I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 392: What official rank is the steward of the prime minister's residence?
The canal goes south.

At the Qingjiangpu Wharf in Huai'an City, three official ships were moored.

The first ship had a vertical flag flying on its mast, which read: "Retire and return home by imperial decree!"

The vertical flag hung on the mast of the second ship read: "Imperial Imperial Court Appointed Special Advancement Guanglu Dafu and Added Sikong Xu."

The vertical flag on the mast of the third ship read: "The Elders on the Stage."

The vertical flag fluttered in the wind under the bright sun, rustling and emitting an invisible aura of power that made the surrounding ships afraid to approach and only dared to anchor at a distance of fifty or sixty meters.

On the shore stood a row of strong servants, wearing round-necked rose shirts, cornered hats on their heads, black woolen boots, with their hands on their hips, looking very dignified.

Guard the pier and don't let anyone approach.

A group of people came over, the leader was wearing a silk robe and a big hat, he was in his thirties, with sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, and eagle-like eyes and tiger-like steps. There were four followers in front and behind.

As soon as he stepped onto the pier, a strong servant came forward and shouted, "Who are you? Do you know whose boat this is? How dare you rush forward recklessly? Be careful or you will be caught and taken to the government for a beating."

The group stopped, and the attendant in front walked forward calmly, took out a visiting card from his arms, and handed it over with both hands.

"Wang Yi'e, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, the governor-general of the grain transport and the admiral of military affairs, the governor of Fengyang and other places and the director of the river, pays a visit to his mentor, Mr. Xu."

When Jianpu heard the attendant finish reading, he was shocked and did not dare to delay. He quickly turned around and walked from the plank to the second official ship and handed the visiting card to the steward on duty.

The steward on duty today is called Li Changya. He used to be just a menial servant working in the Xu residence. By chance, he recognized Xu Kun's fourth concubine Li as his aunt, and after some persuasion, he was promoted to an important position.

When Xu Fan got into trouble, Xu Kun took charge and Li Changya's position rose accordingly. He was very smart and managed to please his "aunt" and "uncle", and was soon promoted to the position of external manager.

This man is uneducated and short-sighted. He only cares about money. He thinks he is the "steward of the prime minister's mansion" and does not care about officials below the third rank.

Another thing is that this guy looks down on local officials.

The third-rank Beijing officials are still interested in saying hello, but the local officials, haha, those above the third rank only have two nostrils for you.

When Xu Jie retired, Xiyuan issued several imperial edicts to commend him, and his grace and honor were unparalleled at the time.

When he left the capital, all the ministers and ministers were present, as well as a large number of nobles and relatives. Local officials along the way, from the provincial governor down, all flattered and tried their best to curry favor with him.

This broadened Li Changya's horizons.

In his eyes, local officials were all "exiled poor people" and there was no need to be polite to them.

It was his turn on duty today. He was sitting on the front deck of the second official ship, holding up a parasol and drinking tea, looking very proud and arrogant.

He pinched the visiting card with two fingers and pretended to look at it, and found that there was no remittance bill in the visiting card, which made Li Changya angry.

This is not taking me seriously!

Do you know who I am, sir?

Mr. Prime Minister, the butler of the powerful Prime Minister Xu Gong! You came to send a visiting card, but you didn't even include a bill of exchange. You really don't know the rules!
Do you know what rank the steward of the prime minister's residence is?
Unlimited rank, the official you meet is one rank higher!
it is good!
Today I will let you know what the rules are!

"The governor of grain transport, admiral of military affairs, governor of Fengyang and other places, and in charge of the waterways. What a useless official!" Li Changya asked in a drawn-out voice, humming through his nose.

In his eyes, a minister who left the capital was no longer a minister, but a local dog! If you are really capable, you should stay in the capital. The closer you are to the emperor, the more powerful you are!
This was his most simple thought.

The two servants in green hats behind him knew his temperament and said with a shy smile: "He must be an official who repairs the river, a hard and tiring job."

Another servant said, "I heard that the work of river repairmen is indeed hard, but they can really make money. I heard that a minister was ordered to go out of the capital to repair a river. He came back with a hundred boxes full of silver, more than a million taels."

Li Changya felt even more resentful in his heart, thinking, "You have earned so much money, but you don't even know how to share some with me, your master."

If you want to see Xu Xiang, just wait patiently.

He casually threw the visiting card onto the deck and said to the servant, "Tell Mr. Wang that Prime Minister Xu is taking a nap. Ask him to wait."

"Yes!"

Xu Jie was in the cabin of his ship, bending over his desk and writing.

"Being indifferent leads to a clear ambition, being calm leads to a long-term goal!"

A line of big characters appeared on the snow-white rice paper.

Xu Kun, who was serving beside him, praised him repeatedly, saying, "Father's calligraphy has reached a new level. After retiring, he suddenly became enlightened. The structure and strokes of these characters show a completely different atmosphere."

Xu Jie looked up at him and put the brush on the pen holder.

"Take it. I have an appointment with Zijian, he should be here soon."

"Yes, father." Xu Kun asked as he packed up, "Father, are you increasingly optimistic about Wang Zijian?"

"In terms of overall planning and managing the whole, Wang Zijian may not be as good as Zhang Shu, but he has his own advantages. He has served as a local official, suppressed the Japanese, fought in wars, and managed politics and the military. He has experience in all of these.

The one in Xiyuan was more familiar with Han Feizi than Shangshu and Liji, and believed in "So the officials of a wise ruler, the prime ministers must come from the prefectures and counties, and the brave generals must come from the ranks."

