Li You's letter was recorded as "Yangzhou Prefecture General Magistrate Jiangdu County Affairs for Salt Law and Gangshang Two Matters", and was stored in a dark corner of the Imperial Palace in the palace for hundreds of years and became the subject of a so-called archival cultural relic.
It means complaining and complaining.
The first part describes the dire situation:
The former county magistrate Jiang Mou committed suicide by hanging from a beam. It is really shocking to hear! As soon as such a shocking incident was traced and the salt merchants were involved, we saw a flood of documents from various government offices in Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers. What they said was all about salt, and each of them held his own office to threaten each other. This county
Being in a humble position makes me feel terrified!
If there were no salt merchants, everything would be impossible in the Huaihe River. I wonder if the Yangzhou of today is the Yangzhou of the Ming Dynasty or the Yangzhou of Gangshang?
I have been in office for less than a month, but I have followed my heart and respected the imperial court. I have successively recovered the salt tax, strictly investigated gang merchants for defrauding the treasury, and forced the county magistrate. However, I have become alienated from top to bottom and separated from left to right. Now I am like a stranger in the city.
A lonely boat in the sea, maybe you think you will follow in the footsteps of your predecessor!
In this part, Mr. Li also very insidiously estimated that the total annual profit of the Lianghuai salt merchants was more than 5 million, while the Lianghuai salt tax was only 3 million.
The second part is stuffing private goods and demanding power and money:
I can also see that Jiangdu is close to the salt field, and there are a lot of non-official surplus salt crossing the border. In recent years, the investigation has been unsuccessful, and the salt law has been greatly damaged. There is almost no access to salt classes, but the government is subject to the charity of salt merchants, like beggars, with no dignity at all.
Cun, it’s too embarrassing for the court.
I am petitioning to reduce or exempt Jiangdu County’s salt classes. Or, we could change Jiangdu County’s salt laws, abolish the salt regulations, imitate the salt system of other places, and allow the people to traffic on their own. The government should set up a city to collect taxes, so as to eliminate the disadvantages of the salt regulations! It’s also possible.
To protect the government from the control of salt merchants.
At the same time, he petitioned for the establishment of a new office to supervise salt affairs and rectify the salt law. The matter is of great importance, and it cannot be the same as the ordinary censor, so the level can be set at the sixth level (this is the level of Mr. Li, you know).
The third part expresses determination:
In the matter of eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor, even if there are dangers and obstacles, the ministers will be arrogant and daring, vowing to clean up the dirt and restore the peace of the county. Above, I will repay the kindness of the country, and below, I will care for the common people. Even though tens of thousands of people are gone, I will leave.
After finishing writing, Mr. Li read it over and added: "Who will return to me from Weisi people in Yangzhou!"
After finishing the memorial, Li You began to write letters to his patrons again. If he had this opportunity, he would seek an official title that would allow him to legally intervene in salt affairs.
For example, rectifying the salt envoys and acting as salt envoys... Anyone in the court who dares to oppose is speaking for the salt merchant who forced the county magistrate to death, and also wants the salt merchant to force the second county magistrate to death!
After everything was written, it was already midnight, and Mr. Li returned to the inner office. It was supposed to be his turn to sleep with Aunt Jin tonight, but Li You thought about it and turned around to go to Aunt Cheng in the fourth room.
Cheng Saiyu had not yet fallen asleep, and was writing with the maid in the teacher's classroom. The maid had a sad face, feeling very painful that she had become the hostess's test subject.
"Sister Yu..." Li You stood at the door and called softly.
Aunt Cheng turned around and saw her husband coming in, her pink face full of surprise, "Why are you here, husband? Isn't it my turn to serve you tomorrow night?"
Master Li waved his hand, and the maid took the opportunity to slip away and heat hot water.
"I remember that I haven't cared enough about you. Since I arrived in the south, have you gotten used to living in the south? Have you gotten used to the food? Have you gotten used to the climate? Is it hot or not?" Mr. Li asked in a very attentive manner.
Miss Cheng was a little overwhelmed by the sudden solicitude and shrank back, "Master, thank you for your trouble. With my sisters by my side, everything is going well..."
"That's good, that's good." Mr. Li smiled kindly and said, "You haven't written to the capital for a long time, right?"
Mrs. Cheng's heart trembled. Could it be that she secretly wrote a secret report yesterday to expose the master's drinking of flower wine, and also wrote about wearing hairpins and embracing prostitutes with immortal bones? Did it become known?
The master has repeatedly emphasized to her that romantic affairs must not be reported truthfully, but before leaving, His Highness Chitose told her that romantic affairs must be reported in detail. It is so embarrassing to be caught in the middle...
Li You was completely unaware of the nervous thoughts of the concubine in front of him, "In my opinion, your connection with the capital needs to be strengthened and closer. How come your father and brother are also working for Chitose. So..."
