After dinner, seeing that it was getting late, in order not to delay Shang Cheng's rest, Ran Tao and the others took their leave.

Shang Cheng kept sending them to the door of the post house. When they parted on the steps at the door, he instructed Ran Tao again: "You send someone to send the road repair file as soon as possible." Ran Tao nodded in agreement, bowed to Shang Cheng with a few colleagues at the foot of the steps, and turned around and walked down the street.

Shang Cheng stood on the steps and watched the magistrates of Dun'an leave, until their backs disappeared at the end of the short alley, and then he lowered his head and returned to the upper room. He has something on his mind. He was thinking about building roads in Dun'an County. Building roads is a good thing, and the more convenient the transportation, the faster and more stable the local development will be, but it also means a large amount of extra-budgetary expenditures. Will Lu Ji agree?

As he walked as he thought, he did not notice that the lights were already lit in the upper room, and when he entered the room through the dimly lit courtyard, the red glow of the room pierced his eyes. He snapped his eyes shut, and it took a moment to cautiously open them......

Although it was not dark outside, there were already two cloisonné copper button iron candlesticks in the corners of the east and west walls of the upper room, and six branches of burning mutton fat wax were on each shelf, and the flickering flames were rising high with black smoke. The room was now ten times brighter than the sun was shining, and even the cracks in the plaster on the edge of the wall that had been crushed by the rafters were clearly visible, and they were bright and dark as the tongue of the candle shrank. Huo Shiqi sat at the table, stunned.

He walked over and sat down on the other side of the table, reached out and flipped through the several military newspapers brought by Huo Shiqi on the table, and without looking at them, he poured himself a cup of cold tea soup, took a sip and asked, "Uncle, what are you thinking?" ”

Huo Shiqi didn't notice that he was coming back, and when he asked, it took him several times to wake up from his stupor, and he covered up in a panic and said, "I didn't think about anything." …… It's just a little worried about the water conservancy in a few counties in the north. It's been more than a month, and I don't know how it's going. Shang Cheng smiled slightly, didn't speak, just filled the empty teacup again, took a clean bowl and poured a bowl for Huo Shiqi. He knew that Huo Shiqi's heart was heavy, not only worried about his family, but also about the woman who was mulberry or something. He couldn't help too much with this kind of thing, and he felt bored with empty words of comfort that he couldn't write, so he simply didn't say anything, picked a copy of the newspaper, held it in his hand, and flipped through the headlines.

Huo Shiqi also stopped talking, holding the tea cup in a daze, and after a while, he suddenly asked, "What do you think of Mingxu?" ”

This question was so clueless that Shang Chengleng raised his head after a moment and asked, "You mean Sixth Uncle?" He wondered why Huo Shiqi suddenly mentioned Huo Lun, so he said vaguely, "Not bad." "It's hard to evaluate an old official like Huo Laoliu in one sentence. It is certainly inappropriate to say that he is irresponsible, but it is not right to say that he works hard, because he has been handling the official affairs of the yamen for so many years, and he has all the credit and hard work, and there will be no less things that are done badly, and it is not excluded that sometimes he specializes in doing things badly...... He closed the newspaper and asked thoughtfully, "Why did you suddenly think of him?" ”

Huo Shiqi pursed his dry lips and said, "I didn't think of him suddenly. When I was in Yixian, Uncle Liubo invited me and invited us to come to his house to sit ......" Shang Cheng interjected: "When did it happen? How did I not know? "It was the night before we left. That day, you were talking to the people from the Transshipment Division in the Nanguan Daying, so I didn't let him invite you. If I stayed with him for half a night, if it wasn't for the sixth brother telling me, I wouldn't know many things......"

Shang Cheng frowned slightly. Since Huo Shiqi re-entered the public gate, he has not said bad things about Qiao Zhun in front of him, which made him very annoyed, and twice even said a few heavy words in front of him because of this matter, which made Huo Shiqi unable to come to the stage, but after that, Huo Shiqi still went his own way, and he wanted to slander Qiao Zhun when he found an opportunity......

He felt uncomfortable, and there was some impatience on his face. Huo Shiqi noticed that Shang Cheng's face was gloomy, so he immediately changed his words and said, "...... Sixth brother, no, Huo Lun said, he is doing a very bad job in this county chief book now. He and Qiao Zhun were on the wrong path before, but now one is the county order and the other is the main book, and there are many contradictions, and they are fighting for three days, and they don't even have the strength to do normal official business. ”

Shang Cheng listened carefully. He'd known these things for a long time. But he has his opinion. Although Qiao Zhun is also not an open-minded person, and the level of handling local government affairs is not necessarily very high, it is undeniable that this person is still very stable in doing things, and everything in Yixian is very stable in his hands, which is particularly important. Regarding the current situation in Yi County, the Health Department and the Duanzhou Government are very satisfied.

"Huo Lun said that he really can't do anything in Yi County......"

