"Three days ago, 900 tons of rails were out of the warehouse, and the money was 3,000 yuan, so it can be used up so quickly?"

In July, as the time entered autumn, at the same time as the autumn tiger was powerful, a dispute also broke out at the door of the Yamen warehouse in Nandian County.

Zhu Zhanyan, who was already proficient, sat at the door of the warehouse, holding a list of money and grain in his hand and questioning the two officials in front of him.

In the face of his words, the clerk of the workshop was also unhappy and said, "What do you know when you sit here every day?" ”

"Do you know how many tons of rails are used in a mile of railway, how much wages are spent, and how much food is eaten by workers?"

The clerk complained impatiently, and Zhu Zhanyan slapped the list directly on the table, and said in an unkind tone:

"The railroad tracks of the imperial court are four feet five inches three (145cm) wide, 90 tons of rails are used per mile, the daily wage is forty wen, each worker has two catties of rice per day, four taels of meat, half a catty of vegetables, and the food fee shall not exceed ten wen."

"It will take at least half a month to lay 900 tons of railroad tracks, not counting the time to build bridges."

"With 3,000 yuan, at least 20,000 workers can be raised to spend it in three days, but even if 20,000 workers are raised, it is impossible to lay a ten-mile railway in three days."

"If this railway can be laid at a high speed only by a large number of people, then the Southwest Railway will not be shelved!"

"In short, this matter is unreasonable, I will tell Gao Dianguan about it a little, as for whether Gao Dianguan agrees, that is his business."

"Now that the note has been approved, even if the matter just now is over, I won't play the county Cheng."

The construction of the railway is undoubtedly the largest project in the Ming Dynasty at present, and the expenditure represents profitability, which naturally attracts this group of insects.

"Since there is a problem, let's put it aside for the time being......"

Everyone turned around, only to see Gao Guan hurriedly walking into the warehouse, and walked to Zhu Zhanyan's side, and picked up the book on the table.

He stepped forward and looked at Zhu Zhan Yan condescendingly: "Guo Yan, I know that you have a background, but no matter how big your background is, it can't affect the railway construction period." ”

"I've been sitting in this warehouse for more than two months, and this group of people is just corrupting!"

"Don't ramble!" The priest interrupted Guo Yan's words:

"Approve the slip first, and report it to the senior warden of your household later if there is a problem."

"What's going on?"

"If you check it for me, I'll find it!" Zhu Zhanyan was full of confidence, Gao Guan could only look at Zhu Zhanyan's confident appearance, and secretly shook his head and sighed in his heart.

"Please tell me how the previous project consumed 900 tons of iron in three days."

"If you can find out something, I will personally go to the government to show you the credit, if you can't find out......"

"You're just a small warehouse official, how can the yamen operate, is it difficult for you to nod?"

He simply flipped through it, and then said directly to Secretary Wang: "Secretary Wang, the consumption of this material is indeed too fast, let me go to the construction site with Guo Yan to have a look, if there is no problem, we will naturally approve it." ”

In the early morning of the next day, Gao Guan called Zhu Zhanyan and asked him to go to the construction site with him to complete the inspection of the workshop promised yesterday.

"Approval can be ......" Zhu Zhanyan flipped the book in his hand to three days ago, turned the book and motioned for the secretary Wang to check it.

His words and deeds made Zhu Zhanyan deeply stimulated, and he couldn't help clenching his fists.

Zhu Zhanyan directly said in front of Gao Guan that Wang Si and others were corrupt, and Gao Guan could only sigh that this person was really fearless, so he shook his head and said:

In the evening of the same day, Gao Guan announced that Zhu Zhanyan would participate in the normal rotation of warehouse officials starting tomorrow.

Soon, he left with the two people in his workshop, and after they left, Gao Guan also put the book on the table.

"You say they're corrupt, do you have any real evidence?"

When Gao Guan said this, he couldn't help but look Zhu Zhanyan up and down, and then shook his head and left here.

