The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 176
"My lord, a group of people came from outside the city, claiming to be inspecting the censor, they have already entered the city and are coming to the county government..."

"what?"

The servant rushed into the study with a panicked face, stood up in shock as Wu Hong was practicing calligraphy, and dropped the brush in his hand on the table.

"Crack! It's fucking unlucky, this can be selected..."

After calming down, Wu Hong slapped the table fiercely, cursed in anger, but had no choice but to leave the study in a hurry and head for the gate of the yamen.

He had just received a notification from the cabinet yesterday that the Ministry of Household Affairs would randomly select ten counties and dispatch ten batches of inspectors to verify the data on the acreage reported by each county this time, and ask the selected counties to fully cooperate and not interfere.

And there are at least a hundred counties in Nanzhili, and one out of ten draws can be drawn in Dingyuan County. Isn't this bad luck for eight lifetimes?
At this moment, the entire yamen obviously heard about the inspection of the censor, and all the officials were in a panic.

Wu Hong was not in the mood to care about them. When he came to the gate of the county government office, he saw a large group of people approaching not far away.

Seeing a civil servant in the head followed by one or two hundred scholars in long gowns, Wu Hong's scalp suddenly went numb.

As for the civil servants behind them, their legs softened, and they almost collapsed on the ground without being frightened. This battle was really scary.

"Haha, Brother Yongnian, I haven't seen you in half a year, but I really want to be my brother."

The civil servant at the head came up close and saw Wu Hong's expression as if he had seen a ghost. He immediately laughed, stepped forward and greeted him affectionately.

"It turned out to be Brother Fang. Brother Fang's sudden killing made Brother Fang really lose his way!"

Wu Hong didn't expect that it was his classmate who came, so he quickly restrained his expression and responded with a smile. Although he knew each other, he didn't dare to relax in the slightest.

"Hehe, don't you want to give Brother Yongnian a surprise? At the beginning, Brother Yongnian suddenly became an inspection censor, and later became the magistrate of Dingyuan County. I was surprised and envious!"

The headed civil servant censor surnamed Fang Mingze, like Wu Hong, was also the first batch of new scholars in the Shenwu Dynasty. In order to compete for the inspector censor, the two sent a lot of money to the Minister of the Ministry of Officials and wanted to go to inspect , and then get the actual deficiency.

However, Fang Ze was still defeated by Wu Hong because of his lack of financial resources. Later, Wu Hong found out that there was a problem with the original Dingyuanzhi County, and took his place.

Fang Ze, who was still sitting on the bench at the beginning, was envious and jealous, so he got angry this time, and he just borrowed a huge sum of money from the bank, and successfully won the quota of an inspector censor .

Who would have thought that Dingyuan County would be drawn again in the lottery, and it was so refreshing in my heart, I wished I could fly over with my wings immediately.

"Hehe, Brother Fang was joking. We are all new Jinshi scholars of the Shenwu Dynasty. We are really in short supply. It will be a matter of time before we contribute to the country. We need to support each other in the future."

"Brother Yongnian said exactly what he said."

Fang Ze nodded with a smile, but said in his heart that if he wants to support him, he will have to wait until I have made meritorious service as the county magistrate.

"Brother Fang, these are...?" Wu Hong didn't say any more, but looked at the crowd behind him.

"Hehe, these are the vice-envoys of this inspection. They are scholars who have just been admitted by the Ministry of Officials. Brother Yongnian must not know that the rules of the Ministry of Officials have changed. The newly admitted scholars are no longer directly awarded the rank of eighth-rank official, but Confer the official title of the ninth rank, and confer the official title of the eighth rank, if there is no meritorious service, it will take two years to be promoted to the outside, so everyone is waiting for the meritorious service this time."

Fang Ze explained with a smile.

Looking at those wolf-like eyes, Wu Hong's face twitched, and the officials behind him almost fainted from fright.

Almost everyone understands that these scholars are definitely not good people, not to mention bribery and accommodating, it is good not to be picky.

Although Wu Hong and a group of civil servants were very enthusiastic and wanted to clean up the dust and arrange accommodation for Fang Ze and others, in the end they still put their hot faces on their cold asses.

All the scholars choose to live in the inn, obviously they all know the truth of being short-handed and short-mouthed.

What's more, this time the Ministry of Households has allocated 500 taels of funds to each batch of inspection censors, which is enough for more than 200 people to eat and drink for half a month.

This time, in order to complete the verification as soon as possible, Ma Shiying sent out almost all the newly admitted scholars, nearly 2000 people.

The style of writing in the south of the Yangtze River is flourishing, and there are as many scholars as dogs. In addition, Zhu Cihong has spoken again, asking the Ministry of Officials to recruit more to prepare for the new policies of the provinces, so the Minister of the Ministry of Officials can't wait to recruit all the scholars.

