Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 441 Arrogant Rumors
After a simple handover procedure, Yang Du found an excuse to leave the office.

The principal, Zhang Qi, took Fan Ning to the prefect's office. This was the official office of the former prefect Zhao Zhinian.

"Your Majesty, this set of furniture is made of rosewood. It is the best desk, chair and cabinet in the government office. The former prefect Zhao was very particular about wood."

Fan Ning nodded. He looked around the room, but found that there was not even a piece of paper in the room, and there were no paperwork, books, or newspapers.

Fan Ning frowned, "Why are there no documents to be processed?"

There was a hint of embarrassment on Zhang Qi's face, and he said for a while: "The main reason is that the prefect Zhao left a few months ago, and all the documents are handled by Yang Tong, so."

"So Yang Tongpan hasn't adapted to my arrival, right?"

"It's hard to say that this humble person is so soft-spoken."

Fan Ning didn't say anything more, and said: "I still have two staff members, they will come in two days, prepare a room for them!"

"No problem, there are a lot of vacant rooms in the yard, so I'll clean up a room right now."

Zhang Qi left in fear, Fan Ning was not in a hurry, and sat in the official room for a while. At this moment, Song Ling came in with a thick stack of documents. He put the documents on the table and said, "This is the household registration of Yingtian Mansion." Please have a look at the information on the Hetian residence, Your Majesty."

Fan Ning flipped through the documents and asked, "Do these documents need to be approved by the Secretary to join the army?"

Song Ling took out a document from it, "This is the newly compiled Lehu information, which needs to be approved by the Secretary for joining the army. Others are old documents that have been approved and archived."

Fan Ning nodded, "Others can be kept. You can take Lehu's information back and report it normally. Don't jump over the ranks, and don't be caught by others. Do you understand?"

"Humble job understands!"

Song Ling saluted, took the documents and left.

While drinking tea, Fan Ning casually flipped through the documents. Not long after, Shi Cao, Cang Cao, Xing Cao, Gong Cao, and Yi Cao officers also came to Fan Ning's official room with their documents. The table is full of government documents.

At noon, before Yang Du came back, Fan Ning came to a restaurant near the government office. He asked for a private room and just sat down when Zhu Long hurried in and handed Fan Ning a document.

This is the detailed information of Gu Changwu's grandfather. Fan Ning read it carefully. As expected, Gu Changwu's grandfather was a general of the Cao family.

Fanning nodded, and asked again: "Have the two gentlemen come back?"

"Already back, they just arrived at the inn."

Fan Ning said with a smile: "Go and invite the two of them over here, I will wait for them here."

"As ordered!"

Zhu Long turned around and hurried away.

Fanning asked for a jug of wine, and while drinking, he thought about the various situations he encountered today.

Obviously, the military and political power belonging to the magistrate was snatched away by Yang Du. Judging from the documents seen today, they are all archived materials, but none of the documents that need to be approved have been sent.

Of course, the responsibility does not lie with the Six Cao Sishi. They cannot hand over the documents directly to themselves. They must be handed over to Si Lu for the first trial of joining the army, and then Si Lu joins the army to decide which important documents need to be reported to the magistrate, and which documents can only be submitted to the general judge. .

Yang Du controlled Si Lu to join the army Zhou Heng, so all the documents would not be sent to his desk, but sent directly to Yang Du.

There is also judge Liu Chi, if there is no prefect's signature on important government documents, he has the right to reject the government decision, but Liu Chi let it go, so Yang Du doesn't care about the bottom officials at all, as long as these two core positions are controlled , he holds the power of government affairs in Yingtian Mansion, and the lower-level officials below can only dare to be angry and dare not speak out.

The performance of Six Cao Sishi today is enough to illustrate this point. Fan Ning firmly believes that things that seriously violate the rules will never win the support of the majority of people. protest.

Compared with government affairs, Fan Ning cared more about the army. In fact, besides the government office, Songcheng County should have more than a hundred archers and foot powers in the county government office, which is also a force that cannot be ignored.

But today, on his first day in office, the county magistrate of Songcheng didn't come to see him, which is enough to explain the problem.

Li Dechang, one of the left and right military patrols, is definitely the target I want to attack, and the key lies in Gu Changwu. Whether I can win him over is the key to whether I can turn the situation around.

Just as he was thinking, the door opened, and Gongsun Xuance and Zhang Bo walked in from the outside.

"Keep the officials waiting for a long time!"

"Where! Sit down quickly."

Fan Ning randomly ordered the bartender to serve the food. The food and drink had already been ordered. After a while, several bartenders brought the food and drink to them like flowing water.

