Chapter 12: The Account Book Warm Room was in Silence
"Yes, yes! Lord Shen is diligent, and I admire him!"
Zhou Maonian nodded repeatedly and handed the wine jug to the legal advisor standing behind him. He took a heavy sandalwood box from the official and opened it carefully. Inside were several neatly arranged large volumes of files with yellow edges on river engineering and relief.
"Master Shen, please take a look. This is the work register, material account, and labor roster for the last major repairs to the dike before it burst last year. This is a detailed list of all expenses incurred after the breach, including repairs to the dike and repairs to the breach. All are stamped with the seals of the Director of the Ministry of Works and the Imperial Censor of the River. This is also a list of the rice, silver, and winter clothing distributed as relief last year and this spring, along with the village head's signature and the fingerprints of the victims..."
He took out each item, speaking clearly and logically. Behind him, two officials, also wearing seventh-rank official uniforms, immediately stepped forward, one took the work book, and the other held up the relief book, preparing to present them to Shen Zhiwei and others for closer inspection.
Xie Mingxu poured himself a half-full glass of wine and sipped it, glancing sideways at the pile with a sneer. "Wow, so many? Is Magistrate Zhou planning to pile up the account books like a city wall and bury the three of us in this warm room for half a month?"
"Your Excellency is joking," Zhou Maonian nodded and bowed as he poured him more wine, forcing a smile. "These are all actual accounts. They are more detailed so that it will be easier for you to check."
Shen Zhiwei glanced at the pile of account books and couldn't help but sneered.
She lowered her eyes and quickly glanced at the seemingly neatly arranged pages, and after reading each one, she piled it aside.
Not long after, his fingertips tapped on the labor and material account book spread out in front of him, and landed on one of the records.
"In the 12th year of the Yong'an reign, on the 10th month of the year Bingwu, eight thousand riverside timber piles were purchased at a price of three taels of silver each, totaling twenty-four thousand taels of silver. Supplier: Guangyuan Wood Company."
Zhou Maonian stretched his neck to look closer, bending even lower, his smile still on his face: "Yes, yes. Lord Shen has a keen eye."
"Prefect Zhou is knowledgeable and intelligent." Shen Zhiwei raised his eyes with a faint smile on his lips, and there was no warmth in his eyes.
"As you're probably aware, according to our dynasty's established regulations, any large-scale purchases of stone, wood, and plants needed for major river works must be reported to the Ministry of Works for approval in advance. Once the Ministry of Works approves it, the Ministry of Revenue, with a written approval order, will transfer funds to the Grain Transport Supervisor's Office or the local treasury. The local government then withdraws the funds from the treasury with receipts to make the purchases. The signatures and seals of the Supervisory Censor and the local Inspector General are also required to confirm the purchases. This ensures a clear sequence of procurement, disbursement, verification, and inspection to prevent corruption."
She paused, and her slender pale fingers fell on the yellow paper again.
"This purchase was made in August before the dam burst. Time was tight and materials were needed urgently, so it's understandable. But why doesn't Guangyuan Wood's behavior show its name?" Her tone suddenly turned cold, and she raised her hand and slammed the table.
"The Ministry of Revenue's Canal Transport Department has archives available, and Guangyuan Wood Shop wasn't even listed for any major timber purchases. The few major merchants listed at the time all sourced their timber from Fujian, Jiangxi, and Hubei, far away. It was impossible for them to gather 8,000 suitable pieces of wood in such a short time! Where did these 8,000 riverside timber piles come from? And how did they bypass all the necessary procedures and acquire them from this account right before the dam burst?"
Zhou Maonian opened his mouth, but his throat was dry and he was speechless for a moment. Before Shen Zhiwei finished speaking, the warm room was dead silent, with only the subtle crackling of the charcoal fire.
"Sir... Lord Shen, this..." The sweat on Zhou Maonian's face was completely out of control and dripped down. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve.
