Cross the Sea in the Red Chamber

Jiang Yuan raised the corners of his lips, and said with a smile: "Can a very normal magistrate be able to fly over walls, climb over walls, jump over ridges, climb posts and beams, like walking on flat ground?"

... I also know, I definitely won't, Song Chen is not the sword fairy in the legendary story...

Song Chen is just an ordinary civil servant, not a general who is proficient in martial arts. Even if he is a general, not every general can fly over walls like walking on flat ground.Is it an official of the imperial court or a gentleman of the Liang Dynasty? Officials don't have to travel around to avoid the enemy. Unless there is a special need, who would deliberately practice this... What's the use of practicing?

Even Jiang Yuan, a master climber, needs ropes and grappling hooks to get on the beam, let alone a civil servant who has studied hard for ten years and has no strength to restrain a chicken?He absolutely cannot jump onto the beam by himself...

"Although I don't know what the minister of Song, Mr. Song, thought about hiding these things behind the plaque, and I don't know how he found an opportunity to find tools to put the burden on it. But now, if he wants to often Check to see if the contents of the bundle are still there behind the plaque, and you need a chance to get the ladder."

"How many ladders can be placed in a government office when there is nothing to do? And in most cases, things like ladders should be placed in the backyard, where sundries are piled up. Waiting for people to come in and out, the stream is endless, it is really impossible for Song Chen to get the ladder without being discovered by the people in the yamen. So he came up with such an unreliable method, calling a bricklayer to repair the prefect yamen."

The bricklayer repairing the house not only includes repairing the cracked and moldy walls below, but also tidying up the tiles on the roof to prevent the house from leaking.Since they need to go to the house, the bricklayers can't come empty-handed. Let's learn from the heroes in the storytelling and jump to the roof by themselves. Naturally, they must bring enough ladders.

When there are more houses to be repaired, the time required for the whole repair will be extended, and the manpower required will naturally increase.Since there are more people, there will be more ladders for the craftsmen to use.

Because the main hall also needs to be repaired, there are a lot of ladders placed there, and the distance between the main hall and the second hall is only a few feet away, and they are connected to each other, so it is convenient to take them.The yamen is being repaired everywhere, and all the places are dusty and extremely dirty. When the yamen servants are free, they don’t even go to the lobby under repair. Song Chen can easily find a chance when no one is there, and follow a ladder Come back and climb the beams of the house, this is Song Chen's idea.

As long as those bricklayers are still alive, Song Chen can steal the ladder to check the burden, so he will take a break from the government office that does not need to be repaired at all. The purpose is not for anything else, but to get the ladder...

I have to say that this idea is indeed quite deceptive, at least the power of the aristocratic family and nobles was deceived by Song Chen, and he didn't think about that terrible thing at all.But with such a small trick, how could it deceive Jiang Yuan and Lin Jun, who were astonishingly insightful?

Jiang Yuan ordered his spies to dress up as servants of a high-ranking family and go to the bricklayers who were repairing in the mansion.

"My master also has an old house that hasn't been repaired for a long time. He originally planned to delay it again, but there were too many thunderstorms this time, and he was afraid that the wall would fall down again, so he was looking for a mason. No, a Seeing that you craftsmen can even take over the work of the government office, you must have very good skills, so I want to ask you, can you finish the work of the government office a year ago? If you can finish it, it will be just right in the next year Repair my master's old house." The spy took the mason to drink, and his speech could be described as watertight, and he used clichés everywhere, but few people could hear him.

The bricklayer didn't think that repairing the government office was a secret that couldn't be said. He saw that new business was found before the old work was finished, and his heart was itching for a long time.You must know that being a craftsman is no different than a farmer who is farming. Farmers always have work to do in the field, and craftsmen are afraid that they will not have work to do. Of course, it is good to have work to do.

