Chapter 67 The sixty-seventh section is to recommend a good official

After dinner, Li Bao and Liu Heng quietly walked into Zeng Guofan's bedroom.Zeng Guofan hurriedly asked someone to brew a pot of good Maojian, and while tasting tea, he listened to the results of Li Bao and Liu Heng's private visits. Li Bao was the first to talk about it, because He Chun was born in a Manchu aristocracy, he never looked down on the Han people.In the past two years when he was the governor of Shandong, the situation in Shandong was not peaceful, mostly due to his high-pressure policy.He used Manchus to attack Han officials. Just for this, he was very unpopular in Shandong.One month after arriving in Shandong, Hechun held a birthday party for one of his aunts, and posted posts to various states and counties within the territory, in order to earn a fortune.In the year he took office, most of the harvests in Shandong had failed, and the prefectures and counties near the Yellow River were flooded. The year was not very good.

Ye Zisong was acting in Dongping County at that time, and when he received a post from the governor's yamen, he didn't go along with it, but hurriedly handed over the form of advice.There are four sentences on the form of advice, which are still recited by the people today: "If Zhongcheng celebrates his birthday, the state and county will suffer; if the state and county celebrate their birthday, the people will suffer." I don't know which one of the people in front of Hechun lost his mind and passed on this advice table, which made it widely recited. He Chun was so angry that the three corpses jumped violently, and was looking for an opportunity to clean up Ye Zisong, but the letter from the governor's yamen also arrived at the top of the case, and when he opened it, he was actually commending He Zhongcheng for listening to his subordinates' advice and canceling it for his aunt. Shou this thing.He also said that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty had already played it, and there would be a reply soon, and Hechun couldn't laugh or cry, it was a great good thing, so he had to press it and not do it.Knowing that this is all Ye Zisong's fault, but he is dumb eating coptis and can't express his suffering.

Another thing that is even more ridiculous to say is about the year.The so-called year, that is, the year when each state and county pays tribute to the governor when they kowtow to the governor, and each province has its own regulations.It is said that in a good province, the governor can earn 30,000 to 40,000 taels of income just once a year.Shandong is a small province, and the annual rule in prefectures and counties is one thousand taels per head. At the end of every year and the end of the year, the prefectural and county government offices in each province have to seal their seals and return to the provincial capital to report on their work.When reporting on their duties, they will be received by the chief envoy.After being received by the chief envoy, he was led by the chief envoy and went into the governor's office to knock on the ministry and asked the governor about their hard work, and the governor also asked Laozhou and counties about their hard work as usual.Then, all states and counties can freely spend a few days in the provincial capital, some can also visit relatives, and some use these few days to rest and return home to visit relatives.

This is not something written into the Qing Dynasty, but everyone knows it, everyone knows it.The imperial court can only turn a blind eye and close one eye.There are also certain procedures for each state and county to pay their respects to the ministry, and they can't do anything wrong. This is how the states and counties pay their respects to the governors: the second division of the cloth and the press takes the lead, and the states and counties follow closely in turn, kowtowing to the governor sitting on the kang, and the governor echoes "the old states and counties have worked hard" as usual. Return to your seat in turn.Then, Mr. Zhongcheng talked about the year and the weather as usual; When you get to your seat, you have to let Mr. Zhongcheng see it, but you have to keep your countenance.Seeing that the red envelopes had been taken out, the governor picked up his teacup and began to see off the guests.Even though it is a personal relationship, there must be rules, square and round, and no chaos at all.

Where did the money from the states and counties come from?Naturally, it comes from the subordinates.Because on the first day of the seal, all states and counties also have to meet their subordinates, and they have to say "Thanks for your hard work" to their subordinates, and their subordinates also have to hand over their year certificates according to the law.The prefectures and counties with good land can receive ten thousand and eight thousand taels of silver every year; out of this, one thousand taels will be given to the governor, and the rest will all go into their own pockets.

The gap in Dongping County was originally in the upper middle class, and the yamen set up a large shelf, with more subordinates than other counties.However, from the year Ye Zisong took over, he broke the rule that junior subordinates should pay tribute to juniors, thinking that there was a dirty official voice.Although the master has repeatedly emphasized that the annual report must be submitted when returning to the province to report, Ye Zisong just ignores it.But when he saw Hechun, like other counties, he also wrapped a square paper red envelope.After the Ministry's interview was over, before leaving, he also stuffed the red paper bag under his buttocks, and left it in his seat respectfully.As usual in Shandong, there are 1,000 taels of silver bills wrapped inside. He Chun receives 5,000 taels of money when he meets five people.Before He Chun came to the office, he had investigated this income clearly.Traditional provinces are also large provinces, and the governor's visits to prefectures and counties must be held separately, and some may take several days.Because Shandong is a small province, there are only a dozen prefectures and counties, so we went to meet together.Before leaving, they all left the red envelopes, and the master picked them up and handed them directly to the governor, and then quickly exited.He Chun waited for the master to withdraw, and then opened the red envelopes one by one with a smile.He doesn't allow anyone to touch the joy of folding red envelopes, he wants to enjoy it exclusively, and everyone in the family knows about it.

