At the turn of the spring and summer of Jinghe's eighth year, Li Dacai, the new main hall of Jiangdu County, took office in just a few days, and won the two important roles of canonical history and treasury officials, one was deposed and the other was imprisoned, which was called the first two fires by the people in the county.

In this process, Master Li fully showed his inappropriate age and familiarity with the affairs of the yamen, so that the county officials knew that this new lord was not a nerd who could be bullied. For a while, everyone was careful, lest they become the third fire of the new official.

For the former magistrate who committed suicide, Li You is not thin. not only returned the Jiang family's 300 taels of silver, but also allocated another 200 taels of pension silver. The details are all handled by Zhou Jiexi, the master of money and grain.

At this time, Li Xianzun was sitting in the back office, thinking about how to report the case of Jiang Zhixian's suicide.

At the time of the incident, he had already reported it to the Yangzhou government in the form of an urgent submission, and it is estimated that the government had also forwarded it to the Huaidong branch of the road. Up to now, according to the style, the Jiangdu County government should write a detailed document and report it to the government again.

In this detailed text, it is necessary to explain the cause and effect of the case clearly, and the wording is particularly important.

In particular, it is difficult to judge the responsibility of this kind of case, and the main reason may be the poor psychological quality of Jiang Zhi County, maybe it is the coercion of the treasury officials, or the persecution of Ren Zhi County after a certain ... If the words and sentences are slightly deviated, it may be a world of difference in the eyes of the boss.

If you use a few words inappropriately, and make Fuzun think that it was your young and vigorous Lord Li who forced your predecessor to death, then it is a tragic life.

At this time, Zhou Jiexi came back from the county mansion and reported the funeral in Jiangzhi County to Li Youyu, and said: "Mr. Hu, the curtain seat of Lord Jiang, has now become an ownerless person. Today, he asked the proprietor if he still had the intention of hiring a staff member. Seeing this, he wanted to serve the proprietor. ”

Li Xianzun shook his head without thinking about it and said, "It's extremely inappropriate." The curtain is prepared from the left and right, and the cashier is confidential, how can he, an outsider who doesn't know the roots, make this official trustworthy? Moreover, Lord Jiang was subject to the tragedy caused by the small officials, and he, the master, was to blame, and it seemed that he had no ability. ”

"I thought the same way, but Mr. Hu said that he was willing to offer Yangzhou's "Gentry Record" as a meeting gift, and asked the proprietor to decide.

Master Li has heard of the "Gentry Record", and many places have compiled such a roster and circulated it in the hands of local officials. As the name suggests, "Records of the Gentry" records the list and situation of the local official eunuchs, the giant families, and the wealthy and right-hand households, which is similar to the "talisman" that appeared in the Dream of Red Mansions.

Li Xianzun has just arrived in Jiang for a few days, and he is almost blind to the local people, and he needs something like "Gentry Record". After all, Jiangdu County's results in the imperial examination have always been good, and there are many families who are officials outside, and it is very necessary to find out the bottom number.

"Then I will send Mr. Hu to meet him." Li You commanded.

Master Hu had been waiting outside the county government for a long time, and when he heard the summons, he hurriedly walked to the back yahua hall and saluted Li You: "At the end of the year, Hu Zhenru has seen the eldest master." ”

"The Record of the Gentry", which was used as a stepping stone, was naturally also offered, "This is still bought from the previous one when Jiang Daren first took office in Jiangdu County a few years ago." Now that the personnel are no longer there, this registration is in the hands of the county, and it can be regarded as making the best use of it. ”

Li You flipped through a few pages at random, thinking that if it weren't for the accident in Jiang Zhixian, Master Hu wanted to beg for a bowl of rice from his own place, but he was afraid that he would have to spend silver to buy this, and continue to sell it to the next one when he left office.

