scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 96 The Imperial Commissioner Arrives
(PS: The results of the monthly pass are dismal, and the earth-shattering 360-degree request for the monthly pass.)
Shengjing Pass is a very magical pass. There are two pairs of stone lions under the pass name archway. The stone lions on the Yunnan side are covered with dry and thin soil for many years, while the Guizhou side is covered with lush moss. Three feet apart is clearly defined, and at the foot of the stone lion, there is a more distinct soil boundary formed naturally. The red soil on the Yunnan side, and the brown soil on the Guizhou side, cross mountains and rivers like a line. The creek, stretching for hundreds of miles, neatly separates Guizhou and Yunnan provinces.

... The above passage seems to have been plagiarized from there, but the original author will definitely not pursue it, let alone sue, so let's pretend that there is no plagiarism.

In June, the baby’s face changed as soon as it was said, the sky was still clear in the morning, but at noon, the sky at Shengjingguan was suddenly covered with dark clouds, the new wind picked up, and it was about to rain, and the pedestrians on the road were running around in shock. Find shelter from the rain.But under the Shengjingguan archway, there is such a large group of people who are completely motionless—in fact, they dare not move because they want to, because right under the parasol in front of them, there are a lot of Qujing civil and military officials standing and sitting. There were Li Xingyuan, the procuratorate of Yunnan Province, and Li Xingyuan, the charming and upright Daqing Gege Kong Sizhen, two big figures present. Without them speaking and nodding, who would dare to mess around?

"Si Gege, why hasn't the imperial envoy come yet? It's almost raining." Looking at the sky, Li Xingyuan, who was invited by Kong Sizhen and Li Shizu to beat the drums to cheer, was a little worried. He turned to Kong Sizhen beside him and asked: "Si Gege, are you sure that the imperial envoy will come to Shengjing Pass today? Will the wait be in vain?"

"Absolutely, Yu Chenglong stayed at Yizi Kongyi in Pu'an Hall (now Pan County) last night, and set off for Shengjingguan this morning." Kong Sizhen nodded for confirmation, and said: "Calculate the distance , he will definitely be able to reach Shengjing Pass at noon today, no matter how patiently he waits, if it is going to rain, he will definitely speed up his journey."

Li Xingyuan had no choice but to wait patiently, but after waiting left and right, no imperial envoys appeared on the mountain road at the foot of Shengjingguan Mountain, but the dark clouds in the sky were getting denser and denser, and the sound of the wind had already caught a little bit Rain.As a result, Kong Sizhen under the parasol couldn't sit still, thinking that the parasol above his head would be useless after the heavy rain, and Kong Sizhen, who didn't want to be drenched, had no choice but to stand up and say: "Let's go into the guard barracks temporarily to hide from the rain, and come out when the rain stops."

"Cover." All the officials happily agreed, rushing to the barracks to shelter from the rain, but Zhou Peigong suggested to Kong Sizhen: "Si Gege, we can go in to shelter from the rain, and these people pretending to be children, soldiers and servants don't have to move." It’s better to let them soak in the rain before complaining in front of the imperial envoy.”

Anyway, Kong Sizhen didn't want to let himself be exposed to the rain. Of course, Kong Sizhen readily agreed to such a good suggestion. At that moment, Kong Sizhen called Li Suzu, Di Sanpin, An Shiji and others, and asked them to order their children, soldiers, and servants to continue waiting. , Do not scatter to shelter from the rain.Li Shizu and others obeyed the order, pretending to be children of Qujing people, servants and green battalion soldiers, all of them cursed in their hearts, but they dared not disobey the order, so they had to watch Kong Sizhen, Li Shizu and other important figures enter the closed room to avoid the rain, and They stayed where they were and waited out the rain.

When the thunder exploded and the raindrops the size of broad beans began to fall, a beggar who had been hiding under the shade of a tree by the roadside to enjoy the shade ran out from behind the team of fake people, and asked the fake people with unkempt hair, "Masters, why are you still doing this?" Don't hide from the rain? It's going to rain heavily, why are you still standing there?"

