Zhang Xiaowu became more and more aware that the Yinyi Wei Yamen was an artifact for collecting money, because when it came to the lunar month (December), the people who came to the Yinyi Wei Yamen to give gifts for business or private purposes actually sent 200,000 taels of silver back and forth. Zhang Xiaowu put all these bribes in the private treasury of Yinyiwei and used them for all the staff of Yinyiwei. As far as he is concerned, he doesn't need to spend any money, so he doesn't need to put it in his wallet, but he is a person who rarely takes bribes personally.

Thinking that the army of the Southern Expedition needed the emperor to force the ministers to crowdfund, and Yinyiwei had just been on the right track for less than half a year, and he had obtained nearly 500,000 taels of silver before and after, I really don't know how the court became poor. He then thought that he was working hard in Saibei, and he had secretly taken other people's military salaries, and risked such a big capital crime, but it was better to be a five-grade petty official in Longdu to be above board - the most important thing is that the money was only obtained in half a year.

"The nobles of the empire are not without money, but they don't have money, it's like plucking feathers on an iron rooster." Wu Song shook his head and sighed, only feeling that it was ridiculous and absurd at this time, but it was not surprising, "But if the Central Plains is broken by the Inuyi, or beaten to Longdu by the puppet Wu rebels, what is the use of them hiding so much money?" ”

"Don't be afraid of dying of hunger and starvation, it's the most interesting thing if people die and the money is still there." Zhang Xiaowu said something inexplicable, and Wu Song naturally didn't understand, because he was talking about those Donglin Party families in the late Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Chongzhen at the end of the Ming Dynasty was very fond of the officials of the Donglin Party, thinking that they were "iron-clad Donglin Party", and the Donglin Party also fooled Chongzhen to kill the eunuch party, and since then no one has done errands for the emperor, everyone has learned to show their "arrogance" in front of the emperor, "never truth", "great name and arrogance" and so on, once there are doers who want to negotiate peace with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they will be scolded as traitors by these "hard-boned" Donglin Party.

However, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty rose and Chongzhen received money from the ministers of the Donglin Party, they became turtles with shrunken heads one by one, in order to show that their families were poor, they still wore official uniforms with patches when they went to the court, just for fear that the emperor would say that he was rich.

As a result, after Li Zicheng hit the Beijing Division, the members of the Donglin Party immediately became officials of the new dynasty, and then Liu Zongmin, a general under Li Zicheng, was severely tortured, handed over all the silver, and after the Manchu iron rode into the Central Plains, he returned his knees to the Manchu Qing Dynasty - the Donglin Party was like the Internet keyboard warriors of later generations, scolding the country all day long for not being tough and scolding the government for not acting and scolding this and that, but he did not plant a tree for the country.

"The richer you are, the more you are unpatriotic and love yourself." Zhang Xiaowu concluded.

Wu Song smiled: "The one who collects the most money from the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty is Zuo Xiang, and he is not patriotic?" ”

The corners of Zhang Xiaowu's mouth hooked up a smile, he knew that the team that gave gifts to Zuo Xiang every day lined up from the gate of Zhang's mansion to the street, and it was no wonder that Zuo Xiang was the richest man in Shenghan. He thought for a while and said: "Now Shenghan is the most powerful country in the world, even if Wuhuan rises and other countries gradually become stronger, they have to admit that Shenghan is still the most powerful country in the world." So now those rich people are still clamoring for their patriotism, but if Shenghan is not the world's first power, and there is another country that is twice as powerful as the Shenghan Empire, if you look at them again, what will be their faces? I've seen a lot of people like this—"

After the wedding of the son of the king of Boling County, the whole dragon was immersed in the joy of preparing for the New Year, although the past year of the Holy Han Empire was full of disasters, but after all, at the end of the year, everyone wanted to be auspicious.

Yinyiwei also ushered in the year-end summary, all bureaus, institutes, households, teams and other institutions or departments gathered in the Yinyiwei Yamen main hall to hold a meeting, Zhang Xiaowu named the main hall the conference center, the layout adopts a modern style, a rostrum, a long table on the stage five chairs, 80 chairs under the stage, everyone sits on the chair when the meeting, no need to stand or squat, and there is no need to ask for leave if you want to pee during the meeting.

Everyone felt fresh, it was the first time to sit and listen to the general's speech, Zhang Xiaowu would not say any polite words and fake empty words, and said three things, the first thing was to distribute welfare, five taels of silver per person, and the second thing was that from the twenty-fourth hour of the lunar month to the fifteenth day of the first month, the twenty-one days, divided into three groups to rest on holiday, one group was on duty for seven days and rested for fourteen days. The third thing was a punishment, fifteen household guards openly asked for bribes, and were punished and rushed back to Saibei Mucheng and returned to the ghost guard.