He hurriedly said: "This magistrate's office is actually relatively new. The moldy place can be repaired a little. The wall is also easy to handle, as long as it is repaired. The key is that the roof needs to be replaced with new tiles, which will probably take a while." Time. Fortunately, the magistrate ordered that the entire yamen’s house is not repaired, only the lobby, the third hall and the houses where the guards live next to it will be repaired. This work will definitely be completed in another month. , it will definitely be able to repair the old house for the master after the next year, so as not to delay the work of the master."

The lobby, the third hall, and the houses where the guards live must be repaired, so there must be more people coming and going, and the eyes and ears will be messy. It must not be a place for Song Chen to hide things.After excluding these places, there are only the second hall, the cell, the kitchen behind it, the stables and other places.

No matter how you hide things, you won't be able to hide them in the state prison.Song Chen often has to check whether things are there. Does a magistrate go to the prison every day?What's the matter?

Not to mention the kitchen, the so-called gentleman stays away from the kitchen, although this is just a Confucian argument, but most serious scholars dislike the fumes in the kitchen, which is unbearable.This magistrate would never go into the kitchen very often, even if he could really put down his face and endure the oily smoke, other people would be suspicious if they saw him.

The stables were not much better than the huts, and it was a relatively dirty place in the yamen. People of Song Chen's wealth would not go to such a dirty place.The stables were originally on the other side of the mansion. I heard that there was a ground subsidence on the other side of the mansion a few months ago, and it has not been filled up yet. There is no way, so I temporarily moved the stables to the kitchen. placement.How could Song Chen, a civil servant, go for a walk there?So the stables are also out of the question.

After such elimination bit by bit, isn't there only one second hall left?

Even so, it has not been actually confirmed, and Jiang Yuan is not very sure that the things are placed there.Moreover, there are many officials in the magistrate's prefecture, so it is not so easy to get in silently, and it is even more difficult to get out.He had to find a suitable way, so as soon as he discussed with Lin Jun, he created a scene of luring the snake out of the hole and diverting the tiger away from the mountain.

Jiang Yuan asked the spies under his command to pretend to be vegetable vendors, and carried pickers to deliver vegetables from the back door to the kitchen of the government office.Taking advantage of no one, he sprinkled two jars of lamp oil hidden in the vegetable basket in the kitchen, and unceremoniously set a fire.

When the fire met the lamp oil, there was nothing wrong with it, and it immediately burned violently, and easily set the kitchen and several surrounding houses on fire.This lamp oil is no better than other fire starters. Modern people know that when oil is on fire, you must not use water to put out the fire. Otherwise, the oil will be lighter than water, and it will drift with the flames to the nearby houses to ignite it. Burn more houses.

But the guards didn't know these common senses. Not only did the firefighting fail to extinguish the flames, but the fire got bigger and bigger. In the end, they had to find Song Chen from the Song residence.

As soon as Jiang Yuan saw that he had attracted Song Chen, he immediately released Chen San to block the suspicious and frightened Guanshi Liu.Song Chen, who was worried that something would happen to these things, was so anxious that he would inevitably leak his feet. Sure enough, Song Chen couldn't help but get rid of the guard who reported, and secretly moved the ladder to check the things behind the plaque, but he didn't know the scene where he moved the ladder and entered the second hall The spies who were taking advantage of the fire to hide in the government office saw it clearly.

Now that everything has been confirmed by Song Chen's actions, it's just a matter of lifting his hands after Song Chen left. Not all the treasures that Song Chen hid fell into the hands of Jiang Yuan and the others.

Lin Jun couldn't wait any longer, seeing that the previous matter had been explained clearly, he hurriedly unwrapped the package in front of him carefully.The sights of the three people instantly focused on the things in the baggage - a map made of sheepskin, several horizontal booklets, and a thick stack of letters.

Jiang Yuan casually picked up the top map, unfolded it and spread it on the table.

The sheepskin map is very large. When you look closely, you can see a detailed topographic map of the south of the Yangtze River. On this map, every county and even every village is marked with the corresponding place names. Also specially marked the names of one or two people.Some names are written in red cinnabar, while others are written in ordinary ink. Among the distinct colors, these names occupy half of Jiangnan.

