Jia Zheng through the Red Mansions

Jia Zheng realized that he had no trusted confidants around him when he was in Beijing. Although now that the house is divided and the housekeeper Li Wan doesn't have to worry about Jia Huan anymore, he can transfer Daimu to his side, but Daimu doesn't matter what he says. For Hongxi's people, Jia Zheng really didn't want to do this in such an embarrassing situation, so he could only trouble Jia Min.

The Lin family is originally from Suzhou. Jia Min and Lin Ruhai have been running the house for so many years, which is naturally beyond the reach of Jia Zheng. I was negligent, but when my brother said this, I remembered it. Now, not to mention that it is difficult for the Zhen family, the chief secretary, governor, and governor have to visit one by one. Even the inside of your government office must be rectified. It takes a while."

Upon hearing this, Jia Zheng quickly asked, "? What's the point?"

Jia Min smiled: "Brother has never let go of magistrates. Naturally, he doesn't understand these tricks. The magistrate is elected every three years, and sometimes he is dismissed for less than a year. However, the relationship lasted for a long time, and they also exchanged relatives, and some of them were even powerful, and this position became hereditary in their family. Some prefects have been controlled, and there are not a few prefects who have become puppets."

Jia Zheng had never heard of these tricks, and when Jia Min said this, Jia Zheng felt the seriousness of the matter, but said: "Where do these pawns have such courage to stand up to the chief?"

Jia Min nodded after hearing this: "If I want to say this, I still have to recommend someone to my brother. When Ru Hai was in office, there were no such villains who dared to play tricks in front of Ru Hai. I also heard it from someone. After that, Jia Min said to the boy beside him, "Go and call Liu Bao."

While the kid was calling for someone, Jia Min told Jia Zheng: "This Liu Bao used to be a disciple of the prefect of Jinling. Later, he offended the prefect and was sent to Yangzhou to serve a crime by finding a reason. Coolie, it was also a coincidence that Ruhai discovered that he was somewhat knowledgeable, and he also swore to change his past, so Ruhai let him off the hook and stayed in the mansion as a servant. Over the past year, we have always paid attention to him. That’s right, it’s really safe.”

Not long after, the boy came in with a servant. Jia Zheng looked up, and saw that this man was young, thin, with a few strands of beard on his pointed chin. His appearance was a little wretched, but his eyes were very Qingming, there is a hint of shrewdness in this clarity, but it does not give people a sense of cunning.

The man greeted Jia Min and then Jia Zheng, and then stood aside, Jia Zheng nodded secretly, although he didn't look like a good person, but the way he looked at Jia Min was indeed very respectful. My heart is also a little relieved.

Jia Min repeated Jia Zheng's question just now. This Liu Bao is the most astute person. When his wife called him just now, he knew that there was the brother of the new magistrate's wife in the main room, so he guessed what the wife called him. Because of this, after hearing Jia Min's question at this time, he said everything he knew without any hesitation.

"My wife and my uncle don't know that most of the pawns are from the local area. They are the errands for tax collectors and other errands. False reporting of people and land, especially in the south of the Yangtze River, rich businessmen are the most numerous, and they all have a close relationship with them in order to pay less taxes. Therefore, although these pawns are all untouchables, they are the most arrogant Second, there are very few magistrates who serve as magistrates in these three-year terms. There are many masters who still cannot understand the local dialect until the end of their term of office. Officials, yamen servants, even if there are deceitful and greedy things, the magistrate probably really doesn't know about it, so how can he speak boldly?"

When Liu Bao crackled and said, Jia Zheng suddenly realized that it wasn't that these magistrates were willing to become puppets, but they became puppets and didn't know it!

Thinking of this, Jia Zheng couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive. Fortunately, Jia Min is here in Suzhou now, otherwise he might have become a member of the puppet.

Jia Min smiled and said, "Brother, what do you think of this Liu Bao? Now you also lack a long-term follower, if you don't want to accept this Liu Bao, if he is a good one, after three years, my brother will return to Beijing after his tenure is up Take him back too, find an opportunity to get rid of slavery, and become an upright commoner."

Jia Zheng knew that most of Jia Min's words were intended for Liu Bao. No matter what, Liu Bao had a criminal record. Lin Ruhai's skills were far beyond Jia Zheng's. Jia Zheng, the master, might have a second heart, so he beat him with words.

At that moment Jia Zheng nodded, "I think he's not bad. Since my sister is willing to part with her, I'll be disrespectful."

In his heart, Liu Bao was also like a bright mirror, he quickly knelt down and kowtowed, and said: "My wife and uncle are very kind, the little ones are unforgettable, if you have two hearts in this life, God will not allow it."

Jia Zhengxu helped him to stand up, and his servants took him to tidy up his things. Jia Min thought about it, and then called a young man with a square face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, who looked like a man. An honest person, Jia Min told Jia Zheng that his name was Lin Yin, he was a slave of the Lin family, and the nephew of the housekeeper Lin, he was a honest person, after all, she was still a little worried about the naughty Liu Bao, so she let the straightforward Lin Yin Yin went with Jia Zheng together.

