Chapter 248: Rising Reputation

After some persecution, the two Chen brothers naturally wept and repented, admitted their mistakes, and decided to carry forward the fine traditional spirit of brothers, friends and brothers, and gave the land to each other.

The case came to an end, and when the Chen brothers left, Liu Renzhi smiled and said: "My lord is clever, so decisive, from now on, the two will definitely be friendly and dear and will no longer dispute over the field." ”

"Hopefully, before my father's bones are cold, the two will begin to fight for the land, and if they do not repent again, I will condemn them to a crime of unfilial piety." Chu Zhi said coldly, Li Lingzhi was dizzy, sure enough, ancient and modern, sighed for a moment, remembered that Shen Liao was still in the back office, and hurriedly returned.

"Brother Ruida, thanks to your reminder this time." Chu Zhen smiled and saluted, expressing his gratitude again, feeling that Shen Yu's recommendation was indeed right, and Shen Liao was indeed a suitable staff candidate.

"From beginning to end, the adults themselves tried and decided the case, and I didn't dare to take credit." Shen Liao said, unlike admitting that he had helped from it, and inferred some of Shen Liao's thoughts, Chu Zhen smiled slightly, and did not dwell on some things anymore, but instead chatted with him about anecdotes about calligraphy and painting.

Although Chu Zhen has the heart to invite Shen Liao to be his staff, but everything pays attention to the cycle gradually, and the coming day is long, so there is no need to worry, and today Shen Liao can go to the county government to meet him, and he also has a reminder, which proves that his sincerity still has some effect.

After receiving the official letter from the Ministry of Officials, the Hangzhou Prefecture Government, to be precise, should be subordinate to the various officials of Hangzhou, whether it is the road level, or the township level officials have begun to get busy, the world-famous Fan Xianggong came to take office, how can he not give him a good impression of the old man.

Because he didn't know which road he was going to take, as long as the post stations along the way to Hangzhou City had to arrange the rooms and prepare the food, including transportation, foot strength, waiters and other matters, all of which had to be considered, and the county government was not idle, and gathered one after another to discuss the date of receiving the seal and the ritual note, how to welcome Fan Gong's entry into the city, as well as the security work, and also seize the time to sort out the case files in the county office, make up account books, and so on.

And Chu Zhi, as the magistrate of Qiantang County, is also one of the main persons in charge of the greeting work, and he can simply summarize his situation in the past few days by being very busy, fortunately, Liu Renzhi has both the experience of being greeted by others and welcoming others, relatively speaking, the experience is naturally richer than Chu Qian, thanks to his guidance, Chu Zhen can finally reluctantly cope with it.

Everything was arranged properly, and the work was instructed to his subordinates, I thought I could breathe a sigh of relief, but after hearing the report of the scribes who were ordered to investigate the situation of the rivers in the county, Chu Zhen's mood became depressed again, except for several large rivers and streams outside Hangzhou City, which can also fully support farmland irrigation, the water of rivers and wells in some higher places is basically about one-third less than before, and the serious drought has bottomed out.

When they received the order, some of the scribes thought that the newly appointed magistrate was going to use them to establish their authority, but after walking around twice outside, and seeing the situation of the rivers and streams, as long as their brains were not stupid, they should understand what was going on.

As long as the water of the West Lake is not dry, the drought has no effect on them living in the city, but most of the officials in the county government have fields and land outside the city, and they are facing such a situation, which naturally makes them worried, and they are looking forward to what the county lord has ideas.

"My lord, the drought is coming, what should I do?" A certain scribe asked eagerly, and he was not blamed for being in a hurry, although there is a lot of oil and water in the county office, and it is more than enough to support his family, but none of the scribes dare to guarantee how long they will stay in the official office, the officialdom is unpredictable, and he is still working in the county office today, and he may have to pack up his baggage and leave tomorrow.

Therefore, the clever officials, as long as they have some savings, of course, choose to buy the land, hire people or let their families farm, and when the drought comes, it may lead to no harvest, and the benefits that will be in hand will be gone in a blink of an eye, and who it is, will definitely not be happy in their hearts.

