Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 470 Autumn Fu (26)

The Kun thieves did not kill officials to rebel, nor did they kill people and set fires everywhere. They also continued to bribe common people, gentry and scholars with small favors, deliberately creating a situation of peaceful coexistence.In this way, it will not attract the attention of Shangguan and the court.After all, up and down, more things are worse than less things.

"This group of thieves is really hateful!" Wu Mingjin said angrily.

"Don't worry about it, Dong Weng. The thieves still have a sense of propriety. Let them do what they want." Wang Zhaomin couldn't come up with any brilliant ideas, so he had to resort to the "ostrich policy".

"It has to be like this!" Wu Mingjin knew that he had three choices, either to commit suicide immediately, to kill himself and make a benevolent one, so that the thieves would lose their targets—but he couldn't bear to die like this, let alone his family; or he could abandon his official position and run away. , or sneak back to his hometown, or go to the prefectural or provincial capital for emergency - but the county magistrate has the responsibility to guard the land, and it is a felony to abandon his post and run away; in the end, he sends someone to the provincial capital for help - this is even more unreasonable. Qiongshan was in a hurry, and in the end, apart from a few letters, he didn't see a single soldier coming to suppress the bandits.Besides, it has been more than a year since Kun Bandit landed, and Shangfeng really wants to ask, what has he been doing for more than a year, and what answer will he give?

After much deliberation, there is really nothing to do except acquiesce in reality.

"What changes have been made in the county government office?" Since he intends to continue to pretend to be false, he must know the other party's actions.

"In addition to Chen Minggang, Zhang Shi was also arrested—" Wang Zhaomin explained in detail the personnel adjustments made by the Crossing Group in the county government, "In my opinion, most Australians will ask Dong Weng to dismiss all these people let's go."

"Then follow them!" Wu Mingjin thought that he had no choice but to do so until now, but these familiar hands were gone, and how to deal with future business affairs became a problem.

"There is no need to worry about that," Wang Zhaomin said, "the book office of the household house has made up for Zhou Qi—he is Chen Minggang's big apprentice, and he is as experienced as the envoy. The book offices of the four houses of officials, rites, workers, and soldiers are still in office. As for the third class leader..." Wang Zhaomin felt that it didn't matter if they were there or not.

As for the punishment room, there were not many cases to be handled in this county, and there were other clerks in the punishment room who could handle it on behalf of them. If one piece of Zhang was missing, it would not collapse for ten days.

Thinking about it this way, the problem is not too big.

"Master Xiong said that the fee for filling up vacancies in the book office remains the same—"

Wu Mingjin's eyelids twitched a bit. Whenever there is a vacancy in the book office, it is necessary to fill the vacancy. As usual, there is a fee to honor the county magistrate. Just like an official, there are different prices according to the size of the vacancy.Now that the robbers have captured two book offices in one go, the profit is not small!Wu Mingjin suddenly felt a little regretful—since he was arrested, wouldn't it be better to just arrest Liufang Book Office, anyway, the former Book Office wasn't necessarily loyal.

"...just arrested the clerk in the treasury."

Wu Mingjin was taken aback: "The Kun thief wants to rob the county treasury?"

"That's not true. They were just detained. They're still in the yamen." Wang Zhaomin said in a low voice, "The warehouse has been sealed and guarded. There are no other changes."

Lingao is a poor county, and there is not much oil and water in the county treasury.But there is no more oil and water, and there are hundreds of taels of silver, more than a thousand stones of grain, and a lot of cloth sundries in the treasury, which is not a small fortune.If you really want to grab everything, with Lingao's financial situation, the gap will not be filled within three to five years, and Wu Mingjin will not be able to explain to his successor when he leaves office.

In an empty room of the county government, the treasury officials who were arrested yesterday were all detained in it, awaiting interrogation.

It was You Guotuan who was in charge of the interrogation—Zhou Dongtian had already rushed to the "study class" to interrogate Chen Minggang and his group.The task of You Guotuan is to pry the mouths of the treasury officials, to find out how much wealth these Shushu rats have accumulated for themselves to fill the treasury of the Planning Commission, and to grasp the key points in it-they will take over more in the future. states and counties.

"Don't underestimate a few treasury officials." Dong Weiwei said, "Do you know who was the richest in Beijing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties?"

"Emperor? High-ranking officials, big treacherous ministers?"

"Haha, that's pretty much it. But the wealth of treasury officials is what the capital is famous for."

This treasury official is the treasury official who manages the treasury of the household department. It was an open secret in the society at that time that they stole and embezzled the household department's silver to make a fortune.

The situation in local yamen warehouses is similar. Although they are not as lucrative as the Ministry of Household Bank, they are still enough to make a fortune.In addition to the household clerks in the county government, the clerks in the two warehouses of silver and grain are the most lucrative.The so-called managing the treasury and eating the treasury, compared with their counterparts in the household department's treasury who just stuffed money in the anus and mainly stole, the treasury officials of the local yamen are much more technical, and there are as many cheating tricks as they can.

