The Reborn Duke of Ming Dynasty

"My lord Zhang, I... I am guilty of being an official, I am guilty of being an official," Wang Dezhao, who once again heard Zhang Fan speaking to himself in that stern voice, couldn't bear this feeling anymore, left his seat, and came to Zhang Fan knelt down straight in front of Zhang Fan's face with a "plop", and the sound of knocking his head was really loud, Zhang Fan felt a little hurt for him when he heard it.

"Oh, Mr. Wang is guilty." Zhang Fan still did not say why he treated him like this, but still asked, "This...I am a little confused. I don't know which crime Mr. Wang committed. To do such a great gift, "

"Master Zhang, my dear imperial envoy, you beat up a lot of people, spare the subordinate officials, and stop torturing the subordinate officials," Wang Dezhao said in tears. If you are more careful, you can really see Obtaining the tears on his face, "The lower official knows that my lord came here to thoroughly investigate the corrupt officials. Now that huge corrupt Liu Shan has been brought to justice, the lower official also... the lower official knows that the lower official is not clean, and even threatened My uncle Zhang Yuanwai, but I was an unintentional mistake when I became an official, now please...please also please show me your mercy, and don’t take my life, "

Hearing what he said, Zhang Fan had already laughed in his heart, and he almost couldn't hold back his laughter. Zhang Fan straightened his face, still with a serious expression, but It was much better than before, and asked Wang Dezhao, "Wang Dezhao, let me ask you, you said that you were not a clean official in the past, can you tell me specifically what you have done?"

"Xiaguan...Xiaguan..." Wang Dezhao couldn't answer Zhang Fan's question, he groaned for a while, and then said: "...Xiaguan used to keep money in the yamen and send it to the police. When collecting taxes from the surrounding townships every year, the lower officials will do something to charge more, but the lower officials dare to assure the adults with their lives that the lower officials will never charge much more, and the people who are making troubles are not able to live. No; when the lower officials pay taxes and money to the household department every year, they always fiddle with the accounts and make a look of poor harvest, so that they can keep some money privately, but not much. The Ministry would not have noticed such a small difference at all; last month, under the pretext of Yingtian governor Hai Rui's investigation of Haoqiang's encroachment on fertile land, he asked for some money from all the big families in the city who had some land under their names; return……"

In the beginning, Zhang Fan listened quietly to Wang Dezhao telling about the crimes he had committed, but gradually, the more he listened, the more uncomfortable Zhang Fan became, and the more he listened, the more impatient he became. They are all trivial things. Although Zhang Fan has not checked it, he believes that what Wang Dezhao said is true. It's just that Zhang Fan is calculating in his heart and following Wang Dezhao's method to embezzle, let alone him. After all these years, even if he was allowed to be the magistrate of such a prosperous place like Yangzhou for another ten years, he would not be able to covet much money. Zhang Fan roughly calculated an account for Wang Dezhao. 5000 taels of silver, and it was a good harvest year. If there was any drought or flood, let alone a major disaster, even a minor disaster, Wang Dezhao would not be greedy for these silvers.

People in the Song Dynasty once said, "Three years to clean up the magistrate, one hundred thousand snowflakes and silver", this sentence mainly satirizes various loopholes in the local system, even those relatively clean officials, in case the magistrate has been in office for three years You can also get a hundred thousand taels. If those officials are officials with the intention of being corrupt and breaking the law, they don't know how much silver taels they can get every year.

From this point of view, although this Wang Dezhao is greedy and very greedy, in fact, he is much better than some officials with a reputation for integrity. This really makes Zhang Fan a little puzzled. The first impression is that he is definitely not a clean and honest official. Anyone who looks at his fat body will think that he was raised because of corruption and perverting the law. Poor, even if he achieved the position of Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, which is now a position of less than one person and more than ten thousand people, his annual salary is not much, and Wang Dezhao spends almost all of the money he got from several places every year. That's why it looks like this.

To be honest, Zhang Fan still didn’t believe that Wang Dezhao had only done this kind of sneaky small business until just now. He thought that Wang Dezhao must have done something big, but he didn’t say that he had done anything big until after Wang Dezhao finished speaking. , the biggest one is which matter is related to Uncle Zhang Fan. The ridiculous thing is that that matter was interrupted because of Zhang Fan's arrival. If Zhang Fan really wanted to pursue it, he could only use In the name of personal grievances, he went to trouble Wang Dezhao, but if he wanted to go the right way, he didn't even have any evidence.