"Hiding the ball! Didn't you see the men doing business here?" A servant pretending to be a commoner growled angrily, "Get out of here, you stinking beggar, don't be an eyesore here!"

"Business?" The middle-aged beggar seemed to have realized something, and was about to walk away to find a place to shelter from the rain.Never thought that another strong man with a face full of flesh but wearing tattered animal skins would come out of the team, beckoning and shouting: "Beggars, stop, do you want to earn ten cents?"

"Earn ten pennies?" The beggar was stunned for a while, and then his face showed joy, and he hurriedly said: "Think, think, my lord, what do you want beggars to do?"

"I don't want you to do anything, I'll take advantage of you." The burly man said: "You just stand here, and a high-ranking official will come, and if others kneel, you should kneel, and if others kowtow, you should kowtow." , when others cry for injustice, follow suit, without saying a word, when the high official leaves, I will give you ten coins, will you do it?"

"Okay, okay, I'll do it, of course I'll do it." The beggar happily agreed, and quickly followed the strong man into the team of fake civilians, hiding among the crowd.At this time, the sky was thundered one after another, and the heavy rain poured down, turning the sky and the earth into a white water world in an instant, and turning the fake people on the official road one by one. All drenched into a drenched chicken.

Fortunately, summer thunderstorms on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau come and go quickly. After half an hour, the heavy rain stopped immediately. After the rain, a rainbow hung in the eastern sky. Big figures such as Kong Sizhen, Li Xingyuan and Li Suzu Finally, he swaggered out of the room and sat under the parasol again.Looking at the team of fake people who were soaked in a mess, Kong Sizhen was very satisfied, nodded and said: "Okay, this effect is needed, so that the imperial envoys can see the resentment of the people in Qujing towards Fatty Lu—in order to stop the horse and sue, he was caught. It will not hesitate to be drenched in the rain."

After another quarter of an hour, a team finally appeared at the foot of the mountain, with a total of 13 people on horseback, just like the informant Kong Sizhen received.Kong Sizhen and others didn't dare to be negligent, they hurriedly got everyone ready, and checked each other's confessions, just waiting for the team to go up the mountain.And when this team came to Shengjing Pass, Kong Sizhen, Li Shizu and others hurried forward together, and bowed their hands to salute the team. Kong Sizhen also called out softly: "Dare to ask you, are there any of them?" Yu Chenglong, Yu Chenglong, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate from the capital?"

"The next official is Yu Chenglong." The leader of a middle-aged man agreed, got off his horse and went to fight in front of Kong Sizhen, respectfully said: "The Supervisory Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Yu Chenglong, has met Kong Sigege, please greet Sigege."

"Do you know Ben Gege?" Kong Sizhen looked at Jackie Chan with a smile, and found that he was about [-] years younger than Jackie Chan, with a thin body and ordinary appearance, but a pair of bright and sharp eyes, which seemed quite shrewd and capable.

"Back to Si Gege, on the first day of the Lunar New Year this year, I followed all the officials into the palace to pay New Year greetings to the emperor, and I met Si Gege." Xiaoyu Jackie explained: "At that time, Si Gege was wearing a military uniform and was very eye-catching, so I was very impressed by the humble position. Remember At that time, outside the gate of the palace, the humble official accompanied some censors from the Metropolitan Procuratorate to greet Si Gege."

"Really? No wonder Ben Gege thinks you look familiar. So we have met and talked before." Kong Sizhen's small mouth seemed to be smeared with honey, but he was very proud of himself—after all, he was very charming, as long as men in the world met him For my own, there is no one who does not miss his beautiful appearance.

"My lord Yu, let me introduce myself. The next official is Li Suizu, the prefect of Qujing." Li Suizu approached, saluted first, and then asked tentatively: "Dare to ask my lord, this time I came to Yunnan, but Came here for the mutual impeachment case between the lower official and Lu Yifeng, the magistrate of Qujing County?"

