Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 987 0982 [The coward's chance to make a contribution]

Liu Yu was old after all. Especially after years of disasters and the expedition against Western Xia, his body could not bear the busy affairs.

When the summer expedition ended, he began to resign and kept putting it off until autumn.

Now that the disaster situation in the country has eased, Liu Yu and Zhao Quan have both retired, and two cabinet ministers have left at once.

The new cabinet members are as follows: Li Hanzhang, Qian Chen, Zhang Tong, Fang Mengqing, Meng Zhao, Chen Dong, and Liang Yi.

Only Fang Mengqing was not an "old man" of the Long clan, so it seemed a bit out of place for him to be in the cabinet.

At that time, Zhu Ming personally led his troops to garrison Xiangyang, and Fang Mengqing was the only Song official who actively trained troops to "suppress Zhu's bandits." Unexpectedly, when Li Bao led his troops to Huainan, Song Huizong, who was on the run, commanded the troops blindly, killing most of Fang Mengqing's hard-trained troops, and continued to flee south without caring about the frontline soldiers.

In a rage, Fang Mengqing rebelled against the Song Dynasty and joined the rebels.

As a result, Li Bao rushed to the capital and threw all the captured officers and soldiers to him. Fang Mengqing led these miscellaneous troops and actually captured half of the Huainan area, thus rising rapidly in the new Ming Dynasty.

This is fucking outrageous!
With the changes in the cabinet, Qin Hui was also promoted.

The rank remained unchanged, but was changed from Minister of Works to Minister of Revenue, and was also given the titles of "Special Advancement" and "Grand Prince's Guardian".

Mainly because of the massive infrastructure construction in recent years, Qin Hui, as the Minister of Industry, has accumulated too many achievements, both large and small. Even the Yellow River control project, although Qin Hui did not have much involvement, but also has a part of the credit on his head.

"Dear teacher, this is Zhao Kai's masterpiece "Old Crow Picture." A middle-aged official presented the scroll.

Qin Hui looked at it for a long time, nodded and said in approval: "Crazy Zhao's painting skills are becoming more and more exquisite and bizarre."

The middle-aged official was named Yang Yuan, from Suzhou.

When Qin Hui was the principal of the Imperial College in the Former Song Dynasty, Yang Yuan happened to be a student of the Imperial College. At that time, the two had no friendship at all, but as Qin Hui was promoted in the new Ming Dynasty, Yang Yuan came to curry favor with him as a student.

To be honest, Qin Hui looked down on this guy because Yang Yuan had no ability at all and even wrote official documents in an incomprehensible way.

But Yang Yuan was too good at handling things, and his skill in flattery was perfect, even someone of Qin Hui's level was flattered to the point of being in ecstasy!

Historically, Qin Hui was simply tired of this man and sent him to be a local official. As a result, Yang Yuan scared himself to death.

Not only is he incompetent, he's also as timid as a mouse.

Qin Hui put down Zhao Kai's "Old Crow", sat upright on the chair and asked: "Tell me, what's the matter?"

Yang Yuan sighed and said, "I dare not hide the truth from you, Master. I returned to Beijing after my period of mourning ended. I went to the Ministry of Personnel yesterday to report for duty. The Ministry of Personnel said that my past performance was not good, so I must stay in Beijing and wait for a vacancy. I wonder if you can help me."

Qin Hui said with a smile: "I am the Minister of Revenue, how can I be in charge of the Ministry of Personnel? You are really useless. After all, you passed the former Song Dynasty Imperial College entrance examination. How come you can't even be a small official in the state?"

"The clerks in the yamen are disobedient and difficult to command," Yang Yuan complained.

Qin Hui sneered: "To be controlled by subordinates, how incompetent!"

Yang Yuan took out ten Ming Dynasty treasure notes and said, "I heard that there are many vacancies in Ningxia and Shaanxi after the destruction of Xia. I hope that Master will be gracious and help me. I don't expect much, a remote prefecture judge is enough. I don't ask for anything else, just don't waste my time waiting for vacancies."

Qin Hui glanced at the treasure banknotes, which amounted to five thousand strings of cash. He thought that the Yang family was indeed a wealthy family, as a magistrate of a remote state could actually give so much.

The Ming Dynasty was not like the former Song Dynasty, and corruption was dealt with strictly.

Officials are bound to be corrupt, but they are all very secretive about it.

How much money can a judge from a remote and impoverished area make? Unless he is extremely greedy, it will be difficult to make back his investment even after serving a full term.

