The Red Mansions

Chapter 636 In the towers, the lights of thousands of houses, Yangzhou has been prosperous since anc

Chapter 636 Ten miles of towers, thousands of lights, Yangzhou has been prosperous since ancient times

River Governor's Yamen Department, the official hall——

After the officials of the river channel went down, several people sat together to drink tea and talk.

Du Jitong put down his teacup, looked at the young boy in python, and said, "Uncle Yongning, the river embankments in Huaiyang and other places are in danger of collapsing, and the water transportation can be cut off at any time. Losing is."

Jia Heng said: "Lord Du, don't worry, I, Governor Hedao, will do my best to ensure that this year's grain will not delay the transportation."

In fact, because of the Sanhe Gang, he had some contact with Du Jitong, a leader of the Qi Party, but they didn't match up very much afterwards.

Du Jitong smiled and said: "Uncle Yongning is the leader of the country, if you have the words of Uncle Yongning, you can rest assured."

In fact, at the beginning of the founding of the Han Dynasty, there was also the governor of water transportation and the governor of the river, but now the two officials are separated. Otherwise, there will be another governor Nanhe, and there will never be an incident in Sizhou. After the flood incident, it must be Yongning Bo will not stay in the river yamen, or he can plan and take charge of river affairs.

At noon, Jia Heng put down the album of water conservancy basins in his hand, and looked up at Liu Jixian who came from the outside. Behind him, several families in brocade clothes held a stack of books made of paper in their hands.

"Captain, all the materials written by the relevant officials are here, please have a look at them." Liu Jixian said in a deep voice as he handed over the stack of materials with both hands with a respectful expression.

In the official hall, Zhao Mo and other officials were mostly shocked.

Zhao Mo's eyes were fixed, and he thought to himself, he didn't expect it to be so fast.

Jia Heng asked: "How many people write the two rivers?"

"Relevant river officials are written." Liu Jixian replied.

Needless to say, everyone has a share in river corruption.

Zhao Mo frowned and asked, "Everyone is corrupt? Is there no clean official?"

Peng Ye said: "Mr. Zhao Ge, just now Uncle Yongning said that the abuse of the river affairs reaches to the viscera. If it weren't for the upper and lower collusion, when the officials patrolled the river earlier, it would not be so difficult to distinguish the situation."

Jia Heng was not surprised either, seeing a few guards of the Jinyi Mansion put stacks of materials on the small table, and ordered: "Look for the scribes, and make a record of the actual situation of the embankment, and record the materials of corruption."

As he spoke, he picked up a piece of paper and began to look it up.

Liu Jixian obeyed, and immediately, several scribes came over and began to take notes.

After a while, Jia Heng handed the paper in his hand to Zhao Mo, and said, "There are varying degrees of fooling around, it's shocking, Mr. Zhao Ge should also take a look."

Zhao Mo took the paper and read the words on it. His face was gloomy and uncertain, and he asked, "Uncle Yongning, so many embankments need urgent repairs. Are there enough manpower and materials?"

Jia Heng said: "The matter of manpower is easy to deal with. We need to purchase reeds, willows, wood and stones to transfer the Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps."

At this time, a group of scribes made records according to the strength and reality of the embankment, and marked them on the atlas respectively, so that Jia Heng could distribute the troops later.

Zhao Mo sighed, and said: "The old man will immediately report to the imperial court and ask for payment of the routine."

The current river yamen needs money but no silver, and materials are short of materials.

Jia Heng said: "First confiscate the wealth of these people to make up for the shortfall. Those who are greedy for the court can't lose one or two."

Previously, he just said that he would not offend his family members, but he owed money to the court, and he couldn't afford to lose one or two coins.

As he said that, he looked at Liu Jixian and said, "Immediately use Jinyiwei to search the property of Governor Gao Bin of Nanhe, the three officials in charge of the river, Hebiaoying, Tingxun, etc., and torture the three officials who are in charge of corruption in ink. , gold, silver and jewels were all lost and filled into the treasury."

Liu Jixian cupped his hands and left the official hall in a big stride, and assigned Jinyi Mansion Guards to go.

Jia Heng looked at Zhao Mo, and said: "These are just some urgent needs. Those greedy people either squandered all their money or hid it elsewhere. Now it is a blessing to be able to recover half of the floating money. These river embankments need to be repaired urgently. Military and civilian, there is still a gap of 40 taels."

Following the previous supervision of the embankment, he also has some ideas about the amount of silver required.

Zhao Mo pondered for a moment, then said: "Another 3 taels of silver will be allocated from the treasury of Huai'an government for emergencies. In addition, Jiang Zuo Chief Envoy will have a balance of 20 taels every year to meet contingencies. Write a letter to the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang to raise 10 taels, and the Nanjing Ministry of Industry will allocate another 10 taels.

