Chapter 31: Matters of Conscription

The moonlight was alluring.

In the West Flower Hall, Secretary Wan sat with palpable unease. Upon hearing footsteps approaching, he sprang from his seat and hurried to the doorway, bowing slightly as he greeted the newcomer. "Your student, Wan Zewen, pays his respects to the Magistrate!"

"Rise."

An Xin entered the room and cast a glance at him; he appeared respectable and composed—his appearance was acceptable. He gestured for Wan Zewen to sit. "I hear you are from Shaoxing, and that you were a scholar in the seventh year of the Jing-Shun reign?"

Wan Zewen nodded repeatedly with a smile. "The Magistrate is well-informed."

"I am aware that Shaoxing secretaries are found throughout the north and south, and even within the mansions of the high-ranking ministers in the capital. You should not have been short of prospects, Mr. Wan," An Xin observed.

Although Wan Zewen had not said it, An Xin could guess his intentions in requesting this late-night audience. Because the literary atmosphere in the Jiangnan region was so intense and competition so fierce, many failed scholars traveled to seek employment as private secretaries. Shaoxing men, in particular, were numerous. Given the strong emphasis on clan and regional ties in this era, Wan Zewen should not have lacked people to vouch for him.

Wan Zewen offered a bitter smile. "My former employer passed away suddenly. I stayed to assist in returning his remains to his hometown and only returned to Wuren last month. I had intended to depart at the end of this month, but since you have just arrived to take office and brought no personal staff with you, I thought—since I am already familiar with Wuren County—that I would present myself to you. If the Magistrate has need of me, I am prepared to help shoulder your burdens."

An Xin nodded. Though a secretary was merely a private aide to the magistrate and held no official government ranking, he was, in essence, a "deputy magistrate" in all but name, as he often exerted influence over the magistrate’s decisions. Under a strong-willed or authoritarian magistrate, a secretary's status in the yamen could even rival that of the county vice-magistrate or the registrar.

An Xin was indeed short of help, but what he lacked were loyal and capable people.

"There are those in this county who are utterly devoid of conscience—trafficking in humans, maiming children for begging, and deceiving the innocent. Are you aware of this, Mr. Wan?" An Xin asked.

Wan Zewen was taken aback, but he knew the true "interview" had begun. He nodded. "It is true. They are most active in the Tower District, Red Herb District, North Pass Market, Wharf District, Weaving District, and the Luo River Docks."

"Oh?" An Xin had not expected Wan Zewen to be so well-informed. He asked, "Did the previous magistrate never take action against them?"

"My former employer was unaware."

The answer again caught An Xin off guard. He frowned. "Was he unfaithful to his duties as a public servant?"

Wan Zewen stood up and bowed deeply. "It is not that I did not wish to warn him, but the matter involves the Martial Arts Academy. My former master once told us that unless it involved treason, we were not to meddle in the affairs of the academy. We only learned of this after receiving petitions from those whose children had been abducted. We discovered that the Great Blade Gang was behind it, and that the gang is an enterprise of the Martial Arts Academy. To spare my master from difficulty, I did not inform him."

An Xin let out a scoff. "To turn a blind eye to the world outside—a life of leisure and ease, indeed."

Wan Zewen offered an embarrassed smile, choosing not to echo the sentiment.

"I had thought the Martial Arts Academy was merely unscrupulous, but I did not expect them to profit from such filthy business. I overestimated them."

An Xin had previously considered absorbing the academy and the Great Blade Gang for his own use, knowing that governing a county was not simply black and white—there were tasks that could not be done in the light. But if they were capable of such depravity, they were better off destroyed, lest they ruin his own reputation. With that thought, An Xin solidified his stance against the academy.

Observing the young magistrate, Wan Zewen felt that this man was significantly tougher than his predecessor. Whether he was merely a newborn calf unafraid of the tiger, or if he truly possessed the strength to back his words, remained to be seen.

"Mr. Wan, please sit," An Xin said. "You are surely aware of the meeting I held today with the local gentry."

