"The county magistrate promised to delegate power to you again?"
Du Wulang took Xue Yunniang back and had to calm down and started to work as Xue Bai's staff. He first learned from Yin Liang and was checking the Guo family's account books. When Xue Bai handed him a list of Shi Cao's blacksmiths, he
I couldn't help but wailed.
"I originally thought that Lu Linghao would push back and forth with you for some time, but I agreed so quickly."
"He's still easy to talk to." Xue Bai took the results handed over by Yin Liang and looked at them, "After all, I haven't harmed his interests yet."
"Not at the moment, but there will be in the future." Du Wulang said while filling out the paperwork: "Young Master, although you are talking to us, you still have to be careful."
Because he was so tired from doing these things, he even refused to hold the brush properly, as if he were holding chopsticks.
Xue Bai was focused on everything he did. He couldn't stand this behavior and didn't bother to pay attention to him.
Yin Liang, on the other hand, was at ease and said: "It's really not difficult to talk about Magistrate Lu. He cares about his future and interests. He neglects to govern his subordinates. He is obsessed with flattery and has no responsibility. To put it bluntly, he is greedy, lazy and afraid of death.
.”
"Greedy, lazy and afraid of death." Du Wulang said: "Isn't that me?"
Everyone in Weili smiled.
Yin Liang sighed and said: "Wulang would snatch the last bag of grain from the poor peasants in order to make himself better fed and clothed."
"Of course not."
"That's the difference."
"Then if I also become an official..."
Du Wulang thought for a while, but he couldn't think of it that far. He only warned himself in his heart, and then adjusted the posture of holding the pen.
Xue Bai looked at the current list of Guo Wanjin's property and was a little surprised.
This is more than 150,000 yuan in Yanshi County's official account alone. What's more, Guo Wanjin also has more wealth in Chang'an and Luoyang.
Xue Bai had already written to Yang Zheng in advance. It must be that in Chang'an, Yang Guozhong was probably responsible for the house raids. The interests were divided among all parties, and more than 600,000 yuan would definitely enter the Taifu... It should be noted that when the imperial court copied Ren Lingfang, it was also
Only 600,000 yuan were copied.
Naturally, he had a lot of credit for this matter, but Xue Bai gave a big share of the credit to Yin Liang in the official document, saying that he discovered Guo Wanjin's problem when he was taking stock of the accounts.
He planned to recommend Yin Liang to be the official recorder in a while... probably after Guo Huan re-registered the household registration.
"Young Master."
Yin Liang took out his abacus and said: "150,000 guan, at least 50,000 guan must be handed over to the court. Of these, 3,000 guan can be used to appease the canal workers; the transport department must take at least 50,000 guan, so that Duke Du can manage it."
, to ensure that they can fulfill their promise to the canal work within one or two years; Lu Linghao and Guo Huan had to take 50,000 guan to share the profits with each family. They also had people to manage, and in the end they ended up with only a few thousand guan; the remaining
If you do, the young master can also get more than 7,000 guan, which is for your personal use."
At the last sentence, he lowered his voice so that only Du Wulang could hear it, and he couldn't help but click his tongue.
"Quite a few." Xue Bai said: "Lu Linghao and Guo Huan's calculations are quite accurate."
"They are indeed not stingy, but I'm afraid they will inevitably use this to blackmail the young master into doing things in the future."
"What I want is to give it to them first and take it back later."
Yin Liang said: "In addition, Guo Wanjin also has some shady properties, most of which were secretly taken away by the gentry of Yanshi. On the surface, there are only a few acres left, not much, more than 20 hectares."
"Have the slaves in his slave shop been accounted for?"
"The county magistrate took away those who were able to join the contract with low status, and the rest were looted."
"Those who can still return home will be arranged to do so. Those who are homeless will be left to Er Niang, who will find a good home for them."
Xue Bai thought about it and planned to distribute the more than twenty hectares of land to his men and let them hire people to cultivate it. Only those who have a constant output will have perseverance.
As for the more than 7,000 yuan of stolen money given to him by the profit sharing, he really planned to accept it with a smile. Rebellion was the most expensive thing.
For example, he promised to raise the wages of the water workers, and he used the name of the county office, transportation department, and saint. It was nothing more than to make the water workers no longer only follow the noble orders, but in fact it was still not easy to control them. To cultivate confidants,
You still have to spend his money to appreciate his kindness.