Aunt Cheng's face instantly turned pale, her eyes were closed, she was swaying, and she was almost fainting. Li You stepped forward and held her in his arms, and asked strangely: "You are talking nicely, but what's wrong with you?"
"So the master wants to drive the slave back to the capital?" Cheng Saiyu reluctantly opened his eyes and asked.
What kind of nonsense is this? Li You scolded angrily: "What are you thinking! I came to ask you to write a secret report to Chitose, saying that I am about to be forced to hang myself! If she doesn't help, she will just wait to collect the body!"
From the capital to all directions in the country, there were express delivery shops responsible for delivering official documents. Express delivery shops were set up all over the country in prefectures and counties. The prescribed speed was three hundred miles a day and night, and official documents were delivered as they arrived.
Li You's memorial and the Cheng family's secret report stamped with the royal seal can naturally be delivered to the capital reliably at this speed, and will arrive in about seven or eight days. But personal letters are very unreliable.
Master Li was worried that the memorial had arrived in the capital early, while the letters he wrote to his patrons were still being rattled on the way, leading to misunderstandings and accidents.
That's why he borrowed the royal seal from Mrs. Cheng's hand to seal his personal belongings together, and wrote in it that he entrusted the eldest princess to hand it over. I have to say, it feels good to use public items for personal use.
In fact, the content of Li You's memorial was very irregular. He was impeached by the imperial censor as soon as it was sent to the court. If local officials complained about nothing, how much effort would the court officials have to spend reading these rubbish words? But it doesn't matter, as long as they are not impeached.
Still a celebrity?
Under normal circumstances, local memorials that were not intended to report emergencies or changes would easily be wasted in the huge central bureaucracy, but Li You had a great reputation, so his memorials ran smoothly, which was a reflection of his right to speak.
Let's not talk about it, but say that time flies by and the sun and the moon fly by, and it's mid-June of the eighth year of Jinghe.
In Yangzhou City, the Jiangdu County Government's announcement ordering the six fugitive salt merchants to surrender themselves within a month was about to expire, but still no salt merchants had surrendered themselves, and Mr. Li did not take any further action.
The salt merchants were all waiting to see the joke. They knew from the beginning that this announcement must be empty words, and it was useless to rely on Li You's few false words to threaten him.
Mr. Li was so arrogant at the beginning, but recently he has gradually and helplessly subsided. Maybe he is looking for a way down the stairs.
Li You was also a little impatient. If the order he issued became an empty document and was treated as a joke, the damage to his prestige would be great. If he had known earlier, he should have written the deadline as three months, which would be enough to wait for the court to deal with it.
On June 14, the last day of the announcement period, Lei Yushi, the inspector of Jiangbei Province, suddenly arrived in Yangzhou. It was on orders from the imperial court that he came specifically to investigate what Li You had said in his memorial.
At this time, everyone in the city knew that Master Li had complained to the court. But what was the use? The court could not ignore the government office, the Salt Transportation Department, and the governor only favored a sixth-grade general magistrate and county magistrate.
Regarding Mr. Li's one-sided words, the imperial court naturally could not listen to one-sided words. According to the old method, it ordered the censor of Jiangbei to go to Yangzhou quickly to investigate the situation and report it. At that time, the censor Lei was inspecting Luzhou Prefecture and received the report.
After receiving the order, they boarded the boat and sailed down the river.
Li You breathed a sigh of relief at the arrival of Lei Yushi, and he could be considered to have stepped down. He quickly withdrew the announcement that almost caused him embarrassment in the name of the imperial envoy arriving for inspection and the previous article being invalidated.
As mentioned earlier, the Inspector Censor is the most honorable seventh-rank official in the world. As an imperial envoy, he can make decisions on small matters wherever he goes and report on major matters. He can also fight against the governor when he meets the governor. He is indeed a powerful role.
Lei Xun lived up to his name and acted resolutely. On the first day he arrived, he checked the case files in person, questioned Qiu Li from the prison, and confirmed that there was a case of defrauding official banks. After searching, he also confirmed that six salt merchants had been summoned but did not appear in the case.
matter, and asked Li You for the so-called "pressure writings" given to him by various yamen.
Then nothing happened to Li You, and time continued to flow while waiting.
By the end of June, a copy of the imperial edict was suddenly delivered to the governor's office in Fengyang, the government office in Yangzhou, and the county government in Jiangdu. It immediately caused a commotion in the entire Jiangbei officialdom.
The reason why I say it was a commotion rather than a shock is because this appointment is indeed very strange. It is so strange that no one has ever seen it before.
Mr. Li looked at the fresh appointment letter in his hand and was stunned and didn't know what to think. The letter clearly stated that he was appointed as the general magistrate of Yangzhou Prefecture, acting as Jiangdu County Secretary Li You and also in charge of the defense department of the government.
He read it several times before confirming that he had read it correctly. It was the Defense Department of the Prefecture, and not the official position he sought to regulate the Salt Law Envoy or act as the Salt Law Envoy.
