lady, please calm down

Chapter 262 Wish me the first man to soar above the sky
night.

Chen Chu received a tip from the military commander that merchants planned to use the soldiers' home loans in the name of soldiers.

Although this move is disgusting, it is difficult to say whether it is a crime or not.

At the beginning of Haishi, Mao'er saw that the officials still did not go back to their rooms to rest, so he cooked a midnight snack himself and brought it to the study.

Coincidentally, this matter involved the four major banks, so Chen Chu asked Mao'er to read the secret report.

After Mao'er finished reading, he sat down next to Chen Chu and said in a low voice: "Guardian, it is said in Laozi's Tao Te Ching: Managing a big country is like cooking small delicacies. When we made this decision, we really didn't think carefully enough."

Chen Chu felt a little bit.

More than two years ago, Mao'er was a little girl who couldn't even write her own name. Now, she can also quote scriptures.

The dim candlelight cast a layer of mist and smoothness on the cat's perfect side face, making the delicate facial features even more charming.

As the saying goes, looking at beauties under the lamp
"Madam, are you feeling better?" Chen Chu asked suddenly and strangely.

They were both an old couple, so Mao'er understood the official's intentions from Chen Chu's burning eyes.
After recuperating for recent months, the officials were worried that her body was not fully recovered and she was not living up to her standards of humanity.

During this period, although the cats were occasionally treated for hand, foot and mouth disease, they could not fundamentally meet the officials' requirements.

Nowadays, Mao'er is indeed well. Even Guanren's look in her eyes made her feel like a cat scratching her heart. But thinking of the other person, Mao'er pursed her lips and smiled, unexpectedly saying: "Guanren, you should go and take a look. Sister Cai."

"Uh"

"A few days ago, before the cat recovered, the officials stayed at home, and then they were busy inspecting and preparing for you and me."

Mao'er was a little shy and couldn't say the words 'you and I are getting married', so he changed his words and said: "Anyway, the official should go see Sister Cai."

"Hua'er is back?" Chen Chu asked.

After Mao'er got better, Cai Hua left the Chen Mansion. After September, she went to various counties outside the city to inspect coal mines and hematite mines. She didn't even come back from the military review on September [-]th.

As both women, Mao'er had a glimpse of Cai Hua's unspeakable thoughts. No matter how busy Sister Cai was, she wouldn't be able to spare the time to go back to Caizhou. She just didn't want to appear on the day when Mao'er was in the limelight.

"I'm back. I just came back yesterday."

While Mao'er was talking, he asked Bai Lu to pack some canned peaches and apples in a food box, then stuffed them into Chen Chu's hands and said with a smile: "The canned food won't be available until winter. No one else has eaten it now. Sister Cai likes to eat it." Tian, ​​please take the officials with you."

At two o'clock in the morning, Chen Chu left the house.

Not long after, they arrived at Cai Hua's residence on Xuyuan Street. Chen Chu felt like coming home when he came here, and the maids and servants all recognized Chen Dutong.

Unhindered all the way.

It wasn't until they entered the main room of the back house that Ru'er, who was guarding the door with another maid, saw Chen Chu who had arrived late at night, and hurriedly called into the house, "Sisters, we are all here."

Ru'er's voice was filled with joy, but the room lit by candlelight was quiet for a while, and then Cai Hua's signature lazy and seductive voice came out, "Let Dutong go back, I'm going to sleep."

"."

Ru'er looked at Chen Chu who was standing in front of the door, shrank her neck and smiled awkwardly.

He didn't want to, but Du Tong was a cheeky man. He laughed and pushed straight in. "What a coincidence. I also want to sleep. Considering the relationship between me and Hua'er, it's not too much to sleep under the same bed, right?"

Inside the room, a few dishes of side dishes were placed on the round table, and a pot of wine was scalding.

It seems that Mrs. Cai Sanniang has been drinking for a while tonight.

Cai Hua, who was pouring herself a drink, froze her hands in the air and glanced at her rogue lover. There was a strong smell of jealousy as soon as she opened her mouth, "Isn't Lord Dutong busy preparing for the wedding? Why do you have time to come to my place?" ah?"

