Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 489: Storehouse and Officials

"When I sent Xiaolang to the box, there were two slings of money under the box..."

On the Xinyou day of April, when Zhu Zhanhe was on his way from Dali to Longchuan, everyone heard singing when they walked to a roadside.

"parking!"

Zhu Zhanhe's voice rang out from inside the carriage. The dozen or so Xichang warriors responsible for escorting him immediately reined in their horses, and the carriage also stopped.

Zhu Zhanhe got off the carriage and stood beside the road. The road was built on the mountainside, and there were terraces like steps up and down the mountainside.

In the terraced fields, some ethnic groups were working in the paddy fields and singing at the same time.

Zhu Zhanhe watched all this with great interest. When the people in the terraces saw them, not only did they not restrain themselves, but they laughed and sang louder and louder.

Although he didn't understand the meaning, seeing their happy faces, Zhu Zhanhe himself also had a smile on his face.

After standing on the roadside and watching for half an hour, Zhu Zhanhe left in a carriage.

In the carriage, Zhu Zhanhe wrote down what he saw and heard on letter paper, most of which were about people's livelihood.

Along the way, Zhu Zhanhe basically saw scenes of all ethnic groups living and working in peace and contentment. A few of them also encountered scenes where officials were irresponsible and careless. But for the common people, as long as they didn't bother them, they could take care of themselves. Take good care of yourself.

Opening the car window, you can see the rolling mountains outside the window, and the mountain road is also very rugged, like a giant snake strangling its prey, surrounding the mountains.

With such terrain and road conditions, it is undoubtedly difficult to build a railway.

Zhu Zhanhe looked carefully and found that it was possible to build a railway along the river valley, but at least a high bridge of seven to eight feet or even more than ten feet would have to be built.

A high bridge of that height may not be built now, or even in the next twenty or thirty years.

Not to mention they are built in batches rather than individually.

"This Southwest Railway is destined to never be built."

With a sigh, Zhu Zhanhe also picked up the letter paper, dried it, and put it into a small box on the carriage.

There was a lot of letter paper inside. Zhu Zhanhe planned to send people to the capital after arriving in Longchuan. Otherwise, sending letters frequently in a few days would be a waste of manpower and material resources.

The carriage gradually moved forward, and from time to time you could see some villages built around the official road, most of which were mainly populated by young people.

Zhu Zhanhe also asked carefully about this.

There are not that many river valleys in Yunnan, and the climate in some river valleys is sultry and not as cool as the mountains and forests.

Therefore, after some areas were rehabilitated, some minority residents would be resettled to build villages on both sides of the road and develop terraced fields in the local area.

In Zhu Zhanhe's opinion, such a life is very hard, but in the eyes of those young people who have been liberated, the current life is compared to the past, and it is simply paradise.

Many children stood by the roadside and looked at Zhu Zhanhe's carriage and horses with envy in their eyes.

Although they are only five or six years old, they can already distinguish the difference between caravans and travelers.

The caravan's carriage is usually open-topped, and a lot of supplies are pulled on the carriage, while the traveler's carriage is like a small house where people can rest.

Zhu Zhanhe and the others moved forward and saw a group of merchants coming here to trade.

They brought salt, soy sauce, vinegar, cloth and other supplies, and what they purchased were bundles of sugar cane.

These sugar canes will be dragged by them to the county town for sugar extraction, and this is the most stable cash crop in the world.

Yunnan farmers benefited from Jianghuai's vigorous promotion of sugar pressing. They planted sugar cane on sloping land and rice on slightly flat land.

After a year, there is enough food to eat, and sugar cane can be sold to make money to buy supplies.

Continuing on the road, about two days later, Zhu Zhanhe and the others finally crossed the Hengduan Mountains and entered the sultry Longchuan land after resting for three days in Yongchang Mansion.

Zhu Zhanhe was not used to the tropical climate here, and it just felt like he was soaked in water.

After crossing the mountains, what they saw was a wide river valley.

Although you can still see mountains in the distance, the terrain is finally flatter.

There are mulberry trees, rice, sugar cane, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and various vegetables on the flat roads.

Unlike the Central Plains, the land here is vast and sparsely populated. No one builds a fence to encircle their fields. It seems that thieves do not exist here.

"Jiangnan is densely populated. This kind of scene cannot be seen in Jiangnan."

Opening the car window, Zhu Zhanhe praised the local people's simplicity without hesitation.

