When Li You was looking at the Tongzhi Judge's Hall in a daze, he saw a figure flickering, and Wang Lao Tongzhi flashed out of the hall, walked back and forth in the courtyard a few times, kicked his legs and waved his arms, and played a strange trick that he didn't know what to do to strengthen his body. After that, a long attendant handed over the teapot, Wang Tongzhi took it and tasted it, closed his eyes and savored it before drinking it.

Like a rural idler, Governor Li slandered. It is said that although Li You was very unhappy with Wang Tongzhi, who was involved in him, he was not stupid enough to offend this only Shangguan who could be contacted when he was very isolated in the palace, but he couldn't help but ridicule with half sarcasm: "Master Tongzhi is really interested." ”

Wang Tongzhi didn't seem to be able to hear the sarcasm, and laughed and said: "Renyun, watch the flowers bloom in front of the court, sit and watch the clouds roll outside the sky, at this time, autumn is rare, how about you and I play chess in the courtyard?" ”

Is drinking tea and playing chess just like business? Li You said: "I know that the old man wants to be leisurely, why not spend the rest of his life in Shi'an, what is the meaning in this mansion." ”

Old man Wang seemed to be puzzled by Li You's words, "Governor Li doesn't see that the old man is living a leisurely life now?" ”

"It's very laid-back."

"When it comes to idleness, being an official is like this, and being a scholar is just like that, so why does the old man want to be a scholar?" Wang Tongzhi replied: "I can still receive more than 100 taels of silver in office, and this Suzhou Mansion is a prosperous and comfortable place, so why do you have any reason to resign?" The old man remembered that Governor Li was a smart man, and he couldn't figure it out. ”

The sixty-year-old Tongzhi's reason was so strong that he couldn't refute it, Governor Li was speechless, turned his head to the Tongzhi and said: "This official wants to play chess with your master, why don't you hurry up and get the chess pieces!" Remember to take the chess pieces! ”

Wang Tongzhi wanted to play Go, but Li You didn't, so the two had to play chess, but fortunately, Wang Tongzhi had all kinds of chess and cards in his room... Set up the chessboard and kill back and forth, and when the chess game was halfway through, Wang Tongzhi suddenly said: "Ma Xunji has made a mess in Xujiang County, presumably you are the ghost?" ”

Li You, who was looking at the chessboard and pondering the next step, raised his head when he heard the words and said, "Master Wang said that he was laughing, how dare the lower officials dare to go against the Qincha." ”

"Hehe, I heard that Ma Xun was caught with a sore foot when he pressed the official camp raw silk, others don't know, but the old man knows very well that the Xujiang official camp raw silk was instigated by you. Based on the old man's understanding of you as a person, it must be some trick you did in secret, and Chen Zhixian didn't have that mind. ”

Li You replied expressionlessly: "Presumably, Master Wang is just laughing at random." ”

Time passed day by day, the weather became colder and colder, and Li You came to the mansion for nearly a month, and he was still a stranger to others. Occasionally Zhao Liangli invited him to a banquet to eat and drink, but he could also get acquainted with some romantic characters, copy some poems and applaud a few times, and seek some spiritual comfort. Of course, there is also free ** comfort.

Li You also thought about improving the situation, but it had no effect, not to mention his colleagues, and even those officials did not respond to him. If it is really a big husband, Li You sighed. Old man Wang is so old, he should be a pensioner if he stays up, does he have to rely on his youth to transfer and retire all the current officials of the government before he can come out? This process is estimated to take seven or eight years, which is a long time... During this period of time, the price of rice in Suzhou Prefecture remained high, and there were several incidents of poor people grabbing rice, which had never been seen in recent years, which caused a lot of discussion in the city from high-ranking officials and nobles to peddlers and pawns. How can you not pay attention? At least hundreds of thousands of people who have been removed from agricultural production live in this city, and a food crisis is not something that can be solved casually.

What is even more strange is that from Wu County, Changzhou County to the government office, there is no rice grain to settle the price of rice, nor does it give relief to the poor, and the government is unanimously silent about this. It is said that after the Jiashen Rebellion, the imperial court attached great importance to the grain reserves in various places, for fear that there would be another recurrence of the old incident, so it gave more savings quotas in the payment of grain tax, and built warehouses on a large scale to prepare for famine and disaster relief. In addition, now is the time for the autumn grain to go on the market, and this kind of expensive rice should not be robbed.

The old man in the mansion who was worried about the country and the people sighed that there were five or six cases of rice grabbing in January, and he only heard his father and grandparents mention that there would be such chaos in the Chongzhen Dynasty back then. Immediately, the old man who said this strange thing was arrested by the prefect of Mao in the name of bewitching the public, and he was flailed to show the public, and it was rumored to be a joke in the yazhong.

Li You is only amazed at these things, and he is an irrelevant bystander, unlike in Xujiang County, where there is a disturbance, Chen Zhixian called him over to discuss.

On this day, when Li You continued to play chess with Wang Tongzhi, a servant at home in Xujiang County suddenly sent a letter. ”

Wang Tongzhi asked, "Is there something going on at home?" ”

Li You thought about it for a while and told the truth, "The newly appointed Xishui inspector sees that my family's silk shop is profitable, and intends to encroach on it. "This new inspector is the original governor of the Governor's Department, it seems that his surname is Jiang, and he changed his official position and went to Xishui, Li You wants to find out this person's surname from Wang Tongzhi. I went back to Xujiang County to find Chen Zhixian to settle the matter, and went home to see my wife and concubine and parents and take winter clothes.

