Uncle Zhangyin is an honorific title. In terms of status, he is not a servant of the Yamen, but a personal attendant or domestic slave of an official.
When people in the yamen want to use seals, they have to ask the palm print master to have their seals stamped. Of course, they also need to print money for them. This is one of the unspoken rules in the yamen.
Regarding the incoming and outgoing of official silver from the government treasury, especially the incoming and outgoing in large quantities, it is definitely necessary to use a seal and pass it through the hands of the master of the palm print.
The palm-printing uncle's suicide by hanging from a beam is an independent event, and the burning of the warehouse account books is also an independent event.
But when these two independent events happen together, they no longer look like independent events, but seem to form a "brain chain."
With normal logical thinking, one would generally infer that there is no proof as to where the money in the warehouse went.
When he heard that his old confidant who had been with him for many years was gone and that he had left such a huge blame behind, Magistrate Shi immediately became anxious.
He asked the officer loudly: "What's unusual in the government office today?"
The officer secretly glanced at Mr. Lin and replied, "There is really nothing unusual about him."
If there is any difference between the government office and the past, it is that officers and soldiers entered various parts of the government office in the name of protecting the safety of the imperial ministers and deploying warnings in advance.
But this is not abnormal, right? This is just a normal security arrangement. After all, the safety of the imperial envoy is very important.
The investigation into whether Prefect Shi had embezzled government funds seemed to be reaching a deadlock.
The Imperial Envoy cannot point to Ku Yin and say, without any supporting account books, that Magistrate Shi must not be corrupt!
The most anxious person now is not the imperial envoy, but the prefect Shi!
"The household also has the backup account books of the bank, which can be taken for inspection!" Magistrate Shi said hurriedly.
The household secretary reminded: "The treasury's official bank account books are sent to the household for backup once a month, so the treasury account books kept by the household are only up to the last month.
The records of the five thousand taels of official silver that the Imperial Envoy wants to investigate are from this month, so they are not included in the backup account books."
Magistrate Shi thought of something again and shouted to the treasury clerk: "Don't think that I don't know that you have a secret book in your hands!
You are used to scribbling in the official government books, but in the secret books in private hands, you are very detailed!
Now you hand over the secret book in your hands, and forget everything!"
When the scribes were looking at each other, they suddenly heard Senior Official Lin next to them saying: "Shouldn't the secret book be in the hands of Master Zhang?"
This sentence sounds extremely retarded and mentally retarded, and no one with even a smidgen of intelligence would think so!
The secret book in the warehouse is something that small officials can use to make a living and compete with officials! It is something that can be passed down to three generations according to the official position!
To take the most extreme example, if there is no secret book in hand, and the chief official embezzles money and lets the junior staff take the blame, what can the junior staff do to resist?
So how could something like a secret book be in the hands of Master Palm Printer?
Besides, isn’t the palm print master of the government office already dead?
Huh? Dead? So all the scribes suddenly had an epiphany. If they didn't have an epiphany yet, they might be like Master Palm Print.
I asked if there was no such thing. How could they have such illegal and disciplinary stuff as a secret book?
Magistrate Shi was helpless when he saw this, but he couldn't force him too much.
If it was to find out problems, it might be useful to torture the officials in the treasury.
But the purpose of the imperial envoy is not to detect problems. If these officials are forced into a hurry, problems may arise even if there are no problems!
So now, the investigation is really at a deadlock.
Official Lin then suggested: "I don't think it's necessary for Imperial Envoy Li to be embarrassed. He can just report it to the court truthfully!"
Li Shida frowned tightly, how could he be so truthful?
Just say that there was a fire in the treasury during the investigation, and then Zhang Yin, a close associate of the prefect Shi, committed suicide, and the other officials in the court were left to figure it out on their own?
"That's it for today!" Li Qinqi ordered.
We can only give Magistrate Shi some more time to see if there is any other way.
Lin Daguan was very offended and suggested: "It's best not to delay, otherwise big trouble will easily happen."
The imperial envoy suddenly broke out and shouted sharply: "What else can happen?"
Official Lin just looked at Magistrate Shi with evil intentions, "I'm afraid that some people can't handle the pressure and commit suicide out of fear of crime."
Magistrate Shi snorted coldly, "Who are you looking down on? How big can the pressure of five thousand taels of official silver be?"
Li Shida said to Magistrate Shi: "There are so many cases in the government office today. I will give you three days to investigate and rectify them!"
After that, Li Shida turned around and left the government office to go back to Gusu Post Mansion.
Sitting in the sedan chair, the imperial envoy was in a very depressed mood.
