On May 13th, after Chen Kangbo led the team to set off, this year's imperial examination results were almost released.
A new batch of proud men made their debut and entered the Southern Song Dynasty court to start their official career.
At the same time, Zhang Jun went to Zhao Gou to make some adjustments to the positions of imperial officials based on actual needs, and suggested introducing a group of officials who had made achievements in the military to prepare for emergencies.
Zhao Gou had no choice but to agree, because now he really needed a group of officials who had made achievements in the military to help the court revise its military strategy. It was impossible to even think about expecting Tang Si to retreat from these office talkers.
So Zhang Jun reviewed the list of former war-fighting officials who had been transferred over the years, and selected more than thirty people to transfer them back to Lin'an to prepare for their posts. This was to restore the momentum of the war-fighting faction and even the Northern Expedition, and lay the foundation for further northward movement.
Among them was a man named Bi Hongye.
Zhang Jun noticed that this person had prepared food and fodder for Yue Fei's army during Yue Fei's Northern Expedition, and he had always been a staunch main war faction, or the Northern Expedition faction to regain the Central Plains.
Later, he was transferred to Lin'an and held a position in the Privy Council. However, because of his stance on war, he offended Tang Situi's cronies and was demoted to Jiangxi.
So he immediately decided to transfer this person back to Lin'an.
Bi Hongye returned to Lin'an in early June. After returning to Lin'an, he went as usual to thank Zhang Jun who had advocated transferring him back to Lin'an, and received Zhang Jun's encouragement.
"You once handled logistics for General Yue, and you have always insisted on advocating the Northern Expedition and never changed your ambition. This is what I admire about you. At present, the situation in the Central Plains has changed suddenly, and the Song Dynasty is likely to face war. I hope you can continue your efforts, no matter what Fall away from your past ambitions.”
Bi Hongye expressed his gratitude for this and promised to keep up his efforts and never give up his previous ambitions.
Then, he told Zhang Jun something.
"When I was still in Jiangxi, I heard that the gold thieves from the Central Plains were expelled by the Liberation Army. The gold thieves' army was defeated by the Liberation Army. One of the leaders of the Liberation Army was named Su Yonglin. Is this true?"
Zhang Jun frowned.
"That's what happened, what do you want to say?"
"Do you know how old General Su is? What is his surname? Where is he from?"
"This is because I don't know. I only know his name, his age, and where he lives."
Zhang Jun seemed to realize something and hurriedly asked: "Do you know him?"
Bi Hongye hesitated for a while and shook his head.
"No, I don't know my age, surname, and origin, and I don't dare to confirm it. The world is so big, how many people there are? It's not uncommon to have the same name and surname. One Su Yonglin may not be the other Su Yonglin."
Zhang Jun nodded, thinking that was the case, but he was still interested, so he continued to ask.
"So, you know a person named Su Yonglin?"
"Yes, to be precise, Xiaguan and his grandfather were good friends."
"Tell me in detail."
"Here."
Bi Hongye sat on the chair and started talking.
During the reign of Emperor Jingkang, Bi Hongye and his friend Su Dingguang also served in Shandong. When they met the Jin people who went south, they did not want to stay in the Central Plains and serve as thieves, so they followed the imperial court to the south, always advocating a counterattack in the Central Plains, and together they handled logistics affairs for Yue Fei.
After Yue Fei's death, the two were transferred from the front line together and took up local official positions. They had ups and downs in the officialdom. Su Dingguang served as the governor of Wenzhou, and Bi Hongye also served as the prefect of Qingyuan Prefecture.
The two families have always kept in contact, so Bi Hongye was familiar with Su Shengren, Su Dingguang's son, and Su Yonglin, Su Dingguang's grandson, and the children of the two families also had contacts with each other.
Speaking of which, Zhang Jun felt that it was no big deal.
"It can only be said that they have the same name and surname, but it really doesn't mean anything."
Bi Hongye hesitated for a moment, slapped his thigh and sighed.
"I didn't want to say it at first, but my husband is kind to my subordinates, so I have to say some things."
So Bi Hongye told Zhang Jun that Su Dingguang was selling illegal salt while working as an official.
Zhang Jun was a little surprised, but not surprised at all.
"I have long heard that many officials are officials in the open, but in private they are engaged in selling illegal salt, devouring state taxes and enriching their own pockets. It is extremely hateful. I never thought that Su Dingguang is actually such a person, bastard!"
"Not only did he personally manage the private salt business, but his son Su Shengren and grandson Su Yonglin also managed this business one after another. Later, his son was shot by an arrow and died in a private fight at sea. It was Su Yonglin who took over the private salt business of the Su family.
A few years ago, Su Dingguang passed away. Xiaguan went to attend the funeral and saw Su Yonglin. The child was only sixteen years old at the time, but he was relatively calm and reserved. Xianguan knew that their family's private salt business was involved, so he did not dare to interact with him. There will be no further contact. "
"What's involved in their private salt business?"
"Back then, I vaguely heard from Su Dingguang that the Jinbu Division in Lin'an was involved. It was said that someone was their backer. They relied on this person to sell smuggled salt and were never traced. Other subordinates didn't know either.
It wasn't until a year ago that an old friend of Xiaguan came to Jiangxi from Qingyuan Mansion for a meeting. During the meeting, the matter was discussed, and Xiaguan didn't know that Su Yonglin had committed an offense. It was said that a court official died because of him, and someone went to celebrate. Yuan Mansion arrested him, but he mysteriously disappeared and there has been no news so far, so the matter has become an unsolved case. "
"Is there such a thing?"
Zhang Jun's interest was completely aroused. He felt that there might be some inside information here that he could dig into. After a little digging, he might be able to get some unexpected gains.
