Dressed as a man with the eldest son

51

When the ship docked and entered the port, Nanruo thought that the prince changed his mind temporarily and wanted to take the opportunity to quietly investigate the news, but he didn't want the prince to ask someone to carry out the prince's support. Go to the magistrate's office.

When they arrived at the gate, Nan Ruo raised his eyebrows. Dayan pays attention to officials not repairing the yamen. As long as the yamen is not too unsightly or prone to collapse, officials are not allowed to repair the yamen. Of course, this does not mean that public funds are not used. .

However, very few officials do this. The official position is not re-elected. If you spend a lot of money to repair it and move it away after a few years, it is not a waste of money, and it seems that you are not clean enough.

However, the yamen of the prefect of Wenzhi in front of him is not dilapidated at all, the gateposts and roof tiles are all new, obviously it took a lot of effort to repair it.

The officials and petty officials who received the news at the door hurried over, all of them were terrified. The leader seemed to be running all the way, his forehead was covered with sweat, and he stumbled forward: "My subordinate...my subordinate...my minister Wenzhi Tongzhi Huang Shou sees, sees His Highness the Crown Prince..."

The little officials in the back kowtowed and sang at different levels, and the words they yelled were not consistent.

Huang Shou sweated even more, and explained with a trembling voice: "The other two accomplices and the judge went to Huating Wharf the day before yesterday to meet them..."

Unexpectedly, the crown prince came to Wenzhi directly. If he had known this, he shouldn't have thought about staying in the yamen, and he would regret it.

The prince Tan Ying and Chang Qing ignored him and entered the room one by one. The guards inside moved quickly and transformed the prefect's front hall into the prince's reception room in the blink of an eye. They even replaced the seats of the subordinates with new cushions. .

When Huang Shou and the others entered tremblingly, everyone had already served hot tea.

"Are all the officials in the six chambers here?" the prince said indifferently.

The magistrate’s yamen set up the Six Offices for Officials, Households, Courtesy, Soldiers and Punishers, following the example of the Six Ministries, whose responsibilities corresponded to those of the Six Ministries.

Huang Shou hurriedly said: "Go back to Your Highness, we are here, we are all here."

Prince: "Ask the Sixth Household to bring all the records of the past five years. It takes half an hour. If it can't be done, take off the official uniform and go out and kneel at the gate of the yamen."

Huang Shou broke out in cold sweat again, and the trembling sound should be.

Soon the whole yamen was moving up and down, and the sixth room almost ran to move the registration documents over and over again.

Soon the empty space in the hall was filled with boxes.

The crown prince put down the teacup: "Open them all, each of you will divide them into several boxes and read them all to see if Yang Tao has been wronged."

Nan Ruo obviously heard Fu Zhuo taking a deep breath beside him, and the smile on Tan Ying's face froze.

"I want to go to the place where Yang Tao committed suicide, maybe I can find some clues, and when I came here, I specially brought Wu Zuo for an autopsy." Tan Ying said righteously.

Chang Qing also said: "I was ordered to investigate the cause of Yang Tao's death, so I should go and see his body first, as well as Yang Tao's relatives."

The prince waved his hand and told the two to leave.

Leaving Nanruo Fu Zhuo and several other companions looking at each other, when the prince opened the box and took the account book to look at, they quickly divided up the rest of the box, and one person occupied a corner and turned over.

This turn is a day and a night.

If the prince doesn't leave, they can't leave either. They never go out except to change clothes in the middle. The three meals are prepared and delivered by the servants. Once they are put on the box, even the dining table is saved. When they are sleepy, they lie on the box and sleep for a while. , A few boxes were put together, the fox fur was used as a quilt, and she slept soundly, and was thrown by the prince with a book, woke up and continued to read honestly.

During this period, all the officials who were thrown at Huating by the prince feigned a shot and chased after them. The prince didn't see any of them.

Nan Ruo was very interested in watching it. First, he was fresh and curious. Second, he wanted to know whether Yang Tao was really corrupt or was wronged. What he got was the workshop record, which recorded all the constructions of Wenzhi in the past five years, including Building roads and dams, digging ditches and building canals, repairing government and school buildings and temples, etc.

He compared the time, the magistrate is elected every three years, this year is Yang Tao's third year in office, and the term will expire in two months, the prince asked to send the five-year records for comparison.

