Chapter 49: Household Registration

Cao Yao's guess was corroborated by Lu Bin.

This man, still bearing unhealed old wounds, had not known where he ought to go from the moment he stepped inside.

He had meant to find somewhere to sit, but the room held only one large kang bed; thinking it wouldn't do to sit down before the host had, he stood waiting for the two of them to sit.

Who could have guessed that once inside, one would sit on the left and the other on the right, talking across the wide gap between them — leaving him no suitable place to sit, so he could only stand to the side.

Only upon hearing the two mention Chengzu did Lu Bin find an opening to speak, seating himself beside Liu Chengzong as he said, "The moment Chengzu entered the inn, he didn't follow the waiter but went straight to the counter to find the innkeeper."

"Seems it was right after Proprietor Cao said he'd give that man a knife."

Liu Chengzong shook his head, unable to suppress a smile. Chengzu's mind was too meticulous — a touch too sensitive.

"Ah, no wonder the lad always looked at me a little scared. I'm a man with no latch on my mouth, I'll say anything, and he doesn't hear the whole thing, then goes off and broods."

Cao Yao bared his teeth in a grin. "You think I'd really give that man a knife? We're decent folk."

Lu Bin nodded along repeatedly, but Liu Chengzong rolled his eyes upward, thinking: It's not that he couldn't — it's clearly that he couldn't bear to. A single knife is so expensive!

If knives were as cheap as a few flatcakes, Cao Yao would definitely toss a knife to that veteran.

With that fervor of his for sweet-talking people into rebellion, it was only because the Liu brothers were both educated men with some breadth of experience that they hadn't succumbed; an ordinary farming household would long ago have crumbled under the brainwashing and become Cao Yao's vanguard, off looting homes and raiding houses.

Decent folk?

Those words might fool Lu Bin, who didn't know their background, but Liu Chengzong was skeptical even of the third word.

Having spoken of "decent folk," Cao Yao himself was so amused he slapped his thigh, then said to Liu Chengzong, "This cave dwelling does have one advantage — no fear of others overhearing us talk."

"Think about it: how do we feed the twenty-seven households of refugees the government has apportioned to us?"

At the mention of this, Liu Chengzong's head ached with worry too. Finding joy amid hardship, he said, "I never imagined the day would come when the government would treat me as a major household... We'll take it one step at a time."

In truth, to Liu Chengzong, those twenty-seven refugee households were both a painful and a happy matter.

The happy part was that during the busy farming season they wouldn't be so desperately shorthanded; before, they'd had to worry that even after buying land and growing grain, they still wouldn't have enough to pay the taxes.

But where to get the grain to feed those people before the harvest came in — that was a problem, neither big nor small.

They still had money. If they had a channel to buy grain, securing several months' worth of minimum rations for a few dozen people wouldn't be terribly difficult.

High grain prices they could accept — let it be thirty percent dearer, fifty percent dearer — but this was a famine year. Those clutching grain were all unwilling to sell, and the market had prices but no goods.

"Hey, Lion, how was it meeting that Clerk Zhang this time?"

"Fine. Why?"

Cao Yao shook his head, then said with great seriousness, "I'm not asking about buying land. I'm asking what you made of him as a person."

Liu Chengzong suspected another deviant, unorthodox scheme was brewing in Cao Yao's mind. He asked warily, "All right, I suppose? Not hard to deal with?"

At these words, Cao Yao relaxed a little. He sat up straight, pondered a moment, then said, "Here's what I'm thinking. The refugees outside the city still have no household registration. If we take them in, they ought to be registered, right?"

"And household registration is exactly what this Clerk Zhang handles."

The old brigand who had lived through the great defeat at Sarhu was now breathing heavily, and for once a trace of hesitation showed on his face. He pursed his lips and said, "Could we — I mean the brothers willing to be registered — get registered at Liu Family Village in Changping Parish? Civilian registration."

Of all the things Liu Chengzong might have imagined, he had never imagined Cao Yao would say this. For a moment he was stunned, even forgetting to respond.

Before he could decide whether to answer directly or to ask how a man who thought of rebellion all day could produce such an idea, Cao Yao spoke again.

