Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 827 Yangzhou Salt Gang
Guan Xuqing helped the father and daughter up, "Go on and say, what if you found the Salt Gang for help?"

"It's getting serious! We poor people collected money and entrusted a middleman to find the carp gang. As soon as the gang leader heard that someone in his gang had been beaten to death, he sent hundreds of people without saying a word. After the battle, a rich man was actually killed. The rich man was Xu Youdao, who was well-known in the county. Xu Baoshan, known as Xu Huhu, is a great salt owl in Yangzhou Prefecture, if there is a child in our area who is disobedient and crying, the adults just say "Xu Huhu is here", and the child will not dare to cry immediately."

"Then Xu Huhu knows that his brother was killed, can he finish it?" Zhao Bingjun asked.

"That's right, Xu Huhu avenged his brother, and he and the carp gang fought in the dark on the shore of Slender West Lake. They didn't even dare to intervene. In the end, I don't know who asked a middleman to make peace, and the two brought the lawsuit to Yangzhou. City, the mayor, you must be not a good official, you just mixed the mud, and finally arrested a few tenants, tortured them, and put them in prison."

"According to what you just said, the landlord and tenant were fighting each other, and the tenant was not beaten to death, so why should the tenant be tortured? It doesn't make sense." Liang Qichao said in surprise.

"That's right. The Carp Gang and Xu Huhu couldn't afford to offend them, so they had to blame the tenant. We tenants were not convinced, so we paid a dollar to hire a lawyer to argue in the city, and the mayor said, I have wronged you? It is a pity that Mr. Xu lost his life when he was rich and unwilling to pay. The rent collection on February [-] was already high, and the imperial decree exempts the tax. It should have been distributed to the tenants. Xu Youdao It’s a little greedy. It’s clear that the landlord took advantage of the reason but not the situation, and the tenant took advantage of the situation and not the reason. Xu Youdao lost his life, and the tenants can’t be too free and easy. If a few troublemakers are caught, they will be reported to the Ministry of Criminal Justice and sentenced to death. We will Said, you did this unfair case, are you not afraid of arousing public anger? The mayor said that if the troublemakers dare to make trouble, they will send the police to arrest them all. Can Xu Huhu be offended? Naturally, we are not convinced. We argued with the mayor face to face, and the mayor got angry, so he arrested a few young men among us, and beat out the rest. The next day, Xu Huhu sent someone to seize our land and forcibly confiscated it. One year's rent. I was blinded by someone slashing my face with a knife in a fight with weapons. Nobles, how can you make sense in this world?" After speaking, the old man burst into tears.

Guan Xuqing stood up and paced slowly, went to the door and looked at the bright moon in the sky, sighed for a long time, and said, "Although this month is good, there is nothing like it in the world! Let's enjoy it."

Zhao Bingjun put a stack of Zilong coins into the hands of the old man, and Guan Xuqing said again: "Old man, go back to your hometown in a few days, there will always be a time when the clouds will clear this matter. Girl, take good care of your father, maybe we men One day we will meet again."

The girl made a salute, knelt on the ground and bowed to his father, and then left the private room with the string in her arms.

"The emperor's grace is so great that everyone can't enjoy it." Guan Xuqing's tall body moved in the shadow of the moon, and said slowly: "The days of peace have passed for a long time, the land has been merged fiercely, the per unit yield of land is getting higher and higher, and the land price It will rise higher and higher. If you don’t go out of the capital, you won’t know the economics here, no matter how many books you read!”

He turned his face and stared at the slightly dancing candlelight, as if admonishing and talking to himself: "Thirty percent of the rich occupy [-]% of the land, [-]% of the poor occupy only [-]% of the land, and it is getting worse. Pardon It is a great thing that only [-]% of the poor can get benefits after receiving money and food. Although the temple is high, I can’t see the details in terms of the huge territory. You must remember that land annexation is a big hidden worry, because the annexation Even if the rich and the poor are divided, the emperor's grace cannot be popularized, and accidents are prone to happen."

Liang Qichao considered his words: "Fortunately, it's just a man-made disaster. It's easy to treat in years without drought or flood."

Guan Xuqing said: "How can there be such a good thing? The collapse of Jianshan Dam in Zhejiang Province last year and the collapse of the Yellow River in Gaojiayan this year are all disasters? Resist. But this man-made disaster is unpredictable and complicated, and it is difficult to figure out a clue. This Yangzhou government accounts for [-]% of the world's salt tax, and the salt merchants have been troubled for a long time. It seems that I want to visit Shen Bingcheng."

"The emperor wants to tour Yangzhou?" Feng Xianghua asked.

"Originally, you can go or not, but today you can see that you have to go." Guan Xuqing paused and said suddenly: "How many years has Cen Chunxuan been locked up?"

"Three years."

Guan Xuqing smiled: "If you lock him up again, you will be abolished. Although Cen Chunxuan is upright, he has an elm-headed head. Not only did I not listen to him when I warned him, but he intensified it, making everyone in the officialdom in the southern province feel at risk. He even asked me about it." Where is the mistake, I said: If you are good, all the officialdom in the world will be wrong. Bodhidharma faced the wall for nine years and realized the state of selflessness. I took a gentleman and asked him to reflect on himself for three years. Let's see if he has anything. Looking back, the cabinet drafted an order, and ordered Cen Chun to publicize the state and wait for orders. I will not reward or seal this, let's see if he can stand it."

"The emperor plans to send Cen Chunxuan to sweep up the officials in Yangzhou?"