Walking forward, they soon saw many people repairing official roads.

Since the official road was under construction, Zhu Zhanhe could only get off the carriage and walk this distance.

Obviously there is less than three miles of official road that needs rest and repair, but there are hundreds of people working here, which can't help but surprise people.

Zhu Zhanhe asked the Xichang warriors to inquire, and soon he found out Jiang Huai's intentions.

"Local village officials said that people can get a small amount of money from sugar cane and mulberry leaves throughout the year. Therefore, when building some roads, people from some areas can be appropriately hired to start the construction together. Although it costs a lot of money, the construction is also quick. , In fact, it won’t cost much in the end, and the people will benefit from it.”

Xichang Lishi and Zhu Zhanhe walked through this section of the official road that needed to be repaired. When they heard each other's explanation, they also smiled on their faces:

"This is like his style. He is not worried about the lack but the inequality. He often said this to me back then, but now he is really even-tempered."

After Zhu Zhanhe said that, they passed the road that needed to be repaired, got in the car and headed towards Nandian City, which was dozens of miles away.

When he entered the area of ​​Nandian, some officers and soldiers had already noticed their team and sent the news to the Longchuan Mansion in Nandian early.

"As you expected, His Highness really doesn't hide anything. I originally thought that he would at least learn some finishing methods after fighting in Mobei for more than a year. I never thought..."

In the meeting hall of Longchuan Bofu, Wang Xuan, who was in his forties, shook his head. Time has left many traces on his face.

Sitting in the first place under him, Jiang Huai, the prefect of Longchuan, could only smile bitterly when he heard this:

"I know His Highness's character very well. It's not that His Highness doesn't know these methods, he just doesn't think it's necessary to use them."

"It's just that he did this, but it made us suffer."

"That's true." Wang Xuan stroked his short beard, then said after thinking:

"But having said that, we have to meet His Highness. Whether for the present or for the future, we should make our position clear."

"Well, I will take the initiative to handle this matter." Jiang Huai made up his mind. Although he believed that officials should not form cliques, with his strength and energy, he could not protect himself or resist the rules of officialdom.

Only if he adapts to the rules can he create the possibility of changing the rules in the future.

"It's not good to welcome him with great fanfare. You can bring your Highness to see me then. If I go out to greet him, I'm afraid all the officials in Longchuan will know His Highness's identity."

"it is good!"

After having a detailed discussion with Wang Xuan, Jiang Huai stood up and walked out of the Longchuan residence, quietly waiting for Zhu Zhanhe's arrival.

While he was waiting quietly, Zhu Zhanhe also took advantage of the night to rest at a post station twenty miles north of Nandian.

Under the arrangement of the postman, he walked up to the room on the second floor to rest. When he opened the door, he saw a one-armed man standing in the room.

Seeing Zhu Zhanhe, the man quickly bowed with one hand: "Wang Huan, the official of Qianhu in Xichang in Yunnan, comes to see your highness!"

"You must be Wang Huan. I heard my father tell you, please get up quickly. You don't need to call me your highness. Just call me Guo He."

Zhu Zhanhe helped Wang Huan up, sat down with him, and then cordially asked about things in Longchuan and Yunnan.

In this regard, Wang Huan, who was responsible for the collection of Yunnan intelligence and the Three Propaganda and Ten Comforts intelligence, also knew everything and said everything.

Generally speaking, Yunnan is still peaceful now. In order to welcome Zhu Zhanhe, Wang Xuan withdrew to Longchuan after suppressing Meng Yang's rebellion and vigorously cleaned up some bandits.

As for the Xuanwei Divisions in the south such as Mubang, Mengken, Burma, Diwu La, Babai Dadian, Lao, and Dakula, they were all quite obedient because Muchun and Wang Xuan were in charge.

Perhaps it was because of the stability of the frontier that the emperor dared to send him to Longchuan as an official.

After listening, although Zhu Zhanhe felt a little regretful, he also felt warm.

My father rarely said anything about caring about him, but he never failed to take practical actions.

"Your Highness, are you planning to serve as a village official, or as an official in the county or government offices?"

Wang Huan asked Zhu Zhanhe, hoping that he would choose to be a village official. After all, the working location of a village official is relatively fixed and easy to protect.

In comparison, the scope of work of county officials and government officials is too large, and it is more difficult to protect them.