However, most of those who actually came to sign up for the assessment were self-aware or elderly scholars.

Some young people, who thought they could pass the examinations and even Jinshi, decided to study hard for a few more years, and it would not be too late to take part in the examination by the Ministry of Officials after failing the rankings.

After all, once the record is filed in the Ministry of Officials and the official status is obtained, I am afraid that there will be no more imperial examinations in the future.

As a scholar, no matter how well he does, everyone knows that it is impossible to be a real high-ranking official.

But for these old scholars, it is enough to be a county magistrate or even a county magistrate in their lifetime.

Because of the new regulations of the Ministry of Officials, after two years without fault, you will be directly promoted to the ninth rank, after three years without fault, you will be promoted to the eighth rank, after four years, you will be promoted to the eighth rank, and after five years, you will be promoted to the seventh rank. The promotion time is shortened, and those who have made great contributions can be promoted exceptionally.

So even if you don't make any meritorious service, you can reach the seventh rank in 20 years. If you make a meritorious or great service during this period, the magistrate of a local county also has great expectations.

So the next day, almost before dawn, more than 200 people were divided into twelve teams. With soldiers and a lot of measuring tools, they rushed to their assigned towns for inspection.

At the beginning, a group of civil servants and small officials who were in charge of the towns had to accompany these scholars, and the [-] garrisons in Dingyuan County were all taken away.

Fang Ze, as the envoy this time, did not sit in the city, but chose the nearest Sanhe Town. Wu Hong had no choice but to accompany him to the countryside.

The two sat in sedan chairs, and the others could only follow on foot and on horseback. A group of people came to Sanhe Town in a mighty manner.

Several gentlemen and landowners in the town also wanted to catch up with him, but this time they met with ashes.

"Brother Yongnian seems to have a plan in mind."

Fang Ze was quite surprised to see that Wu Hong was always calm and composed.

"As the saying goes, being upright is not afraid of being crooked. If you are a brother or an official, you will benefit one side, so why should you be afraid of censorship?"

With his hands behind his back, Wu Hong said righteously.

But the officials around him were already sweating profusely and their legs were trembling.

Seeing this, Fang Ze didn't say anything more, just smiled and said directly: "Then let's start, bring the account book."

A scholar immediately handed over the account book that had been prepared long ago. This is the detailed data on the acres of land in Dingyuan County they copied from the Ministry of Households when they came here, how many towns there are, and how many acres of paddy fields, dry fields, and mulberry fields in each town. It is clear who they all belong to, and there is no need to obtain relevant data from the county government.

"Where is Hong Tianbao?"

"Go back to my lord, the old man is here."

"You have [-] acres of mulberry fields, [-] acres of paddy fields, and [-] acres of dry fields under your name, right?"

"Yes, my lord." Old Man Hong, the biggest landlord in Sanhe Town, stood up.

"Submit the title deed, and I will inspect it."

Old man Hong hesitated a little. He looked at the civil servants and Wu Hong at the side, but Wu Hong said coldly, "Why don't you bring the land deed soon? Are you looking for death?"

"Yes, sir, wait a moment..." Old man Wu nodded in fright, then ran back to the town, and came back with the land deed after a while, and handed it to Fang Ze with both hands.

"My lord, this is the land deed newly issued by the yamen to the old man, please have a look."

Fang Ze saw that the number on the land deed was the same as the data from the household department, nodded and returned the land deed to him, and then asked: "Which are your fields, point out all of them."

"My lord, the fields on the north bank belong to the old man's family, and there are some on the other bank."

"As for the dry fields, first point out the three thousand acres of dry fields."

Fang Ze saw that all the farmland on both sides of the strait was green, and sneered, it was obvious that the late rice had just been planted.

"The fields under my lord's feet are the dry fields of the old man's family. My lord, please see that there is no water in these fields, but they are real dry fields..."

The old man apparently drained all the water in the field last night.

"Hehe, this is the first time I've seen paddy fields that can grow rice. Do you really think that I don't know the five grains? I'm afraid it's not the water just released last night, right? Brother Yongnian, what do you think?"

As he spoke, he grabbed a handful of mud from the field and threw it on the ridge, and then asked the soldiers to pour water from the jug, and while washing their hands, they turned to look at Wu Hong.

"You idiot, how did you do it so poorly? You can't even tell the difference between paddy fields and dry fields?" Wu Hong turned his head and scolded the civil servants away.

"Forgive me, my lord. A while ago, the early rice had just been harvested, the fields were dry, and these evil gentry set fire to it. The officials didn't notice it for a while, and they were deceived." The civil official hurriedly defended.