"Perhaps...perhaps it was a clerical error in the accounting records? Or perhaps...the disaster was urgent at the time, and although Guangyuan Wood Shop wasn't listed, it happened to be locally...temporarily...temporarily mobilized its inventory?"
His voice grew weaker, its tail trembling. The two officials standing behind him, holding the relief ledger, looked even more gloomy, their calves trembling.
"Clerical error?" Shen Zhiwei repeated softly, slowly moving the ink across the account book. "Eight thousand sticks, twenty-four thousand taels. Prefect Zhou thought the handwriting was neat and clear, with even pressure. Did it look like a typo?"
She leaned forward slightly, the soft hem of her dress brushing against the table with a slight sound. She met Zhou Maonian's evasive eyes and said, "As for local mobilization... Before arriving, I checked all the material warehouse inflows and outflows in Huai'an Prefecture over the past five years."
"Guangyuan Wood Shop is a little-known company. Its shop isn't even located in Huai'an, the important canal port city, but in the small town of Hexia, dozens of miles away. With such a cramped space, how could it possibly have stocked 8,000 large logs that would take at least ten years to mature?"
"Not to mention the name Guangyuan, which only suddenly appeared in the Huai'an Prefecture pawnshop register after October of the 19th year of the Xuanhe reign! Did it just appear out of thin air, or was it fabricated specifically for this silver?"
Zhou Maonian moved his lips, trying to explain himself, but only a strange gurgling sound came out of his throat, and his face turned from pale to blue-gray.
Xie Mingxu, standing beside him, had already finished his cup of warm rice wine. He slammed the cup down on the redwood table with a thud. He leaned back in his chair, his smile gone.
"Merchants' purchases must be eligible for storage. This is clearly written down in the Ministry of Works regulations, Lord Zhou. What are you talking about with typos and urgent disasters? Don't you think you can just get away with some piles of account books and papers? Or do you really think this copper furnace in the Huai'an government office is brighter than the candles lit by the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace?"
His last sentence suddenly rose in tone. He picked up the account book on the table and threw it at Zhou Maonian's face. The edge hit his forehead and blood immediately appeared.
In the warm room, several officials from Jiangnan Province knelt down.
"Your humble servant dares not!" Zhou Maonian fell to the ground, his voice shrill, "Your humble servant... Your humble servant will conduct a thorough investigation! I will give His Highness and the others an explanation!"
"Instructions?" Shen Zhiwei slowly closed the materials and labor account book, "No need."
She raised her eyes, scanning the frightened faces of the officials present, and finally fixed her eyes on Zhou Maonian's fat face soaked with cold sweat.
"Where are the personnel from the Ministry of Works? Where are the personnel from the Ministry of Revenue's Office of Clearing Personnel? Where are the supervising officials from the Grain and Grain Administration Office? All the foremen of the craftsmen and laborers who participated in the emergency repair project in the 12th year of the Yong'an era, summon them to the government office lobby immediately!"
"During the interrogation, I would like to trouble Prefect Zhou and the others in the government office... to sit in this warm room for the time being. I apologize for the inconvenience."
She clapped her hands twice and the door was pushed open silently.
More than ten strong guards dressed in the uniforms of the Eastern Palace Guards and with long swords on their waists entered one after another and stood silently and quickly at the four corners of the pavilion.
About half an hour later, dense and chaotic footsteps were heard in the corridor, accompanied by hurried breathing and suppressed moans.
The guards pushed open the door, and several men in various attire were pushed into the warm room. The leader, a man about fifty years old, wearing a washed-out short coat, was none other than Li Baotou, a construction engineer assigned to Huai'an by the Ministry of Works.
Behind him came several men dressed similarly as craftsmen, a middle-aged man in a silk shirt, and a man drenched in sweat. Further behind him were several trembling, small-time river servants, their boots stained with mud.
