Chapter 275: An Interlude

"Two years away from the capital, and I never imagined such great changes! Before, beggars were everywhere, and most of the city's populace bore the look of poverty—one glance at their faces told you they went hungry daily! Even the streets and alleys were rarely clean; though not exactly filthy, dirt and grime were visible everywhere, and the dwellings of the common folk in both the southern and northern quarters were dilapidated beyond repair. What I see today leaves me in a daze! Just by looking at the expressions of the people on the road, one can tell their household circumstances have vastly improved. At a time when the realm within the seas is pacified, our August Ming is finally showing the signs of a golden age! All of this is thanks to our sage sovereign!"

On a street in the southern quarter of the capital, a middle-aged man wearing a precious blue merchant's robe and a square scholar's cap stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the street scene and the endless stream of passersby, his expression of emotion plain to see. Beside him stood a large, fat man dressed as a trader.

"I say, Brother Ziru, spare us the classical quotations. We're merchants, not those pedantic scholars—where do you get all this 'thus' and 'therefore'? You may have read plenty of idle books, but hearing you mince words like that is truly grating! It's nearly noon now, so let's hurry over to Squire Wang's place to hand over the goods. After that, the two of us can find a tavern and have a drink. I've been running around with you all morning, and my belly is already empty! Ha—ptooey!"

After speaking, the fat man who had been conversing with the middle-aged man spat a thick glob of phlegm, then casually raised his arm and wiped a trace of grime from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

In the blink of an eye, a man of about thirty, dressed in black livery, wearing thin-soled swift boots and a dark round cap, his eyes gleaming with sharp light, appeared before the two as if he had sprung up from beneath the earth.

"Begging your pardon, sir. Pay up—ten coppers!"

The man raised a palm-sized wooden plaque, shook it at the fat man who had spat, then tucked it into his bosom. Afterward, he spread open one palm and spoke to the fat man with a grin.

"What money? Why should I give you money? By your dress, you don't look like a beggar—surely you're not trying to rob me? This is the capital! Right under the Son of Heaven's feet—aren't you afraid an officer will see you and haul you off? Be off with you, be off!"

Startled by the man's sudden appearance, the fat man recovered and then began to rebuke him angrily.

"To be honest with you, I am an officer—Li Wu, runner of the Shuntian Prefecture Bureau of City Appearance! Heh heh! You spat on the ground, violating Article Three of the City Appearance Management Law. Per the regulations, the fine is ten coppers! Come now, pay up!"

The officer named Li Wu said cheerfully to the fat man.

"What Bureau of what? I've traveled north and south for decades and never heard of such an office. Are you some slick capital slicker trying to cheat a stranger out of his money? Careful—I'll drag you before the magistrate!"

The fat man said angrily.

Having grown up following his father's generation in business across the land, he was well acquainted with all the major and minor government offices of the court, yet he had never heard of any Bureau of City Appearance. This man must be a local of the capital who, seeing he was an out-of-towner, had invented an excuse to extort money.

"See this? This is my badge—take a good look! If you want to report me to the authorities, that's fine too. A hundred paces ahead on the left is the patrol post of the Five Wards Troops and Horses Office. Have this squire here go report me, and let the patrolmen come and sort it out for you. We'll just wait right here—does that suit you?"

Li Wu was not angered. He held the wooden badge in his hand for the fat man to inspect, his face still wearing a smile.

The merchant named Ziru said, "Pardon the disturbance," and took the badge from Li Wu's hand to look at it. On the front of the wooden plaque were carved a dozen-odd small characters reading "Li, Patrolman of the Shuntian Prefecture Bureau of City Appearance," while the reverse bore a lifelike carving of a *bì'àn* beast.

After examining the badge, Wang Ziru was certain that the Li Wu before him was indeed a man of the government. In this day and age, no one dared to forge an official badge—caught doing that, and it was off with your head.

"Brother Li, my companion here was truly rash just now. If he gave any offense, please forgive him, Brother Li. Here is the fine money—please take it, Brother Li. We two are merchants from Jiangnan and have not been to the capital for a long time, so we are unfamiliar with the local rules. I hope Brother Li will not hold it against us!"

As he spoke, Wang Ziru fished a small piece of broken silver from his bosom and pressed it into Li Wu's hand, uttering apologies all the while.

Li Wu took the silver, weighed it in his hand, and grinned, showing his teeth: "I don't hold it against this fat squire at all—in fact, I wish there were more like him! Ha ha! I'm only joking, don't take me seriously. This silver must weigh over a qian, wouldn't you say? Do the two of you have any copper cash on hand? If not, then come with me to a shop to weigh the silver, and I'll give you the change in coppers."

