The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

Ouyang Xiu made a decisive decision and withdrew the soldiers surrounding the inn, because there was no need to mobilize the crowd, and Su Jin had no intention of resisting or running away. They will immediately go to Beijing with him.

After the banquet was served, the two sat down. This was the first time that the two drank at the same table in Yangzhou, but they did not expect to sit together under such circumstances.

"Master Zhongcheng, if you have any questions, just ask, and the officials will answer you." Su Jin put down his wine glass, raised the jug and graciously helped Ouyang Xiu fill it up.

"I have many questions. First of all, why did you go by land instead of water? Don't you know that bandits are rampant on the official road?"

"I really didn't know that the banditry was so serious. The officials only knew that there were bandits in Bagong Mountain, but they really didn't know that the banditry was so serious. However, it was forced by the situation to transport grain by land. In the year of severe drought, the Feishui River in Luzhou And the canals in Yangzhou are nearly exhausted, and large ships cannot pass through. If the delay in transshipment by small boats is too long, the situation in Yangzhou will not be delayed."

Ouyang Xiu nodded and said, "That's right, but since the land bandits are rampant, why don't you invite Luzhou Xiang soldiers to cooperate in transporting food?"

"Actually, it is not the most important thing whether the guards are escorting or not. Even if there are thousands of bandits coming to rob food in the 600-horse army, they are not afraid; and the bandits in Bagong Mountain only dispatched [-] to [-] people when they robbed food. According to common sense , such a thing will never happen.”

Ouyang Xiudao: "You mean the Ma Jun didn't resist at all?"

Su Jin nodded and said: "That's right. According to what the two heads of Ma Jun said, in Liangyuan Township that night, Long Zhen didn't even give an order to fight. When he saw bandits, he immediately ordered to retreat, and he almost handed over the food. Sending it out will really make people angry."

Ouyang Xiu frowned and said, "Is that really the case?"

Su Jin said: "Do you dare to talk nonsense about this matter? With the confessions of Majun Dutou and Zhao Dutou as evidence, if you don't believe me, you can call Ma Jun soldiers for questioning."

Ouyang Xiu picked up his wine glass and drank it dry, cursing: "This Long Zhen is really lawless, where is he? I heard that you detained him once?"

Su Jin said: "He has been detained and is about to be escorted to Beijing for trial."

Su Jin dare not say that Long Zhen has escaped. Once Ouyang Xiu knows that Long Zhen has escaped, he will never hide the matter of the military rations for himself, because if Long Zhen escapes from the city and returns to the stables, the matter of the military rations will basically be leaked .

"I have to find a time to meet him, you useless." Ouyang Xiu scolded.

Su Jin smiled and said: "My lord, calm down, don't your lord think it's strange that Long Zhen abandons food and runs away?"

Ouyang Xiu pretended not to know, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Su Jin said: "He is the commander of a small pony army, and he came with me on an errand. The matter of escorting food is so important, will he not understand the serious relationship here? Running away when you see the bandits is not in line with reason; could it be that Ma Jun is all worthless?"

Ouyang Xiudao: "What do you want to say?"

Su Jin secretly scolded the old fox, but he didn't want to make a detour, so he said: "At the beginning, he procrastinated in Luzhou for many days, and then he abandoned the grain and fled. A thread was strung together, and the officials suspected that someone was behind him."

Ouyang Xiu was startled and said, "Who do you think ordered it?"

Su Jin spread his hands and said: "How do I know? This person clearly doesn't want me to complete the errand. As for who it is, I can only ask the adults to help me analyze it."

Ouyang Xiu shook his head and said: "You worry too much, maybe it's just that Long Zhen is greedy for life and afraid of death."

Su Jin knew that Ouyang Xiu would never guess the instigation in front of his face, and said with a smile: "I hope, but if I find out who it is, the lower officials will never let this person go."

Ouyang Xiu felt like a bright mirror in his heart. Although Su Jin was guessing, Long Zhen's behavior was indeed abnormal, and this guess was somewhat reasonable. As for who was instigating behind the scenes, there was almost no need to think about it. Who could instigate Long Zhen? He But the general of the imperial army, the person who can instruct him must be a high-ranking and powerful person, and he is targeting the food affairs. Obviously, the target is not against Su Jin, but the third department in charge of food affairs; so who is behind the scenes? The water came out with a whimper.

But Ouyang Xiu knew that there was no need to investigate this matter, and there would be no evidence for this kind of matter, unless the person produced written evidence and ordered Long Zhen to disrupt the situation, which would be a bit of a joke; but in fact, there will never be such a thing If the evidence exists, Long Zhen must accept verbal instigation. Even if Long Zhen confesses, the final result will inevitably be deemed as a false accusation; investigating such a thing is simply making himself uncomfortable.

"I advise you not to pursue this matter." Ouyang Xiu sincerely comforted Su Jin, if this kid messed up, he might make a big mistake again.

"After talking for a long time, the official's biggest question is that the bandits chose such a clever time and place to rob food. Is this still a bandit? And it is said that they were suppressed several times by the Luzhou and Shouzhou armies. They dared to use five or six hundred bandits to rob food escorted by two hundred cavalry, isn't this a dead end?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "This is the first big gift that the lower official will give to Lord Ouyang; why would the bandits dare? Because someone tipped off the news."

Ouyang Xiu was shocked and said: "What? Someone tipped off the news? The eyes and ears of bandits?"

Su Jin said: "No, it's an official from Luzhou."

Ouyang Xiu shook his hand, the chopsticks almost slipped to the ground, his voice changed: "You mean someone is collaborating with bandits?"