He was speechless and choked with Master Li. It was just a mistake. What he wanted was a salt official position so that he could intervene in the salt industry. But why should he be given a bunch of big soldiers? He would not be the person who wrote the imperial edict.
Is that too much?
Chengzhilang, the general magistrate of Yangzhou Prefecture, was in charge of Jiangdu County affairs, and was also in charge of the Prefecture's Defense Department. He not only managed the army but also governed the people in the small Jiangdu County. This official position was unprecedented and unique, and would definitely last for three hundred years of the imperial dynasty.
The only one!
However, it seems that since Mr. Li became an official, from the sixteen-character deputy inspector to the third official in the split vote, and now to the latest appointment, most of the official positions are so strange that they must be mentioned in the history books with marginalia...No
Then people will definitely be shrouded in clouds and mountains.
Mr. Zhuang clicked his tongue in front of the imperial edict. The proprietor was really a god. He could even get such a twisted and symbolic official position. He really did not join the wrong proprietor!
Speaking of the Prefectural Defense Department, we have to start with the tradition of using civility to suppress military force and to use civility to control military force. However, after the Jiashen Incident, the military system changed. There were more professional forbidden and direct troops, and separate troops were stationed in the capital.
It was at the forefront of the world and was directly under the command of the emperor, and had no connection with the local area.
In the hinterland, the functions of the original guard posts have gradually declined, and they are no different from those of ordinary farmers, but they still have to take turns to serve in the military and serve as local garrison forces. The general system is three-level vertical jurisdiction of the governor or governor, the military road, and the government garrison department. Specifically,
It varies from place to place, but the original command system has withdrawn from the stage of history.
Among these three levels, the governor, governor, and military commander are both civilian officials, and only the prefectural garrison department is a military attaché. In order to ensure that there are civilian officials at each level to control the army, the prefectural garrison department is required to accept the control and dispatch of the prefect according to convention, but it is not clear.
In the official title.
But now the imperial court has made such a precedent-setting appointment, making it clear that Mr. Li is in charge of the Defense Department and has become the legitimate superior and commander of the Yangzhou Prefecture Defense Department.
Those who are not familiar with the officialdom of the state and dynasty may not understand what is unique. So please magnify Lord Li's new official position a hundred times and look at it. What is the difference between it and the governor of a feudal border official?
There are several categories of governors in the country, and as a rule, they all have the title of right deputy (佥), imperial envoy, to express the imperial envoy system.
Among them, the most common is the governor established by province. There are three common ways of naming official positions. One is like the governor of Zhejiang, whose full name is the governor of Zhejiang Province; the second is the governor of Shaanxi. Because there is a governor above, the full title is governor of Shaanxi Province.
Military affairs; third, for example, the governor of Guangxi, the full name is just the governor of Guangxi, without military dispatch, it cannot be called military gate or Fujun.
As for the Fengyang Governor of Southern Zhili, he is the same as the Border Governor and the Governor of Southern Ganxi.
If we say that the general characteristics of the governor's power are to govern the local area, inspect officials, and supervise military affairs, that is, to govern the officials, the people, and the army, he is the superior of the Chief Envoy and the Inspector. Then in Jiangdu County, this area has a radius of 100
Within eighty miles, after Mr. Li received his new appointment, he could barely achieve all three.
If we follow the example of the governor, in a funny way, Mr. Li can also be jokingly called the admiral of the military affairs of Jiangdu County.
So from this point of view, the general magistrate of Yangzhou Prefecture, acting in charge of Jiangdu County affairs, and also in charge of the Prefecture's Defense Department is like a miniature governor located in Jiangdu County...
All in all, on the surface, it seems that it is just to add some authority to Mr. Li and let him take charge of the local army, but the actual meaning is very special, very meaningful, and very thought-provoking. In the country, officials who both govern the people and provide for the army
, there are really only about twenty governors and governors.
Anyone who hears this decree in the officialdom will not only be shocked and surprised, but also have a few questions. These days, officials are rampant. Under normal circumstances, if academicians and officials dare to hold such an official position, they will be scolded.
The dog's head is bloody, why is Li Biejia so blessed?
Thinking about it more carefully, this matter can only be done by the palace. Could it be that Mr. Li is so deeply attached to the Holy Family? Wasn't he just deposed by the Queen Mother?
After Emperor Gaozong, according to the imperial edict, the emperor placed special emphasis on military power. Any changes involving military affairs were impossible without the emperor's nod. Even if Jinghe and the emperor were not personally in charge, major military affairs and the appointment of military attachés would still have to be handled by him.
Thinking of this, Li You felt that the truth was about to come out. If it weren't for Chitose Guide's good deeds, he would have dared to eat this edict! He couldn't help sighing and sighing, it's really hard to guess a woman's thoughts, and the thoughts of pregnant women are even stranger.
But once you get it, let it be. Although it is a pity that he did not get a salt official position, but he has force, it is not useless. When used reasonably, the power is also huge. I guess His Majesty Chitose meant to ask him to break the rules.