Zhu Zhanyan looked at the two of them directly, and the two of them were overturned by his temper, and one of them approached and said:

"I ......" Zhu Zhan's temper was up, and he was about to quarrel with the Wang Si Servant at the moment, but at this time, the sound of footsteps came, and a familiar voice sounded after a while.

Suddenly, a voice came into their ears, and the three of them subconsciously looked at the door, and soon saw a man in his thirties wearing the regular uniform of a nine-grade official walking into it.

Seeing this person, the two officials hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Priest Wang, this Guo Yan doesn't approve the strip!" ”

Among them, he also knew very well about the fact that the nobles and civil officials of various families continued to stuff their children into the yamen of the counties along the railway.

The officials wanted to fool Zhu Zhanyan, but they didn't want Zhu Zhanyan to be very clear about the doorways inside, and even dared to openly question and lead the matter to corruption.

"Don't approve the slip?" The man's face suddenly darkened when he heard this.

"Humph!" Hearing this, the secretary Wang brushed his sleeves away, and didn't want to exchange a word with Gao Guan at all.

"If the construction period of the railway is affected, let alone Ling, even the people behind you have to weigh it!"

The two officials clenched their fists, if it weren't for Zhu Zhan's tall head, they would have done it a long time ago.

"In addition, the scale of Longchuan recruitment has not increased, how can the three thousand yuan be spent in such a short time?"

"Guo Yan, don't think that you are a distant relative of the Marquis of Wuding Mansion and can show off your power here, let me tell you, no one here is younger than you!"

The Longchuan Railway Project, which is less than 300 miles away, has involved a lot of senior officials in Beijing, and it is difficult for Zhu Zhanyan to imagine how many profit-making things are hidden behind those railways in the north.

It has been more than seven months since the construction of the railway, the 100-mile river valley railway from Longchuan to Nandian has been repaired, and there is still a 200-mile railway to Manmo, which is expected to be repaired in another year and a half.

"What do you mean, Guo Yan, are you saying that we are corrupt?!"

The two rode out of the city for more than ten miles, and soon saw the construction site in full swing ahead.

"Where did it come from?" Zhu Zhanyan smiled, he really didn't take the origin of this group of people seriously.

It has been more than two months since he came to Longchuan Mansion, and he has also figured out many doorways.

"Since you say so, then starting tomorrow, you will be responsible for following the delivery of money and grain, and supervising and supervising the use of money and grain."

The construction site was bustling with hundreds of people digging and building roadbeds, sprinkling gravel and laying sleepers and railroad tracks.

"There are obviously not enough workers for 20,000!"

On horseback, Zhu Zhanyan thought he had found evidence of corruption in the workshop, but Gao Guan kept moving forward without saying a word.

The whole railway project not only needs to build roads, but also needs to pull building materials, among which the rails are trivial, and the most important thing is gravel.

Railroad gravel is not something that can be found casually, either by sifting through the dirt on the slopes or by smashing the stones into gravel with a hammer.

It is difficult to calculate the cost of gravel, so when they followed the team to the gravel workshop, the person in charge here came forward with great experience and said:

"I don't know if the high-ranking officials are coming, and they are disrespectful and rude."

"Wang An, the price of your gravel is a little too high, right?"

Gao Guan is not polite, but goes straight to the point.

In the bill given by the workshop, the price of crushed stone was as high as 60 yuan per ton, but the price of crushed stone was not worth this price at all.

"Hehe, Gao Dian, you don't know, this gravel is a manual work, and the wages of the workers here are forty wen a day, counting the transportation of the yamen, in fact, sixty wen is already the cost price."

That Wang An smiled, like Maitreya Buddha, but his words revealed calculations.

"In other places, it is only 30 yuan per ton of gravel, but it has doubled to you, do you think it is convincing?"

Zhu Zhanyan stood up and questioned Wang An, but Wang An directly put on his face and said, "This official, what do you mean by this?" ”

"What do I mean?" Zhu Zhan smiled angrily: "What I mean is that you have a problem with this account, but I don't know what the relationship between you and the Wang Si of the workshop is." ”

"Captain Gao, look at your men." Wang An looked at Gao Guan with a gloomy face, and Gao Guan frowned when he heard this:

"Now it's an audit, if you don't cooperate, then I have to ask for the Terracotta Division!"

