The New Year's Eve is still very lively, and making lanterns seems to have become an inherent part of the children's New Year's Eve program. No, just after the New Year's Eve dinner, the lantern-making stalls were set up.
Some people build lantern skeletons, and some people paste lantern paper.
Lin Yuanqiu was still teaching the children how to draw lanterns as before.
However, there are some differences from previous years.
Just like the children's two little uncles.
The joint examination will come in more than a month, so at this time, Zhou Zixu and Wang Wenchang are busy writing articles in their respective rooms.
…
On the ninth day of the second lunar month, the examination started in the spring of the Wuwu year.
However, busy Lin Yuanqiu did not care about this.
Because the release list has reached the final stage of confirmation, that is, it has been submitted to the Holy One and is just waiting for his approval.
By this time, everyone already knew where they were going.
For example, among the three members of the Imperial Academy, Ding De was sent to Nanzhili and appointed as the fifth-rank magistrate of the state. As for Zhang Qingyuan, because he is still a concubine, he was released as the seventh-grade county magistrate according to his post-dismissal official rank.
As for Lin Yuanqiu, as the teacher told him before, he was from the prefect of Anzhou.
In fact, among the three of them, although Lin Yuanqiu's prefect had the highest rank, everyone knew how wealthy Southern Zhili was. I think the reason why Ding Dejin was sent to such a good place must be related to his father who was the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Lin Yuanqiu didn't listen to the analysis of his colleagues. To be honest, he was very satisfied to be sent to Anzhou as the prefect.
Therefore, in the past few days, Lin Yuanqiu, in addition to waiting for the Holy Emperor's final decision, also checked the specific information of Anzhou Prefecture. Including what the climate is like, which crops are suitable for planting, what the folk customs are, etc., it can also be considered as preparation for the new official to take office.
However, in life, there are always many unexpected things happening that catch people off guard.
…
In the imperial study room.
Seeing a new memorial being presented, Emperor Jingkang put the roster aside. When he took the memorial and took a look, he found that it was actually a memorial from the prefect of Shizhou.
Emperor Jingkang was a little puzzled. Luo Wenqing had been the prefect of Shizhou for almost four years. He had never submitted a memorial before, so why did a memorial suddenly come this time?
With doubts, Emperor Jingkang quickly opened the folder, but before he could take a closer look, he frowned at the opening sentence: "Du Wei, the magistrate of Dinghu County, died while fighting bandits."
…
Chapter 179 Dinghu County
After reading the entire memorial, Emperor Jingkang finally knew the whole story.
It turns out that every year when the first lunar month is approaching, Duzhi County has the habit of worshiping the City God.
Speaking of worshiping the city god, in fact, not only Duzhi County, but also most foreign officials in the Jing Dynasty had this custom, especially magistrates in various places.
The reason is that the City God is said to guard the city and protect the environment and the people. There is a saying in "Book of Rites: Jiao Te Sheng": "The emperor is big wax eight". This sentence means that there are eight gods worshiped by the emperor of Zhou Dynasty, namely Xiansi, Sisi, Nong, Youbiaogan, Maohu , plants, water and insects. Among them, Shuiyong is the predecessor of Chenghuang, because the word "water" in Shuiyong refers to the river ditch, and the word "yong" refers to the city. Together they mean city river. The "隍" in Chenghuang means moat.
Therefore, people all over the world believe that the City God evolved from the Shuiyong God and is a god who protects the people of a city.
In the hearts of all the officials, the City God is the existence of the official god.
When many new officials appoint one of their parents as officials, they will go to the City God's Temple to worship the local City God the day before they take office.
This means that I have just arrived here, and I hope you will take good care of me. In the future, we will protect this land and water together and benefit the people here. In addition, many officials, when leaving office, would go to the City God to tell them that they were leaving and thank them for their care over the past few years. He also summarized to the City God what he had done for the people during his years as an official here, and what he gained and lost, so that he could feel at ease.
In addition to these two times, some officials will also set specific days for themselves to worship the City God.
This is exactly the case for Duzhi County. Every year on the 28th day of the first lunar month, he would go to the City God's Temple to worship, and state in front of the City God what he had done in the previous year, what he had learned, etc.
In the years since he came to Dinghu County, Du Zhixian believes that although he has not made any political achievements, in this remote mountainous area, if he has done nothing wrong, it can be regarded as a good political achievement.
