activa-t Chapter 15 Struggle for Power
Chapter 15 Struggle for Power
At the hour of Mao (5 or 6 a.m.), Li Chong was still dreaming when he heard a few knocks on the door.
"Knock knock knock!"
"Ugh~~~"
Barely opening his eyes, Li Chong sat up with a hint of impatience: "Who is it? It's so early in the morning, before dawn, why are you knocking!"
Cui Shi's voice came in: "Sir, it's time to go to the morning office."
Instinctively, Li Chong wanted to find his phone to check the time, but after touching it a few times, he realized that he was no longer in the modern world.
Looking out the window at the sky, he realized that although he had said he would get up early to take charge of affairs yesterday, he hadn't expected it to be this early.
After a moment of stunned silence, Li Chong replied helplessly, "Okay, I'll get up right away!"
I put on my coat and went to the coat rack, where I saw a brand new set of official uniform.
He wore a green, round-necked, wide-sleeved robe, with a black leather belt around his waist, and a black gauze turban on his feet beside him.
Wearing this outfit, Li Chong couldn't help but look down and admire himself.
"The only thing missing is a full-length mirror, otherwise we could see what it looks like."
The small bronze mirror still couldn't reflect his entire body, which left Li Chong somewhat disappointed.
The door opened, and Cui Shi entered the room carrying a copper basin.
"Come wash up. People from the front office have already started arriving, and they're just waiting for you, the county magistrate."
Li Chong glanced at him and reminded him, "Be careful. If outsiders hear this, how will we look as master and servant?"
Cui Shi chuckled twice, not taking it to heart.
"I made a special trip before I came to make sure there was no one else around, otherwise I wouldn't have dared to be so presumptuous. We're brothers, why should we be so calculating in private?"
Seeing that Li Chong was about to take the helm of the council, Cui Shi's sense of imbalance grew stronger.
For practical reasons, he couldn't expose Li Chong, so he had to find some way to make up for it elsewhere.
Little did he know that his dismissive behavior only deepened Li Chong's disgust and strengthened his resolve to get rid of him as soon as possible.
After a quick wash, Li Chong dressed neatly and headed to the front office.
Today is his first day in office as the county magistrate, and the usual formalities and procedures still need to be followed.
"County Magistrate."
"Your Excellency, County Magistrate."
Along the way, everyone who saw Li Chong bowed and greeted him, which made Li Chong feel quite proud.
No wonder everyone wants to be an official; the feeling of being greeted by everyone is truly different.
When Li Chong arrived at the hall, Yang Chengde and Fu Shun were already there. The three greeted each other and then sat down politely.
Seeing that most of the people had arrived, Yang Chengde stood up and addressed the crowd, saying, "Today is the county magistrate's first morning court session. We must not be negligent. Anyone who fails to appear on duty will be punished. You must all be vigilant."
Seeing Yang Chengde's serious expression, Li Chong, unaware of the process, could only watch quietly as he flaunted his power.
But I already had a bad feeling.
With him being so assertive, it's going to be tough for me, the county head.
Although he had mentally prepared himself yesterday, seeing it with his own eyes still made Li Chong feel uneasy.
Regardless of what Li Chong was thinking, Yang Chengde began to take his own turn.
"Sun Jun, the clerk."
Li Chong looked up and saw a middle-aged man with an honest face step forward. He bowed to Li Chong and the others before returning to his seat.
"Recorder Zhu Binghe."
Another, slightly younger man stood up and bowed.
After that, Yang Chengde called out names one by one, from clerks to yamen runners.
This early morning meeting was essentially to help Li Chong, the new leader, get acquainted with the people, so that there would be someone to take responsibility if anything happened.
Finally, after taking attendance, Yang Chengde closed the list and handed it over.
"Reporting to Your Excellency, all officials of Yanggu County have arrived here without fail. Please take a look."
His attitude was so respectful that it was impeccable.
Li Chong took the list without even glancing at it, and said with a smile, "I naturally trust Clerk Yang to do things right. Now that everyone is here, let's begin our discussion."
"You flatter me, Your Excellency," Yang Chengde said with a modest smile. "These past few months, I've felt increasingly overwhelmed. Fortunately, Your Excellency has taken office, and this burden can finally be lifted off my shoulders."
"Hey, you're mistaken," Li Chong waved his hand. "We're all serving the court, how can we complain about being tired when educating the people? Don't you think so?"
As Li Chong and Yang Chengde began to flatter him, Fu Shun turned his head away disdainfully.
He had only one thought in his mind: "These intellectuals, how hypocritical!"
After a few polite words, Yang Chengde finally got to the point.
"Officer Sun!" he called out.
Sun Jun walked up with a stack of case files and placed them in front of Li Chong.
Li Chong looked around and smiled meaningfully.
Yang Chengde simply greeted him and called his name, and the clerk Sun Jun immediately knew what Yang Chengde wanted him to do. It seemed that they had already discussed it beforehand.
Li Chong feigned ignorance, flipping through the case files in front of him and asking curiously, "What are these?"
Yang Chengde's smile remained unchanged: "I have been extremely busy these past few days, and many cases have not yet been concluded. It just so happens that the magistrate is holding court today, so I will have to trouble the magistrate with these backlogged cases. This is also in line with the magistrate's teachings to educate the people."
"Hmm." Li Chong nodded slowly and continued to look through the case files.
Logically speaking, one of the duties of a county magistrate is to accept lawsuits, which is the origin of the court hearings commonly seen in later TV dramas.
However, compared to other official duties, this lawsuit is much more energy-consuming.
There's a saying that goes, "Even an upright official finds it hard to settle family disputes."
If Li Chong really puts his heart into handling such a huge stack of case files, he won't be able to do anything else for the next few months.
After only a cursory glance, Li Chong noticed that they were all trivial matters, such as who stole whose vegetables or who ate whose chickens, which did not benefit Li Chong in consolidating his power.
It seems that Yang Chengde came prepared, intending to use these things to distract him.
Li Chong pushed the case file aside and said, "I remember it's almost time to collect the summer taxes, isn't it? And I've also heard that the court has some new law called the Land Reclamation Decree this year. In my opinion, this matter is more important, isn't it?"
Yang Chengde calmly explained, "What the magistrate says is true. However, I have been handling the summer tax matter and the land reclamation is being implemented gradually. If I were to hand over the tax to the magistrate now, it would probably cause delays and even draw reprimands from the prefecture. I can only continue to work hard."
As he spoke, Yang Chengde gave a wry smile: "Your Excellency does not know that collecting taxes requires going deep into the countryside. If it weren't for the fear of delaying official business, I would really not want to work so hard."
Upon hearing this, many of the clerks below echoed his sentiments.
In their words, they either complained about the hardships of the journey or how difficult it was to deal with troublesome people, turning what should have been a peaceful morning court session into a grievance meeting.
"Sure enough, Yang Chengdela has already won over all these people." Li Chong nodded to himself. "If I want to regain power, it seems I'll have to find another way."