The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Song Xiang splashed ink, picked up a brush and wrote the three characters of Shouyilou, carefully replaced the inscription with a small pen, stamped his own calligraphy-specific private seal engraved with the word "Boxiang", put down the brush and wiped his hands while crooked. Looking down at the ink-stained handwriting, he asked with a smile, "The special envoy of the Soviet Union has seen it, can you return it?"

Su Jin saw that the handwriting had a correct skeleton, a decent layout, and a strong character in the characters, and sincerely praised: "Song Fuzun is such a good calligraphy, no wonder so many people flock to him to be proud of the Fuzun's calligraphy."

Song Xiang stroked his beard and said with a laugh: "For a reader, poetry and books are the center, and characters are the shape. The shape is outside the inside, and both are indispensable. Otherwise, how can you be regarded as a serious scholar."

Su Jin smiled and said, "I'm ashamed, I'm useless next time."

Song Xiang said: "You are different. You haven't entered an official position yet, so you can't be regarded as a serious scholar; but this is just the words of the old man's family. Special envoy Su's literary talent has long been heard in this house. I have a little free time in the future, and I want to discuss it with the special envoy. What about it?"

Seeing his complacent look, Su Jin thought to himself: Is a scholar amazing?Look at your virtue, you are blinded by others and you don't know it, and you are still complacent. Seeing that I have trampled on your cowhide, are you still happy?

It would take tea time for the ink to dry completely, so Su Jin walked over and dismissed the young man who was waiting at the door of the study, closed the door of the study and walked in front of Song Xiang.

Song Xiang was a little puzzled, this kid was sneaky and didn't know what to say.

"My lord, I have a big event here, I don't know if I should talk about it or not." Su Jin hesitated.

Song Xiang said: "The Special Envoy of Su speaks up whenever he has something to say. When did he become so reserved?"

"It's not because I'm reserved, I'm just afraid that speaking out will spoil the interest of the Lord Fu Zun, so I hesitate."

"But it doesn't matter. Do you want to search for food storage? It's not easy, but I really can't help you with this matter. If you want to find someone who is familiar with the situation, I will call Yangzhou Chang It’s just that Mr. Fan, the Secretary of Liquidation, is here to listen to your deployment and inquiry.”

Su Jin said with a smile: "I'm not busy, what I want to talk about is about the reputation of Mr. Fu Zun. I just learned about it today, and I really feel like I can't spit it out."

Song Xiang was surprised and said, "About me? This government has always kept itself clean, so what will happen to its reputation?"

Su Jindao: "Let me say it for the adults. If there is something, I will change it. If not, I will encourage it. But please seek the truth from the facts, because this is indeed related to the reputation of the adult, so I have to be cautious about it."

Seeing Su Jin's seriousness, Song Xiang nodded and said, "Master Special Envoy, don't try to be tricky, but just say it."

Su Jindao: "Just now I asked my lord for the words. My lord once said that I helped Mr. Guo write a pair of words for 'Fuguilou'? Besides, have you ever helped other people write the same words?"

Song Xiangdao: "Although the old man is not very proficient in calligraphy, and his ink characters are hard to compare with everyone else, he still cherishes himself with a broom, and I will not allow idlers to ask me to inscribe. It seems that "Fuguilou" is so vulgar. The plaque, if it is really embarrassing, how can you just inscribe it casually? It is the special envoy, and the government is also grateful for the special envoy to relieve my Yangzhou difficulties, so I agreed."

Su Jin nodded and said: "Thank you, Mr. Song, for your presence, but I saw a plaque of 'Fuguilou' inscribed by an adult on a private pavilion in Yangzhou. How can this be explained?"

Song Xiang asked in surprise, "Private pavilions? In the Yangzhou mansion?"

Su Jin smiled and nodded.

"It's absolutely impossible. I don't know if I don't know that the plaque inscribed by this government is the private house of one of his relatives. His house is far away in Daming Mansion. How can there be a second one in Yangzhou?"

Su Jin said: "But I saw it with my own eyes, and the owner of the house also said that the plaque was given by the lord of the house, which is amazing."

Song Xiang said: "Whose house? Don't you know the inscription by yourself?"

"The owner of that house is Mr. Feng Jingyao, who is kind and good at building roads and bridges to benefit Yangzhou. This time, my lord should remember."

Song Xiang looked confused, frowned and said: "I have never been in contact with him. Feng Jingyao asked someone to invite me a few times, but I don't like to make friends with big merchants, so I refused them all. Feng Jingyao also prepared gifts for me during the New Year's Day Here, but how can this government take his presents and return them one by one, without having a close friendship with him, how can there be an inscription as a gift?"

