The light rain stopped in less than two days, and the outside of the window of the Jiangning prefect's conference room became brighter and brighter, and the room became brighter and brighter. Wen Zhang raised his head and looked at the mottled shadows of the trees on the window, feeling a little better.

"At present, Jiangning has a deficit of 8.72 million yuan, of which 7 million is the construction cost of the Qinhuai River reconstruction plan...... "The finance bureau chief read the current Jiangning data in a very cold official tone.

Some Jiangning officials who listened to the report struggled to connect the data of the term 'deficit' with reality, and the Zhao family coined countless words. According to modern Chinese, in the past, most of China's vocabulary was single-word words, but in modern Chinese, a large number of two-word words are used, and the capacity of each word has become larger.

The director of the Water Resources Bureau asked: "Does the Finance Bureau really use a red pen to write those loss-making accounts when keeping accounts?" ”

This question was very abrupt, but Wen Zhang felt that his spirit was lifted and his attention was concentrated. The director of the Finance Bureau was stunned, he didn't expect someone to ask for such a technical detail. Everyone is accustomed to black ink, and the red word is conspicuous among the black characters.

In the end, the Minister of Finance could only reply: "This is a loss that is deliberately marked in red when the statistical table is issued, which is not the case when the table is made." ”

"I see." The director of the water conservancy bureau felt that a doubt in his heart had been solved. The deficit turned out to be a real word written in red ink.

As soon as other topics were inserted like this, Wen Zhangden felt much better. Seeing that the director of finance resumed his expression of continuing to talk about the deficit problem, Wen Zhang said to the director of the water conservancy bureau: "How is the progress of the Qinhuai River project? ”

"Seventy percent complete. The key now is the greening of the banks of several upstream rivers. The hillsides in our Jiangning River Basin are trying their best to green, although it is only the initial beginning, and the effect is obvious. As long as the banks of the Qinhuai River are fully greened, the river water can become very clear. At that time, there was no need to worry about siltation. "When it comes to water conservancy projects, the director of the water conservancy bureau is very excited.

At first, it was the question of the director of the water conservancy bureau, which made Wen Zhang feel relieved. Listening to the confident speech of the director of the water conservancy bureau, Wenzhang couldn't help but think of the deficit. Every day, the money on the project is flowing out, and the Water Conservancy Bureau is Qizhang asked: "The Water Conservancy Bureau has the supervision of the Water Conservancy Department, as long as the project is accepted, the imperial court will allocate all the funds." This deficit is nothing, but what is the matter with the extra million? ”

The Secretary for the Financial Services thought that everyone did not want to talk about finance, but this is the end of today's report. Unexpectedly, Wen Zhang turned around and returned to the deficit. He sorted out the interrupted train of thought and continued: "The majority of the remaining deficit of more than one million is the deficit of the Food Bureau. There is also part of the investment in the construction of new textile mills and silk factories. ”

After saying this, everyone's eyes shifted to the director of the food bureau again. Seeing that everyone was looking at him, the director of the grain bureau hurriedly said: "In order to store grain, our grain bureau has recently built a lot of new grain depots, which cost a lot of money. ”

Everyone understood this explanation. So his eyes fell on Wen Zhang again. Wen Zhang knew what everyone thought, and he replied frankly: "You don't have to worry, I will take care of the affairs of the imperial court." You don't have to worry about your own assessment. But I have something to say clearly, since the imperial court has invested so much money in Jiangning, how many people are staring at Jiangning, if someone dares to bend the law for bribes, everyone should think about what the result will be. ”

After the meeting, Wen Zhang returned to the office, took out the letter written by his eldest brother Wen Tianxiang and read it again. At the beginning of Wen Tianxiang's letter, he naturally praised Wen Zhang's ability and asked him to be loyal to the king. After writing about these big things, Wen Tianxiang warned Wen Zhang that he was on the cusp of the storm at this time, and he couldn't avoid being splashed with dirty water. If you dare to bend the law for a penny, you will definitely be caught.

Wen Zhang put down the letter, very uneasy in his heart. The deficit of more than 7 million yuan is not simply spent, but is the result of subtracting various taxes from the money invested in Jiangning this year. The amount of investment the imperial court in Jiangning was actually much more than seven million guan.

The largest landlord in Jiangning is the Duan family, with a total of more than 70,000 acres of fertile land. According to the price of 40 yuan per mu of land, that is, 3 million yuan. If the Great Song Dynasty used the money from the Qinhuai River Basin to buy land, it would probably be able to buy all the land in the entire Qinhuai River Basin. The Wen family was born as a big landowner, so Wen Zhang knew very well how much wealth and power he had at this time. Therefore, Wen Zhang understood his eldest brother Wen Tianxiang's advice, there must be too many people who want Wen Zhang's life.

If he could kill Wen Zhang with his own hands, Duan Tiande would definitely rush up without hesitation and tear Wen Zhang apart with his own hands. In mid-September, Duan Yuanwai had no time to think about this issue at all. If Wen Zhang died, Jiangning Mansion would be in chaos, and the Duan family's grain would not be able to be sold to the government's grain station.