Moreover, the most important thing is that Zhang Fan believes that the current Wang Dezhao has been frightened by himself, and must have told everything he has done. However, Zhang Fan has not heard of any unforgivable mistakes. Moreover, Zhang Fan felt that Wang Dezhao was so terrified that he even said all the trivial things, which should be what he did.

But these are not the main points. Zhang Fan needs to use Wang Dezhao for some things now, but before using him, Zhang Fan has to beat him up. Wang Dezhao said: "I remember that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu issued an imperial order, but anyone who is an official who corrupts more than ten taels of silver will be executed immediately. Even the imperial court does not abide by this regulation, but this imperial order is still available, and it is still useful now, but now it has become a tool for political enemies to fight each other, but this If the official wants to use it, I think it can still be used, "

"Boom..." Wang Dezhao immediately kowtowed his head after hearing what Zhang Fan said. The force was so great that Zhang Fan could even see some blood on the ground the moment he raised his head.

"Stop, stop, what are you doing?" Zhang Fan immediately stopped Wang Dezhao from doing this, and if this continues, he will probably pass out.

"My lord, I...please my lord don't kill me," Wang Dezhao pleaded, his voice trembling with great fear.

"Did I say I was going to kill you?" Zhang Fan asked back, "Get up and sit on your seat."

Wang Dezhao listened to Zhang Fan's words, but he hesitated and refused to move. It seemed that he did not trust Zhang Fan. It was true that any official who committed a crime would tell the envoys what he had committed to Jin Yiwei. I believe it is impossible to commit corruption and pervert the law like Zhang Fan is showing now. He is completely indifferent, and even let him sit down to drink and eat food together. This is just human nature.

"Why, do you want me to send someone to check on you now," Zhang Fan said in a low voice seeing that he didn't move, but the words contained endless threats.

When Wang Dezhao heard this, his body trembled again, and he quickly sat down on the stool tremblingly. Zhang Fan looked at Wang Dezhao's face and saw that there was indeed a wound on his forehead, but maybe it was because the flesh on his head was too thick. Well, not much blood came out, and the wound was very deep, the blood on the ground just now was just rubbed on the ground by the wound.

Looking at Wang Dezhao who looked timid, Zhang Fan asked a question in his heart: "Tell me, you just said that Liu Shan is a big greedy man, how did you know this, could it be..."

"My lord, please don't misunderstand me. I have nothing to do with Liu Shan," Wang Dezhao said, shaking his hands hastily. , seems to want to pull me into the gang to do something big, but my lord, I have a greedy heart, but my own life is still more precious. At that time, I saw Liu Shan's enthusiasm, what he said must be What earth-shattering event, although I don't have any cleverness, but I still understand some truths, doing like Liu Shan will cause accidents sooner or later, so I didn't want to have anything to do with Liu Shan at that time. Before he even said what he wanted to do, I had already rejected him, for fear that after listening to it, I wouldn't be able to get rid of the relationship.

"Although I don't know what he is, I'm also very curious, so I also secretly checked Liu Shan. I found nothing in the first year. Until the second year, when I was about to give up, I found Liu Shan. Shan Yu is related to many officials in the whole Jiangsu Province. After I knew about this matter, I never asked about it again,"

"Oh, so that's what happened," Zhang Fan said after hearing what he said, "You understand very well, knowing that what Liu Shan did was to lose his head, but you were able to resist the temptation and get away in time. Back, you are shrewd, it seems that I underestimated you, but you are much smarter than you look,"

"My lord, I'm too smart. How smart is this lower official?" Wang Dezhao said with some embarrassment. "This lower official is cowardly. He's just worried about his own life."

"Anyway, at least you are pretty good," Zhang Fan said, "Although you are so greedy, because you are afraid of your own life, even if you want to get some money to spend, you will find some money that is almost Do things that won't be discovered, and get some pocket money, so you can be regarded as an upright official in today's Ming Dynasty."

"Your Excellency, you are joking," Wang Dezhao said with an apologetic smile, but the smile on his face was really helpless.

"How about it, I need your help with something now," Zhang Fan said the purpose of asking him to come here today, "Would you like to help me?"