Qing Yao

Chapter 292 Si Fu'er's Wrath

Yicheng, the county post office director, the transportation administration director, and the guesthouse director.

In Zhao An's previous life, this position was a powerful one, with the potential for promotion to the county level, but in this era, the room for advancement is extremely limited.

Because the postmaster was a miscellaneous position, not even a ninth-rank official.

The career ceiling for a post station clerk is the ninth rank. Without the help of a powerful figure or a stroke of incredible luck, they will spend their entire lives stuck in the lower ranks.

In the history of this dynasty, there was only one high-ranking official who rose to prominence from the postal system: Li Wei during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng.

However, Li Wei was directly appointed as the fourth-rank provincial postal commissioner (or provincial postal commissioner), but before he took office, he was reassigned as the fourth-rank Yunnan salt commissioner. He served as the Yunnan salt commissioner for less than three months before being promoted to the second-rank Yunnan provincial administration commissioner.

In other words, Li Wei did not start from the grassroots level of the postal system, but rather it was a transitional position arranged by Emperor Yongzheng to facilitate Li Wei's appointment as the Yunnan Provincial Governor.

To put it bluntly, Li Wei's rank was not high enough at the time, but Yongzheng wanted to make good use of him, so he arranged a position with the right rank but not real power as a temporary measure.

This not only elevated his rank but also enriched his work experience, perfectly circumventing the imperial court's personnel system.

The transition period was a bit short, only five months to transition between two fourth-rank Daoist positions.

In this respect alone, Zhao An is far inferior.

After all, Li Wei was the actual governor, while he was the acting governor.

Although Zhao An did not have the power to directly appoint a county magistrate, he did have the power to temporarily appoint a post station official to act as the county magistrate.

Besides the fact that this postmaster named Fan Tao was experienced in precise disaster relief, it was also because the postmaster, a low-ranking position, was more pragmatic than the county magistrate, had a better understanding of the people's situation, and was better able to handle the complex disaster situation than those officials who passed the imperial examinations.

In other words, technocrats are better able to adapt to the changing situation than officials who passed the imperial examinations.

At the same time, it also sends a signal to the outside world that as long as pragmatic officials can actively participate in disaster relief, the newly appointed acting provincial governor will promote them exceptionally, giving them an opportunity to transition from public service to official positions.

Even though this acting provincial governor had just violated regulations by killing a local official without authorization, and was likely to be dismissed and investigated by the court, that was a matter for later. Besides, who could say that the court wouldn't tacitly approve of such a major disaster?

After all, over a million people have already starved to death in Anhui.

Only severe measures can bring about a major pacification.

Those with inside information who knew that this acting governor had just been impeached by the governor last month, but instead of being impeached, he was promoted to acting governor, would probably have a different opinion on the matter of this acting governor's illegal killing.

It's hard to say whether the emperor was dissatisfied with the incompetence of Zhu Gui, the governor of Anhui, and the entire Anhui bureaucracy in disaster relief, which is why he deliberately appointed a "cruel official" to rectify the Anhui bureaucracy.

Humans are strange creatures; the same thing can have hundreds of different perspectives.

Opportunities often lie hidden in one or two perspectives.

The term "temporary appointment" is essentially a transitional position. Doing a good job doesn't necessarily mean you'll become a county magistrate, but the transition from clerk to official is a real possibility.

At least, it saved you eight years of trial and error.

Even if things don't go well, being noticed and having one's name noted by a high-ranking provincial official is undoubtedly a great blessing for a low-level clerk.

Zhao An saw Fan Tao's excitement. In order to make the officials of Dingyuan County accept this acting magistrate, Zhao An immediately wrote a note for Fan Tao and told him that if anyone in Dingyuan County did not accept him as the magistrate, he should tell that person to "argue" with him, the acting provincial governor.

Who would dare to argue with the provincial governor who personally killed the county magistrate?
The yellow jacket bestowed upon him by the emperor was stained with blood.

