Idle courtiers

Chapter 125 New Unit, New Position
The human relations and entertainment are over, and it's time to set off to Huai'an Mansion as an errand.

That morning, Zhou Nan carried simple luggage by himself without disturbing the others, and was sent to the pier by Yang Liuye and Yang Youtian.Just as he was about to board the boat, he saw Lin A'er rushing towards him: "Master Zhou, wait for the villain, wait for the villain."

Zhou Nan looked intently, only to see Lin A'er in casual clothes, with a bundle on his back.Surprised in my heart: "Ah Er, what are you doing?"

Lin A'er said: "Didn't the master say that this time he went to the mansion to be an official and asked the villain to be your long-term follower? The villain will follow the master."

Zhou Nan said angrily: "Ah Er, you are too honest. What I said was angry at the time. Don't take it seriously. You should go back to the yamen!"

Lin Aer: "Master, why don't you count what you say?"

Zhou Nan laughed and said: "Okay, okay, it's my fault. I'm going to Huai'an. I don't know what's going on there. It's no use if you go. Stay in the county until I really want to hire someone." It's time to call you."

This time he went to the Huai'an Criminal Justice Department to be the governor. On the surface, he seemed to be a ninth-rank official.To put it bluntly, she is actually the secretary of the Tuiguan, who does the work of writing and drawing, sending and receiving, linking the past and the future, communicating with the left and right, and making suggestions.It is a affairs officer, not a political officer who presides over a department, and does not need to employ people.

In fact, the governor does not have much power at hand.They are also officials of the ninth rank, but they are not as majestic and sharp as the inspectors and taxation ambassadors who are in charge of their own duties.

Thinking of this, Zhou Nan was suddenly a little dissatisfied with Tang Shunzhi.

Lin A'er scratched his head: "Okay, master, you have to make an agreement. Once you settle down there, you will bring a letter back and let the little one go. It's just..." He said with sadness on his face: "It's just that the little one is here. I have already resigned from my job in the yamen, how can I go back now."

Zhou Nan: "Just go back and find the county magistrate, and be your yamen servant again."

"Will the lord agree?"

"Don't worry, you just say that I let you come back, and the county lord will definitely agree."

Lin A'er continued to scratch his head: "Master Zhou, aren't you and the county venerable enemies?"

Zhou Nan: "Whoever said that, if you tell you to go back, go back, what nonsense."

"Yes, yes, the villain will go back and ask the county magistrate."

……

"The first state in the southeast of the Huai River, surrounded by mountains and pheasants, the moon is the building. The golden seal hangs at the bottom of the waist, and the white snow sings and writes." It is Huai'an City.

"Farewell to Huaiyin City at night when you are drunk, the moon shines on the tall buildings and sings a song." It is also Huai'an City.

Since the Han Dynasty, Huai'an has been the Huanghuai area, the largest city in the Central Plains.

This city is located above thousands of miles of fertile fields. In this era, the Yellow River took over the Huaihe River and entered the sea.Huai'an City is just located at the water transport hub of the Yellow River, Huaihe River, and the Grand Canal. All the wealth of the world is gathered here, and it was ranked among the top ten cities in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Based on today's city size and GDP calculations, the top ten cities in terms of overall strength in the Ming Dynasty were Gyeonggi, Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Linqingzhou, Huai'an, and Kaifeng.

Speaking of which, some people may be wondering, there seems to be something strange in this ranking, what is Linqing Prefecture?
Linqing Prefecture is a Zhili Prefecture in Shandong Province, and it is also the water transport hub of the Grand Canal.Huaihai is the transshipment place for materials from Huanghuai and Jiangnan, while Linqing Prefecture is responsible for transporting materials from Henan, Hebei, and Shandong to the capital. At the same time, it is a huge city with a detached status.In the Ming Dynasty, when the world mentioned Shandong, the first thing that came to mind was Linqing Prefecture instead of the capital Jinan, as if people mentioned Fujian only knew about Xiamen but not Fuzhou.

As a historical name, water transport hub.Huai'an benefited from fishing and salt, and its economy was extremely prosperous.