"My lord, the summer tax has not been paid yet, but in this drought, the people are afraid that they will not be able to bear it, my lord should report this situation to the court and apply for exemption or postponement of payment, otherwise the payment will not be completed on time, and the court will reprimand it." Liu Renzhi said, his forehead tightly locked.

The tax of the Song Dynasty adopted the two tax laws of the Tang Dynasty, that is, only the summer tax and the autumn tax were levied, the summer tax was levied on May 15, and the summer tax was paid on July 30, and the autumn tax was unified on the first day of September and December 15, and the time could be adjusted according to the difference in the maturity period of the crops in the region.

"Adults, when the little ones were returning to the city, I saw some homeless people walking in the direction of the city on the road, and their accents didn't seem to be locals." A scribe said, although he only said half of the words, but everyone understood what he meant, not a local, it was just from another county, and I was afraid that it was from other states, which would be even more troublesome.

"What else?" Chu asked, his expression was very calm, he didn't seem to pay any attention to the current drought, it was true, although he was a little worried in his heart, but in the past two days, Chu Zhen also figured it out, this kind of major matter is not something that he can solve alone, and there is still a tall man on top of the sky, he is just a small county official from Bapin, and there are ministers of Zhizhou and the court, and there is also a great talent who can govern the country and Wuneng Anbang is about to arrive, presumably the drought is nothing at all for him.

Seeing that everyone shook their heads, Chu Zhen nodded and said: "Since this is the case, then according to Master Liu's opinion, report this matter to the imperial court, apply for summer tax reduction, open a warehouse and release grain for disaster relief." ”

When it comes to releasing grain for disaster relief, what comes to Chu Zhi's mind is the ancient disaster relief scenes in many TV dramas, what officials are corrupt, shoddy, and the grain is mixed with sand and gravel, etc., I hope this kind of thing will not be encountered by himself, otherwise, he is very interested in writing a few anonymous letters to Bao Zheng, who serves in the Zhiyuan.

"My lord, is there really no way to solve the drought?" A certain scribe still did not give up, and suggested softly: "Why don't you try to open the altar and ask for rain, I heard that the monks of Jingci Temple are very effective in asking for rain, and adults can go." ”

Coldly glanced at the scribe, Chu Zhen was about to reprimand the other party's feudal superstition, but suddenly woke up, this is a characteristic of ancient times, he is not superstitious, he can't stop others from being superstitious, it's useless to scold, he has the heart to tell them how the rain is formed, but he knows that they must not understand, so he simply waits silently, sighing softly in his heart, if it is better in modern times, he can apply various technologies to alleviate the drought, but now, he can only have a weak heart.

Seeing that Chu Zhen was silent, everyone also guessed that he would definitely disagree, and he also retired with interest, and he had some money at home, but he planned to invite a few high-ranking priests to cast spells in the fields at home to ask for rain, and they didn't believe that asking for rain was effective, so they sent letters home one after another, so that the family was ready for the coming of the drought.

Anyway, the drought is so obvious that it can be hidden from the residents of the city, but it can't be hidden from the people in the township.

Moreover, not all areas have drought, some places are full of rivers and rivers, there is no need to worry at all, and most of the residents in the city do not depend on farming for a living, I heard that there is a drought, at most they sell a few more stones of rice and grain for backup, there is no chaos at all, the only consequence is that the price of rice has increased.

But at this time in Hangzhou, although there is no Ming and Qing dynasties in Suzhou and Hangzhou familiar with the world of proverbs, but also can be called the land of fish and rice, is the grain production area in the south of the Yangtze River, in ancient times is not like now, there is no habit of storing grain, the general solid home, the home must have a year's worth of grain, and those landlords and gentry, three or five years do not buy rice do not have to worry, as for those grain merchants not to mention, so the price of rice is only a slight fluctuation increase, there is no impact at all.

The most important thing is that now it is only found that there is a drought, the drought situation is not very serious, there are unforeseen storms and clouds, if it suddenly rains so much, it may not be uncommon for the so-called drought to be immediately relieved and disappear, so some people in the city are very unimpressed with Chu Zhen's fanfare to publicize the news that the drought is coming, and they criticize it behind their backs, thinking that Chu Zhen must have benefited from the grain merchants, so they deliberately spread the news.