"This ...... Okay, good, you check, whatever you want! Wang An snorted coldly and walked to the side.

Seeing this, Gao Guan also signaled Zhu Zhanyan to check the accounts.

Zhu Zhanyan didn't believe that Wang An would pay the workers forty wen, so he checked the accounts and asked the workers about their wages.

It's just that in the face of his problems, the workers avoided him, which made him unable to do anything.

In the account book, the wages of the workers can be matched, and the price of stones can also be matched, so there is no problem with the whole account book.

Although Zhu Zhanyan knew that the problem was in the wages, no one was willing to testify, which made him feel like he had punched the cotton, and he couldn't use his strength.

After a while, he returned to the same place with a gloomy face, and Gao Guan didn't ask him, but Wang An came over and mocked:

"Some people think that they feel that they are officials when they put on skin, but they don't want to think about how many steps they are away from being an official, maybe a few lifetimes away."

With the Wang Si official in the workshop as a backer, Wang Anke will not be afraid of Zhu Zhanyan, a small official.

In his opinion, if there is a little strength, who will be a clerk.

If it was a high-level audit of the accounts, he would naturally not dare to mock it, and if it was the magistrate of the county government who came to check the accounts, he would naturally be honest, but Zhu Zhanyan was not, he was just a small official, in Wang An's opinion, he was just an ordinary person wearing layers of skin.

If there was no contradiction between the two, he would not offend Zhu Zhanyan, but greeted him with a smile.

But now the contradiction between the two is here, if he doesn't do anything, it will only make people think that he is a bully, and he will come to check the accounts at the end of three days.

"Did you find out?"

Gao Guan asked Zhu Zhanyan, and Zhu Zhanyan could only shake his head angrily.

"Since it's okay, it's how much we have offended."

Gao Guan bowed to Wang An, and did not have other emotions because of this matter.

"Hehe, the high officials are also doing things for the yamen, how can they be offended."

Wang An put on a smiling face in the face of Gao Guan, and showed the watching people put down the dishes to the fullest.

"Let's go."

Gao Guan explained to Zhu Zhanyan, and walked out of the gravel workshop with him.

After the two got on the horse, Gao Guan said: "You think about things easily, but after all, this is not an army, let alone an army from the side plug." ”

"Besides, even in the army, do soldiers dare to tell the truth?"

Gao Guan asked Zhu Zhanyan rhetorically, and without waiting for him to answer, he said again:

"No matter how much you ask these workers, they won't tell them that their wages are only fifteen cents."

"Fifteen?" Zhu Zhan reined in his horse, his face was shocked and at the same time he couldn't help asking: "Since you know that the wages of the workers are only fifteen yuan, why don't you take this house!" ”

"How to get it, is there any evidence?" Gao Guan continued to ask rhetorically, and at the same time said:

"Do you think that if you arrest Wang An, this group of workers will be grateful to you?"

"I'm telling you, not only will they not, but they'll blame you for ruining their livelihood."

"In order to make a living, each of them insisted that Wang An's salary was forty wen a day, but in fact it was only fifteen wen."

"Most of the twenty-five profits obtained by this false report went into the pocket of Wang Gang of the workshop, of course, there were people above him, so after the money went through the motions in his hand, he continued to send it upwards."

"The Longchuan Railway needs 2,000 tons of gravel per mile, and 326 miles is 652,000 tons."

"They can get 25 wen per ton from the imperial court, and they can embezzle at least 160,000 yuan for the entire Longchuan railway project."

"Counting other means, they embezzled no less than 200,000 yuan of money and food......"

"So what are you waiting for?" Zhu Zhanyan's face was gloomy, and he felt that Gao Guan was a little inactive.

Just in the face of his questioning, Gao Guan said: "Wait for evidence, the wage of this fifteen wen was told to me by several workers I bought, and in addition, they also told me the location of the money and grain." ”

"But I'm still investigating, after all, there has been no record of a large amount of deposits in the banks for the past few weeks, which means that they haven't taken the money away."

