national surname chiming

Chapter 163 The First Assistant Is Just a Temporary Worker

"The morals of this world are really getting worse and worse. After four days in Nanjing, I only received such a little gold."

On the eleventh night of the first lunar month, with the end of another day of entertainment, Zhou Yanru, who is about to become the chief assistant of the cabinet, asked his confidants and staff to help him calculate the income of the past few days in the mansion provided by Wu Changshi. .

The Donglin Party raised 20 taels of gold for his comeback, and now it has just recovered half of it.

With the crowds in the first three days, the number of visitors has decreased significantly today, and the single amount given by each person is also much less.

Zhou Yanru generally did not accept money, mainly because it was too heavy, and he was about to go north soon, and it was difficult to move millions of taels, so he had to transport it back to his hometown in Changzhou.

And to reach the level of the chief minister of the cabinet, the personal expenses in Beijing are also huge, and it is more convenient to only bring gold on the order of 10 taels.

So far, the biggest payment he received was the 5 taels of gold from Ruan Dacheng, which actually accounted for half of his total income in Nanjing.

But this money is not easy to earn. It is to withstand the pressure of the Donglin Party and at least restore Ma Shiying to the capital censor.If you want to do it better, you have to give it to a governor.

And Zhou Yanru does have the motivation to do things beautifully - because only in this way can he become a hit after his comeback, let those who wait and see clearly see the energy of Zhou Shoufu, and there will be an endless stream of people who will give money later ,No longer hesitate.

Selling officials must also be honest and good reputation, in order to sell for a long time.

At present, it seems that Ma Shiying is the best example of a "thousand gold bone".

The reason why Zhou Yanru lamented that the world was declining and the money he received was too little was mainly because he found that there were fewer and fewer people who wanted to buy Beijing officials.

Originally, there were a lot of complainants who had failed in the political struggle and wanted to make a comeback on the Sixth Department of Nanjing, and if they caught anyone who wanted to go back to Beijing, they could squeeze out a lot of money.

But this year's market, the number of people rushing to the north to be an official has dropped sharply. Although Zhou Yanru is not easy to ask, after observing these few days, he can roughly understand everyone's mentality.

These Nanjing trash!He actually despises the unrest in the north, and thinks that Beijing officials are meaningless. He just wants to stay in the prosperous and peaceful south, and be a magistrate who has no pursuit at all!
After removing the big head of selling Beijing officials, it's no wonder that Zhou Yanru didn't receive much money.

After all, the governors that can be sold in the south are only one or two near the war zone.

Most of the other hinterland provinces that do not border on the bandit-occupied areas, the governors are not easy to be blamed, and it is difficult to remove them frequently and sell them again.

Not selling Beijing officials basically means that there are no top officials of the second and third ranks to sell.

While he was feeling emotional, a confidant of staff came to report again, saying that it was Qiu Shangshu from the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, who had sent someone to send a post just now, inviting him to a banquet tomorrow, and wanted to report and ask for some official business instructions.

Three days for invitation, two days for call.Everyone is a decent person in the officialdom, so of course the treats will not be proposed on the spur of the moment.So Qiu Shangshu actually said this two days ago.

It's just that Zhou Yanru had no interest in it at the time, and he pushed it once before.

But this time his staff notified: "Old Ge, Qiu Shangshu said that Shen Shilang and Shen Daotai also have official business to report to him tomorrow, look..."

Zhou Yanru's beard twitched with the pattern of the decree: "Shen Daotai? You mean Shen Tingyang and Shen Shuren's father and son? It turns out that Qiu Shangshu had this idea... Forget it, let's go."

Zheng Zhilong is far away in Fujian, so the Shen family is the number one rich man in Nanzhili, and Zhou Yanru has long been waiting to slaughter these two fat sheep.

Zhou Yanru has already made up his mind, if the Shen family and his son want to be promoted, they must squeeze out a price that is much more expensive than others!

This is also robbing the rich and helping the poor, and doing justice for the sky!
……

After making up his mind to slaughter the fat sheep, the time soon came before noon the next day.

Zhou Yanru sat in an eight-carried sedan chair, and Shi Shiran came to the residence of Qiu Weizhen, Shangshu of the Nanjing Household Department.

Regardless of his age, Qiu Weizhen insisted on going out to greet her in person.

Zhou Yanru didn't think too much about it, he still had the basic official etiquette of respecting the elderly, he pretended to hurry up a few steps after getting off the sedan chair, and gave Qiu Weizhen a virtual support: "Why should Qiu be like this, he should not be worthy."

Qiu Weizhen didn't show any expression, but replied in a business-like manner: "The elder is a senior in the officialdom, how dare the lower officials rely on their elders to sell their elders."

It turned out that although Qiu Weizhen was old, he was 66 this year, ten years older than Zhou Yanru, and he should retire soon.But in terms of official qualifications, he is really not as good as the young Zhou Yanru.

Zhou Yanru was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli, and he was also the champion of that year.Qiu Weizhen was in the 47th year of Wanli, two terms later than Zhou Yanru.

From this point of view, Qiu Weizhen was in the same year as Ruan Dacheng and Ma Shiying, who were also in the 47th year of Wanli.

