Sacrifice

Meanwhile, the lizheng caught up with Housekeeper Wang, who had walked on ahead, and said indignantly, "In previous years, Mistress Zhou was always the easiest to deal with. Who knew that Ergou would be so oblivious to reason this year? I'll make sure to teach him a proper lesson and force him to make up those back taxes." Every lizheng in Wang Family Village had long since been bought and brought under the Wang family's control. Before any lizheng reported a household's land and population to the county, it had to receive the Wang family's nod of approval. As for ordinary commoners? They couldn't read a single word; naturally, the documents reporting landholdings and household registrations were filled out by the lizheng on their behalf. Housekeeper Wang listened to the lizheng, let out a soft snort, and asked indifferently, "What do you plan to do?" The lizheng offered a faint smile. "If the taxes can't be collected, all ten households in their jia will be held mutually liable. Even if I don't lift a finger, his neighbors won't let him off easy. And if he still refuses to yield, I'll have Zhang Da and the others pay him a visit and beat him until he falls in line..." Beat him until he falls in line... It was such a simple solution, yet Housekeeper Wang merely nodded upon hearing it, offering no objection whatsoever. This was the reality in many villages across the Great Han Dynasty. When local gentry wished to deal with poor households, they didn't need to overthink things; beating them into submission was enough. When the disparity between the two sides was overwhelming in economic power, political influence, and physical force, and when the imperial court's administrative reach fell short, everything was just that simple and brutal. They didn't even need to collude with the six-section clerks at the county yamen to hatch any clever schemes. Even if ordinary commoners wanted to travel to the county seat to lodge a complaint, it would be deemed skipping jurisdictional tiers. The county magistrate would dismiss it out of hand, sending it back down to the local lilao for mediation. Only when a lilao verified that mediation was impossible could the matter be appealed to the county yamen... and that lilao had naturally long been a puppet of the village gentry. Gentry landlords, village headmen, local elders, clerks, and even appointed officials—the imperial court's layers of administrative checks had long since coalesced into tight-knit interest groups. Faced with this inescapable web, ordinary commoners found their cries answered by neither heaven nor earth. Aside from meekly submitting or fleeing to become vagrants, their only remaining option was to hang themselves. The lizheng reached into his sleeve, pulled out a few pieces of broken silver, and pressed them into Housekeeper Wang's chest. Housekeeper Wang glanced down and weighed the pieces in his hand. The silver felt like roughly half a liang, though its surface bore a yellowish tint—it was certainly adulterated with copper, probably worth only two or three qian. Still, Housekeeper Wang earned only twenty to thirty liang of silver a year, so to him, this was already a tidy little sum. He pocketed the silver without a word and asked aloud, "What else is on your mind?" The lizheng said fawningly, "I hear that you have a say with folks at the county yamen, Housekeeper. Could you arrange a post for me there this year?" Seeing Housekeeper Wang's brow furrow, he immediately added, "A runner in the zaoban squad would do just fine. Once it's settled, I'll be sure to thank you handsomely." "The zaoban squad?" Housekeeper Wang chuckled. Although serving in the county yamen's zaoban squad was classified as corvée labor, they handled receiving and ushering guests in the yamen. As long as one passed messages outside, smuggled items inside, pulled strings and solicited bribes between plaintiffs and defendants during lawsuits, or controlled how hard the wooden paddles struck during floggings... One could say that for anyone who knew how to work the angles, there was easily a liang of silver in kickbacks to be made each month. It was far easier than farming and collecting grain in Wang Family Village, and it allowed one to build connections inside the county yamen. "You're quite sharp, aren't you?" Housekeeper Wang said. "Still, a great many eyes are on that post. I can't give you any guarantees." The lizheng said hastily, "I understand, of course. Even if it doesn't pan out, I would never dare blame you, Housekeeper..." *** Elsewhere, Chu Qiguang savored the ease spreading through him, yet shook his head. Knowing he had no cure for this psychological ailment, he turned his thoughts back to his current predicament. As he pondered, he noticed that now that his craving had passed, his mind felt considerably clearer. Ideas arrived in rapid succession, allowing him to analyze the situation at far greater speed. It was as though feeding his addiction had actually made his brain sharper. Preoccupied with pressing concerns, Chu Qiguang assumed it was merely a psychological illusion and paid it no mind. *I only drove them off temporarily today. Retaliation will likely come swift and hard.