Promotion and fortune in Song Dynasty

Under the good-natured concealment, Di Qing knew nothing from the beginning to the end of the pain of losing his mother that his beloved suffered recently.

Therefore, in this thick letter, apart from the longing for the father-in-law, the lines are full of interesting anecdotes seen along the way, without any pity.

As Lu Ci read the letter, an unconscious smile gradually formed on the corners of his lips, and his handsome eyebrows were also gently curved.

When Zhong Yuan, who was sweating profusely and rushed back to the house to take a shower, entered the living room, what he saw was Lu Ci's sincere and relaxed smile after a long time, and he was stunned.

"Brother Zhong is back?"

When Zhong Yuan was hesitating whether to go forward or take a detour so as not to disturb him, Lu Ci had already moved his eyes away from the letter and landed on him: "The hot soup is ready, go take a bath."

Zhong Yuan realized what he meant, and immediately raised his eyebrows angrily: "I don't even think about who I am sweating all over in this cold weather, so you have the nerve to despise me!"

"Brother Zhong misunderstood." Lu Ci did not look sideways, and said slowly: "If you want to go later, I will ask someone to bring the dinner first."

Zhong Yuan just said this out of habit, but he didn't really mean to eat with a stinky sweat.

Although she was still a little unwilling to hear the words, she followed his words and prepared to go to the bedroom.

After walking a few steps, he recalled what he was curious about just now, and couldn't help asking: "Which lady are you reading Chisu from, and you are so happy?"

Lu Ci smiled, flashed the signature at the end of the letter in front of his eyes, let him glance at it, and repaid his innocence on the spot.

After Zhong Yuan saw it clearly, he immediately became less interested: "It turns out to be Young Brother."

Although the number of times he had dealt with Di Qing was not too many, Zhong Yuan was still quite impressed with that nianlu who was very reticent.

The rare heart of gossip was instantly annihilated, and Zhong Yuan felt a little resentful: "Reading Qingdi's letter, you smile so..." He racked his brains, but couldn't find a suitable word for a while, so he simply gave up: " ...What are you doing weirdly?"

He thought that the person in front of him who was so pure-hearted and ascetic was as young as a banished fairy, and that he was really going to move his heart.

Lu Ci pursed his lips and smiled: "It's just reading an anecdote attached by the younger brother, it's hard to bear the laughter."

"Oh?"

Zhong Yuan leaned his head curiously, and wanted to read it, but Lu Ci leaned back indiscriminately, just avoiding him, and read again very naturally: "...passing through a magnificent high pavilion, go up Hanging the four characters "Dinghui Zhige", forcing Youlong away, but the dust is thick, and the inscription is difficult to show. Qingzheng wanted to take a rest for a small work, and suddenly an official surnamed Zhong Qingyi passed by. The handwriting seems to be out of place..."

Hearing Lu Ci read it, Zhong Yuan naturally didn't insist on reading the letter. Hearing this, he couldn't help curling his lips: "What's so strange about this? The world is full of conceited and contemptuous Confucians , I’m afraid the young brother is rare and strange.”

"Just listen to me finish reading."

Lu Ci continued unhurriedly: "...After commenting on the handwriting, the official in green clothes didn't give up. He ordered his subordinates to come forward and take off the dusty plaque. Wipe away the dust, and the name of the writer suddenly appeared. It is 'Yan Zhenqing'."

Zhong Yuan: "..."

Even if Di Qing's writing style is simple, he can clearly imagine the embarrassment of the person who commented on the plaque when he lost face.

Seeing Lu Ci read the rest of the letter with a smile again, Zhong Yuan was relieved that he regained his energy and distressed that he didn't want to be disturbed, so he followed the words just now and went straight to the room to take a bath went.

After Zhong Yuan left, Lu Ci gracefully moved the third piece of letter paper, which had been blocked all the time, to his front.

When you part with a little lover who has just made up his mind, it is quite normal that the other party will be clingier.

Although he is shy and shy in front of others, but Di Qing is already very clingy behind others, and in his private letters, he even expresses his deepest thoughts.

When reading the letter, there was always a very gentle smile on the corner of Lu Ci's lips, until he read the few simple strokes at the end, he gradually froze.

Because when he started writing, Di Qing had only returned to Qinzhou for the first time, and even entered the Yamen Office as a general judge for the first time in a serious way.

He briefly stated a new bad debt discovered during the handover with Teng Zongliang, who was the former general judge.

It turned out to be the farmland on the outskirts of Qinzhou. After being robbed by Li Yuanhao, Teng Zongliang thought that they would definitely not make a comeback for a while, and the farmers who had no crops in the fields were restless and came to beg all day long...

Teng Zongliang's heart softened, and he waved his hand. Before asking for instructions, he emptied the public money that had just been issued not long ago, and used it to buy new species.

Because when Lu resigned as magistrate, he paid attention to widening sources of income, Qinzhou's accounts were very ample, and there was a lot of public money left every year, so it could barely afford such a rash expenditure.

Teng Zongliang thought to himself, taking this opportunity to collect old private loans one after another, plus the Spring and Autumn Second Tax and the new public money, can easily ease the short-term tightness.

It's just that after reading this letter, what Lu Ci thought in his heart was not at all like Teng Zongliang's optimism.

Even the smile on the corner of his lips disappeared without a trace.

Undoubtedly, Teng Zongliang made this arrangement, obviously out of a sincere heart of loving the people.

But the state has state laws, and the family has family rules.