According to jurisdiction, the land of Huaiyang is under the jurisdiction of Jiang Zuo Chief Envoy and Governor of Liangjiang, and Zhao Mo has served as the governor of Jiangnan, so he is very clear about some situations in the officialdom of Liangjiang.

Zhao Mo said: "Lord Du."

Du Jitong's head thumped, feeling something was wrong, he smiled and said, "What did Mr. Zhao Ge teach you?"

Zhao Mo muttered: "Governor Du, the imperial court allocated 30 taels of silver to the Caohe Yamen this year to dredge the water transport and purchase boats, and they have just been delivered to the Water Transport Department. You might as well take out 5 taels to relieve the difficulties in the river affairs. "

Every year, in order to ensure water transportation, the imperial court allocates a sum of money to provide the grain and rice needed by Cao Liangwei. As a cabinet minister, Zhao Mo naturally knows it well, so he came up with the idea of ​​water transportation yamen.

Du Jitong: "..."

"Old Zhao Ge, the money is used to buy boats and transport grain and rice." Du Jitong grumbled bitterly.

At first, I thought I could watch a play, but who knew that the autumn wind would come to him. However, I paid a sum to the Hedao Yamen, so that I can make a report and intervene in the river affairs in the future.

However, at this moment, Jia Heng glanced at Du Jitong, and said lightly: "Since Mr. Du is in trouble, then there is no need, there is still a shortfall of money, the last time the embankment was built in Henan, and He Gongyin has not been used up. Reserve enough for dangerous work, and allocate another 10 taels to deploy Nanhe, after all, it is used for river affairs.”

The result of "begging" to Du Jitong is that he will definitely mention this matter in the memorial, and then ask Yang Guochang, who is in charge of the household department, to re-allocate a batch. What is he trying to do?

He is the governor of Water Transport, plus the governor of Huaiyang, and he doesn't pay a penny. When this matter is revisited, the two important members of the Zhejiang Party will definitely talk about it.

When Du Jitong heard the words, his heart shivered, and he became irritable for a while, feeling that he had suffered a dark loss.

Zhao Mo was very surprised and asked, "How can there still be money from the upstream of Kaifeng Mansion to the hundreds of li long embankment in Xiao County?"

The Ministry of Internal Affairs allocated 100 million taels to the Hedong Yamen. This matter was discussed by some Shenjing officials before, and it was a waste of money.

Jia Heng picked up the teacup, took a sip, and said: "Corrupt officials who don't belong to Donghe make up for the shortfall, drive out thieves and bandits to pay for their crimes, spread rice and grain to gather the people, so as to save part of the labor, and the rest They are all for the purchase of civil engineering and stone materials, and river yamen are used to floating. The imperial court allocates 100% of the routine items every year, and the rest is greedy ink. The 30 million taels of silver, based on their habit of spending [-] taels, is already a great fortune for the imperial court. , and in the hands of this official, all the river workers have been used, so there is naturally a surplus."

At the beginning, the Ministry of Internal Affairs allocated a special fund of 100 million taels of silver to the Donghe Hedao Yamen, but it has not been used up yet.

The river embankment was repaired from the west of Kaifeng to Xiaoxian County, most of which were used to purchase civil engineering and stone materials, and almost 10,000% of them were used, leaving only [-]+ taels.

And this river repair experience also made Jia Heng realize first-hand that the "floating" of embankment repairs is serious.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Feng Gong used silver, and the governor of the river needed 120 million taels of silver. One-tenth, less than 30% was used, and all of it was let Hechen greedy for ink.

Zhao Mo was speechless for a while, because his official life has been ups and downs for many years, and there are still some shocks.

This Yongningbo is simply...

Xu Kai looked at the young man, feeling a surge of emotion in his heart.

It didn’t cost the court a tael of silver to quell the chaos in the Central Plains. After the rebellion was suppressed, a million stones of summer grain were sent to the court. Every tael of silver was spent on building embankments, and a gold mine was found for the emperor...

It is not surprising why the emperor is so trustworthy and obedient to his words.

Jia Heng said calmly: "I know the amount of work and materials needed. If there is any trouble in the river affairs, Jinyi Mansion's prison is set up for those river officials."

There is one thing to say, Chen Han followed the Ming system, and the salary of officials was indeed a bit low.

In fact, it is possible to implement the "Integrity Bank" system in Dahan, and then carry out a high-pressure anti-corruption campaign. A portion of the money confiscated in the anti-corruption campaign can be set aside as a bank fund for anti-corruption and distributed to anti-corruption officials as a performance.

Corruption is human nature, use human nature to deal with human nature, supplemented by technical means, such as property disclosure, big data and a series of means... The mouse gives the cat a bell.

