So why did the successive Julu magistrates obviously hold a 'cornucopia' in their arms, but they have become a bottomless pit with wind leaking on all sides? Even if the reason why the former prefect became a 'loss-making county official' was because of his lack of personal ability, then every prefect candidate can't be all incompetent people who are 'not good at management', right? After all, except for Lord Chen, the former 'owner of the oil mill', the other magistrates of the county are all the foundation of the two Jinshi!

Therefore, the main reason for Julu County's 'loss' is to start from the household yamen in Yanjing City.

The Northern Yan Dynasty is different from the Youbei Three Roads, and is divided into six yamen: soldiers, criminals, workers, officials, households, and rites. The household department is the 'God of Wealth' who is in charge of all the financial powers. Nowadays, the method they use to calculate the annual commercial tax payable in various places is to calculate the amount of taxes and fees that need to be paid in various places according to the number of customs and road guides issued by the imperial court to each caravan. To put it simply, it is to count the taxes and silver that need to be paid in various places every year by virtue of how many customs clearance certificates have been stamped on the customs and defense roads of the caravan.

But although the geographical location of this Julu County is indeed unique, and it is the only way for caravans to and from several provinces, it seems to be a 'fat difference' that has mastered the transit of trade, but this 'rich and precious land' in the eyes of others is just a 'passing God of Wealth' at best!

Because every time those caravans pass through this place, they all go into the city on foot to exchange directions! At most, when you drink a horse in Julu County, play a point, or when the weather is bad, you spend the night in an inn in the city; As soon as the next day dawns, we will rush to the more prosperous Shunde Mansion or Yecheng to deliver the goods! In this way, they did not even pay the 'city gate tax' for the caravan to enter the city, but arranged for a few young men who followed the car to rest outside the city gate and guard the goods for the night. Although the silver is earned, for the merchants who are running goods in the South China Sea and the North these days, it is also saved on the road.

Therefore, the tooth talents of Julu County will gather in the small tea shed outside the city to solicit customers; Instead of waiting for the Lord to hire himself in a teahouse in the city, as in other cities.

But obviously, the big men of the household department have no chance to listen to the 'complaints and grievances' of a seven-pin Xiaozhi County! How many caravans people have seen, how much commercial tax will be apportioned! Otherwise, it doesn't matter if you send someone from county to county to investigate, layer by layer; The Great Yan Dynasty that had just fallen died on the issue of 'redundant officials'!

Before he had been the prefect of this county for a full year, Lord Chen completely understood the 'inaction' of the former prefect: every sum of silver sown by the imperial court was not distributed in full, and every sum of silver that he escorted into Beijing would never be put into the treasury...... After two rounds of peeling off in this way, he, the magistrate, can live to this day with all his beards and tails, isn't it all relying on the help of the Huashen Sect?

But now that the 'man in black' has put down such a fire, it may directly scare away the Huashen Sect, the 'God of Wealth in the county'!

Xue Zhutou saw that the prefect's face was not good at this time, and he immediately stepped forward, and slapped his chest loudly, looking more like a hero in the market than the court's Jiupin Catcher:

"Don't worry, Lord Chen, my subordinates will go and summon the third class of officials to rush to fight the fire now! Although looking at the sky on the other side of the east gate, this fire cannot be extinguished by people alone...... But I Xue Liu can assure you that at least in the 'scene', the people of the Heavenly God Sect will definitely not be able to find the slightest fault! ”

After finishing speaking, without waiting for Lord Chen to give two more instructions, Xue Liu shook the official knife on his waist and walked out of the back hall of the county government......

As soon as Xue Zhutou had just left, Master Cheng immediately put on a very anxious face:

"Dong Weng, this Xue Liu is just a vulgar martial artist, although he is still slippery in dealing with people, but he doesn't understand the doorways in those officialdoms! Depending on the students, this fire will not only be impossible to extinguish, but will also be widely implicated! Now it's the middle of winter, and the county has had a light snow since the beginning of winter, but so far I haven't seen half a piece of rain and snow! Tonight it coincided with the howling north wind, which fueled the fire and rose with the wind, and it was ......! ”

Master Chen didn't understand the worry in Master Cheng's heart, but raised his right hand to support his forehead, and waved his hand in a rather impatient tone:

"What Master Cheng said is the truth, and the official understands it in his heart! But the official 'saw with his own eyes' someone wantonly set fire, this is obviously a man-made disaster, not a natural disaster! What's more, the county had already 'commanded' the official to send Ding to go at the first time, and 'ordered' Xue Liu to summon the people to go to fight the fire; even if the fire was really uncontrollable in the end, it had nothing to do with the official! ”

Master Cheng, who was anxious and angry, slapped the table hard, and looked at the 'sudden outburst' of Master Chen's eyes with a stunned look and a blank expression:

"My lord! The station of the Huashen business group is located in the direction of the east gate of the county; And the courtyards near the station of the Huashen Business Group are all the mansions of the rich and wealthy squires of the county! ”

Master Chen, who hadn't turned the corner yet, was also caught up in his slap, and immediately raised his voice and shouted:

"As soon as this fire burns, how can it be cared who is a rich businessman and who is a wealthy gentry? And this fire is not a dog raised in my house, even if it really affects someone's house, what can this official do? ”

“…… It doesn't matter if a few rich businessmen and gentry die, but Feng Qiling's mansion is only separated by a wall from the residence of the Huashen Business Group! ”

This sentence was like a heavy hammer, knocking heavily on Lord Chen's heavenly spirit cover! After listening to this, he didn't have time to think about it at all, and immediately ran to the outside of the mansion with a rolling belt, he had to rush to the door of Lord Feng's mansion as soon as possible, and personally command the firefighting! Even if you can't save Lord Feng from the fire in the end, you must let everyone involved in the disaster relief see with their own eyes that they did their best and forgot to die!