Wan Zewen nodded. In his view, the fact that the new magistrate could identify his goals and persuade the Huang family to stand with him so quickly—regardless of how many concessions were made—showed that the man possessed considerable ability.

"I have promised the gentry that I will begin recruitment tomorrow. If I were to put you in charge, how would you handle it?"

Wan Zewen, having been momentarily distracted, quickly pulled himself together. He pondered for a moment and asked, "I dare to ask, Magistrate: do you truly intend to suppress the bandits?"

"Why do you ask?" An Xin’s expression remained unchanged as he took a slow sip of tea.

Wan Zewen replied, "There are ways to recruit for the sake of suppressing bandits, and there are ways to recruit just to go through the motions."

A slippery one, An Xin thought with a smile. He had seen many such men in the bureaucracy—people who never studied the actual needs of the people, nor based their actions on facts, but spent every day maneuvering to align themselves with the whims of their superiors. Such men often lacked strong principles but possessed high capability. They were a double-edged sword: they would execute orders with absolute obedience, but they would never counsel a leader against their errors, often acting as willing accomplices to wrongdoing. For An Xin, however, such a man was quite useful.

"Explain," An Xin said.

Wan Zewen, unable to discern if the magistrate was sincere or merely using the pretext of suppression to extort wealth, spoke candidly. "To truly suppress bandits, one must recruit capable soldiers. This requires significant funds for training and equipment. To merely go through the motions, one simply recruits local militia as per tradition. They provide their own rations, cost nothing, and after a month or two of perfunctory training, they can march into the hills, satisfy the public, and be done with it."

"I intend to allocate ten thousand taels of silver for recruitment and training to hunt down the bandits," An Xin said, setting down his cup and fixing his gaze on Wan Zewen.

"I understand!" Wan Zewen felt a jolt of shock; he realized the magistrate was serious.

"I know this is a hard nut to crack, one that three previous magistrates failed to solve. But I happen to enjoy tackling the toughest problems! If ten thousand taels is not enough, I will provide twenty thousand! If twenty thousand is not enough, I will provide thirty thousand! I will not rest until these two 'psoriasis patches' are eradicated," An Xin stated firmly.

Wan Zewen felt a surge of excitement. No one truly wishes to be idle if they can perform meaningful work. Now that he had the chance, he could not suppress his own fervor.

"I still recall last winter, when eighteen households in Xiao-Zhang Village were slaughtered by the bandits of Baling Mountain. I went there and saw a wealthy farmer tied to a tree, covered in a thick layer of ice—the bandits had poured water over him, bucket by bucket, until he was frozen solid. There was also a woman seven or eight months pregnant whose belly was ripped open, and the infant was thrown into a water vat..."

Wan Zewen paused, his voice heavy with emotion, before returning to the point. "For this recruitment, I suggest several sources. First, the thugs employed by the gentry. They are strong and often skilled in combat, but they are loyal to their masters and hard to control. Second, criminals from the prisons—using thieves to catch thieves. But they are difficult to manage and might turn on us, so we should only select those with families. Third, recruiting the sons of good families. They lack fighting spirit and may flee under pressure, requiring more money and effort to train."

"However," he continued, "I believe we should recruit from Mengji, Zhaodian, and the villages of Bi, Lu, and Black Wind Fort in Henglou Township. These places have all suffered harassment, looting, and murder at the hands of the bandits. These people have suffered the most, and they possess the strongest desire and motivation for revenge. If they know this is a campaign to wipe out the bandits, they will surely join in droves."

An Xin needed more than just soldiers; he needed loyalists. He had no desire to recruit from the ranks of gentry thugs or convicts.

"If we rely on thugs or criminals, it will be detrimental to our governance. We shall recruit from the sons of honest families. I leave this to you, Secretary Wan. Do not fail me."

An Xin stood up and helped Wan Zewen, who was bowing, back to his feet. Wan Zewen was overjoyed. He knew, however, that to truly earn the Magistrate's trust, he had to succeed in the task he had been set: the recruitment.