As for promotion, Du Zhixian has never thought about it. Anyway, after two more years, he will reach the age of becoming an official, and he will no longer have to stay in this poor and harsh land.
Du Zhixian believes that he is not exaggerating at all when he says it is a poor place. The land is remote and the mountains are barren. It is hard to find a beautiful river, but every rainy season there will be floods, and the surrounding villages will always be flooded.
The most troublesome thing is that every winter, Shanrong people often pass through Tuzi Gorge to grab food. And most of these people come here in the middle of the night, which makes them hard to guard against. Wherever they go, they grab clothes and food, and the people suffer.
Dinghu County and Honghuying are separated by more than sixty miles. Such a distance can only be described as far water cannot save nearby fire. Often the Shanrong people here have returned with their full loads, but the camp there has not yet received the letter to report there. In the end, the soldiers and guards' trip was in vain.
Many times Du Zhixian issued appeals to ask the commander to send soldiers to station here for a period of time, so that when the Shanrong people came over, they could be captured directly.
Perhaps it was because it was too cold in the twelfth lunar month of winter, so the guards only stayed for three or four days, and left after seeing that nothing happened.
Later, when Du Zhixian went to appeal again, the reply he received was, "There is no need to garrison the people. People will just report the letter and come over."
At that time, Du Zhixian was very angry.
Indeed, the Shanrong people coming from Tuzi Gorge can only be regarded as a small group, but no matter how small the number is, the other party also comes with sharp weapons.
As for Du Zhixian, even one such evil person will be killed.
It's just that he, a seventh-grade county magistrate, is not qualified to dispatch soldiers and guards in the camp. Therefore, in the face of the Shanrong people's evil deeds time and time again, Duzhi County was helpless and looked forward to leaving this place as soon as possible.
On this day, on his way back to the county government office after paying homage to the city god, Du Zhi County’s government officials came to report that Shanrong people had arrived in Ruishui Village again.
Du Zhixian was a little confused after hearing this. In all the years he had been in Dinghu County, he had never heard of Shanrong people coming to cause trouble in the spring season.
Therefore, Du Zhixian thought that the villagers had made some mistake and mistook the thieves for Shanrong people, so he led more than 20 government officials there without thinking too much.
It was because of this carelessness that Du Zhixian never had the chance to wait until the day he became official.
Finally, when the soldiers and guards of Honghu Camp got the news and rushed over, Du Zhixian had been brutally killed. Most of the more than 20 government officials were killed or injured, and according to the oral accounts of the surviving government officials, those people were indeed Shanrong people.
But by the time the soldiers and guards chased them north, the Shanrong people had already passed Tuzi Gorge and disappeared.
Tuzixia used to be the boundary of Beiyuan. Without the imperial court's will, the soldiers and guards would naturally not dare to cross the boundary of other countries.
It is not a trivial matter for a court official to lose his life, and then think about what Du Zhi County had previously appealed for. So when the captain of Honghuying went to the Shizhou government office to inform the matter, he only said that Du Zhixian was killed by robbers on the way to worship the city god.
After the prefect Luo Wenqing learned of this, he naturally reported his death as a robber.
The imperial court would provide pensions to officials who died in the line of duty. In addition to promotion, promotion, and posthumous titles, the imperial court would also provide gifts to their family members, and issue funeral funds, etc.
After sending someone to handle the matter, Emperor Jingkang began to think about the replacement candidate for Dinghu County Magistrate.
The chief seal officer of a county must not be vacant for too long, otherwise everything will be in chaos.
Emperor Jingkang calculated the time for the Hanlin Academy members to leave, and found that it was the end of April. And this time in the Spring Festival, there are still two days until the exam ends, and there will be marking and palace examinations after that. If we wait for these two groups of people, I am afraid it will be a bit late.
By the way, didn't I just approve the release of officials today? We might as well look among these people to see if there are any candidates who can be adjusted.
Thinking of this, Emperor Jingkang took the book on the desk and read it carefully.
First, the row of prefects, Cao Qingan, Wu Youshi, He Qingkui, Xu Zhihuan, and Emperor Jingkang looked at their names one by one.
When he saw the words Lin Yuanqiu, Emperor Jingkang paused, and at the same time quickly remembered the resettlement method for refugees given by Lin Xiuzhuan before. There is also the method of borrowing grain from Changpingcang. In the second half of last year, the court used this method to borrow grain from drought-stricken people. Ting Zhen'er said that after borrowing the grain, the people complained less and responded more actively, which shows that the results are very significant.
