Chapter 174: There are chasing soldiers after the abyss
Chapter 174 Facing the abyss, there are pursuers behind
Li You walked slowly around the government office, lowering his head in thought, but met Inspector Hong and Bantou Hu on the corridor.
When the two men saw Li Tuiguan, they quickly clasped their fists and saluted. One of them, Hu Bantou, flattered Taoist officials and said, "I heard that Mr. Tuiguan has won the favor of Taotai officials and asked him to build the building. I wish you a lot of money."
Inspector Hong knew a little about the relationship between Li Tuiguan and Shi Shenzheng. When he heard this, he turned his head and cursed: "Idiot! You know nothing! I don't see that Mr. Li is in trouble for this. You may not be able to make money."
No life flower!"
Is this just a matter of money? These common people only think about money when they see the project. They are really summer insects and cannot be ignored. Li You shook his head and returned to his palace.
Sitting in the official hall, Li You still sighed and couldn't do anything. He seemed to be in a situation where he faced an abyss and was pursued by soldiers behind him.
Naturally, the pursuer pointed to Shi's involvement in politics. The old man's thoughts were so obvious that Li You could see it even if he lowered his IQ by half——
If the construction of the city is successful, Lord Shi, who will be the prime minister in charge of the project, will naturally be the first to do so. Not only will he win a big prize from the court, he may be able to erect a monument to his name, or the new city gate may be named Shimen to commemorate it.
You want to be famous, you want to be profitable.
As for Li Tuiguan, who basically had no say in the court, he just did his job well under the leadership of Master Shi. His hard work was basically in vain. He became a good person and helped Shi participate in politics and fight for fame and fortune. He might be betrayed by Shi.
Your Excellency caught the evidence of corruption and bribery, and resigned from office to atone for his sins.
If the construction of the city fails, Mr. Shi himself will not suffer any substantial losses. At most, he will gain the reputation of having great achievements and be impeached by a few officials for deceiving the court with empty words.
This is indeed not very lethal. After all, Shi Shenzheng did not ask for any money from the court, so the court naturally just had an attitude of being happy to see it succeed. If it failed, forget it. The court did not lose anything, and there was no need to hold him accountable.
But the key point is that the imperial court will probably not hold Shi Shenzheng accountable, but Shi Shenzheng will definitely find ways to hold Li Tuiguan responsible for the city construction project. This is one level suppressing the other. When the time comes, Li Tuiguan will be perfunctory, incompetent, and corrupt.
Comments such as "intrusion" cannot go away, or it is better to cause trouble. Mr. Li can then let Shi Shenzheng handle it and directly impeach and remove him from office.
If we say that the above is a pursuit, then what are the abyss ahead? To put it simply, there are three.
First of all, where did the money to build the city come from? There is no need to count on the Iron Rooster Court. There has never been a rule for the court to allocate money to local cities to build cities. There are probably only two exceptions, the capital (the contemporary imperial capital) and Nanjing (the contemporary magical capital).
Traditionally, construction funds have to be raised from large households or increased taxes. As a local, if you do these things blatantly, your spine will be stabbed to death, and the rabbit will not eat the grass beside the nest.
Secondly, the houses outside the city are too dense. Those who demolished and demolished a thousand households (let’s count it as a thousand households)... local Li Tuiguan said it was still an unbearable burden.
Thirdly, goods flow outside the city is smooth, government discipline is loose, and it is very convenient to hide one's household registration and evade taxes. Who wants to be locked up and rectified?
As a local who came from a humble background, had no fame to back him, and relied heavily on his local reputation to support his career as an official. The above three factors put a lot of pressure on Li to become an official. After all, how could he have the face to hang around in this small area of Suzhou?
Possibly Shi's real plan to participate in politics was to instigate Li You to intensify the conflict with Suzhou's scholars and people and then take advantage of it. This was tantamount to shaking the foundation of Li's promotion of officialdom.
As expected, the moon waxes and wanes, and people experience joys and sorrows. Mr. Li relied on his advantage in local popularity to fight with Shi Shenzheng, but now Shi Shenzheng used this to counterattack the entire army. It can be said that Xiao He succeeded and defeated Xiao He.