But he found an empty bag!In other words, he received nine red envelopes, but only saw eight bank notes!At that time, he knew that it must be Ye Zisong who did it, only Ye Zisong had such courage.There were more than a dozen alternates waiting to be interviewed in the hall, but he was not in a hurry to meet, but passed the master into the signing room, and then asked the master to identify whether the empty bag belonged to Ye Zisong.The master compared it for a long time, but he was still not sure.Hechun really suffered from being dumb.It's not that he lacks this silver ticket. He has been sealing off borders for several years, and he has never encountered such a thing.This is simply taking money out of his pocket.

When meeting Daotai, the master was more considerate and asked the Daotai to write their names on the red envelopes, and repeatedly stated that Mr. Zhongcheng refused to accept the red envelopes without names. Soon, the official circles in Jinan spread the word that "Ye Mingfu sent empty red envelopes to He Zhongcheng".Some people even said to Ye Zi Songming, "Master Zhixian is too much. How can a person like He Zhongcheng value the one thousand taels of silver you gave me? If you don't have any money, just tell Master Zhongcheng if you don't want it! Why bother?" What is the worst policy?" He publicly complained for the ministry.

After the New Year's Eve, all states and counties have to return to their posts. Before returning to their posts, they all come to pay their respects and farewell to the adults of the Ministry as usual.When he was about to leave, Ye Zisong suddenly cupped his fists at He Chun and said, "Lord Zhongcheng, as soon as I entered Jinan, I heard the rumors from the people that the official handed over an empty bag to my lord a few years ago, I don't know But really?" "What!" He Chun was taken aback, and asked back, "Who said that? Nothing!" Ye Zisong then said: "I have also thought about it, Lord Zhongcheng is a sensible person, don't say that there is no such thing, even if there is, how can you make it public? Once it is reported to the court, once it is investigated, how will the Lord respond?"

He Chun said to the chief envoy at that time: "I'm bothered to look it up, who said such groundless words? If you find out, you must punish him severely! Isn't this insulting the clean name of the Ministry?" The chief envoy hastily said: "Ye Mingfu, please return to your post, I will definitely give Mingfu justice." Ye Zisong said, "Thank you, my lords. If there is no order, I will return to my post immediately. ", stepping back. He Chun said: "Ye Mingfu, the headquarters will not send you off. I hope you will do your job well and don't listen to people talking about you."

These two incidents were the most widely circulated in Jinan, and Li Bao could easily inquire about them. What Liu Heng heard was two other things.One thing is that this year Hechun sent a sedan chair to Dongping to inspect the disaster situation. Ye Zisonglian accompanied Mr. Zhongcheng to drink three meals of sweet potato soup, which ruined He Zhongcheng's stomach for seven or eight days; the other was Hechun's A distant relative ran from Fengtian Mansion to Dongping County to commit extortion without telling Hechun, but Ye Zisong gave him eighty sticks, and was escorted to Jinan Governor's Yamen to be identified by He Zhongcheng, and He Chun was released. It was a big ugliness, and was passed down as a joke by the people of Shandong. After listening to Li Bao and Liu Heng's reports, Zeng Guofan thought a lot in his bedroom alone. Zeng Guofan had no idea how to be a governor, but he believed that Hechun would definitely not be able to do so.He recorded several things that Li Bao and Liu Heng had told, and wrote down Hongcai's bribery and the chaos of giving relief, Ye Zisong's Lianming and Li Yanshen's situation, and wrote it into a secret book: At the end of the excerpt, it is written: "Governor Chen Cha Hechun is the best at governing the army, and being a local governor is really of little use. In this autumn of banditry, it seems that such capable people should be granted military power to fight before the battle." As for the appointment of admirals or General soldier, Zeng Guofan did not dare to write down.I believe that after reading the scriptures, the emperor should know about Zeng Guofan's good intentions. After he finished writing the Zhengzheng, he was still unsatisfied, and wrote a clip: Chencha Dongping County is a large county in Shandong Province, and it has been appointed as a county magistrate from a sixth-rank official, and Li Yanshen is a fourth-rank Taoist official.At the end, sign Wenqing's name first, and then write your own name.Jointly played, the weight is heavier. Before breakfast, he was about to send out the brochures and clips.He had a very sweet breakfast this day.Not long after the meal, the imperial decree finally arrived. The decree said: According to the request of Wen Qing and Zeng Guofan, Ministers of Investigation and Relief, Ye Zisong's execution is suspended. Wen Qing let out a long breath and said, "Disheng, you really managed to save this Ode to Ye Zi! The word 'suspension' is clearly the sign of forgiveness. But, even though you got the sign of forgiveness, what should you do in the future? ? You can’t just waste it like this, can you?” Zeng Guofan smiled mysteriously and said: "Ten days later, I will see for myself. Tomorrow I will go to Wenshang to continue my business. The lower officials deduce that the emperor will have an order. We just need to come back before the imperial order is issued." Wen Qing was taken aback: "Why, there is an imperial decree?" Zeng Guofan thought for a while and said, "According to common sense, we can't just do this one, right?" Wen Qing looked at Zeng Guofan suspiciously, but said nothing. The two of them led their men and horses to separate ways.Hechun took care of his illness, and only let the chief envoy and the inspector envoy come and see him off according to the usual practice.In Jining, although Zeng Guofan also found a few muddled accounts, but the amount was not large, Zeng Guofan just reprimanded him and rushed to Caozhou Mansion.