"Tomorrow I will ask Jiang Huai if he needs anything, just arrange something for me."

Zhu Zhanhe responded indifferently, and Wang Huan nodded after hearing this.

"By the way, Wang Qianhu, are you Jianghuai's instructor?"

Zhu Zhanhe asked suddenly. Apparently Jiang Huai had told him about this matter. Wang Huan did not hide it and told how he and Jiang Huai met.

"At the beginning, I recommended him to Jiangning Middle School because I thought he was a promising talent. Now it seems that the recommendation was not wrong."

"That's right."

Facing Wang Huan's words, Zhu Zhanhe chuckled and nodded, and chatted with Wang Huan about other things. In the end, Zhu Zhanhe was a little sleepy and asked Wang Huan to rest next door.

Perhaps it was because he had not seen his old friend for many years, so Zhu Zhanhe was obviously very sleepy, but he tossed and turned in bed until late at night before gradually falling asleep.

Early the next morning, Zhu Zhanhe did not choose to ride in a carriage. Instead, he took two Xichang warriors who had changed their clothes and rode towards Nandian County.

Before noon, they arrived at the Longchuan government office to report. Zhu Zhanhe also took his transfer order and followed the government officials to the prefect's study.

"Prefect Jiang, the officials transferred from the imperial court have arrived."

"come in!"

Although it is just a staff transfer, for Longchuan Mansion, which has only seven to eight hundred staff members, every staff member needs to be interviewed by Jianghuai and selected for a position after taking a test on their ability, so no one is surprised.

"You go in." The official who led the way looked back at Zhu Zhanhe, who also suppressed the excitement in his heart and walked in.

Not long after, he saw Jiang Huai sitting on a chair. He was wearing the uniform of a prefect, his face was still handsome, and he was worthy of being the top prize of that year.

"Guo He, a common man, has seen..."

Zhu Zhanhe still wanted to show off, but Jiang Huai couldn't sit still when he saw this, and quickly stood up: "You better stop doing this, I'm afraid you will find me wearing my shoes in the future."

"Haha!" After hearing this, Zhu Zhanhe confirmed that Jiang Huai had not changed. Jiang Huai also showed a smile and signaled:
"Pull out your chair, sit down, and tell me why you want to come to my place."

"Of course..." Zhu Zhanhe sat down and expressed his thoughts. He simply felt that Jianghuai would not protect or protect him, so coming here was his best choice.

Moreover, he has already gone to the north and learned about the situation in the north, but he cannot go overseas in the south, so he chooses Yunnan to learn more.

Hearing this, Jiang Huai nodded and said: "You are right. Longchuan here often needs to communicate with Kunming Mansion, Manmo, and Zhenkang. The situation is different from place to place and is very complicated."

"When you come here, I will naturally not protect you, nor will I give you any extra treatment."

"Since you come to study, it's best to start studying at the government office. But the government office has many places to visit, and you can't learn real things in three or five years. The county government office is more suitable for you. You can work in the Nandian County government office. Bar."

"If you can learn well, then you can study in the government office and forget about being a village official..."

"Not to mention anything else, if your temperament is thrown into the village, as long as the officials who come to communicate are not blind, they will know not to mess with you, and it will be difficult for you to fail in what you want to do."

Zhu Zhanhe wants to hone himself, so Jiang Huai naturally needs to find someone who is not afraid of him.

There are many sons and daughters of meritorious officials serving in the county government. As long as these people don't know Zhu Zhanhe's identity as the prince, they will naturally not be afraid of him. After all, these people are also very ambitious.

But this is fine, you can use Zhu Zhanhe to kill their prestige, or you can use them to sharpen Zhu Zhanhe.

Thinking about this, Jiang Huai then said: "How about the warehouse officials in the Nandian County government office?"

"Cang Zan Li?" Zhu Zhanhe was a little confused. Hearing this, Jiang Huai smiled bitterly and said, "You haven't even studied these?"

Seeing this, Jiang Huai could only introduce it to Zhu Zhanhe.

In the county government established in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to a small number of "court officials" such as county magistrates, adjutants (adjutants), and chief officials, a large number of daily administrative affairs were completed by official clerks in each department and department.

Officials are the collective name for officials and scribes. Officials are public officials appointed by the imperial court and registered with the Ministry of Personnel. Their status is lower than that of officials. They are roughly equivalent to civil servants in later generations.