This group of people were suddenly brought here to face a group of high-ranking officials. They were so panicked that they didn't know what to do. They fell to their knees on the ground, not daring to breathe.
Shen Zhiwei tiredly lifted his eyelids and looked at Li Baotou who was kneeling on the ground: "Master Li?"
Li Ba's head shuddered and drooped even lower: "It's...it's the villain..."
"In August of the 12th year of the Yong'an reign, the Ministry of Works stipulated that the riverside timber piles provided by Guangyuan Wood Company must be hardwood, over ten years old, twelve feet long, with a pointed base, and soaked in tung oil three or more times to prevent termites. You personally inspected the piles, and how many were there? Do they meet the standards?"
Li Bao's head was covered in cold sweat, and his body was shaking like a sieve. "Reply... reply to your Excellency... I... I did inspect 8,000 wooden stakes... the shape... the shape is... exactly as you said..."
His voice became smaller and smaller, and his confidence was obviously lacking.
"Oh? Really?" Shen Zhi smiled and raised his eyebrows.
"Guangyuan Wood Company was only established and registered in October, with no prior operating history. How could it produce eight thousand suitable ten-year-old logs within a month? You saw with your own eyes, was this wood truly freshly felled and transported from the river, or... was it diverted elsewhere to make up the stock? Are the wood grain and growth rings discernible? When oiling, how deeply did the oil penetrate?"
"Sir... I... I followed the instructions from above and counted the number of piles... their shapes... As for the source of the wood... I... I really don't know..."
He almost knocked his head to the ground and looked desperately at the official from the Ministry of Works behind Zhou Maonian, but only received an evasive look from him.
"Ridiculous." Xie Mingxu slammed his wine glass down on the table, shattering it and splattering the wine. He pointed at Li Baotou and spoke harshly.
"You're a veteran in the Ministry of Works, but you can't tell the quality of the wood or whether the tung oil has been thoroughly soaked in? You're kidding! Come on! Drag him out and beat him until he tells the truth!"
“…No…No no no…” Li Baotou was so frightened when he heard the approaching footsteps of the guards that he fell to the ground, his body shaking like a sieve and tears streaming down his face.
"I...I saw it! That wood...some of it was pieced together! It's not...not ten-year-old wood at all! That shopkeeper surnamed Wu from Guangyuan...he stuffed three hundred taels of silver into my pocket...I...I'm so stupid, sir!"
Xiao Wangqing, who had been sitting silently in his wheelchair, suddenly raised his hand and dropped the teacup beside him. Porcelain shards flew, and the warm tea splashed in the face of the nearest official from the Ministry of Works.
The official shuddered and crawled forward a few steps on his knees. He didn't even bother to wipe his face and kowtowed repeatedly to Xiao Wangqing and Shen Zhiwei.
"Your Highness, please forgive me! Lord Shen is very perceptive! This…this timber purchase was…managed by Treasurer Li…and we, although we stamped our seals on the work register,…we were truly unaware of the truth! It was just customary…customary formalities…it's all…all Zhou Maonian's fault for his greed! His audacity!"
"The river workers were corrupt, made false reports and embezzled money, and passed off inferior goods as good ones, which led to the collapse of the dike and the loss of homes, with countless casualties among the people." The crying gave Shen Zhiwei a headache. She supported her forehead with her hand and glanced at the officials of all ranks who were kneeling on the ground.
"Money won't just disappear for nothing. It will always leave traces. Who set up the scheme? Who handled it? Who gave the nod? Who divided the spoils..." She pulled the corners of her lips into a smile that sent chills down the spines of the kneeling men. "No one can escape."
The author has something to say:
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Shen Zhiwei loves sweets and when he was still not able to vomit blood everywhere, he would often climb over the wall into the small kitchen to take some food that was forbidden by Doctor Xu.
Under the euphemism of "do it yourself, have enough food and clothing"
He Shiqi is often scolded by Jingshu as a nest of snakes and rats.
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