Under normal circumstances, Qin Hui would not have accepted this money.

But Yang Yuan's situation was special. He had enough experience to be an official, and his position was blocked by the Ministry of Personnel after his mourning period ended. Even if Qin Hui did not take action, he would probably be able to get a vacancy after waiting for a year or two.

It is easy to do favors, and the officials in the Ministry of Personnel will give you face.

What's more, Yang Yuan secretly gave his niece to Qin Hui as a concubine.

Qin Hui put away the treasure notes and warned: "After you take office, be more restrained."

Yang Yuan said, "Disciple, save that."

When it comes to corruption, Qin Hui was still very confident in Yang Yuan.

How could a cowardly guy dare to be so corrupt when facing the imperial court that is strictly investigating corruption?
Let me put it this way, in the past ten years, all the bribes that Yang Yuan gave to Qin Hui have not even been recovered through corruption.

His family is not short of money, but he wants to climb up the social ladder. He is definitely a power-hungry person.

Even when Yang Yuan was able to enter the Imperial College, he did so by paying for his studies. Then he bribed Wang Fu's followers and successfully passed the Imperial College entrance examination, earning himself a Jinshi degree. Then he continued to give money and stayed in the Imperial College as a minor official.
I have been using money to pave the way for nearly twenty years, but I haven't even become a state judge.

After giving a few more instructions, Qin Hui sent Yang Yuan away.

As his position became more powerful, Qin Hui became more and more daring. He used to keep all the money he had earned in a small house he had secretly bought, but now he kept it directly in the Shangshu official residence.

I am still in my hometown in Jiangning, buying land and building a mansion, waiting to live there when I retire.

He also sent people back to his ancestral hometown to renovate the ancestral tomb and his father's tomb. After all, the emperor was far away and nothing could go wrong.

After putting away the treasure banknotes, Qin Hui looked at the "Old Crow Picture" again.

He liked Zhao Kai's paintings very much. They were weird but evil and had a rebellious beauty.

Qin Hui spread out paper and ground ink, and began to imitate the painting method, but he felt something was not right and he could not paint in the style of Zhao Kai.

"It's a pity that this person is a member of the former Song royal family, otherwise we would have to invite him to seek advice." Qin Hui was quite regretful about this.

The next day, Qin Hui called a confidant and asked him to handle the matter.

It was a small matter, and Qin Hui didn't need to show up, and he didn't even need to pay. He could just send his trusted confidant to treat the doctor of the Ministry of Personnel to a meal and listen to some music.

With Yang Yuan's own official qualifications, he could normally be absent from the position of prefecture judge. He just hoped that the Ministry of Personnel would not deliberately block it. This kind of thing is not against the rules!
Of course, the premise is that the imperial court does not conduct a strict investigation. Once a strict investigation is conducted, the case may be escalated to a serious level.

……

Yang Yuan stayed in the capital and waited, but there was no news.

Although the Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel's Selection Office promised to help, there was indeed no actual vacancy at the moment.

Until early winter, the prefect of Xuanzhou fell ill due to acclimatization and asked for leave to recuperate. Yang Yuan was unexpectedly appointed as the prefect of Xuanzhou.

Although he didn't know where Xuanzhou was, Yang Yuan was still extremely excited.

He just wanted to be a provincial judge, but he was appointed as a prefect!

This guy excitedly ran to the Ministry of Personnel to handle the formalities and checked Xuanzhou's information by the way, and then he was a little dumbfounded.

Xuanzhou is Zhongwei City. The reason why Zhu Ming changed the name was that it originated from the Xuanjuan County in the Han Dynasty.

There are only two counties in this prefecture, one is Yingli County attached to the prefecture city, and the other is Mingsha County south of Qingtongxia. In both counties, only the banks of the Yellow River are relatively "rich", and the rest are all mountainous areas, deserts and grasslands without counties.

No wonder he was appointed as the prefect. This place is too small, too poor and too remote.

Although he is called the prefect, his rank is actually similar to that of a normal prefect.

Yang Yuan stayed in Luoyang pretending to be sick and refused to leave, so Qin Hui sent people to scold him. He had to set off before the snow fell.

Heavy snow blocked the road before he reached Lanzhou, and he had to wait until the snow melted in the spring before he could continue his journey to take up his post.

Outside Xuanzhou City.

The former prefect Li Xian, who was bedridden and requested a leave, waited until the snow melted and left by boat. He looked back at the prefecture capital with a sneer.