"It turned out to be Li Futai, and Yu Chenglong was rude." Yu Chenglong returned the salute, nodded again, and said calmly: "Yes, he was recommended by Zongxian Wang, the royal censor of Zuodu, and approved by the emperor. Yu Chenglong is here to go south to Qujing this time. Investigate the case of you and Master Lu attacking and impeaching each other."

"It turns out that the imperial envoy arrived, and I have lost my way in my lowly position. I hope to forgive my sin." Li Suzu was startled hypocritically, and hurriedly gave Yu Chenglong a thousand blows.

Yu Chenglong smiled, stopped Li Suzu, and said with a smile: "You don't have to be polite, Li Futai. Although Yu Chenglong is slightly higher in rank than you, he is still your junior in the officialdom. You should just call Yu Chenglong by his name. Get used to it." (Note: In the Qing Dynasty, the ranks of the supervisory censors changed frequently. At the beginning, it was the third rank, and later it was corrected to the seventh rank. Then it was revised to the fourth rank, the seventh rank, the fifth rank, and the sixth rank, and finally it was set to the fifth rank. Kang Mazi's supervisory censor from six to nine years was the fourth rank, so Yu Chenglong's official rank was above Li Suzu at this time.)
"Don't dare, don't dare." Li Suzu kept saying modestly, "The imperial envoy is here, how dare you call him by his name if you are a humble worker?"

"Then just call me my official taboo." Yu Chenglong was very modest, and asked curiously: "Sigege, Li Futai, why are you so many people coming to Shengjing Pass? Look at the adults around you, it seems that they are all A local local official in Yunnan, right?"

"Of course I'm here to welcome you." Kong Sizhen smiled coquettishly: "The imperial envoy is here, why should the magistrate not welcome you? Hehe, let me just say a joke - if the local official neglects you, the imperial envoy, You go up to the memorial together, and the 120 pens of the censors of the [-] supervisors of the censor stage beat drums and cheer together, which local officials can afford it?"

"Welcome me?" Yu Chenglong was very surprised, and said: "Don't be surprised by the four characters. I was ordered to go out of Beijing this time, and my whereabouts were kept very secret. I didn't announce my name and position in the Tingfa mansion newspaper. I also planned not to disturb the local government. Investigate the case quietly. Si Gege and Master Li, how do you know that the humble official has arrived at Shengjing Pass today? And how do you know that the person sent by the emperor to investigate the case is the humble official?"

"About this..., of course, the secret must not be revealed." Kong Sizhen laughed wildly, thinking that you are a little tender after all, and if you want to investigate the case secretly and visit privately, Guan Fanglu should make a fake belt On the body, otherwise, you pass that pass without revealing your identity?

"Okay, okay, Yu Yushi, don't ask these trivial matters." Kong Sizhen changed the topic again, and introduced the officials present one by one to Yu Chenglong. Let me introduce these lords. This lord is Li Xingyuan, the inspector of Yunnan, and he came here from Kunming to meet you."

"It turned out to be Li Ningtai, please greet Mr. Ningtai." Yu Chenglong hurriedly saluted.

"You're welcome." Elder Li Xingyuan showed a smile on his face and said, "Yu Yushi, I heard that you are from the Yellow Banner? The old man is also the same. From now on, we two slaves with the Yellow Banner should get closer and closer."

"That is, that is, I will definitely ask Li Jietai a lot after I am humbled." Yu Chenglong agreed repeatedly, with a very respectful attitude.Kong Sizhen and Li Shizu introduced Yu Chenglong to officials such as Di Sanpin, Liu Wenjin, Zhang Gaomo and Xie Chun. "Si Gege, Li Futai, why don't you see Lu Yifeng, Mr. Lu? Didn't he come?"

Kong Sizhen and Li Shizu quickly exchanged glances, and Kong Sizhen spoke first: "Yu Yushi, don't expect him to come to welcome you—to say something so that you won't be angry, the slave family is Gege, after arriving in Yunnan, that Lu Yifeng has never paid attention to the slave family, let alone you?"