"Is it negligent? Let's talk about it after measuring all the fields in Sanhe Town. Don't blame me for not reminding you. If you are negligent, you will be dismissed at most. But if the number of acres does not match, it will be false reporting and false reporting. You will be dismissed and investigated. He was handed over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for trial.

So next you have to remember clearly, don't make random identifications, think that you can tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, the official will only measure it once, don't kill yourself when the time comes, and blame the official for not reminding you. "

After Fang Ze finished speaking, he asked more than a dozen scholars to lead the soldiers to start measuring, and the civil servants in charge of Sanhe Town heard that they only measured once, so they didn't dare to make mistakes in case they made mistakes.

After all, Sanhe Town has more than 3 mu of land. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Household Affairs, only more than 30 mu of land can be wronged.

Since Sanhe Town is located on a plain, the surveying is fast and uncomplicated. In just ten days, more than 3 mu of farmland has been surveyed.

Seeing that there was not much difference in the number, and that it did not exceed the regulations of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Fang Ze was also quite surprised, his brows were frowned into the word Sichuan, but he could only say: "Records, after investigation and investigation of Sanhe Town, Yuan County, the reported field data is, There are 350 acres of mulberry fields, 3000 acres of paddy fields, and 35 acres of dry fields.

In fact, there are 360 mu of mulberry fields, 120 mu of paddy fields, and [-] mu of dry fields. The difference between the number of dry fields and the reported amount is nearly [-] mu. It is suspected that there is a phenomenon of favoritism. The official in charge, Liu Hong, No. A ..."

The scholar on the side quickly recorded, while the official in charge had already collapsed to the ground.

Wu Hong was expressionless, but he didn't expect that Fang Ze would show no mercy at all and wanted to drive them to death.

This can clearly be called negligence, but insisting on calling it malpractice for personal gain, clearly intending to step on their corpses to climb up, it is extremely shameless, not as good as a beast.

"Lord Fang, the number of acres of land is just right. The county government has limited manpower and lack of energy. It is understandable to be deceived for a while, and it is understandable to mistake paddy fields for dry fields. It is not appropriate to directly treat it as a malpractice for personal gain, right? "

"Master Wu's words are wrong. If it is dozens or hundreds of acres, it is indeed excusable, but a full ten thousand acres of paddy fields can be mistaken for dry fields. Is it not for personal gain or fraud?
What's more, I just enforce the law impartially and report the truth. As for how to judge, the Ministry of Household and Officials have their own decisions. "

Fang replied bluntly.

After speaking, he took the people back to the county directly.

In the next few days, other towns also completed inspections one after another, and the situation was similar to that of Sanhe Town.

Fang knew that this situation was reported, and at most he would dismiss the twelve responsible civil servants, and it would not be enough to kill Wu Hong, the county magistrate.

Now that he has been offended to death, if he is not completely ruined, his connections and family wealth will definitely take revenge on him in the future.

Thinking of this, Fang Ze separated all the civil servants and interrogated them one by one. The civil servants also knew that they couldn't hide it, and they all confessed honestly.

Seeing these clerks, although they all took money from the gentry and landlords, Wu Hong refused their filial money several times. Fang Ze also cursed angrily, secretly accusing Wu Hong of being cunning and insidious.

If Wu Hong took the money, at least he would not report it if he knew about it, serious dereliction of duty, plus he accepted bribes, he would definitely be dismissed.

But if the money is confiscated, you can refuse to admit it, and put all the responsibility on the head of the civil servants, at most, you will ignore it and record it.

Fang Ze really wanted to get some false evidence, but there were too many people who came this time, not to mention that Xinke Scholars could not be framed casually, so in the end he had no choice but to report the truth and wait for the official department's response.

Sure enough, the official document from the Ministry of Officials came down in just seven days.

Wu Hong, the magistrate of Dingyuan County, was negligent and recorded a demerit once. In addition to the previous meritorious service, the balance of merit and demerit is almost unaffected.

The twelve civil servants were only serious dereliction of duty, and there was no evidence of fraud. They were dismissed from office and returned to their places of origin.

Wu Hong laughed loudly when he saw the official document punished by the Ministry of Officials.

"The old man is wise, the minister is wise!"

"Brother Yongnian, this time I am doing things impartially for my brother, I hope brother Yongnian don't care about it!"

"Hmph, Mr. Fang, I am busy with business, so I will not accompany you." Wu Hong left the lobby without saying a word.

Fang Ze was unable to leave immediately, and even the officials chose to punish him lightly. The official statement must have been burned, and he had to make another copy and take it back, and delete the matter of collecting money from the landlords and gentry, otherwise he would also Don't go back.

All the scholars were also very disappointed and depressed. This kind of result everyone remembers a small merit at most once, and the expectation when everyone came here is too different.

(End of this chapter)