"hey-hey."

Chen Chu turned around and said to Ru'er who was looking into the room: "Ru'er, bring me a wine glass! Why are you standing there? I'll have a few drinks with the third wife of your family."

"Who needs you to accompany me? This wine is not enough for me!" Cai Hua was a little bit drunk.

Chen Chu didn't take it seriously, and took out the can with a smile, "Here, I don't want to eat for free, I brought some snacks for Hua'er."

The wedding next month will make up for Mao'er's regrets, but it will inevitably irritate Cai Hua's nerves.

Even if she knows that it cannot be changed, the third lady of the house naturally has the power to control her temper.

However, Cai Hua was very measured, and after being shamelessly coaxed by Chen Chu for a while, she took the opportunity to talk about business and put away the loneliness deep in her heart.

After a while, Ruer brought a wine cup, and the atmosphere between the two returned to normal.

Ru'er refilled the wine for Cai Hua and Chen Chu, then left and closed the door behind her.

"Hey, I'm busy again tonight."

Ru'er stood guard in the corridor, moved a small horse and sat down. It seemed that she was ready for a protracted war.

The new maid who was standing outside with her asked doubtfully: "Sister Ru'er, what else can you do at night?"

Ru'er glanced at the ignorant little maid and said in the tone of someone who has been through it before: "You will know later."

inside the house.

Chen Chu helped Cai Hua open a can. The latter held the porcelain bottle in one hand and a chopstick in the other. He poked the peach chunks with the tip of the chopstick and put it into his mouth.

She doesn't look like a lady at all.

Chen Chuzi sipped a glass of wine, took out a piece of paper from his arms, and handed it over, "Hua'er, look at this."

Cai Hua then put down the cans and bottles, wiped her hands casually with a handkerchief, and unfolded them to take a closer look.

On the paper, a bunch of state official positions were written.

The first one was a bureau official who was in charge of supervising the salt, iron and other industries. He was from the eighth rank and his official rank was not high, but he was one of the rare richest people in the government.

In addition, there are also "officials and officials" who are responsible for internal and external orders, promotion, recruitment and supervision of low-level officials and officials.

This position, from the seventh rank, is equivalent to the organization department in later generations. It is one of the most powerful officials in a government besides the prefect, tongzhi, and general judge.

In addition, there are also "hucao chiefs" who are responsible for household registration, taxation, and financial budgets.

And the "Shi Cao Chief" who is in charge of litigation cases such as marriage, land, fights, etc.

The above are all powerful officials among the six governors of the state capital. Since Chen Chu can show himself, he is confident that he can help his father-in-law get this position.

Now Cai Yuan is the governor of Tongzhi. To put it bluntly, he is Chen Jingyan's secretary and an official of the latter.

How much authority he has depends entirely on how much Chen Jingyan trusts him.

Due to the secret alliance of the Tongshan Clan, Chen Jingyan would naturally delegate some power to Cai Yuan, but compared to the independent official in charge of Yicao, the position of governor was still far behind.

In just over a year, he went from being a county official, to being the governor of a government office, and then to being the head of the Six Cao Cao.

Cai Hua naturally knew that Chen Chu did not discuss matters with her father, but she brought the treasure to her as a gift, just because she felt guilty towards her and wanted to make up for it.

Cai Hua didn't want to tell the truth. She flicked the paper with her fingers and pretended to be relaxed and said, "I didn't expect that old man Cai would start to prosper in his official career."

Chen Chu laughed and said, "Hua'er, if you choose for our father, which one would you choose?"

'Our daddy'?
Cai Meimei's eyes turned pale, but a charming smile appeared on her charming face, "Of course it is the head of this household, Cao. When governing a place, officials are the most important thing. If you don't use 'our father~' to select talented people for you, how can you still do it?" Who to use?"

Cai Hua deliberately imitated Chen Chu's tone and emphasized the word "our father" very hard.

"Yeah, that's what I thought too"

People rule society, and Chen Chucai will not be so naive as to put an end to 'nepotism'.