The simplest and "cleanest" trick is to use treasury silver to lend money to earn interest; silver and copper coins can be used to lend money, and in places like Lingao where the commodity economy is underdeveloped, cloth and grain can also be used for lending.

The second is to fill it up with second-hand goods. All kinds of goods stored in the warehouse: food, cloth, etc., have been stored for a long time, and naturally they are worn out. What is lost?Whether it is more or less is up to the treasury officials.Or directly report the loss and write off, or report that it has been stored for a long time and will be damaged, and request to sell it at a low price.

That is, there is no problem of loss of silver and copper coins, but the treasury officials can also play the trick of shoddy, replacing the good money in the warehouse with low-value small coins such as sand shells and wide pieces.The ingots of treasury silver cannot be moved casually, but the scattered silver that has been expropriated and has not been re-melted can be replaced by miscellaneous silver of low quality.

These are all open secrets in the prefectural and county yamen, but the magistrates rarely dare to rectify them. If he is blocked from making money, there will be a problem of "inconsistency in accounts" when he leaves office, and the magistrates have to Compensation tired.In addition, treasury officials also have filial piety to local officials.Generally, honest and honest local officials would not accept the filial piety of the treasury officials at most, but they did not dare to provoke them lightly.Don't push it too fast, let him jump over the wall in a hurry, and turn it over. The treasurer will lose his job at most, but the official will have to pay for it.

If it is a corrupt official, then it is even more possible to make a fuss about it, and further do things such as falsifying accounts or self-stealing.Some county magistrates directly use the county treasury as their own cash machine, and when they need money, they will draw an IOU directly.There is almost no library in the state and county of the world that is not short-lived.

As for the scribes of the grain depot, the benefits are even greater.Because the warehouse is full of grain.There is more room for flipping and swapping than the silver warehouse.The grain is moldy and stale. As usual, some old grain must be processed every year, and the old grain will be disposed of at a low price, and then new grain will be put into the warehouse.This is the practice allowed by the Cang Law.After the county magistrate approved it, the good valleys were also recorded at the price of the cheap valleys, and the difference between the account and the real price was a considerable "profit".

As for the shoddy goods like the county depot, it is easier to do it in the grain depot.The good millet is sold, and the same amount of inferior goods is imported from outside to replace it.As long as the accounts match up, there is no risk at all.

"This is the simplest trick. We don't know how many tricks they have in reality. You'd better ask more questions." Dong Weiwei said, "It will be useful in the future."

"Don't worry, I will pry their mouths open." You Guotuan was very sure of this.

"OK, but I'm a gentleman far away, so you can play SM slowly." Dong Weiwei said with a smile and walked away.

"Playing SM with these ugly uncles," You Guotuan said, "What a nerve. I actually want to do this—"

Withdrawing his complaints, You Guotuan came to the room where the treasury officials were held. These were the three principal rooms.The one with the largest bay in the middle was his interrogation room, and the wing room was his prison cell.

Immediately he escorted the people up, and he looked at the several people kneeling in front of him—some were in charge of the bank, some were in charge of the material storehouse, and some were in charge of the salt storehouse—there was an extra storehouse in Lingao because of the local salt production.They are all the core figures in the treasury and treasury officials.

To pry their mouths open as quickly as possible, torture is of course the best choice.

It is a pity that not many people are willing to learn this promising craft.Several apprentices led by Zhou Dongtian are serving Chen Minggang and others in the study class.Here I have to do it myself.Fortunately, Zaoban has retained some veterans who are good at torture and torture, so they can be used.

You Guotuan sat down majestically on one of the armchairs, and started drinking tea without looking at them.Although things are complicated and urgent, they are not in such a hurry.

These guys knew that this was the gangster trying to show them off, so they moved around anxiously.Kneeling for such a long time is uncomfortable after all, and since they were arrested last night, they have only eaten very little food. These people are pampered and live a good life on weekdays, how can they afford such hardships.In less than 10 minutes, someone couldn't stand it anymore and kowtowed for mercy.

"Chief, tell me, if you have any orders, the little ones dare not refuse to listen."

You Guotuan put on a relaxed and contented look, and said casually, "I heard that all of you are very rich."

These words were like a lightning strike, and the faces of several people froze.One of them quickly kowtowed: "The young one is just a small servant in the county, but he uses it to make ends meet, how dare he say he is rich." Then the others followed suit.

You Guotuan frowned, these people are not only greedy but also stupid: It seems that working in the government for too long has a bad impact on IQ, I always feel that what I say is what I say, even if I open my eyes and talk nonsense, no one dares question.

"Come on!" You Guotuan yelled, and the intern of the Political Security Department, who was newly added to the class, immediately trotted over:

"Report to the chief—"

"I don't want you guys, call the retained people over." You Guotuan added, "Take their fellows. Other than the board, um, just bring the stick!"

(End of this chapter)