Chapter 49: Replacing Cao Fu with the Head of the Constables

Li Yu stood up and looked at Old Li, asking, "I ask you, when you kept the accounts, did you follow your conscience and act in the public interest?"

Hearing this, Old Li’s heart fluttered with panic, but upon catching Xiao Yunzhou's gaze, he still replied, "Magistrate, this humble servant has eaten the public's rice for thirty years, and I can guarantee that the accounts I keep are without the slightest flaw. I would never... never dare to do anything that goes against my conscience."

Seeing him act this way, Li Yu had no desire to make things difficult for him and simply had someone lock up the storehouse.

"From today on, without my order, no one is allowed to enter or leave the storehouse."

When he directly locked up the storehouse, the men showed little expression. After all, they had been sorting the ledgers for months, and they figured that even if he investigated, he wouldn't find anything.

In the spacious courtyard of the county office, more than a hundred bailiffs and minor officials from the various departments, having heard about the reward money, happily rushed over to line up.

"How strange. Not only does the new magistrate not want any tribute or flattery, but he's actually giving us reward money. Am I dreaming?"

Not to mention their own county, even neighboring counties had never seen such a thing.

After discussing this excitedly for a long time, the crowd summed it up in five words: "The new magistrate is truly wonderful!"

One must know that most of them only received a monthly salary of three to four hundred cash, but what the new magistrate was giving out equaled a whole month's pay.

Getting a month's salary for doing nothing at all—tell me, would you be happy or not?

Li Yu sat in his chair basking in the post-rain sunshine, directing Zhao Tieyi to call out the names one by one.

Yunban, a girl with delicate handwriting and a subtle mind, was in charge of distributing the money and keeping the records.

Everyone whose name was called stepped up to collect their money, and then pressed their thumbprint next to their name.

Seeing this, Xiao Yunzhou frowned once again. How could a woman be allowed in the front hall doing such work?

It was utterly uncultured!

He truly came from that uncivilized, barren place of remote mountains and rivers known as Bashu.

After everyone present had collected their money, Li Yu took the roster and looked it over.

He discovered that more than thirty people were absent from their posts. What more needed to be said?

He immediately had people rounded up according to the addresses on the roster, dealing with each according to their merits—punishing those who needed punishment and striking off those who needed to be removed. The bailiffs, having received their reward money, were exceptionally efficient.

In less than an hour, all thirty-plus individuals were brought in.

Among them, some had been sleeping lazily at home, others were dallying in gambling dens and brothels, and a good number had never even been seen at the yamen before.

Even... there was one who had been dead for four years, yet his elderly father had been dragged all the way to the county office by a clever fellow named Cao Fu.

The old man was shaking with fright, repeatedly bowing to Li Yu with cupped hands and saying, "Magistrate, please examine the facts! Magistrate, please examine the facts! Ever since my eldest son passed away, this humble commoner hasn't taken a single copper—oh no, not even half a copper—of the public's money."

His son had died in the line of duty while catching a thief, and the six-string compensation had somehow been reduced to three strings without him uttering a word of complaint. Who could have expected that someone in the yamen would actually pocket the dead man's pay?

Cao Wang rolled his eyes and immediately said, "Magistrate, ever since Chai Wang passed away, this subordinate truly hasn't seen Old Man Chai come to our county office."

The young Chai Wang had died unjustly, and the old man hadn't even received his full compensation.

"It's just that this old man is truly dishonest. He actually went around smearing the reputation of our county office, telling everyone everywhere that he was only given three strings of compensation."

Upon hearing this, Old Man Chai's eyes widened in shock. Where on earth would he get such audacity?

Usually, he had been quite polite to this fellow and had even treated him to braised eggplant.

How could the man backstab him like this?

"I, I, I..."

Just as he was about to retort, he caught Cao Fu winking frantically at him. Suddenly, it dawned on him that the man was trying to help him—helping him get his money back in front of the new magistrate.

Therefore, he immediately wailed and wept, "Magistrate, I have been wronged! Magistrate, according to the rules of the yamen, the compensation for dying in the line of duty is six strings, but this humble commoner truly only received three strings, Magistrate!"

