The rain seemed determined to fall from the afternoon straight through into the night.
Bamboo blinds hung on all four sides of the waterside pavilion in the Xie Residence in the western city of the capital. The fine rain beat against the blinds, splashing into a fine mist that cleanly separated this small world from the clamor outside.
Beneath the pavilion was running water, drawn from the hidden channel in the mansion's rear garden. It babbled loudly enough to cover the voices speaking inside.
Tea is an object that can accompany secret plots in the imperial court above, or warm casual chats in the alleys below.
Grand Secretary Xie Miheng of the Grand Secretariat was brewing tea himself.
He used Junshan Silver Needle tea, water fetched this morning from Yuquan Mountain, and three-year-old longan charcoal. The heat was controlled with extreme care.
When the water first boiled, he poured it into a purple clay teapot, lifting the pot high to pour, then using a low-pouring method to divide the tea into four celadon cups.
The entire sequence of movements flowed smoothly like floating clouds and flowing water, unhurried and calm.
Three other people sat in the waterside pavilion.
Cui Jing of the Cui clan of Chen Commandery sat on Xie Miheng's left. Although dressed as a civil official, the military aura in his bones could not be concealed.
A chessboard was set up in front of him, with black and white stones already laid out across more than half the board, but clearly no one was in the mood to play.
Zheng Yuan of the Zheng clan of Xingyang sat on the right. In his early fifties and well-maintained, he wore a mutton-fat white jade thumb ring on his thumb, which he twisted back and forth, having turned it for nearly an hour without stopping.
Lu Boyuan of the Lu clan of Fanyang sat at the very end. The oldest of them all, with white hair and beard, he wore a washed and faded blue cloth straight-gown, looking more like a rural schoolteacher.
Yet everyone knew that of the thirteen official academies in the realm, the headmasters of nine had to respectfully call him "Master."
Four people, four aristocratic families, four old vines with roots running hundreds of years deep.
They hadn't gathered today to taste tea.
Cui Jing couldn't wait any longer.
He picked up a white stone and slapped it down on the chessboard with a "smack."
"Grand Secretary Xie, you didn't invite us here today just to drink this mouthful of tea."
He leaned forward and lowered his voice: "The matter at the Fengtian Hall the day before yesterday... His Majesty has handed full authority over the allocation of funds and grain for the autumn examinations to Xu Youde."
"Gentlemen, there's something not right about this."
Lu Boyuan picked up his teacup, took a sip, set it down, and leisurely replied:
"More than just not right... For the one hundred and thirty-seven years since the founding of the Great Qian Dynasty, the funds and grain for the autumn examinations have mostly been a local matter! The Provincial Administration Commissions of each province raise and allocate the funds themselves, and the Ministry of Revenue at most takes a glance at the receipt accounts afterward."
"Now suddenly sending a capital official down to manage the money bag, what is this called?"
He stroked his beard, his tone carrying a bit of disdain: "This is called taking off your pants to fart."
Zheng Yuan was not in a hurry to speak. His jade thumb ring spun a little faster, turning a few more times before stopping, his voice neither high nor low: "I actually think this might not be taking off your pants to fart."
Cui Jing frowned: "What do you mean, Brother Zheng?"
"Who is Xu Youde?" Zheng Yuan asked in return, then answered himself, "A merchant background, in officialdom for no more than twenty years, sitting in the position of Vice Minister of Revenue for less than a year, yet the abacus on those few account books he handed over was calculated more astutely than those old foxes."
"His daughter Xu Qinghuan is running a cotton factory in Jiangning, making fifty thousand taels of profit in half a month, and he himself is in the capital solving the deficit holes for His Majesty."
He paused, sweeping a glance over the three people present.
"His Majesty sending this kind of person to manage the autumn examination funds and grain, do you think he's just going to 'manage' the money?"
The waterside pavilion fell quiet.
The rain outside grew heavier, the bamboo blinds swayed in the wind, and a few drops of cold rain drifted in, landing on the chessboard and wetting two black stones.
Xie Miheng remained silent throughout.
He added water to the purple clay teapot, put the lid on, and poured boiling water over the pot's body.
It wasn't until the second steep of tea was ready that he spoke, carrying the unique steadiness of a Grand Secretary.
"Since ancient times, matters of the imperial court, in the final analysis, are nothing more than a tug-of-war between two ropes."
He held up one finger.
"The first is imperial power versus ministerial power. Although the founding of this dynasty abolished the Prime Minister, the Grand Secretariat's drafting of edicts and the Six Ministries' management of government affairs is just a change of name; the substance is no different. The wrestling match between His Majesty and us civil officials has never ceased."
He held up a second finger.
"The second is the central government versus the local governments. The silver in the provincial treasuries, the local clerks, the quotas for provincial tributes... whoever holds these things in their hands has the final say in that territory."
"For over a hundred years, the imperial court has managed heaven and earth, but the only thing it hasn't been able to manage is this muddled account in the local areas."