Therefore, at this moment, Emperor Jingkang suddenly came up with the idea of not letting Lin Xiuzhuan govern Dinghu County.
Emperor Jingkang naturally had a reason for thinking so.
Dinghu County is at the bottom among several counties under the jurisdiction of Shizhou Prefecture.
In fact, not only Shizhou Prefecture, but also Dinghu County was ranked at the bottom among many counties in the Jing Dynasty.
The reason why this happened, in addition to Dinghu County being located in the northernmost part, Emperor Jingkang believed that the lack of effective governance methods was also the main reason.
Therefore, I might as well send capable officials to go there this time. If the government is well managed by then, I can also let those officials who have no political achievements but are complaining about others see whether they have failed to do their best.
But Emperor Jingkang quickly thought that the county magistrate was an official of the seventh rank, and Lin Xiuzan was now the sixth rank. Therefore, it is impossible for his rank to fall instead of rising after being released to the outside world. It is not like he did something wrong and was demoted from the capital.
Thinking of this, Emperor Jingkang hesitated.
At this time, the father-in-law announced that His Highness the Third Prince had arrived.
Li Zhen came here specifically to report on the progress of Shiqing County and Changshan County.
It is said that whenever there is a flood, there is a drought. Following the floods in the first half of last year, droughts occurred in Shiqing County and Changshan County for more than two consecutive months in the second half of the year. Since the disaster was still under control, Changpingcang lent food to the people in the two places in accordance with the imperial edict.
This matter was supervised by the third prince at the time, so Li Zhen paid attention to this matter in the next six months.
He came over at this moment and was about to say something about the farmers in the two places who were preparing to sow grain.
But before Li Zhen could talk about it, Emperor Jingkang first said that the magistrate of Hu County was killed by bandits, and that he intended to let Lin Xiuzuan succeed the magistrate of Du County, but it was a pity that his rank was not suitable.
"Father, my son, please remember that the post of governor of Yongning is still vacant, right?"
Yongning Zhizhou?
Yes, Emperor Jingkang suddenly remembered that the post of Yongning magistrate had been vacant since Wang Youzhi complained to his old age. Nowadays, the affairs of Yongning Prefecture are all taken care of by subordinate officials such as Tongsuan and Tongzhi. Considering that Yongning Prefecture is adjacent to Dinghu County, Emperor Jingkang immediately made a decision.
But when the third prince left the imperial study, his father said, "If this person has outstanding achievements in the local area, he can be reused in the future."
It seemed as if he was talking to himself, and also as if he was specifically admonishing him.
…
The officials who were supposed to post a notice about the release in two days did not make any move, which made the anxious waiting people even more anxious.
It is impossible for anyone not to care about something like this that is related to future career. The same goes for Lin Yuanqiu, except that the list has already reached the Holy Master. Next, everyone has no choice but to wait.
After seeing her husband off to his shift, Zhong Yurou returned to the room. She felt fine when she ate fish fillet porridge, but now she felt a little nauseous for some reason.
After frequent inquiries from her mother over the year, Zhong Yurou naturally understood that nausea was probably a sign of pregnancy. Then she thought about her Guishui delivery this month, so she must be pregnant.
Thinking of this, Zhong Yurou couldn't help but get a little excited. I have been married to my husband for more than a year, but there has been no movement in my stomach. If I say I am not worried, I am definitely lying.
Not only herself, but her father and mother are also worried about her.
Zhong Yurou thought to herself that if she was really pregnant this time, her parents would be able to let go of their heavy heart.
Just thinking of her husband who was about to go abroad, Zhong Yurou didn't tell anyone about her pregnancy for the time being, otherwise she might be left in the capital to raise her baby.
…
On the third day, the officials finally posted the release notice.
The officials who were sent abroad now also received their respective documents for serving as local officials.
Lin Yuanqiu took it and opened it while silently reciting in his heart "Anzhou Prefecture Anzhou Prefecture."
But after opening the document, I glanced at it and saw only the word "zhi" and not the word "fu".
Then Lin Yuanqiu discovered that Anzhou Prefecture was no longer there, and some had the words "Yongning Prefecture" and "Dinghu County".
