At the same time that the mother-in-law, who knew the righteousness, was courting the Zeng family for Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue had also started a struggle for power and profit with the new Hubei political envoy Jixiang in Hubei. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The focus of contention is, of course, Hubei's financial control, before Jixiang took over, Wu Chaoyue and Ma Xiuru's position was mutual restraint when cooperating, Wu Chaoyue abided by the rules of the Manchu court, did not directly interfere in the collection of taxes in Hubei's prefectures and counties, and only asked the treasury of the feudal treasury to collect and distribute silver, so that Ma Xiuru had some oil and water.

Only in the three aspects of Hankou tariff, the gold bureau and the silver yuan minting, Wu Chaoyue looked very closely, even if Ma Xiuru was allowed to supervise and adjust personnel according to the rules, but Ma Xiuru was never allowed to make money from it, and several of Ma Xiuru's subordinates tried to do tricks and feet in these three places, but Wu Chaoyue did not hesitate to bring him down and die.

Ma Xiuru's backer is far less than Wu Chaoyue's backer is tough, Hua Lao Fox resolutely stands on Wu Chaoyue's side, after suffering a few small losses, he also figured out Wu Chaoyue's position and attitude, so he also honestly stopped, did not dare to fight the idea of tariffs, gold and silver yuan, honestly only in the traditional taxes, money and food and local manipulation, and Wu Chaoyue to maintain the distance between the well water and the river water, although the cooperation is not pleasant, but barely tacit understanding, and there has never been any major conflict and contradiction.

For the new partner Jixiang, Wu Chaoyue also has this attitude, as long as Jixiang doesn't have the idea of tariffs, centigold and silver yuan, then Jixiang will not interfere with how to toss and how to toss in terms of money, food, taxation and personnel assessment, and how to fish. But if Jixiang dares to attack tariffs, gold and silver yuan, Wu Chaoyue will definitely not be polite!

Because these three financial sources were too important to Wu Chaoyue, supporting the Eyong Fubiao, supporting the army to fight in the province, training the army, purchasing steam cannon ships, purchasing military supplies, producing weapons, and maintaining the operation and development of the Daye industrial base, the Manchu court did not give Wu Chaoyue even a tael of silver, and every penny of expenditure in these aspects came from the profits from tariffs, gold and silver yuan minting, and Wu Chaoyue certainly could not allow any chaos in these three financial sources.

However, it is a pity that Wu Chaoyue really underestimated the courage and appetite of the new political envoy Jixiang, who had long been raised by illegal profiteers when he was in Shanxi, and where he could still see the meager income from embezzling Hubei taxes and accepting local bribes? Before entering the territory, he had already grasped the general situation of Hubei's financial revenue through illegal profiteers who had cooperated for many years, and he couldn't wait to keep an eye on the tariffs, gold and silver yuan minting power, and was ready to start early.

After taking over the Yamen of the Domain, the nearly half-hundred-year-old auspicious regardless of the age and the gap in seniority, the first thing was to run to Wu Chaoyue and kowtow, with a respectful face to say that everything was only Wu Chaoyue's horse, and then he went to the Governor's Yamen to visit the old fox who was sick in bed, and then went to the Manchu court, asking Emperor Xianfeng to reduce the taxes and grain of the three counties that were affected by the disaster last year, and it seemed that he was still concerned about the suffering of the people. However, just when Wu Chaoyue was a little careless, Jixiang came to see Wu Chaoyue again, and told Wu Chaoyue straight to the point that he would be stationed in the Hubei Lijin Bureau and various centigold collection checkpoints in the province to supervise the specific collection of Hubei Lijin and avoid corruption and loss of centigold.

"Resident Overseer?" Wu Chaoyue asked Xiang Jixiang very vigilantly: "Hubei Lijin has always been levied normally, how could Ji Fantai suddenly think of sending a supervisor, is this necessary?" ”

"Returning to Lord Futai, the lower officials think it is very necessary." Ji Xiang replied politely: "Lord Futai is busy with official business, he has no time to visit the people, and he has not had much contact with various places, so he must not know that although the collection of gold in Hubei seems to be normal, in fact, the loss is still very serious. ”

"Don't talk about the distance, just talk about the Jiayu Pass that is not far away." Jixiang also gave an example, saying: "The lower officials sent people to make an unannounced visit and found that Jiayu's gold collectors not only watched people collect taxes and filled their own pockets, but also colluded with illegal profiteers in private to connive at smuggling, resulting in a serious loss of money. ”

