Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

The journey from Bianjing to Mizhou does not have the convenience of a river running through it. Instead, it is either by land, or by detouring the original road and making a turn, so that the whole journey can be done by water.

Lu Ci never liked bumpy carriages, so he would avoid them when he could travel by land. Now, relying on his lack of seasickness, he chose the more troublesome land and water.

It's just that when he came back to Beijing, he took the east-west direction of Beijing with the most merchant ships and the shortest distance.

This time, he saw that he had enough time and wanted to take Di Qing on a tour, so he chose a long and roundabout route, first going around the Bianhe River from the south, and then turning to the Yishui River and heading north into Mizhou.

What Lu Ci didn't expect was that the little troubles that he didn't encounter last time were encountered firmly this time.

The problem lies in an official ferry that connects the Bianhe River to the Yishui River.

When passing through Guandu, if a ship wants to berth, load and unload cargo, it needs to be inspected by the boatman in strict accordance with the guideline written one by one. .

However, the boat that Lu Ci was on this time did not go so smoothly.

The officials who inspected the goods kept going up and down the ship, all with stern faces, as if they were extremely dissatisfied. Not to mention, those large merchant fleets that came later than them have all passed the inspection and sailed away. They were still detained and interrogated endlessly.

Before he set off, Lu Ci knew that most of the time he had to deal with the officials who had to go through public inspections along the way. In the past, he had to come forward in person. Now that the conditions are much better, he directly hired an experienced dentist. Let him take care of such matters on his behalf.

But this time the delay was too long, it was impossible for Lu Ci not to notice something was wrong.

He quietly gave Di Qing a homework assignment, and while he was writing and thinking hard, he closed the door, and the tooth hunter went to ask about the situation.

Lin Yaren was in a difficult situation, and when he saw Lu Ci coming, he had a look of embarrassment on his face: "Guan Lu."

Lu Ci smiled, and didn't criticize him for being unfavorable. He only cared: "But are you in trouble?"

The Lin Ya people looked around vigilantly, seeing that the nearest officials were more than ten steps away, and they couldn't hear what they were saying, so they felt relieved and said frankly: "It's because of 'Chi Naka'. "

Lu Ci raised his eyebrows.

Although he had heard about this for a long time, it was definitely the first time that he actually encountered it.

Although the official ferry fee in the Song Dynasty is very low, the price to be paid when the real business travel needs to pass is dozens or even hundreds of times more than this.

Even though the laws of the Song Dynasty had already defined the behavior of "inviting and obstructing" merchants and "extorting" property as a felony, it was still repeatedly prohibited, and the methods were mild and roundabout.

Threats, beatings, etc. are easy to leave evidence, because of fear of severe punishment, generally there will be no more evidence.

But they still have a lot of tricks, and they take the simplest one: as long as they detain the merchant ship at the ferry for a long time, and use the existence of problems as an excuse to keep checking indistinctly, they can often achieve their goals.

Especially merchants who go out to hire ships to transport goods purely for business, the most unbearable is the time wasted-every day they are detained, they will have to pay more for the board and lodging of the employees on board, the businessmen, etc. At the same time, I have to bear the torment.

Merchants who use items with a short storage period as goods will be even more anxious, and would rather pay more "tolls" that are cleverly named, rather than watch a shipment of goods being scrapped.

When Lu Ci was an official in Fenzhou, he once read in the files that there was a wealthy merchant who often went back and forth between Fen and Bian to sell fresh fish and shrimp. Being made things difficult by others, I was forced to hold him several times.

When they were released three to five days later, although the people were unscathed, the fish and shrimps were already dead, leaving only the boat full of rot.

After several times, the tragedy of being tossed and ruined, and finally hanged himself in anger.

Lu Ci is not surprised that there are always people who dare to commit crimes against the wind, but he just wonders why this group of people are so bold when slaughtering fat sheep in the past, and dare to kill him?

Could it be that when Beijing officials return to their hometowns, they usually have no right to interfere with the administration of local officials, so they are so confident?

Lu Ci thought about it carefully, and suddenly understood the key.

It's not that they are daring, but that they are simply ignorant.

Because he did not take a public post on his trip, he was extremely low-key, and he only hired people from the ferry through the dental office, and never publicized his identity.

The information that he was an official was only kept in the Zhongshu Province and the Yushi Office when he left Beijing, and it was not marked on the public inspection.

What is registered in the public inspection is only the purpose of his trip, where he is going, where he will pass, how many days he will stay, and the specific people and things he is carrying.

Therefore, on this boat, except for the three servants he brought and Di Qing, no one knew his true details. They could only learn from the full boat he was carrying and planned to resell it in Fenmi Prefecture or give it away as a gift. Judging from the goods of relatives and friends, and the number of people he brought with him, his family is quite wealthy.

From the fact that he only pays attention to comfort and does not need luxurious clothes, his extremely light and handsome appearance, and the contents of the ship...

Almost everyone would think that he was the son of some wealthy merchant and wealthy Jia family, and it was the first time he went out to do business alone, and he would never make any contact with him as a senior official of the third rank from the court.

Killing customers, killing fat and killing students, Lu Ci seems to have both at first glance, so naturally he can't avoid being blackmailed.

When Lin Yaren took over the job, he also fully considered this point, and when he actually encountered it, he didn't feel flustered.

To save money and eliminate disasters, under normal circumstances, it would be enough to spend four or five pennies.

Only when negotiating, he was stunned to find that the other party clearly wanted to bully him. The employer was young and probably had no experience in traveling by himself, and the goods they carried were of high value. It seemed quite profitable, so he came here A lion opened his mouth wide, and if he asked for it, he would be extremely rude with a hundred guan.