"Lu Yifeng has always had this kind of temper." Li Suzu also fanned the flames: "Lin Tianqing, Lord Lin, took office, but he was the prime minister of this province, a second-rank official, and he didn't even go out of the city to greet him. He did his subordinate's courtesy—Imperial envoy, you are the right one. Fourth grade, of course he doesn't pay much attention to it."

"Really?" Yu Chenglong remained calm, and asked again: "Since Lu Yifeng neglected his boss so much, why did you impeach Lu Yifeng to bribe Lin Zhongcheng at Li Futai? Isn't this a bit contradictory?"

"This..." Li Suzu was a little dumbfounded, but fortunately Li Suzu had a lot of experience in the officialdom, so he quickly argued: "Your Imperial Envoy doesn't know, it's because Lu Yifeng neglected his boss and annoyed Lin Zhongcheng, Lin Zhongcheng sent After getting angry, Lu Yifeng did some things to remedy the situation. Also, the humble office only impeached Lu Yifeng for bribery, and Lin Zhongcheng was suspected of accepting bribes, but he didn’t dare to directly say that Lu Yifeng bribed Lin Zhongcheng.”

"Suspected?" Yu Chenglong snorted coldly, and his words were startling, "If it's just suspected, Lin Zhongcheng would still favor and protect him if Lu Yifeng neglected Shangxian so much?"

"Eh? There's something going on!" Kong Sizhen, Li Suzu and others' eyes lit up, and they heard the dissatisfaction in Jackie Chan's words.Yu Chenglong snorted again: "Since Mr. Lu is unwilling to come to greet me, then I won't force him. Although this is the first time I've been out of Beijing on business, I don't want to put up an official position to overwhelm others. reputation."

Hearing this, Kong Sizhen was so happy that he almost hugged Yu Chenglong and kissed him on the spot. Overjoyed, he quickly winked at Li Shizu. Qi's knelt down and shouted, "I'm wronged! I'm wronged!" "I'm wronged! Your Excellency the imperial envoy, we are wronged!"

"What's wrong? What happened?" Yu Chenglong was obviously shocked for the first time when he encountered such a scene.

"Don't blame the imperial envoy." Li Suizu said hypocritically: "These people are local people in Qujing, because Lu Yifeng, the magistrate of Qujing County, extorted money after he took office, and poisoned the lives of the people, causing countless people to lose their wives and children, and their families were destroyed. They are one of them. A small number of victims. This time, the subordinate officials and Si Gege came to Shengjingguan to welcome the imperial envoy. I don’t know who accidentally leaked a little information, and these people spontaneously followed. They must express their grievances to the imperial envoy. Accusing Lu Yifeng of numerous crimes - the subordinate officials will not be able to drive them away, and disturbed the imperial envoy, please forgive the imperial envoy."

"The people are crying for grievances, why do you want to drive away?" Yu Chenglong asked back, and carefully observed the large group of people who were blocking the road and calling for grievances, nodded, and said: "It rained so heavily just now, these people refused to disperse, It seems that what Lu Yifeng did in Qujing almost drove them to a corner."

"Your Imperial Envoy clearly learned that the people of Qujing have indeed been tortured too much by Lu Yifeng." Li Suizu was secretly happy in his heart, but lamented repeatedly on his lips.At the end, Li Suzu asked hypocritically: "Master Imperial Envoy, what do you think these people should do? Are you going to meet their representatives? Or let the humble officials collect their pleading papers, and you can read them slowly when you arrive in Qujing."

"Then I'll go meet their representatives." After all, Yu Chenglong was a famous official of his generation, and he was very serious about his work. He led a few entourages and walked in front of the group of people.However, under the signal of Li Suzu and others, the voices of the people crying and crying for injustice became louder. The brawny man who had hired beggars for ten cents came out on his knees and shouted with tears in his eyes: "Master Imperial Envoy, We are wronged, we are wronged, please make the decision for us! That county magistrate named Lu Yifeng has made us suffer too much."

"Oh, how did Lu Yifeng deceive you?" Yu Chenglong asked seriously.