Lin Jun was startled. These names did not bear any official titles, but were followed by the name of the farm. They must not be the names of the servants who replaced the aristocratic family and took control of the farm.So many farms are actually owned by these local snakes, so how much power do these people control in Jiangnan? !It's no wonder that even the prefect and even the prefect are not taken seriously, calling and drinking at will like his own servant...

Jiang Yuan didn't make any noise, this was just the first thing, if he couldn't bear it now, what about the following things?He firmly believed that these farms could not be the only things that could determine the life and death of noble families, there must be other things in them.

Taking a deep breath, Jiang Yuan picked up the horizontally opened booklets next to him, and opened the top one to see that the contents recorded in it were indeed account books.

The first booklet records who is in charge of which farm in each place, which house in which family it belongs to, and which side of the honorable family it is.Among these farms, how much land, how many cattle, how many upper fields, middle fields, and lower fields, how many tenants there are, the approximate number of young people, and how much grain and rent can be paid each year.

It can be said to be extremely detailed, one by one, and I really don't know how the Zhen family was able to collect such detailed information back then.

The eldest son of some families may not be able to know these things, but the Zhen family has recorded them all.The power of the Zhen family back then was really terrifying... Fortunately, their family was involved in the treasonous matter by the eldest prince, and was ruthlessly abandoned by the old emperor. Otherwise, with this account book, the Zhen family would be able to Know yourself and your enemy in Jiangnan, grasp the greatest advantage, and even gnaw the enemy until there is no bone left.

What is the president of the Institute of Physical Education?To put it bluntly, it is the head of the imperial court's spies in the south of the Yangtze River. He was originally the old emperor's eyes and ears in the south of the Yangtze River, just like Lin Hai, the salt inspection censor.The purpose of this position is to lead the spies from all walks of life and investigate in detail the corruption, ignorance and wisdom of officials in Jiangnan and the voices and grievances of the people.But what about the result?The investigation found it out, but the Zhen family didn't report it to the court at all, and he swallowed it all by himself, waiting to exchange for more benefits!

Putting down the first account book, Jiang Yuan picked up the next one.

This book, not so much a horizontal book, is like a dictionary, even thicker than a dictionary.For such a thick book, I don't know why it is not bound separately, but it has to be bound together with such difficulty.

As soon as Jiang Yuan opened it, he only glanced at the contents inside and knew why this booklet could not be bound separately.The things recorded here are really too important, even if a page is lost.If they are bound separately and one copy is lost, something serious will happen.Not to mention the land in the south of the Yangtze River, even the court will not be peaceful!

What is recorded in this booklet?

I saw that the album page was filled with densely packed petty lowercase letters, each character was written very small, but the handwriting was very neat.On the top of the album is an official's name, position, hometown, who is in the family, and who is often in contact with.Until here, it was still normal, but the things described below changed.

How many bribes were accepted from whom on a certain day in a certain year, and where did he open the door to whoever, using power for personal gain...

Scroll down, what is bribery, what is the use of power for personal gain, what is buying people to take the blame, what is cheating, what is taking money for false accusations, and what is suppressing goodness.They also falsely reported the amount of tax money from the state government, sold the grain and rice from the official warehouse privately and used them as good ones, embezzled official funds for building dams and built gardens, and bribed officials visiting Beijing to swallow disaster relief money. Money and food...

What's more, this official from the south of the Yangtze River dared to collude with the enemy and betray the country, and colluded with foreigners in the south and the Qianxiang country overseas... This booklet records the crimes committed by officials, big and small, in the south of the Yangtze River. What I saw was shocking, and I deserved to die.

No wonder the aristocratic family and noble people are vying to win over Song Chen, no wonder they can even snatch letters and kill people for these things.Compared with the "Yongzheng Dynasty", this booklet is not much worse. Compared with the crimes that were taken out of context and imposed on officials in the "Yongzheng Dynasty", this booklet records the clear crimes of Jiangnan officials!