Given that Dingyuan County was a severely affected area, some areas within the county had become like hell on earth. As the murdered magistrate of Dingyuan County said, some clan leaders sold their clansmen by weight, turning the clan's ancestral hall into a butcher shop.

This sounds incredibly terrifying, but behind it lies a "severing of an arm" that the clan had to do in order to ensure the continuation of its lineage.

They sacrificed the lives of a small number of clansmen to ensure the continuation of the entire clan.

For the clan, it was a last resort.

This is actually the mindset of most officials in Anhui's current officialdom.

The people of Dingyuan County who were killed clearly shared this mentality; otherwise, they wouldn't have been so passive in disaster relief. Their assessment was that the disaster would not only fail to improve in the short term but would actually worsen.

If we invest the limited funds and resources in disaster relief, what will we do next?
It's the same principle as preferring to protect the city walls rather than the countryside.

Zhao An was not a feudal bureaucrat and could not sacrifice one group of people to save another. Since arriving in this era, even though he had given the "leaders" above him many bad ideas, he had never really harmed the interests of the common people and had truly never taken a single needle or thread from them.

All the charade was simply an attempt to gain a higher official rank, so that he could stand at a higher position and serve the people, instead of treating human life as worthless and believing that "one general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand."

It is impossible to treat the terrible things happening in the disaster area as just scenes from a movie and let them pass by. Instead, we must rush to the front line of disaster relief without reservation and do everything we can to save those disaster victims who are struggling on the brink of death.

It's nothing more than being human.

Given the severity of the disaster, if the government does not make every effort to provide relief, there is a high possibility that major unrest will break out in Dingyuan County and the surrounding areas.

Fengyang is the birthplace of Zhu Yuanzhang (Emperor Taizu of Han).

If an uprising breaks out, all of Zhao An's efforts will be in vain.

Therefore, he stayed in Dingyuan County for several days to urge the local government to do its best to provide disaster relief. In addition to taking out all the money and grain stored in Dingyuan County to help the disaster victims, he also ordered the county to mobilize wealthy households and gentry to donate money and grain. At the same time, he organized relevant disaster relief teams to go deep into the countryside and work closely with the local Baojia system to establish a joint defense system against the White Lotus sect, while cracking down on the disaster victims who gathered in the mountains.

For the groups of disaster victims who had turned into bandits, Zhao An ordered people to post notices in conspicuous places, informing them that Dingyuan County, which had failed to provide effective disaster relief, would be executed, and also informing them of various relief measures, guiding the disaster victims to go and collect disaster relief money and grain.

No one is held accountable for banditry, whether they are leaders or accomplices, even if they have killed people before.

At the same time, Chuzhou issued a document requesting the immediate allocation of 50,000 shi of grain to Dingyuan County. In order to ensure the smooth flow of disaster relief channels and prevent the disaster relief grain from being looted by disaster victims and bandits, a secret letter was sent to Tianchang to "mobilize troops".

Previously, when Zhao An set off from Jiangning, he ordered Ding Jiu to select 2000 able-bodied men from the grain transport gang to enter Tianchang, which borders Yangzhou, under the guise of transporting disaster relief grain, and to await further orders. This team was led by Xu Lin, the second gang leader. Originally, Zhao An planned to take advantage of Zhu Gui's opportunity to organize local militias and convert them into a part of the Anhui militia, but now he wanted to use them immediately to ensure the smooth flow of disaster relief channels.

If there are problems with the roads, no amount of money or grain can be transported in.

However, even if the officials were from other places to help with disaster relief, it would be impossible for so many able-bodied men to go deep into the disaster area under the noses of local officials, let alone when they were armed.

The most likely scenario is that once Xu Lingang leads his troops out of Tianchang, they will be regarded as rebels and suppressed by the local governments along the way.

