Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 275 Interlude
"I haven't been to the capital for two years, and I never thought of such a big change! Before, there were beggars all over the place, and most of the people in the city looked poor. Looking at their colors, you can tell that they are not hungry every day! The streets and alleys are also rare clean places. Although it is not filthy everywhere, filthy things can be seen everywhere, and the residences of the people in the north and south cities are also dilapidated. What I see today makes me stunned! Just by looking at the expressions of the people on the road, I can tell that their family conditions have improved greatly , at this time of clarification in the sea, our Emperor Ming will have the appearance of a prosperous age! This is all thanks to the gift of the sage!"

Beside a street in the southern city of the capital, a middle-aged man wearing a royal blue shirt and a square scarf on his head was watching the street scene and the endless stream of pedestrians with his hands behind his back. His expression was palpable. Beside him stood a businessman in a suit. big fat man.

"Brother Ziru, don't drop your book bag. We are businessmen, not those big headscarves. How can there be so many of them! You have read a lot of idle books, but it sounds awkward! This is the end of the day It's noon, let's go to Yuan Wang's place to hand over the goods, and then we two brothers will go to a restaurant to have a drink, and accompany you around all morning, my stomach is already empty! Ha~~ Bah!"

The fat man who was talking to the middle-aged man opened his mouth to spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm after speaking, then raised his arm and wiped a trace of stain from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

In the blink of an eye, a man in his thirties suddenly appeared in two places, wearing a soap suit, thin-soled fast boots, a dark round hat, and his eyes were bare. in front of people.

"Excuse me, this member, pay me, ten cents!"

The man raised his hand with a palm-sized wooden sign, shook it at the spitting fat man, put it in his arms, then spread out his palm and said to the fat man with a smile.

"What money? Why should I give you money? You don't look like a beggar, could it be that you want to rob? This is the capital! At the feet of the emperor, you are not afraid of being caught by the public? Hurry up!"

The fat man was taken aback by the sudden appearance of this man, and then he yelled angrily.

"To tell you the truth, this is a public servant, Li Wu, the servant of the Shuntianfu City Appearance Management Bureau! Hehe! You are spitting everywhere, violating Article [-] of the City Appearance Management Law, and fined ten coins according to the rules! Come, get the money! "

The gentleman named Li Wu said to the fat man with a smile.

"What is the management bureau? I have traveled all over the world for decades, but I have never heard of this yamen. Could it be that you kid is a bully from Beijing, and you want to cheat someone's money? Be careful that a certain family drags you to the government!"

The fat man said angrily.

Since he was a child, he followed his father's generation to travel all over the country to do business, and he is familiar with all the relevant yamen of the imperial court, but he has never heard of any City Appearance Management Bureau.This man must be a local householder in the capital. Seeing that he is a foreigner, he deliberately found an excuse to extort money.

"Did you see that? This is the badge of a certain person. You can look carefully! If you report to the official, you can go a hundred steps to the left and you will find the patrol shop of Wucheng Bingmasi. You can ask the officer next to you to report to the official." , ask the patrol to come over and tell you the difference, we will wait here, do you think it will work?"

Li Wu was not angry either, he held the wooden waist card in his hand for the fat man to watch, with a smile still on his face.

The businessman named Ziru said "disturbing", took the waist card from Li Wu's hand and looked at it, and saw "Li Mou, Inspector of Shuntianfu City Appearance Management Bureau" engraved on the front of the wooden card, and on the back was It is carved with a lifelike image of Bi An.

Wang Ziru looked at the waist card and was sure that Li Wu in front of him was indeed a member of the Gongmen. No one dared to forge the certificate of the waist card of the Yamen these days. If he was caught, his head would be lost.

"Brother Li, just now my younger brother is really Meng Lang, please forgive me if I offend you, this is fine money, please take it away. The two of us are merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, and we haven't been to the capital for a long time, so we don't know much about the rules here. , I hope Brother Li is not to blame!"

While talking, Wang Ziru took out a piece of broken silver from his bosom and handed it to Li Wu, apologizing repeatedly.

Li Wu weighed the broken silver and grinned his teeth, "Not only did I not blame this fat man, but I was looking forward to more of this! Haha! What I said was just for fun, so don't take it seriously. I think the silver must weigh more than a penny, do you two have any copper coins? If not, then follow me to find a shop to weigh the silver, and I will return the copper coins to you."

