Li You's letter was recorded as "Yangzhou Prefecture General Judgment Acting Jiangdu County Affairs for the Salt Law and Gang Shang Ershi", and it was stored in a dark corner of the Imperial Palace in the palace of the palace for hundreds of years, and the theme of the so-called archival cultural relics is to scratch and complain.

The first part describes the sinister situation:

The predecessor of the county magistrate Jiang committed suicide by hanging a beam, which is really shocking! As soon as such a shocking thing was traced to the salt merchants, I saw that the two Huai Yamen documents came one after another, and all the words were salt matters, and each held its ministry to threaten each other, and the county officials were terrified!

If there is no salt merchant, the two Huai Pepsi can't, I don't know the Yangzhou of today, is the Yangzhou of my Ming Dynasty or the Yangzhou of the merchants?

The minister arrived in office for less than a month, acted with his heart, respected the court, and successively recovered the salt class, strictly investigated the fraud of the treasury and silver, and persecuted the magistrate. But it has led to the estrangement of the top and bottom, and the situation of left and right suspension, and now the minister is like a lonely boat in the city, or he thinks that he wants to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor!

In this part, Master Li also insidiously estimated that the total profit of the two Huai salt merchants was more than 5 million a year, and the tax on the two Huai salt was only 3 million.

The second part of the smuggled goods is to ask for power and money:

The minister also saw that Jiangdu was close to the salt farm, and there was a lot of unofficial surplus salt transit, and in recent years, the investigation was unfavorable, and the salt law was greatly damaged. The salt class has almost no entry, but the government is subject to the alms of the salt merchants, like a beggar, and the dignity is gone, which is too embarrassing for the court.

Please exempt from the salt class in Jiangdu County. Or it is easier to Jiangdu County Salt Law, abolish the gang salt, imitate the salt system of other places, listen to the people's own trafficking, and the government set up a city to collect taxes, and remove the disadvantages of gang salt! It can also protect the government from the salt merchants.

At the same time, he called for the establishment of a new department to supervise the salt affairs and rectify the salt law. The stakes are significant, and it can't be the same as the general imperial history, and the level can be set as six grades (Master Li is this grade, you know).

The third part of the determination is:

The matter of eating the king's loyalty to the king, even if there is danger and hindering the ministers, they are also gallant, vowing to remove dirt and dirt, return the county to the level, repay the country's kindness, and care for Li Shu, although tens of millions of people have gone to me.

After writing it, Master Li read it again and added: "Yangzhou Weisi people, who am I with!" ”

After finishing the draft, Li You began to write letters to the backers again, and with this opportunity, he must ask for an official title that can legally meddle in salt affairs.

For example, the rectification of the salt law, the acting salt law... Whoever dares to oppose in the court is to speak for the salt merchant who forced the county to death, and he also wants the salt merchant to force the second county to death!

After everything was written, it was already midnight, and Master Li returned to the inner office. It was supposed to be Aunt Jin's turn to sleep tonight, but Li You thought about it and turned around and walked to Aunt Cheng in the fourth room.

Cheng Saiyu hadn't fallen asleep yet, and was writing in the handmaiden's classroom where she was a good teacher, and the handmaid had a sad face, feeling very painful that she had become a test subject for the hostess.

"Sister Yu..."Li You stood at the door and whispered softly.

Aunt Cheng turned her head and saw her husband come in, her face was full of surprise, "Why did my husband come?" Isn't it the slave's turn to serve tomorrow night? ”

Master Li waved his hand, and the maid took the opportunity to slip away to boil hot water.

"The master remembered that he didn't care enough about you, since he went to the south, have you ever lived in it? Eating habits? Have you ever been used to the climate? Hot or not? Master Li asked very attentively.

Cheng Xiaoniang was a little overwhelmed in the face of the sudden care, and shrank back, "The master is bothered, with my sisters as companions, everything is very good..."

"That's good, that's good." Master Li smiled kindly: "I haven't written to Jingshi for a long time, right?" ”

Cheng Xiaoniang's heart trembled, could it be that yesterday she secretly wrote a secret report to expose the old man for drinking flower wine, and also wrote down the hairpin flower to remember the fairy bones?

The lord has repeatedly emphasized to her that romantic matters must not be truthfully reported, but before leaving, His Royal Highness Chitose explained that the romantic affairs must be explained in detail. It's hard to get caught in the middle... Li You was unaware of the nervousness of the concubine in front of him, "According to the master, your connection with Jingshi needs to be strengthened, and it needs to be closer, how can you say that your father and brother are also working in Chitose." So..."

Aunt Cheng's face turned pale instantly, her eyes closed and swayed, almost fainting, Li You stepped forward and took her in his arms, and asked strangely: "You are talking well, but what's wrong with you?" ”

"So the master wants to drive the slave family back to the capital?" Cheng Saiyu reluctantly opened his eyes and asked.

