyone arrives later, you two take them back to the mountain and hand them over to Uncle Huaiwen, letting Uncle Huaiwen lead them."
"As for the two of you, you still need to come back tomorrow and bring all the hand grenades that were made on the mountain."
Zhu Laosan was stunned and asked, "Big brother? Now that we have killed all these corrupt officials in Ningyang County, shouldn't we retreat to the mountain? Why are we still...?"
Zhu Xiaosong chuckled and said, "Since Old Master Hao has gone to Yanzhou Prefecture to summon reinforcements, we shouldn't let Old Master Hao make the trip in vain, should we?"
"The Yanzhou Military Preparedness Department is neither comparable to the Taian Military Preparedness Department nor the Jinan Military Preparedness Department. At best, it has a thousand soldiers."
"Now that Old Master Hao is bringing troops to equip us, if we don't take this opportunity to eliminate them, wouldn't we be letting down Old Master Hao's good intentions?"