Chapter 121: Meals for decades are not free of charge
When Li You was looking at Tongzhi's court in a daze, he saw a silhouette of a figure. Wang Lao Tongzhi flashed out of the hall, walked quickly back and forth in the courtyard several times, kicked his legs and waved his arms, and did some strange tricks to strengthen his body.
A trick to keep fit. Afterwards, a supervisor handed over the teapot. Wang Tongzhi took it and took a sip. He closed his eyes and thought about it before drinking it in a big gulp.
He looks like an idle old man in the countryside, Governor Li slandered. Although Li You was unhappy with Wang Tongzhi for causing him trouble, he was not stupid enough to offend the only official he could contact when he was very isolated in the government office.
I just couldn't help but joked half-sarcastically: "Master Tongzhi is really in a good mood."
Wang Tongzhi seemed unable to hear the sarcasm, and laughed loudly and said: "People say, take time to watch the flowers blooming and fading in front of the court, sit and watch the clouds rolling and relaxing in the sky. Autumn is rare at this time, how about playing chess in our courtyard for fun?
?”
Is it official business to drink tea and play chess? Li You said: "I would like to have some leisure time, so why not spend the rest of my life in an official position? What's the point of being in this government office?"
Old Man Wang seemed puzzled by Li You's words, "Governor Li, don't you think I am not living a leisurely life now?"
“It’s very laid back.”
"When it comes to spending idle time, being an official is like this, and becoming an official is nothing more than that. So why should I become an official?" Wang Tongzhi replied: "You can still get more than a hundred taels of silver in salary while you are in office. Suzhou is a prosperous and comfortable place.
Why do you want to resign? I remember that Governor Li is a smart man, so I can’t figure it out."
The sixty-year-old colleague’s reasons were too strong to be refuted. Governor Li was speechless and turned to his colleague: “I want to play chess with your master, why don’t you hurry up and get the chess pieces and the board!
Remember to get the chess pieces!"
Wang Tongzhi originally wanted to play Go, but Li You didn't know how, so the two had to play chess. Fortunately, Wang Tongzhi had all kinds of chess and cards in his room...
After setting up the chessboard, the horses started to kill each other. In the middle of the chess game, Wang Tongzhi suddenly said: "The horse patrol has made Xujiang County disgraced. It must be you."
Li You, who was looking at the chessboard and thinking about his next move, raised his head when he heard this and said, "Master Wang is joking. How can I dare to go against the imperial envoy?"
"Haha, I heard that Ma Xun was caught in the foot when he was inspecting the official raw silk business. Others don't know, but I know very well that it was you who instigated the Xujiang official raw silk business. And based on my understanding of you as a person, I will definitely
You did some tricks secretly, and Magistrate Chen has no intention of doing so."
Li You replied expressionlessly: "It must be Mr. Wang just joking casually."
Time passed day by day, and the weather became colder and colder. Li You had been in the government office for nearly a month, and he was still a stranger to other people. His daily life consisted of drinking tea and playing chess. Occasionally, Zhao Liangli invited him to a banquet and wine, and he could get to know a few people.
Romantic people can copy some poems to get some applause and seek some spiritual comfort. Of course, free sexual comfort is also available.
Li You also thought about improving the situation, but to no avail. Not to mention his colleagues, even the subordinates did not respond to him. It is true that a man cannot be without power for a day, Li You sighed. At Old Man Wang's age, he should just take it for granted.
To provide for old age, does he have to rely on his youth to transfer all the current officials of the government and retire before he can make a career? This process is estimated to take seven or eight years, which is very long...
During this period, the price of rice in Suzhou Prefecture remained high, and several incidents of poor people grabbing rice occurred in succession, which had never happened in recent years. This caused a lot of discussion in the prefecture, from dignitaries to traffickers. How could everyone not pay attention?
There are at least hundreds of thousands of people who have been separated from agricultural production living in this city. Once a food crisis breaks out, it cannot be solved casually.
What is even more strange is that from Wu County, Fuguo County, Changzhou to the government office, no rice grains were sold to calm the price of rice, nor to help the poor. The government was unanimously silent about this. It is said that after the Jiashen Rebellion,
The imperial court attached great importance to grain storage in various places, fearing that the past incident of thieves would happen again, so it gave various places more storage quotas in terms of grain tax payment, and built warehouses to prepare for famine relief. In addition, now is the time when autumn grain is on the market, so this should not happen.
The expensive rice was robbed.
The old man in the mansion, who was worried about the country and the people, lamented that there were five or six cases of rice grabbing in January. I only heard my father and grandfather mention that such chaos would only occur during the Chongzhen Dynasty. Then the old man who said this strange thing was arrested by the prefect Mao.
He was arrested on the pretext of deceiving the public with his monstrous words, and was paraded in the shackles, making it a joke in the government office.
Li You could only marvel at these things and be an irrelevant bystander, unlike in Xujiang County, where Magistrate Chen would call him over for discussion if someone made trouble.
That day, when Li You continued to play chess with Wang Tongzhi, a servant from Xujiang County suddenly came over with a letter. Li You opened it and read it, then slapped the case and said angrily: "How dare you, a traitor!"
Wang Tongzhi asked: "Is there something going on at home?"
Li Youluo thought about it and told the truth, "The newly appointed Xishui inspector saw that my silk shop was profitable and intended to occupy it." This new inspector was the former governor of the experience department of the government office. His surname seemed to be Jiang, and he
After changing his official position and going to Xishui, Li You wanted to find out about Wang Tongzhi's character. He went back to Xujiang County to find Chen County Magistrate to settle the matter. He also went home to see his wife, concubines, parents and pick up winter clothes.