"Short-sighted, short-sighted." Shen Liao sneered, full of disdain.

"Ruida, people just have objections, there's no need to hurt people so much." Shen Yao said with a smile, her bright eyes were looking forward to it, and her beautiful face became more and more charming and charming.

"Halving the water of a river can solve the problem with one or two rains." Shen Liao snorted coldly: "If you believe their words and don't prepare in advance, I'm afraid that the price of rice and grain will be even higher at that time." ”

"In this way, it seems to be a good idea to hoard Juqi, well, I will let Seventeen go to Jingnan to pull a few boatloads of rice and grain back." Shen Yao said with a smile, her eyebrows raised slightly, a little girlish and innocent.

"Don't be afraid of others cursing behind your back, you don't have to be in spite of that." Shen Liao said lightly: "You don't care about the reputation of the profiteer, but be careful of losing all your money." ”

"No return! How so? , others are just that, how can you curse your own sister. Shen Yao said in surprise, a smile flashing across her beautiful eyes.

"Don't be confused." Shen Liao seemed to be a little helpless: "Every time there is a drought, which time the imperial court does not open a warehouse to release grain, and it also restricts the price of rice shops in the store, if it is the former Ma Zhizhou, it may be able to tolerate this kind of thing, but Fan Gong's means sister should know that whoever dares to play hoarding in front of him is similar to killing himself." ”

"Alas, I don't know if the ministers of the court are confused, and they actually let this person come to Hangzhou, which is obviously blocking people's money." Shen Yao said with a sigh, a look of loss.

"Sister, I don't dare to agree with this, do you know what kind of character Fan Gong is, that's it." Shen Liao's emotions seemed to be a little excited, and he was going to introduce Fan Zhongyan's glorious deeds at length.

"I naturally know that a degraded official, and a nasty degraded official." Shen Yao said casually, complaining about the new policy, which caused Wentong to almost fail to fill the official position.

"Don't speculate, I'm leaving." Shen Liao said angrily, he was about to walk away, he dared to slander the idol in his heart like this, thinking that she was a woman, and she didn't have the same knowledge as her, but she didn't want to admit that she had no way to refute this sentence.

"This is your own courtyard, where are you going?" Shen Yao pursed her lips and smiled: "Or, you are going to go to the county office to find that little county official." ”

After hesitating for a moment, he finally sat down again, Shen Liao was silent, obviously the anger in his heart had not disappeared.

"Okay, let's not talk about Fan Xianggong." Obviously without any respect, Shen Yao chuckled and said, "Ruida, I heard that you have been running to the county government these days, and you have also helped that little county official solve a lot of cases. ”

"Who said that, I've only been there once." Shen Liao distinguished, and suddenly realized that he seemed to have been fooled.

"Oops, that's true." Shen Yao's face was full of surprise, and her seductive red lips outlined a bright smile: "When I first heard the news, I thought it was just a rumor, and it was not enough to believe it at all, after all, you hate entering the county government the most, I didn't expect that you would actually." ”

"Second son, second son." There was a rush of footsteps, as if there was something urgent, and he was out of breath but hurriedly called.

"Second son,." A young man rushed over, wheezing, seeing the situation in the courtyard clearly, he hurriedly stepped forward and saluted: "I have seen the eldest lady and the second son." ”

"What's the matter?" Shen Liao asked lightly.

Quietly taking a breath and calming his breath, the young man said, "Fan Xianggong has arrived." ”

"Where?" Shen Liao immediately got up and hurriedly asked.

"The pavilion in front of the East City Gate." The boy said.

In the east of Hangzhou, a lively scene, drums and gongs are noisy, it is really men and women, old and young, crowded and crowded, of course, these people are not specially arranged by the official government to come, people are respectful of Fan Xianggong, there is no need for people to initiate, they have come voluntarily, if it is not for the news has not spread, I am afraid that there will only be more people who come.