Basically, all the projects that benefited the common people and benefited the country and the people took place in these three years. For example, just one month after taking office, Yang Tao led the bureaucratic joint guard to repair the potholes and roads in the city. The county magistrate repaired waterwheel ditches and so on for the villagers.

In contrast, the previous magistrate only built two dormitories for government schools and added two temples in the city. It is no wonder that he was demoted and transferred away before his term of office expired.

From this point of view, regardless of whether he is clean or not, Yang Tao has indeed done many practical things for the people.

Just as he was thinking about it, Pei Dinggao, the son of the crown prince's nurse over there, let out a sigh, and seeing everyone's eyes, he said: "In the account book of this household, the grain tax in the second half of this year is a full [-]% less than that in the first half of the year, compared with the previous four years. is also like this."

Nan Ruo quickly estimated that Wenzhi was one of the rich households in the grain fields in the south of the Yangtze River, and the 5% of the less was probably at least [-] taels when converted into silver.

The prince asked: "What about the others? Did you find any discrepancies?"

Nan Ruo held up the booklet and said: "When I came in, I saw that the yamen had obviously been renovated. It should not have been more than a year, but there is no record in the office booklet."

Fu Zhuo followed suit and said, "I have looked through the case files for nearly half a year, and found that there have been many public outrages in Wenzhi counties in the past six months. The reasons have not been detailed. It seems that there are conflicts between the government and the villagers."

The prince nodded: "Very well, since the three of you found out, the three of you are responsible for investigating the cause and effect, and seeing Gu in a day."

"Yes."

The three of them could hardly wait to respond, and then walked out against the envious eyes of others.

After leaving the door, they all went their separate ways, Nan Ruo went directly to the workshop, called the leader Gongshu and a dozen or so subordinates, and cut straight to the point: "Why is the repair of the yamen not recorded in the book?"

Gong Shu bowed his waist and said: "Returning to Zong Banner, the magistrate Yang paid for the repair of this yamen. He repaired it inside and out, and the tables, chairs and benches in the room were replaced with new ones. The magistrate is kind-hearted. , I also changed a set for each room, although it is not a precious wood, it is much better than the creaking sound when things were placed in the past."

Nan Ruo looked him up and said, "Do you know how much it cost?"

Gong Shu hesitated and said, "This... I don't know about the small ones, I only estimated that it should be a hundred taels."

Nan Ruo didn't look at him any more, and asked his subordinates to answer. A dozen or so of them said the same thing, which was not much different from what Gong Shu said.

Nan Ruo remained calm, sent the person away with a smile, turned around and sneered.

He kept saying that the prefect was kind-hearted, and it sounded like he was saying good things about him, but he thought carefully about every sentence to guide him in accepting bribes.

Wenzhi is the superior, and the magistrate of the superior is Cong Sanpin, with an annual salary of 130 taels. Yang Tao has been in office for three years.

After thinking about it, he found a vacant room and changed his official uniform, and took Wei Siyuan and his second and fourth graders to go around the city to see if he could get some news.

He purposely chose to go through the side door, unexpectedly he was not the only one who did this, and at the door he bumped into Fu Zhuo and Pei Dinggao who had also changed their attire.

Pei Dinggao invited him with a smile: "It seems that we have thought of one, how about together?"

Fu Zhuo put his hands behind his back: "You two go together, I will go alone!"

Pei Dinggao made a helpless expression.

Nan Ruo expressed his understanding, and went to the street together with him.

The death of a magistrate doesn't seem to have much impact on the city. People still do what they should do. Wenzhi's winter is warmer than that of the capital, and the streets are bustling with people shopping and doing business.

After walking two streets, Nan Ruo roughly understood what Daddy Zha said about Jiangnan's prosperity. Wenzhi is considered a second-tier city, but its prosperity is comparable to that of the capital. It is normal in modern times, but it was very prominent in ancient times. Cities have never been so prosperous.

After walking and stopping all the way to the bank of the river, Pei Dinggao suddenly said: "Isn't that Brother Fu?"

Nan Ruo followed his gaze and saw that Fu Zhuo took two servants onto a painting boat. Two strings of red lanterns were hung in front of the painting boat, showing its identity.

Pei Dinggao's eyes brightened: "Qin Lou Chu Pavilion is well informed, brother Fu must take the opportunity to inquire about the news."

Nan Ruo saw that he seemed to be moving, so he took the initiative to say: "I didn't expect this Wenzhi to be so prosperous, why don't you and I do things separately?"

Pei Dinggao readily agreed.

