By a twist of fate, the illegitimate son of the Marquis's family marries the county princess.

After everyone had rested in Yangzhou and recovered from the fatigue of the days spent traveling by boat, Wen Zongji and his entourage left Yangzhou and headed to Tongzhou, a city adjacent to Yangzhou.

This was also Wen Zongji's true destination on this trip.

As soon as he stepped into Tongzhou City, the people from the Tongzhou branch office came to greet him: "Lord Wen, we are here on Lord Yu's orders to wait for you. Lord Yu is waiting for your arrival at the Tongzhou branch office."

The "Master Yu" mentioned by this person is Yu Jiacheng, the chief scribe of the Tongzhou branch office.

He was also personally appointed by Wen Zongji.

Wen Zongji was not surprised. He had been in Yangzhou for several days, and as long as the heads of the various branches in Jiangnan were not incompetent, they should have all received news of his arrival in Jiangnan.

It's perfectly normal to have people guarding the city gate.

Wen Zongji did not refuse: "Lead the way."

"Please follow me this way, sir."

With a local guide, Wen Zongji soon arrived at the Tongzhou branch office, which was also a bustling street.

Wen Zongji inspected the branch offices of the Jingbaosi Bureau in several prefectural cities. He found that regardless of whether the local government was indifferent or enthusiastic towards the branch offices, the locations of the offices arranged for them by the government were all quite good.

Perhaps because it was a task sent down from the capital, no one dared to be perfunctory.

Yu Jiacheng waited at the entrance of the yamen. When he saw Wen Zongji get off the carriage, he immediately stepped forward and said respectfully, "This humble official greets Your Excellency. May Your Excellency be well."

Yu Jiacheng and Lu Yiyang are different!

Lu Yiyang was recommended by Yao Maofang. Wen Zongji was not very familiar with him, and Lu Yiyang was more in awe of Wen Zongji.

However, Yu Jiacheng was favored by Wen Zongji. Wen Zongji had noticed Yu Jiacheng when he was in the Beijing Gazette Office. Yu Jiacheng had just come of age and was more impulsive than Lu Yiyang. He didn't seem calm at all, but he was the kind of person who was cunning and wicked.

He may be smiling on the outside, but who knows what bad things he might be thinking on the inside.

If you're not careful when you're with him, you never know when you might get betrayed.

Knowing that Yu Jiacheng was cunning and shrewd, Wen Zongji sent him to Jiangnan.

Wen Zongji helped Yu Jiacheng up, patted him on the shoulder, and joked, "It's been a few months, Jiacheng looks like he's gained a lot of weight. Looks like the food in Tongzhou is pretty good."

Yu Jiacheng greeted Wen Zongji as he entered the yamen: "Tongzhou is a land of outstanding people and abundant resources. It feels like anyone you bump into on the street is rolling in money. When I first arrived in Tongzhou, the bookstore owners took turns inviting me to drinks and banquets in order to get a quota to sell the Beijing Daily. It was hard for me not to gain weight. Fortunately, I'm already married, so being a little chubby doesn't matter. Anyway, my wife doesn't mind that her husband is ugly."

"By the way, sir, in order to understand the people's livelihood in Tongzhou as soon as possible, I used the money from selling quotas to bribe many informants, both overt and covert. If you see that some money is missing from the account book later, please don't misunderstand and think I've embezzled it. You know I may not have much else, but I have plenty of money. I would never do anything like stealing from someone in charge."

Wen Zongji listened to his incessant chatter with exasperation: "I only said one sentence, and you want to reply with ten... I haven't even checked the accounts yet, who suspects you of embezzlement? You're already in charge of a prefecture branch office, why do you still talk so much? Aren't you afraid of affecting your authority among your subordinates?"

Wen Zongji was actually only two years older than Yu Jiacheng. Because Wen Zongji was too composed, Yu Jiacheng always felt like he was facing an elder when facing Wen Zongji, and subconsciously became respectful and obedient.

Yu Jiacheng smiled and said, "It's been a long time since I've seen you, sir. In front of others, I still hold considerable authority."