What kind of nonsense is this? Li You reprimanded angrily: "What are you thinking about!" I'm here to ask you to write a secret report to Chitose, and I'll say that I'm about to be forced to hang myself, master! If she doesn't help, she'll just wait to collect the body! ”

From the Beijing division to the four directions, there are express delivery shops responsible for the transmission of official documents, where the world Fuzhou counties are set up express shops, the prescribed speed is three hundred miles a day and night, and the official documents are transmitted at any time.

Li You's note and the Cheng's secret report stamped with the royal seal can naturally be transmitted to the Jingshi at this speed, and it can be reached in about seven or eight days. But personal letters are very unreliable.

Master Li was worried that Song Shu had arrived in Jingshi early, and the letter he wrote to the backers was still on the way, resulting in misunderstandings and accidents.

That's why he borrowed the royal seal in the hand of Cheng Xiaoniang, sealed his private goods together, and indicated in it that he entrusted the eldest princess to hand it over. I have to say that it feels really good to use public and private equipment.

In fact, the content of Li You's recital is very irregular, and he was impeached by the imperial history as soon as he was sent to the imperial court. But it doesn't matter, is the one who is not impeached still a celebrity?

Under normal circumstances, it is easy for a local concert that does not report emergencies to slow down in the huge central bureaucratic system, but Li You's reputation is resounding, so his concert runs smoothly, which is the embodiment of the right to speak.

I don't mention it, but I said that time is like an arrow and the moon is like a shuttle, and it was in the middle of June of the eighth year of Jinghe.

In the city of Yangzhou, the announcement of the Yana of Jiangdu County ordering the six fugitive salt merchants to surrender within a month was about to expire, but still no salt merchants surrendered, and Li did not make any further moves.

The salt merchants were all waiting to see the joke, they knew from the beginning that this announcement must be a dead letter, and it was useless to intimidate Li You with a few false words.

How arrogant was Lord Li at the beginning, hasn't it gradually stopped helplessly recently? Probably he's looking for the bottom of the stairs.

Li You is also a little anxious, if the order issued becomes an empty document and is treated as a joke, it will also cause great damage to his prestige. I knew that the deadline should have been written as three months, so that it would be enough to wait for the court to dispose of it.

On June 14, the last day of the proclamation period, the Jiangbei Patrol Lei Yushi suddenly drove to Yangzhou, which was ordered by the imperial court to investigate what Li Youzuo said.

At this time, the whole city knew that Master Li had complained to the imperial court. But what's the use? The imperial court could not ignore the fact that the government office, the salt transportation department, and the governor only favored a six-rank general judgment and a county.

According to the old method, the imperial court ordered the Jiangbei tour to follow the imperial history, and ordered him to go to Yangzhou as soon as possible to investigate the situation and report it. At that time, Lei Xunji was patrolling in Luzhou Mansion, and after receiving the order, he got on the boat and went down the river.

For the arrival of Lei Yushi, Li You breathed a sigh of relief, and it can be regarded as a step down. Swiftly, in the name of the arrival of the Qin mission to visit and the annulment of the foregoing, the announcement that almost embarrassed him was taken down.

As mentioned above, the patrol according to the imperial history is the most honored seven-grade official in the world, and the identity of the Qincha on behalf of the heavenly patrol hunting, everywhere he goes, he makes decisions on small things and plays big things, and he can also fight against the court when he sees the governor, and he is really a powerful role.

Lei Xun is as famous as his name, and he is indeed resolute. When he arrived, he personally checked the case file, questioned Qiu Li from prison, confirmed that there was fraud of official money, and confirmed that there were six salt merchants who were summoned but did not appear in the case, and asked Li You for the so-called "pressure documents" given to him by various yamen.

After that, there was nothing to do with Li You, and time continued to flow in waiting.

Until the end of June, the original and copy of an edict were suddenly delivered to the Fengyang Governor Yamen, the Yangzhou Governor's Yamen, and the Jiangdu County Yamen, which immediately caused a stir in the entire Jiangbei officialdom.

The reason why I say scratch rather than shake is because this appointment is really weird, and everyone has never seen a precedent.

And Master Li looked at the freshly baked letter of appointment in his hand, and was stunned and didn't know what to think. It is written on the edict that Li You, who is the general judge of Yangzhou Prefecture and the acting governor of Jiangdu County, is also in charge of the garrison department of the government.

He looked at it several times before confirming that he was not mistaken, it was the government garrison department, not the official position of rectifying the salt law envoy and acting salt law dao that he was pursuing.

He was speechless and choked at Lord Li, it was purely a donkey's lips and a horse's mouth, what he wanted was an official position in the salt industry, so that he could interfere in the salt industry in a big way, but what was he doing with a bunch of big-headed soldiers? Could it be that the person who wrote the edict drank too much?