"No need, no need—keep the rest and buy yourself a cup of tea, Brother Li! We two still have business to discuss, so we'll take our leave!"

"Hey, hey, hold on, you two! The amount of this fine is set by the office—I'm not about to pocket your paltry coins. Come, come, follow me to the butcher shop up ahead to weigh it and make change!"

Li Wu grabbed the fat man by the sleeve and pulled him forward. Wang Ziru had no choice but to follow along behind.

After coming out of the butcher shop, having weighed the silver and received their change, Wang Ziru and the fat man surnamed Cheng clasped their fists in salute to Li Wu and then headed east.

Li Wu tucked the ten copper coins into the cloth pouch at his waist and continued on his patrol with his hands behind his back.

The reason he insisted on dragging those two to make change was not that Li Wu was particularly incorruptible—it was simply that he did not dare embezzle.

Not long ago, a patrolman of the Bureau of City Appearance had been arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and thrown into prison. The cause was that he had repeatedly pocketed the surplus from fines, and on the last occasion, one of the Guard's secret agents happened to witness it. He was hauled into the Imperial Prison, given a thorough working-over, and confessed to everything. In the end, both his embezzled sums and over a year's worth of salary were confiscated, his post was lost, his wife and children lost their livelihood, and the whole family fell on hard times.

This affair thoroughly dampened the schemes of any patrolmen who had entertained crooked ideas. Who knew which corner those elusive Guard secret agents were lurking in, watching? Better not to smash one's own rice bowl over a bit of petty gain.

"Squire Wang, could it be that we out-of-towners have fallen behind the times? Since ancient times, no one in government has been free of corruption—even under the Son of Heaven's very feet, it has been no different. But this Li Wu's conduct today is something I have never heard of! If all the officials of the Great Ming's various prefectures were like this, it would be a blessing for us common merchants!"

Inside the guest room of a three-courtyard residence in the eastern quarter, Wang Ziru set down his teacup and remarked with emotion.

"Brother Wang, you wouldn't know this, but this Bureau of City Appearance was established only a year ago. It is charged exclusively with keeping the capital's markets, shops, households, and streets clean and orderly. It is subordinate to the Shuntian Prefecture, and its authority is by no means small. I hear it was founded by decree of His Majesty. What you and Brother Cheng encountered today happens countless times every day across the capital's four quarters. It's not that this Li Wu doesn't covet money—it's that he simply doesn't dare! Who knows how many eyes are watching the patrolmen's every move in the shadows? As for the local officials of the various prefectures—well, achieving such rigor and incorruptibility would hardly be easy!"

Wang Song, who sat facing Wang Ziru and Cheng Gan, smiled and gave a rough account of the matter's ins and outs, and only then did Wang Ziru and Cheng Gan understand the reason behind it.

"Since the Embroidered Uniform Guard is watching these patrolmen, aren't they afraid the two sides might collude to swindle out-of-towners?"

The fat Cheng asked curiously.

"Heh heh, Brother Cheng worries too much. The Embroidered Uniform Guard maintains seven chiliarch offices in the capital, and with the Southern and Northern Provost Offices and the Command Headquarters besides, they number in the thousands—and the plainclothes agents among them are beyond counting. Consider this: if you were one of them, how many of those thousands would you recognize? How would you know whether a colleague was secretly watching you? Moreover, since the year before last, His Majesty has greatly increased the pay of the Guard's imperial kinsmen, and with additional rewards on top, every one of them is dripping with fat. These days they're all single-mindedly seeking merit as capital for promotion—who cares about a few petty coppers? Besides, the Son of Heaven's own kinsmen all look down their noses at everyone—when have they ever deigned to notice these patrolmen? To put it bluntly, the Guard's secret agents would love nothing more than for more patrolmen to slip up—that's the very capital they rely on for promotion and reward! Heh heh heh!"

Wang Song's family had lived in the capital for generations, and many of his relatives held posts in the various offices of the city. Whenever festivals and holidays brought friends and family together for drink and idle talk, the conversation would inevitably turn to amusing anecdotes and even secret tidbits from the various offices—hence he had some knowledge of the inner workings of the bureaucracy.

"So that's how it is! Outsiders all say the imperial kinsmen are ruthless and greedy, but having heard your explanation, Squire Wang, not only are they not as bad as rumored—I'd even say they're more dutiful than the Censors! I do wish His Majesty would station the imperial kinsmen in every prefecture and county! Then we merchants would suffer far less extortion!"

Zhu Youjian, of course, knew nothing of this little episode in the capital. At that very moment, he was in the Qianqing Palace receiving an audience from Zhu Gongxie, the Prince of Zhou.