With this thing, the whole Jiangnan can be easily turned upside down and there will be no peace. Whoever masters these things is equivalent to holding the heads of hundreds of officials in Jiangnan!

Not only Jiang Yuan, but Lin Jun was also very frightened. He thought it would be enough to get the first account book and the map this time. Who knew that the Zhen family still had such a book in their hands. thing!If this thing is not used well, it will cause endless harm, and even shake the country's society. If it is used well, the whole south of the Yangtze River will be under the control of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!

Jiang Yuan closed the thick book of hundreds of officials and put it aside.He closed his eyes, exhaled a deep breath, and then pulled himself together.There is one last book in this bundle, what will be recorded in it?According to the order in which the books are placed, the official records are more important than the account books of the farm, so this last booklet is more important than the official records, but is there really anything more important than the official records?

The young Lord Guanying stabilized his mind, picked up the last booklet and opened it carefully, and he was startled after reading only one page, which was no less shocking than the official statement just now. , even if his mind was as stable as Jiang Yuan, he couldn't help being startled.

This booklet is neither thin nor thick, and it is wrapped in a blue book cover. Compared with the previous two booklets, it is much thinner, but the things recorded in this booklet are not at all lighter than the first two booklets.

This book actually records that the three princes, the eldest prince Yong Wang Situ Xu, the former prince Yizhong Prince Situ Ang, and the fourth prince Shun Wang Situ Hui, took advantage of their officials' backgrounds and positions, as well as their connections with Qianxiang Kingdom and foreign tribes, How many weapons, armors, rations, medicinal materials have been collected over the years, and where are these things hidden!

Yong Wang Situ Xu is the prince supported by noble forces, and he has four kings and eight princes under him for his use.The two county kings of Dongping and Nan'an were once connected with Qianxiang Kingdom, and there were many military officers under Xungui, and Situ Xu could get a lot of weapons and food if he missed anything from these people.

Situ Xu worried that placing these items near the capital would be easily discovered by the old emperor's spies, so he simply hid all these items in Jiangnan, the lair of honorable nobles.

The Zhen family, the eldest prince's mother's family, was responsible for hiding this property, so the location of these materials was clearly recorded in the account book, and all the hiding places were clearly marked, and even painted There is a clear map.

The former prince Situ Ang also had power in the south of the Yangtze River. When the San Francisco was in chaos, the general Gao Guan who was stationed in Fujian and led the troops to guard against the Qianxiang Kingdom was a disciple of the prince Ye's uncle and chief assistant Feng Ao?

This Gao Jing was originally a nail inserted by the old emperor in the southeast, but who knew that this nail had a different heart with him, not only did not help him set aside Qi Xiangguo and the nobles of the family, but secretly accumulated strength for Situ Ang, It doesn't matter if you don't pay for it, there are a lot of money, food and weapons that have been withheld over the years.That's not to mention, when Qin Wang rescued him, he dared to obey the prince's orders and refused to come in time, and he lost his life directly.

Not to mention Shun Wang Situhui, he didn't have many weapons and armors in his hands, but the forces behind him - the aristocratic family - were local snakes who had been stationed in the south of the Yangtze River for hundreds of years. Is it less?

His aristocratic family forces not only colluded with the Qianxiang country, but even the foreigners in the south also had business ties with the aristocratic family, which allowed him to collect a large amount of medicinal materials and food at low prices.In terms of medicinal materials and food alone, he collected the most among the three brothers.

King Yong and the former prince fell successively, and the ownership of these materials naturally changed.

The Zhen family was ransacked and exterminated. Before she died, Zhen Yingjia handed over the account book along with other things to Song Chen, but Zhen Yingjia couldn't completely trust Song Chen, so she secretly told the Wang family where her family's money and jewels were hidden. In addition to hoping that the Wang family can help their surviving clansmen to make a comeback, they also hope that the Wang family can help keep an eye on Song Chen, so that the Wang family will know the existence of this account book, and then send someone to contact Song Chen.