Cheng Zhilang, Yangzhou Mansion General Judgment, Acting Jiangdu County Affairs, and Government Garrison Division, both raising the army and governing the people on the ground in the small Jiangdu County, this official position is also a strange thing in space, and it is absolutely the only one in the three hundred years of the dynasty!

However, it seems that since Lord Li became an official, from the sixteen-character deputy inspector to the addition of three officials in the book, and then to the latest appointment, most of the official positions are so peculiar that they must be mentioned in the history books with marginal notes... No, then people will definitely want to be covered with clouds and mountains.

Master Zhuang sighed at the edict, the proprietor is really a god and a man, and even this kind of distorted and symbolic official position can be obtained, he really did not take refuge in the wrong proprietor!

Speaking of the government garrison department, we must start from the tradition of the national dynasty to suppress the military with literature and unify the military with literature. However, after the Jiashen Change, the military system changed, and there were more professional forbidden direct troops, which were stationed in Beijing and the main points of the world, and were directly controlled and commanded by the Son of Heaven, and had no connection with the local government.

In the interior, the original function of the guard post gradually declined, and it was no different from that of ordinary peasant households, but it still had to take turns to serve in the military and serve as a local garrison. The general system is the three-level vertical jurisdiction of the governor or governor, the military garrison department, and the government garrison department, which is different from place to place, but the original command and envoy system has withdrawn from the historical stage.

In order to ensure that there are civilian officials in charge of the army at each level, the Governor and the Garrison Department are all civilian officials, but it is not clear in the name of the official position.

But now the imperial court has made such a precedent-setting appointment, and it has made it clear that Master Li is in charge of the garrison department of the Yangzhou Mansion and has become the rightful superior and commander of the garrison department of the Yangzhou government.

Those who don't understand the officialdom of the country may not understand where the peculiarity is. Then please magnify Lord Li's new official position by 100 times, what is the difference between it and the governor of the feudal territory?

There are several categories of governors of the national dynasty, and as usual, they all add the title of right deputy (佥) imperial envoy to indicate the Qincha system.

Among them, the most common is the governor established by the province, and there are three kinds of customary official titles, one is the governor of Zhejiang, whose full name is the governor of the military affairs of Zhejiang; the second is the governor of Shaanxi, because there is a governor above, so the full name is the governor of Shaanxi local praise and military affairs; Third, for example, the governor of Guangxi, whose full name is only the governor of Guangxi, cannot be called a military gate or a military army without military dispatch.

As for the governor of Fengyang in Nanzhili, like the governor of the frontier and the governor of southern Jiangnan, it is relatively special, and it is set up according to the place and the event.

If it is said that the characteristics of the general governor's functions and powers are to govern the localities, inspect the officials, and supervise the military affairs, that is, the officials, the people, and the army, they are the officials of the political envoys and the inspection envoys. Then within a radius of one hundred and eighty miles in Jiangdu County, Master Li can barely be regarded as having all three after he gets a new appointment.

If you draw a scoop according to the governor's gourd, in a comical way, you can also jokingly call Master Li the place where the military governor of Jiangdu County is the governor of the prefecture.

So from this point of view, the Yangzhou Prefecture General Judge, the acting Jiangdu County Affairs, and the Government Garrison Department are like miniature miniature governors located in Jiangdu County... All in all, on the surface, it seems to be to add some authority to Lord Li and let him take charge of the local army, but the actual meaning is very special, very meaningful, and very thought-provoking. In the national dynasty, the officials who governed both the people and the army were really only about 20 governors.

Anyone in the officialdom who heard this edict had a few doubts except for sensationalism and surprise. In recent years, officials have been rampant, under normal circumstances, university scholars and officials dare to make such an official position, but they are afraid that they will be scolded.

If you think about it carefully, this thing can only be done in the palace, could it be that Lord Li's holy family is so deep? Didn't he just be deposed by the Queen Mother?

After Gaozong, according to the edict of the Son of Heaven, the military power was particularly important. When it comes to changes in military affairs, it is impossible without the nod of the emperor, even if Jing and the Son of Heaven are not pro-government, when it comes to major military affairs and the appointment of military attachés, they must go through the motions from him.

Thinking of this, Li You felt that the truth was about to come out, if it wasn't for the good deeds done by Guide Chitose, he would dare to eat this edict! couldn't help but sigh and sighed, a woman's mind is really hard to guess, and a pregnant woman's mind is even stranger.

Although it is a pity that I did not get the official position of salt, but there is force under my hands, it is not useless, and when it is used reasonably, the power is also huge. It is estimated that His Highness Chitose meant to tell him to break the rules.

(To be continued)