One hundred strings!

Lin Yaren was so startled that he almost died of anger.

He could see clearly that even the entire fleet that was released with a smile and a smile just now didn't ask for so much.

When he was having a headache and didn't know how to bargain, Lu Ci came to ask.

Although he suspected of exposing his incompetence, seeing that the other party did not achieve his goal, he would definitely not let him go easily, so he gritted his teeth and spoke to Lu Ci.

Even though it was the first time for Lu Ci to encounter such a situation, he had the experience of doing a small business in Mizhou and reading past case files when he knew Fenzhou, so he naturally knew that the price was unusually high.

"I can't blame you." Lu Ci smiled: "It's only a hundred guan, which is too much. Could you please come forward and talk to them to see if it can be lowered a little?"

Lu Ci deserved to be so straightforward, even though it was a bit embarrassing to say "one hundred guan", but listening to the calm tone, it didn't seem like a real headache.

Lin Yaren felt reassured immediately, and continued to negotiate with those people.

However, Lu Ci agreed so happily, but the boatman believed that he was really scared, and became more confident.

Seeing the people from Linya come to bargain, they not only refused to lower the price, but even added ten guan.

Even in order to get Lu Ci to withdraw the money as soon as possible, they put on a vicious look and checked more frequently. The items on the boat were quite suspicious, and it was probably the neighboring country's secret work, which exaggerated the threat.

Facing Lin Yaren, who thought he had screwed up and came to see him with a mournful face, this time Lu Ci firmly insisted 'I can't get it out', and said 'If you want to detain it, you can detain it'.

Seeing that Lu Ci was still stubbornly resisting, the boatman was dumbfounded, and really detained him.

Even if it's not good for this beautiful man with delicate skin and tender flesh to suffer, they still have ways to make him suffer so much that he can't tell.

Sure enough, after nearly ten days of stalemate with them, the poor little man finally surrendered.

After obediently paying the 150 guan they asked for after going around for a few days, I was finally able to get away.

However, after passing through Guandu, Lu Xiaopoor, who seemed to be terrified, was not in a hurry to go north along the Yishui River to return home, but stayed in Luzhou for a few more days.

During the seven or eight days of the stalemate, the crew members employed by Lu Ci were indeed quite frightened, so Lu Ci gave them each a consistent amount of money as a shock, and let them disembark in turn to rest for a while, and took a few of them off. Pu and Di Qing went to the city without haste.

It's just that unlike when he got off the boat to wander around and taste the local delicacies, Lu Ci had a clear goal this time, and went straight to the county government in the city to formally file a lawsuit against the boatman's claim just now.

After the lawsuit was delivered and the monogram was drawn, Lu Ci took Di Qing to live in a mansion near the county government with his usual expression, as if he was going to fight a protracted war.

Seeing that Lu Ci was so serious, Di Qing hesitated again and again, and reminded in a low voice: "The boatman is so arrogant, he must rely on the confidence of the officials to protect each other, even if the grandfather wants to sue him, I am afraid that he will be suppressed by the government, and nothing will happen. "

Lu Ci explained with a smile: "Brother Di misunderstood. From the beginning to the end, I didn't think the county government could uphold any justice for me."

Di Qing was taken aback.

Lu Ci said lightly: "It's just to fish for law enforcement... No, just follow the clues."

The reason why I spent seven or eight days with those people is to see what methods those people can use to force the merchants to submit and how much appetite they can have when he refuses to let go; At such an important Guandu crossing, even a local official has never walked out of the government office to inspect and inspect the Guandu area; and when he handed in the lawsuit, according to the edict, it should have been "not an emergency, but the Fake, not allowed to go out of the hall to handle affairs' County officials, there are only a few people, and there is no sign of the county magistrate and the general judge.

It has been three days since he reported the case, and the yamen is still quiet, only the lazy officials dozing off inside, occasionally flipping through the pitifully few official affairs, and there is no sign of investigation.

And those boatmen in Guandu who coerced the merchants were still acting so rampantly, and they were not affected at all.

After hearing this, Di Qing was thoughtful.

He watched Lu Ci write down all his encounters and what he had seen and heard recently.

Finally, after registering the information of those merchant ships who were coerced and had to spend money to eliminate disasters, they ran to the post office and sent the memorial to the capital as soon as possible.

After sending out the letter, Lu Ci, who had completely completed the surprise investigation work, no longer stayed in Luzhou, but returned to the boat with Di Qing on his way back to Mizhou along the Yishui River.

——After all, he was very skeptical. If he didn't move faster, he might be captured by the frenzied little prince again.

The author has something to say: Notes:

After all, the number of official ferries set up by the government is limited, and the procedures are cumbersome. Many places have to buy licenses and inspect goods, and there are fixed operating hours.Therefore, ordinary people choose to travel privately just for convenience.However, not to mention the arbitrary charges for private ferry, the place of operation is often rapids and rapids—places where the government does not set up an official ferry and it is not easy to supervise.Therefore, if you take a private ferry, even if you are lucky and do not encounter a boat bandit or a boat bully, you are likely to be slaughtered with a knife or unfortunately capsize the boat, and you will be an unjust ghost.

Private ferry is very dangerous, please be cautious when riding.However, Guandu may not be as expected—the ferry fare in the Song Dynasty is not expensive, and in some places it is only [-] Wen.However, it is unavoidable to eat and take cards. This can be seen from the fact that the Song Dynasty government has repeatedly ordered Guandu operators, boatmen, not to "invite and block" merchants, "extort" property, and made such behavior a felony. ("Living in the Song Dynasty")