In fact, strictly speaking, this Feng Qiling Feng is now just a commoner; But he is also the former waiter of the Ministry of Rites, and he is also the same year friend of Cai Xi and Cai Xianyang, and he is also the number one general of the 'Cai Party'! At the end of last year, the Cai and Wang factions launched a 'life-and-death struggle' that was close to a complete showdown over the fire that had ignited at the East Customs; in the end, although they succeeded in cutting down all the forces that Wang Fang had painstakingly cultivated in the Criminal Department over the years, the Cai Party was also affected to a certain extent by the so-called wounding 1,000 enemies and 800 self-inflicted losses. In the end, Emperor Tianyou and the two prime ministers, I don't know what kind of agreement they reached in private, Cai Youcheng at the cost of his hardcore henchman - Feng Qiling, to Wang Zuocheng, who started the war lightly and caused a fiasco, in exchange for the entire criminal department yamen.

And this Feng Qiling Feng, who volunteered to 'charge ahead', was a local in Julu County before joining the office. So when he returned home, he only took with him an old butler and a little donkey; But the general Cai Ning, the son of the Cai family who was ordered to be stationed in Yecheng, had already 'renovated' a beautiful old mansion of the Feng family for him in advance! And from that day on, this General Cai will definitely come to Julu County every two months to visit this 'Uncle Feng', which shows how deep the friendship between the Feng and Cai families has been!

And even if Feng Qiling has returned to his hometown, there will still be a stagecoach from Yanjing Youcheng Mansion, constantly going back and forth to Julu County to deliver letters. It is conceivable that Cai Youcheng must have great trust in him, a former and hardcore ally. As long as the Wang Dang takes half a wrong step in the future, then it is reasonable for Emperor Zhou Yuanqing to promulgate his will and re-enable him Feng Qiling!

But such a hardcore confidant of Cai Youcheng, a future first-class member of the imperial court, did not die on the 'battlefield' of Cai and Wang, but was burned to death in his old mansion in a daze! Don't say that the officials will not punish him for the crime of 'incompetence in suppressing bandits and ineffective disaster relief'; just saying that the Cai Party will definitely not let him go, a seven-grade sesame official!

What's more, Yecheng is only more than 300 miles away from Julu County; As long as Cai Youcheng, who is in Beijing, gets the news and writes a 'family letter' to Yecheng, within two days, General Cai can lead his personal troops to arrive in Julu County. At that time, even if he chopped off his head and hung it on the flagpole, no one in the entire Northern Yan Dynasty would say a word for him!

And even if people don't kill themselves, they don't have the face to treat this official anymore! The reason is very simple, he, a seven-grade county official, donated money; And the first thing to go is the door of the Ministry of Rites! And the person who matched him, the 'small boss of the oil mill', back then, was this 'master' and fellow villager who was caught in the fire - Feng Qiling Feng!

Lord Chen stumbled to the front of the fire, and saw his right-hand man, Xue Zhutou, who was leading dozens of chamen in the yamen at this time, pointing at the fire and knocking the melon seeds in his hand; And beside them, there were countless white-robed Heavenly God Sect believers shuttling, all of them pouring water on the Feng Mansion that was on fire one by one......

"Xue Liu! What the did you just promise Lao Tzu? Look at your virtuous ......"

Lord Chen hurriedly took off his brocade cotton robe, and at the same time hurriedly picked up an empty bucket on the ground, and scolded Xue Zhu's head with a stunned expression......

"Look at this fire, my lord, aren't they working in vain? What is it that a smart person like you is messing around with those stupid people? Is this kind of sky-high fire that can be extinguished by pouring a few buckets of water? And don't think that I, Xue Liu, didn't do anything! I have already taken my brothers to clean up the 'fire path'! Now I can assure you that except for the Feng Mansion and the Huashen Merchant Group's station, the most other courtyards are just destroying the wall! What do you think? Such a big fire only burned down two houses! In the future, if those old men in the Ministry of Officials know about this, why will they have to give our masters a commendation, right? ……”

The anxious Lord Chen didn't plan to continue to entangle with Xue Liu, but when he heard that he actually began to boast at this time, he immediately threw down the bucket and kicked Xue Liu's chest with a flying kick......

Frankly speaking, if Xue Liu had the heart to hide, even if this Lord Chen kicked his big crotch, he would definitely not be able to rub the corner of his clothes; But Xue Liu still suffered from his 'self-immeasurable' kick, his body did not move or shake, but his expression was a little aggrieved and asked:

"Your ......, Boss Why is that? ”