The weather is getting hotter and hotter day by day, the air seems to be frozen, the wind is very weak, and occasionally a little wind blows on people, and only the humidity and heat are felt, and there is no feeling of comfort. In this kind of weather, people will sweat when they move a little, the earth will become a steamer, the room is like a stuffy tank, and people will try their best to run to the river to cool off.

For jobs that are not in contact with the outside world, you can also be shirtless. But in a place like Yamen Gongfang, which pays attention to appearance, it doesn't even have the power to beat shirtless. The six-room clerks, these readers, are particularly decent. Not only should you not be shirtless, but you should be neatly dressed and not messy in the slightest.

Beads of sweat kept running down my forehead, and I couldn't wipe it off. Some obese people even have difficulty breathing, gasping for breath and fanning the wind desperately, but with little effect.

In the room there is a bucket full of mung bean soup, and in the tray is a corner of watermelon. This is a benefit given by the yamen to the officials, as a reward for working in the hot summer. But the work at hand is so busy that no one cares about eating.

A tall and thin man, obviously so hot that his face turned pale, still insisted on not touching the watermelon. Someone on the side quipped: "Brother Yan, why are you so polite?" Since the county honored these soups, water, melons and fruits, they are for us to eat. Don't be embarrassed, it's right to be self-denying, but you also have to take care of your body. Besides, the county is a bold person, and there is a way to make money, these melons and fruits will not be distressed, even if you eat more, the county is not strange. ”

The man shook his head at first, and then simply didn't speak, and a clerk who was a little wrong with him snorted coldly, "Don't persuade you. Yan Daguan is not self-denial, but distressed straw paper. We are in charge of everything in the yamen, that is, the straw paper is brought by himself, and he is reluctant to pay the straw paper. ”

The man surnamed Yan was slightly red, a little embarrassed, and wanted to argue a few words, but he couldn't stand the crowd, so he had to mumble about being rich and thrifty.

There was a cough outside, and a hunchbacked man walked in, his hands just holding a tray full of washed grapes. shouted in his mouth: "The master will reward you with the chilled grapes, and you will relieve the heat and relieve the fever, I hope you will do your errands carefully, take care of your body, and don't suffer from the heat." The master has something to say, everyone knows where the medicine box is, if you are not feeling well, hurry up and eat the purple gold ingot, you can't hurt your body! ”

These sweaty scholars who still have to maintain their dignity are naturally the officials of Shangyuan County. The Shangyuan Yamen, which once had a manpower crisis because of the resignation turmoil, is now overcrowded. Among the more than a dozen economic officials, the government has to go through four places first, and with the related households, eight places will go out. There are also many internal bookstores who want to become regulars, and there are also some scholars who are really talented and want to be officials, and they are also recruited, and the number of officials in the yamen is much more than in the past.

Although there are many people, the management is not chaotic. Just like the assessment of the officials, Fan Jinxiang also formulated work rules and management methods, and set performance appraisal standards. In other words, Fan Jin took the lead in implementing the new examination method at the county yamen level.

Zhang Juzheng's examination method is mainly to evaluate officials, and the standards are relatively simple, all of which are based on money and grain. Like Fan Jin, who has a way to get money, he is only a matter of taking care of the exam. However, Fan Jin's assessment of the officials is not so simple. He refers to the management methods of later generations, engages in the post responsibility system, determines posts and responsibilities, and everyone has their own assessment standards.

The difficulty of this assessment is to increase the difficulty of the operation, and the advantage is that it is relatively fair, and it is relatively fair according to the post assessment. Compared with the past, the current group of officials is more complex, everyone has different backgrounds, and is divided into a number of factions, which cannot be integrated with each other, but it is convenient for Fan Jin to manage. In addition, there are enough people in the yamen at the moment, even if someone wants to drop the yarn hat, Fan Jin is not afraid, but welcomes his resignation.

In this way, no one dared to resign, so they had to endure it like this.

Of course, Fan Jin is not blindly strict, and there are also rewards. For example, the food and silver for summer work have doubled, the working meals have increased the number of fish and shrimp, and fruits and drinks have been provided regularly. The management experience of later generations is to manage the officials of this life, and judging from the initial results, the results are not bad.

Even if someone was dissatisfied, they didn't say anything when they saw the hunchbacked man. This pockmarked man in his thirties was surnamed Gao, who was originally a horseman from the Wei Mansion, but was now given to Fan Jin by Xu Liu. It is said that Fan Jin released his slavery and burned the deed to restore his free body, but the second year of high school refused to leave, and his wife must stay by the grandfather's side to serve, but Fan Jin had nothing to say.