In fact, Nan Ruo also wanted to go, the brothel was indeed a good place to inquire about news, but he would not go after two people had already gone, so as not to repeat the information.

He took Wei Siyuan and the three of them to focus on teahouses and taverns, and went to small restaurants with a lot of people, where there was a lot of people and no one would pay attention to them.

But strangely, very few people talked about the magistrate's suicide in fear of crime. It stands to reason that such a big news is enough for the common people to talk about it for many days, just like the netizens in the previous life repeatedly discussed and enjoyed it about the rich second-generation family.

This is obviously not normal.

Dayan was not convicted by words, and the people in the capital did not shy away from talking about the royal family, let alone a magistrate.

Changed to another tavern, Nanruo gave Wei Siyuan a look, Wei Siyuan picked up the wine glass and knocked it on the table, speaking in a strong Beiyin: "These sons of bitches know how to ask for money, I don’t give it to the beggars in the street temple, the old biting bug @#&…”

Nan Ruo rolled up his sleeves and followed, "I'm going to go back and have a good argument with my cousin, but he cheated me, saying that Wenzhi's officials are clean and honest, just post according to the law. I knew something was wrong, shit is clean..."

While talking, watching the reactions of the people around him, Wei Siyuan seemed to be looking this way when he opened his mouth, but they looked along, but quickly retracted one by one, as if they were worried about something.

After performing for a long time and no one answered, Nan Ruo knew that there was nothing to find out, so he didn't make things difficult for them, and left with Wei Siyuan and the three of them.

It was already sunset when we came out, and Nan Ruo walked slowly along the street, watching the people go home in twos and threes in the sunset, some mischievous children refused to go back, and were scolded by their mothers and pulled away by their ears.

Nan Ruo lowered his head and looked at the flat road under his feet. Did they know that the magistrate Yang Tao advocated repairing the road?Do you know everything he has done in the past three years?

As if he didn't know anything, as if Yang Tao had never existed.

As the sky was getting dark, Nan Ruo decided to go back to the yamen first, and then come out to inquire about the news tomorrow morning. When he arrived at the street where the magistrate's yamen was located, he saw a team carrying something in the direction of the yamen from afar.

When they caught up, the team had already stopped at the gate of the yamen.

It turned out to be a dozen old people!

The leading boy with gapped teeth is about eighty years old, holding a cane in his hand, he should be the third elder hired by the government.

The old man knelt down towards the gate of the yamen with a plop, and the old man's trembling voice was hoarse: "Prefect Yang died unjustly!"

The little officials guarding the door hurriedly escaped. Dayan stipulated that those who are over 80 years old and above [-] years old are awarded Jurisches, and those who are over [-] years old are given Jurisches, and they can treat each other with the same courtesy as the county magistrate. Eighty, even if the old man in sixty or seventy kneels at them, he must avoid them.

Nan Ruo immediately stepped forward to help the man up: "Old man, please get up quickly. If you have any grievances to sue, you can go to the Yamen to talk about it."

The old man stood up but refused to go in, his skinny hands tightly grasping Nan Ruo's arm: "Prefect Yang is a good official, he is a clean official, he did not corrupt money, he died a wronged death!"

"Prefect Yang died unjustly!"

More than a dozen old people followed and shouted in unison, supporting and supporting each other, one after another, exhausting all their strength, as if they were going to use up all the little life left at this moment in one breath.

Nan Ruo stood there in a daze.

At this time the prince strode out, and the old people became more and more excited.

The old man in the lead froze for a moment, knocked the crutch in his hand to the ground, straightened up and said to the prince: "The little old man has seen His Royal Highness, my name is Huai, I came out of the clan today, and I have no surname! It is only a matter of bringing all the elders to see His Highness." In order to seek the innocence of Yang Tao and Yang Zhifu!"

"Yang Zhifu has been in office for three years. He has built roads, dikes and canals for Wenzhi, rectified the Nursing Home of the Salesian Bureau, and done countless good deeds. It's a false accusation!"

"Wenzhi waited ten years for an upright official. Others dare not stand up, but the little old man is not afraid!"

He turned around and lifted off the coarse cloth, revealing that what was carried inside was a coffin!

At this time, the sun was setting, and the last warm sun of winter was like residual blood, shining on Huai Lao's face, and the gullies washed out by the years were clearly visible.

Two lines of clear tears fell from the cloudy eyes: "Yang Zhifu died unjustly!"