Wan Yuzhi thought hard for a long time and finally came up with a plan. It was already the next day. He immediately called two clerks and gave them a bag of silver and a letter. Without saying any nonsense, he just pointed at these two objects and said: "I'm here for the first time." Xinyang, the grace and power are not established, and we urgently need to use it to do things. I specially order you to bribe the officials. The silver is all broken silver, totaling twenty-five or six taels. The letter contains the word of entrustment, so take it with you."
When the two officials met, they looked at each other in confusion. After a long while, they replied hesitantly: "Why bribe such a small official? The gain outweighs the loss."
Wan Yuzhi's face darkened: "What do you know? These subordinate officials are responsible for the lifeblood, and their responsibilities are not light. How can they be ignored! If you don't obey orders, you will be treated as a blue party!"
The two clerks were obedient, and after retreating, they discussed privately: "It seems that Wan Yuzhi is not at peace with himself. If he becomes ambitious in the future, acts recklessly, or even plans to seize power and profit, wouldn't we become accomplices?" The problem is that we are not yet members of the Ye Party, and we will not be able to make any profit when the time comes, and we will have to be the scapegoats!"
Another person said: "I am also afraid of this. But the exchange of this little money is not a big deal now. You and I can handle it for him first."
The two of them had decided on a plan, so they went straight to find the official's room without saying anything. They entered the room and met the secretary. They bowed and presented the things together.
The clerk was half lying on the chair, opened the letter, glanced at it briefly, and then raised his head: "Is this the autograph of Master Wan?"
The two clerks bent down and smiled and replied: "Yes."
When the clerk heard this, he immediately sat upright, put on a smile and said, "Don't worry, you two, I will make good arrangements. Oh, how about having tea here?"
Seeing his sudden enthusiasm, the two clerks were a little overwhelmed and wondered what was written in the letter that earned them such high courtesy. However, the two of them still put their mission first, declined the kindness of the clerk's office, and hurried back to the judge's office to report to Wan Yuzhi. Yu Zhi only used words to encourage him, but remained silent about the contents of the letter. The clerk did not dare to ask, so he had to leave.
One day later, the two of them heard the crow of roosters and came to see each other again. Before they could wait, they saw an old man holding two red stickers, striding down the hall, bowing to each of them, and said loudly. He shouted: "The great master is destined!"
The two young officials were confused for a while and asked blankly: "Are you... saluting us?"
The old man chuckled: "There are only two of you in the hall. If I didn't salute you, it would be a weird thing!"
One of them said: "But we have never spoken to the great master. Why did he send people here?"
The old man shook his head helplessly: "Then I don't know. Anyway, I was ordered to do something and asked you two to go and perform your duties."
"Repeatedly...performing your duties?"
"What? The eldest master appointed one of you to go to the household and the other to the workshop, and both of you have the right to criticize. They are all written here. If you don't believe me, read it yourself." He handed the red note to the two of them and saw that it was true.
The two young officials couldn't talk to each other and were shocked. When they were still thinking about asking what to ask, the old man had already excused himself, leaving them standing straight where they were.
"Aren't you happy?"
When the two servants heard Wan Yuzhi's voice, they seemed to be blown by a gust of wind. They were so frightened that they turned around and knelt down, trembling on the ground.
Wan Yuzhi smiled: "Since you followed me out of the capital, you have worked hard, so I will find a good job for you, and we will share the blessings."
One of them replied: "We... I have little talent and little knowledge, and I am not your confidant. How about..."
"That's wrong!" Wan Yuzhi interrupted sharply, "How come you are not my confidants? Since you have been promoted by me and received my favor, in the eyes of outsiders, you have the same voice!"
Only then did the two clerks understand his motive for bribing him, and they regretted it too much. The one on the left still wanted to argue, but the other person grabbed his clothes and kowtowed, and replied: "We are willing to serve your lord sincerely! If you have anything to do, just ask!"
Wan Yuzhi was finally able to let go of the doubts in his heart. He breathed a long sigh of relief and completely got rid of his nervousness. Then he asked the two of them to stand up and said to them: "Since you and I are related to each other now, we can say some things clearly. In fact, my purpose of going south this time was not only to find out the traitors, but also to inspect the land system and prepare for the future New Deal. I originally thought that this place in Henan was close to the capital, so it was not important, so I took a leisurely trip and didn't take it to heart. Until When I saw Zhu Yangrui and listened to the words of everyone at the banquet, I realized that things here are not simple."
"Maybe we can be useful in dealing with him?" the clerk asked.
Wan Yuzhi paced: "You two are too impatient. Everything must be done step by step. Xinyang has not been taken care of yet. How can we spare the time to manage the squires far away in Runing? The first priority now is to get the Check the land register and understand the situation, and if you want to do this, you should have a good relationship with the officials. This is what you should do."
As he said that, he walked to the wooden clothes rack and took out a few banknotes from the hanging official uniforms: "At any time, these things are far more effective than words. You keep them in your pockets and find the way by yourself. You must not reveal my name. Also remember, no one is allowed to embezzle this money. If I find out, I will definitely label it as Lan Yuan's accomplice!"
After all, the two of them had been subordinates for a long time, and they knew everything about this kind of thing. After taking the money, they answered confidently: "Understood!"
They first went to the official's office, found a way to the judge through the clerk there, and gave him two hundred taels of silver. Although the judge saw that they did not criticize them, he knew that this was Wan Yuzhi's idea and did not dare to disobey him. Therefore, he accepted the tickets without any scruples and took them to see the prefect. The magistrate heard that the judge said many good things and received another five hundred taels of money. He nodded happily and turned a blind eye from then on, allowing them to enter and leave the government office.
For this reason, Wan Yuzhi read through the books and learned about the land legal system here. He often went to the village to inspect the conditions of the land under the pretext of drinking, and when he came back, he wrote it down on paper to formulate plans for the new government. After several days of investigation, he clearly understood the seriousness of the annexation here, especially Zhu Yangrui. Judging from the evidence unearthed, this person has nearly 10,000 acres of fertile land in his name, most of which were the result of mergers. However, these lands were inexplicably donated to school fields. Such behavior makes people suspicious. All this gave him an idea: he must attack this guy first!
This matter is easy to say, but not easy to plan. Wan Yuzhi thought about it for two days but couldn't come up with a suitable plan, so he changed his mind and said, "Ye and Cai are much smarter than me. Why not write these facts into a letter first?" Turn to them? 'Just when he was planning this, the door of the house creaked softly. When he looked closely, he saw that the man was panting and had a familiar face - it was Ye Yongjia's people who had arrived.