He is short of people, and the Cai family, who know the situation well and are related by marriage sooner or later, must be the big winner in the feast of carving up official positions in Huaibei.

For Chen Chu, this is also the lowest cost and most effective approach.

On the side, Cai Hua was holding a piece of paper with her slender and charming eyes unfocused. She remembered something and was distracted for a long time.

"Ha'er?"

"Um"

"What are you thinking about?"

"I was thinking." Cai Hua put the paper on the table, looked at the dancing candlelight, and murmured in a dreamy voice: "I just remembered that you asked me to help you find a job as an official, and it was like this now. "Generally, I wrote a lot about vacancies, including postings, classics, and expertise, but you just chose the fast one."

"Speaking of which, I really want to thank Hua'er for helping me back then." Chen Chu said with a smile.

This is not polite. Back then, Chen Chu only wanted to farm the land well and lead his wife to live a good life. Asking for Ma Kuai's position was just for convenience.

Unexpectedly, one incident after another led him to a path he had never imagined.

In short, the support of the Cai family back then was the starting point of everything today
"That was not what I meant."

Cai Hua shook her head and said: "Back then, I swore to my father that you would be successful in the future, but even I didn't expect that the puppy would be able to do what he is now. Now, my family is supported by you, so it counts. Thinking that I didn't make a mistake in front of my father and brother, Hua'er couldn't help but feel proud of her ability to recognize people, hehe."

Cai Hua covered her mouth and gave a sweet smile. She carried the pot in her hand and helped Chen Chu and herself to get a cup respectively. "Puppy, I respect you. I wish my great ambitions to flourish and soar to the sky."

This congratulation was quite bold, even vaguely arrogant.

But in the boudoir, the secret words between lovers are not afraid of being heard by outsiders.

Chen Chu held the cup with a smile, the two of them touched it lightly and drank it each.

The atmosphere became more and more harmonious. After chatting for a while, Chen Chu took the initiative to talk about the 'soldiers' home loan'.In terms of understanding of Chen Chu's planning and layout, Cai Hua, who has been deeply involved in various business affairs, is undoubtedly the first.

She knew that Chen Chu wanted to make money flow quickly. After all, money sitting in the cellar would not create any value.

After thinking for a moment, Cai Huahu said: "It is not difficult to prevent merchants from using loans fraudulently."

Chen Chu also knew that it was not difficult to deal with. As long as these merchants who dared to use loans fraudulently were caught and killed as a warning, it would definitely work.

But Chen Chu was reluctant to do this. He had not thought carefully about this matter. There was still two minds on whether the merchant had committed a crime or not. Even if it was considered a crime, it was not a serious crime. If the punishment was too harsh, it would not be appropriate, and if it was too light, it would not serve as a deterrent. effect.

After expressing his thoughts, Cai Hua shook his head and said: "In business, there are loopholes in the rules of this matter. We just need to close the loopholes. It is really overkill to shout and kill for such a trivial matter."

"How to block it?"

“Let the four major banks connect with the construction materials market”

"Hua'er, tell me more." Chen Chu seemed to have a clue.

Cai Hua continued: "In the future, how much wood, bricks and tiles the soldiers need will be directly invoiced by the army. The officers will take the tickets to the construction materials market to exchange for the required materials. The construction materials market will then use the bills to go to the four major banks to get the payment. , as a result, the soldiers will not have enough money, and it will be difficult even if a merchant wants to use the loan fraudulently.
Unless they take the materials and then sell them to the outside world, this will cause trouble, and secondly, they will definitely lose money when they come in and out. They can settle the account."

"Extremely!"

Chen Chu suddenly remembered Mao'er's words tonight, "Governing a big country is like cooking small delicacies."

There are no rules in this world that apply to all laws. If you kill people when something doesn't go your way, then it would be too easy to govern a place.

As a rule maker, coexisting with all classes of society has been the norm for thousands of years.

If there are loopholes in the rules, then fix them. This has happened before, it happens now, and it will still happen in the future.

Chen Chu suddenly became happy, not just because of the loan for the soldiers' homes, but because he felt that his mind had opened up.

