At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to inspect Yangzhou after hearing that there was "no room in the house and no long land in the land". His entourage included the prince, Zhu Biaohuang's fourth son Zhu Di, as well as ministers Liu Bowen, Lu Chang and others. He went to Yangzhou to have a look.

, people kneeling in ragged clothes and dying of hunger and dead trees beside the road

The grass is full of bones, and there are broken walls and ruins, looking lifeless. Who would have thought that Yangzhou, an international and prosperous metropolis that had been famous for hundreds of years in the Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, would become what it is today.

What does it look like? Lu Mingyi, the prefect of Yangzhou, reported to Zhu Yuanzhang that there were only 18 poor households and 21 living trees left in Yangzhou.

The main reason why Yangzhou suffered the tragic situation in the early Ming Dynasty was the "harsh rule" of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, Zhang Mingjian, the leader of the peasant uprising army, led tens of thousands of people to capture the city of Yangzhou held by Bo Luopuhua, the king of Zhennan in the Yuan Dynasty.

The residents were used as food." This kind of "massacre" also exacerbated the decline of Yangzhou.

During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou slowly became prosperous again, and this prosperity was due to the addition of Huizhou merchants. Huizhou's She County was mainly a salt merchant, Xiuning was a pawnbroker, and Qimen was a tea merchant.

The reason for the influx of Anhui merchants in Yangzhou when setting up trading houses was that Yangzhou was the seat of the Salt Supervision Bureau, and salt transported overseas had to be weighed in Yangzhou and transferred to other places using salt barges from the Huaiyang Canal.

"The prefect has an order. There are thieves in the city who want to rob money and food. Therefore, I ordered the whole government to arrest them quickly. If you are a good citizen and merchant, you don't have to panic. As long as you cooperate with the government, the thieves will be caught." A quick arrester stood at the door and said casually.

With the command, more than ten government officials entered each garden and drove the residents to gather in the inner courtyard. After a while, the number of residents in the inner courtyard slowly increased with their children in tow.

After this investigation, the "threesome" were found in the garden, and they were stopped by Official Zhou and Official Yang at the door. Official Yang shouted: "Bold, even Du Qian will do something to Mr. Tao Lu."

Are the family members also checked?"

When all the yamen officers heard that it was the governor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, they all smiled. At the same time, another officer turned around and rushed to the prefect's yamen to report.

The prefectures of the Ming Dynasty were divided into three levels, based on population, taxation, etc. For example, the governor of the Jingfu was the third grade, and was called the Shangfu. In addition to the Jingfu, there were also other Shangfus. Those who paid more than 200,000 shi in grain were called Shangfu, and the prefects of Shangfu were from

Third grade; those with less than 200,000 stones are Zhongfu, Zhongfu Zhizhi

The prefecture of Yangzhou belongs to the Zhongfu at this time, and the prefect is of the fourth rank. The minister of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is also of the fourth rank. However, Tao Lu is an official in the capital.

As an official, you will be promoted one level to the local government.

At this time, Zhang Jing, the magistrate of Yangzhou, had been a Jinshi for ten years and had successively served as a magistrate and magistrate of the Daming Prefecture. When he heard that a Beijing official had come, he did not dare to neglect him. He checked the "thief" and found out that a high official had come out, and he was from the capital.

People from the Metropolitan Procuratorate didn't know what business they came to Yangzhou for, so staying in an inn made people daydream about it. Zhang Jing and three squadrons of government officials came to visit him personally.

When Zhang Jing came, Zhang Zijun had already discussed with Tao Lu, Hu Jing and his entourage that the patrolling and hiding places would not be exposed for the time being. Tao Lu, who had returned to his hometown from being an official, came forward to send Zhang Jing, the prefect of Yangzhou, and as expected, after Tao Lu met Zhang Jing, Zhang Jing

Jing asked Tao Lu about the purpose of his trip.

It stands to reason that the appointment of imperial officials will be notified in the post, and there must be reception at the inns in the jurisdiction along the way. Why are such big officials not notified? For an old fox like Tao Lu, dealing with this kind of thing is a piece of cake.

Disc. "Master Prefect,

, I am no longer an official of the imperial court. When I become an official, I will go home and bring my family and family with me. Staying at the imperial inn is showing favoritism. The people I stayed at along the way are inns. As for my official return, the official approval will be issued in the near future. There are people involved in this.

Complicated procedures

Suo, to be honest with you, the magistrate, I am already old. After submitting the paperwork, I wanted to return to my hometown as soon as possible to retire and live a quiet life for a few years, so I set out on my journey without waiting for the approval from the Ministry of Personnel. I think the approval from the court will arrive next month.

I happen to be at home already."

Although the explanation was very reluctant, fortunately it was reasonable. For an outdated Beijing official, Zhang Jing still politely asked to arrange a reception banquet. "Oh, the boss was returning to his hometown and passing through my jurisdiction. How could he not express anything at all? Well, if word spreads, others will say that Yangzhou Mansion is impersonal, and I will greet you at the "Wangyue Tower" tonight. Please don't refuse, Master Tao...

Fortunately, this time the imperial censor was sent to write official documents, and the imperial court sent a post to various places to report that the seven censors were sent to various places. Nie Youliang and Hong Xing went to the two capitals. Among them, Hong Xing had already gone to Nanjing under the flag, while Zhang Zijun was hanging up. The deputy censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate inspected the disaster relief matters in the north and south Zhili. The imperial court did not issue an explicit notification. It was only reported by the cabinet. The emperor approved the dispatch to Yingtian Mansion for disaster relief. In order to mobilize local areas, a censor Hu Jing was added as the patrol officer. Apparently, there was Hong Xing on the surface, but Hu Jing was watching secretly, and he was worried about Hu Jing, so he arranged for Zhang Zijun. He originally wanted to send another internal official, but there was no one to send, so he appointed Tao Lu. It came out, which was very consistent with Zhu Jianshen's style. In the end, this strange "threesome" was not sent to the post, but only a paper "Three Hundred Miles" was sent to Nanjing for filing.

