Han official!

Chapter 81 Shuzuo
Inside the courtyard wall is the residence of a high-ranking official. The yard is very large and the ground is rammed earth. Every month, several executioners are called in to tamp the ground so that it won't be too muddy on rainy days.

In the courtyard, there were seven or eight large and small houses, including the kitchen, auxiliary rooms, main rooms, granaries, etc., almost comparable to the long house of Gaojie Duting.

There is also a chicken coop next to the courtyard wall, where a lot of poultry and livestock are raised, including more than a dozen ducks, pheasants, and geese of all sizes, pecking at the chives and garlic planted in the vegetable patch near the chicken coop.

The seasonings (a general term for condiments) that he usually didn't want to put in the pot when cooking were destroyed by the chickens and livestock. The green onions and leeks were pecked to pieces left and right, but Tingzuo's wife ignored it.

Ting Zuo's wife was holding a hoe and digging a hole next to a treadmill. Her fat and big-eared son was sitting next to her.

The son was too fat, and his black robe was bulging out, revealing strips of fat. Next to him was a steamer of cooked eggs. He peeled the eggshells and swallowed them in one gulp. There was a piece of eggshell around the steamer. He had eaten so many eggs that he didn't know how many eggs he had eaten.

"mother"

The son's chubby face was filled with fear and timidity. "Father, if I go home and find out that I accidentally strangled my concubine who was pounding rice, will you whip me severely with a whip?"

Grains such as millet and sorghum are very unpalatable if eaten with their shells, so they need to be pounded to remove the shells.

Pounding rice is very tiring. According to the Han Dynasty law, there was a type of forced labor called "chengdan chong". Chengdan meant that male prisoners built cities, and chong meant that female prisoners pounded rice.

Tingzuo was an assistant official of Liushi Banner Pavilion, and his status was second only to the Banner Pavilion Chief. He often called Ting'an's concubine to his home to pound rice.

The son was only eleven or twelve years old. Seeing that the concubine was pretty, he became very lustful. Although the concubine was an underage child, he did such a beastly act of forcibly insulting the concubine.

My son usually eats fat and eggs in steamers, and he is tall and strong.

The slave concubine only had a mouthful of thin soup all day long, and had to do heavy work like pounding rice. She was thin and small, so how could she resist Tingzuo's son?

Tingzuo's son was afraid that the concubine would scream, so he covered her mouth and nose tightly and soon suffocated her to death.

Ting Zuo's wife heard the noise outside and saw her son killing someone. Instead of scolding him, she cursed at the corpse of the concubine.

Scolding the concubine for causing her son to be guilty of murder.

There is no sign of repentance or guilt.

"Snapped!"

The wooden door of the house was pushed open, and the assistant's head hit the door, making a loud noise.

It woke up Tingzuo's wife who was digging a hole.

Catch the evil deeds in the yard.

"who!"

Tingzuo's wife was usually arrogant. She relied on Tingzuo's status as a high-ranking official second only to the flag chief to bully the common people in Liushi: "Get out!"

Before she finished scolding.

Guo Jie strode forward and punched Ting Zuo's wife in the face, instantly breaking the nose of that fat face. Blood spurted out and she lay on the ground screaming in pain.

Tingzuo's wife was still nagging.

"My husband is a keeper of the Liushi Tingzuo. Every year after the beginning of spring, all the innkeepers, big and small, come to pay their respects and present gifts. How dare you hit me? I'll send you to the city to work as a pounder."

"mother!"

Tingzuo's son was furious and rushed over like a fat pig, trying to beat Guo Jie.

"boom!"

Guo Jie kicked Tingzuo's son, and like a child with pigtails being bullied by Tingzuo, Tingzuo's son rolled several times on the rammed earth ground.

"boom!"

There was another crisp sound, and Tingzuo's son's forehead hit the pestle, breaking his scalp and causing a line of blood to flow. The black robe worth 1,400 coins on his body was torn apart with a "swish", revealing more fat.

"Wow!"

Tingzuo's son was so scared that he burst into tears on the spot and never dared to hit anyone again. He looked at Guo Jie, who was carrying a two-foot sword and a ring-handled knife on his left and right, with fear in his eyes.