Seeing him like this, Cai Hua, who was slightly tipsy, blushed brightly and said unhappily: "Chen Dutong, when you come to my place, besides business, it's business. Don't you have anything else to talk to me about?"

"What do you want to talk about, Hua'er?"

"Tell me about your war."

"There's nothing good to say about war." Talking about war in the boudoir with its subtle fragrance floating around, wouldn't it be a disgrace to the scene?

However, Cai Hua stuck out her lilac tongue, licked her lower lip, narrowed her eyes and said charmingly: "My neighbor Bao Wenwen, once said that Du Tong is a good gun and has 81 sets of moves. , killing those who were outside Yingzhou Xiaozhuang nine times in and nine out, and completely defeated them."

"Haha, false rumors, false rumors." Chen Chu puffed up his chest, his mouth was modest, but his face was full of pride.

Cai Hua curled her lips and said, "Yeah, I don't believe it either. That little village is so bad. It's not as good as me."

"."

Chen Dutong was stunned for a while before he realized that he had been teased. He couldn't help but grow cold and snorted angrily, "It's useless to talk more! Let's see the real deal after checking in!"

"Tch~ Just let the horse come over! I'm afraid you won't make it!"

Cai Hua stretched out her index finger and hooked it with a provocative look on her face.

Can our little brother Chen endure this?

ugly time.

The night is cold as water.

The morning star rose in the quiet night sky, it was already late at night.

In the back house on Academy Street, the new maid came into the house with a new bed in her arms, blushed and walked out, not forgetting to close the door.

After taking a look at Ru'er, who was sitting on the horse and leaning against the pillar, sleeping drowsily, the little maid finally understood why Ru'er said in the middle of the night that she couldn't sleep again tonight.
When Ruer heard the door closing, she closed her eyes and asked, "How many times have you changed the bedding?"

"This is the fifth time," the little maid chirped.

"Oh"

Ru'er opened her eyes and looked at the sky, stretched her body and said, "That'll be soon. When you change your bedding and send it to Huan Niang tomorrow, if she asks, do you know what to say?"

"I know. Just say it. Just say there is a water leak in the house."

In late September, the Caizhou construction materials market became lively due to the sudden burst of demand for housing construction.

Very similar to the original Cross Slope Market, a large number of laborers driving oxen and horse-drawn carriages gathered around the construction materials market to provide customers with the service of transporting construction materials.

Unlike the Watermelon Festival that year, this wave of house building in Caizhou has absorbed more labor.

After all, when a new house is completed, at least 20 people will be busy working on it for more than a month.

At this time, the sowing of winter wheat was completed, and farmers had some free time. They cleverly found masters who knew how to build houses, and organized house-building teams ranging from a dozen to dozens of people to shuttle around the villages.

The large demand in a short period of time has caused a shortage of raw materials for construction such as wood and clay in Caizhou.

Caizhou merchants with capital immediately recruited manpower to dig soil and cut trees, absorbing a lot of labor again.

Even the disaster victims stranded in the local area have a livelihood.

For a time, in the originally bleak late autumn, there was a lively scene inside and outside Caizhou City.

Officials at all levels in the city are also in a good mood.

Zuo Guoen, who was suppressed by the Tongshan Clan and could not perform anything, had learned that he was about to be transferred to Linfu, so he naturally felt a sense of joy that "the sea is wide enough for fish to leap, and the sky is high enough for birds to fly".

However, he still had a lot of work to do before leaving.

For example, mobilizing officials at all levels.
Cai Yuan, the former Tongzhi governor, was promoted to the seventh-grade official Cao chief. His original criminal name was Kong Mu Ximengong was appointed as the secretary of the Salt and Iron Bureau. Tongshan County Yamen Yuhou Xu Bang was transferred to Caizhou to replace Cai Yuan's Tongzhi governor.

Gou Sheng, the former police chief of the government, succeeded Ximen Gongxing, named Kong Mu, and the new chief was Ximen Xi, who was also from Tongshan.

In fact, both Ximen Gong and Xu Bang could have gone to Shouzhou to serve as higher-level officials.