Su Jindao: "I don't know if it's a bandit or not, but as soon as the food transport team set off, an official named Chen Laogen in Luzhou was ordered to send an official document to Suzhou City, and it was an urgent official document, limited to one day. arrive."

"Suzhou? What are you doing to Suzhou?"

"Because the shortest road from Luzhou to Suzhou must pass through the foot of Bagong Mountain, where the bandits control."

"The more you talk, the more confused I become."

Su Jin smiled and said: "At the beginning, I was very confused when I was dismissed as an official, but the official Chen Laogen is in my hands. According to his confession, when the horse army transported grain, he sent an urgent document out of the city, asking him to take a shortcut. The letter must be delivered within half a day, otherwise it will be severely punished; Chen Laogen knew that if he wanted to get there in one day, he could only go down Bagong Mountain, so he raised an objection, but was told that the banditry has been eliminated, so there is no need to worry.”

Ouyang Xiu heard some tricks and asked: "That is to say, this official document was sent to the bandits on purpose?"

Su Jin said: "Exactly, the content of the official document is the time and number of people who transported the grain, and this official document was intercepted by the bandits without any suspense."

Ouyang Xiu's complexion changed drastically, and he said in a deep voice, "Who sent someone to deliver the official document?"

Su Jin said lightly: "Zhu Shiyong, the prefect of Luzhou."

Ouyang Xiu shook his body and murmured: "Unexpectedly, how could it be him? Why did he do this?"

Su Jin said: "When I was in Luzhou, I had a festival with Zhu Shiyong and the Luzhou Chamber of Commerce. If Mr. Bao hadn't rescued me, I'm afraid I would have been exiled to a barbarian land at this moment."

Su Jinjiang talked about the grievances between Luzhou, the Chamber of Commerce, and Zhu Shiyong, and finally said: "When they learned that I was the special envoy for grain affairs, they must have felt fear, so they acted first, as long as I If I can't handle the errand, I will lose my job and be punished; the chamber of commerce and Zhu Shiyong colluded together, and the chamber of commerce also hoarded hundreds of thousands of shi of grain. I can’t run, so it’s no surprise that I’m their target.”

Ouyang Xiu said: "It must be so. I will take care of this matter. I will investigate and find out the truth, and give you justice."

Su Jin said in his heart: You conclude that this matter is only aimed at me personally and does not involve Yan Shu. Of course, you are in high spirits to investigate; if they are also ordered by the people above like Long Zhen, you will not let a fart go.

For Ouyang Xiu, this is indeed a great gift. It has been a year or two, and as an official of Yushitai, he has not come up with a big case that attracts attention, so he is a little bit idle; A big fish at the level of a fourth-rank magistrate came out. The case is settled, and it is another chance to be promoted; more importantly, this big fish has no background. Although it is rumored that Zhu Shiyong has a relationship with Lu Xiang, Lu Xiang doesn't seem to like him , Otherwise, he would be on the central waiting list anyway, Ouyang Xiu still has this political sensitivity.

"You will hand over the letter and Chen Laogen to me later, and I will start the investigation." Ouyang Xiu raised his glass to Su Jin happily.

Su Jin said: "The letter is gone, but Chen Laogen is alive and kicking."

Ouyang Xiu was stunned, thought for a while and said: "It's okay, I have my own way. If there is no physical evidence, I will find more witnesses. Shen Yaozu, the bandit chieftain, must have seen that letter, and maybe other little bosses have seen it too. This confession is enough."

Su Jin was stunned and said: "There is no physical evidence, just relying on personal evidence?"

Ouyang Xiu said proudly: "Others can't do it, but my Yushitai seems superfluous."

Su Jin cursed secretly, forgetting that Yu Shitai can even impeach officials based on rumors, let alone witnesses; unless they don't want to, as long as they stare at you, basically even the color of your underwear will be found out .

"The next official has a second big gift to give to your lord, and that is the self-confessions of the officials collected from Feng Huhu."

"Didn't all the confessions be handed over to the officer?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "My lord, forgive me, those are just the self-confessions of the current government officials. The Yangzhou government officials have changed several times. How could Feng Huo only control the officials of the prefect of Song Dynasty, and there are more than a dozen self-confessions The certificate is in the hands of the lower officials."

Ouyang Xiu was angry: "You are messing around, how dare you hide the evidence?"

Su Jin said: "Don't worry, my lord. I just don't want to cause trouble. After all, I'm just a special envoy for food affairs. I have involved so many people. Can I still handle food affairs? Some of them are officials in foreign state capitals, and some even He was promoted to an official in the Sixth Department of the Central Committee, and the lower officials can't afford to be provoked."

Ouyang Xiu said with a straight face: "Then hand over these confessions together with Chen Laogen."

Su Jin smiled and said, "No rush."

"Why are you in no hurry?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "My lord, please write the memorial first, requesting that the criminal officials in Yangzhou be executed locally, and then the subordinate officials will naturally hand over the evidence of these people."

"What, you actually bargained with me?" Ouyang Xiu was angry again.

"This... don't say it so harshly. Your lord votes for me, and the lower officials will naturally repay you with favors. This is mutual benefit. My lord will always remember my kindness. How do you think I will behave in the future? It's just now This matter is related to the head of the lower official, so how about allowing the lower official to act recklessly?"

Ouyang Xiu was so angry that this guy didn't see a rabbit or a hawk, so it seemed that he could only report the case first; Ouyang Xiu couldn't tell what it was like in his heart, and he didn't know whether he was walking on the broad road or stepping into the bottomless abyss.