"He embezzled and accepted bribes, robbed people's daughters, was domineering and greedy, and blew our Qujing sky high." With tears streaming down his face, the burly man said, "The grass man's name is Chen Er, he is a hunter in Qujing. Feng hunted a tiger and transported it to Qujing City to sell tiger skin, tiger meat, tiger bones and tiger penis. Unfortunately, he was bumped by the county magistrate Lu Yifeng outside the city. To make wine, the tiger skin was confiscated as a tax. The tiger was hunted by the grass people at their own risk. Of course, the grass people would not give it to them. He also injured the grass people. In the end, he said that if the grass people dare to continue to make trouble, he will take the grass people into prison and beat them to death!"

"Lawless, simply lawless!" Yu Chenglong was furious, stamped his feet and shouted: "Do you have any witnesses?"

"Yes, yes." The burly man agreed repeatedly, and waved to the back again, and several men quickly crawled out from behind, shouting together: "My lord, we can testify to Chen Er, and the grassroots can see it with their own eyes." When the county magistrate snatched away Chen Er's tiger, he also saw his subordinate named Fang Shiyu, a black and fat yamen servant beating Chen Er."

"Where are your papers?" Yu Chenglong was even more furious. He reached out to take the paper from the burly man, and looked down angrily.Li Suzu, Kong Sizhen and others were secretly happy, knowing that the first step was basically successful.But at this moment, two people ran out of the woods in the distance, but it was Fatty Lu's lackeys Liu Zhen and brothers Liu Xu, who ran towards Yu Jackie Long together.Kong Sizhen knew something was wrong, so he quickly winked at Di Sanpin who was next to him. Di Sanpin understood, waved his hand immediately, and directed the green battalion soldiers behind him to stop the Liu family brothers.

"Master Imperial Envoy." Brothers Liu Zhen and Liu Xu beat each other from a distance, and Liu Zhen clasped his fists and shouted loudly: "Liu Zhen, the jailer of Qujing County, and Liu Xu, the servant of the yamen, pay homage to Your Excellency Imperial Envoy. We are under the order of Lord Lu, the magistrate of Qujing County. , came to report to the imperial envoy, because my master, as the county magistrate of Qujing, did not dare to stand up for his duties, so he could not come to Shengjing Pass to meet the imperial envoy, please forgive me! Just wait for the imperial envoy's guard of honor to arrive at Jiaoshui, my family The master will definitely walk backwards to meet him."

"No need." Yu Chenglong's face was livid, and he shouted coldly: "Go back and tell your master that Yu Chenglong doesn't dare to be a man, so don't bother him to greet him. Just tell him one more thing, Yu Chenglong came to Qujing to investigate the case, and he will definitely be fair But, if he is not guilty, Yu Chenglong will definitely return his innocence! If he is guilty, Yu Chenglong will definitely not forgive him lightly!!"

"Master Imperial Envoy, let me say something bolder." Liu Zhen said loudly again: "If the Imperial Envoy doesn't want to ruin the name of your elder brother Yu Qingtian with the same name of the same family, please don't listen to one side of the story. Please also ask the imperial envoy to investigate their identities carefully, as long as the true identities of three or five of these people are casually found out, the imperial envoy will definitely understand the reason for their so-called grievances."

"It's bad, listen to the tone, Fatty Lu already knows the identity of Yu Chenglong—otherwise, he will definitely confuse Yu Jackie Chan." Kong Sizhen groaned in his heart, "The whereabouts of Xiao Yu Jackie Chan are so secret, Fatty Lu is a Qipin County How did Ling know? Could it be that someone tipped him off again? Well, there is a possibility, and the person who tipped off must have leaked the secret to Fatty Lu after the old lady and Li Suzu left Qujing. Fatty must have organized the people here to prepare in advance."

In the eyes of everyone, Yu Chenglong was noncommittal to Liu Zhen's words, but said with a cold snort: "Thanks to your advice, I will of course investigate the identities of these people!" After that, Yu Chenglong turned to Li Suzu and ordered: "Li Futai, please trouble You collect all the pleadings of the people complaining, and I have to read them one by one and try them one by one. You must make the decision for them! Also, you must arrange people to protect these plaintiffs, and you must not let them People have an opportunity to take advantage of!"