"As long as you find out where the money is buried, you can do it when the time comes."

"Wouldn't it be okay to just kill it?" Zhu Zhanyan was a little violent, but Gao Guan shook his head and said:

"It's useless to bring down a priest, you have to bring down the people behind him."

"In short, you can follow me to check this matter, but you can't say much, and you can't do anything else."

Gao Guan shook the reins of the horse, left this sentence and walked towards the county seat.

Zhu Zhanyan clenched the reins of the horse, and after some ideological struggle, he soon followed his footsteps.

When he returned home, he summoned Wang Lian, who had been lurking in the city, and questioned him:

"Do you know about the corruption of the Longchuan Railway?"

"Yes!" Wang Jian nodded without thinking, and then explained:

"This case is a joint investigation by Xichang and the government office, and the people involved have actually been found, but the evidence at the moment is not enough."

"In addition, other railways are more involved, so when His Majesty found out, he did not order it to be done immediately."

"Why?" Zhu Zhan was puzzled, and Wang Jian also explained:

"Your Majesty said that for the time being, we will first ensure that there are no problems with the construction of the railway and that it will be completed, and that the impact on the people and the local area will be minimized, and then we will start to clean them up."

"In addition, I don't know if you have noticed that the number of students graduating from middle school has also increased in recent years, and Your Majesty probably wants to use this group of people to replace those students who used to be."

Wang Jian has been an official of thousands of households in Xichang for so many years, and he still has a basic sense of political smell.

His Royal Highness has been dealing with officials all year round with major cases, and he has implicated hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people when he makes a move.

It has been peaceful for many years now, which is not in line with the temper of His Highness.

The longer you hold it, the bigger the case, and I'm afraid that not only he Wang Jian can guess this, but everyone in the court and the central government who has some strength should be able to guess it.

This case is destined to clean up those who have no brains and are not worthy of morality.

"I see, thank you."

After Zhu Zhanyan heard this, he was also slightly relieved in his heart.

He thought that Wang Jian would leave directly, but he didn't want Wang Jian to say:

"What you have seen and heard today is actually the maximum that a clerk can do."

"What do you mean?" Zhu Zhanyan frowned, only feeling that there was something in Wang Lian's words.

In the face of his inquiry, Wang Jian did not hesitate, but taught:

"If you're an ordinary clerk today, you'll probably have to give in when you're in the warehouse."

"If it weren't for the timely appearance of the high warden, then the royal priest could completely overwhelm you with his identity."

"I'm not in the same room with him, can he still interfere in the house?" Zhu Zhanyan didn't believe Wang Lian's statement, and even felt a little alarmist.

"If he can't interfere, why hasn't the house been found out for so long."

"In addition, Gao Dian's official used to serve in the government and was responsible for money and food matters, why would such a person suddenly delegate to the county government?"

Wang Jian had all the information and directly helped Zhu Zhanyan point out the situation.

"You said yes, Jianghuai knew that there was a problem with the Nandian County Ya, so he sent Gao Guan down to investigate the case with Xichang."

"According to what you say, I have exposed his intentions today."

Zhu Zhanyan blushed a little, and Wang Jian shook his head when he heard this: "Although it is exposed, Gao Guan dares to expose it, and he must have enough information." ”

"Although this Wang Gang has some means, compared with the group of people around Jiang Huai, the means are still too immature."

"If his methods are immature, then I ......" Zhu Zhanyan smiled bitterly, he was disgraced by Wang An under Wang Gang today.

If Gao Guan hadn't told him, he probably wouldn't have known why the workers were reluctant to tell him the true wages.

They are for life, and they are a person who does not need to think about life, so naturally they will not think of this.

"It seems that I still have a lot to learn, but I don't know how much I can learn in the past few years."

Zhu Zhanyan sighed, Wang Jian saw him like this, and immediately explained:

"What happened to you today is nothing, if you are a official with no background, then you will be bullied to the deepest."