The land owned by the Duan family collected more than 100,000 stone of grain in 329 of the Great Song Dynasty. Rations and seeds were left behind, and a total of nearly 300,000 yuan was sold. Although this money is a lot, it is not a lot of money for the Duan family's expenses. It's just barely surviving this year's money.

At the meeting of the Duan family elders, Duan Tiande said decisively: "In the future, all the children of the Duan family will no longer go to private school, and they will all come to Jiangning to go to school." ”

When the elders heard this, there were many arguments, some for it and some for it. Those who objected said, "If there is no private school, how can we contact the examiners who are presiding over the Jinshi examination?" ”

Before Duan Tiande could speak, there were already other elders who said disdainfully: "Don't you even read the newspaper, now even the Ministry of Rites has been revoked." The Jinshi examination is under the administration of the Ministry of Education. ”

"The Ministry of Education is in charge, and there must be a chief examiner."

"The teachers invited by our private school are all waste, and after so many years, the Duan family has not seen anyone who can be admitted to Jinshi. At present, only the 30 or so jinshi who take the examination every three years can become officials, and other meritorious names, whether they are lifting people or showing talents, not only can they not be officials, but they can't even be cadres. What's the use of keeping a private school! ”

"You don't need a private school, it's hard to teach the same as Duan Fengming. Ignore the Duan family's answer, let him do something for the family, he told us first, as long as it delays him as an official, he will definitely not do it. Is there such a thing? ”

Duan Fengming is the one with the highest official position in the Duan family now, and he is also regarded as a negative teaching material in the eyes of some people in the Duan family.

"To feed those private school gentlemen, you have to pay hundreds of times a year. Let the children of the Duan family come to live in Jiangning and go to school in Jiangning, which is only a few hundred times a year. As for Feng Ming, everyone should stop talking about him. His family has never used a penny from the clan, let's let him do things for the clan, have you given him a penny? Duan Tiande expressed his opinion.

The elders were silent for the time being, and when the elders who supported Duan Tiande felt that they could move on to the next topic, the opposing elders sneered, "Hehe, Tiande, your style is that the Great Song can control you, and you will work for the Great Song." When Jin Guo calls, you support Jin Guo. When the Mongols come, you work for the Mongols. Where is the backbone? ”

"Spine? Hum! Duan Tiande also sneered, "If the backbone can be sold for 200,000 yuan a year, I will sell my backbone for the Duan family." If it can't be sold, what's the use of backbone. ”

At the mention of money, the elders were silent. As an elder of the Duan family, he has money to take. The opponent didn't want to be overwhelmed by Duan Tiande, so he said: "That Duan Fengming sits like this every time he comes, and he doesn't give him money if it's difficult?" ”

"There is an account room for this kind of thing, don't you know if you check it?" Duan Tiande replied coldly.

"No wonder Duan Fengming doesn't do things for the clan, Tiande, it's not authentic for you to do this!" The elder who opposed Duan Tiande accused.

After hearing this accusation, several people who supported Duan Tiande immediately made a disdainful voice of 'cut'. The opponents did not care, and continued to accuse Duan Tiande, "We scolded Feng Ming for not doing things for the Duan family, but we didn't mean that the Duan family didn't give him anything, so let him work for nothing." ”

In the face of the accusation, Duan Tiande didn't care, and when the opponents finished speaking, he said indifferently: "If Feng Ming becomes the director of the Agricultural Bureau, he is an official." He is the elder of the clan. The reason why I didn't give him money at that time was because I wanted him to do more things for the clan, and since he never got any money, he would be able to become an elder more smoothly. ”

"Looking at it now, it's not the same as I thought. I'm worried that Feng Ming never thought about becoming an elder in the clan from the beginning. The elder who had just supported Duan Tiande objected, "His family only has thirty acres of land, and the elders of the clan don't have thousands of acres of land in their hands." Even if he does more things for the clan, he can't afford it. ”

Speaking of which, the faces of the elders became very unsightly. The amount of land he owns determines his status in the clan, if Duan Fengming can be admitted to the Jinshi and become a Beijing official. Not only represents the family, but also represents the power, of course he is an elder, and there is no problem in becoming a patriarch. However, the road taken by Duan Fengming was not so glamorous.

In the silence, Duan Tiande spoke again, "If it is abandoned, one mu of land will be fined six yuan, and these tenant farmers want to go to work on the farm when they see that the government's farm income is higher." I'm afraid that there will be some things on our land. If we can't get out of the land, we have to let our family grow it themselves. ”

"If we farm our own land, what about the money?" Immediately an elder asked.

Duan Tiande had already guessed that there was such a question, and immediately said with a straight face: "Our Duan family's children, as long as the land is entered into the public land, every mu of land is given eighty-fifty percent of the income, and one or five percent is given to the clan. When the time comes, what will be the division of the family among each other? Isn't it okay to do more for your family? ”8)