After dinner in the Lin Mansion, Jia Zheng took the two of them back to the mansion behind the mansion. Little is not a lump of wood, anyway, he has been in the Lin Mansion for so many years and is the nephew of the housekeeper Lin, so he still understands these things, and Jia Zheng is also relieved of him, so he immediately went to call all the servants in the house to formulate the regulations again, Jia Zheng left Liu Bao, and he still had many questions to ask him.

Jia Zheng chatted a few words first, and asked about Liu Bao's life experience. After Liu Bao had said everything, Jia Zheng was stunned. What a coincidence, who do you think this Liu Bao is?

He is the little novice monk in the famous "Gourd Official Sentencing the Gourd Case"!

This has something to do with Jia Zheng. It turned out that Jia Yucun wanted to vote for Lin Ruhai to be Daiyu's teacher. This errand left Suzhou again.

When we arrived in Jinling, it happened that the Zhen family was also hiring a teacher. Jia Yucun won this position this time, and within a few years, the elder of the Zhen family appreciated his talent very much, and wrote a letter to his younger brother who is a weaver in Suzhou. Jia Yucun was recommended by a letter from the family. Although the second master of the Zhen family is only Suzhou Weaving, one of the three weaving factories in the south of the Yangtze River, he has friendship with high-ranking officials in Beijing and China, and the governor of Jiangsu. The prefect of Jinling, known by the locals as Yin of Yingtian Prefecture, had a close relationship with the Zhen family.

And it was at this time that the little novice had just been a disciple for less than a year. Although the Xiangling incident had not happened yet, there was another case in which a local farm owner beat a tenant to death, which made him stand out. It's just that the ending is still the same. Jia Yucun was afraid that he would tell about the poor and humble things of the day, so he found a chance to convict him and sent him away, but this time it was not the exile that should have happened, but the exile. After doing hard labor, by chance, he joined Lin Ruhai's sect, and now he has become Jia Zheng's long-term follower.

Jia Zheng couldn't help but sigh in his heart, this matter has something to do with him, it has little to do with it, and it has his own role in it, it's really a worldly thing, who can tell clearly after going around?

Naturally, Liu Bao didn't know that Jia Zheng and Jia Yucun had a relationship once. He was very surprised when he heard Jia Zheng mention it, and then he was a little annoyed that he just said something carelessly. What if this master and that It's not just a one-time relationship with Jia Yucun and he doesn't like Jia Yucun, so he might offend the new master himself!

Jia Zheng saw the flash of regret in Liu Bao's eyes, and probably guessed what he was thinking in his heart, so he left the topic aside, pretending to casually say: "You just said that the Zhen who funded Jia Yucun Master, do you have anything to do with this Jinling family, the Zhen family?"

Liu Bao hurriedly replied: "No, it's just that they have the same surname. If we can really reach the 01:30 relationship, we won't end up in such a mess."

Jia Zheng nodded, and continued: "You just said that Yinglian, the lady of the Zhen family, got lost. It's a pity."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bao hurriedly said: "It's a coincidence. When I was working as a doorman in Jinling, there happened to be a person who rented my concierge and brought a girl with him. She looked exactly like Yinglian back then, but No matter how I coaxed her, she only said that this man was her own father. Since that was the case, I didn't ask any more questions. Later, with the grace of Mr. Lin, I also told Mr. Lin about this matter that day, Mr. Lin My lord has also heard of Mr. Zhen's virtuous name, and upon hearing this, he asked someone to go to Jinling to buy this girl, and now she is working as a servant girl by Miss Lin's side, so she changed her name to Xiangling."

Jia Zheng didn't expect such a thing to happen at all. Hearing Liu Bao's words, he felt a burst of emotion. He didn't expect that there would be such a follow-up. Don't worry about Xiangling, it was Lin Ruhai who solved the problem.

I smiled wryly in my heart, I should set a rule for myself, who should be in charge and who should not be in charge, and I can't overwhelm my hands, and I can't turn a blind eye, it's really difficult!

Jia Zheng put aside his inner feelings for the time being, and continued to talk to Liu Bao back to Suzhou's tenure: "Do you know what happened to the former Suzhou prefect?"

When the imperial court's transfer came out, he was still in a daze, and he forgot to investigate the right and wrong of his predecessor, so that he knew what was going on. Fortunately, there is still a way to remedy it.

Although Liu Bao followed Jia Min to Suzhou for only a few months, he was always focused on these aspects. Before leaving, Lin Ruhai also told the staff and guests in the mansion to manage the relationship with the local officials. How could he not know, and at this time he didn't want to get too entangled in Jinling's past—even if he hated Jia Yucun in his heart, he knew that it was not appropriate to talk too much about the old master in front of the new master. Otherwise, it will inevitably create a bad estrangement with the new master. Now this uncle seems to be a soft-hearted master. This kind of person is the most thoughtless and stubborn, so don't talk too much and make mistakes—I heard it When Jia Zheng talked about things in Suzhou, he was even more happy in his heart.

