Be a small county magistrate in ancient times

Chapter 301: Hong Deyu's End
Wei Fangyun agreed, "That's the truth."

Meng Changqing spoke to the other party normally, but he was thinking about what he had just said. Are there many people coming to Beishan County?

Who would put someone around her? If the prince had the chance, he would definitely send someone over, but now Zou Duyu, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, is the third prince's man, and the attitude of the minister of the Ministry of Personnel is unclear. It is hard to say whether the prince can reach into the Ministry of Personnel.

On the surface, the current emperor is in his prime and the situation in the court is stable.

But in Meng Changqing's eyes, it was not like that. She had to take care of not only the present, but also the future. The Third Prince had already jumped out to fight with the Crown Prince, and the Emperor had no clear attitude towards this. Who would sit on the throne in the future? It was hard to say.

Just from Wei Fangyun's words, Meng Changqing associated many things. Fortunately, she was used to multitasking, and although she was full of suspicion in her heart, she didn't show anything on her face.

As for Yang Zheng, he indeed did not wait for Meng Changqing to return from the government office. He pulled Lai Cai to be a witness and gave the account book and keys to Qi Renli.

It stands to reason that it is inappropriate to ask Lai Cai to be a witness, but there are too many inappropriate things in the Beishan County Court at present, so this matter is not so strange.

Qi Renli had just returned from Dazhou and hadn't even had a good night's sleep when he was thrown into the pile of account books.

He never imagined that in such a small county like Beishan with such a small population, there would be so many accounts of various kinds.

It took me several nights in a row to sort out the account books and finally take over the warehouse's incoming and outgoing accounts.

Only at this moment did he know what despair was.

Previously I thought there was something wrong with the accounts. How could the county government have so little money? Now that I have sorted it out, I realize that this pitiful number is correct.

Thinking about the debts he had to pay off at the end of the year, as an official, he still had to ask his family for money.

As Lord Meng said, making money is the most important thing in Beishan County at the moment.

On this day, after another sleepless night, Qi Renli got up from the bed with a tired face. Qi Rui, who was combing his hair, was shocked, "Young Master, you didn't get a good rest again at night?" He was still polite, but what he was actually thinking was, there must be a demon in this room, which would catch his young master and suck his yang energy at night.

Qi Renli pressed his eyes and said, "Go get some water."

"Master, why don't you sleep a little longer?" What he wanted to ask was, why don't you sleep in another room.

"Stop talking nonsense. We still have to go to the mountain with Mr. Xu today. We can't waste time." Once people don't get enough rest, they will lack energy, and their mood will become irritable, and the tone of their speech will be different from before.

Although Qi Rui had been serving Qi Renli since he was a child, there was still a difference between master and servant. Once the master got angry, he naturally dared not say anything and quickly obeyed his orders.

Qi Renli had a simple meal in the yamen, then took Ma Laifu and others to the place where Boss Xu was temporarily staying.

Boss Xu was the master who raised silkworms, whom Qi Renli brought back from Hongfu Village.

He and his old wife came to Beishan County, and after a brief adaptation, they followed the yamen runners to the east and west sides of the mountains every day to see which place in the mountains was suitable for raising tussah silkworms.

After running around for a few days, I finally found a few suitable places for him. Today I am going to take Lord Qi to the mountain to see them.

"Can Uncle Xu set off now?"

As they had agreed on it yesterday, Boss Xu naturally made preparations early and waited for him at home.

Boss Xu followed the people from the yamen up the mountain, leaving his old wife Hua Erya at home to figure out some odd things to pass the time.

Hua Erya was sitting on a small stool, weaving straw sandals in her hands. Just as she was dozing off, she heard someone knocking on the door. She stretched her neck to look outside, and before she could see who was outside clearly, she heard the person outside happily shouting, "Mom!"

"Oh!" Hua Erya dropped what she was holding and happily went to open the door. "Why are you here?"

Outside the courtyard gate, there was not only Hua Erya's daughter Xu Yang, but also her son-in-law and two familiar-looking yamen runners.

"Mom." Zheng Lin greeted with a smile, "My dad is not here?"

"Your father has taken the adults up the mountain, and they won't be back until noon at the earliest." Hua Erya invited everyone to go into the house.

The bailiffs were tactful. They sent the man to the door and then left, making the excuse that they had other things to do.

Zheng Lin took out a handful of copper coins and secretly stuffed them into the two yamen runners' pockets. "Thank you for picking us up. Please accept this little bit of hard work."

The yamen runner smiled and took it, "No wonder Shopkeeper Zheng's business is so good."

"Okay, go in now. When you leave, tell the government office and we brothers will take you back."

"Thank you! Thank you very much!"

After watching the bailiff leave, Zheng Lin and Xu Yang helped their mother into the house. "Mom, are you doing well here?"

"Okay, the government here is very nice to us. They said they want to learn your father's silkworm-raising skills and really treat your father as their master. Even the officials in the yamen are very polite to us." While speaking, Hua Erya was about to get the teapot from the stove. Seeing this, Zheng Lin quickly picked it up himself and took three empty bowls to the inner room.

"Why are you here?" Hua Erya asked her daughter, "Is someone trying to embarrass you?"

"No. I haven't seen you for a few days, so I came to see if you are okay here." Just as Xu Yang said this, Zheng Lin continued, "No one dares to embarrass us now, the Hong family is gone.

Hong Deyu was imprisoned, and his housekeeper wanted to join other merchants to rescue him. It would have been better if they hadn't rescued him, but when they did, Hong Deyu committed suicide in prison. "

When the old lady first heard that someone had died, she felt a little uneasy. "This person has done enough evil and enjoyed enough happiness. Death is nothing. But why would a person like him commit suicide?" The old lady was a little skeptical.

"No one believed it, but the person was dead. The straw mat was thrown out." Zheng Lin continued, "The housekeeper was looking for people to save Hong Deyu before, but when the person was thrown out, he went to see it. He lifted the straw mat and saw that the person was really dead. This guy turned around and ran away.

Hong Deyu was so powerful when he was alive, who would have thought that after his death there was no one to collect his body.

All those people from the Hong family ran away."

The old lady sighed, not because she felt sorry for Hong Deyu, but simply because she felt that fate was playing tricks on her.

"Mom, the Hong family is gone, which is a happy event." Zheng Lin said, "The government raided the Hong family's house and found the account book of the Hong family's rent this year. They returned all the rent collected this year, and also returned the rent paid by our family.

Yangyang, quickly take out the money and give it to mother."

Xu Yang took out the money he had been keeping in his arms and put it in her mother's hand.

"You guys take it." The old lady pushed it back, "Zheng Lin has helped the family a lot over the years. The previous rent was originally paid by Zheng Lin."

Zheng Lin said: "Mom, we are one family and we don't have different opinions. It's not yours or mine. It's all family money.

Besides, you are far away from us now, and you don’t have any money on you, so Yangyang and I are worried.”