After showing the list of Jiayu Lika's corrupt officials and the record of the crime, Ji Xiangcai said: "Therefore, the lower officials believe that in order to avoid the loss of Hubei Lijin, eliminate the officials of the Lijin Bureau, and ensure the needs of your counterinsurgency operations Lord Futai, it is best to send superintendents to the Hubei Lijin Bureau and various places to warn the officials and avoid similar situations." ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent, knowing that what Jixiang said was the truth, and he also knew that there was indeed a certain amount of corruption within the Lijin Bureau in Hubei, and that there had indeed been a lot of loss of Lijin over the years - this was something that could not be helped, from ancient times to the present, and in all dynasties. But Wu Chaoyue knew that Jixiang's suggestion to send supervisors to the Hubei Lijin Bureau was by no means to fight corruption, but to be more corrupt and greedy.

The reason is also simple, after the supervisor arrives, in order to continue to be corrupt and bribe-paying, the officials on the Lijin checkpoint must try their best to pull the supervisor into the water to collect money together, and then in order to make up for the loss and increase income, these corrupt officials will definitely reach out to the businessmen, and the businessmen will definitely expand the scale of smuggling in order to make up for the losses, and more tax evasion, and in the end, it will only be Hubei Lijin who will suffer losses, but the fat is the auspiciousness behind the commissioner superintendent and the Lika superintendent.

Another point is also very important, at present, it is Huang Zhisheng who manages the Hubei Lijin Bureau for Wu Chaoyue, this Wu Chaoyue's accomplice in Jiangyin has nothing to say in terms of loyalty, diligence, conscientiousness and responsibility, but he is lacking in intrigue and maneuvering, and it is very likely that he can't play any supervision of Jixiang's dispatch to the Lijin Bureau, and it is also possible that he will be overshadowed by Jixiang's lackey, causing Wu Chaoyue to gradually lose control of the Hubei Lijin Bureau. ——From the perspective of personal interests, Jixiang asked to send a supervisor to the Li Jin Bureau, and the real purpose was probably to snatch control of the Hubei Li Jin Bureau.

Fortunately, the right to appoint personnel is still in Wu Chaoyue's hands, and after seeing through Jixiang's sinister intentions, Wu Chaoyue only had a countermeasure after a little calculation, and said with a smile: "Ji Fantai's words are reasonable, although the envoys of the Hubei Lijin Bureau have been doing a good job, they can't relax their anti-corruption and anti-corruption for a moment." In this way, there is no need to bother the Laoji Domain to send people, and this official will ask Yan Jingming to transfer personnel from the General Administration of Grain and Taiwan to be stationed in the Lijin Bureau to serve as a supervisor and strictly investigate and deal with those corrupt officials who collude with illegal profiteers. ”

"Lord Futai, I still don't have to bother you." Ji Xiang smiled and took out a fold like a trick, and said: "Holy Lord Zhu Criticism, let the lower officials be responsible for handling this matter, please take a look at Lord Futai." ”

Quietly glanced at auspiciousness, Wu Chaoyue took the excerpt and watched, seeing that the excerpt was written auspiciously, and the content was to explain to Emperor Xianfeng the importance of the expropriation of Hubei Lijin to the Central Plains battlefield, saying that he wanted to do a good job of logistics for Wu Chaoyue to reduce the loss of Lijin, and asked Emperor Xianfeng to allow him to send supervision to the Hubei Lijin Bureau, and was responsible for supervising the tax collection of the Hubei Lijin Bureau, eliminating corruption and ensuring military supplies. At the end of the excerpt is the cinnabar annotation of Emperor Xianfeng - I am very relieved and allowed to go.

The auspicious and high-sounding shameless excuse did not surprise Wu Chaoyue, what surprised Wu Chaoyue was the last date of the excerpt - auspiciousness had already been on this excerpt before he set foot on the land of Hubei, and it was clear that he had already set his sights on the big fat of Hubei Lijin before he officially took office.

"Sure enough, it's a good plan, no wonder I can win the trust of Wild Boar Skin IX so much, and after staring at Wang Qingyun and Xu Jiji, he will come to stare at me immediately."

