Chen Que followed and stood aside, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say, so he could only look at his wife's back in a daze.
According to historical records by Chen Que himself:
"When we separated, we only had six stones of rice. Fortunately, my wife worked hard day and night to provide for him when he was tired. Every winter and spring month, I would eat rice with cloth. I would feed my parents with wine and food, and feed my servants and maids at the bottom. During my studies, I paid for fuel, paper and pen, and gradually used the money left over from silk and cloth to buy land, accumulating more than forty acres. I was exhausted both physically and mentally, and died of illness at the age of fifty-one."
In this life, because the Ming Dynasty was more prosperous, Chen Que's wife relied on her diligence and frugality to naturally accumulate a larger family property, with more than a hundred acres of land and several hundred yuan in silver coins.
However, Chen Que had to admit that even though his wife worked so hard, her income was not as high as that of Xiao Linglong and her godfather whom he met last night.
More importantly, he found that his wife had accumulated such a family fortune through extreme frugality. Except for being filial to her parents and having to raise Japanese servants to serve her parents, she never wore a piece of jewelry, although she woven brocade. There are no less than a thousand horses, but they have never worn a single brocade garment.
"Ms. sir, I went to the market yesterday to inquire about it. The price of local brocade here is higher than that in Haining. In the future, I can earn more by weaving brocade. In the future, I may have enough money to let the superiors promote you back to the middle school. Go away!"
Wang said something at this time.
Chen Que did not respond to Wang's words.
Because he had just found a job that he could do.
Chen Que lit a kerosene lamp and placed it next to Wang who was scooping water.
However, not long after, Wang blew out the kerosene lamp.
Chen Que couldn't help but ask: "Why is this?"
"It's already dawn, you can see!"
Wang replied with a smile.
"Um."
…
Chen Que felt that he was still not good at helping Wang in life, so he left the kitchen.
He came to the courtyard, took a look at the blue sky, and began to plan how to govern Kashima County next and implement Chinese education for the natives on the island.
The first thing he planned to do was to set up a school here to teach the children here to learn Chinese.
However, setting up a school required money, hiring scribes as teachers, finding local schools, and spending money to recruit craftsmen to build school buildings.
And where does the money come from?
According to Chen Que's plan, local tax revenue from Kagoshima was used as funding for the construction of the school.
Before the establishment of a prefecture, Kagoshima's military and political affairs were all temporarily managed by the Kashima Naval Admiral's Office, as well as its finances.
Once the court sends a new magistrate, finance and civil affairs will naturally be handed over to the magistrate.
This is the system of the imperial court, so when Chen Que met Kashima Naval Commander Kong Xigui again and asked him to transfer these powers to him, Kong Xigui did not refuse.
However, when Chen Que met Kong Xigui, he soon discovered that there was not much silver in the county government bank.
"According to what the official knew when he came here, it stands to reason that there should be two to three hundred thousand yuan in silver coins in the county government's bank treasury. Why is it only less than six thousand yuan now?"
Chen Que asked Kong Xigui about this.
He really didn't expect the county government's deficit to be so serious.
"The government office transferred him, saying he was on temporary loan."
Kong Xigui replied and handed the official letter of the loan to Chen Que.
Chen Que was greatly surprised after hearing this: "What can the government do with borrowing money from the county?"
"I don't know about this. If you want to ask, just ask the government office. Why do I care so much!"
Kong Xigui replied impatiently.
Seeing Kong Xigui like this, Chen Que couldn't say much, so he had to order people to lock the warehouse, but he felt even more troubled: "With such a small amount of money, it is not enough to provide Confucian education! Even disaster relief is not enough."
…
"When will our subsidy be released? How long are you going to delay it?!"
"You corrupt officials, are you worthy of the emperor?!"
"You bunch of evil-minded dog officials won't let us go to Beijing to complain. If we get desperate, we'll smash up your shabby government office!"
However, just when Chen Que was in trouble due to lack of money in the treasury, there were shouts and curses and the sound of drums beating outside the county government office.
Because Chen Que was from a poor family and had no money to hire staff.
And Ludao County is a newly established county, and there are no assistant officials, subordinate officials and Zaoli.
Therefore, he was the only magistrate in the entire Ludao County Magistrate's Office.
Chen Que had to come to the county government office in person to see what was going on.
When Chen Que arrived, he saw many retired soldiers and their relatives wearing cotton armor and medals gathered outside. As soon as they saw him coming out, they rushed over.
One of the retired soldiers asked him first: "Who are you? Where is the senior general next to General Kong?"
"I, Chen Que, the new magistrate of Kashima County, don't know who you are always talking about as the leader! May I ask, why did you come to the county office today and why are you beating the drum?"
Chen Que therefore asked.
"Of course they are here to ask for pension money and wages. The county government has already owed us pension money and wages for two years!"
"That's right, we are still waiting for this money to treat patients!"
"The emperor said that he would take care of us sick and wounded for the rest of our lives. He said that we would be willing to settle in the original place where we were stationed, and he would also give half of the pension money. But your county government refused to pay! You didn't even listen to the emperor's orders. Are you still the government of the Ming Dynasty?!"
"When we first came to ask for it, you said that after the canal was repaired, we would pay the wages and pension together, but in the end we got nothing!"
"You liars!"
…
In order to increase the number of Han people in the newly opened ruling areas, Zhu Youxiao indeed encouraged the garrisoned officers and soldiers to settle in the garrison area, marry wives and have children there, and gave many preferential policies.
Chen Que also knew this.
But he didn't expect that his county government still owed veterans pensions and wages.
And these retired soldiers and their relatives also got into trouble.
Chen Que knew that these retired soldiers were all old members of the imperial army. When they were in the army, they had taken literacy night classes, and their children had also attended Huangzhuang Social Studies. In other words, they had all read some books and had a good understanding of the imperial decrees. It was impossible. So easy to fool.
Therefore, he had to explain patiently: "Excuse me, my county has just taken office, and I don't know the specific situation. However, the county government currently only has more than 6,000 yuan of silver coins in cash, plus the county's own private property." I bring silver coins, the total amount is estimated to be seven thousand, I don’t know if it is enough to pay you, but you can pay part of it first, and you can follow me to the warehouse to get it now."
"This is not enough! We did statistics and found that the total is thirty-eight thousand six hundred! Why is your county government in deficit so much?!"
At this time, the veteran who had been a team leader said something first.
"Tricky people! This is what you should question. How dare you come to the county government to cause trouble? Kill them all! No one will be spared!"
At this time, a voice came from outside.
And as soon as the man finished speaking, gunshots rang out, and these retired soldiers and their relatives fell to the ground in groups.
Chen Que was stunned when he saw this scene.
At this time, Kong Xigui, a civil servant and a military general wearing scarlet official robes came over.
The civil servant also said first: "I didn't expect that these bitches would really dare to cause trouble."
"You can't choose a good time to die!"
Kong Xigui followed, then pointed at Chen Que and said, "This is the magistrate of Chen County who just arrived!"
Then, Kong Xigui also introduced a civil official next to Chen Que: "This is the Deputy Envoy of the Song Dynasty who is in charge of Wudao, Zhongdao, and Xingjiu Prefectures."
Then, Kong Xigui also introduced the military attaché beside him: "This is Gao Qianshi of the Five Islands Branch of the West Factory."
After Kong Xigui said something, Gao Qianshi said first: "Now that everyone is here, prepare to collect this year's taxes."
Chen Que asked inappropriately at this time: "May I ask about the money and pensions and wages owed to these retired soldiers?"
Deputy envoy Song smiled and asked: "Everyone is dead, why do you need money?"
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