Zhang Xiaowu has rewards and punishments for doing things, and those who do things according to the rules will naturally be rewarded, and those who have learned to extort bribes and extortion in less than half a year will naturally return to the most difficult Saibei, lest he do more in the future. drove away fifteen people at a time, and Zhang Xiaowu was also determined to rectify the atmosphere of the silver guards.

"These fifteen people must be driven away." Zhang Xiaowu slapped the table, "Whoever fucking pleads, who accompanies them, it's not that I didn't give them benefits, nor did I give them freedom, but they probably forgot that there is a limit to how good I can be to them." Now that it has developed to the stage of asking for bribes, yes, it's really good, it's really fucking good, ask for a bribe today, and tomorrow you can betray Yinyiwei for money. After being rich for a few days, did you forget your roots? After you go back, you will convey to me the spirit of today's meeting, and if any more bribe-takers are found, they will be judged according to today's example! ”

Everyone sighed with emotion in their hearts, after half a year of prosperous life in Longdu, who wanted to go back to Saibei, but these fifteen people were really unlucky. This is also to blame others, everyone has secretly accepted small bribes, but it has not developed to the stage of openly asking for bribes, these fifteen people can be regarded as drinking the first glass of wine.

After driving out these fifteen people, the atmosphere of the silver-clothed guards was really much better, and no one would dare to ask for bribes anymore. Zhang Xiaowu knows that in fact, no one has been able to successfully eradicate corruption since ancient times, unless there is a cashless world, all money transactions rely on data, and through the data supervision department, it can accurately determine whether others are corrupt and how much income, as long as there is the most primitive gold and silver transactions, it will not be able to eliminate bribery.

The only thing he can do is to control everyone not to turn small evils into big evils, and it is okay to accept some small money and gifts, but it is absolutely not allowed to openly ask for bribes or take cards without doing anything.

After the year-end summary meeting of the silver-clothed guard Yamen, it was the Chinese New Year's Eve of the 23rd month of the second year of Dade, and on this day, all the family members had to get together first, and Zhang Xiaowu's family was very simple, with only one wife, Wanqiu.

The two of them have not had a son and a half daughter so far, and Wanqiu's stomach has not reacted, so the two are more miserable. On the contrary, in the next room, the housekeeper Mangzhong beckoned a few subordinates who moved from Saibei to eat and drink together, which was very lively. Mangzhong is getting fatter and fatter, but she doesn't care about her figure, and she has a natural mentality of I'm fat and I'm happy.

Mangzhong's mentality is very natural and relaxed, but Wanqiu is preoccupied, the two are eating roast chicken and fish and a table of dishes, drinking the wine brought from Saibei, Zhang Xiaowu feels very happy, he enjoys a rare tranquility, but Wanqiu suddenly put down his chopsticks and resolutely said: "Husband, I want to do something, you must promise me." ”

"Go to the Guanyin Temple to ask for a child?" Zhang Xiaowu took a sip and smiled, "Okay, I promise you." ”

Wanqiu shook her head and said, "No, I want to take a concubine for you, I've already secretly taken care of it for you-"

"You can stop." Zhang Xiaowu shook his head and said, "I don't need to take a concubine." ”

Wanqiu said pitifully: "If you are not filial, you will have three no queens, and the slave family can't give you a son and a half daughter, and you always feel sorry for the ancestors of the Zhang family." ”

Zhang Xiaowu couldn't cry or laugh, what ancestors and ancestors of the Zhang family, as a traverser, he didn't think about anything about the ancestors and ancestors at all, so he patiently persuaded him: "Wanqiu, you have to know that not having children is not necessarily your reason, maybe it is caused by me killing too much, God is punishing me?" You, all day long, there are many reasons why the husband and wife have no children, maybe the time has not come, maybe the man is infertile, maybe the woman is infertile, it is possible. You always blame yourself for not having children, and it's a bit stressful. ”

Wanqiu hesitated for a moment and then said, "Husband, it's better to find the imperial doctor and let the imperial doctor help to see if it is the slave family's fault, or the Xianggong - or the time has not come." ”

"Okay." Zhang Xiaowu did not reject the doctor, and as he was talking, he suddenly heard a thunderclap on the ground, and a huge explosion resounded in the sky. He rushed out of the room, only to see the fire in the distance, it should be in the seventy-two squares of the outer city, this huge fire does not know the reason, but it is not a good thing after all. Zhang Xiaowu immediately shouted: "One catty, Kansai, follow me to ride a horse." ”

"Whoa."

