This period of time can be said to be the busiest time in the entire Huaigu Fucheng, because not only do taxes have to be collected from various counties, but the 120,000 taels of disaster relief silver decentralized by the court have finally arrived here.
Normally, the disaster relief funds decentralized by the imperial court would usually go directly into the treasury, and the treasury would conduct unified deployment. After all, some accounts need to be recorded.
But after the disaster relief money came back, the first stop was Yu Ruhai's government office.
Seeing the 120,000 taels of silver packed in 12 large boxes, Yu Ruhai couldn't help but sigh, and he quickly knelt down and said to the imperial envoy escorting the silver.
"Kowtow to my emperor for his grace!"
"I will definitely use this money to take good care of the local victims!"
An imperceptible smile appeared on the face of the imperial envoy responsible for the escort.
"Prefect Yu, here is 150,000 taels of silver. You must remember every account clearly. Maybe your Majesty and the Ministry of Accounts will check it carefully by then!"
Hearing the imperial envoy's words, Yu Ruhai's heart suddenly jumped.
These boxes are the standard boxes used by the Ministry of Household Affairs for every disaster relief operation. Each box can only hold a maximum of 10,000 taels of silver.
There are obviously only 12 boxes, so where did the 150,000 taels of silver come from?
But Yu Ruhai knew this very well in his heart. It was obvious that the people above had already spent 30,000 taels, so he only had 120,000 taels left.
Yu Ruhai smiled bitterly in his heart. The imperial court of the Zhou Dynasty had now become so corrupt. Were the officials even so blatantly misappropriating disaster relief funds?
But Yu Ruhai had no solution, but nodded quickly and said.
"I humbly obey my orders! I will definitely use all these 150,000 taels of silver to help the victims!"
The imperial envoy smiled slightly, nodded, and handed Yu Ruhai the loan document from the Ministry of Revenue and the imperial edict from the imperial court, asking Yu Ruhai to take the edict and sign it.
After Yu Ruhai received the order, the imperial envoy waved his hand directly. Yu Ruhai understood the idea and hurriedly walked to the last box and opened it. As expected, it contained 10,000 taels of silver.
While he asked the government servants to carry all the silver to the back, he also asked some people to divide the silver in the last box into half, and put the five thousand taels of silver on the imperial envoy's carriage.
"Your Majesty, the Imperial Envoy, has worked hard all the way. These are some local specialties of this mansion. Please take them back and taste them!"
The imperial envoy smiled slightly and nodded with great satisfaction.
"Prefect Yu, I think you will definitely be promoted in the future!"
"You should take good care of these victims, I will go back first!"
The imperial envoy said this and rode directly on his horse. The servants behind him drove the carriage and left here.
Zhao Feng, who had been staying in the dark, saw all this and could not help but frown and slowly walked out.
Yu Ruhai turned to look at Zhao Feng, sighed and said.
"As you can see now, this is the reason why the Zhou Dynasty never became strong!"
"It's obviously 150,000 taels of silver, but when it was delivered to us, there were only 115,000 taels left!"
"And when we received the paper, it was clearly written on it as 150,000 taels, so we not only have to guard against those powerful people making profits from it, but we also have to write down all the losses of 35,000 taels in the accounts. !”
"This is the pain of those in remote areas like us who can't reach Tianting directly!"
Zhao Feng nodded and couldn't help but sigh. He didn't expect that the corruption in the Zhou Dynasty had reached such a rampant level.
It's even better here, after all, Yu Ruhai can be considered a relatively competent prefect.
If it is in some other areas, there is even a situation where officials are bought and sold. The price of a magistrate is a full 50,000 taels of silver!
But even so, there is still an endless stream of people buying offices, which shows that what they can earn in this position is definitely more than just these 50,000 taels of silver!
Zhao Feng sighed and said to Yu Ruhai.
"This is a helpless move, but fortunately, these 115,000 taels are enough."
Yu Ruhai nodded, hope burning in his eyes.
"I will seal up the money first, and ask Liu Cang to come over tomorrow to count the money and store it in the warehouse."
"This time, I will check his accounts carefully. If I find anything wrong, I will take this opportunity to remove him from his position as Treasury official!"
Zhao Feng also nodded, then bowed his hands and left.
What he saw today made Zhao Feng feel a little panicked in his heart. He didn't expect that the Zhou Dynasty was so bright and beautiful on the surface, but it was already so dark secretly.
Thinking of Zhao Feng returning to his small courtyard and looking at the empty courtyard, he only felt a mass of resentment in his heart, with no way to vent it.
"If the Zhou court is like this, then am I really worthy of serving such a court?"
"Or should I work hard to change this situation?"
Zhao Feng thought this in a very depressed mood. At this moment, a shout came from the door.
"Master Zhao, are you at home?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Feng quickly agreed, then walked over and opened the courtyard door, only to see Liu Cang standing outside the door with a smile on his face.
Zhao Feng frowned slightly and asked Liu Cang with some confusion.
"If Liu Kuguan doesn't manage his treasury well, why do you come to my place?"
Liu Cang's face was filled with a smile, and he raised his hands to Zhao Feng and said.
"Master Zhao, I came here specially to invite you this time!"
"The patriarch of the Liu family heard that Master Zhao was taking office, so he specially prepared a small amount of wine, hoping to invite Master Zhao to come and have a talk, which could be regarded as a welcome to Master Zhao!"
Zhao Feng suddenly felt funny in his heart. He had been staying in this government office for more than half a month. Why did he just think of entertaining him at this time?
"Oh? When?"
Liu Cang smiled slightly and stretched out his hand to make a gesture of invitation.
"Today, I hope Master Zhao will not shirk it. After all, this is also the wish of the head of the Liu family!"
Zhao Feng frowned slightly, but still nodded and said to Liu Cang.
"Okay, if that's the case, then I'll go take a look."
After all, the Liu family is one of the most powerful families here. This time, the head of the Liu family suddenly wanted to entertain him. Zhao Feng had no reason to shirk it. Otherwise, if word spread, others would think that his master was unkind. .
What's more, Zhao Feng still has a lot of questions about some things about the Liu family. He wants to take advantage of this time to test him. Of course, he also knows that the Liu family must have some conspiracy of their own when they entertain him this time, but Zhao Feng feels that regardless of Liu's family's banquet, Zhao Feng No matter what your family is, you can handle it.