In addition to their husband and wife, the other one in the county yamen is Miss Xu Liu.

thought that after the exposing incident, Xu Liu would no longer have dealings with Fan Jin, but he didn't expect the matter to be unexpected. The Duke of Wei did not interfere with his daughter's dealings with Fan Jin, and also increased the cooperation between the two. Xu Weizhi pulled Mu Changguo to invest in Youlanju and is building a theater called Youlanyuan, with the goal of building the first theater in Jiangning.

Xu Liu and those girls from the Rose Society became Fan Jin's inner room, and the women's school was not only a place to give lectures, but also an office place. They will help Fan Jin to take care of official business, and as for Xu Liu himself, he went directly to the county yamen to do things under the banner of looking at his brother-in-law.

If she is hot, Miss Xu Liu is naturally hot. Such a delicate lady of the Guogong Mansion can endure the summer heat to work in the yamen, and they naturally have nothing to say.

Sweat into rain, breathe into clouds. These people wiped their sweat and fanned the wind, looking for ways to beat the heat as much as possible, gritting their teeth and battling the weather and continuing to fight hard. Whenever someone couldn't hold on and wanted to quit, he thought of the good future promised by Fan Jin and the young lady Guogong, so he provoked it again.

No one noticed that in the process of patience again and again, their endurance was constantly improving, and the face of the entire team was quietly changing.

In the kitchen in the backyard, the knife in Zheng Chan's hand was cutting indiscriminately on the board, and even she couldn't figure out what she was going to cut. Since the establishment of Youlanju, the food of the county order and the officials every day is delivered from there, and it is meaningless to be a cook. At most, I occasionally make some snacks or cook some porridge and rice for Fan Jin, but this opportunity is becoming less and less.

Miss Xu Liu sent a cook to the house, who was the wife of the camel's sophomore. It was a woman of twenty miles, different from her sloppy husband, this was a woman with delicate eyebrows and a bewitching body, according to Zheng Chan, she was a slut at first glance.

She can make good pastries, and she can also sell good noodles. Although the two husbands and wives came together, but there was a difference between inside and outside and they didn't see each other, this woman was okay in the inner house wearing a corseted jacket, walking around in front of Fan Jin with a high chest, showing off her willow waist, and occasionally revealing a narrow golden lotus, so that Zheng Chan wanted to give her a knife every time she saw it.

What makes Zheng Chan even more angry is the female apprentice Pan Qiong who is now with Xianggong in the study.

Nominally, the two are masters and apprentices, just like Jiyin and Fan Jin. But she had seen this young and beautiful girl give grapes to her master's mouth. Really, how can there be a little bit of master-apprentice system.

Beautiful faces appeared in front of them, chopped into pieces by sharp kitchen knives. In a trance, there seemed to be a buckle and a Song family in the pile of minced meat...... Whoever you love, she chops it regardless of it, and anyone who approaches her man is shameless, damned!

Thinking so, she slammed the knife down and embedded it in the board. I don't know when the sophomore family came to the door, leaned against the door frame, and smiled at Zheng Chan: "Yo, who is Zheng Niangzi angry with, taking the board and spreading fire." It's true, it's provoking anyone, and what kind of fire is being sent at it, it's weird. ”

Zheng Chan glanced at her, how could this woman be from the Guogong Mansion? Looking at her leaning against the head of the door, with her red embroidered shoes exposed outside her skirt, no matter how you look at it, it is more suitable for Ma Xianglan's subordinates. She spat on the ground, wiped her hands on her apron, and strode out. The sophomore in the family smiled and said, "Where is Mrs. Zheng going?" Don't go to the study, the master and the female apprentice are there, if you go, it will be an eyesore...... Huh"

A silver bell-like laugh rang out in the back.

Zheng Chan only felt that the green tendons burst and her ears roared, and she let it out!

The hot weather made her liver fire so strong that she lost her reason and fear, and decided to hit the door to catch her. If she really caught the master and apprentice mixing together, she must slap Pan Qiong a few times. Even if he was beaten by Fan Jin and cried his father and called his mother, it was better than now.

The more I sweated, the more courage I wore away, and by the time I came to the door, the courage to kick in had completely disappeared. I'm not even a concubine, so why should I beat someone? If they are really like that, they should hide all this: family ugliness cannot be publicized.

She crept around to the back window, which was open for ventilation. She moved a few rocks to put her feet on and looked inside. saw that the clothes of the two people in the room were intact, and then saw that Pan Qiong's face was serious, without a little flattery, and he knew that he was in the second year of high school.

