Chapter 13 The Head Housekeeper

  Yang Ling sat in the signing room, staring blankly at the pile of case files in front of him. He really wanted to get started on work immediately, but it was like a layman facing a net full of rotten fish that was piled up as high as a person, with countless threads and no idea where to start.

  If you think about the work that County Magistrate is responsible for, you'll know it's not just sitting in the main hall, slapping the wooden board, as seen on TV. The county's finances, taxation, transportation, laws and regulations... everything needs to be decided by the County Magistrate. Originally, apart from the County Lieutenant and the Chief Clerk, there were also a bunch of judicial clerks, financial clerks, and record-keeping clerks. Now, this half-baked County Magistrate, Min County Commander, has handed over all these tasks to Yang Ling in one go. Even an experienced Shaoxing clerk would be busy and flustered for the time being.

  The signing house is a three-room flat house connected like a string of sugar gourds, usually the county master's teacher, staff members are here to review documents, handle government affairs. In front of the signing house is the seventh-grade hall where the county master asks for cases and decides on matters, and behind it is the residence of the county master's family.

  Since helping the Ma family solve the case of manslaughter, Magistrate Min has been very appreciative of him and immediately invited him to serve as a teacher at his mansion. Yang Ling was worried that he had nothing to do and was being supported by a young girl, which was also shameful, so he gladly agreed.

  However, due to Han Youniang's resentful gaze, he had no choice but to explain to County Magistrate Min that being a teacher was only a temporary measure. He would still have to go to the provincial city to take the imperial examination next year. County Magistrate Min agreed readily.

  He actually knew that his life was not long, and he usually asked people to know that even if he passed the imperial examination at that time, the best result would be to stay in the capital as a Hanlin compiler, and it would be remarkable to be appointed as a county magistrate immediately. There were no high-ranking officials to take on, and now it was just out of love for Han Youniang and a sense of responsibility as a man, wanting to leave her with some family property, not wanting to participate in the imperial examination at all, but couldn't resist the woman's gentle feelings. Han Youniang was young, but a pair of melancholy eyes were enough to make him change his mind, at least on the surface.

  The county magistrate of Min was a former soldier, and the trusted followers he brought with him were also soldiers. They were really clueless about governing this county. The original county magistrate Huang was neither hot nor cold towards him, and every day he was like a wooden or clay statue. If it weren't for the time when the monthly salary was issued, you could see him carrying an empty bag to collect rice and money, otherwise, you couldn't even catch a glimpse of this person's shadow.

  Luckily, the people of Min County are simple and honest, so there haven't been any major incidents in over two years. However, with the three-year appraisal period approaching, the imperial court will be evaluating officials' performance, and even Magistrate Min, who is not very discerning, cannot avoid making some calculations for himself.

  The imperial court's grand examination, where does good governance come from? In fact, it's not more than two things: one is to govern the people with clarity and fairness, and the other is to collect taxes on time. As for governing the people with clarity and fairness, as long as there are no peasant uprisings, merchants closing their shops, scholars protesting, or major cases, then you can report a scene of peace and prosperity where roads are clean and doors are not closed at night.

  There were two teams of officials and soldiers stationed in the village, plus the clerks from the county government office, making it even more strictly managed than a normal third-class county. Nothing major had happened in the past two years. However, when it came to collecting taxes on time, things were different. As this was a place where many merchants gathered, the commercial tax was collected relatively promptly. But for the residents nearby, who mostly lived in mountainous areas and were scattered about, making them difficult to manage, coupled with the fact that their land was poor and they were frequently harassed by bandits, the collection of grain taxes was far from ideal, becoming a weak point for the county magistrate during inspections.

  County Magistrate Min was a mediocre official, and it wasn't until he went to the prefectural city a few days ago that he learned from his superiors about the complexities of evaluating civil officials. He had been worried about how to show off his own achievements, when suddenly Yang Xianggong appeared out of nowhere, entrusting him with important tasks and hoping he could help him achieve some decent results.

