At the turn of the spring and summer of the eighth year of Jinghe, the new chief official of Jiangdu County, Mr. Li, took office within just a few days and took over the history of history. One of the two important roles of the treasurer was dismissed, and the other was thrown into prison. He was called
For the first two fires.
During this process, Mr. Li fully demonstrated his sophistication and familiarity with yamen affairs befitting his age, which made the subordinate officials in the county know that this new elder was not a nerd who was easy to bully. For a time, everyone was careful, lest they
Become the third leader of the new official.
Li You was not kind to the former magistrate who committed suicide. Not only did he return 300 taels of silver to the Jiang family, but he also allocated another 200 taels of pension money. The details were all handled by Zhou Jiexi, the master of money and grain.
On this day, County Master Li was sitting in the back office, thinking about how to report the case of Magistrate Jiang's suicide.
On the day of the incident, he had already reported it to Yangzhou Prefecture in the form of an emergency report. It is estimated that the government office also forwarded it to the Huaidong branch patrol. Now according to the rules, Jiangdu County Government should write a detailed report and report it to the government again.
Yamen.
In this detailed article, the causes and consequences of the case must be clearly explained, and the wording is particularly important.
Especially for such cases where it is difficult to clearly determine responsibility. The main reason may be Jiang Zhixian's poor psychological quality, or he may be threatened by a clerk in the warehouse, or he may be forced by a later magistrate... If the words and sentences are slightly off, in the eyes of the boss, it may be a disaster.
Don't.
If because of the inappropriate use of a few words, the palace official thinks that it was Mr. Li who forced his predecessor to death because of his youth and arrogance, that would be a tragic life.
At this moment, Zhou Jiexi came back from the county mansion and reported to Li You the funeral of Magistrate Jiang. He also said, "Mr. Hu, Mr. Jiang's minister, is now a man without an owner. Today he asked me about it."
Does the proprietor still want to hire a staff? Judging by this, he actually wants to work for the proprietor."
Li Xianzun shook his head without thinking and said: "It's extremely inappropriate. There are many secretaries on both sides of the curtain. How can an outsider like him, who doesn't know the basics, trust me? Moreover, Mr. Jiang was controlled by a small official and caused a tragic disaster. He
This master is to blame, and he seems to have no ability."
"I think so too, but Mr. Hu said that he would like to present Yangzhou's "Records of the Gentlemen" as a meeting gift and ask the proprietor to make a decision."
Mr. Li had heard of the "Records of the Gentlemen". Such a list was compiled in many places and circulated among local officials. As the name suggests, the "Records of the Gentlemen" records the local officials, families, giants, and wealthy people.
The list and situation of the big households on the right are similar to the "Guardian Talisman" that appeared in Dream of Red Mansions.
Li Xianzun has only been in Jiangdu for a few days, and he has a bad eye on local people. He needs something like "Records of the Gentlemen". After all, Jiangdu County's imperial examination results have always been good, and there are many families with people serving as officials outside.
I really need to clear my base.
"Then let Mr. Hu come to see you." Li You ordered.
Mr. Hu had been waiting outside the county government office for a long time. When he heard the summons, he hurriedly walked to the flower hall of the back office, saluted Li You and said, "I have never entered Hu Zhenru. I have met the great master."
The Records of the Gentlemen, which was regarded as a stepping stone, was naturally presented, "This was bought by Mr. Jiang from his predecessor when he first took office in Jiangdu County a few years ago. Now that things have changed, this book is now in the hands of the county magistrate.
It’s time to make the best use of everything.”
Li You flipped through a few pages at random, thinking that if something hadn't happened to Jiang Zhi County and Master Hu wanted to have a meal here, he would have to spend money to buy it and continue to sell it to the next one when he left office.
.
While reading, he orally said to the school master: "If the wise don't speak secretly, Mr. Jiang will make a big mistake. I'm afraid that you, the man behind the curtain, have not fulfilled your responsibilities very well."
