Of course, not every squire can come up with eight hundred taels of silver, after all, the annual income of ordinary people in this era is less than twenty taels, and the annual income of ordinary people in poor counties like Gutian is less than ten taels, even if it is Guo Zhiyuan, the county order, the annual income is only about forty taels, and it is not cash, it is converted into rice, 7 stone rice per month.

However, even those squires who couldn't come up with so much silver and couldn't compete for the Justices of the Peace also donated some silver to a greater or lesser extent, because Guo Zhiyuan told them that if the Justices of the Peace died or broke the law and there was a vacancy, they would select the one with the highest contribution from the squire's charity contribution list as a substitute, and at the same time, when choosing the local pavilion chief and lieutenant chief, they would also give priority to the squires who were on the contribution list, and this squire's charity contribution list also stimulated the vanity and comparison psychology of the squires, even if they gritted their teeth, they had to occupy a place on the contribution list.

There are still rich people, although Gutian County is poor, but it is located at the intersection of two official roads, commercial circulation, many people's business is far more limited to Gutian County, but radiates to Fuzhou Prefecture and even farther cities, so Guo Zhiyuan's ten Justices of the Peace quota was soon accounted for eight, and the list of squire's charitable contributions was also updated eight times!

Now even the patriarchs of the two largest families in the county, the Sun family and the Chen family, are a little unable to sit still, although they claim to be the "soil emperor" of Gutian County, but after all, this is not officially recognized, and now Guo Zhiyuan has put out this justice of the peace system, and eight of the ten seats have been taken, if they are the patriarchs of the two largest families in the county but not justices of the peace, it will be a little embarrassing!

Of course, the two patriarchs of the Sun family and the Chen family respected their identities, and it was impossible for them to take the initiative to visit Guo Zhiyuan like those ordinary squires, but they asked the family to send an invitation to Guo Zhiyuan to come to the mansion for a banquet, which was tantamount to admitting Guo Zhiyuan's identity as a county magistrate in disguise!

Guo Zhiyuan is now in high spirits, and the eight justices of the peace and other squires have donated a total of more than 8,000 taels of silver, and the current financial crisis has been solved! The officials who followed Wang Demin's strike before also regretted it, and proposed to come back, Guo Zhiyuan chose a few people who usually have good reviews and are capable of doing things and Wang Demin are not too involved in retaining them, after all, he can't use all the newcomers, he has to keep a few who are familiar with the situation, and then let Zhang Cheng recruit some newcomers independently, which can be regarded as re-setting up the county government team!

In addition, now that Guo Zhiyuan has been recognized by most of the squires, and the common people also know the name of his county order, no one dares not to take his county order in his eyes, which can be regarded as initially establishing a certain prestige, and finally has a bit of a county order!

Thinking that he took the initiative to visit the patriarch of the Sun family and the Chen family, but they avoided it, and even threw out the worship post, Guo Zhiyuan was still a little angry, picked up the invitation sent by the two families and threw it on the ground, and sneered: "At this time, the Sun and Chen families are still on the shelf in front of the official, and they don't take the initiative to visit, but they want the official to come to the door again, and the official doesn't want you!" When the time comes, the ten justices of the peace will not have the names of your grandson and Chen, and I will see where your face goes! ……”

Xu Guangqi hurriedly picked up the invitation that Guo Zhiyuan threw on the ground, and said: "Son, don't do anything!" Although you have temporarily solved the financial crisis and established a certain prestige, but the Sun and Chen families are the most powerful, if you don't get their support, your position as the county commander is still unstable, and the son came to Gutian to make meritorious contributions, and he should unite all the forces that can be united, so as to quickly open up the situation. ……”

gave Xu Guangqi such a reminder, Guo Zhiyuan also immediately woke up, he was indeed a little carried away, forgetting the fundamental purpose of his coming to Gutian, and said with a smile: "Thanks to Mr. for mentioning something, I almost missed a big event!" I'm going to the feast! But this Sun and Chen sent invitations at the same time, which one should I go to first? ……”

"Go to Sun's house first!" Xu Guangqi thought about it carefully.

"Oh! Why the Sun family and the Chen family? I heard that the power of the Chen family is probably slightly stronger than that of the Sun family! ......" Guo Zhiyuan raised his eyebrows.

"According to the information I have learned these days, this Sun family started as a businessman, and now the main industry is to make carriages and horse dealers and grocery stores, so the entanglement with Gutian is far from being as complicated as the Chen family, and dealing with the Sun family will be relatively simple, and the Chen family is the largest landlord in Gutian, and Gongzi will rectify the county governance in the future, I am afraid it will inevitably hurt the interests of the Chen family, and there will be conflicts, so I suggest that Gongzi go to the Sun family first......" Xu Guangqi analyzed carefully.

Speaking of this, Xu Guangqi suddenly lowered his voice and said: "And I also learned that the Sun family was not famous, and the local people only knew that they were in laymen's business, but they didn't know what business they were doing, until the Sun family returned to Gutian in recent years, but the wealth it brought back was extremely amazing, almost in January, he bought nearly half of the shops in Gutian County, and he also brought back a group of very strong and skilled families, it is said that once the goods of the Sun family's carriage and horse shop were robbed by bandits, and the head of the Sun family was furious, Personally led his subordinates into the mountains to chase and kill, not only snatching back all the stolen goods, but also killing all the robbed bandits! The Sun family has also risen strongly, and the Chen family has formed a trend of confrontation, what kind of business can the Sun family do to accumulate such amazing wealth? I can gather a group of such strong and skilled family members, so I have a bold guess that this Sun family is likely to be a maritime businessman! ……”

"Pirates!" Guo Zhiyuan stood up in surprise when he heard it, although Xu Guangqi said it vaguely, but Guo Zhiyuan, who is familiar with the history of the Ming Dynasty, naturally knows that in this era, maritime merchants and pirates are actually the same thing, because the Ming Dynasty is forbidden to the sea, but the profits of this maritime trade are very amazing, naturally there are people who are not afraid of death and take risks to start maritime trade, these people are doing a living by licking blood from the knife edge, naturally not the master of peace, when doing maritime trade, they are maritime merchants, and when they encounter other merchant ships, they become pirates!

One of the most famous is the "pirate king" Wang Zhi, Wang Zhi perennial entrenched in today's Japan, even the Japanese daimyo at that time (the Japanese feudal lord at that time called) also respected him, with more than 5,000 people, hundreds of sea ships, almost monopolized the maritime trade between the Ming Dynasty and Japan, Southeast Asia, was a well-deserved sea overlord at that time, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the court sent sailors to encircle and suppress him on the charge of colluding with the Japanese to ravage the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but he was beaten and fled. At that time, Hu Zongxian, the governor of Zhejiang, couldn't, and used a trick to recruit him, but he was ensnared and killed by Wang Bengu, who was the governor of Zhejiang at the time, but after his death, the plague did not subside, but became more and more raging, spreading from the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the coastal areas of Guangzhou, Fujian, which also led to the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban becoming more and more strict, and the word maritime became an absolute taboo, so Xu Guangqi was so cautious.