"No need, the rest of Brother Li just have a cup of tea! The two of us still have business to talk about, so let's take our leave!"

"Hey, wait a minute! The amount of the fine is determined by the yamen. I don't want to be greedy for your little money. Let's go to the butcher shop in front of me to find the money!"

Li Wu grabbed the fat man's sleeve and walked forward, Wang Ziru had no choice but to follow.

After they came out of the butcher's shop by weighing and looking for silver, Wang Ziru and the fat man surnamed Cheng clasped their fists at Li Wu and headed eastward.

Li Wu put the ten copper coins into the cloth bag tied around his waist, and continued to patrol the streets with his hands behind his back.

The reason why he had to drag those two people to find money was not because Li Wu was so honest and upright, but mainly because he didn't dare to be greedy.

Some time ago, an inspector from the City Appearance Management Bureau asked Jin Yiwei to arrest him and put him in jail.The reason is that after several times of fines, he put the extra money into his own pocket. The last time he happened to be seen by a secret agent of Jin Yiwei, he was arrested in the imperial prison, cleaned up, and all of them were recruited. Over the years, all the salaries were confiscated, the errands were lost, and the wife, children, and children also lost their source of income, and the whole family suffered great misfortune.

This incident made some of the City Appearance Inspectors who have used their brains completely put away their thoughts. Who knows where those elusive Jinyiwei spies are hiding in the corner and staring at themselves, don't even lose their jobs just because of this small fortune. .

"Mr. Wang, could it be that we and other foreigners have become outdated people? Since ancient times, there is no one who is not greedy in the yamen, even at the feet of the emperor; I have never heard of Li Wu's actions this time! It’s all like this, it can be called a blessing for us common people and merchants!”

In the guest room of a three-entry house in Dongcheng, Wang Ziru put down the teacup and said with emotion.

"Brother Wang doesn't know that this City Appearance Management Bureau was newly established a year ago. It is responsible for the cleanliness and orderliness of markets, shops, households, and streets in the capital. It is under the name of Shuntian Prefecture. It was established after the decree was issued today. What happened to Brother Wang and Brother Cheng today is likely to happen countless times in the four cities of the capital every day. It is not that Li Wu is not greedy for money, but that he dare not be greedy at all! I don’t know how many eyes are watching in the dark! As for the local government, it may not be easy to be so strict and clean!”

Wang Song, who was sitting opposite Wang Ziru and Cheng Gan, smiled and roughly told the ins and outs of the incident. Only then did Wang Ziru and Cheng Gan understand the reason.

"Since Jin Yiwei is monitoring these inspectors, isn't he afraid that they will collude with them to blackmail outsiders?"

Fatty Cheng asked curiously.

"Hehe, brother Cheng is too worried. Jinyiwei has seven thousand-household offices in the capital, plus Nanbei Zhen Fusi and the command office, there are thousands of people, and there are not many spies in plain clothes. Just imagine, brother If you are one of them, how many of these thousands of people do you know? Do you know if any of your colleagues are secretly spying on you? Besides, since the year before last, the salaries of Jinyi’s soldiers have been greatly increased, plus some extra rewards, these Jinyis All the soldiers are fat and oily, and now they are all focused on making meritorious service to obtain rewards. Who cares about the small money? Besides, the emperor's soldiers are all high-spirited, why did they put these inspectors in their eyes? To put it bluntly, the secret agents in Jinyi are eager for more inspectors to show up, that is the capital they rely on for promotion! Hehehe!"

Wang Song lived in the capital for generations, and many of his relatives worked in various yamen in the capital.When relatives and friends gather for drinking and chatting every new year, they will inevitably talk about some interesting stories or even anecdotes in each yamen, so he knows a little about some of the yamen's methods.

"That's right! It's been rumored that the pro-army is so ruthless and greedy. Now I heard from Yuanwai Wang that not only is the pro-army not as bad as the rumors say, but I even think it's more responsible than the censor! I really look forward to the Holy Admiral It would be good if the pro-army is stationed in various prefectures and counties! Then we merchants will be less exploited!"

Of course, Zhu Youjian was unaware of this little episode that happened in the capital. At this time, he was receiving an audience from Zhou Wang Zhu Gongyan in the Qianqing Palace.

　Thanks to book friends KingOfBlade and book friends Erzhe for their rewards.Can anyone please vote for me, the current number of votes is 250, really that's nothing.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)