Wang Tongzhi did not answer directly, but asked: "How does Governor Li feel this month? Are you willing to accept the status quo?"
How could this old man talk about this? Could it be that he had some thoughts? Li You didn't hide his feelings and answered straightforwardly: "Of course I won't."
"The opportunity is right here." Wang Tongzhi stroked his beard and said, "I believe that I still have some discernment in reading people..."
Hearing this, Li You laughed in his heart, "You old man, you dare to say that you are discerning, and you have directly offended everyone in the department to death, and you have also brought me into this embarrassing situation."
"This Jiang is a arrogant villain when he succeeds. He is only a ninth-grade man who has been manipulated by superior officials for more than ten years. He is only a little better than a small official. I guess he has no one to take care of him when he goes abroad.
Once the repressed temper is let go, he will inevitably become extremely arrogant and domineering. You can go back to your hometown to explore his illegal activities and take advantage of his shortcomings."
Li You said: "What's the use of that? What kind of opportunity is this?"
Wang Tongzhi was silent for a long time, looking at the young and messy official in front of him, recalling what Li You had done, and assessing his abilities and background.
Li You saw that the usually amiable old man Wang was rarely serious for a moment, and knew that he was considering something important, so he concentrated and listened carefully.
The atmosphere between the two suddenly became tense.
"You can implicate Jiang Xinwen and leave the government office, and catch them all in one go." Wang Tongzhi pointed out slowly.
This...Old man Wang wants to engage in this kind of performance art of reporting all his colleagues together again? Want to drag him down to do the same thing? Does Li You look so stupid? He has been holding back his ultimate move for a long time and just said such a useless word?
"Hahahaha." Li You laughed heartily, "Mr. Wang, you are determined to never change your mind. It's better to be a human being and never look back."
No matter how well-mannered Wang Tongzhi was, he couldn't help being laughed at by Li You. Although what he did was really embarrassing from an official perspective, he shouted loudly: "How dare you disobey your superiors!"
Li You stopped speaking and cupped his hands, stood up to say goodbye, and seize the time to return to Xujiang.
"Wait a minute." Wang Tongzhi stopped Li You, "I haven't finished speaking yet. Do you think this time it's just a trivial matter like accepting gifts and bribes? What if everyone in the government department worked together to embezzle the grain stored in the warehouse?"
This sentence made Li You's head buzz. If a group of people really embezzled the grain stored in the official warehouse, it would not be a small incident, it could be called a shocking case.
During the Chongzhen period, a great famine caused civil unrest and almost changed the dynasty. How could this lesson not arouse the vigilance of the court, so in recent decades, it has attached great importance to preparing for famines and providing disaster relief. According to the practice of this dynasty, asking for money and accepting bribes can be dealt with lightly even if they are investigated.
, you can still be reinstated after repaying your crimes. But if you embezzle rice and grain from the official warehouse, the nature has completely changed, and it is much more serious than directly embezzling money. If this triggers a local civil commotion, it can be as good as confiscating your home, confiscating it, and killing it.
This shows how big of a crime this is. What's more, it seems that the entire government office was involved when Wang Tongzhi said this, which is even more shocking.
Now that rice is so expensive, the government office has accumulated storage for several years and still can't sell it at a reasonable price. It's very puzzling. Could it be... Thinking of this, Li You said in shock: "Sir, please don't lie!"
Wang Tong knew: "It's absolutely true. Do you think that I am trying to become a laughing stock so that I can clear myself up and be able to distinguish myself from others?"
Li You suddenly realized, no wonder Wang Tongzhi found a trivial reason to report the whole government office like a child, seemingly offending everyone for no reason, but who would have expected that there was wisdom in it. After Wang Tongzhi took office, he secretly noticed that people in the government office had embezzled warehouses.
Not only did I not dare to take the risk of being involved in it, but I was also afraid of being forcibly dragged into it by my colleagues. I was also worried that if the incident came to light in the future, my involvement in it would be unclear, so I came up with the idea of finding some other trivial matter to report and expose.
method.
There are three advantages to doing this. First, Wang Tongzhi deliberately offended everyone and was ostracized by his colleagues because of a trivial matter. He would not be involved in their serious crime of stealing food, and he would not directly force his colleagues to jump over the wall to fight to the death; second, in the eyes of outsiders, Wang Tongzhi and other
People have drawn a clear line, and he can pretend that he doesn't know what is being concealed, and if the incident comes to light, he will not be implicated; thirdly, if the court investigates and punishes him, Wang Tongzhi, as the only innocent person in the whole government office, should be somewhat praised.
, maybe he can be established as an advanced model by the court to cover up his shame, and he can directly act as the prefect.
Li You couldn't help but admire in his heart. This old man seemed mediocre and incompetent, but his decades of food were not in vain. His trick was similar to pretending to be crazy and acting stupid, hiding it from everyone, and taking the concept of being wise and protecting oneself to the extreme. A
A person who only has the reputation of being a scholar has reached the fifth rank, and he indeed has his strengths. I thought it was just due to his thick skin, but now it seems that it is more than that.
Wang Tongzhi has been despised and ridiculed by everyone for so long. Today, he finally saw someone show admiration for him, as if he had met a close friend, and said proudly: "So when you came here, I said you were lucky."
Li You thought of something else, and asked with suspicion: "The entrance and exit of the warehouses are registered and kept. How can it be easily concealed? There are inspections every year, and the warehouse is the top priority. The number every year
They will all be handed over to the next person to continue the audit. Has everything been fooled?"
"There is indeed a big mystery in it. Listen to me," Wang Tongzhi said.