  But the way the government operates in this era is really beyond Yang Ling's understanding. Although Yang Ling was a department head of an insurance company in his previous life, the management structure and system at that time were such that even without him, the entire organization would not be greatly affected. Now it's different, almost everything big or small requires him to make decisions, Yang Ling is at his wit's end, and can't even handle daily documents properly, let alone achieve anything.

  He straightened his back, clenching his fists and frowning as he stared at the stack of documents. With the New Year approaching, the delivery office had a batch of special products from the Western Regions to be transported to the capital, but there were not enough large carts and mules for use, so they requested that the county government provide a solution.

  Received a letter from the Ministry of War, recently there will be a large-scale military mobilization, and it is necessary to pass through Jimingyi at night. This night, the city gate will be opened, and the officer and soldier will be arranged to guard the city gate, strictly preventing anyone from taking advantage of the chaos to enter the city at night, and also need to make good arrangements.

  As the year-end is approaching and the curfew has been lifted, he, as a criminal name master, naturally also needs to arrange for him to handle matters related to public security and capturing thieves.

  The beacon tower's smoke signal and fire signal are related to the need for replacement materials. The ox in the Dou family's suburban farm has gone missing. The big fat pig raised by the Liu family in Xikou for three years was stolen. Several local rascals in Lijiacun teased a young widow. A child from the Hao family in Beicheng played with firecrackers and set fire to He's family's haystack, and He's family went to the Hao's house to reason and beat up Hao's daughter-in-law. The Hao family accused He's family of coming to their door to commit violence and injure people, while He's family accused the Hao family of starting a big fire...

  What's even more serious is that there are too many rural households that have defaulted on their taxes, some for only one or two years, while others have been in arrears for as long as ten years. It's a real mess.

  At first, Yang Ling was still slapping the table and wanted Wang Ban to take people to catch Hong Man Cang, who owed the most and had been delayed for a long time, thinking of killing one hundred, but after hearing that the previous county magistrate had used this method before, as a result, Hong Man Cang's wife hanged herself, and Hong Man Cang became half-crazy. After some scholars knew about it, they were indignant and reported to the Ministry of Revenue, and the county officials were dismissed from office, so they had to give up.

  It was still the chief accountant Wang Yangzheng who saw that this young colleague was kind and gentle, and did things seriously, so he secretly told him that Huang Xiancheng had been in the county for the longest time, and he had already served two county magistrates. This old county magistrate was a very resourceful person, and could be considered an old oil slick in the official circle, so it wouldn't hurt to ask for his help.

  Yang Ling heard this and gritted his teeth, bought ten catties of fatty pork and a pack of good tea to visit and ask for guidance. Who would have thought that Huang Xianchang was only teaching his young grandson to practice calligraphy, and when he heard Yang Ling's intention, he just smiled faintly and kept talking nonsense, refusing to help him out. However, the pork and tea were accepted with a smile, leaving Yang Ling crying with laughter.

  "Alas!" At the thought of this, Yang Ling let out a deep sigh, feeling a bit heartbroken about the 24 cents he spent. His little sister at home would occasionally buy some meat, but it would all end up in his bowl, and he wouldn't even dare to eat a bite. If only he had known, he might as well have taken the meat back home to let that poor but lovely little girl have a taste.

  He picked up his pen and wrote the estimated results on the official document to be submitted to the Ministry of Revenue for next year's financial report: "There are 79 officials, clerks and runners in total at Jimingyi Post House, 158 post soldiers, 260 city guards, 45 long-term workers, 82 post horses, with an annual expenditure of 7647 taels of silver for their salaries, and 52 piculs of horse fodder. In addition: the western city gate watchtower has cracks, which need to be repaired, requiring 116 taels of silver."

  He picked up the official document, blew off the ink marks on it, and carefully placed it on a stack of processed documents. The door curtain was lifted, and a man in a green robe walked in. Several other small officials responsible for copying and organizing documents stood up and said, "Magistrate Min".