Situ Ang is already dead, his concubine son Yizhong County King should have received his share of supplies, but it is a pity that he died so suddenly, and he was disheartened before he died, so he simply had nothing He told his son that he just swallowed the secret and went to see King Hades. Except for Feng Ao who is already old, the location of his supplies is only recorded in this booklet in Song Chen's hand.

Relying on the early death of the former crown prince, the Zhen family completely swallowed up this sum of supplies and hid them directly. It was originally intended to support King Yong’s rebellion, but before they had time to open it, their whole family was ruined...

The location of the materials in King Shun's hands was also found out by the all-pervasive Zhen family, and the locations were recorded one by one, which made Jiang Yuan's heart skip a beat. Fortunately, the Zhen family fell early, otherwise there might be a day of recovery.The Zhen family has too many things in their hands, and the more they look at it, the more frightening they become.

The things these princes have collected are neither too much nor too little, and together they are definitely enough to support an army of 30 to fight for a year or two.

What does this number represent? !

Back then when the San Francisco was in chaos, even the tens of thousands of people under Prince Rui did not fight for three months.

If all the money and food were used to arm their tenants, it would be difficult to seize the world, but it might not be impossible to occupy the south of the Yangtze River and rule the river.

This is not Jiang Yuan's random thinking. At the end of this album is a map of the march. The situation of the enemy and the enemy on it is simply to occupy Jiangnan and divide Dajing!

At this time, the matter of great navigation did not exist at all, and the only threat to the southeast was Qianxiang Country.Therefore, the garrison in the entire Jiangnan is only 10,000+ people who defend the Qixiang country, and the fighting level of these troops is the same. If it is against well-trained young tenants, who will win the competition, the result is still unknown.

Moreover, these troops in the southeast are all stationed in the coastal areas in order to guard against the Qianxiang Kingdom. Once the aristocratic nobles guard the important areas leading to the inland from the coast, and then press them layer by layer, and deal with them slowly, they may not be able to defeat them. Successfully captured the entire Jiangnan!

There is a natural danger of the Yangtze River between the south of the Yangtze River and the north. Even if the imperial court wanted to send troops to attack, it would not be so easy to defeat it.If you give the land in the south of the Yangtze River more buffer time and let them take the road to Sichuan, even Shaanxi and other places in the Central Plains will be threatened!If these shameless things took the opportunity to collude with the aliens in the north, then the situation would be even more unthinkable...

Appetite is really good!Jiang Yuan gritted his teeth fiercely. He racked his brains here, thinking hard about how to deal with the Northern Barbarian Kingdom and how to eliminate the national humiliation. As a result, a group of aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River were holding back, and even secretly planned Draw the river and rule, divide Dajing!Do these daring bastards know what righteousness is, what is country, and what is responsibility? !

Situ Ye silently unfolded the last stack of letters, each of which was a letter of collusion between the aristocratic family and noble forces and foreigners, as well as evidence of corruption among officials!

These letters, each in black and white, are not written about justice and honesty, not about a mirror hanging high, but fearless greed, shamelessness and filth for the sake of power and money!

Compared with the northern land under the eyes of the emperor, too many people in this place far away from the emperor have been corrupted by interests, and too many people have forgotten the meaning of being an official for the people.The so-called loyalty, filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trustworthiness, did these people achieve one word in it? !

These people have long forgotten the ambition and longing in their hearts when they were studying hard in the cold window, and they have long forgotten the expectations and beliefs in their chests when they read history books!All kinds of book business spirits at the beginning have now become full of darkness, and their yearning for light has long been hidden by darkness...

In order to climb up, for more power, for gold, silver and money, these people don't even care about the last bit of shame. How can such people treat the people kindly?How can such a person deserve to be an official?

Jiang Yuan slammed a fist on the table in front of him, punching a big hole in the table made of high-quality mahogany...

The shape of the hole is like a mouth, mocking Song Chen, noble family, and the whole Jiangnan...