Shang Cheng immediately became vigilant and stared at Huo Shiqi thoughtfully, waiting for him to continue. But Huo Shiqi didn't seem to know how to speak, so Shang Cheng asked, "What kind of idea does Huo Lun himself have?" ”

Huo Shiqi was silent for a long time, and then said: "He said that he didn't want to see Qiao Zhun's face every day when he arrived at the yamen. He wanted to change places. ”

“…… Where does he want to go? ”

Huo Shiqi spit out two words dryly: "Nan Zheng." He lowered his head, not daring to meet Shang Cheng's gaze, and continued, "He heard that Nanzheng's county order is vacant......

Shang Cheng was speechless for a long time.

He suddenly realized sensitively that he promoted Huo Shiqi in order to implement some policies and measures in Yanshan as soon as possible, although it seemed to be effective, but this was actually a mistake, he forgot some very important things! Although he knows Huo Shiqi and knows that this person is very capable, but if he promotes and reuses him like this, and falls in the eyes of others, he will only see that Huo Shiqi is relying on him to soar one by one, which actually covers up Huo Shiqi's own advantages, and also obliterates Huo Shiqi's credits......

He was silent for a long time, and then said, "This will not work. The promotion and transfer of officials has its own system, which must be evaluated by the superior yamen, audited by the inspection department, and approved by the official department, and then can be said to be otherwise. "I'm not going to help with this, and you can't meddle in that." Let Huo Lun find a way to ease relations with Qiao Zhun by himself, or ask Duanzhou Mansion to help them coordinate relations. If it really doesn't work, he can also apply to the state government yamen for transfer. As he spoke, he suddenly stopped talking and shouted outside the house, "Suza, go and call the people from the inn!" Can you light so many candles in this nail-covered house? Do you want to attract mosquitoes or roast people? He also said that Dun'an is a poor county, and this candle is more than I used in the Admiral's Palace? Poor? Poor fart! ”

Yi Cheng listened to Suza's words and hurriedly came over to extinguish half of the candles. Shang Cheng still felt that it was too bright, and the oil smoke emitted when the wax oil burned made his eyes hurt. While wiping his teary eyes, he instructed Yicheng to take away all the candles and replace them with two oil lamps.

Yi Cheng didn't dare to take a breath, and immediately replaced the oil lamp according to his instructions, and the two lamps with the big head of the bean only illuminated half of the room, and the upper room, which was still bright just now, immediately dimmed.

After Yicheng packed up the lampstand and went out, Shang Chengcai said to Huo Shiqi again: "There is another matter. The transfer department of the Wei Mu Mansion wants to set up a new large warehouse in Geping, near Yanshui, and the plan has been approved, and the person in charge is being considered. Lu Bofu recommended you to be a transfer envoy, and I agreed. ”

This sudden news made Huo Shiqi a little at a loss, and he didn't know what to say in a hurry. His current position is the sixth room of the Admiral's Mansion, with heavy authority and a critical position, and it sounds good, but when it comes to official positions, it is only an eighth grade; And the transshipment makes it a positive seven-grade ...... Due to the old practice of the previous dynasty, the official achieved the seven grades, and began to have a series of benefits and benefits. The benefits of this document are numerous, you can receive seniority and pay for it, you have a real job and pay the minister's money, you have ice consumption in summer, charcoal in winter, and even the court pays subsidies for the servants hired at home; You can also use this to reduce the sentence of the crime, as long as you do not commit the heinous crime of rebellion and rebellion, you can rely on this "official status" to apply for reinstatement; The most important thing is that his descendants will be able to "shadow" him by virtue of his qualifications, and no longer have to be as cautious and difficult as him or his sixth brother to suffer in the officialdom and in the examination room......

The word "good" had already rolled to his lips, and he suddenly thought of Shang Cheng.

Without even thinking about it, he immediately said, "I'm not going." ”

The monk's position is not yet secure, and he can't go anywhere! Otherwise, what would others think of him? Only when the monk's admiral is no longer a "fake position" can he think about himself!

But Shang Cheng's attitude is also very resolute. He didn't ask Huo Shiqi why he refused such a good thing, so he said categorically: "If you don't go, you have to go!" This matter is arranged by the Department of Health, and there is no room for negotiation! ”

Shang Cheng's arbitrary and arrogant tone made Huo Shiqi very uncomfortable. He sneered and said sarcastically, "The arrangement of the Health Department? Why don't you say it's your arrangement? ”

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense, and even the two soldiers standing guard at the door quietly moved their positions under the corridor. Shang Cheng said angrily: "It's my arrangement, so what? ”

"If I just don't go, what can you do to me?"

The two quarrels, which were completely childish, suddenly eased the atmosphere in the room. Shang Cheng was silent for a while, and said, "That's it, you think about it again, and tell me when you think about it." ”

"Nothing to think about. I'm not going. Either you let me continue to be an eight-tasting pivot, or I will resign. Two paths, you choose. ”

Shang Cheng was about to put on the blindfold, and when he heard Huo Shiqi say this, he put down his raised hand again, and stared at Huo Shiqi with two puffed eyes. He was really a little angry that he didn't go and said the reason why he didn't go one by one, how could he casually threaten to resign! Are you acting for me?

Just when the two of them were staring at each other, Su Za announced outside the door: "Governor, Lord Cheng Ran Taoran of Dun'an County asks to see you." ”