While watching, he took the test and said: "Ming people don't say secret words, Master Jiang made a big mistake, and you are afraid that you are very unresponsible." ”

Master Hu smiled bitterly: "Actually, I didn't know that Master Jiang had embezzled the treasury silver, and it wasn't until a few days ago that when I saw the inexplicable deficit of the county treasury, Master Jiang told me the truth, and it turned out that he privately spent thousands of taels of treasury silver to sell salt in partnership with others. We do the curtain, after all, when we see that it is used in the main house, and where the main family does not want to use it, we can only cry out in vain, so how can we do our duty? ”

Mr. Li didn't know much about what his predecessor had embezzled public money for, and he didn't want to pursue the matter. But when he heard the word "salt" from Master Hu's mouth, he became interested, and he was about to find an opportunity to exert his strength in this regard, could it be that the suicide of his predecessor was related to this matter?

Hurriedly asked, "What's the matter with Lord Jiang partnering with others to sell salt?" With his parents' official status, aren't he afraid of impeachment by the public and Fengxian? ”

Although Hu Zhenru didn't understand how Li Xianzun suddenly became energetic, he still told the truth what he knew. "There is a defeated salt merchant Qiu family in this city, and the family members Qiu Liqiu and the big officials are better with Master Jiang. Because he didn't have the capital to start shipping, he coaxed Master Jiang to embezzle the treasury silver and transport salt together..."

Originally, in the salt sales process, the salt merchants who trafficked official salt from the coastal salt farms to the major ports were called transporters.

This line of work is not something that anyone can do, the two Huai salt laws of the country and the dynasty implement a monopoly system, and only those whose names are on the official program are qualified to transport salt, so they are also called gang merchants. Most of the Huizhou salt merchants in Yangzhou City are Gangshang merchants who have the monopoly right of official salt.

The quota of the program is hereditary from generation to generation. The license held is called the nest, the annual subscription of salt is called the nest, and the number of subscriptions is called the number of nests. Regardless of the number of nests or the number of nests, if there is no accident, it is hereditary. In the city of Yangzhou, the number of large salt merchants can be as high as tens of thousands of leads, and the smallest ones have a scale of thousands of leads.

It can be seen that the windfall profits of salt transportation originated from the monopoly of exclusive surnames. A hundred years ago, in order to stabilize the salt class that was on the verge of collapse, the imperial court circled a group of relatively fixed merchants and gave them preferential convenience so that they could sell salt with peace of mind. But the adults at that time certainly did not expect that salt merchants would develop and grow to this point by relying on monopoly and monopoly.

The words are far away, but it is said that the salt merchant Qiu Daguan mentioned by Mr. Hu is not very old and only twenty-seven or eighteen years old, and he has a nest book handed down by his ancestors and a number of 13,000 yuan, which is not too big or small among the salt merchants in Yangzhou.

However, the Qiu family has fallen in recent years, and when it came to the hands of Qiu Daguan, they couldn't even get the money to transport salt. You know, his litter of 13,000 is just a proof that he is qualified, and he still needs real money as capital. If you want to traffic 13,000 official salt, you can't do it without 8,000 taels of upfront capital. Also, if a business does not have enough nests this year, I am afraid that it will be cut down the next year.

Mr. Hu continued: "In the autumn of last year, when it was the season to ship the salt, Qiu Daguan asked someone to borrow a few thousand taels to transport a batch of salt first, but he still lacked 4,000 taels of capital to transport 13,000 taels. He sent his idea to the county government treasury and told Master Jiang that if he used 4,000 taels to transport salt, he could turn it into 8,000 taels in the spring of the next year. Hearing that he could net a huge sum of four thousand taels, Master Jiang was moved. ”

At this time, Li You suddenly realized: "If you embezzle treasury money for trading and profit, if it spreads, your reputation will be very unbearable, and I am afraid that you will be impeached and dismissed." No wonder Master Jiang did a secret at that time, and he didn't even tell you. Even the treasurer didn't know what Old Man Jiang had used to take the silver. ”

