Chapter 1337: We Are the Eastern Depot!

There's a saying in officialdom: an official one rank higher can crush a man to death!

The identity Zhu Cilang had arranged for Crown Prince Zhu Hexing was that of a concurrent county magistrate of the principal eighth rank. The only posts smaller than that were the vice county magistrate of the secondary eighth rank, the six county lieutenants of the principal ninth rank (Zhu Cilang had expanded the county-level official corps, establishing the six county lieutenants of Personnel, Education, Households, Justice, Works, and Military), and the township and town heads of the secondary ninth rank.

And although Ma Wanchun's post was only a little higher than Zhu Hexing's, his official grade was far higher — he was a county magistrate of the secondary sixth rank. In the Ming dynasty, county magistrates also came in different sizes: a magistrate of an upper county was usually of the secondary sixth rank, a middle county's magistrate was usually of the principal seventh rank, and a lower county's magistrate was usually of the secondary seventh rank. Shizhu was a lower county, but because Ma Wanchun had served many years as county magistrate in Zunyi Prefecture, his grade was much higher than an ordinary lower-county magistrate — he was a county magistrate of the secondary sixth rank.

The secondary sixth rank was a full three grades above the principal eighth rank!

By all reason, a petty official of the principal eighth rank meeting a great official of the secondary sixth rank ought to dismount and salute with all due respect!

So Ma Wanchun stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, waiting for Zhu Hexing to salute.

And Zhu Hexing, for his part, sat grandly on horseback, also waiting for Ma Wanchun to pay his respects — he was the Crown Prince! When he had met Wang Zhou, the Military Commissioner of Dongchuan, in Yong'an County, even that lofty Marquis of Overcoming Adversity had still performed the bow with clasped hands and respectfully wished the Crown Prince ten thousand blessings and golden peace.

And so the scene fell into awkward silence!

Zhu Hexing and Ma Wanchun both froze there, staring at each other.

Xia Wanchun was so embarrassed that he could only signal with his eyes to the Crown Princess, Ding Yuying — think of something, quick!

Ding Yuying, supported by a stout palace maid, did dismount from her horse — it truly was not easy for her, two months pregnant and still having to ride hard alongside Crown Prince Zhu! Fortunately, she had trained before, and had roamed the slopes of Tiger Fang Mountain since childhood, so her constitution was excellent; otherwise she surely would have miscarried!

Once off her horse, Ding Yuying strode straight up to Ma Wanchun. Just as Ma Wanchun was wondering what she was about, Ding Yuying produced a token she had prepared long before and handed it to him.

Ma Wanchun took the token and glanced at it, and a look of terror rose on his face.

Because on the front of the token were nine large characters — Eastern Investigation Depot, Yin Section, Shift Leader, Zhu.

So this Vice Magistrate Zhu was from the Eastern Depot!

Now Ma Wanchun finally understood why this boy vice magistrate was so full of swagger — it turned out he was no true eighth-rank vice magistrate, but a shift leader dispatched by the Eastern Depot. To Ma Wanchun, an Eastern Depot shift leader was no small figure! Beneath the Eastern Depot's Superintendent were one punishment-administering chiliarch and one case-hearing centurion, and below them were the twelve sections named Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, and so on. The head of a section was called a section chief, and the deputy of a section was a shift leader.

Still, a boy shift leader from the Eastern Depot did seem a little strange. The boy's upper lip was downy with fuzz, so he was clearly no eunuch. To become a shift leader at such a young age — what sort of background did he have?

And the person accompanying this shift leader was a girl who, though dressed in men's clothing, Ma Wanchun had spotted her sex at a single glance.

"May I ask this young lady's surname?" Ma Wanchun asked Ding Yuying in a low voice.

"No need for courtesy — my surname is Pan!" Ding Yuying said.

"Pan?" Ma Wanchun thought to himself: the Eastern Depot Superintendent's surname is also Pan! What is your connection?

At that thought, he hurriedly asked: "Might I ask whether the young lady and Superintendent Pan..."

Ding Yuying smiled. "Magistrate Ma, what should not be asked, you had best not ask!"

Her relationship with Eunuch Pan was of course not something to be spoken of casually — saying it would frighten Ma Wanchun. Ding Yuying had asked Pan Shuchen for this token precisely to intimidate officials like Ma Wanchun, not to let them ask questions left and right.

"Oh, I won't ask, I won't ask..."

Ding Yuying added: "This is no place for talk. Let us enter the city first, shall we? Also, the five hundred men Vice Magistrate Zhu has brought are all guards of the Son of Heaven and must be properly quartered. Is there room inside Shizhu city?"

"There is room, there is room. Although the roving bandits set fires inside Shizhu city, it happened to be raining when our troops arrived, so the burning was not severe."