Li You was helpless about this. He saw through Shi's idea of joining politics and it was of little use. He still had no solution.
If it was Shi Shenzheng who interfered in government affairs, he could still evade it. After all, each level has its own power boundary. Mr. Shi, as a branch minister, has not ignored the prefect's prestige of arbitrarily rectifying Li You. That would have crossed the line.
But this time Master Shi invited the imperial court to give orders, which was a bit like "holding the emperor to order the princes". Of course, he could justifiably assign Li You a temporary assignment. What's more, the reason is very good. You are a local and familiar with people and geography, so
This important responsibility belongs to you.
Otherwise, the word "prime minister" in "Prime Minister's Suzhou City Building Affairs" is so worthless. If Shi Shi's political position was higher, he would probably be "Governor-General Suzhou City Building Affairs". In short, according to the rules of officialdom, Li Tuiguan has no
The right to refuse unless he resigns.
In fact, Na Shi was known as "Feng Feng Jie, with strong wind power". He always promoted advantages and eliminated disadvantages, was bold and courageous, and was famous throughout the court. Otherwise, why would the imperial court send him to Suzhou to clean up the mess at the beginning of the year? The decision to build the city this time was also
It is the embodiment of style. Taking care of Li Tuiguan by the way is a multi-purpose achievement.
For the current plan, Li You could only think of treating it coldly and delaying it, hoping that he could wait for changes.
It happened that Song Wengu also came to visit and said that the pawnshops were established, and two of them were ready to be sold recently.
Li You asked: "Which one is smaller? The smaller one."
Song Wengu suggested: "If you want to make a lot of money, you should buy the big one? I can lend you more capital."
Li You smiled and said: "Thank you Brother Song for your kindness. It doesn't require a lot of capital to open this pawn shop. The money you lent me will definitely be paid back within the year."
Another day passed like this, and Li You was busy with the pawnshop. However, Shi Shenzheng had no intention of letting Li Tuiguan treat it coldly. He directly sent an official document, ordering Li Tuiguan to hand over the financing plan and the city wall location draft within ten days.
"Isn't this Wangba doing nothing else all day long? Why are you targeting me everywhere?" Li You couldn't help but cursed as he punched the table in annoyance.
"Who are you scolding, Mr. Li?" Mr. Huang, who was pressing the inspection branch, walked in with his voice.
Today, Li You made an appointment with Mr. Huang to talk about something and explained his relationship, so he let Mr. Huang in without any notice.
Li You stood up and cupped his hands and said, "Mr. Huang is pretending to be confused again, who else could he be?"
Master Huang laughed and said: "In my opinion, Shi Dacan failed enough in Suzhou Mansion. A dignified third-grade official actually needs to borrow the imperial banner to suppress you, a seventh-grade official."
Li Youbing went to the doctor in a hurry: "Is it true that Chen Xundao can't get involved in this matter?"
After sitting down for tea, Mr. Huang replied: "Chen Xundao is a Feng Xianguan, and Yu Li cannot interfere in local government affairs. It's not like you don't know that."
Of course Li You knew this. To use a metaphor, the local magistrate can decide whether something should be done and how to do it, while the supervisor's duty can only evaluate whether it is done right or wrong or how effective it is, and check whether there are any tricks in the process.
But you can't tell local officials what to do.
Not to mention that Chen Xundao was one and a half grades lower than Shi Shenzheng. Therefore, Chen Xundao was only a firefighter. When Shi Shenzheng wanted to punish Li You, he entered the judicial supervision process, and he could only come to the rescue within the scope of the responsibilities of the Judicial Branch.
But at any rate, Li You can escape unscathed.
"Don't worry!" Mr. Huang said leisurely: "It is expected that Chen Xundao will give you a big gift after a while, and then this trouble will no longer be a trouble."
A big gift that can offset this trouble? How big is it? Li You asked curiously: "What big gift?"
"Things are still pending and the secret must not be leaked." Mr. Huang's expression was mysterious.
Li You nodded and said, "Thank you very much. I came to see you today for no other reason than to ask for Chen Xundao's name."