The Yangzhou magistrate didn't know about the imperial court's operation, and couldn't refuse Zhang Jing's invitation to a banquet with Tao Lu, so he pretended to agree. In the evening, Zhang Jing specially lined up a car and sedan to pick him up and put him in the official position. Mr. Tao, "eldest son" Zhang Zijun, "younger son" Hu Jing and their family members all received the "Wangyue Tower" after returning home. It turns out that the "Wangyue Tower" is not a restaurant, but a place like a "village" with a small bridge inside. Flowing water, Langyuan is deep and grand. Tonight, the prefect Zhang Jing also invited the famous salt merchants of Yangzhou and many officials from various yamen. They sat around seven tables and waited for the banquet. Parrots on both sides were chatting with beautiful women. , it seemed very lively, and even Zhang Zijun was surprised by such a scene. Not only was the scene huge, it was also extremely luxurious.

The first reaction is that the "threesome" has exposed Xingzang? It doesn't look like it when you sit in rows, because the ancients paid most attention to hierarchy. Except for Taolu who was placed at the head table, the rest of the "family members" were all at the lower table. As a companion, if Xingzang's identity is exposed, then Zhang Zijun, as the earl, must be at the top of the upper table, but currently he is waiting at the lower table with Hu Jing, Li Yuan Zhou, Li Yuan Yang and Tao Lu's old housekeeper , and Yaqin, Gong Shangying was arranged at the female family table to dine with the ladies and maids brought by some local officials.

In a scene like this tonight, Governor Liu Wen is at the top, followed by Hu Tao, the transshipment envoy between the Huaihe River and Huaihe River, Zhang Fu from the salt transportation yamen, Zhang Jing, the prefect of Yangzhou, the salt department, and the inspection department are last. Everyone who is supposed to come has arrived. , people who shouldn't have come also came. First of all, Zhang Jing introduced Tao Lu. Tao Lu also told him about taking his family back to his hometown after becoming an official. Living in the capital was expensive, so it was better to go back to his hometown for a stable retirement. Liu Wenzeng and Tao Lu We had an acquaintance, and we chatted about some things in the capital, and they became very cordial. After drinking for three rounds, a group of government officials ran in from outside. The leader quickly ran into the main table and shouted: "My lords, this is not good. , there was a fire in Changpingcang of the government office. A group of officials quickly ran outside the house and saw a dark red sky in the southwest.

After a while, someone hurriedly reported: "After desperate efforts to put out the fire and grab food, most of the food in the Changping warehouse of the government office has been burned down. Only a hundred stones were rescued, and the rest was burned."

At this time, Liu Wen said: "Let's go, let's go and have a look. We need to find out the cause of the fire and whether someone set the fire deliberately. We should arrest the culprit first."

Later, he ordered the prefect Zhang Jing and the inspection departments in various places to send personnel to block roads and waterways, and notified Yingtianfu to report that the Changping warehouse in Yangzhou was burned down, and requested that grain be re-allocated to replenish the warehouse. The people cannot live without food for a day...

Zhang Zijun looked at all this and cursed in his heart, pretending, pretending, the acting was so realistic, and when he thought about it, there was a buzz in his head, no good, he was taken advantage of.

There is a clear difference between the way of thinking between ancient people and modern people on this matter. Zhang Zijun first thought about the cause of the incident, why the fire started, who set the fire, etc., and doubted everything, but the ancients were different, their minds did not move so fast. Even though the thing happened suddenly, I didn’t think too much about it, but accepted the current facts. Some officials who were quick-thinking were looking for an excuse to shirk responsibility. As I said before, in ancient times, once an official was found guilty, not only Dismissal from office will implicate family members and bring disaster to the entire family.

In this way, the banquet broke up. Because Tao Lu was an official and was no longer a court official, he returned to the inn.

After returning to the inn, the "threesome" met, and Zhang Zijun said, what do you think of the sudden fire in Changping warehouse? Hu Jing's first reaction was that the fire would be greatly detrimental to the investigation of the case. Changping warehouse sold short grain and stored grain. Just ask a bunch of people and wait to get the result. It just happened that there was a fire at this juncture. It will be difficult to find out next. Hu Jing is young. Of course the old fox Tao Lu thought of another Seeing the possibility, he asked: "Uncle, did someone deliberately burn down Changpingcang?"

Zhang Zijun replied: "Well, it's interesting. Jiang is still hot when he is old, and the students admire him." This sentence made Tao Lu extremely excited. Hu Jing next to him was also surprised and said: "It can't be that Yangzhou officials set fire to Chang. Close your position."

Zhang Zijun added: "The possibility is very high. Who is most beneficial to burning the Changping warehouse? Is it obvious? The day before yesterday, Mr. Hu sent Zhou Li to investigate and found out that there was no grain in the Changping warehouse. But today it was said that it was burned down after a fire. The rescuers For a hundred stones, this is called death without evidence, destroying evidence of crime, and the prefect Zhang Jing took us to the banquet. It stands to reason that Mr. Tao has already retired and returned home, so there is no need to fawn over an official who has retired. The beauty of it is that Tao Your Excellency, please bear witness so that the court will have an endorser during the subsequent investigation, and this person is an outsider, a senior official in the capital who has nothing to do with this case."
Chapter completed!