Mr. Hu smiled bitterly and said, "Actually, I didn't know anything about Mr. Jiang's misappropriation of treasury money. It wasn't until I saw the county treasury was inexplicably short of money during the handover a few days ago that Mr. Jiang told me the whole story. It turned out that he had used it secretly.
We have several thousand taels of silver in partnership with others to sell salt. After all, we, the curtain makers, are used in places where the master does not want to use them. We can only do nothing but do nothing, how can we fulfill our responsibilities?"
Mr. Li was originally not very interested in knowing what his predecessor had embezzled public funds for, and he did not want to pursue the matter. But when he heard the word "salt" from Master Hu, he immediately became interested, and he was preparing to find an opportunity to make some progress in this regard.
As for Li, could it be related to the suicide of my ex?
He quickly asked: "What's going on with Mr. Jiang's partnership with others to sell salt? With his parents' official status, he is engaged in a humble business. Aren't you afraid of being impeached by the public and Fengxian?"
Although Hu Zhenru didn't understand why Mr. Li suddenly became energetic, he still told the truth what he knew. "There is a Qiu family, a fallen salt merchant in this city. The head of the family, Qiu Liqiu, a senior official, is on good terms with Mr. Jiang. Because there is no such thing as Mr. Jiang."
The capital has been shipped, so I coaxed Mr. Jiang to use the treasury money to jointly transport salt..."
It turns out that in the salt industry sales process, salt merchants who traffic official salt from coastal salt fields to major ports are called transporters.
Not everyone can do this business. The salt laws of the Huaihe River and Huaihe River between the states and dynasties implemented a monopoly system. Only those whose names are on the official list are qualified to transport salt, so they are also called gang merchants. Most of the Huizhou salt merchants in Yangzhou City are
It is a merchant with the exclusive right to sell official salt.
The number of gang merchants is hereditary from generation to generation. The license held is called the nest, the annual subscription of salt is called the nest, and the number that can be subscribed is called the number of nests. Regardless of the nest capital or the number of nests, if there are no accidents, it will be the same.
Hereditary inheritance remains unchanged. In Yangzhou city, the number of large salt merchants' nests can reach tens of thousands, and the smallest ones can have a scale of thousands.
It can be seen that the huge profits in transporting salt originated from the exclusive monopoly rights. A hundred years ago, in order to stabilize the salt class that was on the verge of collapse, the imperial court circled a group of relatively stable businessmen and provided them with preferential treatment and convenience so that they could sell salt with peace of mind. But at that time
The adults must not have thought that salt merchants would develop and grow to the extent they are today by relying on monopoly and monopoly.
The story went too far, but he said that the salt merchant Qiu Daguan mentioned by Mr. Hu was only 27 or 27 years old. He had a nest book passed down from his ancestors and a nest number of 13,000 citations. He was a salt merchant in Yangzhou.
It's neither too big nor too small.
However, the Qiu family's financial situation has declined in recent years, and when it came into the hands of Qiu Daguan, they couldn't even afford the capital to transport salt. You know, his nest of 13,000 coins only proved that he was qualified. In addition, he still needed real gold.
Silver is used as capital. If you want to sell 13,000 yuan of official salt, you can't do it without 8,000 taels of upfront capital. Also, if a businessman does not transport enough nests this year, he is afraid that he will be cut off the next year.
Mr. Hu continued: "Last autumn, when it was the salt shipping season, Qiu Daguan asked others to borrow a few thousand taels to transport a batch of salt. However, he wanted to transport 13,000 taels, but he still lacked 4,000 taels. He
He took the idea to the county government treasury and told Mr. Jiang that if he spent 4,000 taels to transport salt, he would be able to recover 8,000 taels in the next spring. When he heard that he could get a huge sum of 4,000 taels, Mr. Jiang was moved.
.”
At this time, Li You suddenly realized: "If the treasury money is misappropriated for business and profit, if it is spread and the reputation is very bad, I am afraid that I will be impeached and dismissed from office. No wonder Mr. Jiang did not even tell you the secret of what he did at that time. Even the treasury officials don't know.