Looking at his delicate and youthful face, Wen Zongji remained skeptical.

Upon arriving at his office, Wen Zongji did not immediately check the ledgers. After sitting down and taking a sip of tea to moisten his throat, he asked, "You mentioned earlier that you've bribed quite a few informants. Have you gathered any information?"

"That's too many."

"for example?"

"For example, the son of the Tongzhi (assistant prefect) and the son of the Tongpan (assistant magistrate) of Tongzhou Prefecture were vying for the right to the first night with a courtesan. In the end, the Tongzhi Prefect won, and the two younger ones couldn't beat the older one."

Wen Zongji frowned: "As the prefect of Tongzhou, how dare you openly compete for women in a brothel?"

Yu Jiacheng said, "Of course he couldn't have done that. Someone helped him bid, and in the end, the one who favored the courtesan was the prefect of Tongzhou. That old fellow is over fifty years old, but he is still obsessed with lust. He brings concubines to the mansion one after another, and that's not enough. He even goes to brothels to have fun."

Wen Zongji showed no interest in the prefect of Tongzhou's private affairs: "Is there anything else?"

"Of course. Tongzhou was hit by a disaster in the middle of last year, and many villages were rebuilt. Because many people went missing in the flood, the government assumed that all the missing people had died, and if an entire family was wiped out, their land would naturally be distributed to others."

"But not all the missing people died. Every now and then, someone would come back alive. Those who still had family members were better off, at least their land was still there. But some people came back to find that their land was gone. How could they accept that? So they made a fuss to get their land back, but the families who got the land didn't want to return it either, and there were a lot of disputes between the two sides."

Wen Zongji said, "The government should just make a judgment according to the law. What's the point of making a fuss?"

Yu Jiacheng sneered: "Those who are allocated land are all extraordinary, and some even bought their land with money. Why would they want their money to go down the drain? And the officials who took the money to do the job are also reluctant to give up the money they have received."

"So, all we can do is wrong those people who barely escaped death and finally returned home, only to find their land gone?"

Yu Jiacheng said, "They don't dare to go too far, after all, there's still the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner. If the Commissioner finds out, they're doomed. So the usual solution is that the land will be returned, but basically it's either good land turned into bad land, or ten acres of good land becomes half good land and half bad land. In short, they won't return it obediently."

Wen Zongji was not very surprised by this.

He grew up struggling and witnessed firsthand the hardships faced by those at the bottom of society.

The Great Chu was a vast territory, and no matter how wise and powerful Emperor Shun'an was, it was impossible for him to be all-encompassing. It was quite normal for local areas to harbor filth and corruption.

"Didn't any common people file a complaint with the prefectural government?"

"Of course," Yu Jiacheng sighed, "but to file a complaint in the prefectural city, you need to write a petition. People who want to file a complaint in the prefectural city are basically putting all their eggs in one basket. Where would they get the money to write a petition?"

So, this is actually a vicious cycle.

Some ordinary people, having saved up their savings, dared not offend the county officials too much and chose to swallow their anger.

The barefoot people, who have nothing to fear, wanted to file a complaint, but they couldn't even afford to write a single complaint.

Yu Jiacheng continued, "But that was all in the past. Since I arrived in Tongzhou, this matter has been resolved quickly. All the people who came to the prefectural city to file a complaint, even if they didn't have the money to write the complaint, the prefectural government accepted them, upheld justice for them, severely punished the officials who took the money, and returned the land to them."

"Prefect Huang used this incident to win over a large number of people's hearts."

Yu Jiacheng clearly disapproved of Huang Yecai's theatrical behavior.

Perhaps because he had spent his days in the Imperial Secretariat handling important matters of the court and had become accustomed to the rise and fall of high-ranking officials, and because the prefectural government and its subordinate offices were not subordinate to each other, Yu Jiacheng, who clearly did not hold any official position, showed no respect whatsoever for Huang Yecai, the prefect of Tongzhou.

His tone was full of sarcasm!