  Yang Ling looked up and quickly stood up to pay his respects. The man was none other than the County Magistrate of Min, who was wearing ordinary clothes. He casually waved his hand and shouted loudly: "Alright, alright, we often see each other under the sky, what's the point of exchanging formalities? It's getting late, let's all disperse today."

  Those little officials busily started packing up their things, and Magistrate Min walked in front of Yang Ling, seeing that he had already handled nearly half of the documents. He couldn't help but raise his thumb in praise: "Mr. is very skilled! Our county would get a headache just by looking at these things, I didn't expect you to handle half of them so quickly, haha..."

  Yang Ling couldn't help but smile wryly. He had indeed handled things quickly, but most of them were just routine matters that could be easily taken care of. The truly thorny issues would take much longer to resolve, not to mention those who had been evading taxes for years and fell into different categories - some were maliciously dodging payment, while others were genuinely impoverished. These statistical surveys would have to be done over a long period of time.

  It's just that for those cases where one family lost a cow and another had a pig stolen, when it comes to handling each case, you can't send just anyone, and even if the investigation is quick, it'll still take three to five days. These scattered things aren't major, but every single one requires people and time, and no matter how quickly you want to handle them, they can't be rushed.

  Those officials who used to appear on TV, making a big show of going undercover and investigating cases until the truth was revealed, were just talking nonsense. With so many things to do in one day, how could they possibly have the time to personally go out and investigate every case?

  However, he naturally didn't dare to tell the county magistrate about these things, and could only repeatedly say: "Where, where, sir is overpraising."

  Look at those little officials all gone, County Magistrate Min smiled and patted his shoulder: "I'm a rough man, don't need to follow the bookish way with me, no need to be so formal when not in court. Right, hurry up and come with me, Marshal Ma has invited us to drink and watch plays at Hongyan Building to thank you."

  Yang Ling heard this and hesitated, saying: "Ah? This... Sir, would you mind going ahead first, I need to go home and tell my wife a word, so she won't be worried at home."

  The county magistrate burst out laughing, rubbed his beard on his shoulder and punched it hard, scolding with a smile: "Where did so much nonsense come from? Men, when they want to go home, naturally go home, when they don't want to go back, women just stay at home properly, what's the point of telling her? Go, go, go, young people have contracted a disease of being afraid of their wives."

  The county magistrate of Min didn't let him have a say, pulled him out the door and left. Yang Ling had no choice but to follow him. The county magistrate of Min changed into casual clothes and didn't even sit in an official sedan chair. Moreover, this Ji Ming Yi city wasn't big, only four miles between the south and north city gates. Hongyan Building was right next to Jin Guang Temple, and the county government office was just across the street, so he couldn't be bothered to take a sedan chair.

  Two people walked to the Hongyuelou, Ma Ji and Ma Ang, Ma Lian'er were already waiting in the elegant room on the first floor. This was originally a theater, it was said that the elegant room was just a good location in the middle of the screen separated by some independent space.

  To Yang Ling's surprise, Huang Xian was also there. After exchanging pleasantries, Ma Ang, who had been locked up in the large prison for over ten days, had subdued his violent temper somewhat. Seeing Yang Ling, his lifesaver, he looked very affectionate and stepped forward to grasp his arm, thanking him profusely.

  Yang Ling and Ma Ang were both young, but one was refined and elegant, while the other was robust and majestic, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. They surprisingly got along quite well, which was a rare occurrence. Today, Ma Lian'er had only lightly applied makeup, her beautiful face looking lovely as she gazed at Yang Ling with an air of subtle restraint.

  Yang Ling was extraordinary in appearance, and at the first meeting, Ma Lian'er had a few points of fondness for him in her heart. However, she soon knew that he was already married, so to him, Ma Lian'er regarded him as a benefactor and a likable friend of the opposite sex.

  My status is only slightly higher than that of a slave, let alone his being just a scholar. Even if he were the governor of a province, Ma Lian'er, as the daughter of a low-ranking official, would never have had the possibility of becoming his concubine, so our love was nipped in the bud.