It must be said that even though there are officials, they are regarded as robbers, officials are not living, and complaints are rife. If things go on like this, the country will not be a country.

But I am afraid that, as Su Chuo and Yu Wentai said, an official can be used to establish a country.

After Jia Heng made corresponding arrangements in Huai'an Mansion, he asked Xu Kai to sit in Hedao Yamen to wait for the Jingying army to arrive, and then, under the retinue of a group of personal guards, he and the cabinet scholar Zhao Mo came to Yangzhou on a fast horse .

……

……

It was already evening, the night was low, because it was raining, the sight became more and more dim, and the restaurants, tea houses, brothels and Chu halls in Yangzhou city had already been lit up, and the lights were dotted, or orange or red, under the cover of rain and fog , a little hazy artistic conception, and the sound of singing, dancing and orchestral music is endless.

Ten miles of towers, thousands of lights, Yangzhou has been prosperous since ancient times.

"Old Zhao Ge, it's getting late. You and I will visit Shui Yu, the Jiedu Envoy of Jiangbei Camp first, and after we reach an agreement with him, we will go to Jiangbei Camp to transfer troops tomorrow." The horse galloped forward, and Zhao Mo, who was in a slightly languid state, said.

As the Jiangbei camp guarding Jinling, there are [-] troops stationed inside. The Jiedushi is Shuiyu, the uncle of King Shui Rong of Beijing Jing. If he needs to dispatch troops and horses of the Jiangbei camp, he obviously needs his assistance.

Zhao Mo thought about it, nodded and said, "That's fine."

The two were talking, inquiring about Shuiyu's mansion, and headed to Shiqiao Hutong in the south city of Yangzhou.

When they came to a mansion with a high archway and two stone lions squatting in front of the gate, they asked the guards of the Jinyi Mansion to spread the word. A few Jinyi guards in flying fish suits surprised Shuiyu's housekeeper.

The third son of Shui Yu was at home, and when he heard that Jin Yiwei had come to see his father by name, he was also flustered, welcomed Jia Heng and Zhao Mo into the flower hall, asked about the purpose of their visit, and heaved a sigh of relief.

"My lords, what a coincidence, my father went to the Ministry of War in Nanjing to ask for payment, so he took a boat early this morning, and I'm afraid he won't be back until tomorrow." Said the third son of Shuiyu.

Jia Heng frowned, looked at Zhao Mo, and said: "Master Shui, you immediately send your servants to Nanjing under the escort of the guards of Jinyi Mansion, and inform him, so that he can turn back."

Shui Yu's son didn't dare to be negligent, and quickly responded: "My lord, wait a moment."

With that said, he left the flower hall and ordered a servant to go.

Seeing that Shuiyu was not there, Jia Heng and Zhao Mo had to come out of Shuifu.

Under the bamboo hat, Zhao Mo's square face looked thoughtful, and said: "Shui Yu is not allowed to return for a while now, I will rest in the post house first, and we will discuss it tomorrow."

The memorandum that was jointly presented to the imperial court before, I think I will be able to arrive in the capital in the next few days. If I can catch up with the order before the deployment of troops, it may be better.

In fact, I knew faintly in my heart that it was too late to go back and forth like this.

Jia Heng said: "Then wait for one night. If you haven't returned tomorrow, Mr. Ge, please be a witness and dispatch the soldiers and horses of the Jiangbei battalion first."

The reason why he asked Zhao Mo to come together was also for the endorsement of several people.

If he was the one who dispatched the soldiers and horses of the Jiangbei camp, there might be some gossip after the event, and bringing Zhao Mo along would be a contingency plan for the two ministers in command of Nanhe.

At this position, some things can be avoided or some things should be avoided, and a hole will be buried for myself at some point.

Zhao Mo nodded and said: "Then you and I will go back to the post house first."

Jia Heng pondered and said: "Old Zhao Ge goes back to rest first, and I have to visit an old friend."

"Old man?" Zhao Mo's eyes flashed, and he was suddenly startled.

That's right, the Yamen of Yanyuan is stationed in Yangzhou, and Lin Ruhai, the inspector of Yanyuan, is the son-in-law of Rongguo Mansion.

Just as Zhao Mo was thinking about it, suddenly there was a burst of noise from the streets and alleys in front of him. The two of them looked together and saw four or five officers and soldiers who looked like servants negotiating with Jin Yiwei. Several officials held umbrellas, surrounded by an official in a scarlet robe.

At this time, the chief official in the scarlet robe, who was fat and fair-skinned, bowed his hands and said with a smile: "The two adults who came here are Uncle Yongning and Elder Zhao Ge?"

Zhao Mo followed the prestige, his gaze narrowed slightly.

Jia Heng waved to Liu Jixian and asked a few people to come over.

