Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 287
The slowly rising sun took away the last coolness of the summer morning.In a room in the backyard of Jinyiwei Yangzhou Thousand Households Institute, Liang Qi, who was sleeping, opened his drunken eyes in the heat, and a handsome face beside him was still in a sound sleep.

When Liang Qi was about to turn over and go back to sleep, the untimely voice of the guard Wu San came from outside the closed door: "Report to Qianhu, Huai'an Chaoguan General Banner Wu Shanghu came to Yangzhou to visit Qianhu, and said he has something important to report! "

"Damn! I have something important to do early in the morning! I'm still asleep! Let him wait!"

An unknown fire rose in Liang Qi's chest, just because of Wu Shanghu's usual filial piety, otherwise he wouldn't know what kind of foul language he would swear.

"Master, business is important, and the concubine will not disappear in a blink of an eye, hee hee~ The concubine will always be here waiting for the return of the master, and let the concubine make up for it. How are you?"

The woman who spoke was named Huanyu, who was originally a pillar of a Qinglou in Yangzhou City. Because of her docile temperament, she was also well-behaved and sensible. Received in the government office and became Liang Qi's concubine.

"Forget it! Master listen to you once! You can rest in peace, and talk about other things when the master returns!"

Liang Qi suppressed the anger in his heart, sat up and took the calf-nosed pants on the bed and put them on, then put on the thin-soled fast boots and stood up, Huanyu quickly sat up and was about to get out of bed to serve him, Liang Qi waved his hand After stopping, he took off the robe from the hanger and quickly put it on, turned around and came to the bed, laughed, Huanyu shrank, and looked at Liang Qi affectionately, with a shy look on his face, Liang Qi Haha laughed, turned and opened the door and walked out.

Wu Shanghu took Sun Zhong, Zhang Tao and yesterday afternoon to Yangzhou by boat, and arrived at the wharf outside the city at night. Since the gate of the city had already been closed, the three of them found an inn outside the city to stay, and had dinner at the inn after getting up in the morning Then they rushed to the gate of the city, and when the gate opened at Maoshi, the three of them entered the city and went straight to Qianhu's house.

Since Yangzhou is not far from Huai'an, and Huai'an is the office of Chen Qiyu, the Governor of Water Transport, Zhu Youjian did not want to make this capable minister who has made many meritorious deeds feel unhappy, so he specially ordered Luo Yangxing not to set up Jinyiwei households in Huai'an Fucheng Therefore, it is only to set up a general banner at Chaoguan to supervise tax collection. Chaoguan Jinyiwei is under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou Qianhu Office, so Wu Shanghu rushed to Yangzhou to meet Liang Qi.

After entering the yamen of the Thousand Households, Wu Shanghu reported his intention to the Shangguan on duty, and was led by the captain to the second hall to wait for Liang Qi's arrival.

After the three of them waited for almost half an hour, Liang Qi, who had finished eating in the backyard, turned around the screen and came to the second hall. Wu Shanghu and the three hurriedly got up to salute. After Yipao sat down, he asked, "Speaking of which, what's the important thing to report early in the morning? Could it be that the Qianguan was robbed? Why did you, Wu Shanghu, come here all night?"

Wu Shanghu heard the dissatisfaction in Liang Qi's tone, so he hurriedly took a step forward, bowed and saluted, and then went straight to the subject and said, "I report to Qianhu, the captain under the humble rank seized a case of smuggling by an official ship on Chaoguan yesterday. Because the matter involved Liu Zuo, the magistrate of Yangzhou, the humble official felt that there seemed to be an opportunity to take advantage of it, so he came to report to Qianhu overnight, and Qianhu needs to show him how to plan the specific plan!"

"Official ship smuggling? Who is this bold and reckless? These civil servants still have no shame! Damn! They really don't want money! Official ships are used by court officials for official business, how come they are privately owned! This matter should be taken seriously Deal with it! Tell me the whole story!"

After Liang Qi yelled a few words, the evil fire in his heart was relieved, and then Wu Shanghu recounted what happened yesterday.

After listening to what Wu Shanghu said, Liang Qi pondered for a while and said, "This matter is not considered important. If we report this matter to the court, Liu Zuo will be called negligent, and at most he will be fined and compensated." There is no benefit for us to pay taxes and money. Could it be that you want to have a private relationship with Liu's business, seize the goods on the ship, and then ask Liu's business to redeem the goods with money? This idea is not bad! I think at least The Liu family took out 5000 taels of silver to complete it, otherwise they will tell Liu’s business that if they don’t come to redeem it as soon as possible, unfortunately, the warehouse will catch fire, and the 2 taels of goods will be burned in the blink of an eye!”

