Idle courtiers

Chapter 46
When they heard that Wang Ruoxu was only staying in Anton for three days, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.Three days is not a long time, and everyone can cope with it carefully when they raise their spirits.

Anyway, Mr. Wang can only see one place every day, so it is easy to kill the time.

The dozen or so boatloads of mulberry seedlings bought back by Guixian Cheng this time have been planted in five or six places, but they can handle it.If Lord Wang stays in Anton for ten and a half months and goes to one place every day, there really isn't that much place for him to see.

"The Li family in Yangzhai Township, the old man has heard of it before. Is there a man named Li Ping in the Li family who was awarded a Jinshi in the second year of Jiajing, and later appointed Guizhou as a county magistrate? Speaking of which, this Jinshi Lang and his family Teachers are in the same department, I want to pay a visit to this old senior."

Shi Zhixian: "Exactly, but unfortunately this Li Zhixian has passed away for many years."

"It's a pity, well, let's go and have a look." Master Wang nodded.

After the official business was finished, a few people sat in the house drinking tea and chatting, talking about the folk customs.Of course, no one dared to talk about the affairs of men and women.Otherwise, no one knows where this Mr. Wang will go wrong, and he will turn his back on you and give you a big lesson on benevolence, righteousness and morality, and you will be in a bad mood.

Last night at the banquet, Shi Zhixian was disgusted by Wang Ruoxu, and he didn't sleep well, so he didn't talk much.On the contrary, Guixian Cheng was very friendly. It is estimated that he and Wang Ruoxu are about the same age, and there is no generation gap between them!
After drinking a few sips of tea, Guixian Cheng pretended to be casual, and said, "Master Wang, it's also good to go to Yangzhai Township, besides seeing old people, the scenery there is also good, but it's a different place. A rare spectacle."

Master Wang asked curiously: "Is there any wonder to see? Could it be that you asked me to see the Yantian?"

"Your Majesty is really amazing, you can even guess this." Guixian Cheng said with a smile: "Exactly, half of the land in the east of our county is the salt field of the Yandao Yamen. Because the place is full of saline-alkali land, it can be said No grass grows, but it is excellent for drying salt. Under the blue sky and white clouds, the ten thousand mu salt field is like a mirage, and it is not to be missed.”

It turned out that during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, Anton was only tens of kilometers away from the sea, unlike when it later became an inland county.Later, after hundreds of years of accumulation of sediment brought by the Yellow River and Huaihe River, the coastline extended to the east for a hundred miles.In this era, Xiangshui County, Binhai City and Sheyang City were still a vast sea.

Therefore, the Lianghuai salt field in the Ming Dynasty refers to the area from the north to Andong and the south to Rugao.In order to facilitate the transportation of salt, the salt field even dug a canal, which is called the Salt Canal.

Hearing Guixian Cheng's words, Zhou Nan's heart tightened, and he cried out secretly: Worse, Wang Ruoxu is very shrewd, why can't he understand the meaning of the words?
He wanted to talk, but his status was too low, so there was no room for him to intervene here.

Sure enough, Mr. Wang frowned: "Salt field, not a single blade of grass grows? Even if there are mulberry fields, the survival rate is estimated to be low, and nothing can be seen after running around. It's a waste of a day, why don't we change places?"

Shi Zhixian, who was sleepy, also widened his eyes, feeling bad.It turned out that the Li family's land was indeed saline-alkali, so rice could not be grown, and the yield of dry land crops was also low.After Sang Miao was transported back, he approached the Li family and promised to make up for it in terms of policies in the future.Therefore, the Li family readily agreed to pull out all the seedlings and plant mulberry trees instead.

Most of the other families who agreed to change to mulberry were in the same situation as him. Anyway, they just bought dozens of acres for show, and their own losses were not too big, and they even made the county magistrate owe him a favor.

Lord Wang asked Guixian Cheng: "You are right. Changing fields to mulberry trees is a major policy that the imperial court will implement in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Naturally, you must work hard. You must use the best fields for planting and counting. By the way, where is your county?" A piece of land is best?"

"The most fertile land in our county is the area west of the city. The best land in the west of the city belongs to a family surnamed Mei. I heard that his family has already changed their fields to mulberry fields, and the mulberry seedlings are growing very well. However, my lord But it’s inconvenient to go and see.”

Master Wang: "Why can't you see it?"

Guixian Cheng smiled and said, "It's interesting to talk about it. The Mei family had an enmity with Zhou Nan, the county official. At that time, the Zhou official and Mr. Mei's son were both county students, and they had a deep friendship. It's a pity that the two had a quarrel. During the conflict, Zhou Dianli beat Mr. Mei to death, and then sentenced him to ten years in prison and went to work in the county government. A while ago, the widow of Mr. Mei could not stand the abuse by her mother-in-law, so she ran away from home and fled to Huai'an, where she took over a brothel , became the owner... This matter was widely spread in our county, and it became a strange talk for a while... The Mei family hated Zhou Dianli deeply, hated Wu Jiwu, and also blamed our yamen. If the old man went to see it, he must Be on guard against the Mei family's unreasonable assault on the Shangguan."

He described the case vividly.

Zhou Nan was furious in his heart, the surname Gui was taking revenge on me for the fact that I went out of the Yamen and fled to Huai'an that day!

However, how could Zhou Nan explain this clearly.

Everyone in the world likes to hear this kind of sex scandal, and the faces of the attendants behind Wang Ruoxu were very excited when they heard it.

Wang Ruoxu laughed suddenly: "This is interesting, okay, I'll go to Mei's house tomorrow."

Ordinarily, he was originally a scholar with a serious background, so he should be furious when he heard this.But he didn't want to, and laughed like this instead, which made everyone dumbfounded, and at the same time, Guixian Cheng was also greatly disappointed.