"Oh, what kind of scene do you need? I'll ask Chen Xundao to write it for you later." Master Huang agreed immediately.
It is not difficult to understand that asking Chen Xundao for writing is a trend these days, whether it is to inscribe plaques to worship ancestors or to celebrate the birth of children, they all like to find literary people to write. And there is also a trend of comparison. If you look for a scholar, I will look for a scholar. You look for a scholar.
If you want to promote people, I will look for Jinshi. If you look for someone from the top three, I will look for someone from the second…
Those who wrote articles and inscriptions naturally had to polish their pens. This was a source of income for many scholars, and it was also considered an elegant thing. Even Hai Rui and Hai Qingtian were not exempt from the vulgarity.
As the fifth Jinshi in the second class, Chen Xundao is quite competitive in this industry. However, the threshold for the inspection branch is a bit high and ordinary people cannot get in.
Li You thought for a while and said: "Not many, just twenty pieces first. Ten plaques, five congratulatory messages for Nongzhang, and five sacrificial texts for ancestors."
Twenty pieces? Or do you want them first? I heard Master Huang’s face look strange. Is there such a wholesale shop for calligraphy? It’s so polite. This Li You must have some stupid idea. “Just tell me clearly what you want to do.”
"A friend recently opened a pawn shop and asked Chen Xundao to take care of the business and pawn some words."
Master Huang thought to himself, what kind of friend? Ninety-nine percent of the time, you opened the business yourself, but you still don’t understand what Li You wants to do? What does asking for a letter have to do with a pawn shop?
"It's a pity that Chen Xundao was an honest official. He didn't take anything from the people, so he had to pawn some cheap writings to make a living. If he had a pawn ticket to prove it, he would still die." Li You said with emotion.
This is all right... Master Huang is speechless, and even more speechless is yet to come.
Li You continued: "But don't worry, my friend will definitely not let the pearl fall into dust. When the time comes, he will deal with it. If he sells one piece for one hundred taels, twenty pieces will be two thousand taels! One piece for two hundred taels, twenty pieces.
That’s 4,000 taels! Four hundred taels each, twenty pieces are...there are many rich people in Jiangnan, so I’m not afraid that no one will buy them!”
Master Huang completely understood. When Li You said it could be sold at such a high price, he didn't doubt it at all.
Not to mention anything else, as long as the pawn shop selling sheep's heads and selling dog meat quietly spreads the news, Mr. Chen, the highest-ranking criminal officer, supervisor, and education officer in the Susong area, will have a small book to remember who bought him at the pawn shop.
Character…
It is estimated that there will always be a large number of guilty rich men and officials who would rather believe that they have it than that they have nothing, and have money but no place to spend it. Who dares to say that they will not be sued in the future? They bought it at a high price and used it as a talisman.
Or when encountering troublesome situations in the future, I will have an excuse to use the inscription to deal with Chen Xundao to establish friendship.
Mr. Huang couldn't help but sigh with emotion, it was indeed Mr. Li's consistent style of arresting every archway. He especially admired Li You for this, as he was constantly coming up with fantastic ideas.
The exchange of calligraphy and painting was, at least on the surface, an elegant matter that did not harm his reputation. In the end, Mr. Chen was so poor that he turned to writing, but secretly sold it at a high price to gain fame and make money.
If you encounter any questions, you can directly contact the pawn shop. Anyway, the reputation of pawn shops as a profit-making industry is inherently bad.
As for buying a calligraphy and then taking it out to ask for help, it depends on the specific situation. If it can't be done, just say that the pawn shop spread rumors. No one is to blame for being gullible.
"By the way." Mr. Huang thought of something again and said, "I just met Magistrate Wang and chatted for a few words. I see that he is also a little aggrieved. Why do you have to think about dealing with the city building alone? How can there be such a thing in the officialdom?
Why fight alone? So you might as well discuss it with the prefect, he is the prefect after all."
Li You shook his head and said: "With the prince's appearance and temperament...it's not that I underestimate him, it would be nice if he doesn't hinder me."
"It's not necessarily true that an honest person will be more angry when he gets angry. You must not underestimate it." Master Huang woke up and said.