Master Jiang took away the money and used it for something."
However, after Master Li calculated silently, he said strangely: "The doubling of salt transportation profits between autumn and spring may be an exaggeration, but it won't be much different. Mr. Jiang can make a steady profit of three thousand taels without any problem. Could it be that something happened again?"
As a result, he couldn't even make up the shortfall of seven hundred taels?"
"Four thousand taels of silver were exchanged for six thousand taels of salt at the salt farm. The Qiu family used a tank boat converted into a huge ship to carry the salt and transported it down the river from Yizhen to Hankou Port. A few days later, Qiu Li suddenly said that the salt ship was carrying a heavy load
There were too many, and the boat was unstable. It encountered a strong wind on the river, was capsized, and all sank to the bottom of the river..."
"It must be false!" Li You snapped the case and said intuitively. Regardless of whether it was true or false, Jiang Zhi County was really unlucky.
Hu Zhenru sighed and said: "Master Jiang misappropriated four thousand taels and lost all his money. He went to Qiu Daguan to ask for it but he couldn't get it back, and the treasurer took the opportunity to take away one thousand taels under his own name. He incurred a total loss of five thousand taels. He
I spent all my savings over the years and still owe 700 taels. I was completely destitute and was squeezed out by my wife that day. I couldn't bear it and committed suicide. Qiu Daguan is very hateful!"
At this point, Mr. Hu stood up again, bowed to Li You and said, "I would like to express my gratitude to the county magistrate for the late Mr. Jiang. If the county magistrate hadn't seen every detail and treated people kindly, the orphans and widowers of the Jiang family would have to beg and return home.
"
Li You also sighed, "It's human nature for couples to quarrel. Money is something external to one's body. Why is it like this? Mr. Jiang is really confused. He shouldn't listen to the villain's slander and embezzle money to do business. Even if it succeeds, it will be easy to leak the news."
"
Hu Zhenru's expression suddenly became strange, and after a while, he finally said: "To be honest with the county magistrate, Mr. Jiang is not a stupid person, but he has a habit of Longyang, likes masculine style, and is very affectionate with the handsome Qiu Daguan."
Secret, that's why he was deceived. He committed suicide in anger, which may have something to do with it. I heard Mrs. Jiang use this to mock Mr. Jiang for being blind that day."
A gay?! So that’s the case, no wonder a dignified county magistrate could commit suicide for seven hundred taels. After much deliberation, no one would have guessed... Mr. Li County was dumbfounded for a long time.
Although he often read in books about the masculine behavior of many scholar-bureaucrats in the country in his previous life, he has never seen it in person since time travel. He only heard that Master Cui used to vent his anger on the servants at home when he was poor. He never thought that he would meet such a man today.
A truly manly affair.
He also recalled Master Zhuang’s glaring assertion: There must be a beautiful woman behind what Mr. Jiang couldn’t tell! At that time, Li You still believed in this assertion, but now it seems that he has made a mistake...
The unusually strange Master Li came back to his senses and asked, "In your opinion, is Mr. Qiu using men to defraud money?"
Hu Zhenru asked: "What does the county honor mean..."
Mr. Li had an unpredictable expression and hinted: "It is not a scam, but it will become a scam. Where did he claim that the ship sank?"
Mr. Hu immediately reacted, "There are river moorings in the counties along both sides of the river, and there are records of shipwrecks within their jurisdiction! If there are lies about shipwrecks, there must be clues to follow. I would like to help you go and investigate!"
He is also a smart man, so this matter can be regarded as a vote of fame... Li You nodded and said: "We look forward to good news."
Then he said to Zhou Jiexi: "Withdraw 300 taels to pay for Mr. Hu's trip, and then send two chief attendants to wait for Mr. Hu to leave."
Since Mr. Li, the general magistrate of Yangzhou Prefecture and acting Jiangdu County, has taken office, no salt merchant has taken the initiative to visit the county government. If you think Mr. Li doesn't mind this, you are totally wrong!!.