He originally wanted to blackmail Zhou Nan and ask Wang Ruoxu to reprimand this enemy in public.But I didn't want it to turn out like this... This Mr. Wang is really crazy and evil.

After the discussion was over, several important figures in the county came out.The faces of several people were very ugly, especially Shi Zhixian, who was already outraged, and he scolded Gui Xiancheng: "Master Gui, what did you mean by what you said just now?"

Guixian Cheng glanced at Zhou Nan, and said flatly, "It's just a casual remark."

"A casual remark, is this your casual remark?"

"If the county lord thinks so, the subordinates don't say much, Mr. Shi can do it for himself." Gui Xiancheng smiled and walked away. Just like that, the first and second in command of Andong County were completely turned against each other.

Zhou Nan was thoroughly blackmailed by Guixian Cheng from inside to outside today, and the hatred in his heart could not be dispelled, so he leaned in front of Shi Jieren and said in a low voice: "Xianzun, Wang Ruoxu came here in a bad way, Guixian Cheng wants to please this household The head of the department is trying to frame the boss and seek a better future for himself, so the county officials should be on guard."

In fact, Zhou Nan could probably guess the reason why Guixian Cheng made trouble on purpose today.That day he broke out of the county government, and after returning from Huai'an, because of the support of Shi Zhixian, he didn't dare to do anything to him.

As a result, Guixian Cheng's prestige in the yamen plummeted, and his words were not easy to use, and it directly became a display.

After coming down, Guixian Cheng was sent to Nanjing to buy mulberry seedlings, and he was exhausted half to death in the wind and rain.This time the imperial court came to check, if they pass the customs, the credit is all due to Shizhi County, but it has nothing to do with him, how can they be reconciled?

Furthermore, this time, Master Wang made it clear that he did not have a good impression of Shizhi County.If he could use his hand to bring down Shi Jieren, he would have made a great contribution.If Wang Ruoxu said a word in the official department, he could get a good job and get promoted.

People in the political arena are like this. Once they have an opportunity, they will firmly grasp it and never let it go.

The reason why Guixian Cheng brought the topic to the Mei family and lured Wang Ruoxu to the Mei family was because Yuanwai Mei had a big enmity with Zhou Nan, and he wanted to put Master Zhou to death all the time.Even if the Yamen wants to cheat, it is estimated that the Mei family will not cooperate.

As soon as he said this, Shi Jieren shook his head and sighed, and said: "I recommended you to be the six-room clerk, and I believed your words and changed the fields to mulberry trees. You killed me today. This is a matter, you go immediately Tomorrow, the Japanese officials will see that the paddy fields of Mei’s family have been turned into thousand-acre mulberry gardens.”

Zhou Nan took this task and cried out inwardly: "I'm not Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, and I don't have a bottle of nectar in my hand. How could I turn a thousand acres of mulberry gardens overnight? Isn't this fatal? Besides, not to mention that the rice has already bloomed." Naturally, the Mei family is not willing to stand by and watch this year's harvest go unused, and pull out all the seedlings and replant them with mulberry trees that are not suitable for eating or drinking. As for the deep blood feud between me and the Mei family, they would like to see me be beaten to death!"

After standing outside the yamen for a while, Zhou Nan had no idea, so he ran in again to see Shi Jieren.In the end, he was blocked by a yamen servant, saying that the county magistrate didn't sleep well all night, and now the back yamen is dozing off, and he doesn't see anyone, master, please go back.

What time is this, and Shi Jieren still went to sleep, his heart is really big enough.

Zhou Nan had nothing to do, so he turned to a small tavern at the gate of the Yamen and ordered a plate of stewed donkey meat and a pot of wine to solve the food problem.

The tavern is the place where the servants in the yamen eat their working meals on weekdays. The price is cheap and the quantity is sufficient.Of course, the hygienic conditions are remarkable.Since the weather has warmed up, the sewage is really flowing and the flies are flying around.It's just that the taste is very good. For this delicious food, I can only make do with it.

But today it was cleaned inside, the walls were painted with lime, and the floor was covered with green bricks, giving people a refreshing feeling.

Zhou Nan couldn't help but praised, and said: "Niu Er, you have cleaned up this place well. It should have been done this long ago. Business should be better, right?"

The shop owner, Niu Er, came running over wearing an apron, and said with a smile: "It turned out to be Mr. Zhou. Isn't this a high-ranking official from the imperial court who came to our county? The master of the ceremony room has brought the officials out to sweep the streets these days, saying that it is the superiors. The old man who came here likes to be clean, so don't dirty people's eyes. He also ordered me to tidy up the place. If the old man is dissatisfied, he will be fined. No, it took a busy day to get it like this. "

The ordinary government servants in ancient times were actually quite miserable. They didn’t have much money for work and food, but they did a lot of work. They had to play the roles of policemen, firefighters, industrial and commercial tax officers, and sanitation workers. They were responsible for cleaning up the garbage in the city.

Zhou Nan asked: "Niu Er, you spent a lot of money to clean this place, right?"

Niu Er: "It doesn't cost a lot of money, just get some lime to paint the walls, and the bricks on the floor are also borrowed. When the old man leaves, he will just return it. Anyway, it's easy to see, this is Shuang, my little old man." Beat the donkey dung - smooth face."

"Haha, so I took care of things, that's right. Anyway, the old man above came to take a look from a distance, so it is impossible to eat in your dilapidated restaurant." Zhou Nan laughed. It turns out that there are face-saving projects in ancient times, and they really have a long history. what!In later generations, in order to cope with the greening inspection and acceptance above, a place directly painted green paint on Guangshan.

Thinking of this, his heart suddenly moved, he slapped his thigh, and lost his voice: "Yes!"

(End of this chapter)