Ruan Ma was about the same age as Zhou Yanru, and was also a dozen years younger than Qiu Weizhen. When he saw him, he had to call "Brother Qiu Nian".

Historically, Qiu Weizhen served as Minister of the Nanjing Household Department, and only served as Chongzhen for 13 years.

In the 14th year of Chongzhen, due to repeated setbacks in the southern provinces' suppression of thieves and the reshuffle of many officials of the Nanjing Ministry of War, Qiu Weizhen was transferred from the position of Minister of the Ministry of Households to the position of Minister of the Ministry of War for two years before retiring.

After he retired, the Nanjing Ministry of War was replaced by Shi Kefa.

But in this life, Shen Shuren Chongzhen has passed through in 12 years. Because of his butterfly effect, the cause of suppressing thieves in the southern provinces has gone much smoother.

Four of the Gezuo Fifth Battalion entrenched around Nanjing were wiped out, so the people in the Nanjing Ministry of War were able to continue to eat vegetarian food in their corpses. There was no need to transfer Qiu Weizhen over here. Qiu Weizhen has been serving in the household department for the elderly.

It is estimated that after the current Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing resigns in the future, Shi Kefa will be replaced directly.As for the household department, Qiu Weizhen can retire directly when he reaches his age.

A 66-year-old man will not be able to work for long. Qiu Weizhen himself knows that he just messes around every day.

After his servant changed from Zhang Guowei to Shen Tingyang last year, Qiu Weizhen found that Shen Tingyang was good at accounting and managing money, so he handed over the daily affairs of the Nanjing household department to Shen Tingyang in advance.

Zhou Yanru chatted and laughed happily with Qiu Weizhen, but couldn't help but look to the two sides. He never saw Shen Tingyang, Shen Shuren and his son coming out to greet him, which made him secretly unhappy.

It's not that he is eager for money, it's just that the rules of the officialdom are there. For banquets, people with lower official positions always come earlier, and those with higher official positions have more airs, otherwise, wouldn't it be embarrassing?
Zhou Yanru was very self-restraining and stopped short, hinting this issue to Qiu Weizhen a little.

Qiu Weizhen is also an old man in the officialdom, so he said in a nonchalant manner: "Could it be that Mr. Ge has a bad memory? Today, the official is asking Mr. Ge to explain alone. Shen Shilang just has official business to report to this old man today."

Zhou Yanru was taken aback for a moment, and quickly realized that this was the Shen family giving each other a step down. It seemed that they did not intend to curry favor with him, but came to do business.

It also seemed that Zhou Yanru was not very greedy, he came to Qiu Weizhen today just to catch up with an old man who was about to retire, and had no other intentions.

Thinking about it this way, Zhou Yanru's heart became a little smoother.

He chatted with Qiu Weizhen about homework for a while, and after being nostalgic for a while, Qiu Weizhen ordered the banquet to start first, without any intention of waiting for Shen Tingyang and others.

Zhou Yanru also pretended not to know anything, chatting and laughing happily, eating and drinking casually.

After drinking for three rounds, the housekeeper of the Qiu Mansion came in to report the crime: Said that Shen Shilang and Shen Daotai had a business request to see him.For the final determination of the recovery of the stolen goods in the Jiangxi tyrant gangster case, I want to ask the Minister to review and finalize it.

Qiu Weizhen also pretended to accuse Zhou Yanru: "It's rare to ask the old man to go to the house for a while, and I never thought that I would be burdened by common affairs again..."

Zhou Yanru looked upright, stroked his beard and said: "It's okay, the country's affairs come first, and I'll listen to it."

Only then did Qiu Weizhen wave to the butler: "Then please come in!"

A few minutes later, Shen Tingyang brought Shen Shuren in and greeted Qiu Weizhen and Zhou Yanru separately.

Zhou Yanru stroked his beard, and suddenly said: "Shen Shilang, the Jiangxi tyrants and gangsters are under the jurisdiction of your Nanjing household department to recover and seize the stolen goods, right? Your son seems to be a Huguang soldier. Since he came here for official business, Why does he want to hear it?

Is it because those gangsters were captured by him?But that is another matter, there is no need to report to the Ministry of Household Affairs. "

Shen Shuren captured a group of gangsters and gentry through Zheng Chenggong before, which is indeed related to the financial issues reported today, but those things themselves should be reported to the Ministry of War, one by one.

Zhou Yanru pointed out this sentence, but it was not intentional to make things difficult, he was just beating casually, telling the Shen family father and son not to play tricks in front of him.The trick of "pretending to report on official business to save face for both parties" is really poor acting.

While talking, Zhou Yanru observed Shen Tingyang and Shen Shuren with his eyes.

He has seen Shen Tingyang before. A few years ago, before he was attacked by Wen Tiren, Shen Tingyang was already a Beijing official, but at that time he was just a small sixth-rank head of the household department.

Zhou Yanru can only say that he has a slight impression of him, and he would never look at such a small person with a straight eye.