"Cover." Li Suzu happily agreed, saying in his heart that it would be best for you to read one by one and examine one by one. We will treat you to some wine, some meat, and some women, and the time will be prolonged. Wait for me. His father-in-law, Prince Kang, has arrived, and even if you want to turn around, it's too late.

Amid the shouts of thanksgiving from the common people, Li Suizu sent someone to put away the pleading papers one by one, and asked Yu Jackie to mount his horse again, and set off to Pingyi to rest for the night. The people took advantage of Hei's poisonous hands, so they had no choice but to run back to Qujing with their tails between their legs and go to meet Fatty Lu.Also taking advantage of this chaotic opportunity, Kong Sizhen asked Zhou Peigong alone: ​​"How is it? Do you think Jackie Chan is reliable?"

"Si Gege already has an idea in his heart, why bother to ask the servant?" Zhou Peigong smiled and asked back: "Will the people trained by the iron-faced Wang Xu be so simple?"

"You dog slave, you are really a worm in the belly of my slave!" Kong Sizhen cast a coquettish look at Zhou Peigong, and said in a low voice, "Then what do you think should be done? What is this guy planning?"

"What's the idea? Of course it's in person, and in the back." Zhou Peigong sneered and said, "If he's acting on purpose, then he will definitely try to get in touch in private, and he will investigate the case alone without us. Deal with it The only way for such a person is to keep an eye on him, to keep an eye on him, and to keep an eye on him, as well as the twelve followers under him. Now, this kind of fledgling little censor is just a loach in a small ditch—it can’t get over the big waves!”

"Smart." Kong Sizhen smiled sweetly, and said in a low voice: "From now on, you and Li Suzu will keep an eye on Yu Chenglong, and then gradually put pressure on him according to the plan, and handle other matters in a proper way."

Zhou Peigong nodded, and looked at Kong Sizhen with a smug grin.

………………

After a while, Yu Chenglong, Kong Sizhen, Li Shizu and others left Shengjing Pass together, and rushed to Pingyi to have a banquet and rest.After they walked away, the fake people secretly organized by Li Shizu began to disperse and go back to their homes. The twenty or so beggars who had been temporarily organized by the brawny man found the brawny man again and asked him He reached out to beg for wages, and the burly man was also very generous, and generously paid the previously agreed wages-five cents per person!
"Master, isn't it ten coins per person? Why are you only giving five coins?" a beggar asked timidly.

"It's ten cents per person, but I take care of you on such a good job, shouldn't I charge you a little labor fee?" The brawny man asked with a big face.

"Grandpa, you just agreed on ten cents..." A little beggar begged pitifully, "We've been standing here for a long time, so you can reward us with two more and buy us something to eat."

"Go to hell!" The brawny man kicked the little beggar away, and cursed viciously: "You poor beggars, it's your fate to earn five cents today. In the year before last, you stinky beggars, I had to charge each of you three pennies a day in tax, and now I don’t charge your tax, go have fun.”

"Master, are you from the yamen?" asked the beggar who joined the line last.

"Of course." The brawny man said triumphantly, "Don't look at me dressed like this now, but in fact, I used to be the deputy arrester of the prefect's yamen in Qujing, and I can arrest you at any time and put you in jail! How about it? ? Are you scared?"

"Oh, so it's the head catcher." The middle-aged beggar nodded, took away half of the deducted labor fee, pulled up the little beggar before him and walked south, and said, "Little brother, let's go, don't let the head catcher." The master is getting angry, let's go to another place to beg for food. I'm not familiar with this place, do you know the way to Qujing?"

"Yes, uncle, do you want to go to Qujing to beg for food? I came from Xuanwei to beg for food. I heard that there is a new good county magistrate in Qujing. Life is better. You can find something to do there and you won't die of hunger."

(End of this chapter)