Entering the Estate

The commandery office occupied a vast expanse of land.

At its exact center stood the main hall, flanked on either side by various subordinate offices.

Without a doubt, this was the most majestic place in Mayi City, and equally the most bustling.

In reality, the Mayi Commandery Office served a multitude of functions, overseeing almost both military and administrative affairs of the entire commandery. In other words, it was essentially a miniature version of a Military Governor’s Yamen.

The highest-ranking official of the commandery, Li Jing, held numerous titles: Master of the Commandery, Prefect, Lord of the Commandery, and during times of war, he could also be addressed as Commandant, Military Commander, or General.

The only reason he didn't have even more titles was that he had not inherited a peerage.

Therefore, generally speaking, it was only natural for the Mayi Commandery Office to be massive; if it were small, that would be rather strange.

From the moment Li Po and Li Chun, two country bumpkins, stepped onto the wide avenue in front of the commandery office, both felt somewhat uneasy. The avenue was truly broad—so much so that even someone as well-traveled as Li Po was startled. He estimated that ninety percent of the carriage lanes he would encounter later would pale in comparison to this grand thoroughfare.

The two walked along the edge, though even the stale odors drifting from the drainage ditches beside them could not dampen their curiosity. They looked this way and that, finding everything utterly novel.

The Carriage Bureau of the commandery was easy to find, but as the commandery office was a heavily guarded and restricted area, it was not easy for ordinary commoners to just walk in.

After much talking and pleading, Li Po finally managed to bring Li Chun to the location of the Carriage Bureau.

Even though both Li Po and Li Chun had a strong sense of direction, they still nearly got turned around and lost within the labyrinthine courtyards of the commandery office. This was truly not a place meant for the powerless and unconnected.

The bureaucratic atmosphere was overwhelmingly thick—so thick that the moment anyone looked at Li Po and Li Chun's attire, not a single person was willing to spare them more than a couple of words.

In his heart, Li Po couldn't help but complain that Cheng Da and Luo San were thoroughly unreliable. Didn't they know the principle of helping someone all the way by showing them the path?

By the time they located the Carriage Bureau, Li Po was covered in sweat, and Li Chun’s eyes were filled with apprehension. Ever since she was old enough to understand things, she had never seen so many officials in one place.

However, once they reached the Carriage Bureau, things actually became simpler.

After exchanging a few words with the doorkeeper and hearing that the people sent by recommendation to raise horses for the commandery had arrived, the doorkeeper instantly became somewhat more warm and friendly, clearly instructing them where they should go, whom to see, and what needed to be done.

After listening carefully to the instructions, Li Po breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, fortunately, this wasn't an era that required endless documents and certificates. Otherwise, running back and forth like this a few times—damn it, was this supposed to be a weight-loss program?

The two entered an old building and found a room.

The person on duty was no longer a petty clerk; sitting in the office was a proper commandery official, a bureaucrat in his thirties who spoke with a pure local accent.

The Carriage Bureau was extremely busy, with a constant stream of people coming and going.

The roars and shouts echoing from various rooms let Li Po know that the New Year had only just passed, and everyone's tempers were short; he needed to be careful.

After waiting for quite a while, it was finally their turn.

Once the process reached this stage, things moved quickly. There was no bureaucratic buck-passing or forcing people to run back and forth multiple times just to display authority while extorting bribes.

Perhaps the low-ranking officials here hadn't figured out those tricks yet, or perhaps everyone coming here to handle business was not of the ordinary commoner class, so the necessary procedures went remarkably smoothly.

Aside from verifying their identities, the official asked in great detail about their origins. After mumbling for a long time, upon hearing Li Po's authentic local accent, a faint smile finally appeared on the petty official's face.

He waved for a clerk to bring over a ledger, flipped to a page, and instructed Li Po to sign his full name.

Holding the brush and staring at the ledger, Li Po saw that while there weren't many characters, he couldn't recognize more than half of them, leaving him feeling foolish and exposed.

The official watched with a faint smile. Li Po had no choice but to bite the bullet and flaunt his calligraphy using a writing brush for the very first time. Fortunately, his name definitely wouldn't be written wrong, because Li Chengzhuo still recognized a few common characters and had taught him.

Looking at the awkward, almost sprawling handwriting, the official just smiled and didn't mind.

Shortly after, he handed Li Po a small bronze token, which was likely the equivalent of an identity card. With this, Li Po would be able to pass through most areas of the commandery office unhindered.

Then he told Li Po to return to the Carriage Bureau in a few days to collect some credentials, which should be similar to a house deed or contract—meaning that once he signed the contract with the official government, he would transform overnight into a person belonging to the official establishment.

Li Po walked out in a daze. From this moment on, his identity had changed into that of a humble stableman under the Inner Office jurisdiction of the Mayi Commandery Carriage Bureau.

As for what the Inner and Outer Bureaus were, Li Po didn't quite understand how the division was made yet. In reality, the so-called Inner Bureau was simply the private bureau of Commandery Master Li Jing.

Most of the expenses were borne by the government, but Li Jing himself also had to cover a portion of them out of his own pocket.

When wartime arrived, the government would requisition everything in full, and no military officer was allowed to conceal anything and keep it unreported. In peacetime, however, apart from serving the inner residence of the commandery office, most of the tasks handled were still official public duties.

Needless to say, one could tell at a glance that this was a variant of the Fubing militia system.

He couldn't help but feel that after hundreds of years of warfare, the Great Sui Dynasty truly possessed unique expertise in how to efficiently utilize wartime resources.

Li Po wasn't thinking about all that right now; his mind was entirely occupied with his own affairs.

Leaving the commandery yamen, they had to enter the inner residence—that is, Li Jing's private domain. It was built right behind the commandery yamen, separated from it by a high wall, though there were quite a few connecting gates.

Generally speaking, the highest-ranking official of a commandery always had this kind of arrangement.

However, in practice, most Grand Administrators and Commandery Vice-Administrators would find private residences in their jurisdictions, using the fine-sounding excuse of saving government expenditures, when in truth, they simply found the office environment insufficiently tranquil.

As a scion of a powerful aristocratic clan, Li Jing was naturally no exception. Yet, most of the time, Li Jing lived in the estate behind the commandery office—clearly, this was a fellow with a strong desire for power.

In fact, this also implied that unless Li Jing was promoted to the position of Grand Administrator of Mayi, no one else should even think about coming to Mayi to serve as an official. Because Li Jing was currently occupying the Grand Administrator's quarters so openly, anyone who came and asked Li Jing to vacate the place would instantly become his mortal enemy.

However, Li Po only felt that he was going to have to walk a lot more.

And indeed, they had to walk a great deal, because the inner residence was much larger than the outer official yamen.

Although Li Jing hadn't brought many family dependents when he assumed office, his retainers and followers were definitely numerous. Most of them were Li Jing's private guards. Recruiting desperate men was a fashionable trend everywhere at the time, and Li Jing hadn't fallen behind; otherwise, Cheng Zhijie wouldn't have been able to get in either.

Leading Li Chun by the hand, Li Po arrived at a side gate, knocked on it, showed his waist token to the doorkeeper who opened it, and then was left to wait for a good while.

The doorkeeper returned after a moment, leading Li Po through various doors and courtyards while continuously glancing sideways at Li Chun.

His vigilance was quite high, but Li Po could only smile and explain, "This is my younger brother, here to help me with my work."

The doorkeeper smiled faintly and said indifferently, "Don't bring random outsiders in here in the future. If anyone finds out, this job of yours won't last long."