Wang Yijin and Chen Guanxi have always lived in Zhang's house, and at this time they took out the horse, put on a silver sweatshirt and rushed out, and met several silver guards night patrols one after another on the way, and everyone gathered into a team of more than 200 people, and quickly rushed to the firelight.

The place where the fire and explosion occurred was in the Beidifang in the outer seventy-two squares, and the Beidifang was the Beiyi four squares in the southwest corner. In that year, the Beiyi Pu clan usurped power, and the Li royal family led part of the clan to flee to the Central Plains Shenghan Empire, and was taken in by Emperor Taiqian in Beidifang, Peony Fang, Samurai Fang, and Dafu Fang.

But these four squares are not only Beiyi people, other such as Fusang people, Yan people, Wuhuan people, Johor people and other foreign races also like to live here, the people of Shenghan always have a feeling of the heavenly kingdom on top, looking at foreigners, especially the strange appearance of the alien race, with a slight trace of contempt and rejection, so that many foreign friends come to this Beiyi four squares to live. And these four squares in the Beiyi people more, when Emperor Taiqian allowed the Beiyi people to change some buildings to the architectural style of the Beiyi people, so it was ridiculed by everyone as the Beiyi four squares, in fact, in the four squares of Beiyi, the holy Han people accounted for sixty percent, the Beiyi people accounted for two percent, and the rest of the ethnic groups accounted for two percent.

When Zhang Xiaowu and the others arrived at Beidifang, they saw a guild hall on fire, the flames were so bright that they could not get close to people, and several aliens in clothes or quilts were hiding outside the fire and wailing and calling the names of their companions or friends.

The surrounding neighbors were also on fire, and Zhang Xiaowu immediately led the silver guards to join the firefighting. However, it was winter, and most of the halls were made of wood, so the water from the well could not save the fire. Seeing that the fire was about to burn around, in order to avoid the entire Beidi Fangfang City from catching fire, Zhang Xiaowu immediately made a decision to demolish the wooden houses near the neighbors and wait for the fire to be extinguished.

Indeed, in the absence of modern firefighting tools, the only thing that can be done is to prevent the fire from spreading to all sides.

While everyone was demolishing the surrounding houses, dozens of beautiful girls ran out shouting, they were fair-skinned, tall, delicate-faced, and dressed in simple clothes—

Beidifang Yinyi Wei Shi hurriedly introduced: "This is the dancing girl in the prostitution hall of Beidifang, Beiyi people like to watch the dancing girl dance, and the beautiful name is called the girl group." ”

Zhang Xiaowu laughed and said, "The women's group originally did this, and the daughters of serious people shouldn't go to the women's group." ”

Nashi Chang smiled and said: "Who is a serious person to join the women's group, it's just to support the family, after all, as a woman in the women's group, no one takes her as a wife seriously." Don't say that our Shenghan men don't marry, even their Beiyi men don't marry women of the women's group, so as not to slander the lintel. ”

Zhang Xiaowu saw that those women knew how to tremble, so he ordered the door of a nearby house to be opened and let them hide in to avoid the cold. However, the shopkeeper next to him was not happy, the shopkeeper was a Fusang man, and he was very upright, saying that he was unwilling to let the girl group go in to avoid the cold, saying that his family was a serious person, and the people of the girl group would insult his family when they stepped in.

Wang Yijin was so angry that he wanted to beat the Fusang shopkeeper, Zhang Xiaowu shook his head, and ordered the silver guards to take off their cloaks and put them on these Beiyi women, one layer is not enough, there are two layers, and if two layers are not enough, there are three layers. The girls of the Beiyi Women's Group wore cloaks, felt the warm current in the cold wind, and immediately cried profusely, and all kinds of grateful Smecta said it, Zhang Xiaowu and the others were stunned and didn't understand a word.

A Beiyi woman who knew Chinese stepped forward and thanked her: "Official, you are really a good person, can you tell us your name." ”

Zhang Xiaowu waved his hand and said, "Holy Han man, I can't see my daughter suffering. ”

Wang Yijin introduced Zhang Xiaowu's identity on the side, and all the Beiyi women suddenly exclaimed, they never expected that it was the famous ghost general Zhang Xiaowu who saved them.

The fire burned all night and was finally extinguished, and the Silver Guards took control of all the surviving members of the hall. I learned that this is a Fuso hall, and it is a meeting place for Fuso people who study in Xidu.

The Fuso people are a country on the eastern island of the Holy Han Empire, but Fuso is not a country, but is called the Fusang archipelago, which is said to have more than a hundred countries and more than a thousand islands. The Fuso people are the collective name of the Fuso Islands, but there are many ethnic groups and languages on the Fuso Islands, and the clubhouse where the explosion and fire occurred today is called the Fuso Kaneda Club, and it is the club where the people of the Fuso Islands live in the Kaneda country.