The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

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Shi Jie's house is in Jiming Alley, which is across the alley from Guozijian. Guozijian said that this official is not a big one, but only a sixth-rank official, let alone Qingshui Yamen, so Shi Jie lived in poverty.

Shi Jie is also a literati, who has all the stinks of literati, and likes to collect some good study rooms. In this way, most of his limited salary is spent on them, and the rest of the money can only be hired in addition to daily expenses. A cook and a servant are lost.

That Jin Geer is Shi Jie's personal servant. When Jin Geer was 14 years old, Shi Jie worked as an observer in Yunzhou. Jin Geer had no food to eat and stole things on the street. After leaving him, seeing that others are smart, he stayed by his side as a servant.

Fast forward ten years, Shi Jie went from the observation officer of Yunzhou to the secretary of the Zhennan Army Jiedu to the Jiazhou General Judge, and even now the Guozijian straight talk, went through several positions, three or four state capitals, Jin Geer has been following Shi Jie served by his side, ten years later, Jin Geer has also grown from a 14-year-old boy to a 24-year-old young man. [

After Shi Jie was arrested, Jin Geer seemed very flustered, but it was understandable. When the owner of the family was arrested, people naturally panicked at the moment. After a few days, Jin Geer recovered, except for normal handling of family affairs , and asked someone to send money to visit Shi Jie once, and the master and the servant cried endlessly.

In the eyes of outsiders, Jin Geer is definitely a loyal servant.

However, Su Jin suspected that he had fallen for this brother Jin. Since Shi Jie and Fu Bi were temporarily determined to be innocent, they could only think about the problem from this standpoint. A goldsmith carved two seals of the same material, font and size for himself, but even if they were made by the same person, there are many distinguishable features between the two seals.

From this, Su Jin denied the fact that it was the two seals, and compared the correspondence between the two people found from Shi Jie and Fu Bi's home, he came to the positive conclusion that the seal on the fake letterhead Definitely the one from Shijie.

This leads to two more theories. One is that Shi Jie's seal was lost but Shi Jie didn't know about it. If it is placed somewhere in the house, the counterfeiter will also need trouble. Send a gentleman from Liangshang to sneak in, seal it and return the thing to the original place. It can be said that no one knows it.

The second possibility can only be that the prison guard has stolen it, and if it is the second possibility, the biggest suspect is Jin Geer.

The first possibility cannot be verified for the time being. Su Jin can only start the investigation from Jin Geer. For two days in a row, Su Jin's people have been watching around Shi Jie's mansion, but they found nothing in two days. Jin Geer The daily schedule is very normal. I get up early in the morning, clean the yard as usual, and then clean up the house. I am very busy, or I go out to buy some necessities such as rice grains. I can’t see anything unusual.

Zhao Hu, who was in charge of stalking, couldn't bear it anymore, and suggested that Jin Ge'er should be arrested and questioned directly. Su Jin reprimanded him and asked him to stalk patiently, what he did every day, where he went, and what Everyone needs to feel it clearly.

Zhao Hunai had no choice but to lead someone to follow him. After two boring days, someone finally reported that Brother Jin had left the house with a package on his back, as if he was about to go on a long journey.

After receiving the news, Su Jin hurried to the west city of Bianliang in a cart. The news sent by Zhao Hu was that Jin Geer went west and went straight to Liangmen.

That brother Jin seemed to be extremely vigilant, walking on the road looking around from time to time, Su Jin ordered him to stay far away, and he must not be caught being followed; the farther to the west of the city, the fewer pedestrians on the road, after passing the Wu Qi Temple, there is almost It was all in the wilderness, Su Jin couldn't let this big group of people follow him anymore, so he ordered Zhao Hu and another follower to follow him, and the three of them pretended to be hurrying pedestrians and walked far behind.

There is a fork in the avenue beside the Wuqi Temple. In the blink of an eye, Jin Geer, who was walking in front, disappeared at the fork. The withered grass and thorns on both sides are the best hiding places. Su Jin is worried that Jin Geer will find out I was being followed, so I hid in the bushes and watched, so I whispered to Zhao Hu and the guard to walk by without looking sideways, until they walked hundreds of steps ahead, and then they made a gesture and the three sneaked into the side of the road squatted down in the grass.

After waiting for a long time, Jin Geer did not follow up. Su Jin concluded that Jin Geer must have left from the side road. The three of them turned back, turned on the side road, and walked forward under the cover of grass. , suddenly there was a rattling noise in front, and the three of them hurriedly moved forward slowly from the grass, pushing aside the cold long grass and thorns, and vaguely saw Jin Geer bending over beside a grave Planing something.

The three of them looked at each other, is this brother Jin actually a tomb robber?Why go to the wilderness to dig other people's graves?

The three of them watched with bated breath, and saw that Jin Geer had a lot of fun digging, and soon dug a big hole in a grave. After making no sound, he bent down and stretched out his hand to take out a small iron box from the soil. Su Jin looked at it, and saw that Jin Geer opened the iron box, took out two ingots of silver and kicked it in his arms. In the tomb bag, it is piled up with soil and covered with turf, which looks like an old tomb.

After finishing all this, Jin Geer wiped his sweat, stuffed the small hoe into the bag, washed his hands and feet in the puddle on one side, got up and left the side road to go back to the city.