Su Jin carefully observed Song Xiang's face, trying to find evidence of Song Xiang's lying from his demeanor, but Song Xiang's expression was innocent, as if he was really puzzled, and his judgment became more firm in his heart. People took advantage of it.

"It's so strange. The Song Fuzun inscribed the plaque of 'Fuguilou' on Mr. Guo, the general judge, and there was no other time. How did this plaque get on the lintel of Feng Jingyao's private house? Could it be that Feng Jingyao was Guo? Your lord's relatives? Is this word begging for him?"

"It's absolutely impossible. Master Guo is from Huazhou in Lingnan, and Feng Jingyao is said to be from Xijing. The two places are separated by thousands of miles. How can they become relatives? Besides, Feng Jingyao had already settled in Yangzhou for more than ten years when this government became the magistrate of Yangzhou. Master Guo was transferred from the county magistrate of Huazhou by the imperial court to work with me, and the two have never met before, so there is absolutely no way they are relatives."

"That's it..." Su Jin pretended to think about it: "Is it possible that Guo Tongpan privately passed on the words you gave to Feng Jingyao? Maybe the two of them have a close relationship, and Feng Jingyao can't curry favor with you, the magistrate, so How about using this trick to show off and let everyone know that he has a close personal relationship with the magistrate?"

"This... is there any reason to transfer the plaque inscribed by others, and what's the use of Feng Jingyao hanging up this plaque? The government has no personal friendship with him, even if this plaque is hung, it can't change this fact."

Su Jin sighed: "Master Fu Zun, don't you know that there is a saying called 'make a banner by pulling a tiger's skin'? If a Yangzhou official sees the inscription of your lord, what will he think in his heart? His Excellency Fu is indeed selfless to this person. But others don't know the truth; at least as far as I am concerned, when I saw this plaque at first glance, my first reaction was: Your Majesty is very close to this Feng Jingyao, so that Feng Jingyao If I make any small request to this envoy, this envoy will not refuse it because of the face of the lord's personal relationship with him; to put it bluntly, this is using the prestige of the lord to show his own face."

Song Xiang frowned and said: "But, it is true that the government did not give him an inscription? It is too outrageous for Feng Jingyao to do so."

Su Jin leaned close to Song Xiang's ear and whispered: "This is the crux of the problem. How much do you know about Mr. Feng? Do you know what he did? Do you know that Feng Jingyao was How is the reputation among the people?"

Song Xiang shook his head blankly and said, "How can this government know such a thorough understanding of an irrelevant person."

Su Jin said: "This is the negligence of your lord. Just now you said that Feng Jingyao was willing to do good things and share the worries of the government. I don’t understand, it’s a bit outrageous.”

Song Xiang said anxiously: "I don't think of him as a prominent figure in my heart, he is the same as everyone else, he is the people under my Yangzhou rule, and there are hundreds of thousands of people under Yangzhou rule, so I can't figure it out one by one? "

Su Jin is completely speechless to him. This fool is simply unreasonable. His logic is actually good, but it is too dogmatic. As a parent and official, how can the people under his rule be treated equally? Classification, equal treatment is bullshit, can you treat lions and little white rabbits equally?The little white rabbit will let you touch and play with it, but the lion will swallow you before your hand touches him.

Su Jin sneered and said, "Your Majesty, I might as well tell you clearly that the envoy has already caught the evidence of Feng Jingyao's collusion and corruption of Yangzhou officials. , the envoy is only afraid that this matter will affect the Lord Fuzun, so he confided his heart to him; if Song Fuzun thinks that I, Su Jin, have troubles, then just pretend I didn't say it."

Song Xiang stared at Su Jin, and said hesitantly, "You mean... my Yangzhou officials and Feng Jingyao colluded to collect food for profit?"

Su Jindao: "I don't dare to say whether they colluded for profit, and there is still a lack of evidence, but under your Song Fuzun's rule, it is true that the corruption of officials was controlled by Feng Jingyao."

Song Xiang slapped the table and shouted: "Special Envoy Su, you must speak evidence, you can't just talk nonsense."

Su Jin slapped the table twice with a slap, and also shouted loudly: "Wake up Mr. Song, don't dream of ruling Qingping, your Yangzhou government is full of holes, your Most of the officials under the rule have been controlled by Feng Jingyao. Feng Jingyao privately stored more than one million shi of grain. You are still in the dark about these things. Your inscription is hung high in Feng Jingyao's private house. Su Jin write the name upside down!"