* *Most matters in the countryside are handled privately between the villagers and the local gentry. Everything from small troubles like dealing with bandits—where a dozen neighboring villages form volunteer militias to track them down—to large public projects like building bridges and founding schools, which the gentry fund through joint donations.* Chu Qiguang lamented inwardly, *The rural gentry clans, alongside the county's Daoist temples and retired officials, are the true rulers of Qingyang County. An ordinary magistrate would never dare recklessly pursue past tax arrears like this; there must be more to this affair than meets the eye.* *And the Wang family still dares use this opportunity to swallow up land. Do they have someone backing them, or have they grown so blinded by greed that they've lost their minds?* Before causing a scene earlier, Chu Qiguang had already seen through the entire situation in Wang Family Village as clearly as a blazing fire. He had studied history on Earth and seen far too many of these feudal dynasty schemes. For instance, the Wang family's tactic of shifting their grain taxes onto households like Ergou's was formally known as "tax scattering." *And the land we sold to the Wang family in past years is probably still registered under our household. The seller continues to shoulder the taxes on the old land, while the wealthy household keeps the newly acquired plots off their rolls—the so-called 'transfer without register'...* To Chu Qiguang, reading the tricks played by these local despots was like looking at the lines on his own palm; he could predict seven or eight out of ten moves at their disposal. *The Wang family's methods are far too crude. If it were up to me, I could think of at least a dozen ways to forge Wang Family Village into an iron fortress so tight that even the magistrate couldn't easily lay a hand on it.* Chu Qiguang thought to himself that if only he had transmigrated into a landlord's shoes, he wouldn't be in such dire straits. Now, starting on the side of the destitute commoners, the opposing side held an overwhelming advantage, making any counterattack far more difficult. Though Chu Qiguang had conceived several strategies in his head, he had not yet settled on one for certain reasons. *Should I go look for that orange cat tonight?* Nearby, Ergou's younger sister watched Ergou's look of utter relief and asked curiously, "Brother, did you poop your pants?" The corner of Chu Qiguang's mouth twitched. "Yeah, and I'm looking for something to wipe my backside with." With that, he reached out toward her. Terror seized Ergou's sister. Clutching her head, she bolted outside, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Mother! Brother pooped his pants! And he wants to use me to wipe his butt!" Chu Qiguang snapped furiously, "Shut your mouth!" He knew that if his little sister went around screeching this through the village, it would be a village-level social death; he would never be able to show his face in Wang Family Village again. He lunged forward, caught her, and snarled fiercely, "Yell again and you get no food!" Hearing that she wouldn't get to eat, his sister clamped her hands over her mouth and muffled, "I don't know anything!" Then, timidly tugging at Chu Qiguang's tattered clothes, she pleaded pitifully, "Brother, I won't tell anyone you pooped your pants. Just don't wipe your butt with me, okay?" Chu Qiguang rolled his eyes in exasperation and grudgingly explained, "I didn't poop, damn it! I held it back!" Only after his sister had quieted down did Chu Qiguang sit on the low stool in the courtyard and resume analyzing their current situation. *There are plenty of ways to deal with the Wang family, but none can be too far ahead of its time.* Chu Qiguang had entertained several ideas of using his knowledge from Earth to improve their standard of living, but the shrieks echoing in Ergou's memories instantly suppressed those thoughts, keeping him from making any reckless moves. *The Daoist temples...* Chu Qiguang recalled the scenes from Ergou's memories—the villagers bowing, revering the gods, and performing sacrifices, followed by the silhouettes of living people being hurled into the river to drown.