He no longer had the arrogance to bully the neighborhood children in the tunnel.

"Guo Jie!" Ting Zuo, seeing his son being beaten, was heartbroken and furious. "Don't forget, this is Liushi. If I call the guards from the flag pavilion and have them put on red ribbons and armor, none of you two will be able to escape. Ah!"

Guo Jie picked up the scabbard of the two-foot sword and hit Tingzuo hard in the face, causing blood to flow from the corner of Tingzuo's mouth.

Ting Zuo could only glare at Guo Jie and dared not utter a word to scold him.

"Noisy."

Guo Jie stood in the courtyard, looking around at the seven or eight houses, his gaze settling on the stables at the corner of the courtyard wall. "Zhang Qian and Wei Guang, go search for the letters. Mang Tong, go get Yi Zong, and you'll guard outside in his place."

He reminded them, "Remember to exchange robes and trousers. You wear Yi Zong's iron crown and black robes and stand guard in the middle of the tunnel to prevent anyone from disturbing us and delaying the search for evidence of Wan Zimeng's affair with the Liu princes."

Having secret dealings with the princes!

Tingzuo was shocked.

How could Guo Jie know such secret information?

In the entire Liushi Banner Pavilion, there were less than three people who knew that the horses were being sold to the King of Huainan.

One is me, one is the flag chief Wan Zimeng, and the other is the secretary of the Huainan Kingdom.

Could it be that.
The secretary wanted to embezzle the Hexi horse and use it as a means of promotion, and presented it to King Huainan Liu An to be appointed as the Ba Ling Wei.

Tingzuo's face darkened.

"Brother!"

Zhang Qian came over with a letter in his hand and frowned, saying, "The person in charge of this matter in Huainan State is indeed the Secretary of the Jin Dynasty."

When Guo Jie saw the words written in official script on the letter, he couldn't help but frown, knowing that the smuggling of Hexi horses was more difficult than he had expected.

The counties and states were divided into different departments to handle affairs.

Dividing the office into departments means dividing the work into sections.

For example, the civil affairs include the Household Department, Bi Department, Time Department, Field Department, Water Department and other departments.

The finance department includes the warehouse department, the gold department and other departments.

The transportation department is responsible for the collection of Cao, Cao, Fa Cao and other Caos.

The military affairs include Bingcao, Weicao and other departments.

The judicial department includes the Decision Department, the Resignation Department and other departments.

Some of the closer officials in the counties and prefectures were often given the title of Menxia to distinguish them from other officials.

"Han Guan" says: The Henan Yin has 927 officials, including 50 clerks below the level of Yuanshi, 230 clerks, and 231 officials and minor historians.

The administrative system of the Western Han Dynasty was actually a two-tier system of counties and prefectures, with the status of states being relatively low.

The county magistrate was already a high-ranking official with a salary of two thousand stones, in charge of twenty to thirty counties, and sometimes even forty counties.

There are only more than fifty secretaries in the court, which is not a large number for a prefecture with dozens of counties, but they are already very important officials of the prefecture government and temple.

Guo Jie knew in his heart that he needed to find the letter and the evidence as soon as possible before Wan Zimeng and Jin Shuzuo discovered them, so that he could convict Wan Zimeng.

"Go ahead."

Guo Jie stared at the Ting Zuo and said, "Where are the letters between Wan Zimeng and Jin Shuzuo hidden? Considering you are an official, the Ting Zuo of Liushi Banner Pavilion, I will give you a chance to speak. Otherwise, if you fall into Yi Zong's hands, he will not only question you."

The guard said sternly, "You can kill me or chop me up, as you wish. At noon (11:15-12:00), guards will come to deliver water chestnuts and horse feed. Then, I will see how you escape from Liushi!"

Hard-spoken?

Guo Jie sneered and looked at Yi Zong who had just walked in: "I'll leave this person to you to judge and interrogate."

Yi Zong was overjoyed and immediately dragged Ting Zuo by the collar of his black clothes and walked towards the toilet.
(End of this chapter)