Officialdom Unmasked

55. The Arrival of the Foreign Gunboats

55 The Arrival of the Foreign Gunboat s Having heard the conversation between Magistrate Mei and Assistant Secretary Lao, Secretary Feng thought in his heart, 'This man is devoid of any national feelings. He only hopes to preserve his own office and assets. Even if the whole of the southern region of the River Yangzi is given away to the foreigners, it does not concern him. But there is one problem: while the people can remain submissive, you will be of no use whatsoever a s an official. Everyon e knows that the natio n has been given away by you officials piec e by piece. And now you come up with this speech! Is it not laughable! ' Magistrate Mei joined i n and said, 'Old Master Lao, there i s only one thin g wrong for the foreigner t o take away Jiangnan, the piece of tercitory south of the Yangzi River.' Assistant Secretary Lao asked quickly, 'What is it?' Magistrate Mei said, 'It is just that our Governor-General i s a most difficul t man to please. I was rebuffed the moment I took up my office. In these few months, I have strictl y followed i n his path, bu t I fear tha t h e i s still unhappy wit h me . Don't you agree it is most difficult fo r subordinates like us?' Before Assistant Secretary Lao could open his mouth, Secretary Feng quickly came in, 'My Lord does not need to worry about this. At present, he is your superior and you are his subordinate. When the tercitory belongs to the foreigners, they are concerned onl y with equality . There i s no difference betwee n "th e Great One " and "the humble official". In this case, your office is as senior as theirs. Above you there is only the foreign king. You have no control over him and he has no control over you. So what are you worrying about?' % .฀ S฀ i/f฀M i฀ 1^1฀ "! W^-.-I'M Vknvy*^-' J &>- 568 Officialdom Unmasked Magistrate Mei only half believed what he was told. But before he could reply, Assistant Secretary Lao intercupted by saying, 'I have all along said that Secretary Feng's view is the same as my grandson's. My grandson also frequently talk s about equality.' When Secretar y Feng heard this , he was even more annoyed, but ther e was nothing he could do. Since tha t time , Magistrat e Me i devote d himsel f t o cultivatin g a goo d relationship wit h th e loca l merchant s an d raisin g a larg e su m o f money . H e succeeded in establishing a school and pursued other enterprises which could be described as modern or reformist . Often h e calle d o n th e Governor-Genera l t o report o n wha t h e wa s doing. After som e time, even the Governor-General change d his mind abou t him an d commented, 'Thi s person seems quite able.' You may not know this, but any official who can extract a praise like this from his superior is tantamount to having received the good news about his promotion. In truth, in less than three months, he was promoted to take up the post of Acting Prefect in the Ocean Prefecture which came directly under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General. When Magistrate Mei heard this, he was overjoyed . The Ocean Prefecture was situated on the coast. Though it was an importan t office i n name, in fact nothing much happened there. It was only within the last couple of years that some countries which were always coveting our territories had sent their gunboats to patrol our coast. When they reached a place, they did no t leave immediately. Sometimes they would even dispatch their men ashore. Their number varied , an d the y sai d the y wer e surveyin g th e surrounding s o r drillin g their soldiers . Even th e grea t officials i n control o f our vast territories coul d d o nothing with them, let alone the junior local officials . About a month after Mei had assumed his new office, suddenly three gunboats came into the territorial waters under his jurisdiction. They were spread out in a line and showed no sign of...