In the eyes of outsiders, what Teng Zongliang committed was the fault of misappropriating public funds without authorization.

Just like the case of Jinzuoyuan that Liu Qi personally experienced not long ago, once someone reported it, it would be a big deal.

Then I got in touch with what Di Qing briefly mentioned in the letter, that if Wang Qin was returned, he would soon arrive in Beijing...

Counting the days, no matter how slow Wang Qinruo walked, it would take nearly a month to reach Bianjing, right?

Lu Ci sighed deeply.

Wang Qinruo, who had a dark heart in his heart back then, went to Qinzhou for just over a month, not to mention finding out the accounts clearly, there must still be an approximate amount.

The purchase and dissemination of seeds in such a big way was a sensation in the local area. How could it not make Wang Qinruo suspicious?

Thanks to Teng Zongliang who has worked with him for many years, he is still so careless. He has never learned that he pays attention to asking his superiors, registering and reporting, protecting himself, and then making specific plans.

Lu Ci has a big heart for his friends, but he is really puzzled.

Even if there is an emergency, when he needs to cut first and play later, he will immediately try to remedy the situation and plug the loophole after dealing with the crisis.

I will never leave such a deficit carelessly and let others attack it.

In any case, with the idea of ​​doing one's best and obeying the destiny, Lu Ci reluctantly picked up the pen and wrote down one by one the remedial suggestions for friends who missed the little braids and didn't know it.

If this time difference can be made, it might be possible to make up for the shortfall in time and confuse the matter on the grounds that the official behind the scenes is not familiar with the affairs and confuses the "public money" with "minister's money" on the ledger.

Minister's money and public money seem similar and are often used together, but they are completely different in name: the former is the monthly salary allowance of Jiedu envoys and other honorary titles, which can be freely controlled by the envoy; the latter is the official affairs of the military supervisors of various states The funds are not for personal use. As long as they are not used for official banquets, gifts, subsidies, etc., even if they are used for the people, they are destined to fail the audit.

It depends on whether Teng Zongliang is lucky or not, whether he will be caught by someone.

But for Di Qing, I really don't know whether it is luck or misfortune.

If Di Qing had arrived earlier, with his cautious temperament, he might have been able to prevent Teng Zongliang from doing this wrong thing in time - especially when it comes to important matters that are difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, Di Qing has never been rash, and most of them will For the sake of prudence, we asked his opinions before making a decision; and the use of public money was approved only after the signature of the general judge and Zhizhou Lianshu.

Now that Di Qing was one step late, because it was Teng Zongliang's self-assessment that violated the regulations, logically speaking, he could not escape the guilt, so he would not be implicated by this, and even if it really happened, he would still be able to escape.

It's a pity that Lu Ci's measures to make up for the dead were not able to catch up because of the several twists and turns of the letter and Wang Qinruo's thunderous attack.

However, Wang Qinruo, who had returned from calamity, was convalescing at home, and at the same time, together with Han Jiang, the censor Zhongcheng who was somewhat disgraced due to the setbacks of the previous period, after half a month of recharging his energy, he suddenly went to the court to impeach Teng Zongliang, the magistrate of Qinzhou. 16 guan of public money wasted in vain, and tens of thousands of guan are unknown, which must be intrusion and deception.

Of course, all officials who have served in other places know how exaggerated these words are, and they can be called alarmist: the public money depends on the size of the state and county, ranging from [-] to [-] per year.

Based on the posture of Qinzhou, which is just a small state on one side, it is amazing to have more than a thousand people a year.

Without throwing it into the cornucopia, how could it be possible to produce 16 guns out of thin air in just a few years?

However, the duty of the censor is only to impeach, and the real investigation and evidence collection will be carried out by the official.

No matter how absurd this number looks, it is enough to attract people's attention, and it also shocked the officials who don't know where to study.

Compared with Teng Zongliang who was not fortified, Wang Qinruo came prepared.

After making a head start with a frightening number, he not only described what he saw and heard with his own eyes in the memorial, but also listed detailed witness testimony, urging the officials to send people to investigate.

Ever since he suffered a big somersault at Lu Ci's hands, although Wang Qinruo held a grudge against him, he would not act rashly again for a while.

But Lu Ci, who did not dare to touch his holy family and was in the limelight, could start with his friends. Compared with Lu Ci, who seemed to be vigorous and vigorous, but was actually meticulous and impeccable, Teng Zongliang and others could hardly be called Full of loopholes.

Sure enough, as soon as the impeachment came out, although Zhao Zhen, who was somewhat shocked by the amount, had a great preference for Lu Ci, he was not so fond of Teng Zongliang.

Now that the censor was impeached, Zhao Zhen appointed Dr. Taichang Yandu to investigate in a business-like manner.

The most important thing in the investigation, of course, is the account book that registers the use of public money.

As soon as the news came out, Liu Qi was shocked, and hurriedly wrote an urgent letter, quickly conveying the news of Dr. Taichang's impending arrival to Qinzhou.

He is not only aware of the old gap between Lu Ci and Wang Qinruo, but also Zijing's generous, suave and self-indulgent temperament: if there is a little glutton watching, there will be no mistakes, as long as he waits for the other party to steal the chicken, nothing will be lost. Rice is; but Xiao Taotie has been away from Qinzhou for several months, whether Zijing made any serious mistakes on his own initiative is hard to say.

The author has something to say: Notes:

——16 guan of public money wasted in vain, tens of thousands of guan are unknown, must be intrusion and deception

From Volume [-] of "Continued Zizhi Tongjian Long Story"