Qing Yao

Chapter 252 Seller's Pawn

Zhao An had no idea that his superior, Zhu Gui, had reported him to the court. He was completely unaware, because in the month or so since he took office, Zhu Gui had neither issued a document ordering him to attend a meeting in Anqing nor sent anyone to check on him, as if he were unaware that the head of the grain bureau had been replaced.

This made Zhao An lower his guard a bit, and he suspected that Jiaqing's homeroom teacher might not have received the student's note about "dealing with" him, the grain bureau chief.

If Zhu Gui doesn't cause trouble, Zhao An won't come knocking on his door either. It's good that the two sides maintain a state of mutual non-interference.

Zhao An has been very busy lately, busy tidying up the staff who were lying down.

What is a "lying-down" employee? It's someone who can't memorize the "Ten Prohibitions" but doesn't take it seriously, always laughing and saying they'll memorize them all next time.

When the director conducted another spot check, he used the same excuse. Damn it, he didn't even blush.

He works in the provincial system, yet he can't seem to remember even ten rules. Can you imagine how infuriating it would be for Zhao An, his leader?

It's not like we're asking them to memorize the thirty-eight prison regulations.

What is leadership authority?
The authority of a leader means that you do whatever I say, and if I tell you to go east, you absolutely cannot go west!
In order to fully demonstrate his authority as the Daotai (a high-ranking official), Zhao An, in a fit of anger, chose to resort to corporal punishment.

If one hand is too big to carry, hit it five times; if two hands are too big to carry, hit them ten times.
Believe it or not, this method really works. After two or three times, when Zhao An checked again, everyone had memorized the answers perfectly.

Sure enough, people only remember the bad things and not the good things.

This has ruined Zhao An's reputation as the director. People outside say he physically punishes his subordinates, and that he openly slapped one of his subordinates twice while eating in the canteen, treating his subordinates like dirt. He is said to be a local tyrant who holds absolute power in the grain transport office.

Zhao An admitted that he slapped his subordinate twice, but denied that he was arrogant and would hit anyone he didn't like, contrary to rumors.

He's not crazy, right?

The reason for the beating was that the subordinate threw away the unfinished food. Moreover, Zhao An did not hit him at first, but only asked the subordinate to pick up the two buns that had been thrown into the trash can and eat them again.

The subordinate probably felt embarrassed in front of so many people, and kept mumbling and refusing to pick it up.

In a fit of anger, Zhao An slapped the guy twice and told him to pack his things and get out of here immediately.

This is also the first employee Zhao An has dismissed since taking office as the grain commissioner.

This incident immediately curbed the wasteful practices within the government office, and the daily canteen procurement costs, which were originally over fifty taels, dropped to over thirty taels.

This indicates that approximately thirty taels of public funds were being wasted every day previously.

Every little bit counts; if you save thirty taels a day, you can save ten thousand taels a year.

This is just the cost saved by the grain transport office itself. If all the warehouses, agencies and managed entities below could be this frugal, how much would the court save in a year?
This was also a result of Zhao An canceling fixed meal times and eliminating the practice of excessive eating and drinking.

Back in the previous administration, the grain transport office alone would spend tens of thousands of taels a year on food and drink!
How much silver will be consumed next?

Zhao An decided to write a separate report on this matter and submit it to the old man, because saving the old man money is making money for him.

The imperial court is currently waging a large-scale military campaign on the plateau, which is extremely expensive. Every penny saved is a penny earned.

Two weeks ago, after careful consideration, Zhao An formed a working group headed by Zheng Fuyang, the grain supervisor, and Cheng Dade, the ambassador of the Jiangning warehouse, to inspect and review the various warehouses and institutions under his jurisdiction.

The working group is currently mainly inspecting grain depots in prefectures and counties in northern Anhui. The next phase will involve inspecting southern Anhui.

Zhao An demanded that Zheng Fuyang and Cheng Dade thoroughly investigate the matter, ensuring that the department had a complete grasp of the province's grain reserves and that any instances of embezzlement or theft uncovered were severely punished.

Five indicators were given.

This means that five officials in charge of grain storage must be arrested as a warning to others, effectively curbing corruption in the grain system and also contributing to his own achievements as the circuit intendant.

The work of checking the database is quite complicated and time-consuming; checking each database across the entire province would take at least three to five months.

There is no rush.

Who passes and who fails depends on how well they write their confessions.

Zhao An attaches great importance to this point.

The second thing was to appoint his father-in-law, Ding Tai, who had just arrived, as the head of the grain transport office.

This position in the Taishu (台署) is equivalent to an office director, and is a clerk-level position. After operating for a period of time, Zhao An will then work on upgrading the staffing level and simultaneously resolve his father-in-law's official position issue.

In order to fully leverage the functions of the Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhao An implemented sweeping reforms within the unit, transferring all the functions of the various agencies previously managed by the Grain Management Sub-Prefect to the Taiwan Affairs Office. This meant that from now on, the grassroots would no longer report to their superiors level by level, but would report directly to the Taiwan Affairs Office, thus ensuring that Zhao An, the Circuit Intendant, would not be sidelined by his subordinates.

However, this approach undoubtedly takes away the power of lower-level officials, which has a huge backlash. Therefore, it is currently only being piloted in Jiangning and has not been immediately promoted to the whole province of Anhui.

The third thing was to call on all staff in the grain system, including officials, to donate one month's salary to clean up the stinking ditch near the grain transport office.