Seeing that he had been out of the field for several years and then returned to the political arena, Shen Tingyang had climbed from the head of the sixth rank to the servant of the Nanjing household department. Zhou Yanru was also quite ironic, and he was a little unwilling: these people are really prosperous in official career!
As for Shen Shuren, Zhou Yanru had never seen him before.When he left the field, Shen Shuren wasn't even a scholar, he was just a teenage boy!Now, it is also the censor of the capital.

He looks tall and tall, he doesn't look like a civil servant, but he has the spirit of a warrior, and there seems to be a bit of fierceness between his brows, which is quite inconsistent with his age.

However, what Zhou Yanru didn't expect was that the words he hit just now were quickly resolved by Shen Shuren.

I just heard Shen Shuren say neither humble nor overbearing: "Old Master Haojiao learned that the official came with my father today to report the case of gangsters in Jiangxi. He actually has other requests to report. Otherwise, I am afraid that it will change sooner or later.”

Zhou Yanru flashed a hint of displeasure: "Why is there such a change?"

Shen Shuren: "Your Majesty received a report from Anqing's mansion last night that the Lincheng Department, which is entrenched in the Yinghuo Mountain area, has officially accepted the forced landing of Anqing Tongzhi Fang Yizhi, and its main force has also been disarmed. Going west, Huangzhou Tongzhi Zhang Huangyan has collected it. .

It's just because Nanjing is catching up with the Chinese New Year, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of War are a little slower to handle errands. The previous gangsters have not completely closed the case, and the bandits here have already surrendered.Xiaguan was afraid of delaying for a long time, which made Lin Chengun uneasy instead. "

The information on Shen Shuren was urgently sent to him by Fang Yizhi. Of course, he had passed Shi Kefa in name and signed with Huang Degong. It arrived last night.

Although Zhou Yanru claims to be the chief assistant, he hasn't taken up the post after all, so the military information is naturally not as well-informed as Shen Shu's.It was the first time he heard of this at this moment, and he was also inexplicably surprised.

"How could the blockade of Lin Chengcheng be so effective? Cutting off his trade with bandits, and making him surrender directly? If this is the case, why is it that the Fifth Gezuo Battalion occupied the Dabie Mountains for four or five years before and after? Full power? The imperial court should have cut off its business route long ago!"

Shen Shuren replied in an orderly manner: "It's not difficult to explain. In the past, Gezuo's fifth battalion was intricately connected, its jurisdiction was rich, and it was also close to the Huaihe River, so it was convenient to smuggle Huaiyan salt.

Now that the third of the fifth battalion has gone, Ma Shouying has gone far away, Lin Chengcheng has retreated into the mountains, and the troops do not support him to plunder everywhere, that's why he is in such a difficult situation.

In addition, this also shows that the southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty originally implemented the strategy of blocking the thieves, but the implementation was very unfavorable!Regardless of Huguang, Jiangxi, and Nanzhili, there are countless rich gentry, wealthy households and profiteers who, in order to make huge profits, take risks and collude with thieves who need to sell dirty goods after robbing gold and silver!It wasn't until the lower officials took charge of Huguang's military preparations and collected lijin and strictly adjusted the banknotes, that this matter could be considered to be put an end to! "

Shen Shuren didn't brag, he just spoke in a down-to-earth manner.

He also didn't completely attribute the reason why Liu Thief had to surrender in the last part to the economic blockade.It's just that military strikes made it impossible for thieves to rob, and combined with the economic blockade, this result was achieved through a two-pronged approach.

The tone is pertinent and meticulous, beyond reproach.

Zhou Yanru's beard was about to be scratched off, and he couldn't grasp the reason, but secretly screamed in his heart: If Shen Shuren really made so many achievements in a row, the position of Wanfu might only be given to him by the imperial court.

Even if Shen Shuren was stingy and didn't want to give him gold and silver, he didn't have enough reasons to stop someone who had made such great achievements from making progress.

However, Ruan Dacheng's 5 taels of gold has already been collected. Is it true that Ma Shiying is only restored to a false imperial censor without real power to govern the territory?

If those who have done meritorious deeds get promoted, those who give money will get less benefits than those who have done meritorious deeds.
After that, didn't all the officials of the Ming Dynasty think about doing good deeds?The enthusiasm for buying officials with money will be hit!

Everyone wants to do practical things, and doesn't want to bribe or give money, which will ruin the social atmosphere of Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Yanru was still hesitating, but Qiu Weizhen was very cooperative.

Hearing that Lin Chengcheng had surrendered and was still completely disarmed and incorporated, he quickly stated that he would settle the accounts of the Jiangxi gangster case immediately, and that all the seized items should be put into the treasury, and everything that should be recovered should be identified.

It also hinted at Zhou Yanru's sentence: This is the last chance for those who want to reach out in this case. When the case is completely closed and registered and stored in the treasury, these properties will all belong to the state.

Zhou Yanru was so embarrassed that he couldn't speak directly, the Shen family and his son had to express themselves.

Fortunately, Shen Shuren didn't make him wait too long. He showed his muscles enough at the beginning, and he still had to talk about conditions when it was time to negotiate.

He picked up the wine glass, first toasted Zhou Yanru three times, then sat down with his father around the first minute, and vaguely set out his own conditions.

(End of this chapter)