I thought it was a simple, formal task, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult.
A local bully like Lin Tailai, who has all-pervasive influence, is almost impossible to guard against after being torn apart!
We can only stabilize for a few days, and then slowly find a breakthrough to give Magistrate Shi a clear answer.
While he was thinking about it, suddenly the official sedan stopped, and the chief attendant reported outside the sedan: "It seems that someone blocked the road to complain!"
Li Shida said impatiently: "What does it have to do with this court? Although this court is an imperial envoy, it doesn't care about local punishment names!"
Then the voice of the guard surnamed Lin came from outside the sedan: "Envoy Li had better come out and take a look!"
The curtain of the sedan chair was opened, and Li Shida walked out, only to see a dirty, tattered, and swarthy old man sitting in the middle of the street.
If you look closely, you will see that both of the old man's legs are broken. He doesn't know how he accurately appeared here to block the road.
Next to the old man, there were three children under ten years old. They were all dressed in rags and skinny, and they were timidly surrounding the old man.
Seeing that the other party was in such a miserable state, Li Shida couldn't just turn around and leave. He still wanted word of mouth and reputation.
The old man raised his hands full of soil and reported: "The younger one is from Wu County. His family is extremely poor. He has been short of food recently, so he went to the county's farm to borrow food.
But the documents from Jinongcang said that Jinongcang currently has no surplus rice to borrow."
Spring is a time of drought, and it is also the peak period for poor people to borrow grain from farmers' warehouses, and then pay it back during the autumn harvest, usually without charging interest.
Lin Tailai, who was standing next to him, yelled and asked: "Nonsense! The Jinong warehouse in Wu County is fully stocked, how come there is no rice to lend out?"
The dirty old man continued to report: "I heard that the government government took away five thousand taels of official silver from the county treasury a few days ago, so the county government was short of expenses.
A few days ago, the county government temporarily misappropriated 10,000 shi from the Jinongcang for emergency purposes. As a result, the Jinongcang had no grain to borrow, and poor people like Xiaoren had no way of living!
Some people say that all the money has been embezzled by the prefect, but the villain doesn’t believe it!
I just ask the imperial envoy to make the decision and let the government government return the money to the county government, so that the county government does not occupy the farmer warehouse again!"
Li Shida turned to Senior Official Lin and asked, "Does this mean that something big could happen to you?"
Lin Daguan replied: "At least thousands of poor households are affected, how can it not be a big deal?
They are hungry and anxious, and they heard that five thousand taels of silver were embezzled by the prefect, so it is very possible to gather a crowd to the government office to ask for an explanation, or to besiege the prefect."
Feeling the strong threat, Li Shida said angrily: "Jinongcang is a matter of the county, what does it have to do with the government office directly?"
Lin Daguan then replied: "Li Qinchen may not understand, but our city of Suzhou has its own characteristics here!
In the past two years, the government government forcibly diverted tens of thousands of shi of rice and grain from the agricultural warehouses in the two counties, and ended up with a deficit of 20,000 shi.
Fortunately, a kind man named Lin took over the operation of the county's agricultural warehouse last year and worked hard to make up for the shortfall."
Li Qinqi interrupted Lin Daguanren's explanation and asked sensitively: "Is Lin a good person?"
Lin Daguan replied without changing his expression: "This good man of the Lin family is called Lin Yunlai. You don't think it's me, do you?"
Then he continued to explain: "So in the hearts of these poor people who rely on the farmers' warehouses for charity, they are very sensitive to the government offices.
This time I heard that it was because the government government had siphoned off money from the county government that they were unable to borrow rice from the farmers' warehouse normally.
What happened the year before last happened again this year, how can I not be extremely indignant?"
When Li Shida heard this, he secretly screamed "Oops!"
Coupled with the fact that the bank was on fire and the palm print master committed suicide, it is likely that rumors of corruption by the prefect will arise.
This is not the pressure of five thousand taels of official silver, but the pressure of thousands of poor households! And there must be thousands of organized poor households!
I wonder if Magistrate Shi can withstand the pressure, or will he reasonably "commit suicide out of fear of crime"?
After discovering this fatal problem, Li Shida immediately said to Lin Tai: "Don't mess around yet!"
Official Lin responded calmly: "It's too late to talk about this now."
Li Shida finally felt that this was a new type of bully that he had never seen before!
You can’t tell how much money you make, but your organizational and resource mobilization abilities are really terrifying!
I can’t write anymore, so I’m going to bed. Please vote for me. It’s the end of the month and I’ll definitely have it in my pocket! I’ll continue tomorrow!