According to the information Zhou Nan read in the Andong County Government, the entire Huai'an City now has a population of more than 50, which is quite amazing in this era.Even in modern society, it can be regarded as the size of a prefecture-level city in an economically developed area.

You know, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, even the largest city, Beijing, had a population of just over one million.

This is Zhou Nan's second visit to Huai'an, and his mood is quite different from the last time Cang Huang fled.

When he got off the boat, he was not in a hurry, he just walked around the city without hesitation, and finally found a house for rent.

The yard he rented was in Jutong Lane, not a few steps away from the government office, and it was convenient for commuting to and from get off work.

Huai'an City is quite large, generally speaking, it is divided into two parts, the north and the south.Located between the Yanhe River and the Yellow River in the north, it is the government office, Shanyang county government office, salt road, water transportation and other major agencies.With the Yellow River as the boundary, the south is the residential area of ​​ordinary people.

Considering that I will live in Huai'an for a long time in the future, my family will take over.There are four people in the family now, and there will be additions in the future, so the place should not be too small.Zhou Nan rented a big house with two courtyards. The place was clean, but it was a bit dark, and the little sunlight borrowed from the two small patios was pitiful.However, there is no way to do this. Houses in this era are generally not well lit.

The total area of ​​this house is astonishingly more than 400 square meters, and the monthly rent is only one or two or three dollars, which is about 1000 yuan, which is beyond the imagination of future generations.

After purchasing some simple daily necessities, and having dinner in the street, Zhou Nan went to bed.

There is no light pollution, no noise pollution, and there is a faint sound of water coming from afar, which is the sound of the waves of the Yellow River and the Salt River.

Suddenly, Zhou Nan's drowsiness disappeared, and it turned out to be insomnia.Regarding the future, he was also at a loss, and he didn't know what the officials of the court should do, especially this kind of official who was buried in files all day long.

As a yamen servant, as a teacher, you directly face the common people of Li and common people. When you deal with things, you should be simple and rude, and cut the mess quickly in the shortest time.But now that he is in office, his previous political experience is completely useless, and he doesn't know how to make political achievements.

On the second day, Zhou Nan went to the government office with his panda eyes full of excitement and worry about the new position.

The ancients had a tradition of officials not repairing the yamen. To be honest, the yamen in Andong County are dilapidated and small. Many houses have to be simply closed every year due to disrepair and wind and rain.But this government office is quite a large building, all with white walls and blue tiles, which looks neat and tidy.

It should be a very pleasant thing to work in such a place.

After signing the deposit room and explaining the purpose of coming, after waiting for a long time, a yamen servant came to lead Zhou Nan in.

Walking along with the yamen servants, there are differences inside.The government office is divided into two parts, front and rear. Needless to say, the back office is the residence of the magistrate.

The Qianya is the office space of the major departments, which is divided into six rooms: the main hall, the Tongzhi hall, the experience hall, the trial and punishment hall, and the etiquette, military, and punishment households.

In addition to these departments, there are also dispatched agencies such as the Inspection Department, the Jiangfang Department, the Prison Department, and the Taxation Bureau, which are stationed in various places outside the city.

Since ancient times, China has implemented a system of big society and small government, and the number of national civil servants is small.For example, in a county-level administrative district, there are only four officials, the magistrate, the county magistrate, the master, and the patrol inspector, plus the county school and the Liufang Canon History, no more than twenty people eat the imperial food.

At the government level, with a population of several million and numerous affairs, the number of officials began to expand, and the scale of the yamen was astonishingly large.

Soon, Zhou Nan arrived at the Criminal Justice Hall and waited in the yard.

Like all yamen, there are no big trees in the yamen for fire prevention, theft prevention and lightning strike.