The Jiangning Prefecture and Shangyuan County officials have both sent representatives to discuss the project with the Grain Transport Office. Zhao An personally met with the relevant personnel and expressed strong support for the cooperative land reclamation plan. Currently, Shangyuan County has recruited laborers to begin the first phase of dredging work. Don't underestimate this seemingly minor stinking ditch; the entire project will cost tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Jiangning Prefecture and Shangyuan County gritted their teeth and contributed 10,000 taels of silver, while the remaining money had to be taken by the grain transport office.

To support the renovation project, Zhao An not only called on all staff members in the province to donate money (in fact, the money was directly deducted), but also donated half a year's salary, totaling 72 taels.

The imperial court stipulated that officials' salaries were to be received on the first day of the second month and the first day of the eighth month of each year, meaning one received half a year's salary and the other received half a year's salary. The allowance for maintaining integrity was to be paid at the intervals determined by each province, usually quarterly or semi-annually.

Provincial government officials need to present a document bearing the official seal to collect their salaries from the Provincial Treasurer's Office.

The salaries of prefectural and county officials were collected from the prefectural-level granary and released under the supervision of the prefect.

The salaries of officials below the prefectural and county levels were distributed by the prefectural and county governments themselves, and the amount paid was also determined by the prefectural and county governments. As for clerks and temporary workers, it all depended on how much the county magistrate had amassed that year and what his mood was like.

It's not uncommon for officials to refuse to pay a single penny if they're in a bad mood; after all, nobody working for the government really relies on the county magistrate's salary to make a living.

Some shrewd county magistrates take advantage of this by not paying their subordinates' salaries, thus saving a considerable amount of money each year.

Because the Grain Transport Office was independent of the local administrative system, the salaries of its officials were paid by the local treasury designated by the Ministry of Revenue, while the salaries of its clerks and temporary workers were handled by Zhao An, the Circuit Intendant.

This is also a major reason for the deficit, because the Ministry of Revenue did not pay a single penny of the salaries of the thousands of staff members in the Anhui grain system; the officials had to raise the money themselves.

Assuming 5,000 staff members, and each person receives 20 taels of silver per year, that's 100,000 taels.

In fact, the annual salary payable is as high as more than 200,000 taels.

To secure his position, Zhao An first needed to find over 200,000 taels of silver to pay salaries.

Do you think being an official is tiring?
Not tired!

The Daotai (local official) holds grain transport worth millions of taels of silver in his hands.

Paying salaries to subordinates is easy, but Zhao An's own salary is difficult.

The Ministry of Revenue stipulated that the allowances for maintaining integrity of the grain transport commissioners in each province should be collected by the grain transport office in Huai'an. They did not need to go in person; the grain transport office would send someone to deliver the money at the designated time each year.

His formal salary was paid by the local provincial administration office's treasury. This was fine in other provinces, but it was different in Zhao An's case. His salary was not paid by the Anhui provincial administration office's treasury, but by the Jiangning provincial administration office.

This is clearly the reason why the Anhui grain transport agency is located in Jiangning.

Since Zhao An had pledged to donate six months' salary to the entire provincial grain system, he naturally had to go to the Jiangning Treasury to collect it.

One thing at a time, no matter how much money he has, he still has to present this high-handed attitude perfectly.

As soon as Zhao An arrived at the Jiangning Provincial Governor's Office, Governor Fu Chang took the initiative to receive him and ordered someone to bring over Zhao An's salary of more than seventy taels of silver directly, without Zhao An having to go through any formalities.

Such enthusiasm was something both sides knew.

After Zhao Anlai took office in Jiangning, he only gave a gift to one person, namely Lord Fuchang, who was in charge of Jiangning and the prefectures and counties north of the Yangtze River.

The reason was that his private salt trade, money exchange, and the Xuzhou route all required the protection of Lord Fuchang.

Lord Fu was very hospitable and insisted on inviting Zhao, the grain commissioner, to have a simple meal.

Zhao An couldn't refuse such a kind offer, so he readily agreed, since he would be dealing with Lord Fu a lot in the future.

While the kitchen was preparing the meal, Lord Fu chatted with Zhao An. At first, they talked about the various measures Zhao An had taken to promote anti-corruption efforts in the grain transport office.

Lord Fu greatly appreciated these measures and gave high praise to Zhao An himself, almost saying that Zhao, the grain commissioner, was the most honest official in the dynasty.

Zhao An felt a warm glow in his heart upon hearing this and was about to return the favor by presenting the governor with a hat when Fu Chang suddenly whispered, "Have you heard, Governor Zhao? The court has agreed to allow the governor to sell the Suzhou Confucian Temple, and all proceeds, except for the construction of a new Confucian Temple, will be turned over to the national treasury."

"Oh?"

Zhao An was unaware of this matter, as he had not stationed any personnel in the capital, nor in Anqing or Suzhou, but he had already asked his father-in-law to arrange these.

The idea of ​​selling schools to build a new district was originally provided by Zhao An to Jiangsu Governor Fu Song for personal gain. Now that Fu Song had taken action, Zhao An had to quickly organize the canal workers to take on the projects and create an engineering corps under the guise of a construction team.

However, he pretended not to know anything about it in front of Fu Chang, the governor of Jiangning, and wanted to hear Fu Chang's opinion on the matter.

Although he is not under the jurisdiction of Fuchang, the situation in Jiangning is quite complicated, with too many powerful figures, so one should be cautious in doing things.

However, Lord Fu said to him in a consultative tone, "If the Suzhou Academy can be sold, does Lord Zhao think our Jiangning Academy can also be sold? If I remember correctly, Lord Zhao also holds the position of Jiangsu Provincial Education Commissioner. As long as Lord Zhao agrees, we can sell the Jiangning Academy as well."

At this point, Master Fu paused, then added with a friendly smile, "How about we two privately take over this academy and then sell it, splitting the profits fifty-fifty?"

(End of this chapter)