Jinhua Prefecture has eight counties under its jurisdiction, with a population of one million and abundant rice and grain. However, the Qiantang River, Oujiang River, and Jiaojiang River converge in the area, so floods often occur.
The floods this time were unprecedented in a century, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The local wealthy squires colluded with the government and took the opportunity to annex land wantonly, causing anger and resentment.
After two small-scale uprisings were suppressed, the people gradually became numb and lost their will to resist, which made the local gentry and local tyrants even more arrogant.
Pang Tong and others knew about it but did not report it, so the disaster did not reach the capital at all, leaving only a mess to be cleaned up.
This was one of the reasons why they strongly recommended Zhang Xiu to come to Jinhua as the prefect.
As long as Zhang Xiu fails to deal with the disaster, they can immediately accuse Zhang Xiu. Not to mention putting him in jail and beheading him, they can at least cut off his official career.
By then, they would have completely eliminated the trouble in the court.
Zhang Xiu didn't know anything about this yet.
After arriving at the Yamen of Jinhua Mansion, Zhang Xiu settled nearly 10,000 refugees near the Yamen. He soon received more than a dozen invitations and gifts from gentry from all over the country.
Zhang Xiu smiled and accepted everyone's gifts, but the invitations were returned one by one, leaving everyone on duty in the yamen confused.
Soon, those who came to deliver the invitations returned home one after another and were questioned by their hosts.
The largest squire in the area, known as Jin Bancheng's Jin Wuwang's family.
Seeing the butler coming back with a sad face, Jin Wuwang frowned and asked, "Why was the invitation returned? Is it possible that the prefect who came this time is an upright official? Or does he have any objections to me?"
When the housekeeper heard this, he showed a strange expression: "That's not true. The No. 1 scholar kept all the congratulatory gifts sent by everyone, and seemed to accept all comers. But he returned all the invitations."
Jin Wuwang was astonished after hearing this: "This is really strange. Can you tell what this great master means?"
The housekeeper hesitated for a while and said: "That Mr. Zhang seems to think that the money we sent is too little. When seeing off the guests, his bearded nurse yelled loudly, saying that we were sending beggars."
Jin Wuwang: "..."
You just want to make money when you first come here, what kind of person is this?
After a while of silence, Jin Wuwang came back to his senses, waved his hands in confusion, and said: "Take the 10,000 taels of silver notes and send them to the Yamen, and then tell Mr. Liu, Mr. Li and the others that I will have a banquet for the new appointee at the Zhuangyuan Building tonight. Magistrate, let everyone see who our new top scholar is!"
After a while, Zhang Xiu's face lit up with joy as she counted the banknotes sent by the gentry one after another, and she showed off to Yan Feng: "Did you see it? A hundred thousand taels can be made into a quilt!"
Yan Feng squinted and said, "You won't be able to sleep for a few days even if it's made into a quilt. This is life-saving money to buy food for the people."
Zhang Xiu was not angry when he heard this, and said with a smile: "Jinhua Mansion should not be short of food. After all, the good weather here for ten years must have accumulated a lot of food. If the former magistrate hadn't resold official food, the food in the government office should have been accumulated by now. It’s a mountain.”
After Zhang Xiu came to the government office, he immediately went to the granary and wanted to open a granary to store grain.
But when he got there, he found the granary empty. After asking, he learned that the previous prefect had been killed for reselling official grain, and then he made room for him.
However, the government's lack of food did not mean that the local gentry had no food. Zhang Xiu thought quickly and reached out to them.
Seeing that it was almost time, Zhang Xiu got on the sedan chair, sent out the yamen's guard of honor, and headed towards the Zhuangyuan Tower with great fanfare.
At the front of the ceremonial guard, two signs were held.
The one on the left reads "The World is Blue", and the one on the right reads "Promote and make a fortune", and they walk through the market with gongs and drums.
Upstairs, Jin Wuwang looked at the magistrate's guard of honor coming towards him, and said with a dull look on his face: "As the saying goes, there are three things that make new officials take office, but the words and deeds of this new champion are really... really fresh and refined!"
At this time, a fat man with a smile on his face laughed out loud, stroked his goatee, and said, "Brother Jin, should we go down to greet this great master Qingtian?"
Jin Wuwang nodded and led seven or eight rich men downstairs, standing in a row at the door respectfully.
After the sedan landed, Zhang Xiu lifted the curtain and walked out. He looked at the people who greeted him at the door and said with some dissatisfaction: "There is no red carpet on the ground. Do you look down on me?"
The fat man with a goatee immediately stepped forward and said flatteringly: "There is no reason to let Mr. Qingtian walk on his own, and the common people will carry you!" After saying that, he bowed down, as if he wanted Zhang Xiu to lie on his back. appearance.
Zhang Xiu was very happy and asked: "You are quite clever. What is your name? I can take care of you when I am free in the future."
The fat man's eyes lit up, he turned around, helped Zhang Xiu to the front of the building, and said at the same time: "Li Fugui, a common man, is truly lucky to be able to enter the eyes of Master Qingtian!"
At this time, Jin Wuwang and others reported their lives one after another, and a group of people followed Zhang Xiu to the second floor of the Number One Scholar Building.
After three rounds of drinking, several people each revealed their own purposes.
Some want the Meishan Mountain south of Jinhua, and some want to build bridges and roads and collect tolls from the people.
Zhang Xiu smiled and refused to accept anyone who came, clearly marked the price, and asked them to use grain as a bargaining chip to bid against each other, showing that they were innocent and the one with the highest price would win. He also signed and signed with them.
After a banquet, the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves and sent Zhang Xiuhuan out in a warm atmosphere.
After Zhang Xiu's sedan chair was gone, Li Fugui touched his goatee and said with a smile: "Looking at our newly appointed Master Qingtian, he is still very easy to get along with. Well, as long as the money is in place."
Jin Wuwang glanced at him lightly and said, "Don't be deceived by his greedy appearance. This prefect is a shrewd man. If I am not wrong, he wants us to bid with food to appease the refugees. "
"He clearly understands that only if his official position is preserved can he continue to be greedy. Otherwise, everything will be rootless and will not last long."
Li Fugui smiled: "It doesn't matter if he is smart or not, as long as we can get some benefits, it doesn't matter if we give him some!"
When Jin Wuwang heard this, he felt it made sense and couldn't help but smile.
At this moment, his housekeeper ran over in a hurry and shouted: "Master, something serious has happened. There is a flood in our house. Please go back and take a look!"
Jin Wuwang frowned: "If there's a fire, go put out the fire. Why do you come to me? How can a small fire burn down our huge family property?"
The housekeeper said anxiously: "It...it's really good! Our food will be burned out in the blink of an eye. Master, please go back and take a look!"
Jin Wuwang's expression suddenly changed, and he hurriedly bowed to the others and said goodbye: "I have something to do at home, let's get together someday!" After saying that, he hurriedly ran home with the housekeeper.
When Li Fugui saw this, he couldn't help laughing: "Brother Jin, he usually lives a leisurely life. I thought nothing could make him change his mind, but I didn't expect that when it comes to his own family, he is no different from ordinary people!"
A thin man smiled and said, "Stop making sarcastic remarks here. If it were your house that caught fire, try it."
Li Fugui smiled and said: "You have a crow's mouth, how could it be such a coincidence, even my family..."
Before he finished speaking, a young man dressed as a servant hurriedly ran over and shouted to Li Fugui from a distance: "Master, it's not good, there is a leak in our home!"
Li Fugui: "..."
Is it really such a coincidence? !