These two men's petty maneuvers couldn't possibly be hidden from Li Yu, let alone the Head Bailiff Lu Liu, who inwardly cursed Cao Fu for being a traitor who bit the hand that fed him.

Considering that whenever Lu Liu encountered good fortune in the past, he had never forgotten to share a couple of coins with Cao Fu, who would have thought the man would turn around and sink his teeth into him.

Li Tu hurriedly declared that this matter had nothing to do with him, insisting that he had given out the full compensation according to the rules. As for why the salary continued to be distributed even after the compensation was paid—

That was naturally due to a mistake in his own work. He was willing to bear the punishment, but he swore the money had definitely been disbursed.

By this time, little Lu had already returned. Li Yu took a sip of tea to moisten his throat and gave an order.

"Little Lu, go with Accountant Li and bring over the ledgers and records for the salary and compensation distributions."

The account books were promptly brought over, clearly recording:
*Twenty-seventh year of Qianyuan, March 8th, around 3:00 PM, disbursed six strings of compensation for Chai Wang of the Zhuang squad.*

When Li Yu flipped through the records, however, he saw that the records indeed bore the signature of Chai Liu, which was Old Man Chai's name, except that the signatures for the remaining lines of expenditure—

The handwriting was identical, and even the patterns of the thumbprints looked identical upon close inspection.

He looked at Li Tu: "Who on earth collected the money?"

Li Tu knew he could no longer hide the truth, so he had no choice but to look at Head Bailiff Lu Liu.

Lu Liu argued craftily, "Magistrate, the father of our brother Chai Wang is illiterate, so this subordinate collected it on his behalf. However, the money, this subordinate..."

He wanted to say that Old Man Chai was falsely accusing him, but Li Yu had already raised a hand to stop him.

"Whenever the yamen disburses salaries, compassionate allowances, and other such items, they must be claimed in person by the individual, or by their parents, wives, concubines, daughters-in-law, or daughters on their behalf. If they cannot sign their name, a fingerprint shall be used as proof."

"Why was this rule not followed?"

"Could it be that the man's fingers were all chopped off, requiring you to do it for him?"

"And why, even after the compensation had been paid, did you continue to collect the imperial court's salary for a dead man every month?"

"Since he was dead and couldn't spend it, did you pocket it for yourself?"

Seeing Lu Liu trembling as he dropped to his knees, stuttering and unable to utter a single word, Li Yu immediately ordered someone to press him onto a bench.

"Give Lu Liu twenty strokes of the heavy staff. Have men investigate and recover the embezzled funds, sentence him to five years of hard labor, and remove his name from the yamen starting immediately."

Some of them still felt a bit hesitant about striking their former boss.

However, considering they had just accepted a month's salary from the new magistrate, after a moment of hesitation, they held nothing back. They certainly didn't dare to openly defy the county magistrate.

"Magistrate! Magistrate, show mercy! This subordinate will never dare do it again, Magistrate! This subordinate has served in the yamen for twenty years. If I have no grand achievements, I at least have bitter toil to show, Magistrate..."

Li Yu remained unmoved in the face of Lu Liu's pleas, while Xiao Yunzhou moved his lips but said nothing at all.

The young magistrate hadn't even interrogated him yet for the crime of dereliction of duty in supervision; it seemed the person who had arrived this time was a tough nut to crack.

At that moment, Li Yu suddenly pointed at Cao Fu. "I see you quite capable. Starting today, you will take over Lu Liu's position."

Cao Fu had never expected that doing a good deed could lead to a promotion. He immediately accepted with high spirits, his excited voice nearly shattering the eardrums of the colleague next to him.

"Yes, Magistrate!"

The new magistrate was truly wonderful! The reward money was so generous, and he had such a discerning eye. From now on, he would undoubtedly follow the new magistrate's lead in all things.

Li Yu smiled.

This was the ultimate objective for today. Although the status of these bailiffs wasn't high, they were crucial figures, so the head of the bailiffs had to be replaced.