marquis of jingan

Chapter 44

From Jiankang in Jingdu to Jiangdu, there is only less than [-] miles away. If you ride a horse, you can get there in a day or even half a day. Even if you take a horse-drawn carriage, you can get there in only a day or two. In the afternoon, the supervisory censor of the imperial court and the officials of Dali Temple rushed to Jiangdu.

The supervisory censor is an official of the Yushitai, and the Dali Temple is equivalent to the Supreme Court, responsible for reviewing the trial of criminal and prison cases.

Originally, this matter involved the prefect of the capital of Jiang, and he was already regarded as an upper-middle-level official of the imperial court, or even an upper-level official. In addition, the matter involved the state system, and the Ministry of Punishment should also send people. The discussion did not involve the people from the Criminal Department.

To be precise, it was Yang Jingzong and Yang Xiangguo who rejected the participation of the Ministry of Punishment on the grounds that a servant of the Ministry of Punishment was a fellow villager of Chen Yu, the prefect of Jiangdu, and should avoid suspicion.

This reason is very far-fetched, because it is impossible for the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment to personally participate in this kind of case, and at most he will send a small official of the sixth or seventh rank to investigate. You can't cover the sky with one hand in the Ministry of Punishment.

That afternoon, the "special case team" sent by the imperial court arrived in Jiangdu. Chen Yu, the prefect of Jiangdu, led a group of officials from Jiangdu to greet him at the city gate in person.

Chen Zhifu arrived in person, so it is impossible for those grain merchants not to come. More than a dozen grain merchants and hundreds of Jiangdu locals knelt at the gate of the city to welcome the "imperial envoys" of the imperial court. At the door, these hundreds of people kowtowed directly to the frame of the court, and their voices were neat.

"People in Jiangdu, I beg the imperial envoy to make the decision."

Hundreds of people yelled this sentence together, with a great momentum. It happened that the two "imperial envoys" had just got off the carriage at this moment, and they were startled by the neat voice. The two imperial envoys looked around and saw that they were walking towards each other. Chen Yu, the prefect of Jiangdu, came.

Dali Temple judges Yue Zheng.

Yushitai supervises Yushi Zhang Lu.

Both are seventh-rank officials.

Dali Temple's evaluation of affairs was originally a job done in Beijing, so there was no need to leave the capital. Moreover, the yamen of Dali Temple was not high in rank, but had a lot of power, which was quite different from the local seventh-rank county magistrates.

As for the supervisory censor, there is no need to say more.

Although this official position is only seventh-rank, and some censors who have just entered Yushitai only have eighth-rank officials, they have the power to supervise all officials, which is equivalent to a discipline inspection unit, which is very important.

The two walked towards Chen Yu head-on.

At this moment, Prefect Chen no longer had the poker face he had before, but smiled all over his face, saluted the two imperial envoys, and said with a smile: "Brother Changping, Brother Jisheng, you have worked hard all the way."

Changping is Yuezheng's name, and Jisheng is Zhang Lu's name.

Yue Zheng and Zhang Lu also greeted each other with smiles, Yue Zheng bowed his hands to Chen Yu and saluted: "It's rare that Brother Fengde still remembers the names of the two of us, I thought that after Brother Fengde became a high-ranking official, he forgot about his old friend. "

But Zhang Lu, the inspector censor, looked left and right, looked at the Jiangdu people who were kneeling on the ground, frowned slightly and said, "Brother Fengde is too upright to be an official, and he won't let anyone chase them away. It’s okay that I waited for the two of you to come today, I know something about Brother Fengde’s character, if someone else came, I’m afraid they would stand by these people kneeling on the ground.”

Chen Fuzun smiled indifferently, and said: "You are not afraid of the shadow slanting, the imperial court sent two people over, and the two are imperial envoys of the imperial court. After the investigation of this matter in Jiangdu, the two will report it according to the facts."

"Public is public, private is private, you two don't have to take into account the old relationship."