"My subordinate Yuan Jichong, the magistrate of Yangzhou, heard that Uncle Yongning and Mr. Zhaoge had entered this place, so he ordered someone to prepare a small banquet in the government office to welcome the two gentlemen. Please don't refuse." Yuan Jichong, the magistrate of Yangzhou, walked quickly Stepping forward, he almost moved away from the staff behind him holding an umbrella, with a smile on his face.

This man was white and fat, and when he smiled, his eyes narrowed to the size of mung beans, but there was a bit of shrewdness in the twinkling of his eyes.

Jia Heng looked at Yuan Jichong, his eyes fixed, and a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Yuan Jichong?

He heard Song Xuan mention this name. He seemed to be greedy for money and food from the imperial court to help the victims when he was in office in Nanyang Mansion. He was transferred to a prosperous place such as Yangzhou Prefecture as the magistrate.

Before Jia Heng could answer, Zhao Mo had already said, "Prefect Yuan, I have important matters to attend to."

"I know that the two adults are busy with affairs, and it is already night, so we have to eat food first before leaving." Yuan Jichong smiled enthusiastically, standing in the rain at this time, he still didn't realize that the rain was falling on his body.

Jia Heng said in a loud voice: "Prefect Yuan, I and Mr. Zhao Ge do have some important business to do. Moreover, Mr. Zhao Ge has to go to the post house to rest for a while. Tomorrow will not be too late."

Yuan Jichong smiled, cupped his hands and saluted, and said: "What Uncle Yongning said is very true, it's the presumptuousness of the lower officials."

Jia Heng looked at Zhao Mo and said, "Old Zhao Ge, the post office for a while."

……

……

In Yangzhou City, misty and rainy, the sky and the earth are vast, in the backyard of Yangzhou Yanyuan Yamen——

Lin Ruhai is wearing a jade-colored gown, wearing a scholar's square scarf on his head. His face is like a crown jade, with silkworm eyebrows and almond eyes. He has a short beard under his chin. At this moment, he is twisting his beard with his hands and standing in front of the window, looking out at the rain and fog in the courtyard. .

"Master." With the sound of light footsteps, there was a soft call from behind, and the woman with a cloud piled up in a green bun and a dress with long sleeves came slowly. It was Lin Ruhai's concubine, the Zhou family. Nong softly said: "Master, the medicine is here, drink it while it's hot."

Since Lin Ruhai was poisoned and murdered earlier, although he has been diagnosed and treated by the imperial physician, his health has not been very good since then.

Lin Ruhai turned around and said, "It's been raining for almost a month, and there is still no sign of the rain stopping."

Holding a spoon, Mrs. Zhou gently stirred the medicinal porridge in the porcelain bowl, and said softly, "Master, are you worried about Gaoyou Lake?"

Lin Ruhai sighed, and seemed to be feeling emotional and said to himself: "Sizhou broke the embankment, causing countless deaths and injuries. Gao Bin, the governor of Nanhe, committed suicide a few days ago. It is conceivable how the embankment will be repaired. According to the newspaper, Yongningbo has also led the river and is in charge of flood control and flood control."

"Uncle Yongning?" Aunt Zhou's eyes flickered, she handed over the porridge bowl, and said in surprise, "Master is talking about that Uncle Heng who often comes to write letters."

Lin Ruhai nodded, took the porridge bowl, and said, "It's him."

Still thinking about Jia Heng, who was mentioned in the letter sent by Yu'er before, and I don't know what he looks like, he has been a military minister and an important court official at a young age.

It was like a dream.

This is how the officials in the south of the Yangtze River perceive Jia Heng.

Lin Ruhai's understanding of Jia Heng is still from the newspaper in the mansion. At that time, Jia Zhen lost her title due to a crime.

After that, Jia Heng moved successively until he became the governor of Jinyi, the deputy envoy of the Jingying Jiedu, and then recently the chaos in the Central Plains, and he was promoted to Yongningbo. Some pleasantries and greetings.

At this moment, a servant girl from the outer room entered the study and said, "Master, the steward of the front yard sent a greeting card to Master."

Aunt Zhou took the greeting card and saw the name on it, her face changed slightly, her brows were filled with joy, and she said: "Master, this is the greeting card from Uncle Yongning, he has already arrived in Yangzhou."

Lin Ruhai heard the words, the spoon he was holding in his hand suddenly stopped, and it landed on the porcelain bowl with a crisp "da" sound. He was overjoyed, took the greeting card, and hurriedly said: "Go and inform the front yard, I will change clothes in the past Welcome."

In the front hall of Yangzhou Yanyuan Yamen, several clerks secretly looked at the boy in python suit who was sitting upright in the official hall, and glanced at the guards in flying fish suit and embroidered spring knife behind him.

This is Yongningbo?

Jia Heng held a cup of tea, took a sip, and waited patiently.

(End of this chapter)