The power behind Gao Chong is huge. There are many soldiers and horses in Fan Yang. In Henan, it is enough to have an internal agent. There is no need to raise dead soldiers. It is enough for the profits from smuggling to be distributed in a small amount. However, Xue Bai
Otherwise, you have to spend a lot of money.
If a dead soldier pays five guans a month, two hundred people will have to spend thousands of guans a month. After all, it is a beheading business. This is only the cost of manpower, and other aspects need to be prepared for even greater costs.
In addition, if the grain cannot be taken back from Lu Linghao, the iron and stone trade will have to use the money to buy grain.
"One more thing." Yin Liang said, "The copper coins confiscated in Guo Mansion are all new. It is certain that the copper coins were minted privately, but I don't know where he minted them at all..."
~~
Since he really had the power of a county magistrate, Xue Bai has been very busy every day. Others may only be busy with one thing, but he has to intervene in everything.
After another two days of busy work, Aunt Gongsun's injured disciples had recovered from their injuries, and she was about to leave back to Yancheng. Only then did Xue Bai remember that he should see her off.
Cui Youfu had already left, and Du Youlin also began to supervise the transportation of grain to Chang'an. The Du sisters bought a house to do some business in Yanshi County. After Gongsun left, Cui Jun's villa was finally empty.
When Xue Bai sent a letter to Du Jin, he only said that he needed to set a trap for Guo Wanjin and ignored the rest. Until now, he was too busy to say thank you to Aunt Gongsun properly, which was indeed rude.
After leaving the county town, he escorted her all the way to the dock.
"I remember that in Chang'an, both Lao Shen and Xue Lang were invited to the wedding banquet of the Crown Prince and Zhang Liangdi." Aunt Gongsun said, "At that time, we, the stooges, were sitting together."
"It is an honor for me to sit at the same table as Mrs. Gongsun."
Xue Bai is good at making polite words sound sincere.
But Aunt Gongsun shook her head and said with a smile: "At that time, others seemed to respect us, but they were actually respecting saints. In fact, in their eyes, we were just boring people, just having fun."
"Dancing and music is an elegant thing." Xue Bai was very sure about this, saying: "It is different from cockfighting and gambling after all."
"But I never dare to say loudly that I am different from Jia Chang and others." Aunt Gongsun said, "Now that I have taken away the secret house where I robbed and sold my beloved, I dare to say that I have learned swordsmanship all my life, not only for
For entertaining people, I have to thank Lieutenant Xue County."
For old acquaintances like them who made the saint happy together in Chang'an, calling them "Xue Xianwei" instead of "Xue Lang" is a great affirmation.
Xue Bai said: "It's me who should thank you."
"You don't need to thank me. It doesn't matter whoever the county captain asks to do it. Instead, I do it for Twelve Mothers..."
The lady in charge looked over and saw Li Twelve Niang saying goodbye to Ren Mulan.
~~
"If you are bullied in Yancheng, write to me and I will bring someone over to help you."
"My swordsmanship is very good, and I have a master and a junior sister. The other way around is more or less the same. If you are bullied, send someone to tell me."
"How can you not? I am Qu Shuai." Ren Mulan said: "Also, I have inquired for you. The county lieutenant will be responsible for pretending to be Zhang Sanniang. You go back to your hometown to avoid the limelight. After the limelight is over, you can come out again.
.”
"Gone."
Li Twelve Niang had avenged her great revenge and had to return to her hometown to worship her parents. She waved her hand away and boarded the boat with Gongsun Auntie.
They still had to cross the Yiluo River, then go south around Chongshan Mountain and go down along the Ying River to Yancheng.
"We will meet again!" Ren Mulan shouted.
Li Twelve Niang raised her sword and waved it as a farewell.
…
After bidding farewell, Ren Mulan strode back with a knife in hand. She would say hello to everyone she met on the pier for the second time to prepare for her future role as her commander-in-chief.
Apart from officials, the most majestic person she had ever seen was Li San'er, and she had already made up her mind to be his commander-in-chief.
All the way to Xue's house, in the front yard, Jiang Hai was leaning on a recliner, being taught by Xue Shiyilang to read.
"Master, are you feeling better?" Ren Mulan asked.
"Don't bother me. Maybe I can get better faster."
"Then I'll go practice swordsmanship with the master, where are the others?"
"At the county office."