But a few days ago, Ximen Gong got some advice from Chen Jingyan and understood the importance of "always accompanying the king", so he went to Chen Chu specifically to express his intention to stay in Caizhou as an official.

Chen Dutong was very interested in these old brothers and agreed directly.

However, the eighth-grade Shouzhou officer originally assigned to him was replaced by the current eighth-grade salt and iron bureau officer.

But Ximen Gong was quite satisfied. After all, he had made the transition from an official to an eighth-rank official. If it hadn't been for the efforts of his fifth brother, he would never have touched the threshold of an 'official' position in his life.

Besides, the third brother also came to Caizhou to work as a head catcher. Now the Ximen family is considered the number one family in Fucheng. Ximen Gong has already planned to move his family to Caizhou and take root here.

Xu Bang had the same idea as him, and even chose not to go to Shouzhou and downgraded to Caizhou.

Now he has understood that he is getting older and does not have a good daughter like Cai Hua. The upper limit will not be high in the future, so he has set his mission to stay in Chen Chu's inner circle. As for the prosperity of the family, The task will be handed over to the younger generations such as Xu Zhiyuan and Zhang Bao.
Although the fifth brother's arrangements for them have not yet been announced, Lao Xu knows that the fifth brother likes the straightforward Zhiyuan very much. In addition, Zhang Bao and the fifth brother have known each other since Wei Mo. As long as Xu Zhen'er does not appear in the family anymore, he will A family's wealth cannot escape.

In a happy atmosphere, Zuo Guoen's new appointment arrived on the last day of September.

Zuo Guoen, who had already packed his bags, took his family to Yingzhou to take up his post that day.

Chen Jingyan, Chen Chu and others bid farewell to each other ten miles away, and bid farewell to Zuo Zhifu in tears in the lingering autumn rain.
When Zuo Guoen's motorcade completely disappeared from sight, Chen Chu wiped away his tears and saluted Chen Jingyan with a smile, "I have met the prefect."

With him taking the lead, many officials who thought Chen Jingyan was about to be promoted again congratulated him in advance.

"It can't be like this, it can't be like this, the official document from the imperial court has not been issued yet."

Chen Jingyan stroked his beard to feel proud, but the smile on his face could not be restrained.

Zuo Guoen left and vacated his position. The official document about Lao Chen taking office will probably be in the next day or two, right?

Everyone thinks so, including Chen Jingyan himself.

The second day of October.

Chen Chu sent Chen Jingyan a red coral statue about a foot tall.

And under Chen Chu's persuasion, Chen Jingyan reluctantly moved his family into the Four Seasons Garden in the official residence.

The Four Seasons Garden is the house with the best location and the largest area among the official residences. Such a house is naturally reserved for the prefect of a prefecture.

When Chen Jingyan was promoted to Tongzhi, he didn't dare to move in even if the magistrate's office was vacant.

Now, the overall situation has been decided, Chen Jingyan no longer has any worries
The move took two days, and then officials at all levels took advantage of the "prefect"'s move and sent them gifts to show their appreciation.

The fifth day of October.

Chen Jingyan held a family dinner in his official residence to thank his colleagues for their love.

During the dinner, Chen Jingyan, who was celebrating a happy occasion, couldn't help but eat a few more drinks amidst the compliments of his colleagues. Feeling comfortable, he stood up and said a few words.

The main meaning is that after I take up my new post, I hope to continue to cooperate sincerely with all my colleagues to benefit the people of Caizhou.
The official saying is that natural beauty has no nutritional value, but there is no doubt that Chen Jingyan has entered the prefect state in advance.

The sixth day of October.

Early in the morning, the whole city of Caizhou Prefecture was swept and the roads were paved with loess.

At [-] o'clock in the morning, Chen Jingyan led more than [-] Caizhou officials and honor guards to Shilipu in the north of the city to greet the eunuchs who came from Tokyo to announce the decree.

After the two sides met, they turned around and returned to Fucheng.

At the end of noon, the civil and military officials of Caizhou gathered in the lobby of the government office. After shouting "Long Live the Mountain", the eunuch announced the edict and slowly unfolded the imperial edict.
(End of this chapter)