Wu Chaoyue snorted coldly in his heart, but his face was still silent, and after thinking about it again, he smiled and said: "It's rare that Ji Fantai is so attentive, and he has already decided to fight corruption and eliminate corruption, so that I don't have to worry about money, food, and taxes." Anyway, since the emperor has already given instructions from Zhu Pen, then ask Ji Fantai to take charge of this matter. ”

When Ji Xiang heard the great joy, he hurriedly saluted and thanked Wu Chaoyue, and Wu Chaoyue smiled and said: "By the way, Ji Fantai, after you appointed and decided the candidate for the chief supervisor of the Hubei Lijin Bureau, I asked the chief supervisor to come and see me, I want to give him a few words, and also get to know him by the way." ”

Jixiang agreed without a word, and politely said goodbye and left. After Jixiang left, Wu Chaoyue of course called Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming's two henchmen for the first time, and roughly said that Jixiang was going to be sent to the Lijin Bureau to supervise it, but Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming were of course taken aback together, and said in unison: "Comfort Ting, don't agree, let Jixiang mix sand into the Lijin Bureau, or be responsible for supervising the collection of Lijin, or in three months, the Hubei Lijin Bureau will be a mess!" ”

"That old bastard took out the emperor's fold, and the emperor approved him to do this." Wu Chaoyue shrugged his shoulders, and then said the content of the shameless twist and turn of auspiciousness, and then said: "The old miscellaneous has the emperor's Zhubi imperial approval in his hand, unless I want to rebel, I can't disobey my fate, so there is no way, I can only push the boat down the river and agree." ”

Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming were dumbfounded, and after a while, Zhao Liewen snorted coldly: "I really underestimated this Ji Fantai, and sure enough, there are some means to come up with the idea of pulling the emperor into the water, it seems that we really have to guard against him in the future." ”

"I'll talk about it later, but now it's important to keep the gold bureau, and not let the auspicious people completely mess up." Yan Jingming shook his head, and asked Wu Chaoyue again: "Weiting, what do you have to do about this?" ”

"Yes, I had already thought about it when I agreed to send that old miscellaneous person to the Bureau of Finance to supervise it. I have called you here so that you may be prepared earlier so that you may act according to your plan. ”

Wu Chaoyue's answer made Yan Jingming and Zhao Liewen extremely stunned, and then after Wu Chaoyue quickly finished saying the idea he had just come up with, Zhao Liewen and Yan Jingming opened their mouths together again, looked Wu Chaoyue up and down as if they didn't know each other, and only after a while did they exclaim in unison and ask, "Weiting, your methods are too rogue, right?" ”

"It's a real hooliganism."

Wu Chaoyue smiled and nodded, and said: "But there is no way, the old miscellaneous has the emperor Zhu Approval in his hands, and it is difficult to prevent him from meddling in the Lijin Bureau by officialdom means, if you want to keep our Lijin Bureau, only by using simple and direct rogue methods can it work immediately." You can also give that old bastard a warning, if you dare to beat me for the idea of silver, he is killing himself! ”

…………

It's time to take a look at the situation on the side of Ji Fantai, and after returning to the yamen of the political envoy with a smile, he just sat down in the signing room, and several henchmen and staff brought by Ji Fantai from Shanxi have already come to the front and kowtow respectfully, and then there is no need to ask the result, just looking at Ji Fantai's proud expression, all the henchmen understand that Ji Fantai has won a big victory, and they are busy congratulating Ji Fantai, congratulating Ji Fantai on successfully inserting a wedge into the Hubei Lijin Bureau, and knocking on the silver treasury of the Lijin Bureau is just around the corner.

"It is said that Wu Chaoyue is difficult, and now it seems that it is nothing more than that." Proud, Ji Fantai couldn't help but have some contempt for Wu Chaoyue, and said with a sneer: "The yellow-haired boy who has not dried up is invincible with the help of foreigner weapons on the battlefield, and he is still a little tender in the officialdom." ”

"Dong Weng, you can't despise Wu Futai too much, after all, he is a person who overthrows official documents, and he is a strong backer in the court, so we should be careful when we get along with him."

Zuo Rui, the chief of staff who had followed Ji Fantai for many years, cautiously reminded and pointed out: "Moreover, the students speculated that Wu Futai's decisive concession was probably related to the imminent vacancy of the post of governor of Huguang, and Hua Zhitai was seriously ill, and he was the most promising person to fill this vacancy. ”

Ji Fantai nodded, agreeing with Zuo Rui's analysis, and also knew that Wu Chaoyue's backer Su Shun couldn't afford to provoke, but Ji Fantai couldn't help but sneer again, "It seems that Wu Chaoyue is about to go crazy thinking about the position of Governor of Huguang, but unfortunately, he is destined to be a pipe dream." ”

Ji Fantai didn't say it too clearly, but Zuo Rui and other henchmen immediately knew that Wu Chaoyue had little hope of being on the throne - because they all knew that although Ji Fantai was just a political envoy, he could bypass the military aircraft and send it directly to the Yangxin Palace, and directly present it to Emperor Xianfeng through the hands of An Dehai, during which even Wu Chaoyue, the powerful backer Su Shun, could not intervene. I also know that since Ji Fantai is so confident, it must be what Emperor Xianfeng said in the secret approval to Ji Fantai.