Head over to listen. I heard Fan Jin's voice inside:

"Qiong'er, I went to ask Dong Xiaowu, and I also asked Zhang Tiejian to learn about other people's news, and the answer was almost the same. The Yang family did buy silk from him and a group of machine owners in the city, and the style and type are the same as what you want. Dong Xiaowu himself used makeup skills to weave eight fine satins. This time, the Yang family paid real money, and when the silk was collected, everything was true. But the sudden disappearance of the housekeeper in charge of receiving the goods is probably true. The Yang family also sent people to look for it, and also found a few bosses in the city to come forward, and also asked the beggar group leader to help. But he just refused to report to the official, what do you think this means? ”

"Naturally, I'm afraid that we will know the news. As soon as the government is alarmed, the matter will inevitably become big, and the mouths of those officials and officials are not strict, and we will know when the news reaches the dock. It can be seen that their request for a delay is an excuse, and they can't deliver the goods at all now! ”

"At least not in full, but fortunately, you haven't given them all your sumu ivory. From the point of view of loss, you are at most the part of the loss deposit, which is not too big compared to the goods you have received. ”

Pan Qiong shook his head and said: "It's not such an algorithm, this business is related to Lin Fang's reputation, and it can only succeed and not fail." If we can't get enough silk, we will lose credibility and face in front of those Francis people. At sea, these two things often determine the status of this fleet. How can you do business without credibility? Secondly, the weather here is so bad that the storage of ivory is very problematic, and in order to prevent it from really rotting, we have to find a way to sell it. But in Jiangning, there is no one other than Master who can help sell these things. If you want to sell, you can only sell at a very low price. After all, these things are not broken and broken, and the other party can bargain if he holds this, otherwise he can report to the official. I suspect that this is a conspiracy of the trade, and that the Yang family is working together to seize our ivory. After all, they don't know that we have the line of Master and can sell all these goods. ”

Fan Jin said: "Your idea is good, you do have this saying, but these things are in the hands of others, and it is very difficult to preserve." So the people who got them were also in a hurry to make a move. I sent someone to find out that in the medicine store in Jiangning recently, the demand for Su Mu is not small, but after eating so much of you, I still can't catch it. They should be sold as far north as possible, or even as far as Kyori. After all, the capital is the best place to sell this kind of thing. Those who can do this kind of business must be powerful businessmen, and there must be an official background behind them, otherwise they can't run it. A very suitable candidate is Feng Bangning, but it is impossible for him to cooperate with the Yang family. Even if you are not an enemy, you will not be a friend, and I can pack a ticket for this. ”

"That is to say, in this trap, the Yang family is also part of the prey? It's the seller who is cheating us! ”

Pan Qiong found the problem in an instant, and the other party asked him to find the Yang family to buy goods, which was a conspiracy from the beginning. Let them close the deal first, and then let them not close the deal on time. Sumu ivory is getting worse and worse, and it is not easy to sell it. If they can't complete the deal, they can only go to this intermediary, but they can't bear the responsibility for the failure of the deal, so they can only accept the ivory wood at a very low price as compensation.

This counterfeit tribute made the caravan suffer a dumb loss, and lost a sum of goods in vain, so it could only be considered unlucky. I don't even know who the big seller is, and I can't take revenge. As for the Yang family, just those disappeared goods are enough to make the Yang family suffer five labors and seven injuries, so the seller is really afraid that they will not be easily spared, and there will be further actions to encroach on the Yang family.

Fan Jin pondered, "If I'm not mistaken, the main target of this scam is not you, but the Yang family. They are going to drive the Yang family to death and eat all his family property at once. As for you, you're just a prop for him to complete this layout. From the very beginning, spreading rumors that the road was going to be overpaid, he was preparing for this scam, and it didn't matter to him who it was, no matter who it was, the result was the same. ”

Pan Qiong had a calm face, "Every line has its own rules, no matter who you are, you have to follow the rules." If he breaks the rules, he is not afraid that his goods will not be able to go to sea in the future? Even if we can't find his people, we can find his goods, so that the merchants who do his business will not be able to move an inch at sea. ”

"Of course there is a problem with what you are talking about, so I think this should be his last business. After this business, he will stop it, and he will not have any contact with you in the future. This also means that this time he will be unscrupulous regardless of his appearance, and he will not have any worries and decency! ”

Just as he was saying this, the voice of the sophomore in the house outside the door suddenly shouted: "God, Mrs. Zheng, why did you run to the window, what kind of song are you going to sing, there are bricks under your feet, it's not fun to pay attention to falling." Master, a girl named Kou'er outside has to see you, she looks very sad to cry, do you say you see it or not? ”