In this regard, Wang Zijian has a better future than Zhang Shuda. Moreover, Wang Zijian has an even greater advantage. "

"Father, what is the greater advantage?" "Wang Zijian was the 80th Jinshi of the second class of the Guichou exam in the 32nd year of the Jiajing reign. He was 19 years old at the time. He worked in many places and became the Minister of the Ministry of War for his meritorious service. He is only 36 years old this year.

A thirty-six-year-old minister! Some people didn’t even pass the imperial examination at the age of thirty-six. How many people are ahead of him in this step? "

Xu Kun was envious and jealous. A 36-year-old assistant minister would probably be promoted to a minister at the age of 40. He didn't have to do anything and could enter the cabinet just by accumulating experience.

There was one more thing Xu Jie didn't say. In addition to being optimistic about Wang Yi'e, the more important point was that he now discovered that Zhang Juzheng seemed to be out of his control, had grown powerful, and might not necessarily listen to what he said.

Whether he can spend his old age in peace and the prosperity of his descendants and grandchildren cannot be entirely pinned on him alone, and he must find someone else to bet on.

Xu Jie looked at the clock on the table next to him and frowned, "Why hasn't Zijian come yet? What delayed him?"

Xu Kun's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Wang Yi'e saw that his father had retired and was no longer popular, so he made up an excuse not to come? If so, it would be too embarrassing.

Suddenly, a shout came in from outside on the wind.

"Master, my disciple Wang Yi'e wants to see you!"

Xu Jie's face changed, and he pointed at Xu Kun and said sternly: "Go and see what's going on right now!"

After just a few minutes, Xu Kun led Wang Yi'e in.

As soon as he entered the cabin, he bowed and said with a smile: "Master, your boat is really hard to get on."

Xu Jie's eyes flashed with ferocity, and he stared at Xu Kun and asked.

"What happened?"

Xu Kun looked embarrassed and nodded without saying anything.

Wang Yi'e smiled and said, "It's not worth it for the on-duty manager to be angry about the villain's behavior."

Xu Jie glared at Xu Kun fiercely, forced a smile, invited Wang Yi'e to sit down, and ordered tea.

"Zijian is right. You seem to be in a hurry, so you must be rushing back from somewhere else."

"The Caojun in Gaoyou is causing trouble again. Let us go and suppress them."

"Nothing serious happened, right?"

"What can happen? These Cao troops are strong on the outside but weak on the inside. If you are soft, they will be hard. If you are hard, they will be soft immediately."

Xu Jie stroked his beard and exclaimed: "Zi Jian has been managing the grain transport for more than a year, and has achieved considerable results and made many achievements."

Wang Yi'e laughed, "My dear teacher, you are too kind. I am only a maintenance officer in the position of the Director of the Canal. The problems of the canal transportation are too deep, and they are related to the Yellow River and the Huai River. We can only wait until Mr. Pan has achieved good results in controlling the Yellow River and the Huai River before we can deal with these scoundrels."

In the past two years, the students have been maintaining order, firstly to reduce the loss of grain transport, and secondly to clear the contraband on the grain ships. "

Xu Jie said: "I know that since Zijian took over the management of the grain transport, the annual grain transport loss has dropped from 800,000 dan to less than 200,000 dan. What a capable minister!"

"Thank you, Master. The accounting and auditing staff of the Shaofu Supervisor can find all kinds of bad accounts. I borrowed two groups of accounting and auditing staff from Eunuch Yang, and then checked the accounts one by one.

They were checking the accounts inside, and I was waiting outside with a knife. If I found anyone who was corrupt, I would put the knife to his neck and tell him to confess or not.

Thousands of corrupt officials were killed, and the losses were falling rapidly. Some people are useless to reason with, they pretend to be confused, and once they see blood, they will become clear-headed. "

Xu Jie nodded with a smile and sighed inwardly.

Wang Yi'e's style of doing things is becoming more and more characteristic of Xiyuan.

have a future!
It seems that he has more prospects than he thought.

"As for smuggling, in the past, each ship of the grain transport troops could smuggle a certain amount of goods to the south or north, and they were exempt from commercial taxes. Therefore, these grain transport troops were not concerned with grain transport, but with smuggling, and only cared about making their own money.

The students set up new rules: smuggling is allowed, but there is no tax exemption, only tax reduction and preferential treatment. Secondly, you are allowed to smuggle goods only if you complete the grain transport on time. For example, if you transport grain to Tongzhou on time and the loss is less than the prescribed amount, you are allowed to smuggle goods south.

If you deliver military equipment, wool and other materials to Danyang on schedule and the loss is lower than the stipulated amount, you will be allowed to smuggle the goods north. You will also have to pay taxes after that."

Xu Jie was also well versed in government affairs, so he understood immediately and asked with a smile, "How could those Caojun rats agree to this?"

"Master, you are right. How could they possibly agree? It's just that I don't like to be reasoned with. You have to agree even if they don't want to. Otherwise, don't bring any yarn or candy with you.

So, in addition to the nickname Wang Yuying, the student also gained the nickname Wang Manzi. "

Xu Jie raised his head and laughed heartily. His expression was as if he was very pleased to see the progress of his juniors.

"Fortunately, shipping is well developed nowadays, and more and more cargo is transported north and south by sea, which gives students great confidence and they are no longer worried about the threat of these grain transport troops to stop shipping.

If they dare to stop the operation, the disciples will dare to kill people. They will lose their lives, but the disciples will not delay the operation. The canal soldiers know this well. "

After chatting for more than twenty minutes, Xu Jie waved his hand, signaling everyone around him to leave.

"Zijian, I want to tell you something important."

Seeing Xu Jie's serious expression, Wang Yi'e sat up straight and replied solemnly: "Master, please speak clearly!"

(End of this chapter)