Fan Ning filled the two with wine and asked with a smile, "Have you gained anything in these two days?"

Gongsun Xuance nodded, "I have gained a lot, and I found many shocking things when I sank down."

"Come on! Let's drink first. For the hard work of the two gentlemen, let's have a drink."

The two drank the wine in their glasses, Gongsun Xuance sighed and said: "The tea market and grain market in Yingtian Mansion are controlled by Zhang Yaozuo, and Yang Du's wife and younger brother control the wine market. In the retail sector, they can only be sold by them. Last year, Yang Du's wife and brother led hundreds of thugs to smash up more than a dozen wine shops in order to rob the wine market. It is said that some shopkeepers were killed in the conflict. The same is true in the city, the three largest grain shops in Songcheng County were burned overnight, other small and medium grain shops closed down one after another, and the prices of wine, rice and tea in Yingtianfu are [-]% higher than those in the capital."

Zhang Bo next to him said, "Not only that, but Yang Du also dispatched troops to set up checkpoints on land and water to strictly investigate, and all merchants who trafficked grain, tea, and wine from other places will be arrested, and they will either be sentenced to severe punishment or be fined to ruin their fortunes. "

Fan Ning picked up the jug and looked at it, and saw the words 'Wen Qingjiu' printed on the jug, he asked, "Is this the kind of wine?"

Gongsun Xuance nodded, "The whole city only sells this kind of wine, and they all come from the wine shop of Yang Du's wife and brother."

Fan Ning pondered for a moment and asked: "Last year, people were killed in the smashing of wine shops. Is this news accurate?"

"It's true. Many people have seen it with their own eyes. The hotel is called Thousand Days Drunk. Next to the south gate, they carried out a large wine vat from the shop and pushed the owner of the shop into the vat to drown him alive. His wife and children I went to Beijing to file a complaint, but was stopped halfway, my son had a leg broken, and the family lived in a thatched hut outside the city."

Zhang Bo said again: "Do the officials want to take advantage of this?"

Fan Ning smiled calmly, "Don't be in a hurry, take it step by step, don't startle the snake."

"How is the official taking office today?" Gongsun Xuance asked.

Fan Ning shook his head, "Today I have learned the lesson. The military and political power is controlled by Yang Du. He controls the army and judges, and controls the left and right military patrols. The people below dare not speak out."

Gongsun Xuance smiled slightly and said, "Actually, officials can go and see Songcheng County."

"Does Songcheng County have anything to say?" Fan Ning asked curiously.

"I heard that the county magistrate and magistrate of Songcheng County are all Yang Du's people, but the county magistrate Hou Wen is not. In order to drive away the county magistrate, Yang Du gave the county magistrate a bad evaluation for two consecutive years. If the third year If there are any bad reviews, his future will be completely ruined."

"Could it be that the county magistrate has also been dismissed, otherwise why would he ignore the behavior of bullying the market?"

"The officials are right. The county magistrate Hou Wen was also dismissed by the county magistrate and county lieutenant, and he was drunk all day long."

Fan Ning laughed, this county magistrate Hou was the third breakthrough direction.

Songcheng County Yamen is located in the northern part of Songcheng County, not far from Fuya.

The county magistrate of Song Dynasty was surnamed Hou, and his name was Hou Wen. He was from Xuancheng, Xuanzhou, and he was a Jinshi of the same discipline as Fan Ning. The meritorious families in the capital are not leaders like the Cao family and the Gao family. Although they have a lot of money, they are politically powerless.

However, the Wang family also has connections. After being on the bench for several years, Hou Wen finally got the help of the Wang family and became a Beijing official. His official position is the seventh-rank official.

However, Hou Wen was hit hard by the judge Yang Du. The Wang family could not offend Zhang Yaozuo and Jia Changchao, and could not help Hou Wen. They could only persuade him to be patient, but patience did not bring Yang Du back. Hou Wen continued for two years It is listed as a bad review in the evaluation of the government office. If he gets another bad review, the official department will register and he will lose hope of promotion.

Hou Wen was extremely worried, but there was nothing he could do. The Wang family hadn't found a suitable opportunity for him to be transferred, so he could only spend every day in anxiety.

At night, Hou Wen was sitting alone in the study drinking. At this time, his wife Wang walked in quickly, snatched the jug from his hand, and said to him in a low voice: "There is an important guest here, you should cheer up quickly." ?”

"Who? Who's coming to see me?"

"The new prefect Fan came to see you in person!"

(End of this chapter)