After three years of demanding three hundred thousand taels in official funds, Qin Ke, the seventh-rank magistrate of remote Cangwu County, was denounced by officials up and down the court as the country's biggest parasite.
In a fit of rage, Emperor Hongtu made a secret inspection under the alias "Master Huang" and went to Cangwu in person to investigate corruption. But as soon as he reached the city gate, he was stopped. "You damaged the official road. Five hundred taels to enter." His fake travel permit was exposed on the spot, his imperial bodyguard was shoved face-first into the mud, and the Son of Heaven himself was thrown into prison as a "Northern Mang spy."
Ten thousand taels for bail, eighty taels for a jade sash, ten taels for a meat bun... The more IOUs he signed, the more valuable the emperor became as a hostage in the prison.
But the longer he stayed behind bars, the more alarmed the emperor became. A cement road ran straight out of the city, the jailers enforced discipline more strictly than the capital's troops, a gray wall had gone up overnight, and arrows could pierce warhorses from three hundred paces away. This "corrupt official," who talked of nothing but money and never let go of his abacus, had turned the border city the court had abandoned for three years into an iron fortress.
Then an army insignia from the Ministry of War rolled off a Northern Mang centurion, while three hundred carts of pig iron were being smuggled across the border under cover of night...
Your Majesty, the corrupt official you came to investigate is guarding your country's gates. The parasite you should be arresting is sitting securely in the imperial court.