Wang Tongzhi did not answer directly, but asked rhetorically: "How does Governor Li feel in the past month, and are you willing to be willing to accept the status quo?" ”

How can this old man talk about this? Could it be that he has any ideas? Li You did not hide his feelings, and replied very bluntly: "Of course I am unwilling." ”

"Here's where the opportunity lies." Wang Tongzhi stroked his beard and said, "The old man is confident that he still has some vision for reading people..."

Hearing this, Li You sneered in his heart, you old man still dare to say that you have vision, and you will directly offend everyone in the whole department to death, and you will also implicate my master and me into the embarrassing situation I am in now.

"This Jiang is a villain who is arrogant. He has been called by the officials everywhere for more than ten years, and he is a few points stronger than the small officials. The old man guessed that he had no one to detain him when he arrived abroad, and the surname he had been suppressing would inevitably become extremely arrogant and domineering after he let go. Go back to your country and find out his iniquity, and take hold of his shortcomings. ”

Li You said: "What's the use of that? What an opportunity. ”

Wang Tongzhi was silent for a long time, looking at the young and messy official in front of him, thinking back to what Li You had done, assessing his ability and background.

Li You saw that the usually amiable old man Wang was rarely serious, and knew that he had important words to weigh, so he concentrated on listening.

The atmosphere between the two suddenly became solemn.

"From Jiang Inspector, you can implicate the government office and catch them all." Wang Tongzhi pointed slowly.

This... Old man Wang wants to play this kind of performance art that reports all his colleagues together? Do you want to drag him into the water and do the same? Does he Li You look so stupid? After holding back for a long time, the big move is such a useless sentence?

"Hahahaha." Li You burst into laughter, "Master Wang, you are determined not to change, don't be a man who doesn't hit the south wall and don't look back." ”

No matter how good Wang Tongzhi's cultivation is, he can't hold it on Li Youxiao's face at this time, although his matter is really embarrassing from the perspective of officialdom, so he reprimanded loudly: "You dare to lose your honor in front of Shangguan!" ”

Li You closed his voice and arched his hand, got up to say goodbye, and hurried back to Xujiang.

"Wait." Wang Tongzhi stopped Li You, "The old man hasn't finished speaking, do you think this time it's still such a trivial matter as accepting gifts and bribes, if you want to say that the top and bottom of the government office are working together to embezzle the grain stored in the warehouse?" ”

One sentence shocked Li You's brain, if it was really a collective embezzlement of grain stored in the official warehouse, it would not be a small fight, and it could be called a shocking case.

During the Chongzhen period, the catastrophe and famine caused civil unrest and almost changed the dynasty, how could this lesson not arouse the vigilance of the imperial court, so in recent decades, great attention has been paid to the preparation for famine and disaster relief. According to the practice of this dynasty, even if they ask for money and accept bribes, they can be dealt with lightly, and they can still be reinstated after returning the stolen goods and atonement. But after privately swallowing the rice and grain of the official warehouse, the quality of the surname has completely changed, which is much more serious than direct greed for silver. If this triggers a local civil uprising, it can be enough to rob the family and kill the army, which shows how big a crime this is. What's more, listening to Wang Tongzhi's meaning, it seems that all the government officials are involved, which is even more shocking.

Now Mi Guicheng is like this, the government has accumulated several years of storage, and it is not out of parity, which is very puzzling, is it... Thinking of this, Li You was shocked and said: "The boss can't lie! ”

Wang Tong knew: "What do you think is true, what do you think this official is trying to become a laughing stock, so that he can clear himself and distinguish clearly." ”

Li You suddenly realized, no wonder Wang Tongzhi found a trivial thing to report the whole government from the beginning, and seemed to offend everyone for no reason, who expected that there was wisdom in it. After Wang Tongzhi took office, he secretly noticed the embezzlement of warehousing by people in the government office, and he did not dare to venture into it, but also feared that he would be forcibly pulled into the water by his colleagues, and he was also worried that in the future, if he was mixed with it after the East Window incident, he couldn't explain it clearly, so he came up with the way to find some other sesame mung bean trivial matter and report it in one pot.

There are three advantages to this, one is that Wang Tongzhi deliberately offended everyone and was ostracized by his colleagues because of trivial matters, and he would not be involved in their crime of stealing grain, and he would not directly force his colleagues to jump over the wall in a hurry; The second is that in the eyes of outsiders, Wang Tongzhi has drawn a clear line with others, and he can pretend that he doesn't know anything if he is concealed, and he will not be implicated in the East Window incident; Third, if the imperial court investigates and punishes it, Wang Tongzhi, as the only innocent person in the whole government, should be more or less praised, and maybe he can be set up as an advanced model by the imperial court to cover up his shame and directly act as the prefect.

Li You couldn't help but admire in his heart, this old man seems to be mediocre and incompetent, but decades of food are not eaten for nothing, his trick is similar to pretending to be crazy and stupid, hiding from everyone, and bringing the concept of self-preservation to the extreme. A person who only has the fame of Xiucai has mixed up with the five grades, and he really has his strengths, I thought it was just by being thick-skinned, but now it seems that it is more than that.

Wang Tongzhi has been despised and ridiculed by everyone for so long, and today he finally saw someone admiring him, as if he had seen a bosom friend, and said proudly: "So when you came here, the old man said that you were lucky." ”

Li You thought of something again, and asked with suspicion: "How many warehouses are in and out of their own registers, how can they be easily hidden?" Every year, there are patrols to check, the government warehouse is the top priority, and the number of each year will be handed over to the next one to continue the audit, is it all fooled? ”

"There is indeed a big mystery in it, listen to the old man." Wang Tongzhi said.

(To be continued)