After sneering, Ji Fantai couldn't wait to appoint the chief superintendent of the Hubei Lijin Bureau on the spot, and without hesitation, he handed over this fat difference to his absolute confidant, Liang Kefan, who had the title of experience from the six grades, and told Liang Kefan: "Don't be in a hurry to do too much, you must go step by step, push the boat down the river, first mingle with the officials of the Lika in Hubei, and then slowly implement our rules in Shanxi, and try to pull all the Lika in Hubei into the water, so that Wu Chaoyue can't do it if he wants to move the Hubei Lijin Bureau." ”

Liang Kefan, who had long been accustomed to pulling people into the water, nodded hurriedly, and repeatedly thanked Ji Fantai for his love and trust, and then Ji Fantai turned to other henchmen and said: "Don't worry, Hubei Tongheng Nine Provinces, how many ways to make a fortune, wait until the Lijin Bureau is done first, and then we will slowly start with tariffs and silver yuan casting, and then I am afraid that you will not be too busy." ”

The confidants led by Zuo Rui hurriedly thanked Ji Fantai, saying that they would be loyal to the wise leadership of Ji Fantai and make concerted efforts to build Hubei into a cornucopia like Shanxi. Ji Fantai suddenly remembered something again, and hurriedly instructed Liang Kefan: "By the way, Wu Chaoyue said, he wants to meet the chief superintendent of the Hubei Lijin Bureau appointed by me, you quickly get the seal letter, go to see him as soon as possible, and say more beautiful words to reassure him, that kid loves to listen to flattery." ”

Liang Kefan happily agreed, and hurriedly completed the procedures in the Yamen of the Hubei Political Envoy, received the letter of appointment written by Jixiang himself, and the letter of supervision of the Hubei Lijin Bureau that was cast overnight, and rushed to the governor's yamen to meet Wu Chaoyue to listen to the training in the afternoon of the next day under the envious eyes of Zuo Rui and other old colleagues. Before leaving, Liang Kefan naturally had to make a promise to Zuo Rui and other old colleagues in private, promising that he would invite his colleagues to drink flower wine before he officially took office, and also promised that after taking office, the five relatives and six relatives of his old colleagues would be sent to Lika in various parts of Hubei as soon as possible to make a fortune, and then set off in a hurry.

Of course, Liang Kefan was too happy, and when his request for a visit was sent to Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue immediately smiled and said: "I only mentioned this matter yesterday, and I came here today, it seems that Ji Fantai and his people are sticking out their claws in the throat of Hubei Lijin!" Do what you do! ”

…………

On that day, Liang Kefan, who temporarily lived in the yamen of the political envoy, did not return all night, but our Ji Fantai did not pay attention to such a trivial matter at all, or after entering the signing room and starting work the next morning, Ji Fantai found that Liang Kefan was not present, and asked casually: "What about Liang Kefan?" Why haven't you come yet? ”

"Back to Dong Weng, Liang Cheng didn't come back last night." Zuo Rui replied truthfully, and speculated: "Maybe I was too happy to have a good errand, and I went to the Qinglou in the city to spend the night, and when I got up today, I went directly to the Lijin Bureau to take office." ”

"Dog minion, you really can't change your lustful temper in this life." Ji Fantai didn't care much about it, and snorted obediently: "It's best to go directly to the Lijin Bureau to take office, if you dare to let me know that he is still in the Qinglou at this time, see how the official cleans him up!" ”

Of course, Ji Fantai snorted and forgot about it, and immediately picked up the newly sent official document for review, but just when Ji Fantai picked up the brush and was about to annotate the first official document, a Goshha rushed in from outside the signing room and said to Ji Fantai: "Lord Yu Fantai, someone from Futai Yamen is here, and I want you to go and see Wu Futai immediately." ”

"This will require me to visit Wu Futai?" Ji Fantai paused, stopped writing and asked, "Did you say what happened?" ”

"Yes." Goshha replied: "The people from the Futai Yamen said that if you want Ji Fantai, you will give Wu Futai an explanation of what Liang Kefan Liang has experienced!" also directly said that Wu Futai was very angry, and he was already writing an excerpt to impeach you! ”

With a soft snap, Ji Fantai fell into the case with the brush in his hand, his mind was blank, his face couldn't help but turn a little pale, and he said secretly: "What happened to Liang Kefan?!" (To be continued.) )