However, after Lord Li made a silent calculation, he said strangely: "The doubling of the profit of salt transportation between autumn and spring may be exaggerated, but it will not be much worse, and it is not a problem for Lord Jiang to earn three thousand taels steadily." Could it be that something happened to him that he couldn't even fill the gap of seven hundred taels? ”

"Four thousand taels of silver were exchanged for six thousand taels of salt in the salt field, and the Qiu family used a huge ship converted into a cao boat to carry salt, and transported it from Yizhen down the river to the Hankou port. After a few days, Qiu Li suddenly said that the salt boat was carrying too much load, and the ship was unstable, and suddenly encountered a bad wind on the river, and it was difficult to capsize, and all of them sank to the bottom of the river..."

"It must be fake!" Li You slapped the case abruptly and said intuitively. Whether it's true or not, this Jiangzhi County is really unlucky.

Hu Zhenru sighed and said: "Master Jiang embezzled four thousand taels, lost all his money, and asked Qiu Daguan to ask for it to come back, and was taken away by the treasury officials in a false name, causing a total of five thousand taels to be lost. He took out all his savings over the years, and still owed seven hundred taels. The bag was already destitute, and he was squeezed by his wife, and he committed suicide because he couldn't stand it. Qiu Daguan is very hateful! ”

Speaking of this, Master Hu got up again and bowed to Li You and said: "I also want to thank the county for the deceased Master Jiang, if it weren't for the county respect, the orphans and widows of the Jiang family would have to beg to return to their hometowns." ”

Li You also sighed, "Husband and wife quarrel, human nature, money is something outside the body, why is this." Master Jiang is really confused, he shouldn't listen to the villain's slander, and he will do business with the treasury silver, even if it is successful, it is easy to leak the news. ”

Hu Zhenru's face suddenly became strange, and after a long while, he arrived: "Don't hide it from the county, Master Jiang is not a foolish person, but he has a habit of Longyang, likes male style, and has a close relationship with the handsome Qiu Daguan, so he will be deceived." He committed suicide in anger, maybe it had something to do with it, then I heard Mrs. Jiang use this to ridicule Master Jiang for being blind. ”

the base?! I see, no wonder a dignified county can commit suicide for seven hundred taels, and people can't think of it when they think about it... Li Xianzun was dumbfounded for a long time.

Although he often saw in books in his previous life that many scholars and doctors in the Kingdom were good men, he really hadn't seen them in person since he crossed over, and he had only heard that Master Cui had taken a small servant at home when he was poor, and he never thought that he would encounter such a real male style today.

I also remembered Master Zhuang's assertion that his eyes were like torches: Lord Ling Jiang can't say that behind the matter, there must be a beautiful woman! At that time, Li You still believed in this assertion, but now it seems that he was wrong... Master Li, who was rare and strange, came back to his senses from the rarity and asked, "In your opinion, is this the use of Qiu Daguan's... Men cheat money? ”

Hu Zhenru asked rhetorically: "What does the county mean..."

Master Li looked unpredictable and hinted: "It's not a fraud but it will become a fraud, where did he claim to sink the ship?" ”

Mr. Hu immediately reacted, "There are river berths in all counties on both sides of the river, and shipwrecks in the jurisdiction are recorded!" If it is a lie about the shipwreck, there will be clues to follow, and I will visit it before I am willing to serve! ”

is also a smart person, and this thing can be regarded as a name... Li You nodded and said, "Wait for good news." ”

He also said to Zhou Jiexi: "Take three hundred taels and give Mr. Hu the time for this trip, and then send two of them to wait for Mr. Hu's trip." ”

Since the arrival of Lord Li of Yangzhou Prefecture and acting governor of Jiangdu County, no salt merchant has taken the initiative to visit the county government, and if you think that Lord Li does not mind this, it is a big mistake!

(To be continued)