Among the two imperial envoys, the supervisory censor Zhang Lu was in the same year as Chen Yu, and both of them passed the Jinshi examination in the same year, but Zhang Lu's official career was not as prosperous as Chen Yu's, and he is still working as a supervisory censor at Yushitai.

As for the other imperial envoy, Yue Zheng, although he was not from the same hometown as Chen Yu, he was also a student of Yang Xiangguo, so he was considered to be from the same school as Chen Yu.

The imperial court sent these two people to investigate Jiangdu's affairs, and the attitude behind it was already very obvious.

Ma Yuanwai waited for a group of grain merchants, who were kneeling at the gate of the city right now. Although they couldn't hear what Chen Zhifu and the imperial envoys were talking about, they could see them standing together talking and laughing, and their mood immediately changed. sank.

To be honest, if the fundamental interests were not involved, these businessmen would not fight against the lord of the government, let alone make trouble like this, but the government took money from them, but did not allow them to take money from the people. These grain merchants have no way to accept it.

After all, most of these businessmen have people behind them, and they pay money on time every year. If they have people behind them, they have more confidence and are not afraid of confronting local officials.

But seeing the two imperial envoys chatting and laughing with Chen Zhifu, the hearts of these grain merchants immediately sank.

Some timid people immediately began to look around, ready to run away at any time.

Just when these grain merchants were feeling uneasy, Supervisor Zhang Lu, with his hands behind his back, walked slowly in front of these grain merchants. Zhang Yushi looked at these grain merchants and asked in a deep voice: "You are the grain merchants of Jiangdu Shang, or the people of Jiangdu?"

The horseman knelt on the ground and said, "There are both grain merchants and ordinary people."

"Since everyone is here, I don't need to wait for another trip."

"This official is Zhang Lu, the inspector censor appointed by the imperial court to investigate the ink corruption case of the prefect of Jiangdu."

Zhang Yushi said calmly: "The official and Yue Pingshi will visit Jiangdu in the past few days. If there are questions about you, you must answer truthfully."

"Three days later, you send people to the magistrate's yamen to confront the prefect Chen face to face. At that time, I and Yue Pingshi will write down what you said and relay it to the court."

The grain merchants looked at each other and could only bow their heads.

"Okay, let's all go back."

Zhang Yushi's voice was loud and loud: "Right and wrong are right and wrong, you can make your own judgment. If Chen Zhifu is really greedy for ink, the imperial court will not let him go, and I, Yushitai, will not let him go!"

After saying this, Zhang Yushi turned around and walked towards the place where Prefect Chen was.

After Zhang Lu left, these grain merchants slowly stood up and dismissed the Jiangdu people they had gathered.

After everyone dispersed, the bosses of more than a dozen food companies gathered together, and everyone had anxious expressions on their faces.

They looked at Ma Yuanwai, wanting Ma Yuanwai to give him an idea.

Ma Yuanwai touched his big belly with one hand, stroked his beard with the other, and squinted his eyes: "Chen Yu is a student of Yang Xiang in the capital. It is not surprising that the teacher favors the students, but that Yang Xiang this year It's over 70 years old."

"In a few months, His Majesty will be 16 years old, and he is about to take charge of the government. Once His Majesty takes charge, those prime ministers will definitely change. The first one to be replaced is this Prime Minister Yang!"

Jiangdu is too close to the capital.

Rich merchants in Jiangdu like Ma Yuanwai, although most of their businesses are in Jiangdu, have houses in the capital, and sometimes live in Jiankang, Kyoto for most of the year. Most of their relationships are also in the capital. The situation is clear.

This is also the fundamental reason why they dared to group together to offend Chen Yu, the prime minister's protégé.

Because the people above them are not afraid of Yang Xiangguo, they will not be afraid of Chen Fuzun.

"Just wait."

Ma Yuanwai snorted: "The magistrate's yamen took the money, it's a firm matter, if these two imperial envoys favor Chen Yu, let's go to the capital to sue!"

(End of this chapter)