Chapter 60: Merchants Really Want to Change Their Social Class

"Lord Zheng." Little Yun finally finished looking over Qian Gui, and hurriedly scampered over to Old Man Zheng with a joyful expression. Though his ultimate target was Qian Gui, he still had to maintain a modicum of composure. More importantly, Little Yun was racking his brain, trying to figure out how to make Qian Gui stay and work for him.

Fame and fortune?
With the powerful Qian clan of Yuzhou backing him, Qian Gui was already a renowned scholar across the land. There was no reason for him to need a little child to provide such things—crucially, Little Yun didn't have them anyway.

Wealth?
Truth be told, Qian Gui lacked no money, whereas Little Yun was actually quite strapped for cash. The recent vigorous development of people's livelihood required funds everywhere. After pondering for a moment, Little Yun realized that someone like Qian Gui had to be seduced with lofty ideals and dreams, as that was the only way to potentially retain him.

While Little Yun's mind spun at lightning speed, he had already grabbed the hem of Old Man Zheng's sleeve and began, "Lord Zheng, this must be Lord Qian, right? My father mentioned him to me this morning. My father told me to take you both around Long County because he was too exhausted yesterday and is still resting at home."

Qian Gui, however, smiled and said, "Greetings, Little Yun."

Little Yun let out an "ah"—this handsome uncle had a pleasant-sounding voice, too.

Old Man Zheng looked enviously at the lively Little Yun and scoffed, "I am going to be your teacher, you know. Is my voice not pleasant?"

"Of course it is, of course it is," Little Yun quickly replied. "We can talk about studying later; I'm still small. Look at me, I'm only this tiny. Making me study a mountain of knowledge right now would just be oppressing a child. We don't advocate for that nowadays."

"Such a tender age, yet so sharp-tongued. Be careful lest you prove to be brilliant in youth but dull in maturity."

"If I grow up and lose my cleverness, you are my teacher—could you just abandon me? If you won't care for me, I'll go around flaunting the title of your disciple and visit every single one of your former colleagues and students. I'm bound to find someone with a conscience willing to take care of their little junior martial brother."

Old Man Zheng was practically choked with rage, and the worst part was that he felt Little Yun was entirely serious. If the boy really messed up his life in the future, he actually had the nerve to pull such a stunt.

Having rattled all that off, Little Yun grew slightly worried that Old Man Zheng might genuinely be angry, so he hurriedly changed the subject: "I still have a ton of work to do today. Would Lord Zheng like to come along and take a look? Long County is developing rather well right now. Oh, and your timing is impeccable; today just happens to be the very first time Long County is releasing its quarterly financial report in March. You'll get to witness quite a lively spectacle."

Earlier, Little Yun had mentioned issuing a financial report every quarter.
Ever since the winter campaign that eliminated the chieftains of the White Horse Di tribe up to the present, a full quarter had passed.
For the sake of this financial report, Li Fu and Little Yun had begun recruiting accountants across all of Long County two months prior, even secretly sending recruiters to neighboring counties.

Strictly speaking, accountants had their own title within the county yamen—they were called head ledger-keepers or fiscal administrators. However, the yamen's previous financial revenues and expenditures had been relatively simple. Now, with numerous new projects added to the mix, the head ledger-keeper could no longer handle the workload alone.
As long as the compensation and conditions were favorable, such technical talents could still be found.

And so, during this period, Li Fu and his team found a total of five bookkeepers, ultimately retaining three after assessing their personalities and dispositions. Combined with the original head ledger-keeper, there were now four bookkeepers working together at the yamen.
Abacuses were already in existence during this era, and these bookkeepers were exceptionally swift when rattling the beads.
However, they lacked the Arabic numerals from Little Yun's college memories. The application of these numerals truly saved an immense amount of time, and more importantly, made the accounts vastly clearer.

Taking some time out of his schedule, Little Yun had also provided them with training. These bookkeepers were extremely astute; upon coming into contact with these numbers, they were utterly awestruck and nearly wanted to enshrine Little Yun as their founding patriarch. However, they soon remembered that their revered patriarch was Confucius, whom they certainly could not replace on a whim.
Even so, this did not prevent the bookkeepers from holding Magistrate Li's little young master in profound admiration, believing that on the strength of these numerals alone, the young master would likely leave his name echoing through history.