Shushu includes calligraphers and calculators, and calligraphers are also called masters, posters, etc. They are people hired from the common people to assist officials in handling clerical and accounting affairs. They are roughly equivalent to business editors in later generations.

Handymen were mostly engaged in hard work such as running errands, catching thieves, collecting taxes, etc., and were roughly equivalent to the auxiliary police in later generations.

With the implementation of the Yongle New Deal, the original county government has also been reorganized and reorganized. There are no longer bookkeepers and handymen. The entire county is divided into one magistrate, one county magistrate, one chief bookkeeper, six six-room Dianshi, There are six six-room officials, one county magistrate, and one county inspection envoy, a total of seventeen chief officials above the ninth rank.

Under the chief officer, there are more than 200 county officials and village officials, as well as military and horse officers ranging from 100 to 300 people.

County officials mainly work in various departments of the county government and handle the transfer of documents and documents.

Village officials are mainly officials who hold positions such as mayor, district chief, and grain chief in villages and towns. They are mainly responsible for tax collection, recruitment of workers, construction, and population statistics.

The soldiers and horses are mainly responsible for arresting thieves in the city, patrolling the streets, and patrolling the official roads outside the city.

The imperial court stipulated that those with less than five people were bandits, and those with more than five people were bandits.

Robbery is handled by the Military and Horse Division, and banditry is handled by the army. The division of labor is clear.

On both sides of the county government hall, the government office has six rooms for officials, households, rituals, soldiers, criminals, and workers. Counties with more complicated government affairs also have grain departments, horse departments, etc. among them.

In addition, the county's official schools, inspection departments, tax bureaus, delivery offices, water horse stations, river stations, warehouses, gates and dams and other institutions all have officials.

The position of officials in the execution of official duties is very important. In the Ming Dynasty, officials made decisions and officials implemented them.

A large number of tasks such as criminal names, money grains, and travel documents are completed by officials. Naturally, this also gives officials room to cheat and exercise power.

Since many specific administrative affairs are actually carried out by the officials, once a problem arises, the officials are the first to be asked.

The New Deal stipulates that in the event of collective duty-related crimes, officials must first be held accountable, and the investigation should be conducted from bottom to top.

Of course, it is not easy to be an official. There is an assessment every three years. If you fail the assessment, you will be given a three-month salary and the county government will be eliminated.

The position Zhu Zhanhe was awarded was a household house among the six houses, and the household house had one official and one clerk each, and more than 30 officials under his command.

Among them, the warehouse clerk is the warehouse custodian. When accessing materials in each room, the warehouse clerk needs to verify the documents and sign before the materials can be taken out.

"It's good for you to come. Given your situation, I'm not worried about your lack of money. It's best to let someone who is not short of money take care of the money and food."

Jiang Huai poured a cup of tea for Zhu Zhanhe, pushed it to him with a smile, and asked for his opinion with his eyes.

"This job is a little offending, but I'm not afraid either."

Zhu Zhanhe knew that this job would offend people, but he came here to practice, so he was not afraid of offending people.

"Okay, this is your badge, do it well!"

Jiang Huai seemed to have expected that Zhu Zhanhe would say this, so he even had his belt ready.

Pushed out together with the waist tag, there was also a key with a wooden tag hanging on it.

"I bought you a small courtyard with two entrances. It only cost five guan, which is not expensive at all. It can be regarded as repaying part of the kindness of the past. You don't have to give in. Regular clothes and other things are already prepared for you. , just check in.”

"In addition, the official of the household is called Gao Guan, and the official is called Fang Ji. I won't tell you what happens to them. You can feel it yourself."

Jiang Huai didn't give him a hint, and Zhu Zhanhe didn't need it: "Okay, I'll go and rest first, and I'll take office tomorrow."

"No, you need to rest for ten days to get familiar with Nandian County before taking office."

"If you haven't left in three months, I will take you to see Uncle Longchuan then."

Jiang Huai explained, and Zhu Zhanhe nodded to express his understanding, then turned and walked out.

After he left, a figure walked out from behind the screen, with complicated eyes and said: "I really didn't expect that you really know the prince."

This figure was Gao Guan, and although he had known that the prince would come, he did not expect that the relationship between the prince and Jiang Huai was so good.

"You should also prepare well. Next year, a candidate will come back from the imperial examination. Anyway, now that you have him, you will be able to relax a lot."