"We don't need to rush and get this done tomorrow — it wouldn't be easy anyway. I'm thinking we wait until summer. By then, once taxes are collected, there'll surely be people fleeing their registration, and refugees will swell again. Then we go to him and say refugees turned up on the land — wouldn't that make it a bit easier?"

Liu Chengzong raised a hand to stop Cao Yao. He opened his mouth but no words came; after organizing his thoughts, he smiled and said, "Brother, that certainly won't be hard to arrange. When has the government ever not needed commoners? They'd be more than happy to have extra people paying taxes."

"But think it through. Once you're on the registers, corvée labor, taxes — you won't escape any of it."

"These days people can't flee the registers fast enough, and you want to register. Forget the county yamen's revenue office — you could even claim a dead man's registration over at Old Temple Village."

Blending into a crowd in this era was no easy thing. Though they lacked the advanced methods of later ages, like networked identity checks, the movement of people was extremely slow. Village residents had known each other for generations; the moment a stranger appeared, everyone would know.

But at Liu Family Village in Changping Parish, formerly Old Temple Village, the matter was simple. Few of the living remained; claiming a false registration left no living witnesses to contradict it. The household certificates were kept right in the parish, with duplicates in the county revenue office — the room for manipulation in between was considerable.

It was just that Liu Chengzong could not fathom why Cao Yao would suddenly bring this up.

Before he could ask in detail, from the rear courtyard of the watchtower building came Chengzu's high call: "Water's here!"

Liu Chengzong rose and pushed open the cave-dwelling door. In the courtyard, Chengzu and the waiter were approaching, each carrying a water bucket.

The buckets were set down at the doorway, and a huge smile spread across Chengzu's face. "Brother, I've learned of a great piece of good news. After half a month, the southern trade route has been opened by merchants from Fuzhou!"

Fuzhou lay at the southernmost edge of Yan'an Prefecture, bordering Yao Subprefecture and Tong Subprefecture of Xi'an Prefecture. It was a critical corridor linking Fushi County with the Guanzhong Plain, but its jurisdiction was full of mountain ridges and bandits, hence the trade route was difficult to travel.

"Isn't the south still at war? This merchant has tremendous nerve."

"The news has already spread all over Fushi. The fighting's over. On the ninth day of the fourth month, Left Hanger was surrounded by government troops at Yunyang. The common folk all say the army-provisioning Investigating Censor Hong leading the troops was formidable. It was only by taking advantage of a thunderstorm that Left Hanger broke through and fled toward Shendao Ridge in Chunhua County — otherwise he'd have died there."

As soon as Chengzu finished speaking, Cao Yao, who had stepped out of the cave dwelling, leaned against the wall and shook his head. "Strange. In the past, Cao never once fretted over the weather. Now that I've bought land, here I am worrying about rain. Damn it all, Yan'an hasn't seen rain in over half a year, yet over there in Weibei, the thunder and rain are putting on a grand show!"

Liu Chengzong laughed. "Who cares if it rains in Weibei or not — that's Heaven's business. Left Hanger took a beating and won't stir up trouble for three months. The trade route being open is good news either way. Hey... Chengzu, will they be shipping grain to the prefectural city? Xi'an Prefecture is far richer than northern Shaanxi."

Chengzu shook his head and ushered the waiter out, saying, "No idea — who can say for sure about that? Here's what we'll do: you elder brothers rest here for a while, and if you need anything, call for the inn's waiter. He doesn't really have a proper name — Li Shengxing, or Liuwa will do."

"I'll go to our family shop. The authorities are gathering merchants to go south and buy grain. I'll tell the shop manager too: if merchants from Yao Subprefecture down south arrive, have him send word up to Black Dragon Mountain."

Young as Chengzu was, he had a vigorous, decisive manner. Even as he spoke, he cupped his fists toward the group, fished a few mace of broken silver from his waist and handed it to the waiter, instructing him to go out and buy their evening meal and horse fodder. Then he turned and headed out, saying as he walked, "If that won't work, then when the southern merchants come, we'll have the manager buy grain on our behalf first. Brother, I'm off."