The three of them dared to speak softly after Brother Jin left, Zhao Hu said: "What is this guy doing so sneakily? You are careful enough to bury the silver here, are you afraid of attracting thieves?"

Su Jin waved his hand and said, "Dig out that iron box and get it out."

Zhao Hu and the guards took out their waist knives and dug randomly. After a while, they dug out the iron box. When they opened it, there were more than 20 silver ingots neatly arranged inside. Look, the total is about nearly 300 taels of silver. [

Su Jin sneered and said: "It's a huge sum of money, 300 taels of silver, and ordinary people can't earn so much in a lifetime, but this brother Jin is quite good at making money."

Zhao Hu said: "Could it be Jin Geer who collected Shi Jie's money and hid it here, fearing that his home would be confiscated?"

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Su Jin said: "It's not difficult to deal with. Just ask Shi Jie and you will know the clue. Shi Jie should be very clear about how much money he has."

The three of them returned the same way, went straight to the prison, and asked Shi Jie about this matter. Shi Jie opened his mouth wide and shook his head for a while and said, "Where do I get so much extra money? I am a sixth-rank official, and my monthly salary is only fifteen guan." , five guan of firewood, plus five bolts of silk cloth, and some other subsidies do not exceed 300 guan in total. The monthly expenses are tight, where is the balance of money? Jin Geer has complained more than once that there is not enough money For the cost, I borrowed [-] taels of money from Yan Guo a few years ago, and the [-] taels of silver are definitely not mine."

Su Jin smiled and said: "This time you should know that Brother Jin is not easy. If you say that he worked as a servant in your family and saved the 300 taels of silver in ten years, I would never believe it. Yours, the wages plus the extra money saved may not be enough, your salary is not high, you should pay him no more than three per month."

Shi Jie said: "How can there be three rounds, only one round and eight rounds."

Zhao Hu shook his head at the side, this Shi Jie is terribly stingy, when he was working as a nursing home with the young master, the young master was still an official businessman, so he paid five guan a month's salary, and now the one-month dynasty Ma Han and With the 150 guan a month for himself and others, plus the salary of the commander of the Ma Jun, Zhao Hu himself not only supported his mother and Aunt Zhao's family, but also saved thousands of guan in Yinzhuang; They are also the same people at the moment, and the difference in treatment is too great.

"A consistent eight? Well, ten years and 120 months, if calculated as two strings, you can only save 240 strings, which is only 200 taels of silver; Jin Geer's source of money is quite interesting.",

Shi Jie vaguely guessed something, and couldn't hide the pain on his face. His feelings for Jin Geer really treated him like a brother. He didn't marry a wife and had no children. Jin Geer seemed to be his relatives. The betrayal of a loved one, this feeling is extremely bad.

"Master Su, do a thorough investigation, you can't wrong a good person," Shi Jie said.

Su Jin smiled and said: "Don't worry, I won't wrong the good people, but I won't let the bad people go wrong either. You should be happy. I think it won't take long before your charges can be cleared."

……

That night, Jin Geer was well dressed, left the house through the back door, and came to a brothel in Xijier Hutong. It seemed that the old bustard knew him very well. The smirking Jin Geer went upstairs.

Su Jin led Zhao Hu into the yard swaggeringly. He was handsome at first, and he was dressed like a gentleman of Guijie. Suddenly, a lot of vulgar powder pounced on him, pulling his arms , Hugging thighs hugging thighs, Yingying babbled endlessly.

Zhao Hu stepped forward and swung seven or eight fans to one side or the other with his arm, clenched his fists and angrily said: "Whoever comes to pester you again, be careful of my fists."

All the fans scolded again and again, spat all over the floor, and cursed inwardly: Come to the yard to not have fun, and send people out of the way, such a ignorant person who doesn't know how to pity and cherish jade, is really a vulgar person; even if that young master is handsome Teach someone to itch somewhere, but since he doesn't understand the style, he doesn't care about serving him.

Su Jin grabbed Zhao Hu and smiled and apologized, and the women stopped scolding. The old bustard, who had half a catty of white powder on his face, stepped forward and said, "This little official has a tight face. It's the first time I come here. Right? The girls here are all immortals, so hurry up and pick one, I'll give you MNY."

Su Jin said with a smile: "It is indeed the first time to visit Baodi, but today I am not here to have fun, but to inquire about something."

The smile on the old bustard's face disappeared immediately, and he said coldly: "Our place is not a teahouse. If you ask people, go to the street of the teahouse. We don't have time to chat with people...Talk...Talk..."

After pulling for a long time, I couldn't get it out, because Su Jin had already taken out a silver ingot with a smile. Judging by the weight, it must be an official five-liang silver ingot. Of course, the old bustard couldn't get it out.

"Come make tea and find a clean room. I'll ask you a few words. If you answer, this ingot will be yours." Su Jin smiled.

"Oh, the little official's order, how can I not obey, Xiaohong, hurry up and tidy up the private room, serve a pot of good lotus tea, and get two plates of fruit, go quickly, damn girl, just stare blankly. What?" The thick powder on the old bustard's face fell off with the sudden change of expression, just like the lime peeling off the wall, Su Jin was terrified to see it. [