Jiang Huai said optimistically to Gao Huai, but Gao Huai shook his head: "What you said sounds nice, but I'm worried that my burden will not be relaxed, but will be made worse."

"Haha, don't worry. Once you get along with him, you will know that he is a good person."

Maybe it was too long since he saw his old friend, so Jiang Huai couldn't help but feel a little happy.

Seeing this, Gao Guan could only sigh: "I hope it's as you thought..."

A sigh revealed the unrest within Longchuan Mansion, and Zhu Zhanhe's letter was rushed to Beijing before entering Longchuan.

In the next ten days, Zhu Zhanhe was familiar with the situation inside and outside Nandian County, and Xichang also expedited the eight hundred miles and delivered the letters to Beijing in parallel by waterway.

When Zhu Gaoxu got the letter, twenty days had passed since Zhu Zhanhe arrived in Longchuan County, which meant that Zhu Zhanhe had already served as a warehouse clerk in the household.

Sitting in the Wuying Hall, he slowly looked at the dozens of pages of letter paper written by Zhu Zhanhe, and from time to time looked at the academicians in the main hall who were processing memorials.

After the processing of these five bachelors, the memorials that could be sent to Zhu Gaoxu's desk basically had general suggestions. He only needed to approve them or revise them, and his workload dropped sharply.

"No wonder Lao Zhu came out of the palace. When he is low on energy, life like this is so comfortable."

After more than 20 years of high-pressure governance, Zhu Gaoxu didn't even feel that he was enjoying himself when he suddenly relaxed.

Leaning on the chair, Zhu Gaoxu read through the pages of letters, then placed them in the wooden box, picked up the tea cup and took a sip before saying to Yi Shiha beside him:

"This guy is going to have a hard time. Being a Cangzhan official is not that easy."

"Isn't this exactly what you want?" Yishiha had a smile on his face, and Zhu Gaoxu also said:

"Indeed, it's good to be discouraged. Take a look at Jiang Huai's memorial."

Zhu Gaoxu sent the memorial to Jianghuai and the wooden box one after another. However, this memorial was a secret memorial, and it was obviously also sent through Wang Huan, surpassing the six parts.

If others cooperated with Xichang like this, Zhu Gaoxu would definitely be angry, but Jiang Huai and Wang Huan would not.

First of all, this matter concerns Zhu Zhanhe, so it is appropriate to adopt a secret memorial to protect Zhu Zhanhe.

The second is that Jianghuai manages the construction of the Long-Sichuan Railway. He does have the qualifications to be a secret agent, and Wang Huan is an old brother of Bohai, and Zhu Gaoxu trusts him very much.

"I'm so rude, slave..."

Yi Shiha picked up Jianghuai's memorial, which mainly talked about Zhu Zhanhe's character problems, and also explained why he was sent to the household to serve as a warehouse official.

The warehouse officials in Longchuan Prefecture are different from other places. The warehouses in Longchuan Prefecture have accumulated nearly one million yuan in grain due to the construction of the Longchuan Railway.

This amount of money and grain is not something that ordinary warehouse officials can handle. After all, there are many officials and officials with strong family backgrounds in Longchuan Mansion.

Whether Zhu Zhanhe can keep the money is not only an exercise for him, but also a test for him.

If he passes, Zhu Zhanhe can be promoted to the household administrator of the sixth house. At that time, he will not only have to take care of the warehouse, but also use money and food rationally.

Proper use of money and food is something that every emperor should learn, but few emperors have such qualifications to learn before becoming emperor.

JAC has essentially created a platform for Zhu Zhanhe to understand the difficulty of mobilizing money and food.

If it fails, it will at most be an economic problem in Longchuan Prefecture. It will be easy for the court to remedy it, and Zhu Zhanhe can also have a long memory.

Although this cost is very high for Longchuan Prefecture and even Yunnan, compared with Zhu Zhanhe's failure to supervise the country, this cost is simply too cost-effective.

"This Jiang Huai is a wonderful man. It would be a waste to stay in Longchuan Mansion."

After reading the memorial, Yi Shiha felt that it was a waste to place Jianghuai in Longchuan Prefecture or even Yunnan. He should be transferred to Beijing to realize his value.

"There's no rush. We'll wait until the Longchuan Railway is completed."

Zhu Gaoxu sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, caressing his eyebrows, and narrowed his eyes while reading Zhu Zhanhe's letter:
"Let me see what trouble this kid will cause..."

(End of this chapter)