Although I believe that the people will not hurt Fan Gong, but how to do it, otherwise the security work will not be arranged in vain, under the command of the state government to join the army, nearly a hundred archers in armor and swords stood on both sides, stopping the onlookers and preventing them from crowding in.

In the public hall of the state ya, the officials, scribes, errands, deacons, etc., of the whole yamen, all stood in their respective positions according to their grades and shifts, and waited for Ma Zhizhou, who was about to leave office, to make a symbolic action to untie the official seal, and then naturally someone sent it to the east of the city to serve Fan Zhongyan, but this kind of errand was generally taken care of by the deputy of the state governor, that is, the general judge of the state government, and there was nothing to do.

When the general judge left, Ma Zhizhou seemed to sigh with some regret, surrounded by several entourages, and slowly walked out of the yamen, everyone knew that he was not sighing because of the transfer, but because of the rules and etiquette, he could not go to meet Fan Zhongyan in person, and he was a little disappointed in his heart.

At this time, the state government was a little empty, large and small officials and government officials and scribes went to greet and witness the demeanor of Fan Gong, of course, the yamen must always be guarded, after some arguments, under the seniority, the Qiantang Zhixian Chu and Renhe Zhixian Zhang Yuanshan who heard the news stayed in front of the lobby and waited.

Zhang Yuanshan looked ahead and said softly: "Lord Chu, Zhang has confessed to the matter of Zhang Village. ”

"Mediating the disputes of the people under my rule is my duty, and what does it have to do with Lord Zhang." Chu Zhen smiled and said, no matter what, Qiantang County is also its own territory, and if something goes wrong, others will not take responsibility for themselves.

He glanced at Chu Qian, and after a while, a smile appeared on Zhang Yuanshan's face: "This is reasonable, it is Zhang Mou's troubles." ”

"Why did Master Zhang say this, I am an official for the first time, and my experience is shallow, so I will ask you to mention more in the future." Chu Zhen said with a smile, these days, there is no bad thing in maintaining a humble attitude.

"Why should Lord Chu be so humble." Zhang Yuanshan smiled and said: "Now in Hangzhou City, who is not rumored to be resourceful and impartial when the Lord Chu of Qiantang Zhixian County tried the case, especially the honest and honest style, which is extremely admirable." ”

Could it be that he sold his favor to him, so he praised himself like this, Chu Zhen looked at Zhang Yuanshan with some suspicion.

"Don't doubt it, I didn't make it up, if you don't believe it, you can just ask privately." Zhang Yuanshan said, there was a faint trace of inexplicable emotion in his heart, he had such a reputation in just a few days, he had been an official for a year, but he only got a few words of praise from the people for being a good official.

"Resourceful? Are you talking about me? Chu Zhi muttered, a little confused in his heart.

"The case of the Chen brothers in Wuli Village." Zhang Yuanshan reminded: "You used clever tricks to reconcile their brothers as before. ”

"It's just a small thing, not worth mentioning." Chu Zhi waved his hand slightly, two days ago, I don't know if I regretted it, or I was afraid that I would really send their heirs away, the Chen brothers took the elders in the village, as well as relatives and friends, and swore in public in the county government hall that from now on, the two brothers will respect relatives and friendships, and no longer separate families, and their children and grandchildren will live in the ancestral house, and they actually plan to donate the land to show their determination.

"Little thing, do you know, their brothers have been preaching your kindness all over the streets for the past two days, and now it is known all over the city." Zhang Yuanshan said loudly, envious in his heart.

"Nonsense." Chu Zhen laughed and laughed, let the Chen brothers mess around like this, people still think that they are selling their reputation.

Vaguely guessing Chu Zhen's worries, Zhang Yuanshan said: "Don't worry, do you know what their brothers do for a living?" ”

"Isn't it farming?" Chu Zhi said confusedly.

"It's not." Zhang Yuanshan said with a smile: "They are making a living in the miscellaneous drama team of Goolan Vashe, and I don't know whose idea it was, they actually made a drama about your case of breaking their case, and it has been performed for two days, and it seems to be very popular." ”