Ren Mulan turned around and ran. When she arrived at the small west gate of the county office, she almost ran into a group of people. She stopped and recognized that it was Mr. Song from Shouyang Academy, the brother of Song Li who she killed.
.
Her expression remained unchanged, staring straight at Song Mian's neck.
Song Mian did not notice a dirty wild child and entered the county office with his hands behind his back.
Ren Mulan waited for a while before following him, and went directly to the arresting hall to find Lao Liang.
Now Xue Bai has recruited thirty more officers, who were selected from the canal workers and led by Xue Xin. As for Qi Chou, he was promoted to deputy leader again and led the original officers to maintain public order.
Most things inside and outside the county are operating as usual, except for smuggling and some shameful activities.
These thirty new officers did not know martial arts and had never killed anyone. Lao Liang, who helped train them, was very dissatisfied and was giving them a lesson.
"Do you know that Captain Xue doesn't look like a big man, but he has already lost several lives under his command..."
"Me too!"
Ren Mulan immediately ran to Lao Liang and stood next to him.
Even if she doesn't learn swordsmanship, she is still willing to learn how to scold and manage others, and finally have another meal with her.
After training for a while, Ren Mulan found an opportunity to secretly talk to Lao Liang.
"The man surnamed Song came here. Could it be that he saw something?"
That night, she killed Song Li. After taking Xue Bai and others out of the secret house, Xue Bai asked Lao Liang to stab Song Li on the shoulder again.
"You can tell the truth, just forget about it."
~~
Wei Xie.
Song Mian was still attending to the funeral of his brother recently and looked a little haggard.
He seemed to care about revenge. After a few pleasantries, he even asked about Gao Chong.
"Since the county lieutenant failed to capture Gao Chong, is he no longer in Henan Prefecture?"
It was actually Xue Bai who invited Song Mian here today, but he could also follow Song Mian's topic and talk about what he wanted to say.
"If you weren't in Henan Prefecture, maybe you followed the smuggler's boat across the Yellow River and went to Hebei?"
"Is there something in the county captain's words?" Song Mian asked.
Xue Bai did not mince words and said: "There should be many people in the county who know that Gao Chong has been smuggling."
"Yeah?"
"I wonder if Mr. Song has heard that I plan to forge a large number of farm tools?" Xue Bai said: "I won't hide it from you, just because I heard that the iron stones smuggled by Gao Chong are about to be shipped."
"Does the county lieutenant want to confiscate it?"
"One thing is very strange." Xue Bai said: "Everyone knows that Guo Wanjin minted copper coins privately. Many new copper coins were confiscated in Guo Mansion, but we don't know where he minted them."
After saying that, he looked at Song Mian.
He already knew one thing. It was Song Mian who held a banquet at Luhun Villa, introduced Wei Ji to Gao Chong, and bribed Wei Ji to conceal the smuggling incident. However, Song Mian was bent on revenge and was the one who wanted to get rid of Gao Chong the most among the wealthy gentry in Yanshi.
Worshipful.
He could not find where Guo Wanjin minted copper coins privately. This matter was different from making weapons. Coins could be minted in Henan Prefecture. Judging from the number of coins found in the Guo family, it should not be too far away.
Therefore, Xue Bai had a guess.
"What exactly did the county captain want to say?" Song Mian looked puzzled.
"I was wondering if I could use these newly minted copper coins to buy iron and stone, make farm tools, and open up wasteland. Money is secondary. I need political achievements."
Song Mian said: "I still don't understand what the county captain is talking about."
Xue Bai waved to him and asked him to lean forward and asked in a low voice: "How about our cooperation? Let's make copper coins together."
Song Mian was shocked. He stood up and said with an upright face, "It is a serious crime to cast copper coins privately. Could the county captain be joking?"
"Some people are fake friends, and some people are real friends." Xue Bai said, "I hope there can be real communication between us, what do you think?"
Song Mian's face was still full of shock and confusion.
He is not someone who can be seen through easily. After all, Wang Yanxiang has not been able to see through him for so many years.
"The county magistrate may have misunderstood something. I will never dare to be involved in this serious crime. The county magistrate was joking when I gave him lunch today."
Song Mian bowed and turned around to go out.
After taking two steps, he remembered something and turned around and said, "By the way, tomorrow is the funeral of Ba Lang. Would the county lieutenant be willing to go to Luhun Villa to see him off?"
Xue Bai understood, nodded, and said: "Okay, I should go."