Wang Gang attended Du Yuanwai's banquet and met almost all the officials of Jiujiang County Government at his home.
Du Yuanwai was also very polite to Wang Gang, entertaining him with good wine and food, and even arranged singing and dancing to entertain him.
After Wang Gang sat down, the county magistrate Niu Wenjin, the county captain Hu Dahai, the chief clerk Du Ming and Du Yuanwai frequently raised their glasses and toasted, as if they wanted to get him drunk.
Distilled liquor had not yet been invented in the Northern Song Dynasty, and most of the alcoholic drinks had low alcohol content, similar to beer. Wang Gang was also good at drinking, and his alcohol capacity was naturally good. It could be said that he would not get drunk after a thousand cups.
He refused to refuse anyone who came, and made several people besides Yuan Du drunk until they were dizzy. However, the atmosphere at the wine table was actually very good.
After drinking for three rounds, Du Yuanwai took out a powder box and pushed it in front of Wang Gang.
"I heard that Mr. Shanda brought his wife to Jiujiang for a banquet when he got married. This is my little thought. It can be regarded as a gift to congratulate you on your success."
Wang Gang looked at the powder box on the table. He didn't care about it at first, but when he picked it up, he immediately noticed that the weight was wrong.
He opened it gently and found that the powder box was not rouge powder for women at all, but pearls.
The pearls are full and full, and they look like treasures at first glance, and are worth a lot of money.
Wang Gang closed the lid and said to Du Yuanwai: "The gift from Yuanwai is too heavy, I dare not accept it."
"It's just a little care." Du Yuanwai clapped his hands again, and after the singing and dancing had ended, two more girls walked into the room.
The girl was twenty-eight years old, very beautiful, with low eyebrows, and she turned out to be twins.
"I just purchased these two beautiful concubines. They are not only good at singing and dancing, but also good at taking care of people. I will give them to you together."
In the Northern Song Dynasty, officials had a custom of exchanging concubines for concubines, which meant giving their concubines to their colleagues, or exchanging concubines with each other.
The two beautiful concubines that Mr. Du found were obviously very special.
Wang Gang was unmoved.
"I don't know what Mr. Du knows, but my wife has a rule in her family that she is only allowed to take a concubine when she is forty years old and has no children." Wang Gang excused himself by citing the rules of the Hai family.
Du Yuanwai was startled for a moment, but he quickly came to his senses.
"Then let them serve as your lord's maids, not concubines, so they won't break the rules of a lady."
Niu Wenjin said at this time: "Shangshan people, this is also the kind intention of Du Yuanwai. If you think these two are not good, just replace them with two more."
Wang Gang was very dissatisfied with Du Yuanwai and Niu Wenjin's behavior of treating people like cattle, but this era was like this, and Wang Gang couldn't change it.
And he also knew that Du Yuanwai, in addition to trying to please him by forcing women on him, also had the intention of placing an informant around him.
If Wang Gang refused blindly, it would be tantamount to falling out on the spot.
He had a falling out with local gangsters when he first arrived, and he didn't know if he could continue to work as a county magistrate.
"Since it is Mr. Du's kind intention, I will be disrespectful, but this box of rouge is too expensive, and I dare not accept it."
Wang Gang finally left the beauty behind and pushed the pearl back.
Du Yuanwai forced a smile, took the rouge box, and then asked the two twins to wait on Wang Gang's meal.
The twins sat next to Wang Gang, one on the left and the other on the right. They were attentive to everything they ate and drank. They were indeed very good at serving others.
After drinking until midnight, Wang Gang pretended to be drunk and returned to the county office with the twins in his arms.
Hai Chaoyun was waiting for her husband to return home with a worried look on his face, but when he saw him coming back with two women hugging each other, his face turned as black as carbon.
"Madam, come and see the maid that Du Yuanwai gave to us." Wang Gang drunkenly pulled the two twins and ran to Hai Chaoyun, as if offering a treasure.
Hai Chaoyun snorted coldly, and then said to the maid Xiaolian: "Help the master back to his room."
Xiaolian shuddered and quickly took over Wang Gang's heavy body.
The twins stood there, not daring to say a word.
With a straight face, Hai Chaoyun arranged the twins into the servant's room and asked them to do heavy work in the future.
The twins obeyed without any complaints.
When Hai Chaoyun returned to the room, he saw Wang Gang soberly sitting at his desk, looking at the documents sent by the Yamen.
"Don't pretend to be drunk." Hai Chaoyun walked up to Wang Gang and said angrily.
"I'm jealous." Wang Gang hugged Hai Chaoyun and asked her to sit on his lap.
Hai Chaoyun struggled a bit, but couldn't break free from Wang Gang's big hand. He could only pouted and sulked.
"Those two women were sent by Du Yuanwai to monitor me. In the future, you should try not to have contact with them and be careful about what you say and do." Wang Gang said in Hai Chaoyun's ear.