"That Gao Guan, back then, was jealous because of his hard work in the county government, and others gave him a little stumbling, so he was framed and seized of his post, and when he returned home, he was ridiculed by his fellow villagers and neighbors, and everyone shouted and beaten."

"If it weren't for Jianghuai, I'm afraid he would still be facing the fields and the sky in his hometown, and he would be a farmer in this life."

"He still has such an experience?" Zhu Zhanyan didn't expect that Gao Guan, who seemed calm and atmospheric at the moment, would have such an experience.

Thinking about it like this, he felt that Gao Guan was very terrifying for such a person.

"I remember that he was just a student, right, if he can be admitted to the Juren and Jinshi, it will be a blessing for my Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Zhanyan hadn't realized what Wang Jian meant, and seeing this, Wang Jian could only get straight to the point:

"There are still many people like Gaoguan in the Ming Dynasty, but there are often thousands of horses and Bole is not common, and it is difficult for ordinary civilians to rise to the top."

"Hmm......" Zhu Zhanyan nodded in approval, and then sat down and thought about what he had seen and heard today.

Wang Jian saw that he was thinking about something, and after making a fuss, he withdrew from the main hall.

As for Zhu Zhan's day, he was also sent to the capital as a letter at the behest of Wang Lian.

When Zhu Gaoxu got the letter, it was already early August, and in the face of Zhu Zhanyan's experience, he did not make any comments, but frowned at the corruption of railway projects.

Hu Lun and Liu Mian were standing in the heart hall of the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Gaoxu was sitting in his position, and it could be seen through the window that it was already dusk.

Yishaha squatted down to take off his shoes for Zhu Gaoxu, and several palace maids also stepped forward to knead Zhu Gaoxu's tired calves.

It wasn't until he frowned and read the letter that he put the letter on the table and looked at Liu Mian and Hu Lun.

"Just one Longchuan railway project can be greedy for 200,000 yuan a year, how much money and grain can be greedy for ink?"

"Your Majesty, the corruption of ink in various projects has been recorded by Jinyiwei, and the minister will arrest them now!"

Liu Mian seems to be expressing his position, but he is actually waiting for Zhu Gaoxu's attitude, after all, if Zhu Gaochu doesn't let the criminal department send a driving post, then Xichang and Jinyiwei won't be able to arrest anyone at all.

In the face of his temptation, Zhu Gaoxu didn't bother to hide it, and said with an ugly face:

"I wanted to wait for them to finish the project before cleaning them up, but looking at the current scale, I'm afraid it has reached the point where it can't be cleaned up."

He set his eyes on Yishiha: "You and Xia Yuanji are ready, first place all the officials needed for the project in various places to the place, and let them take over the project immediately once they start, and all the projects cannot be delayed for a moment." ”

"The slave and maid receive the order" also lost Habi's respectful response, and Zhu Gaoxu refocused his attention on Liu Mian and Hu Lun.

"It takes time to transfer officials, and in these few months, I hope you can find out everyone, even if it is an old brother of Bohai, I will never tolerate it this time."

"Ministers...... Command! ”

Hu Lun and Liu Mian only felt that the pressure on their shoulders was suddenly heavy, and after making a response, the two walked out of the Heart Cultivation Hall and the Qianqing Palace with their heads down.

After they left, Yishaha also dispersed the palace maids and eunuchs, leaving only himself.

When he saw that they were all gone, he came back and said:

"Your Majesty, according to the information found out by the people below, it seems that there are many brothers in Bohai who collect money, especially their heirs......"

Yishiha hoped that Zhu Gaochu would have some affection, but Zhu Gaochu picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea, looking at Yishuha with sharp eyes.

"Is it because I have not given them a good reward?"

"It's not ......" also lowered his head weakly.

"Is that because I didn't take good care of their children?"

"Slave ......"

"I have already made five orders, you can take the money you should take, you can't take the money you shouldn't take, since they have taken it, they should be ready to be settled as soon as possible."

Zhu Gaoxu's face was ugly, but when he thought of Brother Bohai in the past, he still looked away.

"I'll give them one last chance before it starts, and if I miss it, I can't blame it......"

(End of chapter)