So after Bi Hongye left, Zhang Jun sent someone to check some files on the case, and then he learned about it.
This incident happened two years ago, on the ninth day of March in the twenty-eighth year of Shaoxing, Sun Yuanqi, a doctor in the Ministry of Finance, was found dead in Xichun Building, a famous restaurant in Lin'an, due to a sudden wind.
Because the person who died was a court official, the person responsible for investigating the case did not dare to be perfunctory. They investigated carefully and discovered clues that he had been drugged.
Sun Yuanqi's colleagues all said that this man was very lustful, and the person who gave the drug obviously knew it, so they took advantage of Sun Yuanqi's lustful characteristics and gave him the drug of tiger and wolf, and arranged for two women to have sex with him, causing Sun Yuanqi to indulge himself, Die due to detachment of Yang.
After various investigations, the perpetrator Su Yonglin gradually emerged.
But when the court's arrest team arrived at Qingyuan Mansion, they found that Su Yonglin and the entire Su family had mysteriously disappeared and were missing, so the matter was left unsolved and became an unsolved case.
After reading the dossier, Zhang Jun felt that there were still many issues that had not been explained clearly. What was recorded in the dossier should only be the tip of the iceberg.
So he called in the Lin'an Prefecture official who was responsible for investigating the case and asked him secretly about what happened back then.
How could a petty official of this level have ever seen a big shot like Zhang Jun? After being intimidated by Zhang Jun, he immediately revealed the inside story of the year.
There is a big shot behind Sun Yuanqi, who uses Sun Yuanqi to develop downlines selling illegal salt, and after the development, he will take a commission from the illegal salt gang.
The rule is that the private salt gangs earn less, and the big shots earn more, because the big shots provide political asylum, which is far more important than their own struggles and efforts, so they have to get more.
The big shot earns huge profits in this way. As for who the big shot is and what he needs so much money for, he has no idea.
The less involved in the rules of officialdom and the less you know, the longer you will live.
Regarding this matter, he only knew that Su Dingguang was one of the downlines, and a considerable part of the money earned was given to big shots.
After Su Dingguang's death, Su Yonglin took over the family business and continued to cooperate with him. However, due to some conflicts between Sun Yuanqi and Su Yonglin, Su Yonglin came to Lin'an to take over Sun Yuanqi's business.
When Sun Yuanqi died, the wealth of the big shots behind him was affected. He was very angry and ordered Lin'an Mansion to solve the case, so Lin'an Mansion found Su Yonglin.
However, because of Su Yonglin's special status as a illicit salt seller, the Lin'an Mansion was worried that he had the power to resist and would rebel and make the matter worse, affecting the official career of the big shot, so the big shot decided to kill someone with a borrowed knife.
He planned to use the power of other private salt dealers to stage a conspiracy without using the power of the court. The advantage was that after killing Su Yonglin, the Su family's trade share would be equally divided among the gangs participating in the encirclement and suppression, so that they would be well fed.
Three private salt selling gangs took a fancy to this piece of fat and decided to unite to suppress the Su family's forces. However, when they arrived at Qingyuan Mansion to prepare for action, they discovered that Su Yonglin had disappeared.
The building was empty, and no one knew where Su Yonglin had gone.
The big shot was very angry, but there was nothing he could do about it. The matter could only remain an unresolved case and remain unsolved.
So far, Su Yonglin is still on the wanted list of Qingyuan Mansion.
"So, when you arrived at Qingyuan Mansion, Su Yonglin was nowhere to be found?"
"I didn't go to Qingyuan Mansion. I got the news later. Everything I know is what I heard from people above me during the investigation. They are all secrets and few people know about them. Please don't be offended. "
"Of course I know this, but do you really have no idea where Su Yonglin went?"
"There are also some rumors. Some say they went to Lingnan, others said they went to Japan, and some said they went to Jin..."
"Golden State?"
Zhang Jun was stunned: "Is there such a thing?"
The clerk shook his head.
"It's all hearsay, it can't be taken seriously. No one really thinks that he went to the Kingdom of Jin or the Kingdom of Japan. Isn't that looking for death? He probably fled somewhere in Lingnan, changed his appearance and changed his name to become a rich man."
"In this case, you can't find it at all? Or are you not looking carefully?"
"Xiangong Mingjian, in the Song Dynasty, after leaving Lin'an, there were many things that could not be done. If he really ran to those places in Lingnan where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, we would really have nothing to do with him. We would not be able to reach him at all."
The clerk said with a wry smile.
It’s not that Zhang Jun doesn’t understand the truth.
The rule of the Song Dynasty was centered on Lin'an. The closer to Lin'an, the stronger the ruling power, and the farther away from Lin'an, the weaker the ruling power.
Lingbei was fine, but after passing the Five Ridges to Lingnan, the dominance of the Southern Song Dynasty immediately plummeted. It only had a certain sense of presence in some important cities, and was almost equivalent to nothingness in remote mountainous areas.
Up to now, many places in the southern Song Dynasty have been governed by local indigenous autonomy, such as some ethnic inhabited areas in the southwest. The Southern Song Dynasty court only collected some symbolic taxes and basically had no say.
The political action of reforming the land and returning it to the local people, which requires great courage and execution, can be traced back to the middle and late Ming Dynasty. As for its thorough advancement, it was not until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty that it was not comparable to the Southern Song Dynasty.
The small court of the Southern Song Dynasty, which lacked prestige, was simply not enough to promote such a major political reform. It had neither the strength nor the courage.
If Su Yonglin really escapes to these places, spends some money to get shelter from the locals, and changes his identity to remain anonymous, then no matter how big of a figure he is, there will be nothing he can do to him.
After thinking about this, Zhang Jun did not embarrass the little official, waved his hand to let him leave, and then found Chen Junqing, a disciple he admired.