Internally, they had already begun using Arabic numerals for certain accounts, but the first quarterly financial report was still written entirely in standard regular script. Outsiders had never learned the numerals, and without prior instruction, how could they possibly understand them? They would simply have to wait until numerals were popularized before adopting digital financial reports.

As they walked all the way toward the county yamen, Old Man Zheng listened with relish as Little Yun explained the reasons behind creating this financial report, as well as the 'agonies' the bookkeepers had endured over the past three months.

"This financial report hasn't been printed in large quantities. Mainly, one version will be pasted on the public announcement board right outside the yamen gates, and I've asked my uncle, the county丞 [assistant magistrate], to read it aloud over there, while assigning two bookkeepers to answer any questions from the townsfolk.

We always talk about officials being 'fathers and mothers to the people,' but most county magistrates only display the stern majesty and arbitrary dictation of parents toward their children, without ever considering the actual well-being of the 'children' in their jurisdiction. That is why there are so few good officials left in our Liang State nowadays, and why many common people no longer trust officialdom, even developing a terror of officials as if they were ferocious tigers.

We are here to govern the people, not to act as accomplices to tyranny. At the root of this phenomenon is the fact that the imperial court has lost its credibility, and the officials dispatched to local regions have utterly lost the support and hearts of the populace. If I want my father to change this situation, we can only begin right here in Long County.

Back when we solicited donations to suppress bandits and build villages, my father and I raised quite a substantial sum of money. Yet many people only donated because they saw that my father's local militia was strong and well-equipped; if they didn't pay, they feared those soldiers might simply plunder them instead. They figured it was just paying money to buy peace—after all, which county magistrate didn't pocket a little bit on the side?"

This was the absolute truth.
Although a portion of the donors hoped to secure naming rights for the villages—for instance, Liangqi Township, one of the major new villages currently, where a wealthy Chen clan member had contributed the most donations and even hired people himself to expedite construction.
Before the village was even finished, he had ordered workers to carve a gigantic boulder and commissioned a renowned calligrapher to chisel the three characters 'Liangqi Township' into it. Then, he had the massive stone hauled to the village entrance to serve as the village boundary marker.
On that very day, the refugees allocated to Liangqi Township knelt and kowtowed before the marker, vowing to remember the Chen clan's benevolence for generations to come, thoroughly satisfying that wealthy magnate's desire to bask in the gratitude and appreciation of others.

Having raised so much money, sincere or not, they had basically assumed that as long as a third of these funds were genuinely used to get things done, they would be more than satisfied.
Magistrate Li was already such a good man; what did it matter if he took a little money?

Yet Little Yun felt there was no need for such petty gains. Since Li Fu harbored ambitions for the entire realm, there was no reason to crash and burn over such trivial amounts of money.
Therefore, the core strategy was absolute sincerity!
You think this is a joke? No, my Li clan won't take a single coin of this money; in fact, we'll even subsidize it out of our own pockets to pull the entire Long County up by its bootstraps.

Little Yun spoke at a rapid pace, occasionally sprinkling in unfamiliar terms that Old Man Zheng had never heard before. At first, Old Man Zheng listened merely as if a child were showing off, but the more he listened, the more serious his expression grew.
He truly had not expected that someone as young as Little Yun could have such a profound grasp of human nature and people's livelihood. Was this truly a child?

Meanwhile, Qian Gui listened attentively to Little Yun's words. The more he listened and pondered, the more astonished he became—he simply never imagined that Li Fu, a man known for youthful alertness and bravery, could produce and raise a child of such caliber.
This young master was even more extraordinary than he had anticipated. Qian Gui couldn't help but wonder if the ancestral graves of the Li family were currently smoking with auspicious vapor.

By the time they arrived at the county yamen, Qian Gui discovered that the financial report had already been posted on the announcement board.
The paper used for the report was securely affixed to the board. Printing was not particularly difficult since movable type printing technology was already quite refined; the main factor was that paper itself remained rather precious.

—Clang, clang, clang!