Zheng Yuan's thumb ring stopped.
"Grand Secretary Xie means that His Majesty is using the excuse of the autumn examination funds and grain to shake up not the examination halls, but these rules themselves?"
Xie Miheng didn't answer directly, but looked at Lu Boyuan: "Brother Boyuan has presided over the academies of the realm for many years. In your view, where is the deepest water in this sum of funds and grain for the autumn examinations?"
Lu Boyuan set down his teacup, his thin fingers tapping the tabletop.
"Repairing the examination cells."
He spat out these words, then added: "Three thousand taels of repair silver, one thousand four hundred actually paid out, and the rest all went into private pockets."
"And that's just on the surface..."
"What about in the dark? The examiners' travel expenses, exam paper and ink, sealing and copying... which of these isn't reported with at least a thirty percent markup?"
He sneered: "But this silver, to put it bluntly, is small money."
"What's truly valuable is using the opportunity of handling the funds and grain to insert one's own people into the examination administration system."
"From purchasing to transport to invigilation, every link has one's own people arranged. When the time comes, smuggling cheat sheets, pulling strings, passing notes... the silver outside the examination hall and the quotas inside the examination hall are just two grasshoppers on the same rope."
This was spoken too plainly.
The hand with which Cui Jing held his teacup stopped in mid-air, and Zheng Yuan's thumb ring also stopped turning.
The waterside pavilion fell silent again.
Cui Jing had a military man's temper and couldn't hold his tongue. After brooding for a long while, he suddenly sneered, set his teacup down beside the chessboard, and joked with an affected tone:
"Then according to your meaning, gentlemen, His Majesty is disgusted that we use local funds and grain every year to 'buy' provincial graduate quotas for our own worthless nephews and sons, and the old man is getting jealous? He insists on holding the money bag himself, leaving us with nowhere to spend our money?"
He had meant it as a casual joke.
Once the words left his mouth, the air in the waterside pavilion suddenly changed flavor.
Xie Miheng's hand, which was adding tea to a cup, trembled.
Lu Boyuan's complexion instantly turned livid, his throat bobbing twice, unable to utter a single word.
Cui Jing watched their reactions. At first, the smile still hung on his face, but that smile was stiffening bit by bit.
"...What did I say?"
No one answered him.
Xie Miheng set the purple clay teapot down, wiped the tea stains on the back of his hand with his sleeve, then stood up, walked to the window lattice of the waterside pavilion, and reached out to push open the bamboo blind.
The rain, wrapped in the wind, poured in, soaking half of his lapel.
He just stood there, letting the rain beat against him, and it was a good long while before he turned around.
"Brother Cui's jest, I fear, has hit the nail on the head."
Cui Jing's smile completely vanished.
"Grand Secretary Xie, you might as well speak plainly."
Xie Miheng walked back to the table and leaned over.
"His Majesty isn't trying to audit the accounts at all; he wants to change the rules!"
"Change what rules?"
"Change 'local areas raising their own funds and grain for the autumn examinations,' this ancestral system that has been passed down for one hundred and thirty-seven years."
"Once the authority to allocate funds and provisions for the autumn examinations is reclaimed by the Ministry of Revenue, all the silver will be uniformly disbursed, managed, and audited by the central government."
"From how the examination cells are constructed and how the examiners are chosen, to where the paper and ink are purchased and who cooks the meals, everything will be closely supervised by personnel dispatched from the capital."
Lu Boyuan finally spoke, his voice carrying an irrepressible urgency. "In that case, the local officials and our people will never be able to intervene again."
"It goes beyond that," Xie Miheng shook his head. "Once the finances are centralized, personnel changes will inevitably follow."
"In the past, for all matters concerning the autumn examinations, the purchasing clerks, transport escorts, and invigilators were all appointed locally. Our people accounted for over seventy percent of them."
"But once the silver flows from the capital, these posts will also have to be filled by people appointed by the capital! If Xu Youde asks for men, His Majesty will give him men; if Xu Youde asks for power, His Majesty will give him power."
"..."
"If things come to this, how can letters be slipped inside? How can connections be forged? How can the young men of our clans pass the exams?"
No one answered him.
Because everyone clearly knew the answer.
They could not.
"And it does not end here."
"The autumn examinations are merely the first strike. Once the funds for the autumn exams are taken, what comes next?"
"The spring examinations? River conservancy projects? Military ordnance? The salt tax? The grain transport system?"
"By using the autumn examinations to break the stalemate, His Majesty merely picked the most concealed and easily exploitable crack."
"Once this crack is torn wide open, the subsequent blades will fall one after another! If so, I fear that what he intends to seize is not just the authority over the autumn examinations, but the very lifeblood of all local finances!"
Outside the waterside pavilion, the autumn rain suddenly intensified, pattering heavily against the tiled eaves. The bamboo blinds were sent whipping about by the wind, and cold water splashed inside, soaking the black and white pieces resting on the chessboard.