Therefore, Zhao An, in his capacity as acting provincial governor, sent letters to the counties along the route, stating that Xu Lin's troops were transport troops under the jurisdiction of the grain transport office, and had now been upgraded to be directly commanded by the provincial governor. In addition to transporting disaster relief grain, they were also responsible for ensuring the safety of the post roads, and he requested that the counties along the route provide them with assistance.

The "troop transport" was divided into two parts: one was under the command of the Grand Canal Transport Office, and the other was under the command of the grain transport commissioners of the eight provinces.

Zhao An has a subordinate official in charge of transporting grain and troops, but this official is stationed in Anqing and has never met Zhao An, his superior.

Troop transport was monopolized by the canal gangs, so each branch of the canal gangs had its own special uniforms for transporting soldiers. Once the clothes were changed and the soldiers were gathered together, they formed an army.

It was entirely legal to transfer Xu Lin's troops to the disaster area under the guise of troop transport to ensure the smooth flow of official roads. The food and drink for 2000 transport troops was not a small amount. In addition to the food that Xu Lin's troops brought themselves, Zhao An ordered Chuzhou to provide supplies.

Most of the local militias in the Huaibei region were nominal rather than effective. To prevent the White Lotus Rebellion from launching a large-scale uprising, Zhao An issued a document to Shouchun Town in Fengyang Prefecture, requiring the town to ensure the safety of the post stations and key points on the main official roads.

Shouchun Town was one of the two major towns of the Green Standard Army in Anhui Province. The other town was Wannan Town, which was stationed in the south of the Yangtze River. The total number of Green Standard Army soldiers in the two towns was about 14000, with about 6000 in Shouchun Town in the north of the Yangtze River and about 8000 in Wannan Town in the south of the Yangtze River.

The Qing government did not establish a special commander-in-chief for the Green Standard Army in Anhui. The troops in the two garrisons were under the command of the general and were mainly responsible for local security and the protection of the Grand Canal. Historically, the Qing government would not mobilize the Anhui Green Standard Army to participate in major battles.

In terms of command structure, although the Anhui Green Standard Army was under the control of the governor, the actual command was in the hands of the Governor-General of Liangjiang.

Zhu Gui's reason for organizing local militias to consolidate power was not only because the Anhui Green Standard Army was unusable, but also because he needed the approval of Sun Shiyi, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, to mobilize the Anhui Green Standard Army, which involved cumbersome paperwork.

As the acting provincial governor, Zhao An had the power to control the Green Standard Army stationed in these areas because he also served as the circuit intendant for Huizhou, Qingzhou, Ningzhou, and Taizhou. However, he did not have the power to command them and had to report to the Governor-General of Liangjiang for approval before he could move them.

However, Teacher Lou was the Governor-General's "chief secretary," and the newly appointed Governor-General of Liangjiang greatly admired him as a righteous official. Therefore, he was more likely to obtain approval for troop deployment procedures than Zhu Gui.

To ensure everything went smoothly, Zhao An reported to the Governor-General's Office of Liangjiang, requesting "temporary command authority" over the Green Standard Army stationed in Shouchun Town in northern Anhui. He said that as long as the Governor-General of Liangjiang approved, he could mobilize Shouchun Town at any time for disaster relief or to quell rebellions.

After staying in Dingyuan County for several days, Zhao An set off for Fengyang City to hand over the reins to his predecessor, Jing Daoqian, and to "meet" the garrison commander of Shouchun Town.

The last thing he did was to write letters to officials he knew, such as Jiangsu Governor Fu Song, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Eqina, Yangzhou Prefect Fang Weidian, Salt Commissioner Akdang'a, Jiangning Prefect Li Yaodong, Yangzhou Salt Inspector Zheng Bowen, Grand Canal Commissioner Wu, Wen Fujiang, his grandfather-in-law Lao Ding, and the Yangzhou education and financial systems.
In short, Zhao An wrote letters to every official he knew or had dealings with.

An open letter calling on all sectors to actively mobilize resources to donate money and food to the disaster-stricken areas of Anhui.

The letters all ended with a simple, straightforward sentence: "Please, Zhao Youlu is extremely grateful!"