"Master, the former magistrate was dismissed because the tax revenue before May was less than half."

"Taxation?" Jia Zheng knew about it. The Ministry of Household Affairs was in charge of this. Every year, the local office began to collect taxes from February to May. After that, it was the busy season for farming until July. Taxes should be suspended to avoid mistakes. Farming, from August to the end of November, if local officials fail to collect the required amount of taxes, they will be punished from the county magistrate to the governor.

However, this tax cannot be collected, and it is understandable in a barren place like Gansu. This Suzhou is located in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is very rich. There is no disaster this year, and the tax cannot be collected!

Thinking of what he had just heard about the collusion between the country gentry and wealthy merchants of these farms and the pawns, Jia Zheng had some calculations in his heart. I am afraid that it is inseparable from these!

By the way, there is also the Zhen family. Jia Zheng thought of their family and said, "Do you know what is going on with the Zhen family in Jinling?"

Liu Bao knew that Jia Zheng was referring to the Zhen family, so he quickly replied: "The ancestral house of the Zhen family is in Jinling. The old lady and the elder of the Zhen family live in the ancestral house. The second master has been working in Suzhou weaving for nine years. , the eldest girl’s east bed Master Bai is now Hangzhou Weaving, and the Jiangning Weaving Su family is not related to the Zhen family, but they are also family friends. This Jiangnan Weaving can be said to be the Zhen family’s single-handedly covering the sky.”

After Jia Zheng heard this, he thought that such a large network of connections, connected to the merchants and farmers in the south of the Yangtze River, might have nothing to do with the difficulty of taxation, so he said, "Then you know that Jiangning and Hangzhou How about taxes?"

This stopped Liu Bao from asking: "My lord, I don't know about this, let me give you a few days, and I'll go and do this right now."

Jia Zheng smiled: "It's good to be able to talk about so many problems before, and I will leave this matter to you."

Liu Bao got an errand, and he didn't mention it since he went to do it. Lin Yin was also registered again. Thinking that the newly appointed master was transferred by the Beijing officials, there was room for deception, and no one expected that such a local butler would be parachuted down. Some dared to try their own methods, but Lin Yin was also merciless, he was beaten when he deserved it, and punished when he deserved it, all of them were honest.

Jia Zheng let Lin Yin do the things in the back house. After returning to the office of the government office, Jia Zheng called in the Tongzhi, the judge, the experience, the governor, the jailer, the professor of Confucianism, and the discipline. , Sort out this year's clerical orders and the governor's experience within three days, sort them into different categories, and hand them over to the accomplices and judges of their respective departments for review. Sort it out, re-examined it, and finally asked about the official school.

After getting the order, the experience and the governor went to sort out the documents first, and the jailer also went to investigate the case by himself. The three of them looked a little worried, and Jia Zheng pretended not to see it. Officials and officials are not the same.

According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, although the pawns and yamen servants work at the gate of the yamen, they belong to the untouchables, and they are included in the same group as opera actors, prostitutes and beggars. Although they are more respectable than these people, they are also descendants. For generations, those who have not been allowed to enter the imperial examinations to become officials in agriculture and business, cut off this excuse, and they naturally devoted themselves to making money wholeheartedly.

Although Jia Zheng can understand their difficulties in his heart, these people are really hateful. There is even a law that untouchables are not allowed to marry good people. , and have not seen what the law has done to them!

What's more, the law still stipulates that if they are recommended by someone, they can rely on money to get rid of their humble status. Although they are still not allowed to be official from his grandchildren, they can take scientific examinations after three generations, but they are all greedy for this. The power and money brought by the position are willing to become untouchables, which is shameless.

What Jia Zheng has to do now is to win over these orthodox officials with experience, governors, and prison managers, and then deal with this group of officials and government servants. Fang Qu, however, he can't give them a weak and deceitful appearance like before, he can't give them an appearance of being weak and deceitful. Didn't he also see Jia Min's way of managing the family? As the saying goes, there is sweetness in the sternness, who can stand this kind of temptation?

What's more, Jia Zheng didn't believe that they were really willing to work with those pawns.

As for Confucianism, the affairs of official schools are under the jurisdiction of Xuezheng sent by the imperial court. The Xuezheng of Jiangsu Province has just been in office for three years and has already returned to Beijing. Action, the Confucianism professors and instructors are only responsible for teaching and do not interfere with political affairs, so it is the most relaxed. Jia Zheng told them a few words and let them go down.

After arranging these things, it took two days. On the third day, Liu Bao found out the situation of the prefects of Jiangning and Hangzhou. Jia Zheng listened to Liu Bao's report. It's getting more and more serious.