Hai Chaoyun was shocked and said in disbelief: "How dare a young official to spy on court officials? Who gave him the courage?"
Wang Gang snorted coldly: "The magistrate of Jiujiang County has a close relationship with him. The county captain is his son-in-law, the chief registrar is named Du, and I am the only outsider in the entire county government. How can he not be so courageous?"
Hai Chaoyun finally realized the seriousness of the matter and put away his temper.
"Official, this little Jiujiang County is actually controlled by a Yuanwailang!"
Wang Gang shook his head and said: "Du Yuanwai should not be simple. There must be someone behind him, otherwise he would not be so blatant and the court would not let it go until now."
Hai Chaoyun said worriedly: "Officer, what should we do in the future?"
Wang Gang sighed and said: "Take it step by step. Let's start by rectifying the county government office. I will check the accounts tomorrow."
Hai Chaoyun said with a worried look on his face: "After you left today, I tidied up the backyard of the Yamen and found that the servants here were very bad-tempered. I asked them to leave, but not one of them left. They said they wanted to ask Niu County Cheng to make the decision."
Wang Gang said with a stern face: "Jiujiang County has been under their control for too long. If you want to change it, you have to make plans slowly."
"The people sent by the caravan have arrived. I have arranged to stay. Do you want to meet me tomorrow?"
"No, you will be in charge of the caravan from now on, and let them know how powerful you are as the mistress of the house." Wang Gang said with a smile.
The couple chatted for a while, and then Hai Chaoyun began to help Wang Gang wash up.
In fact, Wang Gang told Hai Chaoyun many times that he usually didn't have to wait on him and could do his own thing, but Hai Chaoyun refused to do so, saying that it was a wife's duty to serve her husband.
Early the next morning, Hai Chaoyun got up earlier than Wang Gang and prepared toiletries and breakfast for him.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As soon as Wang had breakfast, he put on his official uniform and went to meet other people in the Yamen.
In a yamen, in addition to officials such as the county magistrate, there are also many petty officials. These people perform their own duties, some are responsible for collecting taxes, and some are responsible for public security.
Wang Gang met them one by one, and after chatting for a long time, he called Chief Du to start his daily work.
The county magistrate actually has a lot of work. In addition to opening courts and hearing cases, he also has to manage the local area. It can be said that Wang Gang is responsible for all matters big and small in the county.
But when he actually took over the official duties, he found that he had nothing to do because his subordinates had done everything and he didn't need to worry about it.
But on the other hand, he, the county magistrate, is just a decoration and has no rights at all.
Wang Gang, who had nothing to do, asked Bookkeeper Du to audit the accounts. Bookkeeper Du did not stop him. On the contrary, he was very cooperative and brought all the historical accounts of Jiujiang County to Wang Gang for review.
How many accounts does a county have? Just one year's tax revenue is a big box.
Master Du brought twenty large boxes over, and said that these were only the accounts for the past three years, and someone would have to be sent to pick up the previous ones.
Wang Gang was not intimidated by the twenty boxes of account books. The people he transferred from the caravan were all accounting experts, and they could complete the reconciliation of the accounts in less than three days.
After Hai Chaoyun saw the verification results, he cursed angrily.
"These people are so greedy that they spent a hundred taels of silver to buy an inkstone. Are their inkstones made of gold?"
"And the repair of the county government office actually cost one hundred thousand taels. It doesn't even cost that much to build a palace!"
When Wang Gang saw the corrected accounts, he was not surprised at all.
After all, it was just a box of high-grade pearls when he sold them. He never embezzled money from the county government on weekdays, and no one would believe him if he told her.
"Official, I also discovered that Jiujiang has had good years in recent years, but when I took office as the county magistrate, I reported to the court that there was a flood here. Not only did I request tax exemptions, but I also asked the court for 70,000 taels of disaster relief money."
Wang Gang raised his eyebrows and said: "The censor will come to check the local disaster situation. It is not easy to lie about the disaster situation."
"The censor of Jiangxi may have been bribed by people like Niu Wenjin."
The situation in Jiujiang County is more serious than Wang Gang expected. Most of the land in the county is owned by Du Yuanwai, the farmers are hired tenants, and land annexation is very serious.
What's even more troublesome is that Jiujiang County is attacked by bandits from time to time, making it difficult to open trade routes. There is no other way except to develop agriculture.
The situation in Jiujiang County is an understatement.
"Official, this Jiujiang County is rotten from the inside out, and what you inherited is more than just a mess." Hai Chaoyun said worriedly.
"Don't believe your officials can deal with these people?" Wang Gang said with a smile.
"Where do you want to start?" Hai Chaoyun asked.
Wang Gang thought about it and said: "In order to deal with foreign affairs, we must first settle the domestic affairs. I will start with Du Yuanwai's son-in-law and the county captain Hu Dahai."