There's no other way; the resources of Anhui province alone are simply insufficient to save such a massive disaster. Only a united effort from all directions can bring relief.

Capital.

It was too hot, and the duty room of the Grand Council was stuffy. The cicadas outside were chirping incessantly, making the Grand Councilor on duty, Fu Chang'an, furious. He slammed his fist on the table and cursed, "Where have those bastards from the Sticky Rod Office gone?!"

The Sticky Pole Office, also known as the Shangyu Backup Office, was responsible for various miscellaneous tasks in the palace, such as carrying lanterns, assisting with carts and sedan chairs, fishing, catching birds, capturing animals, and repairing nets. Catching cicadas was also within their scope of business.

During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, the Sticky Pole Office once acted as a secret service for the former Ming Dynasty's Eastern and Western Depots, but this business was discontinued after the current emperor ascended the throne.

The Manchu and Han officers on duty were also sweating profusely. There was nothing they could do; it was just too hot that day, so much so that even the ice stored in the duty room during winter couldn't cool them down.

The old master was also finding the heat unbearable. Yesterday, he was discussing with Heshen whether to go to Chengde to escape the summer heat ahead of schedule, and asked Heshen to draft a list of accompanying princes, imperial grandsons, concubines, and ministers.

There are specific rules about who can go with the old man to escape the summer heat and who cannot.

Heshen discussed the list with his confidants in his residence, and only then was a portion of it finalized.

Heshen himself was definitely going, and Fu Chang'an also wanted to go, but Heshen made him stay in the capital to guard the Grand Council, which greatly annoyed Fu Chang'an.

As a result, his already irritable mood was further aggravated by the cicadas' chirping, which naturally angered the Grand Secretary.

It's not fair to blame the people at the Sticky Pole Office for not taking it seriously. They heard that the Emperor was planning to go to Chengde ahead of schedule, and the relevant agencies in the palace and the Imperial Household Department were busy with this matter. They forgot to send someone to the Grand Council to catch the cicadas.

The guards had no choice but to find a ladder and have a few agile clerks use nets to catch the cicadas. After working like this for half an hour, they finally managed to calm Fu Zhongtang down a little.

Another Grand Councilor on duty, Songyun, had gone to the Ministry of Works on business. At the moment, only Fuzhongtang was on duty. Seeing that there was no one around, he simply took off his shirt and began to read the memorials sent from various places.

Inside the duty room, there was a Manchu officer named Andali helping out. This man was promoted to the Grand Council by Fu Kang'an, the elder brother of Fu Chang'an, and was originally a principal officer in the Ministry of War.

Just as Andal had finished organizing several memorials that Fu Zhongtang had reviewed, another new memorial was presented from the Office of Transmission. As was customary, Andal first checked whether there were any secret or special memorials from governors-general and governors, but he found a special memorial from Zhao Youlu, the newly appointed acting provincial governor of Anhui.

Who among the secretaries of the Grand Council is not well-informed? Upon seeing that it was someone promoted by Grand Secretary Fu, Andali hurriedly pulled out the memorial and handed it to Grand Secretary Fu.

"Whose memorial is this?"

Fu Chang'an took the memorial, opened it, and immediately froze, then burst into curses: "This kid has a death wish! He has so many heads he could chop off!"

He slammed the document on the desk with a "bang," yelling, "What a damn troublemaker!"

"Your Excellency, what has happened?"

Andali was no outsider; he was a confidant of the Fu brothers. Seeing how angry Fu Zhongtang was, he boldly picked up the memorial to read it. After reading it, he was stunned and exclaimed, "Unauthorized killing of a local official is a capital offense! Your Excellency, this is a very serious matter. You cannot be confused. You should report it to the Emperor and have Zhao Youlu investigated."

"Ministry meeting?"

Fu Chang'an was furious and glared at An Dali: "Damn it, if this kid is finished, what am I going to do with my 100,000 taels of silver!"

(End of this chapter)