"Yangzhou Mansion is a chess game set up by officials, businessmen and bandits. I want to see if 'Guantu' can be solved. If not, this person will be lost forever. I will give him a chance to turn around, and see if he can go on the road." .”

Cen Chunxuan was born in a family of officials, and his father, Cen Yuying, was the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou.Cen Chunxuan was unrestrained when he was young, and together with Ruicheng and Lao Ziqiao, he was called "the three evil young men in the capital". Afterwards, he repented and studied hard. Department of Dali Temple Zhengqing.

Cen Chunxuan, who is jealous of evil, advocates a relatively thorough elimination of redundant officials at home and abroad, so that every official has a duty to do, so that no one is created in vain, which is just a waste of money.When acting as a senior official in Sichuan, he actually planned to impeach more than 300 local officials at one time.When he was appointed as a senior official in Guangdong, 1400 officials followed his advice and obediently went home to farm.As a result, all officials, big and small, changed their expressions when they talked about "Cen", and they were nicknamed "Guan Tu".

Wherever Cen Chunxuan went, people's heads rolled down, and the officialdom was on the road, and the officials hated him so much that they secretly impeached Cen Chunxuan. What's more, someone offered a reward of 100 million in Hong Kong to buy Cen Chunxuan to step down. The scholar Chen Shaobai was greedy for money. Taking advantage of Yuan Shikai's opportunity to rebel, he carefully planned an unjust case to frame him.

Chen Shaobai did not know where to find photos of Cen Chunxuan, Yuan Shikai, and Lu Zongyu. After the remake, they made a joint photo with Yuan Zhong sitting, Cen on the left, and Lu on the right. He sold the photo to Hong Kong's "Chinese Morning Post.As a result, major newspapers reprinted it one after another, regardless of whether it was true or false, causing a sensational news.The matter went from Shanghai to Tianjin, then to Beijing, and even spread to Southeast Asia and the Americas. Guan Xuqing was furious when he saw the photos, and the document of the impeachment of Cen Chunxuan by Guangdong Suzheng History also arrived. "It was a matter of time before the arrow was shot, so he was imprisoned. Officials from all over the country poured out impeachment documents, but the emperor refused to release them. After Chen Shaobai's case was found out, he was executed in secret, and the truth was not announced.

But Cen Chunxuan was a rare and honest official, he was in a high position, and sometimes he was too poor to raise a kitchen. He didn't even bring his family with him, only a nephew from his own family to take care of him.When the oracle came down, the family property was searched upside down, only a few patched rags and two bunches of green scorpions were found.On the day of his trial, [-] ordinary people gathered outside the provincial government yamen. The yamen servants in the yamen turned against each other and shouted: "Mr. Cen is punished, what is the day?" Ordering the people "not to violate the king's constitution" is considered a relief.In the end, the pre-judgment officer had no choice but to finish the script in a hurry, and convicted him of "beheading the prisoner". Zhezi was left in the emperor's jade case for three years, but he still failed to reach a decision.

When he was an official, no one dared to give gifts, and when he was in the classroom, people had no taboos.Some took care of him in the prison, lived in a single prison, and allowed his nephew to take care of him "due to illness".People who don't know their names often send clothes: "Brother jailer, save some, and the rest will be worn by Sir Cen"; every day someone will carry meat, "Please take care of your lord", leave it and leave.Therefore, Cen Chunxuan, a prisoner waiting to die, is even richer than when he was a high-ranking official.Every year during the autumn festival, how many people pray to Buddha and burn incense, looking forward to "the emperor squints one eye" Mr. Lou Goucen.

After receiving the official letter from the cabinet to release Cen Chunxuan, Zhu Wangzu, a high-ranking official in Sichuan, did not follow through on it for several days. Then he received a report from the residence shortly thereafter, which clearly stated that "the cabinet has been ordered to release Cen Chunxuan." Zhu Wangzu did not dare to delay and sat down in person. The car went straight to the prison to announce the decree.As soon as he entered the prison gate, he saw the warden leading a group of prison guards out of a small tile-roofed house, all hiccupping.Zhu Wangzu stood behind the iron gate of the front door with a face as heavy as water, and scolded with a straight face: "It's not a year or a festival, what kind of wine do you drink? Are you looking for a beating?"

"Back to the senior official, uh" the warden said with a belch, "Just now the mayor of Meizhou City came to visit and said that he had seen the mansion newspaper, and Master Cen was about to leave in no time. The banquet was brought by Futai. Cen The grown-ups refused to eat, so they rewarded the little ones."

Zhu Wangzu murmured, "It's unreasonable," and stepped into the hut.The interior of the room is very elegantly furnished, the ceiling and walls are covered with mulberry paper, and the small wooden windows are pasted with fly-green organdy.A wooden couch occupies half of the room, which is brightly painted.On the couch were two neatly washed blue quilts, and there was a row of low bookshelves against the wall.The books on the shelves have been emptied, and there are tiles, inkstones, paper pens and other objects on the small wooden table.

Cen Chunxuan's nephew, Cen Liang, was sweating profusely on his couch, binding up books.Cen Chunxuan leaned on the side of the bed and stared at the oil lamp in a daze.Seeing Zhu Wangzu coming in, he got up gracefully, and said calmly, "Mr. Zhu, are you all right?" He gave up his hand and asked Zhu Wangzu to sit opposite.

"Cen Gong," Zhu Wangzu said with a smile while seeing Cen Chunxuan's calm face, "it's hard for you. But you look good. Your body seems to be stronger than before."

(End of this chapter)