Several word of mouths were set up in the yard, and when I looked closely, it was the "Da Gao" written by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhou Nan scoffed at Zhu Chongjiu's murderous article, saying that if you want the horse to run, you have to feed some grass.As far as the size of the magistrate's yamen is concerned, after a year, it is impossible to maintain it without tens of thousands of taels of silver.But the annual salary of a magistrate is only so much, is there 50 taels?The magistrate, the co-prefect, the judge, the official, the experience, and the training, all the salaries of these major officials add up to no more than 300 taels, and they have to support their families. Is it possible to do things?

This system has been flawed before, and the old Zhu's wife is too naive and too stingy.

The content is worthless, but the handwriting is good, which is obviously the handwriting of a famous artist.

While watching, the pusher sent Zhou Nan in.

Huai'an Tuiguan's surname is Xiong, his name is Ren, he is not tall, and he is a big fat man.At this time the weather was not hot yet, and it was morning again, there were still two balls of obvious sweat under the tuck of Xiong Ren's official robe.

There were three other governors present at the same time, and Zhou Nan stepped forward to salute them one by one.

When the lower-level officials of the Ming Dynasty met their superiors, they did not kneel down and say a word, but just bowed.He was about to cast his body on the ground, that was the etiquette only when meeting the emperor.

Of course, if you are qualified to meet the emperor, you are at least a high-ranking official above the fourth rank, so you don't need to kneel down.

Zhou Nan secretly rejoiced that he traveled to the Ming Dynasty. If he traveled to the Qing Dynasty, he would go to the officialdom and kneel and kowtow when he saw someone with a higher position than himself.

Xiong Ren didn't have any pretensions, he supported Zhou Nan, smiled openly and said to the subordinates around him: "Guys, didn't you mention in front of me all day that there is a man who wrote a good poem in Huai'an Mansion?" Zhou Zimu, this man is in front of you today."

Zhou Nan laughed inwardly, why does it sound like he finally caught a living one?

After meeting with the three governors respectively, he said that he still has some personal matters to deal with. Can he ask for three days off?

Xiong Ren said generously: "That's right, Governor Zhou just arrived last night, and he will settle down in Fucheng again. There are indeed some trivial matters that need to be taken care of, sure. You can go to your room to look at the files you have accumulated before, and you can rest tomorrow. Mu."

Two more yamen servants came and took Zhou Nan to a room of about [-] square meters, saying that this room would be the place where the governor would watch affairs in the future, and that the two of them would also be used by the governor.

The window was bright and clean, sitting in the office, looking at a tree of crabapple flowers in full bloom in the yard, and looking at the two courteous attendants in the room, Zhou Nan finally found some sense of being an official.

I couldn't help feeling in my heart: In fact, it's not bad to sit in the office, it's rare to be leisurely, and a little less oily water is fine!
In fact, this position is not a lot of oil and water.Zhou Nan came to report for duty on the first day today. Although he asked for leave, he was embarrassed and left immediately.Just take out the accumulated files and look, and get familiar with the work.

After watching it all morning, I ate lunch in the kitchen of the government office.

In the afternoon, just as Zhou Nan was about to take a nap, the other three governors came to visit one after another.

After talking, Zhou Nan realized that this job is actually a lot of oil and water.The Criminal Justice Department is in charge of criminal prisons, and now the Huai'an Mansion is peaceful, and there are no criminal cases.And because it is a big commercial city, there are a lot of private commercial conflicts. Once it is handled, the benefits of an average of five or six taels of silver per person per month can still be seen.

Gossiping all afternoon, according to the practice of the Yamen, when a newcomer arrives, the official will be promoted to be the host, and Zhou Nan and the governors will be invited to have a drink to meet the wind.

Official Xiong Tui said that Zhou Nan is capable of poetry and lyrics, and recently the women in brothels in the city are singing his poems.Today's banquet will be held in the largest Goulan "Green Pearl Tower" in the city. At that time, everyone will be drinking, reciting poems and courting prostitutes at the same time.

This happened to scratch Zhou Nan's itch, and he was proud of himself, saying, "Of course I'm going, I'm going."

Anyone who can be an official these days is not a scholar, and who doesn't like romance, so Zhou Nan gathered his energy and prepared to copy a few poems from later generations at the dinner party to make a big splash.

(End of this chapter)