Ma Wanchun explained this, and then, no longer standing on official ceremony, hastily invited Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying into Shizhu city — they were Superintendent Pan's people, most likely on imperial orders, and before an official one rank higher, one must yield!

The area inside Shizhu fortress was not small, and there were many buildings — this had once been Qin Liangyu's great base of operations. The Shun dynasty had also established here a garrison command, a prefectural office, and a brigade headquarters (equivalent to a battalion), settling more than a thousand garrison-soldier households, with several thousand people living there.

Now the garrison-soldier households had all fled, and the great empty Shizhu fortress was left vacant — more than enough to quarter the one thousand Western Sichuan troops Ma Wanchun had brought and the five hundred guardsmen Zhu Hexing had brought.

Zhu Hexing and Ding Yuying were lodged in the brigade headquarters compound that had belonged to the Shun army. After settling in a little, the two of them, accompanied by Xia Wanchun, went to see Ma Wanchun.

Ma Wanchun had already had a banquet prepared to welcome Xia Wanchun, Zhu Hexing, and Ding Yuying. Before they took their seats, Ma Wanchun also, as was customary, inspected Zhu Hexing's commission and the appointment document jointly issued by the Dongchuan Military Commissioner's office — Dongchuan was a military-governed circuit, with greater authority over personnel than a province; it could appoint county magistrates and prefects on its own, reporting to the court afterward. If the court disapproved of an appointment, it could issue an edict rejecting it, but such things rarely happened.

A civil official's commission, however, could only be issued by the Ministry of Personnel at court; the Dongchuan military circuit had only the power to recommend, not to appoint.

After examining the commission and the appointment document, Ma Wanchun was at last completely reassured — the commission and document were all genuine; this Zhu Yun could not be an impostor.

"Vice Magistrate Zhu," Ma Wanchun did not use Zhu Yun's courtesy name (Yunzhi), but rather the more distant form of surname plus office, "you must have come to this little place of Shizhu on some royal command. If it is convenient, speak plainly to this humble official, and we shall see it done quickly, so that you may soon be promoted."

Ma Wanchun wanted to send these two Eastern Depot agents on their way as soon as possible — whatever they had come for, it was enough to make a man's heart pound with dread!

Zhu Hexing, hearing this, nodded in agreement — he did not want to stay here long either. What was good about a backwater country place?

But before he could speak, Ding Yuying spoke first: "Magistrate Ma, I and Vice Magistrate Zhu have come to observe how you pacify Shizhu county. If there is any way we can help, we would be glad to lend our efforts."

Come to observe on behalf of the Eastern Depot? Ma Wanchun's scalp went numb!

Unlike officials in the directly administered provinces, who feared the censors, this county magistrate of warlord background did not fear censors investigating his corruption — but he did fear the two halls of the King of Hell, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot!

Seeing Ma Wanchun's face turn grim, Ding Yuying spoke gently again: "Superintendent Pan also said that I and Vice Magistrate Zhu should take a good look at how Magistrate Ma conducts the examinations here in Shizhu to select officials, drawing all the local troublemakers into the service of the court."

So it was to supervise the selection of officials in Shizhu! Ma Wanchun thought: perhaps it was to supervise the examinations in all the prefectures and counties of Dongchuan?

This matter did indeed need watching — the local officials of Dongchuan must not be allowed to exploit the chaos for private gain, recruiting all their own people into the yamen.

Ma Wanchun smiled. "The matter of the Shizhu examinations is already in preparation; the formal examination can be held next month. But this humble official is a military man and does not understand this civil examination business." He glanced at Zhu Yun, who had said almost nothing the whole time, and smiled. "Vice Magistrate Zhu must be a man of learning — why not help this humble official oversee it?"

Zhu Hexing asked: "What do you examine? French? My French is not good..."

French? Ma Wanchun thought: this boy is from a noble house of Yingtian! A young master of the Zhu family, the Duke's house?

Ding Yuying frowned hard the moment Crown Prince Zhu mentioned French — a giveaway! People who studied French were either rich or noble, most likely the Nth generation of a noble house of Yingtian!

She hastily changed the subject. "Magistrate Ma, I hear there are still remnants of the roving bandits up at Great Wind Fort in Shizhu?"

"There are some," Ma Wanchun said. "About three thousand or more!"

"That many?" Xia Wanchun was startled. Zhu Hexing had brought only five hundred men; with the one thousand already in Shizhu, that made fifteen hundred in all!

Ma Wanchun waved his hand. "No matter. They are mostly women, children, and the old and weak. The able-bodied garrison soldiers have mostly gone off on campaign duty, and those left behind are not much for fighting. They pose no threat to Shizhu city."

(End of Chapter)