"Sir, a man who calls himself Chen is standing outside the Yamen and says he has official business." Li Yong trotted in and said.
"What does it look like?" Lu Deguang's head was spinning, trying to recall who the person named Chen could be. However, Guanyi had reported that there was an official named Chen who had taken up a post in Runing.
"Wearing coarse clothes and carrying a letter in his waist."
"Is it possible that he is here to fill Wang Boyi's class? Go to the second hall to meet him."
"yes."
The man stood behind the threshold. As soon as he entered, he bowed steadily, then handed the letter over, glancing slyly.
Lu Deguang opened the letter and glanced at the beginning and end of the book a few times. He immediately saw the eye-catching seal of the Governor's Office, and then looked at him and understood. Then he asked the man: "Yuan Weizong recommends you to fill the vacancy?"
"The governor heard that a secretary's office had been evacuated from the residence, so he specially recommended me to come there." The man smiled.
Lu Deguang raised his head and locked eyes with Li Yong, and he had already figured out what was going on. He then looked at the man surnamed Chen and said with a smile: "Since you are a member of Brother Weizong, I will arrange for you to go to the household room."
"Thank you, sir!" Clerk Chen's face was full of joy, he kowtowed and walked out of the Yamen proudly.
Lu Deguang let out a long breath.
"This Yuan Lun is really ambitious." Li Yong said.
"Yes, having military power is not enough. It is not easy to refuse when someone is sent to interfere with matters in my yamen. Why are Liu Gang so hateful!" When Lu Deguang said this, he gritted his teeth angrily.
Secretary Chen came out of the lobby and blinked at the two government officials at the foot of the stone steps, and they came up to him happily.
"What? Did Magistrate Lu let you enter the house?" They stared at him with malicious eyes.
"Of course, he still dares to offend Yuan Lun?"
"We are worried that we don't have enough people to cover us in the sixth room. You have been a big help. Naturally, you will share more of the benefits."
Secretary Chen thought about it for a while and patted the two of them on the back: "Brother, I'm new here and I have very little qualifications. I'm just like riding alone to fish for big pens. I'm afraid those old people won't be happy. I'd better call a few clerks from the execution room. The three of us will make a big profit later."
The two people immediately grinned and nodded in agreement.
Clerk Chen called several people from the punishment room, and the two yamen servants took Uncle Wang to the prison room, and asked him how much money he had hidden. Seeing their aggressiveness, Uncle Wang said cowardly: "Except Lu The prefect allocated about three taels in addition to his salary? Five taels?"
"How many fucking taels are there!" Secretary Chen asked fiercely.
"Three liang...three liang..." Uncle Wang shrank and his voice trembled.
"I don't believe it," said the clerk in the execution room, who was rather kind. "A few days ago, Secretary Wang was quarreling with his brothers, saying that in order to prevent the prefect from interrogating, he had used up all the money on hand, but he still hid a lot. Yeah. Isn’t it?”
He smiled again and said, "If the Secretary Wang conceals this, the crime will be punished severely."
"Yes, yes, yes," Wang Boyi's face became increasingly pale, "A total of...a total of twenty-one taels of silver."
"Damn it, you just tried to lie to me!" The yamen servant kicked him in the abdomen. As soon as Uncle Wang got up, he did not dare to speak.
"Go and get the money!" The officer threw him out of the squad room.
Several people went to Uncle Wang's house and looked at the box containing silver. There were twenty-one taels in it. After everyone discussed for a long time, Secretary Chen gave ten taels of silver to the men in the execution room, took six taels for himself, and gave the remaining five taels to the two government officials. The clerk of the punishment room then went to the Yamen, discussed with Lu Deguang, and convicted Uncle Wang before he came out to weigh the ten taels of silver, and then he took his time when he returned home.
The two yamen servants were naturally not very happy when they got such a small share, but they didn't dare to fall out in front of the two clerks. On the surface, they were still very happy. After the few people left, they were arguing about how to divide the money. One of them understood and said to the other person: "He deliberately gave us uneven rewards to make us argue and hurt our harmony; we might as well be like the enemy who wanted to change the surname of Chen." The two of them didn't care about it, and they A piece of silver was cut into two pieces and divided randomly.
A few days later, the yamen servant revealed the matter while Lu Deguang was in court. Lu Deguang did not show any anger. He just sent Li Yong to call Ye Yongjia over and ran straight to the second hall.
"This matter is difficult to handle." Lu Deguang said. "Please sit down." He motioned for Ye Yongjia to sit aside.
"Chen Shuli instigated people to commit extortion. Although this is what a subordinate official does, once he is found out, it would be a loss of face if he is not punished. But if he is punished for this, Yuan Lun will definitely be furious, and Maybe I will break up. I always know that Judge Ye Tong is smart, and I need to give my house a trick to make Yuan Lun suffer unexplainably."
Ye Yongjia pondered for a while, then pretended to be mysterious and said: "Then it depends on whether the prefect is willing to go to war over this."
Lu Deguang smiled: "As long as you say it, I will agree. It doesn't matter if you turn the world upside down."
Ye Yongjia was quite surprised. The last time he met such a person who could pursue his own goals was Cheng Congyuan, an old servant in the mansion.
"Mr. Lu, these subordinate officials have never been under the jurisdiction of the government. Their salaries are also allocated by the prefect, and they are just the prefect's long followers. Moreover, the number of people in the sixth house is complicated, so why not take the opportunity to cut off the subordinate officials and make them serve in the government? What?" Ye Yongjia talked eloquently, and Lu Deguang didn't know whether to praise him or not.
"Ye Tongpan, Lu Yan's ship has already set off. They have to enter from the Jialu River. When the time comes, you, the salt supervisor, need to handle things more safely." Ye Yongjia said 'yes' and withdrew.
According to Ye Yongjia's idea, Lu Deguang first incorporated the sixth house into the official title, so that he could serve in the official position, which saved a lot of salary. Since he wanted to abolish the other house, he called Secretary Chen and said: "I What if I want to eliminate all the subordinate staff in other houses and leave only the household and prison cells?" Secretary Chen is from the household, so he can extort money. He really wants to grow ten heads and kowtow to Lu Deguang. After ringing his head a hundred times, of course he agreed.
Lu Deguang called the secretary of the punishment room again, and he still said the same words as before, and the clerk also said good things. He immediately withdrew the four houses of workers, rites, officials, and soldiers. Although the complaints in these four houses continued, there were still households and prison cells, so it was difficult for people to start making noises.
Unexpectedly, a day or two later, Lu Deguang asked the second house of Hu and Xing to be assigned by the same magistrate and not directly under the prefect's dispatch; and the fourth house that had been deposed was combined into a management office and was paid solely by the prefect. In this way, he first won the support of Chen Shuli, Yuan Lun's confidant, and then almost eliminated the intervention of the Governor's Office in political affairs. Such a clever move was unexpected by Ye Yongjia. Such a wily and scheming expert is something he cannot despise.
"Master, it's time for you to go outside and select your troops." Kou Zhong reminded him as he entered the account.
"I see."
He stared at the sword given to him by Yuan Lun, and the cold light flashing from the scabbard gave him a silent feeling: This seemingly ordinary salt boat entry was by no means that simple.