Something bad will happen here sooner or later. The governor and the commander are too greedy!
Li Xian was delayed on the road and took office a month late last year. After only a few days as an official in Xuanzhou, he felt something was wrong because the accounts of money and grain did not match at all.

The state judge and the commander invited him to drink. Li Xian asked very obscure questions, but the other party directly brought up the matter.

Commander Pu Quan had no scruples and said with a smile: "I joined the army in Bazhou and served under Li Shumi (Li Bao). Before the emperor was crowned emperor, I was already Li Shumi's personal soldier. I know all the princes and dukes. Who are these people here? They are all remnants of Xixia. It would be better if more of them starved to death! Especially those herding tribes, even if all of them rebel, the 500 soldiers in my hands can wipe them out, and I can make meritorious deeds by then."

Li Xian was dumbfounded when he heard this. He deliberately withheld relief grains and the laborers' food, forcing the Xixia farmers and herdsmen to rebel, and then he would get credit for suppressing the rebellion!

This operation is really tricky. If you are not careful, it will be ruined.

After eating and drinking, Li Xian quietly found the state judge Yan Shunqing and said, "Great Judge Yan, aren't you afraid of losing your head for this kind of thing?"

Yan Shunqing said, "When I took office, the account was no longer correct. That Pu had 500 soldiers stationed here, and he was Li Shumi's personal guard. How could I report him to the court? Commander Pu was right. They were all remnants of the Western Xia. It was a good opportunity to force them to rebel and kill them. Then, we, the civil servants, can also help to suppress the rebellion and make merit."

Li Xian fell seriously ill that night and remained ill for two whole months. He was unable to handle any government affairs and had to entrust full authority to the state judge.

He felt that it would be difficult for him to recover in a short period of time, so he wrote a letter to the Ningxia Governor's Office, claiming that he was not acclimatized to the local climate and requested to return home to recuperate.

He had to wait until it snowed before receiving permission from the court, and could only continue to recuperate and wait for the snow to melt.

He really couldn't afford to offend Li Bao's personal soldiers, and he didn't want to have a conflict with the army, so he just stayed away from them.

The old prefect Li Xian left and the new prefect Yang Yuan came.

When he arrived at the bank of the Yellow River, Yang Yuan was very surprised to find that this place was not as poor as he had imagined.

Yang Yuan had a very tiring journey and had to rest for half a month before he could deal with government affairs.

It was not until the second month in office that Yang Yuan finally discovered that there was something wrong with the accounts.

Well, the account is actually correct, but the amount of money and grain in the warehouse is wrong!

Yang Yuan quickly found the state judge Yan Shunqing, and Yan Shunqing brought the commander Pu Quan over.

The two of them still said the same thing.

Yang Yuan asked, "If the court investigates, how are you going to settle the accounts? Not only did you withhold the relief grain, you also embezzled most of the other money!"

Pu Quan smiled and said, "If we lead troops to suppress the rebellion of those tribes, can't we settle the accounts? We can just blame everything on the rebels."

"This... this is too bold, isn't it?" Yang Yuan said in fear.

Pu Quan said: "When we were stationed in Shaanxi before, we didn't dare to do this. But now it is the former territory of Western Xia, and those outside are all remnants of Western Xia, not our Han people. What are we afraid of a bunch of Tangut barbarians?"

Yang Yuan asked: "There are only 500 soldiers stationed in Xuanzhou. What should we do if those Dangxiang tribes come to attack us?"

Pu Quan said: "Our great Ming soldiers are all capable of fighting one hundred men at a time, so five hundred garrison troops are more than enough to suppress the rebellion."

"Really?" Yang Yuan was a little unconvinced.

Pu Quan laughed and said, "How can a big turban like you know anything about military affairs?"

Yang Yuan thought about the Ming army's past battle records and subconsciously nodded in belief.

Yan Shunqing took the opportunity to say, "The governor is the chief official here, why don't we do this business together? Not only can we make money, but we can also share the credit for suppressing the rebellion."

Yang Yuan's family is very wealthy from business, so he doesn't really care how much he can embezzle.

But the words "I can share the credit for suppressing the rebellion" made Yang Yuan's eyes light up. He had been an official for nearly twenty years, and what he lacked was political achievements and merits. He had to seize this opportunity quickly.

A group of Xixia remnants and a group of Dangxiang barbarians, just kill them, can the court still blame them?

Yang Yuan drank a glass of white wine to boost his courage, slammed the table and said, "I'll follow you!"

(End of this chapter)