The county lieutenant had already struck a bronze gong and shouted aloud: "The financial report is out! Go take a look yourselves. If you can't read, the assistant magistrate is reading it aloud right here, and bookkeepers are standing by. If you don't understand, feel free to ask!"

—Clang, clang, clang!

The county lieutenant repeatedly struck the gong and echoed his call.
The area around the announcement board was densely packed with people. Most were illiterate, while a tiny handful who could read squeezed all the way to the front, scanning from top to bottom. First came the revenues.
The lion's share came from the spoils of the previous bandit suppression—far exceeding expectations. Next were the donations. Donors had previously been asked whether they wished to remain anonymous or not. The majority of them not only refused anonymity but explicitly demanded that their addresses and full names be written down, just to let others see whether they, the honorable philanthropist so-and-so, were truly wonderful people!

Thus, voices constantly rang out from the crowd: "Splendid! True to my Chen clan lineage! It's rumored that we started out selling salt in our early years and that our ancestors once harmed others, but today Lord Chen has displayed such great righteousness. It seems those rumors were entirely false!"

That same wealthy Chen magnate was mingling within the crowd, listening to everyone praise his righteousness one after another. It felt just like drinking a large bowl of iced water on the hottest dog days of summer—refreshing to the core! This money had been well spent! Most importantly, this Magistrate Li truly hadn't embezzled; he had genuinely used every single copper of his money to build the new village.

Just then, they heard the county lieutenant shout: "We have twenty more copies of this financial report right here. Does anyone want to buy one? Magistrate Li has stated—three taels of silver per copy. Those who buy them can take them home to study at their leisure."

However, most people were illiterate; reading the announcement board was quite enough for them, and they wouldn't dream of buying it. Three taels was expensive, but the dazzlingly clear target audience for this item was not ordinary folk, but the wealthy.

Upon hearing this, the wealthy Chen magnate strode forward immediately.
Catching sight of the formidable-looking county lieutenant, the Chen magnate hesitated momentarily. Since ancient times, the social status of merchants had been low, and following the founding of the Liang State, it had plummeted even further into the dust.
Take him, for instance: at home, he could wear whatever he pleased, but today, because he was coming to the gates of the county yamen, although he wore fine garments underneath, he had deliberately draped a rough hempen outer robe over them to conceal his attire; otherwise, he would be in violation of the law.

Feeling intimidated upon meeting officials was a chronic condition deeply etched into the bones of merchants under such high-pressure laws. Otherwise, he would have directly named Liangqi Township 'Chen Clan Township' earlier; but fearing that such a high-profile move might displease Magistrate Li, the Chen magnate hadn't dared to do it after thinking it over.

Right now, there were seven or eight other merchants who had accompanied him. Casting a glance around, the Chen magnate recognized several familiar faces among them, and for a moment, they could only exchange awkward, sheepish smiles.

The county lieutenant spotted them instantly—he had been specifically trained by Little Yun over the past few days.
The lieutenant immediately beamed and said, "Ah, do the gentlemen wish to purchase copies? Three taels of silver per copy. These silver funds will henceforth be incorporated into the yamen's fiscal revenue, channeled entirely into the public treasury to be used for the development of Long County.

From now on, you can not only make single purchases but also place subscriptions. Subscriptions can be arranged on a half-year or yearly basis. A half-year subscription saves you one tael of silver, and a yearly subscription also saves you one tael, but at the end of the year, we will issue a special year-end edition specifically thanking you for your annual subscription.
Furthermore, after subscribing, you can choose to either pick up your copy every quarter yourself or leave your address, and our bailiffs will personally deliver it to your doorstep."

Chen and the other wealthy merchants were left somewhat flattered. The county lieutenant was effectively the second-in-command below the magistrate in Long County; usually, merchants of their standing pulled strings and used connections just to get him to grace them with his presence at a banquet, yet here he was, smiling and speaking to them with utmost courtesy.

The financial report was only published once a quarter, and saving that single tael on a yearly subscription—making it twelve taels of silver total—was hardly a sum that pained them.
Yet spending this modest amount of money not only gave them a thrilling sense of participation in government administration, but more importantly, allowed them to establish sound, friendly relations with the county lieutenant and the yamen bailiffs.