Wu Shanghu couldn't help secretly contemptuously in his heart: This kind of brain can also make thousands of households, God is so fucking blind, and even scolded other civil servants for being shameless for money, you fucking are no better than civil officials!

In fact, Liang Qi is not such a mediocre person. It is precisely because of his outstanding talents that he was entrusted with important tasks and came to Yangzhou.

But since he was promoted to Yangzhou Thousand Households, he saw that it was impossible to move up again, so now he was only thinking about making money and finding women, and he had already forgotten the basic function of Jin Yiwei and civil officials.

The problem is that you, Liang Qi, don't want to be promoted, but most of the generals and lieutenants under him still want to be promoted and make a fortune. If you don't do anything, what should we do?

Wu Shanghu was very upset, but there was nothing he could do.

You must know that Jinyiwei's interior is very strict, and there is an unwritten rule in the guard: the following offenses are prohibited.Even if the chief is mediocre and incompetent, as a subordinate, he cannot report on it openly or secretly.

Most of the Jinyiwei generals are world-renowned, and they have served in the guard for several generations or even more than ten generations. The strengths of all parties in the guard are intertwined, and the nepotism is intricate. If you usually offend one person without paying attention, you may offend a large number of people behind the scenes. One day I will be wearing small shoes.Therefore, if the low-level generals want to be promoted, they can only do so if they are appreciated by the superior officials after making great contributions.

"What Qianhu said is very reasonable! But the humble official feels that there seems to be another way to deal with this matter. If it is arranged properly, maybe the seat of Lord Qianhu can be moved up, and the subordinates can also benefit from it. ! Even if his merits are not enough for promotion, but he has saved some capital for future promotion. Once the chance coincides, he may be able to use it someday!"

Wu Shanghu clasped his fists and saluted.

"Promoted? What kind of money can I get from this matter? Liu Zuo didn't get ahead, how can I use him? Wait, you mean...?!"

As long as he doesn't just think about gold and silver women, Liang Qi is still a relatively smart person. When it comes to Liu Zuo, he suddenly understands Wu Shanghu's intentions.

"That's right! Qianhu is a Shangguan, and he came up with such a good idea all at once! Don't open your mouth for Qianhu, let me take a guess at Qianhu's clever plan?"

Liang Qi felt very useful under Wu Shanghu's flattery: "Look at my brain, I was only thinking about official business, and I forgot to ask you to sit down. You are all old brothers from Weizhong. Come on, let's sit down quickly. Let's listen together to see if you, Old Wu, have guessed what I'm thinking!"

Wu Shanghu and the three of them sat down one after another after thanking them. After standing for a long time, the legs and feet of the three of them felt a little numb.

"Then I will make a rough guess. If there is any mistake, I hope Qianhu will correct me. I think that Qianhu wants to keep the goods at the dock. Even if Liu's Commercial Bank finally admits to paying the tax, we can do other things. The interface refuses to be released, and it can even be destroyed by the method of water leakage! As a senior official of the fourth rank, Liu Zuo must be very upset. The gentry and wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River who have been complaining about the imperial court’s collection of commercial taxes will definitely gather at this time because of this matter. Discussing countermeasures at Liu Zuo's side is nothing more than trying to get the court to withdraw the tax collection. The humble official speculates that he will repeat the old tricks, first calling on merchants to strike, and then gathering a large number of merchants, scholars, and street rogues to encircle the government, There seems to be civil unrest in the place, in order to coerce the court to back down. This method was tried and tested in the period of Lord Wanli and Lord Tianqi, but now Emperor Chongzhen is in power. Judging from his various measures over the past few years, the emperor will never do it for him. Coerced by the act of relying on public opinion, I will definitely try to frustrate his conspiracy to build up the emperor's prestige. Isn't this just the time when I, Qianhu in Yangzhou, made great contributions?! The above is what I think about my humble position, does Qianhu think so?"

"Come on! Old Wu insists on getting it! What you said is exactly what I want! Just do it in this way! The three of you go back to the pass to deal with the affairs there, and I will call the generals immediately Arrangement. From now on, regardless of whether it is Liu Zuo or Liu's business, all contacts with related personnel must be closely monitored, and the whereabouts of related personnel must be investigated clearly. Report it to the Commander's Office, if you can get the reward this time, you, Old Wu, have a lot to contribute!"

Liang Qi stood up excitedly and made a decisive decision.

(End of this chapter)